Spare Balloon

The whole process of using the Anibal allowed me to become in tune with my pelvic floor, get familiar with the stretching sensation and feeling of where the head is in the vaginal canal, practice the breathing out technique and get instant feedback by feeling how this moved the Anibal down. I am an anaesthetist and had a good working epidural from the onset of labour (pain was not in my birth plan), during the 2 hrs of passive I sat up fully and loaded my epidural to make sure it was covering the perineum for active pushing, I could still feel all the usual pressure sensations that I got with the Anibal, but no pain - I pushed the baby out in a controlled way, slowly using the breathing that I had practiced. I only had a 1st degree tear, which I was extremely happy with. My babies head circumference was 34 cm

This is a great tool and I will recommend to any mum planning a vaginal birth. I am so glad I have religiously exercised with Aniball. My baby ended up being born on 42+1, was 3.8kg and had a really big head… I still managed to deliver her naturally and I do think it is thanks to Aniball that I was already used to the sensation of having something big to push out! I have still torn but it was very slight compared to what midwives expected given the size of my baby and they have told me that I have done super well. I do think that all of my exercise paid off and I am recovering quickly.

I can’t recommend Aniball highly enough! Used for both pregnancies. Gave me so much confidence and allowed me to control pushes. My two daughters were born at 7 lb 11oz and 9 lb 4oz (with a 99th percentile head size!) and I didn’t tear at all with either.

I got the aniball for my peroneal exercises as I can't reach my hand down to do them properly. Practising the sensation of gently releasing your peroneal muscles with your breathing and feeling the stretch has been very useful. The most important part is learning to take things very slowly at the point of maximum tension which is difficult. The only criticism is that the ball has to be deflated to enter the vagina so when pumping it up tonaize, you can never be sure what size the ball is and therefore I sometimes worry I have pumped it too big and will hurt myself. Because of that fear, ai haven't been able to pump it past 22cm. Some mechanism to know the size when it's inside you would be useful.

This is my second time using Aniball for birth training.

I used it following the instructions in the booklet (which is very clear about how to use safely, how to clean, various different exercises, and also focuses on keeping you thinking about control and sensations, rather than becoming super focused on balloon circumference or competition / comparison with others). I also watched the aniball videos online, and also videos of others reviewing/ trying aniball. I tended to do about 10 mins / 15 mins most days, and put on meditations / hypnobirthing mantras while I was doing it.

My second baby was born 39+4, an unplanned home birth, with a very short and intense labour (it felt like we skipped stage 1 and 2 and went straight to the birth). This kind of super fast birth is at higher risk of damage and need stitches for tears, just because of how fast things progress. I am so happy that I had no damage and no stitches (the ambulance and then the midwives at hospital were suprised but kind of did a “ah yes of course” when my parter said I’d been using Aniball). For my first birth, which was more as expected (planned birth centre delivery, about 7 hours in stages 2 and 3), I used Aniball for preparation and for anti- incontinence after.

It’s still surprising to me that it appears few people (ie websites, antenatal courses) seem to know about Aniball or promote it. In my experience, which is in the Uk, they may briefly mention perineal massage or they may talk about how your vagina just stretches, but gloss over the fact that it’s all about various muscles down there.

For me, if you were running a race you’d train yourself and you’d warm up, and so you should do exactly the same thing for down there too- it should be a standard part of everyone’s pre-natal preparation.

I was terrified of tearing; the recovery, the potential impact of tearing recovery on my comfort or having any impact on breastfeeding. Both my births were very different, but for both, I used Aniball and didn’t tear. Would recommend.