What was your birthing mantra? - Page 3

[molive]

"Head, shoulders, knees and toes...knees and toes, eyes and ears and a mouth and a nose"-- in my head for the last 17 hours or so.

[Miajean]

I had a diffcult labor, at least everyone tells me so. I had an overtired uterus after 72 + hrs of mild contractions but strong enough to wear me down. I had no meds, I had Pitocin when I asked for it. I never dialated past 6cm maybe 7. I halted for over thirty hrs. Since my girlie was never in distress I was allowed to try that much longer. I had a c section. My husband stayed outside while my doula was with me.

Everyone says it seemed hard. I only cried when I knew it would be a c section if I didn't dialte within another ten hours (they only wanted me to go 2 cm within ten hours and it never happened) because I was frustrated with myself.

I remember the whole time I talked, walked, listened to music and my mantra was "just keep swimming just keep swimming"

I still get shocked looks when I tell people I had a great birth, I had the best experience, I had good people who truely allowed me to try and do what I needed and then assisted when I aquienced to thier help.

but I had a happy go lucky catch p[hrase and good people around me...

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by MikoMum

Open! Open! I also envisioned a flower unfurling it's petals. It was a great image to have in my head, corny but effective.

This plus picturing the babe moving down the birth canal... very effective for staving off the feeling of needing to escape from one's body

[EastonsMom]

This is going to sound nutty but... The sound of a horse galloping and the Moby song Everloving. ( Might have seen Seabisciut one two many times ) But I have loved this song sice HS and it has always been what I listen to to 'chill' out when I really need it the most. Horses have been my thing forever and the combanation of the two REALLY got me through.

[ecoteat]

Push it out, shove it out, WAAAAY out!
just kidding...

Actually, I think I kept saying "open" and "lower" in my mind. During crowning, "Ring of Fire" was in my head, which I found pretty amusing, even at the time.

[EastonsMom]

Originally Posted by ecoteat

During crowning, "Ring of Fire" was in my head, which I found pretty amusing, even at the time.

Me too

[Jade2561]

Purposeful, Anticipated, Intermittent, Normal. It's how I describe the pain of labor in childbirth classes.

[JayGee]

I was humming and singing, "Soon and very soon, we are going to see the King" (a song from church) during all of transition and pushing.

[GuavaLava]

I lurk here and I think this thread was responsible for waking me at 2am. I woke up thinking, "this one goes to 11," and how funny (or NOT) it would be to chant that during labor. I don't even like Spinal Tap.

[earthmamma]

I didn't have a mantra but a visualization. I would close my eyes and picture a baby's head emerging from a mandala or a flower and tell myself to open.

[avaylee]

What a wonderful thread, full of great ideas!

Love the Spinal Tap reference... I can see DH making it through it with that.

[Cherie012]

ROFLO, once my active labor hit ( I prodromaled for 5 weeks and got to 7 before I actually had "labor") I would say "just one minute. one minute to break. one minute to relax. One minute." and, for some reason, it helped me. I knew I had one minute between surges, and that one minute was a LONG one minute of pain free bliss.

Oh, and I shouted "RING OF FIRE" as soon as she crowned. The room was amused.

[mntnmom]

Originally Posted by ecoteat

Push it out, shove it out, WAAAAY out!

That's DH's joke about his place in chilbirth....he feels like a cheerleader. Thankfully he's aware enough to not start chanting while I'm actually in labor!!

My mantra was just "It's almost over, and I'll have my baby"