Hypnobirthing works wonderfully with Active Birth. It builds towards the same goal of helping you become more confident and trusting in your body, and less fearful of giving birth, and it’s a beautiful way to connect more deeply with your body and your baby.
Practising Hypnobirthing regularly through your pregnancy can transform your entire journey through labour and birth and lead to a calmer, more relaxed birth. If your partner wants to be involved, it can be a wonderful bonding experience to share.
How did Hypnobirthing start?
The idea of using hypnosis to prepare for and during birth was pioneered in the USA by mother and hypnotherapist Marie Mongan in 1992. She was inspired by her own natural births and developed a method of birth preparation that has spread globally.
She called it: “Taking the world by calm.”
Originally, women using the Mongan Method in the USA would be lying down or semi-reclining during labour – usually in a conventional hospital. Now, Hypnobirthing has spread all over the world and is usually applied to an Active Birth, often in water, and more usually in a birth centre. It’s a powerful combination!
Should circumstances change, so that a natural or water birth is not a safe option, Hypnobirthing is still incredibly useful in creating a calm, relaxing atmosphere for you and your baby. It has helped many women transform a potentially stressful situation into an empowering one, in which they still feel relaxed and in control.
How does it work?
Hypnobirthing offers simple self-hypnosis techniques that you can easily practise during your pregnancy while resting, as you listen to relaxing meditations and affirmations. We work with Wise Hippo Hypnobirthing materials, as I have found these to work best with Active Birth.
Everyone who enrolls in my Hypnobirthing workshop/course will receive a Wise Hippo manual and a full set of MP3s that you can listen on your mobile phone, iPad, laptop, or any other device, wherever and whenever you like. All you need is a quiet, comfortable space where you can relax and lie down.
These MP3s take you on an inner journey and invite you to imagine yourself in a wonderful, relaxing place in nature. While you are in this relaxed state, the calm, soothing and positive suggestions of the narrator help you to approach your birth with a much more confident outlook.
What does self-hypnosis do?
The value of self-hypnosis comes from learning to reach that relaxed level of consciousness where such suggestions will really influence your physiological experience.
Please note that self-hypnosis is absolutely nothing like the hypnotist shows designed for entertainment! You will always be fully in control, and nothing will make you do anything against your will.
The goal of self-hypnosis and Hypnobirthing is for you to become familiar with the ‘trance-like’ state that occurs naturally during labour. This gives you the inner resources you need when labour and birth happen for real, so that you can remain relaxed and calm throughout. Without fear you are less tense, your body functions better, and labour is less painful.
Mind, Body & Baby
Hypnobirthing works brilliantly when it’s combined with Active Birth and Pregnancy Yoga, which is why I offer all three in my programme. Most women attend a weekly Pregnancy Yoga class online (these are for women only), while the Active Birth and Hypnobirthing workshops provide an important opportunity for partners to join in.
Having your partner participate in Hypnobirthing and/or Active Birth classes helps them to be involved in your preparation for birth, and to be part of your labour by knowing and understanding what your body has learnt and helping you to relax and draw on your natural instincts.
It is well-recognised that a mother’s relaxation can have a significant effect on babies during pregnancy as well as labour and birth, and our aim is to give them a truly special welcome into this world, making the entire experience empowering and inspiring for all.
Read more about Janet’s online Hypnobirthing workshops here.
A 10% discount is available for the August 2021 session – part of our summer birth preparation special!
Janet also offers online private tuition in Hypnobirthing techniques.
