JOIN A COURSE OR INDIVIDUAL SESSIONS?

It's your choice. The very successful courses I run are small friendly groups on a Monday morning, 10.30-12 midday. Courses start monthly and cost £125 for 4 sessions. (Please see News section for the next dates.)

If you join a course and you've had a specific traumatic experience (for example of a previous birth) or a hospital-related or medical phobia to overcome, it's recommended to address it in one or more individual sessions.

With individual sessions, you can choose your day and time, and we can address one-to-one any particular issues that you have.

Please contact me to discuss what's best for you.

My approach is flexible . I'll take account of how you feel now, respect your wishes and guide you towards the birth that you wish for you and your baby.

THROUGH YOUR CONFIDENT CHILDBIRTH SESSIONS ...

You can let go of fears, worries, and anxieties about the birth of your baby. You can overcome any beliefs or influences that you feel are negative for you and build more positive feelings and thoughts.

And of course you're more than welcome if you're already full of joy about the birth and you'd like to come simply to develop new skills.

YOU'LL LEARN:

• Self-hypnosis: how to go into a state of calm relaxation
• Personal visualisations to aid your labour and delivery
• How to focus constructively in order to manage the birth of your baby in the best way for you
• How to remain positive, in control and in communication

AS YOU PRACTISE THESE TOOLS, THEY PROMOTE:

• A sense of calm, confidence and control
• A healthy pregnancy.

By the end of your sessions, you may be surprised just how much your mindset has shifted, so that you can look forward to childbirth in a much more relaxed way than before. You'll have taken your mind and body through so many positive mental rehearsals for the birth that your body can be “primed” to go through its natural process very smoothly.

IN LABOUR AND DELIVERY
... as many surveys show, you are much less likely to need either medication or intervention, reducing the risk of side effects for you and the baby, and giving a good start to your new life together.

… other research has found shorter labour, less incidence of post-natal depression, and shorter hospital stays.

… many clients report that they experienced feeling in control, had a high tolerance of discomfort, a swift labour and were able to embark on this new motherhood with a calm baby and confidence in their abilities.

TO BOOK YOUR PLACE or for more information please ring 020 8743 0962. I'm very happy to discuss the best programme for you.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Surely pain is purely physical - how can my mind have any effect on it?
In fact feelings of pain are a complex response in which how the mind is feeling influences the sending of the pain signal. For example, relaxation has been shown to raise the pain threshold by releasing endorphins - the body's natural painkillers which block pain signals from reaching the brain.

And neurologists at the University of Iowa scanned the brain activity of hypnotised people as they dipped their hands in lukewarm water and in painfully-hot water. When it was suggested under hypnosis that the painfully-hot water was lukewarm, the brain activity in the part of the brain which registers subjective pain was the exactly the same as when the water actually was lukewarm.

Your attitude to pain can also diminish its importance to you. Think of how marathon runners cope with and overcome discomfort so that it becomes very secondary in an experience more marked by a sense of achievement and satisfaction.


Will I be able to learn self-hypnosis?
It's surprisingly easy. You go in and out of trance all day long so your mind knows how to, even if you're not aware of it!

When you daydream, drive on autopilot or become absorbed in tv, music or a book, then you're in a trance. When you imagine yourself on your next holiday or evening out, you're taking yourself into trance. If you find yourself reliving your school days or a job interview, you're in trance.

You'll simply be learning to do this on purpose. Nearly everyone has "got it" by the time they come for the second session. During the rest of the course you learn to deepen it and to prepare for the birth itself.

I don't want to be “out of it” during the birth!
You won't be! You'll be in control, communicating clearly with your partner and medical staff.

So will the birth will be pain-free?
There is no guarantee of this but it is possible. Hypnosis CAN completely remove pain - many people have had surgical operations purely under hypnosis, with no anaesthetic at all. They've remained comfortable throughout and recovered remarkably quickly. (Surgeons Jack Gibson - now retired - and Angel Escudero have carried out over 1,400 operations with only hypnotic or psychological anaesthesia).

It's been observed that plenty of practice increases the depth of trance - so if your goal is to have no discomfort at all, be prepared to spend plenty of time learning to relax profoundly! And as you do, you and your baby can gain huge benefits before and after the birth too.

Attaining even a light depth of trance means any discomfort is likely to be less than it would have been; you can relax more between contractions and so feel better; and labour is likely to be shorter so both you and your baby recover more quickly.

In any case before it even begins, you'll have the reassurance of knowing that you have a range of mental tools to make the whole experience more positive and enable you to manage your feelings.


I'm going to yoga classes, isn't that enough?
Yoga's fantastic. In combination with self-hypnosis you can be even more in control. And then you can use your self-hypnosis to cope more easily with family life (like getting easily back to sleep during those disturbed nights…)



TO BOOK please ring 020 8743 0962 or e-mail jane@confidentchildbirth.co.uk