Hypnobirthing

[tablefor3]

I feel a bit stupid posting this, but I hope you'll treat me gently. And yes, I'm posting because I'm too cheap to go to a course!

This is DC2. With DC1 I had a very nice, straightforward labour, and it turns out that I can block out a lot of noise and so on, and retreat into the "back brain" and internalise etc, of my own accord. I'm also pretty relaxed about pregnancy and birth.

This time, I thought I'd give hypnobirthing a go, even though it seems that I'm broadly doing it anyway.

So, (now at 37 weeks) I listen to the CD whenever I get a chance. But I'm a bit confused as to what to do when in labour. Am I supposed to put the CD on, or just use the visualisations for controlling pain? Bit of both? Given that CD tracks the whole labour, including controlling PPH and keeping blood pressure up through positive thinking , that bit might be distracting at Stage 1.

Any advice?

We were given a CD with just the background music on to listen to during the birth while doing our own visualisations. It's called Comfort Zone by Steven Halpern. Very relaxing. Presume you can find it on Amazon or somewhere. I think it's going to work better for me than listening to the CDs with the talking on as I think they might annoy me a bit and not be long enough.

I used the Rainbow Relaxation CD during labour with DS2, having attended the classes. Hearing the affirmations helped me focus in the early stages but after I while I got fed up and turned it off and just put some calming music on.

The visualisations helped me concentrate on what my body was doing and I thought a lot about opening flowers, ribbons dropping away, etc. And the breathing techniques were phenomenol!

DP rubbed my back and quietly encouraged me. I think if he'd tried to do any of the association stuff, like lifting and dropping my wrist, i would have killed him.

I think you have to pick what works best for you at the time. There's no hard and fast rule about what to do when. Just go with the flow!

I just put my own music on and concentrated on the balloon breath. Husband did a bit of "light touch" massage at one point - enjoyable between contractions but slightly distracting during them.

I know hypnobirthing works for the majority of people who do it, but, like you, I had my own methods of visualizing and internalising during my first labour. I had a look at the hypnobirthing book for my second labour and for some reason it made me feel irrationally cross! I don't know why exactly. So I stuck with my own cobbled together method instead. Why not work on what is your own innate ability?

Thanks for all your responses. I suspect that I will continue to listen to the CD, but will not bother with it during labour, or at least only the first stages if I feel I need distracting.

The CD is there to help you anchor feelings of relaxation, so the more you listen to it & associate either/both the music and the words with a relaxed state, then when you're in labour, playing it in the background should help you get into that relaxed state again more easily.
Remember, the more relaxed you are, the less likely you are to feel pain, since that is a sign of tension or fear...and keep visualising your baby in the perfect birthing position to minimise chances of a more uncomfortable labour due to positional problems.
The opening blossom visualisation is to help you dilate more easily & faster.
All of these are just tips, so if you have your own way that makes it easier for you, then go for it.
However, if you managed to do it all anyway during the first birth, why not tap into your memories of how easy that was for you, you've already done it so that's all you need to remember. Most people aren't lucky enough to do that without some help, so you've got a great advantage :)

Remember every step of the labour, what was going on around you, what you did to shut out the background noise, remember all the different senses of touch, smell, sight, sound, feelings to make it real for you again, then focus on that and know you can do it again.

Thanks Dontpanic - very kind words of encouragement. I'll incorporate some of that into my preparations.

I've read the Hypnobirthing book and the Natal Hypnotherapy one and listened to both and decided best approach (for me) is:

• focus on the deep breathing
• pick whichever relaxation works for me (I like the rainbow one)
• keep repeating the affirmations to myself whenever I think about it during the day or if someone/thing makes me nervous

I'm planning to listen to the NH one at the start of labour to get me in the right place, then use the music CD later on.

I think listening to the CD every day does help embed all the messages they're trying to get through. I do feel calmer the more I do it, and can calm down quicker.

I also combine it with doing perineal massage with my DH - I go do hypno for 20 mins and then he comes in and does the massage while I try to stay relaxed. It works really well - he and I can both tell the difference when we do the massage without the hypno (it hurts soooo much more!)

I'm currently 2 days overdue... I'll try to remember to come back and tell you how it worked out!

Oh, and I went to a weekend course and to be honest, it was kind of helpful but pretty much just involved the teacher talking us through the Natal Hypnotherapy book and doing some hypno sessions that are essentially the same as those on the CD - I'd save your money.

I also MUCH prefer Natal Hypnotherapy to Hypnobirthing. I find the Hypno CD really annoying.

Wondering how Bongo's birth went, toodles off to search.

For info everyone - if you get a practitioner offering HypnoBirthing courses of less than 4-5 weeks duration, then they aren't currently affiliated with the HypnoBirthing Institute. The weekend courses option was stopped due to the fact that most of the time has to be taken up listening to someone else talking, rather than learning and having time to practise in class.
So while a weekend course is great for busy working mums looking to make best use of their free time, it doesn't serve quite as well for the support you get over more sessions.