Stand and Deliver!: And other Brilliant Ways to Give Birth. Emma Mahony

into the mother’s bloodstream. As the embryo implants within the uterine wall lining, cells branch out to destroy the wall separating the mother and child and expand the diameter of the blood vessels. The mother is able neither to constrict the vessels supplying the embryo, nor to regulate the flow of nutrients to the placenta without starving herself, so the baby gains considerable control over its own intake.¹

      By the 8th week of pregnancy, the placenta composes 85 per cent of the total package and, end to end, the villi (the finger-like projections to increase the absorptive surface of the placenta) stretch about 30 miles. Once the placenta has secured the supply lines, then and only then does the baby start growing. If you worry that morning sickness is ridding your body of all your best efforts to eat healthily, don’t. There are studies to suggest that vomiting may even stimulate early placental growth.

      The most important addition to make to your healthy eating in the early days is to eat fresh fruit and veg. There is no need to limit your intake, eat as much as you can as often as you can. There is new research to suggest that such a diet high in vitamin C will also combat free-radical damage to blood vessels, lower blood pressure and reduce the incidence of pre-eclampsia – a dangerous condition that occurs usually in late pregnancy and requires the baby to be delivered immediately.

      Also, recent research from Denmark reported in the British Medical Journal showed that women who eat a diet rich in fish during pregnancy are four times less likely to give birth prematurely. Among 8,700 women surveyed, 7.1 per cent who never ate fish had a premature delivery, yet only 1.9 per cent per cent of fish-eaters did. So, if you are still working, have smoked salmon sandwiches, along with some apples and oranges at your desk, and ignore the office vending machine.

      Like most marathon runners, you will need to drink plenty of water (up to 2 litres a day). If you can’t face water, try caffeine-free teas chilled in the fridge or the (fairly foul) raspberry-leaf tea, a good uterine-toner, found in health food shops. My American birth partner was so obsessed with my raspberry-leaf tea intake (not to be confused with a delicious Raspberry Zinger from the Twinings Exotic selection) that she was forever brewing up another cup of the tasteless soup for me as the birth approached. It is difficult to see what such a herbal remedy can achieve other than rehydrating you, but raspberry-leaf tea is strong enough to carry a warning that it shouldn’t be taken before 28 weeks or by women with a history of pre-term labour. Suzannah Olivier, author of Eating for a Perfect Pregnancy, recommends doubling your intake as labour starts, to help things go smoothly.²

      Suzannah Olivier is also unequivocal about the need to take supplements. Don’t skimp and take herbal alternatives to the ones on sale in most chemists, buy the standard Pregnacare, sit it on your bedside table and make it part of your morning ritual throughout pregnancy. The same goes for folic acid during those first three months.

      If, however, you are reading this on your way to the delivery suite and haven’t let anything but a good healthy diet pass your lips, don’t panic. Some midwives, such as Mary Cronk, believe that that is all a woman needs during her pregnancy, and that taking unnecessary supplements benefits only the manufacturers. Says Cronk: ‘Supplements, particularly iron in a woman who has plenty, can imbalance the system and lead to lack of absorption of trace elements. Women eating well are usually getting all the goodies their body and baby need.’

      Thinking Outside the Box of Fruit

      Suzannah Olivier recommends including a few foods that might be new to your diet during pregnancy:

      I recommend tree nuts, such as almonds and walnuts, seeds, pulses, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts and sunflower seeds, as well as oily fish – such as mackerel and tuna – which are particularly good nutritionally, as is lean red meat which is a source of iron and zinc, a mineral found in all protein-rich food.

      Zinc and essential fats are particularly important for growth in the third trimester when the baby is putting on weight, because, if there’s not enough, the baby will take it from the mother’s reserves. There is one school of thought that believes that some postnatal depression may be linked to a depletion of zinc and essential fatty acids in a mother after the birth.

      Make sure you add some calcium-rich food – not only milk, and yoghurt (which is predigested by bacteria so a particularly good source) but also green leafy veg, such as spinach and cabbage that contains magnesium as well.

      Finally, for snacks, carry raisins and dried apricots around, because they are good sources of calcium, magnesium, potassium and iron – all needed for yours and the baby’s bone health. For slow-releasing carbohydrates, oat cakes and rye crackers (particularly with mashed banana on top) will fill you up.³

      If all the above makes you want to reach for the Dairylea, don’t worry. Eat what your body wants to eat. It probably knows best.

      Yoga, Walking and Swimming

      The safest forms of ‘aerobic’ exercise to take when pregnant are walking (an hour a day is ideal), swimming (which supports all the muscles, increases blood flow and urine output, and reduces swelling) and yoga. Yoga classes are particularly good, especially if you can find or persuade a yoga teacher to set up an antenatal one, because then there is group support as well. Yoga works so well in pregnancy because it makes the most of the natural increase in suppleness due to the hormone relaxin coursing through your body. In addition, Janet Balaskas, who runs the antenatal yoga programme at the Active Birth Centre in north London, lists its benefits as: helping you to ‘make friends’ with your pain and to go beyond your normal limits while stretching; improving blood circulation and breathing; regulating blood pressure and heart rate; and correcting posture to help prevent backache. ‘I would say that after a whole 25 years of being a childbirth educator, I’ve never found anything to be more potentially effective than yoga in pregnancy,’ she says. Although Balaskas does not keep ongoing records of the births of her students, one year she estimated that 80 per cent of her students went on to have a natural birth without intervention – not even an epidural. ‘Natural Active birth is not just for lentil eaters and brown sandal wearers,’ says Balaskas, ‘it is practical and safe.’

      If there are no antenatal yoga teachers in your area, you can always start to do it yourself by buying one of Balaskas’ books, such as Preparing for Birth with Yoga (Thorsons, 2003).

      Scents and Sensibility

      Aromatic essential oils are a great healer for those common discomforts in the last stages of pregnancy, and are particularly good for massage during labour. Take some advice, however, because certain oils should be avoided, and essential oils should not be used at all until after the first three months.

      My midwife massaged me on my lower back during labour with some rose oil that she had brought back from Turkey, and it was something pleasant to do while lying in the bath before my waters broke.

      Aromatherapists describe rose oil as a uterine relaxant, which helps soften the ligaments and help the pelvic bones expand, as well as being a natural antiseptic and having slight analgesic properties.

      Sceptics of the benefits of aromatherapy in labour may be interested by the results of the largest clinical aromatherapy trial in Europe, which took place in the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford. Over a period of nine years, 8,000 mothers were offered aromatherapy in labour. Those that took it up were proved to have shorter labours with fewer drugs were used for pain-relief. There were no side-effects on the babies.⁴

      One mother I met recently at the Active Birth Centre in north London was Natalie, who had no pain-relief during the birth of her breech baby, delivered standing up at home. All she had was a few drops of clary sage (another uterine tonic that is good for labour pains) put on a wet sponge and inhaled. She claims, ‘It acted like gas and air, and I was practically chewing the sponge by the end!’ She gave birth to an 8-lb little boy, without anyone touching her or the baby throughout the whole experience (‘If anyone came near me, I just said “don’t touch me!’”) while two ambulances and a host