The key areas of the course include:

Hypnosis – which is not as hippie, or as mind controlling as some think.

As our name suggests we incorporate hypnosis techniques to provide relaxation, keeping in mind that with self-hypnosis you are actually in a heightened state of awareness. You do not disassociate from your body, in fact you become more aware of your body, and all of your senses become acute and sensitive – you can hear clearer, (so that is why we ask people not to have conversations around you because they can be distracting). Strong smells like essential oils or perfumes can be distracting and make a mum feel too high or nauseous. Your skin becomes highly sensitive to touch and may respond really well to massage for relaxation and to release endorphins (your pain-relieving hormones). Through self-hypnosis, you learn techniques to release fear, tension and pain. We focus on fear release techniques because at the end of the day if a woman is experiencing fear, then she is releasing her “fight or flight” hormones, creating tension in the body, which ultimately creates more pain and this enhances that Fear-Tension-Pain cycle. With self-hypnosis, you can feel your baby moving down and you surrender to all these sensations rather than fearing them and you let go of control and go with your instincts, your breath and your body. You “zone in” rather than “zoning out” which is a common misconception about hypnobirthing by other programs and health care providers.

Relaxation

When a mother is mentally and physically relaxed, her body works more efficiently as nature intended. When she is holding tension and fear in her body, in her muscles, especially in her jaw, this tension equated to holing her birthing muscle tightly closed, which makes it harder, slower and more painful to birth a baby. Just try it. Clench your jaw tight, and feel the connection to the tension and tightness in the pelvic area.

Breathing

This is one of the most important components in our program. Without the proper breathing techniques you are not getting enough oxygen to the all-important uterine muscles or your baby. Our breathing is divided into 3 separate breathing techniques – relaxation breathing, surge breathing and bearing down breathing – and the way to practice your bearing down breathing at home gives you that “aha moment” where you understand and feel the opening of the sphincters.

Acupressure

This can be used for relaxation, labour, birth and the postpartum period. We also emphasise that although acupressure is very good for helping a mother to feel calm and relaxed – it can’t make you go into labour unless your body is ready and this is very important for couples to recognise. Acupressure provides a labour focus, which means it can increase whatever is already going on in the body, rather than giving couples a false expectation that using acupressure can induce labour. The birth mother and partner are given access to additional information about using acupressure techniques to promote relaxation, pain relief and balance in the body and to help facilitate stronger surges during labour.

Visualisation

This is used all through pregnancy, birth and afterwards. Some of our visualisations are literal (like the muscles of our uterus working or imagining ourselves in a beautiful place in nature) and some are more abstract. We also include a fun project where couples create their positive affirmation posters and vision boards for birth. We know that imagery is so powerful for that mind/body connection and we demonstrate this through activities during the classes so you will feel and understand how the mind controls the body like a robot.

Massage

We focus on light touch massage because this is easy to learn and easy to do and beneficial to help women become relaxed and calm while also releasing endorphins. I also demonstrate counter pressure through the sacrum and the hip squeeze to open the pelvis and release tension through the joints and ligaments of the pelvis.

Partner support

Your birth partner is involved in classes and practice because the partner has a significant role in supporting their labouring woman in a positive way. If the birth partner is feeling stressed or anxious then that energy is going to be transferred to the birthing mother – and that is the last thing she needs during labour. The birth partners go away with an easy reference “cheat sheet” that they can use on the day to remind them what they have learned in classes. I have never had a partner who still felt they didn’t know what they would be doing during labour and birth. Our classes provide the birthing mother and partner with enough knowledge, confidence and power to positively approach their birth.