Joyful Births

06/06/2025

BUMP x Joyful Births. Both committed to building positive mindset and belief in your own abilities. Both passionate about supporting your physical and mental wellbeing through your pregnancy, birth and postpartum journey.

Join Pen (Joyful Births) on Tuesday 17 June when she holds a HypnoBirthing Free Info Session at BUMP for pregnant or panning-to-be-pregnant people.

Secure your spot and learn how you can build a positive birth mindset and achieve your ideal birth 💫

10/04/2025

Partners can do everything except breastfeed 🤱
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Today I am getting things ready for a bespoke birth preparation session this weekend and this image always comes to mind when I prepare slides about how partners (and other people!) can support a breastfeeding mother. Literally the only thing you CAN’T do is the breastfeeding, you can do ANYTHING and EVERYTHING else!
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Follow ‘s example and whilst she takes on the full time job of nourishing the amazing human she just grew around the clock (and recovering from birth), you take on the role of keeping her fed, hydrated, rested and heard.
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18/03/2025

If I have taught you the HypnoBirthing course in the past three years, you will have just received an email from me about an exciting opportunity 😊

Researchers from the University of Queensland are conducting a study on HypnoBirthing to develop a better understanding of how HypnoBirthing impacts birth by exploring the varied experiences of women and their birth partners. To complete this study, researchers would like to interview birthing people and their birth partners who have attended a HypnoBirthing course in the last three years. The HypnoBirthing Steering Committee for Australia has endorsed the study.

I do hope you will consider participating, it would be great to have some definitive evidence of the many positive impacts this birth preparation program can have for both birthing people and their partners as they prepare for and bring their babies into the world.

Get in touch if you would like more info 💫

13/03/2025

Slow cooked bone broth: the foundation of so much of my postpartum cooking!

Many of my soups and stews contain homemade bone broth (stock), generally using chicken. Bone broths have traditionally been used for centuries for their warming, comforting and healing properties. Broths can be drunk on their own for a quick cup of nourishment or used as the base for a soup or as an addition to slow cooked stews.

When made in my kitchen done broths are slow cooked for at least five hours (often more than ten) using traditional warming ingredients like garlic, ginger and turmeric to promote recovery and healing post birth as well as high quality apple cider vinegar to help extract the collagen and minerals like calcium and magnesium.

Sometimes this leaves a white fatty coating on the surface of soups and stews when you take them out of the fridge, this is actually a good thing as it is all the delicious fats and collagen solidifying when cooked. Simply add to the bowl or pot, heat as normal then stir it through and make sure you have some crusty bread to soak up the goodness!

I love the smell of bone broth simmering away as I cook. I also gather all the veggie scraps from the other pieces of cooking to freeze ready to make the next batch 😊

03/12/2024

2025 dates are locked in 🔒

💫 Free Info Nights quarterly to give people a chance to dip their toe into the HypnoBirthing waters and find out more. These are great for newly pregnant people as well as those learning more before they conceive.

💫 Group HypnoBirthing Courses spaced throughout the year so there will always be one available to give you enough time to practice all you have learned before your baby arrives.

💫 The following are also services I offer, tailored completely to you and what your situation calls for
- Bespoke Birth Preparation
- Refresher HypnoBirthing Courses
- Bespoke Postpartum planning and support

I would love to meet you and support you towards your joyful birth and postpartum period ✨

21/11/2024

What are your goals for birth? If you achieve this goal, how will you feel? What can you do to achieve this goal?

The answer to this is so much more than 'healthy mum and healthy baby'. This is a big question and one that is asked following the first class for you to discuss and write down on your weekly 'date night'.

The reason this is so important is to set your intentions for your upcoming birth and start to establish your motivation. This helps you remain focused on what you want and why you want it until your baby is in your arms This enables you to prepare for your birth as well as keep going during the intensity of labour and birth. It gives your birth partner something to remind you of and encourage you.

What were your birth goals?

📸 .bridgewater

17/11/2024

I thought I would share what some of the resources look like that you will receive at your first class as I get ready for a new course starting this week 😊

✨ HypnoBirthing - The Mongan Method textbook

✨ MP3 download card

✨ Spiral book of handouts including information on content covered (eg muscular structure of the uterus), affirmations and hypnosis / relaxation scripts for birth companions to use, details of techniques, breastfeeding and post partum information and worksheets to complete on your date nights

✨ Brochures for other women supporting you during this time (if you don’t already follow them, do it now)
.co .hobart .thedoula

✨ Beanie for your little one made by me

17/11/2024

02/11/2024

Taste testing the Organic Breastfeeding Tea by 🍃

With ingredients to promote digestion, milk production and hydration (organic lemonbalm, organic fennel, organic spearmint, organic anise, organic ginger, organic caraway) this is a win for everyone.

I’m drinking it hot but it would be great served as an iced tea as well. I can see myself brewing a big pot then storing in the fridge for Mumma to serve over ice.

Realised this sounds sponsored 😂 just doing my own ‘research’ 🧐

22/10/2024

Your body grows a whole temporary organ, not just a baby when you are pregnant! The placenta has got to be my favourite organ.

In the final HypnoBirthing class we look at
✨ how your body and your baby work together to stop the blood flow to the placenta and allow it to come away from the uterine wall naturally
✨ how important it is to communicate your preferences on when to clamp and cut the umbilical cord
✨ the benefits of delayed cord clamping, did you know that 30-40% of baby's blood is in the placenta and umbilical cord at birth?
✨ the options of what you can do with your placenta following birth

I could talk on these topics all day so I will have to watch the clock tonight!

📸 by

18/10/2024

When my hair is done, I feel good. Silly and vain I know but it’s true 😂

Something I learned early postpartum (especially with hair as hagrid-like as mine!) was that if I invested 30-45 mins into actually doing my hair (blow drying like in this hilarious clip, curling or straightening) I would get close to a full week of good hair. That meant a week of feeling like there was one less thing I needed to do each morning. Some weeks I end up with a mop of dry shampoo or slick bun with a sh*t-tonne of gel, then I invest the time again 😊

Find a way to invest in yourself each week and feel the benefits. Whether it’s doing your hair like me or something completely different, make sure you fill your cup so you can pour from it ✨

14/10/2024

Waiting for baby to announce they are ready to be born is hard!

Getting ready for session four this week where we look at the onset of labour and how to know when it’s ‘real’ versus pre-labour of your body practicing.

46% of labours in Tassie begin spontaneously so we talk about what this moment might feel like and how you can wait patiently and surrender when I does come.

We also talk about some things to do in early labour, remembering that it isn’t like the movies and can be long and slow build up.

Then we look in detail how to transition to hospital if you are birthing there and how to set up the birth environment for you.

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