Being relaxed throughout your labour can really help the labour to progress well, as you will produce and release more oxytocin when you are relaxed, and this is the hormone that gets labour going, and keeps it going. There are many ways to help yourself to feel relaxed in labour, including being in a dimly lit room that is a comfortable temperature for you, feeling safe and private, listening to music, being massaged or just having your hand held, and keeping well hydrated so you don't become too tired. You can also prepare beforehand, practising skills to help you be able to relax when you want to. One of the most important of these is learning how to breathe slowly and steadily throughout your contractions.

You might wonder why you need to learn to breathe for labour - after all, you do it instinctively every moment of your life, and no-one needed to teach you how to do it. However, if you become anxious or scared, or even excited, it can be instinctive to hold your breath, or your breathing may become very fast and shallow, and neither of these are helpful in labour. By practising your breathing skills in advance of your labour, you will feel more confident when the time comes that you know what to do and you will be able to do it without really having to think about it - it will be instinctive, just as your "normal" breathing currently is.

To help you to focus on your breathing, it can be useful to find images that keep your mind where you want it to be, and this CD provides you with 23 different images to choose from. Each image is slowly and calmly talked through, giving you time to create a strong visual picture, and really practice your breathing throughout it. The images all last about as long as an active labour contraction might last - somewhere between one and two minutes, so you have the chance to practice pacing yourself, and become familiar with what the length of a contraction feels like.

Available to buy either as a CD (£10, including p&p) or an audio file to download (£8), Visualisations for Labour is a helpful and practical tool to help you to prepare for your labour, and feel confident in the skills you have developed as coping strategies.

Digital Download

Audio CD