lamaze or yoga (or hypnobirthing or... or...!)

[revelyell]

hi all

have been lurking for a week now just fascinated by this childbirth forum, thank you so much for making me excited about birth with your positive stories- think they are invaluable!

im 20 weeks with my first and planning a homebirth with lots of support from dp and mum who will be with me. we r borrowing a friends pool too so im all set up. im doing lots of pregnancy yoga with a woman who is from the active birth movement, learning about positions etc for stages of labour.

kind of feel that i want something more in case i need it though, and i came across lamaze as v popular in US. but i can hardly work out what it really means from the site! is it just breathing techniques and if so can i just get that from my (good) yoga teaching? or is it more mental training a la hypnobirthing? and if so, is it better than hypnobirthing? it seems so widespread in the US but hardly mentioned here... any advice really welcome as i need to book some sort of antenatal soon and as for NCT- just feel like they would be too negative and medical after all the empowering things ive read here and in the yoga/active birth world.

ta! RY x

Hiya

You can get the hypnobirthing book on Amazon and you can find a hypnobirthing teacher at (I think hypnobirthing.org).

Lamaze has somewhat fallen out of favour these days.

re the NCT, to be honest they're seen as being at the lentilly end of the mainstream UK scale and certainly neither negative nor overly medical.
But remember they are open to everyone (howver non-lentilly) so you could end up in a class with 4 other couples who (eg) all want to give birth in hospital and need to know about pain relief drugs, episiotomies and c-sections.
But then whatever kind of birth you're planning it doesn't hurt to know about the alternatives that are out there.

If you get a good NCT teacher (we did) then they will ask the group what they want to get out of the classes at the beginning, and then make sure that they cover what people want to know.

I had a very lentilly birth myself (homebirth, antenatal yoga etc) but still found NCT useful. I also went to one of the NHS classes (the one on labour) which was good for information about what might happen if I did transfer to hospital - I didn't want this to be a big surprise. But I think the best piece of advice that someone gave me was "have a baby, not a birth", i.e. don't get too het up about how they arrive

Good luck with everything

haha! it is a lentilly birth isnt it. no wonder dp keeps looking at me funny. youre right MW about getting the info on what happens in hospital, and not getting obsessed, just want to feel like i have the tools to hand so as to avoid as far as possible (i am being realistic i hope!) going into hospital. well if a place ever comes up for me (im north london) then maybe i will consider NCT. still am v curious about what all this lamaze stuff is tho..

There are some fab books out there about positive natural birth. The doula bible and guru is Ina May Gaskin, Guide to Childbirth. It's pretty lentilly but really inspirational. This was the only book I read before my homebirth, it was all I needed and I was delighted when I found ou it was the main text for my doula course.

I learned hypnobirthing, booked a homely MW birthing centre, breathed deeply and relaxed and ended up having an emergency c-section because of pre-eclampsia and a malformed pelvis. At the end of the day it's best to consider all options.

I read a fab book called 'stand and deliver and other great ways to give birth' which was really positive and insightful.

Nowt wrong with lentils . Are you doing full yogic breathing in your classes? Found this v helpful during contractions. Only place I've heard Lamaze mentioned is on US sitcoms...

Oh, I did have a Hypnobirthing CD, but found the woman's voice irritated me a bit (not what you want really) and I gave it way to a MNer a while back. Some people swear by tho, and I did use the CD of 'relaxing' birth music.

Hope you get your homebirth, lying in your own bed afterwards with your DP and new babe is fantastic!

at all of you who have this sussed!

I had some practice sessions with my doula doing breathing, yoga, positions etc. but when it came to the real thing, I could not do any of it whatsoever!!

Screaming, yes, breathing, no...

Good luck and keep positive, you sound really sorted