How can you manage to give birth without any pain relief, and without needing any medical intervention?

As Janet Balaskas will tell you, you need to start preparing well before the birth itself. Janet, founder of the Active Birth Centre in London (www.activebirthcentre.com) has learnt about physical preparation for birth through the births of her own four children and extensive cross-cultural and historical research. Olga Mellor, a Russian who now lives in America, also vouches for the importance of physical antenatal preparation and for psychological preparation too. She gave birth to twins, entirely naturally, after months of daily walks and swimming and extremely healthy eating. She then breastfed her babies exclusively for their first eight months!

So what is it really important to do in the last few weeks of your pregnancy, if you want to maximise your chances of a healthy labour and birth, preferably without any drugs or interventions?… Three things might really make a difference:

1. Make sure your midwives or doctors know about your hopes and preferences.
2. Do everything you can to make sure your baby gets into a good position.
3. Get both your body and your mind in tip-top condition!

Presumably, as you near the end of your pregnancy you will have made your arrangements for the birth itself. This means you will have found a midwife, doctor or consultant you’re happy with and that you will have made key decisions about where you’re going to be on the big day. (At home? In your local hospital? In a nearby birthing centre?)

Whatever decisions you’ve made, it’s essential you’ve talked to whoever will be providing care about your hopes and preferences for the birth. Have you explained that you want a natural birth, if at all possible? Have you explored – perhaps with your midwife’s help – what you would or wouldn’t find acceptable while you’re in labour and giving birth? Have you also met and established a rapport with anyone else who might be involved? Explain your feelings and decisions to your partner too, so he knows exactly what kind of birth you’re hoping for. That way, he’ll be able to provide you with maximum support.

Whether or not you can move a baby into an ideal position is a subject of hot debate amongst experts! A recent Australian study on this concluded that it wasn’t possible… but numerous women who’ve been determined to take action have reported otherwise. I myself tend to believe the theories of NZ midwife, Jean Sutton, author of Let Birth Be Born Again (Birth Concepts 2001) and co-author of a booklet called Optimal Foetal Positioning. She firmly believes we can do something to help both ourselves and our babies. My own babies needed repositioning towards the end of my second and third pregnancies and taking her advice certainly did the trick! Simple logic also makes me trust her because our less active lives these days mean we don’t spontaneously tend to get into the ideal, forward-leaning positions women used to, a few generations ago.

If you want to do everything you can to help your baby to get into a good position just before his or her birth, here’s how to go about it… First, make sure you never lean back in the last few weeks of your pregnancy – always sit forward on seats or kneel down on the floor. Secondly, whenever you feel the need to lie down, always lie on your left side. These two things – which take a little effort to put into practice – will make it very difficult for your baby to get into any position apart from the position which is easiest for women (and babies)… LOA! (This, incidentally, means your baby’s lying on your left side, head down (occiput) and with his or her back to your front (anterior).) It’s a good idea to avoid having a ‘posterior’ labour because that means a great deal more pain… and breech births (where the feet or bottom are born first) can sometimes be more risky. It’s up to you, whether you try!

One thing which is definitely a real must if you want to help your baby get born is to help your own body and mind.

Different people have different ideas as to how to help your body. One thing virtually everyone agrees with is the idea that water is essential for keeping you healthy. (It’s not coffee or tea your baby needs, it’s amniotic fluid – lots and lots of it!) Have bottles of a good low sodium mineral water handy day and night. (Evian’s a good one to choose!) Here are a few other ideas for helping your body get into tip-top form for the big day…

• Splash ahead! Take some form of regular exercise. Swimming – especially breaststroke – is particularly good in the late stages of pregnancy because of course the water supports your body while you exercise your muscles.
• Squeeze that bum! Do some additional work on your pelvic floor, i.e. squeeze the muscles which stop the flow of urine when you’re going to the toilet. You can do these squeezes (also called ‘Kegels’) anywhere, anytime. Doing them will help you both during and after the birth.
• Pop a few pills! Consider taking some pregnancy supplements. Try Sanatogen’s Pronatal tablets, as well as some Omega-3 fish oil capsules. Omega-3 is particularly important for your baby’s brain development! Take one capsule a day from Week 28 onwards.
• Guzzle the grit! Drink raspberry leaf tea – or if you really can’t stand the idea, take it in tablet form. Raspberry leaf is one of the few herbs which has survived the test of time. You can confidently use it during the last few weeks of pregnancy. Drink as many as three cups a day if you can bear to! It should help your womb to tone up and contract effectively when you go into labour and give birth.
• Squat and stretch! If you’re interested in doing some exercises specifically designed for pregnancy, see Janet Balaskas’ book Easy Exercises for Pregnancy. However, note her advice to avoid any kind of squatting exercises in the last four weeks of your pregnancy because deep squats during this time can encourage your baby to ‘drop’ into your pelvis (in an unsuitable position) before he or she is ready.
• Chomp and chew! Continue to eat well, not only to keep up your own strength but also to help your baby grow. Bigger babies tend to fare better in the first couple years of life and even much later too.

These are not just empty suggestions… many women actually follow them. You can read about them in Preparing for a Healthy Birth. Basically, you need to cultivate the belief that you can do it and trust your own body.) If other women can do it, so can you. Your body was designed to have babies… it already knows what to do. Good luck, happy swimming and enjoy all that healthy food…