Have a Confident Pregnancy and Positive Birth Experience with Hypnosis

Congratulations! You just found out that you are pregnant. You feel joy and excitement at first, but then all the messages from the world around you start to make your mind start to worry. Maybe you have previously faced infertility or miscarriage. Perhaps you are stressed out by books or websites that seem to describe pregnancy milestones and what can go wrong at every stage. Often there are family, friends, or even strangers telling you horror stories about pregnancy or birth, or the endless unsolicited advice. Quickly what should be a time of joy, inner peace, and focusing on you and your baby-to-be can become a minefield of worry. Society and the media, even well-meaning friends or professionals, often create loads of painful expectations and anxiety that are simply not mentally or physically healthy for you and your baby – or babies. What if I told you there was a way to counteract these negative influences, lower your stress, and prepare for a more positive birth experience, regardless of how you deliver?

Birth is not something being done to you, and it is not an illness. You and your baby are full participants and you were born with the ability for childbirth. Birth, like a flower, unfolds, and no two experiences are ever just the same. Being calm and confident helps you be resilient and blossom in your own unique way, adapting to the situation as it unfolds. When you are calm and focused, your body chemistry and vital signs help your baby to be more calm and less stressed as well – whether you are in active labor or having a c-section. The ultimate goal, first and foremost, is always a healthy baby and a healthy mother.

A good pre-natal program in hypnosis, as well as instruction in self-hypnosis techniques, is not only a wonderful way to provide yourself with more confidence, resilience, and inner peace during pregnancy but a fabulous way to have a positive delivery with a better sense of self-control and connection to your baby.

What is the goal of using hypnosis for pregnancy and childbirth?

• Create a positive reframing of the pregnancy and birth experience, creating better expectations and a stronger resilience so you can “go with the flow” and float through the intensity and various stages of birth with confidence.
• Create a calm baseline during pregnancy using breathing, visualization, and hypnosis techniques that will help you to create a strong bond with your body and your baby, culminating in a sense of confidence and trust in your body’s ability to successfully be part of the birth process.
• Learn about the stages of the birth process and how to utilize your new skills to allow your process to blossom with the minimum of anxiety or discomfort.

What are the things you can learn from a hypnosis for birth class to help you have a calm and confident pregnancy and birth experience?

• Learn methods to filter out negative messages or unwanted advice by setting boundaries and being aware of what situations to avoid or embrace.
• Develop a healthy, loving, trusting relationship with your body, replacing shame or uncertainty using affirmations, afformations, self-care, and recognizing that you were created to give birth as a natural part of life. You’ve got this!
• Learn to focus inward and truly be conscious of feeling and listening to your body and creating a connection to and bond with your baby within you. You don’t have to wait until your little one is born to talk to, read stories to, dance with, play music for, cook for or cuddle your baby. Share the love right from the start!
• Be confidently prepared for using these techniques during the birth process by practicing hypnosis every day – even just a few minutes. It is the perfect way to start the day, to calm during the day, and prepare for a good night’s rest. This is a life-long skill for regulating your own nervous system and dealing with stress or anxiety – and super-helpful for years of parenting to come!
• Learn to really breathe! Interestingly, babies are the best teachers of how to breathe correctly – as you can read in my blog here https://nshypnosis.com/breathe-baby-what-your-infant-self-can-teach-you/ . When preparing for birth, you will not only learn calming breaths to use throughout life but the various breathing methods that will help you handle each stage of birth.
• Develop cues to help nurture a hypnotic state. There are a variety of ways to help strengthen your hypnotic state and to maintain calm. Use pre-natal time and hypnotic practice to use music, scent, voice, birth partner’s touch, tactile soothers, and visual cues to help maintain hypnotic focus, even under intense experiences such as birth.

You will find that many doulas, midwives, delivery nurses, and doctors not only encourage hypnosis as a technique for patients, but many utilize parts of it in their birthing practice with clients/patients already. By studying the hypnosis early in pregnancy or at least by week 24 (although you can start later and still be successful) you give yourself maximum time to make these methods a natural and effective part of your daily life and birth experience.

There are many programs that call themselves “hypnobirthing,” and these offer a variety of different approaches and other methods and are often focused exclusively on “natural” childbirth methods. My program is focused on the use of hypnosis and self-hypnosis to create a positive pregnancy and birth experience, regardless of your birth method, and adaptable to whatever your personal labor or delivery choices have in store for you.

I would be happy to provide an education program for you as an individual, a couple, or for a small group, through virtual training or in person. For more information, contact Heather Haller at Fertile Awakenings, a part of North Shore Hypnosis by scheduling a free consultation on our page by clicking here or send an email to heather@nshypnosis.com. I look forward to nurturing your positive pregnancy experience!