Birth Mantras: Positive Birth Affirmations for Labor

Birth mantras and birth affirmations can help you feel strong, calm, and empowered during your labor and birth journey. Here is a collection of positive statements to help you get through the difficult moments of your baby’s birth.

Having a collection of birth mantras is a beautiful way to help cope with the difficulty and discomfort of the birth process. Birth can feel overwhelming physically and mentally, so it’s important to have a calm mindset. Birth affirmations can help you get into the right mental zone for relaxing, releasing, calming, and empowering yourself. 

These can be one part of your hypnobirthing practice if you choose that option. These will work in a birthing center, home birth setting, or hospital delivery room to give you a positive birth experience.

Whether you choose an unmedicated natural birth, need a C-section, opt for pain relief, or hope to have an active birth, these birth mantras can help you get through all of it. 

Each birth is different, even if your birth plan is the same. The one thing you can count on is yourself and your innate strength. Choose birth affirmations that resonate within you, and let them guide you through whatever your birth process. 

Birth mantras are a wonderful way to bring yourself into motherhood with a strong and calm mind and body. Reminding yourself that each moment is passing, nothing lasts forever, you can get through anything for a short time, and pain is temporary. 

If you find these birth mantras helpful, be sure to read our mama mantras too. Just as there are difficult moments of birth, there are certainly trying times of motherhood when affirmations will help you get through!

Birth Affirmations for Labor

From the time your labor starts, whether it slowly sneaks in with irregular contractions or begins suddenly with broken water, you can use birth affirmations to empower yourself to get through it. Some labors are long and drawn out, a test of time. While others are quick and intense and finish as fast as they start.

Choose mantras to fit any scenario, and focus on the ones that feel right as your birth goes along. It helps to practice them and have them available to yourself throughout your pregnancy so it feels natural and automatic once your labor starts. 

I love the idea of making birth affirmation cards to have around your home during pregnancy, and then having them available to display wherever your birth is taking place.

Birth mantras can be whispered, chanted, moaned, sung, or yelled during labor. Some people choose to write their chosen birth mantras down, they can be in a list included with your birth plan or decorated and taped to the walls around you. 

Follow your body, and let your instincts lead you through the process. These mantras will help you focus, relax, and be in the mindset of believing in your own power and strength.

1. I welcome my baby.

With this birth affirmation, you will find peace knowing that through this process, you are welcoming your baby into the world. It’s a wonderful reminder that at the end of labor, you’ll be holding your new infant and the trial of labor will transition you to a new beautiful phase of life.

2. This feeling is temporary.

This mantra was very helpful for me during my labors. Sometimes the pain of labor can be very intense and overwhelming, and it is helpful to remember that it will in fact get better.

Each painful moment will pass and release, and with each you are one step closer seeing your sweet baby.

3. I can do anything for 60 seconds.

The process of labor and delivery is truly ever changing, so if you practice the mindset that if you can withstand what is happening for 60 seconds, it will then change to the next phase. 

Practice this resilience mantra during pregnancy by putting your hand in a cup of ice for one minute. It can feel really intense! Try it a second time and breathe this mantra, and it will likely feel more bearable. The power of mindset and distraction are strong, you can do anything for 60 seconds! 

4. I am safe.

I love this one. It’s simple, to the point, and really addresses the primal fear that can go through a woman’s mind during childbirth. Whether choosing an unmedicated birth or not, the sensations of labor can feel scary to some people, especially when having their first baby and every sensation is new. 

This birth affirmation is a simple reminder that your body knows what to do, and that you are emotionally and physically supported by your birth team if anything out of the ordinary were to arise. Trust that you are safe. 

5. I am open to my birth experience.

Surrendering yourself to the ebb and flow of labor pain is the ultimate go-with-the-flow mindset. Being open and surrendering to what is happening in the now is a wonderful practice in letting go. 

Let your body do the work, there is ancient wisdom in the power of women’s bodies and our ability to bear life. Resign yourself to the process, and be open to whatever this short chapter has in store for you.

6. I trust my power and instincts. 

For anyone who needs a confidence boost to help with their labor, this birth mantra can be really helpful. Trusting your body’s power and instincts in a deep and meaningful way during this primal process is a true lesson in connecting with yourself. 

Know that you CAN do this, and that your body and mind have the ability to grow and deliver your precious baby earth-side. You are powerful! 

7. I trust my body’s wisdom. 

Trusting that your body knows what to do, and accepting each sensation as it comes as a normal part of a process can be very empowering for many women. Our bodies are in a short and divine moment when compared to the length of life and the all of the women who have birthed babies before us. 

Our bodies innately know what to do, understanding the role of the hormonal process that drives childbirth is fascinating and can feel very grounding. Trusting your body’s wisdom is calming and empowering. If there was ever a time to “trust the process,” birth is it!

8. Every moment I am closer to my baby. 

Again, this birth affirmation was so helpful to me during the births of my children. Especially with my second and third, I knew that every contraction I breathed through, every discomfort I endured, got me closer to meeting and holding my dear newborn. 

With my third baby, I knew that feeling sick meant I was in transition. I was actually so relieved to feel nauseous because I knew then it was almost time to hold my baby in my arms!

It can feel like climbing stairs, with each step you are closer to the top. With each moment done, you are on to the next moment. Every moment goes by and brings the next moment, getting you closer to your baby each time. 

9. I breathe in calm and breathe out fear. 

Deep breathing can get you through almost any difficult moment in life. During birth, I like to think of each deep breath of oxygen giving my body the food it needs to continue. Breath is life, and as you breathe in deeply, focus on your breath as a way to calm and cope with the process.

Practicing prenatal yoga is a great way to get ready for childbirth so by the time your body is ready, this breathing and birth mantra will feel very natural.

10. I relax and my baby relaxes. 

Practice this mantra as you rest during the last weeks of pregnancy, and allow yourself to really get to know the feeling of your body and mind relaxing. Breathe out the day’s stress, and just let everything go.

This birth affirmation can help through and through. As you breathe, and accept the waves and ups and downs of childbirth, it is beautiful to find relaxation. Let this mantra find you in between contractions, close your eyes and conserve your energy. Be still for a moment. 

The Ritual of Birth Mantras

Pregnancy can definitely have the duality of discomfort right along with being the most special time in your life. Growing a human being is a strange and beautiful time at once! 

During the quiet moments at the end of your pregnancy before labor and delivery, get used to these birth affirmations and mantras. When the time comes, your body and mind will know the words, feelings, and sensations of each mantra and how they connect to your body during labor. 

Adding this practice into a daily ritual of yoga, meditation, or relaxation will make it feel easy and natural when you go into labor.

Birth Mantras in Labor FAQs

Let us know in the comments if you plan to use any of these (or other) childbirth affirmations. And best of luck on the big day!