Smelly things

If you are going to buy anything that involves a lotion or body cream then make sure it’s a decent brand- Clarins/Boots No7/Cowshed and Sanctuary are all good ones to go for. Supermarket-own brands have their place, namely on the bathroom shelves of grannies and aunts. In fact one of our favourite beauty buys of the year is No7’s body exfoliator, but you don’t want to buy this alone (she may be insulted!)  opt for a No7 gift sets with body lotion and your lady will not only thank you for it, she’ll think you’re a genuis. We also love Aveda gift sets, you can’t go wrong with some gorgeous-smelling shampoo, or even a candle.

Underwear

Don’t make the mistake of buying ill fitting/scratchy/tasteless bras and knickers. Instead buy your loved one vouchers in the nearest posh underwear shop, and let your lady do the choosing. And it’s a great excuse to shop in the sales. Carols in Bishops Stortford is our local underwear boutique. Alternatively go online and get vouchers for sites such as FigLeaves.

Gadget no nos!

Much as us ladies love gadgets Christmas is not a time to buy vicariously. So as much as your lady might show an interest in a gadget that measures her body fat/sleep patterns/loo habits etc – she’s probably rather you bought her something cool like a pair of fluffy headphones that double up as earmuffs – fashion and function can’t go wrong with that.

Perfume

Do not buy anything you are not sure about. Even if you know that she loved Chanel No5 when she was a teenager she may not like it now. For example I went off a bunch of smells when I was pregnant first time round, including a perfume I’d loved for years. Even now some of them still make feel feel unwell.  So unless you know for sure what fragrance she likes – don’t buy at all.

Books

Chances are she owns 50 Shades of Grey already. If you are going to buy her book buy a coffee table book Nigella’s Nigellissima is great because it shows you think of her as a domestic goddess or at least have the potential to be one.  Anything by Bobbi Brown is always cool. If you want to go the extra mile buy her a book with intelligence,  (Personally I’d like to read Naomi Woolf’s Misconceptions, it’s been on my must read list for ages – Sam, ed)

Let us know if you have any other suggestions – we’ll be aiming to update this list in the run up to Christmas.

This included 5km cycles  on the static bike, or 15 minutes on the spinning bike followed by weights,  or  20 minute runs on the treadmill (with a minimum 3% incline as anything else is cheating) or some circuits around the park. I even fitted in my pregnancy yoga DVD (Shiva Rea) and some pilates classes.

Nothing like my pre-pregnancy regime of 2x spinning class, 3/4 x30 minutes of yoga, 2 runs (including a 10k most weeks) but still I was feeling proud of myself, I was doing best for baby and me.

I’d wanted to keep up the spinning but all the teachers have effectively banned me, claiming that even if I kept the resistance low and didn’t do any of the more fancy moves (such as riding out of the seat) a mild spot of spinning still involved a lot of pelvis bumping, which was not good for the baby. As most of the teachers have had babies themselves- I took their advice more seriously than I might some of the male teachers – who also advised against by the way.

Then I read about Nell McAndrew, doing a minimum of a 10k run every day. Phew! Lucky lady. At  first I’ll admit I felt jealous, then a bit guilty (I am a Catholic after all) then I realised that I’d downsized my regime (which I’ve been told is almost athletic standard) for a reason – I was pregnant!

I know Nell is very fit and runs marathons, but I still couldn’t help but compare myself with her.  Had I’d become a lazy, pregnant lady?

The answer was obviously ‘no’ and I found out as much when I went for the first scan, the 12 week job.

I was weighed just before the scan and to my surprise,  I’d only managed to put on 2lbs, or less than  a kilo,  in the first three months of my pregnancy.

The baby was fine, after all it takes everything first but my body was obviously working overtime. So over the following fews days I kept dragging myself to the gym nonetheless.

Then we had our first baby scare, a blood test had shown I had above average levels  of HCG ( the pregnancy hormone that makes that blue line appear on the pregnancy test). No only did it explain my morning sickness it also  indicated there may be a problem with the baby.

Within days we’d been booked to have a private CVS test at a hospital in London.  The test involved having a needle inserted into my tummy in order to extract some of the placenta, which would be tested for various genetic abnomalities.

The test was clear as we found out just two days later, but having a  CVS increases the risk of miscarriage for up to two to three weeks afterwards. Three weeks during which the only exercise I will be doing is lifting food to my mouth, if I can manage to keep it down that is.

I’ve had my reality check, exercise is great for maintaining or at the very least keeping up a modicum of my previous fitness, so I can benefit from all those years of training my pregnancy. But that’s why I kept fit, to have a healthy baby, and doing 10k runs every day – for me – is probably a fitness regime too far.

That’s not to say I’m going to sit on the sofa and scoff myself  either, I’m going to be going to body balance and yoga.

I’ll have to avoid reading about ladies who do marathons while pregnant and stick to what is best for me, and that means trying to stay pregnant and healthy.

Oh and buying a maternity bra, which is what I’m probably going to be blogging about next.

I didn’t use to fall for such products but in the last year has, I have, to put it nicely, started to look a little tired. Not old, not haggard, just tired. That for me was the deal breaker. My lovely creams and gallons of water were simply not enough, so I’ve embarked upon a quest to make myself myself look more refreshed.

So in the interests of investigative journalism I give you my definitive (well for now anyway) anti-ageing or how to look less tired guide.

(By the way that picture is of me – with no make up and post gym scraped back hair!)

The gadget

I was lucky enough to be invited to test the Slendertone face. This device uses electrical pulses to tighten the facial muscles, a bit like a Power Plate but for the cheekbones. While it didn’t actually make my skin any better, it did give me 20 minutes a day when I was forced to sit down and relax. A few times I even fell asleep. You can choose three different settings, I often went for the revitalising setting, which made me look like I’d had eight hours sleep – when I hadn’t. The only drawback of this one, is the price – £250. For results you need to give this little gadget – which looks like upside down headphones, at least 12 weeks, although I saw results within a week.

Exercise

I’m convinced that regular yoga practice, which is aerobic but not impact heavy, makes my skin look great. But I also like exercising in the fresh air. There’s nothing like a run along the beach to make my skin glow. Luckily I managed to go on a press trip somewhere hot (don’t worry – you’ll read about this another time). During my eight day stay I managed six beach-side runs, combined with some resistance work and yoga stretches in the resort’s fitness centre.  I’m not convinced this made me look younger but it did make sure I slept well even through jet lag. Outdoor exercise  rocks!

Botox/fillers

Just to be clear, I didn’t/haven’t had botox, but I was curious. I visited Ruth Eaton. She’s probably the only person I would trust to insert a needle in my face; she’s a nurse who specialises in aesthetic medicine. One of my bugbears – which has only appeared since I started to look tired, is a line on my forehead (which I get from frowning). She assured me that I didn’t need fillers and my skin,  which is very good apparently, would not benefit from non-surgical treatments such as micro dermabrasion.  A small amount of botox would lift my brow and eliminate my ‘tired’ line for about six months. She did warn me that I would look different and to expect the slightly raised eyebrow look which is sported by an alarming amount of women in the public eye.

The facialist

I had my skin mapped at Dermalogica’s store at the One New Change shopping centre in the city. All the products I’m currently using are good, but I was recommended to try a product called map 15 which you add to your daily moisteriser. I took a sample away to test and I did see a slight difference. I also tried Boots No7 famous Protect and Perfect serum. This was just as good, but at a third of the price.

Sleep

This is the killer – lack of sleep makes you look terrible. For the last week and half I’ve had at least seven hours a night. Managing this has meant going to bed at 9.30 and getting up at 5.30/6 which has reprogrammed my body nicely. Long may this continue as I no longer have dark shadows, yay!

Sun

Everything in moderation and for that includes some sun exposure. Having spent all summer plastering my daughter in cream (well when the sun came out) I deicded to work on my own tan while on my trip abroad. The sun cream of choice was Ultrasun. I used the factor 50 on my body, factor 30 on my face and factor 15 lip balm. Not only did the stuff work it smelt good, not perfumed but not too bland either. I didn’t burn, despite spending a large amount of time ooutside, and we were on the equator where the sun is at its strongest. The result is a light tan which was not achieved by sunbathing for hours but my simply being in the sun doing other things. I hate to admit but  light tan on my face makes me look better than a week in a spa ever could. And you can get this effect just by doing the gardening!

The verdict

All these things together have conspired to make me look, but the crunch probably is the tan I’m now sporting is my favourite anti ageing trick. I have to admit that I’ve also overhauled my diet, and opted for more water and regular meal times – not more or less food – just making sure I eat breakfast lunch and dinner. The rest – as they say – is in the hands of God.

Yep it’s true I’m in the Maldives, on Baa Atoll to be exact, staying at the Dusit Thani resort. I can’t tell you too much about my time here – you’ll have to wait until my article has been published but I can say that having an office with a view of the Indian Ocean doesn’t really compare with my little office in Stansted, Essex!

This trip has not been without it’s issues for me, okay it sounds like a dream trip but leaving my daughter for eight days was not easy to do. Leaving Andrew and his 5 hour (round trip) daily commute also made me feel incredibly guilty. But that is what happens when you become a parent. This is my first trip abroad since we went to New York (on a press trip admittedly) four and a half years ago. At the time I didn’t realise it but I was pregnant, nor did I realise that we wouldn’t be able to afford to go away for at least another four years – thanks to the recession and parenthood.

The best thing about being here – being able to sleep eight hours, and being able to fit in a workout before breakfast. There’s also a few other things I’ve been doing (which again you’ll have to wait to find out about). The worst thing, missing Immy’s smiley face and wonderous laugh and Andrew’s cooking and cuddles.

Still there’s the turquoise sea, my fabulous journalist companions and the sunshine to distract me.

Wish you were all here.

Sam

I won’t lie, it’s not been easy. Staying motivated when you’re not a professional athlete with a livelihood at stake can be almost impossible. But I think I’ve cracked it, and anyone reading this who knows me will testify.

I was originally inspired to exercise after watching Madonna live in her Who’s That Girl tour when I was 17. I was impressed with then 30 year-old’s slim but strong physique. She’d apparently embarked on her intensive exercise routine after feeling so unfit during her first tour, and had vowed to be able to carry a set and keep up with her dancers and never feel breathless half way through a song again.

For about three years I exercised 3 times a week in the college gym or doing aerobics and step classes, a new thing then, up until I was 23. Then my career  and the long hours of a trainee journalist and later financial reporter saw my routine slide. It wasn’t till I was 29, and had broken up with my boyfriend, that I made a promise to get fit again. It was sort of a millenium resolution. I joined a gym and my skinny 8.5 stone body got bigger and bigger until 2 years later I was weighing in at 11stone.

At 5′7″ and a small frame I was actually slightly overweight, despite going to the gym and doing yoga four to five times a week. How had that happened?

I discovered just how when I decided to change my routine – I’d been doing the same thing for two years – and go to a spin class. It was sooo hard but I realised that I simply had not been challenging myself enough and my body and my mind were bored. The gym membership which I’d been about to ditch was renewed and I regularly saw a personal trainer and used the advice of a gym instructor to keep my routine fresh.

I’ve never looked back, apart from the three months of pregnancy when I decided I really did need a break, and even now I actually regret that.

So how do and did I stay motivated? Remember to ask a GP before you embark on any exercise routine, and remember that although I am fit, I’m not a fitness expert.

1) Have a goal. At the moment I’m using my gym’s Olympic challenge of cycling 60k (not in one go I might add). Having a distance to go means you stop looking at the clock and concentrate on what you have to do, and – because no one wants to spend all day at the gym – you end up doing it quicker! Another example 1km on a rower, or 100 floors on the step machine.

Other goals could be – to finish a Race for Life 10k, or cycle London to Brighton.

2) Have an achievable goal. If you’ve never exercised before start small that way you won’t feel disappointed and you won’t give up so quickly. 500 metres could be a marathon if you’ve never run before.

3) Mix it up. Don’t just run or cycle, do weights (get an instructor to give you a routine and change it every six weeks) do a class.

4) Do stretching/flexible stuff. Exercise isn’t just about burning calories or losing weight it’s about being able to be lithe and enter old age able to touch your toes. Doing yoga, pilates or body balance means your muscles get the stretching they need – for me it’s about de-stressing and making sure my tight hip flexors don’t affect my ability to exercise.

5) Get a fitness buddy or fitness muse. Okay mine was Madonna, and when she started doing yoga so did I. Now I use an app which can track my progress so I can be inspired by myself.

6) Don’t watch what you eat. Okay I’m blessed here, as I’m one of those people who can’t sit still but everything in moderation and if you are exercising you’ll get to know your body and it’s needs (yoga is great for this). I eat everything (apart from meat) and I love my occasional chocolate treat. But I also love the feeling I get when I drink enough water and eat healthily.

7) Don’t fall for fads. the only thing that really works is good old fashioned aerobic exercise, i.e getting off the sofa and getting sweaty.

Make time. When I have weeks I can’t get to the gym I aim to do a DVD (Tracey Anderson’s dance cardio is great – but tricky) or – as I did one week – put weights on my ankles and used my walk to and from the station and tube stations as my aerobic exercise session. I’ve also got resistance bands and a kettle ball (currently a door stop) which I also use when gym deprived.I’ve also been known to go running at 5.30am (before Andrew leaves for work).

And don’t forget to reward yourself, it can be food, a facial, a new book or face cream.

If all this sounds too much, remember once you get that energy, you will want it forever.

Now we at Ella Mag are what we call pescatarians – i.e we eat mostly veggie with the odd fish dish thrown in  (normally sustainable sourced salmon). But we do happen to love our veggie breakfasts, although it has to be said we tend to rely on mock meat products like soya sausages and fake bacon which can get a bit boring.

So to celebrate National Vegetarian Week Chinese supermarket Wing Yip has come up with a few imaginative and very yummy alternatives.

We are going to have a go at making Yu Tiao, which is usually known in English as Chinese fried bread sticks. They are deep-fried strips of dough which are eaten for breakfast in East and South East Asian cuisines and often dipped into hot coffee.

Other Asian vegetarian breakfast choices include the Malaysian Paratha, which is a type of flatbread that’s apparently delicious with breakfast staples like omelette or scrambled eggs and of course Chinese Man Tao (steamed buns) are fluffy and perfect with hot soy milk – these are great, I ate them all the time when I was travelling around Malaysia and Singapore!

Mr Wing Yip, founder of Wing Yip, said: “We’re trying to help break the perception that vegetarian breakfasts are a bland alternative to the traditional British fry-up or sausage sandwich. “With a little imagination, you can create a fantastic meat-free exotic meal to surprise your breakfast guests and get a perfect start to the day.”

Yu Tiao

Ingredients:

• ¾ teaspoon instant yeast
• Two tablespoons of lukewarm water
• One teaspoon of Mai Siam Palm Sugar
• 250 ml water
• One teaspoon of bi-carbonate of soda
• ½ teaspoon of ammonia powder – available from Wing Yip
• ½ teaspoon of alum – available from Wing Yip
• 315 gms bread flour
• One teaspoon pink salt

Method:

1. Mix the yeast, lukewarm water and sugar and set aside for 10 minutes until foamy.
2. Mix the water, bi-carbonate of soda, ammonia powder and alum.
3. Sift the bread flour and pink salt into a mixing bowl then add the two other mixtures and, using a wooden spoon, mix the dough until it is combined.
4. Knead for five minutes and add a little bit more flour if the dough is too sticky to work with.
5. Cover with cling wrap and let the dough proof for two hours. After that, turn the dough onto a well-floured work surface.
6. Sprinkle some flour on the dough and roll it into a long rectangle.
7. Cut into strips that are four centimetres-wide and roughly the length of a chopstick.
8. Place one of the strips one on top of another and leave for five minutes. Then heat vegetable or sesame oil for frying.
9. Press lightly on the two strips of dough with a chopstick. Then hold both ends of the combined dough and lower into hot oil. Deep fry, turning constantly until each it turns puffy and golden brown.

My wake up call came this morning. Now I’ve long prided myself on my ability to lift not just Immy (who is 2stone plus) but her buggy as well.My rule is that once I can no longer do this, then really Immy shouldn’t be using the buggy any more – kind of like my own personal health and safety rule.

I reckon I can lift it fairly safely, so long as I bend from the knees, not the back and I keep the distance I have to carry it to a minimum. This morning I broke that rule when we were rushing for the train, instead of getting Immy to walk up the stairs and over the bridge I lift her up and down two flights of stairs to the city bound platform of  our local train station. The moment I lifted the buggy I felt a twinge, not unlike that I got in the latter stages of pregnancy.

As the morning wore on it became apparent that I had indeed done ’something’ to my lower back and that appears also to have aggravated a shoulder twinge I picked up while working in an office last summer.

The lady in Boots, and the queue behind me, all had advice on what painkillers to take – the consensus was that I needed something serious – codeine and ibuprofen. I glugged two tablets down there and then. The rest of the day was a bit trippy but I made it through and Immy got her swimming lesson and a three hour play in the park.

I’ve also made an appointment to see a physio on Friday morning.

But don’t be like me, take the advice of experts at The Shoulder Doctor, whom I discovered thanks to a well timed press release on minor injuries sent to journos this afternoon.

Apparently, and of course we know this, you don’t have to be doing ‘bravado’ stuff like picking up a buggy with a child to do your back in.  Any of these sound familiar?

- aches and pains from carrying the weekly food shop home
- repetitive strain injury from washing and blowdrying hair, playing tennis, golf
- carrying your baby
- ‘iPad shoulder’ -using modern technology on the sofa etc so you slouch
- poor posture at your desk or in the work place

Tony Kochhar from the ShoulderDoctor has the following tips to avoid lower back injuries, I know some of them sound obvious but you may just want to remind yourself of them.

• Never lift above shoulder height.
• Keep your heels on the ground and make sure you are on a stable surface
• Take a firm hold.
• Keep any weight close to your body, not at arms length
• Keep your back straight and bend your knees.
• Lift as smoothly as possible – no jerky movements

He’s also given me some exercises designed to be used as gentle exercises for a lower back strain as telling me to keep taking the non steroidal anti-inflammatory tablets. Before you take any medication remember to consult with your GP before taking any pain relief; I know I can tolerate most types of pain relief because giving birth to my daughter involved such huge amounts of the stuff.

Like many of my 1970- born peers, I went veggie in the late 1980s when I was 16 -  encouraged by friends who’d listened to Meat is Murder by the Smiths. I didn’t ever listen to it, I was too scared to!

I’d always been veggie at heart, at the age of six I remember being severely reprimanded for spitting out a piece of gristle from a hamburger during a BBQ. We lived in the countryside so I knew where meat came from, my reasons for turning veggie was really that meat became – over the following decade -  simply unpalatable.

Being a veggie in the 1970s was not really acceptable, after all our grandparents could still remember rationing from 20 years back; being a faddy eater was not entertained by a generation of parents and grandparents who remember what it was like to go hungry.

Now we are actually encouraged to go veggie, and there are lots of benefits, most of all is that you do find that you eat more vegetables. Much as I love my mock-meat products, you can only eat so many soya sausages a week.

The Vegetarian Society launched NVW 20 years ago!  Liz O’Neill, of the Vegetarian Society, said the theme of this year’s veggie week was breakfast. She said: “We’re hoping this year’s theme will help everyone to get off to a good start, realise how much veggie food they already eat and help to tackle head on the  notion that life isn’t worth living without a bacon butty.”

There’s lots of inspiration on the website National Vegetarian Week as well as events near you.

At Ella Mag – we’ve been using our breadmaker to cook up some yummy breakfast treats.  We’ve been making spelt bread, which is a tasty and wheat-free alternative to wholemeal bread (which we do also love).

For lunch, we’re going for goats cheese salad with rice and vegetables, followed by a banana smoothie, and if we are hungry mid afternoon, it’s organic homous and oatcakes for us.

And for dinner, we’re going to be cooking Nigella’s Cheddar cheese risotto

Yum – who needs meat?

Don’t believe us? Well a 10-year study published in Public Health Nutrition links frequent cooking to a longer life.

Scientist studied a group of Taiwanese people aged 65 and over.  Just under half of those people never cooked, 17 per cent cooked 1–2 times a week,  9 per cent cooked 3–5 times a week and 31 per cent cooked up to 5 times a week.

During the 10 year study, 695 of the group died. Of those who were still alive were the ones who cooked the most. All other variables were removed.

The unmarried women who lived and ate alone, had not been highly educated, were non-drinkers and non-smokers, got around by public transport, walking and cycling, and shopped more than once a week.

Along with cooking more frequently, these women also reported enjoying a better, more nutritious diet than others in the study, with diets high in fibre, vitamin C and low in cholesterol.

Women who cooked for a spouse or other family members also lived longer. Men were more likely never to cook or to cook infrequently. They were also more likely to die at a younger age.

Prof Mark Wahlqvist, who works in international health and nutrition, said “it has become clear that cooking is a healthy behaviour. It deserves a place in life-long education, public health policy, urban planning and household economics. The pathways to health that food provides are not limited to its nutrients or components, but extend to each step in the food chain, from its production, to purchase, preparation and eating, especially with others”.

While reading some blogs at the weekend, I was shocked to come across a wealth of (mostly American) material describing ‘birth rape’.

This is not sexual, but a term used by some mothers to describe unwanted and/or unnecessary intervention during labour, invoking a definition of rape as any physical violation.

As I read some of the disturbing stories about women given C-sections against their will, the unwanted use of forceps to ‘speed things up’ and the pressure put on a few to consent to chemical induction or pain relief, I was reminded of a blog I submitted to The Huffington Post in August 2011.

It touches on some of the arguments regarding the medicalisation of birth and suggests some of the differences between the US and UK system. While I don’t think that the issues surrounding ‘birth rape’ are confined to the US, the context of intervention in the US may make it harder for practitioners to identify with mothers who want to go au naturelle.

My first child was born two and a half months prematurely, on only gas and air. Despite the excruciating pain I was in, I didn’t realize I was in labour when my husband dropped me off at St. Michael’s Hospital in Bristol.

I went in wearing my work clothes, as if I might actually deliver the lecture I was scheduled to give, rather than my son. People always say that you forget the pain of birth, but this helpful amnesia depends on being given a baby at the end of your ordeal: the trauma of birth gives way to the love and joy of holding your child.

The fact that my son was whisked away from me the moment he was born, has meant that the pain of his birth remains in my mind separate from any joy of seeing him. During the final stages of labour I kept my eyes closed tight. I felt that I was both in the room and somewhere else. And all the while four lines from Marvell’s ‘To His Coy Mistress’, were stuck on repeat in my head (the bizarreness of this struck me even at the time). It was as if a strange madness had come over me.

This experience is a million miles away from the labour and birth most of the women seem to have on One Born Every Minute USA. As I watched it last summer, the first thing I was struck by was the absence of screams. At first, I thought this was just because it was early in the episode. However, it soon became clear that almost every woman featured had been given an epidural.

The result is to transform the show from gripping television to something both more surreal and mundane. ‘You have completed’ (the American term for fully dilated), one midwife informed a bored-looking mother to be, ‘You are ready to push’.

I had mixed emotions watching the US version of this show, both as an American and as a mother of two, whose children were born in the UK.

Certainly, there is something disturbing about the way in which these women appear so detached from the cataclysmic event happening to them. The tendency for most women to have epidurals (and to have them fairly early) not only medicalises birth, but also renders the mothers-to-be oddly passive.

A woman with an epidural requires continuous foetal monitoring and a catheter, making her unable to get up and move about the room (activities thought to help with labour pain and ensure that the baby is in the right position for birth). The women also seem passive and detached in more fundamental ways: they are unaware of the changes happening within their bodies, so it is for the nurses and obstetricians to inform them of what is happening.

Interestingly, when a woman is shown giving birth without medication it changes the interpersonal, power dynamics of the event in striking ways.

Marcella, a non-medicated pretty young mother-to-be, is told by her nurse that she will check on her again in a couple of hours as she probably has a long way to go in her labour. However, minutes after the nurse leaves the room, Marcella starts to scream, ‘I have to push!’ Nurses rush in to prepare the room for the baby’s imminent arrival. ‘I would have never expected this!’, her confused nurse comments. The attention is all on Marcelle and it is clearly her body, not the doctors and nurses, that has taken charge.

But is it right to idealize the pain of childbirth? Although this may be pain with a purpose, accounts of women in labour for several days who end up too exhausted to push or with emergency c-sections make it seem less like a joyful, natural process than a form of torture.

Unrelieved pain is also thought to be one of the risk factors for difficulties in breastfeeding and in post-natal depression. So isn’t pain relief a good thing? Surely Elaine Scarry is right to observe in The Body in Pain: ‘the most crucial fact about pain is its presentness’. When you are in pain, what is significant is that it is happening to you right now. And for most of us, our chief desire is simply that it ends.

So why is it that, according to some studies, approximately 65% of American women have epidurals while only 25% of women in the UK do the same?

In the NHS, where money is tight and anaesthetists fewer on the ground, it may be the case in some instances not that women are actively choosing natural births, but rather that requests for epidurals are not being met. Epidurals can slow labour down and, once administered, midwives are legally bound to provide the woman with one-to-one care.

Too many women having epidurals can thus lead to staffing problems and a shortage of beds. In America, on the other hand, where the patient is the client, epidurals are more readily available and a potential source of revenue (they generally cost somewhere between $1000 and $2500).

However, I do not think that the more natural, mobile births we see in the UK are simply the product of the NHS’s overstretched resources.

The midwives I’ve encountered try to tread a fine line between finding alternative ways for women to manage their pain and listening to requests for epidurals.

And there are, after all, some good medical reasons to favour natural birth, or at least to delay the use of an epidural for as long as possible: as well as slowing labour down, epidurals make it less likely that the baby rotates into the correct position for delivery.

They can also lead to a drop in the woman’s blood pressure and slow the baby’s heart rate down. As a result, women who have epidurals are more likely to need to help of an instrumental delivery (such as forceps) or to have an emergency caesarean.

I am glad that I have given birth without medication, simply because it is an experience beyond what I could have imagined. That being said, when I was in labour with my daughter I asked for, and was given, an epidural in the final stages of labour. So what right do I have to feel critical of women who choose an excellent form of pain-relief from the outset?

None whatsoever. I may like the idea of natural, non-medicated birth, but it is easy have such views from the safety of my front room. Indeed, I think we need to be wary of our ability to judge real life situations. It isn’t just that unmedicalised births make for better television (and let’s face it, they do). It is the fact that there is an unbridgeable gulf between the person in pain and the person witnessing it. I may find my son’s birth a source of fascination, but it is without doubt an experience I would rather recollect than repeat.