Does anyone have any good relaxation/breathing/hypnobirthing techniques they could share?

[MediumOrchid]

I've always been interested in the idea of hypobirthing but haven't got round to/can't really afford to go on a course. I've been intending to just use some general relaxation/breathing exercises for early labour, but am now 38 weeks and suddenly realise I don't know any! Does anyone have any good techniques I could use or start practising or have I left it too late?!

I listened to the CD but am no use at the visualisation thing.
I think I mainly concentrated on blowing out during contractions in a kind of blowing the pain away/blowing out candles style
The line my yoga teacher used was breathe in the golden light, feel it filling your lungs/chest/abdomen - breathe out the tension/dark (phrasing to suit you) and I actually used that kind of mantra as general relaxation quite a bit

Try positions to get comfortable - my definite favourite is kneeling leaning forward on a chair seat or similar with DH pushing v hard on bottom of my spine - he wanted to rub but that wasn't what I needed

Its never too late for a positive attitude

I do a thing to help me sleep sometimes. Breathe in and on the out breath, concentrate on relaxing all muscles in feet. Do it a second time and relax them even more on this out breath. Then do the same for calf muscles. Then just work way up, concentrating particularly on areas of tension (neck, shoulders etc). Then do some and relax whole body on out breath (imagine 'sinking' into relaxation).

I sort of made this technique up so I don't exactly have expertise, but works for me.

I would also recommend Natal Hypnotherapy, both the book and the CDs for relaxation.

I've been using the natal hypnotherapy cds and it really is all about breathing - it uses the breathing in golden light visual too. I don't find that as helpful as when she just says 3, 2, 1 - relax... I take a deep breath in on 3, out on 2, in on 1 and on the word relax I let all my breath go and sort of consciously let go of any tension in my body too - like the sinking analogy londonmrs used.
I've had many relaxation lessons before - all very similar techniques to what I'm hearing on the cds to be honest. Another good one is taking yourself to your happy place - mine just happens to be a beach as people usually suggest :-) we also had a lesson where we had to think of a really funny memory and concentrate on it whilst digging a fingernail into your thumb. That then becomes your trigger for remembering that memory when you're feeling nervous or stressed - I find it works sometimes!
We also did the whole body relaxation, where you concentrate on relaxing each different part of your body at a time as londonmrs explained... We used to be told to imagine a warm, thick, red liquid being poured into each part as you relax.
And finally - sorry for the essay - the other night I had lower back pain I couldn't shift so I knelt on the floor with my top half leaning on a gym ball and just rocked really gently from side to side and focussed on deep breathing - it was amazing, both for my back and for pending me into a completely chilled out state - can highly recommend a gym ball! Hope some of that waffle helps!

Went to a hospital education session and the midwife was pretty dismissive of the idea of learning intricate techniques. She said to keep it simple (like nenehoo's 3-2-1 idea) cos you'll probably forget and then stress over not doing it right.

She basically said that you should just concentrate on remembering to breathe (cos apparently that one skill can get a bit tricky at times).

I couldn't afford any books, courses or cds so used what I found on the 'net. This website was good hypnobirthing-secrets

I kept the affirmations handy so when I was in labour I read over them and found they helped me with the breathing.

Gym ball is great too. Before, during and even after. The baby loves being bounced on it while I'm holding her.