Family Life
October 15, 2024
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I know what you’re probably thinking – hypnobirthing for a caesarean birth? I thought the whole focus was about preparing for a birth without any intervention or drugs of any kind!
I’m Laura, hypnobirthing teacher, doula, mama of 2 and I gave birth to my second baby by c section using hypnobirthing tools and techniques. It honestly changed everything for me and now I’m here – shouting about it as best as I can.
I’m a huge believer that hypnobirthing is all about preparing your mind for birth, listening to your instincts and preparing for the type of birth and after teaching hypnobirthing for over 5 years, I’ve worked with many families who have found hypnobirthing was vital for their caesarean birth whether it was planned or unplanned.
Where do I even begin? There’s so much that I can share with you and pretty much all of these are things that you can incorporate into your birth preferences.
Visualization is great for caesarean, not only during the birth itself but when going into the theatre. It can be done in so many different ways whether it’s visualising meeting your baby, visualising a beautiful place you’ve been to like a beach on holiday or the woods where you walk your dog.
What sorts of things stand out for you? Is there a memory that always makes you happy that you can relive easily? That’s visualisation!
Hypnosis or often referred to as relaxation tracks are also great to not only to help you prepare for a caesarean birth but you can even take your headphones with you into the birth (or sometimes you can request for your music to be played in the theatre) – speak with your midwife prior to the birth.
You might even decide some of your favourite tunes might work better to get the oxytocin vibes going.
A game changer of a technique – calm breathing that we talk about so much during hypnobirthing is the one technique I really suggest you pop into your toolkit.
Not only does it help bring you into a place of calm, support any anxieties and settle the nervous system, it is preparing you to meet and connect with your baby – ask your birth partner to do it with you. It’s great for them too.
Birth partners can be a huge support when it comes to any type of birth, after all – it’s about teamwork. Exploring options together, prior to your baby’s arrival about the different ways they can support you with your hypnobirthing toolkit will help you both to feel like you’re on the same page during birth.
Another great way they can support during your baby’s birth is through guiding you into visualisation (my clients absolutely love it when their birth partners talk about memories of things they’ve done together like holidays or when they found out they were having a baby), supporting with breathing and staying in a rhythm or even through a gentle touch of the face or arm.
Birth partners or even doulas are also in a great position to support at being your advocate, asking questions if you want to remain focused in your zone or even referring to birth preferences to ensure that your wishes are being met.
When it comes to baby care, there’s so much that you can think about (and remember – there’s not right or wrong, we are all different in what we want from our experience).
Things like optimal cord clamping, skin to skin as soon as your baby is born (great tip is to pop two gowns on – one and the back and the one at the front off one shoulder ready to be able to pop your baby on straight away – bliss!).
Other things such as asking for your baby to be born slowly and gently to help replicate the pressure of the birth canal which is great for stimulating our babies lungs and getting rid of any excess fluid. This is often referred to as a gentle caesarean or a family centred caesarean.
A personal one for me was letting me find out my baby’s gender with my birth partner. I wanted it to be him to tell me if the baby was a boy or a girl (I’m still shocked to this day he’s a boy!).
One thing I’m passionate about is encouraging people to listen to their gut, doing what they feel is right for them and their babies. When it comes to teaching hypnobirthing, I’m a firm believer in writing some birth preferences for a caesarean birth – even if it’s not what you’re planning for. So it’s almost a bit of a plan A and B.
I’ve been there, I wanted to remain focused and determined on preparing for the birth I was wanted, yet, I’m so grateful that I spent the time not only writing some preferences down but chatting about them with my birth partner – it made all the difference to me when I made the decision to request a caesarean.
It meant that I had all my tools ready to go – I felt as prepared as I could be and I felt calm, focused and excited to meet my baby.
Whilst many unplanned caesareans happen within an hour or so (it really depends on the reason why you’ve chosen it) of you making the decision that it’s the right thing for you, there may still be time to consider some things that really matter to you.
Laura Thompson has been a hypnobirthing teacher and postnatal doula in Leeds and online for the last 5 years teaching hundreds of families to prepare confidently for birth and the 4th trimester.
After giving birth via caesarean to her son William in 2021, Laura has gone on to teach hundreds of people supporting families to prepare for birth caesarean CPD’s and continues to support parents to prepare for the birth they feel is right for them at their baby.
Laura has created a Hypnobirthing Caesarean course which she teaches families to prepare for a planned caesarean birth with all her hypnobirthing courses having an element where we explore how we can use hypnobirthing in an unplanned (or emergency) c section.
