How is HypnoBirthing different from other antenatal classes?
Other methods of childbirth education tend to teach you how to cope with and manage pain. Hypnobirthing education is based on the premise that a healthy woman, with an uncomplicated healthy pregnancy and healthy baby, should be able to birth without unnecessary interventions.
Hypnobirthing focuses on the joy of birth and positively anticipate our birthing day. When women understand that pain is caused by constrictor hormones - cortisol - (created by fear), they learn to release this fear and create endorphins. Endorphins are the ‘feel good hormones’ that we naturally produce when we are calm and happy.
Hypnobirthing teaches you to change your perception. Instead of thinking of a ‘long, painful labour’ – it is entirely possible to replace this thought with expectations of a more comfortable birthing. Rather than exhausting, shallow breathing and the distraction techniques of typical “prepared childbirth” programs; hypnobirthing parents learn deep abdominal breathing and total relaxation, enabling us to work in harmony with our body and baby. This allows us to achieve an often shorter labour for mum and baby.