What are birth affirmations?
Birth affirmations are positive phrases concerning birth to read and speak to yourself during pregnancy, labor, and delivery. They help to let go of negative thoughts and fears and replace them with positive thoughts. Using affirmations will empower you to feel safe and confident during childbirth.
Birth affirmations are also an important part of hypnobirthing, a particular method of managing pain and anxiety during childbirth. It involves various therapeutic relaxation techniques, such as deep breathing and visualization.
Examples of positive birth affirmations
– Each surge brings me closer to my baby
– I trust my body to know what to do
– I let go and trust the process
– I am built for birth
– I am strong and capable
– I am surrounded by love and support
– I relax, and my baby relaxes with me
– Breath in strength, breathe out confidence
– I can do anything for 60 seconds
– I am proud of myself, however this birth goes
– I am choosing love, not fear
– I breathe deeply, and I am calm
So, if you are wondering how to get in the right mindset for birth or how to get courage in normal delivery, such birth affirmations can be a great preparation for childbirth.
Get the set of positive birth affirmation – printable cards as an instant download here!
How do you use birth affirmations?
Positive birth affirmations are used by yourself, your partner, your doula, or your midwife before your baby is born during pregnancy, labor, and birth. You or your support person can say them out loud to encourage you and create an atmosphere of empowerment and confidence.
Ideally, you choose them during pregnancy and meditate on them beforehand. That way, the persuasive and meaningful mantras can easily be recited during labor and delivery and already mean a lot to you.
The daily repetition of birth affirmations during pregnancy can also help to overcome fear and anxiety. Your subconscious eventually stores the birth event as a positive experience since it cannot distinguish between an actual experience and the imagination of it. So instead of letting yourself be scared and demotivated by other mothers’ negative testimonials, consciously formulate positive expectations for the birth of your baby.
Personally, it helped me get into the right mindset for birth to hang up positive birth affirmations all over our apartment even months before my due date. The more I saw them, the more I believed them, and the more they became common thoughts in my brain.
If you are going to do the same, remember to hang them in a way that is easy to remove so you can take them with you to the hospital or birth center when it’s time to give birth. (also: grab your free hospital bag checklist here, so you won’t forget anything important!)
Oh, and besides using birth affirmations for yourself, obviously, they are also a great way to wish someone else “good luck” at birth or to say to a lady who is about to give birth to encourage her in labor.
Benefits of birth affirmations
According to babycentre.co.uk there are four main benefits of pregnancy and birth affirmations:
1. Encouraging a positive mindset
There’s a little voice inside your head. Affirmations help train that voice to challenge the negative thoughts you may have. They also help you to put things into perspective, so the challenging things don’t seem so huge anymore. Just like strengthening your physical muscles with regular exercise, affirmations over time can turn your negative thoughts around when practiced and repeated enough. Your mindset can go from a negative “I can’t do this” to a positive “I can do this.”
2. Decreasing stress
Positive birth affirmations will allow you to take a short time out during stressful moments. You may feel overwhelmed by morning sickness or doubts about giving birth. An affirmation can help you feel calmer. You will also be reminded of your feelings and emotions being normal and not a measure of your ability to cope. In such a situation, a tried-and-tested favorite is: “This too shall pass.”
3. Changing your behavior
Changing how you think over time will also influence how you behave and feel. Positive birth affirmations can help you stop and think before you respond to a situation. If, for example, you tend to lose your temper quickly, you can make it a habit to pause and repeat, “I choose to breathe deeply for my baby and me.”
4. Helping you cope with labor and giving birth
Positive affirmations work exceptionally well in the lead-up to labor. Evidence even suggests that they can help you tremendously by believing in your ability and taking control of your birth experience. Many women have also found that birth affirmations can benefit your overall sense of well-being after the birth.
Do birth affirmations work?
If the woman who is going to give birth is relaxed, the birth process is usually fluent and progresses naturally at a healthy pace. That is why birth affirmations work. They help her to let go of negative thoughts and fears and bring the woman’s mind and body to a place where she feels safe and relaxed.
How to make your own birth affirmations
If you don’t want to download the done-for-you-printable-birth-affirmation cards, then you can make your own birth affirmations instead. Here is how:
1. Get some paper or note cards
2. Get a nice Marker, Pen, or whatever you want to write with
3. Collect your favorite birth affirmations (google is a great helper here 😉)
4. Write your own birth affirmations down (you can easily do a few cards at a time, you don’t have to do them all in one sitting!)
5. Find an easy way to hang them (painter’s tape, cloth pins, etc.) all over to be reminded and repeat them often.
Diy birth affirmation cards are easy to create and can be a soothing activity because, as you write, it might be as if you are writing the words on your heart. That way, it will help you to remember them better.
Conclusion
Positive birth affirmations help promote a positive environment to bring your baby into this world. Your body and mind are connected. Your thoughts impact your stress hormones, affecting how labor will go and influencing how you feel and view your birth experience. Affirmations, therefore, can play an important part in having a positive birth experience.
Are you looking for Christian birth affirmation cards? This beautiful set of Bible verses for pregnancy and birth is a fantastic encouragement to print out and can perfectly be used as affirmations for pregnancy and childbirth.
Are you ready for your baby otherwise? Check out this third trimester checklist to make sure you don’t miss anything!
