Anyone tried the Gentle Birth Method? Particularly the diet for pg??

[KeepingQuiet]

Anyone tried the Gentle Birth Method? Particularly the diet for pg??

The book suggests ditching sugar, most carbs, wheat and restricting fruit
Is this achievable?

Carrotcake, the raspberry leaf tea tones your uterus, it doesn't induce labour, so it's safe to drink it before you get into the final stages of pregnancy.

Oh good, someone else said the same today, perhaps I'll go for the tea then. Haven't done so well with not eating wheat, forgot about the stuffing yesterday with our roast pork, it was delicious though! Cheers Tuttifrutti.

Hello! New member here but just thought I'd put a message in since I was pretty sure that when I got pregnant I'd like to try this method but when I actually got pregnant found it virtually impossible to stick to, particularly the food bit. No wheat? What am I supposed to eat? Salad for 9 months? I dont think so, I'm not a salad eater at the best of times. Plus I am a bit of a sugar junkie so that bit didnt really work for me but I'm going to try some yoga-type stuff and water birth and see how that works

Please please don't do such a restrictive diet in pregnancy.

If you want to do a diet why not do a sensible one
here

If you click through to the end of his advice he gives you an example of a good diet. Please think carefully before restricting healthy foods in your diet during pregnancy.

Even if you don't believe what this guy says about the effects of bad nutrition following his advice about what to eat can't do any harm.

The only use I had for this book was DH reading out the 'mantras' for labour to me when I was hormonal and grumpy.
It always had me laughing again.

I think I am going to give it a go from 13 weeks
I need to get the Homeopathic Tissue Salts and I'll try to ditch most of the carbs

Lazycow - your link suggests eating 2 eggs per day and liver.

I did a lot of research on this myself when pregnant and eating liver once a week will not harm your baby, in fact many pre-pregnancy care places advocate taking some vitamin A. Foresight an organisation that works with women who are trying to conceive and who are pregnant produce a pregnancy supplement that includes vitamin A.

However even if you don't want to do that most of the other advice is sound. Your body need calories and good nutrition and if you don't like this diet chose one that you do but NOT one that cuts out whole food groups - That is not healthy for you or your baby.

Been away for a week so catching up with this thread. Cutting out wheat and sugar is quite restrictive but its not cutting out whole food groups. Loads of people can't tolerate wheat anyway and there are tons of other carbs: potatoes, rice, and alternative pasta and bread is available almost everywhere... sugar is harder, but again, if you can have honey, maple syrup and fruit/fruit juice then it's really only refined sugar and that's recommended for a healthy diet anyway, certainly to irritable bowel and thrush sufferers (like me). There's even wheat free flour in my local green grocers which works great for gravies, white sauce, baking/batters etc. I think it requires more effort to follow but I don't think its madness, or harmful. Sometimes the pain of bad IBS requires certain positions and breathing exercises that are remarkably like labour pains anyway!
I don't know that I'd follow it purely for the gentle birth method though, and again, I think it's some of the other things that are more restrictive, like all of the treatments and herbs. I know I can't afford them.

I am not sure about this method. I got sent the book when I was pregnant with my third and as fat as a barrel and eating nowt but biscuits. This time around, I went onto the website to see how much it would cost to buy the herbs - over £200! Then there are all the therapies. I do not have the money or the time. I had my last child at home in a wtaer pool - same with the second - in about four hours. I almost went to the pub afterwards so....

I've managed to avoid wheat really easily - I found it was making me constipated (sorry if TMI) so the motivation was there. But I've given up on the rest of the diet, which is ridiculously (and possibly dangerously if you've got issues with food?) restrictive. You're not supposed to eat too many tomatoes, for example, and depending on what "type" you are (that bit of the book is also quite amusing) further prohibitions apply - in my case, chiles, aubergine, cheese and even my bi-weekly unit of alcohol are all off limits. There is no botanical consistency - aubergines and tomato are out, but potatoes and peppers are in. In the last month, you're supposed to give up all gluten which means porridge is out - what do you eat for breakfast, potatoes? Or give up on eight months of healthy eating and take solace in rice krispies?

If I'd kept it up, I would be miserable and possibly malnourished. Admittedly I will never know if the birth would have been easier but I want to enjoy my pregnancy too!

mmm, swapping porridge for rice krispies in winter doesn't sound very appealing, I hadn't read as far as giving up all gluten in the last month! Like you, Lulu25, I find wheat relatively easy to miss as the stomach aches stay away, but oats, no way... and it is weird about the potatoes/tomatoes thing, is that because they're all from the deadly nightshade family, so it's pointless giving up one? I think I will pick and choose from this book, maybe have one reflexology, try to do some yoga etc, anything to relax you can only be helpful. Oh, and busy munching 'prohibited' grapes at the moment.

That's what I was thinking (re potatoes tomatoes etc). I am sure it is based on sound ayurvedic principles, but it felt a bit fake to me to be temporarily buying into someome else's belief system out of pure self-interest. Mmm grapes. And mango.

I'm going to go for it with this starting from Monday. Not doing the teas though as they sound gross

Has anyone bought the Homeopathic Tissue Salts from anywhere apart from jeyarani.com?

No, haven't bought any of their stuff, but at my health food/homeopathic clinic in town they will pretty much make anything up for you so If I decide to take them I'll go there. Have you got a similar shop near you?

There are two places nearby but one of them always manages to rip you off
Last time I got overcharged but they don't give you a receipt and my mental arithmetic wasn't up to much in the shop

Oh, well maybe buy it straight from the jeyriani then, at least you get a receipt!

hey @roberj - I just got this book, its my first pregnancy (IVF) and am wondering how the second birth went?