Meet a mum and meet a teacher ......

This week we break the mould and hope you will forgive us for giving a wonderful Lazy Daisy® teacher the chance to talk about her life, her local business and her time with Lazy Daisy .... and a thriving Lazy Daisy business in Scotland!

DaisyRadioEpisode5-Sian-Gilmartin by LazyDaisyChain

My Daisy Birth

This week Sophie talks to mum of two Emma Coburn, about her own Daisy Birth, about motherhood in general and her top birthing tips.

Emma reflects on attending NCT classes during her 1st pregnancy, on Gina Ford and her parenting book and on her experiences of Daisy Birthing® with Nicky Woodhatch, our Guildford teacher.

The session finishes with a family anthem chosen in honour of her daughter!

Enjoy listening!

This week is a tear jerker but with a really powerful message!

We are absolutely delighted that this week Sophia Mason, founder of foetal monitoring charity Count The Kicks, was able to find time in her hugely hectic schedule to talk to our resident presenter Sophie.

We won't soft soap ladies - at times this can be highly emotional listening but it has such an important message to help you empower yourself and to help you safe guard your unborn baby  - And that at the end of the day matches completely with what Lazy Daisy® is all about.

Sophia is a lady who despite having the challenges of a disability herself, after suffering with meningitis earlier in life and then of course the huge emotional journey she went through during her own pregnancies and births (the interview explains all), is such a positive mum who looks forward and looks to make and inspire productive changes!

Listen in to her story, the back drop to the charity she founded, the celebs who have nominated this as their charity of the year and how you can get involved!

Meet Uju of http://babesabouttown

Uju has already created a real buzz and following on the Lazy Daisy® site with her sparky posts (such as Is Parenthood the Death of Cool?) as she writes and reflects on life as a mum to two boys!

We knew therefore, that her interview with our resident presenter and fellow mum Sophie would be really fun and it does not disappoint!

In this interview you will hear Uju talk about cool parents, the need for a sense of humour, the support she received post baby and about her own birth.

And her family anthem - it brought a lump to our throats as we revisited a poignant and super cool track!

What a treat from Daisy Radio this week...

Meet our resident presenter Sophie T, as she not only talks about her own experiences of childbirth but interviews mummy and blogger (and indeed regular contributor to the Lazy Daisy blogs) Mrs Penny Alexander.

Sophie takes Penny's blog Reach out and touch me published earlier this month, as inspiration for this interview and together they chat through birth, c-sections, bonding moments, parenting heros and family life.

This is a really uplifting broadcast, especially if you are a mum who knows your birth journey may need a little extra help (watch out for our residential workshops in Surrey, giving a beautiful day of extra support too) and finishes with Penny selecting her all time fav parenting song and family anthem - it's a classic so get ready to have a bop with your bump or baby!

Chill out and relax ..... and boost that oxytocin!

Welcome to week 3 of our broadcasts - it's great to hear so many of you are enjoying these broadcasts and using them to help support your weekly classes and practise at home!

This week is all about relaxing and chilling out. Something which are a week of VAT returns, I really need to do!

Are you sleeping?

Nope, well mother nature is definitely a sneaky gal and tries to get us ready for interrupted sleep post baby, by doing her best to interrupt it pre baby.  So most mums to be feel a real need to chill out and let go from time to time!

In this week's broadcast, you can experience techniques to help you relax but more over understand why relaxation is so important for you, for your hormones, for your baby and for Optimum Foetal Position!

Balance and Bolly .... creating the ideal hammock for your bump!

This is the second in a series of Daisy podcasts designed to help existing Daisy Birthing® class mums practise their newly acquired birthing skills but also to allow mums-to-be who are new to us, to give us a try!

In our first episode which went live on 19th January, Daisy Radio is here!, we worked on the importance of breathing and how to link the breath to a birth visualisation.

Here in this second episode, we think about one of the fundamentals underpinning our Lazy Daisy classes - bringing symmetry and balance to your uterus and your pelvic floor.  Why?  Well to help your baby move more easily into the ideal position for birth (torsions in the uterus can prevent this and hold baby posterior or breech) and to help you feel more comfortable in your back and abdominal area!

Some of you may have read about our ethos and the hidden birth muscles, like the psoas and the piriformis, in February 2012 edition of Practical Parenting & Pregnancy magazine.  This broadcast will really help you understand why we talk so much about using movements to lengthen the psoas muscles and to work on the piriformis, and why these muscles are so relevant to labour.

OK, Get those hips going to a bit of Bolly!

Over Twitter, Facebook and from general class feedback, our Daisy mums-to-be and teachers always rave about Daisy Bolly.  

Added as the 'fun' standing element of our class, when mums just wanna let go and get their hips moving, Bolly has without a doubt proved very popular.  And so it should, as with moves which gently lengthen the Psoas muscle from origin on T12 as well as insetion on the inner thigh bone, it really can get your hips and pelvis ready for birth and make more space for baby.

Plus of course, it makes us feel so good!  Maybe not cool (but as Uju asked Is Parenthood the Death of Cool?) but certainly happy!  And a happy mum means high endorphins and a gush of feel good to baby!

So here's the music (CD's can also be purchased from your Daisy teacher) which comes to you with a huge thank you to Sophie DJ Tott, our composer and also to all the amazing Daisy Birthing teachers who are not afraid to get their hips moving in the name of confident birth!

Take a deep breath and listen .... confident birth is closer than you think!

This is the first in a series of Daisy podcasts designed to help existing Daisy Birthing® class mums practise their newly acquired birthing skills but also to allow mums-to-be who are new to us, to give us a try!  In this first episode, we work on the importance of breathing and how to link the breath to a birth visualisation.

Breathing is so key for labour, as really does provide a focus and an anchor - in Daisy Birthing® we refer to it as a life buoy;  when the waves of labour get big, and sometimes they will really roll and become very intense even momentarily knocking us under, our breathing helps us get right back to the surface! To stay confident and calm!

Breathing will also ensure your birthing muscles receive vital oxygen, so that the muscle fibres can slide easily against each other, without a build up of sticky lactic acid;  Remember if the muscle works more easily, it will be more efficient (and work more comfortably).

In addition, good breathing will also help you to release from the navel and the area surrounding the origin of a really important muscle, the psoas - lengthening this muscle will help your pelvic and hip mobility and allow baby to descend more easily!