What’s it like to take HypnoBirthing^®?

On this page we’ll tell you how HypnoBirthing^® works and the kind of results our parents have reported.  We’ll also give you a sense of our guiding beliefs and how we differ from other childbirth preparation methods.

When you have your baby with HypnoBirthing^®, you will not be in a trance or a sleep. What you will experience is similar to the daydreaming, or focusing, that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire.

You will be conversant and in good spirits – totally relaxed, but fully in control. Awake throughout, you will be aware of your body’s surges and your baby’s progress; but because you will have trained yourself to reach complete relaxation, you will be able to determine the degree and the manner in which you will feel the surges. You will experience birthing in an atmosphere of calm relaxation, free of the fear that prevents the muscles of your body from functioning as nature intended them to. In this calm state, your body’s natural relaxant, endorphins, replaces the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain.

HypnoBirthing^® parents report significantly lower rates of C-Sections, labour interventions (ie. pain medication, epidurals, induction) and preterm births.

• In 2007,  15.5% of US HypnoBirthing^® mothers birthed via C-Section, compared the the national average of 32%
• 12% of HypnoBirthing^® mothers chose to birth in the comfort of their homes.  The national US average is less than 1%.
• 6% of HypnoBirthing^® mothers chose to birth in freestanding birth centers.  The national US average is less than 1%.
• Over 70% of HypnoBirthing^® mothers birthing vaginally had unmedicated births.

HypnoBirthing^® - The Mongan Method is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. The concept is not new, but rather a “rebirth” of the philosophy of birthing as it existed thousands of years ago and as it was recaptured in the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, an English obstetrician. In the 1920s, he was one of the first to forward the concept of natural birthing. The method teaches you that, in the absence of fear and tension, or special medical circumstances, severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labor.

You will gain an understanding of how the birthing muscles work in perfect harmony–as they were designed to–when your body is sufficiently relaxed and you trust birth. You will learn how to achieve this kind of relaxation, free of the resistance that fear creates, and you will learn to use your natural birthing instincts for a calm, serene and comfortable birth.

In classes, you will learn proven techniques in a well-thought-out program of deep relaxation, visualization, and self-hypnosis. You will learn about the history and anatomy of birth, breathing exercises, templates for making a birth plan, see videos of calm and gentle births and have a guiding text book and compact discs for your relaxation practice. All of these are designed to help you achieve a more comfortable birth. HypnoBirthing^® encourages a calm, peaceful, and natural pregnancy, birth, and bonding experience for families.

We are unique in that unlike other childbirth methods that teach you how to cope with and manage pain, HypnoBirthing^® is based on the premise that childbirth does not necessarily need to be painful if the mother is properly prepared and relaxed. When women understand that pain is caused by constrictor hormones, created by fear, they learn, instead, to release fear thus creating endorphins—the feel good hormones. They are then able to change their expectations of long, painful labor and are able to replace them with expectations of a more comfortable birthing.  Rather than exhausting, shallow breathing and the distraction techniques of typical “prepared childbirth” programs, HypnoBirthing^® parents learn deep abdominal breathing and total relaxation, enabling the laboring mother to work in harmony with her body and her baby. This allows her to achieve a shorter and more comfortable labor for herself and baby.

Now that you have a better idea about the results you can expect by
working with us and our approach and philosophy of working with
parents, please check the Class Schedule page to learn about the specific
locations and class times available.

Baby Sprouts!