Community Questions - Prepping for birth!

"Hi Mums! Do you have any tips for prepping for birth? I'm in my third trimester now with my first and starting to think about birth - any advices you could share? Thank you :)"

Yes absolutely! Birth is different for every woman and although you can never plan 100% how your birth will go, here are some tips that may help.

1. Do your research and empower yourself - finding out as much information as you can about labour and birth, your options, pros and cons of each option can help you feel more confident in your decisions about how and where you want to deliver your baby, and what your options are if things don't quite go to plan. Ask your midwife any questions you have and do your own research too - you may find NCT classes helpful too!

2. Listen to positive birth stories on podcasts, on Youtube videos and try to avoid hearing any birth horror stories as much as you can. Having a positive outlook on birth can really help reduce anxiety and stress as you head towards the final weeks.

3. Hypnobirthing - at Carol we have all used the Positive Birth Company to help prepare us for going into labour and thought it was brilliant - we have an exclusive discount code within the 'Offers' of your app - hypnobirthing helps equip you with the breath work tools and knowledge of what happens during birth to empower you to make the right decisions for you, and to use breathing techniques to help with pain management!

4. Preparing your body and de-stress - pregnancy yoga can be really helpful to get your baby in a good position for birth as well as educating you on breathing techniques and positions to help you as you move through labour.

5. Meditation and visualisation - these can help you get into a positive frame of mind moving into birth and can reinforce breathing techniques to help you throughout labour.

6. A birth plan - although a birth plan is a good idea to have so that your wishes are down in one place, it's important to mindful that birth may not always go to plan on the day so being flexible is important. Having a birth plan as a guide can definitely help though, although it might not be for everyone.