HypnoBirthing® is a hypnosis for childbirth and is as much a philosophy of birtsh 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 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.
