What do you think is the most important thing that a mom preparing for a natural birth should know? If you could give one piece of advice (other than learning hypnosis techniques), what would it be?
One thing that helped me learn how to stay calm or not tense up was to close my eyes and breathe while holding an ice cube in each hand. ( when practicing for birth not while in labor ) ..... It starts to really get cold and hurt after a minute or so and learning to sit and hold the ice and still breathe and relax while doing it helped a lot during labor..... when I was in labor, I remember dh say relax like when you hold the ice LOL... (some nurses would look at him like he was crazy LOL, but I knew what he meant ) .... I guess he could see the look on my face and knew I was tensing up. It gave a good practical way to practice the techniques.
