Getting to know me, getting to know all about me!

So I thought I would tell you a bit more about me and how I came to be a hypnobirthing teacher.

First here’s a bit more about me. My name is Lucie but I also go by Luce, Luey, Mummy, Mama, Mum! My pronouns are she/her. I am 40 this year!! Feeling fine about it though actually. I live in beautiful Shropshire and I am married to Edd, we met at Uni and have been together for 19 years this year and married for 13. We have 3 brilliant children; Seth (9), Martha (7), and Merryn (3), who keep us very busy! I love nature, being outdoors, the sea - especially Cornwall and I can’t wait to holiday there again as it has been too long now. I have a varied taste in music and like all sorts really, from rock to folk to trance to pop to classical. I am a trained Primary School teacher and absolutely loved teaching and the children but not the stress that went with it, so I am so glad to still be able to teach, just in a different way now.

I love all things babies and birth and always knew I wanted children so I always hoped it would happen and I am so lucky and grateful to have 3 wonderful children. When I was pregnant with Seth I was looking into antenatal classes and booked us on to the NCT ones as I knew I wanted to do those and also hoped to make a circle of friends too, which I did and it made such a difference in those last weeks of pregnancy and the newborn weeks to have those core mummy friends to hang out with because we were all going through things for the first time at the same time. When looking up the classes I came across a hypnobirthing class and was intrigued as I had heard about it vaguely but looked into it more and quickly realised I had to do it. Edd was luckily happy enough to go along with it even though he was a bit sceptical and also wondering whether we could afford it. At that time there were no online cheaper courses but I also knew that we needed face to face ones to make us do it properly and I also hoped to make some friends too. So we booked up.

The course content was ok and the teacher was nice enough but not very organised and when we booked it was supposed to take place in a nice shop that sold baby things and that is where previous courses had taken place but she was selling that I think and we ended up in a grotty pub on a Saturday morning which stank of the dregs of the night before! So it wasn’t the best setting really but we continued. We took some positives away from the course and I read the book and listened to the cd of affirmations and relaxations a lot.

I used my hypnobirthing skills for all three of my births and those births ranged from starting in a midwife-led unit to be transferred by ambulance to the consultant unit 20 mins away where Seth was born an hour after arriving, to an amazing home water birth with Martha and then a consultant unit birth with Merryn after our home water birth couldn’t happen as when my waters broke at home there was a lot of blood. The skills I had learned helped me stay calm, manage the pain, get into my zone and give birth with only a bit of gas and air. I still felt that I hadn’t properly experienced a true hypnobirth though as I had used gas and air as from the course I did I had come away feeling like I should be able to do it totally drug-free. I now know that this is nonsense and totally know I hypnobirthed all 3 as I feel so positive about them all even though all 3 were different and Merryn’s was particularly challenging. Hypnobirthing isn’t about having a pain free, drug free natural birth it is about feeling empowered and informed to make choices that are best for you and your baby whether that is a home water birth or an elective caesarean and all in-between and either side. It took the wonderful Little Birth Company course to make me realise this though.

So even though I was a huge advocate of hypnobirthing and had thought about being a teacher, I always thought that I couldn’t do it as no one would want to come to my courses as there are now more around, many with midwives as teachers so why would anyone choose me? It took a lovely conversation with a friend after the birth of her son that got me thinking about it when she commented on how great I would be as a teacher. Some time had passed since I had last thought about it and my mindset had changed, I thought, yes, why not? People will choose me as it is me and they will choose me as they have felt a connection etc. So I started looking for courses, I almost signed up to one of the ‘main’ providers but then I came across The Little Birth Company.

They were like a breath of fresh air, modern, forward-thinking, and championed all births. Plus I loved their branding and the course sounded great. Wendy and Melissa were so helpful and happy to answer questions too. I was confident that it was the right choice even though they were a new provider. One of the biggest positives was the promise of ongoing support and a great community. Something that the ones I had been looking at didn’t have. So I signed up for their in-person course. I was so excited to get started with the pre-course learning.

Almost a year on from my training and I have just been named instructor of the month, which was lovely, everyone likes a little award don’t they!

I have had some amazing clients and have loved hearing their stories afterwards. I adore the LBC family and all the ongoing support and they have been amazing throughout the Covid-19 situation and really helped us to take our classes online. I love offering support to local people whether they are paying for one of my courses or not. I think it is vital to feel part of a community and I hope my virtual meetups have helped and I can’t wait to get back out into the local cafes and restart the physical meetups again. I am adding to my services to help postnatally too with the Mindful Breastfeeding Supporter training and also baby massage, plus more in the pipeline a bit later on. So watch this space and make sure you follow me on social media to keep up to date.

Thanks for reading, Lucie xx