From the beginning, Steph and I have felt the “warm light of Divine protection and guidance” surrounding us and our work. With the intention of inspiring women and helping them trust in their bodies and in their inner wisdom, we felt our intentions were pure and therefore our actions would be guided and blessed.

Our vision is to inspire women to trust in themselves, in their bodies and their inner wisdom. And to take this trust and create beautiful pregnancies and births and beautiful mothering experiences.

Our Story

Danette:

I had all of my children at home with an independent midwife. All three experiences were incredibly empowering for me, bonding for my husband and me, and increasingly beautiful experiences physically as I learned to trust my body and myself more and more deeply.

Meanwhile, women around me continued to tell their stories of pain and trauma or, at best, of getting through childbirth. With very limited antenatal choices in our area, I decided to become a childbirth educator.

As I explored my options, I found that HypnoBirthing best reflected my own birth preparation and my own beliefs about birth and the importance of the body-mind connection.

Teaching HypnoBirthing was very fulfilling as I always found even the most sceptical dads “got it” and even the most fearful mums walked away feeling more confident and empowered. I have yet to find anyone that doesn’t nod their head in understanding as the lightbulb goes on about the importance of hormones and the body-mind connection.

But I was still dissatisfied as I watched newly confident pregnant women slowly lose this confidence as the weeks passed before the birth and they slowly gave in to the fear and doubt our culture is so full of.

I wanted to find a way to keep that trust and confidence that I saw kindled during classes, remain alight right up to the birth; something a woman could take home with her that would inspire her every time she picked it up.

I conceived the idea for 25 Ways to Awaken Your Birth Power but I couldn’t create it alone. I needed an artist. And I really wanted that artist to be a woman and a mother who shared my philosophy on birth! Not necessarily easy criteria!

Through a number of different contacts, I discovered Stephanie Corkhill Hyles. One day, still not knowing anything about her, I called her. She sounded interested in getting together to discuss the project and we made an appointment to meet. The next day, she called me back which I found odd but as she explained why, I felt the hairs stand up on my arm and I felt sure I had found the right woman.

She explained that she had just found out she was pregnant with her second child and that she was very scared. She and her husband had not told anyone yet. The day I called, she had gone for a walk and had asked her Nan (up in Heaven) to help her with this pregnancy and birth. Later that day, she got the call from me and from what I said, she knew her Nan had sent me! Over the next 10 months, as Beatrix Hyles developed in Steph’s belly, a lasting friendship developed between Steph and me and our beautiful book was born– finished just 3 days before Trixie was born

Steph:

I had a very challenging birth experience with Archie our first child. It left me feeling torn, shocked and totally overwhelmed with the fear forever of having another child. So when I found out I was pregnant with Beatrix, I instantly became afraid.

Out walking one morning, I asked my late grandmother to come to my aid and send down some “major therapy”. That day Danette, whom I had never met, called me looking for an artist. She wanted to write a book for pregnant women concentrating on the pregnancy and birth as a positive and uplifting experience! Well, my grandmother certainly sent the best person and my prayers were answered!

As a result I had such a positive pregnancy and birth with Beatrix.

There was such a significant difference between my two birth experiences. I attribute this to Danette’s positive self-affirming philosophy to pregnancy and birth. Danette worked with me on a regular basis for my whole pregnancy. Danette and her philosophies enabled me to trust my own intuition and to work with my emotions both positive and negative.

During my pregnancy I felt quite down at times as those feelings of fear would creep back in. Working with Danette on the book created a positive outlet. The images became a visual diary of these emotions. I sketched and painted over 80 images and we came back to the strongest 25 pieces for the book. Amongst these were subjects and images that Danette felt strongly about and felt really needed to be explored and others were exploring my own emotions.

Each day I would try to set aside 15-30 minutes to focus on our baby and the huge job I was doing. I would light a candle, play relaxing music and eventually write down what ever came into my head, which would be quite scary at times – I let it all go!

It was only 30 minutes out of my whole day and it was preparing me for the biggest, most rewarding experience of my life. If I can use this analogy to explain it a little more, it is like when we have an exam, we prepare, we study, to gain the best result that we possibly can. Well pregnancy and childbirth are like the exam for life and one that is ever changing and growing!

Childbirth is scary; it is the unknown and this I think is the most difficult thing to overcome. In our society this is not what we are accustomed to, we want to know everything, the outcome and how it will make us feel. This is fine to a degree but it is within this unknown that we find the mystery and beauty of just how amazing our bodies are. It is truly the most rewarding experience.

“25 Ways to Awaken Your Birth Power” had an empowering influence on my health. I developed high blood pressure towards the end of my pregnancy. I was determined not to be induced, as I was with Archie’s birth. So with the help of Danette and my beautiful husband, I rested, I meditated, I ate to reduce the high BP and cut out all stimulants and walked and walked. With lots of support emotionally and physically I brought it down to a safe level. The body does mirror the mind and it certainly is the strongest tool of all.

This experience was life changing – it really was a holistic view to the most sacred ritual a woman will ever do.
The question I put to all women “Why not make this, the most difficult journey, a little easier by learning how to gain confidence in our own abilities?”

I had the confidence and the intuition to say no when the doctor wanted to break my waters. I wanted my body to do it just how it needed to. I was not going to hand my body over at the door! I was going to be powerful and this took a lot of courage. But I did it with the help of my beautiful husband and a truly supportive midwife.

The book and CD really is for every pregnant women, you need no prior knowledge or experience, it tells you exactly how to use it and lists resources for you to explore further.

I do have Danette to thank – she really was my saving grace. It was a hard but totally rewarding experience.

To quote my grandmother “Child birth is the shortest and most difficult journey a women will ever have to make”.