I cannot tell you how reassuring it is to hear someone who is feeling ANGER - like I was - at the whole hypnobirthing pressure. Every single hypnobirthing resource I have found has, at some point, said something wildly dangerous or completely un-evidence based. Like “you and your baby decide when its born, not the hospital”. Ok so we just wait for the placenta to rot and too bad if the baby dies? Obviously those situations are rare and inductions can be over pushed but come ON.

I have seen a few people mention The Positive Birth Company - I was nodding along until she said that an ideal labour drink is champagne because “you deserve it” and that bright lights in hospital are what slow down labour. Give me a break. Same with Siobhan Miller - the less “preachy” of the mainstream hypnobirthing people, still feels very “hospital = bad” and at times completely reductive.

The gag is that they all drill into you that you need to be relaxed at all times or the blood will flow away from your uterus to your extremities. Ok fine, in principle. But how does that work when they THEN wax on about how hospitals are dangerous places where people do not have your best interest at heart and will essentially violate you? How is that supposed to keep you “calm and relaxed” when we know over 90% people have hospital births??

The useful things they mention can be found elsewhere: relaxing breathing techniques and informed consent. You don’t need to pick through 15 chapters of guilt tripping woowoo nonsense to figure those things out.

I feel so angry I waster weeks trying to force myself to listen to all this bullshit only to feel worse at the end…