YogaBirth Enfield

09/12/2024

This applies to both medical and 'natural' interventions.
https://www.rachelreed.website/rcrp

09/12/2024

09/12/2024

Did you know that, in the UK, the data which underpinned the recommendation that women should give birth in hospital instead of at home were interpreted incorrectly?

Statistician Marjorie Tew pointed that out, but it took years until a medical journal would print her article.

By that time (1985), hospital birth had been established as the norm.

I wrote about this in in my book, In Your Own Time.

Many studies continue to show that home birth is safe and leads to less intervention for women and babies.

Because so many people ask, "is home birth safe?" (and yes, it is), that's the name of our home birth information hub.

It offers links to all of my info on this topic and an overview of the most recent studies in this area.

So have a look at our information hub, it's at www.sarawickham.com/research-updates/is_home_birth_safe/

And yes, please feel free to share/repost this pic with our text and credit intact.

25/10/2023

This is the hormone of darkness, which we all produce at the end of a day when the sun goes down. It helps to make us sleepy.

Melatonin also plays a part in the onset of labour. This is why I always recommend mothers to avoid bright white light in the late afternoons in the weeks leading up to birth. This means staying off devices like phones or computers and lowering the brightness on the tele. I

Melatonin is also a precursor of contractions during labour – maybe that’s why women have a natural attraction to a semi-dark environment during labour!

So, enjoy relaxing with intimate candle lit evenings towards the end of pregnancy, to encourage labour to start when baby is ready!

25/10/2023

“Skin-to-skin contact between mother and infant after birth is recommended to promote breastfeeding and maternal-infant bonding. However, its impact on the incidence of neonatal hypoglycaemia is unknown.”

Researchers conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to look at this topic.

They found 108 studies which included a total of 84,900 participants.

Their most significant finding was that, “skin-to-skin contact may result in a large reduction in the incidence of neonatal hypoglycaemia (7 RCTs/quasi-RCTs, 922 infants, RR 0.29 (0.13, 0.66), p < 0.0001, I2 = 47%).”

They found a number of other benefits too, but the evidence was less certain. (This may be because of the quality of the studies … see the researchers’ discussion of this in the paper.)

They concluded that:

"Skin-to-skin contact may lead to a large reduction in the incidence of neonatal hypoglycaemia."

"This, along with other established benefits, supports the practice of skin-to-skin contact for all infants and especially those at risk of hypoglycaemia."

You can read the paper in full at https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-023-06057-8

And see my Birth Information Update this week for more.

If you’re not on my list, sign up in the blue box on https://www.sarawickham.com

24/10/2023

A few days ago, my thought for the day was about how fruit doesn’t all ripen at the same moment.

Even on the same tree, in the same orchard, or in the same climate/latitude.

I noted that, yes, there's a ripening season, but variation is normal in nature.

Same with labour, birth and babies.

And then my colleague commented with an important, related reminder, which I wanted to share more widely.

She wrote, “The ripe fruit drops easily from the tree.”

Another excellent analogy, given what we know about how much more difficult and painful induced labour can be for many women.

(Not for everyone, before the few people who didn’t find this jump into the comments, but for many.)

I wrote an entire chapter in In Your Own Time about the benefits of letting labour start spontaneously, if you’d like to know more.

Be an individual.

Ripen in your own time

And drop when you’re ready.

For more evidence-based conversations about the timing of birth, see www.sarawickham.com/time

24/10/2023

New study highlights how mode of feeding (breastfeeding vs infant formula) affects the infant oral microbiome

24/10/2023

Vanda Scaravelli, who lived from 1908-1999, developed a form of yoga that inspired the foundations of our YogaBirth teachings. In our classes we give women the skills to move through pregnancy, birth & beyond with grace by giving them an understanding of movement, gravity & breath…. how to let go of tension and feel the wonderful wave of the breath, the release of the spine on the exhalation, and how to ride the intense waves of contractions during childbirth.

Read more on our blog: https://www.yogabirth.org/women-that-inspire-us/

23/10/2023

I was demonstrating this recently in one of my online classes. It’s crucial that the ball is big enough (65cms average) and inflated well to look like it does in this picture.

Hips Higher than Knees is the golden rule for sitting in the last trimester of pregnancy to encourage the baby to settle into an ’optimal position’ for birth. This is head down, spine to the front or front/left side of your belly (anterior presentation). Most babies settle into this position, making for an easier descent into the pelvis. Here are some ways you can encourage this with your own posture.

When sitting:

- On a birth ball – make sure your hips are higher than your knees and your thighs slope downwards when feet are flat on the floor.
- On an upright chair – put one or two cushions on the seat.
- In the car – as most bucket seats tip back, use a wedge or a cushion or two to change the angle.
- On the floor – or for seated yoga positions, sit on a cushion or two to raise your pelvis higher than your knees.

Important tip:

Avoid furniture which involves sitting and leaning back i.e., on the sofa with your feet up on the coffee table or in an armchair that slopes back. This will encourage the baby’s back towards your spine (posterior presentation).

Tricky if your ankles are swollen - lie sideways along the sofa instead to raise then.

- When kneeling and sitting back on your heels

Use cushions or a bolster to ensure hips are higher than knees and reduce pressure on the ankles.

13/10/2023

At the end of pregnancy as birth approaches, the baby’s position and likely presentation for birth becomes relevant.

I say ‘likely’ as things can change right up to the last minute!

The midwife will be looking for the head to be presenting first (rather than breech) and assessing if it has partially or fully engaged in the pelvic brim.

Also relevant is whether the baby’s spine is on the left (anterior) or right (posterior) side of your belly. Anterior is the optimal position, although both are variations of the norm and babies can be born in either presentation. if baby is on the right side there is more chance that the baby will rotate so that it is ‘back-to-back’ in labour. (I think this is because they are instinctively programmed to make 90 degrees turn and then end up back-to-back.

This may not be a problem at all, and some babies are born easily facing up towards the mother’s public bone rather than down towards the sacrum.  So don’t think of this as a complication rather a variation of the norm!

Sometimes a ‘back-to-back’ labour can mean there is a lot of pressure on mum’s spine resulting in acute back pain. Also, labour can go on longer if baby is trying to rotate to anterior for birth meaning a 180 degrees turn in the pelvis rather than 90 degrees as is common with anterior presentations. In the coming weeks I will be posting some info about how to encourage the posterior baby to be anterior in late pregnancy or to turn anterior in labour and some tips and options for managing a long or painful posterior presentation.

📸:

10/10/2023

Prostaglandins are produced in the cells within the muscle tissue of many parts of the body, unlike other hormones that circulate via the blood stream.

They are known to regulate the female reproductive system and are involved in the whole birth process including the onset of labour.

During the birth process, prostaglandin release is stimulated by the pressure from the baby’s descending head on the surrounding tissues. So the baby itself softens the birth path!

When the baby is at full term, the pressure and movements from the head stimulate prostaglandin release in the lower segment of the uterus and the cervix. The tissues soften so that the contractions originating at the top of the uterus can absorb the softened cervix upwards. As a result, it gradually thins and then opens around the baby’s descending head (conventionally called dilation!), 

Remarkably there is a simultaneous feedback loop throughout so that prostaglandin also stimulates oxytocin release!  This continues throughout the birth process – softening of the tissues of the whole birth path right down to the perineum and stimulating smooth muscle contraction at the same time!

When the mother moves spontaneously in upright positions – gravity assists this natural feedback loop - part of the miraculous and complex hormonal physiology of birth!

06/10/2023

What are the best questions to ask if you're offered induction of labour?

As a midwife who has researched and written about induction of labour for more than two decades, I get asked that quite a bit.

Especially as I have a fundamental belief that there is no one 'right' path for everyone.

Twenty years before anyone hashtagged , I was promoting that very idea to women and families.

One size doesn't fit all.

You need to decide what's right for you.

And in order to do that, you might need to ask some questions.

So I have put together this guide to the five best questions that you can ask in order to get more information and make the decisions that are right for you.

I'm also going to tell you what can you learn from the answers you are given.

You can find my blog post at https://www.sarawickham.com/articles-2/five-questions-to-ask-if-youre-offered-induction-of-labour/

There's a link to my website in my bio as well.

I hope you'll find it useful.