My Expert Midwife
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What to Expect After Your C Section
Read more →When caesarean sections, or C Sections are necessary they save lives, however as with all births, recovery and the time it takes varies from person to person. During your c section operation the large stomach muscle that supports you has been weakened so you’ll need to take extra care when moving about and lifting things. What can I expect recovery wise? Taking it easy, your body needs to mend and it needs rest and nourishment to do this. Eat healthily and arrange for help with normal day to day things Avoiding lifting heavy objects – again, as the stomach muscles...
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How To Do Perineal Massage
Read more →Why do perineal massage? Your perineum is the patch of skin between your vagina and anus and it's this part that's most likely to tear when you give birth. Most women will suffer from some type of childbirth tearing (around 9 out of 10 women with their first baby and around 7 out of 10 with subsequent births). The risks of having tears to your birth canal and the perineum during the birth of your baby are mostly predestined by genetics and the position that your baby was in during birth, but there are some things that you can do...
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After Childbirth - How to Help Recovery after a Natural Birth
Read more →How common are tears? Tears are extremely common with first babies with around 9 out of 10 women having them and less so with every subsequent birth (around 7 out of 10) What are they & what causes them? As your baby’s head is stretching your perineum you will feel a burning sensation and as your tear occurs that burning stops. There are different type of tears and they can be placed into four categories depending on their severity; first degree, second degree, third degree and fourth degree. A first degree tear involves just the skin of your perineum and...
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Getting Pregnant & How Do I know if I'm Pregnant? 0 - 4 weeks - Your last period to your positive pregnancy test
Read more →0 - 4 Weeks of Pregnancy: Getting Pregnant! Your period will be the date that everything began. Ovulation itself can be delayed by many things; illness, stress, anxiety so a late period may just be that. The normal menstrual cycle below may help to explain what’s happening at the moment, but not everyone has a 28 day cycle. To confuse things further, sperm can last for up to seven days so the day that you had sex may not be the date you conceived, sperm can easily wait up to a week in your fallopian tube for the egg; it’s...
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Is Childbirth Painful & What's the Pain Like?
Read more →Everyone’s perception of pain differs and everyone's concern of childbirth is the same; 'Is childbirth painful? For everyone, pain is relative; some women find period pains agony whereas others experience them pain free. However, even those women who are cursed with severe period pains will cope. They may need to use simple pain relief such as paracetamol and hot water bottles but they cope none the less. For a woman to be incapacitated for the length of their period every month is extremely rare. What is Childbirth Pain Like? Childbirth is no different. For a few it will be...
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Breastfeeding
Read more →How you feed you baby is something that can be explored at any stage in pregnancy. Your midwife will normally spend time with you explaining the benefits of breastfeeding for both you and baby, so this blog is designed to help you purchase necessities ahead of time and plan for the support that you will most likely need in the early days. What Apparatus Will I Need? Not much really. Some women prefer to cover their breasts and baby with a muslin while others invest in clothing that makes feeding discrete, such as the ‘breast vest’. Following on from establishing...
