Hypnobirthing/breathing techniques in labour

[foresttreewoods]

Looking for experience, advice & tips for those who have used hypnobirthing/breathing techniques in labour?

-Did it work for you?
-How did you prepare?
-Any books/videos that you would recommend?

Feel free to give the good/bad honest experiences

I did a hypnobirthing course. It was really helpful in labour. I gave birth with just paracetamol

Worked really well. To the point that the midwife wasn't in the room when my baby's head came out as she thought I was nowhere near.

I also did a hynobirthing online course, but if you do any vigorous exercise the breathing pattern is similar for when you're exerting but keeping going. I did in for four and out for four - think my course said out for eight but that was too long for me.

I did and it was so helpful. Managed at home with just paracetamol until I arrived at hospital and had gas and air during the pushing stage. I used Positive Birth Company's online course.

Also feel the science element was really helpful in reassuring me that what I was experiencing was normal and the means to an end :-)

Agree, the science element was very helpful to me. We booked a 1:1 Hypno birthing course. That worked well for me.
It really helped

The breathing techniques kept me calm, it wasn't pain free, but I felt able to manage it, used the Maggie Howell natal hypnotherapy cd (transferred onto my phone) and the book, found it really helpful for DD1 and had a good experience. With DD2 I was induced and found it didn't help at all that time

I should add - don't get too carried away with it. It's fine to use pain control as well. It's fine if you can't deliver vaginally and need a c section or induction or similar. Birth can be hard, and what is most important is making sure you and baby are safe

Extremely useful. Midwives were surprised I was 7 cm dilated when I first went to hospital as they didn't think I could be this calm (neither did I!), and it was all because of the breathing learnt from hypnobirthing. I found the Freya app from the positive birth company very useful to keep me focused on the breathing.

Following this as also planning to use hypnobirthing!

It's really helpful to understand what is happening and have tools to help keep yourself calm (as your state of mind definitely impacts how your body feels and behaves). For most people though, birth still hurts and is still hard work! Having had an epidural and forceps and 2 natural births, I'd choose a day or two hard work over weeks and weeks recovery any day though.

I read two really excellent books which helped me have two very straightforward home births.

Juju Sundin - Birth Skills
Ina Mae Gaskin - Guide to childbirth

(I also got a hypnobirthing CD/book by Marie Mongan which was also a bit wanky but if you like clingy clangy pipey music might be right up your street.)

They both had bits in it that I thought were nonsense but also some really practical tips for getting through the contractions/'waves' -
Marching on the spot, Visualization, and window breathing were my absolute saviours.

(For my first birth the MW came out twice to check on me but I progressed from only being 2cm at 8pm to the baby being born at just after midnight - MW hadn't believed I was about to give birth and so only made it with 8 minutes to spare!)

These things I took from the books I read just helped me cope, be realistic, visualize what was happening and ride each wave.
I don't really remember the first one being very painful (although she's 10 now so...)

Good luck! It's absolutely possible to have very 'easy' births 🙏

i did a course with a local lady with other couples but also got the Marie Mongan affirmations cd and the rainbow relaxation one (never fully listened tobit, always felt asleep at some point). i did the affirmations every single day and still remember them with fondness and a sense of calm

i always say i didn’t use the breathing techniques during labour because i was so relaxed that i didn’t need to.

had a natural birth at home

i honestly remember my labour as such a happy experience.

Effective Birth Preparation by Maggie Howell.

Ignore the stupid chapter about how birth was so much better before modern medicine (the death in childbirth rates would beg to differ)

The bits about knowing what your body is doing in labour and welcoming /accepting it rather than fighting it are very helpful. I didn’t use visualisations but did use counting and pacing.

Like pps I got very far along before anyone believed I was in labour (downside to effective hypnobirthing…) and had minimal pain relief.

NB: if I’d had a fast induction or a back to back baby I don’t think the hypnobirthing would have been enough, those are much more painful, so have a back up plan

Worked for me.

However! I'd suggest using the techniques to prepare for both a vaginal birth and for if things don't go to plan. The breathing/visualisation techniques are intended to keep you calmer, regardless of other things going on. I think i used an app called gentle birth.

Totally useless with my first. Wish I had been more prepared with a plan B for when it all went wrong. Unfortunately I'd fallen hook, line and sinker for the full hypnobirthing narrative and blamed myself for then needing all the interventions.

DC2 I then breathed out very quickly. Totally different birth, totally different experience, no pain relief. Used the hypnobirthing techniques that hadn't "worked" first time but honestly think it was just sheer luck of the draw.

I didn't do a hypnobirthing course but from speaking with friends that did I used hypnobirthing through my labour. I gave birth in a pool having had 2 co codamol at the start of labour and a little bit of gas and air at the end.

For me I used techniques that help when I'm anxious. I imagine myself in a boat in the ocean and my breathing controls the waves so I have to do calm breathing to keep the ocean calm.

It almost backfired and I came close to delivering at home! I went from 2-10 cm in an hour and a half and the first midwife I spoke to about coming back in was dismissive as I had only been home and hour. Thankfully the midwife running the mlu was there and said there was space for me even if I wasn't in active labour. She did both my exams and said she wouldn't have believed it she hadn't. Baby was born within half an hour of arriving at hospital and i realised I had been starting to getting the urge to push at home. I would have waited but my partner was insistent I called back as he twigged I might be further along that I thought!

My advice would be to think about what techniques you turn too for stressful periods. If you are a relaxation person look into that. If you are a dance if out person look into that and so on.
Have a read about the signs for different stages of labour. The give away for my partner was me getting stressed about not managing to have a poo and we had been told on our NCT course that this can be sign you are almost ready to give birth