These musings are intended for birth professionals and childbirth educators teaching traditional hypnobirthing classes (and parents who are considering the various styles and approaches to positive birth).

Can we please have an honest discussion about traditional hypnobirthing classes and unrealistic expectations.

If you’re not familiar with traditional hypnobirthing it’s a popular birth preparation approach that prohibits discussing pain in classes and if you’re relaxed enough and have released your fears then your birth should be pain free.

What Parents Are Learning in Traditional Hypnobirthing Classes

Parents learn that pain in labor is caused by the uterus not getting enough oxygenated blood - a gross oversimplification of the neurobiology of pain. Even the most Zen, relaxed, positive parent can still have a painful labor, so please let’s not keep blaming parents if they feel pain and tell them they weren’t relaxed enough.

Parents learn to ignore their natural urge to push and to resist what can only be described as an irresistible urge to bear down “the concept of pushing your baby out is a rude and unnecessary one”. Apparently this normal urge to bear down is '“due to conditioning that stems from a deeply embedded notion that babies cannot descent on their own”.

Squat bars are out, as are ropes, wall ladders and other supports. Cat’s don’t need these gymnastics and neither should you…(according to this approach).

Parents learn that “when we release the fear - a fear that keeps the body tense and closed - we will experience a gentle birth”. (Fear is only one component to pain perception and even after fear has been ‘released’ pain can still be a normal part of this huge life experience).

(You can find this information quite easily in the class text for this class).

I do want to acknowledge that the overall messaging is positive. Maybe in the next edition we’ll see more acceptance and grace extended to parents who are interested in a positive birth approach but may also choose pharmacological pain management.

After I shared my post about this upcoming blog I heard from several parents. This was one parent’s experience.

Yes!  I did a hypnobirthing class for my third pregnancy just to add to my toolkit for labor. I look back at my third birth experience now with some sadness that I had ADDED pressure to perform in a certain way  instead of the empowered way I trusted my body with my first two. Traditional hypno classes can be downright harmful. I wish I hadn’t done it.

The P Word

Pain in labor exists for most people for a variety of reasons and lots of those reasons have nothing to do with beliefs. Why not give parents more tools instead of insisting “it doesn’t have to be painful” and hypnosis is all you need. How does that help a parent if pain IS part of their experience? Pain can be a normal part of labor and demonizing it won’t change that but it will leave parents distressed if they have no Plan B.

The review below is not uncommon when parents feel duped.

For new Educators who teach this approach, I understand that your training might have left you feeling evangelical about hypnobirthing. I bought into that approach when I initially trained in a traditional approach many years ago. The training had a huge influence on my work as a birth professional and I did witness numerous beautiful births.

But as a mother, doula and midwife I could not continue teaching a philosophy was leaving some new parents disappointed and even traumatized because I wasn’t allowed to teach parents coping strategies and comfort measures. When I spoke to other educators also teaching these classes everyone was constantly looking over their shoulder in case they were found out to be teaching some of the prohibited content such as coping with back labor… If you’ve ever experienced back labor all the affirmations in the world won’t change that.

A Plea For Sensitivity & Realism

If you plan to continue teaching this approach is there a way to be a little more flexible with the curriculum content? Is acceptance or self compassion practice something you could also include for those families who don’t have the dream birth they were expecting?

Would you consider adding some physical comfort measures too such as a TENS machine?

How are you helping parents to cultivate more resiliency in the event things did change unexpectedly in labor?

If a parent’s plans must change significantly and they know ahead of time are you really expecting them to continue listening to the same birth rehearsal Mp3 they’ve been using throughout pregnancy… the one their brain has associated with their dream birth? Can you create additional resources for those parents?

If you’re new to teaching this approach reach out to your colleagues who have been doing this for a while and find out what they have added/removed from their classes for a more realistic approach. Talk to your clients about the use squat bars etc and ANY other tool in their toolkit that helps them have a positive birth. No doubt I’ll receive lots of messages from educators telling me “I teaching that approach but I do include comfort measures, discuss pain etc…” Those parents are definitely getting a more well rounded approach to their birth prep but they’re still getting mixed messages from the class text.

I really thought things were getting better in the hypno CBE world but that doesn’t seem to be the case at least not in some approaches. I have the utmost respect for the Founder and their tireless work towards positive birth but there’s always room for improvement and maybe now is the time to consider some positive changes that will be inclusive of all birth journeys.

Tracy Donegan RM

Here’s some of my other musings about traditional hypnobirthing classes failing parents from last year.

Note:

Meditation/Mindfulness is not part of traditional hypnobirthing classes - it’s a very different practice but compliments hypnosis very well. Learn about the differences here and Why Mindfulness Matters for Childbirth Educators.