Why do we have so much fear & anxiety around birth?

It is totally normal to feel anxious and fearful of anything that is unknown, we haven’t experienced birth before until we do for the first time and this is a major life event!

From the mid centuries people were fearful of birth because of death in childbirth, this was due to no knowledge on sanitation they didn’t realise disease and infection was caused by poor sanitation. This has stuck with our society despite now having that knowledge that this isn’t the case now. We are fortunate to have the care in our healthcare system and in this country to take great care of us during childbirth. It doesn’t help that in film and media birth is shown as terrifying, women in stirrups on their backs and screaming (THIS IS NOT A REALISTIC ACCOUNT OF BIRTH) waters don’t break and then the baby is coming. Birth isn’t linear, some peoples waters break and some don’t at all and this isn’t necessarily the start of labour.

Fears and anxieties are passed down through family stories about birth, histories of trauma and also putting fear into pregnant people.

But women have been birthing for thousands and thousands of years, it is a normal and natural occurrence, and everyone has their own right to create their own birth story however that may look. As a Hypnobirthing practitioner I recommend people to make sure they are armed with as much knowledge as possible. Learning about our bodies, what they are capable of, our birth physiology is important as it allows us to be more aware of changes in our body and also preparing for labour and birth. Also making sure we have the right tools to support our mindset and to help to dampen down any feelings that are paralysing us with fear as this isn’t going to be beneficial for our labour and birth as we need to engage our parasympathetic nervous system and our relaxation response.