Preparing to Give Birth

To have an easy birth, you have to plan things out and most importantly, do not panic when the right time comes but just relax and let nature take its course.

And it's one of those things everyone gets very worried and nervous about the labour and they are too busy worrying to actually plan for their birth. Now, my first piece of advice is to plan, if you've made a plan, then everyone else around you knows what you're doing, what your wishes are and how you want to have your baby. You can have your baby at home, you can have your baby in a hospital, you can have your baby in a birthing pool, wherever you feel the most safe and most the comfortable is going to be the best place is for you to give birth.

In British Columbia, women and their partners can choose where to have their baby in a hospital or at home. You may be advised to have your baby in a hospital if:

• you are carrying more than one baby
• your baby is in a breech position (bottom down) or other unusual position
• you have early labour before 37 weeks, or late labour after 42 weeks of pregnancy
• you have a medical condition, such as high blood pressure, heart or kidney disease, or diabetes
• you have active genital herpes
• you have a high‑risk pregnancy for any other reason

You may have special needs, such as carrying more than one baby, or you may have a medical condition, such as diabetes or heart or kidney disease. If this is the case, your health care provider may ask an obstetrician to give you medical care. An obstetrician is a health care provider trained to care for women who have special needs during their pregnancies and birth. If needed, an obstetrician may also be called during your labour and birth.

Having Your Baby at Home?

If you choose to have a midwife, she will be with you during your labour. A second birth attendant will also be present for the birth of your baby. She will be there for a short period of time before and after your baby's birth. Until six weeks after the birth, your midwife will give information and care as you need it. This help is for you and your baby and includes breastfeeding support.

After the birth, your midwife will see you or contact you at home on a daily basis for a week. At two weeks, you will return with your baby to your midwife's office for visits until six weeks after your baby's birth. At that time your care will be transferred back to your family doctor. You will receive information from a public health nurse about services from the health office and services in your community.

Having Your Baby in a Hospital?

A nurse and your midwife – if you have one – will be with you during your labour and birth. Your doctor will usually check on you during labour and will be with you during the birth of your baby.

After you go home you will be contacted and visited as needed by a public health nurse. She will answer questions about your baby's feeding and care. She will also talk with you about your health and postpartum adjustment. She will give you information about services provided by the public health office and about other services in your community.

In some communities, public health nurses are not available after office hours and on weekends or statutory holidays. If a public health nurse in not available in your community during these times, call HealthLink BC at 8-1-1, for confidential health information and advice from a registered nurse.

And if you plan and share this plan with everyone, then you're going to have a good birth. So the second thing is to relax, relax and be confident that you're getting the birth that you want and you're doing everything possible to achieve that. Now when you relax, your body produces toxins, produces fabulous chemicals that will really really help your baby to be born.

It's relaxing all of your muscles and it's just making everything a lot lot easier. Your body is made to make babies and so just going with it and doing everything you can to relax, being involved in the whole process, is just fantastic. The minute that things start to go wrong or you start to panic or you start to worry, everything tightens up.

Your body starts to produce adrenaline and it goes into the vital flight mode. Everyone knows what that is, you're basically transporting all of your blood from your vital organs to the bits that need to run. So you're going to your heart and you're going to your feet and you're not going to the bits you need to birth your baby.

And then things start to go wrong and things get harder and your baby's head is pushing against something that's really taut and it's not the nice, relax birth that you want. So my main tip how to give birth and achieve the birth that you really really want is to plan. Have everyone around you, know what that plan is and to relax. .