Birthlight Forums

I would love to hear from anyone else who has read this book on dealing with SPD.  A colleague who teaches active birth has had considerable success using Cecile Rost's techniques.  My only concern is that some of them seem to go against the usual SPD safety guidelines, although I feel the theory behind it all does make sense.  Can anyone else comment?  Eryl Holt

Hi Eryl and everyone,

I ordered a copy of this book as I  teach pregnancy yogacise and thought it would be interesting.

I also have a postnatal mum, ( 2 normal pregnancies and births within a year! ) who now her new baby is 3 months is almost cripple with an unstable pelvis and I thought her physio might be interested as well.

Some of the advised positions for delivery seem strange especially with the mum lying on her back  and as you say completely the opposite certainly to what I have been teaching.

Hopefully some others will comment and love to get Francoise' views on it.

Bye for now

Chris

 Hello Chris, Eryl and other Pre/Perinatal Yoga teachers!

So glad you raised issues about this controversial book! there are some good points but please hold on, we can do better on SPD with a logical, rational understanding of how the pelvic joints, ligaments and muscles work together as pregnancy progresses. I have been slow in producing the SPD booklet for Birthlight after an intense bout working on it last winter and then getting sick... I have been consulting some expert physios who are closer to what we teach than Cecile Rost and my idea was to involve them as co-contributors, which partly explains the delay in getting this booklet out.  Meanwhile I would be happy to offer a review of Cecile's book for the website's members'area...

Thank you Chris and Eryl for being always at the forefront of debate, let's keep it alive and always examine what we know, what we teach and do in the light of other publications. You give me a new incentive to get the booklet out asap and I will contact you personally re possible feedback on the draft.  We also discussed the possibility of a questionnaire on SPD for Birthlight teachers to gather data, another part done job that needs completing when I have a spare moment... it will happen, please let's put our heads together to make it happen,

thanks with love

Francoise.

Dear All

I bought this book following recommendation from a physio in women's health who does lots of one-to-one work with pregnant and postnatal women suffering from pelvic girdle pain. One aspect that really interests me is the use of stretches that stretch the hip abductors as this goes against all the other approaches I have met where knees no wider than hip width is the rule. The physio I mentioned is trying to gather some data from those she treats but is finding that often only 1 stabilisation session (this often oncludes release of the psoas and piriformis on one side)  followed up by the exercises from the book is maintaining pelvic stabliity.  I have met one pregnant Birthlight teacher who has recently used the exercises for her own pelvic pain with success. This for thought for us all perhaps especially as Francoise is in the process of devising a book. 

There are parts of the book that I cannot agree with such as sitting positions and birth positions.

On the subject of SPD, I think the accepted term in the midwifery/ medical world is now pelvic girdle pain (PGP) and wonder if we should all adopt this especially as the name reinforces what we know, namely that sometimes when pain is in one part of the pelvis the 'offending' joint is elsewhere in the pelvis.

It's good to find things like this to keep us always reviewing and aiming to improve our teaching!

Marion