Hypnobirthing

Jeremy and I went to a hypnobirthing orientation class on Friday. I'd decided on pursuing hypnobirthing rather than Lamaze or Bradley based on recommendations from my mom and from Julie, my midwife. I don't know too much about it yet, but it looks fascinating. My cousin, Courtnie, took the same course we're taking as she was told they might not be able to give her an epidural due to her platelet count. She ended up being able to have an epidural anyway, but when I spoke to her about the hypnobirthing, it really interested me.

The instructor told us that hypnobirthing is basically like more advanced Lamaze or Bradley. We watched some video about it, and it was amazing. Dateline NBC had followed a few hypnobirthing couples back in the 90s, and it was intriguing to see their responses to the program. The women had completely natural labors and births, which is what I want ("want" being the key word here. I'm keeping my options open because I still have no idea what to expect!). The kicker for me was that there was a woman in the orientation with us who is about 30 weeks pregnant who works at St. Marks Hospital as a nurse. She was there at the class because of her experience watching the hypnobirthing moms in recovery. Apparently, the recovery is so much easier for them! You could tell she was very impressed.

Anyway, no, it's not voodoo or anything like that, and it's not some "way out there" black magic medicine thing, and the teacher is not a hippie! Basically, the class just teaches deep relaxaion techniques and ways to manage pain, which they don't call "pain" because the word association is enough to make you hurt more than you should. I like the instructor, and I like the idea of having my questions answered by a live person. Plus, it will be fun to meet other couples and hear their questions and concerns. The actual class starts this week. I can't wait. It will be nice to be doing something more "active" in preparation for the baby rather than reading stuff on the internet all day!

Speaking of hypnosis, when I was working at WGU, we had this big company shin-dig at the Marriott downtown. They served us a fancy meal and then for our entertainment, a comedy hypnotist came. I have never laughed so hard in my entire life! It kind of wigged me out that all these people who I knew personally were up on stage acting like complete idiots, but it was so funny. I can't even explain it. If you haven't seen a comedy hypnotist in action, I would recommend it. I wouldn't recommend letting yourself be hypnotized, though! Well, they say you wouldn't ever do something under hypnosis that you wouldn't do when alert (i.e. disrobe or something), but still. The best part of this show was when he convinced the women they were male bodybuilders. Holy crap. So funny.