Blissful Birth
Childbirth, Naturally

In the last week, the US Federal government has bailed out two key mortgage institutions, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; Lehman Brothers, the fourth largest investment bank has filed for bankruptcy; Meryl Lynch has been sold off to Bank of America, and stock markets around the world have been plummeting. And on the news there are comparisons to the Great Depression of 1929.

Now, I’m no financial expert, but it looks like tough times are ahead… and we already know how financially stretching it can be when you are preparing to give birth (even when times are good!)

So, we’ve decided to do our bit to help out by bringing back our popular ‘Pay What You Like’ promotion.

Yes, that’s right - we’ve listed our regular selling prices as a guide, but it really is up to you to decide what you can afford to pay for our Self Hypnosis for Childbirth MP3 programme and our Basic Self Hypnosis and Relaxation Birth Programme.

We’ll try keep this promotion running as long as we can, but reserve the right to withdraw it at any time without notice, so please order asap.

You can pay whatever you can afford, from one penny to full price (or more if you are feeling particularly flush - we won’t mind!)

Oh, and of course you still get our unconditional 30 day money back guarantee too.

Bye for now,
Heidi

Ps - You really can just pay whatever you can afford, because we would rather that you get benefit from the programme and then tell all your friends than miss out because things are tough right now. So choose the programme that is right for you and order now.

I came across an article in the Independent which reports that many English hospitals had to turn away women in labour last year because they were full.

The BBC reports that of the 70 per cent of hospital trusts that provided data, more than 40 per cent said they had been forced to shut their doors or divert women to other sites at least once.

One in 10 said it happened more than 10 times…

“It is difficult to precisely predict when a mother will go into labour and sometimes, at times of peak demand, maternity units do temporarily divert women to nearby facilities,” a Department of Health spokesman told the BBC.

“When this does happen it is often only for a few hours and to ensure mother and baby can receive the best care possible.”

For me, this is an important reminder that many things in the process of giving birth are just outside of your control - and the only thing you do have choice over is how you respond to the situation.

As Blissful Birth mothers know, our programme helps you relax and mentally prepare for birth, so that if these unexpected things happen, you are better able to cope and remain in control.

Bye for now,
Heidi

Ps - If you have a comment or story to share, please post it below.

We didn’t really know what to expect when we launched our ‘pay what you like‘ promotion to celebrate our oldest son’s second birthday last month (2 years!! - time certainly flies when you have children!).

We thought maybe people would just take advantage, especially with the world in the middle of a credit crunch.

But, to our very pleasant surprise, the vast majority of people were very respectful when deciding how much to pay.

So, to say thank you, we have decided to extend the promotion another month on our Birth Hypnosis MP3s and Basic Birth Programme.

Bye for now,
Heidi

[Edit: Pay What You Want is Back!]

I can hardly believe that our eldest son is 2 this month, which means that Blissful Birth is fast approaching 3 years old.

To celebrate, we have decided to ‘do a Radiohead’ - in other words, from now until the end of June, you can pay what you want for our programmes.

Yes, that’s right - we’ve listed our regular selling prices as a guide, but it really is up to you to decide what our programme is worth to you.

But hurry, because we only have 50 copies of our Full home study programme available this month. After that, you will only be able to get the Basic programme or Self Hypnosis MP3.

Find out more about our Blissful Birth programmes here.

Bye for now,
Heidi

Ps - Full programme goes back on public sale at 18:00 GMT on 20th June 2008…

[Edit: Pay What You Want is Back!]

We had a really tough time choosing the winners of our competition. People entered from all over the world - from Alaska to Australia - and with every possible reason for wanting our programme.

There were first-time mums, women planning their last baby, women planning to get pregnant, women due any day now, midwives and doulas wanting to better help their clients, people wanting to help pregnant friends or family members and more.

As we went through all the entries and read why so many people want our programme, we were really touched.

But at the same time, we came to the realisation that we made a mistake in setting that competition question, because to choose winners would be like saying one person’s need was greater than someone else’s.

So, we decided… to make everyone who entered a winner.

(I can just imagine our accountant choking on his coffee right about now…)

Winners will shortly receive an email with the details you need to download our programme. If you entered, but don’t get an email within the next 24 hours, please contact us.

We hope that all you winners will enjoy using our programme and we look forward to hearing back from you with your experiences and birth stories. And if our programme helps you, please “pay it forward” by telling others about us too.

Your feedback and personal recommendations help us spread the Blissful Birth message faster so that we can help even more women give birth feeling confident, relaxed and in control.

Bye for now,
Heidi

Ps - Please leave us a comment below.

Click on the Blissful Birth Workbook image to get a sneak look at the table of contents and a chapter sample from our programme workbook.

The workbook comes with both our Basic and Full birth programme packages.

Bye for now,
Heidi

Ps - Please leave a comment & tell me what you think.

The good news is that in response to client feedback, we have re-introduced our self hypnosis for childbirth MP3 programme so that people can purchase it separately again. We have also created a ‘basic’ version of our programme which comes without any support. Take a look at our products page for more info on the different ways to get Blissful Birth.

The bad news is that our introductory pricing is coming to an end. Sorry folks, but if you were thinking of getting the programme and want to lock in our introductory pricing, you need to act quickly. We are going to going to revert to regular prices once we have sold 50 more copies of our programme or on 31st May, whichever comes sooner.

The great news is that we are running a competition at the moment and are giving away a copy of our full home study programme to 5 lucky winners. Even better, if you have already purchased our full home study programme and you turn out to be a winner, we’ll refund your money as your prize instead. Competition also ends 31st May, and you can enter here.

Bye for now,
Heidi

We have 5 copies of our full birth preparation programme to give away. To be in with a chance to win a free copy of the Blissful Birth programme, please go to.

http://www.blissfulbirth.co.uk/competition.php

Competition closes 31st May 2008.

Good Luck
Heidi

Ps - You can still enter even if you purchase the programme during this competition. If you are a winner, we’ll just refund your money!

We had a great question on our facebook discussion board the other day from Leigh.

-> Your programme sounds very very like hypnobirthing mixed around……??

Well, it’s true that we have the same underlying philosophy as HypnoBirthing(R) - i.e. that childbirth need not be painful. We also believe that it is fear and tension which interfere with birth, causing longer labour and labour pain.

But then, this idea was not invented by HypnoBirthing(R) either. It was British obstetrician, Dr Grantly Dick-Read (1890–1959, and first president of the National Childbirth Trust here in the UK), who first proposed the idea in his 1933 book “Childbirth Without Fear”.

Now, we’re not going to knock HypnoBirthing(R), because it works, and has a lot of supporters worldwide. It is undoubtedly the best known of the hypnosis for birthing approaches using Dr Dick-Read’s philosophy.

And as Hypnotherapists ourselves, we could have saved ourselves the bother of going up against the mighty HypnoBirthing(R) empire and just paid to attend a practitioner course. That way, we could have used their name and helped mothers prepare for childbirth the “HypnoBirthing(R) way”.

But we are Cognitive Hypnotherapists by trade. And whilst traditional hypnosis techniques work well for lots of people, the cognitive approaches to hypnotherapy are being scientifically proven to work even better.

So, rather than just blindly following the herd (and wanting the best approach for our own births!), we decided to see if we could do it our way. Especially the fear removal side of things, which is at the core of the philosophy of natural birth.

Now, because of our similar philosophy, we’re pretty sure our programme would fit someone who has done HypnoBirthing(R) before, or heard good things about it.

So why would someone choose little old us instead?

Well, for starters, you can download our programme and learn at your own pace at home. With HypnoBirthing(R) you have to pay out for a HypnoBirthing(R) class to get all the fear removal stuff.

You also get personal support from experienced Cognitive Hypnotherapists (that’s us!), whereas your HypnoBirthing(R) practitioner does not even have to be a qualified hypnotherapist.

You also get a 30 day, no hassle and no quibble money back guarantee from us. Try asking your HypnoBirthing(R) practitioner for that!

Bye for now,
Heidi

Ps - our programme is now open again for May. Remember, we only have around 50 spots available each month, so if you would like to become a Blissful Birther this month, now is the best time to do it.

We finally got with the technology and took the plunge on facebook.

You can visit our shiny brand new, just out of the bubble wrap Blissful Birth facebook page here:

You can also get to it by clicking the facebook logo on our blog.

If you are a facebooker, please stop by and say hi by adding yourself as a fan and leaving a comment on our wall or discussion board.

Take care,
Heidi

Ps - I’m not sure facebooker is an official term. I may have just made it up!