Hey Ladies,
I attended my first hypno-birthiung course at the weekend so thought I'd review it and it might help some of you gain more insight and decide if its something you want to do.
This course is spread over two days. Some courses do 4 half days. Personally, 9-5 was too long and for myself and DH, we wished it had finished at 3 because information overload+pregnancy fatigue made it too much and some of the other couples were flagging too. So we didn't absorb too much the last 2 hours.
However, that is the only negative.
The morning covered the principles of hypno-birthing, stages of labour and understanding the connection between fear & pain physiologically and also between relaxation and the release of oxytocin and endorphins. it was really interesting and you can see how fear of labour/panic etc really causes issues. Most failure to proceed intervwentions are caused by th muscles of the uterus tensing up due to anxiety/stress/fear etc. Also looked at the use of language and how negative words, comments etc can effect your experience and how your partner can help you by using language more effectively.
Which effectively means the premise is to learn deep relaxation. We learned two breathing techniques for between contractions starting and transition. They are good techniques for relaxing and controlling.
One is effectively breathe in for the count of 4 and out for the count of 8 but breathing through your nose only and breathing through the mouth can trigger the fight/flight reaction. This can be used in between contractions (or surges as they are callled).
For the actual surge (which apparently lasts 60 seconds when in full swing), you get your partner to count to 20 really quickly while you breathe in and then out for 20 really quickly while you breathe out. Do this three times and it gets you through more effectively. Not having had a surge yet, I don't know how effective this is but it sounds good for distraction.
In the afternoon we covered deepening techniques to help deepen the state of relaxation. After lunch we were all pretty zoned out anyway from the food lull (IYKWIM). We were taught 3-4 different techniques to deepen relaxation. As we did them as a class first, my DH found one was really not right for him and didn't really get it. Its irrelevent really how he found the techniques but seeing as the idea is that during birth he uses the techniques to relax me, its better to get buy in and use the ones we both like.
I think the idea is that you use a toolkit of techniques and use the ones you like.
Overall we found it really useful and informative. It didn't really matter that the last two techniques for deepending went over our heads a little due to fatigue because you get given scripts to practice and use.
They made it clear that it does not garuntee a discomfort free birth but that depending on how much you practice, you can achieve a pain free birth or in the minimum, a birth that is more controlled by you and less stressful.
The second part looks at light touch massage, a breathing technique for the actual birth, more relaxation tips and im not sure about the rest yet but it seems all good.
Personally I'd highly recommend the course even if you are a sceptic becuase you can still use the techniques to whatever degreee you want.
I attended my first hypno-birthiung course at the weekend so thought I'd review it and it might help some of you gain more insight and decide if its something you want to do.
This course is spread over two days. Some courses do 4 half days. Personally, 9-5 was too long and for myself and DH, we wished it had finished at 3 because information overload+pregnancy fatigue made it too much and some of the other couples were flagging too. So we didn't absorb too much the last 2 hours.
However, that is the only negative.
The morning covered the principles of hypno-birthing, stages of labour and understanding the connection between fear & pain physiologically and also between relaxation and the release of oxytocin and endorphins. it was really interesting and you can see how fear of labour/panic etc really causes issues. Most failure to proceed intervwentions are caused by th muscles of the uterus tensing up due to anxiety/stress/fear etc. Also looked at the use of language and how negative words, comments etc can effect your experience and how your partner can help you by using language more effectively.
Which effectively means the premise is to learn deep relaxation. We learned two breathing techniques for between contractions starting and transition. They are good techniques for relaxing and controlling.
One is effectively breathe in for the count of 4 and out for the count of 8 but breathing through your nose only and breathing through the mouth can trigger the fight/flight reaction. This can be used in between contractions (or surges as they are callled).
For the actual surge (which apparently lasts 60 seconds when in full swing), you get your partner to count to 20 really quickly while you breathe in and then out for 20 really quickly while you breathe out. Do this three times and it gets you through more effectively. Not having had a surge yet, I don't know how effective this is but it sounds good for distraction.
In the afternoon we covered deepening techniques to help deepen the state of relaxation. After lunch we were all pretty zoned out anyway from the food lull (IYKWIM). We were taught 3-4 different techniques to deepen relaxation. As we did them as a class first, my DH found one was really not right for him and didn't really get it. Its irrelevent really how he found the techniques but seeing as the idea is that during birth he uses the techniques to relax me, its better to get buy in and use the ones we both like.
I think the idea is that you use a toolkit of techniques and use the ones you like.
Overall we found it really useful and informative. It didn't really matter that the last two techniques for deepending went over our heads a little due to fatigue because you get given scripts to practice and use.
They made it clear that it does not garuntee a discomfort free birth but that depending on how much you practice, you can achieve a pain free birth or in the minimum, a birth that is more controlled by you and less stressful.
The second part looks at light touch massage, a breathing technique for the actual birth, more relaxation tips and im not sure about the rest yet but it seems all good.
Personally I'd highly recommend the course even if you are a sceptic becuase you can still use the techniques to whatever degreee you want.
