Unmedicated Childbirth: How Do I Prepare for an Unmedicated Birth?

Sunny Gault: Planning to have an unmedicated birth? Well, what exactly does that term mean? unmedicated birth, and how can you best prepare for it? I'm Sunny with New Mommy Media and I'm joined today by Hehe Stewart. She is the founder of the Birth Lounge and host of the Birth Lounge podcast. Hehe thanks so much for being with us today.

Hehe Stewart: Thank you so much for having me.

Sunny Gault: So he I know you help inform moms of their options when you know giving birth. And I want to talk about the term unmedicated birth. What do we actually mean when we say that?

Hehe Stewart: So I think this is going to be a little bit personal but for me, I typically use unmedicated unmedicated delivery. When it comes to pain relief during labor. I get a lot of questions about well, I've had to be induced or I had an induction does that mean that I don't have an unmedicated delivery? I guess, in some certain sense of the words you did have medication, but unmedicated delivery typically is referring to pain relief.

Sunny Gault: Okay. And we did do a whole other video guys that talks about natural ways to relieve any kind of pain that you're going through in that process and still stay unmedicated. So I encourage you guys to check that out. What about preparing for this? What What should moms do if they're thinking about having an unmedicated birth? What's that prep? Like? What should they do?

Hehe Stewart: Yeah, so for me, there are four kind of pillars to this. The first piece is your mindset. I think unlearning the things that we have learned about births that are incorrect is going to be really, really important. And it's a really first step for you. When you begin to learn about birth and how birth actually works, it probably is going to color the decisions that you want throughout your labor. So your mindset is going to be really important. One way to do this is to surround yourself with people who have had births, like the birth that you would like, join mommy groups, talk to people in your community, seek out people who have had the experience that you want, and ask them what they did to prepare and how they were able to make their birth goals come to fruition.

The second thing is going to be educational prep. Not only do you need to learn about birth itself, but in America, at least we need you to understand how to navigate the hospital system. The hospital system is not necessarily designed for unmedicated hands off delivery. And so we want you to understand how to have these conversations with your provider during your prenatal so that we get into your labor, you have a plan and you have a team who is all on the same page and ready to support you in the goals that you want. It's really, it's really important to remember that hospital policy is not law. And so there is flexibility in that you can have conversations with your provider to say, I know the hospital policy says this, I would like to talk about maybe doing X, Y and Z for me because of my goals, I have goals of X, Y and Z for my birth.

The third thing is going to be kind of along the same lines, finding that perfect birth team partner is probably going to be in that your provider is really important in this. And then if you want to explore the use of a doula, they can also be really, really incredible support for birth, this birth teen is going to play a big role in your birth. When you are in what we call labor, land or birth brain, your whole brain power is going to be focused on your contractions. And so you're going to need to put your trust of your safety into the hands of your birth support team. And these people while you're focusing on getting your baby out, we'll be focusing on making sure that your birth goals are being respected and met. And then the final thing is your birth plan. So this is a sticky one because people get somewhat funky when it comes to birth plan. So I actually like to call it a preference sheet. Because I know that we can't plan birth nature plays such a big role, we'll never be able to plan birth out. However, having a birth preference sheet to communicate your birth goals and the things that you expect to happen during your delivery can be incredibly beneficial in communicating to your provider exactly how you want your birth to go.

Now, keeping in mind that we can't always have exactly what we want. We want to use this preference sheet as a tool, not as something that's like a holy grail that if we don't get it, it's going to be a reflection of you as a person or you as a parent. That's not true. Because remember, you are just one part of this your baby plays a huge role in this nature plays a huge role in this your provider in the place that you give birth plays a huge role in this. There's a lot of moving parts to birth and so some of the control you can have are these things mastering your mindset, having the education understanding how to put together your birth team and putting together a birth preference sheet to communicate to your providers.

Sunny Gault: So funny story about having a birth plan or birth preference sheet. I went through that I've got four kids. So this is my first pregnancy that I had with my son On my firstborn, and I came up with my plan, which actually really didn't deviate much from, you know, I gave birth in a hospital, but I still went through the whole process. And I totally forgot my birth plan at home. I went to the hospital to give birth, and my birth plan was at home and I thought, well, this is a lesson in trying to be flexible. So I love what you said about have a plan, but then also know that things could happen a little differently. And like I said, My plan wasn't much different than you know, probably what the hospital would have normally done. But that was my first lesson in parenting, that things do not always go the way that you plan. So be flexible with that. So he thanks so much for that information. She's got a lot of great content on her website, guys, head on over to thebirthlounge.com and check that out. Also, if you haven't already been to our website, it's newmommymedia.com. Check out some of our podcasts. There are videos and blog posts. It's where real moms talk about real life.