I have wanted to sit down and write this post for a couple of weeks.  I can't believe how time flies with a new baby around but it does.  Between taking time off to just enjoying lying in with my newborn, visiting family members, and then trying to get into a new routine with a new family member I can't believe that five weeks have passed!

I've done a lot of thinking about Galen's amazing birth in those weeks.  It went really, really smoothly and was a wonderful experience for me.  Scott says it was a good experience for him too.

There were two major things that contributed to such a great birth – the first is my careful attention to my nutrition during pregnancy.  I have always felt strongly that good prenatal nutrition is vital, and I've written about it extensively in the blog and in articles on the site.   I “practice what I preach” and was really careful to eat well for my baby.  This resulted in him being healthy and vigorous, and in my body being in excellent condition to go through labor and birth.

The second thing I did was work through the Pink Kit with Scott.  All of the Pink Kit was helpful to us.  I used many of the labor positions that we learned.   And the breathing skills were vital for both Scott and I to know.  Scott was able to help me get my breathing under control several times.  I went from 3 centimeters to 10 centimeters and pushing Galen out in about 2 hours – 2 very intense hours.  Having Scott help me breathe turned out to be really important.

The biggest part of the Pink Kit to help us, however, was doing the Internal Work for the last 8 weeks of my pregnancy.  We were pretty faithful about it and worked through the exercise almost every night.  I felt it to be really helpful during pregnancy as I learned to relax all the muscles in my birthing area.

And after Galen was born I knew the Internal Work had been helpful – Galen was born in just two pushes and I had no episiotomy, no tearing, not even any “skid marks.”  I was able to begin kegels right after birthing him and my tissues have recovered much more quickly than they have with any of my other births.

I was able to really enjoy Galen's birth.  Our Pink Kit work helped me to be really comfortable with myself.  I was able to reach and feel the curve of Galen's head just before my water broke, and I was able to feel him move down through my birth canal.  I felt a slight sting as he crowned and his head was born and then I was able to feel the joy of his body sliding out and bringing him up into my arms.  I was able to be relaxed and aware, and Scott and I were able to communicate well through the entire labor and birth.  Scott was able to really be a part of things, and really really helped me (especially because it moved so fast and he was able to help me stay calm and working with my labor rather than against it).

Galen's birth was really an awesome experience for me.  It was everything I'd hoped for and more.  I spent time doing birth visualizations as is suggested in the Pink Kit and many books on birthing.  I feel like that helped prepare my mind for the birth as well and it went very, very much like I'd imagined.  I think there's a lot of power in preparing your body and your mind for birth.  Galen's birth was so wonderful because we took the time to prepare – and because excellent resources and knowledge were available to us (and are available to you, too!)

Read Galen's birth story, more about prenatal nutrition, and explore the Pink Kit!