Your Quick Guide to a Natural Birth

Yusra Syed shares some key points that expectant mothers will find very helpful: 

• The journey of pregnancy, labor, and childbirth is an amanah (trust) upon the parents.
• The father is encouraged to actively participate in the journey and birth of his child.
• It is compulsory on the expecting mother to educate herself in natural birth, care for her nutrition, be mindful of exercise and physically prepare herself for birth.
• It is on the mother to take charge and write out her natural birth plan empowering herself and excluding external interventions and overpowering of the medical procedures.
• It is her duty to be a good birth consumer and find the right people who support her birth plan and are willing to respect and stick to it and carry it out.
• It is important for a mother to place her trust in Allah (swt) that He has created her body with the ability to give birth naturally and instinctively.
• During active labor, optimal positions for relaxation and birthing include hands-and-knees and left-side lying (Sims position).
• It is important for her to be left alone and go into her zone so she can work through the process internally, instead of being pulled out into her neocortex in a very vulnerable time.
• Questions and procedures should especially be avoided at this time, and it is most important for birth attendants to abide by the birth plan and avoid interventions if she has written so.
• The body naturally effaces and dilates, allowing the descent and passage of the baby through the birth canal.
• Passage through the birth canal squeezes and clears water out of the baby's lungs and allows baby to breathe air safely for the first time."

AMANI Birth empowers mothers to have a voice of their own; to own their own birth.