Short answer. No. Hypnotherapy for birth is very different to stage hypnosis where people are on stage clucking like chickens and revealing their bank details.
Most hypobirthing classes start with skeptical mums and birth partners sat saying ‘are you going to hypnotise us now and the baby just pops out?’ BUT hypnobirthing involves giving mums the tools to get into a state of self hypnosis. Quite simply – mindfulness.
Professor Mark Williams, former director of the Oxford Mindfulness Centre, says that mindfulness means knowing directly what is going on inside and outside ourselves, moment by moment. “It’s easy to stop noticing the world around us. It’s also easy to lose touch with the way our bodies are feeling and to end up living in our heads’ – caught up in our thoughts without stopping to notice how those thoughts are driving our emotions and behavior.”
How many of us do our morning commute, get to work and don’t remember any of the journey? Me too! That is because your active brain has relaxed, taken a step back and your subconscious brain has taken over. And this is one of the ideas of hypnobirthing – your body was designed to give birth.
There are many other aspects that come together to make a successful hypnobirth where your mind can relax and let your body take over.