Did yoga and/or being physically fit make an active birth easier for you?

[naturelover]

I'm already quite fit but haven't started pregnancy yoga yet (am 17 weeks pregnant). Can anyone give me advice on having a successful active birth please? My aim would be to have as little intervention as possible (and hopefully a homebirth) though I realise this may not be possible!

Being fit will always help, (it's not called "labour" for nothing! ) but is not the guarantee of anything. I think state of mind is also important so if you are healthy and are feeling positive that is the best way to go into things (that and an open mind). I enjoyed yoga classes as it was great to see other pregnant women basically so it was worth it just for that!

Ante-natal yoga was fanstastic.
When I was pregnant with dd I was very fit (used to run lots, took lots of exercise). While I had a healthy pregnancy, I don't think the core level of fitness I had helped with the actual labour.
When I as pregnant with ds I was less fit as had not really resumed exercise in between having dd and becoming pregnant. I went to ante-natal yoga as I was determined to have a better birth experience. It made a huge difference - think the classes were much moreuseful than the core level of fitness I had previously in teaching me and preparing me for birth.

I believe that being both mentally and physically fit will provide you with a positive birth experience

I am a big believer in that if you have experience of working your body hard (aerobics classes/step classes, running, swimming, clycling etc etc) that WILL help you physically cope with labour better...and certainly help with post natal recovery.

The work that your body has to do during labour, and particularly the uterus as a muscle, IS hard so if you're prepared for that then you'll cope better

BUT there are also lots of other factors that can inclufence your labour for example

the position of the baby could have a big influfence on the length of your labour........

I really do think it's a combination of being fit, being open minded during labour into what "it" throws at you...and having a really spportive partner AND midwife

BTW, mine popped out in 2 1/2 hrs (first born), totally natural, active birth, entonox only and

4 and a half hrs, synthetic induction, very little "activity allowed" with second, entonox only

BOTH werre magical, fantastic but different experences for me....

Whereas I was fit as a fiddle, sailed through pregnancy and ended up with failed induction at 42 weeks and a c-section!

my pregnancy was shite !!!!

Sick as a dog, head down the loo from 10 wks to 35 wks, in and out of hospital with bleeding, and deydration, HATED being pregnant because I just felt so ill - that's probably why I got the 'easy" births !!!

A light version of interval training is good, as it sort of (as much as anything can) mimics contractions and the bits between contractions.

I was swimming every day up to and beyond my due date and whilst ds didn't exactly pop out I had no drugs and no tears. (that tearing of the skin, there were plenty of the eye sort)

I went to active birth classes before the birth of DS in 2003 and can't recommend them highly enough. I would say I was fairly unfit when I was pregnant - I didn't (and still don't) do any structured exercise at all just some very light yoga and possibly a little more walking than some simply because we haven't a car. I'm also asthmatic. The exercises at my active birth class were so similar to the yoga I'd done previously. I had been one of the few in my class who hadn't planned a home birth and one of the few who ended up with one as, in the event, DS came very very quickly and we had no time to get to hospital. The clases ensured I was well prepared mentally, I felt I understood the process and trusted my body to do what it needed to do. I was also able to use some tips/positions for slowing things down before the midwife got to us. I'm convinced your state of mind and being able to roll with the punches and yet feel in control are much more important than being in peak physical form. Good luck. I'm 19 weeks preganant again myself and although I'd have loved a home birth again won't be allowed one for other boring medical reasons I won't go into here - but I'm still hoping for as active a birth as possible and to use a birthing pool even if I have to wrestle another labouring mother for it - there's only one at our hospital

I have an unproveable pet theory that women who are very keen to be in control- which includes some but not all very physically fit people with a strict exercise routine- are less likely to have easy births. This results from completely unscientific observation of the 20 or so women I've known who've given birth...but it is backed up by some yogic teachings which suggest that letting your body get on with what it instinctively knows how to do, while doing gentle movements to help fetal positioning and uterine tone etc, is the best way. Yoga and active birth movements are actually really gentle and not aerobic at all but they help put one into the trancey yet focused state which seems to be characteristic of quick and enjoyable natural labour.

A yoga also once told me that too much muscle strength in the abdominal region positively interferes with a quick labour- you need the muscles to give and bag out, apparently (this bit was not a problem for me)

that would be a yoga teacher

there is some rather boring statistical research available (if you're interested) that does support being 'fit" helping with birth outcomes.......

here's a review of the book

I found antenatal yoga really useful, both for the positions and breathing excercises, but also because I would take 90 mins out of the office each week to just relax and focus on me and my bump. I also walk a lot anyway (don't have access to a car) and went swimming quite a bit. DH & I went to a birth prep class organised by my yoga teacher about a month before my due date, was really useful to show him what I'd been doing for the last 5 months!

I ended up having homebirth, no pain relief except TENS machine. Was very active, labour pains started on Sunday afternoon, established labour by the early hours, and DS was born at 2pm on the Monday.

There are definitely genetic aspects at play (e.g.my mother had fairly 'easy' labours), but for me I felt it was important to prepare myself as much as poss physically. Also, I may have had no chemical pain relief but it still bloody hurt! Just the techniques I learnt made it easier to deal with. At our yoga class women would come back in to share their birth stories, which helped take some of the mystery away for me. Most important lesson I learnt is that if you start wanting to run away and saying things like 'I can't do this, it's too hard', then you're probably in transition and it will all be over soon anyway.

Good luck with your new babe (honestly, birth is the easy bit...)

Message withdrawn

boobsgonesouth does is specify how fit you have to be- i.e. just an average level of fitness (walk 20 minutes per day) or does it actually benefit you to do 30 mins swimming every day etc

(am so put off doing this after my fitness freak friend who used to drag me to the pool with her at 38 weeks pg- where she did rapid lengths while I gasped through weak breaststroke- had an appalling, 35 hour labour with ineffective contractions- it's totally anecdotal of course but has put me off the idea of being mega fit for labour...)

No - having had a baby 21 months previously made an active birth easier for me.

(i.e. first delivery extraordinarily troublesome, 2nd delivery - like a greased whippet)

I did lots of yoga and was generally very fit.
I went to active birth classes.
I planned to have very little intervention.
I had an emergency cs.
Sometimes plans go out of the window!

Quite so.

I reckon overall fitness is of marginal significance to how your delivery winds up.

I wasn't fir, I'm not fit, I'm just average in that dept.
Did yoga and active birth classes with both dd's and had easy births, one in birth centre and one at home and no pain relief with r=either. Don't know if yoga/active birth had anything to do with it but I fully intend to do the same again with this pregnancy.

I didn't do pregnancy yoga as there was none available near me.
I did however go swimming, jogging, walking etc and kept pretty fit right up until the end of my pregnancy.
The birth was easier than most with dd appearing after 5 hours and no pain relief (none available in birthing rooms on this side of the world).
I too agree that keeping fit and strong makes a big difference to labour.
Another thing is not being too overweight. There seems to be a strong correlation between BMI and length of labour.
Try not to gain more weight than you need to during your pregnancy.

No
but it made the Active Birth Centre considerably richer

I was a fairly hard core Pilates devotee prior to the birth of dd. I went 3x per week for 90 minute semi private lessons on their specially designed machines...so no 'wimpy' mat classes for me. I had done that level of exercise for about 6 years before I got pregnant.

At 39 weeks, I was induced due to some worrying signs of pre-eclampsia. I laboured for about 10 hours, and absolutely couldn't believe that I was unable to push dd out even with my 'abs of steel' (sadly long gone). Finally had an emergency c-section.

So, the answer for me was 'no' that it didn't help me have an active labour/birth. But, maybe yoga is different?

Didn't help me. Actually that's not fair. It did help in that I loved doing it and made me feel better during my pregnancy - especially when I was huge and had trouble getting comfortable. And 6 years on I'm still doing yoga. So in that sense it was great.

But despite doing yoga and swimming every week for most of my first pregnancy I still had a long painful labour and still resorted to an epidural. I went in with, I think, a pretty positive attitude and a birth plan that included homeopathy, aromatherapy, massage, active birth etc, etc. But once the pain hit it wiped everything else out of my mind and I was literally on my knees begging for an epidural. This was the pretty much the same the second time around (except the 2nd time I didn't bother with the birth plan, i just had "epidural" tattooed on my forehead! ). I was, however, able to push both babies out without too much trouble, despite not being able to feel my legs.

My best advice would be definitely do yoga. It's great and will benefit you in one way or another. But don't be disappointed if the birth doesn't go exactly according to plan and keep an open mind about pain medication etc.