What are Hypnobirthing Antenatal Classes?

Congratulations on your pregnancy!

If you are planning for your pregnancy and birth then you will be very happy that you found this blog. 

Perhaps this is your first birth and you have no idea what to expect or maybe you’ve done all of this before. Maybe you feel blissfully calm about your up and coming labour or maybe you are a bit nervous or even quite fearful. 

Hypnobirthing is a combination of useful information that will help you understand the birthing process and empower you, self hypnosis and really useful techniques. 

It will provide you with information about how to feel calm and birth with Joy and ease. It will show you how to feel in control and confident in your body’s ability, to do what it knows how to do and birth your baby, in whatever way your baby chooses to come into the world. 

Joy in Birthing Hypnobirthing includes self-hypnosis, deep relaxation, techniques to rid fear and keep it away. You’ll gain a deep sense of confidence in your own body. You’ll discover positions to assist the birthing process and it will assist you in planning your labour and birth. 

If you follow the Joy in Birthing Hypnobirthing course, you’ll also learn massage techniques to assist relaxation, get your labour process started and how to keep it all flowing. I am Amanda Joy, I have been working with pregnant ladies as a massage therapist for over 25 years and empowering women is a theme that has run right throughout my working life as a nurse, therapist and teacher. Hypnobirthing prepares you for a natural, beautiful childbirth with great memories. 

I trained as a Clinical Hypnotherapist and was drawn to working in the areas of Fertility, Prenatal and Postnatal Therapeutic work, combining my knowledge of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Reflexology and Massage with Hypnotherapy and Powerful Techniques. As an independent practitioner and trainer, I studied obstetrics and hypnobirthing and have trained with multiple hypnobirthing providers. Joy in Birthing is my own brand of hypnobirthing and I now train trainers too.

The Hypnobirthing program has been spreading across the world since it was designed by Marie Mongan in 1989 in the US. It is now taught in 45 countries and many NHS Trust hospitals in the UK and is approved by the Royal College of Midwives. Even Kate Middleton Duchess of Cambridge used Hypnobirthing for the birth of her son! 

Don’t worry if you are a long way away or even in another country, classes are held over zoom and if you are close to your due date we can space the classes over a shorter time period. 

Hypnobirthing can be your key to a comfortable, wonderful childbirth. It is a completely logical and well established method which allows your mind to work in harmony with your body, the way nature intended. 

It is a full antenatal course which helps you release any fears you may have and gives you all the tools and confidence you will need. Practice and preparation puts you in charge, allowing your baby to be born calm and alert, able to bond with you quickly and to settle into healthy sleeping and feeding patterns. 

Hypnobirthing teaches mums to call upon their natural instincts to achieve a birth that is not only beautifully designed but also free of fear, discomfort, and anxiety. 

“When a woman is properly prepared for birthing, physically, mentally and spiritually, she can birth her baby in an easy, comfortable and often pain-free manner.” Marie Mongan – Hypnobirthing Founder

How does Hypnobirthing work? 

Hypnobirthing is based on the belief that a woman’s body is perfectly designed to give birth without experiencing pain. When a woman is properly prepared and when mind and body are in harmony, nature is free to function in the same well-designed manner that it does with all other creatures. After all, why should a woman’s uterus not function just as comfortably as other muscles in the body? 

The reason is FEAR. In the west a fear of childbirth has developed over centuries and when we are fearful, we are also tense and when we are tense we experience pain. Through simple hypnosis, deep relaxation, visualisation and breathing techniques we can eliminate the fear of childbirth leaving mums to birth as nature intended. 

“When you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change.” Marie F. Mongan 

Small group classes are not currently available. However, one to one sessions with you and your partner can be booked to suit your schedule, they are a quicker way to gain all of the required knowledge.  

"Joy in Birthing is all about helping you to maintain a feeling of calm and control throughout your birthing experience."  Amanda Joy 

Most importantly it aims to provide you with techniques to enjoy your birth whatever situation you find yourself in and whatever route your baby chooses to come into his world. You’ll learn some powerful skills to help you to relax, feel confident and in control. 

You’ll leave with a toolbox of skills, knowledge and information that’ll help you to have an enjoyable pregnancy and birth. It is important to know that from the outset, that, this is your birthing experience, it’s your show. 

During your hypnobirthing course you’ll be using lots of visualisation. Visualisation is the process of imagining or pretending, this may be through images, it may be through sounds or feelings, it doesn’t matter how you experience visualisations as there is nothing specific to ‘see’ as such. 

There is no right or wrong way to visualise, in fact when you are doing it right, it's very individual to you. When we were children, we had amazing imaginations. This ability hasn’t gone away it’s just not been used for a while, so a hypnobirthing teacher hopes to reconnect you to that inner child and use your wonderful imagination.

What your mind believes your body achieves.  

 Your mind doesn’t know the difference between what is real and what is imagined, that’s why we jump and have a physical reaction when we watch a horror movie even though we aren’t there. Visualising a calm, safe, positive environment or situation will relax your mind and produce relaxing feel good chemicals, dopamine (The reward chemical), oxytocin (the love chemical), serotonin (the happiness chemical) and endorphins (opioid neuropeptides the natural pain killer chemical). These are important for an easier, calmer birth as a relaxed mind and a relaxed body equals an easier birth.

You may have heard of the fight or flight response. The fight-or-flight response, also known as the acute stress response, refers to a physiological reaction that occurs in the presence of something that is terrifying, either mentally or physically.

The response is triggered by the release of hormones that prepare your body to either stay and deal with a threat or to run away to safety. The physiological and psychological response to stress prepares the body to react to the danger. You get an increase in your heart rate, your blood pressure goes up and you begin to breathe faster. There is a constriction of blood vessels especially in many of the non-essential organs of the body for example the digestive system. You don’t need to be digesting food when a big scary monster is running after you.  You need to be able to fight or run.

The theory states that animals react to threats with a general discharge of the sympathetic nervous system, priming the animal for fighting or fleeing. One of the other responses is the freeze response. This is again an old brain response to predators, we freeze and play dead.

We have already been hypnotised about birth. 

Negative TV shows, negative stories from other women and positive stories almost being hidden from talk and chat around birthing, its hardly surprising that we may slip into a freeze, fight or flight response. Add to the nervousness or fear lots of prodding and poking and medical intervention, a lack of information about what is happening to your body and we have a mum labouring feeling uncomfortable afraid and out of control. A hypnobirthing mum will feel calm, confident, knowledgeable and very much in control. She will understand the birthing process, helping her to understand the often-new sensations she is feeling.

She will feel a firm confidence in her body. As she will have fully connected with the idea that her body knew how to grow a baby, so her body will know how to deliver it. She will have access to numerous techniques to help the baby move down the birth canal and be delivered with minimal damage to her body and maximum ability to bond and connect with her new bundle of joy. 

As a Joy in Birthing instructor I feel it’s a good idea to get the birthing partner involved too. Its their job to prompt, guide, support and use the right language to effectively support Mum to deliver in a peaceful calm environment. They too will gain a toolbox they can use to feel a part of the birthing experience. Many mums have reported that its this support that is most beneficial when birthing. 

If you’d like to find out more, you can book a free consultation on my website. 

Joy in Birthing hypnobirthing can be delivered in one to one session’s at a time to suit you or in groups, online or in person. If you're interested in training go to www.thenortherncollegeofclinicalhypnotherapy.com

I am always happy to answer questions you may have you can also get in touch with me via my website www.amandajoy.co.uk Here is a link to a free calm pregnancy audio to get you started.

https://youtu.be/t7Pcomyr50g