Just finishing up the January series and ready to announce our next group Hypnobabies Class!
BlossomBelly Hypnobabies and Birth Doula Services will be teaching a group class in Santa Cruz, CA
starting March 18th, 1:30 – 4:30pm.
Please contact me to reserve your spot!
Hypnobabies allows our moms to be self- empowered: Hypno-Moms find that preparing for childbirth using the power of their own minds, tuning in to their bodies and babies, and trusting the birth process, allows giving birth to be an empowering, life-affirming journey.
– Hypnobabies
Announcing our next group Hypnobabies Class!
BlossomBelly Hypnobabies and Birth Doula Services will be teaching a group class in Santa Cruz, CA
Starting January 15th, 1:30 – 4:30pm.
Please contact me to reserve your spot!
Private classes are always available too.
Announcing our next group Hypnobabies Class!
BlossomBelly Hypnobabies and Birth Doula Services will be teaching a group class in Santa Cruz, CA
Starting October 30th 1:30 – 4:30pm.
Please contact me to reserve your spot!
Benefits of using hypnosis for childbirth – part 2
Many Hypno-mothers have shorter labors since hypnosis training can minimize discomfort and fear, and create less resistance between the birthing muscles. Using deep hypnosis, muscles in the body remain very deeply relaxed, which allows the uterus to work more effectively.
- From Hypnobabies
I’ve completed all the training and requirements and I’m just waiting for my certification to come through now! I will soon be offering Hypnobabies Childbirth Education classes right here in Santa Cruz. Check back for more information soon, or contact me to inquire…
UPDATE: Certified! Can’t wait to begin teaching….
Benefits of using hypnosis for childbirth – part 1
Expectant moms are “deprogrammed” from the typically negative childbirth stories and scenarios they’ve heard by participating in Birth Hypnosis classes and listening to audio CDs that actually re-train the inner mind in a very positive way. This allows them to remain relaxed and confident during pregnancy and to enjoy preparing for childbirth.
- From Hypnobabies
Healthy Birth Practice #2: Walk, Move Around, and Change Positions Throughout Labor
excerpted from Lamaze Healthy Birth Practices, lamaze.org
Walking, moving around, and changing positions throughout labor make the birth of your baby easier. It is the best way for you to use gravity to help your baby move down and to increase the size and shape of your pelvis to make it easier for your baby to fit and rotate as necessary. Movement helps you respond to pain in an active way and shortens the length of the first stage of labor (Lawrence, Lewis, Hofmeyr, Dowswell, & Styles, 2009).
In contrast to what you see on popular television shows in the United States, pictures throughout history and across cultures show women in many different positions for labor. Many hospitals today provide birth balls, rocking chairs, tubs/showers, and safe places to walk in order to encourage women to stay out of bed during labor. A pilot study was recently conducted at two Canadian hospitals where women in labor were randomly assigned to a regular labor room or to an “ambient room.” In the ambient room, the standard hospital labor bed was removed, and additional equipment was added to promote relaxation, mobility, and a calm atmosphere. The evaluations from women assigned to the ambient room were positive; they spent 50% or less time laboring in bed and reduced the need for artificial oxytocic infusions (Hodnett, Stremler, Weston, & McKeever, 2009).
Activity during labor may distract you from discomfort, gives you a sense of greater personal freedom, and provides a way to release muscle tension. In fact, women who use movement in labor report that it is an effective method of relieving pain (Storton, 2007). Restricting women’s movement may result in worse birth outcomes and may decrease women’s satisfaction with their birth experiences (Storton, 2007).
Interested in the whole article? Read on here
I finished the Hypnosis class and am one step closer to completing my requirements and training!
At this point, truly, I almost feel like a fool for not practicing self-hypnosis to enhance my own life before now. I’ve meditated for years and have reaped many benefits from spending time in a hypnotic state. Yet I haven’t used specific suggestions to change my habits, or my behavioral and emotional patterns. Why wouldn’t I want to be more at peace with my decisions? Why wouldn’t I want to feel more confident in my corporate work and in my birth work? Why wouldn’t I want stronger healthier relationships? Why wouldn’t I want to be free of negative thinking and the pain that comes from it? One thing I learned from this course is that hypnosis does all this and more. It works, there are scientific reasons it works, and I really am a fool if I don’t taking advantage of the power of my own imagination right now to create an even more amazing life for myself.
I am loving all this hypnosis! I can hardly wait for my next practice sessions, it’s so much fun. After years of meditation and putting myself into a relaxed trance state, I’m really enjoying leading my practice clients through the scripts and into hypnosis. Even my most stressed out family members tell me they feel good upon awakening. I’m realizing more and more just how much I am going to enjoy being a Hypnobabies childbirth instructor. I’m already a hypno-doula, qualified to support any mothers using hypnosis during childbirth. I can’t wait to add these childbirth classes to my list of services, and to help moms and families enjoy greater relaxation at their births using hypnosis.
It’s a new year, and a new website for BlossomBelly! Please take a peek and let me know what you think. It’s a work in progress, but I couldn’t wait to go live with the new look. There will be many more blossoming thoughts about birth in 2011!
My next assignment for my hypnosis class involved trying out the suggestibility tests with willing “clients”. That means my grown daughter and my husband for now. Last time my daughter and I tried this out we ended up laughing too hard to continue. But we did better this time! I haven’t memorized the scripts yet, so I just read them right out of the book, and she listened and relaxed and responded really well. As she imagined holding a bucket of heavy water in one hand and balloons in the other, her arms moved apart, one up and one down, until they were nearly vertical. Hey, maybe I can do this! We both thought it was fun!
And then I asked my husband. I tried several suggestions on him and guess what. NOTHING. His fingers didn’t move like magnets, his arms didn’t move with the balloons tied to the wrist. You are supposed to use your imagination honey! Let goooooo!! Nothing.
Obviously I still have a lot of practice to do. I am definitely going to stick with my daughter as my practice client for awhile until I am better at this and ready to take on my husband. On to the next chapter….
Enjoy your baby!
Holding your baby close stimulates all of her senses. A baby who is smiled at, talked to and cuddled will develop a sense of security. Breastfeeding is more than simply providing nutrients and calories for physical growth – it contributes to an intimate and special relationship.
You and your baby have the right to breastfeed anywhere, anytime and there are many techniques to help you achieve this comfortably. Ask your friends, family, midwife, lactation consultant, doula, or attend a breastfeeding support group to see how it can be done.
– excerpted from Public Health Agency
I’m continuing to work on my hypnosis class on my way to becoming a Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis Instructor.
My latest assignment was to try out some suggestibility tests – on myself first. It was a simple assignment and I did it easily in just a few minutes. But this simple task led to some complex thoughts. Taking the time to sit quietly, by myself, forgetting everything around me, reminded me of the years that I spent meditating. Every morning I spent 45 minutes in what was basically a hypnotic state. Because I did this faithfully every morning, it became second nature for me to enter that meditative state. All I had to do was sit down and I’d be there, feeling the energy running up my spine and letting my stress and worries take a break of their own for awhile. The most remarkable things happened in my life during those years that I was meditating, and I fully believe there is a connection. How did I let myself move away from this practice? It’s time to make time for this again. I know I will better be able to help my future Hypnobabies clients when I’ve been faithfully practicing my own self – hypnosis. Ooohhhhmmmmm!