why did I spend money on hypnobirthing?

Honestly? We’d heard a load other people talking about it at NCT classes and felt totally stupid for not having a clue what it was and how to learn it, and we needed to learn it fast. I was 37 weeks pregnant by that point, and bricking it. I’m pretty sure I’d been planning to wing it on the day, which in hindsight seems total madness - winging it is never a good birth plan. But what else do you do when you don’t know it doesn’t have to be that way.

That night we downloaded a course and starting learning - I remember the relief as we started to unlock the ideas behind hypnobirthing and before we knew it were asking each other why nobody had told us any of this before?! The revelation that hypnobirthing isn’t about being hypnotised was also an eye opener - like I’ve said before, it’s a shit name, for something so logical and practical.

Instead we learnt factual guidance about what’s happening in your body through labour and birth, how to reframe fear and put into practice simple tools to help us feel in control and totally prepared. In a matter of days, we went from clueless and terrified to clued up and confident.

And when the time came, our daughter’s birth was an overwhelmingly positive and powerful experience. Not without its twists and turns, but made all the better with the knowledge and powerful tools hypnobirthing had given us.

In 2023, I approached my second birth with calm confidence, knowing that whatever came our way, we were ready for it. Little did we know baby two would arrive in a hurry, but despite a very different birth experience, it was just as positive.

So, while I’m now done having my own babies (much to my husband’s disappointment), this was just the start of hypnobirthing for me. Now I’m here to spread the word and share why hypnopbirthing can help you feel positively about birth, even if you’re starting from a place of not having a clue! Just as I did.