Is it worth paying out £300 for hypnobirthing classes?

[EmmaPP]

have always been v. scared about the prospect of birth. 8 weeks pregnant with my 1st...managing to have positive mental attitude as far as possible, but that mainly means blocking out what will inevitably happen in 7 months time :-) Have read about hypnobirthing on the net...but it's £300...but i need all the help i can get to try! is it worth it? It seems to echo what the NCT dvd they send out says - that fear and panic actually block the natural hormones which let you have a safe and natural birth...ie fear can stop your cervix opening up etc...is it really helpful to have some hypnobirthing classes - can mind over matter really help? It's v. expensive for me...

emmapp - having paid out for course I'm not sure i would do it again - think books and cd plus maybe a session with hypnotherapist would have worked as well.

Sorry -maybe being a bit biased but I thought the teacher was really Poor - some of the birth theory stuff she was saying was down right dangerous (not the bit re relaxing and hypnosis)

and as fro helping ask me in july but definitely think the techniques helping me stay more relaxed and positive -thats got to be good.

that sounds really pricy. I used a CD before I gave birth. I don't think it actually hypnotised me for the event tho. I certainly didn't get to my "special place". I was worried too about hormones being blocked and being stressed and whatnot, so that's why I decided to go for a home birth which turned out pretty well for me. I'm not saying I loved every minute or anything but it only lasted 5 hours and I'm certain that wouldn't have been the case in hospital, plus I was in a birth pool for most of it.

I would say by the book (CD comes with it - I used 'Hypnobirthing, the Mongan method'). I did the course and no it wasn't worth it. On top of that, I would advise educating yourself on what actually happens during birth as that mroe than anything will help you to make sense of the sensations and events and should remove the fear completely . Also - you could read 'Childbirth without Fear'. When I'd finished that, I thought 'bring it on!'.

Stage 1 of labour is when the cervix dilates and FOR ME it felt like a stomach cramp that you would have if you had a bad stomach upset but without the desire to park yourself on the loo! The cramps get worse until a certain stage and then they stay the same but just get closer together. I was worried that they were going to continue getting worse and worse but they didn't (I didn't have any drugs by the way, so was very aware what was happening).

Stage 2 of labour is once the cervix is dilated and then the baby can be pushed out by the uterus. Remember that the uterus is a muscle like any other in your body, so this is why breathing is so important - you need to breathe while running, walking etc, so you also need to while the uterus is contracting. The uterus will push your baby out without you 'pushing' on top. The sensation is that you are pushing and can't stop it but it's not the same as pushing a big poo out - it happens whether you 'help' or not. Interestingly for me I found that if I did actively push (I tried to see what difference it made), I found that it changed everything and made it feel wrong. Practice just 'breathing poo out' when you go to the loo and not pushing or straining at all! FOR ME it felt like an intense wave coming up through me (similar to when you're about to be sick but it didn't feel like I was about to be!) and then as if I'd been winded in that I made involuntary pushing noises as my uterus contracting changed the pressure in my abdomen and between the two diaphragms. Really interesting actually. On top of that, it felt like my pelvis was splitting apart but not in a dangerous panicky way, just observational. Then as the head crowns, it feels very burny and stretchy and then the head is out and you are essentially 'done', worst bit over. Then usually the rest of the body comes out with the next contraction and feels like it is very slippery and a soap on a rope shooting out!. It's all manageable and just a journey to a magnificent prize!

It is a lot of money but I was so anxious about labour I scraped the money together. Try asking a hypnobirth teacher if they have some sort of concessionary rate or if you can pay in instalments... some of them have mentioned it when posting here.

I think it partly depends on what kind of a person you are and how good you are at consciously relaxing. Thinking positively is not the same as being able to take yourself into hypnosis if you have never done anything like it before. Constant practice is essential and you may need a hand with that. Our course was very good and gave us both a lot of confidence. It worked really well for us on the day and the practice kept me so calm throughout my pregnancy. I'm a bit evangelical about it all now... The book will educate you on the birth process and give a valuable "alternative" vision of birth and why is is now so medicalised.

Call me naive or insensitive but I can't really see why anyone would prepare to do it any other way... got to go to bed now... hope all goes well

Hi Emma. I did the course (but I did mine one to one with my DH and the instructor) and I think it has done wonders already. It is my second pregnancy and I had a lot of fears due to my first labour. It has helped me a great deal including given me the confidence to try for a HB which I never would have otherwise.

As for whether it works, like Poppy I am due at the end of june, so I won't know until them. I am sure it will help to a certain extent, whether it will be enough on its own, I do not know.

However this is a personal decision and what works for one might not for another. For me I thought it was worth spending the money to try and have a more positive birth experience and I don't think this is such a huge price to pay (especially considering how much money you spend on the little bubba once it is born!).

If you don't want to fork out so much money outright, perhaps try one of the natal hypnotherapy CD, see if it works for you. If it does, then a course would probably be worthwile

Thanks so much for all your advise (especially to thankyouandgoodnight - very useful to have a blow by blow account of what to expect), all really useful! I have decided to go ahead with the classes - need all the help i can get! So now, the question is, is "natal hypnotherapy" as good as "hypnobirthing"? the former has a deal on for £140 at the moment...whereas the latter is always around £300...so im tempted with the former, any views?

I think natal hypnotherapy mainly relies on CD whereas hypnobirthing has its own techniques that one need to practice over and over again. I have only done the hypnobirthing one so hard to say. You do go over a lot of things including physiological stages of labour, inductions etc.. it is a little like a childbirth education class the hypnobirthing way, you also practice the script, breathing techniques, visualisation. Not sure what the syllabus of the natal hypno is.

I think you get what you pay for. Hypnobirthing has a better reputation.