From hypnosis to hypnobirthing to grandmother!

I’m taking this opportunity, in my first blog, to let you know a bit more about why I was convinced that hypnobirthing was the way forward for me. There is some brief information in My Story but I’d like to elaborate here.

I was halfway through my training as a clinical hypno-psychotherapist when my daughter and son-in-law told me they were pregnant. I had already planned to do a hypnobirthing instructor course as part of my professional development but after I’d qualified as a hypno-psychotherapist.

With the news that my daughter was going to have a baby, my plans changed. I decided to go on a training course as soon as I could - just another thing to add to all the psychotherapy study and research I was doing! I wanted to find out if hypnobirthing really could help my daughter during labour.

The easibirthing® course I enrolled on is only available to clinical hypnotherapists, so it made sense to do that as it counts towards my professional development. I learned so much and, coupled with my hypno-psychotherapy studies, I was very excited to complete my training and start to travel my new career path - this just felt right for me. I convinced my daughter to take my course because I was so certain it would help her but it also gave me the opportunity to see for myself how well it worked in practice.

Because of what they learned in hypnobirthing, my daughter and son-in-law felt confident to opt for a home birth using a birthing pool. All was well with the pregnancy so the midwife agreed that it would be absolutely fine for them to do this - she was very positive about it. They were having work done on their house so were staying with me.

At 4am on Thursday, 29 March my daughter went into labour. With the help of her husband, she managed her contractions really well throughout the day using her hypnobirthing experience. By the time the midwives arrived (the dream team of Hayley, Kath and student Hayley - thank you to the wonderful NHS Bristol), labour was well established and the birthing pool was in use.

It’s often a good idea to change positions or take a short walk during labour; walking helps the baby to move down into position and push on the opening of the cervix so, about an hour before baby was born, my daughter was advised to come out of the pool as her contractions had slowed down. She decided to take a walk upstairs to help move her labour along - and Baby Boy was born on the landing! X will forever mark the spot!

My daughter was awesome – a lioness – calm, confident and in control of her whole birth. It was an amazing experience and such a joy to be a part of.

We all want the very best for our children and, if I had thought for one minute that hypnobirthing wasn’t going to work, I wouldn’t have persuaded my daughter to use it in her labour. Having seen first hand the benefits of hypnobirthing, I was convinced that becoming a hypnobirthing teacher was the way forward for me.

I am now a Certified Hypnotic Birthing Practitioner as well as a qualified clinical hypno-psychotherapist, which will be of great benefit in helping women who have had previous birth trauma and with parents coming to terms with their new role. The massive benefits of hypnobirthing and seeing how calm and confident my daughter was during her labour convinced me that, even as a grandmother, I can be a powerful hypnobirthing teacher.