Hypnobirthing Continues to Fail Parents - Here's Why.
You’ve had a picture perfect pregnancy, you did all the ‘right’ things….you read all the books your hypnobirthing instructor recommended, hired a doula and were ready to rock your birth! Your birth preferences are ready to go. At your 37 week appointment everything changed.
This was the experience of one parent.
“At 37 weeks my blood pressure was unusually high at my prenatal appointment and my OB ordered some more tests. I was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia which I know now is a serious complication of pregnancy. My BP was off the charts after retaking it so I agreed to stay and we discussed the induction process.
My partner brought my bags in. I remember sitting waiting, I just wanted to find a place to hide and cry. My plans for an unmedicated hypnobirth were over. My hypnobirthing group members told me to ‘stay calm’ and listen to my hypnobirthing. The induction was scheduled for the next morning and I was really nervous but trying to stay calm too. All the advice my instructor could give me was again to put on my phone and relax. Usually I fall asleep a few minutes into my hypnobirthing but tonight I heard every single word and it only made me more upset. When everything is going right listening to someone hypnotise you with rainbows and colours and kittens was a reminder of how my dream birth was slipping away. No amount of rainbows were going to change that. I remember searching on YouTube for hypnobirthing induction - anything to help me feel less nervous. What I really needed was the reassuring voice I’d been listening to since I was 14 weeks pregnant to help me through this change that had knocked me sideways but there was nothing".
Although pregnancy complications for healthy well mothers are rare they happen. However induction of labor is not uncommon and even through birth professionals know induction is offered way more than is medically necessary many parents will agree to induction of labor out of fear.
The most widely taught hypnobirthing programs provide no additional resources for parents who are not having an unmedicated birth.
So if you are one of those parents who have had your birth plans drastically change due to medical reasons or choice, there is no Plan B of mental strategies to help you adjust to what’s ahead. Traditional hypnobirthing doesn't leave any room for complications or anything other than the perfect birth. This approach continues to leave parents having to process a very different birth experience to the one they were sold.
In labor or maybe during your unplanned cesarean you’re expected to continuing listening to a birth rehearsal of ‘love, light, rainbows and calm for a natural birth’ and adjust your headspace to the recording… instead of the program adopting to parents needs. (Sounds familiar…. quite like the patriarchal approach to birth…)
A core part of midwifery is to strive for individualised care for each person based on their unique circumstances - and that’s one of the reasons GentleBirth continues to grow. Providing additional hypnobirthing and meditation tools to help parents adjust to potentially difficult circumstances just makes sense. In our app parents have access to a Positive Induction playlist…as well as a Calm Epidural Playlist and sessions for same sex partners.
This is an uncomfortable truth for many educators teaching hypnobirthing around the world but we can’t keep ignoring women’s experiences and act as if it’s just bad luck or a bad decision for women who are being induced. In the past I’ve heard educators say it will only encourage women to ask for induction. That seems to be similar to the abstinence only approach being the best way to discourage teens from sex. But that isn’t what played out in the research…
If you’re an expectant parent choosing a hypnobirthing program find out what additional resources are provided if you experience complications that may impact your plans for an unmedicated birth so you have options available to you.
If you teach a hypnobirthing program that provides no additional support to parents you still have some options to support your clients.
Create your own materials to support these families.
Ask the creator of your hypnobirthing program to create these materials.
Do nothing. However if you claim to provide a truly judgment free approach to birth the absence of these resources suggests something very different.
Refer them to the GentleBirth App for Induction hypnobirthing, Epidural hypnobirthing, Mindful Acceptance, Grounding Meditation and more.
If you teach traditional hypnobirthing I want to understand the logic behind the approach of leaving parents high and dry when they experience anything but a 3 hr easy labor - parents want to know too.
Let’s talk.
Tracy