Brigid Godwin truly believes that the way we birth our babies can impact on our parenting, and that how we parent our children changes the world. She is passionate about helping other women to have their most optimal, uplifting and empowering birthing experience. A yoga teacher since 2000 and specialising in pre- and postnatal yoga since 2002, she has also been teaching mindfulness, hypnobirth and antenatal education for many years and realised that the best way to serve women and families was to bring together elements from all of these fields into one complete course. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about the inspiration behind BodyMind Birthing, her biggest breakthrough, and the challenges she has overcome along the way.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
This line of work really chose me, and it’s been an absolute gift. I had been working full-time as a yoga teacher in London for about two years when I became pregnant with my first daughter in 2002. A fellow teacher, Lynne Pinette, who was a pregnancy yoga specialist, announced that she was going to give me an apprenticeship (I don’t remember there being any question involved!). I shadowed Lynne for 6 months. Being pregnant myself, this was a beautiful and slightly terrifying experience. At the end of the 6 months, Lynne announced she was retiring and just gave me all her classes (I think this had been her plan all along!). So, I really was thrown in at the deep end.
Once I had adjusted to the huge responsibility, I began to feel the enormous privilege that comes with being even a tiny part of this precious time in women’s lives. The very best part was when these women would contact me to let me know that their babies had arrived safely. What was so wonderful was how many of them would report that they felt their yoga preparation had really paid off and contributed to having a positive birth experience. When I started to realise the power of this work, it became my absolute passion.
I went on to train with Francoise Freedman at Birthlight and trained as a birth doula with Michel Odent (the pioneer of water birth). I learned to teach Active Birth couples’ workshops with Janet Balaskas and then trained in Hypnobirth. I also teach mindful parenting and baby massage classes.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
After moving out of London to Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 2006, I set up Unity Yoga Bumps and Babies, offering pre- and postnatal yoga and couples’ antenatal courses. Things were simpler back then as social media hadn’t arrived and there weren’t nearly as many yoga teachers as there are now. I found a space, put an advert in the local paper and from that point on my classes were fully booked… until Covid hit!
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
During the lockdown, I took the opportunity to do further training, both as an Advanced Women’s Wellness coach and as a Mind-body practitioner. Post Covid, it was like starting a business from scratch, which was a tricky time to say the least. But as they say, out of adversity comes creativity! So, I started writing my pregnancy & postnatal yoga teacher training programme which launched in 2022, and I’ve spent most of 2023 creating my BodyMind Birthing holistic antenatal education course, which is now available in person and also in a digital format so you can work at your own pace.
I’m so proud of the BodyMind Birthing course as it brings together everything I’ve learned over the last 22 years in one 6-week holistic research-backed childbirth preparation course. I really feel that using both top-down methods (mindfulness, hypnobirth, positive psychology, antenatal education) alongside bottom-up methods (such as breath control and yoga) offers women a valuable skill set of nervous system regulation tools not just for pregnancy and birth, but also for parenting.
I call this a ‘birthing bootcamp’ as it’s a total immersion into understanding just how powerful we are and how much potential we can unleash when properly supported in preparation for birthing and parenting.
Rather than doing three separate courses (pregnancy yoga, hypnobirth and antenatal education), this course gives women and couples everything in one holistic package.
