December 2017 Moms
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Hypnobirth: yes or no? Share your experience!
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I have read a lot of great reviews about hypnobirth. I know 3 people who swear by this method and had amazing births. At the same time, I heard a couple of stories when hypnobirth was not helpful in the end. The pain was too strong to focus on meditations and visualizations.
Is it worth it or not?
Please share your stories about the hypnobirth:
1. If you tried it yourself
2. If your family or friends tried it
3. If you are taking hypnobabies classes right not or planning to start
I am also wondering what they cover during the hypnobabies classes, if they teach about possible invasive methods like inducing, epidurals, c-section etc.
Would you recommend taking hypnobabies classes only or together with regular hospital classes?
Thank you for your advice!
Is it worth it or not?
Please share your stories about the hypnobirth:
1. If you tried it yourself
2. If your family or friends tried it
3. If you are taking hypnobabies classes right not or planning to start
I am also wondering what they cover during the hypnobabies classes, if they teach about possible invasive methods like inducing, epidurals, c-section etc.
Would you recommend taking hypnobabies classes only or together with regular hospital classes?
Thank you for your advice!
Re: Hypnobirth: yes or no? Share your experience!
Best of luck though- I just never got DH on board and he laughed at me - so it wasn't going to work. My advice if you either need to not care what others may say, and you need a strong support system.
However, before that point, I was able to remain home until my contractions were 4 minutes apart - and I had no more epidural when it was time to push so I was still tuned-in and focused on everything. The epidural, for the time I had it so I would stop vomiting, was so slight that I was still able to move my legs and prevent swelling.
I would highly recommend it to anyone who thinks they a) might want to go med-free and b) just wants a space in which to focus mentally and practice finding a way to direct your energy. When it was time to push, I had prepped my husband with all of these things to say (phrases like "push as strong as you are") but when push came to shove, pun intended, I told him to be quiet because I didn't need him in my head. I had my iPod playing (with my "Push it Real Good" labor mix!) and my thoughts focused and it was all I needed - and my labor was 31 hours! Give it a try! Toward the end, I fell asleep every day doing it, which they encourage. It was great.
I enjoyed the cds so cannot say what is different/better about doing it with a live person. My doula and I would connect at each meeting and talk about what was covered in the sessions (she hypnobirthed her last 2 kids).
During the early part of my pressure waves (they discourage using words that might have negative connotation, like labor) the methods helped a lot. I was able to relax and concentrate easily and pain was minimal. As the night went on, and the waves were more intense, my doula suggested we turn on the "come out baby" track to help, but as soon as I put it on, the womans voice was so irritating I had them turn it off lol. For me, I couldn't get back into the hypnosis stage after that point. Overall, I did have a successful home birth that was med free, so all the preparation I did counted as a win for me. But everyone is different and I've heard many success stories (my doula as one) that experienced relatively pain free birthing due to hypnobabies methods.
My labor was shorter than that (around 20 hours), and I was less blissed out (but still in a meditative zone, to be sure) and I was able to use hypnobirthing techniques to work through some gnarly back labor. I ultimately had a completely natural birth, however when I was pushing (for something like 3 hours, wtf) I had to finally just bear down and push and scream like you see in the movies--the j-breathing (a hypnobirthing method) wasn't getting my baby out! My midwife actually instructed be to push and grunt as loud as I could--that did the trick!!!
We also had a doula who was familiar with hypnobirthing and she helped keep the hospital staff from getting in the way of my focus.
Like @atack my DH wasn't completely sold on the class, but he was sold on anything that I thought would help me during labor, so he was supportive. He also meditates everyday, so he was like "why do you need a class for this?" Ha.
The woman who taught my class was more open to intervention than the book is. My birth plan was basically to try for med-free but be open to any outcome that included a healthy baby! I wanted to not feel bad if I I wanted or felt I needed drugs. Or if a doctor or midwife said that I needed drugs or a c-section to get the baby out, I didn't want to be upset about it. I wanted to roll with whatever happened in the moment, and hypnobirthing gave me a good toolbox to be able to do that.
I didn't take other classes for birthing techniques, and I would say go all in if you go that route since even the terminology is different (contraction=surge, for example).
I've lent my book to a few other moms-to-be, but not many choose it--I think you kind of know if you are the kind of person who can be trained to focus using meditation and if you are open to meditation/mindfulness techniques. I had dabbled in meditation before, so I knew that even if I didn't legit hypnotize myself, I'd be in a pretty great place and that turned out to be true.
Dear ladies, please continue sharing your stories, let's make this thread a useful source for all the December moms who considers trying a med-free delivery.
Is there any particular technique/resource/book you could recommend?
For anyone interested in a med-free birth I would highly recommend Ina May's Guide to Childbirth. It's actually a really good read for anyone, she gives a great perspective for natural childbirth.
@babypi I've just looked up what the back labor is, sounds really intense. Thanks for the tip!
@shellac835 I heard from the people who took good hospital classes the same - nobody speaks really how much pain the labor will be. I don't know, if it's for the better or worse. Maybe they don't tell you about it because it's just hard to describe such intensity of pain.
@missphil I was sure it's the same under different names but I might be wrong. Did you hear something about it?
HypnoBabies was created by someone who was originally trained in HypnoBirthing and had experience with Bradley and Lamaze. So the curricula overlap a bit. HypnoBabies is supposed to be a comprehensive class meaning that it will give you info about birth/postpartum as well as tools for the actual birthing time. The only other class I sought out was a breastfeeding one, and I would have been fine without. In my research, feedback on the other natural birth options (Hypnobirthing, Bradley, Lamaze) say that they tend to focus too much on the main event and not on the whole healthy pregnancy and birth and postpartum stuff, and also that some of them were very rigid and made you feel like you had to breathe/sit/sleep/etc in very specific positions or the whole thing would be ruined! [My bff had this exact set of shame feelings, using Bradley for DS1 and hypnosis for DS2&3]. One thing I liked about HypnoBabies was that it is definitely prepping you for a natural birth, but doesn't ignore the fact that you might end up wanting/needing some interventions, so it does give you some info about those as well, and does so in a way that doesn't make you feel like a failure if you do use them in the end.
Random other thoughts -- There is a strong partner component with HypnoBabies - not quite as much as Bradley, but more than most others. There are some times that it gets a little "hippie/new-age" for this modern mama, but it's called HypnoBabies, so what was I expecting? Also know that there's a lot of daily homework (like ~90min most nights for mom, and 45min every-other-night for a partner... from the time your class starts until the baby comes), in addition to the 20+ hrs of class and other reading you are supposed to do.
One last thing - I would recommend making sure that your midwife/OB and the birth place you are planning to use are down with whichever method you choose. My doc has been generally supportive, but argued with some things that I know some of the methods feel are "musts." I switched from a different practice just before I got pregnant and know it would have been a bigger struggle with the old clinic, even though I was with a midwife there and am with an OB now. Our hospital is also known to have a high intervention rate and we have spent a lot of time being very deliberate in writing our birth plan so that it will be respected. Conversely, one of the people in our class birthed at one of the stand-alone birth centers, with a midwife who is trained in HypnoBabies and had to do zero of this advocacy because it was the standard of care for her providers.
@shellac835 I don't know if this will be true if you do the home course, but if you do the live class they will ask you to sign a contract saying that you're not doing another course as well. This is because of how hypnosis works on your brain. With HypnoBabies part of the work is de-programming your brain from thinking of birth as painful and laborious. Having Bradley and HypnoBabies trying to run in your brain simultaneous will lessen the effectiveness of the hypnosis and ultimately on the big day you're going to have to choose one. And to really use the HypnoBabies, you'll need your DH or a doula participating. I skimmed the Bradley book before we chose, and I don't feel like I or my husband missed anything. We did a lot of talking about ways that he could support me during birth, much of which was prompted from our homework assignments for class. But, if you have already signed up for Bradley, you may have already made your choice, and don't let me make you feel like you made the wrong one. Whatever you choose will be right for you and your family.
Anyhow, sorry for the long ramble. As I said before, feel free to either ignore me or ask questions. We'll know in a few weeks how it worked out!
Also, I planned to meditate during labor (I'm a yogi) and failed miserably until the end. The pain between 7 and 10 cm was unlike anything I had ever felt and it was extremely difficult to focus and meditate. Maybe I'll have more luck this time.
Edit: My husband and I thought the classes were useless because they regurgitated everything in the book. No new information, just reinforcing what you already read/tried.
We were successful with a natural birth and I'd recommend trying to anyone interested!
Sorry to drag up an old thread, but I wanted to come back and report to you that HypnoBabies was awesome for my birth! I had two full days of prodromal labor (real strength contractions that don't follow the regular pattern of increasing length, closeness, strength), then a few hours of stronger contractions that did progress, leading to my water breaking and things really picking up! When we got to the hospital, I was already at 8-1/2 and baby was out less than two hours later. I surprised the nurses twice - first by being so calm when I came in that dilated as a ftm, and second when we realized the baby was crowning, again because I had been so chill compared to other moms. I ended up pushing for only 2-3 contractions and honestly didn't feel any of the dreadful pain that everyone describes as childbirth. I was up and moving about 90min after birth and went home when baby was ~32 hours old. Because I did have a tear, I took some advil/tylenol for the first few days because I wanted to "stay ahead of the pain," but it never came!
I'm not going to say that it was a cakewalk, there were certainly some uncomfortable moments, but the techniques definitely worked. Also, the general education from the class helped me to understand what was going on with my body throughout, which helped me feel in control and more calm. I had exactly the birth I wanted and would absolutely recommend HypnoBabies to anyone wanting a natural birth!