Here is how I prepared my body for labor: daily walks, strength training, Pilates, breathwork, meditation, raspberry leaf tea, dates, and endless bouncing on a ball. Then I labored for more than 24 hours, never dilated a single centimeter, and delivered my daughter by c-section. This is my honest guide to how to prepare your body for labor, from someone whose birth went nothing like the plan.
And I would still do every bit of that prep again.
Quick note before we start: I am not a doctor, a midwife, or your provider. This is simply what I did during my own pregnancy at 40, as someone who spent over 15 years working in fitness.
Run anything you do past your own provider first.
What follows is the exact routine I kept through my pregnancy here in Cabo, and the mindset that turned out to matter more than any of it.
The Story Behind the Routine
I got pregnant at 40 (technically I was 39 and turned 40 three weeks after we found out, but who's counting?!), and I wanted to walk into labor knowing I had done my part. Not to control the outcome, but to show up strong.
Fitness has been my anchor through every chapter of my life. Not only did I identify as an athlete my whole life, but it is how I found my people in every city I have lived in, and it is where I went when I lost my dad and had to hold my family and his business together. So when I got pregnant, preparing my body was not a checklist for me. It was how I processed the biggest unknown of my life.
My actual birth plan was one sentence: a safe, healthy, peaceful delivery, however that needed to happen. The prep was never about forcing a specific birth. It was about being ready for whichever one showed up.
What My Labor Prep Actually Looked Like
This was my rhythm throughout my entire pregnancy, living here in Cabo. (Note that I was doing these workouts pregnancy as well)
Daily walks. Nothing fancy, just consistent. Walking was my thinking time as much as my training time.
Strength training. Modified for pregnancy, focused on keeping the strength I had rather than chasing more. I started out with 3 days/week which is what I did pre pregnancy and dropped down to 2 days/week once I hit 34 weeks. We focused on one day for upper body and one day for lower body. Modified pace and weight as my pregnancy progressed.
Pilates. This one did double duty. Prenatal Pilates kept me strong and mobile, and it is also where I met the women who became my village here in Cabo. If you take one thing from this post, take this: your labor prep can also be your village prep.
Breathwork and meditation. Something I've been doing for quite some time, I practiced breathing through discomfort long before labor asked me to. More on why this mattered in a minute.
Visualization. I spent quiet time picturing a calm birth, whatever form it took. (TIP: Do this on your morning or evening walks)
Raspberry leaf tea and dates. Two of the classic labor prep traditions. I did both. Per my doula, I started these around 36 weeks. I would batch the tea every morning and sip on it throughout the day. I prefer iced tea, so it was a nice refreshing drink to come to daily. I put 3 dates in my smoothies daily. This is not medical advice, and I took this with the approval of my Dr as well.
Bouncing on the ball. Evenings, movies, endless bouncing. My ball basically became furniture.
The Part Nobody Puts in the Listicle
So did it work?
My body went into labor naturally at 40 weeks, exactly what I had hoped for. My contractions were strong and got stronger. And my cervix never opened. After more than 24 hours, something we still cannot fully explain was keeping my daughter from dropping, and we chose a c-section before it became an emergency. The whole story is here: my birth story in Cabo San Lucas.
By the internet's definition, the prep failed. I do not see it that way, and this is the most important thing I will say in this post.
The prep was never wasted, because it was never really about my cervix. Every walk, every breath practice, every hour on that ball built the woman who stayed calm through 24 hours of unmedicated back labor. I never lost my cool. I breathed through every contraction. When the plan changed, I had the steadiness to make a hard decision from a clear place.
You are not preparing your body to guarantee an outcome. You are preparing the woman who will handle whatever outcome arrives.
What I Use and Love
A few things earned their place in my pregnancy routine. As always, I only share what I would tell my best friend to buy.
- Needed pre-natals https://shopmy.us/shop/collections/5015918
- Perelel Cellular Hyrdration https://shopmy.us/shop/collections/5015918
- My spotify playlist https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4hekGXUlFkEyxge1FNw9vB?si=3535738376dd402e
If You're in Your Third Trimester Right Now
Here is my gentle invitation. Build a routine you can love even if your birth goes sideways, because it might, and you will still want to have done it.
Pick movement that doubles as community. Practice breathing before you need it. Hold your birth plan loosely and your strength tightly.
And if your birth ends up looking nothing like the one you visualized, I wrote about that too. You are not failing. You are just meeting the version of yourself the prep was actually for.
Frequently Asked Questions
I prepared for labor with daily walks, prenatal strength training, Pilates, breathwork, meditation, raspberry leaf tea, dates, and bouncing on a birthing ball. This was my personal routine, not medical advice, so clear anything new with your provider first.
No, labor preparation cannot guarantee any specific birth outcome. I did all of it and still had an unplanned c-section after 24 hours of labor with zero dilation. What the prep gave me was the strength and calm to handle labor and a changed plan without falling apart.
[ALISHA: one direct sentence on when you actually started each part of your routine, then detail. Left blank rather than giving a general recommendation that could read as advice.]
Preparing for labor at 40 was, for me, about consistency rather than intensity. I focused on keeping the strength I already had, modified everything for pregnancy, and leaned on 12 years of fitness habits. Age changed my approach, not my commitment.
For me, the most valuable practices were walking and prenatal Pilates, with Pilates as the clear favorite. Beyond the physical benefits, my prenatal Pilates classes were where I built my support system as a new mom abroad. Choose movement you will actually show up for, ideally alongside other people.
More from this series: my birth story, giving birth in Cabo San Lucas as an expat, and c-section recovery, what nobody told me.
