HypnoBirthing® UK

[Joanne]

I am a midwife thinking about training in Hypnobirthing. Could anyone tell me what costs would be involved in practicing including fees for registration, insurances, materials for couples, continuing development etc. I have searched through the website and FAQs but they don't address this question.



Joanne

[ockysmith]

Hi Joanne,

I don't know the full breakdown, I'm sure it is on the site somewhere but I can tell you roughly what it costs/has cost me to be a practitioner if that helps:

First Year (including training, buying books, DVDs, CDs for class, advertising - leaflets, website, insurance): around £3000

Subsequent years (including CPD, buying parent materials, advertising, insurance and room hire): around £2000

I'm certainly not rich by any respect and would imagine I would earn a great deal more if I worked on the checkouts in Tescos and I'm fortunate that we don't rely on my earnings, it just gives us a bit of pocket money.

For me, however, I don't do this for money (I can't imagine many practitioners do), I do it because I've had two bad birth experiences that left me feeling terrible and then I've had two wonderful, empowering births using HypnoBirthing. I want to help other women feel like I did with my last two and for every email that I receive that says "dear Sarah, thank you so much, the birth was wonderful" that's worth more than any amount of money, so so long as I can help women feel like that and so long as I make more than what's going out I'm happy Having previously worked in a soul destroying (but highly paid) job it doesn't compare to the job satisfaction you receive as a HypnoBirthing practitioner! so I'd say go for it if you can!

Sarahx

[mia]

Hi Joanne,
having heard the comprehensive way to do it, I thought I'd just add the minimum way to do it!
Insurance isn't much - about £150 per year. Book sets for each couple are about £15, and add on some photocopying for that. HypnoBirthing registration is only about £60 per year. CPD for your first year could mainly be reading (cost of books). The actual training would be your main expense.
Like Sarah says, marketing is important if you actually want to make some money - and it may be worth thinking of a budget for that.
Good luck!

[Joanne]

Thanks both of you, thats really helpful. A couple more queries (promise this will be the last) , do you have to pay a percentage to the Hypnobirthing organisation or anything. Also are either of you midwives, what's the position re: the NMC or RCM? You mentioned insurance is that only if you teach in groups, what if you only do one 2 one sessions with couples? Lastly, does it take alot of learning to be able to teach it? It's alot of money plus I'll have to get flights etc to the training so just want to make sure it's worth it. Really grateful for your advice.

Joanne

[ockysmith]

I'm not a midwife, I'm a Doula and Homeopath so no idea about the NMC I'm afraid, but plenty of practitioners are also midwives so hopefully one will reply to this.

In my opinion insurance should be mandatory for all practitioners, regardless of whether you teach in groups or privately, the chance is always there that you will be sued!

You don't pay any proportion of your earnings to the institute, they make their money from the training, book and CD sales and renewal subs that Mia has mentioned, anything over and above that is yours to keep.

With regards to it being easy to learn, yes very. You might want to buy the book from Amazon first and see how it reasonates with you before doing the training, the book is the skeleton of the course really.

In my experience the initial training is the start of your learning and you learn more from every couple you teach, you also get given a reading list of many books which are definitely worth reading before your teach your first couple and perhaps sitting in on a more experienced practitioner's course before or after the training might help too.

Every practitioner brings something different to their teachings as they have different knowledge and experience, for you you would probably have a much more in-depth knowledge of the physiology of childbirth than most but may find you wanted to read a few more books or do some further training in hypnosis, but you don't *need* anything more than the course to teach if that makes sense.

[Danielle]

I teach hb too-not a midwife-but the rcm's 'Complementary and Alternative Therapies - Guidance Paper No.6' paper says 'A good example is hypnobirthing techniques which have the potential to reduce the length of labour and the need for medical intervention. (Jenkins and Pritchard, 1993; Hao and Li, 1997; Martin et al., 2001).' Which doesn't sound too negative

[eleanorcopp]

i am a midwife , you can ask me specifics if you want to send me a private message . Eleanor

[Joanne]

Thanks to all, you've been really helpful . Hope to catch training in the next lot of dates when they're available,

Joanne XX