I must have spent at least 5 hours carefully curating an iTunes play list of music to play during my first birth. I scrolled through my favorite songs and downloaded specifically chosen songs that I thought would make me feel connected and focused during contractions. I made sure to save my Birth playlist on my iPod at least 3 weeks before my due date to make sure it was ready when I was.

Fast forward to a month later… my water had broken at 2am and by 4am we were driving off to the birthing center in active labour. The iPod was left carefully sitting on my desk next to my computer…FAIL!

So, instead of listening to my special list of songs I sat in the tub during my labor with one song playing over and over in my head. It repeated itself like a mantra, a rhythm, something I could focus on to help me cope: “It overtakes me, it overtakes me, it overtakes me, woooooah”. It was a song by The Flaming Lips and now every single time I hear that song I am immediately transported back to that tub. That song was one of the main reasons why I was able to cope with the labour contractions and have a natural birth.

Studies have proven that music can lower stress, reduce our heart rate, and reduce anxiety. Why wouldn’t you want to use something so simple to make your labour and birth easier? Use music to distract yourself from the sounds in the hospital or to help yourself focus on something other than the pain of labour. Hearing some of your favorite uplifting songs can help relax and even feel happy and positive during your birth or when you need to chill out and get some rest, put on something calming and rhythmic so you can drift away.

I’m sure you’ve recently seen or heard of the birth videos that are all the rage right now. A woman, in early or active labour, dancing or moving around to a popular song, like Whip and Nae Nae and laughing her head off or being able to really distract herself from the pain of labour. Who says labour has to be so serious?! It doesn’t!

We strongly believe in the power of music to cope with contractions and that’s why each Birds and Bees Prenatal Class creates their own personal birth playlist that they can download and listen to in labour. How amazing is that?!

I’ll leave you with the song that I used during my second labour. I spent the evening in very early labour listening to songs on YouTube and this is the one that stuck with me the entire time. I think you’ll get a “kick out of it”, too.

Tell us- did you have a song that helped during your labour? Or do you have music picked out for your birth?