Do you ever wonder what labour will be like? We’ve all been there at some point, particularly when we’re expecting our first baby or previously had a caesarean section.
Will labour hurt?
You might worry that labour will be painful and hurt, because you have a low pain threshold and you worry that you won’t be able to cope. We hear many, many, many stories about labour and birth and very often they aren’t positive stories. We might see things on TV, hear stories from friends or family, read something in the media about labour and birth and very often they don’t paint a great picture of what labour is like. Your best friend might tell you about how she had a really long labour, how it was so painful and how she’s never doing it again. Your Mum might tell you about how she was in labour for days with you and then needed to have an emergency caesarean section. You might watch “One Born every Minute” and see women screaming in agony, as they cry out for an epidural. Do any of these scenarios sound familiar?
Has anyone ever told you that they loved giving birth? How they’d love to be pregnant again, just to experience giving birth again? Has anyone ever told you that giving birth made them feel so empowered and euphoric? I’m guessing you’ve not heard many people say this to you. Why? Because people love drama. People don’t trust birth. People go into birth feeling scared and have negative experiences. People love to tell dramatic stories. The media want you to be gripped by their shocking stories, so that you watch or read more. Our brain becomes conditioned to believe what we hear and we learn to not trust birth and we go into labour feeling scared. This then creates pain and negative experiences.
Let me tell you a little secret!
Birth doesn’t have to be awful, scary or a negative experience. There are many, many, many positive birth stories out there, from women who’ve had great birthing experiences.
How do women have positive birth experiences?
They create a positive mindset, feel calm, relaxed and knowledgeable about birth.
They don’t listen to negative birth stories and definitely do not watch One Born Every Minute.
They do a Hypnobirthing course, to help them to create a positive mindset, to learn how to feel calm and relaxed during labour. They learn how to be able to make informed decisions, feel empowered and understand the process of birth.
Hypnobirthing During Labour
Hypnobirthing is not voodoo magic that will put you under a spell to not feel any pain during labour. Hypnobirthing is much better than this and much more powerful and magical than any kind of witchcraft. Hypnobirthing is logical and uses scientifically proven tools and techniques to help you to increase your chances of having a positive birth experience. Hypnobirthing isn't just for vaginal, natural births either. Hypnobirthing is for all births, which is also why it is so good. If your birth goes off course, which very often it does, Hypnobirthing is going to be even more helpful for you.
Positive Birth Experience Using Hypnobirthing
Kirsty from Leeds, did a Hypnobirthing course with me and had an amazing birth experience. Read what she has to say below.
Hypnobirthing teaches you how to have a relaxed, calm, comfortable birth. It uses visualisation (an excellent way to create a positive mindset and used by many sporting heroes to achieve success). It uses breathing techniques to slow down the heart rate and trigger the calm response in the body. It works with all the key hormones in the body, that need to be balanced to help labour to progress and for you to feel more comfortable. The human body, for the majority of women, knows what it needs to do during labour. It does not need intervention, monitoring, policies or restrictions. By receiving interventions such as induction of labour, this does not allow the body to produce the natural hormones that it would do, during spontaneous labour. This often results in women experiencing more painful contractions and needing stronger pain relief. A recent study about women's reflections on induction of labour and birthing interventions and what they would do differently next time, showed interesting results. The study was conducted by Ormsby et al, 2024 and showed that "for many women induction of labour is neither desired nor well tolerated." Of the women who took part in the study, 93.3% of them said that they would resist induction of labour and wait for labour to start spontaneously next time. This study was broken down into smaller subgroups, where 54.8% said they'd resist the pressure or refuse IOL, especially if there was not a good reason for it. 25% said that they would await spontaneous labour or delay IOL until later and 20.2% said that they want to be better informed next time.
The key thing that your body needs during labour, is for you to be calm. If you feel calm, you’ll feel relaxed and if you feel relaxed, you’ll feel comfortable. What you really need to learn during pregnancy, to have a spontaneous, comfortable labour, is how to feel calm. However, do you think you can instantly feel calm during labour when you’re feeling scared? Probably not….unless of course you’ve done a Hypnobirthing course to teach you how to feel calm on demand.
What is labour like?
So, what is labour like? Well, in my opinion, labour is exciting. Labour is incredible. Labour is empowering. Labour is intense. Labour is tiring. Labour can be healing. Labour is magical. Labour is powerful. Labour is the start of a new journey. Labour is the beginning of something special.
Why do you think I feel so positive about labour and birth? Well, I grew up not fearing birth. My Mum conditioned me from a very young age to not fear birth. She didn’t fear birth. I went into my birth not feeling scared. I went into my birth feeling calm and wanting to see what my body could do and I trusted birth and my natural instincts. My labour was amazing and my body was more than capable of doing what it was designed to do. My oxytocin and endorphins were high, so labour wasn’t incredibly painful (I did curl my toes a few times near the end, when I got a contraction though). My body looked after me, just as it’s designed to do. My baby knew when it was time to be born. My adrenaline was low, because I didn’t feel scared. I had the perfect cocktail of hormones for a comfortable, positive birth. I used a Tens machine, a calm and positive mindset, active birth, distraction and breathing techniques to birth my baby. Oh, and a supportive birth partner, who was also very zen throughout my labour.
Would you like to feel like Kirsty and me when you are in labour? Do you want to understand more about Hypnobirthing and my Hypnobirthing courses? Check out my website and see how I can support you and help you to feel calm, confident and comfortable during your labour.
Julia x