Tips on Having a Smooth Child Birth

 Now that I am fast approaching The Day (expecting my baby in six weeks’ time!), I am starting to get a little apprehensive about the whole process.

Will it be very painful? Will there be any complications? What the hell will it be like?

But the most important question of all is: What can I do now to make my delivery a smoother process?

Nowadays, whenever I have a question, I turn to the almighty G (Google, not God… no offense to all Christians out there) for answers.  And here are some of the best tips I have gotten from my research that I would like to share with you:

Exercise regularly

Child birthing requires a lot of strength. So it is good to build up strength before the delivery. So as long as your doctor approves, you should try to do some form of exercise on most, if not all, days of the week. Great exercises for pregnant ladies include swimming, walking and pre-natal yoga.

Do Kegel Exercises at least once a day

Not all exercises are created equal. There are some exercises that are particularly good to facilitate a smooth delivery. One of them is called Kegel exercises, named after Dr Arnold Kegel who invented it.  

To do Kegel exercises, flex your pelvic muscles as if you were trying to stop urinating. As a start, you should contract your pelvic muscles and hold the contraction to the count of five. Repeat the exercise for 5 times. In time, you should be able to work your up to a count of ten for as many as ten sets of exercises.

Stay upright during child birth

Apparently, there are studies which show that women who spend labour in upright positions have a smoother delivery. This kind of makes sense, since you are using gravity to assist you in your birth. So during the first stage of labour, try to stand up or walk around instead of just lying down.

However, do be aware that some traditional practitioners do not seem to encourage this, so it helps to talk to your doctor before your expected delivery date to ensure that you are both on the same page with regards to this matter.

Change positions

Another technique is to not stay in one position too long a time.  Keep changing your position as often as you can. The Natural Child Birth Cheat Sheet provides some examples of positions and movements you can take.

Breathe

Pregnant ladies are all taught breathing techniques during pre-natal classes. But during the actual child birth process, many ladies completely forget about the techniques they learnt!

I think the trick is to keep it simple. There are simple breathing techniques to help you relax such as counting and visual imagery. There are also techniques that help you in special circumstance, such as breathing to assist you not to push when your cervix is not yet fully dilated. Here’s a very good article from Baby Centre about the breathing techniques for birthing.

Have a great support

Finally, it will be great to have a good support during your child birth. Mentally prepare your Hubby for what is going to happen. Ask him to help you with the child birth process, by helping you to stay upright during the first stage, or co-breathing with you, or just saying words of encouragement.

PS. I must confess that I have not tried all the methods above, since I have not reached The Day itself (counting down!!). The tips above were gathered from desktop research using Google, but it consists of all the things that I would be doing myself to facilitate a better delivery. Do let me know if you have other great techniques that you would like to share with other mums-to-be!

Love,

The Savvy Mummy

I am a first time Singaporean mummy with a passion for blogging. I started the savvy mummy to share useful information and tips about being a first time mummy, and some anecdotes about my adventures. Do subscribe to receive regular updates to my blog via email.