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 even better for your clients, without needing to add more informat...

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 might a...

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 you have a b...

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, however think it is important to differentiate yourself from them.

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, assisted births. ANY birth.

How many women rule out Hypnobirthi...

 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.

What to do instead…

Carefully decide...

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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 and I finally got my first client. It was a couple that I used to work wit...

Reviews and testimonials are hugely valuable to Hypnobirthing businesses. Potential clients subconsciously look for that social proof that others have made the decision that they are about to make and been happy with it. Positive reviews and testimonials enhance your reputation and build credibility.

So, how can you get more of these even if you haven’t taught tonnes of clients?

1 Ask your friends to share their experiences of Hypnobirthing

In your early days of teaching Hypnobirthing, right before you’ve even taught clients of your own, consider asking people that you know for any positive statements about hypnobirthing that you can use in your marketing. Your friend, Sophie saying “Hypnobirthing made such a difference to my birth. I went from…” is a fantastic quote to share even if you didn’t personally teach Sophie. She’s raving about Hypnobirthing and you are offering Hypnobirthing.

2 Use those messages

Once you have taught a client or two, you are likely to get infor...

The other day I was chatting to Michelle Yeates from Hypnobirthing Journey live on Instagram. We were chatting about her experience of becoming a Hypnobirthing Teacher via our Instructor training. (You can watch it here) In the live video she mentioned that during her first ever group Hypnobirthing course, none of her clients had a clue it was her first time.

It got me thinking about how we can worry so much that our early clients might find out that we are a beginner. I certainly worried about this in my early days too. So, I’m here to explain how you can to start like a pro too, even when you feel very much a beginner.

But firstly, please hear me when I say it is ok to be a beginner. Every expert out there starts as a beginner.

When I think back to my very first Hypnobirthing clients 9 years ago, they got the BEST service as I had so much more time and attention to give. I threw my all into preparing, because everything was new. So, please know that there are huge benefit...

Being pregnant transports you to a whole new world of options, decisions and things to potentially buy. You have EVERYBODY telling you what you should and shouldn’t do.

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There’ll be Betty telling you to not bother preparing for you baby’s birth. Bobbi will tell you that you can never prepare enough. Bea will tell you to do an antenatal course and Barbara will disagree, saying you’d be crazy not to do Hypnobirthing.

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Eh?! Are Hypnobirthing and antenatal courses different? Surely, they all cover what happens in labour and when to call the midwife, is that not all you need?

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Well, actually they are very different. But I can completely understand why you might think they are the same with all that talk of feeling prepared for baby’s birth.

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I’ve been a Hypnobirthing Teacher for 9 years and many of my Hypnobirthing clients did an antenatal course PLUS they did Hypnobirthing with me. So many of the Hypnobirthing instructors that I train have this experience too with the women the...