Andaluz is excited to host Hypnobabies Childbirth Classes at the birth center starting in January 2025! This comprehensive childbirth education series is open to any expectant parents in the Portland area, and facilitated by certified Hypnobabies Educator Rebekka Maye.

Rebekka has written a guest post for our blog about the benefits of self-hypnosis for childbirth. Read on below to learn how you can retrain your mind and eliminate fear to make your birth experience positive and empowering!

Mention childbirth to an expectant parent in the last trimester, and chances are that their heart may begin to race, their mind floods with concern and in some cases, even panic can set in. They know that the day is coming when a force much bigger than themselves will take over and their body will govern itself completely.

For some people birth is a very fearful event, but for a Hypnobabies student, it is an eagerly anticipated challenge. They have the skills to utilize medical-grade, somnambulistic hypnosis techniques to help eliminate discomfort and fear from the birthing experience. They learn Eyes-Open Childbirth Hypnosis which allows them to easily move around, change positions, walk and talk, while remaining in hypnosis and in a state of comfort during childbirth. They also benefit from the advanced Hypnobabies childbirth education curriculum and become experts in creating their own powerful birthing choices.

How does Hypnobirthing work?

Practice is key! Starting several months before your due date, you listen daily to your Hypnobabies hypnosis audio tracks and practice your hypnosis techniques. These techniques help to retrain your subconscious to produce easier and more comfortable birthing sensations, since the inner mind controls the body.

Daily Practice

You use your new Hypnobabies hypnosis language daily, which proves that you believe in what you are doing to prepare for an easier, more comfortable birthing experience. This also helps to reinforces all of your Hypnobabies hypnosis cues and techniques. Every time you use Hypnobabies language you are building habits that will benefit you during the birth process.

During Birth

You use your Hypnobabies hypno-tools during your birthing time. You listen to your hypnosis birthing tracks, use your hypnosis cues and the mental techniques you have practiced. You can also have your birth partner read you Hypnobabies prompts that help keep you in hypnosis and comfortable. All of this “activates” (like using software) the retraining you did in the months leading up to your birth by listening and practicing hypnosis.

All Hypnosis is Self-Hypnosis!

You are always in control of your mind and your body while in hypnosis. You choose to enter hypnosis, stay in hypnosis, accept suggestions, and emerge from hypnosis at all times.

Hypnosis is a state of relaxation in which you are:

In total control
Can accept or reject any suggestions you hear

Hypnosis is not:

Being controlled by someone else
A loss of self control
A state of unconsciousness
A state of sleep

Examples of everyday hypnotic states which you have already experienced naturally:

Driving a car
Riding in an elevator
Reading, watching TV, movies, computer screens or videos
Being bored
Waking up and going to sleep
Daydreaming, drifting off, “zoning out”

Hypnosis is a very natural state of being that we all experience many times a day. These hypnotic states allow our brains to regenerate and renew. We are simply helping the process along during hypnosis sessions, just like programming a computer to produce a document, project or program that will produce positive results!

Focus on the Positive

In Hypnobabies, you are taught to surround yourself with positive people and messages during your pregnancy, to create a positive, encouraging, fear-free view of childbirth and the expectation that your birthing will be a beautiful, peaceful experience.

Hypnobabies “Fear Clearing” hypnosis sessions and “Mindful Connection” practice are integral to this process, since they allow you to address fears, work through possible solutions and then release anxiety. Your daily Joyful Pregnancy Affirmations track will assists this process. Listening to your many Hypnobabies hypnosis tracks, which retrain your mind from the inside out to perceive childbirth in a positive way, will alter the way your mind perceives physical sensations in the body, and create a blueprint for an easier and more comfortable birthing experience.

Fear during childbirth can create tension, which creates pain, then more fear, and the cycle continues. Fear and anxiety can also create adrenaline production in the body, causing the labor to become dysfunctional, a common reason for Cesarean Section surgery. Freedom from fear can make a significant difference in the birthing experience. That is why our Hypnobabies Fear Clearing sessions are so valuable and our students love them so much.

By learning and practicing Hypnobabies’ deep, somnambulistic hypnosis, you are able to enter self-hypnosis instantly and create your own natural Hypno-anesthesia whenever you need it, and mentally direct it to the parts of your body that need it most. Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis helps you to remain in control over your body’s reactions (easier birthing sensations) and your emotions (confidence and calm instead of fear and doubt), while making you an active participant in the comfort of your own birth process!

Hypnosis for Childbirth

Molly’s Birth Story: “It was everything—magical and intense and beautiful and peaceful and really hard.”