About us

Achieve the birth you want

In the times of medicalised birthing practise, it is easy to forget how giving birth is what our bodies were programmed to do. At Cambridge Active Birth we aim to help women reclaim the birthing space, and we try to help women to give birth in the way their instincts tell them to do.

Practising throughout pregnancy is one way to ensure you have breathing and relaxation techniques at your disposal during labour, and attending antenatal yoga classes allow this time and space. Active birth sessions help you to learn, with or without your birthing partner, the steps to help you achieve a calm and confident delivery. Together they help to ensure a gentle and joyous start to your baby's life.

We also focus on the postnatal period, and understand well that a calm and happy mother means a calm and happy baby. At baby yoga sessions, as well as working with the babies, we also devote time to gentle stretching and breathing for your immediate postnatal recovery. We also run dedicated postnatal courses for the time when you can leave the baby in the care of someone else for the evening, and subsequently our 'yoga for women' classes take you back into regular, but sympathetic, exercise regimes.

Cambridge Active Birth was originally part of our sister organisation Camyoga which was set up in 2003 by Louise Palmer to provide an important centre for yoga activities in Cambridge.

The active birth side of Camyoga grew and grew as Louise had one, and then another baby. Louise found that yoga, breathing and meditation helped her to stay fit and focussed during pregnancy, and calm and in control during labour. The end result was two tranquil home births. Recognising that many women have an experience of childbirth that is far from what they had hoped for, she sensed a great need for better knowledge and practice to be disseminated amongst the wider population, and for women to be able to help themselves to birth their babies confidently.

"i can't quite thank you enough for what your classes have taught me, helping me to find and to trust my instincts and to understand how to get through the labour and birth... it's a magical process that is continuing to unravel before my eyes"

About the teachers

Louise Palmer

Louise has been a yoga student since childhood, (about 30 years) and a teacher for more than 12 years. Her yoga teaching encompasses her wealth of experience in yoga - theory, philosophy, and practice - which is borne out of many hours and years of practice. Her no frills approach has won her many friends and students in Cambridge and beyond.

Her pre and postnatal teaching has a meditative approach, and aims to imbibe women with a positive and confident attitude to the whole birthing process. She is a Birthlight teacher in pre and postnatal yoga, and has trained as a doula with renowned obstetrician Michel Odent, and doula Liliana Lammers.
Email Louise

Hannah Postgate

Hannah's yoga practice has been a part of her everyday life for the last 16 years. With experience of different yoga styles and through self-practice, she has developed and refined her approach. Now a mother, Hannah practiced prenatal yoga in class and at home throughout her pregnancy helping her prepare for an active birth at home.
She returned to yoga shortly after the birth. Postnatal practice and baby yoga quickly became an enjoyable and therapeutic part of each day for her and her baby.

Hannah is a qualified postnatal yoga teacher, and is currently a teacher-in-training with Cambridge Active Birth for prenatal yoga and baby yoga. 
Email Hannah