STRONG WITH IONA #56

Why Your Nervous System Is the Real Birth Prep

A few months ago, when recording my pod with my very old and dear friend Georgie, we discussed the impact of nervous system health on birth. We talked about the importance of nervous system health and how focusing on this in pregnancy can have a positive impact on your birth story & recovery - whatever that looks like. And despite having two very different stories and journeys, we both agreed that our own experiences mirrored what we know from the evidence and the science. This article is born from the constant bombardment of material things we are sold as ‘necessary’ to prepare for the birth of our babies - ‘we must buy this gadget’, ‘we must have a nursery ready with x, y and z’, ‘we must buy this pram that costs 2 grand’ etc etc. In fact - instead of spending hours scrolling social media or traipsing around pram shops - our time would, in fact, be better spent practising breathwork and slowing down.

Now this intro comes from someone who finds slowing down, well, almost impossible. But almost 4 years into my new career and 3 years into some serious work on myself - my knowledge and experience of the importance of nervous system health is finally impacting my own life and those I coach. So what do we mean by nervous system health and how on earth does it support our pregnancy and postpartum journeys (and life in general tbh):

• Many of us (including myself and Georgie as we share in the pod) have spent a significant proportion of our lives chronically stuck in fight-or-flight without realising it - ‘modern’ life almost demands this of us - the pace we live, the dopamine hits, the social calendars, the smartphones, the optimising and productivity obsession - it all leads to one thing. Lack of space and time to slow down, to sit with things, to breathe - really breathe.

• Nervous system science is still catching up; most people only vaguely know “sympathetic” vs “parasympathetic” (fight-or-flight vs rest-and-digest). Many people I speak to have almost no tools to be able to shift their state from that of stress or high intensity to a calmer and more balanced state, specifically those balancing work, life and family - like new mums.

• We tend to think “I don’t have time to slow down” and as someone who spent almost 2 decades saying and doing just that, I hear you! A couple of years ago, my coach set me the impossible task (which I have subsequently set for my own clients) to simply sit in silence for 5 minutes each day - I found this unbearable; I couldn’t sit still, my mind raced, my body twitched - what a bizarre feeling to be unable to sit still in silence for 5 minutes. This started a lot of work for me on why I found this so hard and what I could do about calming my body and mind in my busy life as a new mum building my own business.

• And now working with expectant and new mothers, this focus on slowing down, shifting state and finding a state of inner calm has become integral to the work I do. What a magic tool we can provide pregnant and postnatal people - the tool to find inner calm when things around them feel out of control, to connect with their breath - which is always with them - and use this to shift their state. It is the single most powerful thing we can do for ourselves at this time - and in my opinion the emphasis on this from those working in the space is not where it should be.

• Hypnobirthing and breathwork are seen as ‘alternative approaches’, there is still the idea that you ‘choose an approach’. Why not see it as creating a toolbox for yourself rather than an approach? You don’t have to buy into the full hypnobirthing approach to learn breathwork tools to support you in labour and beyond; you don’t have to be ‘alternative’ to equip yourself with simple strategies to calm your racing mind during this wild time. Let’s remove the labels, barriers and stigma of specific approaches and start equipping people with tools to support them.

• Georgie shares so many insights in the pod, but one that really resonated with me after the birth of my second child was as Georgie frames ‘needing your body (not your head) to do the work of labour’ - such a powerful thing to consider.

Finally, we discuss with deep honesty the issues around perinatal mental health (both pre and postnatally) and our own experiences of this; these challenges are real for so many people at this time, and education around recognising this, tools to support healing and a better focus on birth preparation and recovery is so important.

I’m going to be writing a series of articles all about this and would love to know your thoughts, as well as for you to share far and wide with someone it might help. The link to the full pod with Georgie is here for anyone who wants to have a listen to our chat.

If you’d like to know a bit more about my Pregnant & Strong Trimester Toolkit, which is aimed at supporting women through trimesters 1 to 4, please head to this link and please share with someone you think might benefit.

Until next time

Iona x

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