Following her hypnobirthing teacher training course in Glasgow in April 2017, Abi Pratt has been delivering a variety of KGHypnobirthing classes around her main role of looking after her three children. She runs My Birth. Find out how she does it in this KGHypnobirthing teacher profile article.
Flexibility and no child-care costs
Abi runs the full 12-hour KGHypnobirthing parents’ course in many different ways to suit the couples she works with. The pregnant mum and her partner usually have their own preferences and alongside Abi’s availability, she runs the course bespoke to their needs, as intense weekends, or evenings / afternoons / mornings, usually as four sessions. Abi finds the supplementary income is useful and as she doesn’t incur the cost of child-care whilst she is working, she makes around the same level of salary as if she had returned to her professional role after maternity leave.
The locations where Abi delivers her courses are so flexible too – in her own home, in other peoples’ homes and via Skype. She offers courses throughout the year and the number she runs depends on couples’ preferences of private one-to-one sessions or group courses. Abi summarises it well and shows her hospitable side: “Anywhere where there’s a kettle, I’ll run a course!”
Supporting and guiding skills
As a qualified social worker, Abi is used to working in therapeutic environments and helping people to make positive choices in their lives. She has significant experience of empowering individuals and listening to help them to make decisions which are right for them. Abi also brings skills of signposting her clients to other services such as breastfeeding support to ensure they are connected to a helpful network around them before their baby arrives.
Abi highlights, “An important part of the KGHypnobirthing teacher training course is making sure that you are listening to the couple’s fears around birth and tailoring your course to their needs.” With experience in recovery after traumatic births, Abi is well placed to support couples who have had previous trauma. They have often let her know that it has changed their lives and say that their calm babies are due to the calm birth they had. Abi is delighted, “It can be so transformative and healing to people.”
Of the KGH course, she says, “There is so much content in the hypnobirthing parents’ course and it is so multi-faceted and completely individual that everyone comes away with different things. Birth partners particularly seem to really enjoy the role they can play within the birth.”
Empowering everyone to make positive birth choices
Visiting couples after their birth and hearing their positive birth stories, alongside having baby cuddles is a real highlight, especially seeing the transformation in them through the course and hearing the wonderful birth stories.
Being a hypnobirthing practitioner gives Abi freedom to book courses at times which suit her and fit around the needs of her family, “As the enquiries are in my control, I can look ahead and make sure my diary fits around other commitments before I confirm that I can deliver a course. Having a supportive husband helps so that I can deliver the sessions when it’s best for us as well as the clients – it’s a good balance between work and home.”
Planting a seed
First and foremost, Abi wants to spread the word about hypnobirthing, “I try and bring value to everyone I meet to dispel myths and provide education around birth, whether or not they go on to take my course. Anyone can be informed and make positive choices around birth and I can provide them with the additional support to make it a reality.” She emphasises the importance of networking when setting up a hypnobirthing business, “Get into your local community and start talking to local businesses.”
She advises new teachers not to expect too much initially as they need to put in the work and read as much as they can. She remarks, “It can be a challenge to deliver and generate consistent business. Learning to turn your quiet times into productive times is one of the most important lessons I’ve picked up in the past couple of years whilst starting out as a hypnobirthing instructor.”
“Allocating some of my earnings into marketing and using social media to encourage enquiries from potential clients have both been effective, but the most beneficial methods have been word-of-mouth, recommendations from friends and SEO, optimising my website to appear higher in the search rankings.”
Training with KGHypnobirthing
Abi became aware of hypnobirthing during her first pregnancy when a friend recommended it as an option. Her friend, a midwife, told her of the positive impact hypnobirthing has on mum and baby and she was right – Abi went on to have three very positive birthing experiences. Taking the plunge to be a hypnobirthing teacher was suggested by another friend who could see how Abi glowed with the positivity of her births and she thought it would be so good to share it with others so that they too could experience it.
“I was already a self-proclaimed fan of hypnobirthing and taking the KGHypnobirthing teacher training course meant that I could help others feel empowered to make positive choices around birth! A fantastic way to earn a living!”
Hypnobirthing teacher training courses are held regularly across the UK in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London, Manchester and York.
