When to start hypnobirthing CD and perineal massage?

[MrsCog]

Hi everyone,

I'm 27+2 and am planning on doing hypnobirthing/hypnotherapy (just a CD as don't have £££) and perineal massage to prepare for birth. When would you recommend starting these, and also if you did them did you find it helpful?

The earlier you start the hypnobirthing cd the better, we did the course and I started using it when I got it, around 24/25 weeks. Ideally you should do it every day, they told us every day was great prep, 5 out of 7 days was still okay but any less just wasn't enough.
The perineal massage, we were told to start it at 32-34 weeks. I'm now 38+1 and definitely feels more stretchy down there. DH has to do it for me as I can't reach and he says it feels loads bigger down there now. We never miss a day on that though because when we did it seemed to have gone backwards so without fail, he's oiled up every day now lol. Oh and we used olive oil as that's what our HB teacher told us to use.

Thank you - I'd better get on with the hypnobirthing then!

yes, crack on with the hypno. I left it until I was on annual leave/maternity leave and expected to have 7 weeks. Then my baby came at 36 weeks and I was not hypno-prepared! Perineal - only managed once or twice before the surprise arrival. Good luck!

I'm listening to my affirmations as I type, am now 38+3 and feeling really calm and excited (if you can feel those 2 emotions at the same time). Wish I knew which day s/he was coming (I'm sure all pregnant ladies wish they knew that!), keep wondering if s/he'll be early or late. Trying not to think about it as I don't want to start getting frustrated when I've spent the entire pregnancy in a positive and cheery frame of mind.

Can anyone recommend which hypnobirthing cd/mp3 to get? I've seen Hypnobirthing Labor /Birthing from the Inside out on Amazon and there's one on iTunes - I thought there'd be loads to choose from with lots of reviews, but it seems not!!

I used Marie Mongan rainbow relaxation but I think it may be only available through the classes (unless you buy the american version through amazon). The main one I've heard of natal hypnotherapy one but I found it quite confusing which one you'd need as there seemed to be many different packages. I bought a pregnancy relaxation CD from ebay prior to signing up to the classes but I didn't really like it.

The Marie mongan book comes with a CD

I practised every day from week 25 and I was so relaxed all the time. Wish I'd carried on with the meditation! The Tina Taylor/ Nick Kemp - Tranceforming Childbirth CD was also really good.