hypnobirthing-with-anja-jean-moncrieff

EMPOWERING THIRD TRIMESTER AFFIRMATIONS

anjamoncrieff@gmail.com (Anja Moncrieff) — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 19:13:29 GMT

Feel confident in your final months of pregnancy :)

Thanks for being here! My name's Anja and I am so excited to share my favourite 3rd trimester affirmations with you. As a hypnobirthing teacher, I am a big fan of positive words to help increase calm and confidence in the pregnant women that I teach. The 3rd trimester is such an exciting time because you are in the final stretch of pregnancy and will be meeting your baby soon!

I hope you like the affirmations and please choose some to display around your home so you will be surrounded by positivity and inspiration wherever you go!

I choose to enjoy my third trimester

I love to feel my baby move inside my womb

I love to see my baby bump grow

I nourish my body and baby with healthy foods

I remember to stay well hydrated

The love I have for my baby grows stronger every day

I am excited about the future with my baby

I breathe through any pregnancy discomfort with ease

I take time to rest and nap when I need to

I am focussed on a calm and smooth birth experience

I seek the support I need during my third trimester

I am so excited about meeting my baby face-to-face

My baby will be born at the perfect time

I have patience with myself and my baby

I take things one day at a time

I harness the power and strength from other mothers around the world

I deserve to have a joyful third trimester

I deserve to experience a joyful birth

To listen to a relaxing 3rd trimester meditation with these affirmations - please click the pink button below:

Positive Pregnancy Affirmations For Every Trimester

anjamoncrieff@gmail.com (Anja Moncrieff) — Sat, 10 Sep 2022 18:28:36 GMT

Check out my favourite pregnancy affirmations below!

Pregnancy can be a wonderful experience but it can also be physically and emotionally challenging. Having positive people around you and thinking positively about your pregnancy can make the world of difference. I had loads of pregnancy affirmations displayed around my home when pregnant and on hard days they would give me a boost of confidence when I needed it most.

Here are my favourite pregnancy affirmations for every trimester:

I am so grateful to be pregnant with my baby

My body is strong, my baby is healthy

I love my baby more each day

I embrace the changes in my pregnant body

I love seeing my baby bump grow

My baby feels safe and peaceful in my womb

I nourish my body and baby with healthy foods each day

I stay hydrated and rest when I need to

My baby and I are safe and well at all times

I find the positives in each day of my pregnancy

I choose to enjoy my pregnancy, even on difficult days

If I feel moments of discomfort, I calmly breathe through them

My pregnant body is beautiful

My glucose levels are perfect

My iron levels are perfect

My baby's heart beat is strong

My placenta is nourishing my baby perfectly

The bond I share with my baby grows stronger every day

I love my baby and my baby loves me

During my pregnancy I relax and take things one day at a time

As my pregnancy progresses I feel more and more at ease

I am surrounded by love and support

I make informed choices throughout pregnancy to support myself and my baby

I am proud of myself for carrying, nurturing and growing my baby

My embrace motherhood with grace, gratitude and an open heart

I trust my maternal intuition

My pregnant body tells me what it needs and I listen

I am a powerful, loving and confident mother

Pregnancy is safe for me and my baby

My baby grows stronger every day

I cherish the gift of pregnancy and motherhood

Every day I am one step closer to meeting my beautiful baby

All is well in my pregnancy

To listen to these affirmations as a relaxation audio, click this link:

Hypnobirthing Affirmations for a Beautiful Birth

anjamoncrieff@gmail.com (Anja Moncrieff) — Tue, 06 Sep 2022 09:40:12 GMT

These powerful affirmations can help you feel calm and confident during your baby's birth :)

Childbirth can be challenging physically and emotionally but it doesn't need to be a negative or traumatic experience for you. Your mind is so powerful and if you believe in yourself and are thinking positive and uplifting thoughts, your labour can be calm, smooth and very empowering.

The problem is many women start to think negative or fearful thoughts during childbirth (especially when contractions get stronger and longer). They can start doubting themselves - distrusting their birthing abilities. This negative thinking affects the body causing tension and stress. This can lead to birth becoming painful and increase the risk of medical interventions.

On the other hand, positive thinking increases self-confidence and self-belief. Hypnobirthing affirmations can boost your confidence during labour, preventing negativity, worry, fear, and tension so you can feel grounded and empowered throughout childbirth.

Affirmations are essentially positive statements that challenge negative thinking patterns. Positive affirmations rewire your brain to think more optimistically. This positive thinking creates proactive behaviour that helps you achieve goals, change unhealthy habits or shift emotions to produce more favourable outcomes.

Using Birth Affirmations During Pregnancy

Like any muscle in the body, the more you exercise your brain, the stronger it gets. Practicing self-affirmation throughout pregnancy will make these birth affirmations more powerful and helpful in labour. You can write out hypnobirthing affirmations onto pieces of coloured card or post-it notes and display them around your home where you will see them each day. Every time you see one, say it out-loud and stroke your baby bump, take a deep breath in and out and say "And so it is" The more you do this, the more confidence you will feel about giving birth.

Using Birth Affirmations During Birth

On the big day itself, in your birth room, use blue-tac to stick your hypnobirthing affirmations up around your room and use them as labouring stations. Every 30 or 45 minutes switch stations by moving over to another group of birth affirmation cards. Make sure your birth partner knows these birth affirmations. Have them speak the affirmations over you and your baby to remind you how strong and amazing you are!

Here Are The Best Hypnobirthing Affirmations:

I am relaxed and calm

My baby and I are safe

My body and my baby work together as a team

My baby is the perfect size for my body

I trust my maternal instincts, I know what to do

My body is capable and strong

I embrace all the sensations of birth

I inhale deeply to meet each contraction

I ride each wave and trust my body

I release all tension

I allow loving hormones to flow through me

My contractions cannot be stronger than me because they are me

As my labour progresses, I relax more deeply

I let go and allow my body to open

Birth is powerful but so am I

I feel confident, capable and calm

I am surrounded by love

My body was made to do this

My body gives birth in its own time

I have patience with my body and my baby

I am focussed on a smooth birth

My cervix opens with ease

I get into comfortable positions which feel right for me

I breathe calm energy into my body and down to my baby

I have complete faith in my body's strength and wisdom

Each contraction brings my baby one step closer to me

I trust my baby and our birth journey

I look forward to holding my baby in my arms

I focus on slow, deep breaths in and out

I was made to do this

My care team are by my side and on my side

I am surrounded by supportive people

I soften, I open, I release

I am focussed on a peaceful, gentle birth experience

My body and my baby are healthy and strong

I breathe myself calmly through labour

My body knows how to give birth

My baby knows when and how to be born

My baby is born at the perfect time

I welcome my baby with open arms and an open heart

I am so excited about meeting my baby

��You can purchase these hypnobirthing affirmations as an audio track here��:

How To Combat Fatigue During Pregnancy

anjamoncrieff@gmail.com (Anja Moncrieff) — Tue, 26 Mar 2019 18:43:11 GMT

What you need to be eating to boost your energy levels now!

Are you feeling really tired now you are pregnant?

Whilst it is quite normal to feel tired during the first trimester as your body does all these miraculous things to start growing your baby and the placenta, the third trimester is often one of the most tiring stages (from 26 to 40 weeks).

Lots of women develop anaemia or low iron levels during pregnancy.

Every day our bodies uses iron to make haemoglobin, a protein in the red blood cells that carries oxygen to your tissues. When you are pregnant, however, you need double the amount of iron in your body as it is needed to make more blood to supply oxygen to your baby. If you don't have enough iron stores or get enough iron during pregnancy, you could develop iron deficiency anaemia.

The most common symptoms of anaemia during pregnancy are:

Pale skin, lips, and nails

Feeling tired or weak

Dizziness

Shortness of breath

Rapid heartbeat

Trouble concentrating

How does iron deficiency anaemia during pregnancy affect your baby?

Severe anaemia during pregnancy increases your risk of giving birth prematurely, having a low birth weight baby and developing postpartum depression. Some studies also show an increased risk of infant death immediately before or after birth.

It is so important to check your iron levels and, if they are low, you need to take steps to increasing them. This is really important! Low iron = low energy. Low energy can really affect your mood and could affect your baby.

When you have given birth to your baby, if you have a good level of iron in your body, you will have enough energy to deal with the early days of motherhood more easily. You are likely to be very sleep deprived in the first few months following your baby's birth until they get into a decent sleep pattern. Low iron and sleep deprivation are not a good combo so here are my top tips on how you can raise your iron levels and feel less fatigued.

1. Take an iron supplement. You can buy these yourself or get some from your doctor. They are best taken with a glass of orange juice because Vitamin C helps with iron absorption.

2. If you find that you are getting either bad diarrhoea or constipation when taking your iron pills, I recommend that you switch to liquid iron instead. Even though they taste quite metallic, many liquid iron supplements are mixed with fruit juice to make them easier to consume.

3. Up your intake of red meat.

4. Eat more dark leafy green vegetables such as kale, spinach, greens and rocket. Broccoli is also good.

5. Consume pulses and beans. Lentils, chick peas and black eyed peas are great sources of iron.

6. Up your intake of pumpkin, sesame, hemp and flaxseeds.

7. Eat more almonds and cashew nuts.

8. Introduce spelt, oatmeal and quinoa into your diet.

9. Eat prunes.

10. Have some dark chocolate (with no milk solids in it)

If you can choose a few of these food items each day and incorporate them into your diet, you should start to notice a difference in your energy levels.

One important point I must make before I say bye is DO NOT EAT ANY DAIRY PRODUCTS WHEN EATING YOUR IRON RICH FOODS!

Dairy products significantly reduce the amount of iron you can absorb from food. Ideally you should eat dairy products 4 hours after or before consuming any iron rich foods.

Have a great day and hope that this post has been useful!

P.S If you are feeling anxious or scared about labour and birth in any way why not check out my amazing online course THE BADASS BIRTHING QUEEN SCHOOL? It is the highest quality, lowest cost hypnobirthing course IN THE WORLD !

How To Be Positive, Prepared & Confident During Pregnancy & Labour

Tue, 26 Mar 2019 09:53:16 GMT

What you say to yourself counts!

Hi, it's Anja again!

I hope that this blog post finds you happy and well!

I am just going to launch straight into today's blog post!

The language that you are surrounded by during pregnancy can have a negative or positive impact on your labour and birth experience.

The more you surround yourself with positive language, the more you will start to believe in yourself and trust that you can have the empowering birth experience that you deserve!

I didn't really understand the power of positive affirmations until I was pregnant with my little girl back in 2015. Now I use affirmations to help me in lots of areas of my life. They keep me focussed and they keep my mindset on the right track!

During pregnancy, using positive affirmations is a great way of building up your confidence for birth.

As a pregnancy and hypnobirth coach, I advise the women I work with to surround themselves with as much positivity as possible during pregnancy so that they feel calm, relaxed and optimistic about their babies' births.

A great thing to do is to write out a series of positive pregnancy and birth affirmations and display them around your home so that you see them and read them each day. Mirrors are great places. windows, doors and next to your bed.

Some women simply read the affirmations when they pass them each day. Other women say them out loud with confidence and conviction. Some ladies choose to record themselves on their phones saying the affirmations and they listen to the recordings each day.

The more you expose yourself to positive affirmations, the more you will start to believe the words and the more they will help you to diminish any negative thoughts or feelings.

Below is a list of 10 of my favourite pregnancy and birth affirmations. Use them to help you feel good about yourself and confident in your body's abilities to give birth to your baby with ease:

1. I love and respect my pregnant body

2. I am deeply connected to my body and my baby

3. I instinctively know what is best for me and my baby at all times

4. During labour, my mind and body are relaxed

5. My cervix opens with ease

6. I inhale relaxation, I exhale tension

7. I am focussed on a positive and empowering birth no matter what happens

8. I have patience with my baby

9. The sensations I feel during labour cannot be stronger than me because I am creating them

10. Me and my baby deserve to share a calm and happy birth experience together!

Did you know I have created the most affordable and accessible birth preparation course in the world?

If you really want to get stuck in and feel fully prepared for your baby's birth check out my ONLINE HYPNOBIRTHING COURSE:

How To Not Be Scared Of Giving Birth

Mon, 25 Mar 2019 14:34:46 GMT

My top tips on how to have a fearless birth experience!

Hello and welcome to my first blog post!

I'm Anja, mum to a 3 year old, a pregnancy and hypnobirth coach and passionate about helping pregnant women all over the world to prepare for their babies' births with calm and confidence!

In my first post, I am going to share my 5 top tips on how to get over the fear of giving birth!

If you are anything like I was when I was pregnant, as your baby bump grows you will most likely be feeling increasingly anxious about what your labour and birth is going to be like!

When I hit 6.5 months of pregnancy, the fear and panic really started to set in so I knew that I had to seek support and guidance to overcome my fears before they got the better of me!

What I discovered and learned in my third trimester totally transformed the way I looked at childbirth and because of my mindset shift, I went on to have a very peaceful and straightforward home water birth.

Now I am going to share my pearls of wisdom in the hope that I can help you!

MY TOP TIPS:

1. Trust Your Body

Women have, literally, been giving birth for thousands and thousands of years (approximately 200,000 years actually!) and the female body is perfectly designed to give birth!

If you observe other female mammals on this planet, they give birth calmly and with no assistance. They go to a dark, quiet and safe place in their habitat, their baby is born and then they go about the rest of their day.

I am not saying that you have to be by yourself when you give birth or that you may not need a bit of help.

What I am saying is that your body, like other animals' in this world, instinctively knows what to do. So, trust your body’s natural and innate ability to birth your baby!

2.Choose Your Support Team Carefully

At your birth, ideally, you should have a birth partner with you. This could be your husband, your intimate partner, your mother, your sister or your best friend.

Maybe you fancy having more than one birth partner but make sure that you select people who will have a calming influence on you, who will stand up for you and support all of your decisions.

It is no good inviting your mum to your baby's birth if she is going to be a stress head and get into a panic! This will not help you in the slightest!

Never feel obliged to invite people to your baby's birth simply because they want to be there. You have to choose wisely and be really mindful about whether the people you are considering are going to provide the emotional, physical and practical support you'll need.

Also, during labour, if you don't like a certain midwife or doctor you have the right to ask for someone else to replace them. Get your birth partner to do this for you! There is nothing worse than giving birth with someone there who you don't like!

3. Surround Yourself With Positivity

If you are scared of giving birth, I advise that you avoid watching any negative portrayals of childbirth in films or on TV.

Don’t listen to people’s negative birth stories! There is always someone lurking about who cannot wait to tell you about their horror story! So, keep all of this horror out of your life starting right now!

If someone does start telling you about their traumatic birth experience. you can politely decline by saying “I would love to hear your story, but please could you tell me about it after I have given birth?"

Instead, fill your mind with positivity! If you search for positive birth stories on YouTube, you will find loads of amazing vlogs and videos of women sharing their inspiring tales.

Also, be sure to write out positive pregnancy and birth affirmations on colourful pieces of paper and display them around your house. Positive language is so powerful and the more you are exposed to positive words related to childbirth, the more you will have faith in your ability to have a positive birth experience yourself!

4. Learn To Relax & Breathe

A relaxed mind means a relaxed body.

During labour, your mind needs to be relaxed so that your body is free of tension and stress.

A tense and stressed body will cause your uterine muscles to tighten and this will lead to pain. When you experience pain, you will become more fearful. You do not want this!

Your body needs to be relaxed and tension free so that your baby can smoothly make its way into the world.

One of the easiest ways of keeping your labouring body relaxed is to focus on long slow breaths in and out.

By focussing on your breathing, you do not focus so much on the sensations of birth. Also, you allow optimal oxygen and blood flow to get around your body and down to your uterus and baby.

5. Educate Yourself To The Max!

Educate yourself about everything to do with childbirth. You can attend an antenatal class, read books, blogs, magazines and ask your care team to answer any questions that you have.

The best way I found of getting the information that I needed was through attending a hypnobirthing course.

By learning about the physiology of birth and how to navigate through each stage of labour with simple but highly effective techniques, I was able to have an amazing intervention-free birth that was so empowering I changed my career completely!

The birth of my daughter inspired me so much that I became a qualified hypnobirthing practitioner because I knew that my true calling was to educate and inspire other women so that they could have empowering births too!

If you are pregnant, and interested in finding out how I can help you prepare for birth through my amazing online hypnobirthing course, check it out here: