After a complicated and traumatic first birth, followed by a week in hospital/ on neonatal we wanted to give ourselves every opportunity to have a better experience second time around.

Wendy came to our house and listened carefully to our birth story. She showed a lot of interest and sympathy and was generally a good, comforting ear. She then, over 3 sessions, told us about hypnobirthing and how the experience could be a totally different one. My husband was initially not enthused about the idea of hypnobirthing, and had described the birth of our first child as the most terrifying experience of his life so Wendy really had her work cut out to make him view things differently! However, afterwards we were both in a position where we were actually looking forward to the birth of our second child. We were given a lot of confidence and knowledge during our sessions and really enjoyed the experience.

We were also given some great reading recommendations and some good positive help with our birth plan. Wendy was very careful to describe all options open to us and the the pros and cons of them all – I was very pleased with our birth plan and I believe the staff at the hospital took it seriously and found it helpful. Even after the course and home visits were over, Wendy remained on hand, and I had several discussions with her following consultant and midwife appointments, with general worries and questions that I had, as well as help and queries about hypnobirthing techniques and hiring a doula.

Ultimately our second birth was one of 2 halves: the first was the lovely calm hypnobirthing experience that we were after, and then after pushing for 2 hours I ended up back in theatre with forceps. However, it was still a completely different experience to the first time. We both had the knowledge and confidence to ask questions and challenge some of the options that we were given and felt a lot more in control. I did not have an epidural until the very end and the forceps were used quite lightly with significantly less damage done! We were then home in less than 24 hours. A year on I am really proud that I managed to experience hypnobirthing and that I almost birthed my baby on my own. I would love to give it another shot! I reckon that next time I would totally ace it. My husband is somewhat less enthused about the idea though!

I would recommend Wendy and her hypnobirthing course to anyone – and I frequently have. She is a wonderful, warm, approachable, experienced and knowledgeable person. I am only sorry that we have no plans to use her services again.