Learning to be hypnotised

So I could pretend that my life isn't revolving around this Little Bean inside me at the moment, but... well, I'd be pretending. It is consuming almost my every thought, to the point where, if I manage to think about something else for a reasonably extended period of time (say... 10 minutes), I feel quite self-righteous. This scares me... I am arrogant enough to think that, for the majority of the time, I am a reasonably interesting person, but at the moment I am just in my own little bubble of Beanieness and, to be honest, am happy to stick around there for a while. And really hope that sometime I'll come out of my bubble...

I blame hypnobirthing. Each day I either listen to, read or recite my positive birth affirmations, I practice my breathing techniques (calm breathing for the times between contractions, surge breathing for use during contractions, and birth breathing for the time at the end where everyone is usually yelling awful things like 'push!'), my relaxation techniques, my visualisation techniques and attempt to bring myself into a state of self-hypnosis. I try to read a positive birth story every day or every second day. Each night, Dunc practices working with me through these, using certain scripts and skills to help me become comfortable with this process. So... it's no wonder that I'm feeling a bit of a 'birthing aura' around me at the moment. I choose not to believe that being easily hypnotised (or 'brought into a state of deep relaxation') is the equivalent of being gullible...

The best bit about hypnobirthing is the science behind it. For someone like me, who is split pretty equally between the left and right brains (find me anyone else who started out studying biomedical science and then finished up being an English teacher), it is perfect. It uses my creativity and my ability to imagine, while also grounding it in science and logic. For instance, if you analyse the formation of the three muscle layers of the uterus, it makes complete sense that 'pushing' at the end is counter-productive. The release of adrenalin and the redistribution of blood flow during times of fear really help to explain why the process of deep relaxation is so important. Etc, etc, etc.

I still struggle with certain aspects of it -- not the approach and the philosophy, but the practice. There was a time a while ago where we were following instructions to a tee, but I found myself an anxiety-ridden, crying mess at the end of each session, which was obviously not the intention. We've had to ditch some things and adjust others so that it works for us, and just during the past week have I really felt that we have gotten into the groove of it. Yay!

Very excited to meet this little creature inside of me that has just discovered the true power of its knees in the last 24 hours. :)