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.
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.
At A Focused Birth I’ve developed the course in such a way that 4 week 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 after the completion of the course you decide to give hypnobirthing a go, it’s as simple as upgrading and downloading the audio tracks.
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.
At A Focused Birth the hypnobirthing program combines:
And here’s what makes this course truly unique:
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, skills and tools to help you work with your body that you’d receive in a hypnobirthing program, but without the hypnosis recordings. If after the completion of the course you decide to give hypnobirthing a go, it’s as simple as upgrading and downloading the audio tracks.
Here are your 3 options:
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.
Do you want to feel excited about your baby's birth?
Do you need to reduce your anxiety instantly?
Would you love to have a more restful night's sleep?
I'll send you a free Pregnancy Hypnobirthing audio track - Take that first step to enjoying your pregnancy more, and begin looking forward to a calmer, more positive birth.
I have over 20 years experience as a midwife in the UK and Australia, working in both private and public hospitals. I have helped thousands of women in every scenario, from homebirths and water-births, births with complex issues, intervention, and caesarean births.
I currently work in a busy Melbourne Hospital, and am passionate about supporting women and families be as relaxed and confident as they can be whatever the circumstances. I divide my time as a midwife between the Birth Centre and the Child Birth Education Team. This means I am upto date with current research, policies and procedures when it comes to all things birth related.
In addition, I am a government accredited Clinical Hypnotherapist, with an Honours degree in Psychology. In my private practice I specialise in treating anxiety, trauma, fertility issues, pain management and phobias, as well as hypnobirthing techniques.
Bringing together these sets of skills, knowledge, and experience I can guide and prepare you to have the positive birth experience that you desire.
Next course starting 24 April 2021