Why Are We Glasgow Girls So Scared of Birth?

Have you ever stopped to think about where your fears around birth actually came from?

Because the truth is, most of us weren't born being scared of birth.

The way we feel about labour usually starts long before we're ever pregnant.

I often explain it to my clients like this: imagine your brain has two buckets. One bucket is for positive birth associations and one is for negative birth associations. Every time we hear a birth story, watch a film, see something on social media or read a headline, a little pellet gets dropped into one of those buckets.

The problem is that most of us haven't exactly been filling up the positive one.

We've grown up hearing traumatic birth stories. We've watched TV births where everyone is screaming and panicking. We've seen scary headlines designed to get clicks. We've heard people tell us birth is the worst pain imaginable.

Without even realising it, pellet after pellet gets dropped into that negative bucket.

Then one day it's our turn.

We get pregnant and suddenly we're expected to feel calm about something we've spent our whole lives being told is terrifying.

No wonder so many women in Glasgow feel anxious and scared about birth!

The funny thing is, a lot of the time we don't even know where that fear is coming from. We just know it's there.

What if the reason we're scared isn't because birth is dangerous, but because we've spent years being taught to see it that way?

Of course, complications can happen and sometimes medical support is needed. But the vast majority of births are not life-threatening emergencies. And when genuine emergencies do happen in Scotland, we're incredibly lucky to have skilled midwives, obstetricians and modern medical care available to us.

Yet so many women go into labour believing their body is likely to let them down.

Imagine if we viewed birth differently.

Imagine if we saw it as a normal bodily process rather than something to survive.

Your body knows how to grow a baby without you having to think about it. You don't remind your heart to beat or your lungs to breathe. In the same way, your body understands the process of birth.

That doesn't mean every birth is straightforward. It doesn't mean you don't need support, information or choices.

But it does mean that birth isn't a test you can pass or fail. You don't need to be "good" at giving birth. Your body already knows what it's doing.

And the way you feel going into labour matters more than many people realise.

When we're frightened, our body releases stress hormones. Those hormones can interfere with oxytocin — the hormone that helps labour progress. When we feel safe, supported and relaxed, oxytocin can flow more easily and help the uterus do its job.

This is one of the reasons I care so much about birth education.

Not because I think birth should be perfect.

Not because I think everyone should have the same type of birth.

But because understanding what's happening in your body changes the way you feel about it.

When you understand birth, the fear starts to lose its grip.

When you hear more positive stories, that positive bucket starts to fill up too.

When you learn how your body works, it's much easier to trust it.

The reality is that we live in a society where birth has become heavily medicalised. For many women, that means they've lost confidence in their own bodies before labour has even started.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

The evidence is there. The science is there.

And women's bodies are incredible.

Not because birth is easy. Birth is hard but women can do hard things. Our bodies were designed for this.

And maybe if we'd grown up seeing birth differently, we'd feel differently about it too.