Can You Have A "Pain Free" Birth With Hypnobirthing?

There’s a lot of talk about having a “pain-free” birth on the internet right now. Is it possible? Well, I’m not one to dispute personal experience and I tend to lean more towards optimism. When I first heard there were women having “pain-free” births, I set out on a mission to find out how so that I could help the women that hired me achieve this! That’s when I found out about Hypnobirthing.

If you’re like me, you probably go straight to thinking about the stereotypical hypnosis techniques. So, naturally I was a bit skeptical!

But women were claiming this helped them, and I decided it’s worth learning more about. Even if it ended up just being some “woo-woo” thing that the lucky ones gave all the credit.

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Table of Contents

What Is Hypnobirthing?

Hypnobirthing is a childbirth preparation technique that emphasizes relaxation, visualization, and self-hypnosis to manage pain and promote a positive birth experience. It involves learning deep breathing exercises, guided imagery, and affirmations to help expectant mothers stay calm and focused during labor and delivery.

Originating from the work of British obstetrician Dr. Grantly Dick-Read in the early 20th century, hypnobirthing has evolved into a holistic approach to childbirth that empowers women and encourages a more natural and gentle birthing process.

Relaxing the muscles, especially the pelvic floor, during labor is crucial as it allows for the smooth progression of the baby through the birth canal. Tension in these muscles can impede the birthing process and contribute to discomfort and potential complications. By consciously relaxing the pelvic floor muscles through hypnobirthing techniques can help facilitate a more comfortable and efficient birth experience.

The Fear-Tension-Pain Cycle

The fear-tension-pain cycle is a concept in childbirth education that describes how fear and anxiety during labor can lead to increased tension in the body, resulting in heightened pain perception.

When a woman experiences fear or stress during labor, her body responds by tensing muscles, including the pelvic floor muscles.

This tension can hinder the progress of labor and intensify sensations of pain, creating a cycle where fear leads to tension, which then amplifies pain perception.

Hypnobirthing aims to break this cycle by promoting a calm and positive mindset, encouraging relaxation, and ultimately reducing fear, tension, and pain during childbirth.

How Does Hypnobirthing Break The Cycle?

Hypnobirthing breaks the fear-tension-pain cycle by addressing the root causes of fear and anxiety during childbirth and helps you achieve deep relaxation.

Here’s how it works:

Mindset Shift: Hypnobirthing teaches you to view childbirth as a natural and positive process rather than something to fear or dread. It’s not your fault if you feel fear, society has done a great job at stigmatizing childbirth through TV shows, movies and turning it into a “condition” to manage, rather than a monumental life event!
Deep Relaxation: Guided imagery, deep breathing, and self-hypnosis, induce a state of deep relaxation.
Pain Management: Through this relaxation and mental focus, hypnobirthing can effectively manage your pain during labor.
Natural Hormonal Response: When you’re relaxed and free from fear, your body will release endorphins and oxytocin, which are natural pain-relieving and labor-progressing hormones.

When your body isn’t producing enough of its own natural oxytocin, that’s when providers start talking about Pitocin. Which is a synthetic version of oxytocin, administered via IV to encourage contractions. Pitocin is notorious for causing intense contractions that usually requires an Epidural to deal with the increased pain level.

If you’re wanting an unmedicated birth that results in vaginal delivery, Pitocin can make that a lot harder!

Read more about Pitocin and other Labor & Delivery Interventions and how to avoid them, here.

Hypnobirthing Facts

Opinions may vary, but these are the absolute truths:

It’s a medication-free form of pain management with no potential side effects.
It can decrease stress and fear during birth.
It can help during the postpartum period, the transition into parenthood and breastfeeding.
It has been linked to shortened labor times.
Better infant Apgar scores.
Fewer C-sections.
And reduced use of pain medications during labor.

Hypnobirthing Myths

Let’s talk about the myths that keep women from pursuing Hypnobirthing. Like I said, I was skeptical at first and these were some of my questions that I needed answers to!

a woman in black clothes holding a lace with a ring

1. Hypnosis is mind control

It’s pretty common to think that hypnosis is a form of mind control or brainwashing. But I found out, this isn’t true at all!

What’s happened is hypnosis has been misused for entertainment, and some people perceive it as mysterious and somewhat of a magic trick.

With self hypnosis, people enter and exit a hypnotic state on purpose and on their own.

2. Hypnosis is a deep sleep

Although hypnosis creates a state of relaxation, you’re not going to sleep. It’s actually a state of consciousness where a person is intently focused. Focusing on a particular thought or image.

3. You’re unaware of your surroundings when hypnotized

Hypnosis changes a person’s focus to be more inward. So, you can forget about the world around you. But you won’t forget where you are!

The Risks of Hypnobirthing

I’ve read mostly positive reports with this method of relaxation. However, some people have reported the following “cons”:

Not taken seriously by Labor & Delivery nurses (But I haven’t met those kind of nurses!)
Feelings of frustration, sadness or disappointment when they didn’t have the kind of birth they wanted.
Labor progress was misjudged by nurses due to the relaxed state. (Deep relaxation and a limited number of cervical exams is great to avoid infections, but makes assessment difficult.)

Solutions

It may help to plan for a variety of outcomes. That way, if your birth doesn’t go as planned, you’re prepared physically and mentally. I also recommend talking with your provider and hospital staff (if you’re having a hospital birth) about your plan to implement Hypnobirthing. That way, everyone is on the same page and supportive of your efforts!

How To Get Started With Hypnobirthing

If you’d just like to dip your toe in and get a feel for it, I would recommend starting with a few videos that you can find on YouTube! Then I would suggest either reading HypnoBirthing: The Mongan Method, 4th Edition.

Starting your Hypnobirthing journey at around 28-30 weeks in your pregnancy is the best way to maximize its benefits.

See what a fellow Doula has to say about hypnobirthing: