AMAA - Ask Me Anything Antenatal - December!

Hello!

Each month I’m hosting an ‘AMAA - Ask Me Anything Antenatal’ session on Facebook. You can follow my page here for the monthly announcements! It’s your chance to ask a qualified antenatal instructor some questions, for free, when google just won’t do! We’ve all been there, waiting on hold or getting the repeated voicemail recording when all we want to do is ask our midwife or health visitor a quick question. Well now you can submit your queries to me.

Here’s a round up of some interesting questions asked this month. Don’t worry - all questions are asked and replied to privately and I will always make sure you remain anonymous in my blog posts!

I’m 26 weeks pregnant. I’m gutted because a hospital on the other side of the city sounds better for maternity care and I didn’t realise. I’ve booked in at a different hospital. Is there anything I can say to get myself moved across?

Yes of course! There is nothing you need to say other than ‘I want to move!’. You’re entitled to choose where you’d like to give birth to your baby and this decision does not have to be set in stone. Just like any good birth plan, it’s ok to change your mind on things if you see fit. If you wanted to opt for a home birth, you could change your mind at any time and transfer to a hospital. If you’ve booked in at a hospital that is no longer right for you, you won’t have to justify your reasons. Simply ask your community midwife to refer you over to the hospital you’d like to give birth in.

Depending on your location, it is often the case that your community care (fortnightly check ups, doppler scanning and urine testing etc) will take place within the health care trust your doctor’s surgery falls into. If you transfer to a hospital outside of this trust, that’s fine. Your community care will continue with the same team, but your antenatal classes, consultant led care (if needed) and birth will all take place at your choice of hospital.

Does eating dates really help labour to start? I’m 3 days overdue and considering buying some.

Quite a few major studies have been carried out in recent years to find out how dates can help women with their labours. Initially it was thought that dates could bring on labour and make for a shorter labour time. As with absolutely everything to do with getting your labour started, it’s just not that simple. Eating a few dates now that you’re overdue is very unlikely to make much difference.

The guidelines from one study found that eating 6-8 dates per day during the last 4 weeks of labour (from 36 weeks onwards) resulted in:

• Significantly higher mean cervical dilatation upon admission compared with the non-date fruit consumers (3.52 cm vs 2.02 cm)

• Significantly higher proportion of intact membranes (83% vs 60%)

• Spontaneous labour occurred in 96% of those who consumed dates, compared with 79% women in the non-date fruit consumers.

• Use of prostin/oxytocin was significantly lower in women who consumed dates (28%), compared with the non-date fruit consumers (47%)

• The mean latent phase of the first stage of labour was shorter in women who consumed date fruit compared with the non-date fruit consumers (510 min vs 906 min)

A direct quote from the study results:

It is concluded that the consumption of date fruit in the last 4 weeks before labour significantly reduced the need for induction and augmentation of labour, and produced a more favourable, but non-significant, delivery outcome.

So, it seems there could be great advantages to eating lots of dates late on in pregnancy. Unfortunately for the client asking this question, she was already past her due date and so eating a tonne of dates at this point was unlikely to make much difference!

I’m finding the date studies really interesting and so I’ll do some more research on this and write a full blog post soon with my findings!

My Journey Started At The Hairdressers...

…12 weeks pregnant, sucking on ginger biscuits in front of the huge salon mirror, reassuring myself I wasn’t going to be sick into a bin before the stylist had finished her job. She asked me if I’d thought about hypnobirthing. The truth was, I hadn’t even thought about birthing! Getting pregnant had been a long and difficult journey and that had been my only focus. This was the first time I’d paused and thought about actually pushing the thing out. I googled, researched and enquired about a hypnobirthing course before I even left the building…

And a year later, 6 months after the birth of my own baby, I was in a different salon chair. A different hairdresser too, pregnant with her first child. She didn’t have to say anything - the worry, the fear, the anxiety, the unknown… it was all written on her face. I told her about the wonders of hypnobirthing and how the course I’d taken had really helped to settle my nerves and stay positive… but she already knew about the course and had signed up herself just a few days before.

Though I knew she’d enjoy the course, I left feeling angry and annoyed inside; fed up that so many women end up in a situation where they face worry and fear around their birth. Too many horror stories told, too many ‘you won’t possibly understand until you’ve experienced it’ conversations. Too many negative thoughts about labour in a woman’s head by the time she is of childbearing age. It’s no wonder that women are scared of the pain of childbirth - it’s all we hear from the early days. And if we don’t hear it, we feel it in the voices of those who have experienced it before us. That overwhelming feeling of ‘you haven’t done it, so you can’t possibly know’ that shades every conversation between a new-mum-to-be and an experienced pusher (or worse - a group of them!)

My crew!

I couldn’t stand it when I was pregnant and, sitting in that chair in front of the worried young girl, I decided that I had to do something, even if it only helped a handful of people. I decided that I wanted to help others to prepare for the birth of their baby in the way I did. Women deserve to feel prepared and positive about birth. They also deserve to know and understand the choices they have in regards to their labour, antenatal and postnatal care. I think we can all agree that the labouring woman has most of the work to do, but nobody ever seems to think of the birth partner! In films and on TV they are seen as the ‘hand holder’ or the ‘bystander’. Birth partners deserve more than this too - they can learn, with hypnobirthing, to actively support the labouring woman with her techniques. There’s only so much mopping of the brow that can feel useful, surely? Birth partners experience such an overwhelmingly emotional event yet don't always get the chance to feel fully part of the process or feel truly helpful. I know of one dad who took my course who was told by the midwives that he should consider a career move into midwifery! Whoever your birth partner might be, they too can benefit from using hypnobirthing and feel fully prepared to act as your advocate on the day.

The clinical bright lights and cattle-market feel to the hospital’s basic antenatal class - the basic biscuits, cold plastic chairs and pain relief video (with little chance to ask questions or discuss pros and cons) - it just wasn’t for me. Experiencing all this, I decided to train as a hypnobirthing instructor, offering full antenatal classes and private instruction to women and their birth partners across Greater Manchester. And so far, so good! My clients have given me fantastic feedback and my sessions remain fun, friendly and informative. I’ve even been asked to attend births with my clients which is such a great honour.

If you’ve read this far and you’re still intrigued then you’ve come to the right place. Have a look around my website and discover more about hypnobirthing. Get in touch, connect with me on Facebook, Instagram or via email or book a course today. I can’t wait to be part of your journey and help you to have a positive and calm birth experience.

Mamas and Papas Manchester Events

Exciting news!

I’ve been asked to guest speak at the Manchester Mamas and Papas store during their January Parent-to-be events! I’ll be giving presentations on hypnobirthing, answering questions on all things antenatal and sharing some inspiring positive birth stories.

The events are happening on Sunday 20th January and Sunday 27th January between 10.30am and 12.30pm.

If you’re expecting, I’d love to see you there!

The Manchester Mamas and Papas store can be found in the intu Trafford Centre.

Details and tickets for the events can be found here!