Survey
When I took a close look at the topic pregnancy and childbirth I soon realized that it is actually an endless topic and I need to choose some areas where I want to dive deeper. Almost automatically I found a focus on the areas which interests me the most and also matter in my life. In the following I want to give you a brief introduction about my focus and outline what my steps were to deal with the topic and also share valuable resources. To work on my topics strategically I created scientific research questions, which helped me to not deviate from my focus.
Prenatal Bond
What is prenatal bonding/imprinting?
Our live starts with conception and from this moment all our cells collect valuable information about life. This information enables the growing human being to perfectly adapt to our environment. During the time of pregnancy the baby receives information from the mother (hormones, (unconscious) feelings, nutrients, etc…) and gets to know the environmental conditions. The foundation for the physical as well as for the psychical well-being in later life is laid to a big part during pregnancy.
Why is it important?
Because prenatal experience has such a big influence on our later life after birth. In my eyes our society does not pay enough attention to this topic and inform expectant parents about prenatal imprinting. So it is definitely a topic where it is necessary to raise awareness in the society
Personal relationship to this topic!
Being pregnant I for sure want only the best for my child. Naturally a woman builds a relation to her child in the body, so also in my case. Nevertheless detailed information about prenatal bonding and experience evoke more awareness and I want to consciously deal with the topic, by e.g. doing rituals, be aware of my feelings and carefully choose my environment and people I hang around with.
What are my outcomes?
I personally feel deeply connected to my child and I always try to be aware how I am influencing my child at this point in time.
I gained great valuable background knowledge which I want to carry out in the world. So as a first step I started to write several blog articles about prenatal bonding, to read them please visit einfachfroh.de but note: they are written in German (Belly-Whispering, two methods to strengthen prenatal bond, prenatal imprinting) .
Survey (optional)
Additionally I created a Survey to find out how aware expectant parents are of the prenatal bond. I laid the Survey out in a hospital, specialized on assisting birth, because I know that there is a lot run through during the day. Unfortunately, when I checked my Survey after two weeks I could not find my box on its original place. I rather found it in a non-public office and no single Survey was filled out. I tried to speak to a responsible person, but they were all too busy to clarify the situation. Now I will look for a different place for the Survey.
Professional Bonding methods (optional)
Holistic Birth Preparation
Why am I interested in this topic?
A holistic birth preparation can be very helpful in order to adjust oneself for a unique birth-experience. There are supporting practices which really can help to go through a birth naturally and with joy. For sure, birth is a natural process and woman has the power to go through it without needing to learn anything. Nevertheless a good birth-preparation can be very valuable. I want to prepare myself in a holistic way for birth, because for me it matters how my child is born and what inner attitude I will have to that point in time
Why is it an important topic?
There are a lot books and courses about birth-preparation and in western cultures courses often are financially supported by the government. Out there are very less courses which prepare you in a holistic way, because often the focus is on eventualities and problems. There are many afraid parents visiting the courses and the course often does not take-away the fear rather it becomes increased. In my opinion the parents need to receive the right information which can be very helpful and encouraging. With the wrong information, a negative attitude or fear it is just natural that complications occur during birth. Especially fear is the biggest issue a woman can have before and during birth. That causes muscular tension (uterus!) and blocks the body to naturally release oxytozin (happiness hormone) which has the consequence that the birth is painful and difficult. In the process of birth psychical condition and physical well-being are strongly connected!
An inner positive attitude and self-confidence is the key to a natural birth.
Blog articles
To share my knowledge with other people I decided to write blog articles, which relate to the topic birth preparation. In my opinion I share knowledge that is very valuable for all expectant parents and commonly not taught in classical birth preparation courses or pregnancy books. To read my articles please visit einfachfroh.de, please note that they are written in German (Articles about: Mindful Birthing, Hypnobirthing, worth knowing about the birth)
What I do to prepare myself!
Click here to view my personal daily practices. Some elements I really do daily, others I just can do if I have enough time left. But in general I try to do Yoga and breathing exercises every morning. During the day a short meditation with the help of the Hypnobirthing CD and in the evening my partner massages my womb.
Spiritual point of view: Birth as a transition in life → how to prepare? (optional)
Birth is a transition from a physical symbiosis to a psychological relationship. In the end of pregnancy the space for the unborn in the womb is limited and for the mother it gets exhausting. This narrowness is for mother and child very important because it rings in for both something new. With the birth the mother will surpass herself. Especially during the birth of her first child she will enter a spiritual room, that she probably never entered before. The pressure caused by child-birth can be extremely. The contractions bring the woman continuous and rhythmically in direct contact with her body. In the early and the active stage of contractions the woman can bear the process. She is fairly grounded, till the birth reaches the phase of transition. And this is the phase where she probably enters a room, she never entered before. It is a journey to her spiritual center. It is the start of a grounding process for mother and child which will continue until a few weeks after birth.
With having this background knowledge it gets even more important to prepare for childbirth holistically.
Hypnobirthing & Mindfulbirthing (optional)
Critical book review
I expanded my skills to work with knowledge critically. I read several books about pregnancy and birth. I picked five books which I found really inspiring and helpful and reviewed them critically. To read my critical book reviews, please view the PDF-document below.
List of best practices to prepare for birth
To prepare for birth holistically I created a list with all best practices and nice tips I found during my personal birth preparation. Hopefully this list will inspire other pregnant woman and they can take value from it.
Blog Design
As a part of this project I decided to re-design our blog (German!). The purpose of the blog is to share valuable knowledge and experience reports about different topics with a wider community. I completely re-designed the layout, categories, topics and also added a personal GaiaU page where I can share my OPs.
The outcomes of the blog :
- posted 8 blog articles about pregnancy
- shared 1 page about my GaiaU studies
- posted 1 blog entry about our TIny House
Look into the future (optional)
What are nice birth rituals?
My ideas for welcoming a new person on this planet (mother earth):
1. Put a poster in front of my room → everybody who visits us can write down the wishes for the child
2. Plant a tree on the placenta → tree of life of the child
Time after birth
Living a minimalistic life with baby?!
As soon as we found a place after birth where we can move with our Tiny House we will go there. Sure it will be challenging in the first time to live in a threesome at 12 square meters of space. We have to radically reduce our space and possession and focus on the essentials. The child does not need a lot the first time and we need to learn how to get along with this little room.
The decision to live in a Tiny House is our first step towards our vision to live a self-directed life, grow our own food and be as self-sustaining as possible. We realized that we need to do (and not only think about) the first step in that direction.
Our Blog
Next steps
My next steps:
Personal
- prepare myself physically, emotionally and spiritually for birth
- fit out our rooms to make them baby-friendly
- assist my boyfriend in building our Tiny House → Goal: have the shell ready due to birth
- reach rock bottom to calm down →no to do's
- experience a powerful and holistic homebirth in the end or beginning of November
Project
- lay out the Survey (prenatal bond) on a different place and evaluate it
- read the book about home birth and breastfeeding in more detail (write blog articles)
- post more blog articles about different topics (Tiny House & Birth)
- make more short construction videos about our Tiny House construction process
Pathway
- prepare and present my MoYP on October 10th
- participate in the Advisor and Mentoring Training (do all activities) as long as possible
- finish the Advisor and Mentoring Training five months after birth