calm birth - classes vs self teaching

hello

sorry to start yet another thread about hypno/calm birthing, but i am wanting to ask advice to those who have studied it.... i was planning on doing a two day course however am now toying with getting a book and cd's and trying to learn it myself as this would be a lot more practical for me...

would like to hear from anyone who has done either and what your thoughts are... is it possible to get close to or as much out of self teaching as you would doing the course with a proper instructor?

any recommendations for books/cd's? any thoughts in general at all appreciated - i need all the help i can get for my vbac :)

thanks in advance ;)

Personally for me, calmbirth classes were the best part. I bonded with my group and my teacher was fantastic. Im sure I couldn't have got the same understanding without having a teacher to talk me through it. But it would be possible to do it from home, but if you can get to the course, I recommend it! xo

Hi there,

I don't know anything about hypno-birthing but we attended Peter Jackson's calmbirth course in Bowral last weekend and it changed my whole perspective on birthing our baby. If you have any doubts, fears or uncertainties at all I would recommend attending the course as Peter is happy to talk about whatever you need to and you benefit from the stories and questions provided by the rest of the group.

More than anything I found that the experience improved the attitude and approach of my partner who is now more excited than I am and has a clear understanding of what we want to achieve and why.

If you are limited by time/travel/expenses, then I feel it would certainly be possible to achieve results at home, but it would depend on what your state of mind is in relation to childbirth. For me, I really needed to have all that fear and hesitancy wiped out for the tools to actually work, so in that case the classes were essential as they provided the right mindset for practice at home. I'm also unsure of whether the calmbirth resource kit is available without having attended the class.

Either way I can highly recommend the calmbirth experience. Obviously I am not yet sure of the impact it will have on my labour and birth but it has dramatically changed our attitude, confidence, understanding and enjoyment as we prepare for our first arrival.

doing the class and having DH there made all the difference - yep, you could probably teach yourself how to relax, how to breathe, how to "escape" - but i found the most helpful thing was having DH there learning the same thing - it meant he could properly support me throughout a rather trying labour and birth. everyone learns differently, and i know my DH would have taken bugger all on board if we'd done it at home - not cos he didn't want to, but due to work commitments, and the constant distractions of stuff to do at home... at the course, it was all about the calmbirth - and was a great relaxing experience after the stress of bushfires at home the week before (our yard was burnt it was that close) and the black saturday fires impacting family that day

I think the course itself really helps. We got the Mongan Method book to read as well and in conjunction it was great. The thing with the class is your partner learning techniques to help you and to help you go to "your place". We did a refresher course when I was pg with Elijah and it was so good and I think even better second time around. I found myself trusting myself more and really found my place better. I remember feeling by myself but not alone. I was really in me and it was fabulous.

thank you, i am convinced it would be best for me to do the course.... particularly after checking out the delivery ward of the hospital last week it sent me into panic....
i did have an instructor i had planned on doing it with who came highly recommended however i have not heard back from her as yet. briggy's girl who did you do the course with, as i am also in gippsland.

thanks everyoen

i travelled to narre warren for a weekend and did the course with Michelle. google gentle beginnings and it's the first site to come up - she was awesome. we'd been talking before the course (was on black saturday weekend) and our place was under threat from fires the weekend before - she rang to give me some coping techniques before we even did the course!