What is Hypnobirthing? A Calm Approach to Pregnancy & Birth

Hypnobirthing helps to reconfigure how you think about birth: it allows you to free yourself from fear and negative expectations and build trust in your birthing body giving you powerful yet simple ways to help your body relax during labour and the birth of your baby.

Hypnobirthing is not some out-there, new age hippy therapy (although there’s nothing wrong with that type of thing if it floats your boat!). Hypnobirthing is based on building a toolkit of techniques that when practiced regularly during pregnancy and utilised during labour, can help parents approach the birth of their baby feeling calm, confident and prepared. Using hypnobirthing techniques during pregnancy and birth has benefits hormonally to both mum and baby as it reduces stress hormones and helps support the hormones needed for birth and bonding.

What’s the ‘hypno’ in hypnobirthing all about then? Let’s address this one early on! Ask people what they think of hypnosis, and usually they think of stage show performances or what they see on TV; the fresher’s week event at uni when Adam got hypnotised and made to do a chicken dance complete with clucking noises, totally humiliating himself in front of all those potential new mates. We think 'mind control!' We think, 'no thanks!'. I can’t stress enough that this is stage show entertainment and hypnobirthing is nothing like this. You might be surprised to know that all hypnosis is self-hypnosis, meaning that you have to be on board to do it. It’s a choice - no mind control whatsoever. Self-hypnosis like the kind used in hypnobirthing is not:

• Having a lack of awareness

• Being out of control

• Sleep

• Unconsciousness   

Practicing during pregnancy

What Hypnobirthing Actually Is And Why It Works?

Let’s explore what hypnobirthing actually is. Hypnobirthing helps to reconfigure how you think about birth: it allows you to free yourself from fear and negative expectations and build trust in your birthing body giving you powerful yet simple ways to help your body relax during labour and the birth of your baby. Being relaxed and calm can help make birth easier and potentially more comfortable, and this is something we will explore later in this blog post. When it comes to birth, our unconscious mind has been collecting beliefs about births for years. For many people, a lot of that may be negative, perhaps from stories or portrayals of birth in the media/in films/on TV. Someone sitting you down and telling you logically that birth doesn’t have be to a negative experience is not enough; the unconscious mind will think otherwise and it always wins! The unconscious mind is powerful and influential over what happens in the body. However, it’s not necessarily interested in logic, and yet it holds our ingrained beliefs and behaviours. The ‘Hypno’ part of Hypnobirthing allows your unconscious mind to be re-programmed, moving away from fear and towards looking forward to birthing your baby.

People often ask what being in a state of hypnosis is like. It is actually a natural state of consciousness that we are all in at least once a day. It’s those relaxed, zoned out times, like just before you fall asleep at night. Or to frame it differently, it is a deep state of relaxation. For those who practice mindfulness, meditation or during yoga nidra, it is a comparable state that the mind is in. The only difference between the meditative state and the state of hypnosis is more to do with the purpose of entering each state; for the latter, it is to put positive suggestions about labour and birth into the unconscious mind. Hypnobirthing uses a range of techniques including guided and self-guided relaxations, hypnosis, breathing, affirmations and visualisations.

How Hypnobirthing Supports Labour And Hormones

To understand why hypnobirthing is a powerful technique to help support a positive birth experience, it is important to know that labour is the work of hormones and muscles. The uterus is a big bag of muscle that has held the baby, placenta and amniotic fluid during pregnancy. The uterus has both horizonal and vertical muscles that work together to firstly encourage the cervix (neck of the womb) to thin down, soften and open so the baby can be born. The uterine muscles work very hard to bring about these cervical changes, and then they work to help move the baby down through the birth canal in order to be born. The powerhouse hormone behind uterine contractions is called oxytocin, and it helps the uterus work more effectively during labour.

Oxytocin is also known as the ‘love/shy hormone’, which gives an indication of the kind of conditions it is released in. Endorphins are also a key hormone of birth. They act as a natural pain relief and are released to help make labour more comfortable. Women only release these two amazing hormones when they feel calm, safe and relaxed in their minds and bodies. This is a finely tuned evolutionary safety strategy, because if, when we were cave people, we were threatened by something, it would not be a good idea to start giving birth. If we saw a predator, it would be a more sensible idea to either defend ourselves (fight) or run away to a safe place (flight). When faced with a threat, our bodies are evolved to not release oxytocin and endorphins, but to be pumped with adrenaline to encourage a survival response. Therefore, humans have evolved two nervous systems under which they operate; the sympathetic (when we are stressed/anxious/scared/fearful) and the parasympathetic (when we are calm/safe/relaxed) nervous system. We cannot be in both at the same time, and during labour and birth we want a person to be under the parasympathetic nervous system so they are flooded with oxytocin and endorphins, rather than the sympathetic nervous system when oxytocin production is inhibited and adrenalin rises.

This is where hypnobirthing comes in; it disrupts something known as the ‘Fear-Tension-Pain’ cycle. When people giving birth are fearful, they become tense. This is the case when we are fearful. When you are watching a scary film, having a stressful day at work or see a spider in the shower, etc. you are likely to be full of tension. This tension then impacts comfort levels and restricts muscles from working effectively and easily, and as we established earlier, labour is the work of the muscles of the uterus. Ultimately, muscles work best when they are relaxed, and when they are tense, muscles can’t work in harmony.  This therefore may result in higher levels of pain and discomfort. Once a woman in labour feels this discomfort, they feel like everything they've ever heard or read about birth is true. They get more fearful, more tense, and it hurts more. The cycle continues. Hypnobirthing teaches how to BREAK this cycle: minimising fear and enabling a greater state of relaxation, which ultimately can positively influence comfort levels.

When to Start Hypnobirthing And How to Practise It

There is often a pre-conception that hypnobirthing is only useful for straightforward vaginal birth. Whilst it is an incredibly effective tool for physiological birth, it can and should be adapted for all births. Every expectant woman deserves to feel safe and prepared for the birth of her baby with minimal tension, regardless of whether the baby is born vaginally or by caesarean. The hormone oxytocin is also important in bonding and initiating parenting behaviour, so boosting its levels is useful for all births. Additionally, if a woman’s birth went in a different direction to what she had planned, utilising her hypnobirthing toolkit can help her to remain calm and in control.

A significant benefit of hypnobirthing is its portability. Hypnobirthing can be used in any setting: as a self-help technique during early labour, in the car on the way to place of birth if this is outside the home, at a midwife-led unit, labour ward or operating theatre. It can also be used in conjunction with other forms of pain management such as opiates, epidural, TENS machine, birth pool or gas and air, or as standalone technique to manage the sensations of labour.

The hypnobirthing toolkit can also involve the birth partner and provides them with practical ways to support their partner during labour and also help them to remain calm too! An equipped, calm birth partner is a powerful support during birth.

I often get asked when is the best time to begin hypnobirthing, and the ideal time is usually from between 25-30 weeks of pregnancy. To maximise the benefit, it is helpful to have ample time to practice the techniques and listen to the hypnosis tracks as often as possible. Relaxation is like a muscle; the more it is practised the easier and quicker an individual will be able to enter into a deep state of relaxation, so that during labour this skill can be smoothly utilised.

Hypnobirthing Techniques You Can Try Today

Breathwork is one simple but effective way of reassuring the brain that it is safe and can help an individual enter into a relaxed state under the parasympathetic nervous system. One technique I love to share with clients both for labour but also as a great relaxation technique for life in general is rectangular breathing. This is so named because the breath pattern mirrors the rectangular shape; the in-breath is shorter than the out-breath, then the pattern is repeated.

Pregnant woman meditating

Rectangular breathing technique:

Take a breath in through the nose for the count 4.

Through relaxed, slightly parted lips, breathe out through the mouth for more than 4; aim for 7 but if that is uncomfortable, adjust to what works for you- ‘in for four, out for more’.

Once you are comfortable with the technique, it can be helpful to add in a visualisation of a happy place. This is a picture built up in your mind with as much detail as possible; what does your happy place:

• Look like?

• What sounds are there?

• What smells are there?

Combining relaxing breathwork with visualisations can be both relaxing and distracting from other sensations occurring in the body.

Real Stories: How Hypnobirthing Helped These Families

Below is a testimonial from a couple who took a hypnobirthing course with me, which demonstrates how hypnobirthing can prepare both mum and birth partner and make it a positive experience:

‘We had a very relaxed overnight birth and P was the most amazing birth partner, setting up the candles, playlist and making me laugh. Best birth I could have imagined and a journey we will never forget.’

The following testimonial shows the power of hypnobirthing when the birth plan takes a different direction:

‘Thanks again for the course, it was so valuable in helping us be relaxed and go with the flow whilst plans swiftly changed. The breathing really aided C through her contractions.’

Choosing a Course That Works for You (And What to Look Out For)

When choosing a hypnobirthing course, it can be helpful to see what the ethos and content of the course contains, as well as what training and qualifications the teacher has. Hypnobirthing, like many aspects of antenatal education, is an unregulated industry and so there is not a set of standards that have to be conformed to, technically meaning anyone can call themselves a hypnobirthing teacher.

If you are in the UK: FEDANT is regulatory body for Antenatal Educators, and hypnobirthing teachers who have trained with FEDANT-accredited courses can register with FEDANT, ensuring they meet national standards and are competent to practice. Therefore, it can be helpful to find a teacher who is registered with FEDANT to ensure high quality of training. I am proud to say that I trained with a FEDANT-accredited trainer and am a FEDANT-registered practitioner: find me on the FEDANT National Register number 13824.

Where to Learn More And How to Work with Amanda

Amanda Lewis: hypnobirthing teacher, Antenatal educator and Infant Feeding Coach

Amanda Lewis is FEDANT-registered Perinatal Practitioner based in North Oxfordshire, where she lives with her husband and three children. Amanda supports parents navigate pregnancy, birth and the early days of parenthood as hypnobirthing teacher, Antenatal educator and Infant Feeding Coach.

Come and say ‘hi’ over on Instagram @thenatalnest

Birth with Confidence

Hypnobirthing isn’t about “doing birth perfectly.” It’s about trusting your body, calming your mind, and making space for a more positive, supported experience - no matter how your baby is born.

Whether you’re in the UK or Greece, planning your first birth or your third, hypnobirthing can support your journey in meaningful, practical ways.