When I hear someone say that their plan for birth is to just go with the flow I have to take a moment and ask a few more questions. There are two main ways of going with the flow. One can be a good choice, the other not so much. Lots of people are a bit dubious about writing a birth plan. They likely know people who said their birth plan was useless, it was all irrelevant before even getting to hospital or they felt it was ignored. Birth is unpredictable so can you really

When you first see those lines on your pregnancy test it can be hard to know what to do. Your immediate reaction will be very dependent on your circumstances of course but in terms of the practicalities what needs to happen and when? Traditionally women would visit the GP to ‘confirm’ the pregnancy and arrange all the referrals for the midwife and scans. Now the home testing kits are so reliable that you don’t need to visit your GP, you can self-refer usually on the hospita

Whenever I mention the psoas muscle in classes I tend to find no one has heard of them. Not really surprising, they aren’t muscles we tend to talk about or think about very much. I hadn’t heard of them until I started on my training to teach antenatal classes. Now I know that they play a really important role in your pregnancy and your birth. The psoas muscles sit in your pelvis, with two muscles on either side. They are deep in your body running from the lower spine throug

Most of the women I speak to find such a difference between a first and a subsequent pregnancy. Not so much the symptoms and niggles (although they can be very different too!) but the mindset, the juggling and, frankly, remembering you are pregnant. In your first pregnancy you are usually really focused on the pregnancy. You know how many days and weeks you are, when your next appointment is coming up, what size your baby is this week, and how they are developing. You ar

Seeing those two lines on a pregnancy test can bring a whole host of emotions. Whether this was a much longed for pregnancy or a...

I have taught hundreds of pregnant women since 2013 and one thing I can see is that not everyone loves being pregnant! They might be...

Once you reach your 28 week appointment your midwife will start to feel your tummy to check the position of your baby. This will be...