5 Powerful Reminders for When You Are in Labor

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Maybe you are getting ready to have your first baby, or maybe this is your second or third time around. Either way, congratulations Mama! What an exciting time for you! I am going to share with you the five powerful reminders that helped keep me focused all three times I was in labor.

Be sure to pin this article so your birthing partner can refer to it and offer you these reminders when you are in active labor! Also check out: How to be the Best Dad in the Hospital When You are Having a Baby

Stay positive and focused

It can be easy to get discouraged with the progress, feel impatient with yourself, feel worried about yourself and/or the baby, or feel stressed and scared about the pushing before or during the actual pushing. I was nervous (even downright scared at times) with every delivery, because the world is full of so many uncertainties.

BUT I do believe that education is power, so ask all the questions you could possibly think of to your doctor and friends, keep researching for information about the process, read birthing stories, and talk to your partner about all of it.

I always giggle when I hear a veteran mom tell a new mom “oh you’ll KNOW when you’re in real labor,” because that was not my experience any time. I have no shame in going to the emergency room and being sent home because I was there too early, and I equally have no shame in that time I almost got there too late!

How to Pack a Hospital Labor Bag

Do your best and go with the flow and trust your body.

If you are planning to go the natural route for a vaginal delivery, with or without medication, you will need to be mentally prepared for the experience. Positivity, gratitude, focusing your energy on what you CAN control, and remembering that the goal of the experience is a healthy mama, and a healthy baby will go a long way.

I have had three natural labor experiences (delivering twins was the most recent one).

Here are the labor reminders that really helped me every time:

1. Contractions come and go like waves. They build to a peak and break to less intensity. Each wave brings you closer and closer to meeting your baby. Surrender, release and relax.
2. Each contraction only lasts about a minute. You’re body so strong! Trust your body and trust your baby. You can do anything for a minute! The reward is worth it.
3. Right about the moment you start feeling a little bit of panic sneak in like you’re not ready or you can’t do this or it’s too hard or you’re so tired or it’s taking too long …. THAT is the moment you’re about to transition into the active laboring that will bring your baby to your arms. Counteract those thoughts by reminding yourself that your mind, body and spirit ARE ready to receive this blessing and you CAN do this and you are capable, and you have already come so far and you’re so close to the finish line.
4. Breath deep into surrender and peace and trust the divinity of the feminine magic within you. Relax your jaw, unfurrow your brow, release the tension your shoulders, unclench your fists, and get ready for the rush of motherhood when you get to see your sweet baby.
5. Stay loose and calm and trust your body, trust your baby, and trust the medical staff that everything will turn out just the way it is meant to. (Even if it does not match your birth-plan exactly).

I love you. Y’all are going to do great.

xoxo Carmen