Hope you are all well. Sorry it’s taken a while to get round to sending this, but wanted to let you all know that baby Jessica was born on March 10th, 7lb, all healthy, pink and screaming!

We were so close to our perfect home birth, but in the end it wasn’t meant to be – I successfully laboured at home, got to 10 cm dilated, and waters broke, with lovely midwife, who fully embraced the hypnobirthing techniques: she was quiet and discreet, and only examined me twice, and helped with the gentle touch massage (when Riaan had to go outside and rescue the dustbins halfway through the night - it was the night of the really big storm!)!!. Riaan was brilliant and I have to say all the practice really paid off, we were both calm and relaxed, and what surprised me the most was how powerful all the affirmations were – anytime I felt tired or any doubts crept into my mind, there were the affirmations popping into my head to keep me back on track.