RESOURCING THROUGHOUT YOUR PREGNANCY
In the last blog post, I wrote about what resourcing is. So in this blog post, I am going to write about ways in which you can resource yourself throughout your pregnancy.
1. Have calm, grounded and supportive people present with you throughout your childbearing year. It is so important to have a team of supportive and grounded people who can hold space for you and allow you to express your truest and authentic self, without any barriers. Your supportive team may be made up of a doula, midwife, nurse, OB, family members and friends. Ensure that your team can support you in letting go and do things that society, family and friends think that you shouldn’t be doing.
2. Self-touch in a way that is soothing and nourishing for you. Also if you have a partner, doula, family or friends who can provide you with soothing touch that is also great. Touch is so important for us. Bodies crave it and allows us to feel more present, calm and grounding. Touch can be so healing.
3. Have plants and fragrances in your environment that enliven your sense of smell and make you feel good such as essential oils and candles. Certain smells not only enable us to feel good, but also allows us to become more present within each moment. Also if you have a bath, Commit to having herbal baths more often. It allows our bodies and muscles to feel more relaxed, whilst allowing us the opportunity to connect with ourselves for a period of time.
4. Practice pain-coping techniques. This will enable you to use these practices throughout your labor and birth to cope and respond to the inevitable pain that will come up.
5. Practice candle breathing and making audible sounds. Candle breathing is a simple somatic practice you can do where you breath deeply through your nose, expanding your belly and chest, then breathing out slowly through your mouth, like you are blowing out a candle. Not only does this allow you to become more present, it will support you in coming into a regulated state if and when you go into a dysregulated state. Also, allowing yourself to breath and make any audible sound that your body naturally wants to make in those moments is super relaxing. Allow yourself to practice this. It can be a bit uncomfortable to do this initially, however as times goes on with practice, it is very freeing and liberating, as making sounds allows stuck energy to be liberated from your body. It feels fucking amazing.
6. Vuing and making any type of humming noise. This activates your vagus nerve in your throat, which sends a signal to your brain that you are safe within this space and in your body right now. Breath in deeply through your noise, and as you breath out make a VU sound.
7. Recite words of affirmations and practice other mindfulness practices that allow you to shift your mindset from problems into solutions
8. Stretch and/or practice any other types of light movement that your body is feeling called to do. Movement is so important to prepare you for labor and birth. It is also important in getting your baby into an optimal position for birth. Dancing, yoga, pilates and walking are great ways to get your body moving.
9. Use a yoga or peanut ball to do hip circles. This allows relief of any pressure that is placed on your hips by opening them up.
10. Integration is key. If you have not integrated practices within your routine by the time you go into labor and birth, your body is not going to easily and naturally respond to challenges as they arise in comparison to being integrated and embodied. Practicing pain coping practices, somatic and mindfulness practices and comfort measures and being aware of the different positions that you can get into throughout labor and birth, will allow you to listen to your body more and respond when moments come up with resilience and perseverance.
I hope these will help you along your journey throughout your pregnancy. If you would like to schedule in a one hour free consultation with me to see if we are aligned with each other as your doula or childbirth educator, contact me by using the online form in the Contact Me section.