Positive affirmations .....

Positive affirmations are used by many people who work with birthing parents. They can be really useful but you do also have to be careful how you use positive affirmations.

For instance, this is an affirmation you can find on the internet and I’m sure it is used by many people: My body was made to do this! Now, if you’re a woman who had difficulties conceiving or had to have assistance during labour, that affirmation isn’t going to sit very well with you. Why? Well, if you had problems in getting pregnant or you had to have an intervention during birth, you might think that your body has failed because it was made to do this (become pregnant and give birth) but couldn’t do it properly! That would certainly make me feel a bit rubbish.

However, if I look at this affirmation differently - My body was made to do this but I needed a bit of help - then I’m going to think completely differently about it. I can still believe that my body was made to do this (get pregnant and give birth) and it’s absolutely okay to have help and support.

What about this one - I am prepared to meet whatever turns my birthing takes! Are you? Are you prepared for an intervention? Do you know about the various forms of induction? Do you know what a caesarean may look like? Will you think that you’re a failure if you have any form of intervention or have a belly birth? Will you think that you didn’t give birth properly? A good hypnobirthing teacher will talk to you about all types of births and enable you to understand the process and progress of birth including home/MLU and hospital births. They will enable you to know more about vaginal and belly births.

A good hypnobirthing course will give you a range of tools that you can use such as anchors, visualisations, and other techniques as well as breathing, relaxation and an off-the-peg hypnosis script/MP3 - not just affirmations - and they should also explain affirmations, enabling you to write your own.

How do you know what a good hypnobirthing course is? Recommendations help as does having a chat with the hypnobirthing teacher before you book a course. You need to trust that they know what they are doing and you need to be able to connect with them. What suits one person may not suit you.

Can they help you with any previous birth trauma? Will they be there for you right up until you give birth (not physically but supporting you from a distance via phone/email/text)?

Hypnobirthing can be amazing - it is not a magic fix and you do need to work at it. You need to practice your breathing, your anchors, your visualisations and you need to listen to your MP3s regularly. You need to have a good relationship with your hypnobirthing teacher and you need to trust them.

Birth has the potential to be the most awesome event that you will ever experience - and hypnobirthing can help you to have this.