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Alexandra James (AJ) – The PT Midwife

Hackney & Islington, London, England

KGHypnobirthing is the missing piece to the puzzle to enable you to feel confident during your pregnancy and labour. I’ll cover the mechanics of labour and how the mind and body are intrinsically linked, helping you to overcome fears related to childbirth that are so often prevalent in our society. I will teach you practical relaxation exercises that you and your partner can practice and feel empowered by, to help achieve the right birth for you, whatever that might look like. I’ll also consider some of the evidence surrounding birth choices and break through the medical jargon to help you to make informed decisions and feel confident in asking questions with regards to your maternity care.

KGHypnobirthing allows you to break down preconceived ideas about birth and build new ones in a safe and supportive space. I have seen how successful KGHypnobirthing can be in my day (and night!) job as a midwife and am excited to be able to offer this to the clients I meet. My experience in the clinical setting means I am able to perfectly combine the power of KGHypnobirthing with a practical hospital-based application of these tools to enable couples to have the most empowering and calm birth possible.

Hi! I’m AJ, a KGHypnobirthing teacher, NHS midwife, ‘Bump & Baby Club’ antenatal teacher, level 2 personal trainer, baby massage instructor and all-round supporter of kick-ass women! I have a totally holistic approach to women’s health and am so passionate about KGH in providing simple yet effective tools to help women to thrive during pregnancy and beyond. I currently work at a busy London hospital, on a midwife-led unit rated ‘outstanding’ by the Care Quality Commission (CQC). The scope of my knowledge and experience in pregnancy, birth and everything after gives me incredible insight into what individuals can achieve as their woman-born right. I have taught KGHypnobirthing for over 5 years with clients all over the world including parts of Europe, the Caribbean and Dubai, so you will be in very safe, experienced hands!

For more information about pregnancy, exercise, midwifery and booking on to my baby massage class, check out my instagram page @theptmidwife. You can also drop me a message on there if you have any questions!

From P&J:

Thanks to the winning combination of the KGH hypnobirthing course and AJ as our coach, my husband and I were able to have the home birth we wanted when welcoming our son into the world this May. 

The course is so much more than just learning hypnobirthing techniques – it equips you to be knowledgeable about the physiological processes taking place at birth and the background behind the maternity care which is available. Thanks to the course I had unwavering confidence in my body’s ability to give birth plus the confidence to know (and if need fight for) my rights when it comes to maternity care.

I went into labour at 6pm five days ahead of my due date in May. 10 hours later our son was born at home in a water bath. This would never have been possible without the breathing and visualisation techniques we learnt through the KGH course. I felt very well prepared and positive about my body’s ability to cope which I wholeheartedly thank AJ for.

From H:

I can honestly say that I have never felt more prepared in my entire life. I was confident, looking forward to going into labour (I realise that might sound weird) and feeling completely ready to embrace what was to come. I know that the relaxations and affirmations that I had learned and practised on the KG Hypnobirthing course were fundamental to me feeling this way. I would wholeheartedly recommend AJ if you’re thinking of doing the KG Hypnobirthing course. She has a deep understanding thanks to her experience – so you know she knows exactly what she’s talking about which is extremely reassuring, and means all your questions are answered comprehensively. Plus – she clearly loves what she does, is a brilliant advocate for women and has a wonderful energy to boot.

From T:

I honestly cannot thank AJ enough for the brilliant hypnobirthing sessions that truly contributed to my positive birthing experience. Looking back at the labour, I don’t know how I would have managed our journey without the tools and the positive outlook that hypnobirthing gave both myself and my husband.

At 31 weeks, to my surprise I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes (GDM), which threw a spanner in the works as, depending on how it is managed, it can dictate your birthing plan. It was at this point that we started hypnobirthing as the GDM diagnosis made me increasingly anxious about the rest of pregnancy and I needed a way to regain some control of my own. After our sessions with AJ, I have never been so grateful for the visualisations and breathing techniques, as these got me through the early stages of labour without anyone believing that I was actually having incredibly strong contractions. Hypnobirthing definitely empowered me to take what control I could from whatever situation came my way as nothing had gone to plan – without which I don’t think I would have had as positive an experience as I did. 

From A&S:

I started having very mild surges on Monday morning and began using the up breathing to get into the habit for later in the process. We went for a walk and then watched a couple of films and by about 10pm things were starting to ramp up. By about 11am I was finding the surges really tough and they were coming more frequently so we went back to hospital to discover I was 7cm! I got straight into the pool and within an hour started to feel the urge to push. I was pushing for about 3 hours in the end but it was completely primal, my body just took over! The hypnobirthing techniques you taught me and S undoubtedly got us through the day, so thank you so much for helping us and being part of our experience.

From C&H:

From the moment we found out we were pregnant with our first child, I was very apprehensive about what the birth would be like and set about trying to make sure I was as informed as possible without scaring myself too much! With this goal in mind, I turned to AJ for advice and signed up for her hypnobirthing course. She was happy to answer all our questions and we particularly loved the guided meditations and her help with creating our birth preferences. 

Ultimately, we had a challenging labour with some curveballs along the way and the goal of a straightforward birth wasn’t what our son had in store for us. But in spite of this, I have only positive things to say about my birth experience and the care we received from the medical professionals in hospital. A large part of that is down to the oxytocin-boosting prep we’d done thanks to AJ! 

I feel so positive about how it went and proud of what I achieved. Thanks to AJ, we felt confident advocating for what we felt was right at the time throughout the labour. While it wasn’t the textbook ‘perfect’, pain-free birth I had hoped for, I wouldn’t change a thing about it. And we’re so happy with our now 4-week old son. Thank you, AJ – we couldn’t have done it without you!

From F&R:

Delighted to share pictures of baby boy C who arrived safely and calmly in December! We are so grateful for all of your help with the hypnobirthing and breastfeeding advice – it really made a difference to our birth experience. Most valuable for me, was awareness of our options (particularly given early waters breaking) and really good communication in advance as a couple about what we wanted so that I didn’t feel any need to get out of my oxytocin bubble to communicate with medical staff on the day. It was such an empowering experience and hugely positive, I’ll be sharing my birth story with my mum friends to be (if they want to hear it!) I feel incredibly proud and privileged to have been able to bring C into the world in this way.

From E&A:

When my waters broke on Friday morning, I began focusing on my breathing. While the surges were growing in frequency and intensity, I felt totally in control. There were even times when I was actually enjoying myself, dancing round the hospital with my husband, swaying like we were at the school disco. I had always hoped to have a natural birth with as little intervention as possible. As labour progressed, it was clear that this wasn’t going to be possible and a c-section was going to offer the safest delivery for my baby. Despite this being my most-feared outcome, thanks to AJ and all the techniques and fact-based knowledge she imparted, I felt completely empowered and confident to advocate for myself and my baby as events unfolded. This totally meant we still had a really calm and positive experience. Thinking back on it now makes me feel emotional at how strong I was. I cannot thank AJ enough, for all her wonderful support and guidance ahead of the arrival of our little baby boy.

From F&H:

Undertaking hypnobirthing with AJ was one of our best decisions during pregnancy. AJ is passionate and knowledgeable, and helped empower us to feel confident and calm about the upcoming birth. We really enjoyed our time with AJ as she creates a safe space to learn and practice, and importantly to have a laugh together.

For me, understanding the connection between the mind and physiological changes the body goes through helped me embrace the process and appreciate how incredible our female bodies are! 

We had a wholly positive natural birth – my waters broke at 1am whilst in bed and I was able to immediately tap into techniques to keep calm and try and snooze. I used up breathing with TENS through the morning, working with each surge in a positive mindset. My husband was also able to take an active and highly informed role during labour which was invaluable. Baby G was safely born in the hospital birth pool that afternoon. We are exceedingly thankful to AJ for her support along our journey and would highly recommend her expertise to anyone considering a natural birth – she is fantastic!!

From S&D:

We had a great time learning all the benefits of hypnobirthing with AJ. It was something we could do as a couple for our pregnancy which would connect us during the pregnancy and labour. The stories and scripts are so relaxing! 

Personally, I found that my mind wandered a lot during my contractions, but hearing D tell me to remember my breathing techniques and speak the familiar stories kept me focused. For us, our birth wasn’t completely what we had envisioned but using hypnobirthing allowed us to stay focused and facilitated a relaxed and empowering birth environment nonetheless. Our beautiful baby boy was born into a calm room and to well informed parents. Thank you AJ for all your love and support! We can’t recommend her enough :)

From L&M:

I wanted to let you know that our little one arrived yesterday evening- he’s still minus a name! All a bit of a shock as everything was pretty speedy! My waters broke around 10:30pm on Tuesday night, and thankfully labour got underway on its own mid morning and we were able to make our way to the birth centre per our plan. Little man arrived in the pool and I delivered the placenta in there too naturally. At the end he was pretty quick! It took me a moment to realise he was in the pool and needed picking up!

Huge thank you to you for helping us prepare for the birth so well. I honestly feel so grateful to you for your support and pretty much everything in the plan happened. After waking up yesterday feeling nervous about the prospect of induction I can’t believe it all went so well and he’d arrived by dinner time! Thank you so so so much! I honestly am not sure I’d have had the same outcome yesterday if we hadn’t done the hypnobirthing with you in the run up. 

I offer the course both in person (North and East London predominantly, but do reach out if you are elsewhere!) and online, as 1:1 sessions or in a small group if you have any other friends who are also pregnant and wanting to join us! The course can be catered to your needs, so please get in touch so we can find how best I can help you achieve the most positive birthing experience possible.