8 Ways to Stay Calm and Prepare for Labor and Delivery

If you’re getting nervous about childbirth, this post all about ways to stay calm and prepare for labor and delivery will help a ton! These 8 tips are sure to help calm your nerves and get you ready for childbirth!

One of the biggest things pregnant women worry about as they get closer to their due date is labor and delivery. How in the world are you supposed to prepare to push a watermelon out a hole smaller than a golf ball?

Luckily there are doctors, nurses, pain medications, and hospitals to help you get through it. But despite the comforts and medical advances we have today, childbirth can still be daunting, especially when it’s something you’ve never experienced before. It’s totally normal and 100% okay to be scared (in fact it might be odd if you weren’t a little nervous!). Since I am prepping for the birth of my third baby, I want to give you 8 ways to stay calm and prepare for labor and delivery. I mean I’m no expert, but since I’ve followed these tips, I’m not worried about the actual childbirth part at all!

1. Do things you can to get ready. One of the most helpful things you can do to prepare for labor and delivery is to have everything you can at home to be ready. For example, pack your hospital bag early, have baby’s nursery set up, if you have family who want to visit from out of town let them know when you want them there, or do anything off of this list of things to do before your baby is born. Preparing at home as much as you can is going to make it so much calmer when the time does come to leave for the hospital. You won’t be rushing around trying to pack your hospital bag or stressing that you don’t have any newborn diapers yet. You’ll be ready because you’ve prepared.

2. Do a test run to the hospital. This will give you a chance to see how long it takes to get to the hospital and what the best route to get there is. That way you will be comfortable and familiar with it when you go for the birth of your baby. If you live somewhere where they is rush hour traffic (or just traffic in general), make sure you know when that is and if there’s an alternate route you can take. It’s one less thing you’ll have to worry about when the time comes!

3. Take a hospital tour. I did this with my first before he was born because I had never been to that hospital before, and with my third a few weeks ago because we are delivery at a new hospital, and it helped SO MUCH! You can ask any questions you have, you’ll know exactly where you need to go when you get there, and it will help you feel more comfortable with the rooms because you’ll have seen it before. My husband thought it was a little silly that I was taking a hospital tour for our third baby, but it really did help me relax a lot. And now I know that if we come in at night, to enter through the emergency department!

4. Take a class online or at the hospital. With our first we did a few hospital classes that were really helpful. The baby basics and the breastfeeding classes were extra helpful since I’d never given a baby a bath or swaddled a baby or breastfed (obviously) before. And for some people, taking a prenatal class (like this one by popular blogger and former L&D nurse Hilary {affiliate link} from Pulling Curls) can be really helpful. You can learn all what to expect during labor and delivery and different methods you can try to help get you through childbirth. Classes can definitely help you feel more prepared and stay calm during labor and delivery!

5. Don’t read horror stories about childbirth gone wrong. I feel like maybe this is a “duh” thing, but I’m going to say it anyway because sometimes people don’t think. Don’t google stories about women who have had bad experiences with childbirth. Yes, things can go wrong, but reading about them will just freak you out and you don’t need that.

6. Talk to your doctor about any concerns you have. This is a great, easy way to help you stay calm and prepare for labor and delivery. Your doctor will have solutions to probably any fear you have about childbirth. And you’re presumably going to have them there during delivery, so communicating and being on the same page is very important. And you’ll know you’re getting accurate information instead of information your mom’s sister’s step-daughter’s grandma told her.

7. Practice breathing and meditation. Even if you aren’t planning on having a natural birth (I haven’t with either of my first two and I’m not with the third, either) it can help. First, it can help you breathe through the contractions before you are given the epidural. Second, if something does happen and you aren’t able to get an epidural, you’ll know how to breathe through the pain and hopefully be able to stay more calm than you would if you hadn’t practiced.

8.  Accept that you can’t control everything. Childbirth isn’t something you can guarantee is going to go perfectly. It’s okay if you can’t stick to everything on your birth plan, and it’s okay if you have to have a C-section instead of a vaginal delivery. The most important thing is your health and the health of the baby, and you have to accept that there are things that are out of your hands that you can’t control. Just let go a little bit and put your trust in the doctors and nurses taking care of you.

Childbirth is crazy and weird, but it’s also an amazing miracle. You shouldn’t be scared and you shouldn’t worry about the what if’s. You should be excited and feel confident in your ability to push that baby out! When the time comes, you’ll have a team of people you can trust on your side, and you’ll be ready to go. Good luck!