Hypnobirthing

It's been more than a week since my Hypnobirthing class ended. I feel such a sense of loss. For the past 4 Saturdays, hubby and I have been attending Ginny's classes at her place in Ang Mo Kio. She is a certified Hypnobirthing instructor who's giving lessons to pregnant mums on how to achieve the most natural birth ever possible - without epidural.

Let's see... how did I come across hypnobirthing?

Actually I don't quite remember too... I think I was doing some research on the Internet about antenatal classes and happened to stumble upon www.fourtrimesters.com

I actually wanted to look for an ordinary antenatal class that I could attend on Sats 'cos I had known by then that the Sat classes at Mount Alvernia Hospital where I'd like to give birth at were full. Incidentally, I clicked on Hypnobirthing classes on the website and have been bowled over ever since. After much more Internet research and discussion with hubby, we decided that we want to go 'au naturel' for Karyn's birth. That is, without any medical intervention, as far as possible. This decision was very much due to the belief hubby and I shared that babies can feel and experience their own birth. Thanks to Dr. Verny's book of which the title I cannot remember. Anyway, that's another story all together.

Eventually, we met up with Ginny for a short introduction to her classes before making up our minds to pay the hefty $450 for the course. I was rationalising, if I were to pay anaesthetist's fee and epidural charge during labour, it might come up to more than that sum. So why not give the course a shot? Who knows, I might really be able to do without epidural. Well, you can guess by now, I was still quite skeptical about this whole concept of Hypnobirthing... even upon signing up.

At the first lesson, we were given a book on Hypnobirthing, written by the founder, Marie Mongan. We were also given two CDs which I was told to listen to every day and practise the relaxation exercises to it. Then in subsequent lessons, we did several relaxation (or what some would call hypnosis) exercises that totally blew my mind. I'd never known the power of one's mind to be so, so... powerful. Well, it's too lengthy for me to describe here. But you got to experience it to know it. Anyway, that was not all. We also learnt many other things about birthing, how the uterus works and how to help it work better, things that husbands can do to support the mother during labour, routine hospital procedures and their pros and cons, writing a birth plan... The list goes on and on.

What never fails to amaze me are the videos of women who have gone through Hypnobirths. Their births are just so calm, tranquil and serene... so unlike the tortuous labours that we are used to seeing on TV. No screaming of any kind at all... By the 3rd class, I was totally won over by Hypnobirthing and I know it is the kind of birth that Karyn, hubby and I want.

Well, even now that I've finished the classes. I'm still not all that confident of going it without epidural. At the back of my mind, I still hang on to the option of resorting to it as a LAST resort, if all else doesn't work. One of the mothers asked Ginny during the last lesson, how would we know if we can really do it on THE day?

And Ginny's answer was, "It's just like taking an exam. You will never know how you perform until the actual day. But what you can do is to be prepared for it."

Well, I guess that quite sums up how I feel now. I'll never know... until the day Karyn arrives...