When Family Life Changes Your Plans: Why I'm Closing My Facebook Group for a Bigger Mission

It’s been no secret that the last year in my personal life has been a rollercoaster.

The end of 2023 was full of worry as my eldest child underwent scary health investigations for a major skills regression. Serious possible causes were suggested by doctors. I’m relieved to tell you that those were ruled out after thorough investigations.

However, his mental health was hugely impacted and that phrase ‘a mother is only as happy as her unhappiest child’ summed up the months that followed. Even simple things like getting our boy into school became a heart wrenching challenge.

In the last 6 months, 3 out of my 4 children have received a diagnosis of autism and some other co-occurring conditions too.

Emotionally, this time in our lives has been hard. On a practical level too, the workload that came with advocating for the children has been massive.

In the depths of it all,...

Rhiannon Broadbent, from Leeds, was honoured as a rising star at our annual Inspiration Day, where she received a prestigious award in recognition of her remarkable achievements so early into her business Birth BeYOUtifully With Rhi.

Since qualifying as a Hypnobirthing Teacher with Love Your Birth in June 2024, Rhiannon has been making an incredible impact, quickly establishing herself in the field. 

We couldn't be prouder of her dedication, having supported 12 clients in just her first three months.

Her commitment to building connections and sharing her expertise within the community is truly inspiring and is what Rhiannon thinks has helped her business to grow so well, she says:

"Connecting with other local businesses has also been hugely beneficial. Learning from their expertise and creating links has been really important to me."

Making a difference to women's lives and her own

Rhiannon trained whilst on maternity leave after second baby "I saw Abby's cou...

Sophie Conneely, founder of Norwich’s Bumps and Births transformed her life after a traumatic first birth.

Determined to avoid a repeat experience, she turned to Hypnobirthing during her second pregnancy. The result? “It was the most amazing, rewarding experience,” Sophie says. 

She describes how the power of Hypnobirthing changed everything for her, “I just knew I needed to share how amazing and life changing it can be”. Inspired by her own journey, Sophie became a Hypnobirthing teacher to help empower other women to take control of their birthing experiences.

Sophie trained with Love Your Birth less than a year ago, and we couldn’t be prouder of the remarkable achievements she’s already made.

Winning not just one award but two! Add to this the success of seeing incredible transformations in her Hypnobirthing clients and getting known in her area as a local expert.

Sophie won the Love Your Birth exceptional performance award at our annual Inspiration Day and she wo...

I’ve been thinking of you with your new Instagram account this week. I started a brand-new Instagram account of my own. It reminded me all the doubts that can come with it.

It also has given me a nudge to share some simple strategies when you are wanting your new account to gain momentum.

So, for a bit of context I’ve started a bit of a hobby Instagram account to share my musings on SEN parenting since my children have been diagnosed autistic. I also wanted a space to share my rekindled love for vintage interiors and country living. My new account Foxglove Family is all about this.

Making the decision to set up this account and start posting came with a lot of fear.

Who am I to talk about this? What if I get the language wrong? What if people think it’s nonsense?

Sound familiar? I know from the women I train to teach Hypnobirthing; these fears can be very real when starting a Hypnobirthing social media account too.

The thing that has helped me and I hope help...

Putting your first ever group Hypnobirthing course on sale might feel scary. Shall I tell you what’s even scarier?!

Getting your first booking! Yes, really.

You think…

“arghhh it’s really going ahead!!”

“But I’ve only got one booked on!!”

“What if I don’t get anyone else!”

“I bet they want to meet loads of pregnant pals”.

“Maybe I should just refund them now to save any disappointment?!”

I call this one ticket anxiety.

One ticket anxiety is a real thing. It can stop you speaking with confidence about your course and ultimately it can prevent you getting consistent bookings.

You freeze and crawl into hiding and then no one else has a chance of hearing about your course and booking.

So here’s how to overcome this anxiety:

 1. Be clear with yourself how many clients you want booked on. Say it to yourself, each day visualise those people in front of you on your course .

Now, I’m not sure I believe this magically magnetises the people but ...

 How I made the transition

Autumn 2013, I sat googling what to write in a letter of resignation. I was on my 15 minute break, dreading the lesson ahead. It was year 9 and they were LOUD.

I kept it simple, “Please accept this letter as formal notification of my resignation from my role as teacher of religious studies…”

I’d like to tell you that I’d weighed up all the pros and cons of leaving the career I’d worked so hard for. The one with a great pension and the weeks of holidays that my non teacher friends were so envious of.

I hadn’t though. It was one of those decisions that was driven by my heart. My desire to be home with my baby boy was so strong. My hatred of the weeks leading up to this letter were pushing me to something different.

I didn’t know exactly how things would work out but I knew I couldn’t carry on as I was. It just wasn’t the life I wanted for myself and my family. Yet, the Abby of just a year previously would be so shocked by this move. That Ab...

Your potential client spends her time skim reading.

She scrolls social media seeing over 100 pieces of content a MINUTE!

She browses websites scanning for things that apply to her.

So how do you help her find you and your life changing Hypnobirthing courses?

Simple, you grab her attention with a hook at the start of your posts/ blogs/ videos etc.

A hook is a compelling element designed to grab attention and entice people to engage with your content. A bit like a fishing hook, it’s about reeling them in to your world so that they can benefit for the knowledge that you have that will support them so much.

In the context of social media, it's the initial part of your post that captures the audience's interest and stops the scroll. It could be the first sentence, the text on an image or the title written across a video. On a blog or webpage, this is the title or any bits in bold.

It is useful to know that effective hooks DON’T summarise the whole post, instead t...

I’m a “I need proof” kind of person.

I'd love to be a bit more woo but deep down I'm a bit of a sceptic.

Auras, human design, crystal healing, energetic vortexes etc. I'm not there yet.

Now, don't get me wrong, I've got my fair share of crystals. They are pretty, right?! But I'd love to hear more of the science behind them before I'm fully on board.

I can see my gorgeous woo friends and colleagues rolling their eyes when the read this. I blumming love that they are so into all this, I just need to hear a bit more logic first. (I'm not saying it doesn't exist though)

What has this got to do with Hypnobirthing?

Well, when I first heard of Hypnobirthing, I felt the same about it.

It sounded a bit woo to me. I couldn't quite get that listening to an older women on a CD (yes, it was a while ago) telling me a story with some mantas thrown in, with a background of plinky plonk music was going to make a difference to my birth. I certainly never thought that one day I'd be a voice ...

Take a look on Google Trends data and you’ll see a notable and consistent interest in Hypnobirthing over the years. Searches for "hypnobirthing" also show spikes, especially around certain times of the year, indicating heightened interest likely due to media coverage. 2018 for example saw a spike searches after Harry Kane and Kate Middleton both were in the media talking about how great Hypnobirthing is.

Often the first thing people associate with Hypnobirthing is letting go of the fear of childbirth. For me that was what attracted me to doing a course back in 2012 when I was pregnant with my first baby.

I was dreading giving birth. I was terrified of the pain I might feel, the lack of control and the potential for it to happen in a way I didn’t want it to.

You’d be forgiven for thinking that fear of birth is the only reason women, and their birth partners decide to do a course. In fact, there are many other reasons people seek out these in demand courses, in addition to re...

This is a question I asked myself when I first found Hypnobirthing, 12 years ago, pregnant with my first baby.

‘If I’m Hypnobirthing, will I be able to have an epidural?’

I loved the idea of Hypnobirthing and certainly needed it with the amount of fear I had about childbirth.

Yet, I was scared that if I committed to a Hypnobirthing course, I’d somehow not allowed to have an epidural if I wanted one.

As someone who considered myself to have a VERY low pain threshold, this played on my mind A LOT.

This worry likely came from my association with Hypnobirthing being an alternative to medical intervention. So, I saw Hypnobirthing and epidurals as opposite ends of the scale.

What I found was Hypnobirthing aimed to empower women to have a positive and calm birth experience. Yes, I learnt all about the incredible work of the body during birth and ways I could naturally remain as comfortable as possible AND I learnt that I had choices. What I wanted for my birth w...