A bit about me & my own HypnoBirthing story... 

I felt compelled to become a HypnoBirthing teacher following my profoundly positive experience with my son's birth back in 2007 - and I absolutely love my job of empowering expecting parents around how to have a positive birth and confident start into family life. The transformation I see in mums and couples from any shade of anxious in at the beginning of the course to fully confident and even looking forward to birth by the end of our time of working together - not to mention the positive birth stories I receive once baby has been born - are just a pure joy to observe!

 

I contantly keep my knowledge updated and my training in HypnoBirthing has over the years become complemented by my additional training in Active Birth, Biomechanics for Birth, Natural Breastfeeding & Thompson Method Breastfeeding, Solution Focused Hypnotherapy and other powerful change tools such as EFT & Matrix Re-Imprinting. Over the past 15+ years it's been my great honour to share my knowledge & expertise  of birth - and how to best approach it for optimum results - with many hundreds of couples in Bristol.

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I know that this "stuff" works - but I also still remember how very anxious I used to feel about birth when I first got pregnant with my son Leo.

 

Back then, in 2006 - as much as I was excited about having a baby - the thought of actually giving birth filled me with a deep sense of dread - and fear. I just couldn't see how birth could possible not be very painful, and all the uncertainty around "how it would all go" weight heavy on my mind.

Of course, my thoughts around birth until that point had been informed by the mix of birth stories I had been exposed to over the course of my life - and to say that the story my mum had told me about my own birth had "not been a positive one" is putting it politely.

 

Thankfully, during a tour of my local maternity ward a kind woman recommended HypnoBirthing to me - And I am so glad she did!

 

It turned out to be the most valuable preparation we did for the birth of our son, and taught us so much more than the traditional antenatal class that we had also enrolled in!

 

Even though both myself and my partner had been quite sceptical of HypnoBirthing initially, we quickly were won over by its scientifically backed approach - once the actual physiological processes of birth were explained it just made so much sense! 

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We loved how relaxed we felt after each session and came away from the course brimming with confidence and even started to look forward to being in labour - something I had never thought possible! Plus, practising the relaxation and visualisation exercises was a wonderful way of directing the focus inwards towards our growing baby, whilst ensuring both some valuable family bonding with each other and some precious "me time" during the otherwise all too busy final trimester of my pregnancy.

 

All the practise and preparation really paid off and helped me to keep calm and in control when roughly a week before my due time I got diagnosed with some rare liver condition that resulted in my consultant recommending induction of labour within 7 days, if the baby had not shown up by then on its own. The date for induction was set just two days before our son's actual due date - and I was determined that he would have been born by then.

 

HypnoBirthing gave me the confidence to trust my instincts and gave me the tools to get into labour naturally - with 1 day to spare before the dreaded deadline for induction! It ultimately gave me the confidence to plan for a homebirth - when prior to my pregnancy I had always looked at friends who had opted for homebirth with a sense of bewilderment.

 

In the end, my son was born safely and wonderfully in a birthpool, at home, after a very manageable and largely painless 8 hour labour. The experience that birth does not have to be the scary and horrendously painful event that I had previously so dreaded, had been such a relief - and an eyeopener - that I wanted to shout it from the roof tops! 

 

I trained in HypnoBirthing to share the message that birth can be amazing, positive and empowering with as many expecting parents as possible. I passionately believe that every woman should be supported to learn how to develop trust in her natural ability to give birth easily, safely and comfortably - and also know how to confidently handle any such circumstances when medical assistance may be indicated. 

Fear and misconception have surrounded this most powerful and transformative event in a woman's life for too long - all too often resulting in long drawn out and needlessly painful and complicated births.

 

Even with the best birth preparation, however, not every birth can be "natural".  Therefore, a central message of my classes is that a positive birth experience is decidedly not limited to a natural birth! Yes, my birth preparation classes will help you to optimise circumstances to help make a natural birth most likely - and yet they do so much more! They also help you to have a positive experience of birth, even if on the day, some medical assistance turns out to be indicated, or you opt for an induction or cesarean birth, in case medical circumstances in late pregnancy suggest this may be the safest approach. 

 

I would further like to emphasise that even though I myself opted for a homebirth, my classes have been devised to support confident, positive birth in every environment, be it at home, in a birth centre or in a hospital. I believe that every woman has to choose her place of birthing according to her individual circumstances and depending on where she feels safest and I teach without bias towards any particular option.

 

To read some testimonials and happy HypnoBirthing birth stories or find out about course options please follow the highlighted links.

 

Even better, for a friendly chat about how I can help you to a better birth, just get in touch below or call me on 07957 541056. It would be my pleasure to support you on your way to a confident and joyful birth!