UTSAV- Feedback Janani and Santhangopal

Feedback from Janani and Santhangopal

What we felt before attending the class:

First of all, one of my friend briefed me about pregnancy classes. She always said that it was very useful for her. That made me curious and I started to search online for pre-natal classes conducted nearby my area. That's when we came to know about UTSAV. I immediately explained my husband about these classes. I told him that I really liked to get engaged in such activities for a change as my mind was thrashed with cautions and worries about pregnancy. People around me gave different thoughts and suggestions that I was unable to calm myself down and be happy. We both thought that knowing about what's actually happening during pregnancy, what needs to be done, how to stay healthy and fit during pregnancy would make our mind clear. Also,  as a homemaker I personally felt the need to socialize with similar people for a bit of content and relaxation. He totally agreed with me and started looking through UTSAV website and we signed up for the September 2016 batch.

Our class experience:

I was very much excited when I was told to attend the class along with my husband. We were really impressed by the way Dr. Amba carried our first class. It was an enlightening session for myself and my husband. Gradually we came to know that we were right about our thoughts and decisions. All the questions running inside our head were so promptly answered with perfect examples and facts. We learnt quite more than what we expected. My husband who had very little idea about pregnancy learnt a lot from these sessions and he turned out to be so interested in discussing about his baby. The breathing exercises, diet, managing pain and post delivery tips (breastfeeding, baby massaging, baby wearing) were so helpful. After attending each class, every time I slept at night I felt so peaceful and relaxed. I really loved the way the topics were organised with crisp ppt slides and explanatory videos. It made us clearly understand the truth. I am so happy that now I have a wonderful support person (my husband) beside me who will understand my situation more than anyone and help me overcome discomfort if any. I feel so confident that I can handle this. Thanks a lot to Dr. Amba. 

Some parting words:

Dr. Amba's classes has brought me more closer to nature. I have now started to admire nature's gifts to us human beings. Now, I am more like waiting for this happy event to occur to me called labour. The classes have helped throw away my fear. 

Keep providing the great service.  Your guidance is a valuable gift for all expecting mothers. Thank you.

UTSAV- Testimonial Yamini Sathyaraj

Hi Amba

This is my feedback about your 4 days classes. We are expecting our baby on July last week 2016. Once I entered my 7th month I have all the cons of pregnancy, breathlessness, heart burn, sleeplessness everything. Btw I have already gained 10+ kg during my 7th month. And I was gaining around 800gram to 1kg every week.

I was totally confused. Because it was the same diet that I was following from my 3rd month. But after 6th month weight started increasing drastically. I started googling mainly for heartburn, breathlessness and weight gain. I found UTSAV. (I am glad I did that) . Then I called Amba, we had a conversation I was happy with that, but unfortunately there was no classes on may month, classes are available only on June month, where I would be around 32 weeks. I was bit worried about that. Amba was confident that I can still attend the class.

It's better late than never right? I am glad I did that. Joined the classes. I have changed my diet as per her class, on the same day my heartburn issue got solved. And I had a great sleep. After following the breathing techniques and exercise, my breathlessness during night also got stopped. My last problem was the weight gain, I have followed Amba diet for 10days, during the class period, after that we had our regular Dr checkup, I have lost 3kgs in 2weeks. Can you believe that?? Even I was not able to believe it, that too I was in my 33rd week during that time. Since I have already gained much my Dr was happy with my weight loss.

The labour class and after delivery class was very helpful. I have gained a lot of confidence after attending your class. Your class is highly recommended to all the pregnancy ladies. When compared to other pregnancy classes in Chennai UTSAV fee charge is very nominal.

Only one thing which I am feeling bad is I should have googled about this class and would have joined when I was in 5th month itself. I missed it. But it's fine, atleast I have joined now. And just waiting for my baby arrival. I am sure, the 4th day class will change your mind set about the labour. If you want smooth and happy pregnacy then this class is for you. Give a try, it's worth it !!!

Cheers 

Yamini Sathyaraj

UTSAV- Testimonial Rajeshwarri Arun

Dr.Amba,

This is for you

You are really doing a wonderful and dedicated job for the motherhood community.I hope No hospital or Nursing home in chennai does your job.

Your class,  wat you taught, the knowledge you gave us helped us especially me to come out of fear and start feeling that pregnancy and Labor is a natural process , if we let the nature do it's job and keep focusing on what is essential that's enough.

About me in specific, I had my first pregnancy which lasted only for 20 weeks and from Day 1 of my last pregnancy till it lasted I was on Google search to make myself feel better, to get the knowledge, to come out of fear, to have a good sleep but nothing gave me clear vision like your class.

Now I am 7 + months with my second pregnancy and I had the same confusion Wat to do and Wat not. 

I can't believe that from Day 1 of attending your class, I sleep like a child in the nights. Having a deep sleep during pregnancy is a boon which you gave me, I must thank you for that.

The natural ways to take care of the baby,breast feeding classes, it's importance ,techniques and knowledge to handle Labour , you almost covered everything for a mother and a child during and after pregnancy.

I love your class.

You are doing a wonderful and divine job.

Love you and loved your class.

Thanks a lot for all the efforts you put in and individual attention you give for the mothers who come to you. 

Will surely recommend all the mothers to come to you to have experience the wonderful session with you.

- Rajeshwarri Arun 

UTSAV - Testimonial Vinodh M

Hi Amba,

Thanks a TON for providing us(my wife Dharani and me) an opportunity to be a part of your child birth education program. I am so happy that my wife has changed drastically from the day she joined the class.

Since this is her first pregnancy, we were totally tied up with all the myths and the child birth stories from various sources which were totally misleading as usual. Even though I tried a numerous times to convince her on the facts and to stay calm, she never even turned her ears for me.

But everything changed since the day of Induction in Utsav. Your words created magic that she literally started following all your advice from the second you told her. I was so so happy on that. She got so enlightened and motivated, which really made her feel special for her pregnancy and not sick. She stopped treating herself as a patient and started her regualar chores with a boosted energy than in the past :)

No Doctor would have explained us all the hidden facts on pregnancy so well that we had totally got rid of the fear on pregnancy and labour pain!! More than anything, the confidence in your voice and the way you handle the sessions were so empowering that we got instant energy to run the whole week until next session.

Here are Few awesome changes i felt in my wife after Utsav classes:

1. She started being energetic and bold to face anything.

2. Stopped asking for help to do normal everyday activities.

3. Demanded time and attention for doing exercise everyday and most important the DRT.

4. Got conscious over her diet

5. Became strong enough to say NO to avoid things which could make her uncomfortable in pregnancy even if insisted by me or parents or in-laws.

Once again, thank you so much for all your care & request you to continue the magic forever, if possible to every pregnant lady in chennai atleast :)

Thanks & Wishes,
Vinod,
H/o Dharani.

UTSAV- Testimonial Sathya Balasubramanian & Arun Vedavyasan

Dear Mrs Amba,

I'm writing this email while we feel rejuvenated post our Utsav classes. This is one of the by far, the best parent craft classes I have researched over various places. To someone who needs an understanding of what research I've done to say your classes stands apart, I need to brief them a bit more. I had a friend of mine who is expected mother in US and I currently work in UK where I had an opportunity to discuss with handful of colleagues who had attended antenatal classes in UK and constantly discuss with me about our preparations. I did speak to them about these classes and what are the topics covered,few training materials they referred and I found this Utsav comprehensive and I understand me & my wife Sathya weren't lagging in knowledge compared to other geographical moms post your sessions.

Everything started when I found a strong personality like Sathya started panicking about a normal delivery and we started looking some theories around opting for a preferred C-Sec and comparisons of Normal delivery Vs C-Sec. We have started realising the power of internet gets into our ideologies and we were definite we needed more than a Doctor to speak to. 

Luckily, we had our gynaecologist who did hear patiently of what Sathya was saying and insisted going to Mrs. Amba (She did suggested Sathya a different antenatal class earlier but she amicably referred you when there is a lot more running in the background). We must admit that she never certified anything/anyone among Scan Centres, Stem Cell Banks, medicines, other Doctors, antenatal classes (earlier to referring you), etc. like she did for Mrs Amba. Given the stature and the experience of her, we trusted her completely and decided it to give a try and we were not disappointed. 

Goose bumps guaranteed for me from first day of your session. For a long time, I had given Sathya a long, lengthy lectures and sometimes arguments on quality of intake or diet she had and we had no full stops and that's a topic we had commas until She came down to meet you for day one class on nutrition. I did giggled at her to cut down the nutrition class because it's not going to change her perception. But to my surprise there came a day when she said she is having a lot of healthy vegetables and diet, understanding it's importance and came down to me telling the importance of balanced diet :). I want to pinch myself to understand that's not a distant dream I was having over the sleep.

I was coming down for a vacation of just a week which had a baby shower occasion and initially I had a thought to leave Sathya alone to cover the antenatal classes. But Sathya's interest post your breast feeding & exercise class on day 2 and the perspective she had post your nutrition class made me think about attending couple of your sessions with her. We changed our baby shower occasion from my hometown to Chennai majorly to join Utsav. And we had to squeeze our times and also mainly yours to an extent. Thank you very much for your alterations to accommodate us and understanding.

My perspective changed a lot. I was looking at labour as a fearful period and I was not confident of getting into the labour room with Sathya. All I have seen over the hospitals/at UK or via youtube's are husbands fainting down majorly while going inside. I did thought I would be one in their group initially. But post your connects, I had the confidence of going with Sathya when it matters most. My perspective changed and confidence increased leaps and bounds. Ho my goodness!!!, that was the tip of an iceberg for me out of your classes.

We did understand what are our rights at hospital and we are not the couples who are going to be anxiously accepting/signing everything that's done at hospital now. That's another key takeaway from this parent craft classes. Your ability to constantly learn everyday and sharing those knowledge scintillates us. This is feasible only when you have got the passion not just to learn but to share those with others.

To summarise, if we would not have met a person called Mrs. Amba we would have thought preferential C Sec is the better option we had, we would have thought pregnancy is full of tensions, we would have thought all the myths around pregnancy and parenting told by yester generations are correct without researching, we would not have known our rights and one of the wonderful personality we have met. You have definitely enlighten us. We can't thank enough to all those discussions we had and we are now looking forward to our cute little pie with full of joy and satiation.

Thanks
Sathya & Arun

Radio One Chennai - Interview

Hi Friends,

Here is the audio link to the recent interview I gave to Radio One - Chennai. Please do listen to know more about me and what I do. 
Thanks.

UTSAV- Testimonial Sindu & Mahesh

Dear Ms. Amba,

Let me share my pre class thought and post classes experience.

Pre-class: I was in the notion that these classes will be focussed only on exercises. I never had a faintest idea that there will be so much to know about starting from importance of balanced diet to labour. 

Post Class: First I definitely have to thank you for motivating me and my husband to sit for the classes which I didn't expect myself. Taking the classes with our partners was indeed a very good experience. I never have guessed before we started the classes that he will have so much doubts related to pregnancy and childbirth. The sessions were more interactive with everyone sharing the information which they come across.

Coming to the individual sessions, First class about the diet and nutrition helped me to understand what I should avoid having and what I should have for a healthy balanced diet. Next the exercises sessions helped me in relieving the pain I already had I felt more flexible. The breast feeding sessions were so informative and I am happy that now I at least have the knowledge of were things can go possibly wrong. Finally, the labour and child birth classes, though I was worried at the beginning that I should remember all those breathing techniques and movements, later on I gained confidence that through practice I can definitely make the labour a good experience.       

Me and my husband thank you for giving us these insights and for helping us to adopt positive approach for delivering our little one to this world.

Sindu & Mahesh

UTSAV Testimonial - Krithika Satish

Hi Amba,

I know its too late but better late than never. Here goes my birth story..

I delivered a girl baby on Jan 8, 2015 and that too in the most natural way *:) happy. YAYYY!!! I had been waiting to get into labour since mid dec, just when the Dr said that the baby's head had settled pretty well. I was waiting since then, looking for each and every little cue.

I was in labor for 7hrs and I would like to list how UTSAV has helped me through out:

1) The first thing when in the labor ward, the Dr said lets do the internal examination. When i did that, the very moment i thought "Amba, what you said is right". Trust me, the exercises really helped. And this internal examination was done several times and i felt pretty OK.

2) Next comes the relaxation technique. In the first internal examination, however hard i tried to relax, it din't work out. But in the consequent internal examinations i prepared myself to relax well ahead and it worked out.

3) The main story comes here, "Contractions"!!!! The breathing techniques were real blessings! I did them in the same pattern taught during the classes. But as the contractions progressed i missed the pattern and did what made me more comfortable and YES it did work through out the delivery.
My mom and aunt were really amazed to see me deliver the baby without creating any fuss.

4)  My support person (hubby) was there to remind me to relax between contractions and also helped me to concentrate whenever required. Your classes really helped him to understand pregnancy better.

5) Watching the breastfeeding videos really helped.

6) I should say you motivated me to hold and handle my baby if not i would have left my mom to handle completely. And you wont believe even my hubby started practicing handling her from day 1. It is easy now for both of us to handle her.

7) Good news is i gained 13Kgs during pregnancy and I've already lost around 10Kgs. *O:-) angel

I would say being well informed solves half the mysteries and UTSAV has really helped to remove many myths, cleared many assumptions and understand pregnancy better. Thank you for being a part of my pregnancy*=D> applause

Krithika

Waterbirth and Gentle Birth Education Workshop - Chennai

I had the great opportunity of attending a workshop on Waterbirth and Gentle Birth Education on the 4th and 5th of February, 2015 at Bloom Hospital, Velachery. The workshop was conducted by Barbara Harper and Dianne Garland and attended by OBGYNs, Child Birth Educators and Nurses.
In this workshop we learnt about two concepts, one – Gentle Birth Practices and the other – Waterbirth.

Gentle birth practices recommend practices of allowing more time for the mother to be in labour, natural pushing as against forced/ purple pushing, uninterrupted immediate skin-to-skin and more such practices. These are currently being practiced in US, UK and many more countries are slowly embracing them.

The other concept was about Waterbirth or simply giving birth in water. The mom who is in labour is allowed to use a pool filled with warm water and then births the baby in the pool, with barely any assistance.

Barbara, Me and Dianne at the Workshop!

The workshop covered lot about the physiology of newborn breathing and more on the importance of immediate skin-to-skin and delayed cord clamping. Physiological management of third stage of labour gave more insight in how much minimal intervention is necessary, as opposed to active intervention.

The workshop was made very interesting with videos of more than 20  water/gentle births. The one thing that was quite obvious was that none of the babies cried after birth and they all would have an easy APGAR of 8+.  All of them seemed so calm, alert and ‘well tuned’. They did not need any resuscitation, cleaning, suctioning or any assistance with latching or anything whatsoever.
The workshop was interspersed with QA sessions. The speakers answered questions on what if’s and how’s and they have patience to answer questions that were not directly related to the main course. All questions were answered with patience and enthusiasm by both Barbara and Dianne.
The one thing that showed the effectiveness of this workshop, was, when at the end two OBGYNs mentioned that they find they have no role to play in the labour room, that they were humbled to see how women were able to birth their own babies and how their primary role was in attending to emergencies and high-risk labours. They felt that any normal, healthy pregnant woman needed the watchful  and patient support of a midwife. While a high-risk and complex pregnant woman needed the assistance of a surgeon, trained to work on the abnormal. The surgeon can provide the correct intervention at the time of need, thereby helping both the mother and baby have a healthy and safe birth and post-partum period.

I am very happy to have attended this two-day workshop. I feel embracing some of these simple techniques in our hospitals will pave the way for a better birthing experience for the mothers and babies. These 14 hours that I spent with them, I shall use as a springboard for my future endeavors.

About Speakers

Barbara Harper is an internationally recognized expert on waterbirth and founder of Waterbirth International.  She lives at Florida and her personal mission is to change the way we welcome babies into the world.

Dianne Garland is from UK, a midwife and a waterbirth expert, and founder of Midwifeexpert. She has an extensive midwifery experience and has been birthing waterbabies for a long time. She has successfully introduced midwifery changes in order to enhance woman centred care in many institutions across the UK and world over.

They both are from different countries, but a common passion unites them. These two women are pioneers in their field and my age is their experience. They are spreading the word and training people across the globe at an age that many people think of retirement!