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Keeping fit and healthy in pregnancy will make it easier for you to adapt to your changing shape and weight gain. It also helps with preparing you for labour and your recovery after you have had your baby. 

Have you been thinking about where to have your baby? At home, in a birth centre or the delivery suite?  It can feel daunting to make a choice about what kind of birth environment suits you best and what kind of birth you would like to prepare and plan for. In our series of blogs on birth choices – which we cover in detail in our antenatal course and advise and support you in making the best choice for you, we are going to start with waterbirths.

It doesn’t matter the amount of love you feel for your child, postpartum depression can affect you. The baby blues have no time of arrival but it all happens after you give birth. A lot of new mums find themselves feeling weepy and irritable and not knowing why. But if it happens to you, don’t worry, most new mums go through it.

Most babies arrive between 37 weeks and 41 weeks of pregnancy, usually within a week on either side of their expected due date. According to research, only about one in 25 (four per cent) of babies are born on their exact due date. Just under one in five babies are born at 41 weeks or after. Our midwife Amina advises ‘instead of a due date, think of it as a ‘due time’ of 5 weeks.

Finding out you are pregnant can be such an exciting and exhilarating time – but can also be quite confusing too.  All parents-to-be want the best for their baby and often wonder if they need to take any extra vitamins or supplements to help their growing baby.

During your first visit with your midwife – often called the booking appointment, you will have a discussion about your health, your medical history and any family medical history that is relevant, alongside information about yourself and your well-being… It may feel like a lot of blood tests and the number of vials can feel daunting – don’t worry, it will only involve one needle being inserted into your arm once to fill them all.

Pregnancy or planning a pregnancy can naturally bring with a whole a range of questions and worries.  Being pregnant during a pandemic that is affecting so many can understandably cause even more anxiety and worries during such an unprecedented time.

If you are expecting or are the parent of a newborn, do not fear – there are well established, commonly agreed upon measures you can take to drastically reduce the chance of something happening while your newborn sleeps.  In fact, since safer sleeping practices have been adopted among parents, there has been a steady decline in infant mortality since 1990.

As soon as your baby arrives, you will be wondering how they will develop over the coming months and years. The anticipation of the baby’s “firsts” is something that parents all over the world await with excitement. From the first cry, first smile to step, these small gestures melt every parent’s heart. Learn what to expect when in these all important milestones

We’ve all watched labour and birth on tv or in films – and 9/10 births will be happening on a hospital bed of some kind, imbedding into everyone’s mind that birth has to take place on a bed lying down on your back. In reality, lying on your back in labour can be a real hindrance…..in fact the more upright you are, with gravity on your side the better.