Interview: “Hypnobirthing made me feel like we approach birth as a team”

How did you know about hypnobirthing?

A friend of mine once attended a hypnobirthing course and told me about it. Even then I thought it might be something for me. When I was pregnant, I remembered it again and got in touch with my girlfriend.

Why did you choose a course?

I am a person who gains security through knowledge. When something new and unknown comes up for me, which I might even have respect for, it helps me if I can gather lots of information about it. I am also very open to relaxation techniques and was happy to have the opportunity to receive birth aids.

What course did you do exactly?

I attended a hypnobirthing course at the Cologne birth center. It took place in a small group on six dates of two hours each. The instructor always took her time and answered all questions.

Was your partner with you?

Yes, my friend did the course with me. The partner or another accompanying person plays an important role in hypnobirthing. However, it is not absolutely necessary to attend the course with your partner. One participant had her sister with her and another participant came alone because she already had a child who needed care. But it is certainly very advantageous if you do the course with someone who is also present at the birth.

Why?

It’s all about following your body and more or less turning off your mind. The relaxation techniques ideally get you into this trance-like state step by step. In order to protect the atmosphere created for this, the accompanying person is very important. During the exercises and the birth, she should keep away any disturbance from the pregnant woman or woman giving birth and support her in the techniques. And that’s exactly what worked wonderfully for us. I didn’t have to speak to the midwife at all, my friend did that and I was able to be with myself and our baby. Hypnobirthing made me feel like I didn’t have to give birth alone, we did it as a team, my partner, our baby and I.

What did you do in the course?

We got to know many relaxation methods, self-hypnosis and breathing techniques for the different birth phases. And we’ve talked about the anatomy of the hip, the birth process, and how natural birth occurs in mammals. The latter might sound weird, but it makes total sense. Because the general idea of ​​hypobirthing is to focus more on the natural process of giving birth. It’s about being guided by your body instead of “following” conventional medical traditions, some of which date back to the first half of the 20th century. With them, everything follows a certain pattern that nurses and doctors specify, although every body and every birth are different.

And how can you break this pattern with hypnobirthing?

In our course, great importance was attached to conveying to the participants how important a pleasant, protected and self-determined feel-good atmosphere is in order to relax and thereby also facilitate the birth process. For this purpose, we got to know as an aid, for example, birth wish lists, which are given to the hospital staff before the birth.

Were you able to use the relaxation methods during childbirth?

Yes. My partner supported me a lot and kept reminding me of hypnobirthing. Above all, the breathing technique during the contractions helped me a lot, I could feel a clear improvement. Only in the last phase of the birth could I not use the technique I had learned. In this so-called expulsion phase, I let my body determine it, I could no longer get involved with the method. Overall, I experienced my birth in a very positive and self-determined manner. This is certainly largely due to the fact that my boyfriend seemed very confident to me and accompanied and supported me well. We were also very lucky with the midwife at the hospital, she fully respected and implemented all our wishes.

Has hypnobirthing helped you deal with the pain?

Yes, in any case. I was afraid of the pain beforehand, but I really wanted to avoid painkillers such as epidurals and “make it on my own”. Mainly because I didn’t want the baby to be “drowsy” just before the first breath. I’ve read that babies born on epidurals are more floppy. During hypnobirthing, we course participants learned why birth is so painful – and that it can also be peaceful, as is the case with animals. We have learned which birthing postures make sense given the human anatomy. We were also told that the body is tense during childbirth because it expects pain. And that tension actually leads to pain. Relaxation is the key. My birth wasn’t entirely without pain either, but looking back I honestly can’t remember exactly how it felt. But I don’t remember it as bad and I’m very sure that my birth wouldn’t have gone so well without hypnobirthing. I probably would have been a lot more tense and would have breathed differently, which would have meant more pain. The method also gave me much more focus on the relieving breaks between contractions. And my partner certainly wouldn’t have been able to support me as well. I probably would have been a lot more tense and would have breathed differently, which would have meant more pain. The method also gave me much more focus on the relieving breaks between contractions. And my partner certainly wouldn’t have been able to support me as well. I probably would have been a lot more tense and would have breathed differently, which would have meant more pain. The method also gave me much more focus on the relieving breaks between contractions. And my partner certainly wouldn’t have been able to support me as well.

So you were completely won over by hypnobirthing?

Yes, I would recommend hypnobirthing to any pregnant woman who is similar to me and is open to the method. However, just attending the course is not enough. You should definitely repeat the exercises at home regularly. It is best to choose two to a maximum of four techniques at the beginning and train them intensively – otherwise, in my opinion, there are too many different methods to master them all. I can also recommend the book “HypnoBirthing” by Marie F. Mongan as a start.