I live in London with my husband. We have three grown up children and a small grandchild who I am lucky enough to look after one day a week.
I trained as a physiotherapist at St. Mary’s Hospital, London and qualified in 1970. I always wanted to work with babies and children, and for ten years was employed as a paediatric physiotherapist at St. Mary’s – which was then a separate building, called Paddington Green Childrens’ Hospital. As well as treating sick babies in hospital, my job included working at schools for physically handicapped children, and during this time I took a postgraduate course in normal and abnormal child development.
During this time I also had my own first two children - returning to work six weeks after giving birth! Thirty odd years ago, statutory maternity leave was very different - and having to go back to work without your baby must have been really dreadful. We were fortunate in that our department was geared up for babies, so we were able to bring our own babies with us. There was always at least one member of staff’s new baby in the department who was looked after by anyone who was free at the time (and a physiotherapy student that we were allocated). Looking back, although we all coped, it was rather stressful.
I then specialised in obstetrics, completing the NCT teacher training and started the postgraduate training with the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Obstetrics and Gynaecology (now renamed as the Association of Chartered Physiotherapists in Women’s Health), eventually qualifying as a full member in 1981. Incidentally, this qualification means I am trained to look after women during pregnancy and labour – it does not mean that I am able to deliver babies.
When I was pregnant with my third child I left the NHS (by then I was co-superintendent physiotherapist with Barbara Whiteford) and started working from home, doing private paediatric consultations and antenatal and postnatal classes. I was also Consultant Physiotherapist to Sybil Elgar Autistic School, lecturing to exercise teachers on ante and postnatal exercise and lecturing on Stress and Relaxation at St. Paul’s Girls’ School. Later on, I was appointed to the panel of experts for Tesco Baby Club and the antenatal expert for ivillage.co.uk., answering around 35 questions a month.
In 1987 I formed Christine Hill Associates - private ante and postnatal classes. My practice consists of: Barbara Whiteford – long term friend and trusted colleague, Clare Byam - Cook my feeding specialist, and Dr. Tim Evans. They have worked with me (through thick and thin for all of us) for twenty years, and help make my practice become what it is. I have learnt so much from the several thousand women I have been fortunate to take for antenatal classes. (And yes, it has also been a privilege and great fun to have taken so many well–known names - but that has been incidental rather than a goal.)
I have worked all my life with pregnant women and babies. I know the physical problems that women face when they become pregnant and give birth and just as importantly, the worries during pregnancy and the challenges that lie ahead. I empathise with each woman, especially those that have a career, because I have travelled the same journey. Becoming a mother for the first time is a really pivotal change in a woman’s life. How on earth can she manage to keep her own identity, maintain her relationship with the baby’s father and at the same time enjoy her precious baby? There are always serious adjustments and decisions to be made – ‘having it all’ is not really a viable option! I don’t pretend to know all the answers, but I do have a huge amount of experience when it comes to making the best of pregnancy, birth and afterwards.