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Since I left school I have studied child development from conception, and, as well as psychology and neurology, I have always loved the pregnancy and birth stuff. I once wanted to be a midwife and I still read midwifery text books for fun.When I decided to change career to one I was passionate about I first trained as a Doula and it blew my mind. I then wanted to train with a birth education company and I researched it all: Active Birth, Hypnobirthing of all kinds, NCT, Yoga, and some other lesser known programmes.
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I did a few. There were some I didn’t do and would still love to. Some of them were awesome.However, nothing ever offered everything I wanted to do, or fit what I wanted to teach perfectly, so as usual, I ended up doing my own thing; a mix of it all, but mostly from my instincts. Of course I became much more focused on babies and toddlers as the years went on due to circumstances and that has been wonderful, but birth always calls me back and many people suggested I write a programme. I refused on the basis that there are lots and lots of programmes already and some are really really good – many in fact.
So why? Why did I decide to create BirthCalm and how is it different? Because it is different…
Why do we need another birth programme?
I was driving my car one day, an activity that allows me to meditate on important ideas, and the concept of BirthCalm walked into my mind. Having said no to others so many times, I had never asked myself, and when I did… I said “actually, there is a gap in the market and some people, many in fact, really need this version of birth education”. The community needs this!The concept was simply, providing what we do with BabyCalm and ToddlerCalm: evidence, empowerment, empathy and equality. How is that different?
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We don’t give solutions. We inform. We talk about everything so parents understand the whole picture and have the tools to choose what to do next. We aren’t just another birth programme, we are actually promoting other birth programmes; as many as we feel are helpful. We guide parents to the right birth and the right learning for them, and we do it cheaply enough that they can afford to seek out others.
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To be honest, this simple concept existed for quite some time in my mind mostly but also as some random notes and frameworks. I needed to focus on CalmFamily as a community and I needed to get BabyCalm and ToddlerCalm in better order. It was in discussing my concept with some wonderful new BabyCalm consultants that it started to be real. Still we stayed in a holding pattern.It wasn’t until myself and Holly Heather (a long standing hypnobirthing instructor and awesome parenting consultant) realised that what we have each evolved as our own programmes are largely the same with a few differing ways of teaching and creativity around different specialisms of knowledge. That is when BirthCalm stopped being a concept and became a programme, and every time Holly and I develop it further we realise how very exciting a programme it is.
Why is BirthCalm so special?
Well I have kind of said it but in more detail, the concept means that we provide neuroscience, psychology, biology, physiology and tie it together in a simple format that anyone can understand. We never provide advice or solutions – ever. We talk about all the options, what they are actually doing for you and we support parents to make individual choices.
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We talk about hypnosis, yoga, mindfulness, movement and position, touch, wraps, birth preferences, caesarean birth, research, interventions, medication and on and on. We provide space for parents’ hopes and fears, their individual human needs and quirks and relationships. Most of all we give them the tools to have a calmer experience regardless of what happens and which path they take next.
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Importantly, it doesn’t cost the earth. The price point allows for parents to also go and learn deeper with whichever tools that they want to understand and practice more. This also means that people already working in birth, whether a doula, midwife, hypnobirthing instructor, yoga teacher or literally anything else, can run BirthCalm sessions as another option, a starting point and a wonderful structure to use. It can be used like a teaser trailer that is enough for some but can link to your other specialisms.
Being a CalmFamily consultant is pretty special too
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The thing is that when you train with CalmFamily and join our community, you do gain a family, and not the type that tell you what you are doing wrong and shames you at parties. You get a group of humans who want to chat about geeky birth and parenting stuff, who want to know your hopes and dreams and support you to achieve them, who live and breathe our approach to relationships and our values, and who put our mission for calmer relationships in the world first… always.
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We are raising the birth game and we want everyone to win
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So, what I am saying is, we are doing this mindfully and consciously of our amazing colleagues doing awesome birth stuff. We are not here to be another competitor. We want to be a collaborator, a team member and we want everyone whose genuine mission is to inform and empower families to successfully provide the education that works for their clients. Hopefully we will actually be a catalyst for more clients for everyone by letting parents know what awesome-ness is out there. And for parents we represent as always unbiased evidence, empowerment, empathy, equality, ethics and a drive for excellence in all we do.
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Right now, BirthCalm education is only being run in West Sussex by our programme leader Holly Heather and the feedback has been incredible. But now, it becomes a team sport. Want to play?
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