Is hypnobirthing worth doing?

[elm26]

After a loooong pregnancy of Hyperemesis, covid, growth scans etc after 13 miscarriages, I have finally accepted that I will be giving birth within the next 3 weeks 🥳

I've been quite disassociated and going through the motions as such, as it's been so hard for me to believe that I may be lucky enough to bring home a much wanted and loved baby.

I've suddenly had a panic that I'm 3 weeks away at most (being induced on 19th) and I've done no hypnobirthing. I have done the baby care and first aid, the labour course (taught different stages of labour by a midwife, what can help such as keeping oxytocin as high as poss etc).

Is it worth doing a hypnobirthing course? Shall I pay for it or are the ones on YouTube good enough? Help!

Completely agree. The words ‘breath your baby out’ should really come with a disclaimer that most aren’t able to. And that is totally fine and normal and still a positive birthing experience.

Breathe*

She also talks a lot about the cascade of interventions and how you should avoid any intervention because one thing leads to another

Indeed, historically a lack of interventions led to a high rate of maternal and infant deaths.

I wish we could somehow get away from this notion that intervention is bad and birth should be "natural". Maternal and infant deaths are very very natural. Natural doesn't mean safe or desirable. It just means "occurs in nature", and nature is a brutal place.

Also I think the hypnobirthing course contributed to me feeling a bit shit after I had my son.

She was really anti induction, anti epidural, kept talking about the cascade of interventions and how it increases the risk of an instrumental delivery or emergency C-section. So I went into it determined to do none of those things. And then I ended up doing all the things she advised against, but my doctor recommended, because I didn't want to risk my baby's health.

I did end up with an emergency C-section and for a long time I felt sad about it and like it was my fault and I'd failed for not standing firm and refusing an induction and waiting for everything to happen magically. But she was just a woman in a video. She didn't know me, she certainly hadn't examined me or seen my baby on the ultrasound or listened to his heartrate. In the end my son was small for gestational age and brow presenting, so if I'd waited he wouldn't necessarily have been born vaginally, but I might have put him at risk.

Childbirth is unpredictable, you're vulnerable, and I personally wasn't in the mood to argue with my doctor when I just wanted my baby out safely.

The breathing exercises were useful.

And she did recommend making an alternative birth plan for if you end up needing an emergency C-section, covering things like skin to skin, delayed cord clamping etc. I didn't do that because I was so sure it wouldn't happen to me. I regretted not having given that possibility more thought afterwards.

Well, yes it is, in that it does attempt to use standard hypnotic techniques — the course leader I had did use some of them on the group. And they don’t work for me. I’ve had several attempts at undefined hypnosis (for various reasons, eg hypnotherapy practitioners) and it doesn’t work on me. Some people are just not very susceptible to hypnosis/suggestible and it doesn’t work for them - I’m one of them!

If the OP is doing some self-taught hypobirthing, obviously it will be more about the guided meditation and breathing exercises. But an in-person course does attempt to use some hypnotic techniques. That’s why it’s called hypnobirthing!

*undefined? Having. Bloody autocorrect!

Yes, absolutely. After five miscarriages my doctor and I had basically no appetite for risk, and I imagine the OP is the same.

😂 The clue is in the name…

In person course practitioners do use hypnotic techniques. That’s the entire point.

The only real benefit is if it makes you feel a bit more in control and calmer. But the actual hypnobirthing thing is mostly a scam. It's basic things like mantras or calm breathing and visualisations you can easily learn yourself online.

More importantly, it has absolutely no bearing on how your birth goes and it's really important to remember that. I've spoken to so many women who did hypnobirthing really believing it would mean their birth would be smooth sailing, who were then absolutely distraught at 'failing' by needing medical intervention or a c section. Unfortunately there's a subsection of hypnobirthing advocates who are into freebirthing without intervention and blame women when the birth requires assistance.

The best thing to remember is that how your birth goes depends on your baby and your body on the day and as long as your baby gets out safely and you're doing okay at the other side then that's all that matters. Don't put too much pressure on yourself to have any specific kind of birth.

Couldn’t agree more.

The idea that will only need assistance if you aren’t capable of relaxing enough to enable your baby to glide out is very damaging.

One bit of the online hypnobirthing course that I did find useful was the description of the actual mechanics of labour. They described it as the “up” stage and “down” stage. I’d recommend watching some YouTube videos to understand stages of labour and what’s actually happening in your body.

Absolutely.

There are some really damaging and unhelpful people out there who prey on women who are naturally and rightfully anxious about giving birth.

I came across a freebirthing group and was absolutely appalled. They have the notion that if you just birth without intervention it'll be fine. If anyone argues that they needed intervention or they or their baby would have died then the fact they were in a position to require intervention is magically blamed and seen as the cause for needing intervention. For example, if you ended up requiring forceps in hospital the only reason you needed them was because you were in hospital, fell for the 'cascade of interventions' (such a loaded term, those interventions are why maternal and infant mortality is so much lower!) and if you'd just hung back and let your body do its thing it'd all have worked out. It's really heartbreaking to see the damage it does. I read an article from one woman who lost her baby and almost her life thanks to freebirthing, yet she was still planning to have her next birth that way too!

Birth is risky, dangerous, brutal, and we are SO incredibly lucky to have access to healthcare to assist us through it, something myriad women throughout history would have done anything for the privilege of having.

Breathing is all well and good but it's dangerous to promote hypnobirthing as something that can in any way influence the process/outcome of your birth.

Must depend on the course. Mine wasn't like that at all

Well, hypnosis is just guided relaxation that works on suggestibility. There isn’t anything magical about it. It still doesn’t work on some people, though.

If I look at the difference between birth 2 - sheer terror, 2 hours from start to finish and births 3 & 4 which is why i used hypno-birthing the main difference was that I learnt how to use the gas and air properly.

Take it as the contraction builds and have it away from your mouth and breathing oxygen (normal air) as it hits, rather than short gasping for dear life the whole time. Unfortunately you cannot stay stoned for the whole labour which is what i'd tried to do.
Hypno birthing is 100% better at home, the midwifes don't get it, asked DH if he wanted to go to the car to get some tunes to play whilst I was obviously very happily listening to the affirmations. Luckily he said no for his sake.

I think it's worth it, I might even have the jpeg you can borrow

It's great if you can get your breathing under control which is possible for some especially if your labour isn't several days long, the baby plays ball and is I'm the right position etc but if you or your baby are at any kind of risk or you are in agony be willing to chuck it all out the window. Get yourself pain relief, whatever intervention is required for both you and your babies safety. No one cares how a baby is born and you won't either you will just want to hold your baby in your arms

I did this online course and personally really resonated with most of it and it worked wonders through my labour. She discusses all types of birth including induction and caesarean. Wishing you all the best with your pregnancy and birth.

https://thepositivebirthcompany.co.uk/digital-pack?gclid=CjwKCAjwge2iBhBBEiwAfXDBR5CvgJ0z67-FihzTZjuRuUbTikodk6G5EwmssOe771e1nTRfgHW8xoC9cQAvDDBwE

https://positiveinduction.com/ This £27 course is great... talks about induction and teaches some hypnobirthing techniques including affirmations, breathing and relaxations.

I also like the Freya app which I think is about £3.
https://thepositivebirthcompany.co.uk/freya-hypnobirthing-app

I did the Positive Birth Company online course and found the information about what would happen to my body during labour really helpful. The breathing techniques really helped, I managed about 15 hours of contractions with no pain relief just doing the breathing. I didn't pay attention to all the affirmations etc. but I know some find it useful!

What I would add to my previous post is that I glossed over any part of the videos that I didn't really resonate with.
The main parts that helped me were
-learning what my body was doing
-breathing techniques
-learning to have a positive outlook on birth, remaining as calm as possible.

My first birth I found quite traumatic and I was nervous to do it again. Second birth was great, and I honestly believe that's down to me staying as calm as I possibly could and understanding what was happening to my body during contractions. It's not for everyone, but it helped me :)

I did it for my second and it was a much more enjoyable experience

In preparation I did a mix of hypnobirthing (no hypnosis techniques in the course I did - they should call it meditation birthing) and read a lot about the way labour works, what your body is doing at each stage and so on. I also read masses and masses of studies about outcomes. It definitely helped me stay calm and also allowed me to be quite assertive about my care. I wasn't prepared to be induced for example, my choice was to go straight to ELC if I didn't go into labour naturally.

I think it depends on how you like to approach things - I found it useful to know as much as I could.

Absolutely this. I enjoyed the hypnobirthing classes and found they did help during the pregnancy itself but I ended up with a back to back baby, and needed interventions leading to an emergency c section, and then really felt as though I'd failed, my body had failed, etc. It definitely took the shine off my first few months as a new mum.

I had basically a perfect birth and then horrendous PND for about 10 months. There are just no guarantees sadly.

I'd recommend the Gentle Birth app to get you in the right headspace. I listened to some of the content on it every night and it helped me feel more positive about the birth when I was worried/nervous about labour. I didn't use it at all during labour but I do think it meant I was less stressed going into it.

It's too variable. There are really positive parts of hypnobirthing, such as learning to go into a relaxed state and feeling positive about your body and learning what physiological processes there are in birth and how to support these, but it might be too late to fit in all the practice to a point you can instantly go to a relaxing place despite other stimulus, and some courses have a really unhelpful undertone of belief that only "natural", unmedicated childbirth is "best" and that it's totally in your control to get that by doing hypnobirthing properly, which I think is harmful and unhelpful as it also has the unfortunate implication of failure if something outside of your control happens. Which is really unhelpful because honestly the calming techniques would be really useful in all kinds of situations including where intervention is necessary!

I think it's helpful to learn about the physical process of birth and how things like your environment can help you stay calm and produce the right hormones (or the opposite, how the environment can hinder). Learn about what interventions might be offered or used and what situations they help in and what to expect. How to discuss decisions (BRAIN benefits risks alternatives instinct nothing) when you have time to do that. And lots of techniques to help come back to calm during any stressful moments.

I really liked the book birth skills by JuJu Sundin, I used a lot in there, and I'd recommend googling biomechanics of birth to see if you can get any videos.

There was a hypnobirthing CD someone had left at hospital when I was there and it did help to listen to it even though I hadn't done the practice meditations. It couldn't hurt to do the practice meditations if you want to, and bring the same audio with you to hospital.