Hypnobirthing is a method or program designed to give women, their partners, and their babies the best birthing experience possible. The philosophy of hypnobirthing is that women’s bodies are can seamlessly give birth given the right circumstances. It teaches women and their partners about the physiology of birth and what stops and facilitates the birthing process. Breathwork, deep relaxation, hypnosis, and visualization can also transform fear and self-doubt into confidence and excitement.
In hypnobirthing, deep-rooted negative beliefs about birthing are replaced with accurate knowledge and positive beliefs. This new mindset, combined with the skills developed over the course, can transform women’s birthing experiences. The program can be life-changing, and the skills the parents use reach far beyond the utility of the birthing experience. In fact, many parents attribute their calm and rewarding first years of parenthood to their hypnobirthing skills and experience.
I started teaching hypnobirthing because people around me believed that women’s bodies were not very good at giving birth, and as a result, their births were long, laborious, and traumatic. But I knew that it didn’t have to be that way. I knew that birthing was a natural physiological process, and it was us that was getting in the way with our fears and negative beliefs.
Michelle Odent, a leading obstetrician and natural birthing expert who studies how environmental factors affect the birthing process, says that we are currently in the dark ages of birthing. I wanted to shed some light on this most profound life event. I wanted to help women be excited about the day they would meet their babies and have better births. And I wanted to help babies have better experiences in their first endeavors so that they can grow up confidently, knowing they can accomplish what they put their minds to.
Hypnobirthing can be transformational. My clients generally arrive at my door dreading the day they will meet their baby. The dread comes from the conditioned belief that somehow the baby needs to be delivered, and this ordeal is the price we have to pay to have a baby. Some also arrive having already gone through such an ordeal and don’t want a repeat.
One particular client, Francesca, had a traumatic first birth. She had her first baby in a hospital, where she felt uncomfortable and disconnected from the staff. They indicated she should start pushing in half an hour. Her body was not ready, and neither was she. But the hospital was on a time frame, and they decided to use forceps. The delivery was traumatic for all involved.
The second time around, Francesca knew she couldn’t go through that again. So she came to me to do a course on HypnoBirthing, which included the core curriculum of breathwork, deep relaxation, visualization, meditative practice, nutrition, and physiology. We also did an extra session where we used deep relaxation and visualization to address the trauma of her first birth and the associated beliefs.
Through the course and the daily practices designed to prepare her mentally and physically, she started to feel much better about her upcoming birth. She began to understand the birthing process through a physiological lens which helped her to understand what had gone wrong during the first birth. The new knowledge also helped her build confidence in her ability to give birth as nature intended. Instead of being a passenger in her journey, she now became the director. She felt empowered as a mother who intuitively knows what’s right for her and her children.
After an appointment at the local hospital, where she was told she didn’t push hard enough last time and would have to push harder this time, Francesca decided to have a home birth. She wanted more control over her birthing process, the environment, and the people who would support her on this journey. She asked that I be there with her husband and the sympathetic midwife we had chosen together. Francesca’s second birth was beautiful. She gave birth after a two-hour labor in the warmth of her own home. It was the most beautiful, pain and drama free birth you could ever imagine. Francesca received her own baby with joy and love. This is the power of hypnobirthing.
Kirsti Formoso is a wellness writer and researcher. She is passionate about holistic health and well-being. She has over 30 years of experiential knowledge in personal and spiritual development and a Master of Science in Consciousness, Spirituality, and Transpersonal Psychology. She is also a peer reviewer for two scientific journals specializing in Transpersonal Psychology. When she’s not writing, she can be found working on her vegetable plot, hiking in the mountains, and breathing in all the wonders nature has to offer.
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