I used Hypnobabies for my first birth, and it was an awesome experience! So much so that I’ve written up my Hypnobabies review so that other women can learn how to have a similarly empowering experience.
Hypnobabies can be used by anyone who wants a better birthing experience, no matter what kind of birth you’re going for.
Keeping reading to learn what Hypnobabies is (it can be kind of confusing to understand what all is included in the birth curriculum) and how it can help you have the birth that you want. And how to save money on the already low-priced course!
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What is Hypnobabies?
Hypnobabies is a comprehensive childbirth education course that focuses first on reframing your mindset towards childbirth.
There are cultures all over the world that see childbirth as no big deal, and have smooth, easy births the majority of the time.
Have you ever wondered why we’re so different?
It’s not our bodies or our abilities.
It’s our mindset.
Have you thought that maybe we’re taught (by media and doctors) to see birth as scary and painful, and not to trust our own bodies… So our expected experience of birth becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy and we end up with endless interventions, fear, and even a higher infant mortality rate.
Hypnobabies is what you can use to undo all those scary lessons.
It teaches women techniques to help them have an easier, joyful, more comfortable childbirth experience.
…And much much more!
It really surprised me how much helpful information is included in the course, especially for the low price of the whole thing!
I was just expecting a lesson in pain management, but it’s so much more than that.
What’s included in the Hypnobabies curriculum?
This course has everything you need for a positive childbirth experience, including tools for making informed decisions about care providers, birthing techniques, after-birth care, and more.
It even includes access to a Hypnobabies support group on Facebook, where you can ask questions and get immediate help from admin. Or just hear positive stories from other like-minded mommas!
The support group alone is priceless.
There are also joyful daily affirmations that really help you believe things like: “pregnancy is natural, normal, and safe”, “I trust my body to birth my baby”, and “my birthing journey will be the one that I and my baby need.”
But the biggest thing that you learn about and practice in Hypnobabies is how to do self-hypnosis, which works to completely rewire your perspective towards pregnancy and birth.
Hypnosis is also what helps with discomfort and creates your peaceful birth experience.
Using hypnosis for childbirth doesn’t mean you’re just sitting there in a daze either…. You’ll learn how to stay in hypnosis while talking, moving around, and staying comfortable during your birthing time!
It might seem kind of weird, but we’re actually in states of hypnosis regularly throughout the day, such as when you’re watching TV or driving a route you’ve driven many times before.
It’s a time when your mind kind of “downshifts” and your subconscious opens up.
Practicing self-hypnosis pretty much just means that you get to relax and listen to different peaceful, positive tracks for about 45 minutes every day.
For more about what exactly Hypnobabies is, check out this page.
How is this different from Hypnobirthing?
You might have heard of Hypnobirthing and wondered if this is the same thing as Hypnobabies.
They sound similar but they are completely different courses!
The biggest difference is that Hypnobabies is an all-inclusive childbirth course. It has much more information on subjects other than hypnosis, which you’ll want to learn about as a part of your childbirth preparation.
I haven’t used Hypnobirthing, but women who have used both programs highly recommend using Hypnobabies for an easier, more comfortable childbirth!
Why Hypnobabies?
Next up in my Hypnobabies review- why should you pick Hypnobabies for your childbirth prep?
Personally, I chose Hypnobabies because I wanted a natural home birth.
I knew I’d need a way to cope with the intensity without drugs or other interventions.
I came across Hypnobabies and heard some of the great experiences other moms had had using this course. But what I didn’t expect was how comprehensive the course is!
I had some other books on childbirth techniques and tools for pain management, but I didn’t need those at all!
In fact, you shouldn’t use any other childbirth tools when using Hypnobabies. The course uses specific vocabulary (such as “waves” instead of “contractions”) to help rewire your mind and help you see pregnancy and birth as a more natural, joyful experience.
Other courses don’t use the same positive language…. They can imply that’ll you’ll experience pain or have to work really hard (I don’t like or use the term “labor” because of the negative connotations).
Complementary material
Although, here I should mention that I did get some books related to things other than just birth.
This includes The First Forty Days (amazing recipes and advice), Ina May’s Guide to Childbirth (it doesn’t use 100% positive birth language but the birth stories are beautiful!) Bestfeeding (how to breastfeed), and The Fourth Trimester (a fantastic guide to everything postpartum).
I learned a ton from them too and would recommend these books to anyone who’s pregnant!
But overall, if you’re looking for a complete childbirth curriculum that gives you everything (seriously, everything) you need to know for pregnancy, childbirth, and even more, Hypnobabies is a great choice!
For the best way to prepare for a natural, peaceful, empowering childbirth experience, you should consider trying Hypnobabies.
It’s worked for hundreds of women, who have had a great experience whether they have home births, hospital births, induced birth, c-sections, and unexpected plan changes.
No matter what type of birth you’re going for, I’m convinced that Hypnobabies can help.
What are the cons?
Honestly, I had to think for a while to come up with anything negative about Hypnobabies. But I want to be thorough in this Hypnobabies review, so here are a few things I didn’t like.
First, it can be really hard to explain the course to people. Lots of people are familiar with things like the Bradley method and Lamaze, but Hypnobabies is still pretty new.
I found myself avoiding bringing up Hypnobabies unless I had plenty of time to explain the idea of self-hypnosis for childbirth.
It just sounds weird at first.
Sometimes when I’d go to listen to my tracks, I’d just tell people I was going for a nap.
However, now that I know it works, I’m excited to tell a lot more mommas all about Hypnobabies!
Next, Hypnobabies does require a fair amount of time and work. You need to invest your time into this- at least 45 minutes every day for doing the readings and listening to the tracks, although you can break everything up into smaller chunks which is helpful if you have kids.
A lot of the mommas in the Facebook support group have questions about how to balance the time commitment of this course and their kiddos.
Finally, hypnosis doesn’t work for everyone. You have to believe in it for it to work, and if you think you’ll fail or have a terrible birth experience, it can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Personally, I had doubts in my own abilities, along with a fear of pain.
Read on to learn how Hypnobabies turned all of that around!
My Hypnobabies review: how it worked for me
I didn’t practice everything in Hypnobabies perfectly. Besides the self-hypnosis tracks, there are also weekly readings. These include guides and suggestions for diet, exercise, stretches, and more.
I was pretty good about listening to the tracks every day, but I actually didn’t follow much more than that.
(For example, they recommend regular perennial massages after like 35 weeks… I did the massages maybe 3 times total? But I didn’t tear!)
And even with the tracks, I would regularly fall asleep while listening to them! (This was actually a state of deep hypnosis, but still, I didn’t feel like I was listening very well!)
Even though I didn’t do everything perfectly, Hypnobabies still worked great for me.
Throughout my pregnancy, thanks to the Hypnobabies affirmations and lessons, I became more and more confident in my ability to birth my baby.
(You can read more about my pregnancy and what I learned here)
Throughout my entire birthing time, I experienced intense waves but they were never what I would call “painful”.
Things stayed manageable the whole time… I didn’t even realize I was in transformation (Hypnobabies term for transition) until I started pushing! And even when crowning, I was happy and talking between waves. (You can read my entire positive home birth story here.)
The crazy thing is, I never actually felt like I was in hypnosis like during my training.
I doubted that things were working.
This is partially because I started listening to the birthing tracks pretty late, when things were already getting intense.
But, looking back on it, I was in a calm, positive state the whole time.
The mindset shift
My thoughts and outlook during pregnancy were proof that Hypnobabies worked!
The whole mindset shift was huge for me.
This is because I’m really really good at freaking out about things and thinking lots of pessimistic “what ifs”. I also have a pretty low pain threshold. In general, I usually have pretty low self-confidence and body trust.
(So that alone oughta tell you, if I can do it, so can you!)
But using Hypnobabies, the tracks and affirmations rewired my normal ways of thinking.
During birth, it would have been very easy for me to think something like “what if this gets worse… I don’t like what’s happening… what if it hurts really bad and something goes wrong?” Those sorts of thoughts probably would have stalled out my birth, landing me in the hospital with lots of interventions, maybe even ending in a C-section, or worse.
It happens to lots of women.
But not a single thought or fear like that crossed my mind!
Instead, I found myself thinking, “every wave is bringing me closer to meeting my baby!” And things like, “my body can do this. I’m so powerful!”
I felt confident going into my birthing time. And I had exactly the intimate, peaceful, uncomplicated home birth I had envisioned.
It was the most empowering experience I’ve ever had.
I felt like I could do anything afterward, and I’m already excited for my next pregnancy!
When to start Hypnobabies
Most women start going through the Hypnobabies course at around 28-30 weeks pregnant. There are instructor-led classes you can take in person, and a complete 6-week self-study course where you go through things at your own pace.
I chose the self-study and started mine at about 26 weeks, because I knew that I’d be traveling a bit and I wanted to leave extra time to go slow on each section in the course.
Starting early also allowed me to spend about 5 weeks in “maintenance mode”. This is where you listen to all your tracks on a rotating schedule but don’t have any more readings or course work to do. This might feel too early for some mommas, but it left me more time to relax and get things done towards the end of my pregnancy.
But the self-study course is pretty flexible, you can start their accelerated course as late as 36 weeks and still do great!
If you’re ready to dig into Hypnobabies, you can check out the course options at the Hypnobabies Store. Use code hypno1528 to save 15%, and you can get payment plan options through Paypal!
Hope you found this Hypnobabies review to be helpful! If you’d like to save it for later, make sure to pin it on Pinterest!
