A point stressed by the teachers was the way they built and integrated concepts, introducing them from a variety of perspectives but with very little didactic teaching.
Each class was planned to cover one main topic area. For example a class arranged around the topic ‘managing the sensations of labour’ might introduce it in the initial Circle Time where the women would share their experience or views. Later in the class, the same topic would be referred during breathing awareness, visualisations, posture work and again during practice contractions and the relaxation. This structure ensured topics were explored in different ways, enabling women to absorb information and ideas from multiple sources. The teachers contrasted this with their more traditional couples’ antenatal courses, saying that in their YfP classes knowledge became embedded without being formally taught.
It’s… that layered approach. Just by dropping a little thing in, they might think: ‘Actually yes, I can see how that might work’. (T1)
When I teach antenatal classes I know that there’s a certain amount of information that they expect to learn and I’m expected to give… but this is in a far more subtle way… You reinforce the same message every week so you know it’s going in, but just in a very different way. I don’t think any of these women come to the classes expecting to learn something, I think they come just for themselves to relax, but I know that it’s going in. (T2)
The ones that have already had a baby, if they share something about how birth was or, as someone said: “I was induced on my first birth, I really want to avoid that this time because … “It just drip feeds
information in that sits there, and they think: ‘Oh okay, why might that not be a good thing? Maybe I need to find out more; maybe I can ask some questions’. (T1)
A repeated comment was how the physical learning which came from yoga practice enhanced what the women gained from the classes.
It’s doing it; it’s actually doing it and experiencing it rather than talking about it. (T3)
There’s not a curriculum for the classes; there’s no head stuff, there’s no learning in the traditional way. It’s a different kind of learning; it’s a physical learning rather than a mental learning. (T2)
The teachers linked the elements together to form a cohesive whole which they said was greater than the sum of the parts. Learning was enhanced by linking the present to the future, the postures to labour and everything to the baby. The combination of women gaining confidence from hearing other women’s stories and the rhythm of regular practice within the warmth and security of the group enabled them to learn what they needed to at the time when they were ready to learn it.
It’s linking, making what we do relevant for now but also relevant for the future … Some of them might be thinking about the birth but some might not … Because I say it every single week, when they are then ready, they will listen… We were talking about second stage, pushing, yesterday and some of them were saying: “I haven’t even turned the page, I haven’t even thought about that”, but then we’ve got others due in a couple of weeks’
time. So it’s important to link what you do to where they are at. (T2)
It always involves the baby and where the baby is and what the baby’s doing, and it always lets them be comfortable with their body moving…
Being comfortable with themselves, and feeling confident, and feeling at ease… Yes I do think the whole is bigger than the sum of the parts. (T3)
This chapter described the findings from part 1 of the study. The four themes which emerged from the teacher interviews and class observations (figure 6) were
‘Creating a sisterhood’, ‘Enabling an easier or more positive labour’, ‘Building confidence’ and ‘Enhancing learning’ (figures 7-10). Each of these themes had interconnected subthemes which combined to build a picture of elements within YfP classes which create a ‘whole bigger than the sum of its parts’ through which women’s self-efficacy for labour and birth are enhanced.
The next three chapters outline the findings from the part 2 interviews with pregnant women at three time points: before they started YfP, when they neared their baby’s birth, and after they had had their babies.
8. Part 2 findings: first interviews with the pregnant women
Twenty-two women between the ages of 29 and 48 were interviewed before they started YfP classes. The women were between 15 and 34 weeks pregnant at their first interview. Fourteen of the women were expecting their first baby, seven their second, and one her third. Three women mentioned one or more previous miscarriages which affected how they approached this pregnancy. All the women were attending classes run by one of the three YfP teachers from part 1 of the study.
A dilemma arose during the analysis of the women’s interviews. As data was generated from interviews with the women and concurrent data analysis continued, it became apparent that, whilst there were many similarities in emergent themes between the teachers and the women, there were substantial differences in some themes and in the emphasis of some joint themes. By combining the women’s and teachers’ data to form one overarching analysis of YfP classes, essential elements and the ‘voice’ of each distinct group would be lost. Although it meant the results were more complex, the decision was taken to analyse the data sets separately (figure 11), enabling more accurate, richer separate themes to emerge which could then be compared.
Parallels with the teacher themes were, firstly, the women wanting to make friends, matching the teachers’ aim of ‘Creating a sisterhood’. Secondly, the women expressed a strong desire to learn techniques for managing labour and to remain calm and in control in order to have an easier or more positive labour. These hopes closely relate
Figure 11: Links between the teacher and women's first interviews
to the ‘Enabling an easier or more positive labour’ and ‘Being in control’ themes from the teacher interviews. Elements which were consistently present in the women’s first interviews but not strong enough to be labelled as themes were labelled as threads, for example ‘Time for me and the baby’.