what is hypnobirthing?
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HypnoBirthing is a 5 week childbirth education course, based on the belief that for a healthy woman having a healthy baby, birth is a normal, natural bodily function. Based on physiological and medical evidence, it is taught in hospitals throughout the UK, and is starting to be taught in Australian hospitals too.
Many antenatal classes teach women about birth and there is a huge amount of information available on line. However, no mother actually needs that information when she’s birthing! Birth is an event that we need to train for, physically and mentally. HypnoBirthing is designed to help couples understand their options so they feel excited and prepared. It is a toolkit of physical and mental skills which empower couples to welcome the events of labour and birth, however they unfold. HypnoBirthing might sound ‘new age’ but it is simply a set of very logical steps that every woman should know about, that make a very big difference to the birthing process. read what the guys say >> |
Approximately 70% of HypnoBirthing mothers birth without the use of pain medications |
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HypnoBirthing gives you so much more than a traditional antenatal class. Regardless of where you are birthing, or how your birthing unfolds, the aim is to make the experience of your baby’s arrival joyful. Each birth is going to take its own course and no-one can predict what journey your baby will take. You will learn how to trust your body, your baby and the process of birthing.
HypnoBirthing teaches you to release all prior programming about birth, how to trust your body and work with it as well as how to free yourself of harmful emotions that lead to pain-causing fear and unyielding muscles. Many parents (Dads in particular!) attend the first session with scepticism but when they learn that HypnoBirthing is based on medical and physiological facts, not some ‘airy fairy’ nonsense, they are ALL completely convinced. You just need to have an open mind and the motivation to succeed. |
We started the course and within the first session it was so clear that there was another way - that there should be no other way. Jon |
read birth stories >>
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Our very intelligent body knows how to birth a baby (it does a pretty good job of growing one too). We start to confuse it when we question and manipulate a natural instinctive process. A woman’s uterus is perfectly designed to birth, but in order for the outlet of the uterus to open and allow the baby to move down, through and out into the birth path, the muscle fibres need to relax.
It’s important to understand that labour and birth are involuntary, the uterus contracts spontaneously first to open the womb and then to give birth to the baby. All of this happens without your conscious control. The breathing techniques taught in HypnoBirthing are designed to help you to work with these birthing muscles and to maximise their efficiency. |
17% of HypnoBirthing® mothers birthed via C-section, compared with the national average of 32% |
the nervous system
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The two subsidiary systems of the nervous system play a huge part in birthing. The Parasympathetic system keeps the body and mind in a state of harmony and balance and restores and maintains the normal functions of our bodies.
When the birthing mother is relaxed during a normal labour, her body releases endorphins, nature’s “feel good” hormones that allow us to feel pleasure and block pain. Read more >> |
45% of HypnoBirthing mothers birthed in under 8 hours |
the brainMost of the natural birthing process is undertaken by the primal brain centres; the reptilian (the unconscious part of the brain that operates through a pre-programmed set of instructions) and the limbic (the emotional part of the brain that creates chemicals of emotion).
The female body and brain is designed to give birth with little input from the cortex, the rational, analytical part of the brain. Many women can complete a lot of their labours asleep and some women have even given birth safely in comas. Read more >> |
In no other animal species is the process of birth apparently associated with any suffering, pain or agony, except when they are in an unnatural state, such as captivity or feel threatened, or suffering from disease. |
so what's the hypno?
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Hypnosis is a very natural state that everybody goes through every day. It’s the state right before you go to sleep when your mind is slowing down and the brain waves move through Beta and Alpha frequencies and reach Theta (just before the deep sleep of Delta).
Theta State is a state of very deep relaxation, it can be compared to that kind of trance where you can find children when they are playing with video games, a deep concentration. All hypnosis is self-hypnosis. Read more >> |
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the benefits for baby
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Perhaps even more significantly is the long term effect that HypnoBirthing techniques have on your baby. If your birth is calm, gentle and drug free for you, it is also calm, gentle and drug free for your baby.
This little person then arrives in the world alert and with a mother who is alert and ready to receive him lovingly and attentively. Also because HypnoBirthing babies have no birth trauma, they tend to be more calm, serene and content. Reports say that they also seem to thrive better, sleep better and develop quicker. Read more >> |
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The Australian College of Midwives awards continuing professional development points to midwives who certify in HypnoBirthing, These points are necessary for all midwives to regularly update their knowledge and skills.
data provided by the HypnoBirthing® Institute, between 2005-2010