Natal Hypnotherapy - does anyone else's brain just not shut up?

[luckysocks]

I've only been doing the pregnancy disc for a couple of weeks, so I'm pretty new to it. 22 weeks, so too early for the birth disc.

I'm getting better at relaxing during the breathing, although my brain is quite busy analysing whether I'm getting better at relaxing while breathing. I get a bit stressed during the visualising because it's difficult to visualise while she's talking at you and I can't seem to relax into it, even though losing myself in a kind of daydream is the way I've dropped off to sleep for as long as I can remember.

Then when you're supposed to use your internal voice to talk to your baby, it goes something like this: hello baby, I'm your mummy.... you can't hear me.... when am I going to get that document sorted for wor... NO no concentrate... hello baby... my ears itch I hate these headphones... oh god. Is it nearly finished.

Do I just need to persevere?!

Ha, ha, your post made me laugh luckysocks. I did a 2 day course and bought the pregnancy disk and I can honestly say I don't think I 'got it' as much as some people do. However it really, really relaxed me, and made me completely fine about the labour, hospital etc. Infact, I was induced at 37 weeks in the end, and only afterwards read that some women are terrified of induction!
I think you are doing all the right things, it will help you enjoy your pregnancy and hopefully put you at ease about the big day!

Ha ha. It does take a bit of practice. Reckon it took me about a dozen listens to really get the knack.

FWIW, I never got on with the pregnancy disc - I can't do woods! The labour one is a beach and I found it much easier. You can actually start the labor one as early as you like, so might be worth giving it a go if you have it.

Hi luckysocks, I'm 40+5 and have been doing the labour disc since 32 weeks, albeit not religiously. Trying to ramp it up now labour is imminent (or not, he seems quite happy where he is). I don't think it's too early to start even at 22 weeks and recommend giving it a go! Like you I sometimes found it hard to switch off, especially when I was still working. As NewYears described, the visualisation focusses on a beach - I still get some kind of mental block because she mentions imagining birdsong and I can't visualise birds on my beach, well screeching gulls maybe but not those with a good voice!

Stick with it. I think you can imagine what you like as long as you find it to be a peaceful place, or even go over any memory that's happy and raises endorphins. I find listening to 38 minutes of track incredibly tedious but there is no doubt it relaxes me and I've occasionally drifted off to sleep, which is a bonus as insomnia has been a regular feature of most of the last few months. The labour disc really helps with your breathing and I reckon it's never too early to get that under control.

I've been doing the labour CD while reading Grantly Dick-Read's Childbirth Without Fear - that's a bit hard going as it was written such a long time ago and the language is of another era, but both together have convinced me that there is nothing to be afraid about, women have been doing this since the year dot, our bodies were made to cope with birth and I actually feel really excited and can't wait to meet my boy. Relax relax relax is the key, decrease fear in your mind --> decrease tension, and pain (I try to say discomfort, as per the CD) should be reduced naturally...

Having said all this I'll be open-minded and go with the flow on the day; although I'd prefer a natural birth with g&a, I'm not averse to intervention if absolutely necessary as I the last thing I want to feel is a failure if it doesn't go as I'd like it to in my head.

Hahaha OP, I'm afraid this is exactly why I never attempted hypnobirthing.
I have lots of friends who swore by it though!

Personally I think it probably is worth persevering if it makes it easier for you to "timetable" some relaxing / positive thinking time every day because that is important to have in the run up to birth.

However what one person finds relaxing another can find cringeworthy. If it carries in bugging you there's nothing wrong with trying something else like lying in the bath eating maltesers singing daft songs to the baby yoga or breathing exercises or whatever instead. Everyone is different!

It's no laughing matter, anniroc , NYR and Grumpla ;)

I have to admit, I wouldn't even have considered doing this when pg with DS, so maybe it's my scepticism seeping through. But I've read the book by the same women and found it extremely interesting (a lot of it made sense in relation to my last birth), it made me feel more positive about it all which is exactly what I need at the moment so I'm trying to persevere with these CDs.

Maybe I will have a listen to the birth disc - although part of me wants to 'save' it until I control my wayward brain!!

clarey it won't be long now! It's interesting... you mentioned using any happy memory - there is actually a park we go to as a family sometimes, it's really lovely there and I try to use that, but she keeps interrupting me and the timing doesn't work and I just can't picture the oak tree properly

I'm definitely thinking too much about this. Will try again this evening.

Hi, I'm really keen to try hypnobirthing... I'm on my 3rd and final pregnancy. Could you please tell me which book or cd you have. When I look on amazon, there are loads and they all have good reviews- I'm confused

This is the book I've read and I bought the CD set by the same woman (Natal Hypnotherapy).

I've read a ridiculous number of good reviews about the programme, I think I got the link from a mumsnet thread in the first place.

Oooooh that was quick, thank you

At least you're able to stay awake through it! On the rare occasion that I've not fallen asleep, my mind does tend to wander...

:) Apparently that's not a bad thing though, beginnersluck ... it means you're very relaxed and the suggestions can still sink into your subconcious. Particularly if you're doing the CD at a time when you wouldn't normally be asleep.

As Grumpla says it's differant strokes for differant folks and not everyone will find hypnobirthing works for them so don't feel bad if you just find that something else does the job better for you. :)

With the getting distracted issue I think the trick is to except that everyone gets distracted at some point and nobody really stays completly focused 100% of the time, so don't beat yoursef up about it. If you find you are getting distracted and your thoughts are straying just recognise this and refocus back to your breathing or the visulistion. Try not to get stressed about it and enter into a dialogue with your thoughts. I find it really helpful to have a phrase such as 'enough now' and take a deep breath to help me seperate from the random thoughts and bring myself back to the excercise.

I don't really know if this is what you are supposed to do for hypnobirthing as I have only been doing the cd for a few weeks (and not very regularly to be honest )but I have used these techniques when meditating and they are basically very similar I think.