10
Jul

Four Music Playlists for Labor and Delivery

Author: Karen | Category: Parenting2 comments

Each time I've given birth, I've taken music. For our firstborn, way back in 2001, this meant bringing along a few favorite cd's. The last few times it's meant bringing a well-stocked mp3 player of some sort.

Since I knew I wanted to try and give birth without any drugs this time (number 6 for us), I knew music might be even more important this time around.

In my research (see this post: An Epidural Queen's Guide to Natural Childbirth) I looked at a lot of other women's labor playlists. These gave me a few ideas, but being the over-preparer that I am, I knew I wanted more than one playlist. And I knew I wouldn't just want to randomly shuffle through some favorite songs during labor.
four playlists for laborSo, I put together four different playlists. A few favorite songs overlapped my four categories, but that was OK.

Here, for your inspiration (because I know everyone's music tastes are different, especially for such an important time) are my playlists  for labor (note, these are all affiliate links to Amazon mp3 simply because I don't use Apple products):

power playlist for laborPower Playlist for Labor:

This playlist was to encourage me when things were stalled or just to remind me that yes, I can get through this.

peaceful playlist for laborPeaceful Playlist for Labor

This playlist was to settle my nerves, help me rest, or help me express emotion if I was sad or scared (I do not like being vulnerable but music can help with that)

praise playlist for laborPraise Music for Labor

This one was to help me fix my mind on Christ and take my mind off of myself. (Not surprisingly, this playlist ended up helping most.)

pushing playlist for laborPush Playlist for Delivery

OK, yes, this was kind of a joke. I did not, in fact, end up listening to music while I pushed out the baby. There wouldn't have been time anyway, because once I started pushing he arrived 3 1/2 pushes later. (I say 1/2 because my midwife told me not to push but to "Give a little cough" and out he came.)

But anyway, just for fun, here are the five songs I put on a "push" playlist:

Have you used music during labor? What songs would / have you use(d)? 


music for labor and delivery

Comments

  1. bekahcubed says:
    July 11, 2015 at 6:15 pm

    Your "pushing" playlist cracks me up.

    I expected to have music during my labor, but also expected that I'd be giving birth at home with my whole music collection handy. There wasn't any music playing when my daughter was born eight weeks early via c-section - but singing through one of our hymnals was one of the things that kept me sane (and kept my eyes fixed on God) during my eight days of hospitalized bed rest and Tirzah Mae's 26 days in the NICU. I think I roped nearly every visitor into crowding around the hymnal and singing everything from "Great is Thy Faithfulness" to "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel" to "Alas and Did my Savior Bleed?" to "Be Still My Soul".

    1. Karen says:
      July 11, 2015 at 7:19 pm

      I love that you got your visitors to sing hymns with you! At night in the NICU I would sing or hum hymns to our little man. Strangely enough I also remember singing "How Many Kings" which is a contemporary Christian Christmas song. I have no idea why I sang that, but it was comforting at the time.

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