text: Hypnobabies is Not a Listen Only Program
  A message from Kerry, Founder/Director of Hypnobabies:
  As a childbirth educator and doula since 1989, I created Hypnobabies as a way of assisting women to prepare for childbirth and experience it in a much more positive way than I had myself. Childbirth is a very important, even life-changing experience which can leave the most joyous and beautiful imprints on those who have experienced it…when it has been a positive birth. When it has not, it can leave scars which remain for a very long time, and sometimes never heal. I believe that the numbers of women for whom the latter is true can be reduced greatly with excellent childbirth education, compassionate support, and the comfort tools to empower themselves in creating the birth experience they desire. I eat, drink, breathe and live to help moms all over the world to enjoy having a safer and much more comfortable birthing, and I feel compelled to open the door to a better understanding about how Hypnobabies fits into this process.
  Over the last few years we have been hearing about experienced Hypno-Moms and others who, with the best of intentions want to send other moms our course’s audio tracks electronically, or just send them our Hypnobabies Course tracks. Those tracks then become the only Hypnobabies materials that the receiving mom would get to prepare for her birth with Hypnobabies. We also hear from moms who have used Hypnobabies in the past but cannot find their Hypnobabies Home Study workbook so they simply want to use the audio tracks to “do” Hypnobabies again. This indicates that they think they will remember all of the vitally important information in our written materials, or that they think Hypnobabies’ written materials are simply not important enough to read again with this new pregnancy.
  The truth is that there is quite a lot of vital information in our workbooks and handouts on what each Hypnobabies hypnosis technique is and how it is used, allowing each Hypno-Mom to fully understand how to learn (or re-learn), practice and use Hypnobabies to their best benefit. Other extremely important information about pregnancy, birth and post-partum are also being missed when there are no Hypnobabies workbooks or handouts. Even experienced moms who have had several babies benefit greatly from reading these materials since our course is so comprehensive.
  It is extremely important that any mother desiring to use Hypnobabies (and all birth professionals) understand fully that simply listening to Hypnobabies audio tracks without the rest of our program materials is *not* adequate, and anyone who does so is actually not using Hypnobabies. We firmly discourage this practice, not because we are being protective of *ourselves* but rather out of concern for our Hypno-Moms.
  Although all of our Hypnobabies course is copyright and trademark protected and it is therefore illegal to duplicate in any way, *that* is not our greatest concern here at Hypnobabies regarding moms “sharing” Hypnobabies tracks – our Hypno-Moms are. Each mother *deserves* to have the best birth experience they can, and our course was designed to be an extremely comprehensive childbirth hypnosis COURSE so that moms would all have information and birthing materials to help them create that for themselves. We have made it quite clear that if a mom actually wants to use Hypnobabies for her baby’s birth, she needs to learn, practice and use it *as directed in our written materials*, for the best results. Those who do so have the easiest and most comfortable births, and that is so gratifying to me and all of us here.
  Hypnobabies is in no way a “listen only” program like other hypno-programs are, and our results demonstrate that. Listening to Hypnobabies Childbirth Hypnosis tracks alone doesn’t make sense without the detailed instruction in our 2 workbooks and handouts. To have a *much* easier birth experience requires *specific* instruction and practice each step of the way to create hypnotic anchors and cues which will become activated instantaneously during labor. With directed daily practice the effects become compounded through repetition. All of this is explained in detail in our 2 workbooks and supplemental handouts and is *vital* to success with Hypnobabies:
  1) There is a great deal of very important information which is designed to educate our wonderful moms why and how their hypnosis tracks work, what order to listen to them in, what information and suggestions are in each track, why each track is important in the program and…
  2) How excellent nutrition, exercise and staying healthy & low risk factor into having a safer pregnancy and a much easier birthing…as well as…
  3) The risks, benefits and alternatives to common obstetrical procedures and how they affect a normal birth, including thorough consumer issues which present valuable ways to be proactive in creating a more comfortable birth. The understanding of how to easily take responsibility for the decisions made in pregnancy, childbirth and post-partum is critical (for all moms) in creating a much calmer, more relaxed and comfortable birth experience and more positive communications with birth care providers…and…
  4) Optimum Fetal Positioning techniques which often make all the difference in the world to excellent birth positioning for baby and therefore an easier (non-surgical) birth.
  5) Other subjects covered in Hypnobabies which are all crucial to the efficacy of a positive birth preparation process are:
  • Comfort in Pregnancy • Detailed Birthing Choices • Creating Informed Consent • Avoidance of Toxic Substances • Turning a Posterior Baby • Stages of Labor • Anatomy and Physiology of Birth • Prenatal Parenting • Avoiding Back Labor with the Abdominal Lift and Tuck • Baby Kick Counting • Belly Mapping • Birth Empowerment Skills • Birth Plans & Baby Plans • Touring the Birth Facility • Doula and Midwifery information • Avoiding Induction and Cesarean Section • Delayed Cord Clamping and other Baby Kindness information • Using hypnosis for 3rd stage • Comprehensive and detailed birth preparation and labor support training for Birth Partners • A 28 page Quick Reference booklet for labor
  *Everything* listed above factors greatly into how our Hypnobabies families can have such beautiful, comfortable and empowering birth experiences, *when* our program is learned, practiced and used as outlined in our written materials. Hypnobabies is a *course*, not a series of audio tracks which can be chosen randomly, listened to randomly in any order for any length of time, and used randomly without the benefit of the additional information we provide. Our files and website are full of joyous birth stories from Hypno-moms who had life-changing, amazingly easy and comfortable births by using Hypnobabies as directed in our written materials.
  These beautiful, comfortable and empowering birth experiences are exactly what I and everyone here at Hypnobabies want for our Hypno-Moms, and why women choose Hypnobabies. It grieves me to hear how many people not only don’t understand how important it is to use Hypnobabies as directed, but how many people actually *do* understand that and still engage in “sharing” our tracks (illegally), thereby participating in assisting other moms to become quite disappointed in their experiences because they actually were *not learning Hypnobabies.*
  Since learning and using Hypnobabies is much more than listening to a few audio tracks here and there, “disappointment” is the least of the reactions that we hear of from moms who have not used Hypnobabies appropriately. Reactions range from ANGER all the way to TRAUMA, and are based on the expectations these moms had from hearing/reading other Hypno-mom’s birth stories; women who clearly had all of the necessary materials and information that they needed to create a much easier, safer and more comfortable birth experience for themselves. Women who actually used our Hypnobabies COURSE, not just the audio tracks, and had beautiful, empowering births.
  The very fact that so many moms want to use Hypnobabies for their baby’s birth is of course, delightful to me and our team. It means that there is a much greater cognitive understanding that when we remove fear and replace it with powerful mental comfort tools, natural childbirth can be a tremendously empowering experience. It is however, disturbing to hear birth stories from Hypno-Moms who say, “yeah, it didn’t work for me but to be honest…[I only had the audio tracks] or [I didn’t do it the way they said to] or [I didn’t know what CDs to listen to]…etc. I can only be distressed and sad for them when I know that they could have had a much easier and more comfortable birth experience if they had used Hypnobabies effectively. As you can tell, I am very invested in helping to improve childbirth for all women, and my Hypno-moms are very dear to my heart.
  I am writing this to educate and inform, in the anticipation that you will understand how important it is for our Hypno-Moms to use Hypnobabies wisely to fulfill their birthing goals. The extra education and understanding gained by learning, practicing and using Hypnobabies properly yields excellent results; “Anything worth having is worth working for.” All of our wonderful Hypno-families deserve the best chance possible for the joyful, empowering birth that is within their reach.
  If you have any questions about our course, please feel free to call us at 714-894-BABY.