I can definitely see similarities between sport psychology and pregnancy/motherhood. During my pregnancy I took care of my body like an athlete. I listened to my body what it needed at that moment, and before giving birth I made sure all of my preparations were done, and I made time for myself to get ready for ‘my game’. I have never been that determined and confident about myself and I had trust in the people around me while giving birth. Visualizing waves of the sea helped me to deal with contractions. Although I was induced, labour went quite easy. I still believe that taking care of body and mind (I’ve worked on body awareness and coped with a lot of different emotions) helped me to facilitate labour. Once my son was born I’ve spent a lot of time alone with him. I took my time to recover while keeping calm by slow breathing so my heartrate would go down in order to connect with my baby. I can definitely say I relied on myself and was ‘in the flow’.
