To think that Hypnobirthing is a load of crap

[Poppy1774]

Just that really. I did all the affirmations, breathing exercises, meditation, etc. In the end needed lots of intervention for the safety of me and my baby (and we were both healthy afterwards, thank goodness).
However I felt disappointed with my 'birth experience'. I wish I had never heard of hypnobirthing. If I hadn't, I'd have accepted what happened much more quickly. I wasn't naive about childbirth - I knew that things could go wrong. Yet somehow hypnobirthing got into my head and made me feel that intervention = bad = failure. I wasn't positive enough/calm enough etc. Difficult to be positive and calm when in absolute agony and baby in distress.
Two of my friends have also had the same reaction after births that did not involve breathing a baby out in a birthing pool.
I feel hypnobirthing is not just nonsense, it is also actually damaging to women's self-esteem after birth.
And before you tell me it helped with your second birth after a difficult first birth...second labours are often easier!
Rant over. Thoughts?

@Jbonesmumma1

Sorry, but a bit like hypnobirthing, that’s just rubbish people tell themselves to feel more in control. As another poster pointed out, 800 women die every single day in childbirth, mostly in countries where women lead far more active lifestyles than in the West.

Before the advent of modern medicine, childbirth used to kill women and babies in their millions. Hell, the entire religion of Christianity is based on the idea that woman must have done something terrible to deserve the pain and danger of childbirth!

Anecdotally, my mum had an appalling birth with me - right after going out jogging, which she did throughout pregnancy.

It’s almost entirely luck, which is what people have trouble accepting, and I do think some hypnobirthing courses take advantage of that.

Agreed. It didn’t stop me needing forceps the first time or having retained placenta and massively haemorrhaging the second time.

I had a c-section with my last baby and it was the best and most positive birthing experience out of the lot.

I don’t think you can train physically for labour but there are things that put women in the best possible chance of having a better birth.

That’s why there’s a move towards midwife led birthing centres and more women centred birthing suites.

At the moment there’s the underlying inference that somehow women’s bodies fail at childbirth and if it goes wrong it’s their fault.

I disagree with that notion.

Yes childbirth is painful and messy, things in life are. That isn’t something to be “fixed”, it’s to be supported.

Before the advent of modern medicine, childbirth used to kill women and babies in their millions

I’ve read that once doctors first got involved in childbirth, the rates of death actually went up.

@iano @bluebluezoo @Buddytheelf85

https://www.ejog.org/article/S0301-2115(18)30096-4/abstract

Actually I think you will find that this study from May 2018 published in The Journal of Obstetrics and Gynaecology agrees with me... So looks like I'm far from 'ignorant'.

Also I think if you read the end of my comment, I did say that for STRAIGHT FORWARD births this was the case. Let's be totally honest ladies!! Most people use pregnancy as an excuse to be a lazy mess for 9 months and then wonder why they can't physically endure labour.

Also bringing up third world countries when talking about western birth problems is just irrelevant to be honest!! They don't have the medical facilities we have??? Of course more people fall ill...

@Iggly

I’ve read that too, and I think it’s true (although only in respect of the first couple of decades of the 20th century) but there are some quite complex sociological reasons why. It certainly isn’t the case that you’d be better off giving birth in 1850 than in 2019. This is quite an interesting read on the subject:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/slate.com/technology/2013/09/death-in-childbirth-doctors-increased-maternal-mortality-in-the-20th-century-are-midwives-better.amp

@Buddytheelf85

I agree but I made the point because it’s all part of the idea that somehow women are failures when it comes to giving birth. And the (largely male!) medical profession are the ones who’ve “saved” us.

When the reality is, childbirth shouldn’t be seen as a problem to solve. It should be seen as something to support us through.

@Jbonesmumma1 the conclusion says physical exercise reduces the length of labour. It says nothing about complications and how to avoid them
The OP's thread is not about hypnobirthing failing to reduce the length of her labour. It's about hypnobirthing not helping her avoid complications. So what's your point in the context of what is being discussed?
Btw people die in labour in this country. 8.2 women per 100,000 birth.

https://scholar.google.co.uk/scholar?q=effects+of+exercise+on+labor+and+delivery&hl=en&assdt=0&assvis=1&oi=scholart#d=gsqabs&u=%23p%3DHdg0gDvzLysJ

Odd of csection 4 x higher in sedentary women

www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002937887802946

Length of hospital stay is longer

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/23772595/

Chance of medical intervention higher

And of course my original post ... longer more arduous labour.

Not to mention increased risk of GD and pre-eclampsia with sedentary mums both of which cause complications. The fact you are even arguing the toss about this is crazy!!! It's common bloody sense.
Did I say exercise in the magic cure? Or that I wasn't aware of women dying in birth? No. I simply said the vast majority of women would find there labour much easier if they didn't sit on there bums the whole pregnancy! Which is true!! Of course there would still be the odd complication... I never said there wouldn't be... maybe this is a touchy subject as your sat on yours perhaps?

My point was she felt hynobirthing didn't help, had she been exercising? No point having a healthy mind if your body isn't

Or maybe we should all just eat pudding and sit on our rear ends and not do any meditation or anything because none of it helps and we might have a complication anyway... sounds logical

@Jbonesmumma1 Your points are a perfect example of some of the attitudes that women face when trying to reconcile a negative birth experience.

Please, do enlighten me about your magical walking cure for a baby with torticollis who gets stuck? I'll be sure to pass the information on to the consultants at St Thomas'.

Haha! No I'm not sat on my arse. I'm very fit and exercised regularly and a heck of a lot more than walking 4 miles a day which is not half as impressive as you clearly think it is.
Now do fuck off dear.

As long as you don't take it absolutely seriously. The relaxation exercises and preparation really.helped with my second and third births. Kept me calm. Didnt let myself get overwhelmed and panic with pain

Let's be totally honest ladies!! Most people use pregnancy as an excuse to be a lazy mess for 9 months and then wonder why they can't physically endure labour.

Most.
What do you base that on?

Plus enduring labour is far from being about onlybstamins/fitness. Many many physical and hormonal things can happen that cause the baby not to travel neatly down the birth canal and pop out.

• only stamina.

But don't worry next time a woman's birth isn't progressing because her contractions inexplicably stopped or her foetus has shoulder dystocia or any of the other hundred things that can happen, we should go and wag our finger at her and tell her she's a fat, lazy waste of space who's used pregnancy as an excuse to get that way.

maybe this is a touchy subject as your sat on yours perhaps?

You just get better and better, don't you?

First it's "most women" use pregnancy as an excuse to be slobs.

Now if anyone challenges that; "well you're obviously a fat, lazy slob".

@Jbonesmumma1 Your comments are highly insulting to women, and totally ignorant. In fact, your comments completely demonstrate what I was trying to talk about in my OP.

As you asked, yes I did keep fit. I was a healthy BMI when I became pregnant, aged 33. I put on just under two stone with a large baby (just under 9lb) and I believe that that weight gain is fairly normal. I ate healthily.

I swam regularly up to 35 weeks and then stopped when I didn't feel confident in the water anymore because I was getting very tired. I walked every day in pregnancy and I regularly kept gardening etc.

I won't go into the details of my labour, but for various reasons I ended up with pretty much every intervention going. Forceps delivery. The staff at the hospital could not have been more amazing or supportive.

Unlike you!

You remind me of red pill misogynists on a male dominated fitness forum I go on; if they declare "all single mothers are scum and are causing the downfall of society" and you present any arguments to the contrary, they reply ",you're a single mother, aren't you!".

Didn't think I'd ever see that ", technique' on here.

That was at JBones obviously.

I found it really helpful as a tool for relaxation/not panicking, and some of the stuff out there is much more informative than the NHS antenatal class I attended.
However - I do think there is unnecessary and unsafe encouragement of women to disregard medical advice eg by refusing induction. I also attended a face to face course with a woman who gave really dangerous information which makes me angry to this day. I met someone else who had done her course who had believed some of it and it made me shudder.
I will use it again if I have another child, but again with a big pinch of salt and an understanding that medical recommendations are there for a purpose.

@WonkyDonk87 Yes the course I did was very anti induction as well. I put off my induction by a day, but my baby was refusing to arrive. Thank goodness I did go for my induction because my baby got into distress very quickly. If I had gone into labour at home we would not have known until I went to the hospital, by which time it may have been too late.
A cynical part of me thinks that the reason they are so anti-induction is because if you are put on the synotocin drip you are almost certainly going to need decent pain relief!

I did find some of it relaxing for early labour.

I haven't read the whole thread... When my DD was born almost thirty years hypnobirthing definitely wasn't a thing, but I hired a TENS machine for pain relif and found it to be absolutely useless for me, like the little boy sticking his finger in the dyke to stop the flooding!

I needed to have major surgery about ten years later, and was very stressed about this. My friend asked me why, and I said because it was going to hurt! He was training to be a sports coach at the time and offered to do some NLP techniques with me, which I took him up on. I was very sceptical about this, until the moment they came to take to me to theatre and it all sort of kicked in. I had major abdominal surgery but was wide awake in recovery, and sat up in bed back on the ward an hour or so later, albeit with my pain administered anaesthesia. The surgeon came to see me that afternoon after his list had finished, and left straight away as he could see I was ok. I was up and about the next morning and made a quick recovery. I would say that was a success.

I have also had hynotherapy on a couple of occasions, once to help with the fear of water which was very successful, and the other with a learnt habit which I wanted to quit, again very good.

The hypnobirthing teacher told us that if our waters broke we could refuse induction and demand an antibiotic which would cure any infection we may or may not get Even when I corrected her ridiculous lack of understanding around that issue she spouted the same line the next week. Infuriating that she will be telling future clients that who may swallow it as good information.