The big day - the story of my labour!

Carl and I had predicted he would arriive on Thursday - 2 days early, but Thursday came and went and although I knew he was close, by bedtime I was thinking he may go overdue.

I woke up Friday morining and turned over to cuddle Carl and POP! It was so loud! I was amazed that Carl hadn't heard it! My waters had broken.

I got out of bed and as I got up they started to gush properly. That may seem a little graphic to anyone reading this who is not pregnant, but it's important to know as some women only experience a little trickle, others go into labour with their waters still in tact and have to have them popped.

Well as I said, mine had definitely gone - big time! I called the delivery suite and they asked me to come in within the next hour so they could put a trace on the baby and check everything was OK with me and all was going as planned.

Everything was fine and so we left and stopped by the studio where I used to work to pick up a tens machine so I had some natural pain relief - I didn't want to have any drugs through labour.

At this time the contractions were fairly mild and coming every 45 minutes so we also stopped in Starbucks and had a coffee, (decaf obviously!). This, however, turned out to be a BIG mistake!! Although it was decaf that one coffee gave me intense diarrohea. Add the spasms of a cramping bowel to contractions and it was not comfortable AT ALL!!

Luckily it passed after a couple of hours, but it scared me enough that I didn't eat anything else for the rest of the day, apart from some dry crackers and some fruit. Not ideal when going through the marathon of labour as you desperately need energy, but hey, it was what it was.

By about 3pm the contractions were coming every 10 minutes and both Carl and I thought it wouldn't be long, so he popped round the corner to the shop to grab some supplies. Although I had told him to go, I think I got scared and I phoned my friend Caroline to pass the time. I sat on the sofa and calmed myself down, but this worked so well that I actually stopped my contractions!

Carl returned and his mum came over and suggested that I get in the bath to speed things up again. It worked a treat and soon they were coming thick and fast. By 8pm I was ready to go so we got evwrything together and headed for the hospital. I arrived at 9pm and by 10:30pm I was fully dilated.

At this point I don't know what happened but my contractions, although strong were not strong enough for me to work with them and push. I had to have a drip with Oxytocin to start everything working again. This took a little while and it wasn't until 3:42am that River was finally born.

He is one of only 5% of babies that actually arrive on their due date - so I am extremely proud of his punctuality!

The one thing that I was truly grateful for after the birth was the preparation I put into my diet and training my body for labour. I didn't tear and had only a small graze high up on the right hand side which I barely felt. This meant my recovery was literally a few days and within 10 days of giving birth I was back to gentle exercise.

13 days later I was back to a full workout with light kettlebells and dumbells.

14 days later I am back in my size 8 (UK) pre-pregnancy skinny jeans and I feel strong and have a lot of energy considering I'm barely getting 5 hours sleep a day. Breast feeding is going really well and apart from the soreness, I love it as it is such great bonding time with my baby.

If proof is in the pudding then this is it. If you would liek to learn more about my pregnancy training system then please head on over to the 9 month club to find out more.

Bump bands, ab supports and why you should avoid them

At first I thought my abs were splitting as the linea negre has made a recent appearance, but I did the test and I'm pretty sure they're ok for now. However, they are bl*ody sore! I think coming back into a full weeks training after a week of doing nothing was a bit ambitious.

Now normally, I'd get away with it. Saying that, I don't think I've ever been away on holiday and not trained at least a couple of times whilst I've been away, but Ibiza was a complete break for me. I felt a lot worse because of it and I was dying to get back in the gym before I'd even boarded the plane!

So after a days rest, (I was exhausted after flying back in), I got back on it with vigour. I started swimming lessons on Wednesday night, gym on Thursday and Friday, taught my class on Saturday and had a rest day Sunday. Monday I was in the gym again. By Tuesday morning I was finding it difficult to walk at a normal pace because my lower abs were so sore, so I just did some gentle tai-chi and yoga at home.

On top of all this I was learning the choreography for the new Body Balance release and the core abs and back tracks are killers. Actually, I forgot about that till now! Now that I think of it, it was probably the balance that pushed my abs too hard! Today my lower abs still hurt!

Anyway, as I was in Mamas and Papas the other day I did, for the first time, have a look at the bump bands. I've always been totally anti-support bands for a very good reason. Most people are severly lacking in core strength as it is. By providing even more external support in the form of a bump band, (or in bodybuilding and powerlifting - a weight belt), you are reducing the capacity that your own muscles have to work, in order to support your own postural structure. By relying on an external crutch to do the work for you, you are telling your muscles that it's OK to switch off and stop working as there's always something else to rely on. It makes far more sense then to train your own muscles to do their job properly through core strengthening exercises, rather than rely on a crutch which won't be there in a few months time. By that time your muscles will have weakened so much that it will be a real uphill struggle to get them back into shape.

Regardless, I was in pain and I wanted something light to help me until my abs healed, so that I could carry on training in the meantime. I had no intention of using a band for long term use, just for the next couple of days and ONLY when running, as that was when I needed the extra support.

The bump bands which are marketed as a support band for your belly were nothing more than a thin layer of jersey to wear around your bump. There was no more support in them than if I were to tie a cotton scarf round my belly...

(What they were very good for is wearing over the top of low rise jeans so that when you sit down you don't flash your bottom to the world! I swear that Pepe are the only jeans brand that know how to do low rise properly, so they're low at the front but high on the bits that matter! Unfortunately they don't do maternity - I've looked fanatically!)

... So I wound up doing what I should have done in the first place. Taking a days rest to give my abs time to heal. It's what I would advise a client to do and I know that, what with learning the new choreography for my class on top of my normal training programme, I was pushing it a little bit. Unfortunatley work is work amd if I'm not doing it, I'm not getting paid.

So hopefully by tommorow my abs will be feeling somewhat normal again and it'll be back to the gym.

Antenatal / Prenatal class

I don't know whether it's me or the NHS but I have to say that the information I've been given by my midwife during my pregnancy is minimal or next to nothing. It is only thanks to the wonders of the net, magazines, articles and the library of books I've collected that I know as much as I do. Fortunately I'm a bookworm, and seeing as I'm passionate about my field of work and the science of the human body, it has been a rather pleasant and relatively easy learning experience.

So very recently, (like last week when I returned from holiday and realised that, at 23 weeks, I was already over halfway through), it dawned on me that I was suppposed to enrol in antenatal classes in the not too distant future. Now I had thought that this was something the midwife informed you about when the time came and assumed I didn't need to worry about it yet.

Not so.

In my scan of antenatal classes in Bristol I was alarmed to see the first class listing on Google was already full up. I carried on to the National Childbirth Trust. The course that was the most suitable for my due date was also full up. I filled in the online enquiry form for it anyway but to be on the safe side I also emailed the local course administrator directly to see what my options were. She emailed me back almost straight away with a place on a course that was located a little further away but still had places and urged me to respond as quickly as possible as the places were filling up fast. I emailed back immediately to book my place.

So my advice to those of you who haven't booked your classes yet and are already around 22/23 weeks, like me, is get on to your clinic/hospital/childbirth agency and get your place reserved! Otherwise you may have to settle for a course that is not the most convenient for you!