Birth visualisation during pregnancy and childbirth
My key hypnobirthing audio track 'Birth Preparation' is vital for visualising your baby's positive birth during pregnancy, but there are other ways to use visualisation too, both during pregnancy and birth...
Absorbing positive birth images, affirmations and videos over the months and weeks of pregnancy nurtures a powerful mental 'blueprint'. We have a lifetime of birth negativity to overcome.
This is nothing new; birth art can be found all over the world from many time periods. The two pictures below are ancient Egyptian, and contemporary (Amy Haderer)
The picture below (from birth in the squatting position, 1989) caused one of my doula mums to physically recoil in horror! She knew that she had to overcome her fear of crowning and with my advice printed and stuck this image up in her bathroom. She also thought to herself "I'm so big, so wide, so open" (especially when doing a poo!) and regularly did perineal massage.
After a short while she was no longer afraid. On the day her daughter crowned with ease - just three expulsive surges from the moment we first saw her head, and her perineum was intact! The smoothest and swiftest 2nd stage I've ever seen...
Hypnobirthing visualisation during birth...
Ruby, who did the online course says:
"I remained calm and imagined my baby floating towards me in a moses basket down a small stream, and every time the contractions got stronger I imagined the waves bringing him closer to me, which made me smile"
Second time mum Sara says:
"I imagined with each contraction that I was blowing up different coloured balloons for my 3 year old’s next birthday party! This took me to a completely different “world” in my head and I really felt my body take over as I was able to release myself from my “thinking brain” (something I struggled to do with the last birth). My husband was surprised that I was pretty silent for the majority of my labour!"
Maybe you could experiment with a few visualisations during your 'practising contractions' or 'affirmations' MP3... Perhaps your birth partner could remind you of these on the day. Some other useful visualisations are below, though the choices are as infinite and varied as our imaginations...
- Imagining the journey of the breath down to your baby - perhaps golden light swirling around your belly
- Breathing in golden / favourite colour air then breathing away tension / stress coloured air
- Imagining your body is opening like a flower
- Visualising the 'mechanics' of birth, e.g. the cervix softening, opening, the uterus muscles
- Imagining your baby is in a basket / papoose out to sea - each wave you can see in the distance represents the contractions that are bringing you closer. You swim / bodyboard / surf up each one, reaching the peak and then down again as it disappears behind you
- Visualise each breath blowing up a beautiful coloured balloon
- Some people just like to imagine enjoying their favourite place in nature - and one mum told me she imagined that lovely feeling of climbing into a comfy warm bed at the end of a busy day
- Imagine meeting your baby to help keep you going... watch 'our hypnobabies' video below ♡