1. Medicated or un-medicated, birth requires a strong mental state.
Your body and your baby’s body are designed to facilitate labor and birth (assuming all is well with physical, psychological, and physiological processes). Your uterus contracts, your cervix opens, your pelvis expands, your baby’s head molds, and your body releases the necessary hormones to facilitate the entire process of labor and birth. The majority of doubts and limitations related to the birthing process derive from our minds and our ego. Maintaining a strong mental state wrapped in confidence and full of the “universal life force” is essential to laboring and birthing with confidence and ease. Practicing Hypnobirthing during pregnancy and utilizing Hypnobirthing during labor and delivery helps in maintaining a mental direction that encourages you to focus on trusting your body and your baby and releasing any mental or ego-bound limitations.
2. You maintain control of the hypnosis, because all hypnosis is self-hypnosis.
No, we are not going to hypnotize you. In fact, nobody can be hypnotized unless they are open to the hypnosis because we are in control of our mind and mental direction. Hypnobirthing can also be described as a self-hypnosis, meditation, or guided visualization. The techniques and scripts involved in Hypnobirthing can be utilized in a way that serves you and your intentions for labor and birth. Essentially, Hypnobirthing involves a conditioning your mind and body to respond in a relaxed manner in response to a stimulus (the hypnobirthing scripts/audio files). The more you relax while listening to the recordings/scripts during your pregnancy, the more your body will naturally relax when hearing them in labor. This relaxation contributes to reduced pain and a more blissful birth experience.
3. Partners and support people learn verbal and hands-on ways to support you in achieving a relaxed and blissful birth (support person cheat-sheets included).
They way pregnant, laboring, and birthing people engage with the Hypnobirthing scripts and techniques during labor varies. At times, you may want to listen to the recordings aloud and engage in self-hypnosis. Other times, you may want silence. Regardless, it is important that your partner and support people know how to encourage your use of the Hypnobirthing techniques. Partners and support people are encouraged to attend the workshop so they can familiarize themselves with the materials and obtain a cheat-sheet that lists ways partners can support a person employing Hypnobirthing. Techniques support people learn include, but are not limited to: counting back from 10 to 1, gentle birth place guided imagery, acupressure techniques for transition, self-care practices to maintain wellness, breathing techniques, positions, etc.
4. You learn techniques to transform fears into healthy beliefs and plans of action.
Fear creates tension and tension creates pain. In order to have limited pain or a pain-free birth, your body has to maintain relaxation. One of the most important ways to facilitate this relaxation is to absolve fears associated with labor, birth, postpartum, and parenthood. While it seems easier said than done, eliminating fears can be achieved through engaging in the rational thought process. Because, let’s face it, most of our fears are irrational. During the Hypnobirthing workshop, we work together to transform unhealthy beliefs into healthy beliefs and plans of action. We also create affirmations that are incompatible with the unhealthy beliefs that we can routinely say aloud. This process of absolving fear is essential to maintaining an alpha state during labor and delivery and it is a process you can employ with other fears that may arise in your life.
5. Our thoughts and mental directions translate to physiologic changes in our bodies, which help us to achieve desired outcomes.
What we think we create. There is actually scientific truth to this. Our thoughts and visualizations work to establish electrochemical pathways in our brains that translate thoughts into physiologic changes. During the Hypnobirthing scripts, you will visualize your blissful and healthy birth and postpartum. This visualization will help to manifest its occurrence. And again, the more you listen to the scripts and engage with the techniques, the more you will engage in these visualizations and promote the manifestation. Hypnobirthing is a wonderful childbirth preparation technique that promotes the occurrence of a peaceful, blissful, and healthy birth.
Rooted Birth offers in-home, private Hypnobirthing workshops in San Antonio, TX, as well as both private and group virtual workshops.
