On today's podcast I chat with best-selling childbirth author Sophie Fletcher about how you can best prepare for a positive birth. Sophie, a clinicial Hypnotherapist, is also the founder of Mindful Mamma, an organisation that, among other things, runs classes for parents to be to prepare for a calm, confident and positive birth. Sophie's book Mindful Hypnobirthing, is a really great read to help you get your head in a good place prior to birth... and it comes with free downloads! I was reading her book during my second pregnancy last year and I would definitely urge you to get yourself a copy.

I spoke to Sophie for this interview during my own pregnancy last year - I was 7 months pregnant during our chat - as I originally approached her to come on to my Head Trash Show podcast. This was before I decided to write my own book and start this podcast. But once I had decided to launch the Fear Free Childbirth podcast, I decided to save our chat for this instead. And I'm glad I did as it's perfect!  Sophie is so knowledgable about so many aspects of childbirth and birth preparation that if preparing and looking forward to positive birth is high on your list, then listenting to what Sophie has to say is a great place to start.

Preparing for a positive birth

During our chat Sophie talks about...

some of the common fears around childbirth

what happens physiologically to our body during labour and birth

how our hormones help us during labour

the fear-tension-pain cycle that explains how pain is triggered in childbirth

how hypnobirthing can help you as part of your positive birth preparation

the importance of preparation in wanting to have a positive birth experience

Resources mentioned by Sophie

Here are some of the books, websites and articles that Sophie mentioned during our chat;

Grantly Dick Read's book, Childbirth without fear and Sophie's book, Mindful Hypnobirthing

Birth without fear - a great blog and source of positive birth inspiration.

John Butler - The Hypnotherapist who had surgery while under hypnosis

Michel Odent - Here's an article introducing his work and his new book

Birth Crisis Network - For support if you've experienced a traumatic birth.

OBEM The Truth - A facebook group to counter the TV show One Born Every Minute, that totally terrifies the majority of mums-to-be

Mindful Mamma website and the Facebook page

Listen to the podcast

What advice would you give to help a mum-to-be prepare for a positive birth? What strategies and approaches have worked for you? If you're a mum-to-be was listening to this useful? Let me know in the comments!

And if you know someone that you think would benefit from hearing this, please share it with them using one of the share buttons below. Thank you x