My pendulum shift

When I was younger, I was very excited to have kids! I wanted a whole bunch of them (still do :)). Whenever I thought about how those kids would arrive, I would get very VERY scared and nervous thinking how in the world could I do that and oh my that is going to be way to painful. It got to the point where I decided when it was time to have kids I would simply have c-sections every time, no matter what. Of course I didn't think about what that entailed, all I thought about was how that would eliminate the pain of delivery. As my friends began having children and I began hearing about their experiences it forced me to begin thinking about my previous conclusions. It really challenged me and I started to listen to what pregnancy, labor and deliver were really about. Over time, I realized that my ideas had swung to the other end of the pendulum. When I became pregnant with my first child it hit me that I now had to follow through with those ideas. At first, I was scared! The idea of delivering a baby is a scary thought! As women, we truly aren't prepared for this. How many of us have seen a delivery, heard about a delivery in detail or have done much research in the area? That's when it hit me: I had do educate myself, do research on my own and prepare myself. As I began to read the nerves began to cease. The more educated and prepared I felt, the less fear there was within. I'm lucky enough to have a group of women that had delivered with no drugs and had previously done research and were willing to share with me. I know that not all women have that at their disposal and that is a shame. Luckily, there are many books and forums.

As I said in my previous post, I am now preparing for baby #2. Even though I’ve done it all before, it’s still a little scary but I know it’s absolutely possible. I wish more women realized that. I wish there was more education about the reality of labor and delivery. I HATE all those baby tv shows! In fact, my husband bans me from watching them because all they do is exemplify the negatives of labor and delivery as if that’s how it is and will be and it infuriates me!!! Without the education of what’s to come, it is a very scary experience. Without hearing the positive experiences of other women, it can be very scary. Without a good coach on your side and without an experienced person trained in the natural process of labor and delivery, it will be lonely and scary!