Birth Baby Balance

Birth Baby Balance Guidance, support and information through pregnancy, birth and early parenthood.

Sarah, Charlotte, Kirsten, and Lucy are birth and postnatal doulas, passionate about supporting women through their pregnancies, labours and transitions into motherhood. We also provide antenatal education classes, breathing for labour classes, baby massage classes, postnatal pilates classes, placenta encapsulation and breastfeeding support. We have produced an audio download of Visualisations for Labour, to help pregnant women learn to breathe and relax effectively when the time comes.

It's been another wonderful year for Lucy and Sarah, meeting so many fabulous families as they embark on the adventure t...
30/12/2025

It's been another wonderful year for Lucy and Sarah, meeting so many fabulous families as they embark on the adventure that is parenthood!
Our first antenatal course for 2026 is fully booked, so if you're due late March-late May you might want to quickly grab a place on our Feb/March course!
Likewise our January baby massage course filled up quickly, so we have put an extra one on, running from 15th Jan-19th Feb, which has a few spaces still available.
As always, information about all our courses, groups, services and activities can be found on our website: www.birthbabybalance.co.uk.
We look forward to meeting many new faces in 2026! Happy New Year everyone! 😀🥂🎉

Such a fun, festive Baby Group on Friday 🎄⭐️🦌. So lovely having so many parents and babies along, and we loved seeing al...
22/12/2025

Such a fun, festive Baby Group on Friday 🎄⭐️🦌. So lovely having so many parents and babies along, and we loved seeing all the different Christmassy outfits 🎅🏻!

That was the last Baby Group for 2025 - we’ll be back on 9th Jan, and really look forward to welcoming familiar and new faces to the group.

If you haven’t been before, it is every Friday morning from 10.30-12.00 (turn up whenever you like) at the Part and Parcel pub in the centre of Witney. Suitable for babies and their carers from newborn to being active movers (9-12 months-ish). No need to book, just drop in. £3 per family (cash please!).

See you in January!

Our January Baby Massage course filled up very quickly, and I've had several enquiries from mums wanting to be "squeezed...
17/12/2025

Our January Baby Massage course filled up very quickly, and I've had several enquiries from mums wanting to be "squeezed on", so I've created a new course to meet the demand! So, if you thought you'd missed the boat, good news - you can now join our course running from 15th Jan-19th Feb, from 1:30-3:00pm at The Yoga Room in Witney.

The International Association of Infant Massage IAIM course is so much more than just learning massage strokes - it is a chance to develop friendships with the other mums in the group, as each session includes an opportunity to take part in a guided discussion on all sorts of post-birth topics: coping with a crying baby, changes to relationships, baby cues and signals, the joys and challenges of motherhood, the reality of life with a new baby, the benefits of massage, games and activities to do with your baby, and more.

Each week we learn to massage a new part of your baby's body, so we build it up gently, never overwhelming the baby with too much stimulation. Once we have learnt strokes for the whole body, we have a session dedicated to learning some playful yoga-inspired stretches, accompanying them with songs and rhymes to create a fun activity for you to do together.

Find out more and book your place here: https://www.birthbabybalance.co.uk/baby-massage

This Friday is our last Baby Group of the year. Come along to the Part and Parcel pub, any time between 10.30 and 12.00 ...
15/12/2025

This Friday is our last Baby Group of the year. Come along to the Part and Parcel pub, any time between 10.30 and 12.00 with your under-one (or not yet walking) baby, and join in the fun. There will be festive food and we hope to see lots of babies in their Christmas finery!
The group will start back on 9th January 2026.
See you on Friday! 🎄🎅🏼🍰🥰

This fabulous group finished their antenatal course this week, and are now looking forward to meeting their babies over ...
11/12/2025

This fabulous group finished their antenatal course this week, and are now looking forward to meeting their babies over the next couple of months ❤️. One baby arrived on the afternoon of the final class, so his parents didn’t make it into the photo, as they were enjoying getting to know him 🥰.

These parents-to-be now have a ready made support group for once their babies come along, which they will find invaluable in the early weeks and months when there are so many questions and uncertainties. Getting to know other couples due around the same time as them, so that they have friends who are going through the same thing as them, at the same time, will help make those frequently overwhelming early weeks feel more manageable. Often those friendships last a lifetime.

Our Jan/Feb Comprehensive antenatal course for early March-late April due dates is already fully booked, but we do still have a few spaces remaining on our next Empowered Birth course in Feb/March for late March-late May due dates. The 6 week course takes place in Witney on Thursday evenings.

If you’re due early May-late June, our Comprehensive course for those due dates will run from 11th March-15th April, and is already filling up, so don’t wait too long to grab your place if you want to feel really well informed in preparation for birth and parenthood.

Ideally you want to aim to finish your antenatal course no later than 36 weeks, so that you can be confident you’ll make it to the end! For the Empowered Birth course it can be helpful to aim to finish even earlier - by 34 weeks, so that you have plenty of time to practise the skills you’ll learn in the weeks preceding your birth.

You can find out more about both courses, and book your place in either, here: https://www.birthbabybalance.co.uk/antenatal-courses

We had some fabulously Christmassy babies at our final baby massage class 🎄🦌🎅🏼❤️ - they all looked sooo sweet (there wer...
10/12/2025

We had some fabulously Christmassy babies at our final baby massage class 🎄🦌🎅🏼❤️ - they all looked sooo sweet (there were more in class, but not everyone wants their baby's picture online).

Our next 6 week course, starting 15th January, is already fully booked, but I'm happy to put on another course if there is enough interest. The dates will be 15th Jan - 19th Feb, from 1.30-3.00pm in Witney. Drop me an email before 5th Jan if you'd like to join a waitlist, and I'll let you know if we have enough takers for it to go ahead. Sarah@birthbabybalance.co.uk

The ideal time to start learning to massage your baby is when they are between 8 and 16 weeks old, as they are awake and alert enough to enjoy it, but not yet so active that they want to be off! So if your baby is now approx. 4-12 weeks old, then a Jan/Feb course would be perfect for you.

Hope to see you in January!

We had a lovely sunny walk in the Wild Gardens in Shipton-under-Wychwood yesterday, followed by delicious treats . We w...
03/12/2025

We had a lovely sunny walk in the Wild Gardens in Shipton-under-Wychwood yesterday, followed by delicious treats . We were so lucky with the weather - after a solid day of rain on Monday, it held off until later in the afternoon yesterday - phew!

We had 9 mums, with babies ranging from 2 weeks to 9 months, plus one grandma and one dog (who is a regular Walker and Talker!).

We only have 2 dates left this year for Walking and Talking - next week and the 16th. Come and join us in the run up to Christmas - escape the stress and chaos and get outside to clear your head and stretch your legs. You’ll be glad you did!

Full details can be found here: https://www.birthbabybalance.co.uk/walking-and-talking-groups

See you next week!

It’s been placenta central here over the weekend! Collections from Bloxham (Friday), Stroud (Saturday) and Warwick (Sund...
25/11/2025

It’s been placenta central here over the weekend! Collections from Bloxham (Friday), Stroud (Saturday) and Warwick (Sunday), resulting in over 700 capsules, a print and 2 lots of essence, as well as 3 umbilical cord keepsakes.
And now 3 happy mamas are starting their postnatal journey with their own, personalised recovery kit, produced by their bodies for their own unique needs.
If you live in Oxfordshire or a surrounding county, get in touch to find out how your placenta can look after you after it has finished looking after your baby.

https://www.birthbabybalance.co.uk/placenta-encapsulation

We still have a few spaces left on our Infant and Family First Aid workshop on Tuesday 18th November, from 11-1 in Witne...
16/11/2025

We still have a few spaces left on our Infant and Family First Aid workshop on Tuesday 18th November, from 11-1 in Witney. It is ideal for anyone who is pregnant or has a baby or young child, or who helps in caring for them (such as grandparents), in order to feel confident in the event of an accident.

Facilitated by a paramedic assistant, it covers a wide range of topics, including choking, head injuries, serious bleeds, meningitis, CPR, burns and scalds, and febrile convulsions.

There are plenty of opportunities to practice the skills using infant and child sized dummies, helping you to embed your learning.

Babes in arms are welcome, so you don't need to find childcare for your little one.

Full details and booking link here: https://www.birthbabybalance.co.uk/first-aid-courses

We had a lovely walk in Aston this week, just managing to avoid the rain and ending at the fabulous pottery. Their cakes...
13/11/2025

We had a lovely walk in Aston this week, just managing to avoid the rain and ending at the fabulous pottery. Their cakes truly are off the scale! 🫖🍰

Just a quick reminder that there's no walk next week, so we'll look forward to seeing you on the 25th for the next one. We'll announce the location the weekend before on our dedicated WhatsApp group. Full details here: https://www.birthbabybalance.co.uk/walking-and-talking-groups

13/11/2025

Can I drink alcohol and breastfeed? No harmful effects to babies have been reported from drinking no more than one drink a day. Our evidence-based article on Drinking Alcohol and Breastfeeding answers many questions you may have.

Alcohol is present in a woman’s milk at the same level as in her blood: it rises and falls along with it. If you know your blood alcohol level, you know your milk alcohol level. Alcohol passes freely into breastmilk and has been found to peak about 30 to 60 minutes after consumption, 60 to 90 minutes when drunk with food.

Alcohol also freely passes out of breastmilk so there is rarely need to express milk and throw it away. If the alcohol has gone from her blood, it will have gone from the milk. It takes a 63.5kg woman about two to three hours to eliminate the alcohol in one serving of beer or wine from her body; the more alcohol that is consumed, the longer it takes for it to be eliminated. For example, if the same woman had four drinks, it would take nine to ten hours for her breastmilk to contain no alcohol.

https://laleche.org.uk/alcohol-and-breastfeeding/
https://llli.org/breastfeeding-info/alcohol/
Many thanks to # for the graphic

A wonderfully busy Baby Group this week, with so many scrumptious little munchkins! Thank you to everyone who came, and ...
01/11/2025

A wonderfully busy Baby Group this week, with so many scrumptious little munchkins! Thank you to everyone who came, and for joining in the dressing up fun. Can’t wait for our Christmas session!
Join us every Friday between 10.30 and 12.00 at the Part and Parcel in central Witney with your under-one. No booking required - just turn up. £3 per family.
See you next Friday 😊

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