1 Hypnobirthing can take away any fears you may have of giving birth; by the end of the course you might even feel excited about going into labour! One of the most important aspects of a hypnobirthing course, is understanding how being scared during labour can really derail the whole process. When you are scared, your body produces a hormone called adrenaline which causes you to go into the ‘fight or flight’ response. This is really not what a woman in labour needs, so I spend time helping you to overcome any fear or anxiety you might have about giving birth and helping you to start to feel mo ..read more

In my job working with pregnant women, and as a mum myself, I meet lots of mums (and birth partners) who have had, or witnessed, a difficult, often traumatic, birth. I see the effect that this can have on them and their families. Often, these parents may have tried to get on with their lives, they may have tried to bury their feelings. Some may cope well day to day, but then something will trigger their memory and they might experience a panic attack, anxiety or flashbacks. Others may continuously relive the birth, experiencing anger, resentment and feeling disconnected from their baby or the ..read more

Do you know that as a pregnant woman, or a woman in labour, you can say NO! You can say no to pretty much anything. Because it is your body and your baby. So often, interventions and other procedures are presented to pregnant women as if they have no choice.  So many women I speak to felt bullied and coerced into choices they didn't understand or didn't want. ?You can say NO to induction (because there are other options available) ?You can say NO to tests (most evidence suggests routine antenatal testing doesn't improve outcomes for mums or babies) ?You can say NO to growth scans (which a ..read more

If you have ever given birth, or know someone who has given birth, you may have heard the phrase “failure to progress” Often, when medical intervention is needed during labour, it is justified using “failure to progress”. It is one of my most hated phrases. Imagine that you are in labour and you get told that you need medical intervention because of a “failure to progress”. Imagine what hearing those 3 little words could do to your confidence, how guilty it could make you feel. How frustrated you could be with your own body. But is it really our bodies that are failing at birth? Well of course ..read more

As a first time pregnant mum, i spent so long wondering how I would cope with the pain of childbirth. All I had heard about birth was horrendous. Long drawn out labours with lots of intervention. And pain. Everyone talks about the pain. ??? . But I knew that there must be a way to cope with it. So after lots of googling and reading of forums I stumbled across hypnobirthing.? . At first I really wasn't sure. It seemed a bit 'hippy dippy' and I had always been so logical and science based. But I kept coming back to it because all the positive stories and videos I saw all involved hypnobirthing ..read more

Whenever someone asks me where I’m going to give birth and I tell them I am having a home birth, the majority of people respond by telling me how brave I am. But to me that implies that I’m taking a risk, risking my safety or that of my baby. Why else would it be brave to birth at home? And I guess that is what the vast majority of society think. That birth is risky and it’s better to be in hospital in case anything goes wrong. Don’t get me wrong, birth is risky, as is EVERYTHING in life! I take a risk every single day by driving my car or crossing the road. I make decisions when taking everyd ..read more

I'm sorry that you've been lied to all these years. I'm sorry that you have grown up believing that birth is awful, something to be endured, something to be frightened of. I'm sorry that you've not been given the knowledge you deserve. I'm sorry that the NHS maternity system is not geared up to support women to have a birth with minimal intervention. I'm sorry that your NHS antenatal education is too difficult to book onto, or doesn't exist at all. I'm sorry that your midwife doesn't always have time to give you the necessary information. I'm sorry that you aren't treated as an individua ..read more

I have just been reading some threads in local facebook groups, and also in a national forum where women were being asked for opinions about the information given before and during the induction process. It made for very sad reading. There was post after post about the bad experiences women had suffered. There were different issues that came up in the various birth stories and comments, but there was one common theme…..that the vast majority of women had not been provided with sufficient information to make such an important decision. That they hadn’t been given the full picture, that they fel ..read more

Well there really is no need. Perhaps it conjours up images of dodgy entertainers on holiday or TV shows, or someone waving a watch in front of your face? Maybe you're worried about being under someone else's control? Being made to do something stupid? Or perhaps it's just that you think it's all a load of rubbish and wouldn't work on you? Well I can reassure you that none of that is true! The 'hypno' in hypnobirthing simply refers to a natural state that we all experience many times a day. A bit like a daydream, where you mind wanders. And there are a few reasons it is so beneficial: 1) You ..read more

When I was pregnant for the first time in 2013, I was petrified of giving birth. I couldn’t get my head around the fact I had to get this little human being out from my body! I was so worried about being totally out of control, and I was really scared about the pain. So I was eternally grateful that I came across hypnobirthing early on in my pregnancy. I began to research it, and the more I found out about it, the more I wanted to try it. I read so many lovely, positive stories and once my husband and I had taken our hypnobirthing course, I allowed myself to believe that I would have one of th ..read more