Mastering Hypnobirthing technique?

[PreshFest]

I have my last of the 5 hypno classes tomorrow. I haven't read through all of the book yet, but I will finish that up next week while on vacation I've been listening to the rainbow relaxation cd pretty frequently over the last 4 weeks and I'm at the point now where I don't really listen to it, I kind of zone out or will fall asleep. But what I'm wondering is how can I be sure that I'm actually mastering the technique?

I will ask at my class tomorrow, but just wondering if any of you have done it. How did you 'practice' for it? I'm just not sure that I'm fully grasping the idea!! This will be my 2nd baby and the 1st I had all natural, no drugs whatsoever (no hypno training for that one...). I coped really well, but this time I'm determined to be like the women in the HB videos that are totally calm and don't make a peep! Any advice as to what to practice/how to practice?

 

[booflebump]

If you are zoning out and falling asleep - then you pretty much have it mastered The aim is for it to make you fall in to a very deeply relaxed state as soon as you hear it, which it sounds like is happening. Are you doing your birth affirmations as well, and visualisation/surge breathing practice?

 

[PreshFest]

If you are zoning out and falling asleep - then you pretty much have it mastered The aim is for it to make you fall in to a very deeply relaxed state as soon as you hear it, which it sounds like is happening. Are you doing your birth affirmations as well, and visualisation/surge breathing practice?

I haven't really started the birth affirmations yet, but I will next week. I have been practicing surge breathing as well, but having a hard time with the visualizations. Am I just supposed to be visualizing my body opening or whatever? I guess when I'm actually IN labor and having a surge and doing my breathing, where is my mind supposed to go? Should I picture a happy place or something? Or visualize all the positive birthing affirmations?

 

[booflebump]

For surge breathing, I visualise waves rising and falling, like the peak and fall of a surge. Some people imagine their breathing like they are filling up a great big balloon on the in breath then it deflating on the out breath.

 

[JaneSharon86]

hi

is this the Mongan method or a different one?

I have the Mongan CD but there's just two tracks on there, one a relaxing one and the other for both parents to do together.

There isn't a rainbow track?

 

[booflebump]

My hypnobirthing (mongan method) that came with the book has birth affirmations, and then the rainbow relaxation script?

 

[JaneSharon86]

My hypnobirthing (mongan method) that came with the book has birth affirmations, and then the rainbow relaxation script?

Thanks for the reply. Was this the orange version of the book? With the baby on the front?

 

[PreshFest]

I have two cd's. One from the book, which I actually tried to listen to but found it annoying... And then the other one is the one with the rainbow relaxation and a birth affirmation. I like that one much better. I got it from my hypno doula....

 

[booflebump]

Mine was the blue book with the woman on the front

 

[hipmum]

best thing is not to be 'determined not to make a sound' as the more pressure you put on yourself, the more uptight you'll be ... just what you don't need.

I used the online hypnobirthing course on hypnobirthingdownloads - it was great and they also have lots of mp3 downloads, english voice that I really liked. Worth checking out.

Made me feel so calm, realised I could just let my body get on with it and it didn't really matter what happened on the day ... and it worked!

 

[Agcam]

Sounds just like it is supposed to! This was what would happen to me while listening to the CD and I always wondered whether it was actually having any effect.

The other thing I did that helped me was to make a playlist on my mp3 player. I had the relaxation track and a few others that I thought I might want to listen to during labour (ocean waves, etc), and I would plug them in and just let the whole thing play. I found that I would wake up as soon as the tracks were over, so some part of me must have been listening to them!

I must say - during labour, I didn't need the music as I had envisioned I would. I barely listened to the tracks for 5 minutes before shutting them off and doing my own thing. I also ended up making moaning sounds, not loud at all and more like a blowing out, but I found that they helped me focus on breathing

 

[PreshFest]

Thanks Agcam! So during surges you would just relax and moan? Not visualize anything? I'm sure I just need to stop worrying about it as relaxation is the key and we will all find something that works for us during actual labor. I'm terrible at the visualizations, though......ugh.

 

[Agcam]

Thanks Agcam! So during surges you would just relax and moan? Not visualize anything? I'm sure I just need to stop worrying about it as relaxation is the key and we will all find something that works for us during actual labor. I'm terrible at the visualizations, though......ugh.

That sentence right there captures it. I had it all planned in advance, of course. I'd have the music going, I'd have the picture of the blossoming flower to look at, and would visualise waves to go with my ocean sounds track.

On the day, all of that went out the window. The music got shut of pretty quickly, I completely forgot that I had a printout of an image of a blossoming flower, and I only thought about ocean waves every now and then in the middle of my relaxation.

Don't worry about it - things just flow when you're in labour. You'll do what you need to do.