To Birth and Beyond

07/06/2025

You know those influencers and people on social media who show off all their expressed breast milk?

Here’s mine! It doesn’t look like a lot does it?

Them influencers will have people questioning themselves, feeling disheartened or that they aren’t cut out for breastfeeding.

I know I felt that way!

Whilst some can produce huge volumes of milk, I can 100% hand on heart say, a lot of us don’t, and that’s okay, and more common than we realise.

Here I was smiling because that 30ml of my breast milk felt like such a huge achievement!

I couldn’t breastfeed Irisa because of how premature / tiny she was, so I exclusively expressed the entire time she was in the Nicu so that she would have my breast milk for all her feeds through the feeding tube.

I’m telling you, you don’t need bags and bags of it stored in your freezer! I was producing more than enough my baby!

By time the 7 week Nicu journey was over, they handed me a big bag back full of my refrigerated and frozen milk to take home! I was shocked!

Although my milk always felt like a small amount (genuinely the most I ever expressed in one sitting was 130ml and that was first thing in the morning) it covered all of her feeds, which was every 2 hours!

So a reminder for new mums right now in the thick of breastfeeding and expressing, don’t feel disheartened if you aren’t producing as much as what you see on social media, and you are doing amazing 🙏🏼

05/08/2024

This has now been cancelled due to lack on interest

Now just £10 per person / couple

31/01/2024

Planning a Paediatric First Aid course in March.
Will be held in Swansea, probably Townhill. Let me know if you're interested!

27/01/2024

My doula certificate has come through and I'm now registered with Doula UK. Im available for bookings for postnatal and birth work and cover Swansea and Neath.

23/01/2024

How many of you have found that as soon as people start discovering you are pregnant, you get bombarded with birth stories by other parents?! Many of these birth stories are filled with details about how painful their birth was or interventions used.

It is normal to want to talk about a traumatic birth but it can be very hard as a pregnant woman / birthing person to hear such stories and it's easy to start worrying about your own birth if you hear horror stories about others. Stress can increase your cortisol levels which stimulate your sympathetic nervous system, causing this to be dominant rather than the parasympathetic nervous system. This inhibits oxytocin production and oxytocin is needed to stimulate labour and keep it progressing.

One thing suggested by KGHypnobirthing Teachers is to place notes in strategic places, such as your desk at work, stating, "My baby and I would love to hear your positive birth stories".

If positive birth stories aren't very forthcoming, you could always take a look here instead!

23/01/2024

I'm now a qualified KGHypnobirthing Teacher and look forward to offering classes and one to one support to help you prepare for birth and parenthood

https://www.kghypnobirthing.com

23/01/2024

09/01/2024

Are you pregnant? Let's talk about childbirth!

A normal, healthy, physiological process! Something the body is designed to do!
The human body is amazing, so amazing that it can join together two tiny cells and use them to grow a whole new human!

The National Institute for Clinical Excellence states that 9 out of 10 births are straightforward!

Have you been told you are "overdue"?

Did you know that the normal length of pregnancy is 37-42 weeks. So 42 weeks is not actually overdue! In fact 41.5 is actually the average length of pregnancy.

85% of pregnancies last longer than 40 weeks.

"Haven't you had that baby yet?"

"Are you still here?"

These are two common questions you may get asked, even before you reach 40 weeks.

Though these aren't usually intended to cause stress, they can make you feel stressed. However, stress can make the pregnancy continue even longer.

The hormones released from your adrenal glands when stressed inhibit oxytocin and oxytocin is needed for your body to birth your baby.

If you're 40 weeks plus and are being told you're overdue, this is what I would like you to do.

Think of this time as bonus time. Your body has done an amazing job of nurturing and growing your baby so far.

Now it's decided to give you a bit more time to prepare for your baby's birth.

So use this time wisely.

Have a lie in while you still can. Treat yourself to a pamper session. Have a massage. Go for a picnic.

You'll probably be super busy once baby arrives and have less time to rest or engage in hobbies so have fun now / rest or whatever you need to do.

Use this time for YOU.

I'll soon be a qualified KGHypnobirthing Teacher and look forward to helping people discover how hypnobirthing can help them.

In the meantime, I'm available as Antenatal Teacher, Doula, Mindfulness Practitioner and Holistic Therapist.

Feel free to contact me here on messenger / ring 07736029841 or email anneberry3@gmail.com

07/01/2024

WATER BIRTH

Let's talk about water birth.

Water births have become very popular and in 1993 the Department of Health recommended them as a form of pain relief. About 20% of women and birthing people use water for pain relief and 10% actually give birth in the pool.

Benefits:

Reduction in other forms of pain relief such as epidurals

May make the first stage of labour shorter

You can still use Entonox in the pool

Water can help relieve back pain

The support of the water makes it easier to adopt different positions which can help labour to progress

Being upright in water means gravity will help move the baby down the birth canal

The warm water can help to soothe and relax you.

Your baby's heartbeat can still be monitored when you are in the pool

Blood loss may be less

WON'T MY BABY DROWN?

Babies don't need to breathe as soon as they are born as they get oxygen through their cord from the placenta. The baby's body will act as if still inside the uterus until the baby has taken their first breath. Remember the foetus is surrounded by amniotic fluid whilst inside so the baby comes form water into water and no air will enter their lungs.

It isn't until their head is lifted out of the water that they take their first breath. The midwife will take care to ensure that once the baby's head is above water, it doesn't go back under.

You can buy or hire pools to use at home if you are planning a home birth. Most labour wards and birth centres will also have birth pools available. Ask your midwife what facilities are available at your local units.

WHERE CAN I GET A BIRTH POOL FROM?

Here a few places that you can hire a pool from:

https://www.thebirthpartnership.co.uk/

https://www.gentlebirthsbirthingpoolhire.co.uk/

https://www.homebirthsupplies.co.uk/HIRE-items/

https://www.barefootbirthpools.co.uk/

https://www.birthpoolinabox.co.uk/pages/hire-birth-pool-in-a-box

The Birth Partnership is a national birth pool hire company that uses local partners, professionals & birth workers to provide a first class service -...

05/01/2024

I am currently training with the fantastic Katherine Graves, with the help of senior midwives. The course is so informative and interesting and I'm really excited that I'm going to be able to offer KGHypnobirthing soon.

Although pregnancy can be an exciting time, it's also a time when there's lots of decision making to be made and there are a lot of questions you may need to ask.

Katherine Graves' website is amazing and if you visit her site and sign up to the newsletter, you will be able to access numerous fact sheets that will help you to make informed choices.

Hypnobirthing Free Resources Enjoy lots of free resources including audios, fact sheets and lots more. We will also send you the occasional email update

18/12/2023

Only 1 week until Christmas! So today we're looking at the cutest animal in the stables, the donkey!

Did you know donkey milk was used in the Roman times for nutrition and its skincare properties?

Info source: www.sciencedirect.com/topics/agricultural-and-biological-sciences/donkey-milk

ID: Image of a donkey feeding its foal. "Donkey milk is more similar to human milk than milk from any other dairy species."