The Best Taylor Swift Songs for a badass birth
Taylor Swift is a divisive figure. She’s an undeniably talented songwriter. Whether she’s an equally talented entertainer or dancer is up to your personal opinion. And when it comes to her feminist icon status, I have to disagree on most accounts.
The music is good, the co-opting of feminism to expand your billionaire empire is less good. So let’s stick to the music, shall we?
To have a holistic, physiologic birth you need to be able to turn off your brain. You need to let go. You need oxytocin (the love hormone) to flow. You need to relax, drop your jaw, dance, be distracted, sing, cuddle your partner, breathe into your pelvic floor, go into a trance.
T-Swift’s vast music catalog provides anything and everything you might need for the soundtrack to your birth. Here are 6 Tayla songs that I think deserve consideration for every birth playlist.
1. Don’t Blame Me
This song doesn’t have the most PC lyrics but it does have VOCALS. Taylor Swift is our alto queen and this song provides the necessary growl to send your energy “down and away”. This one is great for active labor - imagine moaning and groaning over the side of your bathtub singing
Oh lord save me, my drug is my baby, I’ll be using for the rest of my life.
Yes Please.
2. Invisible String
The lyrics and concept of this song make me feel more in love with my partner every time I listen. In birth I’m often amazed by how there were so many perfect little things that needed to happen for this baby to be born to these parents at this exact moment, and how perfect it is. Imagine singing to your yet-to-be-born baby:
Time, wondrous time
Gave me the blues and then purple pink skies
And it's cool, baby, with me
And isn't it just so pretty to think
All along there was some
Invisible string
Tying you to me?
This feels like the perfect song for when contractions are coming every four or five minutes, starting to approach 45-60 seconds long and you need to really start getting in the zone.
3. Shake it Off
The perfect song for active labor. Things are getting wild, your doula says she’s coming your way, and you need to dance it out. Let the fear or worry leave you body and literally shake it off. It doesn’t matter if you’re a bad dancer because so is Taylor.
7. Lavender Haze
This list is definitely biased towards newer songs, but its actually just biased towards the songs that I like - and this is a great song for transition or the mellow time between transition and pushing. The Lavender Haze is all about how being in love puts you in this glowy space. And birth hormones do the same thing (it’s actually the same hormone - oxytocin - that’s released when you orgasm, give birth, and breastfeed). If you get yourself into the bubble of peace, somewhere quiet and warm, preferably with some candles, your body is gonna give you the best runner’s high of your life. Get into that Lavender Haze and don’t let anyone pull you out!
I feel the lavender haze creepin' up on me
Surreal, I'm damned if I do give a damn what people say
No deal, the 1950s shit they want from me
I just wanna stay in that lavender haze
That lavender haze
6. Sweet Nothing
Sleep in early labor and listen to this gorgeous love song. Think about the love of your life in the kitchen humming, and all the little gorgeous parts of your life that made you want to procreate with them. Think of the little moments you’ll have with your new baby, their smell, the twitch of their mouth that might be a first smile, the sweet nothings. Get into that glow, let the sleepy hormones of labor whisk you off into tender light rest, and when you gently wake up you’ll be grounded again in the reasons why you’re doing this beautiful thing.
Picking only six songs from Swift’s entire discography shows what a mid-level fan I truly am. If you’re a true Swifty, comment what songs I missed and should include!
Ps. I listen to my birth playlist before every birth to get my energy grounded and my mood right. Feel free to listen, share, or let me know if there’s a song I need to add!
My birth playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5Ys8NJ84JFH3XwihIgBpbR?si=a842ccd2ae2d484c
