- Hi guys, welcome back to my channel.
In today's video I'm going to be sharing
with you six tips to do with hypnobirthing,
and also talking a little bit about my experience.
I have made a video on this in the past,
but it doesn't include the experience
of my recent home birth, so I thought it was about time
that I updated the video,
and yeah I really hope you enjoy it,
I hope you get something from it.
Whenever one of my friends
or someone I know becomes pregnant,
the first thing I say to them is
have you considered doing hypnobirthing?
Because I have had such good experiences,
I have had three natural births,
I only had some gas and air and Paracetamol
with the first birth, and it was all very straightforward,
and I was really, really lucky.
Obviously, you go into birth not knowing
what's gonna happen.
You might have to be induced, you might have
to have a ceasarean in the end,
but by doing hypnobirthing, it can even make you
more relaxed in dealing with those situations.
So, I would just recommend it.
I think any prep that you can do for labor
is really important, and you wouldn't go and run a marathon
having not trained at all.
So, for me, hypnobirthing's been amazing.
So the first thing to know about hypnobirthing,
is that there is actually a scientific reason
why it works, or helps.
There's something called FTP, which is fear, tension, pain.
So when we fear something, we tense up,
we get loads of adrenaline, and then that results in pain.
So, what we want to try and do in birth and labor
is stay as calm as possible, and have all those
good, oxytocin hormones coming in,
'cause basically if you have adrenaline,
and fear that can actually stop the blood flow
to your uterus and things, and it can
result in a lot of pain.
So, you want to try and remain as calm as possible,
so listening to hypnobirthing, practicing your breathing,
or pain techniques can really help with that.
So there are a few different ways
that you can practice hypnobirthing.
I actually found a local hypnotist
who specialized in that, but you can
download audios from apps or from online,
or you can also find local hypnobirthing classes.
So whichever way you do it, it will definitely help
if you practice it at home.
So I went down the route of seeing a specialist,
and we had three sessions together,
and I ended up taking my husband, Matt, as well,
so that he was fully on board and understanding
what was going on.
In the first session, she did some
relaxation hypnosis with me,
and also talked about any fears I had.
I had a big tear about tearing,
so she included that in my hypnosis.
She actually gave me CD's, it was CD's back then,
that I could then put onto my iPhone
or iPod or computer or something
so that I would have it available during the birth.
I was given three different audios really.
One was a relaxation hypnosis,
one was pain techniques, which would
kind of talk you through you're walking through a cold lake,
and now you're completely numb from the chest down.
So it kind of learning pain techniques
that you could then use during birth.
And then the final one was one
that I was not to listen to until
I went into labor because it did talk about you are dilating
at the exact right speed for your body,
and it was actually things that
if you listened to before you were due,
that could actually bring on labor.
My next tip I already touched upon,
but it's definitely worth putting
whatever you download or get given onto your phone,
or there are also some great hypnosis apps
that you can get.
But, wherever you are when you go into labor,
you will have your phone, and it's even worth
putting it onto your partners phone.
'Cause if you run out of battery
or anything like that, definitely bring chargers
to the hospital as well.
And also get some headphones.
For me, when I was in labor, one really nice thing
was that I had my headphones on
and I was listening to my relaxing hypnosis
and I couldn't hear everything that
was going on in the room.
And with my second son Caleb,
we actually arrived at the hospital and I was
already seven centimeters dilated
and my husband Matt said that the midwife
actually started to panic and get things ready
and you could tell she was worried
how quickly the baby was coming
but because I had my headphones on
I was a little bit oblivious,
I was kind of just rocking and swaying
and she just got on and did whatever.
But I think that if you were actually in the room
seeing how panicked the midwife was,
it could have been quite unsettling.
And another thing that I did,
in my first birth I had just normal headphones
but in my second birth I actually had wireless headphones,
because in my first birth the wires were really annoying me
and I had to hold the phone and have all these wires.
So it might be worth getting wireless headphones
but you have to make sure that you charge them
before the birth and then there's obviously that worry
that they could run out of charge.
So just think about all that when you pack your hospital bag
put headphones in, maybe ones with wires, ones without,
because you won't want to run out of the hypnosis.
I suppose you could put it on speaker, worst case.
But yeah, that's just a tip from me.
My next tip is probably the most important
and that is to actually practice it.
You have to do the do.
It's all well and good saying that
you're gonna do hypnobirthing but then
if you don't do it when you're at home,
what's the point?
So what I did was from 30 weeks pregnant
I would just listen to the relaxation hypnosis.
It was 20 minutes long and I would listen to that
every single day.
With my first I used to have naps, but
then when I had my second son,
I didn't have the luxury of having naps
so I would just literally turn on when I was going to bed
and sometimes I would fall asleep with it in
but it was still going in.
So that's a really easy way to do it.
Just literally put it on when you're going to bed.
It's so relaxing anyway, I used to sleep so well.
But you have to do the do.
If you're watching this though and
you're 35 weeks pregnant, it's not too late.
You can do some practicing and you will find that
helpful anyway.
I just think in the ideal world I did it
from 30 weeks with each of my pregnancies
for 20 minutes a day.
My next tip is an important one
and that is to make sure that the hospital staff
or the midwives know that you have practiced hypnobirthing.
You will be much more calm than the average woman in labor
and I definitely felt that.
With my first son, I went into hospital
I was three or four centimeters dilated,
and I was having a contraction, but
I was able to kind of talk to the midwife a bit
and the midwife sent me home because she said
if I was really in labor, if my contractions
were really that bad, that I wouldn't have been able
to breathe or talk through my contraction,
but I was because I was practicing hypnobirthing
and I was so calm.
So they sent me home and then it was
a bit of a nightmare.
Then I had to call an ambulance
and get rushed back 'cause the baby was coming.
So definitely make that your husband's job to say
she's been doing hypnobirthing, she's very calm.
I personally feel like I wasn't taken
as seriously, in a way, because I was so relaxed,
they didn't kind of give me a room straight away
and they said because it was my first baby
that it would take over 24 hours and he came
in just seven hours.
My next tip is that there are a few things that you can do
alongside hypnobirthing that can really help
with your birth.
I practiced pregnancy yoga or pregnancy pilates to
keep my body supple, and whenever I did yoga
I would sleep really well that night.
So it was great for breathing and relaxation.
I also ate a healthy, balanced diet as much as I could
bar the cravings toward the end of my pregnancy.
And I also had acupuncture and reflexology
in the last couple of weeks.
I actually had that 'cause I was trying
to bring on the labor 'cause all of my babies were late.
But, it can be really, really, good
and there are things they can do
in acupuncture that can really help apparently,
I mean I'm not a doctor or anything,
but can bring the baby's head down
and that can give you those really nice
oxytocin hormones which are so important
when you're giving birth.
Right, so there's my tips and I really hope
you found them helpful.
I really wanted to share my experience with hypnobirthing
because I've had such good births
and I think there are actually a lot of
positive birth experiences out there
if you look for it.
When we watch movies or TV or we hear the horror stories
that our friends have been through in birth
it can really make you scared of it
and that is exactly what you don't want.
So if someone starts telling you about their horrendous
birth experience maybe just don't listen
or just tell them to stop, because you
just don't need that in your head.
And I know my experience was really good,
but because it was good it's also quite forgettable.
My first son came in just seven hours,
my second son came in just three hours,
and third son I had at home, right there, on the floor,
and it took just 40 minutes from
when I got to five centimeters dilated.
I was extremely relaxed.
My husband always said, "You were like in the zone."
And I did have a friend that tried hypnobirthing
but then unfortunately she had an induction
and not the birth that she had planned,
but she said that the hypnobirthing was so helpful
in the early days of being a new mom.
She was a very relaxed new mother
because in the hypnobirthing it does say
you know, you're a natural, you'll know exactly what to do,
so it can also help for when your baby is actually here.
So yeah, it's worth a shot.
But anyway, if you've got any questions
please put them int he comments down below
and I will be sure to answer them.
And thank you so much for watching and I'll see you soon.
Bye guys.