Fear Free Childbirth
By Alexia Leachman, Jacqui Blue, Mark Harris and
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About this ebook
This e-book will help you to take the fear out of birth and includes contributions from best-selling birth and pregnancy authors as well as world-class birthing and wellbeing experts. It is the ideal accompaniment to the Fear Free Childbirth podcast and includes access to the extensive free resources that are provided to the regular podcast listeners.
Alexia launched the Fear Free Childbirth Podcast because she wanted to create a source of information about pregnancy and birth that she wished she’d had when she was pregnant. She had no idea that it would grow to become as popular as it is today. Since its launch the podcast has been nominated in the UK Podcasting Awards and it has been downloaded over 110,000 times and is listened to in over 120 countries.
When Alexia was pregnant she was terrified of giving birth, so much so that she was sure she’d opt for a c-section; just to avoid the pain of giving birth. Fortunately her pregnancy coincided with her training in a new therapeutic technique that could clear fears quickly and effectively. It was also where someone told her about hypnobirthing and the possibility of a pain-free birth. Once she learned that fears are directly responsible for the pain we experience in childbirth she knew what she had to do; clear her fears! Alexia spent her second trimester clearing her fears and had experienced such a transformation that by her third trimester she opted for a natural birth at home. When she was pregnant for the second time, she had lots of new fears and she dealt with those in the same way and went on to have her second beautiful home birth.
But one thing stood out for her; the lack of readily available information for pregnant women to help them navigate their pregnancy journey so that they can approach birth without fear. For women to feel confident and calm about their births, two things are required. Firstly, they need to feel empowered and this means being well-informed about childbirth. The second aspect is that they need to be able to move past their fears, and this isn’t always easy, especially if you don’t know how.
Through her podcast, Alexia helps her listeners with both of these. She is regularly joined by world-class birthing professionals and experts who share their wisdom about birth and the choices women face. Alexia also talks to mothers who share their positive birth stories to inspire women that birth really can be a beautiful and positive experience. And finally, she shares the method that she used for clearing her fears and that she credits with helping her to ditch her plan for a c-section and choose a natural home birth.
A whole range of topics are covered including hypnobirthing, coping with a miscarriage, conscious birthing, tokophobia (fear of pregnancy and birth), micro biome, overcoming fear, particularly the fear of pain and the fear of losing control, how dads can prepare for birth, how to avoid inductions and much more.
The ebook includes contributions from Jacqui Blue (director of the Beautiful Films documentary), Sophie Fletcher (best-selling author of "Mindful Hypnobirthing", doula and founder of Mindful Mamma), Mark Harris (best-selling author of "Men, Love and Birth", midwife, founder of Birthing4Blokes), Lisa-Jane Merridue (conscious birthing doula), Susie Gower (holistic fertility, pregnancy and birth support expert), Catherine Holland (Rebirthing breath worker, author, breastfeeding counsellor) and Charan Surdhar (author, epigeneticist), as well as many more through interviews.
To easily access the podcast episodes that are featured in this book, you can use the Podcasts app (Apple) or Stitcher app (Android). Just search for Fear Free Childbirth.
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Book preview
Fear Free Childbirth - Alexia Leachman
Part One
You're pregnant!
You're Pregnant!
Finding out that you’re pregnant can feel like such an cocktail of emotions and at times it can feel a little overwhelming. Finding a source of good information when you’re pregnant isn’t easy and before you know it you’re trawling a zillion pregnancy websites and blogs and it starts to feel like a bit of a blur.
So I thought I’d start by bringing together the episodes of my podcast that will be ideal for you if you’ve recently discovered that you’re pregnant. But actually, no matter where you are in your pregnancy, these are great episodes to start with.
To start with I’ve selected two interviews with some amazing birthing experts because my chat with them really encompasses the whole of pregnancy and birth.
Preparing for a positive birth, with Sophie Fletcher
The first is with Sophie Fletcher. Sophie is the author of the best-selling birthing book, Mindful Hypnobirthing and she is also the lady behind Mindful Mamma hypnobirthing classes. She shares some great insights about pregnancy and birth and of course we dive into the topic of hypnobirthing.
Pregnancy, birth and motherhood with Kicki Hansard
Kicki Hansard is a bit of a legend in the birthing world. Kick is a doula is currently the chair of Doula UK. As a doula she is the only one who has ever won the award of Doula of the year and she currently trains doulas so she is a great source of knowledge about birth. The chat I had with Kicki is the kind of chat I wish I was able to have with someone at the beginning of my first pregnancy so this is why I’m encouraging you to listen to this as soon as possible.
The other episodes I’ve included here are really to help to shift you into a positive and healthy mindset for birth so that you can minimise the stress you might experience doing your pregnancy.
Your due date is wrong
Yes! It might well be. In this episode I explain why and how you can find a more realistic due date. This is crucial if you want to avoid due date stress!
3 lies about childbirth we’ve all been told
If you’re a first time mum then you probably have some assumptions about birth and what to expect. I’m here to tell you that those assumptions are probably wrong and why.
Fear Free Childbirth?
Birth is thought of as this super scary thing… Because it’s epically painful right? Well, how about being fear free about your birth? Let me invite you to consider that this is indeed possible.
One
Pregnancy, Birth and Motherhood
with Kicki Hansard
When I was pregnant for the first time, I remember vividly coming back from that first doctor’s appointment. It was the one where the doctor said to me yes you’re pregnant!
. So now I’m a bit dazed and in shock, and she says to me well, congratulations! I’ll probably next see you with baby. Good luck !
And I remember thinking WHAT?! What do you mean you’re only going to see me AFTER my baby’s born?! Who’s going to look over me?
Of course it was the midwife, but I remember feeling completely abandoned in that moment and slightly panicky. Like I needed help being pregnant. It seems silly looking back, but I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling this. What I think I needed in that moment was to fast forward in time and listen to the chat that you’re about to hear that I had with my guest in this episode. So, if you’ve just found out that you’re pregnant then I would encourage you to listen to this episode first as I believe it will help to ease you into your new pregnancy state of