Table of Contents
Introduction 1
How to Use this Book 3
Part 1 Preparation and Pregnancy
1 What is Mindful Hypnobirthing? 7
Hypnosis and Mindfulness 8
Hypnosis for Birth 10
Your Conscious and Unconscious Mind 12
Mindfulness for Birth 14
The Perfect Combination for a Positive Birth 16
Benefits in Pregnancy 17
What Will my Midwife Think? 18
2 The Benefits of a Mindful Hypnobirth 20
Benefits for Mum 20
Benefits for Dad 25
Benefits for Baby 26
3 Getting Ready for a Mindful Hypnobirth 29
Getting your Birth Brain into Condition 29
Practice Makes Perfect 31
Setting your Birth Intention 34
Listening to your Hypnosis Tracks 36
4 Getting to Know your Birthing Zone 39
Are You an Animal or a Human? 40
The Chattering Chimp 41
Discovering your Birthing Zone 43
5 Letting Go of Fear and Anxiety 50
Your Body: the Perfect Machine 51
Helpful Hormones 52
How Fear Can Slow Down Birth 56
Expectation, Anxiety, Fear and Pain 58
Creating your Blank Birth Canvas 63
Letting Go of your Fears 65
6 Creating Positive Birth Beliefs 69
Will your Internal Beliefs Hinder or Help You? 70
Changing External Messages 71
Changing Internal Messages 74
Birth Affirmations 75
Sit Back, Relax and Let Hypnotic Suggestion Do it for You 77
7 The Power of Visualisation for Birth 79
You Can Change what You Feel 81
Creating your own Visualisation 83
I Find it Hard to Visualise - Will it Still Work for Me? 85
8 Your Birth Belongs to You 87
Who Supports You in your Birth? 88
What Does Being in Control Mean to You? 91
Understanding Choices about Care 94
Will You Roar like a Lioness or Be Quiet as a Cat? 98
9 Birth Preferences 101
How to Write Mindful Hypnobirth Preferences 102
Tailoring your Preferences to your Local Guidelines 107
10 Birth Space, Relaxing Space 109
What Makes a Great Birth Space? 110
Who Makes a Birth Space Great? 116
Where You Choose to Birth 117
11 Turning a Birth Partner into a Hypnobirth Partner 125
Should a Man Be at the Birth? 125
Dads Have Choices too 126
Preparing Emotionally 127
Three Different Roles, in One 128
The Practical Partner 129
The Protective Partner 130
The Mindful Partner 133
I'm Afraid of Seeing my Partner in Pain 137
12 When Will I Go into Labour? 141
The Final Weeks of Pregnancy 141
How your Hormones Shift from Pregnancy to Birth 142
What Triggers Labour? 145
What Can I Do to Support my Body? 147
Part 2 Birth
13 This is it! Signs that Labour has Started 151
How Will I Know Labour Has Begun? 152
Braxton Hicks and Warming up 153
Tuning in to the Rhythm of Labour 154
Managing your Contractions 158
When Do I Call the Midwife? 164
14 My Baby's Nearly Here! 168
What Happens Now? 168
An Undisturbed Birth 170
A Medicalised Birth 171
Will the Hypnosis Really Work? 178
Final Stages of Labour 185
Breathe your Baby into the World 190
Meeting your Baby 191
The Third Stage 192
15 When Things Take a Different Path 194
Low-lying Placenta 195
Baby's Position: Breech and Posterior 196
Premature Rupture of Membranes (PROM) 197
Raised Blood Pressure 198
Going over your Dates 199
Pre-term Labour 201
Caesarean Birth 203
Part 3 Welcoming Your Baby to the Family
16 Welcome Home 207
The Fourth Stage 207
Keeping Centred in those Early Weeks 209
Birth Stories 213
Glossary 227
Resources 232
Acknowledgements 235
Index 236
