Wednesday, October 7, 2009

FEAR OF LABOR - Part 2

Do we need to  rid ourselves totally of all fear of labor?  Realistically this is probably not going to happen.  But we can reduce the fear.  Knowledge helps us reduce fear - if I know that babies actually do emerge from moms' bodies all the time, it really does work, I have seen it over and over in videos and talked to other moms, then that knowledge should work in my favor when I suddenly face fear in pushing. When my mind is suddenly saying, "How am I going to get this baby out?"  If I tell myself with each pushing contraction, "I can do this" or "This is working", I will be working with the natural forces inside of me to produce the baby and pushing the fear aside.

If I know in advance that there will be sensations that are normal to labor - nausea - shakiness - hot/cold flashes - then could I use that information to remind myself that these "normal labor" sensations are telling me that labor is progressing, that my body is doing exactly what it is supposed to be doing to complete this task? 

So knowledge is one way to reduce the fear.  What doesn't help is hearing numerous negative birth stories from everyone we meet.  A mom's memory of her birth is her own - good or bad.  But we need to remind ourselves that each of us will uniquely experience this journey and that others' experiences are their own - not ours - this knowledge can help us to move forward to build our own birth story, hopefully with less fear and more determination of the job ahead.

1 comment:

  1. I completely agree..knowledge does help in removing the fear from labor. It's a natural thing that our bodies instinctually know how to handle. The more we hear about how normal it is, the less fear we should hold inside..

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