WOMEN WANT TO FEEL CONFIDENT ABOUT THEIR BIRTH, NOT FEAR

Fear is a thought, it is imagined, it’s an invention of the mind and fear is telling you what your thinking in the moment is, right now.  We are built for our feelings in the present. We cannot predict the future, so it is impossible to guarantee every outcome.

Our bodies and minds have developed over millions of years to survive and thrive in a world full of threats and opportunities.

We have a built-in system to save our lives in the presence of danger. Fear is a powerful survival signal, an intense feeling of distress and alarm that can be used to alert us to danger in our immediate environment, and move us to take action, flight, flight or freeze. The purpose of fear is to keep us alive, and to protect us from dangerous situations. If you were in the supermarket and a saber tooth tiger approaches you down the aisle, fear can be a powerful evolutionary gift that saves your life.

All of this happens without us even thinking about it.

When our physical well-being is under threat, we receive pain signals. We also receive signals when our heads fill up with fearful thinking.

 100% OF OUR EXPERIENCE IS COMING FROM 100% OF OUR THINKING IN THE MOMENT!

What we experience is generated from our own thoughts. The thoughts you are aware of (what you are thinking about) are like the tip of an iceberg, it is only a fraction that is creating our experience of the moment. The submerged portion of the iceberg represents the majority of our thinking which is invisible.

WHEN WE ARE FRIGHTENED, WE TENSE UP. TENSION CAUSES LACTIC ACID IN THE MUSCLES, WHICH INCREASES PAIN AND CAUSES MORE FEAR 

It is a vicious cycle.

This can lead to an adrenaline surge which can slow or stop labour. This is when you hear stories of when women arrive at hospital, labour can slow down.

Pregnant women under stress or tension have an adrenaline response.

When you are anxious and afraid, either consciously or unconsciously, your body goes into survival mode and triggers the sympathetic nervous system.

We become lightheaded, unable to think straight, unable to make decisions. Breathing becomes rapid, heart beats faster, Oxygen shoots to our arms and legs getting us ready to run away from the threat. Your baby would then receive less Oxygen, away from the uterus, which is not what we want.

IF YOU ARE ANXIOUS AND YOUR HEAR IS BEATING FAST, RESEARCH SHOWS YOUR BABY’S HEART IS TOO!

Back in the caveman days, women would find a dark quiet place to give birth, such as a cave, where they would feel safe and protected.

If suddenly, a bear or tiger appears, fear kicks in, adrenaline is released, labour stops so the woman can run away to a place of safety.

The pain withdrawal reflex is an involuntary response that moves your body (or part of your body) away from a source of pain. If you accidently touched a candle flame or hot stove, you experience the pain withdrawal reflex.

While response is involuntary (i.e. not under your conscious control), it’s still meditated by thought. A person who is under the influence of drink or drugs will not always exhibit the response, and people can be conditioned to override it.

100% OF YOUR BIRTH EXPERIENCE COMES FROM YOUR OWN THOUGHTS

There is nothing to fear but fear itself.

All of this fear is not even fearing the actual event in the end, but it’s your thinking about what it is.

When women experience fear during childbirth, they believe that meant something; and when you start to think that the fear must mean something, you then start to add more thought onto it, resulting in getting even more scared. By understanding that the initial fear doesn’t actually mean anything, those feelings don’t mean anything, knowing they are nothing, can help us fall back into clearer thinking, clarity.

It’s not about being in control, because you cannot control everything.  When we get caught up in our storm of thinking, we are unable to see things clearly and we can panic easily. By letting ourselves fall out of this thinking, we can find ourselves in a new place, clarity.

There is nothing in the end to fear, you have got everything you need.