Birth Works Feature Articles

...for the mind

Pre-Birth Planning

While awaiting the birth of their child, parents may be led to believe that they must have a “birth plan.”  They are bombarded with information on their choices and options from the internet, books, magazines, childbirth dasses, friends and their medical caregiver.    But you can’t truly plan your birth.  There are so many variables involved in birth, so many things that cannot be scripted.  How then to effectively turn your preferences and priorities into a satisfying birth experience?
Many women create their birth plan with one end goal in mind, often (but not always), a spontaneous, unmedicated, non-interventionalist birth.  While there is value in having a vision for the outcome of your birth, labor can be a long process, with unplanned (and unplannable) twists and turns.  Some mothers get discouraged if labor is not following “the plan.”   I always suggest to expectant parents that their birth plan be comprised of stepping stone goals along the way to their ideal outcome.  These goals will be unique for each mother and each birth.  As the hours of labor pass, knowing that she has achieved goals that she’s set helps the mother to stay motivated and positive, whether those goals are going 12 hours with no pain medicine, laboring out of bed or having her other children present.  If circumstances dictate that she must give up some aspect of the birth that she wants in order to get the birth that she needs, she will feel good about her birth experience, knowing that she has accomplished some of her goals.
I learned about stepping stone goals shortly after beginning my career as a childbirth educator.  I was working with a VBAC mother, whose prior Cesarean came after a failed induction, which was prompted by her water breaking with no labor following.  She told me that she very much wanted to have an unmedicated VBAC, but more than that, she just wanted her body to do something.  She felt that last time, her body had failed, that it had not known what to do.  She had not a single contraction, had not dilated even a centimeter.  About a week after we finished our classes, she called me to say that she had “wonderful news.”  I was expecting to hear a birth story, but what she had called to tell me was that at her 38 week checkup, the midwife discovered that she was one centimeter dilated.  She was elated telling me that she had already progressed further than she did with her first birth, and she was not in labor yet.  She had achieved her first stepping stone goal, and to this mother, her birth was already successful.

...for the body

Rebozo

Mother Nurture

As postpartum doulas, our job is multi-faceted.  We provide practical support around the house by preparing meals, running errands, entertaining siblings and giving suggestions for breastfeeding and infant care.  But one of the most valuable aspects of our job can be that of companion to the new mother.  
In my early days as a postpartum doula, I felt that if I was not performing some task in a client’s home at all times, that I was not doing my job.  But with each mother I worked with, I found that what she really wanted was to sit down with me, have a cup of tea, pass the baby back and forth and just chat.  She needed this as much as she needed to have the laundry done and dinner prepared.
What a new mother needs is the company of another experienced mother, to listen.  She needs to process her birth experience and develop her parenting philosophy.  She needs to talk about her relationships with her mother, her mother-in-law and her husband.  She needs someone to listen, and a non-judgemental mother who will tell her that doing a good job of mothering does not mean that you will have feelings of overwhelming love and joy every moment of your life as a mother.  She needs to be encouraged and reminded that she is all that her baby needs.  Many new mothers find themselves drawing comparisons to other mothers they know, and it is enlightening for a new mother to realize that her baby is not comparing her to other mothers, that her baby knows only her and she is perfect for her baby.  She needs to be celebrated for who she is – a baby’s mother.
The female companionship that a mother craves during her early postpartum period is one of the most valuable gifts that we can give as doulas.

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Birth Works E News has been written to provide information on Birth Works, Inc. programs and general information about pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding. The information provided is not intended as a substitute for professional consultation with a childbirth educator, lactation consultant, doula, midwife, or physician.