Hypnobirthing – should we bin the name and come up with something more appealing to the masses? In my opinion, no! But of course it’s more nuanced than that.
A question that’s come up often in communities of hypnobirthing teachers over the past 10 years I’ve been teaching. The ‘hypno’ part makes it sound weird, for many they think of mind control, swinging pocket watches or clucking like a chicken.
I definitely understand the uncertainty in the name, when I was expecting my first I definitely though it sounded weird, I was definitely sceptical. However, now as a hypnobirthing teacher and hypnotherapist I think the hypno part is so important.
In fact I’d go so far as to say, many hypnobirthing teachers are so nervous about how the hypno part will be perceived that they’re shying away from the hypno aspects to make their class more mainstream, more safe feeling. I do understand this as I’ve been there myself as a mum to be. But if you’re not getting a HYPNObirthing course and you’re just getting an antenatal class you’re missing out, here are some of the main ways the HYPNO part can help you.
Fear Release
One of the biggest benefits of Hypnobirthing is fear release; fear has such a significant and negative effect on labour and birth, when our fears are triggered by a threat – whether real or imagined our adrenaline rises and our oxytocin (the hormone that makes us feel good AND makes labour progress decreases. The result is more pain and your labour slowing down. Using hypnotherapy to release fears and learn how to deal with them before you go into labour can help massively with this.
Self – Hypnosis
Learning how to get into a relaxed state and allow your body to do what it needs to do instead of fighting it is key to a more positive experience. Self hypnosis allows you to access this state that your body and mind already know how to do, it’s just that our busy lives stop us from accessing it.
The bonus here is that this will help us throughout life, not just in labour, it’s a great way to support your mental health and cope with the challenges of parenting.
Rewiring your brain and re-writing stories
Hypnosis gives us the opportunity to re-write stories, whether that’s that you’re got strong enough, or you don’t know how to relax, or simply the image most of us have that we give birth on our backs with our legs in the air (thanks TV and movies for perpetuating that image!). We consciously start to question what we believe is ‘normal’ or what we’re ‘allowed’ to do, then we can re-write this through hypnotherapy sessions and tracks.
Creating Anchors for Birth
One of my favourite ways to use hypnosis for birth prep is to set anchors for relaxation whether that’s a certain keyword, or touch or smell or a combination of these. These are your shortcuts to relaxation, in labour you probably don’t want to have to listen to a 20min track until you find relaxation, you want it ASAP, hypnotic anchors are a great way to do that.
So in summary, proper HYPNOBirthing is not the same as just doing breathing techniques and relaxation techniques in your pregnancy yoga class. It may sound a bit unusual but there are so many advantages when we embrace the hypno side of hypnobirthing!
I currently offer 3 different levels of hypnobirthing depending on what people need but they all contain hypnosis in some form, because they’re all HYPNObirthing.
Group Hypnobirthing Courses in Aberdeenshire – Our morning birth prep course is a great way to access hypnobirthing fast, we’ll have some hypnosis session in class and you’ll get lots of tracks you can access after class, including relaxation tracks, caesarean rehearsal tracks, fear release track and more.
Private Hypnobirthing Course – These can be in person or online and this allows you to go deeper with fear release and creating hypnotic anchors which are short cuts to relaxation during labour.
Hypnotherapy for Pregnancy & Birth – This option is great for people who want to go deeper, or who are anxious about birth or have a fear of birth, it gives us plenty of time to rewire and prepare at a pace that suits you. There is hypnotherapy in each session, if you’re interested in this option you can book a call with me for a chat first and we can sort dates and options for you.
How do you feel about the ‘hypno’ part of the name Hypnobirthing?