Hypnobirthing did it work for you?

[MRSSGS]

Hello All

With all antenatal classes cancelled I'm looking at doing an online hypnobirthing class with the positive birthing company.

Did you try it with your birth and did it work for you?

Many thanks 😊

Did the full on face to face hypnobirthing experience twice, with different companies. It did fuck all for me except leave me with an abject sense of failure and inadequacy, as well as relieved me of hundreds of pounds. I’d bought so much into the hypnobirthing myth that I was convinced that my crap birth first time round was all my fault.

My first child was an EMCS due to breech, second was VBAC. Admittedly, breech births can be very sudden and quick but the techniques were laughably inadequate in the face of my contractions which went from nothing to ohmygodiwanttodie very quickly.

The one thing that made a difference was an epidural. That changed both births into relaxing, enjoyable experiences, and to this day I am still resentful of the hypnobirthing mentality which does seek to downplay medical intervention - the kind that saves lives and eases suffering.

It’s full of weasel words - all claim that they don’t guarantee a pain free birth but when so many of the classes won’t even let you use the word pain, what do they think? Birth is brutal and messy. Pretending to blow up balloons doesn’t change that.

I think it’s a bit like the diet industry - there may be simple, positive messages but they tend to be lost in the cult. There’s plenty of women like me on here, too - I wish I’d heard their voices before I had my children.

Sorry for the essay - I feel quite strongly about it. Obviously other people’s opinions will differ. But you won’t know how your birth will go until you’re out the other side of it, hypnobirthing or no.

no advice as i'm pregnant with my first but interested & following. i've only heard good things so i appreciate the balanced view. I can totally see where you're coming from Molto, thank you for sharing

I used a hypnobirthing CD to prepare on my second labour.

It was in no way painless but the visualisation helped me cope.

@MoltoAgitato thank you for sharing your experience - it's what I was afraid of when I kept pushing away hypnobirthing when I was pregnant.

I didn't even do it, but there was enough about it in our NCT classes to still make me feel like a failure in labour when DD was back to back and I wanted an epidural. At one point I was crying to my husband that I was a failure ...

The epidural was hands down the making of my birth - I had a very positive one in the end

I found it useful to focus on keeping an open mind in the months leading up to birth and it served me well - you just don't know what you're going to get.

Hope all goes well xx

Do the online course if you're doing to do one, the in person ones are real rip-off franchise things.

I did the online course when pregnant with DC2 - it helped sooth nerves and prep for birth, it helped with the first bit of labour (I used the freya app made by the same people, it's good - times contractions and talks you through them, though a bit fiddly to use in combo with a tens machine)

Once labour got into full swing though, it all went out the window a bit but I had a very fast transition. I think it was worth it for the first bit ;)

@ludicrous would you please mind telling us what the main difference between online vs face to face was?

I think im just getting a bit more worried as all the NCT classes have been cancelled for online now so worried about the lack of info overall!

If it helps I had my first online NCT class last week and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought, if you still want to pursue the NCT route.

I found the positive birth company course excellent - it really helped during my labour (home birth, no pain relief)

I have mixed option on this. In practice I would say about 50/50 women who have been to hypnobirthing classes have the birth experience they have wished/planned for.

25% have emergency intervention and another 25% wish for pain relief which usually is straight to epidural, many will not consider pethidine at all.

When hypnobirthing techniques work it is amazing to watch and it really does work well for some women. Those who fully immerse themselves in the programme and practice and also interestingly who have husbands/partners fully supportive and participating in the techniques really seem gain a lot from it. The partners who get on board with hypnobirthing also appear to gain confidence in being their partners advocate as well and it is a real family affair in the room when discussing when interventions are needed for example.

I only have limited experience as trusts I have worked in didn’t have a massive uptake of it due to £, maybe 25% of deliveries tried hypnobirthing? Unsure of homebirth statistics.

Just wanted to give an overall view of a mw’s experience of it being helpful. It doesn’t have to be the be all and end all of having no pain relief, it can teach useful mindfulness and confidence techniques as well. However there is as a pp has said a risk of feeling a failure if the techniques don’t work etc which of course is so sad and not true, but does happen sadly. Also some mw are more receptive to caring for a woman in labour using the techniques than others; not because of judgement just maybe lack of training etc, hospital midwives dont get this as standard sadly. It would be good even to promote a bit of awareness and understanding.

I did a hypno birthing course before I gave birth. I did not have a hypno birth. I had a baby who was back to back and got an infection during the birth. I had an epidural which was the best thing ever and would go that route again and again. Subsequently, however, I use my breathing techniques to cope with other sorts of pain - infection and broken limb and they really helped so it wasn’t a complete waste of time. I had a very open mind going into the birth and I think that’s a very important thing. See how things go and if you get get there with just the breathing great. If not no worries. The goal of a birth is healthy baby and mum. That’s all.

I used the online digital pack for my third.
I couldn't get into it. Far to woo for me.
The woman annoyed the hell out of me.

I'd had two straightforward water births with just gas and air before so I think I knew my body to well.

The birth ended up being recorded at 1hr and 6 I did make it into the pool and I was happy with how controlled I was.

I used natal hypnotherapy by Maggie Howell. It was brilliant - like hypnobirthing but without the bullshit.

I laboured and gave birth with only gas and air using the techniques. In fact the midwife refused to examine me as she insisted I wasn’t in enough pain to be ready to push. I was 10cm.....Of course giving birth hurts but I honestly found it manageable with breathing and visualisation and the music. You need to practice lots though

www.amazon.co.uk/Effective-Birth-Preparation-Practical-Better-ebook/dp/B00WJ3LAOG/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=natal+hypnotherapy&sprefix=natal+h&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&qid=1586946896&sr=8-1

Hi I did hypnobirthing 10 years ago with my first child. So it was relatively new then. It gave me total confidence in trusting that my body new exactly what It needed to do and I let it. I was so calm through my labour, I had no pain relief not even gas and air, I can honestly say I did enjoy it and as certainly doing it again with this one. I’m booked it for online training with my lady from last time.
I’ve dislocated my knee a few times and that was more painful than labour. Oh forgot to say my labour from the first contraction to delivery was 6 hours.
It’s not for everyone of course and you have to believe in it and be completely open to the concept and put in the training.

It’s not for everyone of course and you have to believe in it and be completely open to the concept and put in the training.

It's absolutely great that you had an uncomplicated birth and that hypnobirthing helped you through it, it truly is, but if you read the previous posts then you will see that this is absolutely not the case. There is no amount of open-mindedness or trusting in your body that will overcome a shoulder dystocia or a PPH.

Hypnobirthing can be absolutely fantastic but IMHO you have to regard it as a set of tools which you might use alone or alongside medical interventions as part of your labour and birth.

And I object to the sentiment that it didn’t work for me because I somehow didn’t believe in it enough. I was religious about it, and 100% committed to it. It didn’t do a damn thing for me or many other women, because births can be painful, messy and exhausting. I would say the majority of women can have “straightforward” vaginal births, and the intersection of these women with women who do hypobirthing gives rise to people thinking it’s some kind of magic.

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, and I’m just giving my own experience.
I found it prepared me for the birth mentally. I had gone from going for an elective caesarean (as I was petrified) to choosing a home birth. My first was back to back but I was lucky and able to deliver fine.

@yippiekayakotherbuckets yes exactly!! People who are lucky enough to have uncomplicated “hypno births” always put it down to their own success with the techniques not their luck! It is very frustrating and can lead to people feeling like failures when they need intervention. It’s really not mind over matter. It’s the luck of the draw. And the goal should be healthy baby healthy mum not who had least/no pain relief. It doesn’t make you stronger/better mum. It makes you lucky.

I used the PBC’s digital pack and I follow their page on Instagram. I don’t feel like they sell you a pain-free, drug- birth but it prepares you for whatever birth you have and prepares you for any decision making you may need to take during their labour. Their Instagram page shares lots of of different types of birth: cesarians, inductions, instrumental births and, yes, drug-free pool births. But all the women are able to view their births very positively so I don’t agree that hypnobirthing is all about only drug free straight forward births - for me it’s about preparing you mentally for whichever sort of birth you have.

I ended up with a pool birth and gas and air. I really do view giving birth as the best thing I’ve ever done. It was a very positive experience. Who knows if my birth would have been different if I hadn’t downloaded the pack, but I definitely credit the breathing and the knowledge from the videos for keeping me calm and in a good head space. I will absolutely be buying it again as a refresher later in the year when I give birth again.

I've been doing the online course from the Positive Birth Company and have read the book (have not given birth yet so obviously feel free to completely discount my viewpoint!! ) and have found it really useful just in terms of feeling less anxious about the prospect of birth and knowing what my options are. It's pretty cheap as well so feel like it won't matter much whether it 'works' or not.

I would say though that on the Facebook group for birth stories which you get access to, there are loads and loads of women who have not had an ideal birth, emergency caesareans, forceps, shoulder dystocia etc. And they say that the mindset they had meant they viewed the overall experience as positive as they felt like they had some choice in what happened to them and they felt in control.

Just my thoughts anyway, don't see what harm it can do to have a go and have an open mind about what could happen!

There is no right way to give birth, and no guarantee that hypnobirthing will give you the experience you are looking for. As @YippieKayakOtherBuckets says it's part of a set of tools that you can deploy to get you to the end result. So I wouldn't spend ££££ on it.

That said I used it for two of my three babies, one a home birth and one in hospital. It certainly helped me (bit of a control freak) to relax and get into the labouring zone. It didn't make birth painless but it helped me dissociate from the pain a bit and kept me active.

One issue to beware of - with my last baby I was so calm and focussed that the midwife refused to move me off the antenatal ward and into the labour suite. She thought I wasn't progressed enough. Cue my husband being kicked out as visiting hours ended and me rather loosing my shit calm as I gave birth on a ward with just the curtains drawn around my bed. Still annoyed about that 10 years later but it does demonstrate that you don't always get the experience you signed up for, whether you're hypnobirthing or not!

I did a gentlebirth course which isn't available in the UK I don't think but I found a perfect mix for me. It covers hypnobirthing but as part of a toolbox of techniques available to you, and encourages you to think through what you might want in different scenarios. So: start with hypnobirthing, do you want a recording? Showers? Affirmations? at a certain point use water/tens/gas and air, if that's not working do you want pethidine, straight to epidural, etc etc.

I was induced, back to back, hyperstimulated by the pessary and basically screaming for pain relief for 12 hours which they couldn't give me as I wasn't dilated enough to be admitted to the labour ward. Once I was, I had an epidural which was magical, but the tens machine and my hypnobirthing recordings were basically what got me to that point.

I think that being as fit as you possibly can, listening and preparing to the cds but also being ready to just go with what happens is the best approach. The people I know with the easiest labours were incredibly fit, two went hiking at 8 months pregnant, one was very into yoga. I don't think it's a guarantee at all, but I think it helps. I also think any mental techniques that help you feel in control are good. But the main thing is not getting sucked into the mentality that there's a 'right' way to give birth. I do think sometimes births can be overmedicalised but that doesn't mean that no intervention is the way forward or possible for everyone.

But I've worked in developing countries and I'm fairly no bullshit about the fact that the answer to the whole 'of course women can give birth naturally with no intervention' is well actually no, in a minority of cases, it goes horribly wrong. Medical intervention is wonderful. On paper, almost everything that happened with my birth was the opposite to what I had wanted: I was induced, had an epidural so was on my back, had an assisted delivery and a third degree tear. In reality, from the point I got the epidural it was fine: I felt the midwives really listened to me, explained what was happening and why, and didn't feel at all bad the plan had to change.

I think give it a go, but try and make sure you don't start thinking it's the only way.

Wow I didn't expect all these replies so fast, Thank you everyone and I'm glad other people are getting something out of my post also.
I am in no way going to use hypnobirthing as my only way of getting through labour, my mind is open to anything happening and pain relief will be decided at the time. I personally don't think you can plan a birth just have a wish list of what you'd like in regards to where and how eg water birth.

I do use meditation and hypnosis for anxiety but I really don't think I could use this alone without medical intervention.

Really interesting to see everyone's take on it, my midwife is really into home births and hypnobirthing. I am still on the fence and I completely agree that you just don't know until you're init xxx

It worked very well for me but perhaps it does depend on who you go with and of course your birth. My practice did a lot to prepare for what ifs - so if things did not go how I wanted them to how I would cope with that. I did a lot of practice with breathing and visualisation daily pre birth which helped immensely as it became a safe place. My tutor did a one to one as I couldn't get to classes. I'm sure it would have been similar over video conference then using the materials yourself.

Load of airy-fairy bolleaux.

Just call a contraction a contraction, not a "surge" or whatever namby-pamby word they use for it. Are we really so weak and snowflakey that we need special euphemisms for medical terms?