The Rose and Her Thorns - The Birth Gathering 2022 - By Beth Russell

If you follow me on social media you are probably already aware that I went on the most wonderful Birth Gather last weekend. I was going to get around to writing a blog about it, however the lovely Beth from @birth.ology, who I was lucky enough to meet meet and chat with that weekend, beat me to it and wrote an absolute dream of blog all about it. So instead of reinventing the wheel I asked Beth if she would be happy to feature as a guest blog spot here! Thankfully she agreed, so here I am sharing her words on this wonderful, transformative and powerful gathering. Firstly, a bit about Beth before we begin. She is a Norfolk based midwife with a passion for human rights in birth who provides person centred care throughout pregnancy, birth and the postnatal period. Beth is totally obsessed with physiology and how women/birthing people bodies and their babies work together. She teaches hypnobirthing, provide midwifery support in person in Norfolk as well as online, and also works on the advice line and is an associate trainer with Birthrights. Beth says her mission is to ensure everyone she supports feels held, empowered and informed to have the birth that’s right for them, whether that’s a homebirth, caesarean birth, induced birth or a freebirth!

"It is no secret that the birth world is quaking, fracturing at the seams… and with it sways the future of midwifery, risking the rite of passage of all who birth or are affected by birth. Simply put, every last one of us. This weekend we dove deep into the cracks of this quaking world, we cried and grieved but we also laughed, hugged and danced, finding joy in the sorrow and inching towards a better future.

As I arrived on the land, I knew I’d made the right choice in coming. It had been a hectic week, my head chaotic and whirling with the million things I yet needed to do. My mind fit to burst with the conundrum of it all… I had decided not to come. Then found myself packing to go in spite of myself. As we pulled up to the field, I felt calm and I felt good. Of course it had been the right decision (in spite of the 8.5 hour drive to get there!).

The opening ceremony revealed a group of incredible people from all over the country (and beyond!). We each spoke a few words and found one another reflected in the familiar strangers across the room. As rain poured outside we drank tea and began to know one another, quickly becoming comfortable in a way that only birthy folk seem to!

By the following morning, firm bonds had been made. A group of us filled our bellies with delicious hot porridge then set out for a morning dip in the sea. Slipping and sliding down the rocks, we eventually made it to the sand and ran into the salty waves to wake ourselves for the day ahead. Oh my, if every day could start that way! After a sketchy scrabble back up to the rocks, we made our way to the main marquee for the first session of the day.

Throughout the morning we explored how we can reclaim authentic midwifery as this crisis threatens to consume us. How can we come back to the root of being “with” (mid) “woman” (wife)? Evony Lynch has been a midwife inside and out of the system for many years. She spoke with such eloquence about the joy and heartbreak of NHS midwifery and the challenges in carving a way outside of this. As Evony spoke I felt seen in so many ways. It is not we who are at fault, not our knowledge or skills that are out of place, but the system that fails to celebrate these skills and fails to recognise the subtleties and nuances that influence all types of birth. If knowledge was openly shared, intuition and empirical evidence respected, and women/birthing people trusted to make the choices that were right for them, I’m quite sure the picture of birth would be entirely different.

Next, the incredible Joy Horner explored the dimensions of shamanic midwifery, considering the inextricable link between birth and death. She investigated the importance for those who work within birth to become aquatinted with it’s link to death, recognising their strengths to be drawn upon when supporting people at these times. Both are rites of passage which mark and transform all whom they touch. Both deserve reverence, respect and autonomy from the individual experiencing that rite of passage. Joy explored this and so much more in her session. What an honour it was to have the opportunity to learn from her! She is a midwife (now birth keeper) that I have looked up to for a long time; her knowledge and wisdom alongside her capacity for kindness, compassion and excellent humour is unparalleled. We need more Joy in this world! Following this session, grief bubbled through for many, met with space and kindness in abundance. It was clear this weekend would be quite a journey for us all!

The wonderful James had made an incredible lunch - the sun graced us with her presence for a brief moment before the rain thundered down once more. The weather somehow mirrored the experience of the day, anger and grief raining down matched by joy and hope as the strong emotions were released and given somewhere safe to land. Beya gave a beautiful space for exactly this by holding a circle where all who wanted to could debrief on things that were coming up for them. Meanwhile others had the opportunity to adorn themselves with the (wonderful smelling) artwork of Seema, learning how to use henna.

After an equally delicious supper we met back in the yurt for a meditation with rose tea led by Sarka and Emily. The rose was almost intoxicating, the perfect way to end this incredible day. The magic (and meditation) continued with a spontaneous intuitive dance session with Lara before a hot sauna and one of the most peaceful nights sleep I’ve had in a while (despite a leaking tent and hammering rain!).

The morning brought another beautiful swim - the waves were strong and wild, reminding me in many ways of birth. Birth is both beautiful and powerful, but like the sea deserves respect. Walking into the waves without preparation (learning to swim) and awareness of my individual needs (to be able to touch the bottom and keep my head above water) would not be wise. Yet approaching it with respect, knowing my unique needs and feeling comfortable with the ‘risk’ I am taking by entering it’s depths meant I could experience the moment for all it’s beauty. (After all, no choice in life is without risk).

The final day of the gathering brought a fantastic session on twin birth by doula and twin parent Sarah. Exploring birth with medical complexities, greater risk and a very real threat of mortality helped to bring home the importance of care being centred on the individual and most importantly truly listening the the pregnant person. My eyes were opened to lessons about twin birth that I had never been exposed to in university or clinical practice. We are never the finished article. Women/birthing people and other birth workers will continue to teach me until I leave this earth!

Next we had the opportunity to learn from Lux, a traditional midwife from Brazil. Learning as an apprentice she has built and honed her midwifery skills over time, beginning to attend births alone only in this past year. What a wonderful way to become a midwife, I have so often wondered what it would be like if we learned this way in the UK. Her understanding of the intricacies of birth was so clear. I could have listened to her speak for hours, she brought such a calmness to the room as she spoke. Her husband also brought some beautiful, hand carved wooden pinards which we used to listen to lovely Katie’s little one.

The final session was with the dream team Evony and Joy, discussing birth support skills (featuring Joy’s incredible pelvis pants!). Between nuggets of midwifery goodness from these two wise women and some great discussions, one of the tiniest members of the audience beautifully demonstrated the birth of a footling breech through the pelvis! Seeing children immersed in the birth world throughout the weekend was a definite high, it was a reminder of how this knowledge always used to be passed down. Perhaps this is something we will continue to reclaim in years to come. Birth is ours, and it is everyones. Yet we seem to know so little about it until it is staring at us out of the two red lines on a pregnancy test.

As the weekend drew to a close, we gathered in the yurt for a closing ceremony. We went around the packed room and each said a little about our experience. The magic of the bubble we had created throughout the weekend was palpable. Many of us had started the weekend with aching hearts, feeling a little lost, our hope dwindling. Whilst it is incredibly clear that we have a long way to go, this weekend has filled my cup up to the brim. It was the tonic I didn’t realise I needed! Looking around the room at all of those incredible humans, I know there is better yet to come. With these wise, passionate, humble humans out there in the birth world, the future of birth is brighter than I had dared to believe when I left my home on Friday."

You can find Beth on Facebook and Instagram (@birth.ology) and her website is www.birthology.uk

Andy's Dad's Eye View of His Wife's Birth Journey.

You can read Kerrie's birth story on my website (click here to be directed to it) but I particularly wanted to share Andy's take on it, quite simply because it's not very often that I get a birth story written through the eyes of a father. Here is Andy's honest and powerful take on their birth experience. It shows how much of an impact care providers can have (both positive and negative), and the importance of being knowledgeable and prepared for what may come your way! The decision of what happens to you, your baby and your body is 100% yours, but I won't sit here typing this and lie to you that that will always be respected unfortunately. Andy tells it as it was for him!

"43+ 2 Weeks

After reading all we could find on pregnancy and child birth my wife and I couldn’t wait to meet our little baby, during the pregnancy we attended a hypnobirthing course with Terri at Cornwall hypnobirthing. Although this taught us many things one thing that stuck in both of our minds was the importance of patience, oh boy did we need that!

The elephant in the room during our pregnancy was Covid 19 and so I’ll touch on that because if and when it all goes away there were benefits from it that maybe useful to others. Obviously what happened world wide was tragic but in my opinion there was only a few negative ways it affected us. The biggest of these downsides being I could no longer accompany my wife to the midwife appointments or her final scan. I just got to sit in the carpark and wait for her like a lemon. I wasn’t upset for me at all just felt a bit useless and for a man that’s not how we want to feel. Other than that, the reduction in available distractions and our seriously reduced social circle all played into our hands meaning the two of us got some much needed rest and time together, I was stressed at work (we both run our own businesses) but my wife was incredibly understanding of that and certainly in the final 6 weeks of the pregnancy all this seemed to bring us closer together. The only other way in which Covid changed our plan is that we had originally planned to go to the birth centre in Truro but at around 35 weeks we decided we felt more comfortable having the baby at home, this is something we had considered before but Covid gave us the final push we needed and I’m glad it did. Only slight issue is our home is a bit of a building site, 300 years old with narrow stairs and has terrible access, needless to say our less than supportive midwife was not impressed. Never ones to be easily swayed, we made our decision and we stuck to it. I think it’s fair to say that it was after this that the less than satisfactory care we had received from our midwife went further down hill, more on that later.

After what can only be described as a beautiful pregnancy with minimal discomfort and sickness we both arrived at 37 weeks fresh faced and perhaps too ready. At 38 weeks my wife got “the show” and we both had a gut feeling the baby was on its way, in what in hindsight could now be seen as a silly move we jumped in the car and picked up the last few things on our list and ended up being busy all day, long story short, the baby didn’t come, if nothing else though, it brought it home that it could be any time now.

Hypnobirthing had made us very excited about our birth and although there is always trepidation I personally felt very confident in my role as birth partner, it was so clear in my mind what I needed to do that I could clearly visualise it. I think that is probably worth doing for any birth partner who hasn’t been at a birth before, unbeknown to my wife I spent a fair bit of time visualising a not so successful birth also but always with the desired outcome, this gave me confidence I could cope if things did go wrong but I was careful not to discuss that with my wife as what you visualise has a habit of becoming a reality. I’m very practically minded so knew I would need a gauge on which to base any decisions, I chose heart rate and blood pressure and decided that regardless of time, changes in these would be the only time I would consider a change of plan. This did cause me a slight panic at one stage that perhaps I should have prepared better for but we’ll come to that later.

Once we hit 40 weeks we were really hopeful of an arrival soon but knew that it could be a lot longer so we needed to stay calm, this is where the fact finding on stats came in as we had been made aware that pressure from the medics to be induced would become more and more intense. At around 40+2 my wife had another appointment with her midwife, she didn’t get the support she needed just offered a “sweep” as if it was a werthers original and a lecture about late babies. Also told the baby was back to back but with no advice on how they may be turned, we also now know the baby likely went back to back as a result of sitting with her feet up to reduce swelling (Midwife’s orders) She left in tears and I was angry!

Needless to say we didn’t hurry to make another appointment with our current midwife. All her checks had been great and we knew that a baby is not overdue until 42 weeks, we also knew that dating scans are not that accurate (although there haven’t been many studies) the only one we could find said +\- 15 days, we also had a suspicion that our date was 10 days out. I should say here that I’m sure in certain situations our midwife was very capable however we found her to not be interested in facts (something very important to my wife) and to be quite robotic, we just didn’t click and definitely should have changed sooner.

At 42 weeks our research suggested that two areas of concern are amniotic fluid levels and the ageing placenta (although there is no real evidence of the latter) a quick scan of the NHS guidance said we were entitled to, and encouraged to have a couple scans a week and hence on the Sunday of 42 I took my wife in for a check up and she booked a scan, My wife was given the litigation “against guidelines” talk and it was agreed that this would not be mentioned again, they said they would send evidence to back up their guidelines (ironically in the post, if they really wanted us to have it they would have been emailed it but this was purely a litigation action which I entirely understand albeit a little insensitive) they wanted us to have check ups everyday but that wasn’t for us, we live too far away and our priority was staying chilled but we did stick to the scans, thankfully the results were good but after the first scan, Kerrie was encouraged to go and see the midwife, BIG MISTAKE. This was the second time she left in floods of tears, I can’t tell you how angry I was that someone who’s job it is to support the mother would do this for a second time. To cut a long story short she told my extremely well researched and highly intellectual wife that our baby might die if they weren’t induced and it wasn’t a time to be ‘selfish’ she failed to provide any evidence for this scare mongering and pretty much wouldn’t let her leave until she accepted she was being selfish.

The good news is that this spurred an action that I implore others to take much sooner, our midwife had to go (sadly not into retirement but at least out of our lives) we wrote a letter to the head of midwifery asking for a change and we were rewarded with a very warm and supportive reply that reinstated our faith in the system, we had to go through the legal stuff again but done in a much more professional manner. It was at this time the “evidence” arrived in the post, strangely a child at school wouldn’t get away with stating a fact without referencing its origin or giving a full picture but the NHS do. Their data seemed to match a study that had given us great confidence that we read on the AIMS website (well worth a visit) but the NHS info was not placed in context, namely that your baby is at far more risk at being born at 38 weeks than they are at 42...albeit 42 is slightly higher risk that 40. Basically there is very little evidence and that really adds to the confusion. GO WITH YOUR GUT and know that induction and C section come with great risks that in our opinion outweighed waiting.

These 3 weeks from 40 were hard, we live in a small village, everywhere we went we were continually asked, when are “they” going to induce you, as if we had no choice in the matter. When we summoned the energy to explain our reasons people were generally supportive but it was exhausting, definitely not what you need before going into the biggest day of your life. My advice would be pick a birth month and don’t utter a date because as soon as you do, you have applied pressure that you really don’t want or need!

On top of the stress of being supposedly “overdue” we had some dormant stresses regarding our home come to light, two separate highly stressful incidents that meant that at 43+1 my wife and I were essentially moving house until 10pm at night, 12500 steps and 42 flights climbed later (my wife’s watch told us) we went to bed physically and emotionally exhausted...only issue being our little one had other ideas, our heads finally hit the pillow at 11:30 and my wife started to complain of back pain, she suffers from that a lot, I jokingly text a work colleague saying either she was in labour or her back was out as a result of moving house at 43 weeks pregnant.

10 minutes later, another pain, 8 minutes after that another, then 6 minutes then 4 minutes then constantly every 2 minutes for 40 seconds. Both my mum and my wife’s mum had fast labours and hence we called the midwife and my wife said there was no time to get to hospital we would have the baby at home. This was met with some distain by the lady in triage who no doubt knew our case as the “awkward ones” by this time. She also assured me that the baby would not arrive quickly and although I have my own theory on this, she turned out to be absolutely correct. She did tell me that she wasn’t allowed in the pool until a midwife got there....oops too late!

About 2 hours in, the Midwife’s turned up and my wife’s contractions slowed to every 5 minutes but still intense. I’m not sure on midwife protocol but it seems there is one lead and one note taker/auxiliary. In our case the lead was a lady called Liz and she was amazing. She understood hypnobirthing and gave all information to me to pass onto Kerrie while I supported her. She pretty much left us to it as my wife was in such great control, no screaming just utter focus! I’m sure they say it to everyone but I believed Liz when she praised my wife for how she was coping it was unreal and much of that has to be put down to the hypnobirthing course that although we didn’t practice too much we did understand and agree with the premise. It was just like the videos they showed us to prove that labour doesn’t have to be traumatic! She was really doing it and my pride was overflowing.

The first and in my opinion the only hurdle was lurking in the wings from before the start and that was exhaustion, she had no sleep and couldn’t take on food or water, this started to really show itself about 5 hours in, contractions were still regular but they were weaker, I know my wife and I knew she was tired. I knew again from hypnobirthing that there was nothing stopping her lying down and taking a rest, nothing that is apart from my wife’s stubbornness, when she starts something she wants to finish it, as seen by the house clearance the night before!

I was by her side throughout and definitely did not feel like a spare part, keeping the pool at temp was a full time job and if I moved more than 12 inches from my wife she clearly told me I was not to move! I too was exhausted and started to wonder how she could possibly keep going. I was immensely proud to overhear during the 8am handover of the Midwives that I was doing a great job they could leave me to it and just monitor!

About 10 hours in with an old school midwife in the wings (not in the room) and a typical know it all Dr on the phone, murmurs of transfer to hospital set in, my wife wasn’t having examinations and hence they could only guess but the words “failure to progress” were thrown around by “Mrs old school”. Luckily our new primary midwife, like Liz had been, was amazing and we privately chatted about bullying my wife into taking a rest.

After some cajoling and promises (guesses) that the labour would be quicker in the long run I managed to help her out of the pool and into the bed, she wasn’t happy about it but after a lot of extreme offshore sailing I knew the power of even 2 minutes of sleep, she rested for about 20 minutes and probably slept for about 8 minutes between contractions, In hindsight I should have strapped her to the bed but as she rested the contractions grew in strength again and my wife was eager to get going, back in the pool she went and another few hours went by, she still didn’t have the energy to progress and I knew she needed more rest but this was a harder sell the second time. She was getting pretty disheartened by this point though and knowing my wife and knowing how her brain works I gave her two options, one was rest, the other was a trip to hospital and potentially a c-section. She agreed to rest again and this time I stood fast and made sure she laid there for the best part of an hour, she was uncomfortable and only sleeping for seconds between contractions but in bed you are not holding your body and hence your muscles get a chance to recover. In hindsight I should have got her to rest as soon as her contractions slowed but hey hindsight is a wonderful thing and we all make mistakes.

The next stage is where in some ways we departed from our original course a bit and I suppose got a bit of luck just when we needed it. My wife was so tired she was clutching at straws really and after probably 12 hours of saying no to examinations she agreed to have one as she really had no idea how close (or far) she was. Rosie the midwife was great and really put her mind at rest telling she was leading the exam and it could stop at any time. I’m not a religious man but thank god, she was 9.5cm dilated (I suspect she had been near that for the last 10 hours)

Her waters had also not broken and although we normally wouldn’t agree with them breaking them, in this instance we didn’t see it could do anything but help, there was meconium but that’s to be expected with a baby 3 weeks over so it didn’t worry anyone, although it did give Mrs Old school another excuse for a hospital transfer lecture.

Overall this news gave my wife just that little bit more fight she needed that she could still do it, I don’t know where she summoned it but she found some energy and although things didn’t happen as quick as she hoped after about 90 mins she agreed to a second exam “Mrs Old School” was in the room now and she was so keen on calling an ambulance that I wasn’t completely sure she would admit it if Kerrie was fully dilated. Once again luck (and an monumental effort from my wife) was on our side and she was fully dilated. Again this somehow meant she found a little more energy.

Mrs Old School directed her to push whilst holding her breath, I disagreed and told Kerrie to do as she felt, this did not go down very well and I have to say I don’t think Mrs old school likes me!

She did push and with all her might, now I will never know if this departure from the hypnobirthing breathing was what turned things into a minor emergency or if perhaps that would have happened anyway...as I said before my chosen metric which was heart rate and blood pressure and it had not wavered throughout on mum or baby...until now! Suddenly our superstar Rosie couldn’t find a heart beat and when she occasionally did it was very weak and slow. I’m pretty experienced at faking calm but I can honestly say I was panicking. Mrs old school finally got her wish to call an ambulance and myself and superstar Rosie set about, as she put it, beating the bus. Neither of us had ever coached a football team but with all the woops and cheers you wouldn’t know it, as stated before my wife tops the stubbornness charts and she wasn’t about to get into an ambulance unless she had to! Slow and steady progress was made and hope was regaining, I have no idea how long this took, it felt like 3 minutes but could have easily been 30! Once the head was visible we could also see a hand, just to make things more difficult. Due to this and a lack of heart rate and various other factors mainly relating to an overdue baby we agreed to an epiziotomie, it was quick and painless and immediately helped progress, next issue, shoulder dystocia, again common in post date babies but potentially dangerous. Credit where it’s due, Mrs old school and Teresa (our lovely auxiliary midwife) sprung into action with a manoeuvre called McRoberts, not exactly delicate but highly effective, especially if you are interested in hydraulics. I have since googled it and found that not everyone does it with such force but I’m not complaining, with the second round our beautiful baby boy slid into the world at speed! It was my job to announce the sex and as they placed him on mums chest I caught a glimpse of his tiny little winky (and massive ball sack, who knew?)

He is a whopper at 10 pound 7 ounces and the most beautiful thing I have ever seen. He was the largest and latest baby our midwife had ever delivered (already breaking records)

I have learnt a level of respect for all mothers that I couldn’t have dreamed possible, not least my stunningly beautiful, stubborn, super hero of a wife! I have to say next time I think I am running out of steam I will try to channel just 1 % of what got her through 15 gruelling hours with no food and barely any water or sleep, I am forever in her debt and I will make sure our darling son William knows that too. Thanks also go to all the midwives who attended especially Liz, Rosie and Teresa. Terri at Cornwall hypnobirthing and to mine and my wife’s parents for bringing us up to use our own minds, form our own opinions and make our own informed decisions. It’s not easy to go against guidance when it at least appears to put you more at risk but my message to care providers that hate people like me and my wife, is, just because we don’t agree, that does not mean we don’t care for the well-being of our unborn child, stats (of which there are few on this topic) are there to be interpreted and the picture is much bigger than labour itself. I hope that the decisions we made not only put our son at the least possible risk but also gave him the best possible start in life coming into the world un-drugged and with immediate skin to skin contact with mum and dad. All that said I would be lying if I didn’t say that when the sh%# hit the fan all of those decisions we had made flashed before my eyes with a deep sense of regret, perhaps we got lucky, perhaps we played the odds, we will never know but all I can advise is GO WITH YOUR GUT."

Hypnobirthing isn't just for one type of birth, it's not against medical intervention, it's not anti anything. It's about knowing your options, your rights, your choices, feeling powerful to speak up and be heard, feeling ready and knowing the importance of listening to your body. It's all of these things and more!

"I never knew my body could do such amazing things."

Welcome to the world gorgeous Ivy. Born in the water at Truro Birth Centre. Ivy's mum Laura shares her story of her labour and birth, and how Hypnobirthing was a real game changer in her Antenatal education.

"We attended Terri's September group course and although we didn't fully know what to expect from a hypnobirthing course found it incredibly helpful. There was so much we didn't know and it completely altered my view on what labour would be like from scary and painful to calm and controlled. I was actually really excited to give birth. We finished the course knowing exactly what to expect and all of our options and rights. When it came to birth I didn't use the full scope of hypnobirthing or the specifically taught breathing techniques - I just did what felt right, but I went in feeling empowered and the mindset was invaluable.

A week past my due date I had a midwife appointment in the morning and due to trying all the tricks to start labour I opted for a sweep. Before the sweep I was about 2-3cms dilated without even realising. I then headed home to bounce on my birthing ball.

By late afternoon not much seemed to be happening other than a few twinges here and there so I decided to drive down to my sister's house (it was her birthday) and have an Indian takeaway. By the time I had finished my food (around 19:30) I had started to have mild contractions, every 3 minutes lasting around 20 seconds but not causing me too much trouble. I decided to head home so I didn't get stranded.

Once I was at home contractions continued so my partner and I packed the last few bits of our hospital bags and finally put up the next2me crib...between contractions which were increasing in intensity and now requiring a bit of breathing to get through.

I had some brown discharge following my sweep but decided to ring triage to check this was okay and to inform them that labour was starting. Not long after this phone call I went to the toilet and had a very large bowel movement followed by some fresh red blood, so I phoned triage again who suggested that I head in to hospital to be checked over and if all okay decide whether I could head home to let labour progress more or stay in if things were already moving along.

When I got to the hospital I was put into a small room on delivery suite and told there wasn't a midwife covering the birthing suite that night and they would have to try and call in a community midwife (cue minor panic as I felt I couldn't give birth in that tiny room). Meanwhile contractions continued every 3 minutes getting stronger and longer. I was examined and was 5cms dilated. They monitored the baby for around half an hour and everything was fine.

After this I was moved to the birthing suite where I would be able to get in the pool. A community midwife arrived shortly after and I was soon in the pool with gas and air to hand. Getting in the water was the most amazing relief and I stayed leaning on the side for the whole of the rest of my labour. The community midwife who arrived was so lovely, she was completely aware of hypnobirthing and fully on board with our birthing plan after making sure she read it thoroughly. She then sat back and let me labour as my body told me to with just intermittent heartbeat Doppler checks on the baby and a manual pulse check on me here and there. The delivery suite midwife stayed to support as well and ended up pouring water over my back for ages after I said I felt I couldn't get myself into the water far enough (she probably regretted ever starting!).

My music of choice was Adele's new album and I made everyone listen to it on repeat for about 4 hours! If my partner suggested trying something else I refused, I think I had got myself into my own little labour bubble and had everything just as I needed it so the change of music might have upset that.

As my labour progressed further my midwife would ask me what a contraction felt like as she could see my behaviour changing and this helped me to identify that I was nearing birth. Her hands off and calm approach, alongside all the knowledge I had from my hypnobirthing course, made me feel in control and empowered and I knew I could trust my body to do what it needed to do. When my contractions changed to 'pushing' my baby out it was the most amazing experience I have ever had, I never knew my body could do such amazing things.

Ivy was birthed into the pool at 03:40 with guidance from afar from my midwives and I caught her myself and brought her up to me. The whole process was so calm and quiet, the complete opposite of the labours and births portrayed on TV and films with lots of screaming, sweating and a terrified looking mother. I can't recommend a hypnobirthing course enough, especially with Terri."

If you are pregnant and want to work towards a positive birth experience, where you feel prepared, powerful, knowledgeable and armed ready with a tool kit of techniques to help and support you through labour and birth, then my next group Hypnobirthing course is in July (10th and 17th - 10am - 3pm). Bookings available on my website www.cornwallhypnobirthing.co.uk/book-online . Private Hypnobirthing courses are also available throughout June, July and beyond. email me on info@cornwallhypnobirthing.co.uk for more information.