• Deep relaxation and self-hypnosis techniques to eliminate the fear-tension-pain syndrome.
• How your body is naturally designed to nurture and birth your baby with ease and comfort.
• Body positions, breathing and light massage techniques for a more comfortable labour.
• How to create and control your body’s own natural feel-good hormones.
• What your beliefs are about childbirth.
• How to change negative beliefs and imprints about the birth experience.
• To dispel the myth that pain is a necessary accompaniment to labour.
• Why women in other cultures have birthings almost entirely free of discomfort.
• How you and your birthing companion can create a calm, serene and joyful birthing environment and experience.
• The practice of deep relaxation during and between uterine surges.
• Gentle birthing techniques that allow you to breathe your baby into the world without the violence of hard pushing.
• The importance of prenatal and perinatal bonding.
• Language and how we use it can produce profound mental and physiological responses. Pregnant parents are taught a whole new gentle vocabulary. For instance the word “surge” is used instead of “contraction”; mothers do not “push” their babies out, they gently “breathe their babies down”; and babies are not “caught” they are “received”. The baby after all is not a baseball.

What you will experience
When you have your baby with HypnoBirthing® you will not be asleep. What you will experience is similar to the daydreaming or focusing that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or staring into the fire.

You will be conversant and in a pleasant mood - totally relaxed, firmly in control and awake throughout. You will be aware of your body’s surges but because you will have trained yourself to reach complete relaxation, you will be able to determine the degree to which you will feel the surges. In this calm state your body’s natural endorphins (pain killers) replace the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain.

Your birth companion has an integral role in facilitating your comfortable, relaxed state. Together you will build a clear compelling vision of how you wish to experience childbirth. HypnoBirthing® classes build closer emotional, physical and spiritual bonds between a couple and their baby. The skills learned in these classes are useful in many other areas of life.

You and your partner learn the techniques and philosophies behind HypnoBirthing® during five 2½ hour sessions with your instructor.

What causes pain during childbirth?
In the absence of special circumstances pain during childbirth is caused by fear. Fear causes the body to react with the “fight or flight” response. The body’s hormones "catecholamines" are released causing blood to be shunted to the large muscles of the body, preparing it to defend itself or to flee. The uterus is not considered essential to survival and so becomes deprived of oxygen. Muscles that are deprived of oxygen hurt. As well, the cervix tightens and resists the pull of the cervical muscles, which are trying to open it. The result is severe pain and more fear for the mother in labour. The stage is set for the Fear-Tension-Pain (failure to progress) cycle.

HypnoBirthing® mothers learn how to relax deeply and use creative visualization and positive affirmations during these surges, allowing their bodies to work the way they were designed to work. Because mothers are able to focus so effectively during the birthing process, many report little or no discomfort; (energy flows where attention goes). HypnoBirthing® explores the myth that pain is a necessary accompaniment to a normal birthing. When a labouring woman's mind is free of fear, the muscles in her body - including her uterine muscles – relax. This enables an easier, stress free birthing. In many cases, first stage labour shortens, eliminating fatigue and leaving the mother fresh, awake and with energy for actual birthing.

When you say the word HypnoBirthing®, most people think of a hypnotic trance where the woman is completely asleep or unaware of what is going on with her body while she gives birth. This is far from the truth. Marie Mongan points out in her website that the woman is totally aware of what is going on around her during her labour and birthing, she is not asleep. This is achieved through learning relaxation techniques and cues to help bring the mother to a state of complete relaxation so that she can relax and be aware of what is going on around her without the fear and pain so common in labour today.

"We say HypnoBirthing® sets you free from fear, not free from pain, although many women experience pain-free births," Mongan says. "Eliminating fear allows the woman's body to work like it's supposed to”.