Any tips for easy labour prep

[Qasidy]

I'm currently 16 weeks and want to ensure I'm doing everything possible to increase my chances of a quick and easy natural birth without the need for assistance, I.e. forceps, epidural etc. Would appreciate any advice that has worked for others that helped made your birthing experience somewhat easier x

Keep fit. It’s exhausting and I think my fitness contributed to 2 pretty easy labours with no intervention.

Lots and lots of walking (everyone recommended me this) and raspberry leaf tablets are what I believe contributed to a quick and relatively easy first labour (minor graze only)

DD came very quickly when I got home from the hospital she beat the ambulance. I guess calm/relaxed would be the official line but I think my body when "aaahhh home, out you go baby!!!"

Planned home birth this time 🤞 (14 weeks)

You can do everything right and still not have an easy birth.

You can do absolutely nothing and have a textbook delivery.

I did all the drinking tea, perineal massage, keeping fit, hypnobirthing etc. I even have the genetics- my mums births were 2 hours start to finish and a sibling dropped her last one on the bathroom floor!

So I was all set to stay at home as long as possible, before heading to hospital. I even contemplated a home birth.

I had prom and my baby went into distress so I had an EMCS even before established labour.

If course do everything you can, but just be mentally prepared. I wasn’t and for a long time after got really upset every time someone said oh you should have done hypnobirthing/kept fit/drank tea, i had a really easy labour because I did that.

There's a couple of pregnancy books that assess all the science behind this and from what I recall - being fit is the number one thing that can help outcomes, which makes perfect sense as it's an incredibly intense physical process that uses all your muscles in your abdomen. I think acupuncture during labour was the only other one with any statistical significance.

With DS I had spd/pgp so couldn’t even walk 😢 so I found it really difficult to “keep fit” (up until I developed it I had been working out everyday for years and did a walk in my lunch break) so for the last half of my pregnancy I did no exercise really besides swimming once a week and just cleaning round house.
Apparently eating dates is meant to help ripen cervix? I ate one or two everyday.
Sitting properly to ensure baby is in a head down, back to front position / I never sat in sofa or I couldn’t get up lol so I sat on the big ball and this helps position baby for birth.
My active labour was four hours (quick according to my midwives) and had a planned home birth. I gave birth on all fours leaning on a foot stool (and spent some of the time standing up to get gravity to help).

3rd trimester plan:

• 31 weeks - 2x raspberry leaf tablets per day
• 36 weeks - 3x raspberry leaf tablets per day
• 36 weeks - 6 dates per day
• 37 weeks - clary sage oil (2 drops in bath, mix with carrier oil & rub on stomach, inhale on a hankie)
• 38 weeks - 4x raspberry leaf tablets per day

My plan, yes it could be a load of crap (probably is) but I had a very slow then out of control, no pain relief, labour last time. I want this one to be better & me to feel calmer so doing hypnobirthing as well as this.

Also bouncing on ball to get baby in a good position and not back to back.

@HastingsSpoon raspberry leaf shouldn’t be started until 34 weeks and only start with 1 a day. 6 dates a day can be started from 34 weeks too (fair warning they’re vile, but it helps to chop small and mix in yoghurt)

Hypnobirthing is fab, I’m doing bump to baby chapter

I’ve read 32 weeks everywhere re raspberry leaf, to be fair my tablets say 2 a day from 30 weeks so I guess the amount in different tablets is different maybe?

I’ll start the dates from 34 instead! They were ok, I tried one the other day 🤣 think I’ll have 3 in the morning, 3 in the evening...

Read the Positive Birth book by Milli Hill! Really good about what to expect and the physiology of birth, so why different decisions you make matter so much to the outcome of your birth. Obviously it wont be all sunshine and rainbows but I feel quite confident and almost looking forward to labour now, assuming I stay low risk.

Look into Hypnobirthing, OP.

What @bluebluezoo said - I did it all, read the Positive Birth Book, drank the tea, was very active during pregnancy (and extremely fit and healthy before). My waters broke early and I had to be induced on the labour ward. I had an assisted delivery. It wasn't pleasant but my recovery was fine and quick. So I guess fitness helped me recover even if it didn't help with birth. I've known very unhealthy people have easy births.

Make peace with the idea that the birth might not go to plan. Accept that an induction/ epidural/forceps/ caesarian might be necessary, learn about what they entail and why they might be necessary.
Think about what helps you stay calm and peaceful in the run up and during labour.
I was meant to be on the Dr led unit and for some reason I had it in my head I was going to need all the drugs and interventions. In the end I was able to give birth in a pool in the midwife led unit which was a pleasant surprise.

@Oneandabean omg I love dates... medjool ones especially they’re like sweets!

Oh yes and hypnobirthing @Qasidy, I did the positive birth company one (was half price when I was pregnant last) and the breathing really helped me through the latent phase til the gas and air was brought over like others have said though anything can happen what’s important is you’re prepared for any eventuality and don’t get hung up on one ideal version of birth. That way hopefully you stay calm and in tune with your body.

A few people have recommended using an aniball as well to help prep so I am going to get one nearer my DD

Might be TMI but when I was moisturising my belly to try and prevent stretchmarks i read that massaging oil into you perinium can help prepare for labour as it stretches out the muscles or something. So i got bio oil and added that into my routine. Dont know whether it was because of that but i ended up with only very minor tears and didnt need stitches. So im doing the same this time round!

I found expressing colostrum (check from when that should be - think it's 34 or 36 weeks) helpful. It didn't help labour but it did help breastfeeding. I also did perineal massage (🤢) - it's meant to help tearing and I didnt tear much although my lo was small.

Surely a certain part of it is luck? With my dd nothing would have changed the fact she got distressed and I ended up being induced and eventually an emsc. Then with my ds, labour was running smoothly until he got stuck. I imagine that luck plays the largest role in these things.

@Bleepers that’s interesting, I didn’t know you could start expressing colostrum early!

@maloney123 yep. My mate who's an OBGYN and had a baby just before me recommended it. The midwives were amazed how much I could produce and apparently it can also stimulate labour (hence why you don't do it until a certain point).

I’m 34 weeks with my second and I didn’t harvest colostrum last time but I’m going to try this time and I asked my midwife about it. She said it start from around 36-37 weeks, hand express only (not pump) and into a 1ml syringe (can get a pack of 10 from Amazon), label with name and date and put in freezer in freezer bag. When you leave for the hospital, take them in a freezer bag.

OP, consider a water birth. I had one with my DD (now 6yo) and it was really good, I’m hoping to have one again this time 🤞