How-To have a Vancouver baby

Around 6 months the "blood and guts" reality of actual childbirth set in and I was thrown into panic. For me, it was better to prepare myself with reading/videos/ hypnosis. Things that worked for me (scroll down for my reviews):

-Ina May`s Guide to Childbirth
-Guided Imagery/ Hypnobaby Self-hypnosis
-Belly to Babies Prenatal Class

Ina May`s Guide to Childbirth: a collection of birthing stories that describe individual women`s experiences in natural childbirth. The stories describe these womans physical pain of childbirth and the joy of meeting their baby. The book gives an overall positive and empowered outlook of labor while including all of biological nitty gritty.

Imagery that has helped me get over anxiety (cheesy I know): Imagine ocean waves crashing over me while my partner hold me up. "I can handle this pain because I am creating it." "My body has rehearsed my labor many times with braxton hicks" "The pain is for a purpose...it is not a dangerous pain (like falling down the stairs...see example below:) Imagine my cervix thinning and opening with every contraction.....yada yada yada....somehow having imagrey on hand has made me feel more "ready" for labor. Who knows if it will work...but I feel more prepared:)

Healthy Pregnancy and Successful Childbirth mp3 ($13.98) is a guided imagery mp3 of healthy affirmations about birth...you meditate on ideas about energy, opening, relaxing, strength. I discovered this mp3 if the last few weeks of my pregnancy after having listened to Hypnobaby ($150) for a few months. They worked similarly in reducing my anxiety and even getting me excited about participating in the process of deleving life...Hypnobaby focused more on limiting pain. If I were to do it all again, I bet I could get the same results from just listening to Healthy Pregnancy and Successful Childbirth

Hypnobaby is an audio guide that teaches you to separate your mind from physical pain. I imagine myself in an egg shaped submarine covered in white cotton balls....yeah...:) but I can hold an ice cube in my hand for 2 minutes and not wince...try that! Its not as easy as you would think. We will see how my cloud-mobile holds up in labor...but hypnobaby has helped me feel more prepared for childbirth...:)

The friend that recommended Hypnobaby said that her labor lasted only four hours and she was completely quite, relaxed, and felt little pain. Two medical doctors, my midwife, an acupunturist, and three of my mom's friends have said that self-hypnosis is helpful during childbirth...all these recommendations are what made me buy-in to the $150 hippie hippie psychobabble...

All that said...it is a time commitment because you have to listen to the mp3 for 30min everyday for 6 weeks. I also don't wan't to have a completely tranquil self-controlled labor so I plan to use some techniques and leave others. Aka: why "Healthy Pregnancy and Successful Childbirth" would probably have been enough...and not as much of a time commitment.

P.S.= (It was also a bit creepy because sometimes I would fall asleep listening to it and then wake up to a womans voice in my ear saying "you will have a very easy and healthy childbirth...you are very relaxed....and with every breath you are becoming more relaxed." )

Yup, it happened...I prepared 36 pre-portioned meals into my freezer. After I had made 9 chicken pot pies from scratch...I burst into laughter and accepted my primal roots. Here is what I did:

Costco: I bought a rib-eye steak the size of my leg ($90) and cut it into 15 steaks and 6 fijita packs (strips of meat with frozen sliced peppers and onions); chicken breast, spicy Italian sausage, chorizo, pork ribs, vegetable gyoza...and split everything into small zip-lock bags. Also stocked up on soya milk and almond milk (supposedly its good to cut out dairy while breastfeeding...and I'm allergic anyway)

Fix, Freeze and Feast: This book is all about marinating in the freezer, preparing three meals at once, and then freezing it for later. I made the mango chicken, sticky ribs, satay chicken, chicken pot pie, fajita's, sweet and sour pork...very satisfying...and there are even little labels with cooking instructions that you can print off and tape on....it would look very professional and husband friendly...but I didn't bother.

This book gives you a week-by-week description of your babies development and what you can expect along the way. It made me feel like I was doing my homework on being a good mom...helping me eat right and answered many questions of what was normal at different stages of my pregnancy. eg: a bleeding nose is a prego side-effect...who knew?!