Pea in the Pod Hypnobirthing

Hi, I’m Ruth,

I’m the founder of Pea in the Pod Hypnobirthing. I’m a mum of two, a business woman, a volunteer, a traveller (well, I was…enter kids!) and a big Lidl bakery fan. Most importantly, I’m passionate about helping people have the positive birth experience that they deserve.

I had my eldest daughter, Penelope, or ‘P’ for short (my first ‘Pea in the Pod’!) in 2019 and to be honest, I wasn’t particularly traumatised by the birth, even though it was long, painful and in parts, fairly dramatic. I had my baby in my arms and I was just so glad it was over. It wasn’t a great experience, but who enjoys birth? Right?

Fast forward a couple of years and I was pregnant again, and so no longer able to ignore that day I gave birth. Yes, I had my healthy baby, for which I was truly grateful, but I was filled with questions: why did that happen? Why did they do this to me? I looked back and wasn’t even sure of what had happened for lots of it. I felt a bit weird about it – like I’d given birth, but also, like I’d not had that much to do with it! My initial feelings of relief had passed and now I was curious, and starting to think that maybe getting a healthy baby shouldn’t be all we hope for; maybe that should be the bare minimum? Maybe birth could be, if not lovely, then at least ok?

I felt determined to have a better experience with my second baby. I read, and I read, and I read… I definitely developed a bit of an obsession with the topic of birth! I attended a hypnobirthing course and it changed my whole outlook on birth. Rather than being scared of what might go wrong, I felt amazed and in awe of the female body, and how most of the time, it works incredibly well. I found myself looking forward to the day my labour started, feeling excited about this awesome thing I was going to do! And knowing that even if things didn’t go the way I wanted, I was ready to deal with it and stay in control of what happened to me.

Hypnobirthing radically changed my outlook on birth and, I believe, gave me the amazing, positive birth experience that I deserved when I had my second baby, Daphne. Shortly after her birth, I decided that I couldn’t keep this information to myself! I wanted to tell everyone about it, and help others to achieve what shouldn’t be as rare as it is: a positive birth experience!

As well as being a hypnobirthing teacher, I’m an Engagement Facilitator for Rochdale & Oldham Maternity Voices Partnership, which means I help gather feedback from mums and dads about their experience as maternity service users and help get that feedback to the people who are in a position to improve things.  Because of this role, I have a very realistic picture of what it’s like to be pregnant and have a baby in this area. I pride myself on offering my clients a course that works alongside the care they’ll receive from their local maternity service, helping them to access personalised care in a system which can sometimes feel a bit ‘one size fits all’ .

I am determined to spread the word about hypnobirthing and help as many people as I can to feel confident about giving birth and to have the positive birth experience they deserve. If you’d like to know more about my hypnobirthing courses, view my Courses page or head to the Contact page to drop me a message!

Why not sign up to my newsletter here and receive weekly birth tips? You’ll also be the first to know when new course dates are released and it’s the only place I offer discounts.