After three medicated, vaginal births of my oldest three boys, I desperately wanted to give birth naturally for my fourth. While I did need Cytotec to induce my 11 pound chunky man to come out, I was able to have the natural birth I’d been craving.

I’ve been *lucky* enough to have back labor with all four of my deliveries so after the first three, I knew I needed to do as much research as possible to help myself go natural. Here are my top five tips to giving birth naturally.

1. Squeeze hair brushes. Squeezing hair brushes in your hands helps turn some of your brain’s pain receptors to focus on your hands and not wherever you’re feeling your contractions. I personally grabbed these fine tooth combs from Target but I’ve also seen women using wider shower combs too. I definitely had some mild tenderness the day or two after but squeezing hair brushes helped immensely.

2. Rainbow breathing. This is a hypnobirthing technique I found to be extremely useful to help give my brain something to focus on besides the pain. Essentially Rainbow Breathing is when you think of as many things in a certain color for one full breath, the next breath you think of a different color. The colors of the rainbow in order (without indigo) are red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. So this would be an example of rainbow breathing – Breath 1 (taking a slow breath all the way in and then all the way out) think of things that are the color red – strawberries, cherries, roses, poppy flowers, etc. Breath 2 – think of things that are orange – papayas, oranges, pumpkins. Breath 3 – think of thinks that are yellow… and so on. I put pictures of different things on cards that I planned to have laid out around the room or on the bed. When the time came and my back labor was too strong, I didn’t put the cards out but making the cards in Photoshop, printing them, and cutting them out, helped with memorizing a few of them. Things in nature, specifically things I could relate the the female body and my uterus “ripening” helped me most but you could think of anything. A few times when the contractions were really bad imagining ocean waves helped the most. I’ve put my cards in a PDF for you to use if you don’t want to make your own.

3. A positive mindset. This is HUGE. Over several months I engrained in my brain that my body was made to give birth. I said to myself over and over that birth is not a scary thing that media has made it into. It is absolutely beautiful and empowering. Giving yourself over to this mindset is absolutely huge. I mentally whispered affirmations to myself in the weeks leading to my fourth son’s birth and well as numerous times during his birth. Again, I made cards to lay out but did not end up using them. I do wish I had asked my husband to lay them out for me as I ended up just repeating two in my head over and over. I’ve put my affirmation cards in a PDF as well. Please feel free to download and use.

4. Laboring Down. Laboring down is the process of not actively pushing when the second stage of labor starts bringing intense contractions and instead waiting until the baby is far down into the birth canal. Contractions are the way in which your body is pushing your baby down into the birth canal and eventually out. Pushing is exhausting. Laboring down lets your body naturally do the work without being quite so tiring. Let your body do the work for you until you feel like you absolutely need to push. Even with my first three, on Pitocin and an epidural, I did this. I waited until I felt like I couldn’t not push.

5. Sleep. This one can be tough. However, if you can get your mind to relax enough to sleep, it will help your body relax. Often a woman’s body goes into flight body and stalls out during labor. Trying to get a little sleep will let your body do it’s thing naturally as well as give you the energy you’ll need for pushing.

Bonus point for my blog readers – Your healthcare provider matters! If you don’t like your doctor/midwife change it now! I changed at 30 weeks because I was going to every single appointment angry at some things that happened in the past that I couldn’t let go. You need to be comfortable with your healthcare provider.

If you’re in Southern New Jersey, I HIGHLY recommend Joanna McGrath at Shore Physicians Group. She is an absolute rockstar and truly listens to your wants and needs.