In the last post, I shared how important it is to be prepared for birth and why knowing yourself and how to get the support you need will help you feel safe in natural birth. In part 2, I want to focus on the next important factor to help you feel safe in your birth so you can increase your confidence in your natural birth choice.

When you are going to a new destination for the first time, it always helps to have a map and a guide. This is true in birth as well. Most expectant parents will learn the stages of labor as part of their childbirth preparation classes, and this is useful to know, but in the middle of strong contractions or during the peak of transition, it can be really difficult to pull these specific details out of your head.

Instead, I teach expectant parents to see a simple pattern that exists over and over, all throughout birth and everywhere else in life. It's a simple two-part pattern, your eyes open and close, you breath in and out, your heart relaxes and contracts, and it exists in birth just the same, both in regard to individual contractions and the entire process of labor.

In class, we look at the sunrise and sunset, the seasons, and a number of other natural cycles that are similar expressions to birth, and as our students realize that their birth is just another expression of these natural patterns, they realize how natural and safe it is, how the process of birth is just as natural as spring becoming summer. They see the pattern that will help them be confident and strong in birth throughout the process. Then something envelopes them that feels familiar and comfortable and they feel connected to the process, connected to the larger expression of birth, and with that they feel a natural sense of safety. They tell me that these patterns become so second nature to them that it is always there, no matter how strong the contractions are.

Look for birth all around you and you will begin to see the natural patterns arise that provide insight into the nature of birth so that you can find the feeling of safety that nature provides all laboring moms. To learn more about seeing the Cycles of Nature around you, download our free guide to Sacred Cycles by clicking here!