Why hypnobirthing?
If you’re on this webpage, you’re probably already pretty convinced about hypnobirthing - or at the very least, you’re thinking about it. Which is great! Because hypnobirthing has so many benefits - these include:
Helping you understand what happens during labour - and what it can feel and look like
Helping birth partners be clear about their absolutely integral role in a positive birth. Often birth partners can feel like a spare part - hypnobirthing shows them that’s absolutely not the case
Helping you to use breathing and visualisation techniques during labour, which for some people can help manage pain and uncomfortable emotions like anxiety or panic
Equipping you with the confidence and knowledge to ask informed questions of health professionals, and to know your options during birth and labour
Giving you space to think about your choices and options about where and how you’d like to give birth, and your birth preferences (or ‘birth plan’) in lots of different contexts, including C-sections
Teaching you to calm and relax your mind in potentially challenging situations - which is useful far beyond birth (I use hypnobirthing techniques at the dentists, having a blood test and dealing with my toddler’s big emotions!)
In addition to all that, there’s emerging scientific evidence that hypnobirthing techniques can have an impact on tangible outcomes like length of labour and use of pain medication. Sophie Fletcher has an excellent post on scientific research on hypnobirthing (see link below) - and the reasons why there isn’t a huge amount of well-funded academic research on its benefits (spoiler: because big pharma has far more money in it!). However, there is some robust evidence emerging. A 2016 Cochrane review (a very high standard of evidence) showed that hypnosis helped to reduce the amount of pain relief used by women in labour, and a 2019 research paper found that hypnosis could be an effective approach to reduce and manage pain in labour. A 2023 systematic review (where results from several studies are collated and reviewed) found positive effects of hypnosis on alleviating anxiety, depression and fear around childbirth, and increasing confidence and improving emotional experience of labour.
You would never go into a job interview or turn up for a marathon having done no training and think ‘Well, I don’t know for sure if I will get this job, or if I will be able to finish this race, so I didn’t do any preparation for it, because what’s the point, if it might not go to plan?’ In fact, you’d be pretty certain not to get that job or finish that race if you did that. And that’s what birth is like - preparing physically and mentally for it can’t guarantee you the birth you want, but it can help you feel more confident, calm and in control, whatever road your labour takes.
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