Many people don’t fully prepare for their birth. Some of them go on to have wonderful birth experiences. Most of them do not.

If you want to have a positive, empowering, even transformational birth experience, you need to plan and prepare for it.

You can't overestimate the impact your birth will have on you and your baby. A traumatic birth experience can stay with you, and your baby, for the rest of your life. This is not something to wing.

Yes, this is a natural process and our bodies know how to birth if we leave them to it. But, and it's a big But, we've been conditioned to fear birth and not trust ourselves and our bodies to do it.

This might be really present for you, or it might be more subconscious. It's almost impossible for us to hear stories of people's difficult births, or watch screaming women on TV and it not leave an imprint in our energy field. We need to do some work to undo this programming.

The other But is that the vast majority of us will give birth in hospital, and even if we trust ourselves and our bodies, we're fighting with providers and a system who do not.

Redirect some of your energy that's going into the nursery and the stroller into preparing for your birth and giving yourself the best chance of it being amazing.

If you want to have a positive birth experience, you need to learn about birth and educate yourself about all the possibilities. When you know what to expect you can make the best choices for you and your baby in all eventualities, and can make a birth plan that honors your intentions and desires.

For an optimal experience, you also need to prepare your mind, body and spirit for giving birth. Having a positive mindset, a relaxed body and a deeper connection to your feminine power will align you with the energy of birthing and allow it to flow.

There are many ways to do it - affirmations, hypnobirthing, visualizations - and Reiki is one of the easiest and most impactful.

You and your body need to be relaxed for birth to unfold with grace and ease. Tension slows labor down and creates more pain.

Birth is an experience we need to surrender to. We can't plan it. We can't control it. The more we soften and yield to the energy of birth and allow it to take over, the more flow we will be in while we birth.

Reiki can support you to feel safe. If you’re nervous about giving birth or being in a hospital, Reiki can help you feel more calm. It can help you develop an inner sense of safety that carries with you.

Even if a situation might normally make you feel fearful, being able to remain connected to that inner knowing that you're safe will help you stay in your body and be able to navigate what's happening around you.

Birth is a primal experience that requires great strength, power and endurance. You have all those things within you in abundance, but you may not feel connected to them around your birth.

Reiki nourishes your energetic power centers, connecting you to your inner strength, confidence, courage and willpower. If your desire is to have an unmedicated birth and not use any pain relief medications, the more resources you have to feel powerful and to keep going when it’s really hard, the easier it will be for you to achieve that goal.

If you’re birthing in hospital you’ll likely be offered pain medication, even if you state on your birth plan that you don’t want it, and especially if you’re vocal about your pain (which it’s helpful to be, if energy gets stuck in your body it increases the amount of pain you’ll feel, and vocalizing is a great way to keep that pain energy moving through your body). The more connected you are to your power center, the more you'll be able to hold steady.

Even if you're choosing to have pharmaceutical pain relief, birth is an opportunity to claim and step fully into your power and doing so will support you to have an amazing experience.

Reiki can support you to connect to the divine feminine power within. By nourishing your sacral center, Reiki can activate and nurture your inner goddess so she's ready to unleash while you're giving birth.

Reiki supports your connection to source and can open you to the spiritual dimension of your pregnancy and birth. Connecting to the source of divine feminine energy when we’re giving birth supports us to drop deeper into our own inner goddess. It connects us to the other women around the world who are laboring together with us and the power that holds.

Ina May Gaskin famously said, ‘if a woman doesn’t look like a goddess during labor, then someone isn’t treating her right’. The more we can connect to this part of ourselves, and this part of the collective feminine, the more we can embody the goddess while we birth.

If you’ve had a previous birth trauma or baby loss, and are finding it emotionally challenging to think about and prepare for your birth, Reiki can help.

We usually hold the trauma and pain from these experiences in our hearts and our wombs. Reiki can clear the energy of those painful experiences that are still held in your body and energy field, creating space for you to soften and connect more deeply to this pregnancy and birth experience.

Reiki during pregnancy can make you feel more confident and empowered about your birth, and support you in making your choices for your birth preferences from a place of empowerment rather than a place or fear or worry.

It may not change your birth plan, but it can ensure that those decisions feel like they’re moving you towards the experience you want rather than helping you avoid the experience you don’t want.

It’s a small shift in perspective, but it can make a big difference to the mindset you go into your birth with, and your mindset will play a huge role in how your birth goes.

Reiki helps you feel relaxed and calm, which is the optimal state to be in to give birth. The more you’re in this state, the easier it is for your body to open and surrender to birth.

Reiki also grounds you and brings you into your body. The more your can stay in your body and out of your head, the easier it is for birth to unfold.

The more you can trust your body and trust birth, the more you can stay in your bubble and not be influenced by the outside, the more you can achieve your goal of an empowering, incredible, birth experience.