I had 2 very tough medicalised labours when I gave birth to my children, although my first birthing was easy and relaxed, I was only 17 and didn’t realise the possible scenarios, I had no knowledge of labour and pregnancy and took no responsibility for my forthcoming journey what so ever!!
My first baby Sid came in 35 minutes in Dollis Hill Hospital, London. I told the Sister I was experiencing back pain, she basically ignored me seeming to know far more about what I was feeling than I did, but this niggling pain was getting worse, eventually I got someone to examine me and with an “oh my God” they rushed me off to the labour ward as Sid was definitely on his way big-style, even though it was short and fairly “easy” in comparison with later experiences it was still painful and clogged up my mind with feelings of being out of control, helpless and powerless. In the last 5 minutes of my labour, flat on my back and with my legs tied up in stirrups the door burst open and 20 people in medical training arrived all laughing that they had “just made it”. Nobody had asked me if I minded or allowed this embarrassment and after baby came I was left with the window open uncovered legs still up, completely cold and naked, unable to move or cover myself, and no sign of staff, it was just then that the dustmen went past and looked in- so my first birth arrived to a fairly large audience between the dustmen and the medical students.
The hospital was part of a convent and had many po-faced catholic nuns who could be very severe and frosty, one of them a very tall, big unfriendly personage dressed in layers of white took Sid from me and held him on her chest while she told me off about something, Sid responded to her loud voice by poohing loads of the most terrible orange runny pooh all down the front of her habit- this was his first reaction to authority and I was absolutely delighted.
Later my first husband turned up but didn’t actually look at or discuss the baby until he’d had a cigarette (next to the babies cot in the hospital) and told me about his day.
This happened in 1968 and is still very clear in my memory, I think we carry our birth stories with us through life.
The next 2 births were very painful as I was induced, what they don’t tell you about induction is that it begins to hurt and cause you to push even when the baby has no intention of being ready for birth. My first induction with daughter Tracey was very painful, no ease or help and no joy really until I saw the umbilical cord, blue and shiny like the inside of a turquoise shell of mother-of-pearl. I was induced because I was told I was three weeks overdue, but my daughter was born with her hand and toe nails still unformed. How does the medical profession know when each individual baby is ready to come into the world? My daughter certainly wasn’t, yet I was told she was three weeks late! Tracey’s father was my second husband, no smoking cigarettes and talking about his day. Neither husband attended my labours, I thought it was bad enough that I had to do this, never mind take them through it too. After the birth Pete walked into the hospital ward, saw me, went a very strange colour and collapsed. When he came round he was very excited and when we took her home, after she’d been fed, lay her in front of the fire and spent ages just gazing at her.
My last baby Jules’s birth was so painful and protracted (another induction) that I have completely blotted it out, all I can remember is a medical person asking me if I wanted to hold my baby and was then handed this wonderful little bundle and fell completely in love.
As far as I was concerned I wanted nothing more to do with the labour and pregnancy, during my nurses training I managed to avoid it completely, the whole issue really frightened me. In 1996 my daughter asked me to be her birthing partner for her home birth, I wondered if she knew what she was doing giving that responsibility to me, I was terrified but relieved we would have our own private midwife.
Basically Lucas was born on an endorphin high, because it was a natural home birth, so there were all smiles and positive vibes.
I was so spurred on by the difference between my daughters labour and mine that immediately afterwards I attended the British Wheel of Yoga module for Pregnancy and began to teach Yoga for Pregnancy in 1997.
Since then I have taught many hundreds of women how to breathe their way through labour, how to get in the correct position to ease the baby’s arrival and how to encourage the natural, pain relieving hormones available to labouring women.
I also of course encourage a calm and peaceful pregnancy and labour with my Yoga Nidra C.D. for pregnancy, which begins with 20 long slow deep breaths in and out and then takes the pregnant woman through a deep relaxing Yoga Nidra.
The Yoga Nidra C.D. is invaluable for pregnancy and labour and costs £10 or $20 dollars please click the image below to purchase
One to one pregnancy class.
Pregnancy group
