"What a feeling" 

I remember thinking this and writing it in my announcement post when my second child was born. And I didn't just mean what a feeling having my baby girl here. I meant what a feeling it was to birth her into this world. It was euphoric and I absolutely loved it. I often struggle to say that to people because I don't want them to feel bad if they didn't have the birth they wanted or if it was traumatic. But for me, it really was incredible (it was painful and very intense but so is running a marathon and lots of people love that feeling when they cross the finish line don't they? Some of them go on to run more marathons..)

Giving birth to my babies has been without a doubt the most incredible experiences of my life. One thing I didn't let get a hold of me when I was preparing for birth is self doubt. I had total self belief and confidence in myself that I'd be able to birth my babies and that I had the tools to deal with situations as they arose if I needed to. It was totally down to Hypnobirthing. I knew what my body was doing, I had my breathwork practised and nailed down, I knew how to get those birthing hormones flowing. I practised every day for weeks.

When I was planning my home birth I remember one of my midwives saying "if there is even a small amount of doubt over whether it's right for you, then it's probably not..."

Was there self doubt?

Yes.

I was going against the norm of what everyone I knew was doing. The only other person who had given birth at home that I knew was my grandmother. It was also going against what my family and friends expected me to do. But the more I learned the more I realised that it was the safest option for me (especially being the in the middle of a pandemic - home was where we were told to stay). Over the coming weeks I worked hard on eliminating that doubt.

There are other times in my life where I've let self doubt creep in and get a hold of me but I'm learning to get better and believe in myself (like with my Hypnobirthing business and even writing this blog post). I am getting good at supressing doubt now and believing in myself. When doubt creeps in I remind myself why I'm doing what I'm doing and why it is important to me. I tell myself - what is the worst that can happen?

So if you are reading this and preparing for the arrival of your baby and you feel confused, unsupported or simply need a sounding board  - I'm here. My inbox is always open and I love answering your questions and supporting you. Aswell as hypnobirthing I also offer a birth planning workshop. I won't tell you what to write on your birth plan, but I can inform you so you can make decisions that are right for you.

I want to finish on something that I read recently that has really stuck with me...

Our bodies are designed to grow and birth babies. We put faith in our bodies to grow a tiny human over nine months. So don't doubt yourself at the end, if your body knows how to grow a baby, it knows how to birth one too.