Positive Birth Experience – not judgement on choices

Positive birth experience – not judgement on choices

One of the biggest misconceptions about hypnobirthing is the idea that it is only for certain birth options. For example, some women have asked me if it’s for mums who are planning to have home births with no pain relief. My answer is that it is for ALL women and ALL birthing decisions and outcomes, this is at least how I work. It will also help and support you if you do not want pain relief. Many women who hypnobirth find they do not need it but it is there as an option and you shouldn’t feel that you have somehow ‘failed’ if you decide you want it. We certainly don’t need competition and judgements in the way we approach labour and birth and should all make the choices that feel right to us after weighing up our options.

I truly advocate for a positive birth experience rather than a particular way of baby being born into the world. Caesaerean Sections and interventions can lead to positive birth experiences and natural vaginal deliveries can lead to negative birth experiences or can be traumatic depending on what is occurring with mum (especially with fear and anxiety), baby and whether she feels safe in her environment (including the people she has around her). A natural vaginal delivery where the environment and conditions are good, and mum is calm and relaxed throughout, holds the potential for an incredibly euphoric and empowering experience. But if this cannot be attained for medical or other reasons it doesn’t mean that you can’t still have a beautiful and empowering experience. Ultimately women need to feel safe and heard in labour.

I am in agreement that we need to stop any judgement that anything outside of a natural vaginal delivery implies that something has gone ‘wrong’. It’s not helpful to categorise birth in this way. You would be amazed at how women can feel disheartened that things may not have played out how they hoped and so they feel a sense of somehow ‘failing’ in their birth experience or that their body failed them. We can judge ourselves or feel judged by others, but It is how you FEEL that matters and not the choices you make, or need to make about how baby arrives.

Of course not everyone will agree with this but it’s important that you are informed to make the decisions that feel right for you, empowered and supported in labour and birth and that it is this that will create a positive experience for you, however your birth unfolds.