Luck’s Yard Clinic’s Cognitive Hypnotherapist Laurie Harvey gives positive advice to those who are about to give birth and explains her therapy Hypnobirthing and the benefits it can bring to mums to be:

Childbirth can be the most amazing and empowering experience you’ll ever have.

It doesn’t need to be a frightening and painful experience although it is often portrayed as such on TV and in films for dramatic effect.

There are many women who have experienced calm, enjoyable and positive labours.

If we approach childbirth with an anxious mindset, our muscles will become tight and tense, our breathing will be shallow and restricted which makes the possibility of a painful birth more likely.

By taking some time to relax and let go of an anxious mindset your childbirth can be the most wonderful experience you’re every likely to have.

Relaxing while you’re pregnant can improve your own emotional wellbeing and lead to fewer complications throughout the pregnancy and during the birth.

When you’re calm and relaxed your body releases endorphins and hormones into your bloodstream, which are good for your baby’s health during pregnancy, and that continue after the birth.

The relationship you have with your baby starts during pregnancy and shapes how your baby develops.

If you’re more relaxed during childbirth your baby will feel less stressed as they transition into the world and combined with the release of strong hormones for you means that the very important bonding will be stronger.

Of course, stress is any everyday part of life for all of us but if you can make time for just 5 -10 minutes of relaxation a few times a day it’s going to have a positive impact on your baby’s development.

It is important to remember that our bodies are built to give birth naturally just like digesting our food, growing our hair and healing wounds.

Here are some things you can do to benefit you and your baby during pregnancy and childbirth.

  • Do spend time using abdominal breathing while you’re pregnant for stress-relief and relaxation.
  • Do practice breathing for contractions. Breathe in deeply and slowly through the nose and then release slowly through the mouth as if you’re blowing out a candle. Practicing this regularly while pregnant means you’ll have a tool to use when your contractions begin.
  • Do learn/create positive affirmations that you can think or say out loud and repeat them to yourself often. Here are a few examples:

“My body knows how to birth my baby”

“I can do this”

“I am strong”

“I trust my body”

  • Do spend time talking/singing/reading to your baby – from about 27 weeks they can recognise your voice and when they’re born the familiarity will be a comforting sound that you can use to calm them.
  • Do imagine the golden moment when your baby arrives safely into the world. This creates a blueprint for your unconscious mind that is calming and reassuring and will cause it to create positive feelings and emotions.
  • Do ignore people who try to tell you their pregnancy horror stories. Your brain will release stress hormones in response which isn’t good for you or your baby.

If you expect childbirth to be a difficult and painful experience your body will become tense and tight which will increase the chances of a painful delivery.

If you’d like to learn more about my confident childbirth hypnobirthing please take a look at my website here: https://www.laurieharvey.co.uk/hypnobirthing  

or contact me at laurie@laurieharvey.co.uk

Here are some comments from previous clients who have done hypnobirthing with me:

“It has honestly been a life-changing experience for me. The euphoria and sense of empowerment I felt after the birth made me feel so confident that I could tackle anything in my life. The moment when I pushed my baby out, picked her up from the bottom of the birthing pool and first held my baby in my arms is still so vivid and is indescribable in terms of the joy that memory brings to myself and my husband and I know this is directly attributable to my hypnobirthing. I feel so fortunate to have this memory and experience to reflect on as I know the majority of women seem to be fairly traumatized by their experience of childbirth.”

“I was calm, confident and in control. My labour and birth experience was extremely positive.”

“Instead of feeling nervous about the birth I was calm and in fact even excited about it.”

“It allowed me to have the natural, intervention-free home birth I really wanted. My recovery time was incredibly short which I put down to the calm nature of my labour and birth experience and the fact I had and required no intervention. This allowed me to focus solely on my new son and to enjoy those first few days to the full. I was also able to use some of the techniques to help me relax and ease into breastfeeding far more easily than I was able to with my first child.”

photo: pexels.com Lisa Fotios