It’s unlikely that you learned anything about mindfulness in your hypnobirthing class.

Unless it was a GentleBirth class.

If you took a Hypnobirthing or Hypnobabies or even a ‘Mindful’ hypnobirthing class and saw the word meditation on their website or #mindfulness in their Instagram tags you could easily assume you were going to learn mindful meditation.

MBIs (Mindfulness Based Interventions) are demonstrated scientifically to improve mood while reducing anxiety, depression, stress and pain. Mindful meditation is associated with fewer preterm births and is an incredibly effective coping strategy for the challenges of parenting. It’s a life changing skill.

But it is not a relaxation technique or a ‘method’. It’s a way of relating to your experience of pregnancy, the sensations of labor and the transition to parenthood with more psychological flexibility and less stress. This is one of the best known definitions.

The evidence is exploding in the area of perinatal meditation so it’s not surprising that Hypnobabies and Hypnobirthing Instructors are eager to stay current but unfortunately their training doesn’t include mindfulness. So first off that’s a big red ethical flag. If it was just another relaxation technique with some peaceful imagery and positive thinking thrown in I’d have less to say on the topic. However given the numbers of parents who have experienced trauma in their lives it’s important to understand that mindfulness can exacerbate mental health issues.

Interestingly research is beginning to emerge on how the mindfulness teacher’s own personal mindfulness practice can impact outcomes - but if your Instructor has no professional training, or a personal practice then that’s something to consider.

Just like prenatal pilates and prenatal yoga have similarities, both provide quite a different workout for your body. Hypnobirthing and mindfulness are different ‘workouts’ for your brain.  Both are invaluable tools to help you prepare for your baby’s birth and work really well together. Use both for a double whammy positive impact on your pregnancy, birth and postpartum experience. What’s equally fascinating is that different kinds of meditation impact your brain in different ways. Just like repeating specific exercises at the gym build muscle in different parts of your body.

Years ago I added mindfulness and meditation to the GentleBirth program as it gives parents a huge advantage over just learning hypnosis for birth when you really need some extra tools in your mental toolkit as you adjust to life with a newborn.

How Do I Practice Hypnobirthing?

During your hypnobirthing practice you’ll let your mind drift off with beautiful serene imagery with the intention of reducing fear, pain and increasing confidence.  It can’t be easier really - get comfortable, press play and let yourself drift off listening to the calming hypnotic suggestions.

How Do I Practice Meditation?

Mindfulness is not about crystals, incense or spirit guides. It is now being recognized by health care professionals (especially in mental health) as an effective intervention to promote the health of moms and babies. When you meditate you stay awake, alert and focused and when your mind wanders off like it does in your hypnobirthing practice you’ll notice it and then gently bring your awareness back to the recording or your breath etc (whatever you’re using as your anchor during that practice session). 

In traditional hypnobirthing you just drift off - no effort required. Snoozing isn’t a part of meditation which is why your hypnobirthing practice is so much easier. Press play and drift off.   Mindfulness is an aspect of meditation but it’s more active.  It means you’re intentionally paying attention without any judgment of the experience. So you can be mindfully brushing your teeth, mindfully driving, mindfully changing your baby’s diaper, mindfully feeding your baby. Meditation is considered the formal ‘on cushion’ practice.

What It’s Not:

Meditation is NOT about emptying your mind of thoughts, or stopping thinking.  It’s really about about noticing that you’re thinking and choosing how you’ll respond to those thoughts (kindly).  We just allow them to come and go rather than getting sucked into the drama of our inner mean girl (and we all have one!). It’s also not about acting happy thinking positive and being all Pollyanna about birth (we call it Intelligent Optimism). The only relaxation in meditation occurs when we relax the urge to get involved in every thought. Notice the difference between being lost in your thoughts and being mindful of those thought.

From the Hypnobabies website it seems clear that this approach isn’t familiar with meditation.

Let’s address these common misconceptions first.

• The goal of meditation is not to clear your mind. We are never trying to think of nothing (how would you even do that?). It’s about learning how to respond to the habitual patterns of the mind - that, more often than not take us to stress town in pregnancy quite frequently. But when you realize that thoughts are not facts you can just be curious about what your mind is up to and let those thoughts go on their merry way (as often as possible).

• Meditation is as much about what’s happening in your body as your mind - you’re learning to drop down into the body and tune into so much wisdom that’s found there.

• You don’t have to sit still you can use mindful movement as you meditate. This can be very helpful for someone who has experienced a trauma response to mindfulness practices and sitting still isn’t an option. You can also incorporate mindfulness into every activity throughout your day - mindfully eating your lunch, mindfully brushing your teeth.

Meditation is Not a Relaxation Technique or a Method.

But it can definitely help you feel more relaxed, that happens when you don’t chase after every stressful thought your mind offers you.  Mindfulness helps you to notice when you’re experiencing  emotions and feelings,  - you pause for a millisecond and watch how they feel in our mind and our body, and then you have a tiny gap where you can respond differently than you may have in the past especially when it comes to fear or anger.  That teeny pause between the emotion being triggered and choosing a better response rather than a reaction changes everything. Like a train on a journey with all of the railcars connected…each thought in the 'train of thought’ leads to another….we can choose to get on the train and follow a particular memory/thought/plan or choose to get off the train at any point.  With meditation you’re learning that you’re NOT the train…but the landscape that the train is moving through.  A recent study comparing relaxation techniques to mindfulness shows brain changes in the fear center of the brain in those participants practicing mindfulness - not relaxation techniques.

Hypnosis is the opposite to mindful attention and focus and is the state that you enter when you practice with your hypnobirthing Mp3s. Your mind wanders – it’s been doing that for as long as we’ve been living – it’s totally normal.  As you cultivate the practice of mindfulness your mind will wander too but you start to notice it earlier and intentionally bring your attention back to your breathing, a sensation or emotion.  Your meditation practice helps to retrain your brain to not chase after the dramatic stories and thoughts that pass through your mind from the moment we awake until we sleep each night – you know the ones….. “I can’t believe she said that.” ….what if I have to be induced?” etc. Catching those meangirl thoughts and taking a friendly approach to ‘her’ is one of the highlights of my mindfulness practice. I know her intentions are to protect me but her comments aren’t always helpful.

How Meditation and Hypnobirthing Can Both Reduce Pain in Different Ways

Mindfulness changes your relationship to painful sensations so that the experience of the pain is less all-absorbing and less likely to trigger negative emotional responses that intensify pain (fear, stress and feelings of being out of control). Physical pain is increased with emotional pain so by ‘uncoupling’ the sensations from stressful emotions reduces pain perception.  Your mindfulness practice tells the fear centre of your brain  (Amygdala) to ‘stand down’ and so reduces negative emotions that increase pain.  You’ll have probably learned about the fight/flight response in your birth prep classes so mindfulness can do that in an instant by just being curious about those sensations and not adding more ‘stories’ to what’s happening right now.

The mindfulness ‘side effect’ of pain reduction occurs by turning down the ‘volume’ of pain sensations in specific parts of the brain.  Meditation increases activity in regions of the brain where these sensations are interpreted.  These brain areas regulate the sensations of pain and give it ‘meaning’ before it becomes part of your conscious awareness.   Hypnobirthing can indeed change the sensations of labor for many moms.   However more moms will experience pain during labor as well as uncomfortable emotions in those first intense weeks of parenthood.

 “It helped in so many ways; coping with a last minute change of plan and induction of labor. Staying in the moment with each contraction meant I could use breathing to cope with pain and fear” - British Journal of Midwifery on Mindfulness in Maternity

Mindfulness helps you to accept what’s happening in the present moment including the sensations but acceptance doesn’t mean you have to like what’s going on but you can stop fighting reality and control the controllables - “it is what it is” especially when we can’t change what’s happening.  When you feel pain your mindfulness practice helps you to stay in the moment with those sensations and avoids pain catastrophizing (when your mind runs away with itself finding the most stressful scenario possible). This reduces pain.  If you’re expecting labor to be painfree or and that isn’t your reality having additional tools in your emotional coping toolkit is essential for your psychological wellbeing.  What I love about this practice is that a mindful approach helps you to experience the intense sensations of labor without feeling judged or a failure if you choose pain relief or intervention to help you have a positive experience - this is an ongoing problem with childbirth preparation programs that only use hypnosis as their coping strategy.  That’s one of the reasons I’ve combined Meditation training, Compassion audios and Hypnobirthing in the GentleBirth app.

Do I Need To Learn Both?

Yes. Give yourself as many mental strategies as you can - especially if you’re planning an unmediated birth. But whether you have an unmedicated birth having these skills at hand on the tough days can support your recovery as you adjust to the huge transition of becoming a parent (or a parent of 2..or 3…) If hypnosis doesn’t work well for you in labor it makes sense to have a Plan B.

I was more aware of my thoughts and the ‘stories’ I told myself than I would have been without the practice of mindfulness.  I was not prepared for the difficulties associated with breastfeeding and mindful breastfeeding helped us to keep going. I have had to make significant changes to my diet as a result of milk protein intolerance and using the ‘acceptance’ aspect of mindfulness has helped me in not resenting it” - British Journal of Midwifery on Mindfulness in Maternity

Mom to mom and midwife to mom, I can tell you in all honesty that it will be your mindfulness practice that will stand to you as you navigate one of the most intense few months of your adult life - not your hypnosis.

When you’re bleary eyed at 4am trying to get your baby to latch and wondering if you’re cut out for motherhood you can’t exactly lie on the couch for 30 mins with your hypnobirthing mp3s.  Plus when you’re this stressed and this tired your rational brain is pretty much offline so you’re probably not going to make decisions that will support your breastfeeding/parenting goals. 

As you practice your mindfulness daily you begin to recognize that you’re feeling anxious, and you can have a curious approach to where that stress is located in your body (we say ‘name it to tame it’)  which turns down the volume on the stress response so you can more calmly wake your partner to help you figure out a plan for getting more support tomorrow.  You wouldn’t go to a yoga class and only learn one pose – you want to fill your physical comfort toolkit with relevant helpful tools.  Add meditation to your hypnobirthing practice and give yourself a full psychological toolkit that you’ll use long after your baby arrives.

Most hypnobirthing classes don’t teach meditation/mindfulness - but say they do - and that’s mostly due to a misunderstanding of what mindfulness is. So as you research your options be sure to ask what type of meditation they teach (there are different styles) and if anyone mentions emptying your mind, stopping your thoughts or relaxing - they’re not teaching mindful meditation. A big clue is in the audio recordings - meditations don’t include a count down or imagery to ‘relax’ or drift off…or suggestions for ‘waking up’ at the end or counting up. If they’re part of your current birth preparation - they are relaxation tools - not meditation.

If you’re a birth professional interested in training in Perinatal Meditation my article published in The Practicing Midwife Journal is a great place to learn more about the benefits. If you’re a student midwife and have access to the journal you can learn more about how the mind can learn more about how the mind can modulate pain perception with different mental strategies.

Learn even more in the GentleBirth guidebook available on Amazon.com Amazon UK and free in the GentleBirth App.

I hope this was helpful - what questions do you have?