Learning hypnobirthing will not guarantee you a pain-free birth. However, some women do achieve this, and studies show that reduced pain and the need for medication are also possible.

What hypnosis is (and isn’t)

Hypnobirthing uses hypnosis therapeutically, not in the entertaining way you’ve seen on TV. When you are in a trance induced by hypnobirthing relaxation techniques and tracks, you are neither awake nor asleep. You are aware of things around you, yet you are giving all your attention to the calming visualisations and positive ideas about the birth experience that you’ll practice until they become second nature. Unii Hypnobirthing Expert Tamara Cianfini compares it to the suspension of disbelief you feel during a great film. You are still aware of the cinema around you. Being in this state produces a relaxation response that helps counteract the negative effects of stress on the body. A trance is also a great state for you to alter negative or fearful beliefs you’ve developed about birth, as well as to absorb more pleasant information.

Acknowledging the ‘p’ word

An adult woman will typically have spent most of her life thinking that pain is always part of childbirth. A child’s early perception of birth often comes from mummy disappearing to the hospital and returning with a new baby, with screaming images of pregnant women they see on TV filling in the gap. Things may worsen in adolescence, especially if you’re unfortunate enough to have had safe sex messages scared into you with birth videos. And it’s not just fiction or film—our very best friends and close family sometimes can’t help sharing their horror stories. While it’s important for them to talk, their stories can damage your self-esteem and the expectancy of your own labour and birth.

Expectancy is itself a form of hypnosis. When we expect a poor outcome, it tends to happen. While we can't promise you a pain-free experience, we can share the good news that birth doesn’t have to be entirely pain-free to be a pleasant experience. In hypnobirthing, you learn many things about how your mind and body interpret and affect what you feel, as well as that the level of pain we experience is influenced by what we feel, which is important at any given moment. A racing driver may pay a fractured foot little attention while willing himself to win, and a relaxed mother focused on breathing her baby out can birth in a calm, controlled way that could be completely comfortable or just more positive than if she’s being stressed.

How fear impacts labour and birth physiologically

Your uterus is amazing. Fact: With all the medical information you absorb before and during pregnancy, it’s easy to forget that it is perfectly designed to do this. In labour, two layers of uterine muscles—one outer and vertical, the other inner and horizontal and circular—collaborate to open the cervix and help guide your baby down what Tamara calls the birth path. These muscles are involuntary, meaning we cannot consciously control them well enough to tone them for the big day. Still, they’re worth understanding. The muscles of the inner layer are more densely packed towards the bottom, where they support the baby’s weight in pregnancy. The outer layer’s vertical muscles reach up and around the internal layer. When you’re labouring and the hormone oxytocin is present in sufficient quantities for you to experience surges (as hypnobirthing experts call contractions), the outer layer of vertical muscles pulls up, raising the passive circular muscles while pushing the baby’s head against the cervix. The repeated pressure causes the cervix to thin out and then retract around the baby’s head (you are considered fully dilated at about 10 cm, as this is the head’s average size), signalling that the little one is ready to come into the world. The inner circular muscles need to remain soft and relaxed for the uterine muscles to work effectively; however, this isn’t always the case.

When you go into labour with any fear or anxiety (or feel them because something happens during labour), it triggers your body's stress hormones, most significantly adrenaline. Adrenaline sets off the ‘fight, flight, freeze, faint’ response, causing your blood vessels to contract and redirect blood towards vital organs and away from the uterus. Oxygen also moves away from your uterus and your baby.

The circular muscles at the base of the uterus become tense and then painful. The vertical muscles, trying to pull them upwards, start to become overworked and hurt too. This discomfort makes you feel more stressed and fearful, which in turn leads to more pain, and so on until you feel you can’t go on and/or need to ask for pain relief. Adrenaline prevents you from producing endorphins, your body’s natural painkillers, and reduces your oxytocin, causing labour to slow down or even stop. Lack of oxygen in the uterus, combined with the repeated pressure of the head against the more taut cervix, can cause the baby to become distressed. We’re not saying you can’t have the natural, vaginal birth you want in these circumstances, but the potential for intervention or the introduction of pharmacological relief when you hadn’t planned for it does increase.

How can I prevent this?

By relaxing your body and mind and keeping the oxytocin flowing! This may not sound easy right now, but practicing your hypnobirthing techniques and focusing on your ideal birth means you’re taking positive steps towards preparing for birth in any scenario. Adrenaline is an important part of being human and completely necessary for our survival; it’s just not necessary to produce so much that more supportive bodily processes are impacted when you're trying to birth a baby.

The mind-body connection

Our minds can be split into two parts, which you’ve probably heard about. The conscious mind makes up about 12% of our brain’s capacity and is vital to intellectual thought. It is rational, analytical, and judgmental and focuses on the here and now. It is responsible for the voluntary action of our muscles (remember that the muscles in your uterus are involuntary) and has some control over our nervous system. The subconscious plays a fascinating role in our lives, as well as in hypnobirthing, as it is responsible for our creativity and imagination. It understands the world best through imagery and emotion and does not really know the difference between the real and the imagined. Crucially for the goals of this course, it can make changes in your body based on what it perceives as your reality. For example, you cannot consciously speed up your heartbeat or begin to perspire. However, if your subconscious believes you are in danger, these responses develop, partly because of the adrenaline we mentioned earlier.

Your conscious mind makes decisions, in part, based on your subconscious learnings. If we train the subconscious mind that fear and anxiety about labour and birth are not useful, the experience will be more comfortable and positive. We realise that this can sound too good to be true, but think of all you’ve learned in life that you found challenging at first and then made the decision to consciously learn through repetition. Now you do them without thinking, right? That started with your conscious mind deciding to learn something new and then sticking with it.

Taking control of your thoughts

Taking responsibility for your own thinking is key to hypnobirthing. Are you familiar with negative self-talk? We all do it, and it’s not easy to turn the volume down. Hypnobirthing is not about ignoring every negative thought you have—some of them are urgent and probably need addressing—it’s about exchanging those worried thoughts about something that isn’t real, i.e., a birth experience that has yet to happen, and focusing on the positive, or your ideal birth.

Thought exchange

Thought exchange works because you can’t have a negative thought and a positive thought simultaneously. Give it a try. Now, every time you have a negative thought about your birth, thank it for attempting to be of use to you (remember, our subconscious is just trying to protect us), then say that it is not clairvoyant and does not know what your future holds. Then imagine physically pushing this thought away and pulling a thought that makes you feel good, towards you. Whether this positive thought is a visual or something audible or tangible is up to you. Tamara recommends writing a positive story about your birth as though it has already happened. This can help you visualise your ideals more clearly. You always want to picture the most positive birth situation you can imagine for you and your baby. Smiling simultaneously can enhance a positive feeling. If you keep practicing this, your subconscious will become more comfortable with it. Remember you and your baby are connected emotionally so it is important to understand that if you are feeling it your baby is too.

Cloak of Protection

Taking control of your thoughts includes protecting yourself from the negative thoughts and beliefs of others. Do not be drawn into debate with those who have had bad experiences and doubt your ability to achieve your ideal birth. They’ll likely dig their heels in if you argue, and you don’t need to waste your time or energy. Simply agree to differ and move on. We recommend you don the Cloak of Protection, an invisible shield against the impact discomfiting stories have upon you. Listen to Tamara’s Cloak of Protection relaxation and practice putting your cloak on every morning. Pull it closer should you encounter any negative thoughts. As it can be hard to predict when others’ negativity will reach you, it may be useful to don the cloak every morning, listen to the track on your commute or during a pre-breakfast walk, and then repeat the visualisation whenever you feel affected by negativity. This session will also help you become more aware of your inner strengths, confidence, skills, and, in fact, anything that makes you feel powerful.

Fear and decision-making

Remember that you cannot make an objective, informed decision when you feel anxious. Hypnobirthing gives you confidence and fear-release tools to help with decision-making in a variety of stressful situations. You can also check that you’re not making a decision out of fear by using the F.A.S.T. acronym.

Fear or feeling. These reactions might be the result of something that happens in the moment or a norm or manner you’ve been raised with, both of which may confuse your gut instinct. Be true to your instincts and always ask about the logic and evidence.

Assumptions. These are “but everyone knows...” statements. Question logic and evidence here too.

Societal pressure. Is this something you’re comfortable with, or are you doing it because opting out or suggesting an alternative is “not the done thing”?

Time. Unless there is a medical emergency, you don’t need to make immediate decisions. Do not allow yourself to be rushed.

Affirmations: Words Matter!

You’ve probably come across positive affirmations in other contexts. People practice them daily for a variety of reasons, from confidence-boosting to manifesting. Affirmations for this course are on Unii’s Birth Affirmations track, recorded with Hypnobirthing Expert Tamara Cianfini. Set some time aside each day to recite them or write them out. Listen often and consciously, i.e., while cleaning, going for a walk, or having a bath. The more you surround yourself with these positive statements, the more you will start to believe them to be true, so that you can practice new ways of thinking.

In addition, you may want to ban a couple of words from your personal dictionary or at least exchange them for some that sound gentler and more positive. We’ve mentioned that hypnobirthing experts say “surge” or “wave” instead of contraction. You’ll hear them use “powerful” instead of pain, because in order to understand it, the negative brain automatically explores the word “comfort,” which it finds more emotionally acceptable. They tend not to say “try,” as you’re either doing something or you’re not. You’re an empowered parent-to-be and in control. They also avoid “should,” especially where failure to practice your hypnobirthing techniques is concerned. If you think you should have practiced more, admit that, and revise your schedule to make enough time (we’ll explore the amount of time you take in later articles).

You deserve a positive birth experience for you and your baby. Focus on what you want and tap into that desire whenever your subconscious tells you to go back to any previous fears or anxiety. The more you practice hypnobirthing techniques and listen to Tamara’s relaxation sessions, the easier this will be. As we’ve mentioned, even if you find you need to deviate from your birth plan on the day (or night), these tools can help improve your experience if you need to be induced, have an unexpected transfer to the hospital, or in preparation for an assisted delivery or emergency caesarean.

How can overcoming fear impact birth?