Hi. It is me, your long lost doula friend over at The Maya's Nest.

It's been a good year since my last blog post. Three kids is no joke, plus I still have my doula clients! 

Today as I was looking through some photos of my third birth, it got me thinking about the main thing everybody told me about third babies -
"OH - THIRD BABIES ARE WILDCARDS!"

As in EVERYBODY said this - from Susan in the freezer aisle, to friends and family and even doulas and midwives who really should know better about how to not freak a pregnant person out! What it ended up doing is scaring me. Yes, even though I have all this birth knowledge, constantly being told that this birth was going to be a wildcard made me fearful of what was to come. 

Now, sitting on the other side of the birth and the first year as a parent of three, I want to say this -
THIRD BABIES ARE NOT WILDCARDS. THEY ARE JUST DIFFERENT. Just like my first birth was different to my second birth, my third was just different. 

We are so happy that we received such amazing feedback from the caesarean birth affirmations post we did! To go along with it, we have prepared birth affirmations for planned vaginal births :)

Preparing for birth isn't just about reading some books and touring the hospital. A huge part of it is preparing the mind for what is to come. If this is your first birth, the unknown of what is to come can be overwhelming, particularly if all you hear are horror stories of birth. If you have had children before, you may be struggling with things that may not have gone as planned. It is important that as we prepare for birth, we welcome it with excitement and love, not fear. Fear can raise the adrenaline in our bodies and that isn't a good match for birth. To combat this, it is important to surround yourself and fill your mind with positivity. That will be your best tool in having the birth that you hope for. One way to do this is with positive birth affirmations, which we are happy to provide here. Print them out, tape them all over your house, have some in your bag if you are birthing in the hospital to surround yourself with positive words as you are birthing your baby. Another terrific way to prepare your mind is with positive birth stories, which we will start featuring shortly on our doula blog shortly.

For now, enjoy these words. Take them in. Believe them. Welcome birth.