1) Music is familiar. Making a playlist of songs that you know well, to listen to during labor can be very comforting. Giving birth in a non-familiar place can disrupt the natural flow and continuity of labor. Filling the room with things familiar to you can relax you and help your labor to progress. Typically, songs that you know all of the words to are songs that you have sang along to on many occasions. Those songs will stimulate familiar thoughts for you and can bring a comforting feeling with them. 2) Music is personal. Music defines us in some ways and so can giving birth. Choosing to have music in your labor room and choosing what music will play gives us ownership of our room and ultimately our experience. It creates personal space in that room and tells the people who come in the room that you are a woman who has made choices about your experience. Own your personal space with the music that tells the story of who you have been and who you are becoming! 3) Music is rhythmic and so is labor. Women who are given the opportunity to move during labor, intuitively move like they are dancing. When they are not restricted and are feeling uninhibited, women will roll their hips in a swaying or circular motion. Music helps us find that rhythm and allows us to go deeper into the experience. 4) Music is inspiring. Think Rocky! Nothing inspired the nation quite like the Rocky theme song. Music can change your mood, lift your spirits, energize you etc. Choose music that stimulates you in all different ways. Use it to stimulate romance, fond memories, movement, strength and more. 5) Music is powerful. It’s electric. It has to be charged or plugged in in order to work. Electricity is energy and energy stimulates energy. During a long and exhausting labor, music can be the energy that ignites the room and appropriately triggers that second wind again and again. There is no right music for labor and birth. Choose music that moves you, physically and emotionally. I have attended births to music of every genre. From classic rock to classical, jazz, heavy metal, blues, Frank Sinatra, Africa drum music… You name it, a woman has labored to it. Be true to yourself and to your likes. Have fun picking songs for your labor mix and go ahead and dance that baby down!   Authored by: Randy Patterson