Teaching Hypnobirthing has been part of my life more than 9 years now and it’s been incredible.

There’s been some weird things in that time though…

1. The postman’s reaction

Picture the scene. I’m teaching a couple Hypnobirthing from my living room. It’s 25 degrees outside, so I’ve got the window open.

To post a letter, the postman must walk in front of the window and of course he can’t help but have a peek in. You would, wouldn’t you?

So that’s what he does.

There he sees a woman bent over a birth ball with a man behind her (her partner). He can’t see that he’s simply practicing some soothing strokes guided by me.

He hears her demand “you can do it harder than that”

There I am stood next to the couple, making eye contact with the postman, with an awkward smile.

 2. The clients that say it’s like relationship therapy

Now,...

I gave this zero thought when I first trained in 2015. I called myself a Hypnobirthing teacher. If I’m honest this was because others that offered Hypnobirthing also called themselves this.

I’ve noticed these days, women who run Hypnobirthing courses call themselves a variety of things and I think this is wonderful.

It got me thinking about how a title can convey so much. We know language is powerful, right?!

So, I’m writing this blog to get you thinking about which title you choose to go by and what this could do to amplify your brand.

Here are some of the titles I’ve seen…

Hypnobirthing Teacher

Birth Hypnosis Specialist

Birth Coach

Hypnobirthing Practitioner

Hypnobirthing Instructor

Hypnobirthing Facilitator

Birth Educator

Hypnobirthing Specialist

Birth Guide

Pregnancy and birth Mentor

Antenatal teacher

These alternative titles can help get across the focus and expertise of the practitioner while also...

Are you wanting to get bookings on group Hypnobirthing courses this year?

I hear you! When I first started my Hypnobirthing business, as much as I loved working one-to-one with clients, my intention was to have a birth business with consistently full groups.

I wanted that bustling atmosphere that comes with groups and I really wanted my clients to get the extra perk of meeting other expectant parents too. Plus, I knew it would be a more profitable use of my time. As a mum of young children, this was super important to me.

Here are 5 essentials to consider to maximise your chances of filling those groups:

1. Timing

Unless you’ve got a massive following of pregnant women eagerly awaiting your next course you are going to benefit from advertising group courses 6-12 weeks in advance. I honestly wouldn’t go any less than 6 weeks. This gives you time to promote your Hypnobirthing groups and makes it more likely that those that enquire...

Teaching skills for Hypnobirthing Instructors

I once heard someone say “Be so good at what you do that they can’t ignore you” and I thought YES, this has been my philosophy throughout these last 9 years of running a Hypnobirthing business.

When you trust that what you offer is so great, you are able to talk about it with certainty and confidence. This magnetises clients. Plus, you benefit from word-of-mouth recommendation that allows bookings to come your way with more ease long-term.

I’m in the anti-more brigade though.

No, I don’t think you need to add a whole new session on biomechanics or baby care or even self-advocacy.

More isn’t more. More can be overwhelming. It can mean you are skimming through things. It can mean you scrape on the things that make your courses more of an incredible experience too.

So, here’s how you can enhance your teaching skills so that your Hypnobirthing courses are...

I actually hate the term 'Birth worker'.

I've never used it to refer to myself, despite running a thriving Hypnobirthing business for the last 9 years.

Why?

Hmmm maybe actually it's a bit of imposter syndrome?

Perhaps its feelings of not fitting a stereotype I associate with the term?

Or maybe it's more to do with how I saw my business?

I saw what I did as education, guidance.

I associate birth worker with a doula or a midwife, those that actually attended birth.

That wasn't me.

8 years ago I saw an event for Leeds Birth workers. It would have been a great opportunity to meet likeminded people and network too.

I didn't go. I didn't think it was for me.

In all honesty, I just never thought I fitted in.

I didn't belong.

I'm not crunchy enough

I'm more stilettos than dungarees

I'm not very political

Now this next bit sounds bonkers, hold on tight...

I have on occasions considered adopting a persona that I thought I should.

I wondered if dungarees...

When you are about to go to sleep, you adjust the room.

You make it more comfortable and quieter. You change the lighting and maybe even the temperature.

You understand that the environment is going to make a big difference to your ability to fall asleep and have a good sleep.

The same is true for birth.

Your birth environment matters.

Imagine your friend’s pet cat is pregnant. She tells you she’s had her kittens. Where are you picturing that she birthed them?

Are you imagining she took herself off to the under stairs cupboard, the old shed in the garden or even under the bed?

Most of us would expect other mammals to take themselves off somewhere dark, small, and familiar to them.

We are mammals too. We need similar conditions to birth more easily too.

I’m not suggesting that you take yourself to the old shed in the garden or squeeze yourself into the under stairs cupboard along with the vac. However, thinking about how to create a birth friendly environment helps...

My heart started pounding, I broke out in a cold sweat. It was just ten minutes before 5 couples were about to turn up at my house for their first group Hypnobirthing session.

I was in a state of panic as I’d stupidly started scrolling on Facebook and noticed a big Hypnobirthing brand had introduce a pre-recorded Hypnobirthing course for little more than £30. The likes and comments were flowing.

That’s it, I’m doomed, I thought. How can I compete with a course that’s less than a Friday night takeaway?

Now, that was a good few years ago and today these digital, low cost Hypnobirthing courses are everywhere.

To cut a long story short, it did NOT decrease the demand for my courses that were ten times the price. My Hypnobirthing business continued to thrive.

I don’t believe these cheapo courses that are so very different from the courses that you want to offer are competition for you either. I do,...

Hypnobirthing has been around for many years now and public awareness of it has increased dramatically. Yay!

Celebrities talking about Hypnobirthing has helped, plus lots of media interest too.

Search media headlines and you’ll see lines like...

“Hypnobirthing: an alternative to medicalised birth”

“I had a pain free birth with Hypnobirthing”

"Hypnobirthing Goes Mainstream: More Couples Opting for Natural Birth Techniques"

I’m a massive advocate for utilising Hypnobirthing to stack the odds in your favour of having a straightforward birth. That’s certainly what Hypnobirthing did for me personally.

Whilst these headlines are fantastic, any publicity for Hypnobirthing should be celebrated, there’s still a lack of awareness of how beneficial Hypnobirthing is for births that DO involve medical intervention.

Hypnobirthing is incredibly beneficial for women having induced labours, caesarean births,...

 As a Hypnobirthing Teacher Trainer and a business strategist, here are the 3 things I would never advise you to do as a Hypnobirthing Teacher…

1. Follow tonnes of other businesses like yours on social media

Ok, I know when we first start our training it can be so tempting to follow ever other Hypnobirthing business that pops up on our social media scroll for inspiration and ideas. I totally understand this, it was me too.

However, what can happen is that we follow so many businesses similar to us that when we go on social media it feels like we are just one of so many samey businesses. Mindset wise, this can have a negative impact. It can lead to comparisonitus, feelings of ‘why would anyone pick me?’ and feeling like it’s one big echo chamber. When the reality is for so the vast majority of pregnant women, their newsfeeds are NOT like yours and actually they most likely have very few voices talking about empowering birth.

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I felt lost, confused and a bit thick to be honest. It was January 2015 and I’d returned home from my Hypnobirthing teacher training. I’d enjoyed the time doing something that felt for me and I’d loved meeting the other people on the course BUT I had no idea how I could translate what I’d learnt to a course for expectant parents.

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I felt I had BIG gaps in knowledge.

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I wondered whether it was just me that felt that way.

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Was I overthinking it?

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Was I stupid?

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Quite frankly the Hypnosis for birth stuff went completely over my head and then the other stuff just didn’t sit right with me. I felt like I was going to give clients fear of intervention. Quite frankly, I knew that if I delivered the course in the way I’d been trained it would have felt back to front and I’d be so worried I’d bore them to death because it was like I was going to have to talk at them for 12 hours.

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A few months went by...