Katharine's Hypnobirthing Blog

I taught a Hypnobirthing class near the Southbank to a delightful group this weekend.  There were lots of good questions and I was impressed by the mother who was expecting twins and had decided to have them at home attended by an independent midwife. One part of the course that I particularly enjoy is sharing lunch together on the second day.  It gives everyone a chance to get to know each other and maybe make friendships that will last after the babies are born which can be a great support in early motherhood.

If your baby hasn't arrived on the 'due date', an induction is generally proposed quite soon afterwards.

Let's look at this for a moment. For nine months your baby has grown undisturbed inside you.  There have been checks to make sure all is well but, in general, everyone has trusted this miraculous process.  Suddenly this date arrives on which such store has been placed and everything changes. Now the presumption is that the baby no longer knows best and that nature may have got it wrong.

This weekend I'm not teaching HypnoBirthing - yes, really! Today's a very important day. It's a celebration of the arrival of my hypnobirthing grandson last October. Family and friends are gathering for a picnic. The sun's shining, and I'm looking forward to a wonderful day. He's a true hypnobirthing baby. His mother was fully dilated when she arrived at hospital and he was born half an hour later. Since then he has been very calm and cheerful, as are so many hypnobirthing babies.

Katharine Graves is the teacher at The HypnoBirthing Centre, where she runs HypnoBirthing Courses in London and Southern England for expectant couples.

I was reminded today how much HypnoBirthing (quite rightly) is about mothers and the needs of fathers can be overlooked. Of course fathers have an important role in the HypnoBirthing method, but what about their needs? It was brought home to me a little while back when I was talking to a father who had ME and who was deeply distressed that he was unable to provide for his wife and new baby.

HypnoBirthing is wonderful, and it is enormously satisfying to see the difference it makes to mothers, but last weekend I had a different sort of satisfaction. I took a weekend off to be with my family and played with my hypnobirthing granddaughter as well as my three year old grandson (born in New Zealand so I wasn't able to teach his mother hypnobirthing). There's a lot to be said for playing on a sandy beach with small children.

Katharine Graves is the teacher at The HypnoBirthing Centre, where she runs HypnoBirthing Courses in London and Southern England for expectant couples.

A little while ago I worked with a mother to turn her breech baby, and the baby duly turned, as it does in 80% of the cases when you use hypnotherapy to turn a breech baby.

Yesterday a mother who has just booked up to the HypnoBirthing class in July emailed me to say she was feeling nervous about the birth and asking me if I would send the course CD to her so she could listen to it in advance and relax. By chance (?), it just so happened that she lived in the same street as my son, daughter-in-law, and their HypnoBirthing son who I was visiting at the time. It also just so happened that I had the CD she wanted with me. Within 10 minutes of receiving her email, I had walked down the road, and dropped the CD in to her. HypnoBirthing really does work!

I read a really funny article just now about HypnoBirthing. It said:
HypnoBirthing - for decreasing birth discomfort.
Why not be positive and put: HypnoBirthing - for increasing birth comfort.
Or, better still: HypnoBirthing - for allowing birth to be comfortable as nature intended.

Katharine Graves is the teacher at The HypnoBirthing Centre, where she runs HypnoBirthing Courses in London and Southern England for expectant couples.

The HypnoBirthing course which started at Triyoga in Primrose Hill yesterday holds a record. Five doctors attended the class, so news of the effectiveness of HypnoBirthing has definitely penetrated to the medical profession, showing a truly open-minded approach. It was a great class, held on a beautifully sunny day.

Next week we plan to have a picnic on Primrose Hill.

Katharine Graves is the teacher at The HypnoBirthing Centre, where she runs HypnoBirthing Courses in London and Southern England for expectant couples.

I love teaching HypnoBirthing. That's why I spend so much of my life doing it. I love knowing what a difference it has made to people's lives.

However, I don't love the night before a course. The floor is covered with folders being made up. The photocopier is red hot with duplicating handouts. I've loaded the car with folding chairs, TV, cushions and boxes of books. And usually there's a lot of midnight oil being burnt.