HypnoBirthing Weekend

A lovely weekend with two great HypnoBirthing groups. It's quite interesting the looks you get when you go out to lunch with seven pregnant women!

I always learn when I teach a HypnoBirthing class, because people ask such interesting questions. It's fascinating to find out that there is always a new way of looking at the work.

The Business of Being Born

Went to see the film, The Business of Being Born last night and, though very interesting, you felt it was to some extent more relevant to America than to this country. The main reservation I had was the emphasis on pain and, as a HypnoBirthing teacher, I know that birth can be gentle and comfortable. I have many, many birth reports telling me so from the mothers I have taught. If some women can do it, plainly it's possible for a woman's body to do it, and therefore it's possible for any woman to do it. HypnoBirthing shows you how, and, though all birth professionals support a natural and gentle birth, HypnoBirthing is the only way I have found of making it really happen.

Midwives Training Day

I had a great day yesterday. I had been asked to speak about HypnoBirthing at the student midwives' theme day at Bournemouth University. I was warmly welcomed, and the organisation was excellent. There were so many good speakers to listen to, and it was wonderful to have the opportunity to meet Mary Cronk, although sadly I had to leave before her talk. There was a huge emphasis on natural birth, although very few actual suggestions of ways to achieve it, so HypnoBirthing was unique in that it gives a mother the tools so she can actual have, for herself and for her baby, what so many mothers would like to have - a gentle, calm birth.

HypnoBirthing on Channel 4

Yesterday it was The Mail on Sunday. Today it's Channel 4. Had a long and interesting conversation about a documentary on preparation for birth that will include hypnobirthing. There's so much interest in hypnobirthing, and it's growing so fast which is really encouraging. Word of mouth really is the best advertising.

HypnoBirthing in The Mail on Sunday

Yesterday I was contacted by a journalist who is doing a feature on preparation for birth in The Mail on Sunday. He wanted to know more about HypnoBirthing, because everyone is talking about it, so we spend quite a long time talking about it, and I explained to him how significant it is

In terms of a gentle, comfortable birth for the mother

In terms of a gentle, calm entry into the world for the baby, and birth is the most formative experience of your life.

HypnoBirthing Training

I'm spending today preparing a talk for student midwives at Bournemouth University. On Wednesday I shall be talking to 200 student midwives about hypnobirthing which is a really great opportunity and I'm delighted to have been asked to do it. The only problem is that there's so much I would like to say that I'm not sure how to condense it into the time available. This year I'm having twice the enquiries for hypnobirthing that I had last year. Most of them come form personal recommendations of people who have done hypnobirthing themselves and know how it work. But more and more recommendations are coming from midwives and also doctors who have attended hypnobirthing births and are amazed at the difference it makes.

As well as welcoming the opportunity to tell the student midwives about hypnobirthing, it will also be a great opportunity for me to learn from the other speakers.

Natural Birth

I had a rather puzzling birth report from a mother who did my HypnoBirthing course recently. She had a wonderful and inspiring birth, calm, gentle and drug free - except for the fact that she took two paracetamol. Now I've never heard of anyone taking paracetamol in labour before and I was utterly puzzled. Maybe she had a headache at the time?

HypnoBirthing bookings

I'm busy preparing for the HypnoBirthing course in Teddington today, made slightly more complicated by the new on-line booking system. It's working very well now, and it means that people can register for a course on line and pay by credit card, BUT there's one small hiccup. At the moment the system tells me who has booked, but not which course they've booked for, so I have to email back manually to find out.

Of course, this will be sorted out very soon but, in the meantime, if this has happened to you, I apologise. Automated are wonderful when they work properly - and it will soon.

HypnoBirthing Celebration

This weekend I'm not teaching HypnoBirthing - yes, really! Today's a very important day. It's a celebration of the arrival of my hypnobirthing grandson last October. Family and friends are gathering for a picnic. The sun's shining, and I'm looking forward to a wonderful day. He's a true hypnobirthing baby. His mother was fully dilated when she arrived at hospital and he was born half an hour later. Since then he has been very calm and cheerful, as are so many hypnobirthing babies.

Fathers and HypnoBirthing

I was reminded today how much HypnoBirthing (quite rightly) is about mothers and the needs of fathers can be overlooked. Of course fathers have an important role in the HypnoBirthing method, but what about their needs? It was brought home to me a little while back when I was talking to a father who had ME and who was deeply distressed that he was unable to provide for his wife and new baby.

A father's natural instinct to provide and protect is often overlooked, but it is a very deep instinct. In my HypnoBirthing classes I am often touched by the care with which the fathers treat their pregnant wives / partners, and maybe the fathers need a little more acknowledgement for this.

HypnoBirthing Baby

HypnoBirthing is wonderful, and it is enormously satisfying to see the difference it makes to mothers, but last weekend I had a different sort of satisfaction. I took a weekend off to be with my family and played with my hypnobirthing granddaughter as well as my three year old grandson (born in New Zealand so I wasn't able to teach his mother hypnobirthing). There's a lot to be said for playing on a sandy beach with small children.

HypnoBirthing Baby

I spent a couple of days with a HypnoBirthing baby earlier this week; my grandson. Everyone tells you that HypnoBirthing babies are calm, develop quickly and thrive. I know he's my grandson, so I'm biased, but it is still remarkable to see the subtle differences in a HypnoBirthing baby. Midwives have been know to remark: "I've never seen such a chilled out baby." It's difficult to define the differences, but it has to do with being more alert, sleeping better, feeding better, and generally being ready to move forward after birth because there are no drugs and no trauma to recover from.

Summer HypnoBirthing

Today's HypnoBirthing class had an added bonus. It was a private class for a mother whose baby is due in two weeks' time, and it was the most beautiful sunny day, so at lunch time we took a break and sat outside at a pavement cafe in Primrose Hill enjoying the sunshine.

I've had two more lovely HypnoBirthing birth reports in the last couple of days, so I'll either add them to the website or post them on the blog (or both) in the next few days. It gives me such delight to hear the birth reports from mothers I've taught, and I know couples who are thinking of doing the course enjoy reading them.

Fosbury Discovery

We had a slight emergency at the Fosbury course last week. No, it wasn't that one of the babies arrived during the course. It was simply that I usually hold the course in my cottage and the sitting room accommodates a maximum of four couples. I live in the depths of the country and, though it's easy to get to from towns like Newbury, Andover, Marlborough, Swindon and Hungerford, there are very few people who live within five miles, so this system usualy works very well. Last week four couples had booked onto the course and then, at the last moment, two more wanted to come.

I wanted to find somewhere which is a pleasant place to be and close to where I live so that the people who had booked already would not be inconvenienced. Church halls came to mind, but they're generally lack atmosphere, but then I had a brainwave. I remembered that there is a lovely converted barn which is available for hire in Shalbourne. It's set back from the road in a delightfully quiet position, with views over open countryside. Perfect!

Fortunately they were free so, after last minute emails and phone calls to make sure that everyone knew about the change and didn't turn up at my cottage wondering where I was, we all met at the barn at Westcourt Farm. It was idyllic; spacious and quiet. Perfect for a HypnoBirthing course and, now that I've found it, somewhere that I shall doubtless use again when numbers are two big for my cottage.

Riverside Relaxation

Today was the first really sunny day of the year so the riverside venue for the Teddington HypnoBirthing course was absolutely perfect. We sat in the sun by the river for lunch, and watching the boats go by added to the relaxed atmosphere of the course.

How Every Birth Should Be

I had a lovely phone call yesterday. The sort that makes me extremely happy. The call was from a father whose wife had just given birth to a lovely baby girl, their second baby. The first labour had been long and difficult. In fact it was so bad that it was some time before they had a second baby. This time round she did a HypnoBirthing course with me in Teddington. She also decided to have a home birth and hired a birthing pool; both very sensible and practical decisions, and the best possible scenario for a gentle birth. The baby was born in four and a half hours, in water, and the comment from the midwife was: "It was amazing. It's the way every birth should be."

I'm looking forward to her birth report to add to the website http://www.thehypnobirthingcentre.co.uk/.

January Blues? - not in Wiltshire.

Not here, because I'm off skiing for the first time in several years on Sunday, but there's lots to do before then. Since the New Year the phone hasn't stopped ringing for HypnoBirthing couples, and it looks like I'll have to cut down a little on 1 to 1 client work just to keep up with the HypnoBirthing demand!

I did do a nice course yesterday however - it was a one-off evening workshop for a lovely couple in Bath yesterday who had done HynoBirthing for their first birth 18 months ago, but then found themselves on the induction conveyor belt so had been unable to have the natural birth they had planned. They wanted a specially designed refresher course so that their second baby can have a calm and natural birth in February.

Then I did Part 1 of an HynoBirthing course at my home this evening because the couple will be away for the first day of the course at the end of the month so I laid on a Part 1 especially for them so that they wouldn't miss out.

I'm planning the summer programme and on into the autumn and waiting for the venues to come back to me with approval of the suggested dates, so we'll put them on the web site as soon as they start coming through. There have also been lots of new bookings and courses filling up fast now that Christmas is over and mothers are enquiring who will be having their babies as far ahead as May and June, so things are looking good for 2008 so far.

On the home front I'm trying to get ready to go skiing (did I mention that!), spent a whole day moving furniture so the house could be tidier, had lunch with Alice in Stroud today too. I'm going to Qigong in Bath tomorrow, a workshop on Saturday and is flying out early Sunday. I'll let you know how the skiing went when I get back - I'll see if I can get any photos!