There is no denying that our fears and imagination can play a huge part in how stressed we feel. But did you know that your body can make labour slow down and last longer when you are stressed? It's part of the survival instinct. The problem is that your body can't tell the difference between physical stress (like seeing a wild animal) and emotional stress (like imagining a long or painful labour).

1. Subject: How to give birth feeling calm, relaxed and in control<br />There is no denying that our fears and imagination can play a huge part in how stressed we feel.<br />But did you know that your body can make labour slow down and last longer when you are stressed?<br />It's part of the survival instinct.<br />The problem is that your body can't tell the difference between physical stress (like seeing a wild animal) and emotional stress (like imagining a long or painful labour).<br />It's a classic 'catch 22' situation.<br />The answer is the Blissful Birth programme, which helps you overcome your fears and worries about giving birth and teaches birth relaxation and self hypnosis so you can go into labour feeling relaxed, confident and in control.<br />They Laughed When I Said I Was Using Self Hypnosis And Relaxation To Give Birth... Until My Baby Came In 4 Hours With No Pain Relief<br />Here's the true birth story of my two wonderful boys, and the creation of the Blissful Birth programme.<br /> <br /> You're about to go deep inside the sometimes surprising world of giving birth.<br />And listen, this is the real story ...the true story that only I can tell you, because I'm the woman that made it all happen. You'll hear about the amazing successes, the near fatal mistakes, and everything in between.<br />Let's begin.<br />First of all, I only got it totally right the second time I gave birth.<br />The first time, I was relying on the traditional techniques taught by pretty much every other birth preparation programme out there, while I was as experimenting with some advanced techniques from modern cognitive hypnotherapy, and I found out from actual experience what works and what doesn’t.<br />I was still pretty happy with my first birth experience though. My first labour was 12 hours from start to finish, and I didn’t need anything stronger than gas and air, even though I gave birth with a slipped disc.<br />It all started back in the summer of 2005 when my husband Rob and I found out I was pregnant. We are both UK registered Cognitive Hypnotherapists, and we had been teaching expectant mums self hypnosis and fear removal techniques in private practice with great success.<br />But at that point it wasn’t our primary specialization.<br />Up until this point, the whole quot;
Blissful Birthquot;
thing was just a idea I'd been kicking around in my head. I had no first hand experience of what it is like to be pregnant or what it was like to wait 9 months with everyone telling me how horrendous birth can be.<br />Frankly, I Was Scared Out Of My Mind<br />And for good reason because<br />•I had suffered a slipped disc before I got pregnant<br />•I was bombarded by horror stories from my well meaning friends<br />•As a professional Hypnotherapist, I felt under pressure from family, friends and clients to make this work.<br />When I told people I was pregnant and that I was going to use self hypnosis and relaxation to help me give birth without any drugs or epidurals, they all thought I was mad – even though they knew what I did for a living! There was a lot of doubt and negativity around me.<br />So you can understand why I was worried.<br />Even worse, as my pregnancy progressed, and the baby grew, I could feel my back getting worse and I was placed under the care of a consultant. He kept telling me that I would probably need to have an early delivery by caesarian section, and I remember thinking…<br />There’s No Way I Can Have A Natural Birth Now!<br />So I sat down with my husband, Rob, and we talked things through. We both knew what was at stake, but I was determined to be in control of my pregnancy and have a good birth experience.<br />So I started going through every hypnosis and birthing book I could lay my hands on, trying every technique from the birthing ‘experts’ I could find to help me prepare. I knew in my heart that my body would know what to do, if only I could overcome my fears.<br />We had no idea if any of it would actually help me achieve the natural birth I wanted, but we knew…<br />We Had To Try Something!<br />Eventually, after lots of trial and error, we mixed some traditional techniques with the latest research into how our minds work, and came up with a plan.<br />The original Blissful Birth system was born.<br />I practiced the techniques regularly and Rob made some recordings which I could listen to each day. My pregnancy went very quickly, and although my back was very painful, I lost the fear and became more and more confident that I would be able to have a natural birth. Even my consultant was hopeful.<br />Then, three days before my due date, I went into labour. Although I had the usual Braxton Hicks practice contractions, the first real contraction caught me by surprise and I had a moment of doubt.<br />But I had promised myself I would give birth naturally, and I wasn't going to go back on my word.<br />I quickly got into a relaxed frame of mind, and with each contraction I knew I was one step closer to meeting our baby. After 6 hours I told Rob I felt ready to go to the hospital.<br />But when I arrived, the midwives weren’t convinced I was very far along because I was too relaxed and happy!<br />They said I would probably be going home again, but when they examined me, to my relief it turned out that I was over 5cm dilated.<br />Even The Midwives Were Amazed<br />But then things started to go downhill. As part of the admission process, they insisted I be hooked up to a monitor so they could see how the baby was doing. But he was fast asleep, so I had to stay hooked up for nearly two hours until he woke up and they got the readings they wanted.<br />Thankfully, after at, they left Rob and I alone and I quickly relaxed again and settled into a rhythm as I got closer to giving birth. Within a couple more hours, I started feeling the urge to push, and we knew we would soon meet our baby.<br />A midwife came in and confirmed I was fully dilated, and there was a flurry of activity as they got ready.<br />read more at http://www.blissfulbirth.co.uk/bbreport.php<br />They have got an MP3 which you can download for free, and the full programme is practically being given away right now.<br />Check it out here:<br />http://nsanze1983.blissfulbirth.co.uk/o.uk/<br />