Active Birth is nothing new, and yet when Janet Balaskas founded the Active Birth Movement in the early 1980s, it began a revolution. A decade earlier, many hospitals around the world had adopted what was called ‘Active Management’ of labour—a highly technological approach, which favoured medical control over labour and birth.

Active BirthSuzanne Swan7 December 2021VBAC, Natural Birth, Waterbirth

Unplanned but transcendent

You're active birth workshop was so useful and my husband was looking at the workbook as I was labouring as a reminder and was very much comforted by his ability to support me.

Birth StoriesSuzanne Swan13 October 2021C-Section, Partners at Birth, Waterbirth, Active Birth Skills

A peaceful water birth

Thanks for having us back at your Active Birth Workshop for baby #2. It was so wonderful to just breathe, surrender, and embrace the moment without panic or fear. Two hours of spontaneous drug-free labour, and just 9 minutes of pushing. We were in hospital all of 8 hours in total (the birth centre have such a wonderful discharge policy).

Empowering waterbirth

The Calm Birth course my partner Brandon and I did in August with Suzanne Swan was such an amazing course, it gave us all the tools we needed and was quite honestly the best thing we did to prepare for the birth of our little boy! As luck would have it, on the day my midwife couldn't make it so we were able to use the birth plan we'd written up for our stand-in midwife. I ended up having a beautiful, empowering waterbirth

Pregnancy, Birth StoriesSuzanne Swan25 February 2020Natural Birth, Waterbirth

Intervention free waterbirth

Thank you so much for all your knowledge and guidance through your active birth classes. Once again, I was able to use the skills that you taught me and take on the positive mindset which enabled me to have a calm, natural and intervention-free birth.

Birth StoriesSuzanne Swan14 January 2020Natural Birth, Waterbirth, Yoga

Naomi & Matt's third yogababy!

We wanted to share with you the birth of our third little love, our son Rumi Leo. He was born over 42 weeks in a birth that almost mirrored River’s birth a year prior. It was amazing having all the knowledge we had learnt from our private session with you and watching it play out in almost an out of body experience, watching the birthing process take over. Thank you so much again, we are so grateful to you. So true, experiencing surrender first hand is transformative and powerful. He is such an angel, adored by all 4 of us (hard to believe we are now 5 in total!)

Birth StoriesSuzanne Swan16 October 2019Induction, Overdue, Water Breaking, Waterbirth

I’m on such a high

The midwives asked if I minded if my baby was born in the water. I said I didn’t really care where he was born. They were happy with that and said I had to get ready to meet my baby. The next contraction hit then while I was still kneeling over the edge of the bath. The midwife said to do whatever my body needed to do. They just asked me to open my legs wider to make room and keep my bottom down under the water. He was born in 5 minutes with maybe 3 pushes. No time for Lee to catch him as he shot forwards between my legs and I was able to bring him straight up out of the water onto my chest. Eamon was so calm and didn’t cry. He was just looking up at us.

Birth StoriesSuzanne Swan20 March 2019Children at Birth, Natural Birth, Waterbirth

Feels quite magical

Yogababy and my amazing midwife gave me the skills, confidence and the determination to push through my labor when I was so scared that I couldn’t do it. The private Active Birth session my husband and I attended with Suzanne was so important too, as it gave my partner the knowledge and confidence to know what to expect and how to best support me through the different stages of labor.