Baby Stanley was born Tuesday 26 May 2009 8lb 13.
Kate attended Pregnancy yoga until 41 weeks.
Stanley was Kate's second child, her first, Ivy, being by cesarean.
Stanley was born naturally with no pain relief required.
"I had 3 days of contractions and the yoga postures and relaxation poses really helped as I was quite tired. Without them I do not think I would have been able to stay at home for as long as I did..... I was 6 cm by the time I went into hospital... The things I learnt during pregnancy yoga helped me to feel more in control.... It gave me more strings to my bow - more resources to call upon. I told my partner the things we learnt in class and asked him to remind me when I was in labour and that really helped. Thank you Jess for all of your help"
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"I hadn't had the opportunity to attend any antenatal classes when I was pregnant with Stanley and as Ivy was born by cesaearean the thought of giving birth was quite daunting just like any other first time mother. Attending the classes in the weeks leading up to the birth allowed me to focus on the birth in a positive and practical way. The actual classes were great for strengthening my body in preparation and focussing my mind on the possibilty of a positive and natural birth experience. The yoga poses and breathing tecniques learnt were undoubtedly really useful during my labour - the ones I found especially useful were poses that allowed me to rest in between contractions as I found it impossible to lie or sit down for the three days that contractions were occurring including extended child (propped up on pillows), up cat during contractions to ease back pain and the one when you're on all fours and circle your hips to aid the contractions. The breathing tecniques that we had learnt in the classes I practiced at home and then found to be unbelievably essential during labor - from the very onset to the final pushing ones they allowed me to cope with their increasing intensity by extending my out breaths and using golden thread breathing. It definitely really helped telling John about the breathing techniques and poses as he was able to remind me of them when I was finding things a bit tough.
The classes helped me to approach the birth in a positive and prepared way - and definitely added strings to my bow. I was really pleased to be able to see the majority of the labour through at home where I was comfortable and relaxed. When I got to hospital the contractions went form being really intense and almost back to back, to pretty much stopping. I was able to use the birthing pool there and used some of the hip circling poses to help get things going again.
Although I was in labour a long time I found the whole birthing experience amazing - and it felt so empowering to feel in control of my body and the situation and as natural and non medicalised as possible even though I was in hospital (which I never thought would actually be possible). I truly feel that the yoga classes helped me with this and am so grateful.
The classes were absolutely fab - they were was always such a nice freindly calm atmosphere there and I really enjoyed coming to them. Thanks so much for all your help Jess. I hope all the other ladies are getting on ok and that they have good birth experiences too. It'd be really great to hear how they (and you of course) get on.
Stanley is doing well - feeding loads and putting on weight which is good. He's a big long legged boy but has been pretty chilled so far and sleeping lots so far!
Thanks again for everything and let me know if you run any postnatal classes in the future.
Kate - x "
