Milly & Diarmaid, Bishopston antenatal classes - New Life Classes

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Congratulations to all you wonderful new parents w

Congratulations to all you wonderful new parents whose babies arrived in November! Best wishes from the whole New Life team as you start your #newlife as parents and enjoy getting to know your newest family member! 💜
#novemberbaby #novemberbaby2022 #newparents

Positive affirmations are positive statements that

Positive affirmations are positive statements that help you challenge negative and unhelpful thoughts. They can be beneficial during pregnancy and childbirth, as it's a period of significant change and heightened emotions.

There are various ways to use affirmations, depending on what you are trying to achieve. You may use affirmations to enhance your general wellbeing or you may focus on a specific issue that comes up.

Make sure your affirmation is in the first person and present tense. It will help your brain process the information as if it is already a fact! Also, for positive affirmations to have an impact, recognise that they are not passive statements to be read daily and forgotten. They require clear intention and achievable actions.

For example, Jane is diagnosed with gestational diabetes and has a meeting with her obstetrician next week. She worries that decisions will be made about her care and that she'll lose control of her pregnancy and birth preferences. It's causing her to feel stressed and anxious.

Rather than letting her thoughts control her emotions for the next week, the following affirmation could help her approach the meeting more proactively.

✨ "I am confident asking my maternity team questions and making informed choices for me and my baby."

Jane sets aside time to regularly repeat the affirmation to herself daily, especially when worries surface about this issue. She uses the affirmation as part of her daily breathing and meditation practice.

She also discusses her concerns with her birth partner. Together they research gestational diabetes, consider how it may impact her birth preferences and writes down a list of questions to ask the doctor.

She goes into the meeting with her questions and the 🧠 BRAIN tool to help understand the benefits, risks, and alternatives to any recommendations she's given. She uses this information to make informed choices for her pregnancy and birth that she feels comfortable with.

We can't always control what crops up in pregnancy or during labour - but we can control how we react to it. It takes practice, patience and being kind to ourselves - positive affirmations can help this process! 💜

Natural coping strategies for labour 3: Visualisat

Natural coping strategies for labour 3: Visualisation

Research shows that #visualisation techniques can
✨ Reduce fear
✨ Release tension
✨ Increase relaxation

They’re widely used by professional athletes, who visualise their perfect run, jump or kick as research shows visualisation improves performance 🧠 the mind is a powerful tool: seeing is believing.

In #pregnancy and #childbirth, they are regularly used in #meditation, #yoga and #hypnobirthing.

For example, you may visualise your cervix opening as you experience contractions or a flower slowly opening from a bud to full bloom if you prefer a more abstract image. Some people like to visualise a wave building and crashing, as contractions come and go. These visualisations help reframe the powerful sensations of contractions as a positive and decisive step in bringing your baby into the world.

You may also like visualising a place that makes you feel happy, relaxed and safe. This visual experience creates a deep state of relaxation, as your mind believes what it is seeing and feeling.

For example, your favourite holiday destination, local walk or cosy nook by a warm fire. Alternatively, you could build a picture of your #newlife as a family with your baby in your arms.

The critical thing with visualisations is to build up lots of detail using all your senses:
👀 What can you see?
🖐🏿 What can you feel?
👃🏼 What can you smell?
👄 What can you taste?
🖐🏽What can you hear?

There are many scripts online to help you do this – or you can write your own and record it with some gentle music in the background.

Next, listen to your visualisation script regularly. Set aside some time to relax, use gentle breathing techniques, close your eyes, and absorb yourself in the detail of your visualisation. You can also listen when you go to bed and fall asleep with it on in the background.

The more your practice, the easier it will be to get yourself into this deep state of relaxation during labour when you need it. And don’t forget to integrate it with your other natural coping strategies!

🤔 Let us know in the comments 👉 Did you use visualisation in pregnancy or childbirth? Which images worked for you?

Natural coping strategies for labour 2: Mindfulnes

Natural coping strategies for labour 2: Mindfulness
#Mindfulness is a powerful tool that offers loads of benefits in pregnancy, birth and beyond - if practised regularly.

Research shows that mindfulness can
✨ Reduce stress and anxiety
✨ Improve confidence
✨ Reduce aches and pains (including chronic pain)
✨ Lower blood pressure and heart rate
✨ Improve sleep and alleviate #insomnia
✨ Improve mental and physical stamina
✨ Help bonding and relationships (parents and babies)
✨ Reduce emotional reactivity (improve self-control)
✨ Improve mental health and alleviate depression

If you've never tried mindfulness, we couldn't recommend it more - whether you're having a baby or not! It's a skill that will benefit you for life but can be an incredibly helpful tool in labour too.

Find out more about the positive impact it can have on labour in our latest blog article 👆Link in bio👆

Natural coping strategies for labour 1: Breath Le

Natural coping strategies for labour 1: Breath

Learning to focus on your breathing, keep a steady rhythm, and adapt your breathing for different stages of labour offers many benefits. It can:
✨ Reduce your heart rate and blood pressure
✨ Help you feel more relaxed and in control
✨ Improve the flow of oxygen to all your muscles, including your uterus
✨ Help you cope better with the pain of contractions
✨ Help you conserve energy

See our blog for tips on how to:
💜 why your breathing may change during labour
💜 breathing techniques for each stage of labour
💜 how your birth partner can help you throughout

👆Link in bio👆

This week we're going to explore the following nat

This week we're going to explore the following natural coping strategies for labour:
💜 Breath
💜 Mindfulness and focus
💜 Visualisations
💜 Positive affirmations
💜 Music (and dancing)
💜 Water
💜 Massage
💜 Aromatherapy
💜 Upright and mobile birth positions

They can all make a big difference to your birth experience, and may help you
✨ Focus
✨ Feel more calm and in control
✨ Recognise and release tension
✨ Feel less pain
✨ Rest between contractions
✨ Conserve your energy
✨ Feel more positive

We recommend trying them all to see what resonates best with you (you may surprise yourself). Also, don't forget to practice all your coping strategies with your birth partner as it will help them support you better on the big day! 🥰

🩺 It's easy to think these coping strategies go out the window if you need any medical assistance during labour, but most can be easily adapted for all types of birth - and all birth locations. It's worth having a think about how to do this ahead of time.

🤔 Which coping strategies worked best for you? Any tips for expectant parents? Let us know in the comments

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