Hyp Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story!

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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I know the star of the show is almost three months old, but considering the fact that I never got around to writing the birth story for my first “hypnobaby”, it’s a bit of a miracle that I got this one down before the kid left for college!

So if your favorite pastime is reading exceedingly long and drawn out baby stories, if you’re interested in hypnobirthing, or you have nothing better to do, then this post is for you! Everyone else: you’ve been forewarned.

For the purpose of this birth story:

Pressure Wave=Contraction

Birthing Time=Labor

Baby-in-waiting=Ethan

It all started on Thursday, October 27^th when I was getting ready for work around 9am. I was already in my uniform and trying to bend down to tie my boots when it happened: my water broke! Or so I thought. There was no big gush but definitely some seeping, and it was the last thing I expected, so I texted my husband and boss, then went out to the living room to tell our nanny. “Don’t freak out, everything’s fine,” I said, “…but I think maybe my water just broke?” At which point she absolutely freaked out and started bustling around the house with excitement making sure everything was ready, asking if I needed anything, getting me food, etc. I wasn’t so excited, though because nothing was happening. No pressure waves, no “pain,” just the discomfort that I’d been feeling, say, for a few months now. And I did NOT want to be one of those women who had to be induced because her water broke and she hadn’t progressed.

Hyp Mama: Lessons 4 & 5 - Push it to the Limit!

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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So in the interest of time and the fact that my newest hypno-baby is almost 12 weeks old already, I've decided to combine the concepts for the last two lessons and just blog about it already. And hopefully get to blogging about the real deal before the little man isn't so little anymore.

Hypnobabies Lessons 4 and 5 focus mainly on educating a woman about the actual birthing process: what the different birthing stages look like, what's happening in a woman's body during each stage, and what's going on with the baby during each stage. These chapters also define different intervention tactics used in many hospitals and birthing centers that may be recommended to 'speed up' the process or that could be used in case of an emergency. Unless there is a valid emergency, most of these techniques are completely unnecessary and can actually add stress, time, and pain to the birthing process. Some even increase the chances of the baby going in to fetal distress. These chapters offer many helpful suggestions for avoiding this, and explain many practical techniques that help labor progress properly and naturally without having to resort to interventions; many suggestions are also given for turning a breech or posterior baby prior to or during the birthing time to ensure the baby is in the most optimal position for a smooth entrance, so to speak.

Hyp Mama: Lesson 3--Blissfully Numb

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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Lesson 3 is a short but crucial one: how to create the all-important "anesthesia" that will make the birthing process peaceful instead of traumatic for both mom and baby. It's a simple concept that builds on Lesson 2: once turning off your "lightswitch" and relaxing every muscle completely, you're instructed to imagine anesthesia flowing through your body, making it blissfully numb.

When creating anesthesia in the Hypnobabies program, a woman has two options (can you tell I'm an artist?):

1. Staying "off" in the completely relaxed hypnotic state while keeping your entire body under "general anesthesia," though your mind is still totally alert and aware of everything that's going on:

Full-body anesthesia

2. Move from "off" to "center" (eyes-open hypnosis) and essentially create an anesthetic "block," meaning that you can open your eyes, walk, talk, and move around, but still maintain that blissful numbness in specific areas. This type of technique has actually been used in modern medicine for things like surgery, and dental procedures for patients who are allergic to other anesthesia (crazy, huh?).   In the case of birthing, the block occurs from your upper arms, through your midsection to the mid-thighs, allowing you to maintain complete faculty of your arms and legs but still feel no pain as the birthing muscles contract.

Partial block anesthesia

Why these options? Because women need respond to whatever their body needs at any given time during the birthing process. Option one allows a woman to remain calm, restful, and comfortable as the pressure waves build on their own, or if she needs to take a break and re-gain some energy. Option two allows her to remain comfortable while taking a more active role to participate in techniques that help with the baby's descent (also useful if the process seems to have stalled a bit), using things like walking, squatting, changing position, or the belly lift to help move things along.

This anesthesia--especially in the "center" or eyes open stage--is the meat and potatoes of the Hypnobabies approach, the specific technique that helps a woman alter interpret the concept of pain as simply pressure. This definitely sounded too good to be true when I first read about hypnobirthing--that it was possible to 'imagine' the pain away--but I truly experienced it working to my full benefit with my last birth. When I remained relaxed as the self-hypnosis taught, I was able to envision a cool blue anesthesia flowing to wear my pain was, changing my perception of what I thought was "pain" to just strong pressure. It was still hard work and took all of my concentration to remain relaxed, but when I did, I was able to marvel at the absolute power and significance in my body's ability to bring our child into the world--pain free!

Hyp Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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Okay, so I know I've been slacking on my hypno-blogging. But better late than never, right? Thanks to my incredibly devoted husband, I'm now back on track and (may!) even get through all the lessons before our little guy makes his arrival.

So without further ado, here's Lesson 2!

In this lesson's the 30-min relaxation sessions on the CDs, "deepening" techniques are introduced. These techniques are meant to help reach the most relaxed state possible more quickly than we would in everyday life, and involve concepts like deep breathing, creating a "special place" and "bubble of peace," and finally, the "light switch" concept. The "special place and "bubble of peace" help create a state of mind where you feel safe and comfortable so you can allow your mind to fully relax and let go of any anxiety; the "bubble of peace," also allows you to create a visual barrier which prevents negative thoughts, stories, and ideas from affecting your ability to stay relaxed and positive.

The kids' lightswitch--cutest
around! If only it
calmed them down too...

The "lightswitch" is another visual used to help a woman distinguish between the three different states of that she may experience during her birthing time (and during practice):

-the non-hypnotic state
-the complete hypnotic state 
-the 'eyes-open' hypnotic state (as Hypnobabies calls it)

The "lightswitch" helps you control the hypnotic state you choose to enter any given time. In Hypnobabies book, there's a great cartoon drawing of a woman with a switch on the back of her neck...almost like a robot person in one of those sci-fi movies. When the switch is all the way up, you're "on," or in the non-hypnotic state. When it's down, you're "off," or in the completely relaxed hypnotic state. In this state, you're in a completely supported position (sitting or lying down), your eyes are closed, all of your muscles are completely relaxed, you feel no need to move (in theory!), and you're completely content. When the switch is in the middle, you're in the "eyes-open" hynotic state, which means that you are still completely relaxed, but can open your eyes, talk, and move around while still maintaining a relaxed and positive state of mind. This is essential for the natural birthing process, which encourages movement (walking, squatting, sitting on a birthing ball, etc.) to help the baby descend and arrive without delay, as opposed to a woman lying down with her feet up in stirrups, which requires her to have to work harder, fight gravity, and possibly delay the entire process. (No, thank you!)

Now in theory, you should feel no need to move around if your lightswitch is off. Not so much for me. Maybe I'm just fidgety, but it's always as soon as I "turn off" my lightswitch that my legs feel jumpy or I need to itch my nose or something. So I make use of the "middle switch" quite often...flip it to "middle" to adjust a pillow, scratch an itch, roll over, whatever. I probably do so more often than I should, but hey, I want to be comfortable! And if my last birthing experience is at all telling, the concepts worked wonderfully even if I was a horrible student!

When the lightswitch is truly "off," though, is the time to practice "deepening" techniques. One of the Lesson 2 sessions devoted to creating that "bubble of peace" as well as a "special place." I spend a good deal of time flipping my lightswitch back and forth to get comfortable, but once relaxed enough, I love drifting off to my special place (or in many cases, off to sleep).

'Home'

As I've mentioned before, one of the most peaceful places I've ever encountered is the Catholic Chapel at West Point. I spent four years of my childhood getting to know the place, and when I returned to West Point for college, it became my second home. I spent many a Wednesday night there in the quiet, dimly lit chapel, pouring my heart out to God with the beauty of stained glass and a few flickering candles surrounding me and a soft glow from the altar in front of me. Just thinking of it now sends a feeling of warmth and contentment through me. Exactly the feeling you want to channel during the most difficult work of your life! When I did this last time during the birthing process--imagining myself in that amazingly peaceful place and remembering with all the sights and smells and feelings--it helped keep me relaxed enough to work with the birthing process and keep my discomfort to a minimum.

The Chapel!

So it turns out that all those daydreams they depict in movies, (you know, when the main character is lying on a pristine beach with a mouth-watering cocktail while island beauties fan him with palm fronds) really are worth something!

Still skeptical? Try it!
(I dare you)!

Next time you have a moment (when you know) you won't be distracted, close your eyes and imagine the last place you felt truly peaceful and comfortable. Picture the details, the colors, all the sounds and smells and sensations. Build it up in your mind for a minute or two, remembering why you felt so peaceful and comfortable there. Chances are you'll find that your breathing is a little calmer, your jaw isn't so tight, and your muscles are a bit more relaxed. Call it what you will--hypnosis, meditation, simple relaxation--but somehow, no matter what stressors you have in your life at the moment, you'll probably feel a good bit lighter after just a few minutes in that special place! Pretty sweet, huh?

You just might have to make a return trip...

Hyp Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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"A rose may still be a rose by any other name...but would you still be as willing to walk up and smell it if I called it a Stinkweed?" -Hypnobabies Workbook, Chapter 1

When I first read Lesson #1 of Hypnobabies, it caught me a bit off guard. It explains, of course, the basics of the normal hypnotic state we experience each day, and how such a state can enable us to naturally manage pain—all of which I expected. But the remainder focuses on changing one’s entire set of vocabulary used when referring labor and delivery. Hence,

Due Date = Guess Date (because really, it is…you’re nuts if you think that little wheel is actually accurate!)
Pain = Discomfort or Pressure
Contraction = Pressure Wave
Labor = Birthing Time
Transition = Transformation

…and so on. I found this concept a bit silly at first, especially in practice: “What is that you say? You’re having a contraction? Not sure what that is, but I am having a Pressure Wave!” Seriously? Oddity aside, though, the science behind it is that we are all suggestible beings. (Marketing 101; must be why all those Facebook ads have me salivating over another pair of cute shoes when my closet is already bursting with ten pairs like it. But I digress). This means the ideas, words, and images we encounter can be so influential that our bodies have a pre-programmed reaction to them. Example: when virtually any woman in the English-speaking Western world hears the word “contraction,” she will likely cringe as her brain associates that word with things like pain, exhaustion, and fear, and her body will respond accordingly. The triggered response may be just emotional, but can easily translate to the physical as well: quicker breathing, tightened muscles, the increase of adrenaline (‘fight or flight’ response), increased perspiration, increased heart rate, etc. Many times it’s a chain reaction.

The more we hear these words and associate them with said negative concepts, the more quickly our bodies learn to respond unfavorably (darn muscle memory!). So one measly word association can stress us out enough to negatively affect what a woman’s body was originally made to do: birth a baby all on its own without lots of fear, drama, medication, or unnecessary intervention. To overcome this, we must learn some new optimistic, euphemistic terms with positive associations which re-train our brains and bodies to work with us and accomplish nature’s original goal.

Same goes with the situational. It’s not just words that trigger a response, but any situation appealing to our senses, especially in a negative way. This includes all those baby shows on TV, since producers know that more drama = more viewership. Dangerous, too, are those horrid labor stories that everyone from Aunt Mildred to the stranger in Target feel compelled to share as soon as they see—and try to rub—your bump.

The Hypnobabies Rule: While pregnant, do not watch any Desperate Laborers shows, and never ever ever allow someone to impart her past (and most likely inflated) “wisdom” and misery on you. These will cause you to view the entire birthing process negatively (be it consciously or subconsciously), even if the end result is positive (read: baby).

So even if a woman’s labor did last five days and she pushed for 12 hours, it should have no bearing on your experience. This isn’t to say that nothing will ever go wrong during pregnancy or birth (because sadly, it sometimes does). Rather, every experience is unique, and just because half the labors in Baby Story end in an emergency C-section or Aunt Mildred had the worst labor known to womankind doesn’t mean yours will be anything like that. In effect, we should focus only on those things we can control prior to the big event (like healthy eating, exercise, and positive mental stimulation) and fill our heads with positive thoughts and associations to help our bodies cooperate, instead of creating a self-fulfilling prophesy with worries and negative thoughts. Accordingly, a woman should tell talkative friends, relatives, and strangers that under no circumstances will she entertain a useless “my labor was more agonizing” peeing contest. So can it, Auntie M.

Luckily, this isn’t too hard for me to internalize since I did a lot of my “re-training” last time…and had a pretty awesome second birthing experience following the pretty traumatic first one. This reinforces the idea that each experience is unique, and birthing a baby can be peaceful and wonderful instead of scary and painful, especially if I continue to learn how to best cooperate with nature. And as odd as it seemed at first, the concept of word power in practice actually worked last time: I felt very intense—yet manageable—pressure, and not much of what I’d classify as actual “pain”. So my focus starting this week is fine-tuning my filter for the positive…starting now. In with the good, out with the bad!

Hyp Mama: Zero Day

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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It’s that time again! It always seems like a switch goes off in my brain right around the 6 month mark, and now that I’m officially 24 weeks along (well almost 25), I’m fully in to the nesting phase and realizing that this little guy’s due date is in the not-so-distant future. Which means it’s time to dust off the books and get back to my Hypnobabies roots so I can do everything in my power to make his arrival as happy and painless as possible (and maybe relieve some endo pain in the process?).

24 weeks!

The Goal: to blog through my journey with each of the 5 at-home classes as a benchmark. 

That way I get some accountability to stay on track and actually practice like I’m supposed to, and you get some…entertainment? Or more likely a reprieve from reading about the joys of birthing if you don’t care and decide to skip all the hypno-posts. Take it or leave it.

Today is “Zero Day,” and next Monday officially starts week 1. (Yes, I’m giving myself a whole weekend to get over the procrastination bit and prepare)!

A brief background for those who don’t know: I stumbled upon the Hypnobabies concept after barely surviving my first not-so-painless natural delivery. I was still convinced I didn’t want meds (theme: I detest medication), and my beautiful little girl was worth every second of the torture, but I was convinced that there was a better way to go natural the second time around without putting myself through the same agony. So when the theme of “pain free” hypnobirthing and hypnotherapy surfaced on my Google search, I was intrigued to say the least…but beyond skeptical. I wasn’t convinced by any woman’s claim of no pain during labor, and totally weirded out by something that seemed so New Age-y.

But after some extensive research I was impressed by what I found in the Hypnobabies course. It explained that hypnotherapy is just a very specific relaxation technique, and that we all go in and out of hypnotic states all day long (zoning out while driving, reading a book, watching a movie). By teaching our bodies to relax as much as possible and get to this state on command even in times of stress, the muscles can do what they’re supposed to during the birthing process instead of fighting the process and creating pain. Made sense to me. I couldn’t find a single negative review anywhere online, and thought the At-home Study Course (with relaxation CDs) would be harmless since it wasn’t a crazy man swinging a green pendulum and turning my eyes in to spirals.

Anyway, I won’t belabor the point (pun intended!), especially since I already wrote a novel-worthy post about it a few years ago and tend have a problem with word spew (Step 1: admit to the problem). But besides delivering a nearly pain-free and deeply relaxing birth for my son, the hypno-techniques were completely compatible with my faith and helped me make my pregnancy and birth a very spiritual experience. Aside from the benefit of relaxation and amazing sleep during pregnancy (since my ‘practice’ mostly consisted of me putting on my headphones at bedtime and passing out shortly thereafter), the Hypnobabies site had a whole page devoted to the fact that the concept works for those of all faith backgrounds, and as you develop your own relaxation cues, words, and a ‘special place,’ it’s easy to incorporate a favorite scripture passage, prayer, word or meaningful spiritual place for each of those things. The most peaceful place on earth that I could dream up was “my” chapel at West Point, where I'd spent many a Wednesday night at Adoration: in other words just me, sitting alone with Jesus and my thoughts in the beautiful glow of the chapel. By making it my special place, I spent my hypno-sessions in the peaceful and loving presence of God learning to both bond with my baby and manage pain. And the experience of bringing Erik into the world was just as loving and peaceful—and truly, honestly 95% pain free (not once did I think I needed any meds).

There have been many nights when I actually missed my Hypnobabies sessions and thought about digging out the CDs (even though I wasn’t pregnant) to get back to that place where I could release the stress, anxiety, and fear of life while gaining such deep spiritual refreshment. Now that our newest little guy is here, I have no more excuses. So it’s time to stop procrastinating and get to relaxing! Week 1, comin' up…

Hypno-what?!

Many of you have seen these posts and expressed interest in finding out more about Hypnobirthing. You can find all the posts I've written about it here:

My Discovery of Hypnobirthing: 

Hypno-What?!

The Hypnobabies Lessons I've blogged through:

Hyp-Mama: Zero Day 

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 1 - The Power of Words

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 2 - Out Like a Light!

Hyp-Mama: Lesson 3 - Blissfully Numb

Hyp-Mama: Lessons 4&5 - Push it to the Limit

Hyp-Mama: The Grand Finale - Ethan's Birth Story! 

And also be sure visit the Hypnobabies website, www.hypnobabies.com, for more great information. (Some of the Hypnobabies links embedded in my posts may be outdated since Hypnobabies has updated their website). If you have any questions or want more details, please feel free to send me a message and ask away!

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I've inherited lots of wonderful traits from my mother. A love for writing, a passion for my faith, an empathy for others' needs. And the older I get, the more I've discovered that I harbor all sorts of my mother's characteristics I previously denounced: extreme aversion to any and all germs (may God bless the inventor of Clorox wipes!), a strict protocol of how the dishes should be arranged in the dishwasher or cabinets, and--last but not least--an affinity for anything 'natural.' Gone are the days when I turn up my nose at the natural peanut butter or Kashi granola in the cupboard.  By now, my stock is almost identical! Of course this extends past the world of food; I detest taking medicine over any 'natural' remedy I can find, especially when I know my suffering will be limited. Hence my reasoning for choosing to go the way of 'natural' birth with Marie.

I knew that I wanted to deliver her naturally for all the right reasons: a quicker birthing, a more alert baby with  no medication in her system after the birth, and fewer chances of complications that could lead to further intervention. What I was not expecting was the indescribable agony of bringing my daughter into the world. Yes, I had prepared myself for the fact that it would hurt. A lot, even. But I was not prepared for it to feel like that. Like most mothers, I would submit (even moments afterward) that every single second was worth it as I beheld our beautiful baby girl. Yet I was surprised that I was almost willing to give into pain meds, and developed a sudden loathing for Eve and her carelessness that bestowed the 'pains of childbirth' on womankind.

Which brought me to the struggle of what to do the next time around. My daughter was worth it--but she was already in existence, a flesh-and-blood miracle in my very arms. How could I resign myself to the fact that by cooperating with God's will and opening ourselves to possibly create more children, I would intentionally be putting myself through this again? I thought of all the women with two, three, ten children. How did they do it?!

Of course, we could not have imagined that I would indeed be putting myself through it all again a mere year and change later. Five-month old Marie gurgled happily on her playmat while I sat bewildered in the bathroom, the word 'pregnant' blinking clear as day on the test (I made Peter go out and get the 'kind with words' when I didn't believe the first one with lines). With Peter packing the last of his things for his year-long departure to Afghanistan in a few short days, I was beyond overwhelmed. Not only would I be going through it again so soon, but this time there was a chance that Peter might not even be there in time!

Thus began my immediate quest for the secret to surviving natural childbirth, since I 'knew' what to expect based on my first birthing experience. The series of classes (if you could call them that0 that we took before Marie was born were no help whatsoever; the instructors dangled the carrot of natural childbirth briefly as we practiced breathing techniques and swaying back and forth, but then told us all about all pain management we should request as soon as it started to hurt. Right.

So I consulted my ever-reliable source of wisdom and promptly Googled 'natural childbirth.' I read about Lamaze, then about the Bradley method. And then something at the bottom of the page caught my eye: Hypnobirthing.

Hypno-what?!

Highly skeptical, I clicked on the link. It had to be some weird new-age-y thing. Granted, I'd heard of hypnosis to treat traumatic stress disorders, or quit smoking, or lose weight. But being hypnotized while giving birth? That was way out there!

But the site seemed less alarming than I imagined. It talked about the many times daily when people experience a state of hypnosis--watching TV, getting lost in a book, zoning out while driving--and that hypnosis is just an altered state of mind that everyone has experienced. It didn't take a hypnotist swinging a pendulum in front of your eyes. Sounded normal enough. I was intrigued...so I kept reading. Apparently women could learn the techniques to reach this relaxed state (i.e. hypnosis) on their own. Using it for childbirth was simply a way for women to learn how to relax enough to work with their muscles to facilitate the birthing process (instead of tensing up out of fear and tension, which creates pain).

After some additional research, my skepticism was all but conquered. I found comments from women all over the internet saying they had experienced minimal pain, or even NO pain, during the birth of their child by using self-hypnosis. Even women whose said it didn't completely work (they ended up resorting to medication) said they wouldn't trade learning the techniques and using them during labor for anything. I even saw some unbelievable videos on You Tube of women using hypnosis during childbirth. All the feedback seemed positive...it almost seemed too good to be true.

I then stumbled upon Hypnobabies, a program offering a six-week home study course to teach women how to achieve self-hypnosis for childbirth. No need for classes, no visits to hypnotherapists, just me and a manual and some relaxing CDs. I think I could do that...


What really convinced me was a sample Hypnobabies relaxation track online [ www.enjoybirth.com/music/Hypnobabies-Relax-Me-Script.mp3 ] (similar to the Hypnobabies CDs) that lasted about a half hour. I listened to it and there was nothing 'weird' about it...just focusing on relaxing muscles, breathing deeply, etc. So after about a month of trying to convince myself, and talking about it with my mom and Peter to make sure I wasn't totally crazy, I decided it wouldn't hurt to order the home study course.

By the time the kit arrived I was surprisingly excited, and started reading and listening to the CDs right away. The information seemed pretty straightforward, without any strange subliminal religious or new age philosophies mixed in. I found that there was even plenty of room for me to add in my own favorite prayers as I practiced my relaxation techniques. I found it completely compatible with the expression of my Catholic faith. Of course, my commitment to practicing leaves something to be desired. Between working full time and chasing Marie around, I've been a C+ student at best. Most of the time I just fall asleep listening to the CDs...but I figure for what it's worth, at least I've gotten some fantastic nights of sleep out of the program (which can be a miracle in itself during 3rd trimester)! Granted, the real test will be when baby #2 decides to initiate his or her arrival, but I must say that I have been extremely happy with the entire experience thus far!

Of course I'll be posting about the experience, so we'll find out soon how well it all works. 3 weeks and counting till the final exam!