HypnoBirthing® UK

[Joanne]

I've recently come across 'Natal Hypnotherapy' and the existence of training to be a practitioner. Can anyone clarify the difference between this and Hypnobirthing??

Joanne

[ockysmith]

Hi Joanne,

You would need to ask Natal Hypnotherapy exactly what they teach as I don't know a great deal about their courses, but you can find a list of what HypnoBirthing teaches on:

http://www.hypnobirthing.com/childbirth_classes.htm

Essentially though all hypnosis for birth programmes are based on the work of the Victorian English Obstetrician Grantly Dick Read and the Fear-Tension-Pain cycle (fight or flight response) so most hypnosis for birth courses will have an underlying similarity.

HypnoBirthing is now coming up for 20 years old and there are practitioners in 27 countries around the world. In England I believe we now have around 200 practitioners.

As I said I don't know much about Natal Hypnotherapy so you might want to check out their website. I have had just had a quick look at their website and it's very easy to navigate with clearly presented information. From my quick search I learnt that the Natal Hypnotherapy course has been in existence for 17months, in the UK and it appears that they have 21 practitioners around the country (from the practitioner profiles on their site). According to their website Natal Hypnotherapy is taught over two full days. It also appears from their website that the normal full course price is set at £280 and it appears that all booking is done directly with the main Natal Hypnotherapy people. The website states that all fees are payable in full in advance and are non refundable but they can be transferred to another course date. As I said this information is all very clearly presented on their website and I'm sure they would be happy to answer any questions you have about their course if you contact them directly.

HypnoBirthing courses are taught over 4 or 5 shorter (2.5 to 3hr) sessions (it is presented like this as we believe this method allows the parents to fully absorb and practice the techniques in between sessions). HypnoBirthing Practitioners are free to set their own course prices and I believe courses start from around £180 (my personal ones range from £200 to £300) with the average for a group course place being around £250, but as I said it does vary. Practitioners manage their own bookings and set their own fees and often many offer free or reduced fee places for those on low incomes and many offer flexible payment plans such as payments by installment. The vast majority of HypnoBirthing practitioners ask for a small deposit up front and the remainder of the fees once you have attended a class, so in effect if you don't like what you hear then you are under no obligation to stay and pay for the rest of the course.

With regards to outcomes, Natal Hypnotherapy have published the outcomes of 50 of their births on the homepage of their website in which the mums had a C-Section rate of 9% which is brilliant! They do quote the C-Section rate for HypnoBirthing births worldwide as 17%, sadly though they lifted an old figure from the old US HypnoBirthing website and this figure is no longer correct. Currently the figure for US births is 15.5% which is remarkable considering that the US usually has a Caesarian rate of over 30% (higher than the UK's 25% as the US is much more medical in its management of birth). The current C-Section rate for UK HypnoBirthing mums is I believe (but please do email the institute and check) is 12%. I can post you some of my own statistics too, based on a similar sample size (55 births) to the one Natal Hypnotherapy posted on their website:

62% of BirthFriendly’s prior clients gave birth with no pain relief at all.
33% used only Entonox (gas and air).
10% emergency caesarian rate
7% perineal damage (UK average is 60%)
91% spontaneous onset of labour (UK average of non induced labours is 79%)
48% homebirth rate (UK average is 2.3%)
8hr average length of labour (UK average is 14hrs for a first timer)
39wks 4days average gestation at birth (UK average is 41+1)

We have also collected data from all Essex births (107 births) during 2007 and those statistics are:

Caesarian 9%
Vaginal birth 91%

So the outcomes for UK based births look pretty similar I think. A fantastic achievement for all HypnoBirthing and Natal Hypnotherapy practitioners and wonderful for all of the new families involved in those figures .

Whatever method you choose, birthing with hypnosis is WONDERFUL and I'm sure it will have a really positive experience on your birth. It's definitely worth chatting to a few local practitioners practicing in different methods and asking them about the individual features of their course, their experience, their outcomes and also checking that you "click" with the practitioner as the working relationship with your birth hypnosis practitioner is so important. It's *your* birth and you need to find something that works for *you*.

Good luck

[Joanne]

Oh I meant to say I'm a midwife wanting to train to be a practitioner and when I came across the natal hypnotherapy I was confused as which would be the best course to train in. Thanks for all the information, that's been really helpful. Still not sure which course to do, I'll have a think. The NH site hinted that they are better in that they don't stick to rigid scripts but work individually with couples to help them develop their own scripts etc. Any thoughts?

Joanne

[eleanorcopp]

thats fine if you are a hypnotherapist as Maggie Howells is , but if you are not you dont know enough about hypnotherapy to be confident to switch around the scripts .
Eleanor

[ockysmith]

[quote="Joanne"]Oh I meant to say I'm a midwife wanting to train to be a practitioner and when I came across the natal hypnotherapy I was confused as which would be the best course to train in. Thanks for all the information, that's been really helpful. Still not sure which course to do, I'll have a think. The NH site hinted that they are better in that they don't stick to rigid scripts but work individually with couples to help them develop their own scripts etc. Any thoughts?

Joanne[/quote]

My thought to that is "why would they need that"? not much help to you I'm afraid!

I guess, if you have no personal or professional experience with either method, by which to judge (for me I used HypnoBirthing to have two babies so I know it works and I believe it's "the best" so it was an easy choice) then you have to look at it through business eyes.

So, which one would work best for you as a business? would you prefer to be with Natal Hypnotherapy, have them market you, take bookings for you, set prices and take a cut from everything you earn or would you rather teach HypnoBirthing, market yourself, take your own bookings, set your own prices but keep all of the money you earn. Which one do you believe will be better business for you? do you have time to market/run the admin side yourself? how important is keeping all of the money you make to you?

Ask around colleagues and see what they think? ask any mums who have used either method what they think.............go with your heart, one must stand out at you a little more? if not, maybe just go with whichever one you can get on the training with first if that's all it comes down to (HypnoBirthing gets booked up very quickly as its so popular although Natal Hypnotherapy is probably the same).

[Joanne]

Good point Eleanor. Thanks Sarah, you confirmed exactly what I was thinking re: the business side of it. Classes are centrally booked and feedback questionnaires from the women are sent to Maggie...I didn't realise the money side was so controlled by them too. I definately would want the control, thanks.

Joanne XX