Mindful Mamma, the UK’s first one day class combining mindfulness with hypnosis for birth was founded in 2008 by Sophie Fletcher, a clinical hypnotherapist, specialising in hypnosis for birth, and doula and Mia Scotland a clinical psychologist and doula. Both Mia and Sophie had been teaching hypnobirthing for a while, but felt that hypnosis for birth was shrouded in myth and was not accessible to many people. They were both adamant that more women should experience the benefits of this type of hypnosis for birth, so designed a class that was research based, financially accessible and ethically sound, led just by health professionals. Most of all it had to work.
Sophie and Mia’s experience in psychology of birth and as doula’s meant that together they really understood why women and their partners were anxious and unprepared and even afraid, and what could be done to help them. So after deciding something had to be done, Mindful Mamma was born in a pub, somewhere near Melton, in Leicestershire.
Our Philosophy with Hypnosis for Birth and Mindful Birth:
Mia and Sophie wanted Mindful Mamma not just to promote undisturbed birth and women’s confidence in their ability to birth but also to recognise that sometimes birth doesn’t go to plan and to be prepared for that. They also wanted to encourage the use of hypnosis for birth alongside mindfulness techniques for medicalised births, such as inductions and caesareans when it could improve a women’s experience and ownership of their birth.
Since then the hypnosis for birth and mindfulness class has gone from strength to strength and grown purely through word of mouth. Our class is always changing and adapting based on feedback and research, so up to date with the newest research and techniques. We don’t go over material you may have covered in your NHS or NCT class, we expand on it so it sits comfortably within existing birth frameworks. Our focus is on the mind and body connection and much more on the psychology of why women can birth without intervention or interference.
Mindful Mamma doesn’t have as many practitioners as other organisations because every single accredited practitioner we have has to fit the Mindful Mamma ethos and already be professionally trained in a talking therapy, or as a midwife or NCT teacher. We are the only hypnosis for birth organisation in the UK to do this. We choose to train no more than 10 hand picked practitioners a year so we can be sure that everyone is well supported, from our practitioners to our clients and their babies.
We have a few associate practitioners, those who have used it themselves, but come from different backgrounds such as teaching or training.
Our hypnosis for birth class prides itself on its professionalism and the general loveliness of our practitioners who take great care over what they are teaching.
- All our practitioners are insured
- All of our accredited members of their relevant professional body
- All of them undertake continuous professional development
Read more about our hypnosis for birth class here , check out the free hypnobirthing resources and enjoy browsing our site. You can also join our free Facebook community to keep abreast of what Mindful Mamma can do to help you have the birth you want and get some great support from likeminded women.
Happy birthing!