Learning To Trust Your Intuition During Pregnancy

Intuition is a powerful tool that can help you make informed decisions and approach childbirth with confidence and clarity. But strengthening your intuition is not just about childbirth – it's about connecting with your inner wisdom and making empowered choices in all areas of your life.
By learning how to tap into your intuition, you can enhance your birthing experience and create a deeper connection with your baby.
In this audio I will guide you through some simple techniques for tuning into your intuition, including meditation, journaling, and mindfulness.

Transcript

Today we're talking about intuition and the power of intuition during pregnancy and birth.

Now many of you already know a lot about intuition and have probably experienced it and you've probably found that during pregnancy you're feeling a lot more intuitive.

Intuition is no more than a feeling or sense of knowing something without being able to explain how or why you know that or why you have that feeling.

And it's something that many of us experience in our everyday lives but it is especially powerful during pregnancy.

And we know that pregnancy is already a time of so many changes physical and emotional and it can be filled with joy and excitement but also with a lot of uncertainty and fear.

It's where intuition comes in because your intuition can help you navigate these changes and make decisions that are right for you and your baby.

But it's about learning to trust your intuition and trusting your intuition can be incredibly difficult when you are faced with so much conflicting advice as well as so much information,

Whether it's conflicting or not.

You will also be faced with the opinions of your family,

Of your friends,

Of your care provider,

Of your birth team and most importantly of your birth support partner.

Now one of the things that I encourage you to do in your preparation and it's a little exercise that is part of my hepto birthing training,

Is making sure that both you and your partner or the person that you have chosen to be with you during birth are on the same page.

Now that sounds very simple and you probably think that if it is your partner you are on the same page,

You've got the same outlook,

You share many of the same interests,

Of course you're on the same page.

But when you're exploring your beliefs and expectations about birth,

Well it's really important because imagine if you have decided that you would like to go through your labor without using any pain medication whatsoever,

You're going to be taking hypno birthing classes and that is your preference and you haven't spoken to your partner about it that much and his idea based on his beliefs and expectations is that you should just have the epidural or possibly even that why would you even go through natural childbirth,

Wouldn't it be easier and possibly even better for you to have an elective cesarean section.

Now that's a very sort of extreme example of being on the same page but a very valid one.

Are you and your partner aligned in what it is that you would like and what you believe you would like for the way that your baby is brought into this world,

For the way that your baby is born?

How important is the birth experience for both you and your partner and how important do you and your partner think the birth experience is on your baby?

And those are the kinds of things that you want to be exploring and kinds of things that will impact your ability to trust your intuition.

You also want to know how your partner feels about intuition and intuitive thoughts and ideas and does your partner believe in intuition?

Does he or she trust the intuition?

And how important is intuition in the decision-making process,

Especially when it comes to decisions that involve your well-being and the well-being of your baby?

And these are incredibly important things to discuss and to work on in part of your preparation because once again I'm going to use an extreme example but if you are sitting in your doctor's consulting rooms and they are suggesting something that goes against what you had originally wanted for your birth and intuitively you feel like it doesn't feel right and you would like more information,

Does your partner feel the same way?

How willing are you and your partner to listen to that intuition and to use the tools that you learn to be able to effectively communicate that need for more information so that you can make an informed decision that is based both on the answers that you receive in that conversation coupled with your intuitive feeling.

And it's something that I encourage you to practice during your pregnancy with simplest simple simple things simple everyday things that really don't have much consequences.

Simple things like deciding which way you're going to go when you head out in your car in the morning to work.

Do you intuitively feel like you would take the back route and avoid some traffic,

Then do it and then find out that perhaps there was a traffic jam in the way that you normally go?

Do you intuitively feel as if you would like to stop on the way home and grab a takeaway only to get home and find that your husband was thinking about pizza all day and he's so happy that you decided to do that?

Really simple examples from everyday life but listening to that little voice,

Listening to those little urges and prompts that you get in your mind and learning to use those to practice your intuition when it comes to more important decisions,

Those that involve your health and the well-being of you and your baby.

So how can you learn to trust your intuition during pregnancy?

I've got a couple of fun and creative ideas and ways that you can incorporate into your daily life and that'll be just one of them and I really would love to hear your feedback of how you have incorporated those into your life and also some examples of listening to intuition and what a difference it's made.

One of the things that I highly encourage is keeping a dream journal because dreams are a great way to tap into your subconscious and your intuition and keeping a dream journal next to your bed and writing down your dreams as soon as you wake up is a wonderful way of seeing if there's any patterns or symbols that might provide insight into the way you're feeling about your pregnancy or possibly your preparation for your birth.

For example you might dream of giving birth in water which could indicate that you would like to find out more about what water birth is like,

Why women choose to give birth in water,

What the advantages are,

Are there any drawbacks,

Is it even possible where you are living and in your situation and it will prompt you to find out more information and remember of course if you haven't listened to that episode about the five different types of bias you might want to go and listen to those to make sure that it doesn't get in the way of you seeking out additional information.

Another wonderful way of practicing and learning to trust your intuition is meditation which is just a way of quietening your mind and tuning into your inner wisdom.

Very often people think that meditation is clearing the mind and the reality is that we all have a chattery monkey mind and it's very difficult not to think and a beautiful way of meditating is by setting a timer or listening to a guided meditation or visualization to help you to focus your mind and to bring it back keeping it sort of from jumping off into what you're going to have for dinner,

What you had last night,

What you're gonna wear,

But try guided meditations that are designed specifically for pregnancy and birth and I have many of them or just simply sitting in silence and focusing on your breath but as you meditate whether you're doing as a guided visualization or on your own pay attention to the thoughts and feelings that arise because these might be your intuition speaking to you and they may arise during the time that you're meditating or just because you've given your mind a little bit of a rest and consciously relaxed or done some focused attention you might find that when you finish that relaxation or meditation and you're cooking dinner something arises that you know is a little voice,

The voice of intuition,

Your voice of inner knowing or you might even think of it as your higher self and listen to that and notice,

Take note of what it is that you are thinking or feeling or sensing,

Write it down if need be because creative writing or writing things down is a very powerful way of accessing your intuition and one of the things that I use in my courses and classes a lot is free writing and free writing for a few minutes each day just letting your thoughts flow without judgment,

Without analysis,

Without the need to justify is a wonderful way of seeing what is actually going on in your head and especially if you do a simple free writing exercise on your beliefs and expectations about birth.

If you've listened to the episode on beliefs and expectations then you'll know what I'm talking about and a wonderful exercise to do is to set a timer for 20 minutes sit down with a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil and I recommend sitting down with a pen and pencil rather than doing it on your computer and free writing everything you think you know or have heard or have seen or do actually know about the process of giving birth.

Every word,

Every sensation,

Every feeling,

Every thought just allow those words to come out of the pen and onto the paper.

Don't worry about spelling or punctuation or how neat or tidy your writing is just let those words come out and when the 20 minute timer goes off you'll probably be finished and if you're not then you still feel like there's more to come out keep on going and at the end of that free writing exercise what you'd like to do is read through it and see if there is a theme that arises.

Do the thoughts speak to a deep-seated fear or a lot of anxiety?

Are they all over the place?

Is there a lot of stuff that you've heard that you think might get in the way?

What would happen if some of the things that you've written about had to become your reality?

How would you feel?

And at the end of that what can you do to change that?

So free writing is a beautiful way of actually seeing where it is that your mind is at and of exploring the beliefs and expectations that you have about pregnancy and birth.

And another beautiful exercise that you could do is writing a letter to your future self asking for guidance and insight on your pregnancy and birth journey.

Do that as a separate exercise but I'd love to get your feedback and if you are willing to to share that with us in the Judea Club community.

And then another exercise and one that I actually do as part of my hypnobirthing classes and training is creating a vision board.

The vision board is no more than a collage of images and words that represent your goals and your desires and there's a way of doing it for your pregnancy and birth,

Finding the images and the colors and the words that really resonate with you and that the process of creating that vision board is an incredibly powerful one as part of your preparation creating the blueprint for your birth the way that you would like it to look and feel.

Connecting with your baby is very much about intuition and your intuition is closely connected to your bond with your baby.

So I encourage you to spend some quiet time each day connecting with your baby whether it's through meditation,

Whether it's through touch,

Now your hand on your belly and just noticing how your baby responds to that whether it's through breathing and the belly breathing technique that I teach is a beautiful way of connecting with your baby because pretty much guaranteed that every time you do that belly breathing exercise your baby will respond with a few kicks and punches and rolling around and just responding to the increased oxygenation as you do that beautiful deep slow belly breathing and just listening for any inner wisdom or guidance that comes up as you feel that deep connection that you already hold with your baby and as you discover your own unique form of communication with your baby that you develop and know during pregnancy because your sense of intuition is going to be a very important part of those first days with your baby and you really want to be able to trust that intuition.

Very often the moms that I work with say how can I possibly trust my intuition this is my first baby I don't know anything.

You know more than any book and every book that has ever been written.

You know more than me.

You may not have the experience,

You may not have the training and the expertise but you know your baby better than me and just with that little bit of guidance from me coming and sharing my expertise and training with you and giving you that the guidelines are and the boundaries of what to look for but using that together with your intuition will help you to create a beautiful schedule and a routine with your baby and to really trust what it is that you know as the mother of your child.

The most important way that you can learn to trust your intuition is to simply trust yourself.

Trust that you know what's best for you and your baby.

Trust that you have the inner wisdom and the strength to navigate whatever challenge may arise and this I know for sure.

Practice listening to instincts and acting on them even if it goes against what others may advise because as you learn to trust yourself more deeply your intuition will naturally grow stronger.

Learning to trust your intuition is a process that takes time and practice so be patient with yourself but have fun exploring these different methods of tapping into your inner wisdom because with time and practice you'll find that trusting your intuition becomes second nature and you will feel empowered and it will be easy to make the best choices for you and your baby.