Pregnancy Support
Christine contacted me shortly after her first antenatal appointment at her GP surgery. She was still coming to terms with the realisation that her IVF cycle had been successful but felt anxious now that she was as she put it ‘in the system’ and no longer receiving the same level of support that reassured her during treatment at her former clinic.
When I spoke to Christine, it was clear that she lacked a great deal of confidence. Christine had completed a few IVF cycles over a three year period and whilst she was thrilled to be pregnant, she was incredibly anxious about doing something wrong and causing a miscarriage. Christine’s anxiety confessed to being paranoid about bathroom visits and was constantly checking that there were no signs of something going wrong. She said she reacted to every twinge in her pelvic region, fearing the worst. So, as part of Christine’s pre-session information gathering exercise, I asked her to list down all her thoughts, feelings and beliefs which were knocking her confidence so that we could clear these in session.
Christine arrived for therapy and much as I had suspected behaved in a very cautious manner. She was holding the banister to go up and down stairs and showing signs of panic when she needed to pay a bathroom visit. Christine listed three significant beliefs on her form which included ‘this pregnancy is a fluke won’t last’, ‘I don’t deserve this baby’ and ‘I lose everyone I love most’.
These three beliefs were certainly not doing anything to boost Christine’s confidence and in particular, the third statement caught my attention. Exploring this one a little deeper, Christine welled up as she explained that she had lost her younger sister when she was in her teens and her father had died suddenly when she was in the middle of her first round of IVF treatment three years earlier. These two traumatic events had been sitting in Christine’s system and were clearly still causing a great deal of fear and grief to surface. Christine’s anxiety and inability to see an optimistic outcome of straightforward pregnancy and birth were quite understandable and needed attention.
Over four sessions, we cleared the build up of emotions and the trauma of the two losses Christine had experienced in her family, as well as the loss experienced with her previous unsuccessful IVF cycles.
Christine’s transformation in confidence and self-belief was remarkable to observe. She started to wear more colour, stand taller and move much more freely, in particular, moving up and downstairs without gripping the handrail. She worked daily with a tailored hypnotherapy CD to boost her confidence and self-esteem and within a month she really was a completely different woman.
Christine joined me with her husband later in pregnancy to learn HypnoBirthing® so that she could relax and aim for a more natural birth experience. Her confidence continued to blossom and despite planning to birth in a hospital setting, her baby boy surprised her with a quicker than envisaged arrival at home.
If you would like to find out how I can help you clear negative emotions and support you through your pregnancy, visit my Pure Therapy and Essential Support programme pages. Alternatively, use the form below to drop me a line or call and speak with me directly on 01276 21386.
Conception & Birth Services
Pure Therapy Programme Brief therapy to dissolve your fears, phobias, anxieties and any emotional trauma. This programme focuses on calming your mind, restoring your confidence and self-esteem, giving you back a sense of control in your life as well as the clarity to make important decisions.
Essential Support Programme Regular, short check-in sessions by phone to keep you calm, relaxed, optimistic and positively focused between significant milestones from conception to birth. The therapeutic toolkit enables sabotaging emotional wobbles to be dissolved in an instant.
HypnoBirthing® Classes The ultimate in birth preparation classes to teach both you and your partner how to use hypnotic relaxation skills, special breathing techniques and endorphin releasing massage to manage the physical demands of labour and feel calm, relaxed and confident during the birth.
Parent Coaching Programme No baby arrives with a manual and few parents have endless hours to devour a ‘how to’ book. Parent coaching is a supportive route to helping you create your own practical solutions to whatever parenting challenges you are facing, in time sensitive short sessions.