Birth preparation

The first time around approaching labour and birth I was blessed with the luxury of blissful ignorance. I had an open mind, no points of reference, and low expectations to avoid disappointment. I had a simple, straightforward birth plan and I was prepared to take advice from doctors and midwives and do whatever it took to ensure that we all came out the other side as happy and healthy as possible. And we did. And it was fine. Of course there was a great fear of the unknown the first time around, but after some Calmbirth training I found myself approaching the birth of my first child with excitement and confidence outweighing anxiety and fear.

This time around I have a fear of the known. I now have pre-conceived ideas of how things are going to go based on my first (only) experience. I am finding this to be very counter-productive in my preparation, as the one thing that can probably be guaranteed is that this birth will be nothing like the first. I am now running out of time to regain the confidence, the open mind and the excitement that I was armed with when The Bean arrived.

I need to start remembering things that I told myself and others after number one, the positive things. I need to remember that I already have solutions in place for the things that I am most worried about. I need to remember just how quickly time went, and how the whole process was really just a blip on the radar in the grand scheme of things.

When Pumpkin decides she is ready to enter the world and my labour begins, I will be faced with making a choice about which path I am going to follow—one where I allow panic and fear to control the outcome, or one where I fully embrace the experience and allow myself to do what I know deep down I can do—birth without fear.

I also need to remember that I am probably focusing too much on the labour and birth of this little girl and not spending enough time focusing on the fact that a whole new gorgeous little person is about to join our family.