Tell me more…
An antenatal teacher helps pregnant women prepare for birth using techniques like hypnotherapy, visualisation, relaxation, exercise or yoga. A therapist might use therapies such as reflexolgy, reiki and massage to do the same.
These techniques may also be used to help women recover after the birth, to adjust to motherhood or get back into shape after having a baby.
What are the benefits?
- If you are passionate about pregnancy and birth this is a perfect opportunity to work with women at a fascinating time in their lives.
- As mothers and mothers-to-be, your clients will usually be happy for you to work around your family.
- Working hours are flexible and will often be in the evening or at weekends to fit in with your clients work and family commitments.
Things to consider…
Your clients will only need your services for a period of a few months, so you'll need to think of ways of catching them early on in their pregnancies. Unless you have lots of clients who go on to have big families, you won't get much repeat custom either! But you could encourage clients to recommend you to their pregnant friends, perhaps by giving them discount vouchers.
It's a good idea to make sure your website appears near the top of the search results in search engines e.g. if you're a maternity reflexologist in Coventry, aim to be top of the list when someone types 'maternity reflexology Coventry' into Google. Potential clients will then find you if they have decided they want your service but haven't yet found a local teacher/therapist.
You can improve your cash-flow by selling courses, rather than individual sessions. It means that you know you have covered your costs (such as room hire) at the start of a course rather than having to worry about it before every session.
You could offer several different therapies or courses. This might mean being a therapist with a pregnancy specialism (a reflexologist who also does maternity reflexology) or a pregnancy/birth specialist who offers several courses or therapies (e.g. hypnotherapy and reiki).
Further information
Training:
activebirthcentre.com – teacher training for the Active Birth method
www.hypnobirthing.co.uk – teacher training for Hypnobirthing
maternity-reflexology.com – training for reflexologists who want to specialise in maternity reflexology
birthlight.com – training to teach yoga in pregnancy
Examples of mums who are antenatal and postnatal teachers or therapists:
Soles to Soul reflexology and maternity reflexology
Karma Birth birth workshops, pregnancy and postnatal yoga, pregnancy massage and reiki
No More Excuses pregnancy and postnatal fitness
Not convinced that being a Antenatal Teacher or Therapist is for you? Take a look at other business ideas for mums.