Nancy Keen is a mother, KGHypnobirthing (KGH) trainer and teacher. She runs Birth Right Hypnobirthing and has been a teacher trainer with KGH for many years. She makes her teaching fit around her family – they even get involved in welcoming couples onto her courses!
A whole family of hypnobirthers
Nancy discovered hypnobirthing when she was pregnant with her first daughter. She signed up a parents course to help her overcome her initial fear of birthing. She says, “when my first daughter was put on my chest, after birth, I promised that one day I would teach this amazing method.” 
Now a mother of three, Nancy teaches groups of parents, twice a month at her home in Buckinghamshire. When her son was tiny, she would teach couples with him in a sling! She has a hypnobirthing teaching room at her home, and now the children are older, they are the ones who greet couples and make them drinks. She says they are some of the biggest advocates of hypnobirthing because it has been around them since the moment they took their first breath!
The thing she loves about her work is seeing “the hundreds of families that I have witnessed going from scared of birth to excited for labour to start”. She loves hearing all their wonderful birth stories and the baby cuddles that follow!
An investment in their future
However, even after more than twelve years of teaching, Nancy still finds it a challenge getting the word of KGHypnobirthing ‘out there’. She says there are still many misconceptions about hypnobirthing and educating parents that spending money on physical things for their baby such as changing tables or bottle warmer, is no comparison to preparing them mentally and physically for their baby’s birth. It is an investment in their future.
As well as teaching couples, she is also one of our fantastic KGH teacher trainers and says she loves letting teachers know HOW to teach, not just WHAT to teach. Her passion of birth, her humour and her ever growing birth knowledge makes her one of the best there is.
Birth nerds!
To overcome these obstacles she says “I try and talk to as many people as possible.
Taster sessions, talking to midwives so they understand the benefits of hypnobirthing, giving talks at pregnant mother’s groups.” She educates herself in order to educate her parents and the teachers she trains. She reads and learns every single day and loves meeting “fellow birth nerds”! She is constantly in touch with her local midwives and uses this information to help teach her parents. Word of mouth is her best channel for promoting her business.
Time, experience and confidence is all you need!
What advice would she give to a newly qualified teacher? “Get out there and talk to as many people as possible. The only difference between you and me as a teacher, is confidence, time and experience, and that will only change with time and experience, so jump in and teach!”
Hypnobirthing teacher training courses are held regularly across the UK in Birmingham, Bristol, Glasgow, London, Manchester and York.
