The Birth Collection
Most women who come to me are overwhelmed, anxious or frightened of something. Often it's the pain, sometimes it's not knowing what will happen, and for some it's how it went last time. Others just want to understand what's coming, so they can feel ready for it and think clearly when it matters. I teach you how labour works and how to work with it, so you go in knowing what to expect and what to do.
Once you understand what's happening, it stops being something that happens to you, but something you feel iin control of.
Private Hypnobirthing
The Complete Course
Some couples would rather do this privately, often in their own front room, on their own dates. The private course is eight hours as standard, entirely one-to-one, with the same practical teaching as the group course and more room to spend time on whatever matters most to you.
Because it's just the two of you, it shapes around your circumstances. That might be preparing for a planned caesarean, coming back to hypnobirthing for a later baby, or something particular you want to work through, and the hours can stretch a little where a situation calls for it.
£299. Option to book with a £99 deposit, then two payments of £100, the last due before your final session.
The Four Hour Courses
Two 2-hour sessions, in your home or online, for a planned caesarean or a later baby. We shape them around your birth, so for a caesarean that means what to expect in theatre and how to stay calm and connected through it. If you've given birth before and are experienced with hypnobirthing techniques but want a little more, we look back at what you'd like to feel differently this time. Your birth partner is welcome, and you'll have the relaxation recordings and workbook. Paid in full, and you choose your session times after booking.
For you and your birth partner, so you both feel ready.
Group Hypnobirthing
One Sunday in January at Graft, Kings Heath. Six hours for you and your birth partner, with a practice plan to take home. Dates and booking open in early November.
Why hypnobirthing
Most of what overwhelms people about birth is the not knowing what is to come, and with that comes the fear. Explore some of the issues hypnobirthing can help.
- Frightened of giving birth
- Scared of labour pain
- Not sure what actually happens in labour
- A hard first birth, and dreading the next one
- Being induced
- A planned caesarean
- Wanting your partner to know what to do
- Worried about being pushed into things like sweeps or induction
- Due soon and wondering if it's too late
The decisions are yours to make
Things like whether you want your third stage managed or physiological, what you'd like to happen with a sweep, what actually makes an induction necessary. Small decisions, rarely explained in advance, that are entirely yours to make.
Partners, properly taught
Not just standing to one side, unsure of what to do and wishing they knew how to help. Your partner is taught alongside you, so on the day they know what to do and say on the day, rather than standing by, hoping for the best. This empowers both of you
Proper hours, not one session
Hypnobirthing works under pressure because it's rehearsed until it's automatic. That takes proper time, and the hours flex to what you actually need, whether that's a full course or a shorter top-up.
Free consultation
Wondering whether hypnobirthing is right for you isn't an easy thing to work out on your own. Email me for a free 30-minute consultation, and we'll talk through what you want from your birth and put together a plan for getting there.
Workshops and Socials
Every so often I run an evening get-together or brunch. A birth preparation session, and time afterwards to socialise if you like. Often so much of this is easier when you're not doing it on your own. Here's what's coming up.
The Practical Birth Workshop
With Aimee and Anna.
Practical birth preparation for body and head with prenatal pilates and hypnobirthing over one evening at Graft in Kings Heath. Some gentle movement, some breath work, and honest information about how labour actually works. Anna takes the pilates, I take the hypnobirthing. It's a good way to get a feel for birth preparation before committing to a full course, and you're welcome from the second trimester on. You'll leave with things you can use, not just ideas to nod along to.
Wed 10 Feb. Booking opens in the new year - email to express interest
The Second+ Birth Brunch
Hypnobirthing, an antenatal refresher and brunch.
Preparation for your second or subsequent baby and a social get-together. For mums expecting their second or later baby. An antenatal refresher at Cartlands Tea Room in Kings Heath Park, then breakfast tea together in the tea room.
Almost all birth prep is built for a first baby. This one isn't. You've done this once already, so we pick up where you actually are, with one birth behind you and a different one coming. Small group, six of you.
6 to 8 places.
Sunday 29 November, 10.30 to 12, brunch follows til 1. £49 including breakfast tea. Click to learn more and book.
In your corner
I came to hypnobirthing cautiously. I'd spent nearly twenty years as an early years teacher, so I wasn't looking for anything that promised a perfect birth. Bought as a gift, I was grateful but actually hadn't chosen it. Now I teach it. What changed my mind was the real understanding underneath it all and how huge the impact wason my two really amazing births.
It was only after my own really positive birth that I realised how glad I was to have done it.
Second time round I knew far more, and I trusted it completely.
That's what I teach now, and I care a great deal about getting it right for you. I trained with Love Your Birth and keep learning through The Birth Academy. By the time we're finished you'll know your options and feel ready to ask for what you need.
And I'm still there once your baby arrives, so you're never handed to a stranger halfway through.
Emily
"I can't recommend Aimee enough. Thanks to her I had the calm, semi-natural birth I wanted. She tailored the course to us, told us things we weren't aware of, and made us aware of our rights, which gave me the confidence to say no to things I didn't want. The recordings helped me sleep beforehand, and during contractions I put my AirPods in and zoned out. The midwives couldn't believe how well I was handling it. She gave us phrases that helped, too: a contraction is only a minute long, you can do anything for a minute, see them as waves. My birth didn't go to plan and I was induced, but I still got through it on gas and air, which is apparently rare. I put that down to Aimee"
Louise
"Because of your teaching I felt confident enough to make my own birth decisions. Thank you for the knowledge, and the confidence to question."
Yasmin
"Words will never be enough to express how grateful we are for all that you did to help prepare us for the birth of our little one. The 1:1 session you designed for us gave us all the skills we needed to create the birth experience we dreamed of."
Resources and teacher training by @abby_loveyourbirth, in collaboration with artist and illustrator @marthawilliamsart Nurture & Wild branding by @meg.s.designs. Baby Massage, Baby Yoga & Mindful Mama by @thelittlerosebudsacademy. Breastfeeding training and consultancy with www.nestbaby.co.uk.