Labor Mindset: How to Prepare for the Roller Coaster Ride of Childbirth with Mama Nurse Tina

Welcome back to another episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast: Pregnancy & Parenting Untangled. In today’s episode, we have a special guest, Mama Nurse Tina, joining our host, Hilary Erickson, to discuss the importance of having the right mindset during labor. Hilary shares her personal experiences and recommends taking a birth class to gain knowledge and confidence. They discuss the need to lower expectations, create a comfortable labor environment, and surround yourself with supportive people. They also emphasize the importance of being prepared with a birth plan and practicing for different scenarios. Tune in to learn more about labor mindset and how it can positively impact your birth experience. Plus, stay tuned for upcoming episodes on organizing mindset and postpartum. As always, thank you for listening, and don’t forget to review, share, and subscribe to help us grow. Now let’s dive into the episode!

Listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts or Spotify (or any of your favorite podcast players).

Big thanks to our sponsor The Online Prenatal Class for Couples — if you’re looking to get your mindset in the right space — come join us!

Today’s guest is Tina B. She’s been a labor and delivery nurse for more than 11 years now and has been working hard lately on bringing people all over the world evidenced based information to help them navigate pregnancy, childbirth and their postpartum journey through her three social media platforms.

Find her:

• Tiktok https://www.tiktok.com/@mama_nurse_tina
• Youtube https://youtube.com/@mamanursetina

Links for you:

Timestamps:

00:00:00 Podcast discusses labor mindset with guest nurse.
00:06:09 Disneyland trip: 50% good, 50% awful. Birth trauma and disappointments stem from high expectations.
00:08:31 Creating a personalized environment for hospital birth.
00:12:18 Transitioned to more inviting rooms since 1990.
00:14:57 Supportive people are crucial during labor.
00:18:06 Having supportive people in the room matters.
00:20:30 Inductions can be long, requires preparation.
00:23:18 Be flexible and prepare for different scenarios.

Keypoints:

1. Importance of taking a birth class to increase knowledge and confidence during labor.
2. Mindset plays a crucial role in having a positive birth experience.
3. The speaker recommends joining an online prenatal class for couples to help with mindset.
4. Upcoming episodes on organizing mindset and postpartum.
5. The importance of lowering expectations and the difficulty of preparing for childbirth.
6. Creating a personalized and comforting environment in the labor room.
7. Importance of having supportive people during labor who understand their role.
8. The speaker shares personal experiences with supportive family members during labor.
9. The significance of having a well-prepared birth preferences list or birth plan.
10. The importance of practice and muscle memory in high-pressure situations during childbirth.

Producer: Drew Erickson

Transcript

[00:00:00.600] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 213, we are talking about your labor mindset continuing on with Mindset Month. Let’s untangle it.

[00:00:10.660] – Hilary Erickson

Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the pregnancy nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop over complicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with pregnancy and Parenting Untangled, The Pulling Curls Podcast.

[00:00:40.250] – Hilary Erickson

Today’s guest is one of my favorite nurses online. She’s been on the podcast before. I want to introduce today’s guest, Mama Nurse Tina.

[00:00:47.700] – Hilary Erickson

This episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast is sponsored by The Online Prenatal Class for couples. If you are looking to get in the right mindset before birth, it is going to be your very best friend. So take a peek because getting prepared for birth is totally going to help your mindset. You can find it through the show notes or at onlineprenatalclass.com.

[00:01:05.940] – Hilary Erickson

Hey, Tina. Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast again.

[00:01:09.180] – Mama Nurse Tina

Good morning. It’s good to be back.

[00:01:11.180] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, I’m so glad you’re here. You guys all know Mama Nurse Tina from TikTok, Instagram. Where are you the biggest, do you think?

[00:01:18.210] – Mama Nurse Tina

Oh, my God.

[00:01:18.930] – Hilary Erickson

Oh, my Gosh. I can’t even.

[00:01:20.910] – Mama Nurse Tina

Probably TikTok. Tiktok is the biggest following. Yeah.

[00:01:24.690] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. But she’s all over the place. So I’m super excited to have her on our Mindset Month. We’ve been talking about mindset. We’ve done pregnancy mindset. We’re talking labor mindset today. But I’ve even talked parenting, organizing because I think mindset, especially as a mom, because it’s not like you’re just running this marathon and then you’re done.

[00:01:46.360] – Mama Nurse Tina

You’re running it forever. It’s a long marathon.

[00:01:51.450] – Hilary Erickson

So, Tina, give me one of your best labor mindset tips.

[00:01:56.370] – Mama Nurse Tina

I would say probably the best labor mindset tip is to know what you want, but be prepared for what you want, because I think a lot of people will come into it and they’re like, Yeah, I want to do this, this, and this, but they haven’t thought it through. They haven’t practiced it or really involved all the things they need to involve.

[00:02:16.280] – Mama Nurse Tina

Then they get there and in the moment, practicing it when you’re just hanging around your house or taking a poop or whatever you’re doing when you’re practicing is so different than when you’re in rip-roaring labor and there’s people and sounds and lights and it’s a big to do. I think knowing what you want, but practicing what you’re planning to do ahead of time is like my number one. Get there. Here.

[00:02:39.170] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. Often I would have gals come in and say, I don’t want an epidural. I’m like, That’s amazing. I’m so excited for you. Let’s do it. What preparation have you done? They’re like, I watched a couple of TikToks. I’m like, I love that so much for you. I love that for you.

[00:02:54.780] – Mama Nurse Tina

Was it Mama Nurse Tina that they watched?

[00:02:56.640] – Hilary Erickson

No, it was not you. It was probably something… Back in the day.

[00:02:59.690] – Mama Nurse Tina

Back in the day.

[00:03:01.260] – Hilary Erickson

I totally agree. You got to prepare for what you want.

[00:03:05.740] – Mama Nurse Tina

Yeah, because. When it hits the fan, man, you got to be like your brain has to take over. It’s like your your muscle memory has to kick in. You can know what you need to do. But if you haven’t practiced it, and my number one example of this is like breathing techniques. We talk a lot about breathing techniques, and there are so many other things you can do other than just like blowing your eyeballs out and just pushing with all you have.

[00:03:24.970] – Mama Nurse Tina

But if you haven’t practiced a different breathing technique, then it goes the window when you’re trying to push and everyone’s trying to coach you and you’re like, No, but I want to do it this way. But then you haven’t practiced it, so your body doesn’t know what to do with that. That’s probably the biggest thing. Practice, unagi.

[00:03:42.050] – Hilary Erickson

I just had somebody in my face, I don’t know, one of my things was saying, It’s really not fair because we get deep into labor and then they offer us pain meds and we take them. I’m like, Well, I mean, is my job to not offer them? Do you literally want me to just chain them up and put a lock on it?

[00:03:58.870] – Mama Nurse Tina

Right, yeah. I like to know ahead of time. Like when you first come in, let me know what you need. Because if you don’t want me to offer it, I won’t. But I want you know it’s there if you need it. But if you’re like, hell-bent against it, that is totally cool. We are here for you. But let me know and then I won’t even broach the subject. And you can code word or secret word that you can say if you’re like, Okay, now I want you to tell me about it and I will tell you all of it.

[00:04:21.730] – Hilary Erickson

Yes. Let me pull out all my instructions.

[00:04:25.230] – Mama Nurse Tina

It is here, but if you don’t want to know if you don’t have to, that’s fine. Yeah. Do the unagi, do the prep, the mental prep.

[00:04:32.460] – Hilary Erickson

Okay. My tip, which is the same for basically every part, is to lower your expectations. Because I love that… The thing is you prepare and you think, I’m going to visualize this amazing labor. I am all about, it’s going to be natural. My pareneum will look the same as before. Everything’s just going to be perfect.

[00:04:55.570] – Hilary Erickson

And lower the expectations. Prepare. That’s the because it is hard to like… Same with going to the beach with your kids. It’s hard to prepare with the lunch and not be like, This is going to be a perfect day at the beach, rather than I’m going to bring all this stuff, but who knows if we’re not going to all turn to, ogres while we’re there, or it’ll be closed, or there will be seaweed everywhere. Who knows?

[00:05:18.930] – Mama Nurse Tina

You know what? Even if everyone’s ogres, in the end, you still got to the beach and you still made memories with your kids. They weren’t the memories you wanted them to be. Initially, you thought it was going to be different, but you still made the memories. You got there. You have the memories. I agree. Sometimes you have to prep for what you want, have it in your mind. But yeah, I would agree that maybe be flexible in your expectations.

[00:05:43.690] – Mama Nurse Tina

Do a little- a little less here, a little more here, a little flexibility.

[00:05:48.330] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, because I do feel like a lot of the trauma that people end up talking to me about is because they had the expectations. And my trauma as a parent has been because of my expectations of how I thought it would be. And so since I’m not out of the baby delivering zone anymore, I feel it more on this end, but it’s just an issue for my whole life.

[00:06:08.350] – Mama Nurse Tina

Thank you. It’s true. We just went to Disneyland and I was like, This is going to be the best trip ever. I would say it was 50 % good memories and 50 % awful memories. You think it’s going to be amazing. And it’s like, Oh boy. But again, you set yourself up for thinking it’s going to be this huge…

[00:06:22.660] – Mama Nurse Tina

And you know what? Maybe it will be like maybe you’ll come in and you’ll have these ideas or your preferences for your birth and you come in and it goes amazing and you feel super satisfied and fulfilled in that experience, but maybe it’s not going to go that way. I agree that. I think you’re right. A lot of people when they talk about having a bad experience or having birth trauma, and birth trauma is so much more prevalent than people even know.

[00:06:45.740] – Mama Nurse Tina

I think a lot of people think like, Oh, you’ll only have birth trauma if something detrimental happens to you or bad to baby. But it can be as simple as no one told me this was going to happen and it happened and that caused me birth trauma. I agree. I think a lot of the times, these, I don’t want to say disappointments, a lot of people are like, Well, it didn’t go how I wanted it to, but it was still nice.

[00:07:05.820] – Mama Nurse Tina

But they feel a little disappointed. I think some of that disappointment probably comes from having these huge expectations on something that’s like the least plan-able thing that you could ever plan in life, ever.

[00:07:17.230] – Hilary Erickson

It’s even worse than a Disney.. Trip. It’s even worse, if you can.

[00:07:21.430] – Mama Nurse Tina

Imagine that. It’s still fresh, so I can’t imagine how it could be worse. No, I’m just kidding. It was really bad.

[00:07:26.500] – Hilary Erickson

Those kids are all… It was so hot. It’s been so hot at Disneyland. It was.

[00:07:30.530] – Mama Nurse Tina

Hot and they were nasty. I have four kids and they were on top of each other and there was hitting. I was like that parent at Disney, Stop hitting your brother. If anybody was there just recently and you heard that parent, it was me. I was that parent.

[00:07:43.650] – Hilary Erickson

It was me. Oh, I hear those comments all the time. It’s fine.

[00:07:45.890] – Mama Nurse Tina

But we had huge expectations. We were like, Why do we do this to ourselves every time? We have these huge expectations and all these plans we want to get done. Then when they don’t get done, we’re like, Well, that sucks.

[00:07:55.860] – Hilary Erickson

But you’re like, I mean, the good news, Tina, is that’s a super cheap vacation.

[00:07:59.520] – Mama Nurse Tina

It’s so cheap. That’s why I’m going to work right after that. So cheap. But again, we set ourselves up. We almost set ourselves up for disappointment because we walk into it being like, This is going to be the best thing ever. We just planned too many things and we didn’t give ourselves the grace to be like, If that doesn’t happen, that’s okay. We’ll still have memories. It’ll still be fun. The kids probably won’t care. Anyway, we’re sidebar, Disneyland sidebar. Sidebar.

[00:08:25.010] – Hilary Erickson

Anyway, yeah. Hilary’s life is a Disneyland sidebar, I feel like. Okay, what’s your next mindset, Tina?

[00:08:31.050] – Mama Nurse Tina

I think it has to do, I think, with the physical environment of actually physically putting your mind in a place that is suitable to you. A lot of people feel like when you go into the hospital, this is for hospital birth. I know that birth centers are completely different. But in a hospital birth, a lot of people just think it has to be this bright, sterile, loud environment and that’s just how it has to be, and that’s not it.

[00:08:54.120] – Mama Nurse Tina

I’m here to spread the word, spread the word that you can make your hospital birth look how you want it to look for the most part. There are times where we need lights on for safety. I’m not going to start your IV in the dark by candlelight, but I think you can bring in things like twinkle lights. You can request dim lighting. You can bring in your own playlist as you could be as calming or as jacking up as you want it to be. You can bring in pictures of things or people that you want to look at. Maybe you’ve had a family member pass on and it would give you a calming presence to have a picture of them there.

[00:09:23.700] – Mama Nurse Tina

You can bring in pillows and stuffed animals. You can bring whatever you want to bring in. But get your mind in the mindset by being in the mood and the environment that you want it to be in and just know that it doesn’t have to be bright and sterile and obnoxious. Those fluorescent lights above, I’m always like, Let’s kill those because they’re awful. It’s like… Yeah, get in the mindset by being in an environment that allows you to relax into your birthing experience.

[00:09:51.360] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. A lot of times I have all those fluorescents on in the beginning. I want to see everything about the patient. I want to put in her IV with all the lights on. I don’t want to see if there’s anything sketchy going on, husband, side eye to the husband. And then I’m like, Okay, what do we want the lights? And there are like 16 million lights, at least in the labor I worked in.

[00:10:11.600] – Mama Nurse Tina

You could never find them. You’re like, Where is the switch in this room? Do I wish them off?

[00:10:15.630] – Hilary Erickson

Come on. Yeah, but I’d always be like, up top like up top, like at the optometrist’s. Do you like this lighting or do you like this lighting? Do you like this lighting?

[00:10:22.190] – Mama Nurse Tina

Number one or number two?

[00:10:23.210] – Hilary Erickson

And everybody’s different. Some women were like, I want all the lights on. I don’t want to wake up and not know where I am. I really don’t like that. And some people wanted it like I was like, I’ve got to leave one light on because I’m going to have to come in and I don’t want to have a fall.

[00:10:37.500] – Mama Nurse Tina

With your flashlight, with your phone, your iPhone, I can’t see you. It’s all like the strobe setting. But it doesn’t have to be that way. I find those lights super obnoxious. I haven’t just given birth, so I can imagine somebody who’s in pain or who has a brand new baby. It’s like the lights from when you were at the bar when you were 18 and they all came on and you’re like, It’s so bright. It doesn’t have to be like that, people. You can bring in your stuff. Bring it all in. That’s fine. It doesn’t bother us. Bring it in.

[00:11:05.400] – Hilary Erickson

I will also say some of these new birth centers that I see on the tikkity tok, I’m like, Dang. They have the mood lighting in it. Taking a hospital to where I always can alert you to what’s going to be in there, because you don’t want to pack the mood lighting if they’re going to bring it to you.

[00:11:18.570] – Mama Nurse Tina

But that is true. Some of them have the birth towards the lights in them. Oh, my God.

[00:11:23.390] – Hilary Erickson

But that is rare. Just so everybody knows. Sometimes I see that on TikTok, and I’m like, Man, I hope people, especially some of the hospitals I delivered at in the super expensive California areas, they’re never going to look like that. They just aren’t. They’re surviving on a slim margin.

[00:11:38.550] – Mama Nurse Tina

You have to bring in. That’s why I say if it’s important to you, bring it in, and then you can make it look how you want it to look. In after the initial admission, you’ve got time. Unless you’re coming in in transition, then the lights are going to be on.

[00:11:52.780] – Mama Nurse Tina

But if you come in and you’re in early labor or you’re just starting an active labor, you’ve got time. We’re going to chat with you. We’re going to get the things done. If you need an IV, we’re going to put it in. Then you are free to do your thing. You could have whoever is with you just puke twinkle lights all over that room if you really want to do like this. But it doesn’t have to be bright and sterile. No bad. It doesn’t.

[00:12:12.960] – Hilary Erickson

Have to be that way. No. I think the hospital wishes it wasn’t, especially… I certainly do. I feel like they’re turning the corner that they wish that the rooms looked a little more inviting. They’re definitely have transitioned to more inviting since when I started in 1990, I think is when I first stepped into a labor room. So shut up. We’re not talking about that.

[00:12:31.500] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, the next thing we’re going back to a Disney metaphor here is to prepare like a Space Mountain. So if you’ve never been on Space Mountain, it is a roller coaster in the dark. And so you have to prepare that she hates it. I love it. It’s fine. Everything’s fine.

[00:12:47.270] – Hilary Erickson

You have to prepare that a little bit of it is going to be in the dark. But I have ridden Space Mountain so many times that I know how to brace myself so that I don’t get rocked side to side. Yeah. But the other thing is because I’ve learned about Space Mountain, I have that experience. And so when you take a class, you learn this is going to happen. This is very normal. This is very normal. Rather than you get to that top of the hill and it starts rocketing you down.

[00:13:14.550] – Hilary Erickson

You have no idea what’s going on in every drop. You’re like, Is this going to be even worse? Is it going to be even worse? Whereas if you just know, okay, again, I knew that was going to happen. I knew that was going to happen. So the more you know about how to ride Space Mountain, the easier it is. So getting prepared in advance.

[00:13:30.600] – Mama Nurse Tina

It might help a lot. I would second the birth class. The birth class, it should be just like, Hey, you’re pregnant, sign up for birth class. I think it just gives you that base of knowledge to come in and you’re going to feel more confident too.

[00:13:46.270] – Mama Nurse Tina

Personally, when I go into a situation and I know nothing about it, I feel so unprepared. It gets in my head, I’m like, What’s going to happen? What’s happening? But if you just have a little bit, even just a little bit of some knowledge there, then you could be like, Okay, I remember talking about this. Some people are like, What? I have to birth a placenta after the baby? Those are things that you can learn about. Then you’re not surprised when we’re like, Okay, I need that question. You’re like, For what?

[00:14:12.430] – Hilary Erickson

Am I having twins? I’ve had moms go, Is there another one in there? Right? Yeah. Oh my gosh, I hope not, because I only have one blanket.

[00:14:22.100] – Mama Nurse Tina

Budget cuts. We only have one blanket. But yeah, just stuff like that where you’re like, That is not going to throw you for a loop when you’re in a space where you don’t want to be… You don’t want to be doing any loops. And also, space mountain is awful. Don’t do it. It’s just fine. My kids love it. I go on it. It’s just not my favorite because I don’t know which way I’m going to go. It’s exactly this is what we’re talking about. I don’t know which way we’re going to go, so I don’t like it because I’m a planner and I like to know where I’m going.

[00:14:47.730] – Hilary Erickson

Whereas I know it’s mostly left turns and then there’s that one, a couple of rights. See?

[00:14:52.460] – Mama Nurse Tina

Oh man, I’m telling you, not my favorite.

[00:14:55.500] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, what’s your last tip?

[00:14:57.320] – Mama Nurse Tina

My last tip for a great labor experience? I think this one’s like it’s one of my top ones. It’s just a little bit underneath being mentally prepared. Surround yourself with people who are going to be supportive and not just a bystander. I’ve seen a slew, you probably have too, Hilary, a slew of support people who are not support people. They are simply there as like a person just checking the sights, watching what’s happening. They’re not there.

[00:15:25.560] – Mama Nurse Tina

Support people, I think what they need to understand is that they are there to support you. They’re not there to witness a birth of a baby. That’s like a beautiful extra that they get to experience, but they’re there to support you. And so that needs to be their role. If they are playing on the PlayStation 5 or making a panini sandwich, or they’re like they’re blowing up their air mattress because they want to get eight hours of sleep before it, that’s not going to help you at all.

[00:15:50.060] – Mama Nurse Tina

A support person who is invested and involved in supporting you is worth it’s weight in gold, and I think it’s going to tremendously help your mindset when you are in labor, especially in later stages of labor, because they can be there to remind you of what you want, remind you of those things that you’re prepared for that we are being a little bit flexible on.

[00:16:08.410] – Mama Nurse Tina

They can remind you of those things when you get unsure of yourself, which if you’re unmedicated, even if you have an epidural, but if you’re unmedicated, it’s almost guaranteed going to happen when you hit a specific point because you’re like, I just can’t do this.

[00:16:20.740] – Mama Nurse Tina

You’re like, Yes, you can. Here’s what you wanted to do. Remember this. This is what you wanted to do. They can be there to do all the things that are going to comfort you. They can give you counter pressure. They can rub your feet if that’s the thing, or they can stay eight feet away but just tell you verbally like, Great job.

[00:16:33.850] – Mama Nurse Tina

But if they’re there and they’re just a bystander that is not invested, it’s actually more distracting, I find, than the person having a baby and it’s going to wreck your mindset when you’re at labour.

[00:16:45.270] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, my favorite is the partner that’s over there on their phone and he goes, You got this, babe.

[00:16:51.030] – Mama Nurse Tina

Yeah, they don’t even look up. Great job. You’re doing it. You’re crushing it. Yeah, awesome. You’re not even looking at me. You’re like, But I’m not doing anything. I’m actually just a sip of water. Thanks for the… Yeah. Right. Be checked in. And that could be your support person.

[00:17:06.170] – Mama Nurse Tina

But people don’t realize that this is a little bit of a touchy subject. But your partner who made the baby with you, they don’t actually have to be in the room for you to successfully have a baby. In most cases, 98% of them maybe 95, that’s the person you want there because you love them and you made a baby with them and they want to be part of it.

[00:17:26.470] – Mama Nurse Tina

But if they don’t want to be there and you don’t like them or you don’t want them to be like, they don’t have to be there to have your baby. Baby will still come out whether you like them or not. But this can be your partner or it can be your mom or your sister. It could be a doula. Doulas are an incredible piece to have to the puzzle to make your mindset of your labor be more positive and more appropriate to where you’re at. But yeah, support person, yeah, it’s like mindset, support person. Support person.

[00:17:54.320] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah, so many people are just like, Well, I prepared for birth and then my husband was just tagging along. I’m like, Oh, poor husband. Poor you. It could have been better for your husband. You’re making the choice for them that it’s not going to be as good as they could have hoped.

[00:18:06.800] – Mama Nurse Tina

Yeah, and they might too. I’m telling you, having people in that room that want to be in that room for you is so important. I think people lose that. Like, Oh, you want to come and see my baby to be born?

[00:18:17.960] – Mama Nurse Tina

But that might be more distracting to you than you realize. Yes, they want to see your baby be born, but they should be there for you. Everyone I had in the room was there to support me, and then they got to enjoy the birth of the baby as well. But it was… I think the first one, it was like my husband and my sister, and so she was really involved in me and she really wanted to be there because she had C-sections, so she had never seen a vaginal birth.

[00:18:39.410] – Mama Nurse Tina

She came and she was blown away. But she was there to support me as well. She was like, Do you need anything? What can I get for you bringing yellow things? Then my second one was my mom and my husband. Again, my mom is my mom, so she wants to make sure that I’m okay. She was amazing to have in there. I just can’t imagine having somebody who you can tell when somebody doesn’t want to be somewhere, and that would be really distracting to me. So they can be a huge asset if you pick the right people.

[00:19:06.030] – Hilary Erickson

And I think it adds to your pain, because I had a lady just flipping out and the husband was just over there working on his laptop. And I asked him, I was like, What does she usually do? How what are her coping skills like at home? And he goes, I don’t know, and then went back to typing. And she got even more upset because he was just so uninvested. So not… On top of the labor, she had jerk face over in the corner.

[00:19:28.230] – Mama Nurse Tina

So good times. No helpful. You might as well not be there. You know what? How about this? If you’re a working person and you are a support person and there are people in this world that have important work to do, I get it, just step out. Go take your call. And you know what? Here’s my other tip. If you’re on your phone, support people, turn the sound off, turn that. But nobody wants to hear that. It’s not helpful. Just turn it off. Okay, don’t do it. Just don’t do it.

[00:19:54.960] – Hilary Erickson

Anyway. Funny.

[00:19:55.860] – Mama Nurse Tina

Support people. Get yourself. What’s your last one?

[00:19:58.270] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, my last one is that it could be real long. I think a lot of people are shocked by it, because the admission process is very quick. Because I as a nurse, they’re like, You have one hour to get that admission done. You’re going to ask her 6,000 questions. You’re going to get the IV in. You’re going to have to have to get it done. She’s already been asked to be done. You’re going to have to have to get some piles of paperwork done in that hour. So as a nurse, I’m like, chop, chop, chop, chop, chop. And then I’m like, IV’s in and… Or we’ve put in the cytotech and then nothing. Yeah, they’re like, okay. It’s a lot of hurry up and wait.

[00:20:29.840] – Mama Nurse Tina

It is especially these inductions. These inductions where they’re like close, thick, long, like what does Jen Hamilton say? Thicker than a snicker. When they’re thicker than a snicker, it’s going to take a long time. And I would 100 % agree. And again, this goes back to what you were talking about when you’re like, be more prepared, because if you know this, I think a lot of people, yeah, they don’t know it, and then they’re like, Well, it’s been 24 hours. It’s been 36 hours. Like why are we still in the induction process? Because they didn’t know that.

[00:20:57.420] – Mama Nurse Tina

So again, that comes back to preparation. With my sister, she had induction with her first baby. I was not a labor and delivery nurse. I was an emergency nurse. I was going to Australia that evening of her induction. She got the cervical putting, because we use a lot of cervical here. Then I was like, All right, so when I get to meet the baby? It’s like she had her the next evening. But again, I didn’t know because I didn’t have the knowledge. I thought, Oh, yeah, they’re going to induce her and she’s going to have her baby. Boom, boom. It takes a long time, right?

[00:21:28.380] – Hilary Erickson

Yeah. The moms are calling, Did you have the baby yet? Yes. And tell your mom. You will call her when it’s done, but it’s going to be a while.

[00:21:35.340] – Mama Nurse Tina

Put your phone on silent. Just put it on silent. People going to be blowing you up like, How’s it going? Not good.

[00:21:41.480] – Hilary Erickson

Unless your friend is a labor nurse, put it on silent. Otherwise, prioritize the labor nurses.

[00:21:45.640] – Mama Nurse Tina

If she’s a laborer, you tell her to get in there. They’d be a good support person. You see, it matters. But yeah, long time, right? Yeah. I mean, we’re asking the body to do something that it’s not ready to do. And so I don’t know. It takes me a long time to be coaxed to do things I don’t want to do. If I were a cervix, I would be grumpy too.

[00:22:04.270] – Hilary Erickson

Mother Nature is saying, no, keep this baby in. Keep this baby in.

[00:22:08.310] – Mama Nurse Tina

By the way, sidebar, do you guys use Cervadol or do you guys use Cytotech?

[00:22:12.000] – Hilary Erickson

More Cytotech because Cervadol is probably… It’s close to a thousand, I think, for the patient and a Cytotech, 75 cents or something stupid.

[00:22:20.970] – Mama Nurse Tina

That’s so interesting. Maybe it’s Canadian. I’m Canadian, so they don’t pay for it. But yeah, we use a ton of Cervadol. I wish we use a little bit more Cytotech. I think it’s an amazing thing. I don’t know. Then these cervix are grumpy and they take a long time to do what they want to do.

[00:22:36.620] – Hilary Erickson

Anyway, that’s interesting. I think Cervadol, if you put it in wrong, you’re screwed though. If you get a new nurse putting in your Cervadol, just kiss those 12 hours goodbye.

[00:22:45.520] – Mama Nurse Tina

We don’t actually put in our own Cervadols. It’s the obstetricians that do it. It’s so funny. I love learning about different systems and how everything does different things. But yeah, we have some obstetricians who have put them right on in the cervix that just causes a lot of problems. So yeah.

[00:23:00.560] – Hilary Erickson

Anyway, yeah, cyber.

[00:23:02.110] – Mama Nurse Tina

Now that’s another topic. We’ll talk about inductions another time.

[00:23:06.350] – Hilary Erickson

I think your labor mindset is so important, though. So many people come in just literally no idea or so many ideas that they are like set in concrete. It’s got to be happy medium somewhere.

[00:23:18.800] – Mama Nurse Tina

And if I could add one more thing, if you are making a birth preferences list or birth plan because you want to be prepared and you want to have an idea that you are flexible with, make more than one. Make yourself a C-section birth plan as well. I think it’s really good, and we talked about planning, but to be mentally prepared, unagi, about what could happen and what you could expect if you had to veer off the road that you want to be on onto a separate side road, like a range road, if you wanted to be off on that.

[00:23:48.570] – Mama Nurse Tina

Because I think just knowing the things that you could expect would be really helpful if it were to go that way. Some people are like, Oh, that’s bad, Juju. You’re not going to force yourself writing things on paper, it’s not going to force yourself to do a C-section. Don’t you worry about it. But if you put it on paper and you know what to expect, it goes back into that preparation mindset. If you’re thinking about birth plans, you might want to think about too, just to have it.

[00:24:10.830] – Hilary Erickson

I think that’s a great idea, just to even think about what the options are. Then again, be flexible, especially C-section. Sometimes there aren’t as many options as we wish, just depending on what’s going on.

[00:24:22.650] – Mama Nurse Tina

It’s just a more controlled situation. It’s like a major surgery. So you just have to keep that in mind. But again, I think it goes back to birth classes too. If you take a birth class, you do talk about C-sections in your birth class? I would imagine that you do. Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. Right?

[00:24:35.410] – Hilary Erickson

The whole chapter.

[00:24:36.260] – Mama Nurse Tina

Take that birth class.

[00:24:38.470] – Hilary Erickson

I think a lot of people take a birth class from a doula, and doula will have a chapter, maybe a section on C-sections, but because they haven’t been in it, I don’t know how… I mean, how good can it be? I literally walk you through. It could be cold. These are some things we can do to help you if you’re cold.

[00:24:54.760] – Hilary Erickson

You can request music if you would like music, you’re going to hear a lot of counting. The counting is very normal because a lot of my friends were like, Why did they count so much? I’m like, Oh, well, we don’t want to leave anything inside. It is a cocoon of safety in the OR when we do our little thing. Thanks for coming on, Tina. I hope people get some good advice here. Check out Tina on your favorite social media platform. She is there waiting for you.

[00:25:21.020] – Mama Nurse Tina

I’d love to have you. Come on over. Thanks, Hilary.

[00:25:24.060] – Hilary Erickson

Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed that episode. Tina is so great and so good about mindset. I can’t tell you how important it is to have the proper mindset when you enter the labor room because it’s a scary day and having your mind in the right place just gets you in the right place to start. Come join me in the online prenatal class for couples. It really will help out.

[00:25:43.910] – Hilary Erickson

Stay tuned. We are talking about Organizing Mindset and then Postpartum. So you do not want to miss those episodes as we wind up Mindset Month.

[00:25:52.160] – Hilary Erickson

Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls Podcast today. If you liked today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.

Keywords:

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