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Our beautiful, big, healthy girl, Banksia Rose, was born at home in the most amazing labour and birth. Banksia, thank you for the Active Birth workshop. I used breathing throughout my whole labour, and my husband did hip squeezes for each contraction towards the end.
This birth taught me of the power and infinite wisdom within me and my body. Being at home, trusting my body to go into labour when it was ready and birthing my placenta naturally was healing and affirming.
I laboured at home using many of the techniques you took us through during our active birth session. Vocalisation, visualisation and movement (resting in between contractions) were all helpful and Kieran was able to actively be involved using the acupressure points, hip release, prompting my breathing as well as using soft-touch during rest phases. All in all, I loved my birth experience and found the session we did with you to be most empowering and incredibly useful, so thank you!
The opening flower is a universal metaphor for birth. Imagine a flower… a flower special to you….one you love to admire…see the flower as a tightly closed bud…hold the image still…see the colour of the petals and how they are wrapped around each other...very gradually, like a slow-motion film, see the bud beginning to loosen, the petals are separating slightly…
From 34 weeks onwards, your own postural awareness and habits can potentially encourage your baby to lie with his or her back to your left front/side so that the baby's head engages in the pelvic brim in this position. This will increase the potential for normal and straightforward birth.
A positive image of birth is the cornerstone of a safe, happy birth experience. If you believe your body is meant to give birth efficiently, naturally and without complications and that birth is a joyful event, you are more than halfway to a safe, natural birth.
All babies are different, and some will require less parent involvement to sleep, while some will need more.
The Yogababy program is a special sequence of movements for your baby that assists in their postural development from lying to walking. We recognise that your baby needs to strengthen its muscular abilities and nervous system.
Planning your yoga teacher teaching for next year? Maybe you'd like to skill up on teaching pregnant women. Suzanne Swan with be offering a 90-150hr training in Pregnancy, Active Birth and Baby yoga from June, 2022.
Join us in our yoga classes to learn the art of relaxation! When the mind quiets down, the body follows suit and this is a particularly useful practice during pregnancy and at birth. It is thought that the the nervous system of an unborn child can be healed when the mother herself progressively relaxes her body and mind.
Practiced regularly, yoga balances the endocrine system, relaxes and tones the muscles and the nervous system, stimulates circulation, massages the internal organs, and calms and concentrates the mind. Along with practicing yoga specially designed to enhance fertility, we examine your menstrual cycle and/or IVF goals. The combined reduction in stress and aligning yourself with your menstrual cycle will greatly improve your health and well-being.
For women a therapeutic formula that contains right amounts of folic acid, vitamin Bs, magnesium, calcium and selenium is necessary to combat the effects of stress and fatigue, produce fertile cervical mucous, regulate oestrogen and reduce the change of morning sickness.
An Active Birth is one in which the woman gives birth in the best possible, uniquely individual way, for her at that particular moment in her life. She can focus her mind in a relaxed and confident way to engage in the process of birth, creating for herself an altered state of consciousness that will ensure the safest possible birth for her and her baby.
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.
Our yoga practices are safe for women during Assisted Reproductive Technology. The stress associated with infertility can be lessened by adding the health-enhancing benefits of yoga to modern medical intervention. Fertility clinics recognise the benefits of complementary therapies such as yoga to enhance conception.
Read Sarah Wickham’s overview of Rong et al (2020) research. The authors concluded that, "Prenatal yoga is an effective complementary medicine to improve delivery outcomes and not to increase the risk of fetus, which is worth recommending to pregnant women."
This is Sammy and he came to Mums and Bubs yoga from 12 weeks. We all know that yoga is amazing for adults, and postpartum for mothers, but did you know there are many benefits for your baby as well? Babies benefit from movements that strengthen and stretch their muscles, relieving them of tension and increasing relaxation. The benefits of relaxation are well known, ranging from improved sleep, to better digestion.
I was really grateful for being able to move around during labour and the midwives supported my birth preferences. Having my partner Lachlan there by my side except for 2 quick toilet breaks, was also so incredible and vital for me!
Like birth, yoga involves an intricate dance between control and surrender. In the Active Birth workshops, you will work in a gentle and specific way, learning to move the body and access deeper levels of relaxation and release.
The midwife commented that she was surprised it was my first child as I looked like I had given birth before! I attributed this to the skills I learnt in your classes.
My biggest driver for having a natural birth was to improve my chances of breast feeding and I’m pleased to say our little Oscar is thriving, putting on a kilogram in his first month of life with exclusive breastfeeding. It was such a challenging time but you helped us be as prepared as possible. We can’t thank you enough!
"Attending pregnancy yoga classes helps women come together to explore and celebrate the joys and challenges of this precious time in their lives, in a safe and comfortable environment," says yogababy teacher, Suzanne Swan. "Women find a lot of comfort in each other’s encouragement and many friendships are formed at class".
I found the breathing and vocalisation really good when I was in transition, and the positive empowered thinking, to remind myself I could do it when it was all getting intense around the pushing, really helped me get in a good head space. Thank you for everything Suzanne, and for all your support and confidence in me.
I can honestly say that the workshop allowed Mike and I to make informed, evidence-based decisions about the birth. We felt confident to voice our concerns and decisions to the medical professionals which was such a gift.
We certainly used the breathing, massage and rocking techniques during labour. I was able to rely so much on Jake and his practice and confidence learned from classes are the reason.
I would like to thank you for all of the advice and knowledge on active birth , your classes and workshop were so helpful to me during preparation for labour and during labour and birth.
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.
I really think coming to Suzanne's Active Birth Private Session had a big influence on me (and my husband). I wasn't sure if I would have the composure to use all that I had learnt during the birth itself. However, a strange calm came over me during labour.
Create a trance-like state where the reality of stress and pain does not reach you. Your aim is to become one with your body, where you are your breath, you are your womb, and no longer head or mind. Ie. visualise waves flowing in and flowing out, breathe in rhythm with the waves.