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 “

“I would really like to share my birth story with other expectant mothers please as I feel that hypnobirthing allowed me to have the birth I never thought would be possible.”

“This time 3 weeks ago I was  searching for positive hypnobirthing induction birth stories trying to keep a positive frame of mind about my upcoming labour. I had agreed to be induced at 41+5. I am so pleased to now be able to share my own positive birth story!

In the build up to my induction date I tried to kick start my labour as naturally as possible with the usual attempts of eating spicy food, pineapple, clary Sage oil baths and massage, bouncing on my birthing ball, long walks, hypnotherapy, acupressure points- the list goes on. With no success I tried 2 sweeps over week 41 but again, no success.

I had initially started learning hypnobirthing techniques to reduce my fear and anxiety around birth, due to a spinal condition I had been told I was unable to have an epidural and that c-section may be the best method of delivery for me. My partner and I attended Fernanda’s mindful mama course in Loughborough and immediately felt the benefits of viewing pregnancy and birth in a more positive way. My partner and I both felt that Fernanda had a very calming influence on us and so, following the course I asked Fernanda to be my Doula during labour.

I went into hospital on Saturday night and had the first hormone pessary, I ended up having 2 of these over the next 24 hours because they kept on falling out. My body did respond to the hormones and surges built up and slowed back down repeatedly over 2-3 days. This was not the labour I had envisioned or planned. At one stage while being monitored my baby’s heart rate had increased and the midwives needed to find a clear baseline to establish whether or not he was distressed. Using the Mindful hypnobirthing MP3 I managed to calm the baby’s heart rate back to normal. This for me was clear evidence of how a calm mother can help to create a calm baby.

The hypnobirthing techniques I had learned helped me to stay relaxed and maintain an open mind throughout my birthing journey. Fernanda’s knowledge and experience helped us feel in control; she empowered us to make informed decisions during my time in hospital.

At 4pm on the Monday I was taken to the delivery suite and started on the hormone drip, things got intense pretty quickly. I used pregnancy and birth affirmations through headphones, a cooling eye mask to help block out my surroundings and any distractions. I also used a tens machine and gas and air to help manage the discomfort of surges. I listened to the Contraction Wave MP3 when surges became more intense. At 5.17am baby Neo made his arrival weighing 9lb 12oz, I had a natural delivery and extended skin-to-skin contact before my partner cut the cord and Neo was checked over and weighed. He is now 3 weeks old and people regularly comment on what an alert and chilled out baby he is.

As a family we cannot thank Fernanda enough for all her help and support, we now highly recommend hypnobirthing and having a Doula to anyone we know expecting a baby!”

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.

SaveSave

SaveSave

SaveSave

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.

SaveSave

Huxley’s Birth Story by Sophie Addison

On Wednesday I spent the day feeling more and more uncomfortable and went to bed feeling increasingly so.
At 12.30 ish I dreamt that my waters had gone (this was not a dream) when I woke I jumped out of bed and my waters went in a very movie style way!!

My hypnobirthing played a very important role here as adrenaline could of taken over.
I decided to take a shower and listen to some hypnobirthing tracks with the plan of going back to bed however by the time I was out my contractions were 5mins apart and the white horse birthing centre recommend I went in to be checked.
The hypnobirthing music had me in a very calm and centred place before leaving home I felt totally relaxed and serene.

On route to hospital we played the affirmations and by the time we arrived I was in a very calm mindful place.

Sophie in the second stage of labour

We arrived and were shown to the most amazing birthing room complete with pool, swing ,birthing balls and lots of space.
I was now contracting every 3 mins with increasing intensity however I remained at this stage for the next 16hours !! (My baby was back to back, which I did not know until he was delivered as I had made it very clear if anything like this was to happen do not tell me.)
I used my hypnobirthing music & affirmations to stay focused through out.
In fact when the track ended I would only speak to say to my husband to say “play the lady.” Now a joke between us.
The hypnobirthing tracks played for the full 20hrs and I am totally convinced I would of ended up with intervention if it wasn’t for my calm hypnotic state all thanks to the techniques we learnt on the course.

Eventually (16hrs) in I felt I was nearing the pushing phase and got into the pool where I delivered my healthy baby boy at 19.36 on the 23rd June.

Although it was a long labour I wouldn’t change it for anything. For me birthing my baby albeit intense at times was the most incredible experience of my life.

The skills learnt on the course and listening to the tracks throughout my pregnancy certainly got me through some tough moments. For this I can’t thank you enough.

And I never thought I would say this I can’t wait to do it again!

Birth truly is beautiful. If only all women could believe it. Sophie Addison

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

Of course it is!

by Sophie Fletcher, author of Mindful Hypnobirthing

@mindfulmamma   facebook.com/mindfulmamma

Mindful Hypnobirthing

I hear the words “I’m falling asleep to the hypnobirthing mp3s”  all the time, and when I do a part of me inside is jumping up and down shouting “yes, it’s working!”.   Are you so deeply relaxed while listening to your hypnobirthing mp3s  that you don’t hear anything at all?  Are you waking up on the count or do you slip into sleep and wake up the following morning (which is mostly what I did)?.

If you are, it’s perfectly normal.  You are most likely not just responding to the hypnobirthing mp3s but also the environment you are in.  Because, I’m guessing, that when this happens you are usually listening to them somewhere where you feel safe, uninterrupted, comfortable? Like your bed just before you go to sleep at night.

As a hypnotherapist I see all sorts of responses – from people who heard every word I said, and everything around them, but see great results, to others who talk to me under hypnosis and don’t remember who also get great results. We all respond in different ways.

If you’ve done a class or read a book, you will know all about oxytocin and adrenaline.

You should be aware by now that it is far easier to listen to your hypnobirthing mp3s when you are in an environment where you feel private, safe and unobserved. When you put the two together, then woosh – it’s a magic combination. Your conscious mind waves a little white flag and can really let go, allowing your unconscious to go to town on embedding all those wonderful suggestions that it’s receiving.

This is why when we talk about your birth environment, we mean what we say. It is important.  Our brains respond to feeling secure, cosy and uninterrupted. Get your birth environment right and your relaxation is boosted.

Remember that pesky little hormone called adrenaline?  If you were to listen to your mp3s, rocking over a ball, in the sitting room with the curtains open on a sunny day, with people walking up and down your street outside, perhaps at the back of your mind thinking someone may knock on the door, you may not go as deeply – simply because you need to be more alert to what’s going on around you.

Add a loving partner into that mix to mind your space, then you may go deeper because you know that someone else can answer the door, close the curtains, answer the phone or see to other children or pets.  When listening to your hypnobirthing mp3s while on a birth ball your mind keeps you a little more alert so you stay safely on it.

Are you starting to see how depth of hypnosis goes up and down according to feelings of safety and privacy?

Hypnobirthing relaxation on a ball.

Some people respond quicker, some slower but the good news is everybody can train themselves to relax and let go in all sorts of environments.

It can be really helpful to practise listening to your hypnobirthing mp3s in different positions, at different times of the day.  I even ask mums who are nervous of a car drive to the hospital to practice sitting in the passenger seat with headphones on (make sure that you or your partner don’t drive with it on speakers).   This way your unconscious will associate those feelings of relaxation with those different environments – with your bed, or place of comfort that association is already there but you may have to practice a bit to make sure that you can confidently switch off in ANY situation.

What if you are not going as deeply and you hear every word?

That’s normal too. There are two schools of hypnosis thought – state and non-state.  State means, being in a “state of hypnosis that is induced usually by an external means” non-state is the belief that actually we are in hypnosis all of the time, we are constantly open to suggestion, and the more you hear a suggestion the more deeply it goes.  Marie Mongan’s comment that hypnobirthing is about de-hypnotising women is very true –  suggestions you have absorbed over the years have created a belief system about birth that you had before you came on a class, read a book or had an experience that caused you to doubt those beliefs.

Think about your affirmations! They are suggestions that change the way you feel at a deep level, they work, but you say them out loud every day and you hear every word.  If the Doctor gives you a set of placebo pills and says “this is going to make you feel so deeply relaxed during labour that your body is going to have an endorphin party”, then evidence shows you will – but you weren’t in hypnosis when they tell you this? Or are you!

The most important thing to know is that hypnosis works, believing that it works has true power.  The more you listen to your hypnobirthing mp3s, to positive messages and suggestions all around you the more rooted those suggestions are, whether you hear them or you don’t.

Just sit back, relax and let go of any doubt, confidently knowing that every time you listen you are teaching your body and your mind to relax into a positive experience of birth.

SaveSave

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.