Modern Mum's Boutique Warehouse is an online shopping and Community Network for Mums. Our shopping section includes womens clothing, kids clothing, babies clothing, baby toys and baby bedding.

First time childbirth – How much do you need to know?

As I was researching topics for this Issue of our Optimum Life E-Zine I quickly discovered that one of the most talked about topics in pregnancy circles is the subject of labour and what to expect and how to prepare.

This caused me to reflect on my own experiences with my 3 children who are now 12, 5 and 3 ½ years old.

I look back on my first pregnancy and realise that I was blissfully naive. It was difficult to imagine even having a baby let alone the birthing process. Like most first time mums I did a lot of reading but the benefit of hindsight has shown me that all the reading in the world can not predict what your individual experience is going to be.

I think sometimes that all the information can be overwhelming and can leave you feeling fearful of something that may not even happen.

My younger sister has recently had her first child and she said to me. “Lee one thing I know from watching you go through it is a few times is that after the first you start to anticipate what lies ahead and you have more to deal with because there are already children to consider where as with the first you have nothing to compare it to and your time is still essentially your own and in a lot of ways that can makes it less scary”. And it is so true. There is a definite advantage to the simplicity of first time pregnancy where you simply don’t know what to expect.

For this reason my advice to first time mums would be to enjoy the pregnancy and put most of your energy into focusing on the beautiful baby you will have at the end.

This is not to say that there is no place for good information. I am a big believe in the power of thought and having your head around what your ideal birth would be and giving consideration to what your general feelings are towards things like whether you would prefer to labour with or without drugs, or in a particular position, if you would prefer to opt for a cesarean or epidural. Being clear on what you would prefer to experience can definitely head you in the right direction I just think that becoming too concerned with the details of labour can really over complicate things.

For instance I have a friend who with her first baby read tones of books on labour. She knew what to expect of every stage. She was so prepared it wasn’t funny. She had music to soothe her, a stress ball to get her through the tough times and all sorts of plans. So when labour began and she said to her husband right this is what is called the “latent phase” and next will come the “active phase” Her husband looked at her like she was mad. Not too long in though the contractions intensified and she felt like she had to push. That was it the baby was ready. Only 1 ½ hrs after the first contraction. 30 minutes later after the quickest trip to the hospital in history the baby was born. In the end she was left wondering if she even experienced the “active phase of labour.”

So I’m not saying that you shouldn’t be aware of what to expect or have in your head what would be optimum for you but I think that the reality is that your simply can not know what is going to happen until it’s happening there is no book written with your individual story included.

The one thing that you can be sure of is that little bundle of joy will come out one way or another and then you will tell your story and you will wear it like a badge of honor and it will be just as it was intended to be for you.

Back to June 08 E-Zine

Lee Spencer

Optimum Life E-Zine Article - June 08 Issue Subscribe Now

Discuss this topic in the Forum