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!

I got to 8.5cm without pain relief with yoga breathing, but the actual birth was a total shambles with a spinal block, forceps and a fourth degree tear.

Hi there. I did yoga most mornings whilst I was pregnant. I followed exercises from Gowri Motha's book, which were very gentle and relaxing. I also listened to relaxation and hypnosis recordings and tried to walk or swim most days. This was my first pregnancy and the labour was absolutely fine. My mum and gran had very quick labours and mine was all over within five hours at home in the bath with just my partner and I, the midwife didn't quite make it. The most amazing experience of my whole life. I found breathing and visualisation really helped me through it all as no pain relief. I did tear slightly but if we hadn't started the perineal massage a few weeks before I think it would have been a lot worse. She was only 5lb9 as well. I had been reading a hypnobirthing book about how labour shouldn't hurt at all and I was liking the sound of that but unfortunately it didn't quite work like that for me. It was just about bearable though. Good luck with everything and I truly believe that if you have faith in your body and trust in it to do what its made to do then it will all work out well.

I did yoga up until 40 weeks and I found it very helpful to make me feel more comfortable and at ease in my body. It did help me in the earlier stages of labour but then after that things went a bit wrong for me and I got messed about with having drips etc. However even after having contractions for 2 days I did some very good pushing at the end.

The teacher was very good telling us all how lovely we looked and was very positive abotu pregnancy and birth. Much better than one midwife I had who just told me how crap I and pointless I was.

I was relatively fit in my second birth - not from lovely me-time yoga classes but from lugging my 18 month dd around! I think it helped.

I found pregnancy yoga with my first really relaxing and a nice thing to do. Trouble was that I didn't realise that I had a weak pelvis and all that opening the hips stuff made it much worse. I ended up wearing a support to hold myself together. Didn't do yoga with my second and managed to get by without too much pelvis pain. If you have trouble turning over in bed and find it painful under your bump when you walk, it might be best to give yoga a miss.

naturelover, yoga will be great for you if you enjoy it. Being fit definatly helps when you are in labour as it can be exhausting and very strenouos(sp?). Make sure you don't over do it whilst you are prenant, just lots of nice walks everyday to keep active, swimming is good too, and plenty of rest especially in the last month. Good luck and enjoy your pregnancy x

I went to a yoga class throughout pregnancy and can't stress how useful it was. I found it improved my posture and breathing so I and baby felt better with more oxygen pumping around, it relieved aching back and joints, it destresed me from rush hour and niggles at work, improved blood circulation to keep varacous veins at bay, met other expectant mums, and opened up my hips for labour. I was in labour for 3 days with no intervention until the last two hours and think the yoga really helped.

Don't just focus on the benefits that being fit gives you for labour. I ended up with a 'long' labour, induction and unplanned caesarean - however, being physically fit (swimming, gym and yoga right up to week 40) really helped after the labour too. Carrying my 9lb 7oz son around + getting through the tiring first few weeks was made easier because I was physically fitter.

Divaskychick - sorry only just popped back to this thread - lovely yoga courses nr Wimbledon - here

antenatal swimming's even better. Yes, absolutely being fit helps so much.Labour's not compared to running a marathon for nothing!

I did yoga, martial arts, aerobics, swimming, squash, weights etc before I was pregnant, but stopped a lot during pregnancy cos I was so sick Carried on the yoga and swimming though, and was pretty fit by the end of my pregnancy.

I ended up with an emergency section, after 8 hours of nothing progressing. My recovery was really fast, and I was up and about the next day as if nothing had happened. I put this ENTIRELY down to my previous level of fitness and flexibility.