Testimonials

Below are a selection of reviews, and you can also read more on our Google Business Page HERE

Without hypnobirthing, I would not have been prepared for giving birth at all. This was my first baby, and I was going through my pregnancy focusing on what life would be like as a mother, blocking out thoughts about the actual birth. This until I met my sister’s friend, who made me realise I was suppressing thoughts of the birth out of fear, and that I should absolutely prepare myself through hypnobirthing: she regretted not doing so with her first, and had a much better experience with her second thanks to the relaxation techniques she’d learnt.

Luckily, upon moving to Bath, I found Polly, who was the perfect guide along the hypnobirthing journey. She is a kind and gentle person whose methods really put my partner and I at ease around the other people who attended the course.

Thanks to hypnobirthing, I was able to cope with a) the discomfort and b) the unexpected elements of my birth in a much calmer way than I otherwise would have. (These being a strong urge to push at 7cm dilated that completely took over due to my waters not breaking fully and an amniotic sac fooling my body into thinking it was the baby’s head! This meaning the baby was in the birth canal for longer than would have been ideal, and his heart rate had to be monitored on the way out.)

In spite of this, I was able to give in to the situation and take control at the same time – give in to what my body was doing but also push things (literally) along with my strong willpower and determination, narrowly avoiding a ventouse and episiotomy! There was no fear or panic, I just gave in to what my body was doing with some help from gas and air, and I know that I would have panicked without the preparation I received thanks to Polly’s help.

The classes consisted of a great mix of audio (mp3s and Polly reading passages to send you off into a relaxing trance), visual (birth videos), and kinaesthetic content (practical breathing exercises, practising birthing positions, showing partners where to massage the lower back, etc), as well as group conversations and lecture-style slides. We found this mixture of teaching techniques very stimulating.

Hypnobirthing is not an airy fairy technique, it includes pragmatic scientific knowledge about birthing as well as the promotion of mindfulness during this all-important phase of a woman’s life!

Finally, I benefitted from the very nice and relaxing venue, its perfect location in the centre of Bath, and appreciated the lovely home-made snacks you made. Thank you Polly for contributing positively to my birthing experience!

Patricia, Bath

bathmumslogo

Aimes83 4 months ago on BATHMUMS website 

I have recently finished the baby massage course with Polly & cannot speak highly enough about it. The techniques we learnt have been incorporated into my son’s daily routine & allow us to spend quality one-on-one time together.

As a ftm one of my biggest concerns is what to do with my child during his awake time, baby massage is a great tool to add to our repertoire of activities. Polly & the environment of the sessions is just brilliant. The classes are all completely baby led & even when my little boy was crying for a whole session, wanting nothing but cuddles, you still feel totally part of the group & what is going on.

Polly creates a brilliant atmosphere & the end of each session was spent with tea & biscuits, and a social chat. One of the best things about this course is that Polly runs a special ‘partners’ session at the end, which my husband loved as he is now just as able to join in with the massage routine at home. I highly recommend signing up to baby massage with Polly.

bathmumslogo

 

AbbyQ 4 months ago on BATHMUMS website

I have just completed the 6 week baby massage course at the Bath Massage Company. Polly was fantastic right from the initial phone calls to the course itself. She made me feel really at my ease so I was able to look forward to going. The course is very baby led and there is such a relaxed atmosphere, there is no issue if your baby cries, needs feeding or just doesn’t want to be massaged that day. My little boy was 13 weeks when we started and he absolutely loved it.

The course is very well structured, building up the different techniques week by week including rhymes that you can use when massaging. The supporting literature is also very helpful and high quality which is great to refer to at home if you forget anything. Polly is incredibly well informed and sets the course in the context of the benefits of massage and how each technique will help your baby. Each week there is further information helping you to understand why the particular massage will help and when it would be useful to use. After every session my baby would fall asleep – in fact one week all the mums went for a coffee after the course and all the babies fell asleep together! The reason that I attended the course was that, although he was a good night sleeper, my baby rarely slept during the day and found it hard to wind down.

Now, having incorporated baby massage into my daily nap time routine each day I am happy to say that my little boy is now taking daytime naps – not perfectly(!) but much improved. In fact, I am posting this message whilst he sleeps soundly.

I cannot recommend this course highly enough- I really looked forward to it each week and am sad that it is over, but the techniques are invaluable and have helped immensely. Polly is a fantastic course leader and I enjoyed the informative chats after the massage, over a cup of tea, just as much as the course itself!

bathmumslogo

 

 

Jessroseprice 10 months ago

This was by far the most useful, enjoyable and relaxing class I took as a new mum. Polly is fantastic, put us all completely at ease and it felt like a bit of a sanctuary amidst all the chaos of new motherhood. Most of all, the massage itself is a brilliant tool – our baby is now 6 months and it’s part of our bedtime routine every day. I’d utterly recommend doing the course with Polly to anyone with a baby!

bathmumslogo

 

Gooders82 6 months ago

I completed a 6 week course in baby massage with Polly at the Bath massage company and I can thoroughly recommend it for mums and dads. I loved going every week to learn new massage techniques for me to use on my baby. Every night before bed we put these techniques into practice and both myself and my little one really enjoy the time together. It’s the bond and the fact that the massage helps with constipation, wind and soon teething.
It was lovely to meet other mums and we became a close group, every week we had a chance to discuss other things at the session as a group, time was built in!
Babies can lead the way so if they need feeding you can do this anytime, or change a nappy and you can still be involved in the session, it is very relaxed and we had a lot of fun and laughs. I know as a new mum my concern was my 5 week olds lack of routine but this is not a problem.
The last session was a partners session and my husband took baby for an hour to learn what we had been doing over the 5 weeks and he throughly enjoyed the massage. He now takes part in bedtime routine massaging our little one and enjoys the bonding calming time they have together.
Polly is a fantastic practitioner, and makes you feel welcome and confident and she is always happy to answer questions or worries you have.
The cost of the course is really reasonable especially when you use it every evening as we do.
It’s also time for you and baby in a calm, safe environment which is hard to manage everyday so we really looked forward to these sessions and are sad they have finished. Thank you Polly for the skills and techniques you have given us as a family.

The course is very well structured, building up the different techniques week by week including rhymes that you can use when massaging. The supporting literature is also very helpful and high quality which is great to refer to at home if you forget anything. Polly is incredibly well informed and sets the course in the context of the benefits of massage and how each technique will help your baby. Each week there is further information helping you to understand why the particular massage will help and when it would be useful to use. After every session my baby would fall asleep – in fact one week all the mums went for a coffee after the course and all the babies fell asleep together! The reason that I attended the course was that, although he was a good night sleeper, my baby rarely slept during the day and found it hard to wind down.

Now, having incorporated baby massage into my daily nap time routine each day I am happy to say that my little boy is now taking daytime naps – not perfectly(!) but much improved. In fact, I am posting this message whilst he sleeps soundly.

I cannot recommend this course highly enough- I really looked forward to it each week and am sad that it is over, but the techniques are invaluable and have helped immensely. Polly is a fantastic course leader and I enjoyed the informative chats after the massage, over a cup of tea, just as much as the course itself!

Gemma Abbott_bathmums

bathmumslogo

 

 

EvieBee 5 months ago

I have just completed the 5 (out of 6) weeks of Polly’s baby massage course and absolutely loved it! Would highly recommend to anyone who is looking to learn some techniques and enjoy a lovely hour and a half with Polly and the class (which in my case was actually my NCT class), as well of course as quality time with your little one I’ve integrated the massage techniques into my baby’s daily routine, finding them helpful for relaxing post-bath or if he has trapped wind….not only was the class just great fun to go to every week, but really practical too and easy to replicate at home. I love that the 6th class is for fathers or partners to learn the techniques too!

Polly was a great teacher, really professional, explaining each technique really clearly and making us feel all so comfortable. I had been to Polly for massages during my pregnancy so had an inkling she’d be great, if they were anything like my massages! Am gutted the course is over but will definitely keep up the baby massages at home (and now can book in a post-pregnancy massage for me!!)
Would highly recommend!

I decided to do baby massage with Polly as I had heard so many great things about her and the course from other mum friends. My baby girl was 5 weeks when we started the course and was suffering with Colic symptoms. Over the 5 weeks I learnt how to massage her using lots of techniques, many of which really helped her. I especially noticed that she responded to her stomach being massaged and Polly showed us a specific Colic routine that I used every day on her. I’d highly recommend Polly’s course, she is lovely, professional and it’s a great way to spend an our each week with your baby.

– Beth Longford, Chippenham

It was my NCT teacher who recommended Polly’s course as a good thing to do with your new born. As a first time Mum I was keen to lean something I could do with my baby boy that would benefit him. Our teacher had said that he could help reflux and wind so I thought I’d give it a go. Polly organised a private class for me and 3 other mums from my NCT group. The course was great, really fun and Daniel, my boy, loved it. Polly taught us how to massage the body and was really good at explaining why we did certain movements. Daniel is now 12 months and we still do the massage each day (my husband as well after learning it at the Dads session) and it’s a part of our evening routine. Fab course thank you Polly!

-Amy and Daniel, Beckington

I have just signed up for my second term of baby massage lessons with Polly.  I took baby massage classes with my eldest (age 3 years) when he was a baby and really enjoyed it.  We started these classes with Polly when my second son was 9 weeks old.  I took them to relive the same experience as before, enjoyable, calming, quality time with my child.  I have found that my poor second child gets so much less quality time with me than my first child did and as well as the fantastic skills that you learn through Polly’s class, it is dedicated time for Finley and I to be together, which he may not otherwise get.  It is a really relaxed environment, with small classes of other new mums and young babies together which as a social setting in itself is really nice.  Polly is professional and highly trained, but really relaxed and enjoyable to be around.  I (we) enjoyed it so much we have just signed up for a second ‘term’.  I highly recommended the course”.

– Jo Palmer, Bath

Polly’s baby massage course was actually my 3rd baby massage course, and it was definitely my favourite! The classes were really informative and structured which I really liked as it really helped the techniques to sink in. The strokes she taught were really quite different to the others I had been taught, and the little parent hand-out massage book you receive has easy to follow diagrams so you can perform the massage confidently at home.
Polly is absolutely lovely and the group became very close. The location was very intimate and homely and I will definitely keep up the massage as my son Paul absolutely loved it. I started the course when he was 6 weeks old so I plan to return for another when he is 6 months + and a very different baby in lots of ways! I also hope to sample some of Polly’s massage as everyone I have spoken to says she is incredible – one of my all-time favourite baby courses!
We were all very sad when it was finished! We shall all definitely stay in touch. Thank you so much Polly!

– Claire and Paul, Bath

The baby massage course I did with Polly has completely changed my little boys sleeping pattern. Before we did the course he wouldn’t sleep at all and cried a lot. After the 2nd week on the course I noticed a huge difference he started to relax and began to sleep for longer. With Polly’s guidance we massaged him every day after bath time and used the techniques Polly showed us to help calm him and relax him. I can’t thank her enough for her patience and help, it’s the best money I spent on my baby, highly recommended.

– Amy, Combe Down, Bath

I took my baby to Baby Massage with Polly. She created a really lovely calm and easygoing atmosphere for the babies and us Mothers. Her class structure was really good and easy to follow and meant that we learnt so much, not just how to massage our babies but other really interesting and useful information too. Polly made me feel really confident about massaging my baby, and her class was really fun and nurturing, I’d highly recommend Polly’s class to any mother thinking about baby massage”.

– Natasha R, Bath, Somerset

banner