Can you 'prepare' for labour? and how?

[Sparrowlegs248]

Baby has been breech for weeks now, 37wks today. Having a scan Monday to confirm. I had all the best intentions early on in pregnancy, bought a hypnobirthing book, massage oil for perineal massage etc.

Have done NONE of it as have been sure it would be ELCS due to breech.

Now packing that baby has turned and I'm not 'prepared'

Is it possible to prepare at this stage and if so how?

To be honest I don't think you can really.... yes you can read every single book there is and do some hypnobirth stuff if you want to but ultimately I believe babies come out however they like.. !

My first baby took 3 days of labour, epidural and every drug possible (!) and a ventouse to come out and for my second I opted for an elcs.

My sil tends to pop all of hers out in 2 hours flat (even the first one, she now has 3) with no complications at all.

My other sil has two. The first was a similar labour to my first, the second she tried hypnobirthing but as soon as she went into labour it all went out of the window and she went straight for an epidural.

Do whatever feels best for you, there are no rules when it comes to giving birth, the most important thing is that you are calm and contented - however that is.

I think you can mentally prepare. I know hypno birthing and reading about he mechanics of child birth certainly helped me.

Your instinct is to tense up with the pain at a contraction but I had practiced going limp beforehand and was able to do this with each contraction which made it much less painful.

My first labour was 2 days and long and painful but hypno helped me get through that by the mental preparations I had done.

My second labour was much faster but much more intense and I never got any pain relief until the pushing stage when I got gas and air (mw only arrived at pushing stage) so again, breathing and keeping calm helped me to manage that.

I don't think it can really change the outcome if you're going to have complications but for me it helped me manage what was going on in two very different births.

Honestly? I wish I'd read much less. Reading up so much on hypnobirthing, natural birth positions etc, gave me false confidence in my own body and its ability to cope with even the most difficult situations.
Hence when it did all go wrong, I felt I'd failed. I really wish I hadn't read so much, made false assumptions, and thought I knew how it would be.
if I could turn back the clock I'd go in with no preconceptions.

I could have written running's post word for word. Exactly the same situation and feelings of failure. Wish I'd gone into it clueless now.

Would still recommend perineum massage and if possible an Epi no. This has been shown to help first time mums (ie reduce the severity of tearing)
www.epi-no.co.uk

As for the intensity of labour... It's a different pain to "normal" pain so it's very hard to prepare for it. Maybe it's helpful to know that when you reach active labour, you'll really struggle to speak and your focus will solely be on breathing and getting through each contraction.

Good luck.

Thanks all. Turns out it was worry for nothing (in a sense....) I'very got to have a c section. Not that i think its the easy option by any means.

I second read Juju Sundin birth skills. Circumstances conspired that I had no pain relief in labour, but I credit having read her book and using her techniques with me actually enjoying the experience. I can't reccommend it highly enough.

Sorry just seen your final post. Good luck op!