Hello Baby Brighton

14/04/2020

⭐️ POSITIVE BIRTH STORIES ⭐️ I’ve been working on this little series of bitesize birth stories from mums of mine who have given birth in the last three weeks. If you are pregnant, I hope these positive stories bring you encouragement, hope and reassurance. First up, we have Sammi’s story () who gave birth to her son right at the beginning of lockdown. 💛💚💙

27/03/2020

ARE YOU PREGNANT AND IN NEED OF A BIT OF SUPPORT? I am hosting a FREE online pregnancy meet-up every other Friday (probably until we’re allowed out the house again!) and I’m co-hosting with seven amazing women. First up - next Friday 3rd April - I’ll be with , a gorgeous ex-colleague of mine (back in the days!) who’s now an amazing Midwife and mum. DM me to book your space on our Zoom virtual meet-up: **1pm, Friday 3rd April** I’d love this to be a place where you can see you’re not alone in how you’re feeling, and hear some reassuring words from some experts. Exchanging worries, concerns, and any wins (big or small) with each other, and somehow finding the bigger picture together in this pretty overwhelming time as a pregnant mum-to-be. Who’s in??

23/03/2020

And we’re off! Our new normal for now. The kids have chosen their affirmations, decorated their workbooks, and we have banana bread 🍌 The big one is especially excited about ’s PE lesson starting in a minute! Feeling so grateful that it’s spring time as that’s always full of hope. 👊🏼 🌼

17/03/2020

FREE Positive Affirmations track for all you pregnant mamas ⭐️ I’ve recorded a 10 minute track for YOU if you are at any stage of pregnancy and are needing something to help make you feel calm, in these unsettling and unprecedented days. I’ve sent this out to all my clients this morning, but please feel free to share this with any pregnant mum you know, and I will send it to them for free ❤️ Just DM me your phone number and I’ll WhatsApp it straight over or organise to email it. Let’s stick together and do everything we can. Sending lots of love and calm thoughts, Laura ### 😘

16/03/2020

Navigating these strange, uncertain times feels really hard for everyone, I’m sure of it. I’m so grateful that we have the technology to stay in touch with each other. Sending voice notes, doing a Skype cuppa (or glass of wine!), picking up the phone. Our mental and physical health definitely has the capacity to be compromised and so I’m putting things in place to mitigate that as much as possible, and if you need help or ideas I would love to help you as best I can. My clients know I’m at the end of the phone anyway, but for anyone pregnant and feeling like they need support I can of course run my courses on Skype or Zoom. Given we may be in this for the foreseeable, we can only take each day as it comes and lift each other up. Tagging some accounts who you might like. Much, much love ❤️

14/03/2020

This poem is EVERYTHING 💔😭 Posted •

I remember
looking up at her;

wondering,
how could she just know?

the perfect rock,
that song that I liked,
how she smelled clean and warm,
like no one else could.

I knew I had the perfect mother.

She was fearless,
sure of what to do.

She made me laugh,
with just a look.

And I don't know where she learned it,
but she could take my pain away with just one squeeze.

What I didn't know,

was that time she watched me
while I slept,
because I had my first fever,
and she wanted to be sure I was okay.

Or when she questioned if going back to work was really the best option;
wondering if it would change things,
worrying that it would change us.

I didn't see her cry that night when I admitted that my biggest fear was dying.
Or that when she said those words that comforted me,
she wondered if those were actually the right things to say.

She was new at every stage.
But it didn't matter.
Not to me.

Because she knew me.
And what I needed.

I didn't love my mother because she was an expert on motherhood;
Just as I didn't love her any less because she was new.

I loved my mother because she was an expert on US.
On how she wanted it to feel. Us. Together. Navigating our newness at every stage.

I loved her for her love.

She knew everything,
and nothing.

And I loved her just the same.

And now that I am new,
like she once was,
and despite all of my fears -

I know,
that if I promise to lead us with love,
my baby,
it will be enough for us, too.💜

13/03/2020

Aaaaaand, relax. Sometimes pretty hard to, right?! Especially in the current climate, when full term, with two other kids, and mid-house-renovation like the gorgeous here 🤯 So I popped round this afternoon for an impromptu relaxation session, piling the positive messaging about her birth into her relaxed subconscious. Cannot wait to meet this little one! If you’re heading towards full term, remember ⭐️ Retreat off to listen to your MP3s, a positive birth podcast or affirmations tracks, at least once a day if you can ⭐️ Set boundaries with friends and family about how and when to contact you, or anything they can do to help you! ⭐️ Read an affirmation out loud each morning and keep it with you all day (make it your screensaver, stick it by the fridge!) ⭐️ Remind yourself of your choices at this stage of pregnancy and heading into your birth. I absolutely love .hill’s Birth Plan cards for this. ⭐️ Sending love and relaxation!

10/03/2020

Oh my heart ❤️ When you get so lucky to go and hold a 9 day old baby, whose parents are just absolute diamonds. you embody everything I love about Hypnobirthing and I’m so proud to have been part of your birth journey. You did it your way, which is just the bestest of ways. 💜

29/02/2020

Grid Worthy Salted Chocolate Peanut Brownies. 🤤 I can’t promise these will all still be here by the time today’s session starts, 😂😋 🍫

22/02/2020

🤰🏻 Group Course Ready! 🤰🏽

Teaching today I’m very stormy Brighton. Four lovely couples, a lot of banana bread and a balloon! 👫 🍌 🎈

11/12/2019

Good afternoon! It feels right to start talking about 2020 (HOW is that possible?!), so here is my first Brighton group course of the new year - 25th Jan and Feb 1st, 2020. If you swipe left, you can read what a few mums- and dads-to-be have said after learning Hypnobirthing with me. Please do spread the word if you know anyone who’s pregnant and would like to prepare for a positive birth experience 🥰 We talk quite a lot about poo 💩 but there’s always lots of laughs, learning about your body in labour, how it connects with your mind and how YOU can impact not only how you feel and how your body reacts, but also be front and centre of your birth, with confidence. Direct link in bio to book, or message me here. Now, back to finishing off 2019! 💫 @ Brighton and Hove

12/11/2019

The BEST kind of texts to receive 💓

26/09/2019

Excuse me please where have three years gone to...??! My first ever client’s baby is 3 next month! I feel mighty privileged to have worked with so many incredible couples in that time, all with one thing in common: that they want to approach birth differently. Different to their first birth, or different to how society feels they should give birth. To regain confidence; to know their options; to learn how to create calm. I’ve taught partners, friends, mums, husbands and wives how to be the best birth partner they can be, informing and empowering them to be confident oxytocin warriors of the birth room! And of course the mamas... beautiful women in every way; allowing them to believe they can be in control of how they feel about their birth, what informed choice actually is and means in birth, and teach them real techniques to cope with all that pregnancy and birth brings. To challenge the status quo and to start looking at birth differently. There have been home births, hospital births, water births, Caesareans (both in-birth and elective), epidurals, gas and air, waters releasing first, or just before birth, super short births and longer ones - because Hypnobirthing isn’t a type of birth, it’s how you feel, exercising informed choice, having a toolkit to use to undertake ANYthing birth brings. Siblings have met for the first time, there have been many a birth of brand new parents, and a huge amount of love. My respect and awe for the female human body just grows and grows every day; the physical and mental ability of the women I’ve taught has been humbling and incredible to watch and be a part of. Thank you mamas and your wonderful supports for letting me be a part of your story. Bring on the next three years!

19/09/2019

When friends become clients and when clients become friends 🥰 Yes I get massively emotionally invested in the couples I teach, and when you get post-birth highs like this it just makes my day/week/month/life! Emily you have become such a true friend, I’ve LOVED watching you transform over the last 9 months, you worked your butt off for that empowering birth you’ve just had, I love watching our girls playing together (and fighting over a scooter!) and I cannot wait to get Rocky in for a cuddle! I love baby news!! 🙌🏼🎉😍🥰💓 Read her caption below, it’s just wonderful 💜

Posted • 📎 THANKFUL🖤

Thankful for this body. It’s been through a lot over the years but I’m so proud of it. My b***s are full and in pain, my insides are contracting and moving down, my pelvis is wide, im bleeding, my lungs hurt from the deep breathing of a magical but intense labour but I am so happy, grateful and relaxed.

Thankful for the amazing midwife who guided me but believed in me. Who let me birth our baby freely at home and without interfering.
Thankful for who made me believe I could have my empowering birth.
For Dom who held my hand and told me I was safe and strong.
For my first born who slept through it all!
And for baby Rocky, who is healthy gorgeous and so calm! She knew exactly what to do and although she made us wait far too long... she arrived very quickly!! -
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-
-

09/08/2019

📎 This is so interesting! (link in bio)

www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/uk-wales-49280154

I always ask my mums to consider taking an eye mask into their birth, mainly to block out what you don’t want/need to see. It can also serve as a visual sign to others that you don’t want to be disturbed! But virtual reality headsets could be amazing to transport you to you happy Oxytocin place, help with visualisations and bring calmness. What do you think?! 👓 👀

16/07/2019

👫👭 GROUP COURSE ⭐️
My next Group Hypnobirthing course is 17th and 24th August, 9:30am-1:30pm in Fiveways, Brighton. If you know anyone pregnant in the area then we’d love them to join us! Perfect for Oct/Nov/Dec due times. Check out my Courses page (link in bio) for what it includes (aside from all the biscuits) ❤️

09/07/2019

What an absolute JOY it was to teach this one today. I met 11 years ago when she came to work for me. I was her ‘Battenburg’ and she was my ‘Petitbec’ (long story, but also as a side note-to-self, perhaps my leadership style is a touch over-friendly 😂). Fast forward to now, she’s living in Dubai with her husband, has come home to the UK to give birth, and we did my short express Hypnobirthing masterclass today in the Seaford sunshine. The difference between how she’s feeling and talking about birth even since I arrived this morning is ridiculous- such a big change and shift and I’m beyond proud (yet again) of her. Cannot wait to meet this little baby! 🥰

08/06/2019

Well, there you go! 💪🏼 🤰🏻

Can we finally recognise what growing and pushing out)a human entails? says Guardian columnist Suzanne Moore

30/05/2019

🔔 JULY GROUP COURSE DATES 🔔
If you are due in September/October then these dates are perfect for you - but even August mamas can benefit with still lots of time to practice! With my course you get ⭐️ A copy of ‘Your Baby Your Birth’ by Hollie de Cruz ⭐️ A brilliant little Course Companion full of practical help, course content and other essentials to take with you to your birth ⭐️ 3 MP3s for use in practice and during birth ⭐️ My support until your baby is born, with a WhatsApp group and access to the wider YMBP community ⭐️ All refreshments and yummy snacks throughout the course ⭐️ And a goody bag to take away ⭐️ £250 per couple/birth team. DM or email me (link in bio) for more info, a free phone chat or to book. ❤️

23/05/2019

🤩 GROUP COURSE BEFORE AND AFTER 🤩
A copyrighter, a hairdresser, a surgeon, and a giftware designer (people have such cool jobs!) arrived a few weeks ago with their birth partners to embark on my May group Hypnobirthing course. On their last night, I asked them to write down how they felt before starting the course, versus how they felt now. I read them all when I got home and I actually shed a tear/some tears/lots of tears (it still gets me! Every piece of feedback and every birth story!) Literally in black and white staring at me was why I do this; to empower women to trust their body, the birthing process and to give them and their birth partners tangible, practical tools to have a positive experience, no matter how or where they give birth. Feeling pretty lucky ❤️💕🤩

07/05/2019

I was trying to write a post about the obstetrician’s comment this weekend about Meghan’s *informed choices* about her own birth... then .hill did it perfectly! Read the caption below, it’s so so important 👏🏼👏🏼

Posted • Over the weekend two things happened in our patriarchal birth world. The wonderful Meghan had her baby. We're not sure where, but we're pretty sure from Harry's that it was the empowering and amazing experience she wanted.
The other thing that happened was a UK obstetrician was caught red handed mocking Meghan, telling a conference of fellow Obs she wanted 'a Doula and a willow tree' at her birth. 'Let's see how that goes', he sneered, to raucous laughter.
By 'willow tree' he was implying 'all natural', like saying 'whale music' or 'birthing in the woods with foxes'. He was taking the p**s, basically.
This is such a familiar narrative and the only real surprise is he was naive enough to say it without apology on a public platform. In over ten years of working in the birth world, I've lost track of the number of times I've seen women mocked and belittled for daring to think they could have a woman centred experience in a world that continues to repeat the message that 'a healthy baby is all that matters'. I have just written a book about the misogyny that is hiding in plain sight in modern maternity care. Comments like this suddenly expose it, but it's there all the time. Non royal women experience it daily.
His comments show how threatened the obstetric profession can be by a woman who has done her homework and wants to be the key decision maker in the room. His remark, 'Let's see how that goes" is actually pretty chilling, as it implies that he and others would take some enjoyment if her birth became complicated. 'We knew better than the silly girl all along', one imagines them saying. Doctor knows best luv.

I've seen these attitudes time and time again. Time to stand up to this and call BS.
Oh and fair play Meghan, you smashed it. 💪

03/05/2019

strikes again with her hugely impactful poetry, and total shoulder-love! Aren’t we just all pretty mean about our own bodies?? What’s your favourite bit of yours, whether you’re pre- or post-babies? There’s got to be something you love. I’ve got to say, my shoulders are pretty poetry-worthy too 👌🏻

Posted • ###

02/05/2019

Gemma’s right; it’s not a perfect article but there are MANY gems in here, worth a read. I hope Meghan hides away in some big pants for as long as she likes!!

In China, mothers are expected to sit down for a month after giving birth. Here we seem to have lost our respect for that sacred period of reflection and recovery

23/04/2019

I’m teaching at home tonight, and I do love how my little sign coincidentally matches my logo! 🥳 One child’s in bed (I know you’re teething but if you could not cry until around 9:45pm that would be great), the other is playing cards with his dad upstairs with strict instructions to brush his teeth *quietly*, hubby’s eating a Leon takeaway salad on the bed as “no food can be cooked I want it to smell nice in here!” .... it’s all smooth behind the scenes here 😂🤣

31/03/2019

My job (which I love 💕) allows me to meet so many mothers, waiting to meet their babies. It also sees me getting to know mothers who are navigating pregnancy after loss. Mothers who are having their mums as their second - or only - birth partner. Mothers who are frightened of becoming a mum, and those who cannot wait. Mothers who have lost their own mum. Step-mothers. Stressed mothers and feeling-guilty mothers. Mothers who aren’t yet mothers with a baby in their arms, but mothers still nonetheless. Mothers who are so head-over-heels in love for the very first time. No matter how Mother’s Day makes you feel, I urge you to be kind to yourself. With all my love 💕💕💕 ###

16/03/2019

I just love it when clients tell me how useful they’re finding their Hypnobirthing techniques in pregnancy-related situations. Everything you learn is not just for the birth; it’s so needed in those final few months of pregnancy, too! But what is key here, is that lovely who sent me this, has been so committed to her practice. The cumulative effect means that using her new skills at her many appointments is now second nature. I literally cannot wait to meet this baby, however she arrives!! 🥰

07/03/2019

If you are a new parent (or soon to be new parent!) in Brighton & Hove, you absolutely must look Sarah up . Get yourself together with some new mum friends and Sarah can come to one of your homes to reach you everything you need to know about baby first aid. So important, and she makes it so fun! Sarah’s even taught my eldest son and his school mates basic first aid which is amazing. Thank you so Sarah for everything you do!

with
・・・
Just back from this gorgeous home class with seven lovely mums and their babies! The babies were so well-behaved and everybody enjoyed the class ☺️💞
To book your home class 🏡 email
[email protected]

10/02/2019

What a weekend! Today was the final session for my lovely February group course (love how all the dads are clutching the books!), and I also got news from one of my December mamas that she absolutely ACED her birth, and that baby girl arrived earth-side this morning! Receiving her message, describing how she felt completely in control throughout, and how much hypnobirthing had helped them, reduced me to tears mid-cookie baking with my boy. He of course wanted to know why I was crying, and I do love explaining to him how these women felt powerful and strong (physically and mentally) in their births. I hope this helps him learn that birth isn’t necessarily what the movies lead you to believe. I feel so incredibly lucky to be a little part of these birth stories 🥰

19/12/2018

Absolute girl crush absolutely bossing it right there. What an incredible image by 😲 I’ve pumped and loved it (100ml in 5 mins, wooo!), pumped and hated it (it hurts/I feel chained to the house/I got 2ml in 10mins...), felt like a totally supreme mama whose milk is like gold, and equally also felt like a milking cow attached to a buzzing machine only to have my daughter not accept said milk in anything other than its original packaging anyway... What an absolute marvel it all is though, eh? Rachel McAdams; Queen! 👑 🍈 🍈 🥛 🍼 ❤️

24/11/2018

• B I R T H P A R T N E R S •
I’ve just finished a lovely 1:1 session with a second-time mum. Her hubby was ill, so her other birth partner (her best friend) came along instead. I’ve taught couples before where they’ve brought their mum along who planned to be at the birth, but I’ve never taught two friends together. And wow, it was just the most fantastic dynamic! Birth partners, whatever shape they take, are SO integral in Hypnobirthing, but there was something so special about this little team they’d created. I had both my husband and my friend at my birth, and that team was perfect to me. Something very lovely indeed about women supporting women ❤️ Here’s to birth teams of all shapes and sizes ☺️👫👭