Home birth mantras

[fooolofbeans]

Hello im pregant with my first and due mud june 2017, im aiming for a home water birth and trying to manage pain through hypnobirthing style techniques but open to interventions if necessary, haven't got much further than that yet. I'm hoping you wise owls can offer me some mantras I can print and have up at home to repeat repeat repeat to keep me calm and ride out the pain as relaxed as possible, TIA

Anyone???

Hi - I'm due mid June and had a homebirth for my first, not a water birth though. I'm looking into a hynobirthing course although had G&A and pethidine first time around and won't rule them out again tbh. I think it's quite a personal thing and it might be a good idea as you progress through to develop your own positive thinking mantras. Have you read any books? I'd like some recommendations!

There are loads on websites online if you google "birth affirmations" - I also did this and from about 37 weeks on I read them aloud every night as mental prep which seemed to help. For the last week I asked oh to do it with me which he was initially a bit unKeen on but actually said he felt had helped him have a store of reassuring things to say in labour.

Some won't resonate with you personally because it's so down to individual attitude/taste - some I loved and some I didn't. You can compile your own list from different sources.

I chose three that were particularly resonant for me and focused on these at the birth and repeated them in my head in early labour.

I liked "my body knows exactly what to do."

I googled hypnobirthing affirmations which came up with a lot of suggestions and wrote the ones I like down.
Some that I like are:
With every contraction, my baby is closer to being in my arms
My body and my baby know what to do
Each contraction is a contraction I never have to have again
This will not last forever
I am strong, my body is strong, my baby is strong
This is temporary
I relax and let birth happen
I am proud of my body and trust it to birth my baby
I feel confident, I feel safe, I feel secure
Birth is safe for me and my baby

And one I made up myself is
I have done this before, I can do it again

Hope that helps

I went to hypnobirthing classes and found the Marie Mongan affirmations and the Rainbow relaxation CD that came with it very useful. Some of them are ones above. I also found 'my baby is the perfect size for my body' very useful as I knew I was having a big baby but that was normal for my family.

I did a lot of hypnobirthing techniques in the lead up to both births but didn't find mantras as such helped me personally, mostly the breathing so any mantras I had were related to breathing.
With my second birth I also managed to keep reminding myself to go limp with each contraction instead of tensing up which feels like the natural reaction. When I went limp the pain lessening and felt like the contraction was doing it's job more effectively if that makes sense.
So with every contraction I would just say to myself 'relax, go limp' over and over.

Gosh wonderful wonderful mumsnetters, thank you so.mich for the suggestions, ill get on on it in the morninh x

I too am planning a home water birth (any time now!) I would really reccommend the Marie Mingan Hypnobirthing CD with the birth affirmations and rainbow relaxation on it.
The mantra I like is Each surge brings my baby closer to me.

The Hypnobirthing course is really great too.

Mongan

As well as words, what about images? I put up pictures of joyful births and of mum, granny etc (they've done it, so can I) to look at in last few weeks.

This quote from Caitlin Moran was great for understanding what the first stage would be like: "Now I know how birth works – now I’ve been talked through labour, by that quiet-voiced woman – I feel I’ve finally been told what my task is. It’s simple – so simple I’m amazed I didn’t know it before. One morning I am going to wake up, and before I sleep again, I will have to tick off a long list of contractions, one by one. And when I get to the last one, I will have my girl. Each one of these will be a job in itself – a minute-long experience which would alarm anyone suddenly struck by it, without warning – but I know the one fact that makes it easy: there is nothing awry. Everything is as it should be. Unlike all other pain on earth, these don’t signal something going wrong but something going right....I know what they are, and what they’re for, I greet each one with calm cheer: 60 seconds to breathe through, as limp as a sleeping child, so that there is nowhere for this wash of sensation to snag – no tensed muscle it can get caught on. I am a clear glass of water; leaf-smoke blown sideways in the wind; empty space, for a moon to sail through."

brown that's amazing- thank you!!

Think it's true that it's about individual taste and what resonates with you. I just had my baby in hospital but with only a little bit of gas and air as pain relief, and the mantra that worked for
Me during contractions was "I welcome the pain knowing that it opens up my cervix to
Give birth to my baby".
It also helped me to visualise the contractions she waves rolling over me and to say inside my head "yes, body, I hear you" when the contractions came.

Finally, one thing I loved was to
Talk to my baby the days before his arrival and to tell him to feel safe and free to
Come out in the world, I said to him aloud, "the world is waiting for you and here are trees and birds and people and etc etc (nice things) and your mummy and daddy and sister who loves you very much and we are all ready and waiting for you, come out to us!". Hope that's helpful but it's really about finding something that works for you personally.

I searched Pinterest for some affirmations and it took me ages to find ones I liked! I copied them out and framed them a few weeks before hand so I got to see them a lot.
(I birthed standing up, no drugs, unassisted at home ) Good Luck!

Thank you bumbleclat, I'll check it out

Love that Brown and love Caitlin Moran, thanks for sharing

Good for you OP. I had my first and only DD (now 3) at home in a birthing pool and like you, wrote affirmations down and taped them up all around the house. I also listened to some on my commute to work each day. Funnily enough the one that really stuck with me was whispered to me by my totally amazing midwife on the day itself- which was 'this will never be too much for you, because it is you.' It made me realise that the pain wouldn't get too much for me to bear. My homebirth was a brilliant experience and I'm sure yours will be too!

Sorry had a hectic few days will sit and read these properly soon and reply.
PS think we're going with an independent midwife - Yorkshire storks.
They recommended this book as a staring point bump