Testimonials

After reading every birthing book I could get my hands on and attending NCT & Hypnobirthing classes it seems that I still could not tell that I was in labour! I started to have my first surges on Saturday morning. They were mild cramps, so I put these down to being braxton hicks. All the other expectant mums had been talking about braxton hicks but I had not experienced these yet so I thought that this was what they were. The surges carried on for the rest of the morning but I was determined to go and look around the DIY stores as I had plans to decorate. I carried on with the breathing techniques and off we went. The surges started to get stronger as we walked around Currys, and I found myself holding on to a fridge as I counted and used the breathing techniques until it passed.

Once at home Oliver ran me a bath and I played the rainbow relaxation and affirmation CD and continued with the relaxing breathing. By 10pm the surges were 2 minutes apart and Oliver (who had been saying all day that this was labour and not braxton hicks) decided to call the hospital. My waters broke and then I realised that this was the real thing. We got to the hospital at 1am and the staff were brilliant. They read our birthing plan and understood our choice to have as natural birth as possible.

After a few hours and through tiredness I decided to have pethidine, this just enable me to get a bit of rest in between the surges. By the morning the pethidine had worn off and the birthing pool was ready to use. Oliver put the rainbow relaxation CD on and the midwife at Epsom fully supported our choice of a water birth and no more pain relief. Oliver timed the surges and talked me though the affirmations and counted in my breathing.

Our beautiful son was born just before midday and we can both say it was truly the most amazing and liberating moment of our lives. Farron was so calm and peaceful when he was born. He made a little squeak to clear his lungs, blinked a few times and then just stared into my eyes. We sat in the birthing pool for around half an hour just taking it all in.

The placenta was also delivered naturally and we chose to wait until it had stopped pulsating before it was clamped and cut. Oliver said that the whole birth experience and the water birth was surreal, inspiring and one of the best days of his life. He said that the hypnobirthing aloud him to take control and to feel involved and a big part of the birth. We both felt that what we learnt in your classes gave us the confidence and tools we needed as first time parents to have a positive birth experience and a moment that will be firmly imprinted in our memories forever. We both feel like the luckiest people in the world to have our little Farron and wanted to thank you for giving us the tools to have a wonderful birth.

Many of my friends had told me horrendous birth stories, so when I became pregnant I was keen to do everything possible to prepare myself and give me and my baby the best possible chance of enjoying the birthing experience. I did a lot of research on the internet and hypnobirthing was the method that kept coming up time and time again as enabling birthing to be a positive experience for both mother and baby. I was a little sceptical (and my husband even more so!) but decided that I didn't have anything to lose, if it didn't work then I would be in the same place as if I hadn't done anything.

When I first met Leila, and read the hypnobirthing book, I realised that the premise was very simple, and not really as 'hippy-like' as the name suggests. By learning techniques to remain calm and focused whilst in labour, by understanding how you and your baby are perfectly designed to cope with the feat, giving birth without fear becomes achievable. This was not hypnosis of the stage show variety, just self-relaxation!

The lead up to my baby's birth was a challenging time as we moved from Surrey to Denmark 4 weeks before my daughter's due date. Moving house, changing medical care providers, leaving behind family and friends was all very tough. Additionally, once I arrived in Denmark my baby needed to be turned by ECV from her breech position and I ended up having to be induced with prostaglandin to get things going 2 weeks after the due date. Not quite what I'd imagined when I'd been learning the hypnobirthing techniques earlier in the pregnancy, nonetheless, my newfound skills at remaining calm and being positive definitely helped.

Finally, 15 days after the due date, my waters broke at 5pm, and I had the opportunity to put everything I'd learned into action. There was meconium in the waters, and so I wasn't able to have the water birth that I'd hoped for, and additionally the midwife in the Danish hospital decided we needed to monitor the baby's heart beat during the labour. Again, not really what I'd imagined! However, I just started to focus on the birthing that was happening, rather than dwell on the birthing I'd dreamt of for the last 9 months.

Even though I'd learnt lots of techniques, there were 3 that I used and found incredibly helpful. The slow breathing and the rainbow relaxation to get me through the surges, and the j-breathing to finally deliver my daughter. The breathing exercises definitely helped, if only to give me something to focus on rather than any pain. However, it was the rainbow relaxation that I'd really recommend. I'd been listening to it daily for many weeks, so its familiarity helped. I think it was its simplicity that got me through. Trying to imagine intricate details of calming scenes didn't work for me as my mind would wander straight back to the pain, but having a voice remind me to think of something as simple as a colour was so straight forward that despite everything going on I could focus my mind entirely on that colour for the duration of the surge. Within 4 hours of the contractions starting I was fully dilated, and had only required a little gas and air to get me there.

At this point the contractions started to be a little irregular, so we waited for a while. After a couple of hours the midwife began to talk about an oxytocin drip, which I didn't like the sound of, so she suggested accupuncture to try and regulate the contractions and finally deliver the baby. I seized this option, had tiny needles inserted into my little toes, and within 30 minutes Rose Eleanor was born! She was born at 01:54, 16 days after her due date, weighing in at 8lb15oz, scoring 10 on all the APGAR tests, without so much as a squeak for over an hour after she emerged, and without medical intervention or drugs for me. A huge success, for which I thank hypnobirthing and Leila.

I discovered I was pregnant in October 2009 – shortly after my initial joy, I started to panic at the prospect of giving birth. Ever since I could remember, I had always worried about both the pain I would endure and also worried about losing my dignity in the process. Theses thoughts gave me sleepless nights and drove me to tears on several occasions.

I began researching elective caesarians and private surgery – whilst doing a google search, I found the InspiringBirths website, I called Leila that evening.

Leila spent almost an hour on the phone to me explaining what hypno birthing was and what the class involved. I was extremely impressed by Leila’s passion, knowledge and the fact that she had her own personal experience of hypno birthing.

We started our course in March 2011 and had 4 sessions in the comfort of our own home.

The course had many benefits (not just the amazing labor and birth we had) but I also became very calm during pregnancy, this was down to my fear being relieved, the daily breathing techniques I practiced and also the relaxation cd (which I initially disliked, but grew to enjoy.)

I visualized giving birth to my son early on a Saturday morning, in order to maximize the time my Husband could spend with us.

My waters broke at 1.45am and contractions started soon after. With lots of encouragement from my Husband, I repeated the affirmations in my head, I remembered my breathing techniques and followed professional instructions with ease. Callum arrived at 6.49am on Saturday 29th May 2011 - I had a 5 hour labor in total with no pain relief.

My labor was the most liberating and amazing experience of my life and one which my Husband and I are very proud of and will cherish the memory forever – it was very special.

The midwife who delivered my son, told us that she had just witnessed the most calm first time birth in her career.

Post pregnancy I used the rainbow CD on a regular basis, especially in the early days – it helped me get to sleep very quickly – essential when you need a cat nap, in-between looking after a new born!

I have no hesitation in recommending Leila – she is a great teacher and was very supportive throughout and post pregnancy.

My wife, Claire, is a private Nanny; she is always surrounded by and caring for babies & children. In doing so Claire is often in contact with women who have recently given birth – unfortunately lots of the stories she hears about childbirth have filled her head with worry, lots of negative thinking. Plus, her own mother had not had straightforward experiences with her two children.

Although this was not enough to resist her biological clock, it was enough to make her very anxious and nervous about the later stages of pregnancy and childbirth. We signed up to NCT classes to try and educate ourselves about all matters pregnancy & childbirth; we did this but it did not help extinguish the negativity from Claire’s mind.

My own attitude was one of a self fulfilling prophecy – think bad it will be, think good & magical, it will be. I had used hypnotherapy in my teen for stress related Asthma and was considering this option for Claire if she failed to get her anxiety under control.

During the NCT course the use of hypnobirthing was discussed. I was pro-hypnosis having used it as a teenager to control my stress related Asthma & this centred on birthing, so I encouraged Claire to pursue it. So, Claire made contact with Leila and we signed up for 4-sessions in March 2011.

Straight away, with lots of coaching from Leila and the use of visual aids including HB videos evidencing drug free, calm, relaxed birthing, and Claire’s anxiety reduced. We got to work on positive thinking & visualisation with use of scripts we personalised; tactile use of hands to increase ‘happy hormones’ and lots of other techniques. Eventually, whenever the topic of childbirth came up in conversation at home or with other people, we scoffed at any negativity and promoted our excitement and readiness for childbirth to begin and how much we were looking forwards to it; how we couldn’t wait to hold our newborn. This did earn us a few odd looks, but we really meant it.

May 20th Claire woke up and knew this would be the day. The day could not have gone better if we had rehearsed it. Our two midwives could not believe the speed Claire’s labour progressed at and were most taken aback at her very leisurely approach. To top it off, there was no time or need for drugs. The following day when various nurses visited Claire they commented on having heard such good things about her birth the previous night.

I have no doubts in my mind whatsoever, that had we not undertaken HB with Leila, Claire would have entered childbirth in a panicked frame of mind. Instead, the whole process became just the natural step that it is towards holding our baby. Since then we have been blessed with a baby, which everyone comments on how calm and content she appears – of course we agree – we can’t necessarily put this down to HB, but it can’t be ruled out either!

Thanks for helping me through the preparation for my lovely home birth. Leila's hypnosis power script and fear release hypnosis script really made a difference in putting aside my fear...
Having a home birth is so empowering and gave me such strength, without the need for any pain relief, my mind was clear, focused and in tune with my body. Nature and instinct took its course and our not so little boy, Theo (8lbs10.5oz) was born in the safety of our own home in just over 3 hours. Our older son woke in the morning to a new brother, it was magical to see him so pleased to discover his baby brother at home and just snuggle into bed with us all. HypnoBirthing helped me to sleep well in the late stages of pregnancy and can help couples to relax and embrace birth without fear...Leila, I thank you and wish you well in your endeavor to help birthing couples experience the same joy and fulfillment as we did with our birth.

Early in my pregnancy, I discovered the hypnobirthing method and after doing some research I was in no doubt that it was the method that I wanted to use for the birth of my 1st baby. I was so pleased to then discover Inspiring Births and then yourself. Working through the course has been delightful and we both thank you for teaching us how beautiful and peaceful natural childbirth can be. I have loved every moment of my pregnancy and can honestly say I have never felt so relaxed, calm and inspired which is the result of the relaxation and self hypnosis techniques you have taught us. Through practice of the techniques we are successfully achieving astoundingly deep levels of relaxation which is allowing me to bring about sensation loss every time I try.

We loved having our sessions in the comfort of our own home and would not hesitate recommending both the private classes or group ones. I'm over the moon that some good friends of ours have already contacted you.

I'd also just like to take this opportunity to thank you for the coffee mornings and newsletters. The newsletters are really inspiring to receive and your coffee mornings are such a wonderful way of hearing, wonderful real life birth stories. I can't wait to introduce you to our little hypnobaby and share our birth story.

Thanks Again Leila.

Working as a psychiatrist for the National Health Service I am continually striving to help patients achieve better mental health and, whilst I believe there is place for medication, I am increasingly impressed by the potential of hypnotherapy and hypnobirthing. I think most people can benefit from hypnotherapy and Leila certainly helped me around managing anxiety. I highly recommend Leila both for her skills and personal touch.