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There are so many transitions that will take place along your pregnancy journey. Your inner confidence may be challenged at different times during pregnancy because of how we feel the world will view us, how we physically feel, how we view ourselves and how pregnancy growth has impacted our emotions and pace of life.
 
Know that you are not alone on this journey, but is a journey that allows you time to reflect, recognise how you feel and then choose how you want to feel.
 
Sometimes when we validate our feelings and thoughts, it allows us to recognise them and make changes.
 
So ladies, know that you have time during your pregnancy to grow your inner confidence and love for yourself and where you are in life. Along this journey surround yourself around people and things that inspire you to feel the way you want to feel.
 
Building confidence throughout pregnancy will play a pivotal  role when you prepare for labour and birth and the journey ahead.
 
Interested in learning more about nurturing inner self, join us a nurturing us session. 

​Unexpected pregnancies doesn't mean unwanted, but the news can bring about mixed emotions. 

Early pregnancy can be very confusing. Women are receiving information, choices and options from their midwife, obstetrician, best friend, Facebook and their mother in law. They are often channeled into pathways without a clear understanding of what that means for them or their baby. As midwives we are meeting women in late pregnancy who wished they had made different choices earlier in pregnancy. They wished they had known all the options available to them offered as part of a collaborative and integrative approach to pregnancy. Confidence in pregnancy, known as self-efficacy is well documented to improve well-being and have an important impact on a woman’s belief in her abilities to birth her baby. How can we ensure that women have positive self-efficacy as they approach the birth of their baby and transition to motherhood. How can we value the time of pregnancy as a significant life event to begin to see the benefits in a mindful connection between mother and child rather than just a means to an end.
 
Women with a high self-efficacy and internal confidence believe in their ability to birth their baby and have confidence in their ability to transition to becoming mothers and we believe this approach is best nurtured from early pregnancy. We want to guide women through the complexity of choices in early pregnancy to help them have a calm, confident and inspired pregnancy that best prepares you for birth and parenthood. This positive self-efficacy is not only important for birth outcomes but has a positive emotional impact on a woman who is not experiencing feelings of worry, fear, anxiety.
 
Epigenetics, neuroscience and peri-natal psychology have brought together research over the past few decades to expand our understanding of how the development of a baby in the womb during pregnancy is influenced by genetic input but also by environmental factors. The emerging field of epigenetics seeks to understand the environmental elements that influence whether genes are turned on or off and is beginning to give us an understanding of how positive and negative exposures in-utero change genetic expression. The traditional understanding that simply genetics predetermine a baby’s future is being questioned by the new understanding that how our environment is perceived prepares a baby for the world after birth. The baby is prepared for the world as the mother perceives it as the baby developing in the womb received feedback about the world after birth from the mother while they are developing in the womb.
 
These environmental factors are continually changing depending on the mother’s physical and emotional experiences. This complex tapestry of influences from conception to birth impacts a baby’s health, ability and wellbeing through life. A mother’s thoughts and emotional environment she creates have a significant influence on the developing baby. A baby developing in the womb is a conscious being, an active participant that changes and responds to environmental influences, and the mother has an amazing opportunity to provide a safe and nurturing environment in which to grow. Bruce Lipton describes pregnancy as natures head start program.
 
Human beings are affected by their environment as soon as they have an environment, and that means as soon as they are implanted in the womb. People are conceiving, carrying and birthing children under increasingly stressful conditions.
Gabor Mate
In Utero
 
Increasingly we live and we grow babies in a modern society that is busy and hurried. It can appear harmless to us because we have adapted to the relentless busyness. Busy and stressed is our normal but it is not normal for a baby growing and developing in the womb. Babies are conscious, perceptive and aware beings in-utero. We have a choice and an opportunity to define the environment our babies grow in, for our own benefit but also our baby’s wellbeing.
 
We should recognise that with conscious awareness, compassion and connection we can influence the world our babies develop within and make their world as loving, connected and nurturing as possible. To foster an emotional environment that knows gratitude and compassion, that is open, clearer, calmer, accepting and grounded in a loving connection with our growing baby in-utero is one that moves a baby from insecurity about the world to security. High self-efficacy in pregnancy also allows the mother to have confidence in her ability to birth her baby and approach the transition to motherhood more positive anticipation.
 
Nourishing your baby with whole foods is key to providing the building blocks of life but a mother’s emotional environment is programming the epigenetic read out of the child so the child is adapting to how they perceive life after birth. Emotional states are not just abstract mental experiences, they have physical correlates in our body. Our mind and our bodies are intrinsically linked and the baby experiences the changes in emotional chemicals and hormones that circulate via the placenta.
 
To have this insight as a pregnant woman is powerful and empowering. To know that what happens in the womb can last a lifetime, that parents have an opportunity to shape the development of their baby long before they are born means simply we must begin with how we treat pregnant women as a society and also how pregnant women care for themselves. Realising the importance of how a pregnant woman nurtures and cares for herself physically and emotionally is fundamental to future generations and builds self-efficacy as she approaches childbirth and motherhood.
 
Peace of mind comes when a mother has a clear understanding of the choices that are available from the beginning of pregnancy. In order for the most appropriate choices to be made based on the individual, decisions in early pregnancy such as choosing a model of maternity care, where to birth her baby, choosing a birth education program and the type of pregnancy care need to be made with open and transparent access to information. This will influence how empowered women feel about decisions that involve their body and their baby. Making positive choices based on knowledge and psychological support this allows women to build self-efficacy and erodes the fear and anxiety many women feel in pregnancy.
 
Wanting to give women solutions and strategies we have gathered together the evidence about what women can do to best lay the foundations from conception to birth, to have so they enter motherhood emotionally and physically strong and confident. The following practices stand out.
 

• Choose a model of care that closely aligns with your view of pregnancy and birth, a good philosophical match. One where you feel supported and part of all decisions involving you and your baby. Seek out a care giver and a birth support team who respects your autonomy as a birthing woman and with whom you have open and transparent communication.

 

• Nourish your body with whole foods to ensure you are not simply avoiding the foods advised by experts while pregnant but nurturing your physical body that is supporting the growth and development of a baby. Have a clear understanding of the key nutritional elements that impact a pregnant mother health and that of her baby.

 

• Balancing mind, body and spirit with a well-established practice such as yoga which will enhance strength, flexibility and endurance.

 

• Nurture emotional confidence and build self-efficacy in pregnancy. Gather tools and resources you need to grow in self- confidence and learn to connect more authentically with yourself and your baby.

 

• Develop clarity with a mindfulness meditation practice and conscious breath awareness. We cannot avoid all stress in our lives but a mindfulness practice during pregnancy can reduce anxiety levels. A mindfulness practice does not promise peaceful harmonious thoughts but rather a willingness to be mindfully present with ourselves as we are from moment to moment, fully embracing the experience of pregnancy.

 

• Nurture the relationships and connection with those closest to you during pregnancy. The birth of a baby brings less time for intimacy but also simply for conversation and connection. When two becomes three there is a new family dynamic. The basis of a couple’s relationship is an intimate connection and that connection needs to be nurtured. The more prepared in pregnancy couples are, the stronger their connection is and this equips them to deal with the challenges after they bring their baby home.

 
These strategies form the Nurturing Us Map to Pregnancy. This framework forms the foundations of our workshops and guides us as we work alongside women during pregnancy.
 
Karen McNeil and Agnele Mihovilovic
https://www.nurturingus.com.au/