Preparation is the absolute key in giving yourself and your baby a wonderful birth; one of the best things you can do for yourself is to find out what natural childbirth classes are available to assist you and which childbirth classes will benefit you the most.

In this article I’ll share with you how you can benefit from taking  childbirth classes, and help you to discover which childbirth classes may be right for you.

How Taking Childbirth Classes can Help You to be Better

Prepared for Birth

Aside from making it much easier to set the proper time aside for preparation, taking natural childbirth classes is great because they help you to

1) Get  Answers to Your Questions: Childbirth classes provide an easy resource of information and knowledge to get your questions answered, and the information is nicely put together in one place for you, which makes it easier and much quicker than gathering all the information on your own.

2) Get  a Better Idea of What to Expect: When you know what to expect you’ll  be better prepared to embrace the experience of birth rather than being caught off guard when your birthing time begins. And even if you already have an idea of what birth is all about childbirth classes can help to reconfirm your beliefs and make you more confident with your choices.

3) Learn about You on Your and Your Baby’s Options: Many childbirth classes include your and your baby’s options for Pregnancy, Birth, and Postpartum so that you’ll be able to make informed choices.

4) Learn  Helpful Tools, Tips and Techniques to Use: Including the most effective birth positions and relaxation techniques that help you to have a more comfortable birth.

5) Involve Your Birth Partner: Childbirth classes help them to become more comfortable, confident and relaxed about the birth process, answers their questions, allows them to become more involved, and to better understand their role and how they can support you.

Choosing the Perfect Childbirth Classes

I’m not sure if there is one all inclusive “Perfect” childbirth class, I think that more likely it’s different for everybody. Start by asking yourself what is important to you, what are you wishing to gain out of the class, does it align with your beliefs? And when choosing a  class always remember to pay attention to your intuition, do you feel good about it?

Even when you find a childbirth class that you like, there still may be some things that you don’t like in it. But that’s OK, you can always just take and apply what’s helpful and beneficial to you and leave the rest.

Following are the most widely popular natural childbirth classes, there may also be some childbirth classes offered locally that are just as wonderful. Also you can do some of these childbirth classes online. Don’t be afraid to explore all of your options before deciding.

Childbirth Classes Using the Hypnobirthing Method

For natural child birth “Hypnobirthing” is a very popular and effective method of preparation. For a better description of what hypnobirthing is watch this video http://mynaturalchildbirth.org/hypnobirthing-video/

Here are the most popular “Hypnobirthing” Childbirth Classes:

Hypnobabies Childbirth Classes

http://www.hypnobabies.com/

Hypnobabies is a good program. It’s a good blend of preparing your mind to be in the right state for birth and educating you on your options. In Hypnobabies you use positive visualization scripts and CDs to release any negative thoughts or fears and replace them with positives. It has helpful information on nutrition, and does a good job of educating you on your and your baby’s options and rights, especially in a hospital setting.

Andy and I took hypnobabies and we enjoyed it! Aside from Andy’s falling asleep during the relaxations and cracking obvious jokes right in front of the teacher it was very helpful.  By giving us the answers to a lot of our questions, and educating us on our options it really helped Andy to feel a lot more comfortable with the process, which lead to his full support of having a home birth.

It went into detail about a lot of risks and benefits of the various hospital procedures, which didn’t pertain to us because we had decided to do it at home, but if you’re planning a hospital birth are extremely beneficial. And it helped to reconfirm what I had already felt inside, “that I could definately do this”, and helped me to release stress and to ease into that peaceful Zen like mindset that I needed to be in so that I could have the amazingly enjoyable, gentle, loving and pain free childbirth, that I ended up having!

Hypnobirthing Childbirth Classes

http://www.hypnobirthing.com/

Hypnobirthing is similar to Hypnobabies, from what I have heard they just don’t have as many CDs, but the ones they do have are amazing! They also have a 302 page handbook, relaxation scripts, information on exercises, nutrition, relaxation and breathing techniques, and handouts for planning your birth preferences. A lot of Mommas I have heard have great results and love this program!

“I was so impressed with the way my attitude toward birth changed. I started the class scared and skeptical, and now I am completely confident and excited about the birth of our first child. I found HypnoBirthing a relaxing, natural way to birth a child. The program has helped me to reclaim my power as a woman and trust my body to do what it was designed to do.” -Jody (UK)

Birthing from Within Childbirth Classes

http://www.birthingfromwithin.com/parents

Birthing from Within sounds like a great class! If I had known about it when I was pregnant I probably would have taken it. They also use “self hypnosis” and visualizations, but they seem to be a little more in tune with the spiritual aspects of birth and encourage you to look inside of yourself to find a place of peace and acceptance for whatever may happen during birth and to open your body and mind to go with the flow and allow birth to happen. Also it encourages creative connection and free expression through art.

“The classes have opened our eyes, minds, and hearts to a lot of amazing truths about the birth journey…my wife has felt deeply empowered and informed. We’ve talked about and become more aware of our feelings, our relationship, and the shape of our journey.” ~Stuart

“My Mentor spoke from a place in her heart that resonated experience, understanding, power, and warmth. Thanks to her, I broke through barriers that would have inhibited me in childbirth. I learned a lot about myself, my partner and birth, and felt my confidence grow with every passing week.” ~Jen

Bradley Childbirth Classes

http://www.bradleybirth.com/

Bradley is one that we’ve probably all heard of, it’s been around for a long time and many of our parents may have even taken it. It does not do hypnobirthing, but its focus is on natural “drug free” birth. They seem to provide a lot of important information on avoiding complications, relaxation and breathing techniques and trusting your body. It is called “husband coached childbirth” as they focus extra attention to the coaches role in assisting the Momma. They cover nutrition, healthy pregnancy, and the various stages of labor.

“I can’t believe what a difference The Bradley Method® classes made for me!”

“After taking The Bradley Method® classes, I had a totally natural birth, a strong healthy baby boy, and I felt absolutely wonderful afterward! It changed my life!”

Prenatal Yoga

Along with any other childbirth preparation class that you may take I highly encourage you to enroll in prenatal yoga classes. Yoga is the perfect practice of allowing your mind to enter into a place of peace and ease, while your body is at work, just like in birth. It also makes you feel great, and helps to align your energy centers to create the perfect balance of mind, body and spirit.

“I feel very strong physically and emotionally, as well as extremely focused and clear every time I leave your yoga classes.”

“Prenatal Yoga was exactly what I needed to strengthen myself during my pregnancy and help me through my labor. Without the classes, I would have never been strong enough to make it through my natural delivery and push the baby out. The stretching, breathing and kegel exercises were especially helpful during all stages of labor. It’s a wonderful nurturing place that I’d recommend to any pregnant woman.”

Remember that whatever childbirth classes you choose it is still always your experience and your birth, and so is up to you to pick and choose from what information best suits you. Use these classes as a way to reconfirm that you are on the right path and to prepare yourself mentally physically and spiritually to be in the right state for birth. The right class for you will align with your beliefs, will encourage you to trust in birth and in your body, and will make you feel great inside and out! Always listen to your intuition.

Mommas if you have taken any of these childbirth classes please feel free to share your wisdom, did they work? What childbirth classes did you like, dislike, or would you recommend?

Here’s a new video I shot for you where I talk about the joy of hypnobirthing, and my favorite hypnobirthing techniques…

Hypnobirthing – Episode 4

If you would like to learn more about hypnobirthing read my blog post here: Hypnobirthing Secrets – How To Use Positive Thinking And Self Hypnosis To Relieve Labor Pain And Create A Positive Birthing Environment

“What was the big secret they had discovered?”

That was how I discovered hypnobirthing…

Hypnobirthing is the act of training your mind using positive suggestions and “self hypnosis” to relieve pain and create a gentle and loving birth.

Despite the funny name it sounded like a good idea to me. So I enrolled in hypnobirthing classes and began a magnificent journey of discovery and re-creation. I immersed myself in Hypnobirthing scripts and Hypnobirthing CDs that described pregnancy and birth as being a natural, beautiful and empowering gift that I was capable of doing.

When I started hypnobirthing traning my focus began to shift from fear and worry to feelings of peace love and trust. Those feelings carried me through my pregnancy and birthing time. It was magical. In this article I’ll share with you how hypnobirthing can help you have a wonderful birth and share some of my favorite hypnobirthing techniques.

Should You Take Hypnobirthing Classes or Is It Something You Can Do On Your Own?

There are  some techniques that you can begin mastering right now without taking hypnobirthing classes.  They can be as simple as focusing on positives instead of negatives. Quit watching movies and TV shows that depict birth as being a horrible painful and dangerous act and start watching natural childbirth videos of real woman birthing their babies naturally. Create an imaginary bubble of protection that acts to shield you from absorbing the harmful energy from women you may meet that insist on telling you negative birth stories.

Although all of those steps will help you create a positive state of mind, I would still recommend enrolling in a class if you can. In a hypnobirthing class you are introduced to deep levels of relaxation and are given great tools such as hypnobirthing CDs and hypnobirthing scripts to practice on your own or with your partner. I found that taking a hypnobirthing classes also helped to keep me on track. It was a lot easier making the proper time for me and my baby when I had a weekly class to report to and home assignments to do.

The Joy of Hypnobirthing Scripts

Hypnobirthing scripts are used to introduce positive messages directly to your subconscious mind. This is something they call self hypnosis.

How it works is you commit to a daily practice of setting time aside to lie down and relax allowing your mind and body to completely rest and fall into a meditative state. In this state of deep relaxation your subconscious mind becomes open to suggestions.  Your partner reads to you hypnobirthing scripts that contain positive suggestions about giving birth such as: “Your body was made to give birth to your baby perfectly”. They are only suggestions though. It is up to you to choose to accept them.

In addition to Positive Suggestion Hypnobirthing Scripts there are also regular clearing sessions that use hypnobirthing scripts to assist you in releasing negative or dangerous thoughts so that they don’t manifest themselves into harmful emotions such as fear and self doubt, which can prevent your body from relaxing and opening properly during birth.

When you allow yourself to accept the suggestion that birth is positive, wonderful and empowering an amazing transformation begins to happen.  You develop great faith, trust and love in your body and the natural birthing process, and trust in your body and baby’s ability to work together with it perfectly. All of the negative ideas, fears, worries and self doubts can be replaced with calm surrender, confidence, love and trust in the upcoming birth of your baby.

Hypnobirthing CDs

Hypnobirthing CDs follow the same basic concept as the hypnobirthing scripts. Most of them are listened to and absorbed by the subconscious mind while you are in a relaxed meditative state. They assist in rearranging your beliefs to focus on positives.

Hypnobirthing CDs are handy to use on your own when your partner isn’t available.  Sometimes there are also CDs that you can listen to in the background while doing housework and other things. There are also hypnobirthing CDs which can be listened to during your actual birthing time that act as a reminder to open yourself, flow with the birth, and relax deeply while you calmly and peacefully birth your baby.

I found the CDs very helpful during my birthing time to keep my attention away from self defeating thoughts and quickly replace them with positive and inspiring ones.

How To Use Hypnobirthing Techniques To Make a Positive Difference In Your Pregnancy and Birth

• Shift your focus, always choose positives – It is always your choice what you choose to focus on and accept. Be conscious of not allowing negative ideas to creep into your thoughts about birth. They can seriously disrupt and harm your positive mindset. Instead focus on allowing only positive feelings and ideas to be accepted, so that when it is time for you to birth your baby you can be free from all negative emotional disruptions and able to remain calm, focused, relaxed and confident. In this peaceful state of acceptance and surrender pain is rarely experienced because the Momma is able to completely open and relax her mind and body. You should also start rearranging the way you speak to avoid using negative phrases. It is always better to focus on and say positives such as “relax” instead of “stop tensing up”. Sometimes just hearing the word “tense up” can make us tense up where hearing the word “relax” can help us to relax.
• Practice remaining calm and relaxed - Begin making the stressful situations in your life work for you instead of against you. When you are standing in a long line, or in a crowded airport, or you’re stuck in traffic, late for work, or bombarded with gossiping nannies telling stories of 20 lb babies being ripped out of them, use this potentially stressful situation as an opportunity to practice remaining calm, peaceful, and in control. If you can perfect this exercise then when your birthing time arrives it will be easier for you to transform birth from a potentially stressful situation into an opportunity to practice remaining calm focused relaxed and confident.
• Create your bubble of protection - Even if you’ve vowed to stop polluting your mind with the horrible Hollywood images of births gone wrong, and have made an effort to surround yourself with only positive people, you still run the risk of falling victim to unwanted negative advice and birth horror stories.  If you allow these horrible thoughts to enter into your mind they can act as a dangerous poison that eats away at your confidence and spoils your potential. You can prevent this from happening by creating an imaginary bubble of protection around your entire body and especially around your baby. Whenever you hear an unwanted opinion just imagine it bouncing right off of your bubble and disappearing into the distance. Only allow positive feelings and ideas to penetrate your bubble.

What Hypnobirthing Stories Have in Common…

After discovering hypnobirthing thousnds of Mommas are experiencing wonderful natural childbirth, and I have heard many of their positive and inspiring hypnobirthing stories.

What these stories all have in common is they all come from woman with a great desire to give their babies the best start in life, and a willingness to open their minds and lovingly accept and embrace their role as a giver of life.

You too can prepare yourself and your baby for birth with the help of hypnobirthing classes and hypnobirthing techniques and give beautiful, gentle, calm, peaceful and possibly painless birth. What makes hypnobirthing successful is the belief and confidence you place in yourself that allows you to open up and flow with the birth.