Giving birth can be a daunting experience, and it’s one that fills many women with fear, especially if they have never done it before. There are so many scare stories around about birth and the trauma it can lead to that it would be surprising if a woman wasn’t at least a little nervous about what might be to come.
Sometimes these fears can be so worrying that they cause sickness during pregnancy, including high blood pressure and depression. If you feel overwhelmed by the fear of giving birth then read on – you’ll find you’re not the only one and you might find some solutions too.
The Pain
For most women, it is the pain that concerns them the most. After all, all the movies and TV shows tell us that this is going to hurt a lot, and if you ask any woman who has gone through childbirth they will concur. However, although it’s true that there will be pain, there are many things that can be done to combat it.
The important thing is to determine what kind of pain medication you are going to want before you go into labour. Knowing this and writing it down in your birth plan will help you and your midwife and surgeon to give you what you want at the appropriate time.
Something important to remember is that labour pains are not constant. They come in waves, so there will be times when there is no pain at all – during this time you can recover and be ready for the next contraction. Plus, the pain will build in intensity, so your body will be able to deal with it all.
Something Will Go Wrong
Again, the media has a lot to account for when women are afraid of giving birth, but it is important to remember that what we see on the screen or read in magazines is for dramatic effect, and in the majority of cases births go well with no complications at all. It is natural to worry that something will go wrong, but with a team of professionals around you, who have done this countless times, the chances are slim.
If something does go wrong, you have many recourses for action, of course. You can think about making a birth injury claim, for example, and although this would not prevent the injury from happening, it would make life easier after it has occurred.
You Won’t Be Able To Do It
This is a fear that many women have, and one that seems to make sense at first. Giving birth takes a lot of strength and determination, and some women feel that they won’t be able to do this, and they will ‘fail’ at their first task of motherhood.
Don’t worry. The human body is an amazing thing, and when it comes to childbirth, it knows exactly what to do. Even if the medical team were not around you, you would still give birth because the body would do what it needed to give you your child. If you do need additional help, there are c-sections and other medical interventions that can speed up the process.