Be a good birth companion
Who you choose to bring as a support person for your birth is a personal choice, for some it is the other parent or partner, for some it's a friend or sibling for others it's a Doula. If you choose to bring someone who is not a trained birth worker, send them this video! Here are my tips on how to be the best support person as possible.
Birth is a big life event, to be the person chosen to support the person giving birth can feel like a big responsibility.
If you haven't witnessed a birth before my first tip is to go on Youtube and look at a few birth videos. Get used to what happens to the person giving birth in terms of sounds, movements, etc. Even though birth is very unique and individuals react differently through birth there are similarities.
Preparation can be very helpful for you to be able to feel calm and not feel out of place when it's time for baby to make its entrance into the world. In general I think a lot of partners are left with a huge responsibility to support a person in labor without having any knowledge on what to do or how to do it.
The most important part of being a good birth companion is finding out what the person giving birth expects of you beforehand. What kind of support do they need? Which practical things do you need to be responsible for?
Questions to ask are: Do they want physical touch? Do they have any specific things that can be triggering? What makes them feel calm and supported? Which music do they want to listen to? What do they want to drink and eat? What do they expect you to do during the birth?
Make sure you go through the birth preferences with the person giving birth. Also add anything that the hospital staff may need to know about you, examples that I have read in birth plans are that the support person is scared of blood or passes out easily, this is very important information.
Also make sure that you are responsible for the birth preferences, where are they packed? Make sure you hand them over to the staff and check that during shift change that the new staff have read them as well.
Something that is very important is to make sure the person giving birth eats and drinks as much as they want. The longer labour gets the more they run out of energy, and the uterus is a muscle which needs energy and fluid to function, so try to encourage the person giving birth to rehydrate and maybe eat something small if they don't feel nauseous.
Also remind them to go pee. A full bladder can get in the way of baby's descent into the birth canal, so it's important to not wait too long to go pee. In the hospital we try to encourage this every four hours.
And one of the most important things: Don't forget about yourself! Make sure you have what you need: Food, snacks, drinks, make sure you go to the bathroom regularly. I would suggest that when labor starts and you're at home and the contractions are not too intense or not yet regular; rest! You will need the energy to support the person giving birth as labor progresses.
What are your tips? How did you prepare to be a good birth companion?
