3 Ways To Prepare For Motherhood
What The Parenting Books Won’t Tell You
Motherhood is the most rewarding and most exhausting job in the world. When describing what motherhood is like to others, I often think of three parts I find the most important. While some others might share advice with you, I’m here to share three secrets with you today that go beyond the ordinary.
Learn To Trust
There are two ways you should trust in yourself. One physical, one internal.
Physically, trust in your body’s capability. From the beginning of conception, your body starts doing an incredible amount of work to grow your baby. There’s a reason you’re feeling that first-trimester exhaustion.
When your body signals to you that it needs to rest, honor that cue. Taking time to rest your body is equally as beneficial for you as it is being active. When your body feels up for movement, practice different types of movement that help you to feel strong, confident, and in control.
In our prenatal yoga classes, we practice finding a balance between active and resting poses. We build stamina in your muscles needed for labor and take movement to reduce swelling due to an increase in bodily fluids (such as amniotic fluid and extra blood) during pregnancy.
We also practice finding balance in our breathing patterns. While some breaths are taught to support your core and pelvic floor for active movements, other breath patterns teach you how to release tension during labor. Together, these practices help prepare your body, breath, and mind for all stages of labor.
It’s equally as important for you to learn to trust your gut. Our bodies pick up on so much information that we don’t always pick up on. When you learn to tap into your intuition, you unlock a tool that will be useful for you for your entire life. This is truly a gift that mothers have that we need to practice more often. Not only will learning to trust your intuition help you find positions that feel good to birth in, it will also be a tool that you will use every day in postpartum. Together, this helps you build a strong and loving bond with your body and your baby.
2. Educate Yourself
You can find anything you want to find on the internet. So how do you decide which answer is right?
The truth? The right answer can’t be found on the internet. Because only you can decide what is best for you, your baby, and your family.
During pregnancy, prepare yourself for labor and birth by using fact-based resources and working with perinatal professionals. Take time to research and come up with lists of preferences for how you want to labor, for postpartum, and for raising a human. Hopefully, throughout your research, you’ll come up with questions that you can ask those trusted professionals so you don’t have to rely on a Google search at 1:00 AM when a challenge arises.
Compared to some prenatal yoga classes whose only goal is making sure you are taking safe poses, I add so much more to our classes. I teach you what’s happening to your body and why. We then practice movement and breathwork specifically meant to support you for labor and birth.
3. Build a relationship with yourself
Having a relationship with yourself is just as important as having a relationship with your baby.
A changing body isn’t always an easy thing to navigate. Learn to find ways to love and honor your body, even if you don’t love being pregnant. Honor the strength it takes to support you and your little one, the work your body is doing around the clock to grow a little human, and the feelings you have during it all.
Whether that connection is made through movement, a supportive mantra, or through deep breathing, you are worthy of finding that inner love. So then the next time you have a tough day (because we are all human and they’re inevitable), you have the tools you need to bring peace and joy to your body. To learn to be accepting and non-judgmental of our bodies is one of the core principles of yoga.
Let’s Work Together
Not only do you have the opportunity to learn from me, but you’ll also connect with other mamas in our community and learn from and with them as well. You don’t have to feel alone on this journey, mama.
