To say that such a long pre-labour is frustrating is an understatement. But now that I’m due tomorrow, I know that the end is in sight (well, no more than two weeks away). My son was born at 42 weeks so I’m under no illusion that due dates mean anything.

The other benefit of being due this week is that now when random strangers tell me that I look ready to pop, I can actually reply, “yes.. any day now” instead of  ”err… I’m actually about two months away”.

The texts and emails have started, and if I don’t update my Facebook status daily you can be sure there’ll be a query on my wall. It’s nice that people are interested, even if I feel like screaming SHE’S NOT HERE YET at the top of my lungs.

Among the advice I’ve been given to bring on labour this week have been the following:

- Bumpy bus ride

- Long walk followed by a curry

- Sex (semen contains prostaglandins which induce labour, apparently)

- Nipple stimulation

- Fresh pineapple

- Fancy restaurant reservation or hair appointment (acts as a jinx)

- Acupuncture/chiropathy/Bowen therapy

- Castor oil (did that last time, disgusting and ineffective)

- Brazilian waxing (ouch!)

But really, unless I’m staring a medical induction in the face I think I’ll stick to my regime of chilling out, nanna naps and life uninterrupted by a three-hourly feeding schedule for as long as I can.

Tell me – how did you bring on your labour?

Unlike those women whose waters break spontaneously and kicktstart a fast labour, my body likes to tease me with signs of pre-labour for weeks and weeks: strong braxton hicks ‘practice’ contractions, back pain, spotting, nausea and moodiness. I keep thinking ‘this is it!’ and then… nothing.

I’m on full holiday time now and couldn’t tell you what day it is. But unlike holidays that can be filled with activities I’m practically housebound, waddling from room to room, trying in vain to keep up with my toddler.

As another friend who is 39 weeks pregnant put it, “ I am hunkering down in trackie pants and comfy tops and doing NOTHING, unless absolutely necessary… the poor kids are climbing the walls.”

The place which is my saviour at the moment is a play centre with decent coffee and a multitude of slides. It may be expensive, but what price can you put on being able to eat a chocolate caramel slice in relative peace? It has the dual benefit of tiring Finn out so we can both have a decent afternoon nanna nap.

Still, my midwives assure me that it won’t be long at all until I’m enjoying the surrounds of the birth centre while visualising my cervix opening like a flower (thanks Juju Sundin.) I’m 3/5 engaged and could safely go in to labour at any time. Bags are packed, an iPod playlist is being created and I’ve been practising my birth mantras, also from Juju’s book:

Relax, release, let go

Pain means action

Baby’s coming, baby’s coming

I can only hope next week’s blog brings more exciting news!

Do let me know if any birth mantras worked for you, and what was on your labour soundtrack.

The US study, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, looked at over 60,000 women who had given birth and had participated in a major health survey from 1997 to 2005. According to results, those women who had a mother or sister affected by breast cancer, lowered the chance of developing the disease by almost 60%, by breastfeeding. The link did not appear to be effected by duration of breastfeeding or whether the mother breastfed exclusively.

As Dr Alison Stuebe of the University of Carolina, who conducted the research, explained:

“Breastfeeding is good for mothers and for babies… These data suggest that women with a family history of breast cancer should be strongly encouraged to breastfeed.”

The study also found women who did not breastfeed but used medication to surpress milk production had a 42% lower chance of developing the disease than women who neither breastfed nor used medication to surpress lactation.

While, this latest research still doesn’t provide any solid proof for the cause of breast cancer, it does raise some interesting questions about the link between breastfeeding and breast cancer.

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Compatible with all major handheld browsers, Babble mobile will feature all the latest Babble articles, as they’re published online. To get the mobile mini-us on your phone, enter m.babble.com.au into your browser and start reading. At the risk of sounding like a tacky infomercial, it really is that simple. How great is that? To get all your parenting news and views on the go? Genius. Just be sure to tell us if you notice any stuff ups…!

“Dear Twitter, My water broke. It wasn’t like Charlotte in Sex and the City,” she tweeted on Monday.

Updates followed Morishge through the hospital and contractions- which she timed using an iPhone-, with the first-time mum soon after asking for an epidural;

“Admitted to hospital. Got the second-to-last room … Epidural, yes please.”

But it was husband Ev Williams who announced the baby’s arrival, tweeting several hours later;

“Yes! Sara gave birth to a perfect baby boy. Both are well. 8 pounds, 21 inches! (3.63kg, 53cm). Smiles all around.”

Congratulations to the young family and props for the multitasking.

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Apparently, Jen and her father, long-time Days of Our Lives actor, John, both narrate a kids’ book called Loukoumi’s Good Deeds (about a lamb and her pals Gus the bear, Fistiki the cat and Mariki the monkey – we’re guessing it’s Greek). And both John and Jen have won the iParenting Media Award for it.

Here at the beautiful Hanging Gardens of Babble-On, we’re a bit perplexed by awards anyway, at the best of times – but parenting awards? To quite categorically non-parents? Only in America.

Which prompts us in slightly overcast, chilly Sydney to say, in our best Seppo accent, go figure.

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In an interview with Radio 2GB, the mother – who is, understandably, fraught and close to the edge – said she felt as though someone had “taken her heart away”.

Hot on the heels of the Madeleine McCann story re-surfacing with an Australian perspective, this kidnapping reinforces how precious our kids are – and how sometimes we feel that danger lurks around every corner, even in our own front yards. Our thoughts are with the mother and her son at this point – fingers crossed no more physical harm comes to either of them, and their emotional scars heal speedily.

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We don’t know if he actually has the dreaded pig lurgy or regular influenza, but he has the symptoms and it was enough for the doctor to hit him up with two packs of Tamiflu, one for each of us. I called my midwife clinic to confirm that I should take it as a precaution and apparently I should. Common side effects include nausea and vomiting. Can’t wait!

So now I’m trying to be as inactive as possible to ward off labour, now that my support person is coughing up a lung and shivering on the lounge.

In other news, I’ve been revisiting my birth plan from last pregnancy and deciding whether to use it again. Here is an extract, adapted from a template on birth.com.au.

Key points for caregivers
- Please don’t offer me drugs unless I ask for them
- Please don’t break my waters unless medically indicated
- We would like the option of my partner ‘catching’ the baby
- Would rather risk a tear than an episiotomy
- If assisted birth is necessary, I would prefer a ventouse over forceps
- If I require a caesarean, I would like my partner to be there at all times, given a spinal over an epidural, and have the baby given to me or my partner ASAP
- If the umbilical cord must be clamped due to caesarean, I would like to donate the cord blood. Otherwise, I would prefer to delay cord clamping until the cord has stopped pulsating.
- I would prefer to avoid the syntocinon injection unless it is necessary due to excessive bleeding or delayed 3rd stage.
- I would like to see the placenta afterwards
- Would like to have all weighing, measuring etc done after I’ve had time for skin to skin contact with the baby
- If I can’t be with the baby, I would like my partner to stay with the baby at all times
- If I need stitching, please do it ASAP

Unfortunately, my whole plan went out the window last time as soon as I left the birth centre due to a stalled labour. It was well and truly the last thing on my mind after I’d delivered and the midwife brought me my placenta in a silver dish ‘as requested in your birth plan’. I recoiled in horror!

Experience tells me that you can’t prepare for every eventuality in labour and birth and I don’t think I’ll bother this time. However, the actual process of going through the likely options and decisions to be made is a very useful exercise for couples to go through, so you can be sure you are in agreement before the day.

As well as a plan for caregivers, some couples like to have a plan for the support person to follow in case they forget what has been taught in birth preparation classes. For example:

Key points for partner
- Offer me fluids or ice cubes to suck on to keep me hydrated.
- Suggest and physically help me into different labour positions.
- Walk with me if I need to do this.
- Breathe with me when I look lost.
- Remind me to relax between contractions (’body check’).

This time around I am reading Juju Sundin’s Birth Skills (co-written with Sarah Murdoch) and I am likely to take along a few notes on pain-management techniques for my husband to refer to if what I’m doing isn’t working.

I’d love to hear from others if you had a birth plan – and if it was an accurate template for what followed!

Apparently the woman – who is “significant” but not a suspect – had a conversation with a male, British witness at a bar at two a.m. on the seventh of May, 2007 – just over three days after Madeleine, who was then three years old, disappeared.

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According to a just-published sleep study carried out by the Arizona State University, whether or not you’re suffering from sleep-deprivation and, as a result, poor quality of life, it’s all in your head. The results of the five-year sleep study suggest that those who feel they don’t get adequate sleep, see a bigger impact on their quality of life (they’re tired, cranky, short-tempered – sound familiar?!) – while those who don’t focus on their sleep, or don’t notice that they haven’t had enough are getting on with everything just fine, thanks for asking.

Lead author of the study, Graciela E. Silva, PhD, assistant professor at the College of Nursing and Health Innovation at ASU says: “These findings signal to the importance of perception of quality of sleep on quality of life.”

In other words, if you think you’ve had a crap night’s sleep, you’ll be grumpy and miserable as a result (ie experiencing rubbish quality of life). But if you haven’t noticed that you’ve been falling asleep half-way through the 7PM Project, only to be rudely awoken at three am, staying up with your restless offspring till four am, crashing out till six am and then going hammer and tongs all day without so much as a break, let along a five-minute power nap…if none of that has even registered with you, you’re officially living the good life. Despite your clearly delusional mental state.

But that’s parenting for you, right?

Apparently, a change in attitude can help you feel less exhausted, according to the sleep study’s authors. Well, that…and a permanent full-time nanny and three weeks lounging by the pool in The Maldives wouldn’t go astray, either.

So what about you? How does sleep – or the lack thereof – affect you and your family? How do you deal with debilitating tiredness? And have you got any top tips to get recalcitrant little ones off to sleep?