My pregnancy must haves, should and coulds...

I’m sitting down to write this as a new mum. I thought that I’d share with you the
things that I found really helpful to read and do during my pregnancy. There are
so many books and courses out there to help you to prepare for birth,
motherhood and beyond, I hope that sharing my top tips for the local things that
I found helpful during my pregnancy, will be useful to those of you who are
pregnant and looking for some guidance. I’ll also share the books that were
recommended to me that I absolutely I loved. To write this article, I enlisted the
help of my pregnant and new mum friends and have incorporated what they
recommended.

I was one of the lucky ones and had a trouble free water birth at Broomfield
hospital. My baby was delivered by two lovely midwives and I couldn’t have had
a better experience.

My musts
For me the things that helped me to prepare for the birth of my little boy were
pregnancy yoga with Vikki at Hummingbird Pilates & Yoga. I attended Vikki’s
class from week 13 of my pregnancy (once I’d stopped feeling sick!) and it really
helped me to prepare for the birth both physically and mentally and just to chill
out and enjoy my pregnancy.

The other thing that I loved from the second trimester of my pregnancy was
regular pregnancy massage. They helped me to feel relaxed and fab during my
pregnancy and soothed away any muscle aches.

The books that I read were: How to grow a baby and push it out by Clemmie
Hooper, a midwife and mother of 4. Another lady who really knows what she is
talking about! In this book she presents a week by week, no nonsense guide to
pregnancy and birth helping you to understand what is happening to your body
at each stage of pregnancy and giving you ideas about what you should be
thinking about.

Mindful hypnobithing by Sophie Fletcher- I read this two days before I gave birth
and found it much more helpful than I had ever imagined. I used a lot of the
techniques from the book and listened to relaxation tracks while giving birth. I
found that they helped to keep me calm and focused. One of my other friends
raved about The Hypnobirthing Book by Catherine Graves and the guys who did
the hypnobirthing course at Broomfield found it incredibly useful.

The other book my friends recommended was The Unmumsy Mum by Sarah
Tuner. They found this book really funny and a no holes bared tale of the truth
about motherhood.

Our Shoulds
I did the NCT antenatal course, under the strict instructions of a couple of my
friends at work. The course was too long but was relatively useful. What it has
really given me though is a group of friends, who are all in the same position,
winging it through pregnancy and the early days of motherhood. We have our
own little support group and meet for coffees and catch up with the babies.

Our coulds
A couple of my NCT gang raved about their baby moon, finding that a little bit of
time away with their other half before the birth of their babies was just the best
thing ever. The opportunity to feel some sand between your toes and have an
uninterrupted meal definitely feels like something that would have been nice to
have done!

However, our best piece of advice is that everyone and every pregnancy is
different so its important to listen to your instincts and find what’s right for you
but we hope that you found some of our ideas useful.

Useful links:
Pregnancy yoga: At yogawith vikki www.yogawithvikki.co.uk
Pregnancy massage: Stretch Physio www.stretchphysio.co.uk 01245 505 866
NCT: www.nct.org.uk/courses/antenatal