My Experience with Childbirth Hypnosis

I wanted a natural birth. Yes... A natural birth with my first child.

You can't even imagine how many looks of amusement, shock, and are-you-crazies I got.

You see... I hate medicine. I don't take it unless I absolutely need it... Which isn't too often. I honestly believe my body can heal itself (in most situations) and that it knows what to do. I feel like medicine leads to more medicine and that leads to even more medicine.

I looked into support groups and classes that would encourage a natural birth. And then I found birthing hypnosis. I chose Hypnobabies because it was the only childbirth hypnosis class in my area and my doula was familiar with the practice.

(I'll get into my doula search story later.)

So the next step was to talk to Baby Daddy about supporting me in this decision. We have plenty of friends that have given birth and some even experienced issues during birthing. Naturally, he was hesitant. He may have even thought I was crazy but he never said it (at least, not to my face). He was always very supportive of my birthing decisions even if he didn't have the same vision. BUT... He did express that he was nervous for me. When I said I wasn't... He seemed to have accepted it and just went with the flow of things.

Hypnobabies is a practice for childbirth hypnosis. (Get the image of someone standing in front of you with a wrist watch swinging back and forth out of your head... get that thought out now!) It is a self-hypnosis technique that allows a mother to remove any misconceptions or fear about childbirth. You are NEVER under the influence of someone else, so you won't give up your secrets or bank account information. Don't worry! You have total control over yourself and can snap out of the hypnotic state any time you feel the need.

I signed up for a 6 week course, 3 hours a week. I think I was maybe 27-28 weeks along when we started, because I wanted to make sure I had time to accept and practice Hypnobabies before Blake made his appearance. There were three lovely couples in my group and I'm so thankful we were with them through the final stages of my pregnancy! Anyway, we met once a week with a wonderful hypnotherapist. At first it seemed kind of sketchy because it was in her home and she played what I thought were silly scripts. But it turned out to be a wonderful experience because her home gave me a certain level of comfort... like I felt welcomed and relaxed. And the scripts...

Well, the scripts were cheesy. That's pretty much it. She would practice relaxation breathing with us and play background music and nature sounds. I couldn't really focus at first because I kept thinking if it was worth it (and how nuts BD thought it was), but I ended up just going with the flow. Hypnobabies also provides CDs to allow you to continue listening to the scripts at home and a workbook to practice birthing partner scripts. The workbook also gave us information on how our body is just absolutely amazing when it comes to growing a child and giving that baby all that he needs. It was actually pretty cool to see, you know... compared to watching videos on the baby websites and freaking out about how a baby comes out!

I listened to the scripts at home as directed and for the most part, BD helped me with the birthing partner scripts which were supposed to be rehearsed every other day. When he wasn't able to help me, I asked my cousin to record her voice reading the scripts... butttttttt... that didn't work out the way I planned. We couldn't stop giggling because every time she had to read "our baby" it was just weird!

As the weeks went on, still practicing scripts and attending the sessions with our hypnotherapist, I found that I was able to actually sleep through the night. My body and my thoughts were RELAXED! During my second trimester, I started to lose sleep and wake up every two hours. My body felt uncomfortable and my mind was racing with questions and thoughts about when AND HOW my son would be born. But Hypnobabies CHANGED THAT! I think there were maybe two times (during the time we were in Hypnobabies) that I had nervous feelings and started to break down but BD helped relax my thoughts with the birthing partner scripts. We had a few giggled over some of the lines, but overall, it (and he) was very helpful.

To be honest, paying for the childbirth classes with Hypnobabies was totally worth it just for SLEEP itself! SLEEP! MY HUGE PREGNANT @SS NEEDED SLEEP!!! I would complain to BD about my lack of sleep and get mad at him because he was able to sleep a full night... Man... But Hypnobabies finally helped me get my sleep back on track. I even started having a handful of nights where I was in such a deep sleep that I would drool! LOL!

It was such a great experience. All of our Hypnobabies classes were enjoyable because the wonderful mommies (and daddies)! Our hypnotherapist was just awesome! If you're interested in it, check out the Hypnobabies website at www.hypnobabies.com. If you're in Maryland, contact me or leave a comment and I'll share my hypnotherapist's contact information.

I'll save my experience during our birthing time for another day... so stay tuned!

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