I’m now 35 weeks and really feeling the aches now, my hips feel so tight and the nighttime leg cramping is real but other than that I can’t really complain, just need to get my hospital bag organised and the nursery! We had another fab live this week and I’m so excited to be able to show you, it was with Elise Tobias the founder of Birth Bubble who is a Hypnobirthing Coach and Doula, and this is who I did my hypnobirthing course with. I cannot recommend it enough for keeping you calm and informed on how labour works and more importantly all the choices we have when it comes to labour and our environment. Elise started her hypnobirthing career because, just like me, she was a nightmare when it came to blood tests and was known to faint at one of her first midwife appointments for her own first gorgeous little girl, Millie so she went away and was determined to do something to shift her mindset to be able to get through pregnancy and labour. A big anxiety reliever I took away from Elise is the knowledge she gives you on just what our bodies are doing during labour, once I knew why our bodies feel the pain it made all the techniques so easy to understand and then you can put the practises into place to be able to counteract the muscle pain through the techniques she can give you. We cover so many ways to be able to keep calm during labour which then keeps your adrenalin lower which in turn reduces the pain you would normally feel. Keep watching to see just what those techniques are as they are all things we can be doing from today onwards even down to ways to breath, acknowledging your anxiety triggers and finding ways to eliminate them, scents to keep around you and ways to utilise your birthing partner to make your experience as positive as possible. I was so happy to hear Elise confirm that it’s never too late to start these techniques, she has even taught a course whilst one of her ladies was in the very early stages of labour! I mention in the video that my birthing preference is to have a natural labour as much as possible but I totally understand that this may have to change depending on what happens at the time so another big relief is having Elise explain how these same techniques can be used no matter how your labour happens, so if you have a planned or unplanned C- Section or when you’re at the hospital you decide to have an epidural you can tailor all of these ideas to make sure you are happy, calm and confident going into any birthing situation. I hope you enjoy the live chat and can take away lots of tips. Also remember all us mums and mums to be are always catching up with each other over on The Mum Space Facebook group, sharing ideas, hacks, worries, tips and pretty much everything inbetween so feel free to come and join us!