Self Knowledge is as Important as Practical Knowledge for Birth

What is just as important as gaining information about birth?  Gaining awareness.  Does that sound like some hippy stuff?  Well, guess what?  Most of the practical information moms pick up before birth will fly right out of their heads during labor, and with good cause.  During birth mothers make a shift from the thinking part of their brains into the instinctive, creative, non-verbal part where they have a diminished sense of pain and of time.  Have you ever wondered how a mother can have a 48 hour unmedicated birth?  That’s how.  So wouldn’t it make sense to nurture the intuitive brain during pregnancy at least as much as the processing part of the brain?  Practicing mindfulness techniques, doing birth art, increasing awareness of your own patterns and beliefs, and engaging in experiential learning will serve you in those foggy, faraway moments of birth when you can’t pull facts and data out of your brain because it’s too busy maintaining an altered state that will help you cope through the process.