Guest Blog by Rebecca Slater – My hypnobirthing experienced inspired me to become a practitioner
When I found out I was pregnant in March 2015 I was over the moon but having had years of hearing people’s birth horror stories and the media portraying pregnancy and birth as something to be feared I will admit that I was slightly terrified. At the time I would never have thought that I would come out the other side of pregnancy feeling so positive and empowered by the experience that I would go on to become a hypnobirthing practitioner.
My husband and I had already decided that we would only be having one child and knowing that this was going to be my only pregnancy I wanted to enjoy it not spend the whole time worrying about the birth so I decided to look for something that would help. Whilst doing my research I came across Mindful Mamma hypnobirthing, a one day mindful hypnobirthing course that I hoped would help me feel more confident and in control.
At 32 weeks pregnant my husband and I attended the Mindful Mamma course, prior to which I had read the book and had been listening to the hypnobirthing track every day from about 24 weeks. I was really impressed with what I learnt and felt totally chilled throughout the pregnancy and was just looking forward to my babies’ arrival. It also really helped my husband know what his role would be during the birth as I think sometimes birth partners can feel a bit out of it and not fully confident in knowing how they can help and how important they are.
What I loved about the course was that it wasn’t at all how hypnobirthing is often portrayed. A lot of people think hypnobirthing is only for those who want a home birth or that those who do it are all hippies, this wasn’t the case at all. The tools and skills I acquired from Mindful Mamma can be utilised at any type of birth, it didn’t just promote undisturbed birth it also encouraged the use of hypnosis for birth alongside mindfulness techniques for medicalised births, such as inductions and caesareans, which was lucky as I was soon to find that my birth wasn’t going to go to plan and I ended up with an induction and a C-section.
Throughout the induction process I was able to use the techniques I had learnt to stay focused, feel calm and positive. I was also armed with the knowledge I needed to ask the right questions to help me make the right decisions for me and baby, which turned out to be a caesarean, not what I had planned at all but felt extremely relaxed about the whole thing.
I remained focused and calm throughout the surgery. The theatre team even commented on this, as I chatted away. Otis Vincent Slater made his very chilled arrival into the world on Wednesday 25th November at 4:22pm weighing 7lb 14oz. From day one people commenting about what a calm, contented baby Otis is and nearly six months on he hasn’t changed. I think Mindful Mama (as well as his daddy’s genes) played a huge part in this as it helped me relax and stay calm not only during the birth but also throughout the pregnancy, which I believe Otis picked up on.
There is no way I would have dealt with pregnancy and birth half as well as I did without hypnobirthing. Since having Otis I have gone on to train as a Mindful Mamma hypnobirthing practitioner as I believe that all women should feel positive about birth and by equipping them with the tools they need they can feel empowered.
I will be holding classes once a month at Acorn Natural Health Centre in Heanor to find out more visit my Mindful Mamma website.
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