Did you know your birth holds so much more importance than you realize? You literally hold the fate of birth for future expectant parents in your hands! I am not trying to introduce more pressure on you and your birth than you need, but this is an important aspect of birth that most people don't know about.

Here is the response I gave to an expectant mom who was asking if it was important to prepare or if she could just "wing it" to explain what I mean.

If this is your first birth, I would highly, highly recommend you do some prep classes. I say this purely out of wanting you to have the best birth outcome you can have. Would you go run a marathon without training for endurance? Would you climb Mt Everest without prepping for the effort and altitude? I know it might sound like an exaggeration, but for most women, birth is an endurance event, equivalent to a marathon, and it requires the right prep physically and mentally. It is not reinforced to first time moms how important it is to get the right prep, especially if your goal is a natural birth, I think in part because hospitals might prefer if you don't so they can just do whatever they see fit. If you really don't care that you are much more likely to end up in the hospital if you don't prep, then go ahead and enter it blind, and you will increase your chance of ending up there. But, if you really do care to have a positive experience that you won't regret later, then you need to reconsider. I know it sounds like at lot of work now, but it can save you years of heartache and regret if your birth goes out of your control and you have no idea what to do. Sorry to be so blunt, but I see this too often with first timers and it really affects us all when birth goes wrong and more often than not, it could be prevented by a little preparation. Books are good, but the right prep class can make all the difference.

I am so passionate about this because as a society and a country, we are doing a terrible job at preparing moms for the reality of labor and birth. They are told they just need to relax and let it happen, that it's natural, their body will just know what to do, and many other niceties like that. Then they are overwhelmed with a bunch of birth facts and statistics that really don't have anything to do with going through labor and should only be relevant to the birth professionals, and then expected to be ready for the process. This lead to situations that increase our average c-section rate to 1/3 births, many of which women don't even feel they needed after the whole event is over.

Yet most women think "that won't be me" because we always think it won't be us, until it is, but you can't undo a birth that goes wrong.

This "it won't be me" phrase leaves too many expectant parents undervaluing the support of the right childbirth preparation. Below is an excerpt from the Nations Birth Center Study that discusses how often women who attempt birth center birth end up transferring to hospital, most of which are not due to medical necessity but reasons that could have been averted by the proper preparation.

National Birth Center Study II

How Often Did Women End Up Being Transferred to Hospitals?

Out of the 15,574 women who planned to give birth at the birth center at the start of labor, most women (84%) ended up giving birth at the birth center. Out of the entire sample, 4.5% were referred to a hospital before being admitted to the birth center, 11.9% transferred to the hospital during labor, 2.0% transferred after giving birth, and 2.2% had their babies transferred after birth. Most of the in-labor transfers were first-time moms (82%).

 Out of the 1,851 women who transferred to hospitals during labor, 54% ended up with a vaginal birth, 38% had a Cesarean, and 8% had a forceps or vacuum-assisted vaginal birth.

 Most of the in-labor transfers were done for non-emergency reasons, such as prolonged labor. Less than 1% of the study sample (0.9% overall, number [n] = 140) transferred to the hospital during labor for emergency reasons. A very small percentage of women (0.4%, n = 67) and infants (0.6%, n = 94) transferred after birth for emergency reasons.

If more women and their birth partners engaged in the proper preparation that really helped them prepare in body and in mind, that prepared them for the mental aspect of birth just as much as the physical, and helped them learn how to communicate with their care team to get the best support for their unique needs, I think we would see much less transfer to hospital and much less need for intervention in and out of the hospital.

On the individual level, not preparing means potential years of dealing with loss over a poor birth outcome, which we hear all the time when we work with second or third time parents who don't want to face another difficult birth.

But what expectant parents don't realize is that if their natural birth plans fail because they weren't prepared, they go into national statistics that hurt the chances of future expectant parents to have a natural, out-of-hospital birth.

Both of these reasons, the one-on-one help for current expectant parents who really do care about their natural birth, their baby's health and their birth outcome, and those expectant parents of the future who want to give birth in a natural birth friendly world, this is why I continue to work for those who see the path to their success and our future success is by taking their preparation seriously.

I know that most women will continue to try to get by with as little prep as possible, and they will continue to increase the rates of transfer and c-section rates. As long as they are doing that, I will be here to support those who want a better birth and a better outcome.

Learn more about how to change the future of your birth and birth for generations to come on the Unschooled Homebirth podcast wherever you listen to podcasts!