Betsy is our fourth baby. We didn’t know her gender and loved having a surprise. At 41 weeks and 5 days, it was my longest pregnancy. I do wonder if I almost held onto my pregnancy a little bit. As much as the pregnancy had been hard with lots of nausea, on the whole I love being pregnant. Also with this being likely to be our last I’m not sure I ever felt ready to part with my bump even though I was excited about the next bit.

For weeks I’d had strong Braxton hicks most evenings but apart from that there was no sign she was coming soon. On the 1^st of May I met with my friend and her newborn baby for an all you can eat breakfast. We laughed that surely the next time we met I’d have my baby too. To be honest though I began really doubting when she might be born. It’s like when you get to the point when you actually start believing you’ll be pregnant forever, that’s when it happens.

Later that day, shortly after the kids were back from school...

Righty lovely, you wanted to become a hypnobirthing teacher because you have a mountain of passion for empowering birth BUT also for greater freedom in your life.

So, what are you doing with screen time of 4 plus hours a day. AKA over 28 hours a week. 1456 hours year!!!!

Here are my top tips for getting the business benefits from social media without it becoming your full time job…

Use Rhythms that work around your life:

Build habits that you can stick to, this avoids you feeling like you should doing something and then scrolling instead. Sound familiar?!

What pocket of time do you have regularly available? So, for example this might be when your toddler goes down for a nap, you spend the first 30 minutes creating a post/doing a live/connecting with people.

Connecting over scrolling:

If you are hopping on social media do it with intention. Connect with people by commenting on posts, particularly on posts from people you’d love to...

The lovely Jennie from Jentlehypnobirthing has kindly shared her wins with us since she became a hypnobirthing teacher. Jennie completed my expansion course to uplevel her classes.

"My name is Jennie and I am the owner of Jentle Hypnobirthing. I am also a qualified midwife who loves anything birth, baby and breastfeeding related!

I trained as a hypnobirthing teacher in 2017 and completed Abby’s first resource bundle course in 2018 which gave me the freedom to mix my courses up and make them my own. I then completed her expansion course in 2020 and ever since then my business has grown from strength to strength.

I would say my top 3 wins since qualifying are:

1. Receiving my own positive birth affirmation cards through the post with my new logo proudly printed on them- I couldn’t wait to give them out to my couples!

2. Teaching a class of 4 couples over Zoom during the pandemic, meeting them face to face earlier this year and the fact we have now all become...

The lovely Louisa from For Baby For Me has kindly shared her wins with us since she became a hypnobirthing teacher last year. 

"Here are my wins:

1/ Supporting 12 couples who have all gone on to have different experiences but have all told me what a difference my course has made to them. Some of them have then gone on to learn baby massage with me so it has been lovely to spend time with the babies too.

2/ Creating a website and Instagram account to share helpful content with my followers and potential clients. This takes a lot of work but it is really satisfying to share the message of positive birth as much as possible and interact with people on such an important topic.

3/ Designing my own taster session and essentials course to offer different options for expectant parents, as well as studying biomechanics for birth and postnatal planning and adding this content to my full courses. It feels great to have the freedom to make the course your own."

Thank you for sharing your...

Three years into my Hypnobirthing business I was in a position where I was teaching 2 consistently booked group courses a month, plus had a diary full of one-to-one clients and I didn’t know what to do next.

I was so grateful that my business was bringing in really good money. I was so happy to be helping so many families. But I was tired. Really tired.

I struggled to ever say no to a booking, just in case they didn’t do Hypnobirthing without my course. As a result I was working most weekday evenings plus lots of the weekend too.

That’s when I thought about taking on another teacher under the brand that I’d built.

I’d seen a few other Hypnobirthing teachers doing this and it seemed to work well for them.

I was scared though. Scared that there wouldn’t be enough work for us both. Scared about sharing my all my stuff. I lacked clarity over what the agreement would be too.

But anyway I thought I’d just...

The lovely Yetunde from Cowriebirth has kindly shared her wins with us since she became a hypnobirthing teacher.

"I've been teaching hypnobirthing for a few years now and love it. It's something I do in addition to a full time job, as it is my way of sharing these amazing life changing skill with others.  

Abby has asked me for my 3 wins from being a hypnobirthing teacher/instructor/guide so here they are: 

1. Supporting a client through multiple changes - preparing for a vbac, overcoming fear of another c-section, baby being breech, having a planned cesarean booked - to help her have the spontaneous vaginal birth she wanted. I really felt my role as a guide and confidence builder, as she did the work - practicing, seeking information, asking questions about her options and not being scared to wait - but I was there to support her every step of the way.

2. Getting a great review from a client 'I felt' didn't engage with the course. During the sessions I...

Ways To Connect With Your Ideal Client:

So you’re sharing your page everywhere you can. You’ve told everyone you meet that you teach Hypnobirthing. You’ve made a website that you are pretty proud of. You’re itching to be making lots of bookings and launching that group course.

BUT...

Every time you check your emails, you know like every 15 minutes, your inbox is empty. You check your spam just in case. You feel so frustrated. You’ve got so much to share. You know women need this and you worry what might happen if they don’t find you.

It's important that you really try and connect with the women you want to work with. Think about:

• What is going to spark her interest?
• What does she need to hear?
• How are you going to tell her that Hypnobirthing can change her world?
• How can you teach her something that will make her pregnancy or birth different and let her remember you?

Allow your ideal client to get to know you, love you...

Starting a new business can be daunting. Taking the plunge to train in something new is a big deal. I get it. This was me six years ago. It felt scary and big but honestly if I hadn’t have taken the plunge I’d have missed out on so many things.

Some of the ladies that I work with feel this way too but at the end of their training they are so grateful to have taken the plunge.

One of these people is Rebecca Trueman from Birth Without Fear Hypnobirthing. Rebecca trained with me at the end of 2020 and has since then done amazing things with her business, it has gone from strength to strength. 

Rebecca shares her thoughts with us in this live video, giving us an insight into why she decided to train as a hypnobirthing teacher in the first place:

"I wanted to do something for myself, that suited our family life. I needed to do something positive for myself and the stars aligned" 

Explaining some of her initial concerns:

"Lack of confidence was a...

A day in the life of a new hypnobirthing teacher.

So, you are thinking about becoming a hypnobirthing teacher but you aren't quite sure if it will fit with your existing life, here's an insight into how hypnobirthing worked for me. 

A typical day for a new hypnobirthing teacher looks something like this:

6:30am - Get up with the baby and toddler - breakfast and general morning carnage.

7:30am - I get showered and ready for the day before my husband sets off for work.

9am - Kids watch Peppa pig whilst i write a social media post

10am - We meet friends for a play date. 

1:30pm - Baby and toddler are asleep in the car so I enjoy a quiet half an hour watching some business tips on Facebook and reply to client emails.

2pm - We go inside and play and cheer up the cranky toddler.

4pm - The kids eat

5:30pm - Husband gets home, we say 'hello' and I sneak upstairs to get my bag ready for tonight's one to one hypnobirthing session. 

6pm - We have dinner

6:30pm - We bath the kids...