Facebook-f Instagram
YOUR BABY, YOUR BODY, YOUR BIRTH

Labour & Birth

Your Birth

Welcoming your baby into the world is a deeply transformative experience, one that profoundly affects you on emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual levels throughout your life. Deciding who will support you during this time is an intimate and important choice, beginning with your vision for your birth. Midwives offer a model of evidence-based care that aligns with your individual needs and preferences, supporting and respecting your choices.

African mom and baby water birth

Benefits of an Active Birth

YOUR BODY'S INNER WISDOM

At Genesis Clinic, we support and encourage an active approach to birth, empowering you to move freely and discover the positions that offer you the greatest comfort and support throughout your labour journey. Unlike traditional hospital settings where a supine (on the back) position is often standard, we believe in honouring your body’s natural instincts and allowing you to find what feels right for you as you welcome your baby.

Historically, women across cultures have instinctively adopted upright positions, moving with their bodies during labour. The practice of lying on the back for birth is a more recent development, and compelling evidence suggests it can sometimes make labour more challenging. Research indicates that this position can reduce the dimensions of the pelvis, potentially contributing to a less efficient and more painful experience. This understanding has inspired the active birth movement, a powerful shift towards reclaiming a woman’s innate ability to birth effectively.

At Genesis Clinic, we embrace this philosophy. We believe that instead of being directed into specific positions, you should be empowered to listen to your body and adopt the postures that feel most natural and supportive.

The term “active birth” was thoughtfully coined in the 1980s by Janet Balaskas, a highly respected antenatal teacher and author. As the Director of the Active Birth Centre in London, UK, her extensive research highlighted that in many cultures, women intuitively birthed in upright positions such as squatting, kneeling, or standing, often within a supportive community. Today, the benefits of active birth are increasingly recognised by healthcare professionals worldwide.

Here at Genesis Clinic, we fully support active birth. We offer a range of resources to help you find comfortable positions, including birthing stools, balls, and cushions that facilitate sitting, kneeling, and squatting. Our birthing tubs also provide a wonderful option for labour and birth in water. The gentle buoyancy and support of water can ease discomfort and allow you to change positions with greater ease.

Our aim is to create a birthing environment at Genesis Clinic where you feel supported, empowered, and free to move in ways that honour your body’s wisdom, leading to a more comfortable and positive experience as you meet your baby.

Choosing an active approach to birth at Genesis Clinic offers a multitude of advantages, supporting a more natural and empowering experience for you and your baby.

  • A More Effective Labour: As your baby gently descends through the dilating cervix and into the pelvic canal during labour, adopting active birth positions strategically aligns your pelvis to harness the power of gravity. Numerous studies have indicated that this can contribute to a shorter and more productive labour progression.
  • Reduced Labour Discomfort: Being able to move around and choose how you want to be during labour can really make a difference in how comfortable you feel. When you’re free to find what works for you, your womb can do its job more naturally, which often means the contractions feel less strong than if you were lying on your back. Things like moving around, making sounds, and the way your body naturally tilts can all help take the edge off the pain, and you might not need as much medical pain relief. It’s all about listening to your body and finding what helps you feel best.
  • Enhanced Well-being for Your Baby: Active birth promotes optimal blood flow to the placenta, particularly when you are upright and breathing deeply. This ensures your baby receives a rich supply of oxygen, reducing the likelihood of foetal distress. Foetal distress is a significant factor that can lead to interventions such as Caesarean sections or the use of forceps or vacuum extraction. Furthermore, upright positions avoid compression of major blood vessels, which can occur during prolonged periods lying on your back or in a semi-reclined position.
  • A More Instinctive and Effective Pushing Stage: When you reach the second stage of labour and are ready to welcome your baby into the world, choosing positions like kneeling, supported squatting, or standing can help you utilise your energy most effectively as you push. Working with gravity can make pushing more powerful and facilitate the natural rotation and descent of your baby’s head. It’s important to remember that there’s no single “ideal” pushing position; it varies from woman to woman. You may find yourself moving through several upright positions during this phase, and you can give birth in whichever feels most natural. The supine or reclining position is generally considered the least advantageous, as it works against gravity and reduces the available space within your pelvis. When you are upright, your pelvic joints are less restricted, allowing for greater movement and expansion of the pelvic dimensions, creating more space for your baby’s head to descend. In the final moments of birth, the bones at the back of your pelvis (sacrum and coccyx) can move backwards, further increasing the space for your baby to be born.
  • Nurturing Immediate Connection: In those precious moments after your baby’s arrival, as you hold them in your arms for the first time, sitting upright is ideal for initiating skin-to-skin contact and positioning your baby comfortably for their first breastfeed. While you are bonding and your baby begins to feed, gravity will also assist in the natural separation of your placenta and encourage your uterus to contract effectively, minimising the risk of excessive blood loss.
  • Greater Partner Involvement: Active birth often encourages a more active role for your partner, allowing them to provide both emotional and physical support. This shared experience can be deeply fulfilling and create lasting memories as you begin your journey as parents.
  • Gentler for Your Baby: An active birth typically results in a gentler birthing process for your baby. They are more likely to be born in optimal condition, facilitating immediate bonding and successful first feeds. Mothers also generally report feeling well and experience a smoother postpartum recovery, making the initial care of their newborn easier.
  • The Power of Birth Hormones: The entire birth process, from the first contractions to the moment you meet your baby, is beautifully orchestrated by hormones produced by your hypothalamus. Like all mammals, feeling safe and secure is crucial for the effective release of these birth hormones.
  • Calm Environment: At Genesis Clinic, we understand the importance of a calm and supportive environment. The quiet, reassuring presence of your midwife and a comfortable, warm, and peaceful labour room are key elements of active birth. This private and secure setting allows you to let go, express yourself naturally, and relax between contractions without distractions. When the lights are dimmed and the environment is peaceful, your body naturally produces higher levels of oxytocin, the hormone that stimulates strong and productive contractions. You also release endorphins, your body’s natural painkillers and relaxants. Combined with the benefits of upright positioning, these hormones help you focus inward, immerse yourself in your labour, and manage contractions more effectively. As you relax, labour typically progresses well, leading to a more productive second stage and a positive birth experience.
  • Working in Harmony with Your Body: It’s important to remember that labour and birth are largely involuntary processes. Your uterus contracts spontaneously to open your cervix and then to birth your baby, all without your conscious control. Your role is to relax and allow this natural process to unfold.
  • The Comfort of Water: An important innovation in creating an ideal active birth environment is the availability of water birth tubs at Genesis Clinic. In addition to the benefits of gravity, water offers another powerful and natural element to support your innate birthing instincts.
  • Embracing the Journey: While active birth and labour can be a profound challenge, pushing you to your limits, the moment you hold your baby in your arms often brings a rush of exhilaration that can make the intensity of labour fade into the background. Giving birth is an incredible achievement, and experiencing an active birth can be a deeply empowering and transformative experience for many women. Rooted in the fundamental wisdom of staying upright and with thoughtful adjustments to the birthing environment, we have witnessed firsthand how active birth can lead to a more positive and fulfilling birth experience for most women.

  • Your safety and your baby’s well-being are always our top priority. When your labour begins and you notify your midwife, she will  also notify your OBGYN to inform them of your progress. This crucial communication ensures that your OBGYN is fully aware and prepared should any complications arise, well in advance.

    Throughout your labour, your midwife will monitor you and your baby. Should she identify any indicators that suggest a caesarean section might be necessary, she’ll promptly escalate this to the medical team. If your primary OBGYN is unavailable, one of our trusted associated OBGYNs will come to Genesis with the medical team to perform the caesarean in our modern on-site theatre. Rest assured, our clinic is fully equipped and ready for any necessary procedure to ensure the safest possible outcome.

Benefits of a Water Birth

Water Birth Tubs in every room

Current research and the experiences of countless mothers highlight the many wonderful advantages of choosing a water birth:

  • Soothing Pain Relief: The warmth of the water can be incredibly effective in easing labour discomfort.
  • Deep Relaxation: Immersion in water promotes a sense of calm and tranquility, helping you to relax more fully during labour.
  • Weightless Freedom: The buoyancy of the water can make you feel lighter, allowing for greater ease of movement. 
  • Effortless Position Changes: Being in the water makes it much simpler to shift and find comfortable birthing positions.
  • Reduced Stress Hormones: Water immersion can help lower stress hormones, which are known to intensify pain.
  • Easing Anxiety: The feeling of being enveloped in water can significantly reduce anxiety during labour. 
  • Gentler on Your Body: Water birth is associated with a reduced risk of needing an episiotomy or experiencing tears.  
  • Supporting Natural Birthing: Water can help facilitate your body’s natural urge to push, rather than hindering it.
  • Relaxed Pelvic Floor: The warmth of the water encourages the muscles of your pelvic floor to relax.
  • A Sense of Privacy and Trust: The water creates a feeling of intimacy and privacy, allowing you to tune into your natural birthing instincts and work with your body without inhibition or anxiety.
  • A Calmer Arrival for Baby: Many believe that the transition into the world is gentler for babies born in water.
  • Potentially Shorter Labour: By promoting movement, privacy, and deep relaxation, water birth can encourage the release of essential labour hormones, potentially leading to a more efficient labour.
  • Fewer Medical Interventions: The comfort and support of water can often reduce the need for medical interventions during labour.

It’s natural to wonder about your baby’s first breath during a water birth. While we often see babies take a quick breath and cry immediately after a ‘land’ birth, the act of leaving the womb itself isn’t what triggers breathing. Instead, it’s the change in temperature that signals a baby to take their first breath.

When our birthing pools are kept at a safe, body-like temperature (between 36 and 38 degrees Celsius), your baby will continue to receive oxygen through the umbilical cord while still in the water. Only once they are gently lifted out of the tub does the change in temperature prompt them to take that first breath.

The technique we use is often described as birthing “through” the water, rather than “into” it. This means your baby is born and brought to the surface within about a minute of their arrival. And of course, the moment you birth your baby, you’ll want them in your arms right away!

We understand that hygiene is a top priority. Our birth tubs are meticulously cleaned and disinfected both before and after each birth. The water we use is clean and safe – in fact, if it’s clean enough to drink, it’s clean enough to birth in! Furthermore, we add a small amount of salt to the water, which acts as a natural antiseptic and makes the water more similar to your body’s fluids, providing a gentle transition for your baby.

It’s important to ensure that both you and your baby are healthy if you’re considering a water birth, and our team will discuss this with you. Interestingly, Dr. Michel Odent, a renowned French obstetrician and pioneer in water birth, reported no increased risk of infection in his extensive studies, regardless of whether a mother’s waters had broken or not.

Our experience suggests that mid-labour, when you are around 5 to 6 centimetres dilated, is often the ideal time to enter the birthing pool. This is often when labour intensifies, and the warmth and buoyancy of the water can provide significant support.

Once you’re in the warm water, many women find themselves entering a deeply relaxed state within about half an hour, allowing them to tune inward and surrender to the natural progression of labour. This is a time to let your body take over, trust in its innate wisdom, and allow the involuntary forces of labour to open your body and bring your baby closer.

The gentle warmth of the water on your skin helps to ease discomfort, and the buoyancy counteracts gravity, making it easier to move into comfortable upright positions and conserve your energy. Simple movements like swaying or squatting become much more manageable in the water. Your partner can also be right there with you, offering massage and support, either beside the tub or even in the water with you. 

Once immersed, many mothers find their focus shifts inward, almost unaware of the outside world or the passage of time. The water helps to quiet the mind and connect with the physical sensations of labour. Interestingly, the release of oxytocin, that vital labour hormone, tends to peak about two hours after entering the water, especially when you feel safe, comfortable, and loved. This further aids contractions and your body’s natural pain relief mechanisms.

When you feel the urge to push and birth your baby, you can choose to either leave the pool to have your feet firmly on the ground or remain in the water for the second stage. As long as labour is progressing well and there are no signs of complications, birthing in water can often be a more comfortable experience for you and a gentler arrival for your baby.

It can be difficult to know for sure what will help you cope best with labour until you are actually experiencing it. However, many women plan for a water birth and take steps to keep it as a viable option, knowing that it can be a wonderful source of comfort and support during their birthing journey at Genesis Clinic.

Genesis web pics-5
Genesis web pics-4

Benefits of Skin-to-Skin

The Golden Hour
  • The Golden Hour: Imagine the profound moment your baby arrives. The very best place for them to transition to the outside world? Right here, on your bare chest. Skin-to-skin contact – placing your undressed baby directly against your (or your partner’s) skin, tummy down – is so much more than a cuddle. It’s a powerful, evidence-based practice that floods both you and your newborn with incredible benefits from the very first breath. Think about those first moments outside the womb. For a newborn, this transition is monumental. Their initial experiences, the welcome they receive, can subtly shape their earliest perceptions of the world – is it comforting or overwhelming
  • Delayed Cord Clamping: During this time, we also advocate for delayed cord clamping. Instead of an immediate cut, we wait until the umbilical cord stops pulsating. This simple act allows vital, oxygen-rich blood to flow from the placenta to your baby, providing a significant boost right when they need it most.

Numerous studies, backed by leading organisations like the World Health Organisation and the American Academy of Paediatrics, highlight the remarkable advantages of immediate and ongoing skin-to-skin contact:

  • A Happier, Calmer Baby: Being close to you provides security and reduces stress.
  • Stable Temperature Regulation: Your body naturally warms or cools your baby as needed.
  • Normalised Heart and Breathing Rates: Your familiar rhythm helps regulate their vital signs.
  • Elevated Blood Sugar Levels: Skin-to-skin helps prevent low blood sugar.
  • Beneficial Bacteria Colonisation: Your skin introduces your baby to your unique microbiome, which, combined with breastfeeding, may play a crucial role in preventing allergies.
  • Enhanced Bonding and Attachment: This early closeness strengthens the powerful connection between you and your baby.

We wholeheartedly encourage immediate skin-to-skin after birth. And it doesn’t stop there! Partners are also encouraged to embrace this beautiful practice, offering the same warmth and comfort while the birthing parent receives postpartum care. This shared experience fosters early bonding for the whole family.

That first embrace isn’t just comforting; it’s a powerful start to your baby’s life outside the womb. Holding your newborn skin-to-skin offers a remarkable array of physiological and emotional advantages, gently supporting their transition and well-being:

  • Gentle Temperature Regulation: Your body acts as a natural thermostat, providing the perfect warmth to stabilize your baby’s temperature.
  • Steady Heartbeat and Breathing: The familiar rhythm of your heartbeat helps regulate your baby’s heart and breathing rates, promoting stability.
  • Balanced Blood Sugar: Close contact helps prevent drops in blood sugar, providing crucial energy for your newborn.
  • Soothing and Calming: Being held close reduces stress hormones, leading to less crying and a more peaceful baby.
  • Enhanced First Latch: The proximity and comfort of skin-to-skin often make it easier for babies to find and latch onto the breast for their first feeding. This benefit extends to both full-term and premature infants.
  • Reduced Risk of Apnea: Studies suggest skin-to-skin contact can help decrease pauses in breathing for newborns.
  • Minimised Initial Weight Loss: Babies held skin-to-skin tend to experience less of the typical initial weight loss after birth.
  • Improved Sleep-Wake Cycles: This close contact positively influences how your baby cycles between sleep and wakefulness, often leading to more restful and quiet sleep.
  • Greater Movement Coordination: Skin-to-skin contact can contribute to smoother and more organised motor movements.
  • Buffering Against Stress: Even during necessary medical procedures, being held skin-to-skin can help reduce your baby’s stress response and perceived pain.

That incredible closeness after birth isn’t just beneficial for your baby; it profoundly supports you as well, fostering a deeper connection and kickstarting essential postnatal processes:

  • Understanding Your Baby’s Language: Holding your baby skin-to-skin heightens your awareness of their subtle cues and needs, strengthening your intuitive understanding.
  • Boosting Milk Production: This intimate contact stimulates the release of prolactin, the crucial hormone that signals your body to produce breast milk, setting a strong foundation for feeding.
  • Easier First Latch: Many mothers find that having their baby close and comfortable against their skin makes those initial attempts at breastfeeding feel more natural and successful.
  • Soothing a Fussy Baby: Your warmth and familiar scent can have a remarkable calming effect on your newborn, often reducing fussiness and promoting a sense of security.
  • Quieter Baby, More Rest: Studies have shown that babies held skin-to-skin tend to cry significantly less and for shorter durations compared to infants in cribs, potentially leading to more rest for you both.
  • Enhanced Maternal Instincts: That feeling of overwhelming love and protectiveness? Skin-to-skin contact is believed to amplify these affectionate and nurturing behaviours.
  • Stronger Breastfeeding Success: By promoting early latch and milk production, skin-to-skin contact lays the groundwork for more effective and sustained breastfeeding.
  • Synchronised Rest: The close physical presence of your baby can even help synchronise your sleep cycles, promoting a deeper sense of connection and shared rest.

The advantages of immediate and continued skin-to-skin contact extend far beyond those first precious moments:

  • Physiological Harmony: It significantly improves the stability of your baby’s temperature, heart rate, and breathing.
  • Deepening Attachment: This early closeness strengthens maternal (and paternal) bonding behaviors.
  • Counteracting Separation Stress: It mitigates the potential negative effects of separating mother and infant.
  • Optimal Brain Development: This nurturing contact supports healthy neurological development in your baby.
  • Laying the Foundation for Breastfeeding: It powerfully encourages the initiation of breastfeeding and contributes to increased breastfeeding duration.
  • A Warm Embrace: Your body provides the perfect, consistent warmth your newborn needs.
  • A Calming Presence: The familiar sound of your heartbeat and your scent soothe and reassure your baby.
  • Hormonal Connection: It stimulates the release of hormones that support both breastfeeding and your nurturing instincts.
  • Partner Bonding: Fathers and other family members can also experience this profound connection through skin-to-skin holding.
  • Building a Healthy Microbiome: Your skin helps colonize your baby with beneficial bacteria, offering protection against infection.
  • Supporting Digestion: Early skin-to-skin contact can even aid in stimulating your baby’s digestive system.

Continue to embrace skin-to-skin long after that first hour. Your baby will remain comforted and secure on your chest, and the beautiful cycle of bonding, soothing, and successful breastfeeding will flourish. Even if your little one is sleepy, this closeness can gently encourage their interest in feeding. And for both mothers and fathers, holding your baby skin-to-skin fosters a deeper sense of confidence and calm in your new role.

Learn more about the beauty of birthing at Genesis Clinic with our Birth Stories

Birth stories