HypnoBirthing® UK

[sea83]

I recently attended 5x3 hour lessons with a hypnobirthing teacher however she was really flakey, reading from her notes, jumping back and forth between different subjects and not making it clear what i should be doing. i even had to stop her and say, right, if i go into labour now, what do i do?!

she taught me and my husband the depthometer, the scripts and the visualisation techniques but it's really unclear when we should be using them and at what stages in labour i should be doing what. i listen to my rainbow relaxation tape (admittedly not enough) and have some classical music which relaxes me but i don't know when i should be changing my breathing from sleep breathing to deep breathing - can anyone help or tell me?

I am 36 weeks and really want to do this without any drugs and naturally i just feel really lost and annoyed at picking this woman when i'm not sure she was the best qualified person to teach me. she also didn't explain the j breathing very well she just said visualise a j when breathing out - is that it? she said to practice on the toilet which i do and it does make a difference rather than just pushing but i don't know if that's right.

i would really like some reassurance as to when i should be changing my breathing - also if i am relaxed after listening to the cd, how can i then change to deep breathing??

can anyone help at all? everyone i speak with thinks i'm nuts for doing this naturally but i really want to do it and get it right if i can figure out what the hell i'm doing....

thank you

[alisona]

Hi sea83,
It may be worth getting back in touch with your practitioner to clarify a few points. She is possibly newly qualified and was paying attention to her notes to make sure she wasn't missing out any information although I understand how this can be a little off putting.
To clarify on the breathing techniques... The names were changed as an aid to help remember when to do each one so it might be useful to change the names in your book...
Calm breathing is the technique where you breathe in for the count of 4, pause and out for 8. You do it anytime you want to feel calm.
Slow breathing is now referred to as surge breathing where you have a long, slow breath in eg up to the count of 20 and out for the same count. You would do this when you have a surge. You may remember the picture of the uterus in surge as it rises up and out, surge breathing really allows you to work beautifully with your birthing body and allows plenty of room for those wonderful muscles to work harmoniously and unencumbered.
Birth breathing is for breathing your baby down and is a very instinctive breath and you will do this intuitively. Rather than breathing up as you do with surge breathing you will feel like breathing down or a nudging breath. Sounds like your doing it right and practising on the loo is definatly the best place. When birthing your baby a Wonderful visualisation is the opening blossom to help you.
When doing your relaxation I would stick to your calm breathing and aim to listen to rainbow relaxation daily. It may be useful to practice surge breathing in different positions eg whilst relaxing in a bath or on a birthing ball or chair or side lying position.
Wishing you an amazing and empowering birth experience.
Alison