HypnoBirthing Classes:
The Complete 15-Hour Course
Your birth story isn’t predetermined. From the moment labor begins, you can Influence your birth experience with techniques that maintain high endorphins and ensure optimal comfort and ease. Any stress or tension women experience during labor can trigger adverse physiological responses, such as the secretion of adrenaline instead of oxytocin, decreased oxygen to the baby, and tightening of the cervix. These responses can lead to fetal distress and “failure to progress” diagnoses, turning an otherwise normal birth into a medical event, solely because the mother didn’t feel safe and supported.
This stress response has served birthing mammals for millions of years, ensuring babies don’t arrive when the laboring mother senses danger. Your optimal birth is one in which you remain in a physiologic state of trust, no matter where you give birth.
This is where HypnoBirthing comes in. In this class you’ll learn how to avoid that stress-response with yoga/relaxation/self-hypnosis tools to keep you totally calm and in control. Research has consistently shown that women who practice HypnoBirthing have easier, shorter labors and safer outcomes for mother and baby. Even in the event of a cesarean section, HypnoBirthing techniques are fully applicable and beneficial.
Join the Upcoming Class
Next Class:
January, 2025. Classes are live.
Missed classes can be watched later. Full course: 15 hours total, live on Zoom.
$650
In this class, you’ll also benefit from an immeasurably rich and thorough education in physiologic birth and evidence-based data on many of today’s interventions and routine protocols. We’ll cite the statistical research to help you make decisions, and will prepare you even in the event that special circumstances arise (e.g. breech baby, preeclampsia, Group B Strep, gestational diabetes, early release of membranes, etc.). We’ll teach you how to best manage your relationship with your medical caregiver so that it’s more of an equal partnership, in which they advise and you decide. You’ll learn to quickly identify medical rhetoric and coercion tactics, and you’ll know how to ask the questions that will help you through any decision-making moment.
The NLM (National Library of Medicine) reports that HypnoBirthing correlates with improved outcomes by every metric, including greater comfort in labor, fewer hours in labor, and fewer days in hospital. Further, ACOG (the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists) reported that the relaxation techniques taught in HypnoBirthing result in measurably improved outcomes and should be encouraged and supported by hospital staff. Research has consistently shown that HypnoBirthing mothers have:
- shorter labors by 3-5 hours
- faster pushing/birthing stage by 26%
- higher “normal birth” rates (fewer complications)
- reduced incidence of preterm labor by 67%
- fewer breech presentations by 45%
- significantly lower use of Pitocin for induction and augmentation
- less overall use of medical intervention by approximately 75%
- lower emergency cesarean rates by more than 50%
- higher infant APGAR scores
- higher rates of breastfeeding ease
- lower rates of postpartum depression
What You’ll Receive:
Live virtual classes, personally taught by Cynthia Overgard, including small-group time after class for personal questions and support
The HypnoBirthing text by Marie Mongan plus two audio downloads
A 50-page, color-coded and bound HypnoBirthing of CT proprietary book of birthing information and review materials
A set of custom birth affirmations
Direct email/text contact with Cynthia, even long after your class is over.
Effectively Partner with Your Provider
Learn your right to decline any test, procedure or intervention
Learn how to exercise your right to request different hospital staff, if necessary
Engage in effective communication, where you retain your autonomy
Learn how to phrase your questions so you get clear, straightforward responses
Create your own birth plan and ensure it is respected
- Due dates and the actual risk to baby of “going too late”
- Late-pregnancy ultrasound
- Fluid levels too low
- Babies “too big” and “too small”
- Group B Strep
- Labor induction
- Pre-eclampsia
- Early release of membranes
- IV in Labor
- Aspirin, Evening Primrose Oil, and more
- Prenatal, mid-labor and postpartum Pitocin
- Eating in Labor
- Birthing your placenta without interference or assistance
- The safest positions for birth
- Delayed cord clamping and bonding
- Newborn Interventions (e.g. Vitamin K, Erythromycin)
Prepare for an Easier Birth
The safest and easiest birthing positions
The three various calm-breathing techniques
Relaxation and self-hypnosis tools
Optimal fetal positioning
Tips and techniques for your birth companion
Significantly reduce potential discomfort
Overcome fear, doubt and anxiety
Build confidence and trust in your body
Learn the natural ways to induce labor
At the end of every Down to Birth Show episode, you hear me say:
Hear Everyone, Listen to Yourself.
Your right to informed consent means each decision before, during and after your birth is in your hands. That may be an overwhelming concept initially. But once you’re well-informed, making decisions becomes easier. You’ll gain a clear vision of the birth you want, and you’ll create the intentions and boundaries that will guide you toward your safest and most satisfying birth. In class, you’ll witness the beauty of HypnoBirthing through photos and videos, challenging preconceptions of birth as traumatic or comedic. You may have been led to believe your birth is out of your hands and we’ll all “see how it goes”. That, too, is a false belief, which doesn’t serve us. Your medical caregiver might speak as though he or she is in charge of the decisions related to your pregnancy and birth, but neither is that statement morally, ethically or legally true. The truth is, you’re in control of your physiology and even your thoughts. And all decisions related to your pregnancy, birth and baby are yours to make. The degree of responsibility you’re willing to take for your birth will dramatically increase your likelihood of a beautiful, joyful birth experience. It has been my honor and joy teaching this class to more than two-thousand couples since 2007, and I would be delighted to know you and support you in your journey.
“It is the right – in fact, the responsibility – of every woman to plan her own baby’s birth with the information, honor and freedom to which she’s entitled.”
– Cynthia Overgard, 2007
[Publication: Taking Charge of Giving Birth, Pathways Magazine, 2007]
Join the Upcoming Class
January, 2025
Missed classes can be watched later. Full course: 15 hours total, live on Zoom.
$650
All-in, for you and your partner, including materials