Giving birth to your baby will, or has been one of the most exhilarating, meaningful moments of your life; unfortunately, when the word “labor” is used in relation to giving birth it brings about another word: “pain.”
Hypnobabies courses teach methods of hypnobirthing, which are used to not only redefine the experience of labor from, what is often referred to as a negative, painful experience, to one that is positive and pain free. It was developed from the work of Grantly Dick-Read, MD, the English obstetrician who wrote Childbirth Without Fear in 1944.
Hypnobabies courses focuses on self-hypnosis and teaches you how to administer hypno-anesthesia on yourself. Using techniques taught in Hypnobirthing classes also often leads to a much faster labor, and easier birth.
Dr. Dick-Read contended that the use of hypnosis helps mitigate “Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome”, a term he coined, which he believed an expectant mother’s thoughts and understanding that labor was a painful and negative experience actually activated the body to divert essential blood flow to regions of the body that only made it so.
Hypnobabies courses focuses on self-hypnosis and teaches you how to administer hypno-anesthesia on yourself. Using techniques taught in Hypnobirthing classes also often leads to a much faster labor, and easier birth.
Hypnobabies courses will provide you a sense of empowerment. Many new mamas, or mamas to be often tell us that because they didn’t have enough knowledge about the process of labor, they felt like they weren’t empowered. And just followed the things they were provided as options without knowing what they were or how they would affect them, and their baby, like having an epidural. Expectant mothers who have completed a Hypnobirthing course state they went into labor with a palpable confidence in their ability and their birthing plan.
When talking about hypnobirthing, it is hard not to associate its prospect with a swinging gem necklace acting as a pendulum, and a magician-like showman; but before you pass it off as some “new age mumbo jumbo” technique, it is a method that research suggests might be more effective than other interventions at reducing labor pain.
In a 2015 clinical trial involving 680 women, researchers found that those who self-hypnotized felt less afraid and anxious during labor than they’d expected to. Most also later reported having had positive experiences, saying that hypnosis helped them feel calm, confident and empowered before and during their births.
Hypnobirthing doesn’t guarantee a pain-free birth, but by completing the course and applying the methods during labor, you can be assured that your labor will be noticeably gentler, more comfortable and you will feel more under control. With that being said, there are thousands of mothers who have reported having completely pain free births by applying what they learned in a Hypnobabies birthing class.
We offer Hypnobabies courses here at South Coast midwifery. Mamas that have taken the course here have told us how important the techniques were in making their labor less stressful, less painful, faster and more comfortable.
Take a look at our course calendar to find when our next course starts.
