Hypnobirthing is the use of self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques, to help you prepare physically, mentally, and spiritually for birth.

It allows you to deeply relax during your pregnancy and replace any subconscious ideas that birth is scary, with images of birth as a positive experience.

​The techniques you learn during pregnancy are used during the birth to encourage deep relaxation, to help you remain calm, allowing your Oxytocin to flow and keeping Adrenaline at bay, so birth can progress without fear or anxiety inhibiting the natural process.

Working as a delivery suite midwife allows me to see how beneficial Hypnobirthing is to ALL women.

Hypnobirthing is not exclusively for those with straightforward pregnancies and births and should be promoted to everybody.

You can use the techniques during any type of birth - waterbirth, induced birth, caesarean birth, the earlier or the later stages of labour. You may not even use any of the techniques during the birth, but if it allows you to relax during pregnancy, helps you to feel excited for the birth, and gives you confidence in your body, then it has worked for you.

The more time you have to listen to the hypnobirthing MP3s and practice your relaxation techniques, the better.

I recommend starting any time after 24 weeks, but if you are completing a course, make sure you are finished before 37 weeks.

If you are worried you might have left it too late to attend the full course, I offer one-off hypnobirthing workshops.

The research on hypnobirthing is limited, but the evidence we do have suggests that hypnobirthing does lower the perception of pain in labour. It has also been linked to shortened labours and fewer birth interventions.

But I think that most importantly, hypnobirthing has been found to improve the emotional experience of birth.

Hypnobirthing has been shown to help build a sense of excitement about birth, allowing you to forward to birth with less fear and anxiety.

By reducing fear, and reducing perceptions of pain, it can improve birth experiences. It has been shown to enhance a sense of control, and promote feelings of calmness, confidence and empowerment.

Hypnobirthing has been shown to improve postnatal wellbeing, probably because it promotes positive birth experiences.

Undertaking a hypnobirthing course with somebody who doesn't prepare you adequately for what happens if your birth does require intervention, or teach you what options are available if hypnobirthing techniques aren't enough to manage the intensity of the contractions can be a big disadvantage. You need to learn about hypnobirthing in a positive, but realistic way to be truly prepared.

It does take time to master the breathing techniques and to 'train' your body to relax deeply. Hypnobirthing is more effective when it has been practised regularly during pregnancy which does take time and commitment.

Hypnobirthing is not usually available on the NHS.

Some women who use hypnobirthing techniqes very effectively can appear so relaxed that midwives could potentially underestimate the stage of labour they are in on initial assessment.​