why birth partners need to study with you
“My partner would never do that.”
You’d be surprised what your partner will do to support you, birth will bring you closer together than you can ever imagine.
“I don’t think I’d get him to come with me.”
If you show him enough about hypnobirthing, he won’t be able to deny how beneficial it’s going to be for you both.
“Does he need to come too?”
YES! If anything, a lot of the content my courses cover is more for them than you. If you’re going to be able to relax fully in birth, they’re going to need to be completely clued up on everything you want and on how best to support you.
If your birth partner is reluctant or disinterested in hypnobirthing, don’t worry. A lot of birth partners are initially. It’s not because they don’t care or are not interested in helping you. It’s usually because they’re concerned about wasting money or time and might even be because they themselves are actually scared about birth and would rather not think about it.
There are so many elements to a hypnobirthing course that it’s hard to fully explain why they’re so beneficial. From the relaxation techniques to the knowledge about birth to the reframing of your potentially negative birth associations, the benefits for you as the birthing person are enormous. But in this blog, I’m going to talk about the benefits for your birth partner so make sure you send them this page so they can read for themselves.
3 Benefits of hypnobirthing for birth partners
You will know a lot more about birth than you do now. I might be being unfair but I would imagine your knowledge right now is limited - most of us don’t know much about it until we’ve been through it. But, knowledge is power! Knowing what’s happening biologically means you can better relate to your partner and be there for them throughout the birth.
You will know how to calm your partner. This is something that you’re going to need to know if you’re going to help her stay calm. She will have wobbles, she will doubt herself (especially when she goes through transition - see bullet point 1!), she will need you to remind her how strong she is. Every woman wants/needs slightly different things in birth to feel calm and comfortable so when you attend a course together, you learn what these things are together.
You will be able to advocate for your partner if she needs you to. Your being able to talk to your partner’s care providers confidently will allow her to focus on letting her body do what it was designed to do. The knowledge about the physiology of birth my course teaches you will come into this but so too will the knowledge you will learn about your partner’s rights and choices around things like pain relief, birth environment and birth place. Do you know what she’d prefer to do if labour slows down? Do you know what she’d prefer if offered morphine or pethidine (do you even know what these are?!)? Knowing what these things are and what the benefits and risks associated with them are in advance will help her to have a more positive experience where she feels in control. Your knowing them too will allow her to relax more easily and therefore birth her baby more calmly.
If your partner is still not convinced, get them to look at my Instagram page. I’ve put some links to some reading I’d recommend for birth partners but can recommend more, should you need it so send me a DM or fill in my contact form for more information.
I hope to see you and your birth partner on one of my courses soon.
Yours,
Rhi x
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