Labor Pain Strategies: Mindset and Preparation for Expecting Moms | 121

When you hit your pain threshold, that means that you are saying to yourself, this hurts. So let's say you're touching something too hot and then all of a sudden you realize that. This hurts. That's your pain threshold. Your pain tolerance is how much of that you can handle before you need more help.

Before you need your pain coping tools. If it comes to labor, if you're touching something hot, you don't need pain tolerance. You need to get off of it. But the pain of labor, you guys is so different than anything else. It is not attacking you. It is you. It's not something from the outside. It's not a bad guy.

You don't have to tell your body all those things and you don't have to tell your body how to birth the baby, but you do have to work with your body. So when we're talking about your pain, Tolerance. I want you guys to erase all of your preconceived notions. Let's say you're that kid who can't handle getting injections and who would freak out at the pediatrician.

Why? How? How can the same girl who could not handle a finger prick give birth to six babies without any medication. That's the difference between birth pain and all other pain. Birth pain. is productive and your body comes alongside you to help you cope with it. So what I work on inside of my birth classes, we've got some core things that we work on, but the foundation of all of it is mindset and confidence.

So I have to be able to also reset your mindset. This is why if you join my classes, we meet with you every Wednesday. via zoom and we do birth coaching with you and my doulas or myself will lead you and walk you through key components of your mindset and your confidence which when we work on your mindset and we teach you how to advocate and you're not afraid to speak up you're not like oh my god i'm gonna be that patient that all the nurses hate when you don't care about that because you know that's not true you're going to advocate for the birth you want When you're confident, when your mindset's in the good place and you're ready to advocate, your oxytocin is going to flow.

The reason your pain tolerance does not matter is because if you can get out of the way that your body wants to And you do that by working on your mindset and your confidence by educating yourself. You cannot wing your birth. Now I want you to take my birth class. Of course, I think it's the best in the universe.

We have students in seven different countries. I want you to take mine, but you need to take one. And I'm, I don't recommend a hospital one. Cause they're going to teach you policies and procedures cage you in and make you feel like you got to go into the fight or flight. mode, which is completely opposite of what we want your body to do.

feeling, that means this stage of labor. And when you're experiencing that, that means that stage of labor. If you know that and you recognize it, you're not going to freak out. And I tell, I'm telling this tonight in my class. So spoiler alert, but we go to Europe every year. My husband and my son and I, and the first year that we did it together, married, we got married four years ago today, by the way.

She has an incredible packing spreadsheet and I did hers. I planned everything out. I had, I used my Wanderlust app to plan every single step of our days. From where we're staying, how we're traveling, all of it. Fast forward to our Italy trip. Not so much. I was so busy. We just got done with a fearless birth experience, which by the way is coming the third week of July.

It can be horrible if you don't know the destination, how to get from A to B. And so you have to be educated. The next way that the oxytocin will flow and those natural narcotics will flow is if you know how to move your body. There are purposeful positionings to use. Hence why I have my mini birth course called purposeful positioning.

Hence the free class tonight. If you want to come, comment faster. Now, The other really important thing is to have labor coping tools, and those look differently for everyone because if your plan is medicated, you're still going to use the unmedicated tools at home because this girl wants you to labor home as long as possible and spoiler alert, the majority of my students who take my classes participate in my weekly coaching.

Get to the hospital at seven to eight centimeters, whether they're getting an epidural or not. And the reason is their mindset and their confidence allows the natural narcotics to flow and they get to the hospital and they don't have any idea that they're seven to eight. So if you're picturing that all of my students are getting to the hospital like this, screaming and begging for an epidural, that is not the case.

The tools look like the movements. They look like breathing techniques. They look like mindset strategies. They look like physicals things like the comb and counter pressure and massage and touch visualization. And all of those things combined give you a really solid labor tool bag that you can start pulling your things out.

You've got tens units that you can bring in to the hospital. You can use hydrotherapy, like the shower and tubs. And some of you guys know that my doula, one of my doulas in training, Ashley actually brought her own inflatable tub. And not all hospitals will do that, but if you want to get that done, Get your house, your doctor on board and have them help you advocate.

That's what happened with Ashley. Shout out to Ashley's doctors. She had two of the most incredible birth friendly. Providers that I have ever seen now, some of the nurses, not so much. Her day shift nurse was amazing though. Okay. So that's a whole nother thing, just in case they're watching, you got to be on top of it, ladies.

What am I missing? Something I'm missing that is one of your most powerful tools to help you cope with labor.

Anybody, any gonna takers out there? Can I do a quiz? Let's see. I said breathing. That's one of your tools. Breathing, we've talked about. One other thing, super important, affirmations. Affirmations is close. Who gives you those affirmations? Yes, your why is too, I did not mention that, but who's going to speak those affirmations to you?

Yes, partner. Did someone else say partner and I missed it? Did I miss it? Yes, your partner, your support person, your support team, your provider, your nurse, those are all really important tools in your labor. So we're going to start with your support person, not a doula. We're going to talk about maybe your mom, a friend your partner, your husband.

But we give you the birth coach class. We give you the newborn academy and we give you the postpartum road map. We give you the birth coach class because that class is Absolutely designed for your partner so that they know how to support you. They know how to stand up for your why to stand up for your preferences and advocate with you instead of against you.

Because I've seen it thousands of births where the birth person has preferences. But the birth partner doesn't understand. And then when the team starts like coercing and bullying, the partner goes against her. So we don't want that to happen. So your partner is one of your most important tools, but they need to be educated.

But here's the thing. The studies have shown, if you have a doula. You are more likely to deliver vaginally, you're less likely to have an assisted delivery, including vacuum, forceps, or c section, you're less likely to need pain meds, you're more likely to be happy with your experience, and your baby has better Apgar's.

Um, and that's why we do our labor bat signal. A skilled doula empowers you to communicate your needs and helps you actualize your dream of a healthy, positive birthing experience. So there are so many different ways that you can get prepped for your birth. But again, the most important way is to take a birth class that teaches you mindset strategies, How to advocate and confidence that teaches you all the tools, whether it's physical, mental, breathing, all of that.

After baby, you get a telegram chat with my postpartum moms. If you add on the labor bat signal, you get a private message with me and two doulas from 36 weeks on. We have people, we had someone join us the day before she got induced and she will absolutely tell you it was worth it. And then you get it for eight weeks after, and I'll tell you, it's very valuable during postpartum.

Anyway, if you guys are interested in the classes you can jump in right now, add your labor bat signal. It's never too late. Okay. Where was I going? You have to be educated. You have to have a partner who's educated.

You have to know the stages of labor. You have to understand how to work with your body, not against it. You have to know breathing techniques, moving techniques, mindset techniques, all of the things, and you have to be confident to advocate for yourself because no one else can.

And hey, if you're ready to kick up your prep into high gear, click the link to join my classes. It's in the show notes. We cannot wait to meet you. See you again next Friday. Bye for now.