Hello, I’m Leanne – the founder of Brighter Birthing and mother to 2 boys. I am passionate about educating mums-to-be to take control of their pregnancy and birth.
I initially trained with Katharine Graves (The KG Method) as a registered member of the Hypnobirthing Association and the course was accredited by The Royal College of Midwives. I now teach The Calm Birth School method, for me this was a more modern and realistic approach. For you, the difference is negligible, you will simply benefit from my additional learning and support.
So, how did my Hypnobirthing journey begin?
With my first pregnancy, a friend offered to lend me some Hypnobirthing CD’s and books. I was very sceptical, but had nothing to lose – this was very unlike me, as I am much more of a control freak than a hippy, which is how I viewed Hypnobirthing at the time! However, they were great to relax to.
I also studied Marine Biology at University, so the “science bit” of things made a lot of sense to me.
The book was Ina May Gaskin’s Guide to Childbirth and this captivated me. She seemed to understand that giving birth was a completely natural process and if we trusted our bodies, we could overcome most issues that, in a hospital environment, can become medicalised. It opened my eyes to the fact that there are so many different kinds of births, but they can all be positive.
When I had my first baby in a midwife led unit, I was amazed that I was able to control most, not all, of the contractions using visualisations and the breathing I had learnt.
So, when we were expecting our second child, I had no hesitation in taking this further and booking onto a complete Hypnobirthing course to fully utilise the tools / skills I had touched upon previously.
The course reinforced what we had learnt from the CD’s and added so much more, solidifying everything in my mind. In addition, it gave us as a couple an understanding of how to work together to birth our baby confidently.
This was crucial when it came to the birth of our second baby, who arrived extremely quickly before the midwife or paramedics could get there. If it hadn’t been for this course, we would have been terrified, but the knowledge and techniques we learned took any fear away and made this a memorable and beautiful experience for us both to share.
My births were in vast contradiction to how I had ever imagined they could be, thanks wholly to the skills I learnt through Hypnobirthing. I felt cross that there was still so much fear surrounding birth when knowledge and understanding can alleviate this. With this in mind, I trained as a Hypnobirthing teacher and set up Brighter Birthing.
My passion lies in seeing the change from woman to mother. Something incredible and powerful happens to us as we become parents, it can be beautiful, yet challenging and I try to support my parents each step of the way.