To be annoyed by this article / ad for hypnobirthing?

[Boco]

In a local magazine - It starts of saying
'I find it extremely sad that so many pg ladies give birth today expecting a painful and uncomfortable experience'

..and then goes on to say 'The female form has been perfectly formed by nature, so why would nature design such an amazing body and then give it the flaw of not being able to deliver a baby without a huge amount of pain and discomfort?' also 'why are humans the only animal on this earth that needs pain killers whilst in labour?'

It then explains that the only reason it hurts is because we are 'expecting' pain, and therefore diverting blood from the uterus - which causes painful contractions.

This is really annoying. I tried hypnobirthing - it helped me keep calm for longer maybe - was quite good for relaxation - but it didn't stop it hurting. This is implying that the pain is all in the mind of the woman - if it hurts you're just not doing it right - which sets you up to fail because of course it hurts, you're squeezing a big baby out of your vagina and without drugs, that is not 'comfortable'.

I was shocked by how much it hurt and for ages felt like it was a failure on my part. This is pretty much false advertising I think, because hypnobirthing does NOT stop it hurting, it can help, it can be good, but has anyone had a pain free birth?

It's written by a man by the way.

yes well the day a man passes a water melon from his posterior without begging to be killed I'll listen to a male opinion about birth and choice of pain relief

Do you know, that's pretty much the email I just constructed to him Should I send it?

yesyesyes

oooo so annoying. It hurts because you're pushing a bloody person out of your body. How thick can one person be to write that. My labour was horrific. I wanted to use hypnobirthing next time but that's irritated me so much i might not now

Think it's over claiming, you can switch off pain with hypno doings but I belive it takes a lot of practice and time. I know people have had ops with no pain relief. I don't think we are the best designed for birth, something to do with how we have evolved, maybe in the future our babies will have very thin heads..

What shite.
I believe the difficulty humans have in giving birth is to do with your ridiculous obsession with walking upright, royally farking up yer pelvises.
If cod hadn't had me nads chopped off, I would cheerfully hunt him down and spray 14 gallons of m'best tom cat juice all over his box of 'look into my eyes the eyes the eyes not around the eyes into the eyes good you're under' eyeliners.

oh look I found his website

I like the 'i can help you to understand why people think that childbirth will be painful.'

Yes, I can help you understand that too, its the whole pushing a big thing through a small hole - it HURTS.

I think hypnobirthing is fine as a way of relaxing, but this idea that it WILL be pain free if you are doing it right is such bollocks and it just makes you miserable when it doesn't work.

I did LOL at his 'why are humans the only animals on this earth that need painkillers to give birth' - what? We're the only animals that use drugs for anything - I'm sure a sheep with access to crack would just lap it up, and I'm sure badgers could be tempted by a bit of gas and air if only their little paws could hold the mask.

I had hypnotherapy (not hypnobirthing) and the birth od dd2 was not painful, although I was aware of the sensations of labour. I did experience some discomfort during pushing though. What it did do was remove the fear from labour.

Sorry have not had a pain free birth but the pain was manageable on 2 paracetomal and a tens machine. As my DH puts it I "went into the zone".

I happen to agree you get the self fulfilling prophecy if you expect pain you will get pain but then also I think you should realise it might hurt otherwise you may be in for a shock.

I also think it is sad we expect a horrific time in childbirth but hearing half the stories on here realise it is a fact of life. It is still however sad.

I put off having children for years as I was so frightened of the horror stories I had heard and it wasn't half as bad as I expected it to be (first time round anyhow) .

I can vouch for cats liking the odd cheroot.

And an old friends dog happily ate a space cake once.

i used hypnobirthing and whilst it helped me to relax and cope - there is NO WAY it was painfree (which i have had to remind DP of when he says to others "oh weeonion used hypnobirthing and sailed through it all".) he certainly wasnt experiencing the pains i was.

i know it helped me but it certainly wasnt this miracle pain remover.

love the idea of sheep crack dens and badgers goofing over G&A though!

I lived on a farm and the cows sure looked like they could use something, they were laid down for days afterwards too.. poor things.

The only one of my births I was scared during was th elast and that was because she was prem and I was about to have a crash c section.
I actually looked forward to my other two and wasn't scared but yes it still bloody hurt. If he wants to come here I can stick something large where the sun doesn't shine to help him understand.

Sorry I am not even advocating hypnobirthing as I did not do it. I do believe if you are frightened you tense up and that can exacerbate the pain you feel.

Also don't a lot of the animal kingdom go and find a nice cosy place, nest it to make it perfect and then get on with it on their own. We however choose to go to a strange and overpowering new place (hospital) with an audience of medical professionals watching our most intimate moments, dictating schedules and timings to us, and generally interfering. Surely this will have an effect on us.

Someone I know used hypnobirthing and said it was very useful until the last moments when she needed something. Err, so that's a "no" then?

Yes and scaring you rigid with all the potential negative outcomes if you don't do exactly as they say.

I"m glad it's worked for some people - and agree it can help, but false claims can be damaging.

I really had NO idea what to expect, but after doing hypnobirthing I scrawled 'no drugs' smugly on my birth plan and was dead excited when it all got going, was calm and relaxed for a good 24 hours - then screamed for an epidural and was totally shocked by the pain. Felt like I'd totally copped out and so was even more sure the second time that I wanted a 'natural' birth. Saw same hypnobirthing person again - this time the pain was even worse - no gaps between contractions at all, champagne cork delivery where dd shot out in 18 mins.

I think without the hypnobirthing maybe I wouldn't have coped so well for so long the first time, but also I wouldn't have been expecting it to be easy and calm and painfree, so therefore not so disappointed and scared when it was so painful.

For some reason his use of the word 'ladies' gets up my nose too.

Nature didn't "design an amazing body", it cobbled it together from the bits that came before. Evolution has never worked to create something "perfect" - it had to take the body of a primate that lived in the trees and adapt it so that we have a comprimise between walking upright and being able to deliver a baby at all. There are some women who will have a pain-free delivery (and all power to them) but they are incredibly lucky and in the vast minority.
I hate this kind of hypnobirthing shite - it just blames the woman if she has a difficult or painful experience. I did all the wonderful natural birth stuff (including hynobirthing) and while it was useful I still had a horrendous experience because DD was large and badly presented and never engaged properly, so I was in labour for days, vomiting constantly and exhausted. I'd like to see him deal with missing 4 nights sleep and not being able to keep liquids down and find it a "comfortable" experience.

I may be a cynic - no, wait....I am a cynic, and I think there's a danger of the underlying message - 'hypnobirthing = painfree' being misread as 'pain = failure.'

"Most HypnoBirthing® babies show signs of being more content and less traumatised than from a standard birth using drugs and not using relaxed [sic] techniques." In fact [sic] the whole sentence. And [sick].

There's enough pressure on women to be fking perfect as it is, without this oxygen thief laying on a bit of guilt.

Wanker.

Animals can and do have pain during labour, they can also have complications, need intervention and die. At leas animals that give birth to one big baby, like cows. Although I do believe that if you tense up something will hurt more, I'm sure labour is unlikely to be painless without an epidural. Dont know from experience yet, am due in 3 weeks, so I'll be finding out soon. But I'm not silly enough to believe that there will be NO discomfort whatsoever.

Hmmm hypnobirthing worked for me I literally never felt anything you could describe as pain, so it does work and there's nothing wrong with promoting that anymore than there is epidurals.