Well ladies - we had our first of two hypnobirthing sessions run by a midwife at the hospital on Sunday, it was absolutely fabulous. Since then we've been doing the relaxation scripts every night just before bed and it's amazing how well it works. We haven't even received the CDs yet because there was a delay in the shipping but just the breathing exercises and the relaxation scripts are worth their weight in gold.
Anyway midwife/hypno instructor was hard as nails, very matter of fact and because we weren't paying for the classes I felt like she really told it straight and didn't oversell it. She told an interesting story of how she first found out about hypnobirthing - she trained 22 years ago when it was very traditional, legs in stirrups, coach through the pushing, forceps/episiotomy etc.
So one day about 10 years ago a woman came in, crying, screaming, begging for an epidural. MW says, ok, we'll go get the anaesthetist, but you'll have to wait your turn. Oh, says the husband, in the meantime can we put on this music and read some things for a bit, is that ok? MW says sure, whatever (knowing there was a good hour to wait before the anaesthetist would get there with the epidural). He puts on a CD which was "tinkly bells, sounds of the sea, whale noises" - MW says she's expecting them to start chanting and get out some joss sticks - and then the husband starts massaging his wife's back, breathing with her and reading stuff into her ear.
Over the next few hours she watches fascinated as the woman's breathing calms down, no more screaming, no more calls for epidural, and baby born a couple of hours later totally naturally. MW asks what the hell happened there?? and is told that they'd heard about this hypnobirthing thing and had been practising for the past 8 weeks. MW goes off to research, becomes accredited hypnobirthing instructor, convinces NHS trust to give the classes for free and shows that giving free hypnobirthing class before birth (£300) massively reduces average NHS spend per mother by reducing spend on epidurals and c-sections (£four figures). So, Tyelperion gets free hypnobirthing class! Happy endings all round, hopefully...
She did say that hypnobirthing would not guarantee a natural birth, but that the techniques were useful no matter what happened or what kind of birth you have - she told another story about a woman who had done her classes two years ago. Mum is 36 weeks, wakes up in the middle of the night, gushing blood. Panic stations - ambulance comes, blue light to hospital. Mum and dad in the back of the ambulance start doing the breathing exercises together, which have the effect of calming you down but most importantly, slowing your heartbeat. Doctor tells them after (necessary) emergency c-section that because she managed to slow her heartbeat down it massively reduced distress to the baby and loss of blood, made sure baby had enough oxygen, and made the c-section less risky than it would have been otherwise, and both mum and baby were fine in the end.
Anyway we've been practising this week - so relaxing and DH said last night he was really pleased to know that I really needed and wanted him to be a full participant in things. It's great to have something to practice together as so far I feel like it's all been about me instead of about us. It's also worth it just to help me get to sleep at night, since my hips have been so painful!!