I became a Hypnobirthing practitioner after the birth of our daughter because I found I couldn't keep myself from sharing it with women around me! My birth experience was so beautiful and empowering that I wanted every expectant woman in my life to know they could have this kind of experience with birth!
I grew up thinking that the definition of childbirth included the word 'epidural'. The only births I had ever seen without one were the ones on TV -- you know, where they're only doing in without medication on accident because they can't get to the hospital on time, and they're screaming and swearing and everything else. I had never been exposed to the idea that a woman could not only give birth without medication, she could do it without the pain-filled trauma as portrayed on TV.
When I became pregnant with our first child after three heart-breaking miscarriages, the idea of "natural birth" suddenly popped into my head one day. I'm still not even sure why! So I started to Google "natural birth" and the more I read, the more fascinated I became by the idea that I could give birth to this precious, long-awaited baby without drugs and therefore without the risk of those drugs affecting my baby in any way.
After researching several methods for natural birth and discussing the methods with friends who had used them, I found Hypnobirthing to be the most highly recommended and to produce the greatest number of satisfying birth experiences among my friends. So I signed up for a class. To be honest, my husband and I were a little apprehensive about it at first. The word "hypnosis" conjured up too many comical images in my mind from middle-school assemblies or TV shows. But by the time our first class was over we were sold!
I gave birth to our beautiful daughter after seven peaceful hours of labor, including about 20 minutes of pushing. Our doctor and the nurses in the hospital were tremendously supportive of our natural birth. I can hardly describe the euphoria I felt for weeks afterward each time I thought about my experience of giving birth. In May of this year we moved here to San Diego from Virginia, and in June I gave birth to our sweet baby boy. Hypnobirthing worked so well and I felt so little pain, that he was almost born in the car on our way to the UCSD Birth Center once we realized how far advanced I was in labor! This peaceful, comfortable labor only increased my passion for teaching the Hypnobirthing method.
Whether this is your first birth or your fifth and no matter what kinds of experiences you have had or not had with birth, I am certain that Hypnobirthing can impact your life in a powerful and beautiful way...in birth and beyond!
