The Bean Birth Plan: Part 1

*For some unknown reason, blogger completely and utterly jacked-up the formatting on my post. Therefore, I've taken what I'd written after the information from the Hypnobirthing website and included it in another post.

Throughout my pregnancy I have been taking mental notes on type of birthing experience I would like to have with the bean. I have read a number of books on the subject, I've spoken with my experienced friends and mom. watched movies on the subject, and just explored. Basically, I've been a sponge. Not a dirty stinky one after nearly 7 months of taking it all in, but instead a happy, organic one with a cutie design on the top. Yeah, that's me.

As we are quickly approaching our bean's birthday and the hubby and I have completed our childbirth preparation class from our hospital, it's time we come up with a serious plan. The plan is...we need more preparation! Well, that's actually only one of the things we need. I went into the childbirth prep class not really expecting anything, but at the same time hoping for some strategies/methods/skills...whathaveyou, to help me go through labor in the best way possible for me. But, we didn't really get more than 20 minutes of this in 8 hours of class. I was also really hoping the instructor would have some information or experience with women that utilized hypnobirthing. Alas, when we started off our class with  introductions and questions, (mine being about hypnobirthing), the instructor gave me a blank stare. She said she'd look into it, but she never really brought it up again throughout our two classes. Oh well.

By the time we attended our class through the hospital, I'd already done some research and found the Hypnobirthing website. After reading, I felt good about that method and decided it was something I could seriously take on. The hubby has been extremely supportive of this idea as well. Love him.

Here's a portion of the description as found on the Hypnobirthing website:

"HypnoBirthing® - The Mongan Method is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. The concept of HypnoBirthing® is not new, but rather a "rebirth" of the philosophy of birthing as it existed thousands of years ago and as it was recaptured in the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, an English obstetrician, who, in the 1920s, was one of the first to forward the concept of natural birthing. The method teaches you that, in the absence of fear and tension, or special medical circumstances, severe pain does not have to be an accompaniment of labor.

You will gain an understanding of how the birthing muscles work in perfect harmony--as they were designed to--when your body is sufficiently relaxed and you trust birth. You will learn how to achieve this kind of relaxation, free of the resistance that fear creates, and you will learn to use your natural birthing instincts for a calm, serene and comfortable birth. 

When you have your baby with HypnoBirthing®, you will not be in a trance or a sleep. What you will experience is similar to the daydreaming, or focusing, that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire.

You will be conversant and in good spirits--totally relaxed, but fully in control. Awake throughout, you will be aware of your body's surges and your baby's progress; but because you will have trained yourself to reach complete relaxation, you will be able to determine the degree and the manner in which you will feel the surges. You will experience birthing in an atmosphere of calm relaxation, free of the fear that prevents the muscles of your body from functioning as nature intended them to. In this calm state, your body's natural relaxant, endorphins, replaces the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain."

Look for Part 2 of this post- what we've decided to do.