Over the last few months the team have shared various labour stories and although straightforward all used traditional pain management. We have heard a lot about hypnobirthing and it is something we are really interested in. Non of the team have got direct experience of the technique so when The Portland hospital got in touch with details on hypnobirthing we were really excited to share it with you.
There are many ways to manage pain, stress and anxiety during childbirth. If you’re determined to do everything you can to enjoy a natural labour, you might want to consider the advantages of hypnobirthing. It is also very useful during pregnancy if the woman is very anxious about her birth even if it is planned c section or they will use epidural. Not only for those who are determined but for women who want a positive and safe birth.
What is hypnobirthing?
Hypnobirthing is a relatively new form of self-hypnosis that helps with relaxation and pain management during childbirth.
It is a simple technique taught at any time in pregnancy and with practise it is a skill easily used during labour. It involves both physical and mental relaxation without the use of medication. Hypnobirthing is particularly beneficial because it helps mums-to-be to take long and deep breaths – aiding pain and stress management. This natural technique involves visualisation and deep meditation.
Hypnobirthing classes involve various breathing and relaxation methods, but they are always geared to the needs of the individual. Although there are some key techniques used, they can be modified and enhanced based on your specific needs.
While hypnobirthing is suitable for most women, it works best if you enter into it with an open mind. Particularly if you’re keen to have a natural birth without painkillers or an epidural, this way of staying in control of your anxiety, your emotions and your pain could be ideal.
One of the main reasons expectant mums choose hypnobirthing is because it can result in a shorter labour. There is also evidence to suggest that this natural method of pain and stress management during childbirth can result in better obstetric outcomes and higher neonatal Apgar scores.
(Apgar scores are results based on initial assessments of a newborn – based on pulse, skin colour, movement, grimace and respirations).
Read Linsey’s story
If you’re still having doubts about the effectiveness of hypnobirthing, read Linsey’s story. She is a busy professional who wanted to explore various natural birthing methods. She was given some literature about the various options available at The Portland Hospital, and hypnobirthing immediately caught her eye.
Linsey started attending hypnobirthing classes at The Portland with her husband Adam – and they both started to feel more relaxed. Indeed, Adam revealed that he was feeling a lot calmer and less stressed at work because he was using the relaxation techniques he’d learned.
Linsey gave birth to her baby in a birthing pool. Instead of relying on medication for pain relief, she used the breathing and visualisation techniques that were taught at her hypnobirthing classes. At one stage during her labour, Linsey was able to focus her mind to such an extent that the words of her husband and her midwife barely registered. To this day she remains proud of giving birth without any form of prescribed pain relief.
Can hypnobirthing work for you?
It will always make a difference, if you are confident you want to learn theses skills and self-assured that you can concentrate and control your thoughts during the rigours of childbirth, there is an excellent chance that hypnobirthing will enhance your experience. The deep relaxation techniques you will learn will help to take away the fear of childbirth. If you have an open mind, the visualisation techniques you’ll be taught will help you to control pain, regulate your breathing and minimise your anxiety levels.
A number of studies have highlighted the benefits of hypnobirthing. The relaxation techniques involved make easier labours more likely. The women in these studies who used birth hypnosis bled less, and they were less likely to need their labour augmented. In short, being relaxed during labour is good for you and your baby – which is why an increasing number of mums-to-be in the UK are choosing hypnobirthing.
Although many women start hypnobirthing classes at around 30 weeks, the techniques taught can help you to control pain and stress for the rest of your life. So if you want to make the most of the childbirth experience by avoiding medication, hypnobirthing could be your best and can be taught to compliment other pre-birth classes.
We would be really interested to hear your experiences of hypnobirthing. Did you use this technique or are you planning to for your new arrival?
Image by Divine Day Photography
This post is brought to you by The Portland Hospital – the only private hospital in the UK dedicated exclusively to the care of women and children. For more information, please visit – www.theportlandhospital.com
I have done a Hypnobirthing course, though am yet to give birth so can’t comment on the effectiveness fully just yet! However I have to say I feel a lot more confident and positive about giving birth now. Previously I was sure I was going to immediately have an epidural and that, as with other family members, I might end up having an emergency c section. However, having done the course I just feel I’ve now got some other tools to give a try before I start considering other, more traditional forms of pain relief, and that hopefully that might move my labour along quicker.
I would say I was very sceptical about Hypnobirthing prior to the course, and feared it would be very happy clappy, holding hands in a circle type thing, which is so not me! Our course was taught by practising midwives and the medical reasoning (that the more relaxed you are, the more oxytocin you will produce which is what you need for labour to progress) was always the underlying message, which helped me relate much more to what I was being taught.
At the moment I would definitely recommend Hypnobirthing for anyone who is feeling anxious about labour, but as I say, I’ll have to report back in a month or so as to how well it works in practice!
I think having a positive view of labour is a definite plus so I’d say it is worth it for this alone. Please do pop back and let us know how you get on Laura. xx
I’m planning on using hypnobirthing, but I’m sticking to YouTube videos and books. All the courses in my area are roughly £250 which is a lot of money, especially after paying out for baby items and an NCT course too. Really liking the principals of it and the tracks that can be found on Apple Music really help me sleep at night.
There is an online course called The Calm Birth School which is only 97. Seems very good.
Hypnobirthing is something I’m exploring at the moment. Reading the labour stories on RMF, talking to friends and family about their labour experiences m, and the thing they all seem to have in common is that labour can take many twists and turns, rarely goes to ‘plan’, each woman’s story is different and even each labour of the same woman is different. My interest in hypnobirthing was really to try and learn techniques to stay positive and calm in the face of the unknown, to feel ‘I can do this’ what ever my labour ends up being. I have just bought a book to do a bit more research. The lady I bought it from said she ended up having an emergency c section but that the techniques she learned really helped her stay positive and relaxed during her experience. I’ll certainly be very interested hearing others experience of hypnobirthing x
This is such a great way of looking at it Sophie. As you said, you never know what will happen but I definitely think keeping calm and positive is key what ever labour throws at you x
I didn’t do a hypnobirthing course but read a book called ‘Mindfull Birthing’ by Nancy Bardacke and followed the mediation exercises in it. I did have gas and air as well but the techniques really kept me calm for a very long time (I was induced at 35weeks). Hopefully if we have another ill get to practice a bit more and apply the techniques a bit better!
It reall helped keep me calm and focus on the ‘now’ rather than what was coming up or might happen.
I cannot recommend hypnobirthing enough! I was petrified of labour prior to the course due to having a very low pain threshold. My little boy was 10lb 3oz and back to back – but delivered with no medication or intervention. He had high Apgar scores and came into the world very relaxed.
Hypnobirthing worked for me and I actually enjoyed the labour. It wasn’t that the process didn’t hurt it just allowed me to stay in control so it was manageable.
Wow. Super mum Laura. No medication at all. It obviously worked for you which is fabulous and great to hear of a positive birth experience x
I have just finished my hypno birthing course and I thought it was wonderful – although yet to put it into practice. It’s a lot more scentific than the name suggests and really teaches you the pros of staying relaxed – oxytocin and endorphins are released which aid your body and cervix to relax vs when your nervous and scared you release adrenaline – this puts you into fight or flight mode and blood is sent to your arms and legs – away from your cervix and in turn causing your cervix to tense up making everything much harder. It’s a way of fine tuning your sub conscious not to be scared by labour (like film and tv would have you believe) but to embrace it and understand that your baby and body know what to and the more you can relax into it the easier for both you and your baby it will be. I would absolutely recommend every mum to he goes on a course, finds something online or speaks to someone who has done it. I’m now excited about my labour not terrified.
Hypnobirthing was recommended to me by a colleague after I confided in her my fears about labour and birth. I cannot explain why, and it sounds silly saying the words now, but I was terrified that I was going to die giving birth. I was so anxious that something was going to happen to me or that the baby would become distressed that I decided to cough up the £300 and spend 2 Saturday’s doing the course.
Amazing. The confidence those 2 days gave me were absolutely priceless – my husband also couldn’t get over the change in me and admitted he had found the sessions beneficial too.
We listened to the various visualisation exercises and relaxation instrumental pieces of music every night before bed. They were also playing throughout my 32-hour labour!
I used the breathing techniques and general relaxed attitude to get me through 29 hours of contractions – I had one dose of codeine and two doses of paracetamol in that time, as well as some peppermint oil that a midwife gave me on a stick (I had to sniff it to help overcome the waves of nausea I was experiencing).
I did end up using gas and air in the birthing pool but to be honest the light-headed feeling it gave me was interrupting my flow of the breathing techniques so I didn’t use very much.
My birth was as natural as I could manage – a little medication and pain relief but mostly the overall relaxed attitude is the most important lesson that Hypnobirthing taught me: we spritzed frankinscence spray around the birthing pool room as that aids relaxation and breathing. We had dimmed lighting with LED tealights all over the place and the calm music playing in the background. The midwives joked that we had turned the room into a spa! All of this helped me relax and even when things weren’t progressing quickly I didn’t panic.
Isabel was born in the water and came out very alert with her eyes open, yet calm as she wasn’t crying.
I couldn’t recommend Hypnobirthing enough either for those seeking as natural a birth as possible or those suffering from anxious thoughts or feelings to do with their birth.
I loved my labour and birth of my boy I loved the whole pregnancy too. I did hypnobirthing techniques which let me stay 7 hours at home in labour and gave birth with a little help from our friend gas and air! The entire experience was so wonderful I was instantly saying when can I do this again. Mad a know but I still can’t wait to give birth again.
I highly recommend it but you do need to be invested in keeping an open mind and trust your body and instincts.
Jill, you are definitely mad!! But so happy to hear from someone who enjoyed labour. x
During my pregnancy my husband and I took a Hypnobirthing course as my friend recommended Hypnobirthing and positive birth stories. Although I didn’t have a birth plan in mind I knew I wanted it to be calm and to be in control. The course itself gave us lots of useful material focusing on breathing techniques, visualisations and relaxation. I have to admit after the course (at about 33 weeks) I didn’t do as much practice as I should have but when my surges (the Hypnobirthing word for contractions started) I was calm and relaxed.
For a first time labour I think it went relatively quick due to me concentrating on my breathing and basically using the visualisations with my breaths to take my mind of any pain there was. We stayed at home until my contractions were three minutes apart, then transfered to hospital. I was able to get through the labour using the tens machine (best invention ever!) gas and air and tried the birthing pool towards the end which all helped to get me fully dilated. We had some complications towards the end as my little girl didn’t want to come out, and I needed up delivering via ventouse. However throughout the whole process I felt in control and I feel I recovered quickly afterwards.
My mum is a retired midwife and was a bit sceptical when I told her I was doing Hypnobirthing but after being with me during the labour she is 110% behind it!
The course we did was expensive, but you can watch YouTube videos and download information online. I did need someone by my side during the labour to help me with my visualisations when the contractions were very strong so get your birthing partner to read up on it also.
Thank you so much for sharing. It’s really good to hear how hypnobirthing worked for you and top tip of getting your partner prepped and ready! x
I’m thinking of learning some of the hypnobirthing techniques to keep me calm as it seems like they do work for pain relief to some extent.
However, I’m an academic statistician (I know you’re all thinking how dull, but it’s pretty useful to be able to understand the evidence in medical journals when pregnant… In fact I’ve even published in some). At any rate, there is no unbiased, reliable evidence that hypnobirthing leads to women bleading less or to babies having better outcomes. There is evidence that it works as pain relief, which is great and all I would personally expect from it. Be wary of other claims though – they are unlikely to result from any thorough research.
While I’m on it, I saw you post about the talc lawsuit yesterday. Off topic, but thought I should point out that the statistical evidence is still sketchy, and only points to a possible problem if used on genitals. Even if used on genitals the effect is actually likely to be very small. So, don’t panic if you’ve used it on yourself or your baby! It’s really unlikely you’ve caused any harm! If you want to be cautious just don’t use it near anyone’s genitals.
Anyway, sorry to go into work mode. I just think it’s important that people aren’t mislead by poorly researched “facts”. And I know I’m in a relatively unusual position to be able to access and interpret findings in medical journals. A lot of health practitioners (including doctors) can’t even interpret statistics correctly.
That is really interesting – I’ve been reading Bumpology by Linda Geddes which takes a lot of pregnancy and child birth ‘facts’ and looks at the research (or lack of) behind them, looking at the sample sizes used, who sponsored the research, how it was conducted and how the media can take one strand from a research paper, out of context to create a story that quickly becomes a new piece of advice. My sister, who is a scientist, lent it to me but as a non scientist I’ve found the insights and how to interrogate these ‘facts’ and how they can about very interesting.
Mel, I think this is a really good point and one of the feedback I’m giving to my hypnobirthing teacher is drop all the crap stats! I don’t think it’s useful at all because the methods are either something you decide to sign up to and give a go or not.
At my course, the teacher started with these ridiculous stats showing us that there is a higher level of intervention in labour wards than in home births/Midwife led units which was just stupid consider all high risk births will be in a labour ward. It really turned me and my husband off – but once the teacher dropped trying to “prove” its effectiveness and just focused on the techniques and why it could help then we could get on board.
I’m not in any way convinced that it’ll alter how birth happens for me but I think it’ll help me feel more chilled out whatever does happen – and that’s why I think it’ll be useful.
I had the same experience with some of my NCT classes. There were a lot of stats thrown around that I know to be false, especially in the breastfeeding session. The poor woman got a bit flustered as both me and hubby have done some actual research on breastfeeding. If only she’d just concentrated on the practicalities then I’d have been completely on board. A lot of this stuff is under researched, so in some ways it’s impressive that there is good quality evidence that hypnobirthing works to relieve pain. It’s enough to convince me to give it a try.
All the misleading stats really get my goat though.
Hi Mel. We always love hearing from people who actually have the right medical information. It is invaluable to us so please always share and let us know anything useful. x
I’ll do my best! x
Your job does not sound dull at all!!! It actually sounds fascinating!!!!
Such a good thing to do! We attended a hypnobirthing course in preparation for the birth of our little girl and found the whole experience awesome. Through the pregnancy, it meant that I took time to learn and practice the skills and as a result took time to light a lovely smelly candle or run a bath, relax, chill out and focus on myself at the end of busy days at work. It also helped me to filter out the crap that other mums insist on sharing – the hellish birth stories and negativity around childbirth. Why do some women feel the need to tell pregnant women horror stories!? Not helpful!!
I was induced at 12 days overdue. I had a totally calm labour in the birthing pool and using the techniques I’d learnt, I was happy on just gas and air. My daughter had to be delivered quite quickly and though I didn’t deliver her in the pool and needed an assisted delivery, we felt in control of what was happening. That’s one of the key things that you learn – whatever direction your birth takes, you’re prepared and remain calm and in control.
My husband really learnt what his role was in the whole process and he kept me really focused.
I’m such an advocate that I’m training to be a hypnobirthing practitioner whilst on mat leave!
I would definitely recommend hypnobirthing but i have to say – I wish they wouldn’t call it hypnobirthing! Like one of the other commenters have said, it’s quite scientific and all of the theories are really logical and just make a lot of sense (if you’re relaxed and not tense, things will hurt less!). There’s a lot of emphasis on regulating your breathing and ways of keeping a calm but it doesn’t involve any sort of Derren Brown hypnosis!
My hubby was totally sceptical as someone who hates anything even slightly hippy dippy and unscientific but he was converted and thinks it makes a lot of sense.
I think it’s useful for everyone, no matter what type of birth you’d like because staying calm and relaxed will be super useful no matter what ends up happening. Where I think it’s worth its weight in gold is in making you feel more confident and assured in the process so you can be more in control of everything – no matter what happens. You can’t be sure how birth is going to go but feeling like you can make your own decisions is hugely important – I would say that’s the main reason why I’m so glad I did it!
I used hypnobirthing with my first labour. I didn’t go on a hypnobirthing course but listened to an app on my phone and read about the idea behind it and for me it totally made sense; I was frightened at the idea of having drugs and feeling out of control so wanted to avoid pain relief for that reason (or at least see how I got on!). I was also scared of panicking or feeling anxious in hospital. For me it worked. When my labour started I got straight into a lavender bath to relax and used the breathing techniques to get through each contraction. After 4/5 hrs my contractions were getting closer and closer together so we made our way to the hospital and though I would describe contractions as agony (sorry ladies!), the breathing kept me calm, focused and in control and I was able to breathe through each one. So much so that when I got to hospital they didn’t believe I was in active labour and said I’d probably have to go home until they checked and saw I was 7cm dilated and I could get into the birthing pool there 🙂 I’m 4 months pregnant again now and I’ll definitely be using the same techniques again to get me through. You never know what kind of labour you’ll end up with but I think its such a positive thing to do even if it does end up not being completely natural.
We did some hypnobirthing as part of our pregnancy yoga course. I must admit that visualising a calm relaxing beach in my head didn’t really do it for me. Each to their own #passthedrugs
Ha ha ha! This made me chuckle Rebecca x
Ha this made me laugh out loud!!
I certainly think in labour, we all need to do what seems right for us in that moment. No shame in taking every drug going, or even having a c section, or hypnobirthng. We all want the same outcome … To get that baby out in one piece!!!!!
I did a hypnobirthing course and gave birth to my daughter, my second child, 2 weeks ago. I cannot recommend it highly enough. The birth was so calm and quick and I didn’t even need so much as gas and air. I was so calm the midwife said she just couldn’t tell how far along I was or whether I was even having a contraction! It was a very different experience to my first labour and I’m so pleased I did it. It has made the post-birth experience better too as I was less exhausted and my daughter is very chilled.
I have just completed a hypnobirthing class, and really enjoyed it. Lots of practice is needed which I am currently struggling to fit in but I am 27 weeks so (hopefully) plenty of time.
I really appreciated the scientific aspect, seeing some hypno births and having other people to chat to about pregnancy.
I did a face to face course but there is an online one called the Calm Birth School which seems very good and is much less expensive.
Looking forward to seeing how I put it into practice when the time comes!
Hello! I practiced hypnobirthing (or natal hypnotherapy as I think it was called on the CDs I used) and had a really positive experience – I had a natural labour with just gas and air for pain relief. I’d highly recommend it for anyone with any anxiety about giving birth – I did; I’m a doctor (a GP) and was pretty terrified as I had worked in obstetrics as a trainee and had seen what could go wrong first hand. It helped me relax prior to the birth, and certainly helped me stay at home longer when I was in labour. I would add that it is not at all for ‘hippy’ or ‘airy fairy’ types as I thought it was! It is also helpful for all kinds of delivery – whether you have a C-section, forceps, normal delivery – it’s not just for those lucky few who pop their babies out with a sneeze!