I have been banging on about hypnobirthing for just over 6 years now. I now get paid to do so! I am first-hand experience, evidence that hypnobirthing is one of the most powerful tools available to expectant parents, their babies, medical professionals and potential parents.

So here is my low-down of 5 of the most amazing things about hypnobirthing;

• A toolkit for ALL births - A huge misconception about hypnobirthing is that it is something you achieve. Think of it more like a toolbox, that you’ve bought from your local DIY shop. It is full of items what you can pull out and use, as and when you need them. A course with Bless Your Birth will fill that toolbox and teach you why you need them and how to use them. That toolbox can be then used for homebirth, waterbirth, unplanned/planned induction, unplanned/planned caesarean, birth centre or labour ward births, on a bed or floor. Literally, your toolbox to take wherever you go.

• “If you don’t know your options, you don’t have any.” - A chunk of a Bless Your Birth course is dedicated to giving my clients an insight as to some of the choices that may come their way and showing them how they can navigate their way confidently through them to make an informed decision that they are happy with. This comes with decisions you may need to make regarding ‘What if i go over my estimated due date?’ ‘I’ve been told I have to be induced,’ ‘How is induced labour different to spontaneous labour?’ ‘What if the birth pool isn’t available when i get to the birth centre?’ just to name a few.

• Less likely to need strong pain relief - When you fear something, your body automatically tenses. Such as when you see a spider or watch a scary film. When your muscles are tense, they find it so much harder to work easily and effectively, causing discomfort whilst they try and do what they are needing to do. Labour and birth is the work of muscles, just like clenching your fist. You do not fear clenching your fist, therefore it doesn’t hurt when you do it. Those who subconsciously fear labour and birth experience pain because their uterine muscles are tense. The more pain they experience during a contraction, the more the fear builds and the more tense the muscles are, and yes you guessed it…the more pain they experience. Eliminate the fear + relaxed muscles = reduced need for pain relief.

• The ‘hypno’ in hypnobirthing /hypnosis for birth - This is what sets hypnobirthing aside from all the other antenatal classes you may have heard of such as NCT. The hypnosis element. It is a key feature because over the years we have learnt that whilst your conscious/rational/thinking brain might go through pregnancy thinking ‘oh it’s fine, ill just relax and see what happens’ when thinking about giving birth, your subconscious has other ideas. A bit like a computer hard drive, your subconscious is always alert to what you see and hear; observing, storing, creating habits, emotional responses, reflexes and beliefs. Hypnosis reprograms your subconscious mind with positive messages, by distracting you from your environment and your body and sending you into a state of deep-relaxation. The subconscious mind loves repetition, therefore the more you practice, the quicker it will be to get into a state of deep relaxation.

• Impacts your baby before and after birth! - There is a world of research out there that focuses on the stress hormone, cortisol, and how this impacts not only pregnancy, labour and birth, but how it impacts baby directly. Complications such as going in to early labour, baby having a low birth weight, gestational diabetes and pre-eclampsia give us a pretty good reason to do what we can as expectant mums to reduced cortisol in our blood. Taking the time each day for practising the techniques you learn about in a hypnobirthing course, directly reduces the stress hormone in your blood. Relaxation, breathing techniques, massage/touch, mindset, reducing fear, eliminating the fear of the unknown all work towards reducing negative hormones and increasing birth hormones, as well as giving your baby the very best environment to be born into.

Watch out for my next blog, ‘Another 5 amazing things about hypnobirthing’ including pre-natal bonding , mindset for life , self-care for pregnancy, shortens labour and “If only I knew about hypnobirthing the first time round…”

Want to know more? Contact me to find out more or book your place on a

1 to 1 or group Bless Your Birth Hypnobirthing course in West Yorkshire.