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One of my birth preferences was opting for birth centre. I toyed with the idea of having a home birth but since it was our first baby, Luca felt more confident having the hospital close by just in case. As you may know by now, I am a big advocate of women making their own decisions but I felt this was a joint effort and I needed Luca to be on board and fully confident in his role of birth partner. I had no objection toward the birth centre so we easily agreed on that and thankfully we were eligible for it.

You may ask why not the hospital like most women do. Simple, because hospitals freak me out and make me tense up just setting a foot in one. The bright lights, lots of metal everywhere, the sense of emergency you can breath in the air. When animals give birth they go hide somewhere dark and safe away from predators because when you need to facilitate oxytocin, the hormone in charge of contracting the womb among other things, you need to be relaxed. When you feel observed and in an environment that inhibits you, adrenaline kicks in and you stop producing oxytocin. The birth centre essentially feels more like a homey environment, lights are not as bright and its led by midwives.

I feel like the place where you feel safest and more relaxed to give birth in is very personal; some women might feel like they need the presence of doctors around them to feel safe. However, the purpose of my blog is to try and change that narrative. Do we feel safer having doctors around because of preconditioned ideas of where you have seen most births happen. Are most of those birth even real? Or were they births you have seen in movies?

Some women choose based on what they have available on terms of pain relief as well. I wanted to approach my pregnancy banishing all preconceived ideas of what birth would be like and this is because I highly believe that in most physical experiences the mind plays a massive role. If I prepare myself to something focusing on what will relieve the pain, I am already priming my experience to be a painful one. If I focus on how to make myself be comfortable, how to promote oxytocin, who and what do I need to feel safe and supported then that I what my mind is going to look for. It all ties back to visualisation. And also to believe in the strength and power of your body. A belief that comes from your intuition as a woman.

“When fear overwhelms truth and love, we call it pain. Our spirit as women has all the knowledge and power we need to give birth and to nurture our babies. It is in our genetic coding. It has been since the beginning of time. You can trust it’s wisdom.” Gurmuk