If I could only share one piece of advice for birth it would be to trust your instincts.
You, mama, know what you and your baby need.
I loved having my birth team at my home to support me and my husband. One of the big reasons I think I feel so good about my birth team is that they never intervened. They let me do my thing, there was never any rush, and when I doubted myself, they knew I could do it.
I didn’t have people cheering me on. I had women observing and only ever offering up advice for something like changing a position if I needed it. Otherwise, it was me in the quiet (minus my primal noises 🤣), focusing on my body and my baby. Breathing and moving intuitively.
Even when my midwife first got to our home I didn’t let her check me and she didn’t care. It was my decision. I mainly avoided it because I was in a lot of pain and I was also trying to protect my mental state. I was nervous that if I wasn’t that dilated I would feel discouraged. I knew that Eliana was coming so I didn’t feel like it was necessary to add any mental stress.
I did let them monitor the purple line in my butt crack (I talk about this in the podcast episode) to get an idea of how dilated I was, but next time, I would just leave it be. I had so few interventions at my birth, but even the little ones I would avoid next time. They were small but they were a distraction and I was doing fine.
I don’t regret anything from my birth, but upon some deep reflection, for me personally, the fewer interventions I had, the better I did. I know how important that was for my mental state and will avoid them next time.
For me, I think protecting my mindset in that way was what allowed me to get through all of the pain. I didn’t want to know how long it had been or how dilated I was. I just wanted to continue working with my daughter and bring her into this world.
If you want to hear more about my birth story you can listen to that podcast episode here.
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