Course Outline

The Positive Birth Program by Hypnobirthing Australia™ will cover:

Unit 1: Creating and Maintaining a Positive Mindset

  • Introduction to the positive mindset of hypnobirthing
  • How our brain is wired to birth
  • The role of our caregivers
  • Mind/body connection
  • What is self-hypnosis and how will we use it for birthing?
  • Our hormones are our friends
  • My amazing uterus- understanding the physiology behind birthing
  • Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome
  • Causes of fear (including history) and how it affects our labour
  • Re-programming the subconscious
  • The language for empowered birthing
  • The power of affirmations
  • Birthing environment

 Unit 2: our toolkit for birth

  • Self-hypnosis tracks
  • Birth music
  • Conditioning with scent
  • Hypnotic anchors and triggers
  • Releasing endorphins through massage and touch
  • Acupressure techniques for pregnancy, birth & breastfeeding
  • Visualisations for pregnancy, labour & birthing
  • The importance of facial relaxation
  • Relaxation breathing- a skill for life
  • Surge breathing- the best tool ever!
  • Techniques to help make your surges more comfortable
  • The ‘urge’ to push/bear down- breathing/bearing down

Unit 3: Preparation & Choices for empowered birthing

  • Bonding with baby
  • Choices in maternity care
  • Birth preferences- having open communication with your caregivers
  • Knowledge is power- researching common interventions and procedures
  • Questions to ask to assist in making informed decisions
  • ‘Guess date’- a normal range of pregnancy
  • Inductions- things you’re not always told
  • Achieving a natural start to labour
  • Maintaining a healthy diet
  • Preparing the body- staying active
  • Optimising baby’s position
  • Breech or posterior- options & positions
  • Instant relaxation techniques
  • Self-hypnosis, meditation and deep relaxation techniques & scripts

Unit 4: Birth- bringing it all together

  • What to expect in the weeks and days leading up to birth
  • Signs that labour is starting
  • What to expect through labour (membranes releasing etc)
  • When to call the midwife/ go to the hospital
  • Accidental home/ car birth- what to do!
  • Birth partner’s role
  • Common procedures
  • Using water during labour and birth
  • Upright positioning, movement and birth positions
  • Special circumstances (including caesarean birth)
  • Fear release
  • Vocalisation
  • Delayed cord clamping & placenta delivery
  • Undisturbed bonding/breastfeeding time- skin to skin
  • What to expect afterwards
  • Self-hypnosis- rehearsal for birth
  • A practice routine- preparation for birth!