Birthlight Forums

Hi Everyone,

2 weeks ago at our Pregnancy Info Evening I met a 43 year old woman, Danyk, having her first baby.

She had had to fight very hard to get booked into our Midwifery led unit rather than the consultant unit and kept being told what would happen if things didn't go to plan due to her age.

In the 15 mins approx I had to talk to her I told her all the important things to remember in labour. ie welcoming the contractions and breathing out as well as forward, upright and open positions.She had already bought a birthing ball.

She went into labour a few days later and had a waterbirth as planned. Unity Rose was born with no problems at all.

Her consultant saw her the next day and was simply amazed she had done so well.

She said she kept thinking that Chris said she could do it herself and so she would do it! 

She has just been in touch and said she learnt more from me that evening than in the whole of her 3 x 2hour parentcraft classes.

This illustrates so well, I think,the power of the mind and the breathing awareness.

Danyk is considering doing the doula training or some birthlight training in the future!!

Keep up the good work everyone

Bye for now

Chris XX

Hi Chris,

Thank you so much for posting this message about your experience with Danyk.  With the simplicity of the breathing awareness, you could reach the seat of Danyk's self confidence.

Nurturing the core self, the place in our heart/abodomen and also the Hara house of Prana in Yoga and the Tan Tien's house of Chi in aall oriental disciplines is the most productive contribution we can make to women's experience of pregnancy and birth and to how they care for their babies before and after birth.

I would like to find better ways to explain how doing this is quite different from an intellectual conviction that one can turn up to a labour ward and all is going to be hunky dory with Yoga and then being overwhelmed first with unmanageable pain, or exhaustion, or complications or all of these and getting a sense of utter disappointment and failure that further undermines self confidence.  Danyk did not seem to have built expectations and this may have helped her. 

It would be great if other Birthlight members could send their take about how we as Birthlight teachers do care about birth and believe that most women can have easier if not easy births with spinal/pelvic alignment, muscle tone and elasticity and of course breathing awareness and relaxation. Yet, how we can achieve this without building unrealistic expectations that may lead to dreaded 'trauma'. Because this argument is used increasingly to convince women that it's better to opt for C sections, we need to address it. 

Thanks Chris for starting an important thread and I hope that many other Birthlight pre/postnatal teachers will send their posts.

Francoise.