First Understand Ourselves: Labor and Birth

Learning more about our nervous system may be one of the most important things we can do during pregnancy to protect our health and our baby’s health, both during the pregnancy and afterward. Chronic stress increases the risk for many pregnancy complications and can negatively impact your baby’s development in utero. Stress is a nervous system response.

It’s not just about the pregnant parent, either. The stress of partners and other family and community members during pregnancy can spill over to impact mom and baby’s health. Across time and culture, there has been an understanding of this and community rules to protect the mother from stress during the pregnancy.

This is because humans are relational, and we evolved to survive and thrive in community. The health of the community impacts the health of the individuals in the community. The health of human relationships impacts the health of individual human bodies.

Relational health, or safety, is the cornerstone of human thriving and ease. It is also the key to a smoother, less complicated labor and birth.