anyone doing hypnobirthing?

bluerevolution9

im planning a homebirth, and because of some past traumas my midwife has started to suggest that i look into hypnobirthing so that hopefully i won't get anxious during labor and have panic attacks triggered.  im looking into it, but i don't think i can afford the class, so maybe i will just by the book and cd's.  has anyone used it?  was it good?  was the class necessary?  thanks!

Cilley

We read the Mongan book and a Bradley method book first time around. It worked fine for us. Not sure if you get more out of the class or not. Sounds like it would be helpful to have support, but I really benefited from studying up. And I plan to do it again.

Kelseyloo

I REALLY want to try this! Let me know what you end up doing!

ShannonSky

I think you should think carefully about your personality and how you and DH react to major stressors. I did hypnobirthing with DD (disclaimer: she was born prematurely, so I only attended 3 classes), and while I found some of the general ideas helpful (ie. relax so you don't tense against the contraction), it was not for me. I'm very bad at visualization and could not get into the exercises. Also, when DD was born, I found that although I generally deal better with day-to-day stress than DH, he really stepped up and I was happy to follow his lead during that crisis. This time around, we'll be doing Bradley, but we're just going to read the books (the classes are way too expensive and would be tough to do logistically with having to find a sitter for DD and whatnot).