Hypnobirthing - anyone tried it?

[Daniya]

Has anyone thought about, or actually tried Hypnobirthing. I just came across it and would be very interested in other people's experiences.

Thanks all!

Hi Daniya DH and I have just attended our first session of hypnobirthing and are totally blown away! I've spoken to 3 women who have used it and given birth with a powerful sense of pressure but no pain, intervention or tearing. Our baby is due mid July and we're so excited about the birth and not at all fearful as I may well have been having listened to the endless stream of nightmare labour stories! I watched a DVD of 6 or 7 hypnobirthing couples in labour and I've never seen such a calm and relaxed scene. Check out Marie Mongan's book if you want to know more or better still, book on a course, it's only a few quid more than the NCT and will be SO much more beneficial!

Daniya, I used hypnobirthing for my dd's birth and found it a positive and useful aid. However, I would warn against believing it will guarantee you the birth you envisage and instead see it as an empowering way of coping with and meeting anything birth throws up (sometimes quite literally). I started off with a home waterbirth but ended up with a hospital transfer, episiotomy, failed ventouse and emergency caesarean. It was not until the cs was performed that it became apparent that dd could never have been born naturally. Still, the hypnobirthing helped throughout. I would advise any woman, hypnobirther or otherwise to expect the unexpected and don't believe any one drug, method or otherwise is a guarantee of anything.

I don't mean to sound negative but hypnobirthing ime and imo is a method for coping with birth, not a guarantee of an outcome.

That said, it's a fabulous and empowering thing.

Marie Mongan very good. Try Ina May Gaskin as well for a lovely approach and attitude to childbirth.

Very interested in your comments. I will be popping my second baby at the end of the year and would love to try it.

Although with my first one I had all the available drugs, still hurt and teared really nastily.

Great advice Show of Hands!

LOL Gillythekid - I take it you haven't actually had the baby yet....

I have just ordered the book by Marie Mongon from Amazon so I am going to have a read and decide if its something I want to do - the class is quite expensive at £495.

Kathyis6incheshigh think I might be having the last laugh come July!! I'm perfectly confident in my body's ability to birth my baby and know that if, like in showofhands case, things don't go according to plan, I've laid the foundations for a more positive experience. There are plenty of 2nd time mums who have successfully used hypnobirthing after a first traumatic labour, I suggest you LOL at them instead!
Daniya our course in London was only £295, are you in the UK?

Let's hope so Gillythekid.
Most people who do hynobirthing find it a useful experience, I believe. However if you are expecting to give birth painlessly you may be sadly disappointed.

i didn't do the classes due to cost... bought cds from natalhypnotherapy.co.uk and listened to them religiously... had very long back labour and did find myself using some of the things i'd learned... not miraculous but all part of the arsenal of tools to help! think if you can afford to do the actual course would be worth it.

Yes Gillythekid, I suggest an attitude of 'it may hurt beyond bloomin' belief but how can I cope with this' is preferable to 'it won't hurt, I won't tear because I can breathe and know some mantras'.

I only say this not to patronise but to help you avoid any disappointment or shock at how it actually might be.

It is fine and good to have complete faith in your body and to believe that you are capable of having the birth you envisage but it is good sense to acknowledge that you have no previous experience of this and for most, even the hypnobirthers of the year, it does hurt and won't always go to plan.

Well done you for thinking about the birth you want and positively imagining the experience. I believe open-mindedness is your best weapon.

I was calm, relaxed and open-minded out. To others it may have looked painless at points. It was not. It was very, very painful but I was ready for it.

throughout

I have completed the course and am due in 8 weeks. I will let you know how it goes.

Gillythekid don't let yourself be upset/wound up by Kathyis6inches, people who have not researched/witnessed/been through and hypnobirthing birth are notoriously sceptical. Self belief is what matters. I am a second time mum and was sceptical about it, having now completed the course I am pretty convinced it works (but I am not telling you why, won't spoil the surprise). But of course emergencies do happen and that is something to bear in mind (at the far far back of your mind)

I'm with Showofhands on this one. I used Hypnobirthing with DS2 and found that, while it improved my sense of control and attitude, it did not make birth pain free. I would worry that if someone expected birth to be completely pain free, and it wasn't, it would destroy that sense of control.

I would absolutely use it again, because I think it helped me to have a relatively calm, intervention free home-birth.

The next time, however, I would not combine it with shifting two sofas and a chest of drawers, laying out tarpaulins and inflating birthing pools, none of which are aids to relaxation

I don't believe it will be pain free, but I do believe it will help me cope/manage pain. I hope it doesn't turn out to be wishful thinking! I would be content with a "relatively calm, intervention free home-birth!"

Thanks needahand. I'm certainly keeping an open mind, I don't expect to cough the baby out with a pop for God's sake. However, I KNOW hypnobirthing will help me to cope, whatever the event throws up.

To be honest I would like to live in blissful ignorance for a bit and assume it will "cough out with a pop"!!

I may have to face reality at some point I guess....???

Hopefully after you've read the book, Daniyathe reality won't seem like something to be 'faced'!! Can't believe you have to pay £495 quid for the course!! Have you shopped around? The Hypnobirthing Centre is on 0845 337 9149, our course is £295 but accommodates those on lower incomes too, think they might only have courses down south but may be able to recommend more affordable alternatives countrywide. Good luck whatever you choose do!

Gilly - thanks for the details of the Hypnobirthing Centre, the one I looked at was in Surrey as thats where I am based so anywhere south is good for me.

At what point in your pregnancy should you be going for these classes?

gillythekid would be nice though wouldn't it? Coughing that baby out! I am sure hypnobirthing will help a great deal too, wouldn't have done the course otherwise and I am not listening who people who want to undermine that belief. I am entitled to my opinion after all and it is my birth. Hypnobirthing has already given me confidence in that I am now planning a HB which I would never have contemplated before, so it has helped me already. One has to have a little bit of faith in life.

Daniya best to face the reality as soon as rather than during labour like I did with my DD. Thinking how unprepared I was then just makes me cringe. Good luck with whatever you decide. I will for the hundredth time recommend reading "stand and deliver" (I should buy some shares in the company who publishes it because I recommend it). It is a fun read and quite informative and not too stuffy

Only have 2 seconds to reply, but I did it, and it was ace! Would echo that it didn't go as planned entirely, but not in a bad way. The classes were invaluable; there was a fear release exercise towards the end which was a lifesaver and you need the time with a qualified teacher to take you through it. I only paid about £200 if I remember rightly. Will be starting again shortly as am 23 weeks pregnant! Go for it, and good luck!

Daniya I'm currently 29 weeks and we have anything from 25, right up to 39 weeks in the class. The more time you have to practice the technique, the more confident you will be, so theoretically, if you were the most nervous person in the world, you could attend as soon as you got the positive result!! It's cool that you're in Surrey, they have a course in Banstead in July, don't know how many weeks you are though! If not, there's the Waterloo classes, really close to the station. Get on the website or give them a call and save £200!! Good luck.

Daniya, Hypnobirthing is amazing. I did the course with Katharine Graves at the hypnobirthing centre (£295 www.thehypnobirthingcentre.co.uk/) and it was brilliant, worth every penny. I havent given birth yet but if nothing else it has dispelled all the fear I had of birth, and I have had a much more relaxed pregnancy since. We learnt a lot about the body, the mind, and general stuff about birth which was all useful. I am completely confident now about birth, thats not to say i expect it to be easy, but however it goes I know hypnobirthing will help me cope. My sis in law used it and had a pain free short labour. The hardest bit I have found is being surrounded by cynics on a daily basis who dont know anything about hypnobirthing and insist on harping on about how much its all gonna hurt, some get quite annoyed as though i'm enormously arrogant/niaive to think I might have a positive birth.. so you have to learn to ignore them.. Basically if you talk about pain every time you mention birth and expect it, thats what you'll get. My advice - if you cant afford a course at least read a book on it, get some dvd/cds etc, theres lots about. And I recommend getting into it a 2-3 months before youre due, you need time to practice the relaxation techniques.

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I've had two hypnobirthing babies and both have been wonderful. With ds1 I pretty much slept through most of labor and pushing (except for transition at which point I thought like I was going to die), but I don't really remember much. I know I pushed for 2 hours (or so I'm told), but I would go to "sleep" wake up to push, and go back under. I was only really concious for about the last 15 minutes or so.

Ds2 was faster, much more rushed as his heartrate was slowing down with every contraction, but it helped me stay calm and cool.

Like SOH said it isn't a "you will feel no pain" method, but it teaches you to work with your body, and shows you that if you just relax your body will do it's job much more efficiently.

jezebela I'm currently on Katherine's course in Waterloo and I agree that you have to ignore those who know NOTHING about the technique!
megglevache The wonderful thing about hypnobirthing is that your birth partner is integral to the process, he/she is there to go through the visualisations and focus you, should your concentration stray or your confidence slip.
I'm so glad that I've found this for the birth of my first baby as my mum learned something similar 40 years ago to birth my sister who was double breech (bum first!). She advised me to relax and let my body do the work.
Good luck to all.