Our little hypnobaby!

Yup, I know it sounds crazy (even Mark would agree), but I decided to try using hypnosis when prepping for Emily’s arrival, since I really wanted to avoid an epidural and other interventions. For those of you not in the know, there are two popular systems of hypnosis for childbirth, and after doing some research I ended up ordering the Hypnobabies home study course. One of the questions I had prior to the big day was whether or not it would work- I mean really, they claim you can have a pain-free childbirth, which sounds nuts after seeing all these TV shows of women screaming, crying, and generally being miserable in labor.

Hypnobabies in a Nutshell: It’s a five week program where you listen to CD tracks and practice self-hypnosis cues every day and have readings every week. The readings cover everything from diet (which hopefully you already are handling, since by the time you get to this course, you’re probably already at 30 weeks) to what common interventions are used, with pros and cons. There’s also readings and a CD for the husband/other support- which Mark completely ignored. To give him the benefit of the doubt, Emily did come early, so maybe he would have gotten around to it in the last 2 weeks before I was due. The program changes some of the language of childbirth to avoid the negative connotations we associate with those words- “contractions” become “pressure waves”, etc. I admittedly felt kind of silly referring to pressure waves and my birthing time, and had some trouble with that aspect.

I did the readings and listened to the CD tracks religiously, but I put them on at night and generally fell asleep within minutes. (This is actually pretty common, and they suggest that you make sure you listen to each track at least once while awake so you know what’s on them, but that your subconscious mind will still pick up the suggestions if you do fall asleep.) I will say I had no trouble sleeping when I was pregnant, all the way up until at least week 35, and even then I only woke up occasionally. I like to think that was due to the CDs, but who knows. I wasn’t nearly as good about practicing the cues as I should have been. I work long days and I just had trouble fitting in the time. (Excuses, I know.) I didn’t do any of the practicing with Mark, which I regret because I think it would have helped. Being first time parents, neither of us really knew what to expect, and he ended up basically letting me do my own thing.

Of course, the big question is did it work?

Yes and no, but I take at least some of the blame for the “no”, and definitely plan to use the program for the next kiddo.

• I was calm throughout my pregnancy and labor from the first day of the course. I felt less stressed about everything, including work. I really think this was the biggest benefit of the program for me. I had no trouble having rational conversations with nurses, I didn’t panic, and the only time I yelled at Mark was when I told him to go get lunch already. Actually, I went into labor at 3:30 am and didn’t wake Mark up until about 7. I was more calm than he was, and I actually felt like I should have labored at home longer. He insisted I call the office at 7:30. (This ended up resulting in me skipping breakfast and going in right away- one of my few regrets. Ladies, eat breakfast. I was starving. I felt like I belonged in a Snickers commercial.)
• I progressed steadily and had a relatively quick labor for a first time mom, without pitocin or anything else to speed things along. It actually felt even faster than it was- one of the hypnosis suggestions from the program is that every 20 minutes would feel like 5, and that’s pretty accurate. I didn’t get tired.
• The only real pain I felt during contractions was in my back. (Back labor is not fun.) I’m convinced that if Emily had been positioned better that it might really have been pain-free. It was worst when I was laying down, which was pretty much required for about 20 min/hour for monitoring. I did end up getting an epidural as a result, but that wasn’t until I was at 7 cm, and it only took about an hour from that point until I was at 10, and they turned it off. Honestly, I could have probably gone longer (or avoided entirely), but I was worried about passing the point of no return and then not being able to get one if the back labor got worse. Not really being able to handle laying down didn’t help.
• I felt about 95% back to normal within 2 weeks.
• Random observation- one of the things the program has you do is visualize the birth. I had been visualizing going into labor in the morning and the baby being born around 5. In actuality, we went to the hospital around 8 am and Emily was born around 4:30 pm. Next time I’m going to visualize eating breakfast beforehand and the baby being born in time for lunch. 🙂

As I said, I absolutely plan on using the program again next time, so while things weren’t perfect, I still think it was well worth the cost. I actually would recommend everyone use it, even if they plan to get an epidural, just because of how calm I was. The course was worth it for that alone. Plus, my labor looked nothing like what you see on TV- though whether that’s due to Hypnobabies, I’ll never know.