Confident Childbirth

I'm off to my first session of Confident Childbirth today. It's run by Anita Mitchell, a cognitive hypnotherapist.
Over four sessions, I'll be taught self-hypnosis to hopefully lessen the pain and panic normally experienced during labour.
Here are some more benefits according to Anita's website:

*More easily able to remain calm and in control of what is happening to your body
*Fewer or no chemicals tranferred to your baby during birth
*Learn to allow your mind and body to work in harmony to do what it was designed for
*Possibility of shortened time in labour
*Possibility of less medication and medical intervention
*Possibility of higher APGAR score for your baby
*Potentially quicker recovery time for you.

If it does all that, I'll be a very happy new mum! I'll pop back later to let you know what I thought of my first session but in the meantime please let me now if you've tried hypno birthing - did it work for you? Are you keen to try it in the future?

UPDATE
Well I've just got back from my first session and I would say it definitely works on the relaxation front as a few snores did sneak out! Anita is lovely and put me at ease straight away. She's keen to make it clear this is not a magic wand that will remove all pain and make labour an easy process - but that the techniques can be excellent for improving confidence and bringing some calm to what can be a stressful time.

We started by creating some 'anchors'. This involves remembering times when I felt confident, calm and patient - all things I want to feel during labour - and then creating an easy trigger so I can bring back those feelings when I need them. In my case, I will squeeze a knuckle.

Anita then moved onto the hypnosis side - and that's where my mind checked out! I remember getting to my 'happy place' and then just snippets here and there, so I think we can say I'm a good candidate for hypnosis! Anita is going to send me a recording of the process so I can listen daily at home and will soon be able to hypnotise myself - vital as Anita won't be at the birth to do it for me.

Now this little boy I'm carrying only gets active when I'm relaxed. If I'm stressed or busy, I won't feel any movements. During my session, he was going crazy! I could see and feel my stomach leaping sbout, a sure sign that I was very chilled out. I've got my next session a week on Thursday and I can't wait.

*disclaimer, Anita Mitchell was trained by the Quest Institute, which is run by my father-in-law, but we are paying for this service and all views are my own*