Midwives in Yorkshire trained to run hypnobirthing sessions

Midwives from Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust are set to offer hypnobirthing sessions this autumn to help pregnant women and their partners achieve a calm and positive birth experience.

“Hypnobirthing has many benefits and can reduce the need for surgical intervention during labour”

Janet Cairns

Pregnant women can use hypnobirthing, by practising visualisation and deep breathing in the weeks before their due date, to work in harmony with their bodies and to tune into their natural ability to give birth.

The trust has funded training for 23 midwives and midwifery assistants working in the community, the Labour and Delivery Suite at Hull Women and Children’s Hospital and the Fatima Allam Birth Centre in KG Hypnobirthing. The course was accredited by the Royal College of Midwives.

As of September 2019, the trust will offer a 12-hour course run by midwives. The staff will teach breathing and visualisation techniques to help women prepare for labour and birth.

The hypnobirthing course will cost £150 and all money raised from this service will be reinvested in strengthening maternity services at the hospital, the trust noted.

“The women will then be given literature and material such as peaceful music”

Alex McCann

Midwife Alex McCann, leading the hypnobirthing project, said: “Our midwives have been trained as practitioners in hypnobirthing and will teach women and their partners techniques during the course.

“The women will then be given literature and material such as peaceful music, so they can practice every day in their homes,” said Ms McCann.

She said: “Although there is a charge for the service, spending time and money on hypnobirthing is an investment that can benefit the woman, her partner and baby emotionally and physically.”

Janet Cairns, head of midwifery, said: “We know hypnobirthing has many benefits and can reduce the need for surgical intervention during labour.

“More and more women are using hypnobirthing during labour to help them feel calm and in control and we want to offer mothers and partners the widest possible range of maternity services, delivered by highly skilled and dedicated staff,” she added.

https://www.nursingtimes.net/news/education/midwives-in-yorkshire-trained-to-run-hypnobirthing-sessions/7028673.article