Hypnobirthing Unit 1 & 2
On March 4th I started another Hypnobirthing group course at Ayurvediskt center. It’s the first course in person of the year so I was very excited. I love teaching Hypnobirthing and learn something new each course. I love the groups that are super engaged and ask a lot of questions. The first session is always a bit more quiet, but over the five weeks we spend together the most groups open up and share so much of themselves.
As this 5 week course progresses I want to share a little of what I teach in the course so that future students can read these posts and better understand what they will get from the course.
Unit 1: Dehypnotising & Building Positive Expectancy
The first unit is what lays the foundation for the course. We talk about what we know about birth, our relationship to birth and the ideas/myths surrounding birth. We talk about what Hypnobirthing is and what it isn’t. To understand what happens during birth you need to understand the physiology of the human body, so we touch on that. We speak about our Sympathetic Nervous system and our Parasympathetic nervous system and how they affect birth.
We learn the first breathing techniqe: Calm Breathing. And watch two birth videos (every week we watch 1-2 videos as part of the visualisation part of the course). And then we try some exercises that show mind body connection. This is my favorite part of this week.
The first week is very information dense and I talk more than I do the other units.
Each pregnant person/couple gets a book and coil as part of the course.
Unit 2: Falling In Love With Your Baby - Preparing Your Mind & Body
In the next unit we talk about fetal development and how the baby’s brain is developing and how the relationship to baby starts when they are still in the uterus. I read a text that voices questions baby may have as a way for the parents to be to reflect on if there’s anything in their lifestyle they need to change or improve.
The two other breathing techniques are introduces: Surge Breathing and Birth Breathing. We also do some relaxation exercises, as well as an exercise that highlights the difference between coached pushing and birth breath.
I focus a bit on birth preferences and how important they are to communicate to the staff what is important for the family.
I just touch on food an excise as these are not my main areas of expertise.
In the coming weeks I will post about the other units and what they entail.
