It is fabulous that the word is spreading about the importance of not fixating on your due date.  Prima Baby Magazine have an article in their latest edition which quotes Katharine about the keeping your dates to yourself:

Unnecessary Stress

Katharine Graves, founder of KG Hypnobirthing and author of The Hypnobirthing Book agrees that fixating on due dates causes unnecessary stress for mums-to-be.

“All babies arrive on their due dates,” she says. “It’s simply that they don’t tell you what that date is until they get here!” She adds, “ There’s no such thing as a ‘late’ baby, only women who have different length pregnancies.”

We are very pleased to be featured in Mother & Baby Magazine (May 2016) with ‘The Secrets of a Hypnobirthing Specialist’ talking about keeping your due date quiet:

KEEP MUM!

Not telling family and friends your due date could help you stay calm as you prepare to give birth, says hypnobirthing specialist Katharine Graves.

‘The question that everyone asks you when you are pregnant is, “When’s the baby due?”

We were very happy to share the hypnobirthing journey with Suzanne Shaw and her fiancée Sam Greenfield. Suzanne’s gorgeous son Rafferty was born in a birthing pool at their home.

Suzanne has been very candid about her journey and how hypnobirthing not only transformed her birth experience but has provided her many new life skills.

“Raffi’s birth was brilliant, the birthing pool was fantastic. I was in active labour for 7 hours, 5 and a half I could say it was close to pain free. When I needed to start pushing was when I felt, this is labour, this is giving birth.”

“But because I had prepared myself, my breathing was in the right place, my mind was in the right place, my thought process was in the right place, I went with it and it was an incredible experience.”

“Afterwards I felt this overwhelming feeling of empowerment and the fact that I could just dance on the roof and think I could actually do anything, I am a super hero!”

The national papers have given Suzanne’s story some fantastic positive press. Below are some screen shots and links to the stories.

A fascinating article about one women’s experience of an orgasmic child birth. This is not a new phenomenon but is all too often dismissed and derided, as can be seen by the comments on the article. Quoted by the Daily Mail, Katharine gives further detail:

‘The hormone oxytocin has been described as the hormone of calm and of love. We produce it as we fall in love and make love and the biggest production of it is while giving birth.’

‘But the main thing that gets in the way is fear. Society believes birth is painful and traumatic and you can’t have produce adrenaline and oxytocin at the same time.’

Hypnobirthing, which teaches self-hypnosis, relaxation and breathing techniques to reduce fear and improve confidence during labour, is becoming more popular.

And Katharine predicts it may well lead to an increase in the number of orgasmic birth experiences.  For instance, one of her midwives recently assisted a couple during an orgasmic birth.

‘It was a home birth and they wanted low light and soft music throughout,’ she says. ‘Both of them were in bed and the partner was doing nipple and clitoral stimulation.  The midwife was only allowed in once an hour to check the baby’s heartbeat. She virtually had to crawl in to attach the heart monitor so as not to disturb them.  I believe it all worked out the way they wanted it to.’

Click here to read the full article.