Learn more about Hypnobirthing

What is Hypnobirthing?

In a nutshell, hypnobirthing is a method using relaxation, visualisation and deep breathing techniques during pregnancy, labour and birth to facilitate a wonderful birthing experience for the mother, baby and birthing partner.

How does Hypnobirthing Help?

Childbirth and labour has long been viewed in the West as painful and scary, however this has not always been the case, and is in fact a form of social conditioning – Hypnobirthing can help reverse this view which can have a positive effect on the experience of labour and birth!

Think of anytime you see an animal give birth, whether it be on TV or your own pet, they don’t scream in pain and get on with it quite naturally. Cats even purr whilst giving birth to kittens! Its the most natural and desired thing to occur in nature to perpetuate the species, so or bodies are more than capable of giving birth.

Taking a Hypnobirthing course will help to empower you to have a positive childbirth experience - a safer, comfortable and easier birth experience. Hypnosis for Childbirth uses self - hypnosis, relaxation, visualisation and breathing methods to prepare mind and body for birth.

It teaches pain management skills and aims to boost confidence so you manage, rather than fear, childbirth. It is about reaching a state of deep relaxation, maintaining perception of control over the process and developing a positive attitude.

It is about changing the expectation of birth. If women expect to be in agony they are likely to experience it. Hypnosis for Childbirth mothers go into labour feeling calm and confident!

What are the benefits of hypnobirthing for the mother, the baby and the birth partner?

• · Shortens labour

• · Lessens the need for interventions

• · Naturally manages pain/discomfort

• · Results in healthy babies with higher APGAR scores

• · Babies have better neonatal outcomes including being calmer, and sleeping and feeding better

• · Helps with breast feeding and bonding

• · Gives a feeling of control to mother and birth partner

• · Helps women who've experienced birth trauma

• · Helps women and birth partners who experience specific anxieties relating to childbirth

• · Helps with better outcomes for mother and baby even if you go on to have an elective or emergency C-Section

• · Decreases chance of suffering with post-natal depression

• · Giving birth becomes a moment to treasure!

Why choose a hypnotherapist for hypnobirthing?

I am trained and qualified to treat related issues such as:

• ·Hospital and needle phobias

• ·Tokophobia (morbid fear of pregnancy and/or childbirth)

• ·Overcoming past birth trauma

• ·Anxieties over being a parent

I am trained in lots of different ways to induce hypnosis for anyone who requires a different approach from the standard one used in Hypnobirthing

Hypnotherapy and hypnobirthing can also help with:

• ·Turning a breach baby

• ·Reducing morning sickness (NVP)

• ·Preparing for a C-section

• ·Tokophobia – severe fear of childbirth and pregnancy

• ·Recovering from traumatic births

• ·Dealing with miscarriage

• ·Confidence for parents

The History of Hypnobirthing

Dr Grantly Dick Reid was an obstetrician in London in the early 1900s. He observed through his work with birthing women that

“There is no physiological function in the body that gives rise to pain in the normal course of health. In no other animal species is the process of birth apparently associated with any suffering, pain or agony, except where pathology exists or in an unnatural state, such as captivity.”

Dick - Reid published his famous book ‘Childbirth without Fear’ in 1933. His principles were the foundation of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT) in the UK

The person accredited with the origin of the actual term Hypnobirthing is Michelle Leclaire O'Neill in 1987 in her book ‘Hypnobirthing: The original method”. Since that time there have been a number of pioneers in the fields who have developed models of hypnobirthing across the world whose innovative methods and approaches have shaped the hypnobirthing world.