Hypnobabies Helps Expectant Mom to Avoid a “Pain in the Butt”

Thanks to Gloria a mom from the Hypnobabies Yahoo Group for sharing her experience with us.

Hey there Hypnomoms!

I just have to share some exciting news with you all.  I get weekly injections of progesterone which are p**nful. The liquid being injected is a gel. These injections are applied intramuscular (on my buttocks). Every week the injection site alternates. Since starting these injections I have noticed that the left buttock hurts more than the right.

I usually dread those days…until Hypnobabies and the fingerdrop technique as well as the peace cue. I used my fingerdrop technique today and my peace cue and it was painless. I felt the injection but there was no pain associated with it. If I started to feel slight pain i would just say the word “peace” and instantly the mild discomfort subsided.

I LOVE HYNOBABIES!!!

If ever I had doubt on if this actually works….I can clearly say that all doubt is GONE.

Gloria

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Hypnobabies Helps Couple to “Feel Confident” and to “Look Forward to Birth with Calm Anticipation”…WHO Says That?!

Thanks to Heidi a mom from the Hypnobabies Yahoo Group for sharing her experience with us.

Hi all!

I’m Heidi from Idaho. Clint and I have been married for a dozen years and have two (plus another on the way) kids to show for it. Stinker is 4 and Goose is 10. I’m lucky to be able to stay home with the kids.

I am due right around Halloween (end of Oct) with a girl. Her brother was initially upset about this and argued with the midwife to check again! He’s reconciled to his minority status now and tells “Baby Marianne” jokes most mornings. He wanted to name her Hiccup and still occasionally calls her this to see my reaction. Hm. Goose is super excited NOT to have another brother and is such a big help around the house. She is very into all the biology of pregnancy, but gets devastatingly embarrassed.

This is definitely not our first rodeo, but we have have so many changes to our “norm” that it sometimes feels like it. Both of the kids were hospital births with the pitocin/epidural combo pack. With Stinker, the epidural stopped working during transition and I was left alone. DH went to find a nurse (shift change) and I worked through it by myself. After he was born, I noticed how much better my recovery was with the lessened epidural. I also realized that maybe I can do it without drugs and interventions.

So, to make a long list of reasons very short, we decided to have this baby at a midwife-run birthing center…mainly because it seemed like the best option for us and for what we wanted this birth to look like. I had four miscarriages before this pregnancy stuck and I need a different model of care. My midwives treat the entire person, not just a checklist of complications to look for, and they respect (and actually listen to) my intuition and body sensing. This is really important to me!

Our families have woefully proclaimed we have fallen off the turnip truck with our midwife-birth center-hypnotism ways, but I don’t mind. I know this is right for us at this time with this baby. Okay, so that wasn’t so short…

I chose to use Hypnobabies because my husband was starting to freak out with visions of a screaming Heidi in non-medicated labor. He didn’t say much, but I knew natural birth was even more scary to him than to me. It took a lot of courage for us both to decide on a birth anywhere other than the hospital. (goofy, but true) I figured a peaceful birth was a gift that I could give him as well as myself and our baby.

I am now seeing that Hypnobabies is such a blessing to our entire family. I still have three months to go, but I feel so GOOD. I sleep better than with the other kids’ pregnancies and I am healthier too. Doing the scripts and communication with Clint has helped us both feel confident in our decisions and look forward to the birth of Marianne with calm anticipation.

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Kiersten’s Journey from L&D Nurse in Hospital with 99% Epidural rate to Hypnobabies Instructor

I started my RN and L&D career in NYC at a hospital that had a 99% epidural rate. It was a great place to learn as a RN since I saw every sort of complication imaginable but after 5 years I was burnt out.

Meanwhile I also had a baby (induction & epidural) and me and the hubbie were looking to make a lifestyle change. We moved out to Colorado and I started working at Boulder Community Hospital which actually supported natural birth!

They are soooooo different from any place I have worked.

• Their epidural rate is only 50%!
• They have midwives!
• You can labor and birth anyway you want!

After participating in countless natural births it really reprogramed my way of thinking about birth completely. So when I got pregnant with my youngest I really wanted to go natural and that is when I found Hypnobabies.

I did the Hypnobabies Home Study course and had an amazing birth! I stayed home throughout the labor and I was sure that things hadn’t gotten going yet since it was so painless and easy. Then suddenly I couldn’t get comfortable and decided to head to the hospital.

I thought I was about 4cm. I tried to check myself but I couldn’t reach!

When I got out of the car at the hospital I started involuntarily pushing. Managed to get to L&D and had my son 15min later 🙂

After that I was hooked! I’ve since turned 3 other friends on to Hypnobabies.  One is also an RN I work with, and they all had wonderful natural births too. So I just knew I had to start teaching so that I could help other women to have a wonderful comfortable birth also.

Kiersten

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After 2 Inductions, Mom has a Super-FAST Homebirth with Her 3rd!

Thanks to Janell from the Hypnobabies Yahoo Group for sharing her birth story!

I had been having light waves since Monday July, 18. On Tuesday night, after getting no sleep the night before, I decided to drink a little glass of wine, take a bath while listening to Hypnobabies, and talk to baby about coming out to meet us. I felt very relaxed afterwards, went right to sleep and slept all night. My waves stopped for the most part so I thought “nope, not time yet.”

On Wednesday I was having sporadic waves that had more pressure than normal, but I didn’t think anything of it. I just told myself “open, open, open” with each one, hoping I would in fact “open, open, open.”

I think it was around 6:00 pm I went to the bathroom and noticed I lost a small amount of mucous plug. I tried to not get my hopes up. By this time my waves were pretty regular, but nothing to set your watch by, coming every 5-10 minutes or so with more pressure than normal. Looking back, I should have realized this was it and started listening to my Hypnobabies tracks. I was in denial! Plus, my DH kept telling me I wasn’t really in my birthing time. Pffft.

Despite all of the denial, I had a strong sense of urgency that DH needed to go get our last minute things from the store. So I sent him off thinking it was probably for nothing, but better safe than sorry. This was around 9:45 pm. Almost right after he left my waves started coming every 5 minutes with much more intensity than before. I thought it was no big deal. You hear about prodromal labor all the time.

 

They kept up for about an hour and I started thinking it was real. I listened to my Hypnobabies birthing day affirmations and then tried to listen to the easy first stage track, but the waves were too intense to focus by then. This was around 10:50 or so. I realize I’m in my birthing time for sure, haha, and DH is gone!!

At this point I head into the bathroom to pee. I didn’t come out for an hour, maybe a little more. Just from my walk to the bathroom and using the toilet, my waves went from five to two minutes apart, and were VERY intense. I was now low moaning and rocking on the toilet to cope. I knew I was in transformation. I was shaking, feeling hot and cold simultaneously somehow, and feeling nauseous. I also started feeling somewhat “pushy”, which made me nervous. I was still alone! But I stayed relaxed in between waves, thank goodness. I began texting DH telling him I needed him home but his phone had died, lol. He got back around midnight and I came out of the bathroom shortly after. I never wanted to leave the toilet.

Since this was all happening so fast I never thought to call my MW. So as I leaned over my birth ball and moaned, DH called (at 12:08) and told her I’d been having birthing waves every two minutes for over an hour. She hung up pretty quick!

I tried being on hands and knees for a few waves because of the discomfort in my back, but it was too much. So I moved to a sitting position in an armchair, trying to mimick the toilet, but that was too much too. I just wanted to lay down. I was hesitant to do it since everything you read says movement helps but I laid down on my left side on the couch anyway. This is where I stayed.

I was having to vocalize more loudly as the pressure was super intense. Still, I was able to relax completely in between waves. I wasn’t talking, smiling, or laughing, but I was still, and relaxed. I began to feel very pushy but resisted since my MW wasn’t there yet. This made it harder but it was ok. At one point my body pushed involuntarily and I yelled to DH “I’m pushing!”. I really thought we’d be having an unassisted birth at that point.

My MW got there around 1:00 am and I told her I was feeling pushy. We waited out some waves and then she checked me (my first check the whole pregnancy:)) and there was only a lip of cervix left. She knew I wanted a waterbirth so she and DH tried to get the pool set up, bless their hearts. I knew there wasn’t time.

 

I think one of her assistants got there around the same time…not really sure. The timeline is blurry for me here. They were busy getting their supplies ready while I was on the couch, pushing whenever my body felt the need, when my membranes ruptured. The biggest pop ever and SO much fluid. It was crazy….like out of a movie. It wasn’t long til baby’s head was crowning. DH missed the head being born because our 2 yr old woke, so he went to tell him everything was alright, but he made it in time to see the rest of the birth. The birth happened so fast. I remember my MW telling me to breath and slow down to allow my perineum to stretch, and I tried, but just couldn’t. It wasn’t *painful* per se, but I definitely felt the stretching! Once the head was born the body came out just as fast. I think the other assistant got here five minutes after the birth.

This birth is such a stark contrast to my other births. I was induced with the other two. Never got to experience going into labor naturally and really felt I was one that couldn’t. I’m so glad I had this last birth experience. It was fast and intense…the total opposite of what I had expected.  ❤

Oh, I made it out unscathed! No tears or anything! I could have been more comfortable maybe had I realized sooner that I really was in my birthing time, but it all worked out.

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UNIQUE Benefits of Hypnobabies

How is Hypnobabies different from

other Childbirth Hypnosis programs?

We are asked many times what is the difference between Hypnobabies and other natural childbirth or birth hypnosis programs, and here we answer that question by telling you what we do well without disparaging any other particular group. Other natural childbirth courses have excellent programs and benefits that have helped many women have better, more relaxed births. We recognize that and celebrate them and what they do every day for birthing women!

In Hypnobabies, our objectives are to help our pregnant couples bond with their baby in utero, teach you how to stay healthy and low-risk and be an excellent consumer, trust in your body, mind and baby, as well as become self-reliant and confident about birthing your own way; unmedicated, safely and in comfort. We overcome negative belief systems and programming, get you in touch with your own beautiful pregnant body, support you through your own excellent birth experience and give you skills that you will use for the rest of your life. Birth Partners are brought into the preparation process and have their own hypnotic relaxation cues, as well as a special role to play as they await the birth of the precious newborn with our Hypno-mom. Since we use real medical hypnosis techniques, addressing the mind, body, and spirit of both Mother and Baby, our success rate is wonderful and very gratifying!

Unique to Hypnobabies: We are not a regular birth hypnosis class. Hypnobabies is very detailed, comprehensive and successful, uses medical hypnotic anesthesia techniques, from Gerald Kein’s powerful Painless Childbirth program, as opposed to simple visualization and imagery, and contains the same kinds of powerful somnambulistic hypnosis scripts used by people who undergo surgery successfully using hypnosis as their only anesthetic.

Unique to Hypnobabies: Long before they ever step foot in their first Hypnobabies class, our Hypno-moms receive their first hypnosis CD with 2 tracks: Your Special Place, which allows them to learn and become proficient in deep physical relaxation, and Easy, Comfortable Childbirth, enabling them to easily master  deep hypnosis and positive birth training. Each Hypno-Mom is able to learn deep relaxation and hypnosis skills for several weeks (or months!) before Hypnobabies Class even starts. This makes it much easier to learn her Hypnobabies Hypno-anesthesia Techniques in each class, bringing the Birth Partner into the preparation, (if they have one) and also how to use hypnosis for many other issues: nausea elimination, back and hip pain, insomnia, pre-term labor, pre-term bleeding, perineal massage, internal exams, turning a breech, etc.

Unique to Hypnobabies: 11 powerful, deep hypnosis audio tracks for use by our Hypno-Mothers as they learn, practice and use their Hypnobabies program, and 1 hypnosis track for our Birth Partners.

Unique to Hypnobabies: 2 separate hypnosis cues for entering hypnosis quickly and deeply, and 7 hypnotic deepening techniques.

Unique to Hypnobabies: 6 somnambulistic hypnosis scripts in booklet form, for use by our Hypno-Couples to work with as a team. Our Hypnobabies students participate in one new hypnosis script each week in class and their scripts booklet provides them with that same script to work with for reinforcement during the next week. This makes a huge difference when training the inner mind for success of any kind. It is called “compounding” in the world of hypnosis and is necessary for hypnotic suggestions to be retained by the woman’s subconscious. Working on progressively more powerful scripts several times week together also allows our moms to become “hypno-trained” to the touch and voice of their birth partner and therefore respond much more easily and quickly to birthing cues during labor.

Unique to Hypnobabies: We provide detailed, comprehensive training for our Birth Partners by providing them their own Birth Partner’s hypnosis CD for a calm and confident attitude towards pregnancy and childbirth, and their own 15 page detailed Birth Partner’s Guide booklet for labor, which allows them to fully grasp their role in the preparation for baby’s birth as well as easily supporting the Hypno-Mom during birthing. This includes 4 pages of verbal birthing cues which keep the Hypno-Mom in hypnosis during first stage, transition, beginning to push, the pushing phase as well as tools for remaining calm, relaxed, confident and comfortable in between contractions.

Unique to Hypnobabies: Hypnobabies can also be very successfully used by Single Mothers or those whose partners will not be participating in their birth preparation process since we have specific CD sets as well as personal help and support for single Hypno-Moms, to make their Hypnobabies journey easier and more fulfilling. All of our hypno-anesthesia techniques can be easily learned, practiced and used alone, or with a Birth Partner or doula.

Unique to Hypnobabies: Hypnobabies classes also provide excellent and Complete Childbirth Education, and we are the only birth hypnosis program that does so. Providing our *Complete Childbirth Education* ensures that our Hypnobabies students will not need to take other childbirth education classes where techniques and philosophies are learned which can negate childbirth hypnosis instruction. “Pain management and coping skills” are actually opposite of what is learned in Hypnobabies; we teach Pain Elimination by using real hypno-anesthesia, and attempting to embrace opposing belief systems can be detrimental to success with hypnotic childbirth. Including Complete Childbirth Education is essential for any birth hypnosis program.

Hypnobabies’ Complete Childbirth Education includes the following:

• Staying healthy and low risk
• Comfort in Pregnancy
• Detailed Birthing Choices
• Creating Informed Consent
• An in-depth Nutrition and Exercise program
• Avoidance of Toxic Substances
• Optimum Fetal Positioning
• Turning a Posterior Baby
• Stages of Labor
• Anatomy and Physiology of Birth
• Prenatal Parenting
• Avoiding Back Labor with the Abdominal Lift and Tuck
• Baby Kick Counting
• Belly Mapping
• The Risks, Benefits and Alternatives to Common Labor Interventions
• Birth Empowerment Skills
• Birth Plans & Baby Plans
• Touring the Birth Facility
• Doula and Midwifery information
• Avoiding Induction and Cesarean Section
• Delayed Cord Clamping and other Baby Kindness information
• Using hypnosis for 3^rd stage
• Comprehensive and detailed birth preparation and labor support training for Birth Partners
• A 28 page Quick Reference booklet for labor
• Birthing Rehearsals using Hypnobabies techniques in class.
• Information on New Baby Care, Breastfeeding and Postpartum care for our moms.

Unique to Hypnobabies: Hypnobabies’ “Eyes Open Childbirth Hypnosis”, which allows each Hypno-mom to walk and talk and move around freely yet remain very relaxed, fully present, aware and in touch with her body and baby and *comfortable while doing so*. Other programs rely on immobility for focus and concentration, which can severely impede the progress of labor and the descent and positioning of the baby.

Unique to Hypnobabies: We conduct full Birthing Rehearsals in class # 6 so that our Hypno-moms can experience using their actual Hypnobabies techniques and many different labor positions *while in hypnosis in class* which is invaluable, and also shows the Birth Partner hands-on exactly how to use his/her cues and assistance. What a confidence builder, and has made a huge difference in success rates here at Hypnobabies!

Unique to Hypnobabies: Our very successful Hypnobabies Birth Visualization, in which you can mentally and emotionally practice entering labor, experience your comfortable birthing techniques and give birth easily and in a very detailed and personal way. This “mental birthing rehearsal” is very important to the process of easy and comfortable birthing and is done many times until your Hypno-baby is born, helping program the subconscious mind to produce exactly the kind of birthing you want. Athletes and public speakers of all kinds do this to prepare with great success, and so do our Hypno-moms!

Unique to Hypnobabies: Our wonderful 2-track Birth Guide CD which keeps our Hypno-mom deeply in hypnosis with constant hypnotic relaxation and anesthesia suggestions for both the first stage of labor and the pushing phase (no “Ring of Fire”) as well as “positive birth team” hypnosis throughout. Birth Professionals are fascinated at how completely relaxed and physically comfortable our Hypno-moms are, how easily they are able to move around and communicate and still be deeply hypnotized, and how “in control” they are of their bodies, minds and emotions. Our Hypnobabies students tell us that our Birth Guide CD is “Pure Gold!”

Unique to Hypnobabies: We require that our Certified Hypnobabies Instructors have a fully trained background in Childbirth and a minimum of 50 hours of Hypnosis training before becoming accepted into our Hypnobabies Instructor Training Program. This ensures that as a Hypnobabies Instructor, all childbirth questions and concerns from each Hypno-couple can be addressed, hypnotic depth can be assessed, and problems such as resistance and abreaction can easily be dealt with. We also require 32 hours of Hypnobabies Instructor Training and have a demanding and rigorous Instructor Certification process.

Unique to Hypnobabies: Our Hypnobabies Instructors are always available for help before, during and after your Hypno-baby is born, and we also have a free Hypnobabies Moms support group manned by certified Hypnobabies Instructors for support and encouragement so that you can enjoy a community where others are using Hypnosis for Childbirth as well.

Unique to Hypnobabies: Hypnobabies includes 18 hours of classroom instruction instead of 8 or 10, and although other childbirth programs may contain some excellent hypno-tools for birthing, none contain the amount of information, in depth hypno-anesthesia, training, practice and support of Hypnobabies. All elements have been carefully designed to work together and the results are excellent.

Hypnobabies is an empowering choice for any woman wanting Hypnosis for Childbirth that works easily and beautifully!

Hypnobabies® Childbirth Hypnosis

(714) 952-BABY (2229)

877-55-HYPNO

www.Hypnobabies.com

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Hypnobabies Mom says, “I yelled back at them that I couldn’t NOT push!”, and Minutes Later – BABY!

I had an OB appointment the day before my due date at 10am.  I was 3 cm and 70% effaced.  After, I had some spotting that never went away.

Around 4pm, I began having some pressure waves.  They weren’t that uncomfortable, like mild menstrual cramps.  But they were different than the Braxton Hicks I had been having non-stop.  They were every 5-10 minutes.  I was able to go about my daily business (pick up DD from daycare, make dinner, play with DD, etc.)

I put DD down for bed around 9:30PM.  The pressure waves were beginning to get a bit stronger by 10PM.  However, I didn’t have to concentrate through them.  I thought my birthing time was near, but I wasn’t sure since I had prodromal labor several nights the past week.

Around 10:30PM, I told DH I was going to try to get some sleep.  I put on my Early First Stage track and tried to sleep.  I got through the whole track and then did Fear Release.  By then it was almost midnight and I could tell it was definitely my birthing time.  I told DH I was going to the living room (where we have a computer) to time the pressure waves.  I continued to listen to more tracks, although I can’t remember which ones.

At first the waves were 6-7 min apart, and by 12:45, they were 5 min apart.  We decided we should head to the hospital soon.  I was feeling pretty good because the pressure waves were completely manageable.  We did some last minute packing and woke up MIL to come upstairs to be close to DD.  In the car, I listened to Birthing Day Affirmations, but I chatted with DH between pressure waves.

We got to the hospital around 1:45.  They couldn’t find my paperwork, so we had to give them all of our information, which was kind of annoying to do between pressure waves.  The pressure waves were more intense, but completely manageable.  I requested to use the Jacuzzi, but I had to be hooked up to a monitor for 15-20 minutes first (then she said I could get in.)

She checked me a little after 2 am and said I was 7-8 cm!  I was shocked I was so far along considering how “easy” things were.  I put on Easy First Stage and zoned out.  I ended up on my hands and knees on the bed with a birth ball (while they monitored me.)  After a bit, I felt like I had to pee, so she unhooked me and I went to the bathroom.  I wasn’t able to pee but I felt like I had to poop.

Suddenly the pressure waves got really intense, and nothing seemed to help me get through them.  The nurse checked me and I was a 9+.  My OB still wasn’t there.  Each pressure wave was really intense, and soon I felt the desire to push.  I was still on my hands and knees.

I began pushing, and the nurses were yelling at me not to push (since my OB wasn’t there.)  I yelled back at them that I couldn’t not push.  On one of the pushes, my water broke.  I kept pushing with each pressure wave and DH said he could see hair.  Eventually my OB arrived, and I pushed the head out maybe 2 or 3 pressure waves later.

On the next pressure wave, I pushed the rest of the body out.  My OB instructed DH to catch the baby and put him on my tummy.  Baby Clive was born at 2:51am…about an hour after we got to the hospital and about 10 minutes after my OB arrived.  (I never even got around to listening to the Pushing Baby Out track…since I was still listening to Easy First Stage when he was born.)

Clive was 7 lbs. 1 oz. and 20” long.  I was shocked his birth was so quick and easy.  (DD’s birth was really long and difficult.)  Although his birth was not pain-free, I would say only 30 minutes was really intense, and the rest was completely manageable thanks to Hypnobabies.

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Rights as a Childbearing Woman

It’s come to my attention more than once in the past year, in stories related to us by our instructors, that our moms, birth partners and their babies are being coerced, or even threatened into compliance with certain state medical board mandates by members of their local medical community. I’ve heard of stories where our students are ‘challenged’ by medical authorities when voicing their preferences for their own treatment during childbirth, or their baby’s treatment (or lack of treatment) during the immediate postpartum period.

This is distressing to me as a woman and as someone who is entrusted with women’s education about such matters.

It is so important for expectant women to know about the “Rights of Childbearing Women” brochure.

Note that the items marked with a single *asterisk are LEGAL rights that are upheld by courts in the entire U.S. The items with a **double asterisk are very likely to be upheld in courts.

The “Rights of Childbearing Women” brochure spells out birthing women’s personal LEGAL rights…that no state health department’s ‘mandates’, or individual hospital’s ‘protocols’, or any one MD’s opinions, or a midwife’s temerity can fly in the face of…not even with veiled threats to call CPS, or the police like they do in some states.

This is a powerful tool for you.

If you know your LEGAL rights, and insist on them, CPS and even the police are rendered impotent in court. The more you are educated and empowered and insist on your LEGAL rights as childbearing women and as new parents, the less likely you will have them taken from you.

State mandated protocols about what is medically ‘safe’ and ‘necessary’ have been ‘wrong’ very many times in the past, and mothers and their babies have been harmed. For that reason, it’s important that PARENTS understand that YOU have the LEGAL right to the final say about how you give birth to your baby, and the right to make all decisions in your baby’s treatment during the immediate postpartum period.

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Birth Partner Repeats “Joyful Pregnancy Affirmations” that He Learned Second-Hand to Calm His Wife

Thanks to a mom from the Hypnobabies Yahoo Group for sharing her experience with us.  She was fast approaching 42 weeks and was worried a scheduled ultrasound may lead to an induction or cesarean.

Thanks Hypnobabies for another pleasant pregnancy moment.  I was all freaked out the night before my ultrasound, imagining horrible csection scenarios.  Then I realised what I was doing and decided to imagine only happy thoughts – positive “what ifs” (as suggested in the workbook).  So I imagined a great u/s appointment and getting told only good things, and that is exactly what happened!

The OB respected my wishes to barely use the u/s machine, he just zoomed in and out, got his measurements super quick, and was very happy and encouraging about it all and told me that if I wanted to go a bit longer that would not be a problem.  Everything looked so good!

So I feel better now, and have time to recoup.  DH and I are feeling empowered again, we just lost it somehow in there.  But thanks to the affirmations we recovered quickly.  DH actually repeats back affirmations at me when we are discussing things, and he has only heard them second hand, as in when I am playing them cooking dinner!  It is so cute, he had no interest in listening, but picked it up anyway!

Hypnobabies really is an empowering program, and it is really needed as so much do with the birth model is disempowering. The knowledge, the new way of thinking, all of that helps so much!  I don’t know how Hypnobabies will affect my birth yet, but oh my, it has made a tremendous difference to my pregnancy!

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