AS PART OF TheJournal.ie’s weekly Family Magazine, we wanted to create a space for parents to share their views. A place where mums and dads could share their experiences, lessons learned, and even mistakes along the way.
This week’s topic: pre-pregnancy plans and getting ready for labour: What one thing helped you prepare for giving birth? Here’s what our panel had to say…
Top L-R: Olly Keegan, Alan Dooley, Denise, Ken Hyland. Middle L-R: Ríona Flood, Ross Boxshall, Marta Lisiecka, Denise Cumiskey. Bottom L-R: Kait Quinn, Susannah O’Brien, Derek McInerney, Suzie Kelly
Doing my pelvic floor exercises – for all four pregnancies
Preparation for birth boils down to two things. The first is pelvic floor exercises from 12 weeks. I cannot stress enough how beneficial these are. The second thing is a well packed hospital bag, with plenty of non-perishable snacks. The snacks are important because most hospital food is not actually fit for human consumption!
- Susannah O’Brien
Having a birth plan (and being willing to throw it out the window)
I took plenty of classes such as hypnobirthing, pregnancy yoga, a breastfeeding preparation course and antenatal classes, but the best advice I got was from a friend. She told me to have a birth plan – but to also be prepared that things won’t go to plan.
- Denise Cahill
Ditching the antenatal class
After attending an antenatal class at my maternity hospital in which the midwife kept saying things like ‘down there’ instead of ‘vagina,’ we opted for private pregnancy yoga classes instead. They were super, and were pretty much a yoga and antenatal class in one.
- Olly Keegan
Taking my vitamins religiously
The thing I recommend the most is prenatal supplements. In the early stages of pregnancy, food was a no-go and that was the only way I was sure I was getting proper vitamins.
- Suzie Kelly
Using an online chat group
I went in to my first birth pretty confident but soon found out quickly that the pregnancy books don’t cover all! With my third pregnancy, I found an online group called Baby Bump which helps you to meet people that are due the same month as you. We all helped each other prepare mentally for labour – and no horror stories were allowed to be told.
- Denise Cumiskey
Doing prenatal yoga
As someone who loves being prepared, I went all out during my pregnancy with books, yoga, antenatal classes, multi-vitamins. In particular, prenatal yoga really helped me get some comfort during the final weeks and helped ease aches and pains.
- Ríona Flood
Forgetting about my ‘no’ list
I ended up needing everything that had been on my list of ‘nos’: waters broken, baby tracked via a monitor; epidural, oxytocin, episiotomy (scary word, not so scary procedure after all). In the end we were all okay which was the important thing. The best advice I’d offer any pregnant woman is to be ready to roll with the curve balls that labour can throw at you.
- Kait Quinn
Reading the pregnancy books
On our first pregnancy I read a pregnancy book to my wife, a few pages each night. It was my way of showing her that I wanted to be as involved as I could. You also really need to mentally prepare for ‘the unexpected.’ Births tend to be unpredictable at times and each of my four babies had their own unique birth adventure.
- Ross Boxshall
To be honest? Nothing could have prepared me
I read the books, went to the classes, did the yoga, but nothing can truly prepare you for giving birth for the first time. The experience swept me off my feet and the pain was much more than I could have imagined. However – thanks to my husband and the fantastic midwives – the experience was still really positive.
- Marta Lisiecka
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