What I Learned About Birth While Training for, Competing in, and DNFing my First Half Iron Triathlon Pt. 4

It's been a minute since I've thought about this series, but I think it's super important to finish it none the less. If you're wondering what this whole thing is about, I talk in Pt. 1 about the race that took me to my limits and how it relates to birth. In Pt. 2 I talk about the importance of knowing your gear, fuel, and how to prepare your environment for birth. And finally, written months ago now, I hit on Pt. 3 which looks at learning from those who went before you and how getting educated about birth can make all the difference.

Today I want to finally finish the series with this grand finale point. Birth is an endurance activity. You are working hard for hours on end, and there's a final- literal- push at the end that will bring you to new limits. Understanding how to push your physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual boundaries takes hard work.

And it's simply not something that you can wing.

So let me give you the background of what happened to me before we talk through labor preparation. When I trained, I knew the importance of envisioning myself competing and pushing myself. I had a couple of tools to keep me motivated and pushing through, like deep breathing, singing, affirmations, and counting (kind of sounds like labor right?). But I practiced these things so little, even while training, so I didn't lay the proper neural pathways to find my calm, the peace in the storm.

And by the second 24 mile loop I had to make on the bike, I was struggling. The back portion of it was long, extremely bumpy, and hot. I tried to access the tools I knew I could, but I hadn't worn a very deep mental pathway to center myself. It had been hard to train my mind because it's easy to slack off when you're not experiencing discomfort. And since I didn't really follow a training plan, the discomfort that could have triggered me to practice harder mentally never came.

After 56 miles I got off the bike with numb feet, an aching back, serious exhaustion, and spiraling anxiety. I had 13 miles of running left to do which included several steep, long hills, and a steep descent to the finish line

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I tried to run, pacing like I'd practiced, but my mental game was gone. I'd run. My heart rate would spike. My mind would spiral. And I'd start to panic. I cycled through this over and over for 4 miles before I called it, completely defeated.

My body was able, my mind was not. It was the biggest training pitfall of all to skip the work of mentally training myself.

And birth is no different. You find the edge of your ability, the end of your strength, and you blow past it multiple times in labor. You are expanding literally and figuratively to hold more, carry more than you ever thought possible. The best part is, you can't quit either. Your body will carry you through if you train yourself to surrender, to ride over the crashing waves, to breathe through the rushes.

How does one train mentally for this? Start in a calm, peaceful space. Sit with an affirmation, song, prayer, scripture, phrase, counting, or even visual that brings you some sort of strength or joy. Practice reciting this over and over, leaning into the calm.

Do this a whole lot. Every day if you can, maybe even multiple times a day. Wear down that neural path. Then, key back into it when you're doing something hard. Maybe you're arguing with a spouse or kid. Perhaps you're exercising and pushing yourself. Practice it when you're working through something painful. Increase the pressure over time if you can to strengthen your ability to confidently sink back into the peace, joy, and calm of your visual or phrase.

Then, when the going gets tough and you need to focus through labor, you simply have to start down that well tread mental path that leads you back to a place of calm. This won't remove the challenges of labor, but it will help you to keep your mind from spiraling, spilling you into a place of fear and lack of confidence in your ability to birth.

With mental practice, you'll have an invaluable tool to help you cross the finish line.

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Wow. It only took me nine months to metaphorically put pen to paper on how

my endurance failure can ultimately be your empowered birth. It makes that defeat feel a touch more worth it if one woman can overcome her fear of birth, and take control in her labor and delivery preparation.

If you think you could use a little help in this preparation process, and a cheerleader in your corner during birth, I would love to be the doula to do that for you. Schedule a free consult! Shoot me a text! Let's chat and see how we can get you to a place of confidence in your body's ability to birth.