‘Jóga’ is the second track on Björk’s third solo album.

Wikipedia tells me the very day it was released (20 September 1997). I still remember listening to the track for the first time. I was in ALDI getting groceries, headphones in, checking out a new mixtape a friend had made me. The violin intro stopped me in my tracks, then Björk’s haunting voice, her beautiful Icelandic accent:

'All these accidents that happen
Follow the dot
Coincidence makes sense
Only with you'

...

More lyrics and then a layer of electronic beats. This was how Björk sounded now, very different from the first two albums! I was mesmerised. There I was, standing in the aisle of a 1990s German ALDI, being catapulted into some sort of instant meditation. When I did start to move again, I felt like I was walking through molasses (in a good way given that I spent much of my time in the late 90s seeking out these trancelike states in whatever way possible). 

I bought the CD the same day and I still have it after all those years!

Jóga is Icelandic for Yoga and so I have often thought of this moment as my first encounter with this ancient practice (Though I only just learned, also from Wikipedia, that Björk wrote this song for her best friend Jóhanna, nicknamed Jóga).

Yoga has been scattered through my life at various points since that first encounter. It's been a constant companion ever since I finally went on a Yoga teacher journey in 2019.  The Yoga teacher training was life changing for me, truly transformative. I did it initially to be able to teach pregnant mamas. I had done an Aquanatal Yoga course and I just didn't feel that was enough. I didn't feel that I could teach anything with 'Yoga' in the title without finding out more. So you could say my yoga journey is entirely coincidental. Ultimately midwifery brought me there and in turn yoga saved me from having to continue to work in a system  that I can't see myself fit into anymore. I am so grateful for the journey. 

These days everything I do is informed by Yoga. 

How I move through life. 

My body, yes, but most importantly my relationships, my encounters, regardless of how brief they are.

My relationship with myself.

The way I see the world.

Ahimsa (non-violence) is the first of five moral disciplines in the yogic tradition, satya (truthfulness) is the second. Those moral disciplines or 'Yamas' are like a compass for the yogi in how to relate to the outside world. Yoga also offers practices in relation to how you relate to yourself. Svadhyaya is the practice of self-enquiry and self study. This relates as much to your physical tendencies as it does to your emotional tendencies. Yoga gives you the tools to observe yourself and others with love and compassion. I know how to hold myself accountable in a much more gentle way than ever before. 

Yoga helps me find perspective in every situation and even when I am not teaching yoga specifically, it filters into my work at Essentially Birth. My body work sessions, my birth education program, my pregnancy coaching, they are all yoga.

Most of my clients come to me by word of mouth at this stage and my clinics are busy. My face to face clients usually want to either get help with physical pain or they want to 'get baby in a good position for birth'. Practicing yoga for countless hours has deepened my understanding of pregnancy, birth and life in general in ways I couldn't have imagined. Pregnancy symptoms often draw attention to habits and tendencies of your body, mind and spirit. During the body work sessions I feel your body and often I find just the right question to ask you so you are able to resolve the pattern that leads to the tension under my hands that then leads to the pain. Alas, very often this brings us full circle to your baby's position. 

Often people say 'I'm sore here, maybe it's the way baby is lying?' and I say 'Maybe the pain is telling you what is making your baby lie that way?'

Perhaps surprisingly to many of my clients, I don't get too fixated on a baby's position right here and now even if your baby seems to be in what could be considered an unfavourable position for birth. Your baby could be in a 'perfect position' and yet when you are in labour, there could still be areas of tension holding your baby up momentarily. 

Instead of focusing on baby's position, I help you shift the focus on movement. 

Pregnancy is movement.

Birth is movement.

Life is movement. 

Even when you are sitting totally still your breath is moving you. Your heart is beating and your cells are in constant movement and communication with each other. The potential for change in your body is immense and positive change can happen quickly. Your body makes 330 billion new cells every day, that's 3.8 million every second! Your baby is doing something similar. There's always movement on a cellular level. You are never entirely static, neither is your baby. 

We work on softening your tissues so that you can expand. I think of birth as your body re-arranging itself around your baby as your baby moves through you. This takes time and labour. It's okay for labour to be hard and its okay for you to struggle at various moments. In fact it is likely that you will regardless of how much you prepare. Your baby may start out in the perfect position and move into a less than perfect position in labour or your baby may start out in a less than perfect position and resolve it during the process. Ultimately your baby will be born regardless. Time and intuitive movement will lead to a spontaneous birth most of the time. When the support is right this happens in over 90% of births. Physical preparation is important for sure. Knowing how your body works will help you through moments of fear and understanding labour will help you with surrendering to the process. I take a multi faceted approach to helping you prepare. My massages soften your muscles, my online program and pregnancy support help you trust the process so you can relax into your labour. You have to then decide where you will have your baby. Who looks after you and how they talk to you in late pregnancy and labour will impact the type of birth you have and how you feel about it for the rest of your life.

For birth to unfold you need to feel safe in the lead up to labour and during it. You need little to no interruption once you are in labour, You need darkness. You need comfort and you need love, compassion and kindness.Very rarely do you truly need anything else. 

Ultimately you need there to be yoga.

Any person that steps into that space plays a part in the trajectory of events. Your midwife, your doula, your doctor, the ward sister, the anaesthetist, the maternity support worker; you will remember them for how much (or little) compassion they bring. How they talk to you is important and of course you can't control that, only they can. 

Listening to my clients' stories recently has highlighted to me that there are some incredibly kind, insightful, compassionate and well informed practitioners out there who will go the extra mile every time. Practitioners who do not see a birth plan that prioritises supporting your innate physiology as airy fairy but who understand it. They celebrate all the work my clients put into preparing for their baby's arrival and they will support the plan. They gently remind you of it when you are starting to falter. If there needs to be pivoting to plan B or C, there's no cynicism or judgement, only support. They won't ever coerce you into pivoting they will give you space to make your own decision. If you have a doula, they will enjoy the relationship you have formed with your doula and they hold space for it. I personally used to love the few times I got to work with doulas, it meant there was emotional support all the time and it was easy to focus on observations and documentation. 

Not all of my clients get to meet these angels, there is a lot of coercion out there, too. You might meet people who see themselves as an authority over you rather than seeing themselves as your guide. You need to be prepared. A new mum told me that she was laughed at when she tried to discuss her birth plan. She was told it was 'unacceptable'. Really? An unacceptable birth plan? Interesting choice of words woman to woman, midwife to mother, isn't it? When clinicians can't see past their own preferences and start judging you for yours you need to know your path. Know how to ask the right questions to discern if you want to change your mind about a certain aspect of your care plan or not. 

Or you might meet a practitioner who simply never thought about possible disadvantages of the routine care plans. They may just not understand why someone might decline x,y or z but when you explain, they'll support you. Just today a midwife messaged me in response to an Instagram post I had posted to say that that she had never considered Vitamin K administration or putting a hat on a baby as an intervention that a family may wish to decline. Why would they? To her there didn't seem to be any disadvantages. She's now off to read Dr Sara Wickham's book about Vitamin K and we had a chat about possible effects of hatting a baby only minutes after birth. Particularly when a mother wishes to have an unmedicated birth of the placenta after a spontaneous physiological birth the hat could impede the process (this is not about never putting a hat on a newborn). I wrote a summary of the potential advantages and disadvantages in my book. This midwife will be able to give a much more balanced consultation and discuss honestly potential advantages and disadvantages of these interventions so that the parents can decide for themselves. 

Ultimately you can't control who you meet, you can only control how you respond. 

My R.O.A.D. To Birth program helps my clients do the inner work and take them through a process of self-study or Svadhyaya as the yogis call it. Knowing yourself and being true to yourself is the best gift you can give yourself as a new parent. I also supply you with plenty of thoroughly referenced unbiased information to make truly informed choices. The R.O.A.D. To Birth online program comes free as part of my Anchor Packages and it can also be purchased on its own.

Just send me an email to [email protected] with your enquiry.