Casey Ridealgh understands firsthand how daunting pregnancy and birth can be. Having discovered hypnoborthing while pregnant with her daughter, it ignited a passion in her for birth and labour. With a subsequent health diagnosis that required her to take time off from her teaching career, her priorities shifted and she set out to empower women to embrace their calm and birth confidently and passionately like she had. After completing her hypnobirthing training, she launched Breathe & Birth with Casey, where she helps mums-to-be to ease the stress, allow their body and mind to enjoy pregnancy, and to birth with absolute power and confidence. Here she talks to The Natural Parent Magazine about what inspires her to do what she does, how she balances work and family, the challenges she has overcome, and her hopes and dreams for the future.
The passion: What inspired you to set up your business?
I entered the world of Hypnobirthing when I was pregnant with my daughter in 2021 and it was one of the most eye-opening experiences for me and my husband. It took us back to our ancestral roots and I was aware then of just how much power is already within us as women and birthing mothers. I birthed like a primal goddess and I loved it. I was then the go-to gal pal in my friendship and family circles for the one who could pass along juicy info to help others have positive and proud births. This felt good.
When I went back to work as a secondary English teacher 8 months after Violet was born, it just wasn’t the same. Work was getting the best of me and my family were getting the rest. I was feeling the overwhelm of teaching, the many challenges in the system, the super early days and late nights to say the least and not having anything left in my cup for my personal connections. I immediately knew something needed to change but didn’t quite know what. I was later diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis and it changed the game entirely for me. My priorities shifted completely, and I knew what I had to do, for the sake of my health and my future. After taking multiple months off sick from work, I knew I couldn’t return to that specific teaching role when and if I started to feel ‘better’. Shortly after this decision, I began getting health support for my MS and I started to see my future more like sunshine than a storm. This in turn opened my heart and mind for something new. Ads for hypnobirthing training were popping up everywhere and once I had given it some time and attention, my heart ached to be a part of the birth world in a big way. To empower other women and mums to birth confidently and passionately, like I did, to help birthing people embrace their calm for pregnancy, birth and beyond and to engage with families in one of the most intimate and emotional events in their life was something I knew was a calling for me. Nothing could hold me back and I started training as soon as possible with Abby Watson at Love Your Birth Training and it was the best decision I ever made.
The launch: How did you start out in the beginning?
The beginning is a slow process, but I am always focused on being visible. I attend lots of networking events and interacting with others in the field is proving to be the best way to get myself out there. I enjoyed creating a website and social media pages in the first couple of months whilst preparing myself with content and equipment, visiting venues to see which ones resonated the most with me, chatting to pregnant families and finding out what they needed from antenatal, hypnobirthing and relaxation courses. I also spent this time just assessing what I wanted to provide for my clients and what might set me apart from other antenatal providers. I took on my first couple of clients within the first 3 months, which has been so reaffirming, empowering and rewarding, especially when they started birthing their babies and their stories were just so beautiful, positive and healing.
The innovation: What was the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
The biggest breakthrough for me was by far my first client! Her story before hypnobirthing and preparation with her first pregnancy was very traumatic and upsetting for her. So, when she reached out to me and we chatted about how I can support her and her family through their second pregnancy, she knew straight away it the right decision for them. She said in her own words that my course “transformed her entire birth”. Her preparation and confidence were second to none and her birth story was one of absolute joy! Both her and her husband truly believe that their “best birth experience” is all down to hypnobirthing and antenatal classes and allowing for them both to understand what to fully expect, how to advocate for themselves in their birth room and how to navigate the maternity system for themselves. The amount of pride I had in both my clients and myself from this story alone was enough to propel me to continue my work in this field as I saw firsthand just what a positive mindset and a toolkit of essentials can do!
Yin and Yang: How do you balance work and family?
My work/life balance is so much better now that I can decide my work hours. I have a home office and so I can hunker down when I need to and I get to work at my own pace, especially considering of my health circumstances. I get to be the mother, wife and friend that I can be, with a cup so full that I am “serving from the saucer” – a quote I once heard and absolutely love! The only hard truth that I have come to realise is that being self-employed can be very isolating at times and I really do get my energy from others! Therefore, I also choose to work part time as a High Needs Support Assistant at a local primary school and I love that this enhances my life in lots of other ways.
