Beth Roche, Certified HypnoBirthing Practitioner, teaching mothers
and birth companions techniques for safe and satisfying birthing through guided imagery, visualization,
and special breathing..
"...experiences
have clearly shown that an approach which "de-medicalizes"
birth, restores dignity and humanity to the process of childbirth,
and returns control to the mother is also the safest approach."
Michel Odent, MD
A chance to see some wonderful and thought provoking films about pregnancy, birth and early babyhood. A selection is chosen from: "What Babies Want", "Born into Being", "Born in Water", "Birth Day", "My Body, My Baby, My Birth" & HypnoBirthing films from the UK. Also a chance to meet other people with an interest in positive birth experiences, who will more than likely be happy to share their happy birth stories. Held 8-10pm in Ringinglow Village
Sunday 14th June
Saturday 4th July
I currently have no more planned group courses due to my pregnancy. It is likely that they will resume in 2010. I am still running individual courses for the time being.
HypnoBirthing® is a hypnosis for childbirth and is as much
a philosophy of birth as it is a technique for achieving a satisfying,
relaxing, and stress-free method of birthing. This amazing program
teaches you, along with your birthing companion, the art and joy
of experiencing birth in a more comfortable manner. You will learn
how to call upon your body’s own natural relaxant and thus
lessen, or even eliminate, discomfort and the need for medication.
When a woman is properly prepared for childbirth and when mind and
body are in harmony, nature is free to function in the same well-designed
manner that it does with all animal mothers in nature.
You will be fascinated as you
view HypnoBirthing® films, showing labouring mothers, awake,
alert and in good humor as they experience the kind of gentle birth
that you, too, can know when you are free of the fear that causes
pain and tension. Through self-hypnosis, special breathing, and
visualisation, HypnoBirthing® teaches you to release all prior
programming about birth, how to trust your body and work with it,
as well as how to free yourself of harmful emotions that lead to
pain-causing fear and unyielding muscles.
HypnoBirthing® will teach
you the art of using your own natural birthing instincts. With HypnoBirthing®,
you will not be in a trance or a sleep state. You will be aware
and fully in control, but profoundly relaxed.
The HypnoBirthing®
Premise
For most of their lives, women
have been inundated with the negative stories of other women’s
birth experiences. Everyone, from their mothers, sisters, aunts,
cousins, friends, and even strangers, wants to tell them the horrors
of giving birth. They have been conditioned to believe that excruciating
pain is associated with birth; and because of this, women today
hold an unprecedented fear of giving birth. This extreme fear causes
their bodies to become tense, and that tension often prevents them
from easily performing the normal, physiological function of birth.
The result?—exactly what they feared most--long, painful,
disappointing birthings.
People who are drawn to HypnoBirthing
have long been searching for a way that helps women give birth as
calmly, safely, and gently as possible. Until HypnoBirthing®
was founded, it seemed almost unattainable.
Through a very simple program
of self-hypnosis and education, women learn to release emotions
tied to fear-based stories and misinformation, and they are helped
to see birth as normal. They learn to trust that their bodies know
how to bring their babies into the world in the calm and gentle
way that Nature intended.
How HypnoBirthing® changed my life
When I was pregnant with my son I was extremely afraid of the birth,
and spoke to my husband of my concerns. My fears surrounded my fear
of hospitals as well as of the physical process of birth itself.
I quickly decided to waylay one of my main fears by choosing a homebirth,
but that still left my overriding terror of birth itself. My husband
vaguely recalled an interview that there had been on Richard and
Judy a few years before about HypnoBirthing® and how using the
techniques could help bring about an easier, more comfortable birth.
This was music to my ears, and my husband quickly set about learning
more about the process, using his usual method - the internet!
I looked at all of the things he had found, including the main HypnoBirthing® UK website. This really excited me, and I felt that I had nothing
to loose in joining a class. My view at the time was to try and
surround myself with as much positivity as possible and hoped some
of it may rub off on me!
We booked the class and a few months before I was due we started.
The classes were with 3 other couples, and were very relaxed. I
particularly enjoyed the relaxation involved in the classes, as
I was still working and got quite exhausted. The first class we
were given loads of things, but what I remember most about it was
the fact that when it was over I felt as though a cloud which had
been over me since we learned of the pregnancy, had been lifted!
I had a new attitude towards the birth of my baby, and felt that
the subsequent classes would teach me all I would need to learn
and more about how I could have a safe and easy birth.
I really looked forward to our classes each week, even though they
were over an hours drive away. I came out of each one feeling more
confident and in control of the birth of my baby, and thoroughly
relaxed. When discussing my birth plan with my midwife I informed
her about HypnoBirthing®, and how we had used it to help us
to understand the process of birth. She seemed really enthusiastic
about it, and wanted to find out more.
In between classes we had lots of practising to do, which gave both
me and my husband a real opportunity to spend quality time together
before the birth of our baby. It also made us stop and concentrate
on the baby, and relax. I thoroughly enjoyed the rainbow relaxation
CD we were given in class, and used the affirmations every day to
help me feel positive about the birth ahead.
When I my surges first began I was really excited, and eager to
meet my little one who I had enjoyed nurturing all this time. The
labour and birth were calm and at home using a birth pool. We used
loads of the techniques we had learned in the class to help with
the process, but overall the main feeling was that my body was made
to birth, and that is what happened. My beautiful little boy was
handed to me and went straight to suckle at my breast. This helped
the placenta to come out. Over the following few days we spent some
wonderful moments as a family together at home, rubbing in the natural
moisturiser ‘vernix’ when we found any. Looking back
on the experience now, I am pleased to say that I was in control
of all the decisions that were made during the birth of my child. Additionally, now as a mother, I am a far more relaxed and easy going person than I was before, and I personally attribute a lot of this to the relaxing and calming attitude which I developed with HypnoBirthing® during my pregnancy.
I love being a mum, and I loved giving birth to our son. I have
chosen to teach other couples the philosophy and techniques of HypnoBirthing®
as they have so profoundly affected my life.
