What is Hypnobabies?
Hypnobabies is a method of childbirth preparation that allows you to re-train your mind to experience pain as pressure, on command, eliminating fear and pain during childbirth (and pregnancy). Hypnobabies uses the same techniques employed by those who are unable to use anesthesia during surgery and must rely instead on medical-grade hypnotic anesthesia techniques. It is highly effective and easy to learn. Hypnobabies also includes a complete childbirth education class with information ranging from exercise and nutrition in pregnancy to the stages of labor and potential interventions.
It works like this: you retrain your brain to believe that you have a lightswitch on the back of your head. It sounds goofy, I know but stay with me. If the lightswitch is ON, you are out of hypnosis. Nothing doing. If the lightswitch is OFF your body is completely limp and relaxed and you cannot feel any pain anywhere in your body. Your heart still beats, you continue to breathe but if someone pinched you, it wouldn't hurt - you might feel discomfort but it wouldn't be painful. If the lightswitch is in CENTER, you have full range of movement, you can talk and move around as you like however you can't feel any pain between your knees and your armpits and you feel totally relaxed and happy. You also learn some special words that you (and your birth partner) can use to instantly turn your switch off or deepen your relaxation if you are already in hypnosis. With these tools (and others included in the training) you will learn how to be completely relaxed through the birth of your child. You will be able to talk and move around and be totally present but you won't feel any pain. They call this "eyes open hypnosis". It is so simple to learn how to do and it is amazingly effective.
Hypnobabies is available as an in-person class or a homestudy course. I did the homestudy course with both of my pregnancies. They say you can do it in 5 weeks but I know my propensity to get too busy to do things so I took 10 weeks (maybe more) to do it both times. The class consists of some light reading (an hour a week, for 5 weeks, at most) plus every day you have to listen to 2 half hour audio tracks. One you can listen to while you do other stuff - like get ready for work or wash dishes or workout at the gym. The other one you need to listen to in a relaxed and fully supported position. Like when you are going to bed at night. That's when I listened to it almost exclusively. I turned it on and fell fast asleep. Who can't do that? I hardly ever heard a word that was said, as far as my conscious mind is aware anyway. But it worked perfectly, so my inner mind seemed to have heard it loud and clear.
What's the difference between Hypnobirthing and Hypnobabies?
I have not done Hypnobirthing but I can speak from my research. There are a lot of differences between the two. In my opinion, Hypnobabies is a much more complete offering. It offers childbirth education, solid techniques and props to fall back on like recordings of scripts that you can use during your birth. Hypnobabies was actually created by a Hypnobirthing instructor who felt the program was lacking. Click here for more comprehensive comparisons: Hypnobirthing vs. Hypnobabies