Did the Duchess of Cambridge use hypnosis for birth?

Well there has been a lot written about the Duchess of Cambridge using hypnosis techniques for the birth of her son. Interestingly, these were written before the birth and nothing yet has emerged afterwards, if it ever will. I hope she did take the time to learn the techniques on The Birth CD programme, all of then can help to contribute to a positive and calm experience for the mother, a calm baby and also to aiding recovery afterwards. Certainly the duchess looked marvellous the day afterwards when she showed off her new son to the world.

Hypnosis is better pain relief for birth than pethidine

I always felt this instinctively but now there is some research to back it up

If you click on "research to back it up" above, you will open the web article about the research. Here is the link in full: http://www.news-medical.net/news/20101010/Bathing-better-than-pethidine-as-pain-relief-during-labor-Survey.aspx

Hypnosis for birth, or "hypnobirth" classes are run at my clinic in Northampton. Click on my website for full details and look on the blog for the next course dates

Next Course Dates

The next childbirth course will be running in January. There are still a couple of places available.

The following course is booking to start in February. It's a 3 session package - choose 1,2 or all 3 sessions. Dates are 26th February, 12th March and 26th March. Just call me to book or see my website for more details.

It really is a good course, dispels all your fears and prepares you for one of the most incredible days of your life so you can be calm and confident and looking forward to it with joy. I give you lots of CDs to take away and practise with at home too.

Zoe said, "I would definitely recommend this to others... enabling us to feel a lot more relaxed about the experience."

She gave so much

Many people believe that animals have a healing touch. Perhaps you have heard of places in America where disabled children go to swim with dolphins and they are changed. Or you know of people who use their horses for therapy. There are even dogs who go to visit sick people in hospital because it is known that owning an stroking an animal is good for your mental health. The programme is called PAT - Pets As Therapy

Well, in her own small way, Tilly the Patchwork Dog did her bit for therapy. I have been seeing an autistic teenaged boy for some months to help him overcome his severe dog phobia. I had been using Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). He had progressed brilliantly and so we decided that we needed to step up a gear with some managed desensitisation.

So one hot afternoon in the summer we brought Tilly to meet him. Soppy, quiet old Tilly mooched around a bit and eventually flopped down in the sunshine. And after a while my brave client came and sat with us. He managed to stroke my beautiful, gentle girl and she let him get used to her without pushing him too far. I nearly cried, it was amazing. This boy really wanted to see her and meet her and stroke her, he was fascinated.

We hoped she would be well enough to visit him again but sadly it was not meant to be. I am just so grateful to her to remember that one of the last things she achieved in her life was to help a boy who wasn't able to help himself. Animals are so trusting and gentle and giving.

When I think how much Tilly gave us in her short life I am truly humbled. Such a special dog.

Radio Gaga

Well my heavens, what a busy week I am having. Not only have I finished my tax return report for my accountant way ahead of Christmas, let alone ahead of January, AND achieved one of my stated goals for the year... Phew! Sorry I am going to have to draw breath here.....

I was so proud of the tax return. It hangs over me from before its even the beginning of the new tax year! During my goal setting exercise in January, I stated that I wanted to submit my information by the end of May. Well I did in fact achieve most of it by then but then I left the remainder, and left it and left it. Until Now! What a massive relief.

And what else? Well... this afternoon I have had my Pregnancy CD accepted by a local retailer, which I am totally chuffed about. If you are in the know, it is Pink & Blue Baby World online and in Daventry, Northants.

And... I was on local radio today, talking about hypnosis for fertility. It started with an interview with the Chair of the Gamete Donation Trust as she has come out today saying that sperm donors should be paid more than women who donate their eggs. I was then asked to comment on her position. I did of course remain neutral but was able to plug my business a little. Thinking about it now in the cold light of day I don't think men should be paid more. It is less risky to them and despite the fact that this LauraVitjens thinks it takes 30 visits to a fertility clinic to donate sperm, actually it doesn't take anywhere near that many visits. And there are no risks to a man's health from doing it either.

So there you go, I am "off the fence"

And don't think that feritility issues affect "other people" either. It is a growing and silent epidemic. 1 in 6 couples has difficulty in conceiving and 1 in 10 couples has treatment for it. Everyone knows someone that has had IVF treatment or other fertility treatments, even if you think you don't.

The Patter of Tiny Feet

I have been so excited and busy with moving to Willow Tree that I have forgotten to post some very exciting news.

Not for me, but a client with "unexplained infertility" is now pregnant! After just 5 sessions, she conceived around the time of the 6th session, with no extra help from the fertility clinic. And this from a standing start of her and her husband being extremely depressed and upset and grieving when they first came to see me.

I feel so proud and privileged to have helped this fantastic couple. A very happy 9 months is what I now wish for them

*Beaming* :O)

Hypno-Birthing

I have been training this weekend, on a masterclass in hypnosis for childbirth. It has become popularly known as "hypno-birthing" but an American training company have tried to copyright the word in UK. It's a shame as the general public are only using the term in the same way as we might say "hypno-dieting" meaning using hypnosis for dieting. Anyhow, the words hypno-birthing have not been copyrighted so I will use them to describe the process of using hypnosis training to assist in childbirth.

It's a great system. If you are hypnotically trained to use hypnosis to keep calm and relaxed then you do not impede your body's ability to give birth. Very many women in our culture have come to believe that birth is a painful ordeal so they fear it. Because they are fearful they tense up and this tension actually creates pain and really can hinder the baby's smooth passage into the world.

Hypnotocally trained women have no fear, only confidence in their own abilities and so they tend to have shorter, more comfortable and simpler labours and births. They also have shorter recovery times, less incidence of post-natal depression and better breast feeding outcomes. The babies also have higher Apgar scores and tend to be calmer.

It's so simple, I don't know why every woman doesn't use hypnosis for birth!

This was a good masterclass though and although I didn't actually learn anything new, I verified my knowledge and skills and, swot that I am, I was top student too. With any luck, it will make up for England losing to Germany again. At least I didn't have to sit through the match :-)

Is it stress or too much to do?

Sometimes there really is too much to do in life. Which is why I am sitting here blogging about it, because I am bored with working and tidying and decided to write about it whilst putting my laptop back in my study.

Not only do I have a full-on day helping people, I then have to pick up a tired and often grumpy 3 year old from nursery. On arrival at home I have to coax him out of the car (safely) and get him into the house (safely) at which point I then have to deal with a bouncing and starving labrador. Trying to feed both 3 year old and dog without one of them imploding is a task in itself.

(Oh and add in the clearing up of dog sick at least once a week, in fact twice today)

After tea time, getting an even more tired small person bathed, teeth-brushed, toileted and into bed without ructions provides yet more fun and games.

So by 7.30 I am ready to start the rest of the day's work. Cooking a meal, clearing up, washing up, opening the post, checking emails, a bit of book-keeping, filing from the day's work and preparation for the next. Then after all that's done there is washing and house cleaning to do.

Sometimes I do wonder where I'm going wrong...

Social Conscience

I have done some interesting work recently, helping adult victims of child abuse. My clients were a young couple in their twenties, with 4 children under the age of 8, who had 3 different fathers. The children were the subject of court proceedings, with the objective of deciding whether to remove the children from the parents "under the category of neglect."

Both parents had been poorly parented themselves so they had no decent example on which to model themselves as parents. The man had been badly abused as a child. So while the court case had been adjourned, Social Services were attempting to improve the parenting skills of the couple in order that they stood a chance of keeping the children. They wanted to show the court that they had done everything possible to help the parents.

Now some would say that if they were incapbable of looking after 4 children, then the couple should lose the children and they should be taken into care and looked after properly and given a better chance in life. I will admit that I had a similar viewpoint. On closer inspection, it is not quite as simple as that. Firstly, it benefits Social Services to leave children with parents because a child in care costs a fortune. To place a single, simple child with no additional needs into any sort of care costs over £400 per week. Yes, per week! Care is VERY expensive for the taxpayer.

The second reason why Social Workers like to leave children with parents is that children in care tend to do badly throughout their lives. Most of the British prison population have been in care as children. Taking children away from parents is a marker for future social problems, which have to dealt with and paid for by the state. So the arguments for children remaining with families are quite persuasive - current cost, future cost and short and long-term wellbeing of the children.

So my role was to help these two parents come to an understanding and an acceptance of what happened to them as children. The aim was that they could move on from the trauma, enabling them to lead easier, happier lives. And Social Services aim then was to help them to learn improved parenting skills, once they had more of a blank canvas to work with. Someone who has been abused as a child has multiple problems and hang-ups that they have to deal with and they can often be quite traumatic.

The man in particular had been through a hell of a childhood and really had suffered, which was affecting him day to day. After several weeks of work, both individuals were feeling much happier and calmer. They both reported a great improvement in their relationships with each other and the children, they played with the children more and were more positive and optimistic in general.

I was absolutely thrilled. To have such a result for these people was fantastic for me and so rewarding. I saw both parents change for the better over time and I loved seeing it. Ultimately I don't know whether they will keep the children. I am just glad that I could play a small part in helping these people to enjoy their lives.

Books for Children

I have ideas for 2 books. I have the outline chapters for one and a synopsis written. The other is still in my head but I started to write it this week.

This book is one that I am writing for my son. It is a love story, the story of how his daddy and I met. It's a long story and spans 9 years from our first meeting to having a full relationship. We met at work and 8 years later he told me that he loved me. Every time I tell anyone the story they go all gooey and someone once said that it sounded like a film.

None of us know how long we will be here. Sometimes we tread our lives on the thinnest of knife edges. And sometimes we don't even know how close to the edge we were. So in case I never get to tell the story to my boy, I am writing it now. So one day he will know just how deep our love goes.

What is your story?

Embarrassing Brits

I am again embarrassed to be a Brit for the second time in a fortnight. Last night it snowed again, probably about an inch and the temperature dropped leaving the place very icy this morning, with some dangerous roads. But most roads are passable if you drive carefully at the correct speed for the road, your vehicle and your level of driving expertise.

So what happens? Many of our schools are closed again because it is felt that it is "not safe for staff or pupils" What the hell is going on here? Why don't people just go to work and go to school? So they might fall over on the ice. So what? They are not going to die! My goodness if I had missed school every day it was icy I would never have learnt anything! And nor would any other children in North West Europe or Canada or anywhere else that's cold. Clearly our current batch of headteachers are frightened to take a stand, to make any kind of decision other than a scared one.

What happened to the Dunkirk spirit? What happened to struggle over adversity? What happened to ORDINARY COMMON SENSE???????????

I fear we are teaching our children to be complete cowards, frightened to take the smallest risk. We are teaching a nation to grow up like the Mavis character on Coronation Street - "Oooh, I don't really knoooww." Great, what a future to look forward to.

I must not forget to add, both Squeaky and I have suffered injuries from the weather. He was walking the dog yesterday when he fell over, whereupon Patchwork dog carried on walking/bouncing and poor Squeaky didn't think to let go of the lead. Heaven knows why as he usually drops it at the least pause in concentration, but not today. So dog bounces away and drags poor Squeaky boy behind her through the lumpy hard snow. Much crying and bruised faces and noses and wet clothes. Huge cuddles needed.

And stupid, stupid me! I was shovelling snow on Saturday morning. Just on the last 5 minutes. Aha, a great piece of ice, let's just move that away and then I'll be finished. Too hard to break it into pieces, let's just lift the big heavy ice in one piece and throw it over..... AAARRRGGGHH! And there I was, doubled over the shovel, my back knackered. And only just having had it expensively put back together again by the wonderful Patt (Here's her website, she is AMAZING! http://www.pattstock.co.uk/)

It is VERY irritating!

Priceless

Today was a priceless day. It was a family day.

It started with my small boy coming into bed with us while he drank his milk and we had our tea. After getting dressed we all had our breakfast together. Hubby and I had Shreddies (you see, all you Americans, we don't all eat toast...) and Squeaky had "Stones." It's an oat cereal and he thinks it looks like little stones - it does. SO he calls them stones. Squeaky loves stones, loves playing with them, stacking them, finding them, bringing them home...

So after breakfast he goes out to take our sickly labrador for a walk with his daddy. Sick dog is much better, far bouncier and continuing to take her medication well and eating like a labrador! She is still a patchwork dog - covered in shaved spots where she had drips and had to have blood taken. Her tummy was completely shaved for her ultrasound poor thing.

We then went on a treat to the swimming pool. Squeaky has been swimming since he was 3 or 4 months old. He doesn't quite swim yet. Some 2 year olds can. But he loves it and we had a great time. And then a FAB family treat - the Zoo!

I'm not terribly into animals in zoos, I have to be quite honest, but the hubby is, only because it is a treat, a family time. Small children like seeing animals, it appeals to them in some way. Later at home, he managed to remember some of the animals he saw. It's a hard task for someone who can only just talk. We ate chips and biscuits in the cafe - junk food not healthy snacks. This was a TREAT remember!

And how priceless was our day? I hope I remember days like today. It frightens me that I may not. My small person had a lovely time. He was with his mummy and daddy enjoying life, being taken care of, being loved. Maybe later in life he will tell me he doesn't like swimming and zoos. But today he did and that's enough for me.

One or two of you may enjoy this photo. It's a little while ago now but it shows Squeaky continuing his rugby training even while on holiday. He is VERY dedicated!

Angel Delight

I have just spent 3 full days in the company of my son. A full 3 days devoted entirely to him, except for a quick outing with the dog. It was so good to focus on him and his needs rather than trying to fit in my own around him. True, if I had an army of staff I could focus on his needs exclusively all day every day, but we are in the real world here.

So we had a great few days. He is potty training, bless him, and did really well. The first day was tough - we were on the last set of clean clothes by 4.30 in the afternoon but after that it progressed. Friday evening was tough - he did 2 poos in the bath, what a sweetheart! But by Sunday he had got the idea. Today is a nursery day for him and I wonder whether the exciting playtime will be too much and he will completely forget about practising his new skill.

What we did whilst hanging around indoors was drawing and colouring and helping me in the house and all sorts of wonderful things. We made a pumpkin collage for his "pumpkin competition" at nursery. He is 2 years old and already I have been roped in to help him enter competitions. I'm not that happy about it really. Still we made his collage and it looked fab! Torn up pieces of orange colours from magazines for the body of the pumpkin with black pipe cleaners to give it shape around the outside. I was so pleased. If he wins the competition it will be more than I ever won in nearly 40 years!

What a delightful weekend. I know mothers who are so desperate to "have a break from the kids" but I don't get this at all. I want to spend more and more time with my child. I hate being away from him for more than a few hours. I love being a mum, it is pure delight...