Penelope Peacock - Breathe Mama

03/12/2024

I know this will be so helpful for so many families! I haven’t had a look yet but I’m looking forward to seeing what’s inside and it’s great to have a resource like this to share with families in case they need it 💖

27/11/2024

If you have had a c section birth, please have a read and provide some feedback if you can…

⭐ CESAREAN SECTIONS - CALL FOR INPUT! ⭐

The Moray & Banff MVP are working closely with the Maternity Collaborative to restore consultant services to Dr Gray's Hospital, Elgin. Efforts are now underway to plan training sessions for staff on delivery of c-sections. This is a great opportunity for our members to provide a service-user perspective on how c-sections can be carried out in a 'gentle' and family-centred way.

For those of you who have experienced a cesarean section, what recommendations would you make to the Dr Grays healthcare team? We welcome your input on antenatal preparation, birth and post-natal care. Questions to consider include:

🟡What worked well?
🟡What made a difference to you?
🟡How could your c-section have been better?
🟡What would you include on your birth plan if you were preparing for another c-section?

Please post your thoughts and suggestions in the comments or email us directly on moraymvp@gmail.com. All feedback will be passed on anonymously!



Keep MUM Dr Gray’s Women and Childrens' Updates Latnem Mum Days Elgin

21/11/2024

Your experience matters! Please take a few moments to fill out this survey.

The survey had been out together by the Grampian Maternity Voices Partnership, and focuses on your birth experience, post natal care as well as information and communication.

Your voice really does matter. The work of the Maternity Voices Partnership is centred on your experience. By sharing your experience you help the NHS to understand what they are doing well and where they could improve.

Survey open until the 24/11

If you live in , , or , the Grampian Maternity Voices Partnership would like to hear about your experiences of maternity care. We are a partnership of service users and NHS staff who work together to improve maternity services.

Our bi-annual survey is now open and we anticipate it will take from 10 - 20 minutes of your time. This year's survey focuses on birth experience, care and information and communication. The survey is open to anyone who has been pregnant or had a baby after 1 November 2022 or to anyone who is currently pregnant. Follow the link to get started and please share widely! https://tinyurl.com/grampianmvp

Keep MUM NHS Grampian Parent and Infant Mental Health Services Dr Gray’s Women and Childrens' Updates Peterhead Community Maternity Unit Latnem Moray Health Visitors Moray Wellbeing Hub Moray Sling Library Family Nurse Partnership NHS Grampian NHS Grampian Moray Children and Families Network

09/10/2024

Our first birth story is up on the blog! This is a wonderful birth from a first time Mum who, with an ICP diagnosis at 36weeks, went on to have the home birth she had hoped for.

I love this birth story so much, it is a really great demonstration of listening to and trusting your intuition, doing your research and making decisions that feel right for you.

My intention is to fill the birth story blog with a wide variety of birth stories from the north east of Scotland. I specifically want the birth stories to be local because I feel so strongly that this makes them so much more meaningful.

I am still looking for more stories, so please message if you would like to share yours. Remember they don’t have to be perfect, or entirely positive, sharing your challenges and how you faced them helps others see that they can face them too.

Link to the birth story is in the comments.

02/10/2024

There was lots of great chat in my stories last week about birth plans, and whether or not to cover all eventualities. What did you do? What will you do?

Here's my take on why birth plans matter and how writing one will help you to prepare for your birth.

Your birth plan is a communication tool.

When you are in labour, sometimes you are concentrating so much on your labouring body, that communication can be challenging.

Knowing the key things you want to happen, thinking about what is the most important to you and having this written down means you can get on with the work of birthing your baby.

Writing your birth plan is an opportunity to get educated about birth.

Thinking through your choices, discussing them with your birth partner and writing them down helps you to be fully informed before the big day arrives.

This process will help you to feel clearer about your non negotiables and the things you feel more flexible about.

Writing your birth plan is an invitation to discuss your birth, your needs and your wishes with your birth partner. It can be a way to bring them fully on board to support you.

A birth partner who fully understands the decisions you have made and perhaps has been involved in making them, will be an incredible support and advocate for you.

You might even want to consider what your preferences might be for an induction, or a caesarian birth. For some people this helps them to feel more comfortable and reduces fear. For others this is something they don’t feel is helpful to do in advance and would rather make the choices on the day.

If you have any questions about your birth plan pop them in the comments or send me a DM and I will answer them in my stories.

Come along to pregnancy yoga where we chat about these things and I share tips and resources in our whats app group.

Message me to enquire about a hypnobirthing course or the option of a stand alone birth planning session with you and your birth partner.

27/09/2024

Having more than one birth plan can he a really helpful way to prepare for your birth.

It gives you a chance to write ALL of your preferences down, so if circumstances change, you and those around you, know what you want to happen.

Did you have an A B C birth plan?

Plan A - This is your best case scenario for location, environment, support team.

Plan B - What if circumstances change and you are offered an intervention of some kind? Consider your options for induction and intervention, including pain relief options that you might not have considered in Plan A.

Plan C - What would your preferences be for a caesarian birth? This can be anything from low lights, who will have skin to skin if you aren’t able to, which hand you would like the cannula in, etc.

Keep a look out for my free birth resources check list, I hope to have this ready next week and the kinds of resources included in it are a great way to start thinking about your choices. Any questions? Comment below or send me a message. Would a birth planning template be helpful? I could easily share one of those on my website.

With Love
P

p.s. I have spaces in pregnancy yoga just now and I am taking hypnobirhting course bookings up until the end of the year. Send me a message for more info x

26/09/2024

Every week I plan my pregnancy yoga classes and I make sure they cater to those coming along, their aches, pains, emotional well-being and gestation.

Every class includes movement, breathing practice, relaxation, birth preparation and our welcome chat where we share and support each other.

I have spaces in my class just now! Booking isn’t on my website because I often have a waiting list for this class, so you can DM or email me penelope@breathemama.co.uk if you would like to try a class.

We meet weekly ~
Thursday 6.30-8.00pm
Banchory West Ternan Church
£10 drop in, £36 for a 4 week block

p.s due to a change of circumstances later in Autumn, I will be running some yoga classes, as well as relaxation sessions online, DM me to be the first to get the details x

24/09/2024

When I ask women how they felt about birth before completing a course with me. These are the kinds of words they use....

Fear, dread, disconnected, anxious, concerned., reluctant, uncertain, unprepared, resigned, confused, scared, overwhelmed, afraid.

Can you resonate with these feelings?

There are so many reasons why we feel a mixture of these emotions about birth. Some are cultural, societal, systemic. Others are personal, because we all arrive at birth with our own stories.

The good news is that when I ask women to describe how they felt about birth AFTER completing one of my hypnobirthing courses, the language they use is quite different.....

Supremely excited!! Confident, calm, informed, empowered, prepared, settled, excited, ready.

And my personal favourite - encouraged - this one fills my heart with joy becuase that is prescisely what I am here to do, ensure you feel encouraged and supported.

How are you feeling about birth?

If you are still feeling the fear and dread here is a good place to start -

Think about how you want to feel about birth, really truly deeply how you want to feel. Write it down.

Then think about the steps you need to take to help you get there. Write those down too.

If you want support creating a list of steps you need to take to feel good about birth, and you want support to get you feeling that way, check out my website or message me / comment below and I will send you the details of my courses.

If you can’t wait to get started on your own then the best thing to do is get educated about birth. This is the first step to believing that you can have a good experience.

Keep an eye out for my free birth education resources. I will sharing this soon and it includes clickable links to my favourite evidence based sources of information as well as podcast and book recommendations so you can start getting educated about birth.

I am taking bookings now for the rest of the year, details of my courses are on my website. Or send me a message and I will forward all the details to you.

19/09/2024

When I ask for feedback on my courses, this one surprising comment keeps appearing

The Name!!

It’s an issue and a barrier for some people. Hypnobirthing -it can sound a bit out there.

When I first heard of it I thought it was weird.
I paid for a private ante natal course (which I loved) not realising it was a spin off from hypnobrithing becuase it wasn’t called hypnobirthing.

And the rest as you know is history, so…..

Do you think I should change the name of my courses? Please let me know if the name put you off and whether or not you think I should change it. Feel free to DM, I will be chatting about this on stories too.

And let me know what words you think I should use instead - perhaps something like- birth preparation or readiness, or something that includes words like calm, confident, competent or intuitive, assured, unflappable.

What do you think of these words? What words would you use?

04/09/2024

NHS Grampian Infant Feeding Survey

Your feedback really matters! Please take part. For this who have had a baby in the last 15 months.

Grampian Infant Feeding Survey

In 2021, we released a survey to find out where our strengths were and where we needed to make improvements to our various infant feeding services. The feedback shaped our work for the last 3 years.

Now in 2024, we have revamped the survey to hear about your experiences. You can complete the survey If you are:
🤰 Currently pregnant
⭐Have just had your baby
❤Or your wee one is less than 15 months old

Please take some time out of your day to feedback to us. This is a sizeable survey (around 15 minutes), but we wanted to give you the opportunity to tell us your story. Get a drink and a snack and settle in. You are under no obligation to answer all of the questions.

https://online1.snapsurveys.com/xr76fb

If you require help with the survey, email: gram.bffscotland@nhs.scot and we can assist you.

29/08/2024

My favourite ways that pregnancy yoga can help you feel good….

There are sooooo many benefits to pregnancy yoga it’s really hard to pick out my faves!!

I’ll definitely be sharing a separate post on how pregnancy yoga and can improve your birth.

But for now here are my favourite ways that pregnancy yoga can make you feel good ~

🧘🏻 A better nights sleep - a good nights sleep can be hard to come by during pregnancy! I get consistent feedback from women who say that they have such a good nights sleep after yoga.

🧘‍♀️ Relief from aches and pains - for some of us pregnancy is a time of constant discomfort and pain. Pregnancy yoga can help alleviate aches, pains and cramps. I also teach and share my knowledge about managing pain, relieving pain at home and ways to sit and move to help you feel better. Don’t let pain put you off coming, I cater to everyone.

🧘🏿‍♀️Building your village- so many friendships are formed in my pregnancy yoga class. Our sharing circle at the start of class helps you unpack what’s been happening for you and get to know others having babies at the same time as you!

🧘🏽‍♀️Relief from anxiety and stress - the tools of breathing and relaxation that I teach can help you to release worries and manage stress levels. These are techniques that you can draw on during your birth as well.

I have spaces in my pregnancy yoga class just now. We meet in Banchory on Thursdays 6.30-8.00pm. Message me if you would like to join us. A four week block is £36 and you can drop in for £10.

I also have space just now for day time 1-2-1 pregnancy yoga sessions where I can incorporate any birth preparation and hypnobrithing tools and the sessions are tailored to your own needs.

Don’t hesitate to message me for any further details or to ask any questions xx

26/08/2024

Feedback from my breathing and relaxation sessions for pregnancy -

"The session was so useful, I found starting by focussing on my breath really allowed me to calm myself after feeling highly emotional during the day. The guided relaxation then allowed me to relax more deeply and I could feel myself drifting in and out of the words and really detaching from any worries and anxieties I had before. As a result I had a much more restful sleep and was able to fall asleep more quickly as my mind was less busy. Thanks so much!!"

If you would like to release your worries and have a restful sleep, come and join us tomorrow night. We meet live online via zoom from 8.30-9:15pm, tickets are £9. Booking link in the comments xx