Why our prenatal meetings matter.
One of the great joys and privileges of being a doula is that we have time on our side. So often care providers are rushed off their feet and as a result powering trough a checklist at the speed of light! This does not leave much room for how you are feeling, those worries that you’re carrying around all day or just enough time to explore all the options that are available to you. One of the many benefits of working with a birth doula is that we have the time just for you! I want to know every worry that’s popping up, I want to get know you and your partner and your family as people. What is important to you and what will make your birth the special occasion that it is and that you look back on positively! This means I can offer you personalised support throughout labour and be in a unique position as possibly the only other person you know (apart from your birth partner) that will be in the birth space with you. And to be there with the one simple aim, to be in your corner and assist you through your birth experience.
The prenatal meetings are always going to flow differently for everyone its not a formular and I don’t just speak at you until I have bored your socks off! It should be a collaborative conversation where we all learn from each other. That being said, I find a rough structure to be super helpful to ensure you are best prepared and can feel like we have created space to answer all questions that might be whizzing around when you’re trying to get to sleep at night!
This is a rough road map of our meetings and depending on when you have booked me, they might have different timings or content depending on your needs.
Our first meeting might take place around the 28-30 weeks and be roughly 60-90 minutes long. This is a lovely opportunity to really start to get to know each other and start to build that super important connection. We will cover how you can be proactive in the lead up to birth. This might include baby’s positioning, miles circuits, perineal massage, rest and movement, medical tests and anything else that’s coming up for you at this stage.
Our second meeting will be around the 33-34 week mark (before you have your first meeting with your midwife to discuss birth preferences) and this will last a bit longer probably 2-3 hours and should be with you and you birth partner. We will cover the general flow of labour, your magical hormones, environment, birth rights, hands on support and comfort measures and outlining your birth preferences/ plan at this stage.
Our final formal meeting will take place whenever works for you in the lead up to birth and we will be focusing on preparing for postpartum and putting plans and provisions in place to really help you land softly on the other side! So many parents wish they had spent more time prepping for postpartum and that’s why I find this dedicated time to be really useful, of course we can also discuss anything else that has come up relating to birth. This could also be a lovely time to add in a pregnancy massage or reflexology session to help ease those late labour aches and pains!
I hope that these meetings help you and your partner to feel more prepared and settled in the lead up to birth. My job is to help you to feel prepared and able to trust your body and use this knowledge to feel empowered to have a positive birth experience however that looks for you. Outside of these meetings we will have our dedicated WhatsApp group where you can pop any questions that come up in there and if you like we can also have more informal hangouts especially as labour draws closer it can be nice to have things in the diary to distract you so a walk in a park or coffee could be just the ticket. I can’t wait to work with you and please let me know if you have any questions at all!
