How Hypnobirthing Helped Me With 3 Drug-Free Births

I was about 20 weeks pregnant with my first child and working as a medical officer in a hospital labour ward, so I was dealing with a lot of pregnant mums. At this time I met this beautiful mum, who was just breathing through the contractions – which they call surges in hypnobirthing terms. Every time she had a contraction, she would just hum, or close her eyes and get into the zone. I couldn’t help but wonder, “What is going on with this woman?” I’d never seen this before.

We dimmed the lights in the room for her, and I stayed at the door just watching her, while monitoring the baby. It was the most fantastic birth; I had never seen a woman not scream during a birth. This was so calm, so natural and I was like, “I want whatever she’s on” for my own birth. Once she had her baby in her arms, I asked her and she showed me this book called Hypnobirthing by Marie Mongan.

Finding hypnobirthing resources in Singapore

After that I went down the rabbit hole, and started looking up hypnobirthing providers in Singapore. Back then in 2010, there weren’t many but I found one and signed up. Honestly, it was the best thing I’ve ever done. I did not want to have a very medicalised birth, and so everything that I did was trying to go as natural, as intuitive as possible and to allow my body to birth the way that it felt like it needed to. So for example, I wanted to be able to move, and I definitely wanted to be at home for as long as I could, as long as things were stable. 

Hypnobirthing is a type of birthing where you're given the information of what birth would look like in a non-fearful way. It's using imagery and understanding of the whole birth process. It's about looking at birth in a more intuitive, non-medicalised way.

Instead of using the word contractions, in hypnobirthing, we use the word surges.

“Contractions” sound painful, uncomfortable, and scary. But if it’s a "surge", it’s like a wave coming in, and then it moves out.

Maybe it's a bit more romanticised, but at the same time, it's removing fear from the equation.

Hypnobirthing is primarily a breathing technique. When you're taking those deep breaths, you're calming your sympathetic nervous system and switching it over to the parasympathetic.

I mean, if you think about stress and fear, it's all cortisol-driven, isn't it? And when you're cortisol-driven, everything just clenches up. Here’s my analogy: it’s like trying to poop when someone's knocking on the door trying to get you to hurry up. It doesn't happen, right?

When you're breathing and you're getting into your zone, you're back in control. You're allowing your body to do what it needs to do, very parasympathetic. When you're breathing and you're holding your breath and exhaling in a way that suits you, you’re getting the cortisol out of your system and letting oxytocin come back in. 

My hypnobirthing experience

When I was about 38 weeks pregnant, I went to my parents’ house after a long shift. I was lounging around with my dad when I started feeling a bit funny. “Dad, I think I’m going into labour,” I said, and then I asked him to go buy me fried rice – I just really felt like I needed it! Then I called my husband and he came over to take me (and the fried rice) back home. After three hours, we went to the hospital and my first child was born.

It was magical and scary at the same time. I had a water birth in a private hospital, with no form of pain relief except for hypnobirthing. I also had a doula present. I was looking at myself, not as a doctor, but as a birthing mum, so I knew I had all the information. But as it was my first time, it was still nerve-racking.

For my second child, I did a refresher course; for my third child, I was given the option of having a home birth. So my home address is on my third child’s birth certificate.

Hypnobirthing is more acceptable, with more resources today

I definitely think hypnobirthing resources are more prevalent today in Singapore than before. Mothers are also more open to the idea of not using pain relief as much, as well as being more open to various forms of birthing, and not just the usual induction and vaginal delivery. At the end of the day, birthing is a very personal choice.

Here at Mother and Child, we run a hypnobirthing course where the focus is on how to look at birth and beyond in a non-fearful way. When I was doing deliveries in my medical career, everything had to be very methodical and systematic, versus getting your body prepped in the way that you want it to be.

In that sense, hypnobirthing is very empowering for mothers when they get to birth in the way that they feel is right. I'm not saying there's no place for medicalisation at all. Of course, if the mum is in any kind of distress, or if there is a need for the doctors to jump in and do something, then of course that has to happen. 

The understanding of birth itself is quite different when you do the hypnobirthing course. At its core, hypnobirthing teaches you breathing techniques along with imagery and visualisation, with an end goal in mind.

Dr Mythili Pandi is a director, family physician and senior IBCLC lactation consultant at Mother and Child Singapore. She has three kids aged 14, 12 and 10.

Mums deserve fuss-free updates. Follow us on Telegram for news that matters to you! 💌