10 Things I learned at Daisy Birthing that I Wish I knew in my First Pregnancy

The first night of my Daisy Birthing experience was a positive one. Before we even began there was a sense of calm in the room. The lights were dim, candles flickered in the centre, a gentle Summer breeze cooled my warm cheeks and the room smelled of lavender. When I took a seat on my yoga mat the exhausting and busy day I just experienced melted away and I was able to focus on my body and my baby.

We started with an introduction to the course and I remember feeling relieved when Katherine finished, she wasn't there to tell us how to birth our babies. A lot of natural birthing classes seem to focus on just what they preach, a natural birth, and leave out or brush over the other ways of birthing. From the first utterance I knew this would be a non-judgemental class where Katherine would be giving us several tools to help us on our journey, and explaining all of the options available, while leaving the decision up to us.

I can't remember her exact words but she basically told us that every person is different and every birth is different, a natural birth is great if everything is going smoothly, but things don't always pan out as we hoped and there are many circumstances when pain medications, epidurals and c-sections are not only appropriate but beneficial to the health of the mum and baby. It was after this class that I realised my epidural with Cyril was beneficial and necessary. Not because Cyril was unwell during labour but because I was exhausted after 24 hours of contractions and the epidural allowed me and Josh the rest our bodies so desperately craved. But enough about me, lets dive into the facts before this turns into another novel!

Ten Things I learned at Daisy Birthing:

1. The uterus is a muscle. Just like any other muscle in our body, it needs oxygen to function efficiently which is why breathing during labour is so important. You must practice breathing in order to relax your body so the uterus can do it's job. We practiced our first breathing technique with an in breath of 4 and an out-breath of 8, the extended out-breath shuts off the fight or flight reflex in your body and helps you to relax. The in breath of 4 was too short for me so I've had to adapt it to an in breath of 6 and an out breath of 8-10. I practice this all the time, if I'm frustrated with Cyril, stuck in traffic or the dog is winding me up, it really does help to calm me down.
2. Babies travel down the birth canal in a clockwise position, all hip rotations done in class are clockwise and if baby isn't in a good position Katherine showed us several movements that could help the baby rotate to a head down position in preparation for birth.
3. Gravity is everything in the first stage of labour. Your baby's head needs to make a good connection with the cervix in order for labour to progress efficiently. If it makes a poor connection, labour could stop or go on for hours. The ideal position is the crown of the head directly on top of the cervix, Katherine used round cookie cutters with a doll's head placed on top to help us visualise this. This is the reason why the midwives will tell you to get up and walk around, especially if the contractions have slowed or stopped all together. 
4. Optimal fetal positioning was also discussed. I knew head down was ideal but I hadn't realised that baby in an anterior position is favourable to one in a posterior position. Labour progresses more quickly and easily in this position because the baby puts rounded even pressure on the cervix which helps it to open and the smallest part of the baby's head will be born first. In a posterior position, also known as back to back, labour is usually more painful and longer. Most back to back babies will rotate before they're born but they have to move 180 degrees to get into the anterior position and this takes time and energy on the mother's part. If they don't rotate they'll be born facing upwards and might need the help of forceps or ventouse to get them out. Cyril was a back to back baby, my labour was very long and I needed forceps to get him out. Try not to get too hung up on this, a lot of babies get into the correct position right before they're born, and it's important to remember that baby is in the best position based on your body, even if your baby is breech.  I'm a firm believer that if the baby is breech, he/she is breech for a reason and personally I would try all the clockwise poses that Katherine recommends but I don't think I'd have my tummy manually manipulated, but that's just me.
5. There are 3 levels of induction, first a sweep then a pessary and finally an injection. Katherine went through each of these in more detail and explained why an induction might be necessary and beneficial. 
6. We went through all the pain relief options offered at our local hospital and how they might help us when we're in labour. The options at the Cumberland Infirmary are a birthing pool, gas & air, diamorphine and they're now offering an epidural service. 
7. We all discussed the types of birth we wanted, some only wanted to use a birth pool, others in the class wanted to use every drug that was available to them and were even contemplating driving to Newcastle because they had more drugs on offer. Katherine explained that while it is good to have a vision in your mind of how you want to birth your baby it's important to remain flexible so that you don't feel like a failure if you have to deviate from this plan.
8. Since I practice yoga the first breathing technique was second nature to me. However, we learned 2 new techniques that were very foreign. The first is called the escalator breath and is designed to mimic the more intense contractions when your cervix is dilating from 4-10 cm. It mimics an escalator in that you take sharp inhales followed by quick and forceful exhales until the peak of the contraction and then you exhale gently on the way back down taking an in breath when it feels natural to do so. I may or may not use this technique on the day, Katherine was there to present all the options to us so that when we're in the heat of labour we can easily pick and choose the techniques we feel will work best for us. 
9. The final breathing technique happens when it's time to bear down and actually get the baby out. Our cervix is 10 cm dilated and the baby is likely crowning at this point. This breath reminds me of doing an om in yoga except instead of saying om you say out. The focus of your exhalation is your back side and this technique is best practiced while on the toilet because when it is time to push your baby out you'll feel an incredible amount of pressure on your back side and a lot of women feel like they need to go to the bathroom. The word push is not used in Daisy because when you push you're contracting everything really tightly when in reality you want to relax your pelvic floor so the baby has more room to come out and simply bear down. It's very difficult to explain this but do not tense your muscles when it is time to get the baby out, it will only delay things.
10. Last but not least we learned some positions for when we might need to slow labour down, remain neutral and speed things up. The break position is usually used if you're at home but want to be in hospital and you feel labour is progressing too quickly, this position will not stop the baby from coming but it might help to slow things down momentarily, in this position your pelvis is higher then your shoulders and it looks like puppy pose in yoga. A neutral position is when you're on all fours and an accelerator position is when the pelvis is beneath your shoulders like in a squat.

We discussed a lot of other things that the women in the class had questions about that I didn't mention above. We also practiced different movements to help with heartburn, lymphatic draining, optimal cervical connection and positions that might make labour more manageable. The class always ended with 20 minutes of relaxation, just like shavasana in yoga. This was one of my favourite parts of the class because it allowed me to focus fully on my body and my baby which is something I find difficult to do at home now that I have a toddler. I looked forward to my weekly sessions for so many reasons but one of them was definitely the 90 minutes of undivided attention I was able to give to my baby.

I can't speak highly enough about my sessions with Katherine and the other women in class. I look forward to meeting up with these women when we all have newborns in our arms. It will be nice to know that if I need someone to talk to I will always have my Daisy Birthing Mummies!

All opinions are my own and are not affiliated with Daisy Birthing. Thank you for supporting my blog.