My journey began in 2020 when I had an unnecessary induction that left me feeling like I had missed out on an important part of motherhood. When I went in for my scheduled induction, I learned it was an “elective induction”. I was confused because I never “elected” for this induction. I thought there was a true need for it prior to this moment. In fact, I told my doctors several times I didn’t want to be induced. After the induction, I felt so disconnected from my body and my baby. I was still trying to process the birth and held quite a bit of shame around it. Breastfeeding also didn’t work out due to my own lack of education and support team. Since I had this disconnect from my body, I couldn’t really hear my intuition. Not surprisingly, I developed postpartum anxiety and questioned everything instead of my gut. I trusted everything and everyone besides me! I logged everything from how long he slept to how much he ate. I made insane schedules right down to the minute. I had also just recently quit my job which had been my focus for the last 5+ years. I didn’t even recognize myself. It took a lot of inner work and therapy to start to trust my instincts once again.
Fast forward to planning our second baby. I wanted to learn all I could. I had the hardest time processing my breastfeeding journey ending much sooner than I desired. I wanted to understand why it didn’t work out and what I could do to help make it as positive as possible. I picked up a book about breastfeeding and learned so much about what went wrong and how my birth experience had a lot to do with it. I didn’t feel like a failure anymore. I realized many women had the same story that I did. While I didn’t necessarily feel better that others experienced this; I did feel less alone. Once I found out I was pregnant with my second, I realized I couldn’t go through the birth experience that I went through with my first. It just was not an option. Even having gone through birth once before, I didn’t feel any more prepared than I did before giving birth. I didn’t know what a real contraction felt like or what spontaneous labor looked like. So, I started my research. I read every book I could about childbirth, listened to podcasts, and immersed myself in positive birth stories. That’s what led me to hypnobirthing. I took a class and felt so prepared to have a positive birth experience. I took the preparation very seriously. I practiced my breathing exercises regularly, listened to my affirmations every day and listened to the relaxations every night. Whenever I felt anxious, I would listen to the Fear Release relaxation which was very helpful to me. Once labor started, I got into a deeply relaxed state and had very quick labor. I have never been the same person since. I know that sounds dramatic, but it’s true! I was on a birth high. I had an incredible postpartum and breastfeeding journey following it too. I think it’s important to note that my breastfeeding journey was not easy. I had all the same issues that I had with my first, but this time I knew what to do. I used my hypnobirthing techniques to stay calm and know that we would both get through it.
The feeling was indescribable, and I also realized that I needed to teach other women this. I felt deeply called to help prevent what I went through the first time. I contacted my instructor and found out how to get in touch with Liz. I started my training when my second son was just a couple months old. I started posting on my social media about my business at the same time to start gaining a following and start connecting with others. By the time I was done training, I had already booked my case study client. I will say it took me awhile to find someone and there were many times I had to talk myself out of throwing in the towel. I practiced the entire class with my mom and sister, so I felt really prepared to deliver the class. My case study went great, and my clients gave me really great feedback. It was really exciting to finally be helping people.
Then about 5 months went by, with absolutely no clients. Nothing.
I kept posting on my social media, posting into Facebook groups, and just talking to people about my classes, but there were many times I questioned whether this was something that I should be doing. I felt imposter syndrome and sometimes even felt embarrassed. What if people thought this was silly? In fact, I heard through a friend of a friend that someone thought it was silly! It sort of hurt in the moment, but I really truly believed in hypnobirthing and what I was doing. I had such an amazing experience with it and I just knew that others could too. I never wanted another person to ever enter into motherhood the way I did. So, I kept pushing on and just kept believing in myself and my ability to be able to help people.
Then out of nowhere, someone reached out to me. It was a friend of a friend, and she said she loved my social media. Wow—it finally paid off and is making a difference, I thought to myself. Then about a week later, another person signed up and then another! I had two months booked up after 5 months of nothing. Then this just kept happening! It still honestly amazes me. As of right now, I will have had 5 months booked back to back. My definition of booked may be different than other people as well. Right now, I am doing 1-1 and only take 1 couple every 4 weeks. That seems manageable to me and I can really focus on them. That’s what feels right to me. I truly believe where the focus and attention goes, energy flows. If you keep pushing, eventually it’s all going to pay off.
The lives that Liz does in the instructor Facebook group really helped me stay focused too. I watched her live on how to get clients and she had talked about hosting a Walk & Talk. I felt really called to host one because building community is so important to me. I wanted to get out into the community because I feel the village for new moms is non-existent. I want to be that village for new moms. The response was overwhelming. This was really needed in my community. It’s now something I do every month. This was something I would have never considered, and I was so grateful Liz talked about it. It helps so much knowing that I was never alone in this, and I could always reach out to her for anything. Which I did many times! This is the most rewarding work I have ever done. I was talking to Liz the other day about how I feel that I need to do this work. I do feel we, as hypnobirthing instructors, can change the world with the way babies are born.
Check out Shelby’s website here or her Facebook page here
If you want to know more about training to teach hypnobirthing take a look here
