A MOTHER and mental health worker who is helping women have natural births by teaching them hypnosis is celebrating after her first “hypno baby” was born.

Nicky Logan, from Brompton, Northallerton began training in hypnobirthing after using it for the birth of the two youngest of her three children; now aged ten months and four years old.

She qualified to become a KG Hypnobirthing teacher, on training accredited by the Royal College of Midwives and has now been introduced to the first baby born to a mother she has helped - 11-day-old Alex.

She had been approached for help by Alex’s mother Sam McNair, from Northallerton, who experienced a difficult birth with her first child and was suffering anxiety over the prospect of another labour.

Nicky said: “She was really worried about the actual birth, as the birth of her first baby had been horrendous and she wanted to try something else.

“This time when she went into labour she was very relaxed. In fact when rang the hospital to go in, they thought she sounded so calm and relaxed they thought she wasn’t ready to come in.

“When she told them she was relaxed because she was using hypnobirthing they told her to come in to the hospital. She only just had time to get into the birthing pool before the baby arrived.”

Sam said: “I had comments from all the midwives on how calm and in control I seemed.”

Hypnobirthing uses techniques such as self-hypnosis and visualisations to help mothers stay calm and in control before and during labour and so hopefully have the most natural birth possible.

“Hypnobirthing is about understanding how your body works and how intervention can affect the process,” said Nicky.

“Mothers need the hormone oxytocin flowing to give birth. But if they’re in a different environment, or have lots of strangers around, or feel at all awkward or tense, that can all cause mothers’ anxiety levels to go up and stop those hormones flowing.”

With her background as a mental health worker, she hopes to specialise in helping mothers experiencing anxiety over giving birth. The mother-of-three also wants to help mothers considering a birth at the midwifery-led unit at the Friarage hospital in Northallerton, since the loss of its consultant-led care.

She said: “I can help people wanting a natural birth at the Friarage hospital because hypnobirthing gives you that confidence that your body can do it.

“There’s the James Cook hospital if you need it, but I want to help mothers go into hospital confidently, knowing you don’t need an epidural. Babies aren’t delivered – they’re born. The work really is done by the mothers.”

For more information visit; www.hypnobirthingdreams.com