Hypnobabies Hypnotic Childbirth

I used Hypnobabies hypnotic childbirth program as part of my preparation for childbirth. Did it work? I don’t think I can give a short answer to that, but I do think it helped me. For many women it provides complete pain relief and is said to shorten labor.

I was diagnosed with PCOS (polycystic ovary syndrome), a leading cause of infertility, when I was 19. I am now 36 and just had my first baby. During all those years of infertility, I was told over and over again that I would need medical intervention if I were to have children. I had surgery on my fallopian tubes and ovaries, took drugs to treat PCOS, and underwent painful tests to find out if I had other fertility issues. During my previous marriage I even used Clomid and Femara, two common fertility drugs, and had an IUI (intruterine insemination) with no luck. I think I felt that if I had to get pregnant with medical intervention, that at least I could give birth naturally, without intervention. So, I had decided on a home birth with a midwife long before I got pregnant.

When I remarried last fall, I was pleasantly surprised to find that my husband was supportive of the idea of a home birth. We had no idea I would get pregnant so easily, just 4 months after we were married I was staring in disbelief at two pink lines on a pregancy test. I had never seen one of those tests with TWO lines before! Shortly after the pregnancy was confirmed, I was looking for a midwife. I found a midiwfe I felt comfortable with and she recommended Hypnobabies. The situation with the midwife went south for reasons unrelated to the pregnancy. I was very upset that I had lost my home birth and I was not able to afford to pay a second midwife, so I resigned myself to a hospital birth.

My OB agreed to my use of Hypnobabies and agreed that I could labor without an IV and also suggested that I just sneak in food to deal with the issue of the hospital policy against laboring mothers eating. She also suggested waiting as long as possible before going to the hospital to avoid interventions. It looked like I was at least going to get some of what I wanted. I started studying the Hypnobabies program and trying to prepare for a natural birth.

Then I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes. The OB insisted that there was no safe way to labor without a 24 hour fetal monitor and an insulin IV – and there was to be NO food at all since I had a 50 percent chance of a C-section. A second doctor who saw me while I was in the hospital getting the diabetes under control also came up with same risk of a C-section without even talking to my doctor, so I was feeling a lot of pressure.

Suddenly, the natural birth was going out the window. I knew I could deal with the pain better if I could eat, move, take a shower, etc. Being tied down and starving? Not a good plan for me. I asked the OB how long I should wait to come to the hospital once I was in labor. She matter-of-factly explained that there was no way I would be pregnant long enough to go into labor on my own. Like it or not, I would likely need an induction.

Along the way there were other medical scares as my blood pressure went up and down (one day it went as high as 169/94 but dropped when I went to the hospital), I started retaining huge amounts of water and I was diagnosed with Group B Strep (a very common diagnosis, but it means IV antibiotics and I recently heard from someone who had a stillbirth due to a very rare complication from Group B).

I tried to keep up with the Hypnobabies scripts, but I found them harder and harder to listen to. While the CD was saying things like, “My baby and I are safe,” my mind was screaming, “How do I know?” When the CD said, “You are feeling better and better with each pressure wave [contraction],” I wanted to say, “who are you kidding!” When I tried to do the fear release CD, I was supposed to picture and release my biggest fears. I simply could not let go of that C-section threat or the fear of tearing since the OB had basically said, “Pretty much everyone tears some.” At the time, I was really frustrated and not sure what to do. Now, after having the baby, I think my mind was telling me that those scripts just were not accurate for me.

So, did Hypnobabies work for me? Much of the time when I listened to them while I was pregnant, I was able to relax enough to fall asleep. That alone was a major bonus during the stressful final weeks. I do believe that it helped me to reframe some of my thoughts on childbirth. My mother had three really trauamatic births and kept trying to prepare me for the “inevitable” even though at about 6 weeks pregnant I asked her to stop telling me I would need an epidural. The CDs did help me relax some during the night before the birth when I was in labor and not yet realizing it.

The real benefit of Hypnobabies was that it helped me to push my baby out without “purple pushing” or pushing until I was purple in the face as the nurse told me to do. I avoided the C-section. I did not have any significant tearing. The doctor was very surprised by how quickly I was able to deliver the baby. She said that she expected me to be in labor “at least another 12 hours.” She and the nurse were both very surprised by the way I pushed Eva out. They both said that in 12 years of practice they had never seen someone successfully deliver a baby that way. They referred to it as “hypnobreathing” her out. The doctor said over and over that she was so impressed that I was able to do that.

 So, I had a cytotec induced labor, artificial rupture of membranes, pitocin, an epidural and narcotics. Not my idea of an ideal birth. On the other hand, I had a vaginal delivery in a relatively short amount of time, over an intact perineum, and my baby is healthy. My recovery has also been very fast and I was able to avoid closing my web sites because I was up and around so quickly. I consider that a successful birth and I do think Hypnobabies helped me get there.

My advice, if you are considering Hypnobabies:

• Be diligent about daily practice and study. It would have helped me more if I had spent more time practicing.
• Consider a live course. While the self-study program works for lots of people, it was hard for me because once the doubts started creeping in, I would have benefited from having someone to answer my questions in person.
• Join the Yahoo Group for Hypnobabies, the support is very helpful.
• Write some of your own affirmations and scripts if the ones on the CDs don’t work for you. I think I would have resisted less if I had made my own CD of affirmations that rang true for me and my situation.
• Visualize a good birth even with medical help. Focusing on what I wanted helped me deal with the stuff I did not want.
• Get your husband/partner/doula on board. We had so much going on those last several weeks that we did not practice the scripts together.

You can learn more about Hypnobabies here.