Preggie Pals
Childbirth Preparation Methods: Hypnobabies

Please be advised, this transcription was performed from a company independent of New Mommy Media, LLC. As such, translation was required which may alter the accuracy of the transcription.

[Theme Music]

Sunny Gault: Today’s expecting mothers are much more proactive in their approach to childbirth preparation. And this is one of the reasons hypnobabies classes have become so popular. This technique teaches you how your pregnancy and birthing choices will affect your baby’s health, your own birthing experience and the bond you’ll share with your baby.
Today, our special guest expert is Cassie Friesen, and she is a hypnobaby’s mom instructor.
This is Preggie Pals, episode 40.

[Theme Music/Intro]

Sunny Gault: Welcome to Preggie Pals, broadcasting from the Birth Education Center in San Diego, I’m your host, Sunny Gault. If you haven’t joined our Preggie Pals Club, now is the time, in addition to our archived episodes, bonus material after every new show, bonus and discounts. Our members now receive a free one-year subscription to Pregnancy Magazine. And we’re very excited about our new partnership. For more information, visit our website, preggiepals.com, and, after you join our club and get your free subscription, download the most recent issue of Pregnancy Magazine to see our full page ad. OK! We have got myself and one other pregnant mama in the studio, Rachel. Rachel, go ahead and introduce yourself.

Rachel Gonzales: I’m Rachel Adam Gonzales. I am twenty-nine. And a product consultant for Deltero Oil Essentials. I’m due April 10th, and I’m having a girl this time. I have a little boy, who will be three just before I’m due. And I had an un-medicated birth center water birth with him, and we’re planning a home birth this time around.

Sunny Gault: OK. And I know you’ve tried different childbirth preparation methods in the past. What are the ones you’ve already tried already?

Rachel Gonzales: Bradley and Birthing from Within, and I have several friends who’ve had huge success with hypnobabies, and all of them have had Hospital births and medicated Hospital births, so I am very curious to see if this is, maybe, my next venture before this baby comes.

Sunny Gault: OK. Well, thanks for joining us, Rachel, we’ll be right bight.

[Theme music][Featured Segments: Prenatal Fitness Tips]

Sunny Gault: Before we begin today’s show, here are prenatal fitness steps from Lisa Druxman, stroller tides.

Lisa Druxman: Hi, Preggie Pals, I’m Lisa Druxman, Chief Founding Mom at Stroller Strides, where it’s fun to get fit, have a great time with you baby, meet other new moms, and I am here to answer to your prenatal fitness questions and to give you prenatal fitness tips.
So today I wanna talk about how your body actually physically, anatomically changes with pregnancy and how your workout should, too.
So let’s start at the top. What happens is that your head starts to move forward. Take a look at your body right now; it might actually already be happening. And you get this forward neck position. As your breasts increase in size, that’s gonna pull your shoulders forward, so your pectorals or your chest muscles will shorten and your back muscles get stretched out, and you kind of get hunched over-looking. And then, certainly, as your belly starts to grow, and the uterus starts to grow, it’s gonna pull your abs forward, and your back forward, and kind of get that sway back. And, again, it’s kind of like a chain that happens: your hips, your actual hipbones are going to also tilt forward, so all of this really gets you out of alignment, and what you want to think about is that your workout should address these things; so, if you have a tight chest, then, what do you want to do? You don’t want to do lots of push-ups. You wanna be stretching that chest, and you wanna do great upper-back exercises. I love to do exercises for upper back, do rows, really-really wonderful stuff.
You want to be working your core as much as you can, so, whether you’re planking or doing standing up exercises, that you’re maintaining that strength, and then certainly exercises like pelvic tilts will help you get your pelvis back into neutral.
So it’s really important that you exercise throughout your pregnancy, but even more important, or as important, is that you make sure your workout is adjusting to what going on with your body, because you don’t actually make those changes, then your body’s going to stay like that. And I don’t think any of us want that. So think about it from the top to the bottom, bringing your head back, bringing your shoulders back and opening up your chest. Bringing in that core, and keeping your hips in neutral.
Thanks for listening to today’s tip and be sure to listen to Preggie Pals for more great pregnancy fitness tips.

[Theme music]

Sunny Gault: Today we’re continuing our series on childbirth preparation methods. Cassie Friesen is joining us over the phone; Cassie is a hypnobabies Mom turned hypnobabies instructor. Cassie, welcome to Preggie Pals!

Cassie Friesen: Thank you for having me, Sunny Gault.’

Sunny Gault: Sure, absolutely, and I love that you’re a mom turned instructor. So you practice what you preach. Right?

Cassie Friesen: You’re right. It’s the only other option after the birth I had.

Sunny Gault: Well let’s start from the beginning. Tell me a little bit more about what hypnobabies is.

Cassie Friesen: The Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis is a complete natural childbirth education program, but it also teaches self-hypnosis technique to expecting mamas, and, in addition, it thoroughly prepares the birth partners to assist the mother during child birth. I’d say that it was really founded with the goal of helping women to get birth and comfort joy and love.

Sunny Gault: Well, that sounds good. You know, when I think of hypnobabies, I think of hypnosis, I think of hypnobirthing, so what would you say is the big difference between hypnobabies and hypnobirthing?

Cassie Friesen: Hypnobirthing has a lot of different hypnoses for childbirth classes out there, and we really appreciate and respect them because they’ve helped women feel much better, much more relaxed on birth. And so I can definitely tell some of the unique features of hypnobabies, and one of them is a type of anesthesia that we use. So we use medical hypnotic anesthesia techniques, and it is the same kind that people undergo in surgery who are allergic to anesthesia will use. And we train with them, and it gets them into a very powerful somnambulistic hypnosis state, and that really changes their belief system that they’re physiologically responding to those contractions, differently than they would be if they wouldn’t be using this type of hypnosis.
As opposed to guided medication or visualization, we’re really getting to the core of the belief system. That’s one really huge thing, and I opened Childbirth Hypnosis as another enormous component of Hypnobabies. We our mamas up and moving around, we don’t them just sitting in one position. It helps to have easier and faster birth if the mom is moving into the position that her baby needs her to. So a massive train and build upon the hypnosis so that they’re eventually able to walk, talk and move around while meeting in the hypnosis and be completely comfortable.

Sunny Gault: When we talk about hypnosis, and we actually talked a little bit in our hypnobirthing episode, we’re not talking about someone completely going under, because we have these images of hypnosis. Can you kind of explain a little bit more about the type of hypnosis women undergo with Hypnobabies?

Cassie Friesen: Certainly. All hypnosis is self-induced. So we come to hypnobabies classes for really teaching you how to use this tool for yourself. The mom is always in charge, when she goes in hypnosis, when she comes out of hypnosis, and which suggestion she uses to accept or not accept.

Sunny Gault: So this may seem like a silly question, but how do you hypnotize yourself. Is it easier for certain people to do this, or harder for others?

Cassie Friesen: Almost everyone can be hypnotized, so, unless their using drugs or mentally altered in some way, then they can be hypnotized. So it’s just the power of your mind, we’re in a state of hypnosis every day, when we’re driving on the highway, and you’re missing your Exit, or automatically getting home and not remembering those last few minutes.

Sunny Gault: It’s kind of scary, isn’t it? This happens to me all the time!

Cassie Friesen: It’s such a natural state of mind, basically when that conscious critical faculty shuts down, your subconscious can take over, like an autopilot, that’s kind of the most simple way to think of it. It’s like letting your conscious mind take a rest, and let that subconscious do all the work.

Sunny Gault: How does hypnobabies help during labor and delivery?

Cassie Friesen: That is a fantastic question; I could go on for hours on that subject. I think that we do really see a lot of shorter, faster, and more comfortable birth with less interventions and better birth outcomes for mom and baby, and that’s because these women are training to relax their muscles automatically. So the moment they feel that contraction coming on, their whole body relaxes, so there’s no fighting during the process. And they’ve also been training to release that fear, so that they don’t get to that fear of pain enduring cycle. During the labor process we have this ear training CD that women can sit on it anytime they want and they’ve been using it throughout their training. So, in labor, if a mom finds out she is only 2 cm dilated, and she’d be discouraged by that, she could put on that ear training CD and she could release that fear, not creating tension, not creating pain.
So one of my favorite scripts and techniques that we have in this class is actually called “The change of plans” script, so we have this really great outcome, so we know that no birth, no two births are the same. We don’t expect them to look like any other birth. We really want to celebrate the unique birth journey that every mom and baby take. “The change of plan” script allows the mom to become a part of the process, if a new change of plans takes place. And this can be as simple as a cesarean, so it can be used for any type of situation our mom has on her plan and things are going differently. And, as far as it is not an emergency, she can kick everyone out of the room, and the partner or the doula can just take a moment, and read the script to her, and it aids in becoming a part of the next experience. Maintain a very positive feel and I don’t want them to feel that loss of control if her original plan changed.

Sunny Gault : So it allows them to adapt a little bit better to the current situation.

Cassie Friesen: Yes, certainly. And that’s just to make sure your over through postpartum, bonding and breastfeeding; they do not have to process the grief in quite the same way as long as you have those tool.

Sunny Gault: Now, can hypnobabies be used in conjunction with other childbirth preparation techniques? Actually, Rachel, you’ve done this in the past. You’ve used a little bit of one, you’ve used a little bit of the other. Do you see benefit, you know, Cassie, in being able to do that with hypnobabies and another method?

Cassie Friesen: Actually, the original hypnobabies program, allowed women to go ahead and take Hospital childbirth prep class, in addition that they weren’t seeing great results with that combination. And the reason is that your mind has to choose the belief systems. And we’re teaching chain elimination tactics at hypnobabies childbirth hypnosis. There are options in pain coping. So you’re coming to a class, and you’re learning how your birth’s going to be so much easier and more comfortable, and you’re going to enjoy your pregnancy. And then you’re going to another class, and you’re gonna be told “This is how you’re going to deal with your pain that you are going to experience”, your mind has to pick one, and it’s a chance it can’t believe in both of them. It’s going to pick the scarier one to prepare for it. It’s just a way to undermine the belief system you’re trying to create. So what we do is that we talk to the mom before we sign her up for a class, and we really want her to find the right fit. So I think that combining the childbirth method, then I’ll send them to some of my friend to teach them other childbirth methods, and to pick the right class for them.

Sunny Gault: What is needed to be successful at hypnobabies? What would you say for the women that are successful at doing this, what would you say is the reason?

Cassie Friesen: The first reason is that we believe every woman is successful with this birth experience, because we have worked all the way through the preparation process with always saying that their birth and their body and their baby is going to have experienced the pain at some level, regardless of how that specifically would. But all that they need is the willingness to fully embrace the birth, it will be much easier and more comfortable (min. 13:34)

Sunny Gault: Alright, well, thank you, Cassie! When we come back we’re gonna learn what to expect should you decide to take a Hypnobaby’s class. We’ll be right back.

[Theme Music]

Sunny Gault: Welcome back, today we’re continuing our series on childbirth preparation methods. This week we are talking about hypnobabies, and our guest expert is Cassie Friesen. She is a Hypnobabies calling us from Denver, the Denver-Colorado Area. So we in the first half talked more of an overview of what Hypnobabies is, and in the second half we want to talk more about the classes and what to expect. So, Cassie, what do we need about Hypnobabies. Do they have different classes?

Cassie Friesen: One of the things I really appreciate about hypnobabies is the structure of it. If you sign up for my class, if you sign up for a class in California, the experts being from anywhere, you’ll get the exact same information. So I always feel confident sending students away if my class is full, because I know that they’re going to get the same quality, no matter which instructor they sign up to.

Rachel Gonzales: So talking about birthing from within is really good for people that are dealing with some kind of trauma that they need to work through to birth. So does hypnobabies provide something for a similar situation?

Cassie Friesen: If you go to hypnobabies.com, they sell a variety of CDs that you can purchase for your unique situation. So there are twin CDs, there are breach CDs, there are “B-back” Success CDs, a whole lot more than that. What we can do is just incorporate those in to the set curricula. Right now I’m teaching a pregnant mother with twins, and so we’re just purchasing this twin-information, and we just can tweak that a little bit in the program to be easy to incorporate that. And about the trauma, I would say that we always encourage them to seek professional help that they’re comfortable with, but the CDs help a lot with that. If a mom feels that she has a lot of fears, she can start doing that starting with the third week, and in the end of the class, we just want to make sure that her hypnosis, she feels comfortable with it already before inducing that. She can really start working on most of her fears.

Rachel Gonzales: I have heard such great stories or experiences on using that specific CD, for fear clearing. One of my friends went in to labor four weeks early, and that was got her to early labor, she had a perfectly healthy, happy un-medicated delivery, but that fear of “I’m going into labor in thirty-six weeks” got her through it.

Sunny Gault: Cassie, at what point in a woman’s pregnancy should she start taking hypnobabies classes? Is there a time? Do you want it closer to the childbirth time just to retain the material, or what is your bias on that?

Cassie Friesen: We believe at Hypnobabies that the setup is you’re practicing every day. About thirty minutes a day; so when a mom wants to sign up to the class, we talk to her about when is the right time for her. So generally women sign up between twenty to thirty two weeks, we can’t accept past thirty-five weeks up to the latest ideally for maintaining the program, cycling through all the CDs and materials that they’ve been using, but you can sign up as early as you want, as long as you learn that after the class ends you still need to maintain the program about thirty minutes a day up until your baby comes.

Sunny Gault: Let’s walk through what a typical class it’s like. Tell us what happens.

Cassie Friesen: Sure, well everyone gathers and we all go to through how any questions have come up over the last week, we discuss what we call home play, because it is part of the work, and get all the questions out, just come together for an exercise to clear our mind, release the trouble of the day and be pleasant together. First component of the class is generally more of the childbirth education, part, and towards the end of class we introduce the next level of hypnosis that we’ll be doing, and then we end class with a thirty minute instructor script. And the moms participate in that by relaxing fully, while the birth partners sometimes will be participating actively in the script, and sometimes they will be lying down or relaxing.

Sunny Gault: Does each class vary, or is that pretty much the set up for each class?

Cassie Friesen: It’s pretty much the set up for each class.

Sunny Gault: And how involved or how important is it that partners get involved with these classes?

Cassie Friesen: If a mom is going to have a partner who is participating in the birth itself, we really strongly encourage her to bring her partner to the class, because we’d love her partner to share in the philosophy and the techniques; and ideally the partner is reading the script for the mom every other night, three nights in a week. That should bring the partner into the process, much more fully it helps them to bond with mom and the baby and really they get it a lot sooner instead of opening their eyes and saying “O my God, this is what I am working for”, they start processing that a lot sooner because of this program. And then it all comes together in the last class for the birth partner, because they get to see what their role looks like during the birthing time, the mom gets to practice all of the hypnosis techniques, that she’s been using, as well. The birth partner we guide them in using their special use to help mom in supporting her during her birthing.

Sunny Gault: What if a partner isn’t available? How successful can moms be if they have to read the affirmations to the themselves? What advice do you have for women that are pretty much doing this on their own?

Cassie Friesen: They’re 100% successful for women who do not have a partner or women who have a partner, or don’t want to participate, or travel a lot. All they need to do is let the instructor know how to time so we can get them the appropriate CDs that are the substitute for the scripts that they’d normal be using.

Sunny Gault: Are there reading materials, CDs, whatever, for partners that are traveling a lot, like my husband?

Cassie Friesen: We actually have a lot of clients that have ended up in this situation they’ll do Skype sessions together. So the first partner has their own script partner guide book, and they have their own CD, so they’re really quick in this class, we really treat them with a lot of importance, because they’re travelling and they want to, and we really encourage that. The main reason is that we want moms practicing. So that by the time she’ll be giving birth, when her partner goes to touch her or use the verbal prompt, that she relaxes instantly to that and it’s not the first time her birth partner says “Relax”, and she says “I don’t want to relax!” because she hasn’t heard the prompt the first time. Them practicing throughout the program it really just automatically sets it up so that when she’s in the birthing time she is relaxing.

Sunny Gault: How long for the class? is it six weeks?

Cassie Friesen: Yes, it’s six weeks for the wives’ class, we have a home study option if the wives’ class isn’t available, and that’s five weeks.

Sunny Gault: OK. I see. And then for the six weeks class, how long is each session, each class?

Cassie Friesen: Each session lasts three to three and a half hour, depending on the instructor and how much time they’re scheduled.

Sunny Gault: OK and those are consecutive weeks, right, that you want to take this class.

Cassie Friesen: Yeah, six weeks and making sure that you’ve finished ideally by thirty-nine weeks with the program that you have. If the mom should choose to take it earlier, I feel like they’ll take a lot out of the nutrition components, and learn more about that junior. The mom, she’ll like to wait until close to their expected due date, it might make them feel more secure like they not gonna fall off the van wagon without the instructor.

Sunny Gault: What would you say to the women that are listening to the show, that are kind of weighing their child birth options and what method they want to use, what would you say for those that are considering hypnobabies?

Cassie Friesen: I would say it’s not the class for everyone; it’s a lot of work. If you’re going to come and crush at the class course, then you should run in the opposite direction. Not this class. But if you’re really wanting something transformational, not just for a birth experience, but for life, really looking at a grip of a much more positive way and looking to apply these techniques outside the birth experience, it can be a life changing event. It’s effortful, but it’s the most wonderful easy work you could possibly do. We’re asking you to take thirty minutes out of your day, every day, and relax in the deepest relaxation physically possible, and just focus on these positive methods through your pregnancy and your child birth.

Sunny Gault: It just sounds so relaxing; as I’m listening to you I’m like “I think we should do this every day in life”. I could use these affirmations daily, just for whatever in life, right?

Cassie Friesen: Yes, it is true. I had to withdraw after I gave birth, I've had students email me saying, “What else is there?” If you go on hypnobabies.com, they sell breastfeeding CDs or new parents CDs, and you can still enjoy the hypnobabies technique even after the baby comes.

Sunny Gault: OK, great. That’s a good point. In other additional resources you would recommend. Because I know we just touched on it very briefly today, but if people want to do more research on hypnobabies, are there sites that you would recommend, or books; or what are your thoughts?

Cassie Friesen: I would absolutely recommend the official hypnobabies.com website and you can look at the unique benefits for hypnobabies in the list use, it’s very long, a completely comprehensive course, because it has a lot more detail. We also have the home study option and many instructors ask for what is called a home studies advantage sessions, if a mom did opt for a home study, then she can contact an instructor and come to her house and do about a two hour instructor lead session. So that’s an option, so like I said, moms who don't have birth partners participating they can just let the instructor know and we could get them the CDs, there are a lot of ways to make this program work for a mom in whatever situation she finds herself. And I also say go to hypnobabies.com and find there their birth stories; just read those, they’re such positive birth experiences. They don’t anything like one another. They all have their own unique and beautiful birth journeys, and then there’s the Youtube hypnobabies channel, where you can actually see how amazing this technique is, and what it looks like to watch a woman in hypnosis and giving birth.

Sunny Gault: That’s great. OK. Thank you, Cassie for joining us today. I know you mentioned the birth stories, and I want to let you guys know that our conversation will continue for members of our Preggie Pals Club.
After the show, Cassie’s going to tell us about her personal experience, her birth story using hypnobabies. So, if you’re a member, be sure to check that out. If you want more information about our membership, go ahead and visit our website, at preggiepals.com.

[Theme music][Featured Segments: Pregnancy Tips for the Clueless Chick]

Sunny Gault: Before we wrap today’s show, here is Jennifer Durban with some pregnancy tips for the clueless chick.

Jennifer Durban: Hi, I’m Jennifer Durban, the author of Pregnancy Tips for the Clueless Chick, and the mother of two wonderful little boys; I’d love to share with you my tips and tricks for saving a few bucks on the maternity clothes while still looking stylishly fashionable.
Shopping for cute trendy maternity clothes is so much fun, and you’ll be amazed on what you can find to show off your bump in every price range. But a word of caution: don’t buy too much too soon, you never know if you’re going to carry the baby high or low, if you’re going to gain weight everywhere, or just look like you’re carrying a cute little basketball. And all of these things greatly impact the type of measurements you’ll be most comfortable in. When you start to show and can no longer button your pants, which usually happens around week 12, the are four easy steps to extend the life of your wardrobe: 1) run a rubber band through the front button holes of your pants and move both ends of the rubber band around the button; 2) purchase a belly band or similar product that allows to leave your pants or skirt unbuttoned, or even slightly unlift; 3) zip your skirt up half way and use a safety pin or two to attach it at the top and 4) avoid anything with a defined waist. And if you’re expecting or planning for baby number two, before one that you’re much likely to start showing much earlier than in your first pregnancy, so be ready. When it comes time to transition to maternity close, check out your local maternity boutique and confinement shop in addition to the countless online retailers. But don’t forget to borrow key-pieces from your girlfriend, such you’ll be only wearing maternity clothes for a short time, you’ll likely be able to resell your nicer piece, which of course means you can justify buying those fabulous designer maternity jeans.
For even more tips, visit cluelesschick.com.

[Theme music]

Sunny Gault: That’s it for today’s episode. If you have any questions for today’s show, or if you have questions for any of our experts, please call the Preggie Pals hotline: 6198664775; and we’ll answer your question in an upcoming episode. Thanks for listening to Preggie Pals. Your pregnancy, your way.

[Disclaimer]

This has been a New Mommy Media production. Information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. Though information in which areas are related to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional, Medical or advisor care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating health care problem or disease or prescribing any medications. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified health care provider.

[End of Audio]

[00:29:42]