What to practice for Hypnobirthing

If hypnobirthing sounds like the answer to all your dreams?

That’s because it is!

But it can feel overwhelming when your hypnobirthing practice starts to feel like the biggest to-do-list of your life…

Maybe you’re swamped with more techniques than you can shake a stick at….and you’re feeling overwhelmed?

Or you want to teach yourself hypnobirthing and you don’t know where to start?

And either way, you’re probably wondering if you’ve missed THE BIGGEST THING IN HYPNOBIRTHING?

So grab a pen and save this post on Pinterest (I’ll love you forever if you do!)

Because you’ve just found the Best Hypnobirth to-do list:

Choc full of hypnobirthing tools & tips!

And links to all my free hypnobirthing techniques and guides.

And contact me about private classes!

This page contains affiliate links to other businesses so if you buy something as a direct result of finding it here I will receive a payment of thanks from the company you buy from. This does not effect the price you pay.

How to Practice Hypnobirthing (and how to teach yourself!)

Hypnobirthing is like baking a cake…

Maybe you’re a natural who’s happy to throw anything in, or maybe you want a recipe to follow?

Either way?

What you put in your cake needs to be good, or your hypnobirthing will flop! And if you want a course with extra sprinkles – you know where I am!

So in this guide I will list:

What you need to practice for Hypnobirthing

And in most cases, I’ll include how & where to teach yourself!

So think of this as a complete guide to teaching yourself hypnobirthing.

In fact, its so COMPLETE what with all the links to my other resources as well I’d suggest you grab a cuppa and put your pregnant feet up for a deep dive with a total geekaroo.

4 hypnobirthing tips before you start…

​

​1. When to start Hypnobirthing

Start reading about Hypnobirthing as early as you like… Pinterest is a goldmine! If buying a hypnobirthing course I recommend starting in your second trimester.

And it’s never too late! I’ve taught classes to people staying on the induction ward my local John Radcliffe Hospital!

​2. Hypnobirthing Practice, not Perfection

Aim to be familiar with your Hypnobirthing, not perfect.

Practice means you can be confident and comfortable with all your hypnobirthing techniques. So hypnobirthing feels automatic, you don’t need to think, you just do it!

3. ‘I don’t have time’ – is a myth

Who has free time? Not me! So instead of finding time, find things you can fit your hypnobirthing in to:

• Waiting for the kettle to boil? Do 3 up breaths and use your affirmation
• Taking a shower? Do your kegel exercises
• Going to bed? Practice your birth hypnosis

4. Is Hypnobirthing Safe?

Nothing is 100% safe, so people suffering with certain medical conditions should avoid Hypnobirthing. Birth meditations, relaxations, visualisations, mindfulness, hypnosis inc hypnobirthing is contraindicated for certain medical conditions so check with your doctor before starting.

​What are Hypnobirthing Techniques?

I have listed the 15 most important Hypnobirthing Techniques below, but it’s worth knowing that Hypnobirthing is more about bringing birth back to where it has always been. Rather than adding something new into to what it currently is. Birth is a normal biological event, not a ‘problem’ to be fixed.

And this isn’t a pain relief method, and it’s more than just a bunch of antenatal techniques. Because this is a bunch of stuff that can come together to make something magical!

And yes I know how contradictory that sounds!!!

The birth preparation techniques listed below are just as useful for home birth as hospital birth, and as useful for physiological birth as medical birth.

Let me explain…

Birth is a normal physiological event. Natural birth is the norm for us. And natural birth is normal for all other mammals too! It’s only once in a while that we need extra medical care. Our bodies work well.

It’s only in the last century that our perception of birth has changed. Birth is now heavily medicalised. Defensive medicine is common place. Iatrogenic harm is on the increase. Film and tv unfairly depict birth as a horror story. And people (understandably) talk more about birth trauma than about birth joy.

So we’ve learnt to fear birth. We have learnt to doubt our body and doubt ourselves.

But Birth is Good!

Seriously! With the massive rush of feel good hormones, the power of your body and meeting your baby!! Birth can be the most positive and empowering moment of your life. Even choosing the medical pathway that feels right for you – feels good!

You deserve a good birth experience.

Hypnobirthing is sometimes credited to Marie Mongan but it was around long before she or Lamaze had even started.

Hypnosis has been used to reduce labour pains for over a century. And the biggest hypnobirthing research came out of Russia where they evidenced both the clinical effectiveness and the positive birth experience created amongst birthers using hypnosis for birth, relaxation techniques and breathing techniques.

Hypnobirthing has been shown to increase the instances of a shorter labour, reduce pain during labour and reduce the use of pain relief drugs.

​15 Hypnobirthing Techniques you need to learn:

1. Birth knowledge

Get birth smart. Borrow or buy a good quality antenatal book, register for a free NHS course, or a hypnobirthing course. Birth knowledge plays a huge part in building birth confidence and reducing birth fears. Hypnobirthing will teach you how your body works: from your birthing muscles to birthing hormones, birthing needs and of course your baby. BIRTH WORKS.

Get birth smart! Fears are maintained by avoidance. So understanding how birth works plays a huge part in building birth confidence, reducing birth fears and reducing stress hormones. Trust me. Birth works. We are good at this!

So borrow, buy or sign up for:

• The Positive Birth Book by Milli Hill,
• The Hypnobirthing Book by Katherine Graves
• HypnoBirthing by Marie Mongan
• Free NHS antenatal classes
• Hypnobirthing course like Autonomous Hypnobirthing

Hypnobirthing will teach you:

• How birth works, including muscles & hormones
• Practical ways to support body & mind
• Your natural birth needs during all types of birth
• Birth from your baby’s perspective
• Breathing for birth
• Relaxation, Mindfulness & hypnosis (hypnosis if you work with a hypnotherapist)
• Genius ways to reduce fear, stress and find your birth zone

2. Birth Choices

Birth is like your body. It belongs to you. You have AUTONOMY. You have CHOICE. So knowing the choices available to you? And the pros and cons of those choices is key to an empowered birth.

Do your research. Read up about medicalised birth, induction of labour, augmentation and c-section. Understanding the processes will help reduce the fear. Knowing how your hypnobirthing methods apply to all types of birth help too! Research pain management during labour. You might not want gas & air or an epidural, but knowing the pros & cons now? Will make your decision making easier if you change your mind. And learn about your lawful rights. Dr Sara Wickham and AIMS are great places to get birth smart and birth empowered. Golden rule of my Autonomous Hypnobirthing course is You Do You. And what ever path you birth choose? Knowing that you are fully informed and have chosen your birth path? Feels good!

3. Hypnobirthing Scripts

Scripts are one of the nicest ways to start reframing the way you think & feel about giving birth.

Hypnobirthing Scripts (aka relaxation scripts) are written copies of guided visualisations or mindful meditations that specifically focus on positive self belief and positive birth.

Scripts are a lovely way to start imagining birth from a calm & positive perspective. If you have a birth partner or birth supporter? Ask them to read a script out while you relax. Giggles are normal at first!

Scripts are gorgeous if you love the sound of your own voice, your partners voice or are deaf/hard of hearing.

And its a lovely way to get your partner involved in your birth preparation.

Tip: Read your new birth relaxation script yourself before using it for relaxation to check you like it first!

Try some of my free hypnobirthing scripts here:

• Up Breathing Script
• Down Breathing Script
• Face & Pelvis Relaxation
• Hypnobirthing Colour Anchor Script

Face & Pelvis script is written to help you mentally train yourself to relax and ‘let go’ so your pelvic floor and uterine muscles can be free from mind based stress. I recommend using it alongside my Autonomous Hypnobirthing River of Birth relaxation. It’s a beautiful direct and indirect relaxation that gently brings in the methods of Émile Coué to help positively train your mind – Ready to breath your baby down.

Use my Hypnobirthing Colour Anchor script and find your hypnobirthing anchor colour.

All anchors help build a strong unconscious connection with how you DO want to feel during birth.

Hypnobirthing Relaxations & Hypnosis

Use Birth meditations, hypnobirthing relaxations, or birth hypnosis to gently introduce your deepest mind to positive birth and flood your conscious mind with beautiful birth.

Just put your feet up, switch off, relax and press play!

Hypnosis Downloads make it so easy:

Hypnosis Downloads’ scripts & recordings are created by qualified Hypnotherapists and Psychologists:

• Buy 1 track for $14.95
• Buy 2 save $6.95
• Buy 3 save $14.90
• Buy 4 save $19.85
• Buy 5 save $24.80
• And they have freebies

Learn hypnosis in 5 days – A free video course. Understand hypnosis, learn self hypnosis, discover confidence techniques and discover the power of your unconscious mind!

Buy Learn hypnosis in 5 days, it’s free

Hypnosis for Birth MP3 – Associate birth with peacefulness and calm. Use this beautiful birth rehearsal & find your natural ability to relax as you give birth.

Overcome the fear of giving birth MP3 – Banish birth fears. Lose those dreaded thoughts and start to see birth from a more comfortable perspective.

Prepare for Cesarean Birth MP3 – An essential part of your cesarean section hypnobirthing

• feel a growing sense of calm preparedness
• you relax more quickly and more deeply
• learn to soothe discomfort, while still noting important warning signals
• change your awareness of time in surprising ways
• feel happy thinking of the moment when you meet your baby

Progression Muscle Relaxation (Body Scan) MP3 – Hands down the easiest place to start in Hypnobirthing. Often overlooked, super simple and endlessly helpful, learn this body scan today and use it in life, not just birth!

Find Inner Peace MP3  – Not Hypnobirthing but too good to leave out! So if pregnancy is leaving you feeling over tired, burn out or overwhelmed, this could help!

A personal favourite is Hypnosis Downloads. They have a goldmine of hypnosis recordings  to choose from including:

Childbirth rehearsal hypnosis

Positive pregnancy

Just settle yourself down, switch off, relax and let the birth positivity flow!

Your Course Teacher will give you MP3s alongside your scripts. So liking your teachers voice is important! And it’s NORMAL to ask for a sample before booking a course.

Free relaxations, birth meditations and birth rehearsal MP3s are everywhere on YouTube and Spotify. Or record your own from your written relaxation scripts.

Golden rule of Hypnobirthing MP3s: Use whilst relaxing. Do not use whilst driving! And use your birthing anchors! (see further down this list).

And put a birth play list together…

A birth playlist is perfect when you:

• Need a break from your meditations
• Already have a good emotional connection to a piece of music
• Share a favourite song with your partner
• Want a very easy Hypnobirthing Anchor
• Are super short on time!

Read my ultimate guide – What are hypnobirthing anchor? for more.

 5. Autonomy & Control

Birth needs to be autonomous. No one talks you through driving your car – unless you ask then to! No one talks you through using a knife and fork when you eat – unless you ask them to! So why do most antenatal methods insist you need a relaxation script or relaxation MP3 to relax or give birth?

Hypnosis is autonomous. Hypnosis for pain management is autonomous. And I’d imagine most of the things you do? You do yourself – unless you ask for help! So we naturally want control. And autonomy gives us control.

So unlike most hypnobirthing methods that place your control on the outside? Autonomous Hypnobirthing places your control on the inside too. So all of the hypnobirthing techniques in this list? Can be done by you. Sure it’s easier when I show you how. But try it! Try your relaxations without a script, or without an MP3 and let me know how you get on!

This enhanced level of a calm birth state is perfect incase theres an oops moment. Incase things go off track. Or medical interventions crop up. Nothing can take Autonomous hypnobirthing away from you.

6. Hypnosis for Birth

Hypnosis for birth is gold dust. It’s where hypnobirthing gets its boots on! Hypnosis for birth is perfect for you if you are birth scared, over worked, over stressed or worried about pain. And it’s my favourite part of my online Autonomous Hypnobirthing course!

Unlike a relaxation, hypnosis for birth is all the feels. It’s full control that no one can take away from you. It’s real life anxiety reduction and mental preparation for a connected journey through birth.

So whereas a relaxation is like an image swap: bad birth image swapped for good birth image. Hypnosis for birth gives you more.

7. Hypnobirthing Anchors

Anchors are AMAZING and the best thing about them, is you already have them!

Hypnobirthing anchors are one of the most EMOTIONALLY EFFECTIVE hypnobirthing techniques.

The power of anchors is massively under used in mainstream hypnobirthing methods – but not here.

• touch
• taste
• sight
• sound
• smell

And crucially, it has a deep and automatic connection to a pleasant memory or pleasant sense of self, sense of being or sense of place.

Anchors make you feel good!

And the easiest Anchor is smell. So asking if your aromatherapist or midwife says it’s safe, start with your favourite essential oil. Listen to your birth music whilst you relax now. Not just on the day you give birth. Start building your unconscious anchors today.

Read my complete guide – What are Hypnobirthing Anchors? and start using your anchors today!

8. Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Used in antenatal classes everywhere but so rarely explained!

Progressive Muscle Relaxation is the art of relaxing your whole body all the way down (top to toe) with your mind. It can take 10 seconds to 10 mins and it’s super helpful for pain!

Hypnosis Downloads Body Scan MP3 – $14.95

Mind and body are one. So when you relax your mind, you relax your body. But it works the other way as well. So relax your body and your mind will relax as well!

So whilst all Hypnobirthing (rightly) emphasises the importance of reducing fear and tension within the mind to help the body relax. Relaxing the body can help reduce fear and tension with the mind. And which is easier? Especially if you’re in a rush?

Body wins every time.

Read more in my guide – Best Hypnobirthing techniques for pain.

9. Hypnobirthing Affirmations

Short, simple, positive affirmations about birth, your birthing body, your baby, your birth partner and more. Hypnobirthing affirmations work like all positive birth affirmations. The thoughts we hold in our head inform how we think, feel and see the world. And we have thousands of thoughts a day!

Hypnobirthing affirmations are the easiest thing in your practice!

Write your favourite affirmation down. Put it up somewhere you’ll see it regularly and let your subconscious mind do the rest.

Yes read it out loud if you would like. For best effect read it out for as long as you can bare. Stop when the words will no longer makes sense or you feel really (It’s a brain hack). Or consciously read it. But even just having it up where you see it regularly helps!

Affirmations are a fast way to transform your beliefs about birth and create a positive birth mindset. And although Pinterest is full of them? Writing your own is even more effective!

How to write your own Birth Affirmation:

Take a negative thought about birth or a birth worry. And re-write it as a positive statement.

4 most important affirmation writing rules:

1. Make it 100% positive
2. In the first person (I, me, my)
3. Present tense (is, am, are)
4. Realistic

And bin anything that doesn’t comply with these rules!

10. Hypnobirthing Breathing Techniques

Keep it simple – you only need 2 breathing techniques.

One for the up stage of labour (first stage or latent and established labour). One for the down stage of labour (second stage of labour or the ‘pushing phase’).

For the Up stage choose from:

• Up breathing
• Surge breathing
• Ribbon breathing
• Rectangular breathing
• 5-8 breathing

For the down stage choose from:

• Down breathing
• J-breathing
• Bumble Bee Breathing
• Nasal Breathing

Keep it simple. Stick to one from each group.

Start your practice here with my Free Up Breathing Script and my Free Down Breathing Script. Both include easy to follow instructions & free breathing visualisations.

11. Glove Anaesthesia Hypnosis

The glove technique is a famous part of hypnosis for pain and medical hypnosis. And it literally BLEW MY MIND when I had my first baby.

Because all the way into established labour?

I could feel my body moving…

But no pain!

Because glove Anaesthesia & birth hypnosis numbs pain – with your mind! So it works like a dream in childbirth! This is a key part of Autonomous Hypnobirthing and whilst most hypnobirthing will cover a basic stroking hand relaxation, Autonomous Hypnobirthing gives you the real deal.

Read my full guide – Glove Anaesthesia for Hypnobirthing

12. Positive Birth Stories

Humans have learnt through story telling since the dawn of time. Ok, maybe not that long, but humans have always created deeper meaning and understanding through story telling.

Think about it. How powerful are the bad stories? POWERFUL! But good birth stories work too. So when did you last read one? Did you know that they exist?!

Positive birth stories and in particular Hypnobirthing Stories are another form of inner mental rehearsal and creativity within your hypnobirthing. It helps create more light bulb moments!

I’m often told how a birth story magically hit a chord. Maybe something changes in my client’s birth plan and a story I’ve shared comes to mind:

• How someone coped or managed change
• How an affirmation transformed a mind
• How someone adapted their hypnosis for the situation
• And how someone proved everyone wrong and birthed their baby despite no one believing they could!

You can read my client’s read lots of my clients good birth stories here. Choose from cesarean sections, inductions, home births and accidental free births!

13. Birth Plan

You NEED a birth plan. Here’s why:

How many labouring people do you think your average midwife has helped this week? Or just today? And all those pregnant peeps have been different. They have all had different hopes & dreams. Different personalities and different like and dislikes.

So how will a midwife who’s meeting you for the first time know who you are – FAST?

Your birth plan! (Or birth preferences as I prefer to call it)

Your birth plan is a window into who you are. What matters to you and your preferences. So write a list of what you do want and what you don’t want. Bullet point it. Paragraphs of text can’t be read fast! Be sure to include how you feel about:

• pain relief options
• student midwives (yes or no)
• delayed cord clamping
• who you’d like to catch baby (if not the midwife)
• skin to skin
• breastfeeding
• vitamin k
• placenta (keeping it/donating it)

And all the other things like hypnobirthing, comfort measures, mobile labour, monitoring, water. Even baby’s first outfit if a general anaesthetic c-section is on the cards. I could go on! Your hypnobirthing teacher will talk you through this!

14. Pelvic Floor Exercises

Also known as Kegel exercises these muscular exercises help to rebuild strength that is lost in the pelvic floor during pregnancy and birth. Multiple studies have shown that pelvic exercises improve strength, continence and sexual function. A randomised study of 301 pregnant women at Trondheim University Hospital concluded that “Women randomised to pelvic floor muscle training had a lower rate of prolonged second stage labour” and pelvic floor exercises are “associated with fewer cases of active pushing in the second stage of labour lasting longer than 60 minutes”.

15. Perineal Massage

From 34 weeks the body starts producing the hormone relaxin which helps the body soften and stretch during birth. So start your perineal massage anytime after 34 weeks. And as always, ask your midwife if you are in any doubt. Why do perineal massage? It helps to soften the perineum in advance of labour and reduces the chance of tearing! A slow birth, breathing your baby down (rather than coached pushing) and avoiding interventions such as epidural or forceps also helps. Here’s a handy NHS guide on how to do perineal massage but we will cover this in your Autonomous Hypnobirthing course as well.

​When to do your Hypnobirthing practice

Getting your practice done is KEY to hypnobirthing confidence. Read my Full Guide to getting your Hypnobirthing Practice done. You’ll know when to start each each technique, how often to practice, how regularly and how to make it easy on yourself!: How Often to Practice Hypnobirthing.

But here’s a super quick ‘Hypnobirthing Practice – what – when – Guide’

Practice Daily:

• Up Breathing
• Down Breathing
• Pelvic Floor exercises
• Hypnobirthing affirmations
• Progressive muscle relaxation

Practice 1-3 times Weekly:

• Hypnosis or Hypnobirthing MP3
• Hypnobirthing Scripts
• Glove Anaesthesia Hypnosis 
• Perineal massage (from 34 weeks)

Practice As & When: 

• Fear release script
• Hypnobirthing Affirmation MP3
• Good birth stories
• Good birth films on youtube

Conclusion

Whether you teach yourself hypnobirthing or do a course;

Remember:

1. You don’t have to learn all my techniques. Focus on what you find most helpful.
2. Different Hypnobirthing techniques do different things, so do your research and decide what is useful for you.
3. Practice regularly and your techniques feel natural and automagtic
4. It’s a lot, so remember that some techniques can be left towards the end of pregnancy. 
5. Use your teacher for help. If you’ve paid someone for a course (in person or digital) get your monies worth!

Next read my guide – How often to Practice Hypnobirthing