What it is:

Sarah Boyd’s Visualisations for Labour is a great tool to help you learn breathing and relaxation skills during pregnancy, to help you through your labour. Being able to stay calm and focused can make a huge difference, keeping oxytocin and endorphins levels up, which in turn helps you to manage the contractions better.

How it works:

The introduction explains how and why breathing can help during labour, and describes the rationale behind staying as relaxed as possible. The rest of the audio comprises 24 short images, ranging from blowing bubbles to walking through a bluebell wood, picturing your baby inside you to scuba diving in tropical seas. Each image lasts between one and three minutes, about a long as an active labour surge (or contraction), to get you used to breathing in a controlled way for that length of time.

By listening to it regularly throughout your pregnancy, and practising the breathing techniques that accompany each visualisation, you will feel ready and able to calmly breathe your way through each surge, knowing that you are in control, and confident in your body’s ability to birth your baby.

The CD is available to purchase as a physical CD for £10 (including p&p within the UK), or as an audio download for £8.

What women are saying abut the audio:

I could not have got through my labour without this CD, anyone who wishes to stay in control and manage the pain should be buying this CD. Make sure you listen to it prior to going into labour as you get your favourites. I downloaded it to my shuffle so I could block out all other noises. I cannot endorse this enough.
Lisa Butler, mum

"As a doula I get to review lots of products designed to support women in preparing for labour. Sarah's CD is one of the best I have listened to and a number of my clients have listened to the visualisations during labour and found it extremely calming. What makes it special for me is that it has many stand alone tracks from which you can pick and choose which suits you best. My personal favourite is " blowing bubbles" which only asks you to visualise the simplest of tasks - as a person that struggles to visualise complex scenarios this is a breath of fresh air (both literally and visually :-))
A very reasonably priced product that you could utilise during pregnancy, labour and beyond to quickly achieve relaxation."
Sarah Cossey, birth doula and co-founder of Birthability

I was able to get through an induced labour on only gas and air using the visualisations and breathing techniques on this CD. Each visualisation is roughly the length of a contraction and you are encouraged to keep your breathing very slow and deep, concentrating on the out breath. This really helped to keep me calm and relaxed during labour and to breathe through each contraction. Listening to the CD also helped me relax in the weeks leading up to the birth.
Sarah K, mum

Visualisation Samples

Here are a couple of free tasters to try before you buy. The more you listen to the visualisations, the more deeply ingrained they will become in your mind, and so the more likely it will be that you will use them in labour without having to think about them. That way you can let your body labour as it needs to, whilst you are focused on the images in your mind to help to keep you calm and relaxed.