Just wanted to let you know baby Michael arrived on the 27th October safe and sound!   I just wanted to thank you for the course, it was unbelievable how much it helped both Ian and I during labour.  I had such a positive experience, my waters broke at 4am and I managed to labour at home until I was 8cm, the midwives were a bit surprised at how calmly we arrived to the maternity hospital! We used Clary Sage, dimmed the lighting and the light touch massage was a God send!    When we got to the delivery suite I actually decided to get into a birthing pool and labour went re ..read more

I just wanted to say with a big thank you from both of us for the hypnobirthing course. It made the birth of our girl such a calm and special time. I am feeling so blessed and grateful right now that I got to experience labour and birthing my baby in such a positive, empowering and special way. It really was the most special time ?? Hypnobirthing was a game changer for me. From the fear releasing exercises, positive affirmations, being able to understand how the body needs to work during labour, breathing techniques (which I used continuously through my labour) and creating a positive, relaxe ..read more

Arlo’s Birth Story My contractions started naturally at home (2 days before I was due to be induced for being overdue!). I had some dinner and bounced on my birthing ball whilst listening to the hypnobirthing downloads. Later that evening we went into the midwife led unit at L&D to be checked. The lovely midwife explained that she was training in hypnobirthing herself so would be fully supportive of my birth plan. After being checked over we opted to return home to continue the labour there until I had dilated further. At home we dimmed the lights, lit candles, had a bath, bounced on my bi ..read more

George’s birth story The birth ended up being a very positive experience, although didn’t start as if it necessarily would be. I had be very restless and uncomfortable Saturday evening and wasn’t surprised when my waters broke in the middle of the night. However straight away I knew from the colour of the water that there was meconium, and that meant I had to go straight into hospital. I called Stoke and we were asked to make our way in. This was off ‘plan’ as we were hoping to enjoy the early stages at home followed by a midwife led water birth. On arrival to hospital about 3am I wasn’t havin ..read more

Hypnobirthing is designed to help women and their birth partners have a calmer, easier birth experience using relaxation techniques, breathing techniques, visualisation and fear release techniques. Hypnobirthing can help the birth experience in many ways. As a Hypnobirthing Practitioner and the founder of Together Birthing, I regularly hear feedback from mums on how hypnobirthing has helped their birth experiences. 1. Many women talk about hypnobirthing helping them to stay in control: “I felt much more in control and felt I had the tools to call upon when it got intense.” “I felt in control a ..read more

I bought a hypnobirthing book when I was pregnant with my first baby. I liked the idea of how relaxation can help during birth and thought it was remarkable some women described their birth experience as pain free. I thought I understood how it works after reading the book. However, when my water broke at 38 weeks after midnight, I panicked. I couldn’t stop shaking and blood pressure went sky high. It was a very long labour and I had an epidural in the end with an assisted birth. I was so surprised the theory of hypnobirthing didn’t help me subconsciously. I wasn’t as confident as I thought I ..read more

Also known as a straightforward birth, or to midwives as a normal birth, a natural birth can mean slightly different things. Some see the main criteria as being a vaginal birth, while the most widely used definition is a vaginal birth using no pain relief or intervention (although using gas and air generally still constitutes having a natural birth). Natural birth is generally considered to be one with no intervention at all, using neither induction in the early stages, nor forceps during delivery, or an injection to deliver the placenta in the third stage of birth. The things that almost cer ..read more

There are many reasons why you might need to have a cesarean section, either emergency c-section or planned. For some, a planned cesarean might be a welcomed relief after a traumatic pervious birth experience. For others, a planned or emergency cesarean might be disappointing after pinning hopes on a natural birth. Either way, hypnobirthing can make surgical birth much more enjoyable, through relaxation techniques enabling you to stay calm and helping you to connect with your baby. Hypnobirthing will make the experience the best it can be by empowering you to make personal requests such as ask ..read more

Penny writes:- In a nutshell the labour was really quick, I started feeling some contractions around 12/1 in the afternoon and they were soon 2-3 mins apart and lasting 30-40 seconds so I called the midwife. She came and did an internal examination on me and said at about 3pm that I was only 2cm dilated so left and told me to call back when the contractions got more intense. Iain got home at 4pm and started filling the birthing pool. In the mean time my surges were getting stronger but I kept breathing through them. At about 5pm the surges were constant and at that point my waters broke and Ia ..read more

So how effective is hypnobirthing at ensuring a manageable birth experience? As many as 69% of my hypnobirthing mums did not require any pain relief during birth. Based on my own client’s feedback, only 31% required some form of pain relief (including gas and air) and these were mostly due to special circumstances, but they reported to still finding hypnobirthing beneficial for helping to cope with the situation and remain calm and involved in the decision making process. Even if intervention was needed for special circumstances, hypnobirthing still helped women and their birth companions cope ..read more