[TRANSCRIPT OF ANSWER]
Scared About Pregnancy And Birth
I often have women come to me who are first-time moms and first-time moms often come in with a lot of anxiety around birth. What is it going to look like? What is it going to feel like? I heard it’s terrible. I heard it’s really hard. I heard it’s going to hurt. I heard I’m going to tear. Those are all the things that newly conceived moms talk about. And I think those are important to note and they’re important to explore.
Education Classes
I think that when you are newly pregnant, I would do some birth education classes. And there are so many offerings out there for people to learn about birth, to be able to cope with their birth. And there are also many great books. But I think birth education would be the one thing that I would say for you to do is take a class. And there are many. There is Hypnobirthing. There is Birthing From Within. There is Lamaze still. And there are some, you know, other education classes that you can look for in your area since many states offer different birthing classes.
I think to acknowledge and validate, you know, it is a scary time. It is a transitional time in your life. There is the transition from being just you to now being a parent, and that’s a lot of things that people don’t explore. It will change you. It will change your relationship with your significant other, your spouse. But those are all things that you should explore. They are important to explore that this will change you. You know, I often get people grieving the loss of their old self. And so birth is a major transition. It is normal to be afraid. It is normal to be scared.
Hire a Doula
I would also recommend birth doulas. I think birth doulas are really important to have if you have a lot of fears. And there is a lot of misconceptions about what birth doulas do. Birth doulas will actually help you achieve a natural unmedicated birth. They can come with you if you decide you want an epidural, and birth doulas will also come with you if you end up having a C-section. So I think that, you know, people need to really know and explore what birth doulas do and doulamatch.net also is a great place to look for doulas in your area. They match doulas all over the state. So that would be a good place to look. But for you to know that it’s normal to be anxious, it’s normal to be scared of having a baby.
