Police training in the days before heath and safety
Not me on mount with the newborn but police training in the days before health and safety

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Just in case anyone was wondering whether I had fallen wheel-first into a snowdrift never to be seen again (my last update was back in the deep southern snows of January) I am still here ? though in slightly different format. This sizeable pregnant pause is due to two reasons. One is that I was pregnant and have not long given birth to another mini cyclist (I?m trying my best to increase the cycling race). The other reason is that my website is in the throes of being given a new lease of life. Simon at my publishers Little Brown used to do it all ? I would send him postcards and handwritten (and usually rain-sodden) updates from various far-flung destinations and he would put them up on my site. But then he left and Little Brown?s Darren was good enough to take over for a while until he advised me that the website was all a bit technically old hat and tatty round the edges and in need of a revamp. Unfortunately he didn?t have time to do it but said that it would be fairly easy to do myself. What Darren didn?t know was quite how inept I am when it comes to computers (Google, emails and writing books on Word are about my limit) so I?ve been up the road and through the woods and found a local man called Peter who has come up trumps by knowing everything in computer land that I don?t.?

Although I may have no idea about high-tech goings on I?m beginning to get a feel for this birthing lark. In my experience cycling has been the best thing for pregnancy and birth. With Molly I cycled right up until a few hours before she was born and I did the same with the new little Daisy that has appeared on the scene (my tip for getting labour off to a flying start is to ride down a potholed road before tackling a 1:4 hill).?

With both pregnancies I didn?t do one antenatal class ? I thought rather than sit in a room trying to learn how to puff and pant I?d rather go for a bike ride (a more enjoyable form of puffing and panting. With cycling, you often push yourself beyond what you think you can do which means riding through several pain barriers and you do similar things when giving birth. Because of my age (I?m an old bird) I was statistically high risk and doctors and midwives were a bit concerned until they took my blood pressure and heard that I?d arrived at the hospital by bike. Luckily my lump of a bump was of a size that some of my neighbours didn?t know I was pregnant ? I think I had a sort of packable, foldable travel version that could fit in a pannier. Saying all this, cycling wasn?t quite the breeze I was used to ? my lungs felt in my throat and my stomach felt in my lungs. But still I could cycle and pull my trailer full of a ten-ton Molly ? and for me that was the main thing. Have bump will travel, and preferably by bike.