Having lost her mum six years ago, entering motherhood without her role model and inspiration by her side was difficult for Natalie Helman. She began looking for holistic ways to support her mind and body through pregnancy and labour, which is when she discovered hypnobirthing. Learning to trust her intuition and feel confident in her ability to give birth to her baby, she was inspired to become a hypnobirthing trainer herself and created Love Birth. She is also a qualified three step rewind practitioner, providing support to those who have experienced birth trauma or other types of trauma. She is passionate about helping parents through hypnobirthing, and giving them the techniques to have the positive birth experience they deserve. Here Natalie shares her inspiring business journey so far with The Natural Parent Magazine.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
My mum was my biggest role model and inspiration, however after losing her 6 years ago, I felt even more anxious going into this new phase of my life as a mother without her. I wanted to help dispel my worry and fear around labour, birth and parenthood. I became interested in holistic ways of supporting my body and mind through pregnancy, including acupuncture, reflexology, and yoga and meditation. So, I discovered hypnobirthing, and went to a local course with my husband. I was fascinated. I’d always heard stories, through society and the media, about labour being difficult, painful and a struggle. Our teacher showed us just HOW incredible our bodies are, and I realised that I needed to trust my intuition and feel confident in my own ability to give birth. We learnt how to rewire our subconscious minds by flooding them with positive stories, suggestions, and images of birth. I was inspired to train and become a hypnobirthing practitioner myself, almost immediately!
The Launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
I trained and qualified studying part time around my daughter, using time during lockdowns during Covid to teach my clients via Zoom. It wasn’t the same as being able to teach in person, however I learned a great deal and found it so incredible to help people when they were at their most vulnerable, because anxiety, especially in the maternal space, was extremely high at that time. After working with a few clients, I then had them contacting me with their birth stories, testimonials and how they felt hypnobirthing impacted them. It was so empowering to hear and made me realise I was on the right path.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
I think the biggest breakthrough was recognising that I needed to further my own study and help more people by creating an additional offering. During the free workshops I would run to help share more information about my courses, I met people who felt they couldn’t even comprehend or think about hypnobirthing (for second births) due to trauma they may have faced during a previous pregnancy or birth. Then I invested in training as a trauma informed worker with the three-step rewind method. This uses NLP practices alongside hypnosis and relaxation to help reframe difficult emotions and experiences that could be creating or exacerbating trauma. This was important work for me to have done this and to create something else for people to help heal past traumas.
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
It is so important to protect my energy and my own mental wellbeing, I need to have time to recharge and ‘fill’ myself up with meditation, exercise or just time for me to be present. So, I make sure I schedule my time carefully, for me, for my family, for work and for my relationship. It is so important as well to have boundaries especially when working for myself, by knowing my worth and value in what I do and my skillset. Also, when I work with people, it can be emotionally exhausting. It uses up a lot of energy teaching, and the trauma work I do can be heavy, so I always have to remember not to take on other people’s emotions, and to protect myself and help them in the most beneficial way without feeling pulled into their pain.
