Ameika, Daughter of Jessamine, was born at 1:59am on the 12th of October 2011.

Ameika was born only 5 days before my due date (!) last Wednesday. Slow buildup but only two hours once contractions were coming faster. She is absolutely perfect.

Xaviera, Daughter of Dannelly, was born at 9pm on the 17th of September 2011, weighing 3.00kg.

I am writting to you first of all to thank you for the wonderful journey you took me on with all I learnt from the course, and to let you know that I had my baby.

I had a wonderful birth, and a very happy first week in my home with my husband, my mum and my baby. Now my husband has gone back to work, but thankfully i have my mum's help. She's very calm baby and so far she's been very good.

Posey Cue, Daughter of Simone, was born on the 8th of September 2011.

I attended some active birth classes with you, which were wonderful, and gave me some great breathing techniques, positions and mantras.

After the first birth of my son 2 years ago, which was traumatic, I had mixed feelings about this birth. After going to your classes I felt empowered, and hoped the birth was a positive memorable experience.

Well I have to thank you as it was Amazing! I breathed through 24 hours of contractions, felt so focussed, and kept giving myself positive affirmations that when we finally got to hospital I was in transition for 20 minutes, a few pushes and the baby was out! No tearing, no suction, no episiotomy,and back home within 4 hours!

I can't thank you enough for your classes. I will recommend them to everyone, but just can't believe how a simple task of breathing and focussing on that can just take your mind off pain.

Thanks again for all of your great advice. I'll remember to breath when they are teenagers!!

Brooke, Daughter of Lisa, was born on the 19th of July 2011.

My partner and I loved the full day active birth workshop we did with Suzanne.  It helped us feel a little more prepared on the big day, like we had some tricks and strategy up our sleeves and like we had had an opportunity to "practice" before hand. This helped my partner to know what I liked so he could support me during the birthing.  I loved my time with yogababy and we had our perfect birth experience. Any preparation helps, that's for sure!!!

Adam, Son of Kerry, was born on the 25th May 2011, weighing 8lb 14oz.

Just wanted to thank you for the wonderful knowledge I gained doing your Active Birth Yoga classes and workshop, I found them really beneficial on the big day and think they played a big part in my successful VBAC. 

I managed to avoid any pain relief, had a 6 hour active labour (1 hour 2nd stage) and my sons head circumference was the same as my first son, born via emergency c-section - a large 39cm!  I also came through it with no tears or stitches.

Owen, Son of Wendy, was born on the 6th of May, weighing 2.49kg at birth.

 It was a very quick birth - from membrane rupture to delivery was only an hour and a half.  And although I think the speed was a shock to both our bodies, I am pleased to report that there were no long-term detrimental effects to myself or Owen - he did not require any intervention and I did not require any stitches.  Even though it was not the birth I would have planned for myself, I have no regrets or disappointments about the choices that were made, but instead am very thankful for the safe arrival of my son, and am pleased that even when my original plans for labouring had to change, having other options to go to helped me continue to feel in control and positive.  And although much of the intense 90 minute labour was not as calm as I would have liked, the lead up to it (walking the hospital grounds with my husband) and the time immediately following (where we spent a long period just the three of us, admiring Owen, bonding and feeding before he was weighed or measured) certainly lived up to the calm birth I had hoped for.

Mettaya, daughter of Lana's story.

I just wanted to thank you for all you taught me during my pregnancy, birthing my daughter was an incredibly empowering experience and even though I needed to be induced and was put on the syntocinon drip I was able to birth Mettaya without any further interventions, in such an aura of love, thanks to the wisdom shared by Suzanne and Ulrike. I have attached my birth story just in case you want to share it with others, particularly those that need to be induced, it might be comforting to know that a beautiful and otherwise relatively natural birth is entirely possible :)

In my life, and particularly during my pregnancy, I was blessed by the positive birthing stories shared by my mum, my mother in law, friends and on the web. I focused on these and truly relished a healthy, happy pregnancy, a strong trust in my body, active birth yogababy classes, calmbirth workshop, lots of reading and learning about pregnancy and birth and the anticipation of meeting our little one. These all helped me to feel prepared and look forward to giving birth for the first time... Read More

Joseph, son of Karen, was born on June 27th 2011.

Thank you for your wonderful input. The couples workshop and course were so helpful in relaxing and mentally preparing  for the birth  And I hope to get along to yoga at Southbank in Oct.

Leo, son of Karen and Scott, was born on May 18th 2011, weighing 8Ib 7oz.

Just wanted to let you know we had a little boy.

Thanks for the classes, it really helped both Scott and I understand and cope with the birthing process (I was going to say enjoy the process but I think I may have been pushing it a little!).  We had a 14 hour labor – I’d say 6 hours of that was truly ‘active labor’.  I kept myself busy, even spent two hours at a car cleaners pacing up and down the reception area before picking up my husband – I was having 5 min contractions by that point!  Not quite the serene place I had wanted but I did get that alone time in my head which was great.

Ended up with an emergency c-section as baby’s heart beat was dropping, my blood pressure was increasing and I had only dialated 1 cm during the last 5 hours.  I guess I’ll never know if we could have waited but I am happy that we followed our birth plan pretty much to the letter.  Your classes (yoga baby; active yoga and the practical workshop) helped me feel more in control to make that happen so thank you very much.

Freya, Daughter of Catherine and Gilbert, was born on the 28th of March 2011 weighing 3.101kg.

She is the most beautiful baby in the world. We had a remarkable birth with such loving support from our midwife Julie and Suzanne our friend. It all took just 7 hours with the best part of it for me being when I pushed her out. She graced us with her presence, in the water of the RBWH Birth Centre at 2.12am. We were overjoyed. Thankyou Suzanne for your Yogababy classes and your serenity throughout our birth journey.

For more about this birth, please visit the article:

http://www.yogababy.com.au/links/articles/freyas-birth/

Alexandra, Daughter of Melissa, was born on the 20th of February 2011.

She weighed in at 3.865kg (!) and 53 cm. 22 hours of labour - 12 active and close to 2 hours pushing :) but ended up with a C-section as my contractions slowed down. Oh well, I tried! We used all the positions learned in baby yoga and I felt pretty calm the whole time (no pain medication either). She is beautiful and healthy - breastfeeding like a champion from Day 1!

Arki, Son of Priscilla and Gav, was born on the 11th of March at 1:08am.

He was 3.6kg (8 pound), 50.5 cm long, has a full head of hair and perfect in all respects.  He obviously really wanted a symmetrical birthday 11/3/11 - cause he made me wait through a long day of labour from 6:30am but we made it in the end. Gav was a champion and didn't pass out, he felt like a spare wheel at the end, but did a really good job of keeping me comfortable all day.

Sophie, Daughter of Wendy, was born in late January.

I attended your yoga baby classes when I was pregnant. I just wanted to thank you, attending your class was so helpful. It gave me the confidence and knowledge on everything I needed to know about labour. I had a beautiful natural birth thanks to you and your hand outs. From the bottom of my heart I thank you. I have also recommended you to others.

Gulliver, son of Kate and Morgan, was born on the 30th of December.One of the recommendations of my doula was to attend an active birth workshop prior to giving birth and a friend suggested Yogababy. I particularly liked the focus on our partners for the full day workshop and the lead up with just the mums for the weekly active birth yoga classes. The lessons I learnt about natural birth through Yogababy were invaluable for me during labour. The most inspiring thing I learnt was the techniques of slow breaths and sound vibrations during each contraction to manage sensations and keep control. I went on to use this technique for my whole labour and went on to achieve the natural, drug-free birth I was hoping for.

I spent the day in the baby pool on the verandah with sun streaming in—the first sunny day in many weeks of flooding rains. Morgan gave me lovely kisses and contact. I tried to rest as much as is possible with contractions 5mins apart. I laboured at home until 3pm. Upon inspection I was at 4cm and my cervix was completely effaced! Thank goodess. Active labour had begun.

I was now admitted into the birthing suite. I began active labour on a fit ball in the shower with my doula hosing my back with warm water. The shower had great hand rails, so I was able to move around very comfortably.My psychology was so much better in the suite than at home. I felt like things were moving. After an hour or so, I moved to the fit ball by the bed, resting on the mattress between contractions. This was the last time I really spoke much between contractions. We then filled the bath. I was allowed in, just as long as my contractions got stronger. Getting in the bath at 6pm, I didn’t leave until ready to push at 10pm. The bath was amazing. My doula poured cups of water over me. Morgan held my arms and vibrated through contractions-steering my pitch low as it got ragged or high.

The birth suite was dark and silent the whole time, lit only by a lamp. My midwife was amazing, she did occasional Doppler checks of the baby’s heartbeat, my pulse and my temperature, all while I was in the bath. There was almost no intervention. In fact, the ritual and supportive environment meant that good surges of my own oxytocin and adrenalin were released throughout active labour and I didn't feel the need to request any pain relief during this time, when pushing or post-birth (until day 3 when some panadol and Voltarin was good). At 8pm, the midwife even did an internal check in the bath! It was a triumphant moment when she prounounced I was 8.5cm dilated!!! I had progressed about 1cm per hour since arriving. No one was taking me out of that bath! I finished stage two by 10pm and then felt the urge to push.

So the midwife got a birthing stool and Morgan sat behind me. Having Morgan there and gravity was brilliant. Soon I was able to crown the head. The moment I did though I also lost sensation (pins and needles feeling) in my hands and arms. Not to worry.

To finish the job I was moved to a different position again (to reduce tearing). This time I was standing, leaning over the bed. My OB came in at this point and the midwife, doula and OB all coached me through moving out the shoulders, breathing and finally, at 11:09pm 30th December 2010, a baby came shooting out! They quickly passed him through my legs and into my shocked arms.

As soon as I could I clambered into bed and held onto my little boy skin-to-skin.e was measured, 4.3kg (9lbs, 8ozs). I fed him again before we headed up together to the room where we fell asleep together. A new family!!

Theodosia, daughter of Bronwyn, were born on the 15th of February. In terms of pain, I would say that I mostly experienced "cramps". I was waiting for them to get more intense as a signal to go to the hospital, but when they did get more intense it happened quite suddenly and dramatically and then it was all over very quickly. If I had to guess, I would say that it was transition stage by the time I could really feel things. I don't remember the second (pushing) stage as being very painful, either - mostly I remember the strange sensation of being able to very clearly feel what was going on! The - what I presume to be - transition stage was definitely the hardest pain-wise, but I found the vocalisation and visualisation techniques made it very much within coping range, and in fact there was a sense of achievement with each contraction; that we had got through and marked another one off the list, so to speak. Although I must say I thought I had a few more to go!

We definitely needed the techniques from the yoga classes, as she arrived so quickly she even beat the ambulance! The breathing, visualisation and vocalisation techniques in particular helped us to stay calm and focussed and maintain as much control over the circumstances as Thea allowed us. We hadn't planned a home birth, and we certainly hadn't planned on doing things alone, but everyone is very happy with the way things turned out.

Zakari and Zebedee, Sons of Mel, were born on the 11th and 12th of December.  Less than a week after we attended the Active Birth workshop our twins decided that they would like to make an early appearance (as twins often do!) and I was rushed up to Mater Hospital in Brisbane for their delivery.

Zakari William was born just before midnight on 11 Dec and Zebedee Anthony was born just after midnight on 12 Dec. As nothing was going to be normal about their appearance it made sense that the identical twins would actually have different birthdays! I was fortunate enough to deliver both bubs without C Section even though Zebedee was breech. I would definately say that being fit helped with the pushing side of things. The boys were so tiny but beautiful and received amazing specialist care in the ICU at Mater. They never needed any oxygen and went really well on the breathing side of things (Zeb was a little slower to catch up to his slightly bigger brother). We returned home a week last Sunday as the boys were transferred to the Tweed Hospital. It is bliss to be back on the Coast after living in accomodation close to Mater for 5 weeks. The boys are doing so well and were moved out of their humidcribs into a cot together a week ago which was a huge milestone. They are about to hit the 2kg mark so are growing nice and fast at the moment.

Thanks again for the great info we received at your workshop. It definitely helped on the pain management side of things even though I didn't have a 'normal' birthing experience!

Estelle Violet, daughter of Chloe We ended up having her manually turned at 37 weeks without any problems - she turned first try.  I then went into labour naturally 2 days before she was 'due' and experienced my perfect birth. I used a
number of the active birthing techniques and did not require any pain relief. To my astonishment, I was 9cm dilated when I got to hospital and she was born 3 hrs after we arrived - 6 lbs 8 oz and 52cm long.

So thankyou for the classes and the couples workshop!

Edwan Philip Coggan, son of Ged and Anthea, was born on the 18th January.  I could not have wished for a better labour  and birth experience and have you to thank for that. I got the bloody show at 1.30 am and started focussing on being relaxed. By 2.30 am I was getting contractions of about 30 seconds every couple of minutes so I woke Ged and we toddled into the Mater. After assessment they recommended I stay at the ward and by 9.30 am I was 9 cm dilated. I walked, breathed and counted through all contractions. When things got really full on in the delivery suite I used sound as well as walking and counting. It was interesting, when I got to the delivery suite I thought “right, now I am going to have this baby” but the contractions started to back off. That was where the yoga baby practice really helped, we tried a few different positions and when I lay on my side and lifted up my leg– BANG it was all on and I went from slowing down to PUSHING!!!!! Half an hour of pushing and Ewan was born…..I tell you what I now understand why it is called the ring of fire! Ewan was 9.5 lbs (4.3 kg) 54cm long with a 37cm head!!!

It was an amazing experience and I was so pleased that I managed to get through the whole thing with no drugs. Your wonderful teaching gave me the confidence to take control of the birth and at no point did I feel that I needed anything more than my rhythm and ritual. And credit to the midwives, they never distracted me by offering pain relief.  Ged was amazing, he timed contractions and just did as I asked.  Thank you so much for your wonderful teaching and for helping me be empowered for a wonderful birth experience.

Vera May Blumhardt, daughter of Susan and Nicholas was born on the 26^th October at 3:47pm weighing 8 lbs and 6 oz. The breathing techniques and positions for labour that I learnt at Yogababy were very helpful. The labour and birth went really well and we were overjoyed to meet our lovely daughter. 

Patrick Douglas, son of Kathryn was born 25th Nov at 2253. My waters broke lunchtime on thursday and contractions started around 4pm. I Iaboured at home and contractions were regular at 3-4mins apart by 7pm. We left for the hospital at  around 8.30pm and by that time contractions were already 1 min apart. We arrived around 9pm and I was already in transition.

We got into birth suite and not long after I had the first big urges to push - second stage was 1hr 10mins and he was born just before 11pm. I got to birth him in the position i wanted, a modified squat, and he came out very slowly - lots of up and down and crowned for a long time as well. 

Got to hold him straight away which was totally amazing :) and we took our time discovering we'd had a little boy. I birthed the placenta very quickly - within about 10 mins so there was no managed third stage either.

Patrick's birth has been the most amazing experience and such a huge healing journey as well for all of us. It was a bit of a shock going into labour so early, and that his birth was so quick - but so worth it :)

Aidan Marshall, son of Alison, was born Monday the 18^th October at 5:34 am. He weighed 2.735 kgs (6.0 pounds), 48 cm long. It turns out I was in pre-labour during the entire workshop last Sunday.  So when you had us practicing– I was actually doing it for real.

I had a good first stage, which basically regulated as soon as we got home. The yoga breathing and relaxation techniques worked a treat. So good in fact I think I missed the transition stage that was to alert me to get to hospital. So from waters breaking to actual birth was just over an hour. The vocalization and breathing also helped me control that too. 

He is an absolute delight, I am in love all over again. Next will be mum and baby yoga, so see you next year.

 Zara, daughter of Amanda, was  born 6th April 2010.

As labour had not begun naturally I was induced ten days after my due date.  Although I was not keen to take the induction route I felt so large and uncomfortable by this stage that I accepted my fate.  The primary reason for not wishing to have an induction was that many resulted in the use of pain medication which increased the likelihood of caesarean section (further scenarios I hoped to avoid).

I was very fortunate to have a wonderful midwife at the Mater who was extremely supportive of my drug free goal.  The midwife began the process with a relaxing foot massage using essential oils and was very determined to source one of the three remote monitoring machines the hospital now have.  The latter was particularly invaluable to the labour process as it enabled me to move around more freely and benefit from using the shower which made an enormous difference.

The positions and techniques I learned in your Yogababy classes were very useful during labour.  My partner benefited particularly from those learned in the active birthing class which he applied in the early stages of labour.  After a while, however, this assistance along with things such as music became a distraction and it was clear to me I needed to take my focus internally and concentrate on getting through each contraction.  I felt quite guilty about leaving my husband out of the process but he understood and felt the active birthing classes gave him the confidence to know when it was appropriate to provide active assistance and when to pull back and provide moral support.  Whilst the birth process differed in many ways to my “ideal birth plan” I was extremely pleased with my labour and the outcome.  The techniques I learned in your classes were of invaluable to my ability to navigate an induced labour without the need for drugs.

Thank you for your guidance and support!

Jack Michael, son of Clare, was  born 31st July at 11.25pm weighing in at 8lb 14.

I had an amazing birth. Our midwife was wonderful. I acheived my goal of having a drug free natural birth. I utilised the relaxation and visualisation techniques we practiced at yoga. And I found my voice!! Thankyou!

Alexander John, son of Sandra, was born on 13 June, 10 days early. I awoke at 4 am on the 13th with what I tried to convince myself was indigestion pains. I woke hubby up at 4.30 am for the Soccer and it was him who decided that perhaps we should time the pains. I hadn’t had “the show” so thought it was just a bit of tummy pain that would blow over. At 6 am and 5 minute contractions I started to believe that perhaps I was in labour and started using my active birth yoga movements to get through the contractions. After a nice warm shower and contractions strong at 3 minutes apart we headed into the Wesley. On arrival at about 8.30 am I was convinced that they were going to inform me that I was only a few centimetres dilated but we were ready for the experience. The OB convinced me to get on the bed for a quick internal and to our surprise I was 8 cm dilated and it seemed that my waters were going to need some assistance. At 9.30 am they broke the waters and I resumed using my voice and breathing to bring bub down. Alexander was born at 11.26 am and all was good. We had lovely skin to skin contact and daddy got to cut the cord and give him his first bath.

We took Suzanne’s advice and asked to look at the placenta. The OB gave us a really good introduction and we are glad we did take the time to do it. We had a relatively easy and problem free labour. I wanted to thank-you for the classes and workshop. Both me and hubby felt prepared and we really feel that yogababy helped us bring home a gorgeous little boy after a drug free and wonderful experience.

Zachary Craig, son of Francine, arrived at 1.40am on Friday 21 May after a 24 hour labour - unfortunately he was posterior.  He weighed 8lbs 3 ounces. The back pain was pretty intense, probably more so due to my back injury.  I tried the steriod water injection in the back, that gave me a bit of relief for about 30 minutes..we tried massage but I found I didn't want anyone touching me.  I tried heat packs, the shower but it was just too painful.   I was absolutely exhausted so I finally succumb to an epidural at 5.30pm. The exhaustion was the biggest surprise for me, I really thought I would manage the labour okay.  The epidural definitely slowed down the contractions and they thought at one point they would have to assist in getting him out, but I was determined that wasn't going to happen so I pushed hard! No tear, just a bit of a graze..I have the Epi-No to thank for that. Zac is a really calm and placid baby, I think he's been here before :-)

I just wanted to thank you for all that I learnt in your classes. The breathing definitely helped, my friend Jackie and my aunt who were both with me through the labour, couldn't believe how quiet I was through the contractions.

Son of Kiah was born on 27th April.  He arrived in around two hours – we pulled the car up to the hospital at 6.05 and he was born at 6.55am.

Ottilie Charlotte, daughter of Cushie and Tom was born on the 3^rd of  March.  She wasn’t so little actually – 59cm long and 9’12’’!

The labour was great and we managed to do it all completely drug free and be home from hospital the next day!  The yoga was really useful and I had a really active birth with the help of Tom and our doula – so a great first birth and can’t wait to do it all over again next time! 

Zoe, daughter of Kathy was born at home on 31st March attended by a doula and midwife. After trying a few different techniques through the surges, I found that the focused breathing (with low tonal sounds) was exactly what I needed to ride through the sensations. It helped so much that for most of the time I was not aware of the peak of each contraction at all. 

Thank you for your invaluable advice and your wonderful workshop. I will definitely recommend your workshop to any birthing mums and dads out there.

Chanelle Mei-Lin, daughter of Sue-Lin was born on 17th Jan at 9.40am, she weighed 3.08kg. She was born with with only gas, a tens machine and your active birthing techniques.

Mia Lunette, daughter of Danielle and Luke was born 7lb57 and 51 cm long on 23rd October.    I felt very ready after my last active birth class and went into labour that night (well some of my water had leaked).  Upon arrival at the hospital, my Birth Centre midwife was not available so had to be seen by hospital staff.  There were so many occasions where Luke and I had to assert ourselves to not be intervened.  I felt confident and trusted my body so declined any such interventions.    I returned home to labour there until about 12pm the next day where we made our way to the birth centre and I gave birth to Mia at 355pm. 

I absolutely enjoyed the whole birthing experience and knew exactly how to open my body to let Mia out.  I loved how organic the whole experience was and feeling my beautiful baby working with me.  At no point did I even consider drugs as I felt that I just wanted to be present in the moment and not break that amazing energy.  I thought I was very vocal but apparently I was chanting, and was rightly given the name "Monk" during labour.  I had no tearing and was buzzing and beaming after Mia was born.  Luke was with me the whole way and was a absolute angel massaging me, assisting me with positions and reminding me to breath.

Elijah, son of Paige and Tim was born into the world on Sunday 6th December at 2.13am! We had a beautiful home water birth with a 9 hour labour and although he was born 11 days early Elijah is a healthy 7 pound 13oz or 3.57kg, 54cm long and although we are quite biased we think he is pretty cute! 

Jack Alexander, son of Michelle and Dan was born @ 0355 16/11/09 @ Mater Mothers.  We had a wonderful active labour at home for the first 14hrs of the birth.  Jack remained in his funny quarter posterior position for the duration of the labour which meant that squatting, sitting, reclined sitting were out the the question for comfort reasons.  Being familar with alternate positions gave us both the confidence that we had things under control.  Vocalisation became a strong focus of our labour.  Our midwife commented on how in-sync myself and my husband were, and how much strength I drew from him.  Thank you for giving him the confidence to support me using a variety of different methods.  Continuing my visualisation practice despite having an epidural led to a speedy final dilation and maintenance of strong uterine surges with the smallest dose of cytocin.  Birth was an amazing process to be involved in.  I am so thankful to have experienced the natural labour and to also feel confident in our decision for intervention.

Zuri, daughter of Andrea and Shane, sister to Riley, arrived Wednesday 23 September at 11.45am (the peak of the dust storm!). Andrea started noticing regular pain after Shane left for work around 7am.  She took Riley to daycare around 9.30am by which time the contractions were 4 minutes apart.  She considered driving herself to hospital but Shane arrived home around 10.25am by which time he felt the more urgent need to get there after noticing contractions less than 3 minutes apart.  After a circuitous route to the hospital with Andrea giving directions (someone had to think clearly...) we arrived at the main entrance requiring a wheelchair to make it to the maternity ward.  The nurse at the reception desk ushered us quickly to the delivery suite (she told us later the contractions were 1 minute apart by this stage), where on examination, Andrea was fully dilated and ready to push.  Zuri arrived (before the doctor) in less than 10 minutes. 

Hugo, son to Monica and brother to Rex was born at 00.17 on 15 August 2009 weighing in at 3.370kg. The birth was exactly as I wanted - laboured at home for the most part with only the last hour and a half spent at the hospital. It was a real relief after the birth of my first son which was a posterior labour and lots of medical interventions!

Sayen, daughter of Jane and Rodolfo, was born on 25 May 2009. I had an amazing powerful beautiful birthing experience- both my husband Rodolfo and I loved it. In short, we arrived at the hospital and I was 8 cm dilated- the labour was 5 3/4 hrs and Sayen was caught by her dada.

Max, son of Sara was born in the early hours of 27th July.  After a long prelabour, I arrived at the hospital 10 centimetres dilated in the early hours, jumped into the bath tub at the birth centre and was holding our baby boy 2 hours later. It was an exhilarating and wonderful experience and I was so glad to have had all the stories as well as physical practice in the skills of active birth that you offered during the classes.

Lisa's daughter Thank you for the active birth classes. My little girl was born on 27th June. I was able to have an active birth with the knowledge I had learnt in the classes. I spent most of my labour off the bed either in the shower or on the birthing ball. I used many of the techniques I learnt especially the vocalisation during transition and having loose lips in labour making bbrrrr sounds with my lips.

Amelia Grace, daughter of Jodie and Ben, born 11.45am on the June 3rd.  My waters broke at 8.25pm the previous evening. I work as a midwife in a busy hospital and I figured 5 weeks of maternity leave would allow me to get it all done before our bub arrived. My body and baby had other ideas. We arrived at the hospital about 10pm, An abdominal exam revealed bubs head was well engaged (1-2/5 above the pelvic brim), and an internal exam showed that my cervix had started to efface but not yet dilate.

The plan was to wait and see what happened overnight and to reassess things in the morning. From 1 am onwards I started having contraction type pains every ten minutes, lasting about 40-50 secs. I felt most of this discomfort in my lower tummy, but was able to breathe through them using a long relaxed breath (learnt at yoga) and continued to rest on my left side. By 6am I was up in the shower having contractions 2-3 minutes apart, I was making lots of noise using the sounds, breathing, spiralling movements learnt at yoga, trying hard to keep my body open. Ben rubbed my back and hips and I tried to drink plenty of water and munch on a banana in between.

By 7 am I was starting to get quite vocal, I wanted to go down to the birth suite where I could move and make noise a bit more freely and needed to know that I was making progress, if this wasn't labour I wasn't sure I could go the distance. At approx 8 am I arrived in the birthsuite, after a quick tracing of bub's heart rate which revealed he/she was still coping fine, they did an internal examination which revealed I was 7-8cm dilated, I was so relieved that these contractions had been doing something and started to feel a little out of control at this stage (typical of transition). My immediate instinct was to hop back in the shower where I leaned over a birth ball on a mat. I had hot water on my tummy and Ben rubbing and showering my back. I continued to spiral my hips, talking to our baby and making lots of "o" sounds, hoping it would keep my cervix open and relaxed. Ben kept reminding me to relax my jaw.

My own midwife arrived at 9am, I was relieved, she didn't need to say much, she was just like a Mum, holding me and reassuring me. By 11am I started pushing, using all fours, squatting, standing, the toilet, I just did what my body told me. At 11.15hrs I asked to use a mirror, there it was this mat of hair moving in and out with each push, two steps forward, one step back I had seen it so many times. Now in a squatting position with the mirror underneath me our baby was helped out by my husband Ben with our midwife Jan guiding him at 1145 hrs, Ben passed her through my legs to me and announced we have a baby girl.

I can't begin to describe that feeling of total euphoria and joy, I get tears just reliving it now. She came out screaming and went straight onto my chest. The paediatric doctors that were on standby in the room, had a quick glance at her and were happy not to remove her from my arms. She soon cuddled into my breast. The placenta delivered naturally in its own time and I was able to keep bub skin to skin until she started suckling at the breast. She spent her first night in a humidicrib with a little drip and antibiotics, but I was able to visit regularly to feed and cuddle her skin to skin. We took her home with us a couple of days later.

I just want to thank Suzanne and my class mates. Yoga really taught me how to cope during labour through breath and movement. I had a drug free labour, it was hard work but worth every moment for the amazing gift at the end, our Amelia Grace. As a midwife and woman I have a new found respect for what we as women can do. Keep reading your mantras and practising your movement and breath and I wish you all a wonderful birth and babies.

Jasmine Elizabeth EWINGS was born at 6.34am, 7 April at the Wesley Hospital only just!. We stayed at home until the last minute and arrived fully dilated with pushing underway!

Miss J was born 40mins after arrival. Needless to say we were chuffed all round and especially pleased that there was no one present except John, I and the midwife who was fabulous and respected my wish over the phone not to call Obstetrician :, no persuasion to pain relief and the log list of my other preferences for intervention free birth not that there would have been time for anything!. Breastfeeding going well to date also, we feel so lucky. Thank you for such a positive lead up to her arrival at Active Birth Yoga and also the Workshop.

Krystof, son of Klara
I believe you will be happy to hear that our baby son Krystof Jiri was safely born on 12 March. It was a very natural waterbirth in the RBWH Birth Centre, a really strong and nice experience for all three of us.