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What is Hypnobirthing?

HypnoBirthing – The Mongan Method – is a personalised childbirth education programme for expectant couples. You will learn a range of relaxation and self hypnosis techniques to delete fears and focus on maintaining a calm, relaxed and positive attitude both before and during the birth.

You can use the HypnoBirthing approach whether you are having your baby at home, in hospital, or at a birthing centre.

Click here for more information about Hypnobirthing

Why has Hypnobirthing become so popular?

In short: IT WORKS!

There is absolutely no denying the benefits of hypnosis in childbirth. Study after study have demonstrated the numerous positive affects.

  • Significantly shorter labours (on average 3 hrs shorter)
  • Little or no need for pain medications
  • Lower rates of intervention of all kinds
  • Babies maintain proper positioning for birth
  • Mums are calm throughout their labour
  • Dads play an integral part of the birth
  • Mums have more energy immediately after the birth
  • Better bonding between Mums & Bubs
  • Mums feel in control throughout

What is the fear=tension=pain cycle?

Childbirth is a natural process – but our fear of the pain normally associated with labour causes physical tension and mental anxiety, which not only creates pain but also makes it worse.

When you are tense and anxious your muscles tighten, stress hormones that inhibit the birthing process are released and labour slows down or even stalls. This is known as ”failure to progress”.

A slow painful labour is cause for concern and you become even more distressed, exacerbating the FEAR – TENSION – PAIN cycle.

How do I break the Fear=Tension=Pain cycle?

The FEAR creates TENSION within the body and this muscular tension is what creates PAIN – and so the negative thoughts have created a negative reality. Our thoughts create our reality – but the good news is that we can control our thoughts for a positive outcome.

From the moment of conception, a woman’s body begins to prepare itself for a growing foetus and for the act of birth.

The brain begins by signalling the secretion of hormones that will soften the fibres of muscles and tendons so that they may stretch to both accommodate the growing baby and to make way for the baby as it passes through the birth canal during labour.

Logically, any tension in these fibres will inhibit the process of dilation (opening) and any pressure being applied to these same tense fibres by the babys head, will cause real pain.

As a comparison, if we once again, turn to the animal kingdom, we can see that in the case of childbirth, ignorance is truly bliss. A cow does not give thought to the impending birth; it holds no fear and therefore no bodily tension. As labour begins, a cow will simply follow its body’s prompts and ‘go with the flow’ naturally.

It is true that things do sometimes go wrong in labour. We are indeed lucky to have at hand all of the marvels of modern medicine – but if the baby is positioned correctly, the mother is relaxed and working with the process (rather than against it) in most cases a natural vaginal delivery occurs.

What is the Fight or Flight response?

We are constantly scanning our environment using our five senses, looking out for potential danger.

This is most often happening at a subconscious level and may not even be aware that you are doing this. But you might notice the hairs on the back of your neck rise as you walk down a dark street at night, and your eyes start naturally searching in dark corners. Your hearing will be more acute too.

If you were to see, hear or sense something not quite right, then you would definitely notice your pulse quickening along with your respiration rate as you start to walk a bit faster.

Your subconscious mind wants to keep you safe so it is already preparing to run or fight your way out of a sticky situation.

When you worry about your labour, the same thing happens – you make a little ‘home movie’ in your mind of how you fear things might go and you might have an accompanying inner-dialogue that reflects that your fears. You might even feel quite emotional as you worry about your upcoming labour.

Now here’s the rub: your subconscious mind processes what you’ve imagined in the same way that it processes actual environment cues. The mind cannot easily distinguish between what’s real and what’s imagined.

Now that your subconscious has been alerted to a potential threat it begins preparing to run or fight by releasing adrenalin into your blood-stream. This has the affect of increasing heart and respiration rates; diverting blood to the big muscles that might help you run or fight; and changing your thinking to immediate short term, survival focused thoughts.

In labour, this means that crucial blood supply is diverted away from the contracting uterus, leaving it under-supplied and functionally impaired. Adrenalin negates the effects of oxytocin, the happy hormone of calm comfortable labour. Muscles start to tense in preparation for the act of running away or defending yourself. All of this happens below conscious awareness and creates feelings of being anxious or out of control.