To those of you who have hypnobirthed...

[HardCheese]

To those of you who have taken hypnobirtihng classes, done the daily meditations and affirmations, and practised the breathing seriously etc - how genuinely useful did you find it in labour? Did you opt for pain relief, and if so, what kind and at what stage?

I ask because we've just had our first class (Mongan method, 34 weeks pg), and while it was perfectly nice, just as listening the rainbow relaxation is perfectly nice, it all feels a bit flimsy as a way of dealing with something as overwhelming as facing first-time labour. (Maybe this sense will change after more classes...?)

Would be interested in the experiences, positive or negative, of anyone who used or tried to use hypnobirthing in labour. Were you supported in your efforts by staff where you gave birth? (I'm planning on an MLU, just me and OH, no doula.)

Also wondering whether people for whom it hadn't worked ended up feeling as if they'd 'failed' a test they'd set themselves?

The first lesson is really background to fear and debunking some of the myths. In subsequent classes you learn a raft of techniques that you can use in addition to talking about how to relate to your caregivers and how your DH can advocate for you. Some women who use hypnobirthing find a cs necessary but because they can still use their techniques and they feel they have made informed decisions that are right for them without being railroaded into anything they do not feel they have failed. Have a look at the hypnobirthing channel on YouTube... Seeing is believing .. And vice versa.

I didn't do any official hypnobirthing but during my first labour, I became very focussed and was calm throughout and didn't need any pain relief.
I concentrated on breathing and found that I really did not want to speak or be touched - was very much in my own zone.

The only time I felt at all panikcy was when I felt the first urge to push and thought I was losing my calm and focus. When I realised what it was, I was ok again.

Based on that, i think training yourself to be calm and focus could be a great help during labour!

I used Hypnobirthing and I think it was helpful, although I have only got one DC so have nothing to compare with IYSWIM.

I was 9cm dilated on admission to hospital and had a bit of gas & air when I arrived. Didn't ever feel that I was in terrible pain or that it was awful. I do remember not wanting to sit or lie down - I moved constantly whilst labouring and that was just what felt comfortable for me.

Unfortunately I didn't get a nice calm delivery as DD was very distressed (possibly by early waters breaking - they broke before contractions started - possibly due to speed of labour - 4.5 hours from first contraction to fully dilated - but they don't really know) and I ended up with a crash section, but I felt in control and calm the whole time, it was really okay. I would definitely use the techniques if we have another DC.

Hi
I've just had my second dc. Attempted hpnobirthing with both with varying degrees of success

Dc1 - read the book and listened to the relaxation every day in last trimester. Fully believed I could have a pain free birth. I had a vaginal delivery with G&A - but i felt awful about the birth as it did hurt a lot, I lost faith in the hypnobirthing half way through as tired, in pain and a bit scared. All in all not good.

Dc2 - last week. I can honestly say it was brilliant. I used hb the whole way through and it was amazing. This time I went into it expecting it to hurt and that the hb would help keep me calm rather than prevent pain. I counted through every contraction (thinking they won't last longer than a count to 100). It did hurt but I felt very in control and the whole thing was just ace.

I hope that helps - it can defo work but I am not sure a pain free birth is achievable for everyone.

Good luck!

It's not really about 'coping' with the pain or thinking your way out if it. It is more about optimising your internal and external environment to support the birthing process rather than fight against it.

Imagine trying to reach orgasm in a brightly lit medical room on a bed with people asking you questions, acting impatient and staring at your fanjo.

Physiologically it is still possible of course but how likely is it unless you find a way to switch off the distractions and remove your fear, embarrassment, feelings of being rushed and intrusion, not to mention the undermining presence of 'equipment' on stand by should you not 'perform'.

I agree it all seemed a bit flimsy and before labour I was not really sure how it was going to work, but it did. After a long medical labour with DC1, DC2 using hypno was born under 3hrs from the first twinge, at home in water with no pain relief (and actually no real pain). With DC3 I did a bit less practice and labour was a little bit longer at just over 4hrs. Some parts were uncomfy/overwhelming and I had a longer 2nd stage. I also felt the crowning, whereas with DC2 I didn't feel a thing. However I still needed no pain relief and had a good experience. I am hoping for a repeat of DC2 with this one .

One thing though... all the hypno videos seem to show women doing it in total silence. I like to make a lot of noise. Not because of pain, it just feels right .

Kanga - I was a quiet one - didn't want to speak at all or make noise. I had to psyche myself up to tell the midwife I felt like pushing.

Usually, though, you can't shut me up so it was surprising to me!

I was a total sceptic and went into it thinking that it might just help me to stay calm, DD2's birth was totally painless despite her being brow presentation.

Did it again with DD3, again painless even though she was 2lb heavier than my previous heaviest.

I sing in labour, in a Bhuddist meditation-y kind of way!

Thanks, everyone - great to have some real views from the far side of labour and birth! Will keep an open mind for the rest of the classes and take the relaxation and breathing practice seriously. Relieved to hear some people have been able to make it work in non-homebirth environment. I don't feel I need birth to be 'pain-free', but I need not to feel frightened or out of control.

Can I ask whether those of you who used hypnobirthing in a MLU or CLU environment found that midwives and other staff were reasonably supportive?

We did hypnobirthing... Kind of..!
DH and I did the course and practised the exercises religiously but in the end I have a very protracted labour (3 days and I never actually g, and the deep relaxation stuff actually slowed down

We did hypnobirthing... Kind of..!
DH and I did the course and practised the exercises religiously but in the end I had a very protracted labour (3 days, and I never actually got to the magic 5 min gap until we were already in hospital 4 hours before she was born), we started the process about 24 hours in and the deep relaxation stuff actually slowed down my contractions to every 25 mins! So we just did the counting during contractions (VERY effective) and some of the massage stuff.

So my labour hurt more than it needed to(plus DD was back to back), but the most important thing for me was that at no point did I feel like I couldnt cope. It was all very manageable. I had gass and air from when my waters broke, about 4 hours before she was born, but that was it... I realised afterwards that I hadn't even thought about asking for an epidural!

The other negative about my birth experience was that I didn't get the water birth I wanted because the midwives didn't believe I was in "established labour" until I was nearly fully dilated and they couldn't get the tub filled fast enough!!! Apparently I wasn't making enough noise, they didn't even want to examine me because they didn't want me to be "disappointed"!!! We had been warned about this 'side affect' of the course, but I told them I was a hypnobirther, so I thought they'd take that on board!! I don't think you'll have this problem in a midwife led unit, they'll generally more switched onto it.

My advice to you would be, go for it - what have you got to lose, even If it just helps you relax a bit more and brings you and DH closer together (that was the other great thing, it made DH really useful and I didn't tell him to f* off once!!) ;)

Good luck

*Can I ask whether those of you who used hypnobirthing in a MLU or CLU environment found that midwives and other staff were reasonably supportive?
*

I had DD in London, St Marys Paddington. It's a MWU, as far as I recall. Either way, I had one midwife throughout the labour, she stayed in the room a lot of the time and excused herself to go and do paperwork (I came in around midnight, DD was born around 4.30am).

She was very respectful of me in general. She understood that I found the occasional monitoring of the heartbeat uncomfortable (because it meant she was touching me) and told me to signal (she had obviously picked up on the fact that I didn't want to speak) to her when a contraction was over so she could do it when it would be easier for me. I really couldn't fault her -she was so unobtrusive that I didn't recognise her the next morning when she saw me onthe postnatal ward on teh way to the toilet (she had come to say goodbye to me! :) )

I did have a birth plan written out - just saying that I was open to whatever was necessary but would like to try the birth pool (which I got to do - had DD in water) and would prefer no pain relief and not to be offered it unless I asked. She took the time to read this too. I definitely felt that my wishes were going to be respected and taken into account.

(having said that there was a bossy midwife the next day who might not have been so great...!)

I also did a kind of hypnobirthing

Didn't attend any classes but had the book and the cd - ds was a planned homebirth so wanted as natural an experience as possible.

Was pleasantly surprised that it did give me the tools to manage the pain of contractions very well. Had previously has dd in hospital so knew what to expect but was definitely more 'in control' using the hypnobirthing techniques. I'm a very 'hands off' person in labour...don't want any touching, massaging or rubbing etc etc so to be able to rock quietly in the corner of my living room breathing though it all was a winner for me The mw had to ask me when I was having a contraction so I guess it served it's purpose of creating a calm environment!

I'd love to say I 'breathed my baby out in complete silence' as per the hypnobirthing plan...but there was quite a lot of grunting at the end!! Fair play to anyone who can remain totally calm whilst pushing that baby's head out

Good luck with it all - using it for relaxation worked great for me, dh was totally on board and I had no issues with the mw's.

Hi, I'm a Hypnobirthing Practitioner in the Croydon area. I see why you might have the opinion you have after the first session. The point of the first session is to set the scene. Your practitioner will have explained how your body is perfectly designed to birth your baby and it is fear that causes pain in childbirth. You will also have experienced some mild hypnosis. Over the following weeks you will lose the fear and replace it with a positive image.
However your birth pans out you will be more in control and it will be easier.
Good luck.

I also kept in mind that each contraction would end - think that's a hypnobirthing thing?

Also re: pool birth. Someone had just used it when I got in so they had to empty it (takes 45 mins, apparently), refill it (45 mins) leave it to sterilise (1 hour) , empty it again (45 mins) and refill (45 mins)! I spent a fair bit of the labour standing, bent over with my head resting on my arms at the edge of the tub watching it fill/empty/fill! (I actually think I had a few micro-sleeps while doing this!) though I was in a labour room next door to it to begin with and kneeling on the bed leaning against the upright back of it.

Almost as soon as I got into the pool, my waters broke and DD was born within 20 minutes of getting in!

I think the level of support for hypnobirthing depends on the level of awareness for midwives in your area. Awareness is fairly high near me as my hypnobirthing teacher is also a very experienced midwife who now runs the local one to one midwife scheme. I was given a sheet to put in my notes saying something like 'we are a Hypnobirthing family' and when I mentioned it to some of the community midwives several of them said they were interested in it and were going to attend a talk (my teacher used to do awareness talks for midwives too).

BUT the experience with the labour ward midwives was very very different from my experience with the community midwives. They were very dismissive when I arrived at hospital and didn't believe that I could be very far along - before they examined me (which they only did very reluctantly) they were talking about sending me home!!! Fortunately, once they did examine me it was clear that sending me home wasn't an option.

My hypnobirthing teacher was working in the hospital when DD was born, but she wasn't on shift - however it was lovely that she came to visit me several times whilst I was in the post-natal room. She is working hard locally to raise awareness and I hope my experience next time (if there is a next time - hope so) will be different.

Thanks, nosynoonoo - that's reassuring. My issue is possibly that I don't really have any lurking fears of my body not doing roughly what it's supposed to if left alone - all my fears are about medical interference and being rushed...

emsyj, that's interesting. My GP surgery midwife had heard of hypnobirthing, and was pretty impressed with the results she'd seen in her work, but she no longer delivers at the MLU where we'll be going, and my hypnobirthing teacher, also a midwife, works in another hospital altogether. It's hard to know in advance what kind of reception I'll get when I go in - rather alarming to hear of you almost being sent home, presumably because you seemed too calm to be in advanced labour...?

I've hypnobirthed twice.

First time around I was at home for 17 hours before they allowed me to come in and be checked, by which point I was 8cm. Once in the hospital I did lose my focus, but that was a combination of factors including busy hospital so no midwife for me, back to back baby and sitting on my TENs machine leads so they no longer worked (TENs really complements hypnobirthing imo).

Second time around i was at home and I felt in control throughout, hardly any pain just pressure and even though it was a long labour (back to back again) it felt right. Throughout the labour I was in a dark room in a 'nest' I made for myself and I found myself moving into positions that felt comfortable e.g. I lay on my back to deliver DS even though thats the worst position for back to back babies to be born, however I also had a cervical lip and lying on my back was the only painless position and the best one to get past the lip. For the last stage I went into myself completely like a trance. I could feel DS descending and crowning but it wasn;t painful just extraordinarily primal. I didn't have to push at all but I could feel my body doing it for me. I didn't make any sound at all apart from swearing at DH when he accidentally electrocuted me with the TENs. I caught the midwives by surprise as they were all drinking tea around teh table when I informed them calmly his head was being born. The rush of endorphins after he was born and the feeling of well being lasted ten weeks and I was utterly bonded to him, I was even happy when he woke in the night.

Books like Birth Reborn by Odent give an idea about the biology of birth, which hormones are released and when/why, which was very useful to me before the birth, made me more confident.

HardCheese - you will learn strategies to avoid intervention and to 'buy time'.

R2PeePoo, thanks. Very interesting to hear you used TENS along with hypnobirthing - combining the two hadn't even occurred to me, but perhaps I should consider it? I know very little about TENS but was vaguely assuming that having intermittent electrical impulses would interfere with relaxation/breathing, or be a distraction... (Will remember not to sit on leads if I do!)

I've read no Odent at all, on the possibly unfair grounds that he's so terribly French, and that I get a bit irritated by a man telling a woman about being 'primal', though I'm probably being unfair here. I think Marie Mongan quotes him somewhere as saying that birth assistants should keep their hands in their pockets at all times and not interfere unless absolutely necessary, which is a lovely thought. Thanks for both suggestions.

Your first birth would be the kind of scenario I fear - back to back, inevitable loss of focus once I leave home - while your second sounds wonderful.

nosey - excellent! I will be the most alert and motivated student in the class for this part.

Re: TENs- I found it good because

-the endorphins made it easier to stay happier and focused
-it gave me something to do with my hands. Something productive
-I found it more of a buzz against my back and I didn't notice the increase during contractions because....well I was having a contraction and breathing through it
-it gave me a 'start point' to begin my visualisations during a contraction - from pressing the button.
-When I was in a trance the action of me pressing the button was the cue for DH to put the G&A nozzle in my mouth so I didn't have to tense the muscles to hold it. The TENs was on a cord around my neck and clipped to my dressing gown. When I was pushing it was resting in my hand.

My first birth was not as good as the second, but I did manage to push out DD who was back to back in three minutes and I regained my focus during the pushing. I just had a particularly awful midwife.

Odent's book is about his birth centre, very hands off and natural. Fascinating

I'd describe my second birth as extremely pleasurable, I'd actually willingly give birth to him again any day. The rush when he was born was better than any drug!

Me and DH have just completed our final class of hypnobirthing course and I am sooo glad that we did it, primarily because now we know that certain interventions are NOT inevitable. It's our first baby, I'm 41, and really was becoming freaked out by all the friends/family horror stories of inductions, forceps, EMCS, "excruciating" pain,etc.
I was whipping myself into a state of low-level terror over the thought of "membrane sweeps" and "induction" until I learned that I just do not have to go there at all, unless there is a GENUINE medical emergency, i.e., not just because things are not happening fast enough.

I am going to practice all the techniques every day and put total faith in my body, in the hope that I can achieve a calm and controlled birth. And even if something unforeseen occurs, I feel that I am now in a much better place to deal with it.

Yes, after the birth you don't get exhausted relief, you get overwhelming love-high and the energy to walk home!