Hypnobirthing in practice: how helpful was it during labour?

[TheWildZebra]

Hypnobirthing - what’s your experience?

I’m 6.5 months and have just finished reading Siobhan Millers hypnobirthing book. It makes it all sound so easy, like we have so much control over our bodies in birth. I want to believe it, it certainly creates a great sense of security and agency over a process that is literally the most unpredictable thing ever.

But how much of it is ideology?

now that I’m showing, I feel like I have someone - colleagues and even near strangers- come up to me on an almost daily basis to tell me their birth horror stories. Surely if hypnobirthing was something everyone practices (and I don’t think it’s mega niche given it’s including in antenatal classes etc) then you’d hear less about these experiences.

I’d like to hear from those who went into birth wanting to rely on hypnobirthing, and otherwise were meant to have very low risk pregnancies/ births. How did it work for you?

It made things worse for me with my first birth which had complications as I felt I'd failed by not breathing enough or going with my body enough.

I used it again with my second where I had a home water birth and it was amazing.

I'd advise taking it with a pinch of salt and using it when you can but not relying on it to get you through.

I did a hypnobirthing course with my first, then had an induction with classic cascade of interventions - drip, epidural, forceps, episiotomy. There was absolutely no hypnobirthing present in the room, I was in too much pain.

Afterwards, I felt like I'd been sold a bit of a dream, that was supposed to empower me but when my body didn't react the way I wanted, I just felt like a failure.

Second birth was spontaneous labour, gas and air water birth. I didn't refresh my memory of hypnobirthing but did deep breathing and managed fine. I didn't worry about my contractions actually being surges or whatever. At one point my body took over and baby was pushed out. I did not feel the need for positive affirmations, fairylights etc. I did have a great playlist on.

If I had my time again I probably would still look into it, but I think having your eyes open about what can change quickly in labour, not having yourself wedded to a particular plan, path or outcome, but being flexible, knowing your options and focusing on getting baby out safely over any particular experience for yourself will stand you in better stead.

I did the natal hypnotherapy book (Maggie Howell) and course and found it amazing. Only downside was the midwife didn’t believe I was 10cm as apparently I didn’t look in enough pain!

I had gas and air. And yes, of course it hurt, but I felt in control and didn’t panic. I recommend it to everyone.

You have to put the work and hours in though - so many people give it a listen to once or twice and expect it to work. I did it every single day (mostly) and then when it came to the labour the practices came naturally to me when I listened to it.

And if someone starts telling you their birth horror story tell them firmly that you don’t want to know. It’s of no benefit to you and is actually a really cunty thing to do.

Worked fantastically with my first but I was lucky that baby was in perfect position and I was able to labor in the bath until I hit transition, and it was only 4 hours from first contraction to baby arriving.
I didn’t call them “surges” but instead challenged myself to relax into the contractions instead of wincing against them if you see what I mean.

I was also absolutely certain that if my pain turned into suffering I would get the drugs but I was lucky that it never did.
Hypnobirthing helped me feel calmer about the labor and what my body could do.

I nearly lost my second at 30 weeks so when we made it to 38 weeks, I had an epidural in case we needed to go to theatre. That being said, I didn’t have the time nor the inclination to study any hypnobirthing routines or visualization for my second, what with the toddler running around!

Thanks guys - so it’s about 50/50 so far. Key takeaways are it’s useful to have in your armoury, but don’t be wedded to it or let it identify having a “good” or “bad” birth.

To me it was a total waste of time and money. The only thing that was positive was I wasn’t scared to go into labour. However, after an induction, days in labour, an epidural due to back to back contractions, 3 hours of pushing and an episiotomy…I realised no amount of breathing, nice lighting and positivity was going to get me the birth I had envisioned. It was a shit show and everything went out of the window when faced with the reality of the unpredictability of first time birth,

I did Siobhan Millers online course, so the same content but videos, and found it extremely helpful. I really didn’t want a epidural if I could help it (my sister had an epidural fail and had nothing else in the bank to cope) and I think the hypnobirthing really helped me feel calm during a 32 hour labour where I ended up stuck at 6cm for 12 hours, baby in wrong position, almost went for section etc, keeping calm and breathing (and TENs machine and then gas and air for last 8 hours or so) and did have him vaginally in the end.

I honestly didn’t find labour as painful as others seem to and had no concerns about doing it again despite it being a bit of a marathon that didn’t go ‘exactly right’, and I very much think that was down to the hypnobirthing. But also definitely TENS machine which was great for me

It helped calm me in the lead up to birth, it helped me make peace with what was going to happen to my body. But I also was classified as High Risk for new and previously undiagnosed reasons, so knew I was only going to be on a labour ward under strict conditions for a potential C Section.

I suddenly felt very outside of all the candles and breathing and surges. But the meditations were nice.

In birth, it all went out the fucking window and I was hallucinating that I was in an episode of The Simpsons on the gas and air.

But it was also, all totally fine in the end.

It's too painful to be thinking about anything. It all goes out the window in the moment. That was my experience anyway.

That said, I had great birthing experiences so not using hypnobirthing doesn't automatically mean a horror birth story.

I don't think it's hit her birthing, but I did a very simple breathing technique through all three of my labours, and on the last two didn't even have gas and air, tthough did use a tens. I am a bit of a wuss so it was a surprise that I managed.
The technique I used was really simple full stop basically normally contractions, last around sixty seconds. Peaking at thirty.
I counted to ten 3 times, using my fingers to remember, I had done one round of ten, then two rounds of ten. At thirty I knew it was going to get easier. As time went on, I realised that by 15 it was half way through before it was going to get easier.

Really worked for me.

Thinking logically, if there was some magic bullet to childbirth which was free, could be done anywhere, and didn't need specialist equipment (ie hypnobirthing), why is maternal mortality still so high in many countries? For that matter why isn't it formally part of NHS birth planning rather than an additional nice to have. Whale noises and breathing exercises are a lot cheaper than epidurals...

If it makes someone feel in more control, and better able to deal with childbirth, brilliant. But there are clearly limits to what it can do.

I didn't labour because I had planned sections, but I use music and breathing exercises to help with my period pain. They don't take it away but they make it much more manageable. So I can see how on a much more significant scale it could be useful. It's not as effective as the drugs though 😜

Not at all, alas, and I'd taken one-to-one classes (well, with DH) with a well-regarded midwife practitioner, read the books and practiced seriously literally daily with DH for months. I couldn't have taken it any more seriously, or been better prepared, but it was a complete waste of time and money.

When I got home from the hospital after my labour I threw the hypnobirthing book at the wall. The noise it made was cathartic and then I tore the covers off. it made me feel a bit better .
I’d have contemplated using the pages for toilet paper apart from the state of my undercarriage
Hope this helps

I did it wiry my second, helped immensely. I would highly recommend it.
The breathing techniques I still use now ( health issues).

Not helpful. If I recall correctly ‘fuck my safe space’ may have been said through gritted teeth when encouraged by my husband to remember it mid contraction.

Joking aside, there is a big focus on avoiding induction and intervention to bring on labour but what they don’t tell you is that if you do that and go much past your due date you’re then monitored by every machine in the building and become restricted by machines and cables. Not ideal for moving into position to help with labour.

I still love the idea of it and the recordings I listened to in pregnancy were relaxing but I honestly believe that the people it works for would have had easy labours anyway. In my experience the contractions were so all consuming I could not have focused on anything but getting through them.

And I also had one to one training, practiced nightly etc. etc.

I found it useful as some have said in the lead up, I read the siobhan miller book and it helped me understand the stages of labour and what interventions could happen etc.
I definitely felt more calm and ready going into the birth after reading the book.
I wanted a water birth at a birthing centre which didn't happen in the end but I do think that the hypnobirthing was useful as it helped me manage the pain for a long time. I didn't feel like a failure myself when my birth didn't go as hoped, but I don't think the hypnobirthing book made me feel like I would be a failure if I didn't have a specific type of birth.
I found the breathing the most helpful aspect in the moment, focusing on breathing really helped keep me calm through both births.
First baby was back to back, laboured 65 hours total, epidural at 60 hours after transfer to hospital. Not the water birth I'd hoped for.
Second baby was zero pain relief, 7 hour labour total. Too fast for the water birth I'd hoped for lol
Focusing on the breathing made everything else kind of fade away a bit, I was very calm.

Tbh my advice would just be try and get as much rest as possible in the lead up, you don’t get points for not taking painkillers - your average Neanderthal would have probably swapped the father of their child for a tramadol peaceful cave or no - keep hydrated during labour, and if you start vomiting during labour ask for an intramuscular emetic (oral is useless as you’ll throw it back up)
Good luck!

I have had 3 children and labour was all so so so different for each one of it. I think the most important thing about labour is that you need to go with the flow (difficult if you are a planner like me), listen to medical advise and not have an idealised version of what labour is going to be like. It’s so different for everyone. And the goal is to bring your baby safely - no matter how it happens - that’s fine you haven’t failed if it’s different than you imagined it.

People can be insensitive - I’m not sure why people feel need to share their horror stories (probably a trauma response 😁) but remember their stories is not yours.

I do think learning the breath techniques can be helpful to the extent you’re not completely overwhelmed by the pain. People have very different pain thresholds.

@MaryIngallsRibbons - “fuck my safe space” made me laugh and can totally imagine it happening to many of us woman 😂

The relaxation techniques are absolutely sound. They can help you stay calm and get through the experience of birth. It's true that the calmer you are, the better chance you have of supporting things to go as smoothly as they can.

OTOH - the idea that if you can calm your body enough that birth will go smoothly and nothing can possibly go wrong is a lie, and it can be really damaging.

I actually think the most helpful things to me (I gave birth 3x) were understanding the physiology of birth ie knowing roughly what was happening when and what the "job" of each stage of labour was, some relaxation techniques, though I preferred the more active strategies from "Birth Skills" by Juju Sundin - and the acronym BRAIN which you can use to ask questions about any kind of suggested intervention.

Benefits - what are they?
Risks - what are they? What does it mean for me/baby? What would you do if that happened?
Alternatives - Are there any? Why suggest this first?
Instinct (but I replaced this personally with Immediate - do we need to decide right now?)
Nothing - What happens if we do nothing (I love this question, it has so often been the most valuable).

I have actually used it since on all kinds of medical decisions.

The thing to remember about interventions in childbirth, especially in the UK, is that they do not just suggest these things for fun or profit. Generally if they are at a point of considering an intervention, you're no longer at a point where you're choosing between "miraculous, perfect natural birth" vs "highly medicalised induction", you're more likely to be somewhere like "starting to have a worryingly high risk your placenta is failing" vs "we could get the baby out ASAP, and because we're intervening in the natural process, we're going to keep a closer eye and you might need more pain relief". Although equally, there are induction methods which are still fairly hands off and once labour is started they can leave you to it and your body frequently will take over, so induction is not at all a guaranteed "cascade of interventions" thing.

Sometimes there is a bit of wiggle room or they are being risk averse, which is where the BRAIN thing comes in if there is time to discuss.

I found it helpful to understand what was happening to my body so it took away some of the fear of birth when I first went into labour.
However, my first birth ended up not going as I had hoped and hypnobirthing was useless. Was in far too much pain and panic. Then after birth I felt like I had failed, so mentally it really didn’t help me at all.
With my second birth I didn’t bother re learning anything. But the birth was a lot better and quicker and I did remember to try to breathe deeply etc and it helped.
I would say that if you are able to have a lovely calm pool birth for example then hypnobirthing can be fab. Just don’t let it make you feel bad if it doesn’t go well.

If your birth is going to be straightforward and easy, yes. If not, no. And the same woman can have one easy birth, and one really bad one.
It's like saying will exercising help you be healthy in later life, obviously it works for some people, but others do everything right, but still get a severe illness/injury and have a worse old age than their mate who spent their life scoffing junk watching TV, as in you don't only get what you give.

Worked amazing for me- 3 natural births with a tens machine and gas and air for pushing. With my first i went to hospital wearing dark glasses and had DH do all talking- no chit chat. Felt like a complete knob but wanted to keep myself in the zone and not start feeling self conscious. I had a small panic attack when I got stuck mid contraction on a really tall chair but the breathing really helped.

I had a workshop with a lady who was very science based- talked us through all the biology and how it worked. She used to be a city trader and was excellent.

You do have to do it during labour though, I think some people think you can do a course and have an amazing birth without doing any work.

Alot of interventions in the UK are prevention rather than necessity- once you go to baby classes you learn how many woman had hospital staff trying to persuade them they'd not manage a normal birth when they actually went on to do just that. Induction rates are insanely high nowadays

It is a cunty thing to do.

I didn’t do it as I had planned c sections but of my NCT group, two did it and later thought it was a total waste of time and put more pressure on them when things didn’t go to plan. One had a traumatic birth with a series of interventions and one had induction followed by emergency section. You absolutely can’t plan the type of birth you’ll have so I guess it’s a case of do it if you want to but don’t plan to rely on it. I do personally think it’s a money making grab and a load of nonsense but that’s just my opinion and I’m not the target market given I would never consider a home birth, unmedicated labour and so on, others no doubt find it helpful.