Brigid Godwin truly believes that the way we give birth to our babies can influence how we raise them and that the way we raise our children changes the world. She is passionate about helping other women have the most optimal, rejuvenating and empowering birth experience. A yoga teacher since 2000 and a prenatal and postnatal yoga specialist since 2002, she has also taught mindfulness, hypnobirthing and prenatal education for many years and realized that the best way to serve women and families was to bring together elements of all of these. fields in a full course. Here she talks to The Natural Parent magazine about the inspiration behind it BodyMind Birthingher greatest achievement and the challenges she has overcome along the way,
The passion: What inspired you to create your business?
This job really chose me and was an absolute gift. I had been working full-time as a yoga teacher in London for about two years when I became pregnant with my first daughter in 2002. A fellow teacher, Lynne Pinette, who was a pregnancy yoga specialist, announced that she was going to give me an apprenticeship (I don’t remember there was a question!). I shadowed Lynne for 6 months. Being pregnant myself, this was a beautiful and slightly terrifying experience. At the end of the 6 months, Lynne announced she was retiring and just gave me all the lessons (I think that was her plan all along!). Well, they really threw me in the deep end.
Once I adjusted to the enormous responsibility, I began to feel the enormous privilege that comes with being even a tiny part of this precious time in women’s lives. The best part was when these women would contact me to let me know their babies had arrived safely. What was so wonderful was how many of them would report that they felt their yoga preparation had really paid off and contributed to them having a positive birth experience. When I began to realize the power of this work, it became my absolute passion.
I went on to train with Francoise Freedman at Birthlight and trained as a birth doula with Michel Odent (the pioneer of water birth). I learned to teach Active Birth couples workshops with Janet Balaskas and then trained in Hypnobirth. I also teach mindful parenting and baby massage classes.
The launch: How did you get started in the first place?
After moving from London to Tunbridge Wells, Kent in 2006, I set up Unity Yoga Bumps and Babies, offering pre and postnatal yoga classes and antenatal classes for couples. Things were simpler back then as social media hadn’t arrived and there weren’t as many yoga teachers as there are now. I found a venue, put an advert in the local paper and from that point on my classes were fully bookedā¦ until Covid hit!
Innovation: What has been the biggest breakthrough for you with your business?
During the lockdown, I took the opportunity to do further training, both as an advanced women’s wellness coach and as a mind-body practitioner. Post-Covid, it was like starting a business from scratch, which was a difficult time. But as they say, from adversity comes creativity! So I started writing my pregnancy and postpartum yoga teacher training program, which launched in 2022, and spent most of 2023 creating my holistic prenatal course, BodyMind Birthing, which is now available in person as well as digitally, so you can work at your own pace.
I am so proud of the BodyMind Birthing course as it brings together everything I have learned over the past 22 years into a 6 week holistic research backed birth preparation course. I truly believe that using both top-down methods (mindfulness, hypnobirthing, positive psychology, prenatal education) alongside bottom-up methods (like breath control and yoga) gives women a valuable skill set from tools to regulate the nervous system not only for pregnancy and birth, but also for parenting.
I call this a ‘birth bootcamp’ as it is a full immersion into understanding how powerful we are and how much potential we can unleash when properly supported in preparation for birth and parenting.
Instead of doing three separate classes (pregnancy yoga, hypnobirthing and prenatal training), this class offers women and couples everything in one holistic package.
