Just what on earth is hypnobirthing anyway?

As more and more people are hearing about, learning about, and using hypnobirthing (Sam Faiers from TOWIE and Giovanna Fletcher (Tom from McFly's wife) being the latest celebs to have raved about it!), we're taking a bit of a closer look at 'hypnobirthing' this month.

When I looked into hypnobirthing, what I largely heard was a way to be 'calm and relaxed' during labour and birth. Calm and relaxed? Sounded good to me. Usually our thoughts of birth turn to PAIN, suffering, horror stories as we see time after time on film and TV. But hypnobirthing techniques, teach us how to relax, trust our bodies and enable our babies to be born in the most peaceful and calm way possible. When I was pregnant with Imogen, it wasn't so well known. I'd heard about it, but didn't really know much. It wasn't until a friend of mine suggested it to me that it really came onto my radar. But a recommendation is usually a great way to encourage someone to look into it, so that's just what I did...and oh my goodness - it was just what I needed! I wanted to give my daughter the best experience of birth; my experience didn't come into my decision, but it made my experience so much better than I could have hoped.

Fundementally, in a nutshell, hypnobirthing teaches a variety of techniques to calm us down. The techniques are simply using our breath and the power of our minds, to chill out, relax, focus our mind elsewhere and distract our busy, busy brains from overthinking what's happnening within our bodies during labour. We trust our bodies. We've practised. We know how it feels to feel relaxed and calm when we're practising, an we learn how to focus on that sensation and feeling when we're labouring.

I'll dispell a couple of myths right here too: firstly - the state of 'trance' - no it's not some funky dance craze - it's the natural state of mind that we all go into on a daily basis. Ever daydreamed? Yep - trance. Driven home and wondered how you got there? Yep - trance. Trance is a natural mindset when our conscious mind - the bit that's thinking, thinking, thinking, all the time; making lists, making decisions, making choices - switches off for a bit. It has a rest, and our subconsious mind takes over the controls for a bit, letting our mind wonder and work on autopilot. When you've practised your hypnobrthing techniques, it's this subconsious knowledge and learnign that takes over and enables you to approach your birth calmly, and achieve a restful and relaxed approach to labour and birth! Simple, eh?!

Secondly - 'hypnobirthing' - it's not 'hypnosis' like you see on the telly - there's no Darren Brown type mind control and brainwashing happening here. When you come along to a hypnobirthing class, you're agreeing to 'allow' yourself to learn and try something new - in effect, you're making a 'contract' with your instructor to teach you something new; your mind is open to it, and hence, you can learn to natually take yourself into that state of trance, because you choose to. Noone can make you do anything that you wouldn't choose to do when fully conscious.

Finally - you can't get stuck in hypnosis - it's no different to being asleep; and if you're reading this, then you woke up this morning, and you will reawaken from hypnosis - but you should just about get a nice relaxing brain-rest!

At the end of the day, each contraction (or surge as we call them) is at most, one minute (ish) in length; but there's other times when our bodies are at rest. We learn to appreciate that time, let each surge come and go, and look forward - each surge brings our baby closer.

There's more to it, obviously, but we also feel empowered an calm about the prospect of labour, because we've learnt about the birth process and trust our female bodies (which, let's face it, were created to birth!), to do what they were built to do. We embrace labour and birth; not fear it.

With The Wise Hippo, you learn more than just hypnobirthing techniques, by the way; it's a complete antenatal programme. It supports our clients to learn about how they can take charge of their thoughts, prepare physically, emotionally and practically for their labour and birth too; and they appreciate how to achieve the right birth on the day.

If you'd like to know more, check our our hypnobrthing antenatal workshop on 13 March, at Mothercare, 1-3pm. contactus@birthwight.co.uk to book.