Bloom and Flow

09/02/2026

Laura was a first time Mum who attended my pregnancy yoga classes in Dartford the whole way through her pregnancy. Once in her third trimester she also attended my group hypnobirthing course with her husband. She went on to have the most straight forward water birth at Darent Valley birth centre:

As a first time Mum with her first pregnancy I assumed my pregnancy would most likely run over 40 weeks, and prepared for a long labour with lots of different interventions and pain management methods to work through. I have always been scared of the pain and process of both pregnancy and childbirth, and although my pregnancy had been healthy that fear of birth led me to attending hypnobirthing and pregnancy yoga classes. Turns out making any assumptions about your labour and birth is only a guess, as baby girl was born 10 days early after only five and a half hours of labour!

I awoke in the night at around 4am at 38w+4 to some strong period pain like cramping that would build in intensity and then go away. I thought “this could be something, or it could be nothing. Let’s rest”. I subsequently had two more quite soon after and thought I should keep an eye on them.

I checked my phone at 4.30am and started writing down when each “cramp” came. It was every 10 minutes. I listened to a hypnobirthing track and used my breathing to keep the pain under control and woke my husband, Ish, and I told him it could be nothing but I was having contraction like cramps. They were getting more intense so I timed them and at 5.30 they were coming every 7 minutes and lasting at least 50 seconds. I handed over timing to my husband but it was pretty clear things were getting more painful and closer together quickly. Time was flying at this point, and I remembered Colleen’s advice to focus on the painless time between contractions rather than focusing on the contractions which helped me to get some rest every few minutes. By 6am they were every three or four minutes, and we made a plan to call the birth centre in half an hour.

I was listening to my hypnobirthing tracks, used the birth ball to be in a kneeling position, and was squeezing my spiky ball during contractions to counteract some of the pain elsewhere in my body. All of these tips for positioning and pain management were covered as part of the Bloom and Flow hypnobirthing course.

My husband coached me through my breathing and doing different pressure and massage techniques on my back. The contractions were ramping up in intensity quite quickly, so the change in techniques and approach every few contractions was necessary for me. At 6.30am Ish ran me a bath and we spoke to the hospital while I was in it and I had two contractions while on the phone. They told me to come in and be assessed when I was ready. I was aware that often women get sent home after assessment to continue to labour in a calm safe space until they’ve progressed into the first/active stage of labour post 4cm, so we took our time labouring and getting ourselves ready to get to the hospital calmly (but keeping an eye on the infamous Dartford traffic!).

It took us an hour to leave the house as I got ready slowly in-between contractions, and by 7.45am contractions were really really intense and I felt like I had to go to the birth centre NOW. I breathed through two contractions on the ten minute car journey, window open for fresh air and had another in the car before walking into the hospital.

We got to the birth centre (after the longest walk of my life) just after 8.15am and instead of being assessed on Tambootie they saw how frequent and intense my contractions were and sent me straight to the birth centre. When we got to our room I lost my mucus plug when I went for a wee. The room we were given was the one we had previously seen on a tour of the Birth Centre that the antenatal education team offer which was quite funny, the space felt safe and ‘known’ because of seeing it before.

By now contractions were so intense and felt quite overwhelming as I was still fully clothed and ‘in public’, and I said to my husband that regardless of what they said I knew this baby was going to come soon and I didn’t want to go home. At 8.30am the midwife asked if she could do an examination and I consented very enthusiastically. For me the vaginal exam didn’t hurt or feel uncomfortable and I was at 6cm, just under four hours after my first contraction. My birth preferences were to only know my dilation if I consent to it, as I didn’t think hearing how dilated I was would contribute to a calm or relaxed approach to labour if I didn’t think “I had progressed enough” (more on that later). However it was really helpful to hear I was 6cm, and that meant we didn’t have to advocate for ourselves to stay in the birth centre which was my preference (I don’t think they’d have got me to leave regardless to be honest – I was posted up!).

Ish set up the tens machine (which we hadn’t practised yet as that was a job for the coming weekend, oops!) and that helped alongside squeezing the spiky ball for the next few contractions while the pool was filled. I started on the gas and air and found this useful to keep my breathing deep and rhythmic, as contractions were really strong and really close together. The duration of the painless periods between contractions were getting shorter, and I focused on closing my eyes and resting fully during those minutes.

By 9am, an hour after we got to the hospital car park, I was in the pool which felt better but I was getting the urge to push and Ish got in with me as I wanted to hold onto him as it was so intense. My body was in control of wanting to push/bear down and I hit the transition moment of saying I couldn’t do it and I wanted to go home! It’s true that when you hit that stage you go a little crazy, I’d heard about the stage many times and I didn’t even know I was in it. That’s when both my midwife and my husband reminded me that baby is coming NOW and I’m about to meet my baby and got me focused that it was time. My waters hadn’t broken yet so it felt really weird and really intense and full, but once they broke on one of my pushes at 9.34am I felt better and more focused.

My husband coached me through my contractions and pushing really calmly, and reminded me to breathe using the gas and air to encourage deep breaths. I was quite loud at this stage while pushing, so the midwife encouraged me to bear down. I also remembered Colleen’s guidance to make sound/noise from your stomach and lower body rather than from your chest/high pitched. This really helped on my out breaths and felt really releasing. It helped me focus on bearing down to push and to take control of the birth myself, rather than letting it ‘overwhelm me’.

At 9.51 baby girls head was born in two contractions and her body was born two minutes later on my next contraction. I got to ‘catch her’ in the water and bring her up to my chest where my husband and I got to cuddle our daughter for the first time, in the water together.

My husband had brought his swimming trunks because his preference all along was to get in the water with me if possible, and I’m so glad he got to be close to me during pushing and able to be right there with me and our baby girl the moment she arrived into the world. This was approximately five and a half hours after that first “is this a contraction?” cramp and only an hour and a half from being told I’d reached 6cm (grateful I’ve listened a hundred times at pregnancy yoga that how dilated you are has no correlation to how much time you have until delivery). Despite how intense and powerful the pushing felt, I only had a first degree superficial tear that required no stitches. This had been a really big fear of mine, but during the pushing stage that had left my mind entirely to ensure I was focusing my strength and power on the push rather than holding back in fear.

I was flagged as having an anterior placenta in pregnancy and there was an increased likelihood of a ‘back to back’ baby which I had heard were more painful labours to experience, this is something that had really worried me (and I had discussed this with Colleen in our last hypnobirthing class the week before!). In the end, although labour was intense and painful, baby girl was born in an optimal position, in the water, healthy and happy!

Five minutes later I was on the bed/sofa in the birth centre with my husband holding our baby girl and doing our first feed and skin to skin contact, then I birthed the placenta at approximately 10am. They offered gas and air for this but I found I didn’t need it and just did some deep breaths instead. Then we were left for our golden hour together and we were still a bit shell shocked from her coming early and quickly!

I had been so calm and relaxed about finishing up at work for maternity leave at 37+5d, I had left some organising and bits to do in the house to prepare for baby to keep me busy during maternity before baby arrived and I only ended up doing some of them! My husband had to quickly put together our bedside crib that evening when we got back from the hospital! I was absolutely convinced that baby wouldn’t be early, let alone 10 days!

I contribute a lot of my calm and relaxed approach to pregnancy and birth to be from the yoga classes and hypnobirthing techniques that Colleen and the other ladies in the classes gave to me. I felt so much more confident, armed with knowledge, and knowing what my birth preferences were and what options and choices I had. I went from being really scared of giving birth, to giving birth in the pool on the birth centre with just gas and air and my breathing techniques. Whilst labour felt like a whirlwind due to the surprise of it being early and quite fast, straight after birth I was sitting up, baby to my breast, and chatting away to my husband and the midwife. I had such a positive experience and I am so proud of safely bringing my daughter into the world.

08/02/2026

Pregnancy yoga in Dartford - ease aches and pains, practice breath work for birth, gentle movement to keep you active.

Suitable from 12 weeks until birth, beginners welcome:

Mondays at 7pm in Dartford
Saturdays at 10 am in Darenth

A safe and welcoming space where you can connect with your baby whilst meeting other mums to be.

https://bloomandflow.co.uk/pregnancy-yoga-class-in-dartford/

16/12/2025

Turns out you can just go to yoga to feel good! Because yoga is so much more than getting into awkward positions, or being able to touch your toes. There is no right or wrong way to do yoga (as long as you are not causing harm to your body) because yoga is not simply a physical practice. Yoga is also about calming the mind, living your life with purpose and integrity and so much more. Feeling good after is the bonus!

Join me on the mat every week in Dartford. My schedule is;

Mondays at 7pm - pregnancy yoga in Dartford
Wednesdays at 10am - post natal yoga in Dartford
Fridays at 11.30am - pregnancy yoga in Gravesend
Saturdays at 8.45am - yoga flow in Darenth
Saturdays at 10am - Pregnancy yoga in Darenth

All dates are on my website until February

13/12/2025

Feeling this!

04/12/2025

It’s about time I shared Charley’s fantastic birth story, seeing as she has graduated from mum and baby yoga and returns to work today 🫣 After a high blood loss in her first pregnancy, Charley navigated her second pregnancy like a star - letting go of her preferred birth, refusing to go along with options that she didn’t want and putting a lot of effort into her birth prep. With the right knowledge and support, this story shows that an amazing birth is still possible even when you are classed as high risk.

Thank you for sharing Charley, you and Sammy will be missed at mum and baby yoga, especially all of his smiles! Charley writes:

My first birth, five years previously, was a water birth at Darent Valley birth centre following a low risk pregnancy. That birth went well, until the second stage. I had panicked because I’d read that if baby’s heart rate couldn’t be detected for a period of time you’d have to come out of the pool so they could put one of the other monitors on. I was ‘uneducated’ to a point I suppose. I was also pushing for quite a while, I kept ‘sucking him back up’ as his head was crowning, then going back. Because of this, and not wanting to get out of the water, I panicked and just thought, ‘go for it because you’re going to get asked to get out if you don’t push him out now’. I was told to push but not to birth him, more like guided pushing with my surges. My midwives were brilliant but the birth resulted in a 3C tear and 4 litre blood loss. After the birth I had to be blue lighted to hospital for surgery.

For my second birth I really wanted a home birth, but most midwives strongly advised me to have an elective c section. A really supportive and understanding obstetrician at Darent Valley, who listened to my preferences eventually signed me off to go to the birth centre.

I can be stubborn and controlling, so it took my obstetrician to explain to me that the amount of blood I lost the first time meant that I could’ve died, for me to realise how serious it was and why she really advised me not to have a home birth. But she was brilliant in really listening to me and we came to an agreed compromise with the birth centre and that I’d agree to be transferred ASAP if I had a repeat of last time or at the very first signs of blood loss.

Leading up to Sammy’s birth, I’d done a lot of walking in the week. It was my first week of maternity leave and so I’d been making sure I was out and about keeping busy but resting in the evenings.

On Thursday, I said to my husband something felt different. I was getting sharp pains in my left groin area and a few different feelings in my belly, plus baby was more active than usual. That evening, I didn’t sleep well, I think I saw every hour because of how uncomfortable I felt, tossing and turning.

I arranged to spend the next day at my mums just incase, but arranged to meet my friend for a walk round Kelsey park in the morning first. Whilst driving there, I felt a tightening across my belly and when walking I got two more, they very minimal pain wise. We sat and had a coffee and I got two more – so we decided it was time for me to head back to my mums.

I got back to my mums around 12:30, the contractions started to get a bit more frequent so we left at 2:40 and headed back to mine so I could be at home. Got back to mine by 3 and I rang the hospital soon after to let them know as they were coming every 8-10 minutes and lasting around 30 seconds; they said to call back when they were a minute in length and five minutes apart. I just stayed bouncing on my physio ball and breathing through each contraction, watching horse racing and then league of their own for the laughs.

My husband got back from work at 5:15pm and by that point the contractions were coming every 3-4 minutes and lasting around 45-90 seconds. I stayed on my ball, bouncing and breathing, in-visioning a party blower with each one. I called the birth centre back and said I was going to head in as I didn’t want to leave it too late. Every time I got off my ball, they were a lot more intense.

In the car, I began using a comb for pain relief , again I still felt like they were manageable with my breathing. We got to the car park and Ross ran in to get me a wheelchair, by the time we got to the birth centre it was 7pm and the contractions were even more frequent and much more intense. We went into a room and I was examined, the midwife said, ‘you’ve managed to do it again – you’re 9cm dilated!’

They wheeled me round to a room and quickly began filling the pool up and offered me gas and air which I gladly took at this point. As she was fitting my cannula (a precaution based on my last birth) I heard her say, ‘she’s going to have this baby before I get this cannula in’ (I knew it was imminent!). I looked at the time it was 7:48, by the time I got into the pool it was 7:56 and I immediately began having intense contractions and feelings to push as soon as my belly hit the water.

With three big pushes along with the midwives guidance and the gas and air, Sammy was born at 8:04 – 7 minutes after getting in the water.

Once I’d come down from the gas and air and they passed him to me I immediately looked at the water – it was clear!!

They gave me plenty of ‘golden hour’ time with baby after, we stayed in the pool for about 20 minutes before I then got out and deep breathed my placenta out. I had a tiny internal tear and lost 140ml of blood rather than 4L. Once my placenta was out we were covered in towels and enjoyed our hot chocolate and toast before I was able to have a shower and we spent the night on the ward.

All of the midwives were incredibly supportive and understanding and aware of all of my preferences! Both boys were born the day before their ‘due dates’, so 39+6? Sidney was 7lb 6oz and Sammy was 7lb 5oz – so gestation and baby’s size were not the cause of the tear or blood loss the first time round.

I believe the difference this time was three things: confidence and knowledge and preparation.

I prepared my body with pregnancy yoga and relaxation techniques. I worked on my breath work frequently in pregnancy and this got me through all of my contractions until I had the gas and air. It still gets me through pain now!

I was more confident in knowing what was available to me, I made sure I knew my options and I knew what I was willing to accept and not. I was able to push back and refuse a c-section, but was able to explore other options with my supportive obstetrician. Her words were ‘every woman deserves to have a chance to birth they way they wish’ and for this day and age, I couldn’t have wished for more.

29/11/2025

An interesting read (at least I think so!) on how breast milk is different from every single mother depending on what her baby needs

https://www.facebook.com/share/1MPHrYkx3R/?mibextid=wwXIfr

In 2008, Katie Hinde stood in a California primate lab staring at hundreds of milk samples. Male babies got richer milk. Females got more volume. Science had missed half the conversation.
She was a postdoctoral researcher at the California National Primate Research Center, analyzing milk from rhesus macaque mothers. For months, she'd been measuring fat content, protein levels, mineral concentrations. The data showed something she hadn't expected: monkey mothers were producing completely different milk depending on whether they'd given birth to sons or daughters.
Sons received milk with higher concentrations of fat and protein—more energy per ounce. Daughters received more milk overall, with higher calcium levels. The biological recipe wasn't universal. It was customized.
Hinde ran the numbers again. The pattern held across dozens of mother-infant pairs. This wasn't random variation. This was systematic.
She thought about what she'd been taught in graduate school. Milk was nutrition. Calories, proteins, fats. A delivery system for energy. But if milk was just fuel, why would it differ based on the baby's s*x? Why would mothers unconsciously adjust the formula?
The answer shifted everything: milk wasn't passive. It was a message.
Hinde had arrived at this question through an unusual path. She'd earned her bachelor's degree in anthropology from the University of Washington, then completed her PhD at UCLA in 2008. While most lactation research focused on dairy cattle or developing infant formulas, Hinde wanted to understand what milk actually did in primate mothers and babies.
At UC Davis, she had access to the largest primate research center in the United States. She could collect milk samples at different stages of lactation, track infant development, measure maternal characteristics. She could ask questions that had never been systematically studied.
Like: why do young mothers produce milk with more stress hormones?
Hinde discovered that first-time monkey mothers produced milk with fewer calories but higher concentrations of cortisol than experienced mothers. Babies who consumed this high-cortisol milk grew faster but were more nervous and less confident. The milk wasn't just feeding the baby's body—it was programming the baby's temperament.
Or: how does milk respond when babies get sick?
Working with researchers who studied infant illness, Hinde found that when babies developed infections, their mothers' milk changed within hours. The white blood cell count in the milk increased dramatically—from around 2,000 cells per milliliter to over 5,000 during acute illness. Macrophage counts quadrupled. The levels returned to normal once the baby recovered.
The mechanism was remarkable: when a baby nurses, small amounts of the baby's saliva travel back through the ni**le into the mother's breast tissue. That saliva contains information about the baby's immune status. If the baby is fighting an infection, the mother's body detects the antigens and begins producing specific antibodies, which then flow back to the baby through the milk.
It was a dialogue. The baby's body communicated its needs. The mother's body responded.
Hinde started documenting everything. She collected milk from over 250 rhesus macaque mothers across more than 700 sampling events. She measured cortisol, adiponectin, epidermal growth factor, transforming growth factors. She tracked which babies gained weight faster, which were more exploratory, which were more cautious.
She realized she was mapping a language that had been invisible.
In 2011, Hinde joined Harvard as an assistant professor. She began writing about her findings, but she also noticed something troubling: almost nobody was studying human breast milk with the same rigor applied to other biological systems. When she searched publication databases, she found twice as many studies on erectile dysfunction as on breast milk composition.
The world's first food—the substance that had nourished every human who ever lived—was scientifically neglected.
She started a blog: "Mammals Suck...Milk!" The title was deliberately provocative. Within a year, it had over a million views. Parents, clinicians, researchers started asking questions. What bioactive compounds are in human milk? How does milk from mothers of premature babies differ from milk produced for full-term infants? Can we use this knowledge to improve formulas or help babies in NICUs?
Hinde's research expanded. She studied how milk changes across the day (fat concentration peaks mid-morning). She investigated how foremilk differs from hindmilk (babies with bigger appetites who nurse longer get higher-fat milk at the end of feeding). She examined how maternal characteristics—age, parity, health status, social rank—shaped milk composition.
In 2013, she created March Mammal Madness, a science outreach event that became an annual tradition in hundreds of classrooms. In 2014, she co-authored "Building Babies." In 2016, she received the Ehrlich-Koldovsky Early Career Award from the International Society for Research in Human Milk and Lactation for making outstanding contributions to the field.
By 2017, when she delivered her TED talk, she could articulate what she'd discovered across a decade of research: breast milk is food, medicine, and signal. It builds the baby's body and fuels the baby's behavior. It carries bacteria that colonize the infant gut, hormones that influence metabolism, oligosaccharides that feed beneficial microbes, immune factors that protect against pathogens.
More than 200 varieties of oligosaccharides alone. The baby can't even digest them—they exist to nourish the right community of gut bacteria, preventing harmful pathogens from establishing.
The composition is as unique as a fingerprint. No two mothers produce identical milk. No two babies receive identical nutrition.
In 2020, Hinde appeared in the Netflix docuseries "Babies," explaining her findings to a mass audience. She'd moved to Arizona State University, where she now directs the Comparative Lactation Lab. Her research continues to reveal new dimensions of how milk shapes infant outcomes from the first hours of life through childhood.
She works on precision medicine applications—using knowledge of milk bioactives to help the most fragile infants in neonatal intensive care units. She consults on formula development, helping companies create products that better replicate the functional properties of human milk for mothers who face obstacles to breastfeeding.
The implications extend beyond individual families. Understanding milk informs public health policy, workplace lactation support, clinical recommendations. It reveals how maternal characteristics, environmental conditions, and infant needs interact in real time through a biological messaging system that's been evolving for 200 million years—longer than dinosaurs.
Katie Hinde didn't just study milk. She revealed that the most ancient form of nourishment was also the most sophisticated. What science had treated as simple nutrition was actually a dynamic, responsive communication between two bodies—a conversation that shapes human development one feeding at a time.

26/11/2025

Some alternate nostril breathing at today’s mum and baby yoga class. It’s hard to switch off fully once you have a baby to care for, but just one minute of breath work can lower stress, improve your mood and help you to respond to parenting in a calmer way 💕

Mum and baby yoga in Dartford is every Wednesday at 10am. Booking is essential via my website (class is full until the end of January)

Followed by baby club at 11am - a free drop in for new parents to have a cup of tea and meet some friends for maternity leave.

20/11/2025

Lost patience, identity, sleep, money, free time … but there’s also so much to be found in motherhood 💕

17/11/2025

The birth of Jaxon! If you’re looking for inspiration of taking control of your pregnancy and birth then look no further than my wonderful client Ami - first time mum, home birth, water birth, at post 42 weeks! Ami faced an insane amount of pressure to have an induction, but knew exactly what was right for her and her baby. What an honour to have been part of your journey Ami, and thank you for sharing this beautiful story:

“I was considered low risk through most of my pregnancy. The only thing that went against me a little bit was my age, 39. I didn’t even consider a home birth at first due to my age and the fact that I was a first time mum. When I asked if this would be an option, my midwife was supportive and told me that I could – but I also feel that she held this against me during my pregnancy. For example, if something changed in my pregnancy she would make comments like ‘if you are planning a home birth, you need to check all the boxes and go for an extra check up or scan’.

My pregnancy was straight forward the whole way through, but as my pregnancy progressed I kept getting told my baby was the ‘wrong’ size. At around 38 weeks I was told that he was a little on the big side with maybe too much fluid so I went for a scan to check, but at the scan I was then told that baby hadn’t grown! Then I was told that my placenta was failing which was causing the reduced growth, and that I should have an induction.

Luckily, I remembered a conversation from pregnancy yoga about how placentas can not ‘die’ if you go over due. There was a lot of going backwards and forwards, but I did not feel comfortable having an induction so instead agreed to some extra monitoring. However, every time I went in to hospital for monitoring I was pressured into having an induction, which made me feel very stressed.

At first I felt I should go along with the extra appointments as it helped reassure my husband, Jody. I also thought that if I went along with what the doctors were telling me, things would go in my favour – but in hindsight sight that doesn’t work!

My feeling was that I would not go into spontaneous labour whilst in hospital and feeling all of this stress, and it took me a while to mentally recover from each appointment. Each appointment would sent my cortisol levels high, which was not ideal. In the end I decided to stop going in for monitoring every day, and found myself going less and less.

The last couple of weeks of pregnancy came with a lot of pressure, especially from the medical side. Having my birth preferences written down really helped me stay grounded in what was important to me. That, combined with support and constant reminders that this was my choice, helped me manage the intensity of that time. I kept repeating to myself: “If my baby and I are healthy, I’m sticking to Plan A.”

I was lucky — I really enjoyed pregnancy, apart from the pressure from the hospital.

One of the key things I asked for during that time was to be given a moment away from doctors to pause, calm down, and think through my options. I tried to use the BRAIN acronym whenever I could, although I sometimes forgot.

At 41 weeks my midwife changed, as my midwife went on holiday. This was actually a good thing, as I saw different midwives who were a bit more supportive of my home birth.

At 42 weeks +1 day I saw a senior midwife who listened to my concerns about the hospital appointments and pressure I was facing. She was very supportive and said that no-one tells us these struggles, because it’s quite rare for a first time mum to turn down an induction. Overall, she was brilliant and recognised that I had done lot of research. She told me to turn off my thinking brain, and switch on my primal brain. Finally, I felt like I could relax. This was on a Monday, so that evening I went to pregnancy yoga feeling a lot better. Everyone was shocked that I was still coming to class, but I always felt more relaxed after class. At the end, Colleen said to “I’m not going to see you now for six weeks!”

Once I got home I felt that I could mentally switch off, so started preparing for birth. My birth doula had told me about blacking out the windows to increase the hormone melatonin, so I got Jody to do this. We are more likely to go into labour at night as we have this hormone and feel more relaxed. I felt like labour would be soon, and had started to have some niggles. I went to sleep as normal, and labour started soon after.

Contractions started around 3am on Tuesday. I managed to fall back asleep at 7am, with mild on and off contractions, but woke again at 9am to a stronger contraction. Things started slowly, about every 10–15 minutes, then worked their way down to 6–7, and felt like it suddenly jumped to around 2 minutes apart.

Throughout the day I stayed upstairs, in darkness, listening to an audio book. This helped me zone out and not think too much about what was going on. My husband Jody was downstairs sorting out our cosy space and the birth pool. The midwives arrived around 9pm, and my doula arrived soon after.

I had originally planned to avoid vaginal examinations because I knew they could be disheartening or misleading. But once the midwives arrived and things felt so intense — and my sister kept talking about the gas and air — I agreed to one. My waters hadn’t broken yet, but the midwives were confident I had progressed enough. Protocol required them to check my cervix before administering gas and air.

I was 4cm. That felt like such a relief — not just because I was progressing, but because it meant I could have the gas and air! That was around 9pm. I gave birth less than three hours later, at 11:25pm. Baby Jaxon was born in the water, at home at 42 weeks and 2 days.

It was definitely more intense than I imagined, but when it got really tough, my sister helped me breathe through the surges, and the home birth midwives were absolutely incredible — so calm, supportive, and encouraging. I also remember something my doula said about imagining myself in a peaceful place. That brought to mind a story from Ina May’s book, where a woman imagined waves coming in and out with each contraction. I pictured myself by the sea and focused on long, slow, outward breaths. It really helped.

I didn’t end up doing the down-breathing as planned because my body just completely took over — I think it’s called the fetal ejection reflex? I was really grateful the midwives supported me in going with what my body was doing naturally, without coaching the pushing stage.

It was the natural birth I had hoped and planned for. Our little one arrived at 7lbs 12oz, completely healthy. The placenta looked great too — nothing like the concerns that had been raised by the consultants and hospital midwives. Delivering the placenta was a bit harder — I felt pretty weak by that point — but I stayed committed to birthing it naturally, and it came out exactly an hour later.

I honestly can’t express enough how thankful I am for all the support I received leading up to the birth and on the day itself. The pressure I faced was unlike anything I expected. One of my favourite affirmations that really got me through was:

“My contractions are part of me and cannot be stronger than me.”

I’m just so grateful for all the support I had, from our pregnancy yoga group, friends from House Of Leyla, and my doula Claire. That support really helped me have the birth experience I did.

From Ami”

If you’d like to work with my, I offer antenatal classes in Dartford and Gravesend (and the rest of Kent for private bookings):

Pregnancy yoga in Dartford - Mondays at 7pm / Saturdays at 10am
Pregnancy yoga in Gravesend - Fridays at 11.30am at

Hypnobirthing in Dartford - My next four week course starts this Thursday! (There is still time to grab a last minute space)

Plus, my next pregnancy retreat day is live on my website! A whole day of pregnancy yoga, hypnobirthing, birth prep and delicious afternoon tea at in Gravesend. This event is on Sunday 8th February and would make a wonderful Christmas present