#Pregnancy: Promoting positive language

'Filled with lots of meaning, with everything I need. Spiritually healing, words that comfort' (Joan Armatrading)

How often, though, do words cut like a knife, instead of healing and comforting us? 

We can be so sensitive to words, and this is never more true during pregnancy and labour when we are in high defense mode, protecting our babies and ourselves from harm. Unfortunately, it's hard to set yourself up with a high filter all the time, and sometimes the most well-meant comment or phrase can dent your subconscious, and haunt you for weeks or months.

Protecting ourselves can start with the language we allow ourselves to hear and use in pregnancy and in preparation for labour: 

Negative birth stories
I've written before about the negative stories we constantly hear around birth. The horror stories of a friend of a friend, or so-and-so's aunty, or even your best friend who is desperate to tell you about the PAIN (we'll get back to that in another post). 
You  can start by avoiding these stories. Don't google them. Don't get into conversations about them. Just say 'can you tell me about this AFTER I've had my baby please?'. By then, you will have your own, more positive story to talk about.

Can and can't
Those last few weeks can be tough. I remember waddling around, with my thighs rubbing together, my lower back constantly hurting, feeling huge and sweaty. I had to make a conscious effort to say 'I can' every day. Going to work. Walking down the road. Getting off the sofa. Mindfully turning the negative into the positive is a vital part of your preparation for labour. Believe you can, and you will. 

Positive affirmations
These are SO powerful, if you can get past feeling a bit of a plonker listening to them and saying them yourself. There are literally thousands of hypnobirthing affirmations. Search 'hypnobirthing' on twitter, instagram or pinterest, and you'll find them. Tiny little nuggets of positivity to have as your phone wallpaper, to stick on post its around your bed, to print on A3, to listen to in the car or while you cook your dinner, to repeat and repeat and repeat until they fill the dents on your subconscious with sparkly diamonds of confidence. My all time favourite is 'all is calm, all is well, I am safe'. 

How else has language impacted you in pregnancy? 

Part 2 on language in labour coming soon


Affirmation image c/o: http://andrewmicahornoch.tumblr.com/post/114635391297/hypnobirthing-affirmation-8