Anybody else done hypnobirthing/ gone drug-free for labour? How did that go for you?

[YourVagesty]

Hi all!

I'm reading a lot of Ina May (famous hippy midwife basically) material at the moment and I follow her logic that the female body is built for birth. It all makes sense to me that if a woman isn't stressed and understands what is happening, then the body should be able to birth a child without interventions. And her statistics speak for themselves too (she hardly ever has to use forceps or even stitch women up afterwards).

I like the idea of doing things naturally, with the help of hypnobirthing.

But obviously, part of me wonders if it's hippy nonsense and I'll be screaming for an epidural when it's too late to get any help? I realise this might sound hilariously naive to some!

So I'm looking for real-life stories of people who eschewed epidurals and went with hypnobirthing instead.

How did you get on? Any regrets? Would you do it again?

So as not to drip feed, this is my second baby but I had an emergency C-section with my first.

Yep - I had two. And that’s despite trying everything beforehand to get them in the right position. And trying to have a water birth with both so no lying down. It’s just luck and people need to accept that.

i’m beginning to think I must have a really low pain threshold. I think I had mild ptsd after my first baby just from the pain of the contractions. And I did end up with an epidural.

Sorry but this is nonsense. With my last baby I was on my feet for 12 hour shifts as my job and walked for miles every day as I was bored during Covid. Baby was still back to back and horrible labour. Making blase statements like “being slim and fit helps” is not helpful at all. Sounds like you are blaming women for their own traumatic births.

I had a sudden onset of intense labour with very strong contractions every minute or two, plus I was bleeding red blood. I laboured for 5.5 hours before having an emergency c-section. I used gas and air and hypnobirthing, using my own formula as I had done hypnotherapy before. It was fine. It worked. I remember the consultant coming in and saying, ‘are you sure she only has GSS and air, these are very string contractions’. Felt really proud.

However, near the end I remember feeling despondent when I still was not very dilated, as I was getting tired, and I remember thinking ‘I don’t think I can do this much longer’. And it was only 3 in the afternoon and only went into labour at 10,30! I was relieved when they said I was having an emergency c-section. I lost the gas and air and stopped the hypnobirthing in all the kerfuffle with them running and wheeling me to surgery. And suddenly the contractions were very, very painful.

my advice would be not to get hung up on the type of birth you have. I loved my emergency c, it was a really positive experience ( so much so I ejected for a C with my second) And I was just so glad my baby was ok. What with the bleeding and straight away being a high risk case with constant monitoring, being ran to surgery and hearing the obstetrician clearly being worried about my baby in surgery,
and him being risked away straight after birth ( I never got to hold or see him) as they needed to check if he had been starved of oxygen, I was just glad he was ok. Nothing makes you change your focus from the birth ‘experience’ to having a live, healthy baby than that.

As for the stats of your midwife. The stats you really need are those of all of women for all of history until the invention of modern midwifery and obstetrics. Maternal death rates and deaths of babies were very high. They still are in areas of the world where women don’t have access to medical care. I went to a documentary on this when pregnant and it was really grounding as to where my focus should be. In 18 century England a popular book, which went through print run after print run, was one telling pregnant women how to write a letter to their child, giving him all the advice they would have in life, if they had not died in childbirth. It was common. Natural Human child birth is very risky, due to the large size of the baby’s head. It stopped being risky due to modern health care.

So take what natural birth advocates say with a large pinch of salt. I had two pregnancy yoga teachers, one a midwife ( freelance) and huge natural birth advocate. She told us that it was nonsense to be concerned if the placenta was late being delivered and to ignore medics about this, that it was natural for the delivery to take time. My friend had a home birth and when the placenta was not delivered within the ‘safe’ time the midwife advised transfer to hospital, and my friend complied. Just as well, as she arrived at hospital she went into massive haemorrage, by the time they got her to surgery she had lost so much blood they couldn’t find a vein to start transferring blood into her through. They almost had to go through her neck. She said she thought she was going to die. If my friend had listened to the opinings of my pregnancy yoga teachers, she could have died. Another friend did listen to my pregnancy yoga teacher and refused all intervention. Going to almost 44 weeks pregnant, when they finally discovered the umbilical cord had wrapped around her baby’s neck. I heard a midwife speak who had a baby die after the mother refused all interventions as her baby became distressed, as she had listened to women like my pregnancy yoga teacher who encouraged her to believe all interventions are unnecessary and impede the natural process. Well yes, they do impede the natural process in ways that save lives when the natural process will lead to death.

The fact is modern medical care has developed to save babies’ and mothers’ lives. Sure try for an active birth / hypno birth etc, but don’t get too focused on the birth experience over a safe delivery for baby and you.

I had two (bar a few breaths of gas and air with my daughter as she crowned). Both were fine. First labour was 36 hours, second was 47. My labours are odd though. My contractions come far apart for ages and can be managed by breathing alone. They only get close together fifteen mins or so before the baby comes out.

I went into both births with an open mind re pain relief but just didn’t need it. I did a hypnobirthing course with my first but my goal was more about being able to calm myself and feel in control than managing without pain relief.

It’s one of those things that you won’t know until your labour starts. They’re all different. My nephew was back to back and my sister in law was in a lot of pain close together for ages.

Agree. The was no correlation between fitness or fatness and who had easy births and who had difficult or traumatic births amongst women I know. Throughout history, and in ‘developing’ countries, women were fitter than most modern westerners women, and still had far higher death rates for them and their babies. It’s modern healthcare that has made birth safe.

Also being slim and having a narrow pelvis really isn’t very conducive to having an easy birth.

If you’re going into it with realistic expectations, it can be helpful if the breathing is a useful technique to keep you calm. BUT be warned of anyone who tells you it can promise a pain free labour and/or one that avoids interventions. It’s very common for labour, especially first labours, to require clinical intervention and you shouldn’t be prepped to feel like this is a failure when the reality is that whatever keeps your baby and you safe is to be applauded. Ultimately no birth plan or visualisation of butterflies is going to have any real influence over what happens; your best birth plan is to just go with the flow and not too rigid about what birth looks like. As long as you and baby make it out that’s a good birth. I did not like all the language that made medical intervention seem negative or a failing. Also using language other than contraction or pain relief is ridiculous, using a different word will not mean it doesn’t hurt.

it didn’t help me at all for my first, so felt like a total waste of money. But actually for my second I did use the breathing and I did feel calm and empowered but mostly just because it was so fast so I didn’t get as exhausted as the 2 day labour before.

id save my money and spend it on something nice for you!

I never saw hypnobirthing as an attempt to have a pain free intervention free birth. I saw it as a tool to help me cope with whatever happened, whether that be pain, full labour ward, induction, midwife not listening.

I have had 2 pain relief free births. I found it absolutely fine. Second time round I used a comb which I thought was stupid but when I used it, it helped so much!

I had a water birth both times which I believe was also a huge help.

I didn't plan a pain relief free birth the first time, but just went with it! Second time I obviously planned it because I knew I could do it.

Read Ina May, worked out through pregnancy, did hypno birthing, perennial massage, the lot. My thoughts are this.

if you have a relatively short labour without complications then you’ll probably attribute the experience (at least partly) to the steps you took to prepare.

My first labour was 26 hours, back to back-water birth ending with ventouse and episiotomy. At the risk of sounding dramatic it felt like torture and was traumatised afterwards for a good while.

So, all my tea lights, whale music etc went out the window. Did it make any difference? How can one ever truly know? If it makes you feel like you have some element of control then I suppose it might be worthwhile. Wouldn’t raise my expectations too high though.

Don’t forget, you have as much of a chance of having a good birth experience as a not so good one, and interventions are available if needed.

This was me. DC1 was breech and my insisting at a vaginal delivery because I had swallowed the hypnobirthing bollocks nearly killed us both.

I would say that most (and history would back me up on this) women are capable of intervention free births. Women who do hypnobirthing attribute their luck to this. A significant minority will need interventions and no amount of hypno woo will change that.

I haven't read the whole thread but I also read ina may when I was pregnant and went on to have a drug free 30+ hour labor and birth. Honestly it (the book) was inspirational, I knew I could do it and that's what I wanted. Also did the hypnobirthing thing which I thought was a load of shite and didnt help at all during the actual event.

I had visions of an amazing water birth but absolutely hated being in the pool and had to get out, and after hours of pushing I was screaming at them to to just get the forceps out but they refused 😆 (thankfully!). Just keep in mind that its a difficult, messy business and might not always be how you imagined.

So just take it as it comes, you might want pain relief and that's OK. My kid is 13 now and literally no one cares or cared at the time how she was born lol even though I do think of it as a highlight of my life

Childbirth is painful!
I manage pain well due to horrendous periods (thanks possible endometriosis!).
I ended up induced as my baby had IUGR and the pitocin drip made my contractions very intense and quick.
I kept forgetting about gas and air but the distraction helped.
The least painful part was pushing, I felt when I bared down the pain was easing, it wasn’t painful when the head came out etc it was them awful contractions.
I would just keep an open mind OP, I’ve heard people that are so disappointed and heavily affected when they have achieved hypnobirthing or a drug free labour.
I asked for pain relief to late and didn’t get any.

Anyone reading this and thinking they had a bad birth because of anything they did, let me tell you that is total bullshit. You can prepare or not all you like but there will always be an element of luck involved.

Yes, I did with my first birth and found it really helpful. I think the main thing is not to assume it’ll stop the pain, because frankly, hours of contractions followed by pushing a baby out of your vagina bloody hurts! But it helped me deal with the pain. I was able to breathe deeply and relax as much as possible rather than tensing up. I’ve since used similar techniques to cope with other painful situations and found it useful.

Yes i had a completely unmedicated water birth the first time in an mlu. This time im opting for a homebirth unmedicated using hypno birthing which isnt hippy nonsense, its scientifically proven things. But unfortunately you might encounter people bullshitting it because they haven't actually looked it up. Even the nhs advises it now.

Also hypno birthing isnt self indulgent hippy bullshit about having an unmedicated natural birth.

Its about learning the physiology of your body and what muscles work and why and how hormones work with it all. It advocates you understanding your body and choices and releasing oxytocin rather than panicking and feeling out of control and releasing adrenaline.

You can do hypno birthing and still choose to have pain relief or a C-section at the end of it.

My labour was 9.5 hours with a back to back baby and my pregnancy was very relaxed as was the first few hours of labour. I started panicking during transition which is normal but was able to bring myself to calm down again and continue. I also had a contingency plan in place if anything went wrong and i needed an emergency C-section.

I think so much is v unpredictable. I had one very difficult birth (all the drugs) and one water birth with just gas and air. I had done hypno-birthing for both. I didn’t have one easy birth because I got better at being relaxed/hypobirthing- it was just an easier birth because there weren’t things going wrong and it didn’t hurt anywhere near as much. In fact, I didn’t realise how far gone I was because I was comparing it to the first one and nearly ended up having the baby on the car park.

Quite simply some labours hurt more than others.

I had gas and air for both. With dd1 I started in a midwife centre. Water with dim lights and essential oils, music. From the moment I the contractions started they were every few minutes and strong. After about 6 hours at the centre (12 of labour) they broke my waters and there was a load of meconium. Being blue lighted to hospital was awful and then I had another 4 or 5 hours of more contractions.

It was so painful but I kind of went to a different place during the contractions! Had a episiotomy and ventouse, all somehow with just gas and air but because of a retained placenta I had to have an epidural and I am so glad I didn't have one in labour, I hated how it felt. I didn't want to try pethidine as didn't like the idea of having to wait for it to wear off if I didn't like it.

5 babies, no meds, homebirth, hypnobirthing and hippy shit for all of them. I'm very strict with hospitals, medications, pro vaccine and everything always, but births for me just became a very primal thing. I allowed all checks, had all appointments and scans and hired private midwives and a doula for one (didn't really need her, but it was a nice experience and she was lovely). Births hurt but I managed with pain handling techniques really well.

There's no wrong way to birth, I'm not better than others because I had straightforward medication-free births. I am however, very lucky to have straightforward pregnancies and births and access to these options.

Do it if you think it's going to make you feel better, and give you the illusion of control.

But honestly, it's 90% bollocks. There's probably something in keeping calm, but that's only going to take you so far.

Put it this way, if the secret to a successful birth was keeping calm and doing some breathing exercises (1) why throughout history was childbirth so risky for women (2) why is maternal mortality higher where they're is less developed midwifery care now, is all that's required is some (free, and equipment free) special breathing.

To think that being relaxed etc is the missing key is pretty offensive to the millions of women that die in childbirth now and historically.

I had similar plans to you OP. It’s about wanting to feel in control over something you will likely have no control over.

Every birth is different.

I had the essential oils, the hypnobirthing (breathing techniques), the birth plan, a birth centre with pool, but then ended up having a 24hr labour and an ECSEC and ALL THE DRUGS!

The breathing techniques came in handy to keep me calm whilst all this was unfolding. And most importantly, my baby was alive and perfectly healthy!

So, please when you read stories of people sitting in water, pushing once, having an orgasm as they birth their PFB, and then dancing out of the hospital, after eating their placenta, remember that this is highly unlikely.

Good luck and congratulations! 🙌

Hypnobirthing kept me super chilled in the lead up to a planned inducement. A bit too chilled in some ways as the midwife in hospital didn't believe that I was in labour. She told me to get some sleep. After 5 hours of contractions on my own (my ex husband had gone home) with hypnobirthing cd in my earphones it turned out I was fully dilated and they had to rush me to the delivery suite. I have a health condition that meant I was hooked up to all sorts of wires and an IV, so the birth was not at all natural. It was long and painful, but I coped without pain meds. I think the Hypno approach is great for preparing and staying chilled before the birth, but once labour starts you'll have to roll with whatever is needed and feels best. Good luck, hope all goes well and you get the birth you planned!

First baby didn’t have any pain meds until they decided they urgently needed to get him out and then had them for surgery; second time round didn’t have time and had intervention with no meds (!) but actually that was fine too. Meds free birth definitely possible but wouldn’t hold too tightly to it cos births don’t go to plan on a regular basis.