Today has been an extremely exciting day for me, as after months of discussions with Doula's, Midwives and other birth care providers, we have finally launched The Psychology of Giving Birth Affiliate Program.

This program brings together Solution Focused Brief Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Neuro Linguistic Programming and Human Givens to deliver a targeted and fully downloadable antenatal course, focusing specifically on the psychology rather than the biology of birth. The affiliate program gives its members all of the information they need to integrate it within the services they currently offer which will not only differentiate themselves from competitors, but will also of course result in more calm and gentle births.

This affiliate program is pretty unique in that it's limited to only 100 members. This enables me to keep in regular contact with everyone as well as focus on working together as a team to improve the program together. As a member you receive the theory behind the program and additional information about each of the techniques used, you also get full access to a forum where you can talk about how you can integrate it within your business, raise any technical questions, chat to other affiliates, as well as telling me about anything you think should be added, changed or removed.

For those of you already signed up I truly look forward to working with you. To those of you thinking about joining the team, as I mentioned the numbers are limited, so sign up here now to avoid disappointment!

Yours for calmer births, more often,

Today I have had the wonderful opportunity of including Sheri Menelli’s wonderful eBook entitled : Journey into Motherhood: Inspirational Stories of Natural Birth into The Psychology Of Giving Birth Programme.

The aim of the Programme is to reframe peoples views of what birth can be like and this ebook completely supports that goal. It provides both inspiration and education. This guide to natural childbirth offers 48 personal accounts of labor and delivery without medication. Revealing the many options women have beyond birthing location, the testimonials offer insight into the joys, concerns, and realities of natural birth. From delivering at home with a midwife and hearing the right words from a hospital nurse at just the right moment to describing a combination of the Bradley method and acupuncture at a birthing center and discussing a child's birth at home in warm water, this resource combines personal insight with referential information. A glossary of terms and a resource guide to books, magazines, websites, videos, and CDs, and listings of childbirth classes and instructors nationwide are also included.

Here are some of the reviews of the book:

"...I highly recommend it." -- Gurmukh, Director, Golden Bridge Yoga and Author

"...these inspiring stories of natural childbirth show that childbirth can and should be safe, empowering and beautiful." -- Penny Simkin, founder of DONA and co-author of When Survivors Give Birth: Understanding and Healing the Effects of Early Sexual Abuse on Childbearing Women

"women and girls need to hear these stories and know that natural birth is full of magnificent, life-changing wisdom." -- Christiane Northrup, M.D., author of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom and The Wisdom of Menopause

The book is currently on Amazon for a price of $13.46, but you get is absolutely free with The Psychology of Giving Birth Programme which is only $47.00 anyway!

Sheri has allowed me to include this ebook as she is committed to getting the message out there about how birth can be so different to a lot of people’s views. Thank you Sheri, firstly for writing the book and secondly for joining with me on the unique crusade to make a difference to birth days.

Almost two years ago, a lady booked onto one of my courses and said she was terrified of giving birth. This isn’t an uncommon feeling amongst pregnant ladies, however when she said also she that was a journalist for a national newspaper and that she would like to write about how we would be able to transform this feeling into her achieving a relaxed, gentle and natural birth, the prospect of her being able to reach so many other women really excited me.

So, we did the course and I chatted to her and helped her and her birth companion with advice afterwards as I would do anyone I was helping. Interestingly, she had an amazing imagination and it was great to be able to work with someone who could be so versatile in the metaphors which ran through her mind. I remember visiting her just a couple of days before she gave birth, when she told me she could feel herself transforming, that she was getting in touch with her animalistic side and almost seeing fox-like features when she looked in the mirror. In true Ina May Gaskin style she was “letting the fox do it”.

She called me on the morning her surges began as she had discovered meconium in her waters. She was scared as she knew she would have to go in to hospital and not have the home birth she had hoped for. We kept talking until her excellent birth companion had got the car ready and I reminded her of breathing techniques she should use to help her stay calm and relaxed.

Then she left for the hospital and I waited for the call.

I was so happy when the call arrived and she told me how her wonderful birth story unfolded. Her view was that it could have been so different if she hadn’t have stayed relaxed and used the techniques she had learned. At the hospital staff talked to her about how her baby was breech and was told she would need intervention, but instead of handing over control, she went inward, focused on her breathing and enabled her labour to progress to the point where a natural delivery was the best option. As she did this, they found her baby was not breech and was also not in any distress. She gave birth to a beautiful baby boy called William and now feels exhilarated when she recalls her birth day.

It gives me an amazing warm feeling to know that I impacted Kate, Dave and Williams birth experience and this feeling, for each birth I’m involved in never lessens. The story appeared in the Daily Express, a national UK paper on November 18, 2008 and I’m sure this will have already made a difference to many thousands of women. So thank you to Kate for sharing her experience.

If you would like to give yourself the gift of a wonderful birth experience, then take a look at my new downloadable programme. This programme works alongside the care you are already receiving and will unlock the secrets behind achieving a calm and gentle birth through understanding the psychology of birth.

As always, wishing you a wonderful birth day
Take care
Juliet Eccleston

You may have been wondering why it has been a little quiet recently within the Birth Download camp, well this is the reason. We have been busy beavering away on a new product for mums and their birth companions to help them discover how to use the power of their body and mind to birth in a calm, relaxed and controlled way.

The Psychology of Giving Birth Programme

If you are interested in learning techniques to enable you and your birth partner to be in total control of your birth day and to tap into your own natural pain relief to allow you to birth in the most natural way possible with a minimum of intervention then this message is for you.

If you are anything like me when I became pregnant I suddenly started to worry about what labor would be like. How painful would it be? Would I cope? Would I tear? Would it put me off ever having children again?! Then, to make matters worse, I found that other women were only too happy to share their "horror stories" with me and, although their intentions were to probably to help me prepare for what they believed was to come, I started to truly believe that pain and trauma were inevitable. These kind of stories are everywhere - TV, radio, magazines, the internet... it seemed like everywhere I turned there was another story of a long painful birth. As well as all of this my birth companion wanted to make sure that he played as big a part as possible in the birth of our baby and not just stand on the side lines until the whole thing was over.

This is where our search for something different began. The Psychology of Giving Birth Programme is the result of that search:

The Psychology of Giving Birth Programme

Here's a sneak peak at what you'll discover in "The Psychology of Giving Birth":

- Techniques to enable you to have a clear view of what you want your birth experience to be like
- Discover visualisation skills and breathing techniques to stay relaxed throughout birth
- Learn how to prevent the risk of tearing
- How to work with your contractions and minimise any discomfort
- The little known secret to be able to control any fear or anxiety which may creep in
- The very best ways to have a birth companion who is completely prepared and knows how to really help
- How to minimise the risk of intervention
- Learn to go within and listen to your body
- How to look forward to your birth day

And that's just a fraction of what you'll find in the "The Psychology of Giving Birth Programme". Not only that but for a short period of time you will get a number of bonus modules as well.

Take the first steps towards a calm and gentle birth today and check out the The Psychology of Giving Birth Programme.

As always, wishing you a wonderful birth day
Take care
Juliet Eccleston