Bella: Ive had a couple of Hypnobirthing clients in the past (especially early on in my first births) where it completely fell apart as they thought they would feel no pain. They are stuck because they have no back-up plan in their heads, it was just not going to hurt. So it was incredibly hard to work with mentally and physically - I wasnt trained in hypnobirthing and had to use my normal language and skills to try and bring things back down. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I always tell my clients, if you want to learn hypnobirthing, great, but also do your normal birth classes too (I recommend a handful) so if hypnobirthing isnt going to work for them, they have a back-up plan. You cant go wrong having a swag of tools in your toolbox. So I see what you're saying there.
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But there definitely is something to the fear/tension/pain cycle. With my first homebirth, I was a little bit nervous about how it would all go. I was not as relaxed as I could/should have been, and I think that was a factor there. After having my first two babies in 7 hours from first contraction to baby out, it took me 12 hours to get past 4cm with my first home birth. I became pretty tired and discouraged after working all day for "nothing". When labour really got started, and I finally progressed past 4cm, it went pretty quickly, and I was in the bath as fast as I could be. I definitely recommend using water in labour to anyone! I'd say nothing beats it for helping you relax during and between contractions. But I still came to a point where if someone offered me drugs, I would have taken them! And at transition, I was certainly feeling like I couldn't do it anymore, and I wanted to just be done. That's when you need a good support person at your side to tell you you CAN do it, you ARE doing it, and you're almost done. 
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