This week, Cat hails the Positive Birth Movement for keeping her calm before, during and after giving birth to her little bundle of joy.
I grew up with battle stories of birth.
My mum had three complicated and difficult labours ending in caesarean sections, my sister had a difficult first birth which also ended in a c-section and elected for one for number two. I was fairly sure the lassies in my family were made to have their babies through the sunroof and I was happy with that.
When I became pregnant, though, the war stories continued, from friends to the TV to folk at the bus stop, everyone delighted in warning me about the horror of birth. So, as well as my over-active bladder, my over-active imagination began to keep me up at night; I became more and more scared about how it was all going to go down (or not).
Yes, there was a growing baby in my tummy but, apparently, I wasn’t alone in my worries either. According to the Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic & Neonatal Nursing, there’s been a surge in women’s birth anxiety over the last 20 years.