A MUM who used the same birthing technique as Kate Middleton says self-meditation meant labour was 'absolutely amazing'.

Dr Lauren Wolfenden, 28, welcomed daughter Florence on Sunday morning, after attending hypnobirthing classes at Bolton Hospital.

Hypnobirthing teaches relaxation, breathing and visualisation techniques that are said to reduce stress and fear and reduce the need for painkillers.

The technique was thrust into headlines this week when the Duchess of Cambridge revealed she used the programme to deal with the pain of labour for all three of her children.

Dr Wolfenden, who works as a programme developer for the NSPCC, said she chose the course after researching alternative birthing methods.

She said: "I didn’t want too many medical interventions or pain relief. Hypnobirthing just kept coming up in our research so I decided to give it a try.

“I wanted a course run by a midwife already integrated into the NHS and Bolton offered that.”

Lauren and her husband Joseph took part in a group course along with four other expectant-mums.

She went into labour last weekend and spent 23 hours at home in the first stage, heading to Ingleside Birth Centre for two and a half hours of active labour.

Lauren used a visualisation technique which she practised with her husband beforehand to ensure they had the right “toolkit”.

The new-mum said: “I couldn’t have asked for it to be better. If my husband and I didn’t take the course together it wouldn’t have been the same experience.

“It allowed me to take take control, it was absolutely amazing.

“I describe it to all my friends as birthing mindfulness, it gives you a tool box of lots of different things to deal with birth.

“We use mindfulness and CBT to control our mental health and people don’t think of birth like that but you’re not having an operation and it works.”

Lauren and her husband attended classes on Tuesday evenings, paying £150 for four lessons, with the cost including a hypnobirthing book, relaxation CD, and hand-outs.

Talking on the podcast Happy Mum, Happy Baby, hosted by Giovanna Fletcher and released this week, the Duchess of Cambridge said: "I'm not going to say that William was standing there, sort of chanting sweet nothings at me. He definitely wasn't.

"I didn't tell him about it, but it was something I wanted to do for myself."