I'd just like to put another POV out there about Natal Hypnotherapy...
I used it for the birth of my daughter and had a completely pain free, drug free, fear free labour and home birth. Not only did I not use any drugs at all, not even a paracetamol, but I never even considered it at any point during my labour. This was my first labour/birth experience.
Other people I have spoken to who used hypnosis for birth fall very firmly into 2 camps:
The first group copes with labour, but feels that they are using all the tools and techniques which have been provided to them through the courses they had attended. They feel that they had managed, but the overwhelming feeling is that they "only just coped". This is the group that used HypnoBirthing (Marie Mongan's programme), and the group that nearly made me think there was no point in going down the road of hypnosis
The second group feels that they took labour well and truly in their stride - that it may have been tough at times (not necessarily painful, just hard work), but at no point did they feel near the edge. When I was looking into hypnosis for birth, there was nobody else who had used Natal Hypnotherapy (Maggie Howell's programme), so no reviews at all before hand, all have been read after my birth experience.
On a whim, and before I was even pregnant, I bought the books for both programmes, and immediately took a dislike to the HypnoBirthing programme - I agree completely with FlipFantasia, they are 2 very different things! The whole way through the HypnoBirthing book, it referred to "which you will learn on your course", or words to that effect. Now, I didn't want to shell out for that on something that I couldn't be sure would work. This was the first problem. The second problem was that I hated the tone of the HypnoBirthing - it came across to me that if either me or my baby needed any help at all, then I had failed. I'm not saying that is what they say, I'm saying that's how it came across to me. The Natal Hypnotherapy, on the other hand, had cds for home birth, hospital birth, c section... I knew that whatever I had chosen and whatever the outcome of the birth was, I was never going to be a failure :) I chose Natal Hypnotherapy and there was no looking back. I should also explain the history - I was so scared of labour and birth I sat in my GP's surgery and cried my eyes out at her - and this was BEFORE even ttc. I was THAT scared! So, I read the book, and realised that yes, I CAN do this, so once I was pregnant I spoke to the MW at my booking apt and said I didn't know where I wanted to birth, but didn't want an "auto hospital birth". Roll on 7 months, and I'd had chance to listen to the cds and attend Natal Hypnotherapy's 2 one day courses, and I was entirely ready to have a home birth. That's how powerful it was.
Down to the nitty gritty (for want of a better "word") though, and on the day I went into labour I worked all day in labour because it "couldn't be labour, it doesn't hurt!", before going home, getting ready to go out (we only didn't go because my OH said I was anti-social), getting fish and chips and eating them, going for a walk, watching a film, and then, just before my body started to push, falling asleep on the sofa between ctx. At this point they asked if I wanted to get into the pool, so I did, but wasn't comfortable, so got out and they then suggested I climb the stairs as baby wasn't descending as they'd have liked. So I walked upstairs, whilst pushing, before birthing in the bathroom. Now, one could argue that it was obviously an "easy labour" and I was just lucky - but this was a back to back baby and I pushed for 2 and a half hours, and still, at no point did I feel any need to call on any techniques or any breathing patterns.
I suppose I just wanted to say that Natal Hypnotherapy, in my opinion is fantastic and I would recommend it to anyone... Bit of a long way to say it though ;)