We received an Instagram notification, telling us that we had been tagged in a wonderful post from Amy Lane, whom Katharine has been teaching recently. Amy is the Digital Editor of Women’s Health Magazine and what follows is the text from her post. She demonstrates the power of our BRAINs acronym, which is a powerful decision-making tool, ensuring you make the right choices for you.
“The focus on how we look still remains a bigger conversation than how we feel but if has taught me anything, it’s never ignore internal messages, a gut feeling or a niggly thought.
In the space of a week I’ve gone from all is fine and somewhat sailing through the physical sides of pregnancy to a scare and important decisions. I didn’t see it coming and to be honest, I didn’t give it enough recognition when it happened. Thankfully, some tests and a new plan has put me on a new course for the last few weeks and one that should keep us, me and baby, safe.
The reason I’m sharing is because what’s really helped over the past few days is the hypnobirthing course I did last month with KGHypnobirthing. Rather than fill in all the blanks (before I’d seen the DRs) and go from fine to catastrophe in my mind in a second I was able to make confident, informed decisions. Which, is hard when your emotions are racing. I went to the hospital with a notebook of a questions and used this handy acronym (BRAIN) to make decisions.
B – what are the BENEFITS of this course of action?
R – What are the RISKS?
A – Are there any ALTERNATIVES?
I – What are the IMPLICATIONS of following this course of action? Will it make further INTERVENTIONS more likely?
N – What if we do NOTHING and wait for an hour or 2 before doing anything?
It helped me to decide whether to go ahead or politely refuse a course of action and discuss alternatives that perhaps, are less common but are available.
Pregnancy is so overwhelming and at times, I’ve felt like I’ve been forgotten because it’s all about the baby. Which of course, is priority but ensuring I maintain bodily autonomy and confidence throughout is also key for me. If you too have struggled with decisions/anxiety over choices you might find that hypnobirthing could help you.”
