Doula little dance, make a little love...

Well, maybe in the opposite order! My good friend, Bre'Ann is now 39 weeks pregnant with baby number 1 and is right there at the end of the road! She has asked me to be a labor support person during her birth, along with her mother. Her goal is to have the baby without intervention or pain medication, which we all know is possible (barring some medical emergency). I myself birthed two of my babes with no intervention and her mother had all 3 of her children without any pain meds.

I am getting so excited to help her through her labor, to see little Ava and to share the amazing experience with her that I myself have gone through 3 times before. I'm hoping the phone call comes soon to rush over and lend my love and support.

I have been doing my best to prepare my dear friend to remember that pregnancy isn't always 40 weeks, that we can go longer than that and most first time moms do. She was sure she's have her by now, but has now resigned to the fact that she'll likely be pregnant for 42 weeks. I can definitely relate to that!

Whether tonight or 3 weeks from now, one thing is for sure...Miss Ava will be here soon! And we will all get to oooh and ahhh over her and her wonderful mommy.

Maternity Photography

Photograph property of Kathleen Holt of K. Holt Photography (aka myself)

This is something I really wish I had done with ALL of my pregnancies. However, during my first I didn't want ANY pictures of my belly. I wasn't a fan of the bump at all...interesting how things change! With Iris, other than a few snapshots (not at all intended to capture pregnancy) I have no pictures either. I finally decided I wanted professional maternity portraits with Alexander, but then we didn't have the money. Thankfully, we were offered a complimentary shoot to help build a local photographer's portfolio. I was taking photos at that time, but wasn't serious about it yet, or I'd have done my own.

Now I'm happy to offer the same to my own clients, and I have done a few complimentary shoots to build my own maternity portfolio. It is something that is so much fun, not only for a birth junkie like me, but for the mama herself. At a time when you are starting to wonder if this is all really worth the baby at the other end, you get to feel sexy, beautiful, glowing again...for some, even more than you ever did before. AND YOU ARE! A pregnant mama is one of the most beautiful things on earth (other than newborn babes, of course!).

Did you have maternity pictures taken for any of your pregnancies? Did you enjoy them or regret them? If you didn't have them done, was it a money issue or a personal preference? How bare would you go? Feel free to share your thoughts and experiences with us!

This was one of my favorites from our shoot, Iris's hand on my belly.

Photo copyright Ashley Edwards of Focused Creations photography.

The mind is a powerful thing!

It may sounds absurd or nutty to say that you can actually think yourself into the pains of labor, but it is true. Fear creates pain and tension, pain and tension create fear and thus, if you fear your labor you can be stuck in a vicious fear/pain cycle.

So, how do we break this cycle, especially for new moms and how on earth do we not fear something we do not know?

Well, you start by telling yourself just how well you can do this because, of course, as a woman and mother you are amazing. There are many different birth affirmations, you can do a quick google search and find many listings. Some are corny as you can get while others are so very powerful. My personal favorite is:

"My contractions cannot be bigger than me for they come from me."

Oh how mighty and true!

If you begin as early in your pregnancy as you like, saying positive things to yourself everyday about how your body knows to grow your baby perfectly, knows how to birth your baby perfectly, knows how and when to be born...you can really have a strong and powerful effect on your labor and delivery. Woman have sworn that they've turned breech babies, changed malpositioned babies, and sped up labor simply by speaking to their baby and themselves. Our minds are powerful things, if we let them they can rule us. However, there is no reason why we cannot be stronger than our negative thoughts, after all, they come from inside our very own head, so there is no reason we cannot will them away with more powerful thoughts of the positive variety.

So if you are feeling anxious, nervous, inadequate about birthing because you're "such a big baby" about everything else or you've heard it's "the worst pain in the world" tell yourself just the opposite. Why let others talk you down because of their own failures in birth or their own insecurities with their hidden strengths? Instead, tell them that you appreciate their concern buy you are confident in your body's ability to work through this safely and strongly.

You are woman, you will birth!