I grew up believing that birth was a horrible ordeal that people endured for the sake of their babies. I couldn't comprehend that people were choosing to do it when it seemed so painful, scary and traumatic. I grew up hearing about my Mum's own experiences, where she had a C-Section for my older sister, and an induced vaginal birth for me. She always said that both were so difficult for different reasons. Both sounded terrible and it made me dread the day I would have my own children.

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Anything I watched on TV also reaffirmed this fear of birth. From FRIENDS, to films, to soaps, all of it showed it being a scary and traumatic event.  Pair that with overhearing women discussing their births, hearing phrases such as, 'I was screaming...', 'I then got rushed to theatre...', 'Urgh never again...' and it's fair to say that all I knew about birth was trauma. Perhaps this is something you can relate to, too?​

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I had a friend who was pregnant before me, and she had used hypnobirthing through her pregnancy and birth. For the first time in my life, I heard positives around birth. When she told me her birth story I was truly moved by how beautiful it sounded after all the hard work she put in beforehand. Knowing there was another perspective of birth was life changing, and I knew that was something I wanted to apply when I had my own baby.