HypnoBirthing: Class Two

This was my last week of attending class without my husband.  It will be nice to be there with someone instead of by myself.

Our books came in this past week and that should be a good resource for me.  I borrowed the regular HypnoBirthing book from the teacher last weekend got about 2/3 through it.  Now I have my own that includes another CD I haven't listened to.  We also got our manuals that go with each class and have other things you can do to help prepare.  I'm excited for that.

In class we talked a lot about preparation and practice.  That goes along perfectly with my big reason for taking the class in the first place.  I want to be ready for whatever comes up.  Well, as much as possible.  There are some things you can't plan for.  Anyway, the talk about preparation revolved around the need to practice the techniques often so you are more readily able to get into deep relaxation quickly.  Practice makes perfect, right? 

We also talked about the importance of our birthing partners in the delivery room.  For all of us in the class that would be our husband.  The manual has several different scripts to practice with.  Listening to the voice of someone you love telling you nice things always makes you feel good.  The teacher told us several stories about how the relaxation was so much better when the husband was the one speaking to them.  That makes sense to me, too.

The surprising thing to me was what I learned about hypnosis.  After having watched stage hypnosis (and even trying to participate once when I was in college) I had an incorrect perception of what hypnosis is.  There is never a loss of awareness.  That was the biggest surprise to me.  The person going into hypnosis can choose whether or not to do what is suggested.  The teacher did a demonstration of one of the scripts in the manual and, as my husband wasn't there, I was the guinea pig.  I chose to do what she asked me to do, rather than feeling compelled to do it.  Then, just before the teacher was going to "bring me out" of the hypnosis, my cell phone went off.  I was perfectly aware of it and could decide what to do about it.

The other thing that was explained to us very well in class is that we (the mothers) are capable of achieving the necessary level of relaxation on their own.  It just works better to have someone there to talk to you while you are under self-hypnosis.  I'm getting more excited to see how it goes.