I’d been determined that I would not go overdue and had spent the weeks before my EDD doing lunges, squats, plenty of long walks, eating pineapple & dates, taking raspberry leaf tea and evening primrose oil etc. When I visited my midwife on the Tuesday morning, three days before said due date, and was told
I gave birth to Henry on 2nd April at the birth centre at the Whittington, two days after my due date and 5 days before I’d been told I had to be induced (as they thought he was too small). He was born a very healthy 7lbs 3oz, and is absolutely perfect. The birth experience
Firstly, I am really glad to have had the private session with you whereby you repeatedly encouraged meet to let go of my memories of ‘last time’. You were right, of course – it was a completely different experience to my first child. To start with, this time I laboured and had her during the
I began getting what I thought were rather strong Braxton Hicks around 8.40am on Tuesday, so I just ignored them and carried on pottering around the house and looking after our six-year-old son Nethaniel who was on half term and a bit poorly. I vaguely observed that they seemed to be coming rather regularly every
Dr Michel Odent was recently reported in the Sunday Times and The Daily Mail to claim that that women are losing their ability to give birth and breastfeed naturally, due to a rise in caesareans and a tendency to induce labour. I agree with Dr Odent completely that current induction policies are having a devastating effect on
A new book of water birth stories has been published recently – (see below). Janet Balaskas has contributed her story of the birth of her 4th baby in 1988 to this book, which we include here, plus some rare personal pictures of Janet and Theo taken a few hours after the birth. Here follows the extract from
I have always marvelled at the way nature has provided the newborn baby with a double lifeline in the critical period immediately after birth. Moments after birth, the baby takes its first independent breath. It takes a few minutes for changes to occur in the chambers of the baby’s heart so that is begins to
Some babies are in the breech position in late pregnancy – its not uncommon! A high proportion of breech babies do turn head down spontaneously, especially with a little encouragement so maybe the info below will be helpful. When a baby is in the breech position, the head lies beneath the mother’s ribs and the
First of all I want to say thank you! I had a rather quick and ‘painless’ birth and I consider myself lucky, or as I think – the Pregnancy yoga classes, the Laid-Back Breastfeeding and the Baby Calm classes really helped!! I was due on Boxing Day and our baby boy came on the morning
Alexa’s birth story is interesting because it is a typical case of coming up against the routine recommendations to induce when there are no specific medical indications. This is the story of her journey and how she managed to resist interventions she felt were not necessary and gave birth naturally in the end! “Jamie is
