Hey everyone, 

My name is Jo and I am the mother of two gorgeous boys, a midwife working at a large hospital in Melbourne and a Certified HypnoBirthing Childbirth Educator - teaching the Mongan Method.

I discovered HypnoBirthing when I was pregnant with our first child, and I dragged my husband along to the course.

To be honest, I was a bit sceptical about some of the information we were taught and wasn't sure how it would actually work. But......I was dedicated to learning skills to help me stay focused during labour, and to enable my baby to have a gentle entry into the world.

I ended up having the most amazing birth experience, and rave about it as much as I can, to whoever will listen to me! What I loved most about being in labour was that I felt strong, capable, calm and powerful. I had full trust that my body knew what to do, and I am so proud of myself.

​If you would like to have a chat to see whether HypnoBirthing is the right fit for you - I would love to chat! Please give me a call on 0401 619 755 or send an email to jo@birthfromwithin.com.au and I will give you a call. No obligation to sign up AT ALL.

Next course details:
Dates - Wednesday 20th March to Wednesday 17th April
Time - 7.00-9.30pm
Location - Chirnside Park Community Hub. Kimberley Drive, Chirnside Park. 
Cost - $625

*Mention this blog post to receive $50 off or this March course*

This is the first of my 'Top 5 tips for a positive and empowering birth experience'.

Currently, there are a number of different models of maternity care in Australia. 

More often than not, when you go to the GP and tell them that you are pregnant, they will ask which Obstetrician you want to see and which hospital you want to give birth at. Sure, some couples will want to go 'private' for whatever reason, but there are a number of other pathways that you can choose:

- standard care at a public hospital
- caseload/midwifery group practice at a public hospital
- private Obstetrician at a public hospital
- shared care with your GP at a public hospital
- home birth with a privately practicing midwife
- hospital birth with a privately practicing midwife
- home birth through a public hospital (currently only Casey and Sunshine hospitals)

This is a really important decision to make, as the place of birth and type of lead care provider can influence the outcome of your birth.

Statistically, there are more interventions and a higher rate of caesarean section when you chose to birth at a private hospital. According to the Victorian Perinatal Services Performance Indicators 2016-2017, the rate of caesarean section in low risk first time mums in a public hospital is 16.1% compared to 34.1% in a private hospital (www2.health.vic.gov.au).

Don't get me wrong, I am not 'anti' Obstetrician. I know many fabulous doctors, and I chose to have an Obstetrician during my second pregnancy.

If you don't have the money, or do not have private health insurance, then you are probably going to 'book in' to the local public hospital. However, for those of you who do have health insurance it is important to do your research before making your decision: talk to friends, family, look at internet/social media reviews etc.

Ask the Obstetrician what their intervention rates are - for example caesarean section (elective and emergency), induction of labour, instrumental births. You can also look at the report that I mentioned above and compare the intervention rates of each of the different hospitals in Victoria.

At any time during your pregnancy, you have the right to change care providers. Whether that is changing doctors, changing hospitals or requesting a new midwife. It is so important to trust your instincts - if you feel brushed off or not listened to during your antenatal appointments it is a good indicator of how that particular care provider (doctor or midwife) will treat you during labour. You MUST feel that your feelings and wishes will be respected.

In saying this, sometimes a pregnancy is considered 'high-risk' and it will be recommended that you have your baby at a particular hospital or with a particular doctor. It will not be as easy to change things, however you still have every right to feel listened to and respected, and you can request not to see a certain midwife or doctor again.

I hope that you found this tip helpful, stayed tuned as I'll be sharing more of my 'Top 5 tips for a positive and empowering birth experience' shortly.

Jo xx

I have recently received this lovely message from Alana. She and her partner Manny attended one of my group HypnoBirthing classes, and this is a summary of their darling boy Levi's birth.


Hi Jo,
Manny and I had a baby boy on the 15th of October. Little Levi is doing really well and we are so in love!

I ended up being induced 12 days over my due date. They gave me cervidil, then after a long wait of almost 24 hours they broke my waters. I was 1cm dilated, and after 7 hours they suggested that I have an epidural to see if it might relax things and help move them along.

Levi was posterior so I was having surges in my back as well. They checked me a few hours after having the epidural and I was 3cm dilated with some swelling on my cervix. Levi was still doing well but they suggested having a C-section as they were worried that he might become distressed.

So we decided to go ahead with that and Levi was born via C-section. I felt like the breathing techniques really helped me to get where I did.

When given information and suggestions we felt empowered to ask questions, and to ask for time to see if things would progress on their own. I also used to calm breathing throughout the C-section when I felt like I wasn't in control!

Doing HypnoBirthing really helped Manny through the process as well! He was really amazing, and was a great birthing companion utilising information and techniques that we learned during our classes.

Thanks for everything.

* Thank you so much to Alana, Manny and Levi for allowing me to share their birthing story*

I am so excited to share our birthing story with you. Looking back on the day our little man arrived, I feel so proud of what my body was able to do. Completing your hypnobirthing course made me feel confident as we approached our birthing day and now I am amazed at how strong I felt both physically and mentally during labour and post birth.

On Tuesday morning I woke with a period like cramp and said to David that this might be the start of labour! We both laughed it off, he went to work and I got ready for the day. I had to go to the shops to get a few things done and then was meeting my mum and sister for lunch. During this time I continued to have period like cramps and didn’t think to much of it.

At lunch I mentioned these cramps to my mum and she thought it could be the start of labour and that I should be timing them. When I went home I begun timing them and they were not consistent ranging from 40 - 14 minutes apart. I decided that it wasn’t labour and stopped timing them.

David arrived home and I told him about the cramps, we had our dinner and went off to bed. I couldn’t sleep and felt as though the cramps were happening more frequently, so at 2:00am we put on a movie and David started timing the cramps again. During the movie they became more regular ranging from 10 - 7 minutes apart, there were a few cramps that I had to focus on my breathing, but mostly they would come and go with ease. After the movie finished, I went to the bathroom and noticed I had a birth show.

At this point we contacted our midwife and told her that I had had a birth show and that the surges were 6-8 minutes apart. The midwife said that we could stay at home longer or if we wanted to head in they were ready for us to arrive. I decided that we should head in, I wasn’t convinced that this was labour and I wanted someone to confirm that our baby was actually on its way.

During the car ride to the hospital, we had the birthing affirmations playing and I had 4 more surges, which were becoming more intense and I was having to really focus on my breathing. We arrived at the hospital and as I was walking down the hallway I felt my membranes release.

In the birthing suite, the midwife asked me to hop on the bed for an examination which I refused to do as I felt the need to start breathing my baby down. David informed the nurse I wanted a water birth, but I no longer felt like getting in the water. I was helped by David to get on the bed into a kneeling position and started to breath my baby down. David asked the midwife if things were moving quickly, which she replied with “have a look, we can see the baby’s head.”. David put on the Rainbow Relaxation for me to listen to and he begun the light touch massage. I wasn’t enjoying the massage and asked David to do it with a cold wet flannel and not his hands which was much more effective. I had prepared some posters with the birthing affirmations, although things were moving very quickly and we did not have time to put them up. As I was breathing my baby down I was staring at a particular spot on the wall thinking it was the perfect spot for one of my posters.

My main birthing preference was to receive our baby myself. After being at the hospital for only 45 minutes, the midwife guided me in receiving our little surprise gender baby boy, Harry. It was the most empowering moment of my life, birthing my baby with no medical intervention, in a calm and loving environment. The nurses estimated that the labour length was approximately 4.45 hours, a very speedy labour!

Little Harry was immediately skin on skin with me and he begun feeding shortly after. Unfortunately I had a third degree tear and needed to go to theatre. I handed Harry over to David, who knew the importance of skin on skin and spent the next few hours cuddling our little boy. I had expressed some colostrum, which David was able to feed to Harry, whilst I was gone.

Throughout the whole labour both David and I felt confident and prepared. We are so grateful that we completed the hypnobirthing course, as we were able to welcome our baby into the world without fear, but with love. Watching the videos of other couples giving birth during our sessions showed me that having a calm birth was possible and that is how I visualised bringing our baby into the world.

Thanks again from the both of us.

Congratulations Kait, David and Harry and thank you so much for sharing your birthing story xx

Last Sunday the 26th of August we woke up around 8am and as I got out of bed I felt a warm trickle run down my leg. I put a pad on for an hour or so to monitor the leakage and sure enough it was my waters.

I phoned the midwife and she said I had to come in to the hospital as I tested positive on the strep B test. I was a little taken aback at this stage as I knew I would probably have to be induced and this was not in our birth plan. Regardless of this news I stayed positive and was excited to venture to the hospital.

I was getting small niggles here and there on the way. They checked the fluid on my pad and confirmed that it was in fact my waters. A cannula was inserted and I was given antibiotics for precaution.

At around 5pm the syntocinon drip was started. My husband Liam had only begun to set up the room with tealight candles and a soothing playlist in the background. Unfortunately we didn't have a chance to use our essential oils, bath or tens machine. I felt intense surges almost immediately and sat on the toilet for 2 hours. I felt safe, comfortable and at ease in this space.

The midwife checked me soon after and I was already fully dilated! I owe this to the HypnoBirthing techniques that you taught us. I used both my calm and surge breaths and also the blowing up a balloon visualisation.

I was moved to the bed to start pushing and I tried to breathe down my baby. This was more difficult than I had anticipated, so instead I visualised baby moving down. This helped immensely. Positive affirmations filled my head like 'I can work with my body' and 'my body was made to do this'.

After 2 hours of pushing, my baby's head crowned. My husband got to pull her out, announce the sex and place her on my chest. Within 5 hours little Indie was here. She was so calm, no crying and grabbed my finger straight away.

I feel so empowered and happy thinking about my labour and am so so proud that I birthed my baby without any pain relief. Thanks to our sessions with you, I felt informed, fearless, excited and confident. The strategies that you taught us were invaluable and I have continued to use them on my breastfeeding journey.


Thank you to Shari, Liam and Indigo for sharing their story xxx

(Photo and story shared with permission)

Labour is just one day in my life i kept thinking to myself as the period cramping started Wednesday afternoon. The surges brought both excitement and slight fear of the unknown-am I ready for this?

By the evening the surges became much stronger and my mind became focused on meeting our little baby for the first time knowing this was it! I asked my partner to apply the TENs machine at 1am which brought some relief but by 4am the surges were much stronger and felt different. By this stage i was more focused when listening to the rainbow affirmations.

We called our midwife and made our way slowly into hospital by 8am. In the car I started to feel bowel pressure but remained in a deep relaxed trance while listening to the rainbow affirmations track. This track was played on repeat for many hours and kept me so calm. In the shower and bath I was involuntary pushing for 45mins but started to feel intense constant pubic bone pain. By this stage i couldnt tell what was a surge and what was pubic bone pain. I was 7cm with a thickened cervix. I requested an epidural for relief.

After a further 6hrs I slowly dilated to 10cm and with a dense epidural managed to push our little boy out direct OP. Our midwife was very surprised as she and the doctors did not think this was the case. Without hypnobirthing my self determination and deep state of relaxation would not have occurred. Our birth could have ended in an emergency cesarean or forceps for obstructing but I trusted in myself. I let my body do what it needed to do while I kept my mind calm.

I know, this is the most commonly given piece of advice and I used to want to slap whoever said it to me. But....it’s true. It is so important for new mums to rest and catch up on sleep.

My first baby, Max, was (and still is) a terrible sleeper and I’d have to hold him for all of his naps or walk him in the pram. I had many people offer to hold/walk him so I could nap and it took me AGES to agree. But once I did, it was heavenly!

My 87 year old Grandma would come over and take Max for a walk so I could nap. She even brought lunch for when I woke up!

Thank you to everyone who offered, and kept offering, until I accepted!

As I mentioned in point number 1, I am terrible at accepting help. I am a type A personality who is very independent and ‘can do it all’. However, when you have a baby you don’t have to do it all, and there is nothing wrong or shameful about accepting help.

Please, if someone offers assistance just give them a list of jobs to do!

I found myself getting stressed about cleaning. I couldn’t put Max down long enough to clean anything properly and the house was getting messier, which added to my anxiety. My husband eventually agreed to getting a cleaner and she was the best thing ever!

But you don’t have to wait for someone to offer assistance. Please don’t be afraid to say ‘hey I need some help’. There will be people who have wanted to help but didn’t know how.

You will probably be inundated with friends/family wanting to come and see the baby (and you). This is the perfect time say that they are welcome to visit, but can they please bring some groceries/a hot meal/do some washing for you whilst they are there.

This is one of the best kitchen appliances for a family with a new baby!

One of you can prepare the meal during baby’s first nap - chop meat, vegetables and add the sauce.

You then just need to set it to ‘low’ heat and your dinner will be ready in 6-8 hours!

We had so many slow cooker meals when Max was young. The bonus is that you can fill the slow cooker bowl so it will make dinner for two days, plus some lunches and possibly enough to go in the freezer.

The supermarket has many ‘ready to use’ sauces that you can add straight in, or you can find a variety of receipes online.

I still haven’t done this yet, but I’ve been told that you can also cook porridge and desserts in the slow cooker. Bonus!!