Hypnobirthing in review (Marie Mongan Method)

It's been a month since D-Day and I thought I'd do a post birth post about my birth experience using Hypnobirthing. I came across Hypnobirthing when I started researching methods by which I could achieve a natural birth that was drug free and hopefully pain free as well. I talked about doing it 'natural and drug free' with Matthew's birth but in hindsight I didn't do much aside from pre-natal yoga and acupuncture to prepare me for a drug free (albeit persistent posterior) birth. So this time round I was much more motivated to achieving this goal and knew exactly the type of birth experience I'd wanted for Maya. My research into natural child birth and water births also brought me in contact with one of the most (if not the most) recognized pro-natural/pro-choice obstetricians in Singapore - Dr Lai FM, Ginny Phang of Four Trimesters and the lovely staff at Mt Alvernia. Both Ginny and Dr Lai were present for the first water births in Mt. A and NUH (National University Hospital). To understand why I went to these lengths to locate Dr Lai and Ginny, you'll have to keep in mind that caesarean rates are presently more than a third of all births and episiotomies are practiced in nearly all natural births in Singapore. Finding pro-natural/pro-choice obstetric care in Singapore is a rarity and finding the right support and being able to trust that they will respect your decision and wishes is an important part of the process.

I decided to take Hypnobirthing (or Calmbirth as it is also known in Australia) classes after meeting Ginny who teaches classes and having a chat to her about the type of birth experience I'd wanted. Ginny had been recommended to me by Dr Lai who I'd been seeing for since I was 6 weeks pregnant. I'd seen her Tedx and birth videos on YouTube and was suitably convinced that a 'Hypno water birth' was exactly what I was after. Hypnobirthing seemed to take the most calm and gentle approach to child birth. Quite a lot of the literature and foundation of Hypnobirthing is intended to purge your mind of any fear associated with child birth. It is widely accepted that FEAR creates tension which then creates PAIN when thus creates more FEAR and the cycle continues... It works on premise that the birthing mum prepare for comfortable easy birth through self hypnosis, relaxation and visualization. It does however also state quite clearly that it does not promise a pain free birth rather, when a mother is deeply relaxed child birth need not necessarily be painful and have shorter labours.

How does this differ from the information dished out at antenatal classes run my midwives everywhere? well it does go beyond just telling the Mother to remember to breath through the contractions.  To get to this state of relaxation and to work on removing any lingering fear I may have had subconsciously I dutifully read my Hypnobirthing book, attended classes and spent weeks listening to two hypnobirthing recordings - birth 'affirmations' and 'rainbow relaxation' (from the Marie Mongan Institute). The affirmations track spoke of releasing/removing fear associated with child birth, looking forward to the birth of my baby, about birthing easily etc. The second track guided the listener through approximately 20 mins of breathing and self-relaxation for which I can only remember the first few minutes, the rest is blur. For some reason, without fail I'd fall asleep while listening and wake as soon as the track ended, apparently it's very common and is also a sign that at a conscious level I might have nodded off, my subconscious was still at work. I listened to the same two tracks most nights before bedtime as this is when the mind is supposed to be most receptive. 

Was my labour short and not necessarily painful? Yes, my labour was very very short. I don't think my labour could be considered truly precipitous (less than 3 hours from start of labour to birth) as I did have contractions which began the day before Maya was born but could not feel them so I'm not sure whether they count? As to child birth being pain free, some women speak of the surges (that's the other thing, contractions are called 'surges' in hypnobirthing) as being very intense but not painful, I'd like to call a spade a spade, yes, during birth I experienced pain especially during transition but it was manageable pain.

Was my birth fear free? Yes. Maya birth was approached with much excitement and anticipation and joy. I certainly felt confident and relaxed as D-Day approached. It was often commented by friends and family how relaxed and laid back both Duncan and I were about Maya's birth and how 'prepared' we were. But the reality was that the only preparation needed was to simply accept that birth is a natural and a beautiful miracle rather than a medical event. We often talked (and I visualised) about how easy the birth was going to be, little did I know at the time that Maya would literally pop out. The only time fear or worry crept into my mind was when we had to decide when and whether to head to the hospital. I did not want Maya born somewhere between the apartment and the hospital. 

Did it work for me? Well I think my birth experience with Maya speaks for itself. For the most part, for the parts which I was able to labour on my own and put into practice the weeks and weeks of breathing and relaxation conditioning I was perfectly comfortable. It was hard to maintain relaxation and focus while moving around from the apartment to the car to the hospital, in hindsight we should have probably head to the hospital a tad earlier or had Maya at home.

Is birthing easy? Yes, the way nature intended it to be, intervention free and drug free. I do acknowledge that in some cases medical intervention is required, but this does not mean that birthing is not easy and the birthing experience need be a negative one because of it. Matthew's birth is a perfect example of this, quite different from Maya's (synthetic oxytocin/pitocin, epidural and episiotomy) but a wonderful cherished experience nonetheless. The best part about an easy natural birth is a quick recovery and being able to bond immediately with Maya and the benefits of skin to skin is well documented. I was up and about within hours and discharged from the hospital the next day. By the 3rd day I was out grocery shopping with Maya.

Would I use hypnobirthing again? Yes. Although I must give credit to the support of Dr Lai and Ginny in helping me carry out my birth plan. Besides feeling confident and relaxed about birthing, the added side effect I've found from using the relaxation tracks is that falling asleep after Maya's nocturnal feeds is much quicker and the end result is a much more relaxed and less sleep deprived mother during the day!