There is a better way to give birth!
If you’ve read my birth story, you’ll know what a huge fan I am of Gentlebirth. This is the self-hypnosis for childbirth programme that I used when I was having Little Man. Charlie and I completed a weekend course when I was about 20 weeks pregnant. Over the course of the weekend, we learned about the relationship between fear and pain in childbirth. We learned to question the portrayals of childbirth that we saw in the media, and to block out the horror stories that people love to tell about labour, and we learned some basic self-hypnosis techniques. I’m the first to admit that I was a real sceptic that weekend. I just kept telling myself “It’s worth a shot”, but in the back of my mind, I was thinking “There’s always the drugs if I need them!”
Once we had completed the course, I started doing my “homework” every night. This meant listening to my relaxation and self-hypnosis tracks every night, training my mind to go into a deep state of relaxation, and learning to quell any unfounded fears that entered my mind. The weeks went by, and my attitude to birth started to change. The programme had encouraged me to seek out positive birth stories, and I did just that. I filled my head with wonderful stories of calm, inspiring births.
As a result, I had a wonderful relaxing pregnancy, and a fantastic birth experience. Don’t worry – I’m not trying to convince you that it was pain-free – it wasn’t. But I felt so relaxed, calm, and in control for the whole thing, and that was all down to the Gentlbirth preparation that I had done. I was able to allow my body to do what it needed to do, to birth my baby.
Since that experience, I’ve become a real advocate of Gentlebirth, making sure to tell any pregnant women I speak to about it. You can’t control what will happen on the day, and using this programme is no guarantee of a drug-free or intervention-free labour, but in my experience, it does improve your chances of both. I believe so strongly in the Gentlebirth experience that I recently contacted Tracy Donegan, the woman who ran my weekend class, and asked her if I could advertise Gentlebirth on my site. This is the closest I can get to shouting about it from the rooftops! So I was delighted when she invited me to sign up for the Gentlebirth affiliate programme, and tonight I’ve done just that! If you check the right-hand column now, you should see a little banner ad for GentleBirth. If you or someone close to you is expecting a baby any time soon, make sure you check it out! I can’t recommend it highly enough.
And if you have your own Gentlebirth story to share, please just comment here and let me know. I’d be delighted to publish it here for you!
Oh wow like yourself I did a weekend workshop with Tracy on my first – I had been terrified of giving birth and
panicking about it all.
After workshop felt so much better. I listened to the CDs every day for the rest of the pregnancy and it helped keep me calm over the next few weeks – I started to finally enjoy being pregnant. I had a great birth – it didn’t go exactly to plan (I had wanted to birth at home but had to transfer to the hospital towards the end of the labour), but it was
an incredible and powerful experience. I also loved that I felt myself and my partner were a team during the labour – the workshop has so many tools that include the partner and he used lots of them and they really helped. I really really enjoyed my labour – Never thought I would say that before doing the course!!!! Similar to yourself I liked how GentleBirthit is geared towards the Irish system, but there were also other differences I liked (compared to
The Mongan method) – such as offering information on common hospital procedures offered to you during labour so you can make an informed choice during labour. I now teach the workshops in Cork and just have to pinch myself sometimes that I get to do this – since
I love it so much. I’ve since gone on to have another baby (he’s 15 months now), and the birth was another incredible, amazing experience. Anyway sorry for such a long reply, just excited to see someone blogging about how great GentleBirth is (and explaining it so well)
Hi Gentlebirth Cork! I wrote another explanation of my experiences with Gentlebirth more recently in July: http://www.mama.ie/?p=2459 You might like to check it out. As you can probably tell, I found it a wonderful experience!
You know, I’m always looking for positive birth stories to share on this site in the Birth section – it sounds like you have two to share. If you’d ever like to write about them, just let me know – I’d be very happy to publish your stories here. (Likewise, if anyone taking your classes in Cork has an experience they’d like to share online, just point them here!) 🙂
Lisa
Oh wow like yourself I did a weekend workshop with Tracy on my first – I had been terrified of giving birth and
panicking about it all.
After workshop felt so much better. I listened to the CDs every day for the rest of the pregnancy and it helped keep me calm over the next few weeks – I started to finally enjoy being pregnant. I had a great birth – it didn’t go exactly to plan (I had wanted to birth at home but had to transfer to the hospital towards the end of the labour), but it was
an incredible and powerful experience. I also loved that I felt myself and my partner were a team during the labour – the workshop has so many tools that include the partner and he used lots of them and they really helped. I really really enjoyed my labour – Never thought I would say that before doing the course!!!! Similar to yourself I liked how GentleBirthit is geared towards the Irish system, but there were also other differences I liked (compared to
The Mongan method) – such as offering information on common hospital procedures offered to you during labour so you can make an informed choice during labour. I now teach the workshops in Cork and just have to pinch myself sometimes that I get to do this – since
I love it so much. I’ve since gone on to have another baby (he’s 15 months now), and the birth was another incredible, amazing experience. Anyway sorry for such a long reply, just excited to see someone blogging about how great GentleBirth is (and explaining it so well)
Hi Gentlebirth Cork! I wrote another explanation of my experiences with Gentlebirth more recently in July: http://www.mama.ie/?p=2459 You might like to check it out. As you can probably tell, I found it a wonderful experience!
You know, I’m always looking for positive birth stories to share on this site in the Birth section – it sounds like you have two to share. If you’d ever like to write about them, just let me know – I’d be very happy to publish your stories here. (Likewise, if anyone taking your classes in Cork has an experience they’d like to share online, just point them here!) 🙂
Lisa
Totally agree Lisa! I used Gentlebirth on my first pregnancy and it was amazing, helping me deal with an induced birth much more calmly than I could have imagined. It definitely wasn’t pain free, but it was mostly fear free and I was thrilled to have delivered my 9lb 6 baby using just gas (and Tracy’s voice!).
I continued to use the Gentlebirth CDs even after pregnancy as a relaxation device, and by the time baby #2 was due I didn’t even need the recordings anymore. I could repeat the affirmations and do the visualisations all on my own. It helped that I knew what to expect this time round, but the hypnobirthing definitely helped me into a state of deep relaxation. 3 hours after the 1st contraction, after 6mins on the labour ward, 5 pushes and not even a whiff of gas, my baby was born. It was the most exhilarating experience I’ve ever had, and it was easy. The staff were amazed by how calm I was and at how my husband was so clued in to what I needed. I’m reluctant to say it was entirely pain free, but it was an almost enjoyable sort of pain (and I’m a bit of a wuss generally).
So, well done Lisa on becoming affiliated with Gentlebirth. It’s an amazing resource. I just wish the HSE would give a copy to every pregnant woman!
So do I Emma. I know that hypnobirthing isn’t for everyone – but I certainly think it should be more widely available. I don’t understand why it’s not taught as standard or even offered as a standard option in the hospital ante-natal classes.