About me
I'm a mum of two with a passion for birth education and for living a more mindful life.
MY JOURNEY TO BECOMING A MUM
Back in 2016, I was pregnant with my first child. I was smiling on the outside but under the surface I was afraid of what was to come. Since high school I'd been so scared at the thought of childbirth and this had festered in me for 20 years, leaving me terrified I wouldn't be able to cope. Losing control was my biggest fear. I was booked in for an elective c-section.
Then I discovered hypnobirthing in the form of the world-class Wise Hippo Birthing Programme, the programme I am privileged to teach today. It changed everything. Goodbye fear, hello calm. Choosing to hypnobirth was the best decision I could have made and I feel endlessly grateful that I found it in time. I cancelled my c-section, knowing that whatever path my birthing took I would be able to stay in control and make informed decisions. I knew I would have the right birth on the day. As it happened, like so many Wise Hippo mothers, I went on to have a birth that was empowering and beautiful.
Two years later, my daughter was on the way. I was so confident this time around thanks to my hypnobirthing techniques that I booked a home birth and she arrived - all 9lb 2oz of her! - in our front room. Incidentally, this is the room I deliver my smaller group face-to-face courses in - it's lovely to pass this wisdom on to other couples in the very room I used these techniques to birth my baby!
So now I'm here to give these techniques - this wonderful wisdom - to you. I really feel there can be nothing more important right now than to prepare well for the birth of your baby. I hope we meet soon!
I am also a mindfulness teacher, a student of The Mindful Breastfeeding School, and a practitioner of the three-step rewind (NLP) for emotional release. I have been working in the wellness space for around 20 years in publishing and have written many articles and edited many, many more! I am a contributor to The Natural Mother's Toolkit as their resident birth coach.
MY POSTNATAL CLASSES AND MINDFULNESS EDUCATION
As well as offering antenatal education, I am so excited to deliver two really fabulous postnatal classes: Baby Massage and Mindful Baby. As a Baby Massage Instructor, I am fully qualified with the International Association of Infant Massage. I love this class because the effect on the babies is visible as the weeks go on - you see them become more used to the massage and more chilled in the class. It helps with colic and gas too! In Mindful Baby, I bring lots of wonderful mindfulness tools and knowledge to parents of new babies in a chilled and lovely six-week course. My support for the Mindful Baby parents doesn't stop there: I am running a once-a-month SoundMind Space on zoom - a live hour of mindfulness and guided relaxation - that my parents can check into to help them stay with their new habits and feel part of a community. I'm excited to see this new aspect of my offerings grow.
(The photos opposite show the moment right after my daughter was born at home and my two precious hypno babies :-D )
A few kind words that make my heart sing:
"Thank you for providing some amazing material for our gorgeous members. You are a wealth of knowledge." The Natural Mother's Toolkit
"Thank you for a lovely guided meditation this morning. What a gorgeous way to start my day. Totally blissed out!" Rebecca
"The practical advice you gave in your article was really useful. You've got a real gift of writing as though you're speaking, which is easy to engage with and kept me interested." Olly
"So much of the time I read stuff on mindfulness that can feel unreachable for most people. Somehow you've managed to make it seem easy whilst still being important!" Teresa
"You ooooze calm, Ais!" Jane