Hypnobirthing thoughts

[Happyfeet45]

Sorry if this isn't in the right place.

I wondered if anyone has any experience with hypnobirthing? I am due in the next few weeks and have been reading up on this throughout my pregnancy. The breathing techniques and scientific parts make a lot of sense to me. The positive mantras and visualisations....not so much.

Has anyone tried it and did it genuinely help you in labour?

The idea of creating a safe, spa-like environment to give birth does sound nice but is it really going to help?

Would love to hear other peoples experiences of what worked and what was clap trap!

In my experience, it helped me with the days leading up to labour (ie helped calm down my anxiety) but went out of the window when actually in labour!

My labour was so quick that there was no time to set up a nice birthing environment, read affirmations, control my breathing or put nice music on… I didn’t even have time for pain relief! The pain is like nothing else so just prepare yourself for that… ‘waves’ that you can just breathe through? I think not!

All in all, I was happy with my labour experience, it was very straight forward but I honestly don’t think it had anything to do with hypnobirthing. Labour is unpredictable and at the end of the day you can only control so much of it… if any of it!

I remain sceptical. With hindsight the woman who was selling my course was pushing a narrative about birth that completely exacerbated my anxiety at a very vulnerable time.

When it came to actually giving birth, her voice on the cds was like nails on a chalk board. The meditation is practised made me feel nauseous. It didn’t work for me and on the whole it just set me up to feel like a failure.

On my second birth I was better able to manage through a combination of body experience and adapting some of the principles to work for me, so in that sense it was helpful.

My second birth was calm and peaceful for the onlookers but it was painful and hard labouring for me. I think you could have videoed it as an advertisement for hypnobirthing. I never felt panicked or worried and it was a really good birth experience but it was a far cry from the promised pain-free ecstasy that was being sold.

So good!

It helped me loads to get over a deep fear of childbirth I’ve had since a teen.

I listened to it a lot though - every night for 6 months as I was falling asleep, and in the last few weeks twice a day.
It took months to feel like I was ‘getting’ it and feeling super relaxed/drifting off. I rarely heard the end of the audio because I used to fall asleep before it got to the end (apparently that’s a good thing).

It’s about changing your feelings towards the birth and giving you confidence/trust in yourself and your body - so a lot of women feel much calmer, and tend to need less interventions.

The course I did never taught you to refuse interventions or not listen to doctors or that having an unassisted birth was the only thing to aim for. It was more about having a positive calm experience, whether that included interventions or not.

All the negative experiences of hypnobirthing on here sound like they were down to bad practicioners. Good hypnobirthing courses prepare you really well for any kind of birth eventuality, and there is no judgement of any kind of intervention. My hypnobirthing teacher does sessions on using the techniques for inductions, c sections etc.

I've had one 28 hour birth with epidural, episiotomy, ventouse and haemorrhage and one 12 hour one where I laboured at home then got to hospital 10 minutes before birth, and hypnobirthing helped me stay calm and positive throughout both. It's more about the mindset than pain relief, though I do think the breathing, going with the contractions rather than against them and visualising breathing in oxygen to your uterus and breathing out tension does really make things less painful.

I used hyonobirhting and had really easy births. Obviously hard to know if the hypnobirthing but my 4th baby was back to back and managed to birth him at home without even any gas and air and just used breathing techniques. Not trying to show-off as it isn't a competition and my births are short which helps. If was in labour 48 hours it might have been a different story!

@BigSigh2021

I was massively sceptical, like you. I am a scientist and had dismissed it as woo nonsense. But after an awful first birth and better, but still unenjoyable second birth, I bought a book and read it, and became a convert! I have 4 kids, and my 3rd birth was great! The 4th one was tricky at the end due to an unexpected complication, but v smooth up till that point due to how calm I was.

It actually makes a lot of sense. I recommend this book, and the accompanying MP3s (you must do the practice though). I didn't bother with classes:

]]

@BigSigh2021

I'm curious why people think hypnosis is woo?
Operations have been done using hypnosis as anaesthesia.
Just curious!

"It was a complete headfuck, not helped by the group not inviting mums who’d had interventions to the post birth meet-ups"

That's so fucking nasty of them!!

I did it. It didnt work for me at all (my breathing goes all funny when I try and concentrate on it!) however I'd say from the group I was in, there was a much higher proportion of straightforward births with less medical interventions than all the people i know who had babies outside the group (nct, friends, colleagues etc) so I generally think it helps in a lot of cases.

The only thing that helped me, was drugs. All the drugs.

I was quite sceptical but thought it couldn't do any harm... when it came to it it was really effective. Worth the money too as I still use the techniques for smear tests, dentists, anything else uncomfortable/painful. Have been able to teach my kids how to deal with pain too.

I honestly think it is worth the 1-1 lessons.

I do laugh about my uterus being a balloon etc., but it worked.

I found it extremely helpful!
I was able to attend a course of my local NHS hypnobirthing classes and also ready the Positive Birth Company book. The bit that ultimately made the most sense to me was about pain/fear cycles and the hormones at play (i.e. the less fear you experience the less pain you will feel and vice versa). I had a very long intense 3 day latent labour at home and the knowledge/breathing exercises from the course and book helped keep me focused and calm when I knew I had no other option but Paracetamol and a TENS machine as labour wasn't established enough to be admitted. I also used the Freya app to track contractions and visualise breathing. Once I was finally admitted to hospital at 5cm it was such a relief, I felt safe and the pain dropped massively. I ended up having an enjoyable water birth with just gas and air, and it was a very empowering experience. Obviously I was lucky it went smoothly, but I even found the breathing techniques useful for getting my stitches done afterwards and feel they could be applied to other interventions too

It helped me. I didn't do classes, just listened to the affirmations and read a book. I was quite sceptical but listened to the affirmations while in labour, then didn't make it to the labour ward in time 😒

The book I'm reading also applies hypnobirthing to all types of deliveries. If it had suggested ignoring doctors advice and striving for an intervention free birth at all costs it probably would have gone straight in the bin!

The idea that our bodies are capable and designed to do this is all well and good until complications arise so I feel like it's maybe best to take on board the helpful bits - such as staying calm and breathing. But not get too hung up on it being a beautiful experience.

Im so close now that I think I'm just latching onto any sort of hope that I can reduce the pain in some magical way. But it's going to hurt regardless isn't it.

Tens and hypno both helped me, keeping calm etc I think that the tens meant that by the time I was pushing I could not feel anything! I was attached to the machine that monitors contractions as ds was back to back and had to ask my husband (then partner) to tell me when I was having contractions so I could push.

I hadn't properly thought about what the name really meant. I think I had more related it to the word "hippy" for some reason! 🙈

I was wrong to dismiss it in hindsight and always recommend it now.

"The idea that our bodies are capable and designed to do this is all well and good until complications arise so I feel like it's maybe best to take on board the helpful bits - such as staying calm and breathing. But not get too hung up on it being a beautiful experience."

Yes, this is a sensible approach.

I was worried about giving birth, so paid for a private hypnobirthing course. Ex-DH and I attended all of the sessions, I did all of the homework, read the book repeatedly, listened to the CD every day, practised my visualisations etc. I even turned up to the maternity ward with lavender oil and arnica gel, like an utter muppet. Half a house brick in a sock would have been more effective - at least ex-DH could have hit me on the head with it to knock me out for a bit!

I did okay for the first 24 hours or so, but for the last 24 I was delirious with pain and exhaustion, so nothing apart from serious drugs was ever going to help. You can't repeat affirmations and visualise 'breathing the baby out' when you're so delirious you have no idea where you are or what you're doing there.

Ultimately, there was never going to be a fabulous, peaceful, stress free hypnobirthing PR type of birth for me - if not for medical intervention DC and I would both have died.

As previous posts have said, hypnobirthing for me just added an extra dimension of unrealistic hopes, disappointment, guilt and self-recrimination. The tone of the course, and the content of the book, was that when the techniques failed it was because the woman hadn't tried hard enough/wanted it badly enough/believed in it enough. It's a great marketing ploy, because when it doesn't work it's the customers fault for proving inadequate! It was 14 years ago, but I vividly remember a case study in the book about a woman who attended a course but then went on to have a highly medicalised delivery - it actually said that the woman secretly must have wanted that sort of birth because she enjoyed the fuss, drama and attention, so she'd subconsciously sabotaged her own efforts to successfully hypnobirth. Utter bollocks, if you ask me.

I used the Maggie Howell natal hypnotherapy CDs, she was an NHS midwife so they aren’t too hippy dippy. I suffer from quite bad anxiety around medical situations and they really helped in the lead up to and during labour. I didn’t have a birth plan though and was fully aware that I might need other interventions. My attitude was to start with hypnotherapy and add in other stuff as required. I did just hypnotherapy for about 10 hours then added TENS for a while and had gas and air later.
I think it’s worth doing if it helps you relax and feel a bit in control but it’s important to keep a very open mind about what help you may need if the birth is not straight forward.

It was bullshit and made me angry. The implication that if you don’t fully sign up to hypnobirthing, you’ll end up with an induction and EMCS and it would be your fault for not having the correct mindset, made me angry on behalf of every woman in history who would have loved to breathe through it but died because of lack of medical care.

The following worked for me: an epidural, gas and air, and reading a very very funny book. Nothing went to plan and I ended up with EMCS but tbh it was fine, not a horrible experience - the strongest negative emotion was loneliness because it was mid-pandemic so I did most of it alone.

In summary, if you did hb and it worked and you didn’t require any medical intervention good for you, you didn’t need it but well done for not being in the 20% of women who would have died if they’d given birth 100 years ago. If you are in that 20% (like me) then hb cannot save you. Just follow medical advice and be glad it’s 2022.

@NotTheMrMenAgain

I was worried about giving birth, so paid for a private hypnobirthing course. Ex-DH and I attended all of the sessions, I did all of the homework, read the book repeatedly, listened to the CD every day, practised my visualisations etc. I even turned up to the maternity ward with lavender oil and arnica gel, like an utter muppet. Half a house brick in a sock would have been more effective - at least ex-DH could have hit me on the head with it to knock me out for a bit! I did okay for the first 24 hours or so, but for the last 24 I was delirious with pain and exhaustion, so nothing apart from serious drugs was ever going to help. You can't repeat affirmations and visualise 'breathing the baby out' when you're so delirious you have no idea where you are or what you're doing there. Ultimately, there was never going to be a fabulous, peaceful, stress free hypnobirthing PR type of birth for me - if not for medical intervention DC and I would both have died. As previous posts have said, hypnobirthing for me just added an extra dimension of unrealistic hopes, disappointment, guilt and self-recrimination. The tone of the course, and the content of the book, was that when the techniques failed it was because the woman hadn't tried hard enough/wanted it badly enough/believed in it enough. It's a great marketing ploy, because when it doesn't work it's the customers fault for proving inadequate! It was 14 years ago, but I vividly remember a case study in the book about a woman who attended a course but then went on to have a highly medicalised delivery - it actually said that the woman secretly must have wanted that sort of birth because she enjoyed the fuss, drama and attention, so she'd subconsciously sabotaged her own efforts to successfully hypnobirth. Utter bollocks, if you ask me.

Yup this makes me incensed with rage. How dare you tell me I’ve essentially failed at birth because I didn’t try hard enough? Birth’s a lottery, get through it whichever way you can. Personally I found that going into it with very low expectations worked well because in the end I was pleasantly surprised.

@eeek88

It was bullshit and made me angry. The implication that if you don’t fully sign up to hypnobirthing, you’ll end up with an induction and EMCS and it would be your fault for not having the correct mindset, made me angry on behalf of every woman in history who would have loved to breathe through it but died because of lack of medical care.

The following worked for me: an epidural, gas and air, and reading a very very funny book. Nothing went to plan and I ended up with EMCS but tbh it was fine, not a horrible experience - the strongest negative emotion was loneliness because it was mid-pandemic so I did most of it alone.

In summary, if you did hb and it worked and you didn’t require any medical intervention good for you, you didn’t need it but well done for not being in the 20% of women who would have died if they’d given birth 100 years ago. If you are in that 20% (like me) then hb cannot save you. Just follow medical advice and be glad it’s 2022.

I'm sorry you had a bad experience

HB is not for situations like yours, of course not. But that doesn't mean it isn't useful for situations without complications.

At no point was I encouraged to ignore medical advice during birth.

I took a course and read books for my first birth. In the end nothing went according to plan and the breathing techniques didnt help me at all. That birth was nothing like the romantic picture the classes built up in my head.
My second birth was different. Everything went smoothly and was over after a couple hours. I used all my knowledge from the hypnobirthing course and i felt really good during the entire birth.
I do think it would have still been a smooth experience without the hypnobirthing though. In the end every birth is different and i guess its down to luck whether it all goes smoothly or not. However, it definitely wont hurt to try it. Just dont ve disappointed if it doesnt go according to plan.

It helped me, the focus on my breathing kept me calm, I remember trying gas and air but it changed my breathing rhythm, which I didn't like so carried on without. I didn't visualise, or have mantras, I just focussed on the thought that each contraction bought me closer to meeting DD. It was a positive experience, despite the pain

I used the Maggie howell Natal hypnotherapy CD

Oh and we had a meet up afterwards to share out birth experiences. I told them about mine and was told i probably didnt breathe right.
That made me feel pretty bad afterwards.

I found the science part helpful, about staying relaxed and not to be scared of labour. Worked both times for me, only needed gas and air and had two water births. I think it's really good xx