By Sophie Fletcher

Sophie is the Author of the best selling book Mindful Hypnobirthing C0-founder of Mindful Mamma, one day mindfulness and hypnosis birth classes which are taught around the world. You can connect with her on instagram @mindfulmammauk

Today it’s World Hypnobirthing Day. That there is a day for hypnobirthing is incredible, enough people all around the world teaching this’ and benefitting from hypnosis for birth, for a global celebration.

My son is nearly 14, and it was this time 14 years ago that I was listening to my tracks every single night. There were no classes then, no online communities, no midwives who knew what it was in my local hospital. I was the weird woman who was sleeping through her contractions.

Since then, I’ve trained over 100 practitioners, I’ve taught thousands of people and written Mindful Hypnobirthing which has sold over 30,000 copies.

Mindfulness and Hypnosis – the perfect team

As a doula I’ve used it and seen it working, as a hypnotherapist I’ve used that experience to constantly improve and tighten techniques so that they work simply and powerfully.  I integrated it with mindfulness after I had my first experience on retreat with Thich Nhat Hanh…and two toddlers over 10 years ago. I love it, tell me what your fear is and I can help find a way through it in no time. Your special place? No problem. Hypnotherapy is a language to me and hypnobirthing is just one of the things I do, and love.

It’s not about birth and babies for me! 

Hypnobirthing was not about babies and birth for me though! This is not why I became a teacher, and sometimes I still think “how did I get here?”.  It surprised me, as more than everything else, hypnobirthing made me realise that I was a feminist.  Of course I was always a feminist, I just didn’t know I was. Until I was pregnant.

Growing up I ALWAYS believed that I was equal, I’d been raised to believe that I could do anything I wanted, and I believed it.  That illusion was shattered when I got pregnant – pregnancy and birth forced me to see how my place in the world was defined by my biology.

Booking appointment at the GP’s surgery? He looked at my husband and said “do you want it”, I slept walked through it all, did what I was told.  Part-time working?  I was told by my female boss not to go for a job I was qualified for, as I wouldn’t get it. My full time male colleague got it. This is when I learned that not just men, but women too,  subjugated women.

Hypnobirthing was more than a “birth technique”

What hypnobirthing showed me was how much choice is out there, it exposed the ugly truth of women being stripped of choice when they need it most.  I was so angry to discover that choices, so many choices were withheld when I had my first son. I didn’t even know they existed. The bubble had burst. It was such a violation of rights – of who I thought I was. At first my anger was everywhere, the system, and unjustifiably, myself, my own mother and my husband. How did I not see this?  Did they not see this? How did I not know?

My hypnobirthing experience was not what I would imagine you think to be the “perfect hypnobirth” (that’s a myth too by the way) but it was POWERFUL, it woke me up, I become strong, courageous, ready for the challenges of motherhood. I wanted to help other women to have this experience. I was awake!

It’s bigger than just hypnobirthing

Training as a hypnotherapist gave me the skills and the courage to do more, to go deeper into myself and to train in other ways. I wanted to explore different perspectives and approaches that could help harness internal focus, increase perspective, unleash strength and motivation.  I see so many women that are a shadow of who they could be:  teenage girls, women that are pregnant, women that have given birth, women who have been trodden down by society in their jobs and relationships, women that are moving through midlife. And I hope that through my work, I can offer them a light and key – just as I was offered one.

Hypnobirthing was my key. It was never just about birth – it was about women and helping them light their fire.

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I’m here!

Bec’s Birth Story – First Baby Home Birth with Hypnobirthing

Before the birth – preparation

When I first got pregnant, I was surprised to find I wasn’t feeling nervous about birth at all; that it was just part of the rite of passage of having a baby.  I thought to myself, if I could keep this level of calm for the birth, everything would go well.  After a lot of research, I decided on a home birth, but I felt that in order to pull it off, I needed to do a lot of mental preparation.

Fairly early on in my pregnancy I had stumbled across a hypnobirthing video – it focused on the mother in a pool, alone, and showed her breathing deeply and calmly at the latter stages of labour.  I was stunned – I wanted to give birth like this!  How had she stayed so calm?  Every time I heard the term “hypnobirthing” from then on, I heard a positive story.

I read Marie Mongan’s and Sophie Fletcher’s hypnobirthing books, downloaded the Mindful Mamma meditation MP3s (which I listened to most nights to help me drift off to sleep), and also booked onto a Mindful Mamma course to get some practical techniques to use.  Not only was the workshop useful for me to learn how to apply the techniques, it also gave my husband Andy something practical and proactive to do during labour.

I also prepared for my birth choice by going to a local home birth group, which increased my confidence in feeling that home birth was the right choice for me, and with support from hypnobirthing, I could do it.

As we approached the birth, Andy and I gathered everything we had learnt together.  I picked out the techniques from the course and books that I liked the best and thought would work and talked them through with Andy.  We started thinking about the birth space – our kitchen – and how to set up a pool in there and make it really relaxing (which meant leaving up the Christmas fairy lights!).  Soon my kitchen was covered in visual and mental aids – mantras, paperwork with tips for labour, scan pictures and pictures to remind me of the meditations I’d covered.

As my due date approached, I was ready but not desperate for my baby to be born.  One of the mantras I’d found during hypnobirthing was “my baby knows the right time to be born” and therefore I trusted him/her to arrive when they were ready.  So instead of worrying or being impatient, I channelled my energy into enjoying maternity leave instead.

The night before I went into labour, I told a close friend that I felt suspicious that night that something would happen – and it did!

Labour

I woke up on the 10^th January at 4am with what I described to myself as “painful bowel movements”.  I tried to go back to sleep, but I kept feeling the same uncomfortable sensation so eventually around 5am decided to get up and eat something.  Having never experienced labour at this point, I wasn’t yet convinced that this was it.  I warned Andy that I was feeling something, but decided to wait until 7am to wake him up properly in case it was all for nothing.

As time went on, the feeling was starting to become more of a period-pain like cramp rather than bowel movements, and quite frequent but irregular.  To take my mind off things I picked up my knitting, listened to my meditation MP3s and labour playlist, and also tried out some deep breathing.  I started to become more convinced something real was happening, so just in case, I began to prep and de-clutter the kitchen, turned on the fairy lights, moved the fold-out mattress and my birth ball into the kitchen, and woke up Andy with a cup of tea.  I also set my oven timer to display 0:00 so that I didn’t clock-watch throughout the day as I wanted to experience the “time-distortion” that can happen with deep meditation.

Whilst Andy finished prepping the kitchen by bringing out the pool and mats, I started to think about using the TENS machine I had bought to see what it was like and if it did anything, and told a friend of mine (who was a big fan of TENS).  Her response was “do you really need it?” – and this really caught me in my tracks.  If I tried the TENS now, would this lead to a spiralling of different types of pain management and a different direction to where I wanted to go in?  As I didn’t *need* it, I decided against trying it out and I really thank that friend for catching me there and then!

After timing the sensations I was feeling, Andy suggested we call the midwife as I was still having 3 of them in 10 minutes.  Still not really believing I was in labour, I agreed that he should call them, but tell them it’s probably nothing.  When the midwife turned up at around 10am and did the first internal examination, I was 4cm dilated! I couldn’t believe it.

The next few hours were mostly tea and chat whilst the birth pool was filled.  I continued to bounce on the birth ball or laid down during what I now knew were contractions.  I was still mostly using long inhalations and exhalations to get through them, but occasionally led by Andy who did the 3-2-1-relax-relax-relax exercise and helped me visualise blowing a feather across a lake.  I remember smiling at the end of each contraction and reminding myself that each one would be bringing my baby closer to me.

By 1.30pm I was 6cm dilated and the half-filled birth pool was starting to look enticing.  Once it was full and I got in, I immediately relaxed into it and it gave me a chance to have a breather as things slowed down for a while (as generally happens in a pool).  I also found that I now had control over when I had a contraction.  If I stayed still, I didn’t have a contraction and could relax and rest. When I decided to change position, it triggered another contraction.  I used this benefit of the pool to pace myself for a while.

I was still using long in and out breaths to breathe through contractions at this point.  My helpers had been feeding me water and fizzy Lucozade – I soon asked for the fizz to be taken out of the Lucozade as it made me burp when I was trying to breathe deeply!

Another breathing technique I used was breathing through the phrasing of the music of the tracks on my labour playlist, which had been playing quietly in the background.  My choice of tracks was based on slow, relaxing songs and music with deep personal connections to me – such as our first dance song and some of my all-time favourite tracks.  Each track made me smile for different reasons – and I remember smiling after most of my contractions.  If a part of the music I really loved came on during a contraction, I really went with it, allowed myself to get lost in the sound for a moment and breathed along with the tune.

After an hour or so in the pool, the midwife suggested I get out for a while to get things moving along again.  After having gained control over my contractions in the pool, I was reluctant to get out at first as I knew they’d start coming fast again, but I also didn’t want things to slow down to the point they stopped.  I decided to get out and got dressed, and sure enough they started up quickly again.

My next check was at 5.30pm and at this inspection I was 8cm dilated but the midwife managed to stretch me to 9cm.  My waters still hadn’t broken at this point but were bulging and ready to go any second.  I could feel the pressure myself and could feel some frustration building.  There was some talk about the midwife breaking them for me, but because they were so close, we decided to wait.  Sure enough, as I was stood by the pool, they finally gave way and the pressure and frustration subsided quickly.

After that, it was time for me to get back in the pool again and back to having control over my contractions.  I began to think about what other breathing techniques I had covered in my preparation, and remembered watching a useful video about sounds women make during labour.  I decided to try out some “mooing”, conscious that the video had explained that the deeper the noise was, the better – so I focused on trying to keep the noise I was making relaxed and deep.  I “mooed” my way through the next couple of hours through to the pushing stage.  I also had my first “urge to push” soon after getting back into the pool – it took me by surprise as my body did just take over me for a second and there was nothing I could do about it.

At around 9.30pm, the midwife explained to me the “purple line” some women have on their lower backs when they are fully dilated, and that I had a very clear one showing in the pool, so there was no need to do another internal examination or get out of the pool again.

As things progressed further and I started feeling the urge to push again, I switched to balloon breath (clenching my fist and blowing into it), which I loved as a technique and had practiced before going into labour – I liked the fact you could feel that breathing that way changed the feeling of the out-breath internally, and would help during pushing.  My body switched from letting me have control over contractions to doing what it needed to do – it told me when to push, and using balloon breath, I just had to guide it, hold it and go with it.  I spent most of my time in the pool at this point on all fours/kneeling with my arms over my side as it felt the most comfortable, though I was recommended to “squat” a couple of times to allow gravity to give a little helping hand.

I started to feel like the head was beginning to come, and the midwife was really encouraging and guiding me at this point, telling me how “open” my body was, to go with the breaths and what my body was trying to do.  She seemed to completely get what I was aiming to do with my birth and birth plan.  Andy was using the mantras “we’re going to have a baby soon” and “we get to find out if it is a boy or a girl”, and we also used another anchoring technique we’d developed where our foreheads touched and sometimes making eye contact.  It really helped me engage with him and what we were doing.

My breathing at that point was switching between balloon and deep breathing, and when I felt the stretch as the head started to come, I remember it made me gasp (like stepping on something sharp) – but I still managed to maintain control.  As the cycle of the head coming out and contracting continued, I got to a point where I could “hold” the breath and push to stop it retracting in so far again, and each contraction then made the next push and stretch a little stronger and motivated me to keep going – our baby would be here soon if I kept doing this.

As the stretch got bigger and bigger, eventually there was one more “argh” from me, and the head came out.  I was encouraged to give one more little push to get the chin out, and remember it felt like a little “pop” as it was born.  Andy remembers that seeing the head there staring out of the water was a very strange experience!  With one more big push, the baby came out and was guided straight up onto my chest and wrapped in towels in the water.

I asked the time and was surprised it was still the 10^th January, at 11.29pm – I thought I’d laboured into the next day.  At this point, I was sitting back in the pool and Andy was round me, with the baby on my left side.  We looked at each other and then I held the baby back slightly so we could see – and as we suspected (and secretly wanted, but wouldn’t admit it), he was a boy!

Here is her story….

Photograph courtesy of Rachel Jane Photography

“My hypnobirthing story! I’m not sure if I’d recommend hypnobirthing or not mainly because I was so calm I had an unplanned home birth!

I was monitored more in my second pregnancy due to high blood pressure during my 1st labour where I was given lots of medication, had a very stressful labour and suffered with PND for months after. I knew my raised blood pressure was white coat syndrome and panic not pre-eclampsia but doctors would not agree.

I decided to use Sophie’s hypnobirthing audio book so I could listen to it before and during hospital appointments and labour, it worked so well got signed off to give birth in the birthing centre and was delighted as I could try a water birth and less intervention.

My baby had still not arrived at 41weeks and a induction date was looming, I kept calm listening to the book and making a visualisation board and phrases, I was so calm I agreed to my husband having a work night out an hour away!

I went to my mums house so I wasn’t alone just incase and my 3yr old could stay the night. I started getting a little uncomfortable about 7pm and had a bath, sat on my birth in ball and listened to the book, by 9pm I was calm and talking to my parents but asked my husband to come home and get me on the way. We arrived home at 11pm and I had a shower, contractions started and we decided to time them! 5mins apart 1min long. So we called the birthing centre who suggested having a bath as my waters hadn’t broken.

In the bath my contractions became intense and continuous so I got out and dressed to go in. By the time I got downstairs I needed to push! Yes really called my husband down as he was getting the hospital bags. Laid on the sofa we could feel her head and sac still intact so he called an ambulance which arrived 7 minutes later and my 6lb 12oz baby girl was born in her waters 6mins after they arrived!

I felt calm, in control and concentrated on my breathing and visualisations so managed without any pain relief in a rather quick and unplanned home birth . Baby Daisy is now 5 months old and I’ve enjoyed every minute of it this time. Even now when I hear Sophie’s voice I feel a sense of calm “

How calm can give you your voice.

By Sophie Fletcher

Author of Mindful Hypnobirthing Instagram @mindfulmammauk

You’re about to give birth.  How do you think you are going to be?  Quiet, noisy? What would you prefer?  To be calm on the inside but noisy on the outside, or calm on the outside but noisy on the inside?  Or perhaps you want to be both.

Birth is a primal event, it’s instinctive and powerful and sometimes unpredictable. And each one is totally unique. You may find you are quiet, but on the day you may feel you need to make noise and that is ok. In fact, both are completely normal when they are instinctive.

As a hypnobirthing teacher and doula with over 10 years experience I have seen a lot of hypnobirthers. I have seen quiet hypnobirthers, so quiet, that midwives didn’t know they were in labour, and I have seen noisy hypnobirthers, so noisy that I could hear the midwives whispering “she’s not really hypnobirthing is she?”.

Well, breaking news she is hypnobirthing.  She is vocal and active because that’s a normal instinctive birth behaviour. What she isn’t is frightened, anxious or afraid of what people might think when she roars. She may not look calm on the outside but she is in a great space internally.

True, calm may look quiet, but sometimes it looks strong and primal and noisy. Internal calm is the very antithesis of quiet – it is a woman who knows she has a voice. She is prepared, a woman who knows deep down that she can do this, whatever happens.

Calmness it’s an inner state of mind.  It’s a place where you are present, aware, connected.  A state of mind in which you can make decisions from a place of strength rather than fear. It enables women to slow down, consider and reflect, to step away from kneejerk decision making that can so often lead to regret or loss of power.

Research is beginning show how anxiety can interfere with choice-making cells in the pre-frontal cortex, the part of our brain associated with high order thinking. When anxious or desperate, we eagerly accept and apply advice, good or bad, we are less discriminating.  When you are calm internally you can make informed choices because you understand consent and can find the time and space to make the right choices for you.

Calmness is also about the external environment you choose to birth in, reducing interruptions, thinking about the things you can see, feel or hear. Hypnobirthing helps you understand the unconscious processes that go on every moment of our loves, the constant interaction between the unconscious and environment. They give you the ability to learn how to manage your own space, and to organise it in your own unique way of ‘calm’.  It encourages you to explore that aspect of yourself, and to take make the birth space your own. To be comfortable with moving things around, rather than thinking “am I allowed to move the bed”.

If you are birth partner, you may “trying to be calm” on the outside for your partner but internally be in turmoil.  You may also project your own anxieties and fears onto your partner. Your assumptions about the noises she makes, may be based on your own learned expectations of birth, and tap into your need to ‘rescue her’. Instead, mindfulness based approaches can teach you to be observant of your own feelings, to be comfortable with your own discomfort.  As a partner you will learn techniques to keep the birth space free of your own anxieties and to be a responsive but not reactive birth partner.

By learning certain aspects of your own behaviour and by understanding birth, as a birthing partner, external calmness can be a genuine reflection of your internal state and an acceptance of her experience.  Your partner will know and feel this deeply.

For all those of you about to birth, know this – calm can be internal, it can be external. Calm can be quiet, it can be noisy but most of all it is powerful and it is strong. Calm creates the space for the energy of birth to roll through, and for you to feel in control of letting go free of inhibition, free of fear and connected with the deepest part of yourself.

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A placebo is a suggestion. You are told something will make you better, so you believe that you are being offered a drug or vitamins that will improve your situation in some way.  There is overwhelming evidence that demonstrates, in different ways, how when you think you are getting better, improving physical performance, reducing pain with an intervention, or even taking a drug you know to be a placebo, your body makes actual physical changes in line with the suggestion of what that placebo is meant to do.

The chemistry in your brain changes, just because of how you think!

This means that if I were to give you a drug and tell you that it would get rid of morning sickness, but it was in fact a capsule filled with cornflour, you would more than likely see an improvement in your morning sickness.  This is not to say that you aren’t experiencing morning sickness and it’s all in your mind, what it shows is that if you are experiencing it your brain is able to make adjustments to the chemistry in your body that reduce that feeling of nausea.

Even more interesting is the power of ‘nocebo’. If I were running a randomised drug trail I would have to tell you about the side effects of the drug you were receiving even if you were receiving the placebo. Research shows that this suggestion also causes chemical changes in the brain, and that people receiving a placebo experience the side effects of the real drug.  You can read a lot more about this in Prof Irving Kirsch’s book ”The Emperor’s New Drugs”.  Kirsch used Freedom of Information to extract trials from drug companies that hadn’t been published and he dissected them, particularly in relation to antidepressants. This was the book that really helped me get to grips with the extent to which the effects of placebo were understood but hidden from us.

The programme also talked about the role of expectation in the experience of pain. If I were to tell you that something is painful, you will be more likely to experience pain even if there is none.  Evidence now also shows that how we think about pain, actually can overpower strong opiate drugs such as remifentanyl, which in some hospitals is offered through an iv in labour.  When receiving a positive suggestion, the front part of the brain becomes more active.  As an area associated with endogenous pain modulatory system, including the anterior cingulate cortex, which releases dopamine and your body’s own natural opoids.  If you are given a negative suggestion of pain or of side effects, it activates the area of your brain more associated anxiety and the increased levels of pain, the hippocampus, in particular the amygdala.  You can read more about expectation and pain here.

Pretty amazing, I think. So how does this type of suggestion relate to birth?  A great deal and sadly it’s completely under explored, trials that are set up rarely take account of the nature of hypnosis, suggestion and the subtleties of how it works, but I’ll talk about that in another blog.

First of all if you are told to expect pain, you are likely to trigger activity in the hippocampus and amygdala during birth, the part of your brain associated with anxiety and increased levels of pain. This is also known as your limbic system.

On the other hand, imagine that you have been given the positive suggestion by your doctor or midwife that birth is completely normal, that it’s perfectly manageable; perhaps  society around you told you it was just an intense pressure and it didn’t last long.  Or you were given a drug during labour and told it was an epidural, even though it wasn’t, what would happen?  I know anesthetists that have said on siting an epidural, but not administering it, women say, “oh that’s so much better, oh that’s wonderful thank you”.  I know many midwives who agree that women ring or come in complaining of stomach upset; when they are examined and told they are in active labour, their pain suddenly goes through the roof, ‘they can’t cope’ or ‘they need and epidural’.

Placebos, have given us insight into the profound changes our beliefs and expectations can make in the chemistry of our brain. Hypnosis is a vehicle where we can ethically use the power of suggestion with the full knowledge of our clients.

Preparing for birth using hypnosis, makes absolute sense, it is based on genuine contemporary research around expectation, belief and the extraordinary power of our minds to alter our experience in each and every moment.

You can read more about the power of suggestion, placebo and pain in my book ‘Mindful Hypnobirthing’ and by attending one of our Mindful Mamma classes, which show you how you can use hypnosis to create a positive experience of birth.

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Hannah’s Story – the birth of Amelia Grace

I just want to say that I was told about hypno birthing by my sister in law who practised it for both of her children and they are both really good sleepers and so I thought if that could be the route to a peaceful nights sleep then I was willing to give it a go!

My husband and I attended the course probably just under half way through my pregnancy and I then tried to listen to the downloads about three or four times a week and more towards the end of the pregnancy as this really helped me to relax.

My labour started on Monday 14th March which was a week past my due date. My surges were coming on a regular basis for about five hours and I was listening to the tracks in the hospital room and really in my birth zone but then they slowed right down until we got to a point where they suggested I either went home or onto a ward. I didn’t want  to be sat on a ward when I could go back home and relax in my own surroundings, so this is what we chose to do.

My surges then started on a more regular basis about 10pm and we called the hospital about midnight, only to find that not only was the hospital that I was meant to going back to was closed but so too was the other main hospital in the city which meant we had to go to a hospital that was 30 minute drive away! Whilst speaking to one of the coordinators she said that from speaking to me on the phone I seemed quite calm and she just didn’t think I was dealing with the pain very well and thought from speaking to me that I was only about 3cm dilated. My husband then spoke to her and said that I had been practising hypno birthing and that I was saying that I was ready to push so he would like to get me to a hospital all the same!

My husband put the tracks on in the car – much to me telling him not to but this really helped keep me in my zone and really calm and relaxed.

We were welcomed into the most calm and relaxing atmosphere and I was able to use their one and only pool room. They did ask to inspect me and I said at this stage I was happy for them to do so and I was fully dilated!

The midwife we had was amazing and knew all about hypno birthing and completely left my husband and I to it and literally sat at the back of the room and just checked on the babies heartbeat every now and again which I was happy for them to do. She had a junior doctor with her and she informed him of what the NICE guidelines were but what they were going to do differently because of us practising hypno birthing. Amelia Grace was born at 5.30am with me only having had 4 paracetamol and 2 codeine, a tens machine for when I was out of the water for my surges and then the water for the majority of the labour.

The hypno birthing practise that I did meant that I was fully in control of the birth that I wanted to have and made it a very calm and dare I say it, pleasant experience!

Thank you so much for giving me the chance to use this amazing technique to bring the best out in me and to have safely brought our daughter into the world- and best of all- so far, she is a great sleeper!!

Thanks again Sophie.

Hannah, Matt and Amelia. X

I decided to become a Hypnobirthing practitioner four years ago after my second hypnobirth. My daughter was born in rather unusual circumstances (my son was rushed to A&E whilst I was in labour) and from then on, having still had such a positive birth experience because of my knowledge and understanding, I knew I had to spread the word.

I initially trained with a large UK Hypnobirthing program, before finding Mindful Mamma. Having worked with both methods I now solely teach the Mindful approach. I find parents immediately connect and engage with the relaxed and informative way it is taught, the techniques are simple, and the resources and support they receive from Mindful Mamma HQ is really unique.

Since parents are able to learn everything they need in one day, I think it’s the most accessible and easy way to fit hypnobirthing into their busy schedules.

The set of practice tracks are very user-friendly, the 3,2,1 cue into relaxation is simple, and Sophie’s voice has a lovely warmth which is often commented upon in class. As a Hypnotherapist, I really see the value in teaching the Mindfulness element of Hypnobirthing, and the importance of having a tool kit of relaxation techniques that works for everyone.

The most frequent feedback I get after the class is, ‘It just makes perfect sense’, which is testament to being soundly based in physiology and psychology. It also quickly demystifies labour for both mums and dads. The emphasis on the birth partner’s role really encourages couples to approach their birth as a well-prepared team.

One of the great pleasures of teaching is seeing couples’ confidence and enthusiasm building throughout the day, and leaving feeling so positive and calm at the end.

The support from Mindful Mamma HQ as a practitioner is excellent, the centralised bookings system makes it easy for me to organise my groups and connect with clients, and keeps the admin side of things simple. I also really like the breadth of experience we have between us as a community of practitioners, and often share ideas and research via our Facebook group.

Bookings come mostly via the Mindful Mamma’s website, my own Facebook advertising, and many just by word of mouth. I’ve found that for every couple I teach, they recommend me to at least one other, so bookings continue to grow.

This year I tested the market in Glasgow (where I grew up) and found a real demand for classes, so I now fly up every other month to teach groups and one-to-ones, as well as having regular bookings at home here in Kent.

No two classes are ever the same, which I find lovely, and definitely keeps me on my toes! 2016 looks to be another busy, but very rewarding year.

You can find out more about Leonie and her classes on her practitioner webpage.

Your intuition knows how to birth.

Trusting your birth intuition can make all the difference.

by Sophie Fletcher

I wanted to talk to you about birth intuition today, as it is so important with birth.  One of my mantras is ‘trust your intuition’, but it’s a bit of a floppy suggestion, what does that actually mean?  What is your birth intuition and how do you listen to it when it’s trying to tell you something?

I was at a birth recently, a super fast, second birth with no drugs at all, a baby girl who was a little over 8.5 lbs with a physiological third stage and no nicks or tears.  The look on the mothers face afterwards – it was awesome.  For her it was a completely different experience to her first birth when labour was hurried along by breaking her waters, which lead to an epidural, episiotomy and forceps delivery.  After her first birth, she was so shaky she couldn’t hold her baby.

What a difference!  But it wasn’t just because she was a second mum, true, she prepared well with hypnosis for birth but she also listened to her birth intuition this time and didn’t try and tick the labour checklist off with every little niggle or set of Braxton Hicks, falling into the trap of thinking labour had started while her body was still just warming up.   She didn’t go to the hospital too early and she listened to what her body was telling her to do.

It was an interesting birth, my head told me that she would be early, for certain reasons, but I didn’t feel it. I was in no hurry to pack my back, and the birth somehow felt distant to me.  I didn’t get many texts from the mum, as she was so busy with other things.  Then the Thursday before the birth, at 40+3 I packed my bag. I didn’t even think about it, I suddenly stopped myself and thought “Hmmm why have I done that?” This commonly happens, somehow I know when to pack a bag.

Then on Friday I cancelled a tennis match that I really wanted to play in. It would have taken me 1.5 hours  away from my client, and although I’d played a match on the Thursday, this time is was different; it didn’t feel right, like a hint of pressure in my chest when I thought about going.  I even had a vivid dream that night, that her labour was so quick they wouldn’t have time to fill the pool!

Sure enough Saturday afternoon I got a text saying that she was going to call her mother in law, for ‘a bit of security’ to look after her other child. I knew then that this baby was coming, even though she wasn’t in labour.   She wrote, “nothing is happening, thought it was the start in the morning, but they must have been Braxton hicks contractions as they stopped”.   She reflected afterwards that if this were her first birth, she would have probably gone to the hospital at that point.

Then in the evening I got a message saying things had started and that she was fine, then later in the evening, I got a very laid back text saying things were moving along they were 5 minutes apart and lasting 1min30 seconds. I just knew, rang and asked if she wanted me there, so she said “I think you should come over but don’t hurry” (when a very laid back second time mum says this, in a spaced out way, I hurry!).

Sure enough she was at home with her music on, just rocking with the contractions and quietly breathing through them.   The dad wanted to go in, but I reassured him that she’d know when to go in. If she’s asking “is it time to go in” or it’s your suggestion as a birth partner, it’s too early.  After the next contraction had passed she said, “no I’ll wait a bit”, then the next contraction came  and she said “now it’s time”;  in the space of 10 minutes it was time to go.  Afterwards she said they were just different, and she just felt it was time to go, her birth intuition had kicked in.

Once we arrived in labour suite they were down to 3 minutes apart, after a quick exam she was 6/7 cms dilated, shortly after that her waters broke.  Her baby was born just 30minutes later, after she quietly gave one little push to little to bring babies head into the world.   No guided pushing or straining, her little girl slid her head and shoulders out, had a good look around and then the rest of her followed very quickly.  Within 10 mins baby was latched on, followed by the placenta.

For me this birth was all about ‘just knowing’ when things were starting, “just knowing’ the right time to go into hospital or call the midwives. This mum had listening to her Mindful Mamma mp3s every day, but had also been busy with a toddler and many other happy distractions in her life, so she hadn’t pounced on those early warm up contractions, instead trusting her that birth intuition.   It also interested me how more and more, I just ‘know’ too. My bag is always packed at the right time, I always have childcare in place, and well, you know, whatever you believe, that dream was true!

Just the difference between two contractions was enough to make the choice to go the hospital. Prepare so you are relaxed and trusting in birth, let go of your fear using hypnosis if you can.  When you get near to your date see those niggles and on off contractions as warm ups, stop starting maybe until your body just clicks into the rhythm of labour.  Stop thinking about it, switch your focus to something else that can absorb you, don’t intellectualise. Trust you will know, here is a checklist:

Listening to your birth intuition:

• Trust hunches, don’t ‘think’.
• If it doesn’t feel right or you are asking someone else’s opinion, consider not doing it.
• If you have to question if it’s the right time to go to hospital, it is probably far too early. (Don’t let other people push you into going, research shows that women often end up in hospital too early as their partner wants to hand over responsibility). If you recognize these, “shall we go? Maybe yes – just to be on the safe side, “Why don’t we go in just to get checked”, “You can get settled in. oh, okay” it’s not the right time.  It should be a “Let’s go, now!” from the mum.
• If you are able to make a cup of tea, have nap either in bed or the bath it’s too early to go in.

Signs to go in hospital or call the midwife in a normal birth;

•  It just ‘feels’ different.
• Your contractions are 3-4 minutes apart and lasting longer than a minute – this really does mean a minute or more – early contractions may get regular, but may still be shorter than a minute, maybe lasting 40 seconds or so, then may drop off for a while before starting up again, then they may be more spaced apart but lasting longer. Some antenatal teachers may say strong and long.
• You have pressure in your bottom, not your back  – you feel as if you need to have a poo.
• You really don’t want to get in the car (this is unfortunate if you are off to hospital).
• You don’t really want to hold a conversation with everyone around you.
• Something tells you that you absolutely have to go to hospital now, or call the midwife.

 There has long been a debate on the web about hypnobirthing and how long a hypnobirthing course should be – how many classes and over what period of time you should attend. I’ve taught several different methods, including Mongan and Leclaire methods, Mongan teaches over a 5 sessions, LeClaire a day, and others over a weekend.

Having taught all these methods if I’m honest I’ve seen absolutely no difference in outcomes however many sessions and over which amount of time.  I’m very careful about recording my outcomes as well.   There is no evidence at all to show that a hypnobirthing course over 5 sessions is better than a day or a weekend; when I stopped teaching the same course over a weekend and spread it over the 5 sessions I had the same outcomes.  In fact many women would only really start focussing on the birth quite late in their pregnancy, and it wasn’t uncommon for someone to go into labour before the hypnobirthing course had finished if they were doing it over 5 weeks. Now that I teach a day class I get people attending the class the week before they are due and go on to have a great birth experience.  It can be a lightbulb moment for women and they can change their thoughts about birth,in a way that will impact positively on their experience, in less than an hour sometimes.

When we founded Mindful Mamma the aim was to create a hypnobirthing course, which was effective, short and affordable.   You can read about our ethos here. Both Mia and myself have had 16 years of experience as hypnobirthing practitioners, Mia is also a clinical psychologist and I’m a hypnotherapist.  The shortest we could condense, what we considered, the requisite learning into was 6 hours.

Going to a class taught by experienced practitioners, either trained in psychological techniques or as Midwives or NCT teachers makes an enormous difference.  I am constantly blown away by feedback from clients who say that their practitioner moved them and their partner forward preparing for the birth in ways they couldn’t have imagined.  I think that skilled practitioner is able to do this quickly even in a group situation.

The secret in a good hypnobirth is not coming back each week, the secret is taking responsibility for what you have learned and applying it yourself by practicing every day.  When I used to teach a hypnobirthing course (Mongan) over 5 weeks I found that many women didn’t always practice everyday, they waited until the next session and weren’t taking ownership of what they were learning. In fact the person that taught me HypnoBirthing was ruthless and would threaten to throw people of the course saying “you’re wasting your money, your time, my time and taking up a place of a couple that really want to do this”.

So why and how can you learn effectively with a shorter hypnobirthing course?

 Pavlov’s dog the earliest experiment in body conditioning is an example of how simple it is. The researchers would play a metronome and feed a dog, until that dog would salivate at hearing the metronome even if the food wasn’t there. If you are taught simple easy to use techniques you can confidently do this at home. For example burning lavender each time you listen to your relaxation mp3, means that after doing this regularly your body will relax just to the smell of lavender without the mp3 even being on.  We even embed direction on using the techniques into the mp3 we give out in the class so that when you listen to it, you are learning the techniques unconsciously as well as consciously.

You can continue to learn after the hypnobirthing course as well; we have a book list written by mums for mums that will teach you about birth in a positive way.  Again you make the choice to pick up or read a book on that list.  Reading it yourself is important. If I were to read the outline the book or read excerpts in a class for you, it would not necessarily have the same impact, and the unconscious process that you experience would be different.

As an experienced hypnotherapist I know that I can make great changes in my clients whether it’s anxiety, phobias, or confidence by teaching them to take ownership of the changes they wish to see.   I always teach them self-hypnosis and other cognitive exercises, as I know that being an active participant is the greatest tool in change and achieving what you’ve chosen to achieve.  As a hypnotherapist I rarely see a client for longer than 4 sessions (four hours) and I like to inspire change from within them rather than my clients being dependent on me to do it with them or for them.

Whether you do a hypnobirthing course 5 sessions, over a weekend or a day, the emphasis should be on practice and simplicity. You should feel confident enough to adapt those techniques because you understand the basics of how they work. In this way I know that Mindful Mamma is empowering women and their birthing partners to take responsibility and to make their own choices.  How do I know? Because of the feedback I get from them.

Occasionally there is someone on the class that I think would benefit from longer contact time, but they have an option to come and see me privately which some do, but for no more than a couple of sessions.   Personally I feel that the option of doing a class, then further work on a private basis if I needed it is a great one and means that someone can engage as much or as little with it as they wish.

So if you are looking for a hypnobirthing class and it includes the following then it sounds about right, irrespective of length.

Any hypnobirthing course should be long enough to include the following

• How your hormones respond to external environments, (people and places), and internal environments (thoughts)
• Understanding choice and confident questioning
• How your birthing partner can support you using hypnosis
• The techniques themselves
• A hypnosis fear release

Happy hypnobirthing!