Hypnobirthing/gentlebirth workshops?

Glowing

Hi all,

Due my first baby in September, and am feeling pretty unconfident about the whole labour and birth part

I've been listening to the Gentlebirth CD tracks for the past few weeks and find them very relaxing, but have also been looking into those 2 day workshops - you can do a Gentlebirth one, and I'm sure there are others out there. The only thing is they tend to be pretty expensive.

Does anyone have any experience with the GB workshop, or any others? Would you recommend them, or did you find the CDs enough to work with?

Would love to hear your experiences, thanks!

Edit: Does anyone know what the differences are between the Active Birth Workshops you can do (generally through a yoga studio), and your regular Antenatal classes you do in the hospital? I'm so confused at this stage!

How Strange

I can't comment on gentle birth workshops but I did an active birth workshop and found it very good. Our hospital ante natal class in the Coombe was actually very good and gave us enough information about labour, pros and cons of different pain relief, hospital policies, interventions etc that I felt it was as good as the active birth one but I know this isn't always the case.

I think an active birth workshop is good for women who don't just want to get the epidural straight away and will do everything they're told and let the medical staff take control.

It will explore pain relief and natural techniques for getting through labour. It will explain the various interventions used in hospitals, their implications,so you can be informed. It will go through birth plans and explain how to do up your own if you want to have one.

It also involves your partner which we found the most useful of all. It explains the role your birthing partner plays in the labour/delivery.

I'd recommend it if you can afford it especially if you want a labour with minimal interventions and/or an epi free labour.

SanFran07

Glowing - if you have insurance you may be eligible to get most of the GentleBirth workshop fees back. Last month the 2 day Dublin workshop was only €5 after reimbursement for two Quinn Mums.:)

There are a couple of Active Birth teachers in Dublin who are also GentleBirth Mums themselves so their classes would definitely compliment the homestudy program.

Quirkygirl

Hi glowing I have a previous post about this topic, under paid free birthing. I had two babies almost ten pounds each, with no pain relief and i just read Marie Mongans book and listened to CDs. And practiced relaxation breathing and breathing for labour. It is based around changing your mindset from one of fear to one where you are capable and built to birth your baby. It is truly amazing. I had two wonderful love filled births, my husband and I are astounded at what the body can do. Please believe that you can do this. Be confident. I am familiar with gb as it is based on same principles but yes it's v pricey to do the course, I don't think it's necessary either, practice your breathing, this is key, practice relaxing and focussing. Best of luck, you will have a wonderful experience.

Quirkygirl

Sorry that should have said pain free birthing sorry

SanFran07

As I’m sure everyone knows there are advantages and disadvantages to learning these techniques at home or attending a workshop. There’s no “one size fits all” answer to making this decision. Mums and Dads need to weigh the pros and cons of each option, and then decide which option best fits their individual learning style and circumstances.

Workshops are great if you want supervision and structure in learning these techniques. You have instant feedback and the ability to experience hypnosis in a different way plus all the hands on aspects and any questions are answered on the spot. Reading the information is one thing, but having the input of a trained professional really emphasizing and repeating the most important points and giving you feedback on your progress is important for some learners. Plus, there is just more information in the class because of the live discussion with other attendees. But the biggest benefit is the inclusion of the birth partner and their jump in confidence after attending a live class. I know my partner didn't willingly read any of my pregnancy/birth books

Yet there are a number of advantages with home study too. It’s flexible and convenient and less expensive. Of course, some of these advantages can be disadvantages too. You don’t have an instructor in front of you but whether you use one of our CDs or attend a workshop - you have ongoing support. Of course there may be times when it is just not the same has having someone right there answering your questions.

Another consideration is the impact of comprehension and retention of the material. With a live workshop, you have a lot amount of information that comes at you over the 2 days. Compare this to a home study course, where you have the ability to make the time to study when you are ready to focus and have some undisturbed time and you can read and re-read the materials over and over again.

I would not be so focused on the pain free element as there are just too many variables but hypnosis definitely makes things much more manageable and the calmer more focused you are the better you'll be able to handle whatever comes your way on the day.

There are several elements of GentleBirth that are indeed similar to the American 'HypnoBirthing course' (I used to teach it) but there are also some significant differences.

http://www.gentlebirth.ie/gentlebirth-and-hypnobirthing.html

Like any skill - some people are better at hypnosis than others - some will find using the book and cd enough and others need a more hands on approach.

GentleBirth focuses on much more than hypnosis - medical hypnosis techniques are only one tool in the labour 'toolkit' you create over the weekend. Unlike hypnobirthing, GentleBirth couples always have a plan B - so on the day you have a selection of tools and techniques to keep you comfortable if you're not so good at the hypnosis end of things.

This Summer GentleBirth will also include a 'Breathing for Birth CD' to guide Mums/Dads through several easy to follow breathing techniques that you can practice along with rather than just from reading a book. It makes a big difference in your confidence levels when you have someone guide you through the techniques from the homestudy course or live class.

There are so many variables that factor into a positive learning experience that it’s very hard to rank one method over another unless you've experienced both.

lynski

It would be very hard to evaluate one over the other, but as i used the gentle birh cds for 2 pregnancies and births, i can only imagine the workshop gives you so much more and can only be an enhancement.
If you are asking should you consider it, the answer is yes, yes and yes.
the cds give you confidence, calmness and control. my first birth as awful. my second and third were short, calm, controlled and natural. not pain free, but totally manageable.
enjoy your pregnancy and look forward to meeting your wonderful baby, your body and your baby are more then capable of having an amazing calm birth.

Quirkygirl

Sanfran, you are a teacher of the gentle birth methods so maybe it's not a balanced view. To be honest having had two births that were really pain free. As childbirth should not be painful. The book I read really helped me to rid myself of the fear that has been engrained over the centuries into women from media, church, etc. this fear causes us to clench every muscle and this causes the opposite effect of what we need to birth naturally. If we relax and open our bodies up to our baby and breath and relax there should be no pain. My husband read my book and we practiced together. I wouldn't think this is an exceptional case. For me I wanted to be able to relax and and birth with comfort and I really did this. I have a lot of other women who did the same thing and had same experience. I feel one of the major disadvantages of the class is that while the teacher is with you for practicing they are not there with you in the birth and you need to focus yourself and keep yourself relaxed and I know from a good friend who did the class that she found the breathing very helpful but also she had it in her head that a contraction lasts x amount of time and there is x amount of time in between contraction so I can do anything for x amount of time, this to me suggests pain, or I can cope with this for this short time, that to e is again suggesting pain or suffering whereas when I read the book it showed me that that is not the way childbirth is. And it is only when we are going against our bodies and not relaxing that we feel that pain, which I did not feel. I was genuinely relaxed and genuinely happy and amazed at how my body was working away quietly helping the baby move down, I am a major advocate of natural births. My life has really been changed by this book and I can't praise it enough. But I do also feel that it is not for everyone. The book is not just about hypnosis but about relaxing and breathing exercises which really really work. The cds are important because they really do condition you to a certain way if thinking about and approaching childbirth.

Quirkygirl

I think if I had known that the gb was redeemable on insurance I would have tried it as the price was unrealistic fir us at the time. Glowing best of luck

Cat Melodeon

I only used the Gentlebirth Home Study program for birth preparation on both my children. I'm actually very sorry that we didn't do a workshop first time round. The CDs were amazing, the issue was more with my husband. He was brilliant in that he came to every single antenatal class with me and was generally supportive of my hopes for an intervention free birth, but I couldn't get him to listen to the partner rehearsal CDs or to take much of an interest in hypnobirthing beyond him thinking it was a nice thing for me. As a result, during the birth of our first child I felt he was a bit 'off message'. He was unable to help me get back to a relaxed state the few times I started to lose it a bit as he didn't quite get how it all worked. Luckily, despite having an induction, my midwife was totally supportive of getting us through it without any further interventions and was very interested in Gentlebirth (she'd not come across it before) and it all went brilliantly (4hr labour & delivery, 9lb 6 baby, gas only, not pain free but totally manageable once I stayed calm). I definitely feel that we would have benefitted as a couple and him as a birthing partner had we done a Gentlebirth workshop.

Second time round we didn't need a workshop. Himself was so convinced of it working that he listened to the CDs and was completely able to support me. I didn't even need to listen to the CDs during the birth, I had them off by heart and could just send myself to a different zone by focusing and breathing. I know 2nd births are generally supposed to be easier, but I feel that hypnobirthing went beyond that. 3 hrs after the first hint of a contraction without any form of pain relief, my daughter was born. Again, not entirely pain free but a mighty, empowering sort of pain that was weirdly enjoyable (I know, I sound like a freak, and I'm not even a hippy). I put that entirely down to hypnobirthing, it's like you learn about this hidden, animal side of yourself that instinctively knows what to do.

Sorry for rambling, I just think its an amazing resource and wish more people would try it. And yes, if you think you and your birth partner could do with a bit of team bonding, do the workshop. It's a very different thing to the antenatal classes which are way too intervention focused and not enough focused on the power of proper support.

SanFran07

Quirkygirl wrote: »

My life has really been changed by this book and I can't praise it enough. But I do also feel that it is not for everyone. The book is not just about hypnosis but about relaxing and breathing exercises which really really work. The cds are important because they really do condition you to a certain way if thinking about and approaching childbirth.

It changed my life too - even before my 10lb+ son was born. I trained in the American program and then developed my own program based on my work in Irish maternity services. I had my first son in California so I have experienced both systems. I just wanted to make the point that hypnobirthing and gentlebirth are very different programs and have quite different goals. Pain free birth is possible but it's not the goal of GentleBirth. My goal is for couples is to have the most positive birth experience possible - painfree or not....and to feel confident in handling whatever came their way on the day. Although I 100% believe that birth can be painfree for some women not every woman will have a painfree birth - no matter how much practice she does or how relaxed she is.

My son's birth was not painfree but it was very manageable...it did get quite intense especially when he moved into the back to back position for about 2 hours. So although it was not completely painfree I had other tools available to help me stay comfortable over the 16 hours at home. As a HypnoBirthing teacher I was instructed by the US 'Institute' not to talk about back labour in class or discuss strategies for Mums and Dads to stay comfortable because 'hypnobirthing Mums' don't get back labour.....

The Mums and Dads have 3 CDs and addititional mp3s and a guidebook to work through the various exercises at home with their partner. The workshop is really just the foundation to build upon. I do know of a few women who have had similar experiences to you and one woman who used an Mp3 she bought online for €2 (no book) and had an amazing experience and I am a firm believer that anything is possible - but not everyone who uses hypnosis is equally suggestible and can get themselves to a deep level (and stay at that level).

No matter how we've given birth and which tools/techniques we've used - the most important thing is to keep telling other women that birth can be different to what we see on One Born Every Minute.... That it can be amazing powerful, intense and even fun! and doesn't have to be incredibly painful and something we're dreading - but it does take a bit of a commitment to using the CDs regularly and make sure they apply everything they've learned on the big day.

Kash

I am using the GentleBirth CDs (not every day, but a few times a week) and I find that they are great for keeping my first pregnancy fear at bay.

I'm now almost 36 weeks, and expecting a big baby, so continuous reinforcement of the calm, confident and in control concept is really helping me.

My only issue so far is trying to locate the ellusive additional mp3s on the GB website - I want my husband to listen to the partner one but can't find it anywhere.

If anyone can point me in the right direction, it would make my day.

SanFran07

Hi Kash,

PM me your email address and I'll send you the Mp3s through DropBox.

Squiggler

Hi Kash,

I emailed gentlebirth and they sent them through drop box (as SanFran has offered to do).