Ditch the fear and let's get EXCITED about birth!

Positive birth movement limerick

The Positive Birth Moment works to eliminate the fear of childbirth

          Childbirth is sadly often portrayed as a traumatic or horrifically painful experience that expectant mums must tolerate in order to meet their baby.  At it's worst, the lowest expectation of childbirth is that both mum and baby must only survive with no regard for the journey in getting to that destination.

Of course a surviving mum and baby are the most important thing, but that is not the only important thing.  A mother's experience and if any unnecessary trauma is experienced by mum or baby does matter.  In fact, how difficult a labour was or wasn't deeply impacts a new family's early days with their baby and how parental-baby bonding may happen.  

limerick natural childbirth group

         

          A relatively new organisation, the Positive Birth Movement, is confronting fear-based depictions of birth and is emphasizing the necessity of more positive birth experiences for families.  The Positive Birth Movement (PBM) is a global movement which was started by author of the Positive Birth Book, Milli Hill.  Free peer-lead antenatal groups are now being held globally in over 44 different countries!  I am happy to say I am now the voluntary facilitator of the group being held in Limerick!  Our Limerick group started in February this year and has been a great success so far!

The aim of PBM groups is to bring expectant parents (and new parents!) together to discuss a range of topics regarding pregnancy and birth in an honest and supportive way.  We want to counter the fear-based images of pregnancy and birth that can create a lot of anxiety and fear for expectant parents.  The aim of the group is to help parents address these fears and anxiety so they can approach their impending labour with a more confident and calm mindset.  

All types of birth are supported by PBM, as it is believed that all types of birth can be experienced positively- unmedicated, medicated, induction, hospital birth, home birth, water birth, etc.  Every "type" of birth can feel empowering if expectant families are fully informed and know what to realistically expect and prepare for going in.  There's a myth in our society that once you walk through those hospital doors, all bets are off and there's nothing you can do.  "What will be, will be!" And that is SO WRONG.  There are numerous things that families can do to stack the odds in their favour so they are more likely to have the positive birth experience that they are hoping for.  

You can have a positive birth.  It doesn't matter if you're a brand new expectant parent, if this is your second + time giving birth or if you've had a negative (or even traumatic) experience in the past.  The Positive Birth Movement is addressing our fear-based culture around birth and helping parents see and learn that birth doesn't have to be "the best day of your life and the worst day of your life" all rolled into one.  Your birth can be AMAZING and there's now an organisation that is bringing parents together to explore all things pregnancy, birth and fourth trimester.

The Positive Birth Movement- Limerick currently meets the fourth Sunday of every month from 11 am- 1 pm at Chez le Fab in Limerick City.  To check for continuously updated information, including our meeting time, please see the official Positive Birth Movement website here where you can do a geographic search and get another peek at our group.  Alternatively, the Facebook page is here.

Please feel free to join us!

fear of childbirth help support group