Birth cannot be controlled, but preparation can change the way you experience it. Many people approach birth as something to just get through, but with the right preparation, like running a marathon, it can be a life changing, empowering and transformative moment.
While you may never feel truly ready for the big unknown of giving birth, an ability to meet the challenge of birth without fear comes from building physical capacity in your body and having the right guidance to help you use that capacity when it matters most. Pregnancy, especially for first babies, is a time when many expecting families are navigating uncertainty, questions, and a desire to feel more in control of their experience.
Strength training and doula support each play a different role in preparing for birth. Training physically builds strength, endurance, and awareness. Doula support helps with mental pacing, awareness of the best positions and movements to keep labor flowing smoothly and physiologically, as well as bringing confidence to your decision-making and trust in your body and the process.
The combination of these two modalities allows you to shift your mindset from simply staying active during pregnancy to preparing with intention so you can show up feeling capable, steady, and ready for the experience ahead.
This is why we’re especially excited to collaborate with Alaska — doula, childbirth educator, mama, certified lactation counselor and founder of Chorion Birth — based right here in Brooklyn. Together, we’re creating a space where you can prepare for birth with both physical strength and grounded, informed support.
Special Partnership Offer: Get $50 off Alaska’s Intuitive Childbirth Education course and $15 off your first 3 personal training sessions with Leading Edge using code LEADINGEDGEPARTNER. Mention the code when booking with Leading Edge or enter it at checkout on the Chorion Birth website.
Strength and Capacity for Labor
Strength Training
Strength training for pregnant women builds endurance, movement capacity, and the ability to handle sustained effort. Labor can involve long periods where your body is working continuously through different positions, managing fatigue, and responding to intensity. Training allows you to move with more control, transition between positions more comfortably, and stay connected to your body as labor progresses.
Doula Support
A doula helps ensure that your energy is used efficiently throughout labor. They guide positioning, suggest movement adjustments, and support pacing so that effort is not wasted early on. Having experienced birth support has been statistically shown to reduce interventions, reduce unnecessary strain and make the overall experience feel more manageable. People who benefit from doula support in pregnancy and labor also report being happier with their birth experiences, their partners and feeling more connected to their babies after birth.
Together: When combined, physical preparation and the support and guidance of a trained birth professional can completely change your experience of giving birth, and reduce the likelihood of interventions. When you do finally meet the version of yourself who will cross this threshold and meet this challenge, you are not just strong, you are able to use that strength in a way that feels confident, intentional and empowered.
Breathing as the Bridge
Strength Training
Strength training during pregnancy helps you build awareness of your breath and how it supports movement. Through prenatal strength training, you learn to maintain rhythm, stay connected to your core, and keep your breath steady as effort increases.
Doula Support
During labor, a doula brings your focus back to your breath. As contractions build, it is common to hold your breath or lose rhythm. A doula offers cues that help you avoid unnecessary tension, stay steady, and adjust your breathing as labor progresses.
Together: Breath becomes something you can rely on. Instead of reacting to intensity, you are able to move through each contraction with greater calm, control, and awareness.
“Breathe is a free tool that we always have access to, regardless of anything else that is going on. Breath has the ability to calm the central nervous system, which directly impacts the way your body responds hormonally to labor, and the way in which it releases hormones that either support coping or inhibit labor progress and heighten pain perception. Simply breathing out longer than you inhale and remaining calm during intensity can impact how you cope, and subsequently how your baby tolerates the stress of labor. I also love to think of breath as a conversation with your baby- it is how you communicate to your baby during the stress of labor hey, this is hard but we are okay. We are strong and working together.”
Core Training Beyond Abs
Strength Training
Core work during strength training while pregnant focuses on building stability that supports your body as it changes. This includes maintaining alignment, supporting posture, and allowing your body to move and transfer load more efficiently. This kind of strength helps reduce strain and makes movement feel more comfortable.
Doula Support
A doula helps you to move intuitively in labor which supports both coping and progress. Through positioning, hands-on techniques such as counterpressure, they help you stay supported as your body moves and adapts.
Together: The strength you build prenatally supports freedom of movement in labor. By having the physical fortitude for the work of labor, you know whatever positions feel best or are necessary for progress you will be able to utilize them with ease.
Coming into labor with physical strength and endurance supports movement, reduces unnecessary discomfort, and helps you stay connected to your body during the process.
Mental Resilience and Pain Tolerance
Strength Training
Strength training builds familiarity with effort and discomfort. It teaches you how to stay present, breathe through intensity, and remain focused when your body is working hard.
Doula Support
A doula provides emotional grounding throughout labor. They help reframe discomfort, offer reassurance, and guide your focus so that intensity feels more manageable.
Together: Physical preparation and emotional support come together to help you stay steady, focused, and engaged through each stage of labor.
“A breath, a sound, and a movement are what you need to get through each contraction. If you can pour your energy into those three things, and take each effort one at a time without getting lost in thinking ahead to how much longer, how much more intense, etc, it will make a huge difference in how you experience the work of labor.”
Postpartum Recovery Starts During Pregnancy
Strength Training
Training during pregnancy supports your return to movement after birth. It maintains core strength, supports pelvic floor function, and builds confidence in your body’s ability to recover and regain strength over time.
Doula Support
Doulas encourage energy conservation, help you relax into the process and reduce unnecessary tension, and provide consistent guidance that can help labor progress physiologically. People with doula support have lower rates for all assisted delivery. Avoiding unnecessary interventions and knowing when medicine is truly needed can positively influence how you feel both physically and emotionally after birth.
Together: The work you do during pregnancy directly supports your postpartum recovery. You are not only preparing for labor, but also setting the foundation for how you heal and transition afterward.
Individualization Matters
Strength Training
Every pregnancy is different. Strength training should adapt to your trimester, your symptoms, and your previous experience with movement. Working with prenatal personal trainers can help ensure your program is tailored in a way that feels safe, supportive, and effective for your body.
Doula Support
A doula provides individualized and hands-on support during labor. By knowing you personally, your goals, your coping preferences, and having the experience of seeing birth unfold in many different ways they are able to support your journey into parenthood with the right tools in the moment.
Together: Preparation and support are both tailored to you, creating a more responsive and aligned experience from pregnancy through labor.
“There is no right way to give birth. As a doula, I try to help people uncover what they want from their birth, and then we work backwards from that. How do you want to feel? If you have a goal for a specific type of birth, why? Then we make sure everything is in alignment towards that goal, that feeling of what empowered birth looks like for you, whether that’s taking steps preparationally, educationally, or in how we move through labor as it’s happening.”
Why This Matters for Higher Stakes Births
Birth experiences such as VBAC, advanced maternal age, or first-time births can involve more uncertainty, increased clinical involvement, and added pressure. In these situations, preparation and guidance become even more valuable.
Strength Training
Strength training builds both physical and mental resilience. It prepares you to handle intensity, adapt under pressure, and meet the demands of labor with greater confidence and control.
Doula Support
A doula provides grounding, advocacy, and guidance in higher-pressure environments. They help you stay calm, understand your options, and feel more confident in your decisions.
Together: This combination helps you stay centered when tension rises, navigate decisions with clarity, reduce overwhelm, and remain engaged in your experience rather than reacting to external pressure.
“A lot of pressure is put on birthing people these days to fit into a certain mold when giving birth. There’s a tremendous amount of pressure put on estimated due dates, which we don’t see in other countries with the best maternal and fetal outcomes, or on treating things like advanced maternal age as high risk, which is not supported by evidence-based care. Part of my job is to help you understand your body in this new terrain, how to get evidence-based care, and bring confidence to the physiological process of birth that is pathologized (without improving outcomes) by the medical industrial complex in our current medical system.”
Your Takeaway for a Stronger, Supported Birth
Strength training builds the capacity, while doula support helps you access and apply it.
Together they create a more intentional, supported, and confident birth experience.
When your body is prepared and you have the right guidance beside you, you are not left guessing in the moment. You can stay grounded, make decisions with clarity, and move through labor feeling more in control of your experience.
Birth will always have elements you cannot predict. With the right preparation and support, you can meet it feeling stronger, confident, and ready for the challenge.
For those looking for additional support and education while preparing for birth, Alaska at Chorion Birth is offering $50 off her Intuitive Childbirth Education course. The course is designed to help expecting parents feel more informed, grounded, and confident throughout pregnancy, labor, and birth through her Intuitive Childbirth Education program.
For those wanting more individualized support throughout pregnancy and postpartum, Leading Edge is also offering $15 off your first 3 personal training sessions. Working with someone who understands pregnancy, movement, and recovery can provide additional guidance and support as your body continues to change and adapt.
To claim your exclusive discount, simply mention LEADINGEDGEPARTNER when booking with Alaska at Chorion Birth or with Leading Edge.
If you’re expecting or planning to grow your family, this is your opportunity to prepare with intention; not just physically, but mentally and emotionally as well. At Leading Edge, we help you build the strength, endurance, and confidence needed for pregnancy, labor, and recovery through intelligent prenatal training. Together with Chorion Birth, you’ll also have access to experienced doula support, childbirth education, and guidance that helps you feel informed, grounded, and supported throughout the entire process.
Pregnancy, birth and the transition into parenthood ask a lot of you. When you prepare your body, understand your options, and have the right people beside you, you can walk into that experience with more than just hope, but with a true sense of being capable, steady, empowered, and ready to meet that threshold space with confidence.
About Alaska McFadden
Alaska McFadden is a Brooklyn-based childbirth educator and founder of Chorion Birth.
To learn more, visit Chorion Birth.
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