Home Birth Prep: Education

This post may contain affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase an item as a result, I may receive a small commission (at no cost to you). See my disclosure policy for details.

Please note: I am not a doctor and I am not giving medical advice. Information on this website is not intended to diagnose or treat any form of any disease or medical condition. This article is for informational and entertainment purposes only.

When I switched my birth plan from hospital birth to home birth, I did so with the intention of taking back control of my pregnancy and delivery.

Knowledge breeds confidence. So I set out to get my confidence up to a point where I didn't have any doubts about my ability to deliver my baby at home. 

One of my main frustrations with the Yale-affiliated OBGYN I was originally seeing was the (seemingly) expected mentality of "if the doctor says it, you do it". I was probably rather annoying to some of the practitioners there. Like the four-year-old who won't stop asking "why?" 

Example:

"You need to go do the three hour glucose test."

"Why?"

"Well, you didn't pass the one-hour test."

"Sure, but I didn't fail it either."

"Well we want to be sure."

"So what if I fail it?"

"Then you might have a big baby."

"But I'm already expecting to have a big baby, judging by my birth weight and that of my husband."

"Well, if he's big we'll want to induce you early."

"Why?"

"Because that's what you do."

"And what if I don't want to be induced early?"

"Then you risk having complications."

"Like what?"

"Like severe tearing…"

"What if I'm not concerned about that? Plenty of women give birth naturally to big babies!"

Then they'd resort to, "It's just part of standard prenatal care. You have to do it if you're going to remain our patient."

Annoying or not, I didn't really care. I wanted data. I wanted different opinions. I wanted statistics and anecdotes. I wanted pros and cons and numbers and facts.

The more I knew, the better my ability was to make correct decisions. And the more confidence I had in myself and my choices, the more in-control I felt. 

I've always believed that one's mindset has a huge impact on one's life. This is true in health, relationships, business, you name it. With pregnancy and (especially) labor, I think one's mindset can make the difference between a nightmarish experience and a beautiful experience that you can look back on with pleasure. 

So, to prepare myself mentally, I started consuming all the content I could get my hands on. I looked for material that supported my belief that my body was built to birth my baby naturally. I looked for education about labor and delivery, what to expect and what I could do to make it go more smoothly. 

Birth vlogs

I watched so many birth vlogs on YouTube.  Hours and hours of videos. Dozens of births.  Home births, birthing center and hospital births. Natural births and c-sections. I was a little nervous, at first, to see a birth with an epidural. I was afraid that it might weaken my resolve to go without, but somehow it actually helped me become even more confident in my choice. 

Note: One downside of YouTube birth vlogs is that they are a bit misleading. The creators of the videos select the best snippets of labor and delivery. They have to, of course! Most of the vlogs are 5 to 30 minutes long and make the process look quick and (somewhat) easy, compared to the hours actually spent (and the less-than-beautiful parts of the process - not to mention the after-birth). I still think they are very much worth watching, just don't set unrealistic expectations for yourself as a result. 

Blogs

I love Pinterest. I love reading blogs. I read anything and everything I could find related to natural birth, home birth, water birth, breathing techniques, delayed cord clamping, vitamin k, circumcision, breastfeeding, and so much more. 

Documentary 

Business of Being Born, The [DVD]

My midwife recommended that my husband and I watch "The Business of Being Born". It's a documentary made in 2008 about home births and midwives. It's about an hour and a half long. This film was really enlightening and also made me feel very confident in my decision to birth at home. You can get the DVD or watch it on Prime Video.

Talking to Friends

I asked friends about their experiences with childbirth, good and bad. I asked them what they'd wished they'd known, going in. 

Birth class

My best friend recommended a local birth class that she had attended before the birth of her first baby. The class was led by a very experienced doula. She covered so much data in such a short amount of time and my husband and I both found it to be very worthwhile. 

She went through the stages of labor, both in terms of what's happening in the body as well as what to do during each stage. She gave breathing and relaxation techniques, advice on how to stay hydrated, keep moving, try different birthing positions, and so much more. We got to ask lots of questions, which was really handy. 

Miscellaneous 

My midwife had a binder of miscellaneous information about childbirth. It had articles on hypnobirthing, naturopathic remedies for discomforts relating to pregnancy, stories from midwives, a comment on vaccines, data on circumcision, on and on. A mishmash of information. I read all of it. 

With all of this knowledge, I felt immense confidence in my decision to birth at home and a certainty that I was well equipped for the experience ahead. 

In my opinion, all of this was well worth it. I was able to be on exactly the same page with my birth team throughout my labor and, more importantly, I was able to maintain a positive mindset through the whole process. I had confidence in my knowledge and ability and I think this had a lot to do with how well the delivery went. 

Conclusion 

I don't believe there is such a thing as too much knowledge. 

When I get pregnant with my next kiddo, you better believe I'm going to go right back into education overdrive to brush up on what I know already and find more areas where I can learn more.

If you want to be more in control of a situation or circumstance, get more knowledge. Read, listen, watch, ask, learn everything you can and make up your own mind about what is true and what isn't. If there's anything you're less than confident about, educate yourself more until you feel certain. 

Regardless of whether you plan to have a home birth or not, consume all the data you can about labor and delivery.

You'll be glad you did.