Labor and Childbirth

There are good stories, there are bad stories and there are very scary stories… Of course, the passage of time helps to flourish the memory and anyone who tells a story adds something extra and if there is something a mother always likes to tell is her childbirth story (no matter if it’s a good or bad memory).

Until I was a mother for the first time, I always enjoyed listening to those stories but I always kept that doubt of… hum … will this be how they tell it will?

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Photo by Jonathan Borba on Unsplash

After being a mother, I began to give another kind of attention to these stories and began to find a common denominator in the worst stories: lack of preparation!

It is not called labor to childbirth by coincidence. Mother and child have to collaborate in the most delicate, sensitive and abrupt work of their lives.

And now tell me: what is the likelihood of a job being well done if the person is not prepared for it? The baby comes pre-programmed and even then it doesn’t always go well … what if the mother doesn’t help? And what if the mother thought that the preparation for childbirth was just uninteresting? And what if at the time when the baby needs to relax, the mother strengthens and compresses it? What if, when the baby needs well-oxygenated blood, the mother is busy screaming? And what if when the baby needs that extra help to get out the mother, she is spending her energy clinging (to something: bed, father’s hand, etc …) with all the strength she has instead of channelling it to the pelvic muscles?

And for those who think that in the second child we already know what we are going to, I have not yet heard two birth stories of exactly the same. Did you?

Preparation is NEVER too much!

Maternity Hospital Bag

All Hospitals have the famous list of “what to pack to a hospital birth”. And if it is true that we should always consult the specific list of where we intend to have our child(ren), it is also true that many of these lists need to be properly filtered. Things like knowing whether they supply or we need to bring bath towels, baby sheets, clothing/gown to the birth room, are important to avoid carrying unnecessary items.

However, products like “silicone nipples”, “pacifiers”, “abdominal binder”, which are unnecessary should not even come on the famous lists. However, there is some advice that is not essential at all, but I usually give in my training on the subject and that I share here with you today. 😊

Photo by Alex Holyoake on Unsplash

There is a cosmetic product that should be part of every hospital list for birth but that is often overlooked … the “anti-dark circles”. In the hospital, the ex-pregnant/new mom spends the first of many sleepless nights. Whether it is a labor that occurs and/or lingers through the night, or through alternating and/or simultaneous interminable crying of all babies (including our own) or the cocktail of released hormones they leave you on the alert for any sigh whose volume is higher than the sound of a feather to fall, or simply because we are in contemplation of all the details of our latest masterpiece of art. And, in Motherhood, every day is a photo “to remember later” day, so we do not want to remember also the dark circles and the proof of difficult nights.

And speaking of photographic moments, it never hurts to remember that battery chargers, extra batteries, memory cards and the various accessories needed for proper recording of the time should never be forgotten.

Blood collection kits and/or umbilical cord, if they have made that decision, can not be forgotten. It is from those things that there is only a single moment to be used and there is no return to give in case of forgetfulness.

Food & Beverage. The truth is that “hospital food” is “hospital food” … it is usually insipid and has fixed times (there is no buffet 24/7). However, we have not yet figured out how to schedule (small) birth hours. Therefore, we can even spend several hours in labor and not eating, which does not mean that we will have all the meals that we skipped waiting for us when we go to the hospital room (postpartum). Therefore, speak the voice of experience, take some snacks in the bag, some crackers/cereal bars, some juice/milk and a bottle of water.

Magazines and/or non-maternity books because if it is true that many pregnant women have already “devoured” all the thematic literature existing during pregnancy, it is also true that those first days can give a bump in the impact of becoming a mother and responsible for a new Being that we put in the world. So, to have something that we can use that allows us to remember that we are equal (but different) to what we were before being mothers. Something that allows us to take a break from the intensive world of motherhood is something that I consider important.