HypnoBirthing - Trudy's story

Trudy, 36, and her husband Arthur live in north London. They attended a two-day course taught by Katharine Graves at the HypnoBirthing Centre in London. In October 2007, Trudy gave birth to the couple’s first child, Nicholas, using the techniques she had been taught. She describes the experience as "amazing". Here's her story.

"Before doing the HypnoBirthing course I was quite sceptical. I like to be in control and hypnotism seemed to me to be about giving up control.  

“But once I started the course I quickly changed my mind. HypnoBirthing doesn’t just focus on hypnosis, it’s all about teaching you the process of birth. I was very struck by a diagram of the muscles of the uterus and how they worked and how important it was to be relaxed for those muscles to be able to do their job. This actually increased the amount of control I had by giving me more knowledge.

“I attended the course three months before I gave birth and then practised the techniques I had been taught nearly every night. I had an exercise ball and I would kneel over that, put my head down and just tune out everything around me and concentrate on breathing, and that paid dividends when it came to the birth.

“On the day I had Nicholas, I woke up at 6am with what felt like period pain. I thought it was most likely false labour as the pains didn’t seem to be in the right place, so I went back to sleep again for five hours.

“When I woke up again, I didn’t feel any pain as such but the surges, as they are known in HypnoBirthing, were getting more intense. We put on the TENS machine but I never needed to use more than two of the four pads throughout my labour.

“When we rang the hospital they told us to wait until my contractions were regularly five minutes apart before coming in. But my surges were coming at varying intervals – between six minutes and four minutes.      

“I got into the bath at about 2pm. The surges were intense but not painful. Then suddenly I wanted to push. We got on the phone to the hospital and they told us we should come in. I felt very calm and in control because at all times I was confident that I understood the process my body was going through to give birth.  

“We arrived at the birthing centre at about 5pm and Nicholas was born at 5.37pm without pain relief. I was so relaxed that ten minutes before he was born I was laughing my head off at a joke my husband told. I felt fantastic and the impact on my body was negligible. I only had a very minor tear which didn’t require stitching.  

“I had such an amazing birth because of HypnoBirthing, and it’s not just me who got a lot out of it, my baby did too. I know mums always say this, but Nicholas really is an angel child. He's always smiling and he started sleeping through the night at eight weeks. I think that has a lot to do with the fact that his experience of coming into the world was so gentle. He didn’t have any drugs in his system and his mother was very calm. HypnoBirthing didn’t just benefit me, it benefitted Nicholas too.”  

Article: can HypnoBirthing take the pain out of labour?

The information in this feature is intended for educational purposes only. If you have any concerns about your health, the health of your child or the health of someone you know, please consult with a doctor or other healthcare professional.