Don’t be fooled – Hypnobirthing is nothing new!

Don’t be fooled – Hypnobirthing is nothing new!

With a lot more exposure and media around hypnobirthing, there’s a lot more awareness of this amazing program, but something has been bothering me, and this has bothered me ever since I started teaching hypnobirthing, so let me share my thoughts with you about hypnobirthing.

Hypnobirthing is an amazing method of preparing women – and all hypnobirthing programs should have the same goal.

It has long been recognised that hypnosis has worked so well for women during labour and birth and has been introduced into many childbirth education programs around the world, and research has also shown this to be of benefit to women.

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So, across Australia (and indeed the world) there are now many different hypnobirthing programs – and it’s important to acknowledge that they are simply a childbirth education program that includes hypnosis for birth, but they will not all be the same and will not provide the same learning outcomes and no two practitioners will teach in the same way or have the same experiences to share.

You have to find the program that feels right for you and that will obviously come down to the practitioner teaching you and how well you connect with them.

 

Back to Basics Birthing is constantly making improvements to ensure that the information I am presenting to couples during childbirth education classes is current – I focus on achieving best practice and offering a variety of choices for hypnobirthing women backed up by evidence.

As mentioned, hypnobirthing has been around a long time – we have Dr Grantley Dick-Read in 1912 to thank for that, but it goes back hundreds of years before that.

So “Hypnobirthing” is basically a word meaning “hypnosis for birth” and therapists have been using hypnosis for birth for hundreds of years long before “hypnobirthing” became a popular word some have tried to claim as their own. I was using hypnosis for birth and other conditions in my wellness clinic long before I became a hypnobirthing practitioner.

I also hold a firm belief that what works for one woman may be totally useless for the next, so you need to do your own research, and talk to practitioners and find who is the best fit for you – you need to connect with them and trust them.

In my Back to Basics Birthing program, I have tapped into the knowledge, expertise and research of professional birth experts such as Professor Hannah Dahlen, Dr Rachel Reed, Dr Sarah Buckley, Dr Michel Odent , Dr Sara Wickham and historical information from the 1930’s by Dr Grantly Dick-Read who was instrumental in highlighting how fear affects birth.

It is frustrating when I read in social media forums women saying that they did a “hypnobirthing course” and it just didn’t work for them, or they didn’t get it, or they felt they failed because they “weren’t doing hypnobirthing right”  ….and it frustrates me even more when health care providers say they don’t like hypnobirthing because it sets women up for failure and they can’t just “breathe their baby out”….

Our program is not about failure – with Back to Basics Birthing there is no failure.

The Back to Basics Birthing program is a tool to educate you, prepare you and help you to feel confident to ask questions so you can make the right choices based on your own circumstances. Yes we advocate that there are so many benefits to having a natural, drug free birth for mother and baby – but I say over and over in the classes – there is no text book for birth, so by doing the classes you have tools and techniques to help you have the best chance at a natural birth if that is what you want to achieve, but you also use those tools and techniques if things start to deviate from the “plan” or you choose medical intervention because that feels right for you and your set of circumstances – there is no right or wrong way, and there is no failure.

You are all unique.

Every pregnancy is unique.

Every birth is unique, and every baby is unique.

Some people get apprehensive about the “hypno” part of hypnobirthing and think it is about being made to dance around doing crazy things. Let me free you from that conditioning you have had about hypnosis – it is nothing like that. In fact, many of our past participants have said it has helped them to feel more relaxed than they ever have been before.

The hypnosis part of hypnobirthing is just a small part of the whole program. It is all about what the childbirth education component contains, and how that is taught by the practitioner and then how that is perceived by the couple doing the classes. 

 

The Back to Basics Birthing program is about preparing women for labour and birth, and also preparing them for deviations in the plan – looking at a birth map and knowing what questions to ask and how to be an active participant in their birth rather than a passive bystander.

I have always been proud to say I am a Hypnobirthing Practitioner because I know that I teach one of the best programs on the market today that I have created, and I am leading the way in terms of best content and ongoing change (I am qualified to say this because I have taught other programs that just didn’t prepare women for special circumstances, changes to birth preferences or the birth breathing techniques that gave women an unrealistic perception of what was needed for them to get their baby out).

The Back to Basics Birthing program is all inclusive, which means that regardless of who you are and how you are planning to birth, whether that is a hospital birth, a home birth, a drug free vaginal birth, birth with pain relief or a caesarean – this program is for you.

 

 

The Back to Basics Birthing program doesn’t set women up with unrealistic expectations and is evidence based and supported by research. It is modern, up to date and educational with a side serving of my own expertise, experience and flair and I make my sessions fun, interesting and interactive.

In fact, in 2016 Dr Kate Levett and Professor Hannah Dahlen released a ground-breaking Australian study on effective childbirth education (they were also key-note speakers at our annual conference when the study was released). This study highlighted how important it was to not only participate in independent childbirth education classes but to also find a program that included complementary therapies to support normal labour and birth as it basically halved the intervention rates for births!

READ MORE ABOUT THE STUDY HERE

Not only does the Back to Basics Birthing program provide independent childbirth education with complementary therapies, but I have always worked in a way that is ethical, authentic and professional and you get so much value for money from my classes.

Since 2015, I have been a national award-winning hypnobirthing practitioner for my knowledge and professionalism, which highlights my dedication in supporting women and their partners during pregnancy, labour, birth and beyond and the ongoing education and resources I offer not only to my clients but to the community in general.

My mission is to prepare and support women to find their power within them, to feel confident in asking questions and to know they have choices.