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The Doula Club

Doula & Doula Matcher Hypnobirthing & Antenatal Classes, Pregnancy & Postnatal Yoga, Couples Yoga for Birth & Doula, North & East London

12/04/2026

Slow labour is one of the things I talk about most - because it’s one of the things that catches people most off guard.

We’ve been conditioned to expect progress to feel measurable. A steady climb. Fast enough to feel reassuring. And when it doesn’t, the instinct of everyone in that room - staff, partners, the labouring woman - is to do something.

But labour isn’t linear. And it doesn’t respond well to pressure.

What I see again and again is this: things slow down, people get uncomfortable, the energy in the room shifts, and without anyone meaning to, the conditions that labour needs most - safety, calm, privacy - quietly disappear.

Oxytocin is sensitive. It flows when the body feels safe and undisturbed. The moment anxiety takes over, adrenaline follows. And adrenaline and oxytocin cannot share a room.

That doesn’t mean slow labour never needs attention. Sometimes it does. But slow, on its own, is not the problem.

The question isn’t always “how do we speed this up?” It’s often “what’s changed in this room - and how do we get it back?”

Save this for the final weeks. Send it to whoever will be in that room with you.

11/04/2026

Tearing isn’t just about one moment - it’s about how the whole labour unfolds.

The pattern I see again and again is rushed pushing, semi recumbent on the back positioning, and being told to go before the body is ready.

What tends to help: positions that give your sacrum room to move, and following your body’s lead as to what position feels best for you.

Letting the urge build naturally, and slowing things right down as your baby crowns.

None of this guarantees you won’t tear. Some tearing is very common and completely manageable. But these things can reduce the chances of more significant tearing.

Save this for your birth prep and refer back to it as a reminder!

10/04/2026

“We’re recommending induction.”

“We want baby out by 40 weeks”

I hear this from women all the time. Usually after the appointment, when they’re processing what just happened. “They said they want to induce me. I didn’t know what to say. I just kind of... agreed.”

Because it’s rarely framed as a question. It’s framed as a recommendation. A plan. Sometimes it’s said so matter-of-factly that it doesn’t even feel like something you’re allowed to push back on.

You are.

Unless your baby is in immediate danger, you have time. Enough time to understand what’s being suggested, why it’s being suggested now, and what your options actually are.

The questions on slide 5 are a starting point. There’s a difference between a decision you made and a decision that was made for you - and you will feel that difference long after the birth.

Induction isn’t inherently good or bad. Sometimes it’s exactly the right call. Sometimes waiting is. Often it depends on details that haven’t been fully explained yet.

You’re allowed to ask questions. To slow the process down and make a decision from a place of understanding, not pressure.

Save this for the final weeks. Send it to whoever will be in the room with you.

If you want to go deeper on this - what to ask, how induction might unfold, how to make a plan that still feels like yours - that’s exactly what the induction section of my course, Ready Birth Go covers. Link in bio.

09/04/2026

Less pain = more oxytocin. More oxytocin = labour progresses.

No magic tricks, basic biology!

When a labouring woman feels supported, held, and safe, their body can do what it’s designed to do.

These six techniques aren’t just comfort measures - they’re active tools that help keep oxytocin flowing and labour moving.

Save this. Send it to your birth partner. This is their prep work!

08/04/2026

You can read every book. Watch every video. Build the perfect playlist.

But if you walk into that room wound up, distracted, or trying to fix things - none of it matters.

Read these. Actually remember them. Use them on the day.

Save this. Send it to your partner.

07/04/2026

POV: You asked for a physiological third stage… but suddenly your placenta’s treated like a ticking time bomb.

What should happen:

💫 An hour of calm, skin-to-skin, and oxytocin - the perfect recipe for your body to release the placenta naturally.

What usually happens:

⏱️ 10 minutes in: “Need a wee?”
👀 Everyone watching you on the toilet
🪄 Catheter waved around like a magic trick
😬 Oxytocin levels crash
💉 Injection pushed as “necessary”

The irony?
It’s all the interference that causes the problem.

Your placenta isn’t late until it’s late.

Stop the placenta panic!

Trust the hormones. Trust the mother.

The best thing you can write in your birth plan. (as long as all is well)? “
Please don’t talk to me about the placenta for at least an hour!”

Have you been rushed or hassled about your placenta timing?

Did you know it might unfold like this?

Save this as part of your essential birth prep!

05/04/2026

Environment - where you labour and birth happen - has one of the biggest impacts on the birthing body But it’s often overlooked.

Oxytocin is the hormone that makes labour work. And it’s exquisitely sensitive to its surroundings. Bright lights, unfamiliar faces, being watched, being interrupted - all of it sends a signal that it’s not safe to birth.

You can’t always choose your birth setting. But you can almost always shape the atmosphere within it.

Save this. Share it with whoever will be holding the space for you.

03/04/2026

Labour often looks different to how most people imagine it.

The sounds. The shaking. The vomiting. The silence. The self doubt. The fact that often, not much happens at all.

To someone who hasn’t been told what to expect, all of it can feel like something going wrong.

Most of the time, it’s everything going right.

Save this for yourself. Share it with whoever will be in that room. Because knowing this before the day makes a HUGE difference.

02/04/2026

Most people aren’t trying to scare you. They’re trying to process their own experience.

But that doesn’t mean you have to carry it.

Birth is heavily influenced by your nervous system. If you’re terrified, adrenaline shoots up, you’re in flight or fight.

Safety, the positive, settles it down.

You get to choose what you let in.

Save this for when someone starts a story you didn’t ask for.

01/04/2026

Most birth plans focus on the clinical - pain relief, placenta management, Vitamin K.

And these things are important to consider. But do you know what else is essential to think about as part of your plan? Your nervous system.

If you feel safe → oxytocin flows → labour progresses. If you don’t → adrenaline rises → everything can stall.
It’s basic physiology!

This is the part of your birth plan a lot to people never write, but it’s vital. Think of it as your safety plan.

Think about it beforehand, write it down and share this post with whoever will be in that room with you x

31/03/2026

Most partners go into labour wanting to support her. But wanting to help and knowing how to help are two very different things.

Nobody actually shows them what to do. So they default to “you’re doing great” on repeat, hovering nervously, not knowing when to speak and when to stay quiet.

It doesn’t have to be that way.

I’ve put together a birth partner cheat sheet - practical tools I’d want a partner to know before walking into that room.

Comment PARTNER and I’ll send it straight to you.

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