Having a baby? Relax ....... HypnoBirthing is taking the birthing world by calm.

HypnoBirthing, taught by Amber Austin, is a new paradigm in natural childbirth education. It's an easy-to-learn method employing deep relaxation, slow breathing patterns and self-guided release of endorphins, the body's natural opiates, which enables mother to enjoy an unmedicated, safe and gentle birthing for her baby, often pain-free, often more quickly. HypnoBirthing is a registered trademark owned by founder, Marie Mongan  of the HypnoBirthing Institute™ in Epsom, NH. Originally called simply "HypnoBirthing", this unique method of relaxed natural childbirth education is now known as "HypnoBirthing - The Mongan Method".

HypnoBirthing, based upon the work of the late English obstetrician, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read (who published his book Childbirth Without Fear in 1944), teaches mother to understand and release the Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome which so often is the cause of pain and discomfort during labor. When we are afraid, our body diverts blood and oxygen from non-essential defense organs to large muscle groups in our extremities. Our face drains of blood and we are said to be 'white with fear'. In a fearful situation, the body, unfortunately, considers the uterus to be a non-essential organ. Dr. Dick-Read states that the uterus of a frightened woman in labor is literally white!

HypnoBirthing explores the myth that pain is a necessary accompaniment to a normal birthing. When a laboring woman's mind is free of fear, the muscles in her body - including her uterine muscles - relax, thus facilitating an easier, stress free birthing. In many cases, first stage labor shortens, eliminating fatigue during labor and leaving mother fresh, awake and with energy for actual birthing. "We say HypnoBirthing sets you free from fear, not free from pain, although many women experience pain-free births," Mongan says. "Eliminating fear allows the woman's body to work like it's supposed to."

Learning a new language of birthing is integral to the HypnoBirthing training. For example, instead of a contraction, a HypnoBirthing mother experiences a surge. When the mother’s subconscious mind perceives the word 'surge', her body creates an immediate physiological response, a response quite different from that created by the word 'contraction'. And rather than delivering her baby, she births her child. “Pizzas are delivered, babies are birthed.”, according to founder, Marie Mongan.

By understanding how effectively the body responds to these gentler terms describing the birth experience, a HypnoBirthing woman becomes skilled at verbalizing and visualizing her natural ability to easily follow nature’s perfect way of birthing. She quickly learns to trust her body’s birthing instincts, for she knows that her body is designed to work in harmony with nature throughout her labor.

In 1958, the American Medical Association approved the therapeutic use of hypnosis, yet only recently has hypnosis for birthing come into the general awareness of the public.

Advantages of Hypnobirthing

• A safer birthing for mother and baby
• Shorter, more comfortable birthing
• A special, integral role for Birthing Companion
• Fewer incidences of need for medication
• Fewer breech presentations
• Fewer complications and easier resolution in the event of complication
• An awake, refreshed and energized birthing mother
• A better outcome for mother and baby
• A calm, peaceful birthing environment
• Good natured babies who are better sleepers and eaters
• Happy parents who experience a serene, joyful birthing rather than a tense, stressful ordeal

How Does Hypnobirthing Work?

HypnoBirthing - is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. The concept of HypnoBirthing is not new, but rather a "rebirth" of the philosophy of birthing as it existed thousands of years ago and as it was recaptured in the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read. The method teaches you that in the absence of fear and tension, severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labor.You will gain an understanding of how the birthing muscles work in perfect harmony--as they were designed to--when your body is sufficiently relaxed. You will learn how to achieve this kind of relaxation, free of the resistance that fear creates, and you will learn to use your natural birthing instincts for a calm, serene and comfortable birth.

When you have your baby with HypnoBirthing, you will not be in a trance or a sleep. What you will experience is similar to the daydreaming or focusing that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire.
You will be conversant and in good spirits--totally relaxed, but fully in control. Awake throughout, you will be aware of your body's surges; but because you will have trained yourself to reach complete relaxation, you will be able to determine the degree to which you will feel the surges. You will experience birthing in an atmosphere of calm relaxation, free of the fear and tension that prevents the muscles of your body from functioning as nature intended them to. In this calm state your body's natural anesthesia, endorphins, replaces the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain.

After attending a hypnobirth as a doula, I knew that hypnobirthing was a philosophy I wished to adopt and a technique I wanted to learn. Several years later, I have not only had the opportunity to teach hypnobirthing to other birthing couples, I have also been fortunate enough to use hypnobirthing at the birth of my son Asa. I feel that the birth of a child is a life changing moment - one that I believe should be positive, rewarding, amazing and liberating. Hypnobirthing allows birthing women to achieve just that; welcoming your baby with relaxed arms, calm body and deep unclouded emotions.

Both private and individual classes, as well as small group classes are available.

Prices include recommended book and tapes to achieve full birth experience.

Birth Affirmation

Today is the day I have been waiting so patiently for. Within me I can feel the stirrings that I have wondered about since the first realization of what was to come.

They come from deep within me. I feel joy! Today my body will fulfill the purpose for which it has been made. Today I will show my strength, my courage, my love for my child. I can feel the strength in my body, a wonderful strength that is meant for just this purpose.
 
I can feel my body opening up. Opening up like the petals of a spring tulip on a cool morning. My body is beginning a labor of love. I accept all that comes to pass with the birth of my child. I know that it will require much from me, much that, through love, I am willing to give.
 
My body is strong. My body has hundreds of thousands of years of history in it. History that will allow me to birth my child with joy and ease. I will not feel discomfort. I will feel the widening of my child's birth path. I will surrender to the opening of my body. My body knows what to do, I must let it be. I will not let my mind interfere. My mind stays steadily focused on the wonderful expression of love that I am feeling as I birth my child. My long awaited child. I will give my body all the time it needs to work. I will not track time other than to gaze at the sun or the stars.

I know I must give in to the emotions of birth; I must remain open. As the waves come I will triumph over them, one by one, all the while surrendering to them. I am surrounded by love and trust, and that is what protects me. Today my body is opening and releasing my child to me.

Today is the day that I will cherish forever.

By Patricia Bloome (Birthing, Summer 1998)

Parents Prayer

Help us to be better parents. Teach us to understand our children, to listen patiently to what they say, and to answer all their questions kindly. Keep us from interrupting them or contradicting them. Make us as courteous to them as I want them to be to us.

Help us never to punish them for our own selfish satisfaction or to show our power. Let us not tempt them to lie or steal. And guide us daily that we may demonstrate by all we say and do that honesty produces happiness.

Help us never to rob them of the opportunity to wait on themselves and to make decisions. Bless us with the bigness to grant them all their reasonable requests and the courage to deny privileges we know will do them harm.

Make us fair, just and kind parents. We pray for calmness, poise and self-control, and fit us to be loved, respected and imitated by our children.

Author Unknown (found in a Menonnite Center, Lancaster, PA)