BTW, have we noticed that I am 35 weeks today and have exactly 35 days left! What a weird quirk of numbers!
I’ve mentioned before I’m doing meditation to prepare for natural childbirth. I got very negative earlier this week about having to have fetal monitoring because of gestational diabetes. I knew that my problem was not the circumstances (which can change all the time) but my ability to stay positive about it. So, I’m working on using affirmations to help me prepare and visualize a healthy birth for Aellyn. If you aren’t familiar with the power of positive affirmations, read this article.
So, here are my affirmations. Please feel free to suggest new ones!
- Birth is a safe and wonderful experience.
- I will give birth without complications.
- I am not afraid.
- I know my baby feels my calmness and confidence.
- I trust in my ability to give birth.
- My body knows exactly what it is doing.
- I am confident in my ability to birth naturally, painlessly and easily.
- During labor and birth,I am completely relaxed and comfortable.
- I will have an uncomplicated, peaceful, joyous and pleasurable birth.
- My baby is healthy.
- I am completely cooperating with my body.
- I will breathe deeply and slowly to relax my muscles making it easier for my uterus to work.
- My body is made to give birth, nice and easy.
- I believe my baby’s birth will come quickly and easily.
- My body is completely relaxed.
- All I need to do is relax and breathe – nothing else.
- Everything is going right.
- I feel the strong waves of labor and know that everything is normal and progressing.
- Relax my mind and muscles.
- Courage, faith and patience.
- My body knows how to have this baby just as my body knew how to grow this baby.
- Keep breathing slow and even.
- Inhale peace, exhale tension.
- Keep my mind on acceptance and surrender.
- I show absolutely no signs of fear or concern.
- I surrender my birthing over to my baby and my body.
- My body has a wide open space for my baby to descend.
- My body will give birth in its own time.
- I love my baby and I am doing all that is necessary to bring about a healthy birth.
- Birth is an easy and natural occurrence for which my body has been perfectly designed.
- The strength of my uterine contractions is a sign of my feminine strength.
- I have the energy and stamina to birth my baby.
- I surrender to the contractions and relinquish control of the forces within my body.
- I allow my body’s natural anesthesia to flow through my body.
- I do not fight the birth in any way.
- My body is totally relaxed
- I am not afraid.
- The power and intensity of my contractions cannot be stronger than me, because it is me.
- I am ready and prepared for childbirth.
- I relax so my baby can relax
- My job is to simply relax and allow the birth to happen.
- Just let my body do it; let it happen.
- I see myself handling everything beautifully.
- Each contraction produces a healthy, positive pain that I can handle.
- Birth will go exactly as it should.
- Birth is a safe and wonderful experience.
- My baby is healthy.
- I surrender my birthing over to my baby and my body.
- I love my baby and I am doing all that is necessary to bring about a healthy birth.
- The strength of my uterine contractions is a sign of my feminine strength.
- I do not fight the birth in any way. My body is totally relaxed. I am not afraid.
- My mind and body can handle a labour of any kind
- I will have a strong and healthy baby
- I trust my body to know how to birth this child * I trust my instincts to know what I need in labour
- I trust my instincts to do what is best for my baby
- I am a strong and capable woman
- Only I can give birth to this baby and I accept responsibility for that challenge
- My body knows how to birth my baby
- I trust my instincts
- Babies are born when they are ready, not when doctors, midwives or anyone decides
- My body is indeed beautifully and wonderfully mad
- It’s good for me to take care of myself. I get to have a voice
- Listen to my body and heart
- I deserve to have the birth I desire
- I trust my body
- I trust my pain
- I trust my labour
- I trust in my baby
- I am a powerful, loving and creative being
- I am now willing to experience all my feelings
- My pelvis releases and opens as have those of countless women before me
- I accept myself completely here and now
- I now feel inner peace and serenity
- I accept this labour as my labour and believe it is the right one for me and for my baby
- I love and accept my body completely
- I accept all my feelings as part of myself
- I feel the love of others around me
- My baby knows all is well
- My heart knows what my baby needs, my mind is learning
- Good strong contractions help my baby come into the world
- I embrace the concept of healthy pain
- I have enough love to go around, the universe always provides
- I am strong, confident assured, assertive and very feminine
- My body contains all the knowledge necessary to give birth to my baby
- My baby knows how and when to be born
- Birth is a safe and wonderful experience
- My baby will be born healthy and at the perfect time
- I know how to take care of myself in pregnancy.
- My body knows how to give birth.
- My baby knows the true birthday.
- Birth is safe for me and my baby.
- My baby will be born at the perfect time.
- My body knows when to give birth.
- I am a good mother.
- My baby will find the perfect position for birth.
- I love my baby.
- My baby loves me.
- I am a strong woman.
- Contractions help to bring my baby.
- I will make the right decisions for my baby.
- My pregnant body is beautiful.
- My baby senses the peace I feel.
- I accept the help of others.
- My baby’s head fit snuggly into my pelvis.
- I accept my labor and birth.
- I am surrounded by those who love and respect me.
- I trust my body.
- I know how to take care of my baby.
- My baby feels my love.
- This is what I want. I can do it!
- My body knows how to give birth and I will let it!
- My contractions are massaging my baby and hugging it.
- My cervix ix opening with each contraction.
- Childbirth is a normal, healthy event
- I can have a healthy, positive birth
- The power of birth strengthens me
- I am calm and relaxed, every part of me is limp and loose
- My baby shares my calmness and confidence
- I am able to rest deeply between contractions
- I greet each contraction with openness and expansion
- My breathing is slow and even
- With each breath I breathe in calm and I breathe out tension
- With each breath I breathe in confidence and I breathe out fear
- I welcome each contraction with my breath.
- Every contraction brings me closer to the birth of my baby
- My cervix is opening, like a flower
- My pelvis is flexible and open
- My muscles are warm, heavy, and totally relaxed
- I am excited about the birth of our baby
- My baby is in the perfect position for birth
- Every contraction brings my baby closer to me
- I trust my body and my baby to know how to achieve a safe, comfortable and easy birth
- Every hand that touches me in hospital is a healing hand and expresses only love
- I am totally comfortable at all times
- This day, hour, and minute is sacred and blessed
Another good one is Frank Herbert’s Litany Against Fear (from the Dune books):
I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.
I wish someone would have said those things to me when I was giving birth to you. You can add these…… You will achieve a beautiful birth and be a wonderful mother. you will love yourself, your husband and your baby with all your being. The three of you will be a close and loving family. You will be a strong woman. Your spouse will be a glorious and shinning husband and father. Your child will astonish you with her very existance. Her every breath will be miraculous to you. You are beginning an amazing journey that will give you joy. I am overwhelmed with happiness for you.
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I wish someone would have said those things to me when I was giving birth to you. Your father, sister and I will support you both and be there for you when you need us………You will have a beautiful birth experience. You will be a strong woman and a loving mother. Your spouse will be a glorious and shinning husband and father. The three of you will be a close and loving family. You will both be amazed at her very existence. She will astonish you with every breath she takes, with every move of her mouth.. her finger. You are beginning an exciting journey that will bring you great joy as you brought us joy. I am overwhelmed with happiness for you. Aellyn is bringing us love and I feel heavy with it.
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I thought the first one didn’t take so I had to say it again. You get the picture.
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I love this post, thanks so much for sharing it with mothers & doulas who want the best support & want to give the best support.
It is very helpful & I have twittered it many times thus far…
Very thorough list!
Thanks again!
Kelly Kravitz, CD
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Pingback: Positive Birth Affirmations « Woman to Woman Childbirth Education
Wonderful! That is a great list. Affirmations are so powerful.
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I wish to say that affirmation is really an amazing tool can sky rocket your self esteem to the place it always belonged. Even though an affirmation is a pretty easy tool to create and use, most people I come across really have no clue how to really apply them. Affirmations are positive sentences written in the present tense meant to be used repeatedly to create a habit of thought. Everything you experience has to do with the way you think, and the more you observe what you think the more you turn that thought into a habit.
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I am curious to hear if these affirmations worked for the lady who wrote them? They sound wonderful!
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What a great list! I am going to print it and use for baby #2! I had my first baby 22 months ago and used only affirmations to get me through a wonderful, natural childbirth. A quote that kept popping into my mind when i was in labor was, “The secret of childbirth isn’t that birth is painful, it’s that women are strong.” Also, whenever i said out loud, “I can’t do this” my midwife would calmly say, “you ARE doing it.” It was very powerful.
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Thank you for this amazing list of affirmations. I work as a hypnotherapist and am excited to incorporate these into the hypnosis sessions I do with pregnant mothers.
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