Hello glorious Bold Birthers!

Pregnancy is a transformative journey (I mean seriously, there’s even a stage in labour called “transition”. A phenomenal moment when a woman transforms into a mother, and you witness the strength of her ancestors drawn straight from the ground beneath her!). This rite of passage (extra reading) brings forth a plethora of emotions, excitement, and uncertainties.

And as wonderful Bold Birthers, the quest for knowledge about childbirth often leads to various birth education programs. Two popular choices being Hypnobirthing and the NCT (National Childbirth Trust). In this blog, we’ll dive into the features of each and shed light on how they differ and what they can offer you.

In 2017, when pregnant with our first child, we were lucky enough to do both NCT and Hypnobirthing. As knowledge crusaders we found the money to invest in our education and we’re so glad we did as we definitely noticed differences, which I’ve noted in the below conclusion in a testimonial kinda way 😊👍🏻

Hypnobirthing

Hypnobirthing is a scientific approach that emphasises the power of the mind-body connection during childbirth. Classes typically use up-to-date evidence-based information that includes breathing techniques, visualisation (the “hypno” in “hypnobirthing”) affirmations and many other tools to help you pilot labour with calm confidence.

The relaxation and self-hypnosis techniques stops you from overthinking the birth process, manage pain and anxiety, and teaches you how different hormones can influence your birthing process. Many courses delve into birth history, biomechanics (how our bodies work and move during labour), maternity rights, and birth choices. Your birth partner also learns how to be the very best person to support you as an individual.

Key features of Hypnobirthing:

• Mind-Body Connection: Hypnobirthing places a strong emphasis on the connection between your mind and body, teaching techniques to stimulate a state of deep relaxation so that oxytocin and endorphins increase, which helps labour begin spontaneously, progresses, and be a manageable life event.

• Natural Pain Management: Hypnobirthing teaches you techniques for natural pain management which can reduce the reliance of pain-relief medications such as epidurals, pethidine, Entonox (gas and air) etc. Although, completing a hypnobirthing course never means “don’t use any drugs” they simply inform you of your options so that you can discover what you do and don’t like the sound of. Mothers who go on to describe their births as ‘pain-free’ and ‘drug-free’, are not usually because they intended it to be, but because of how it just happened that way, they feel like they didn’t need medicalised pain-relief as the techniques made their birth sensations manageable. This is precisely how I describe both my births. A “pain-free birth” CANNOT be guaranteed for many reasons, and you should NEVER receive such promises.

• Evidence-Based Information: Hypnobirthing courses are designed to provide up-to-date, evidence-based information, for you to plan flexibly and teach you how to question medical professionals to get all the information you need to make informed decisions about your baby’s birth.

• Birth Partner Involvement: Hypnobirthing proactively encourages partners to join in the birthing process, providing support, advocate birth preferences, and reinforce relaxation techniques that work specifically for YOU (spoiler alert – not all techniques will work for you, but you are given a library to practice and find which ones work best. Your partner will also know your favourite ones and work with you should your mind deviate from relaxation).

• For all Births: There is a misconception that Hypnobirthing is only intended for vaginal births with no medicalised pain relief, this is not true. Hypnobirthing is for vaginal and abdominal (c-section) births – in hospitals / homes / cars / water / bathrooms etc…

• Continuity of Care: Most hypnobirthing instructors are well connected across the maternity world and are happy to be contacted any time, any day. They’ll signpost you to information, research, and put you in contact with specialists relevant to your situation. I am frequently contacted by my clients due to midwives and health visitors not responding quickly (and guess what… I never mind!)

NCT (National Childbirth Trust)

The National Childbirth Trust (NCT) provides a broad approach to topics around birth and beyond including breastfeeding and parenting skills, with heavy focus on the social element to build up your incredibly important village.

Key Features of NCT:

• Broad Approach: NCT classes cover various aspects of pregnancy, childbirth, and early parenting. This can include practical information on breastfeeding and baby care which is useful if you haven’t been around babies before/a lot. Also good starting points to further research and additional workshops.

• Community Support: NCT provides a sense of community among parents near similar due dates and gives opportunities to connect with others. This support should be invaluable during your postnatal period (we are still very close friends with all our NCT crew!).

• Class Information: NCT classes follow the ‘NCT Antenatal framework’ with each instructor writing their own course. This means that content can vary, and I would recommend you speak to your local/online NCT instructor to see what they cover. Although please know this information may not be available until you book a course with them. I requested a copy but unfortunately, they would not provide it until a course was booked, although an outline is provided here.
  From my NCT crew’s memories, our course spoke about the stages of labour, drug options, interventions, places to birth, feeding, baby care, and touched on signs of postnatal depression. Depending on the instructor they may signpost other services to you too. Our NCT instructor was wonderful, she spoke about pregnancy yoga (and recommended it) and hypnobirthing (and recommended it), and we always felt that we could ask her practical questions. She also invited us to bring our birth pool into a session so that we could show everyone how it’s set up etc which was great for their curious minds to assist with birth planning.

The best friends you could ever buy!

❤️ Gabi ❤️

We built up a collective support system of ‘this might happen next’ or ‘this happened to me’. And then the real life calls for help ‘Ladies I have mastitis again, can someone rescue me/hug me/reassure me that I can get through this…’

❤️ Emma ❤️

• Practical Skills: Alongside theoretical knowledge, NCT classes often include practical skills sessions, such as nappy changing, swaddling, and a breastfeeding session to prepare parents for the hands-on aspects of caring for your newborn. We also booked onto a separate workshop on waterbirths although I must admit by this point we knew a lot about waterbirths and were that annoying couple who were challenging the information we were being given 😬 (as always a keen opportunity to add doing your own research on things!)

Conclusion on Hypnobirthing and NCT

Both Hypnobirthing and NCT aim to empower parents through different ways and as always, it’s important to do what feels right for you. Speaking frankly, it was hard for all of us to go back to 2017 and remember what we specifically learned during our NCT course, especially as a hypnobirthing instructor my courses are deeply embedded! However, collectively we’ve stuck our heads together and hope the information helps.

As mentioned before, we were able to invest in both courses as we found our birth education to be an important factor to our preparation, especially with my previous experience as a birth partner to my best friend when we were 19. I needed to know birth could be done a different way for me and my husband.

Hypnobirthing answered that question and dispersed all anxiety we had and to this very day I still have the support of our instructor, who also became our doula. NCT gave us the large village we needed for more long-term parenting support and knowing that so many of us were going through the same stages of babyhood was reassuring. The joys of knowing that I could send a text at 3am and get a reply made me feel less lonely, and there was always someone ready for last minute cuppa plans around each other’s homes so we could slob out together and go through all the highs and lows.

Frequently I have my clients messaging me saying that they are so happy they did hypnobirthing too as it covered such different areas to birth, but sadly some came away from antenatal classes feeling more scared of birth rather than reassured.

Just last week a client said:

“They covered the entire ‘birth prep’ topic within a 2 hour session, so it would have been total information overload if that was the first time we were hearing it all! Instead it acted as a good refresher of the main points.”

When I received this message it all came flooding back to me, because I suddenly remembered feeling like this. We felt so lucky knowing that we had covered topics in depth through our hypnobirthing course and we had all the techniques available for when certain topics, like medical interventions and hospital procedures, to remain calm and confident to absorb relevant and deflect irrelevant information to us.
Like us, you may find value combining elements from both approaches to create a personalised birthing and parenting experience that suits you and go with that gut feeling to see what resonates with you the most.

Now, I fully appreciate and understand that I am a huge hypnobirthing advocate given my birth experiences and what I do every day when I work with (the most amazing!) couples. Yet I hope this blog emphasises that both types of education have a place and that you can see the differences. If you go ahead and do both then I always recommend getting your 1st hypnobirthing session in before your antenatal classes because you will come away with some tools to support other learnings and shield you from potential negativity – whether that be negative birth stories, underhanded jokes/remarks, and conversations around medical processes and interventions etc.

How I Bridge Some Gaps…

When you work with me you receive all the bespoke and individual elements of a Hypnobirthing education and you become part of a community with ongoing support by birth, postpartum, sleep, breastfeeding, psychotherapy, and gentle parenting specialists for as long as you want it. Included here is an army of unbiased, understanding mothers who have seen and been it all. Just endless support.

This happens over a 24/7 WhatsApp group, pregnancy breathwork and hypnobirthing practice sessions at 8pm every Tuesday known fondly as “Chill Tuesdays”, and every other Friday at 10am “Chilled Mummas” and babies gather at The Wise Lotus Centre to have a catch up, cuppa, snack, and finish on a breathwork session to set them up ready for the weekend (it’s not uncommon for the group to head off for a walk and lunch somewhere afterwards 😊) – it’s just a lovely relaxed supportive community.

And you’re welcome to join whenever you fancy!

See you around 👋🏻

Nicki xx

Your Forever Birth Nerd at Bold Birthing