13 years ago, freshly hatched out of high school, I began my journey as a Midwife. I have loved touching the lives of so many families, from working in birth suite, to leading the postnatal ward, becoming part of a Midwifery Group Practice team, and then finally specialising in antenatal and postnatal care and education. 

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I embraced my passion for teaching in 2014 when I found myself becoming increasingly frustrated by a large gap in our maternity services; a lack of education for birthing families.

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The women I was working with were starting their labours with very little understanding of their body's natural birthing process, the choices available to them, and most of all without the confidence that their birth could, and should, be a positive experience. I thought, "By the time you are in labour it's too late! Education should not be happening in the birth room." So, I became a Hypnobirthing Australia Certified Practioner and began actively preparing couples for their positive birth. It has been such an amazing journey meeting so many incredible people. I get so invested in every couple's experience. 

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In 2018 my husband I were expecting our first baby, and knew without a question we would be using hypnobirthing for our birth. The techniques became useful very early on due to a mismanaged blood test bringing up a lot of fears for myself. I am a typical type A personality, and pregnancy was a huge lesson in surrendering. I am a big believer in education, preparation, and support, but ultimately after you have done everything you can, the only thing you have absolute control over is your mindset - the rest is just navigating the journey together with your baby.

We practiced every day and used the time to bond with our precious baby. We chose to hire independent midwives for our birth and planned for a home birth. We focused all our energy on preparing for a calm, positive, physiological birth. We visualised exactly how we wanted our birth to feel. We surrounded ourselves with positive energy. We attended birth preparation classes, yoga, hypnobirthing sessions, and built a strong relationship with our Midwife. We made sure we were both fully informed in all of our options (even being an experienced Midwife myself we still read books, research articles, and discussed our options with our Midwife) so that my birth partner would be able to support me fully. 

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My birth was everything I dreamed of. It had its own set of twists and turns to navigate, as all births do, but I have never felt more empowered in my life. 

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My second birth we spent less time preparing and following to do lists, and more on bonding and trusting that everything would happen in perfect timing. We navigated Covid lockdowns, floods, fires, and even caught Covid to top it all off. Hypnobirthing helped us maintain a positive mindset throughout our pregnancy. And after fully leaning in to trusting my body and baby we had the most incredible birth... and our birth team ended up missing the birth by 15 minutes!

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I am so passionate about sharing the knowledge and tools that will enable other women to experience this feeling too. I feel so blessed to be able to bring experience from both sides of the birthing journey, as a Midwife, and as a mother. I believe every pregnancy, labour, and birth is unique (and even having seen so many, no two have ever been the same) which is why I am such an advocate for birth preparation for every woman, for every birth.

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You only get to live this experience a few times (maybe) in your life. It is absolutely worth the investment of time, money, and energy to make this birth, a beautiful, positive, joyful memory. It is the only time you ever get to birth this baby. 

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When I am not talking about birth I am busy watching my beautiful boys learn all about this wonderful world. Teddy is a beautiful, vibrant, thriving little hypnobub (now a hypno-toddler) who loves adventure, and Renly is the most chill little person just happy to come along for the ride. I, myself, am a self confessed coffee addict (almond milk cappuccino, if you ever want to butter me up for something), and you will find me most mornings down at my local cafe after a morning walk through the forest. 

 

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