Women must practice labor, choose Power. Or leave it all to chance.

This post is written for the men and women who serve pregnant families or those who are pregnant themselves. I know what I have to say is going to elicit a, ‘hell yes!’ from some and a ‘what is Colleen talking about?’ from others. I’m okay with that. I also want to thank all the people who recommend me and my classes because you are standing up for what is right, but not always accepted, and I honor you greatly for this.

What this article isn’t doing, is arguing the place of other body movement modalities. Yoga for instance, has it’s benefits that I highly encourage all people to take part in. It should be a regular practice just like strength training, whole foods and water because all these things have a great though different influence on the body.

I’ve worked with pregnant women and moms for over 3 years. I see the entire process, the big picture. I see how the choices they make, or don’t make today, impact their tomorrow. Impact their labor experience. Influence their transition into motherhood.

Labor is extremely demanding physically, mentally and emotionally fueled or crippled by body trust and body confidence. It might be the hardest thing a woman does in her lifetime.

Now, how does a woman prepare for that? Seriously, how can a woman, physically, mentally and emotionally prepare her body to do the demanding work of birthing children?

Well, how does a woman prepare her body and mind for a 5k? How does a woman prepare her body and mind for a Tough Mudder or triathlon or lifting competition or sporting event? She practices the main event. Over and over. Consistently. She trains her body to adapt to the demands of that event so when the time comes, she’s successful.

This means a woman must practice labor.

Increase her heart rate at intervals. Her heart and respiratory system must know how to handle the work of rapid air intake and pumping a lot of blood. If it doesn’t, the woman doesn’t know how to breathe properly. Hyperventilating might happen. This increases the stress response, the constriction. The fight or flight feeling. The fear.

She must strengthen her muscles to endure squats, inversions, all 4 positioning, pushing herself up, lowering herself down repeatedly. These muscles must have endurance. Once her muscles know how to work, they’ll move her easily, without much energy lost. They’ll know how to contract and relax without much stress.

Conquering workouts she knows she can mentally overcome the waves of contractions just like she overcame rope slams, kettlebell squats, rows or tire pulls. Her confidence is through the roof as to what her body can achieve!

When we actively choose healthier foods, strength training and stress lowering activities, we have better tomorrow’s. We’re taking our lives into our own hands. We have better birth experiences. We’re choosing AND acting. Even if it’s different, a change, more difficult, we’re saying yes to the health of our child and ourselves.

Even if we don’t act. We’re still choosing.

We’re choosing the easier road. The comfortable. Even if the acts are unhealthy, they’re your normal and they’re ‘safe’ because it’s routine.

I’m telling you in my expertise, my time with pregnant women and mothers and what the research shows, women who choose comfort, who choose unhealthy habits, are MORE LIKELY to have physically, emotionally and mentally tougher times in labor and motherhood than those proactive women choosing activity, health.

Stories of women who physically can not make it through labor are common. Because they’re exhausted! It’s HARD WORK! They CHOSE not to strength train for the very physical act of birthing a child. They chose and that is the result. This lights my fire.

And this is what I wonder about all the time, ‘Why are women limiting their success by not preparing?’ That’s all it is. You want something? Well you better prepare and work for it. How else will you get it if you don’t do anything about it?

Do women think that LABOR, defined as physical or mental work, especially of a hard or fatiguing kind, is going to be easy? Are we a society in so much denial of our health that we don’t remind pregnant women just how hard it will be at the end? Obviously this difficulty can be overcome, as millions of females have birthed for millions of years. The only difference is that a majority of the population wasn’t overweight, obese or suffering from other dis-eases like women are today.

We, as in, ‘professionals in the birth community’, know labor is hard. So why don’t we firmly and consistently stand up and encourage them to do anything about it? We’re letting women down by staying silent. How are we not, for the safety and health of mother and child, encouraging a pregnant woman to take the best care of herself? What the F? She is, after all, passing on genetics to further our race. We hope it’s intact DNA, not damaged by chemicals, processed foods, pollution, stress, obesity. Because yes, all those things damage DNA.

Where’s the support for optimally healthy pregnancies and thriving moms with healthy, thriving babies? We, as professionals who see the whole picture need to tell them they’ll feel better if they strength train, eat better, learn as much as possible. These habits decrease fear, reduce stress, reduce risks and prepare these warrior women for whatever comes their way.

And we’re here to support them fully, on this journey.

Yes! The newness will be uncomfortable and challenging at first but isn’t joy, power, confidence, trust after a few weeks of learning/changing better than shame, guilt and denial from irreversible, permanent experiences?

Is it not worth it to you to feel greatness and avoid possible (physical, mental, emotional) pain? If you’re a professional, families come to you as the expert, be the expert for this community! You know what it is that will help them feel their best! Share it! Just because you don’t put value in strength training during pregnancy or postpartum doesn’t mean it’s not important. Strength training is THE ONLY, most effective way, women can physically, mentally and emotionally prepare themselves for the greatest moments of their lives. Are you going to continue to meander and maybe have a chance? Or are you going to help yourself, help women, take the power in their hands to have the glorious, life changing pregnancy, labor and start to motherhood they deserve?

The choice, like I’ve been saying, is all yours. Will you choose power and love? Or will you choose comfort and chance? Remember, everything you do today, will impact you and your family’s tomorrow, positively or negatively. I deeply hope, from reading this post, you are more inclined to take a risk, no matter how uncomfortable and choose love for yourself, for women, for future generations.