…the hynotherapy techniques that we learnt in your class last year were definately used every step of the way, especially rainbow relaxation and the affirmations.

The 2 midwives that were present for the birth and my obstetrician were all shocked at the fact that I had just calmly delivered a 9 pound baby, without tearing! I just kept repeating “Melissa taught me” hahaha and my husband explained we had done a course with Hypnobirthing Australia.

My midwife was so impressed with how i handled my contractions, the support and connection my partner josh had with me and how i got through an ordeal most women would call too much with a smile on my face that she has asked me for Melissa’s details and wants to attend the Hypnobirthing course herself.

(Lynsey and Matt learnt Hypnobirthing via Skype Sessions.) …the best relief I found was in the shower listening to surge of the sea. I had listened to it and the affirmations so much in the lead up that I found your voice Melissa so comforting. Matt spent hours holding my iphone out of the water in the shower!!

And at the end, the midwife didn’t even realize I was so close until I said I can feel something (which turned out to be her head haha) Sheldon received her into his hands and it was a moment of joy that he will never forget.

I was very comfortable, so after seeing Jason off to work at 5.30am I went back to sleep until mid-morning. In the afternoon Jason and I went for a walk through the market and pools at the beach at South Bank. My waves of sensations were coming exactly every 5 minutes for around 30 seconds. I was still extremely comfortable and each time a wave came I was relaxed and breathed calmly.

Andy explained that he could see our babies head and proceeded to ask whether they could get the water baths ready (we were going to be having a water birth)…he was promptly told to “get off the bloody phone and call the ambulance). The ambulance officers arrived within minutes and after two more surges Archie was born…at HOME!!! They couldn’t believe how fresh I looked and kept asking whether I was in pain and needed any relief.

Abby Madeline (2890g/47.5cm) & Ruby Mackenzie (2845g/49cms) were naturally hypnobirthed into the world on Monday 22nd April! Babies & mum are going great guns (what a difference a drug free birth can make)!!!

I’m not sure if you remember but I was still sceptical about not pushing. Well Clara made her way out without one single push from me. I now understand the concept of breathing a baby down.

In all honesty I can say I never experienced real ‘pain’, only very intense pressure and tightenings. Just as you taught in class, I let go of all fear & tension and fully relaxed into the surges, trusting my body to know what to do and it worked – better than I ever could have wished.

Thank you for helping us to have the birth experience that we didn’t know was possible. I hear so many bad experiences or so many people with fear, and I tell them, “have a hypnobirth, it was amazing” and I think they look at me in disbelief. At the time the money was a lot for us, especially since we had just bought a place, relocated to Coffs from Sydney, and then had to get to Brisbane after Christmas and pay for a hotel. But at the end of it all, it was worth every cent!! We were completely prepared, knew exactly what to do and pretty much delivered the baby on our own, which was very empowering.

Simon was right by my side the whole time helping me with encouraging words and keeping me on track with breathing correctly. The affirmations that I had practised daily were going through my mind. Each time a surge came on I reminded myself to breathe through it. All the skills that we learnt from you were put into practice. I kept saying to myself’ I trust my body to know what it is to do’. An hour and forty minutes later out came a calm and relaxed beautiful little girl.

Hypnobirthing gave us the tools to make informed decisions during our birth, allowed us to talk at the same level as the medical staff, allowed us to ask questions to become better informed. I don’t know how we could have done it without you Melissa. We were prepared to face any situation our birth was going to take us.

I want to thank you so much for teaching me (Skype sessions) the tools I used through my birth, without you, my birth would have been horrific. Even though it was a very long couple of days I was still able to manage and was more than impressed with what I achieved!! So thank you so much for helping me achieve my perfect birth. I have a very calm baby because of the way she was brought into the world