5 Tips on Where to Start on Your Pregnancy Journey
These days we find out about our pregnancies far earlier than in the past. Modern life and habits mean we spend far more time tracking our cycles, fertility and possible conception dates than ever before.
So you’ve done the test (perhaps more than once just to be sure) and you’re expecting a baby, yay! But 9-10 months is long time to wait before the big day. Where do you start?
Connect to Yourself & Your Partner
Whilst apps, trackers and information can help us understand our bodies, they can also leave us searching outside ourselves for the answers. Start looking within, connect to your body and most importantly your gut and intuition. This is the one thing that will serve you (and your partner) best during pregnancy, the birth and far beyond. Everyone seems to give unsolicited and sometimes rubbish advice when you’re pregnant or a parent, so understanding yourself and knowing how to drown the noise out is so valuable.
If you don’t already, starting breathwork, yoga or mindfulness practices can be great for this. Don’t worry if you don’t yet feel the connection to your baby yet, this will come.
Communication is KEY. This is the time to start talking about how you will navigate not just the next few months of the pregnancy together, but your parenting journey. It starts here!
Nourish Yourself
Whilst the first trimester may bring on new food aversions or strange cravings (not always though…), pregnancy is a great time to assess your health and diet. If you’re a smoker, try to stop entirely, there is a lot of support available.
Don’t restrict you’re eating but equally you don’t need to ‘eat for two’! If your diet isn’t the healthiest, work on introducing a variety of fruit, vegetables, leafy greens, healthy proteins.
If you' feel energetic enough continue being active (mindful of anything that is contraindicated during pregnancy) but also give your self space and time to really REST. Resting is on your to do list from now on!
Antenatal Education
Most of us don’t know anything about pregnancy, birth or the early post-partum period unless we work in the field or have spent a lot of time up close to someone else in this space.
Investing in good quality antenatal education is so important and there are a lot of options out there. You need something that will cover birth physiology, how different types of birth and locations impact physiology, options for pain relief including the pros and cons of all of them, how to communicate with your medical team (particularly if you are going ‘outside of guidance’), how to achieve the birth you want, preparing for any eventuality (including emergency c-sections and possible NICU stays) and understanding your rights and options, particularly when it comes to the later stages when pressure to induce is ramped up.
Doulas (ofc!) offer all this and more, entirely tailored to your circumstances.
Hospital Booking
Booking in with a hospital’s maternity service is usually the first step people take and don’t think too much more about it. This is totally fine, just remember, if you find you’re not happy with the care you’re receiving you can always raise this with the service you’re using or you can switch to another hospital, midwifery team or consultant. Make sure you know your rights to securing the birth you choose, Birthrights is a great resource.
You can use this link to find your local maternity services, make sure to look into their stats on interventions and other key information, this can often be found on their social media or there is also patient feedback from the Care Quality Commission.
If you decide to go private, consider whether you would like an independent midwife (who can can bring to the local hospital with you if you’re choosing a hospital birth) or consultant led care within a hospital. Different doctors operate very differently when it comes to their willingness to ‘allow’ spontaneous physiological birth, c-sections and inductions.
Consider Doula Support
Having the constant support of a doula throughout your pregnancy can be incredibly reassuring. Your midwife appointments are 15mins and so these really aren’t long enough to go into detail about anything! With a doula you have someone you can message anytime to ask questions, who you can meet on a monthly basis for in depth conversations about whatever it is you want to discuss and someone who gets to know you and your partner really well. This close relationship and continuity of care is invaluable when it come to the birth and feeling supported by someone who has been there for you throughout your pregnancy. Your doula can also look after you post-partum, providing feeding assistance, nourishing meals, baby massage, light housework and giving you the space to be raw and vulnerable, to discuss your experience and integrate what you’ve been through. To find out more about how I can support you as a doula check out my services here or email me to set up a free intial call.