HypnoBirthing: The class that saved my sanity.

          I meant to do this post a long time ago but got caught up in getting ready for having a baby, having a baby, and figuring out how to be a new mom.  I still feel incredibly strongly about Hypnobirthing though and that it definitely helped me in my pregnancy and labor (and just in life in general); I'd recommend it (and especially our instructor Hannah) to anyone.

Choosing a birthing class
I knew that I wanted/needed to take a birthing class before we met our baby.  While trying to figure out what class to take I did some research of different methods of birthing and also looked into some different class schedules.  I didn't have any strong opinions on how women give birth.  Natural, medicated, drugs or no-I didn't really care.  I mean really...becoming a mom is hard work no matter what.  And essentially...no one can give birth to your baby but you.  So I'm all for doing whatever you think is right for you. However, one of my best friends told me she was going to be taking a hypno-birthing class and wanted to talk to me about it. I also knew that Tim's cousin, Hannah is an instructor of Hypnobirthing.  I had wanted to get together with Hannah and talk about it with her before I made any decisions but things kept coming up on my side and I wasn't able to see her.

Well I started getting a little antsy about what class I should take.  I was almost 30 weeks pregnant and I hadn't made a decision/figured out a schedule. Finally, I realized that after doing my research I decided I really wanted to learn about Hypnobirthing, and I wanted to take the class from Hannah.  I loved knowing that I'd be learning about birth from family and someone I already felt comfortable with; I knew I'd be able to ask her questions about anything without feeling intimidated.  We did a private class with Hannah mainly at first because Tim's and my schedule were so erratic that we needed that flexibility.  Turned out to be an amazing decision!

Our Instructor: Hannah Jones

Hannah Jones is one of the nicest people you will ever meet.  I'm not saying that because she's family (Tim's cousin), but she is truly so incredibly genuine, nice, and patient.  Having her as an instructor was so comfortable because her personality rocks, but also because she is so knowledgeable and LOVES birth. Hannah has three children and has had three very different birthing experiences.  With her first son she had kind of a standard hospital birth with an epidural (I think she was induced too?).  Her second son she did hypnobirthing completely natural, and with her third son she had to be induced but didn't use any pain meds. What does that mean? I think that means that she is an awesome resource on birth because she's experienced a few different situations; she is a well of knowledge :-)

Another great thing that I loved about Hannah is that she is a great teacher but she doesn't force her beliefs on you.  She genuinely just wants to try and help you have the best experience you can.  So...for example while putting together my birth preference sheet there were some things that I didn't really care about-they weren't...purist natural birth beliefs. Hannah said not to worry about them then; she just supports you in whatever is right for you.  

And...because I would want to know this if I was looking for a birthing class-Hannah is really reasonably priced.  We ended up doing a private class with her because we couldn't get a group class to work with our hectic schedules; it was seriously an amazing decision.  I had searched around a ton looking at different classes and her individual (and group) classes are really well priced.  I consider myself to be a frugal person and was a little nervous about the cost.  After researching I found her classes were cheaper than most. And...like my mom said to me "Look at this like a therapy session" which is what I needed-pregnancy therapy.  You can't beat $50 for 2.5 hours of therapy.

If you are interested in taking a Hypnobirthing class, or even just a birthing class and you don't know what kind you want to do yet I'd really recommend you look into Hannah Jones. Below is her contact information.

Facebook page  Gentle Baby Births
Her website.

Hypnobirthing

So now that you know how and why I chose a hypnobirthing course I'm going to tell you what it's about and how it worked for me.

I am a very paranoid person. I get it from my mom.  I was paranoid about not getting pregnant, getting pregnant, and then when I got pregnant I was paranoid about that too.  You can be paranoid and excited at the same time by the way. However, my paranoia of things going wrong makes me do a lot of research to try and find out as much as I can to prepare myself for whatever happens. So I started reading pregnancy books.  My OBGYN gave me a book to read. He said it was the Medical Associations's (doctor) version of What to Expect When You're Expecting (midwife perspective).  So I read the book...and a couple others. And...I was terrified.

My qualms and paranoia were not soothed reading those books-they were magnified like a billion times. Why? Because those books tell you statistic after statistic of what can go wrong. Sure they say those things don't normally happen, but then when they throw out so many numbers....5% here 10% there etc...etc...I basically counted up all those percentages in my head (and I know the math isn't right here but that doesn't matter because all that mattered was my feelings) and there was basically a 500% chance that something bad would happen.

I needed something to calm me down and Hypnobirthing was the answer.  It's basic premise is that women's bodies were made to be able to give birth naturally and with little pain.  Women all throughout time and different places in the world have given birth naturally and in the majority of labors/pregnancies...everything goes fine. Hypnobirthing teaches you techniques to relax and calm your body and mind so that you can let your baby and body do what they know instinctively to do: give birth. If you are able to get to that state of relaxation then you won't have anything to fear and therefore your body won't tense up and the pain of childbirth is greatly decreased.

Although before taking the hypnobirthing class I didn't have very strong opinions one way or another, this method really resonated with Tim and I.  If you're able to achieve it (and YES I know people can do it because I know people who have and I've seen many videos where they do it) it is an incredibly calm, spiritual, bonding experience.  That's not to say that giving birth in other ways isn't.  But the ideal of hypnobirthing sounds amazing to me.

My Birth Experience and Hypnobirthing

I wasn't able to do a completely natural child birth.  Again...there were some things from the get go that I didn't care about (IVs and external monitors etc...).  My doctor (OBGYN) was kind of  stuck in his ways and wasn't very open to some of our preferences.  That being said...I didn't switch practitioners because I felt that in the small chance something went wrong I was very confident in his surgical skills etc...Well anyway, my doctor wouldn't let me go past 1 week over my due date.  I'm pretty sure that my Mary would have stayed in me a good 5 more days at least.  I was feeling fine. She was doing great. I was still carrying her pretty high and well...I don't think she wanted to leave mommy so soon.  However, my doctor wouldn't let me go past a week and I was getting a little bit anxious so I gave the okay to be induced.

I knew being induced that I would be more inclined to get an epidural because I'd heard it was much harder to go natural.  You can read my birth story with the exact details of that.  However, even though I got an epidural I still used a lot of my things from hypnobirthing.

What helped me the most during my pregnancy and labor:

1. The breathing techniques.  They helped me through the random pains of pregnancy, to calm down when I was stressed, and especially with my contractions for the first 7 hours of labor.  They also helped me a lot even after my epidural because I was able to continue to relax my body even though I couldn't fully feel all of it. 
2. Visualization.  I knew that everything was going to be alright when I was in labor.  Even though sometimes Mary's heartbeat would dip I had faith and confidence that things would work out fine.
3. Flexibility in our plan.  In hypnobirthing they recommend having birth "preferences" versus a birth "plan".  I loved that because I kind of thought that nothing goes to plan but it doesn't mean things can't be amazing.  I'd also known a lot of women who'd wanted their birth to go a certain way and it didn't and they just hated the whole experience.  I think being calm and ready for anything-flexible-really helped me throughout my labor to just go with the flow of my labor/birth. 
4. This may be a little TMI. In HB they recommend you do perineal massage.  Now I did that a few times, not as regularly as they said, and granted there are probably a bunch of factors that contributed to this, but I think perineal massage helped me in not tearing and having a quick recovery. And I had an 8 lb 4 oz 21.5 inch baby...so that was kind of a small miracle for me.
5. Breathing down when it was time to push. I wanted to do the hypnobirthing technique for pushing-or breathing down.  But they kept telling me to push and push so I did, but during my breaks between contractions I breathed down and when they told me to push I kind of breathed out a little too instead of just holding my breath. Plus because my spinal block had worn off and my epidural had mainly drained into my right leg I felt A LOT.  I can't be sure if it was everything (I'm pretty sure it wasn't) but it was so much more than I expected.  It was so so so much pressure.  Tim asked me if it was painful and it was the weirdest sensation of so much pressure that it was borderline pain.  But I'm confident that my breathing helped to lessen it regardless. 
6. Prepared my husband. This was probably one of the biggest blessings taken from our class.  During the class Tim and I were always so uplifted and excited.  It really helped us become closer and enjoy the anticipation of meeting our daughter. All of that was wonderful and present during our labor/delivery.  However, I don't think those loving feelings would have prepared him for the physical element of birth alone. In hypnobirthing you watch quite a few birthing videos in the class.  I remember our first class when we did, afterward Tim was like..."Wow. I didn't know we'd be seeing all that today."  Now...yeah a lot of people think watching births are gross. Probably most people, but let me tell you what. If you're pregnant...you are going to give birth and it's going to happen. And...as far as these videos go-I was amazed by them.  It was nothing like the screaming woman in pain that my 11th grade health class made us watch. They were all incredibly strong, relaxed,and peaceful women. Because of our class Tim was totally prepared for what was going to happen during the delivery.  He was actively involved in supporting me during my labor and delivery and was awed instead of grossed out. As a new mom/his wife (who didn't feel beautiful at all at the time) having him there being so supportive and loving, interested and awed in the birth of our daughter really helped me to feel so beautiful and loved.  I would have taken the class just for that element.

Moral: I loved hypnobirthing. And yes-I got an epidural.  But hypnobirthing still worked for me. I got what I most wanted and needed out of it; a way to relax and know that everything was going to be okay.  I would highly recommend it to anyone because the skills they teach you are not just good for your labor and delivery, but also just for life in general.

My gorgeous baby girl.  Regardless of how they get here and what birthing path you choose or don't choose, the end result is amazing! :-D