Trends in social media shred credibility for me oftentimes. I have jumped on plenty of bandwagons in my day to know that just because everyone is talking about something doesn't mean it holds long-term weight. As someone who offers support during the perinatal period, I want to weigh in with my take on physiologic birth preparation and how I approach it in my work.
What is Physiologic Birth?
Women and babies have journeyed through birth together since the dawn of humanity. As fellow mammals, watch another mother birth her child and you can witness for yourself the innate and replicable ways in which all mammals prepare for and experience birth. There are definitive conditions that allow for effective labor to unfold. Physiologic birth is the innate wisdom inside all mothers and babies to enter the birth portal.
Are We Supporting Physiologic Birth?
If physiological birth is innate, why are we even discussing it? According to the National Institutes for Health, 98.4% of births take place in a hospital. Let's circle back to the conditions all mammals seek when they are in labor and revisit this statistic.
"Physiologic birth is the innate wisdom inside all mothers and babies to enter the birth portal." Danielle WojcickiÂ
When a mother goes into labor, an orchestra of hormones takes place that allows for uterine contractions, pain management, and breast milk production to begin. When labor is close or beginning, the animal will find a quiet, often dark, and undisturbed place to labor. This is because when there is a disruption it can induce a sympathetic activation and slow hormone production, which then slows or stops labor. If we are running from the proverbial tiger, we can't deliver a baby at the same time.
So how does this apply to physiologic birth? If our bodies are wired similarly to all mammals then any disruption to birth would not be supportive in a physiologic sense. Interventions will disrupt physiologic birth, and in theory, you shouldn't need them anyway, we've been birthing our babies for thousands of years. I could get in the weeds about interventions in birth, but that's an article for another time, if at all. I do want to share my perspective on how I can support you if true physiologic birth is your desired experience.
"As a species, we have been birthing our babies undisturbed and intervention free for almost the entirety of our existence. Why are 98.4% of babies born in a hospital, a place for medical events? How did we lose touch with innate wisdom? Did we somehow lose the ability? Can two truths exist at once?"
How I Support Physiologic Birth
Didn't I just say that physiologic birth doesn't need intervention!? If you haven't heard me say it before you will hear it now, I try to avoid dogma. The reason for this is I believe that multiple realities can and do exist at the same time. In the case of physiological birth, for many of us, I believe that we need intervention back to that place of innate wisdom. Certainty, truth, and trust that is deep in our wombs. So what do we do?
Create a Sense of Safety
My personal belief is that nervous system nourishment should be every mother's number one priority. Your nervous system also helps orchestrate your hormones. (Side note: Your nervous system imprints your child's in utero! The thoughts, beliefs, and attitudes you hold will be felt by your baby.)
We have an epidemic of dysregulation caused by sympathetic dominance of the nervous system. The current culture directly causes sympathetic activation and we have to actively choose to find a sense of calm, peace, and safety, unlike our ancestors. Dysregulation makes us feel unsafe, and when we are feeling unsafe, we cannot experience physiologic birth. I work with my clients to understand the role of the nervous system in pregnancy and provide real-life tools to help them feel calmer and safer in pregnancy, birth, and beyond. Safety will also lay a foundation to trust.
Find Certainty and Trust
We are generations into births that have not been intervention free. Many of our mothers, grandmothers, and great-grandmothers were birthed or gave birth within our current medical model of birth. Media depicts birth the same way, and the majority of us have not witnessed true undisturbed physiologic birth. Rewriting old narratives, healing feminine and ancestral birth wounds, and coming back into the knowing of our wombs are essential to reclaiming physiological birth. I provide mentorships with a focus on healing wounds and rewriting our stories into motherhood.
Ancestral Movement
We have to move our bodies better and more. Think about how our grandmothers of the past moved through their days. They carried heavy things, performed a variety of tasks, squatted, and walked. No one was sitting in chairs for 10 or more hours a day. Upper bodies had a use! Their arms were not a foot ahead of them with their necks craning forward or down toward a screen. Even active bodies today often participate in the same types of repetitive movements. When you understand that the whole body is involved in creating space for a baby, and the soft tissues have a role to play in birth, you realize that our modern culture isn't supporting the fluidity and strength required of the birthing body. I guide you back into the body, bringing awareness to your alignment and movement patterns, and helping you shift into a more nourishing movement lifestyle.
Channeling the Grandmothers of the Past
Hopefully, this illuminates how two things can be true at once. I believe every woman is capable of true, undisturbed, physiological birth WITH preparation. Our Grandmothers of the past trusted birth, it's only until recently that the trust has been stripped away and misplaced. Like most things in our modern world, we have to seek out the truth intentionally and that often means reconnecting to our ancestral roots. A slower, intentional pregnancy will lead to the birth you desire, and create the conditions for a smoother postpartum.
Want to prepare for Physiologic Birth?
Work with me 1:1 with doula support and birth preparation tools.