Pregnancy Yoga with Sandra

31/05/2023

I’m finally on Insta. Find me .babies.n7

See you soon.

07/04/2022

A systematic review and meta-analysis has examined the characteristics and effectiveness of pregnancy yoga interventions.

“Twenty-nine studies with 2217 pregnant women were included for meta-analysis.

Pregnancy yoga interventions reduced anxiety, depression and perceived stress.

Yoga interventions also reduced duration of labour and, increased odds of normal vaginal birth and tolerance for pain.

The quality of evidence (GRADE criteria) was low to very low for all outcomes.

Twelve or more yoga sessions delivered weekly/bi-weekly had a statistically significant impact on mode of birth, while 12 or more yoga sessions of long duration (> 60 min) had a statistically significant impact on perceived stress.”

The researchers concluded that, “The evidence highlights positive effects of pregnancy yoga on anxiety, depression, perceived stress, mode of birth and duration of labour.”

The reference for this study is: Corrigan L et al (2022). The characteristics and effectiveness of pregnancy yoga interventions: a systematic review and meta-analysis. BMC Pregnancy and Childbirth 22(250).

You can read the full paper at https://bmcpregnancychildbirth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12884-022-04474-9

(We’ll link that in Sara’s stories today).

We share research for those who like to stay up-to-date with birth-related research and thinking. If you're a midwife, birth worker or pregnancy yoga teacher who would like to delve deeper into studies, get updated on what's new and become better at understanding research, join Dr Sara Wickham’s mailing list at www.sarawickham.com

10/01/2022

Most pregnant women admitted to hospital with Covid are unvaccinated, a government campaign says.

11/12/2021

Happy Holidays to all and Seasons Greetings. May you have a restful time. May you be well nourished. I am closing for rest myself from Dec 16 to Jan 7, 2022. May you be well. See you in 2022!

As a New Year's Special. I'm running a promo for private in person sessions. Come try 3 private sessions for £120 (1 hr). This will make a great gift. In fact, this promos is prompted by a gift voucher request. There is no expiry so there is flexibility in light of any new restrictions.

06/12/2021

No fully vaccinated pregnant women were admitted to intensive care with Covid-19 in England between February and the end of September 2021

28/11/2021

I’ve just finished this book this evening and I highly recommend it. Truly we are in an induction epidemic just as we are in an industrialised approach to childbirth. Slightly depressed too. In my small way, I hope to contribute to a more personalised and human centred approach to birth for mothers, babies and their families.

I’m delighted to announce the publication of my newest book:
In Your Own Time: How western medicine controls the start of labour and why this needs to stop.

Currently, more than a third of women in the UK have their labour induced, but the evidence for this is questionable.

I had already written one book about induction, but I realised we needed another.

I’ve been working in this area for more than two decades, and there’s more that people need to know.

Like the fact that there are numerous benefits to going into labour spontaneously.

That the evidence doesn’t really show what some obstetric organisations claim it does.

There’s also an important history here.
And I do mean “his” story, for the roots of the current situation lie in the patriarchal approach that our culture and western medicine has taken towards birth for the past two or three hundred years.

And whatever the new guidelines say, we know that induction is being offered for reasons that aren’t evidence-based.

Women and families need to know what the evidence really says about due dates, induction for suspected big babies, and for women who are older or larger than average.

And we need more understanding of why induction isn’t the answer to the higher perinatal mortality rates experienced by Black, Brown, Asian and mixed-race women, babies and families.

This information needs sharing, and that’s what I’ve done in this book.

It’s available now, and you can find out more at www.sarawickham.com/time

11/10/2021

Mums to be, please don’t be scared to get vaccinated while pregnant!

10/09/2021

As you might expect but still an interesting read.

A study published in Woman and Birth has explored the impact of COVID-19 on the provision of respectful maternity care.

Asefa et al (2021) set out to, “explore how the COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected frontline health workers’ ability to provide respectful maternity care globally.”

They, “conducted a global online survey of health workers to assess the provision of maternal and newborn healthcare during the COVID-19 pandemic.”

The researchers collected survey data from 1127 health workers in 71 countries and also carried out a qualitative study which included 120 participants from 33 of those countries.

The results will probably not surprise those who have been involved in pregnancy and birth during this time.

“The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected the provision of respectful maternity care in multiple ways.

Six central themes were identified: less family involvement, reduced emotional and physical support for women, compromised standards of care, increased exposure to medically unjustified caesarean section, and staff overwhelmed by rapidly changing guidelines and enhanced infection prevention measures.

Further, respectful care provided to women and newborns with suspected or confirmed COVID-19 infection was severely affected due to health workers’ fear of getting infected and measures taken to minimise COVID-19 transmission.”

The study is freely available at https://www.womenandbirth.org/article/S1871-5192(21)00154-2/fulltext

Asefa A et al (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on the provision of respectful maternity care: findings from a global survey of health workers. Women and Birth doi.org/10.1016/j.wombi.2021.09.003

09/09/2021

If you have concerns on how Covid & vaccines affect pregnancy and fertility, please take a look at this fact-based resource (peer reviewed with scientific consensus) :

In this webinar, our experts look at the evidence around COVID-19 and vaccination in pregnancy and whether vaccines can affect fertility.

03/06/2021

Inward rotation of the thighs creates a greater transverse outlet opening. Things I wish I knew when I was having a baby.

serenitylifedoula • Original Audio