Katharine Graves shares her view:
“You’re probably worrying about the pain of giving birth. Of course, with KG Hypnobirthing, it need not be painful.
On the KGH course, we show a video of a woman’s just sitting in a pool and picking up a baby, which sounds wonderful. That, I think, is misleading, because birth is always a powerful experience.
The muscles of the uterus are some of the most powerful muscles in the body and they’re working to absolute capacity. We’ve often used our bodies powerfully, but it hasn’t been painful.
I remember a mum who brought a baby into one of the classes I was teaching and she had a wonderful KG Hypnobirthing birth. Three hours, no drugs, no pain, no tearing. And the minute she walked in to a room carrying her lovely baby, everybody said, “Was it painful?” And she said, “I can honestly put my hand on my heart and say it wasn’t painful, but I was amazed how powerful it was.”
And I think that’s an important point to make because yes, birth absolutely can be comfortable, and we do frequently see it as being comfortable. But it is always powerful.
And if you don’t expect your muscles to be working powerfully, and when you feel this strenuous muscular effort going on, you might think, oh my goodness, what’s happening? And then you tense up and that’s when you do get pain.
So it’s a very important difference. I think birth is always powerful, but it can also be comfortable.”