What do you think about when you hear the words labour or birth? For many people when they think about labour and birth, they imagine pain, screaming, fear or panic. However, where have these negative thoughts about birth come from? Very often they’ve come from the media, friends, family or even strangers.
What if I told you that birth doesn’t have to be scary or horrendously painful? What if I told you that with a positive mindset, knowledge, tools and techniques, that labour and birth can be a beautiful and positive experience?
Many of us have grown up believing that birth is this awful experience that we just need to get through. We live in a culture where people love to tell us horror stories about their labours and births and they pass their negative experiences onto their children, friends or pregnant strangers that they meet in the street. These pregnant people then imagine all kinds of scary things happening to them during labour and become fearful about birth.
Dr Grantly Dick-Read introduced the Fear-Tension-Pain cycle and found that when we are fearful, we become tense and when we are tense, we feel pain. If people go into birth feeling fearful, labour is more likely to be painful and people are more likely to have an uncomfortable birth and negative experience. What happens then? They go on to tell future generations about what an awful, painful experience labour and birth is and so this birth fear culture continues.
If we approach birth with a more positive mindset and feeling calm and in control, this is more likely to lead to a more comfortable experience. Labour and birth is unlikely to be pain free. Lets face it, we have big muscles in our uterus doing some very strong contractions. These muscles then need to be forceful enough to push a baby out. Labour and birth will not be easy and it will be powerful and intense, but it doesn’t have to be agonisingly painful or scary and it certainly isn’t how it is portrayed on TV.
Have you ever ran a marathon or know someone who has? Did you or they say it was the most horrendous experience of your/their life?
Or did you/they say that it was exhausting? It was intense? It was empowering? It was uncomfortable? Most likely, yes! Would you/they do it again? Most likely, yes!
If you were going to run a marathon, you would not turn up on the big day without having trained and practiced. You would find it very painful, very exhausting and probably not reach the finishing line. This is the same for birth. You cannot give birth without having fully prepared. The difference between giving birth and running a marathon without having prepared though, is that you can just drop out of a marathon if it gets too much. If giving birth gets too much, there is no dropping out. You still need to birth your baby one way or another and this is sometimes when people choose to have a caesarean section or ask for strong pain relief such as an epidural.
How To Prepare For a Pain-Free or More Comfortable Birth?
One of the best ways to prepare for birth is by doing a Hypnobirthing course. The benefits of doing a Hypnobirthing course are:
1. Reframes the mind about birth
If we disassociate birth as being a fearful experience, this replaces the fear-tension-pain cycle with calm-relaxed-comfortable. We need the brain to see that birth is a natural, physiological process that the body is designed to do.
2. Using calm breathing techniques
Calm breathing techniques that hypnobirthing courses teach you are designed to turn on the parasympathetic nervous system. This allows the body to stay calm and reduce the fight-flight-freeze response.
3. Work with your body, not against it
Hypnobirthing teaches you how to connect with your body, how to ride the waves and not resist them. Hypnobirthing teaches you that contractions are powerful surges that are a natural part of labour and designed to birth your baby and do not need to be feared. The mind body connection is very powerful and what the mind believes, the body achieves.
4. Become knowledgeable & educated
Knowledge is power and power is empowering. Understanding what your body is doing during labour and birth can help to make the whole process feel a lot less scary. Knowing about the maternity system, your birth rights, choices and options can also help to make your birth experience a more positive one. Hypnobirthing courses teach you how to be confident, in control, how to make informed decisions and how to advocate for yourself too.
5. How to boost key birth hormones
Oxytocin and endorphins are two key birthing hormones and knowing the best ways to increase these, are going to be crucial in helping you to have a shorter, more comfortable birth. Hypnobirthing courses teach you and your birth partner the best ways of being able to boost these hormones, especially when the environment changes and adrenaline creeps in.
People who have positive, comfortable births, haven’t just been lucky. They have prepared fully for their birth, practiced and have self-belief. Doing a Hypnobirthing course is key to most of this success. The tools and techniques that a Hypnobirthing course teaches you, shifts your mindset and allows you to believe in yourself, trust your body and your instincts. Hypnobirthing cannot guarantee a certain birth outcome, but it can help stack the odds in your favour and empower you, helping you to feel calm and potentially having a pain-free experience.
If you want proof that Hypnobirthing really can help you to have a positive birth experience, take a look at some of the positive birth stories that my previous clients have kindly shared with me.
Kirsty’s Home Water Birth in Leeds, Using Hypnobirthing
Tara’s Home Birth in a Birth Pool – Castleford, Wakefield
Chrissie’s Inspiring Positive Birth Story – Finding Strength From Hypnobirthing
If you’d like to fully prepare for your birth, increase your chances of having a pain free birth or a birth that is free from fear and where you can look back on it with positivity, then check out the Hypnobirthing courses that I offer. My Hypnobirthing courses are private 1-1 courses and they can take place either face to face or online. I can help you to increase your chances of having a positive birth experience, where you feel calm, confident and in control.
I’m Julia, the founder of BABA Doula Services & Hypnobirthing and I live in Leeds, West Yorkshire. I am a 5 star rated, Doula UK recognised Doula and certified Hypnobirthing Teacher. I have supported many families during pregnancy, labour, birth and postpartum and I am very passionate about helping more families to have positive birth and postnatal experiences in ways that they desire. To learn more about the support that I can offer you, check out my website or follow me on Instagram and Facebook.
All Photos by Julia Kitching
