Hypnobirthing to change mindsets

[jmap81]

I read lots of things on here about people's birth experiences and the trauma, bad experiences, bad memories (as well as many many positive ones). Am keen to know, as a FTM, did people have these tough experiences after doing preparation like hypnobirthing?

Hypnobirthing won’t stop medical emergencies/complications happening but it could help you stay calm.
I tried it for my first pregnancy as I had a awful phobia of birth since my mum told me in detail about hers when I was about 10 .
Hypnobirthing really worked for me - I had a calm positive experience and my phobia was totally gone - but I practiced the meditation every night for about 7 months and after about 4 months I really noticed the difference - I would zone out and not hear the end of the track cos I would go to sleep.

A friend (who was practicing it to the same degree) had an ecs, but also had a calm positive experience.

I did Hypnobirthing and I had a positive birth experience. However my birth was straightforward and labour only lasted 4 hours so that helped. If I had had a complicated delivery or baby was in distress or any one of the thousands of unpredictable things that happen in labour had happened I’m not sure how my mindset would have coped. The breathing helped me cope with contractions but they were still painful.

For me I focused so much on the birth with hypnobirthing and breathing and essential oils and meditation etc that I didn’t give much thought to the postpartum period which was a massive shock.

Definitely worth learning how to self hypnotise. I had six sessions with a qualified hypnotherapist for six weeks beforehand. It meant..the times with the contractions felt short, the time between contractions felt long. Like a pp I got to 9 cm without noticing really. Yes it hurt, but what was wonderful was being able to somehow accept the hurt, which meant that I was able to feel and really enjoy the actual birth. Amazing! Afterwards at night apparantly not all the placenta had come out and ( yuk bit coming up) the midwife had to feel around. This is where hypno was really useful - there was no time for any drugs at all, but I was able to be liying on a beach relaxing, while a long way away something was happening to my body. being able to relax into the pain was unbelievably helpful.
I would really recommend as another tool to have. It also meant I could hypnotise myself asleep when I had a spare moment and has been very useful when going to the dentists!
I did try a hypno birthing group first and wasn’t too impressed when she said imagine your vulva opening like a rose. Ewww! My hypnotist said groups are less effective as it it needs to be tailored to your particular fears and how you imagine them.
Definitely worth doing .

Did NCT classes and hypnobirthing course and book, and had the most horrific birth experience ending in an emergency c section when baby got stuck in birth canal. Months later I'm still traumatised.

I did it and it was a double edged sword for me. It definitely kept me calm as birth approached and in the early stages (which didn’t last long for me). The content was perfectly right about preparing to keep calm in all situations and aiming for safe, not necessarily intervention free.

However it didn’t prepare me for the fact that I wouldn’t feel able to advocate for myself once the pain really kicked in. It focused massively on consent and discussion and this was just not how it was for me, the care was safe but I was like a piece of meat and was in so much pain I couldn’t advocate for myself or discuss what was happening. And from that point all it did was make me feel like I failed myself because I wasn’t able to stand up for what I wanted and didn’t want.

The visualisations have been helpful for managing other stressful situations though.

From the tone of your post I’m guessing you are trying to see if there’s a link between positive outcome and mindset. Not the case in my view. Of all my circle of friends, all of us needed intervention of some sort with our first babies to keep them and us safe.

I had an amazing experience with my first baby, I did the positive birth company digital pack for £39. All of the midwives commented how well I coped and were surprised it was my first labour. It helped give me something to focus on, stay calm, and prepared me for all the potential things that could happen. By that I mean it didn't just focus on drug free water births but explained induction and how to make it better, etc.

I've seen so many women on FB groups get heavily into hypnobirthing and then when things didn't go to plans they were traumatised and felt like failures because they ended up with a section/instrumental delivery/epidural. The focus on natural=good is actively harmful and even dangerous in my view.

I did a hypnobirthing course through my hospital, given by a midwife with a long career behind her. She'd seen it all, and there was a strong focus on using it as a tool to stay calm while doing whatever was necessary to get the baby out safely. Everything has a caveat of "in an emergency this might not be the way it goes, but we will explain as much as we can at the time and will be more than happy to talk through it in detail after" which I found reassuring.

I had a failed induction and emergency section and found that the breathing techniques helped me stay calm during the operation.

So yeah, my anecdata is that hypnobirthing won't really change what actually happens with the birth, but a good course will help you cope if things don't go to plan, and a bad course may ultimately increase your trauma.

Going in with a very open mind will never be a bad thing.