Hypnobirthing

Underpinning hypnobirthing principles is the understanding that our bodies are designed to birth efficiently. However, negative thoughts and emotions, such as anxiety and fear can very powerfully interrupt that physiological process. So the best way to ensure you don’t allow those emotions to sabotage your labour experience is to be educated and prepared.

What is hypnobirthing and why does it makes sense for labour and birth?

Hypnobirthing is about optimizing our beliefs and ideas about labour and birth.

Hypnobirthing is not about promoting natural birth above all else. It is not about excluding medical pain relief. It is primarily about giving you information and practical techniques to help you to reduce any fears or anxiety, so that you approach your labour feeling confident, and as a result have a more positive birth experience.*

Hypnobirthing is a broad term and no two programs will be the same because each provider will have different training and experiences. Most courses combine education about what you can expect, and also different skills and techniques for how you can work best with your mind and body during labour, including; hypnosis, affirmations, guided visualisation and breathing techniques.

Hypnosis is perfect for women in pregnancy and labour because it is non-invasive, natural, simple and yet incredibly powerful. It can help you become mentally focused on being calm, reducing fear, and allowing your birthing hormones to work in synergy.

Hypnosis can significantly help you throughout pregnancy. The relaxed state, that is achieved in minutes, lowers stress hormones in your body which also positively impacts how you are feeling, and your baby gets the benefits too. Once the techniques are learned, they can be easily applied to any situation and all without a therapist being present. This is called 'self-hypnosis'.

Self-hypnosis is an important part of hypnobirthing preparation. It simply means listening to audio recordings to achieve a relaxed state, by yourself. Self-hypnosis for hypnobirthing is a mental rehearsal of how we want things to turn out. Helping to change your internal narrative into something positive means you are talking yourself into things going well. Every day we have internal self-talk, our thoughts. When something is scary or anxiety causing, our inner self talk is often negative. We are literally talking ourselves into having a horrible experience.

Listening repeatedly to positive suggestions and affirmations allows you to look forward with anticipation rather than dread. Many elite athletes use guided visualisations to prepare. They credit their performance on that positive mental rehearsal- seeing the perfect shot over and over, anticipating their calm and positive response to different scenarios.

*Research consistently shows that having quality antenatal education can reduce the length of labour, can reduce the women’s need for pain relief, and reduce the likelihood of intervention in labour.

Why should you choose A Focused Birth hypnobirth course?

At A Focused Birth I’ve developed the course in such a way that the group sessions have all the same content whether you choose to practise hypnobirthing or not. I’m passionate about ensuring all women have a broad understanding of all possibilities for birth, as none of us know how our experiences will unfold.

Whilst the emphasis is on knowledge and techniques to help facilitate a birth without intervention, understanding all the possibilities and options will help to empower your ability to make informed choices for yourselves.

If you decide to give hypnobirthing a go, it’s as simple as downloading the audio tracks and start listening. (You’ll get access to the audio’s when you book).

As a clinical hypnotherapist and a midwife, I have developed a course that fits in seamlessly with the hospital system, because 97% of births in Australia take place in a hospital.

The hypnobirthing program

At A Focused Birth the hypnobirthing program combines:

• A fully comprehensive antenatal education course which includes:
• How your body works, labour stages and the physical and chemical changes that take place, and importantly, how you can influence them
• Breathing techniques for being calm and for pain relief
• The importance of the language you use
• Active Birth principles, body posture and positions to facilitate easier birth
• Hypnosis recordings for; Pregnancy, Preparing for labour, for when in Labour. And, hypnosis recordings for Caesarean births; for positive caesarean preparation, and extreme relaxation during caesarean surgery
• Audio recordings of positive affirmations

And here’s what makes this course truly unique:

• Individual Hypnotherapy sessions
• When you choose to upgrade to a hypnobirthing package, either before or after attending any group education classes, each mother will have an individual hypnotherapy session. During this session we look at what issues are personally pertinent to you. It might be: To review a past birth experience. Concerns about coping with pain, or loss of dignity. Perhaps it is as simple as a needle phobia, or more complex, multiple anxieties
• Whatever is unique to you, it can be addressed at this early stage. The rapid change techniques used during the session can transform your anxious thoughts and fears, and influence your beliefs around your ability to confidently and calmly anticipate your baby’s birth with joy and excitement

How is this course truly flexible?

At A Focused Birth I’ve developed the course in such a way that if you are unsure about hypnobirthing or it’s benefits, you still have access to all the knowledge, practical skills, and tools to help you work with your body that you’d receive in a hypnobirthing program.

If at any point you decide to give hypnobirthing a go, it’s as simple as downloading the audio tracks.

There is a lot of misunderstanding about the term hypnobirthing, and some people are sceptical. I can reassure you that it’s all about having the information you need to inspire confidence in your abilities. The self- hypnosis tracks are skilfully reinforcing the message that you can feel relaxed in any situation. And you’ll come to understand early in the course how this ability is fundamental to your labour and birth experience.

Here are your 3 options:

• A comprehensive antenatal course alone
• The antenatal course with hypnobirthing recordings
• The antenatal course, and hypnobirthing recordings, and individual hypnotherapy sessions.

You don’t have to decide in advance - you can add on as you go

It is important that you realise ‘A Focused Birth’ Program is not about promoting natural, unassisted birth at all costs. The overall aim is to provide you with enough education and skills to know that you are psychologically prepared to begin this uncertain time in your life. Epidural anaesthesia and emergency caesareans are available for a reason, and should you find yourself needing either or both, then however your baby comes into the world, you will know that you did as much as you could to make it the birth you would have wished for. Being fully prepared for labour can significantly reduce later guilt.

Making the investment now is something you can feel good about today.