Unleash your inner-birthing warrior Goddess

The term hypnobirthing at its core aims to help birthing people deal with any fear or anxiety that clouds their body’s natural ability. The foundational theory believes that a calm body and mind are capable of birthing more swiftly and with greater ease since the body is not trying to fight the natural, physiological process.  Hypnobirthing classes in Melbourne will help you in creating a toolkit filled with a variety of techniques and strategies that will help you to relax and surrender to the incredible feat of the human body that is labour and birth. This is a condensed summary of things but keep reading and we’ll expand on all of your pressing questions.

Hypnobirthing is technically a guided learning experience and doesn’t require that you are in any one place, for any period. In-person classes may call for your arrival at a certain location and time in conjugation with other birthing partners. Even without these elements, online hypnobirthing learning still requires a hands-on attitude.  You must be disciplined in following the guidance at your own pace. The more you do it, the better you’ll feel when approaching birth, but a certified practitioner should be able to support you in this. Just as you would in contact classes, you will receive training materials and access to other multimedia sources including music and phone application capability. 

Unlike other class types that require that you are present at a certain time, flexibility is a big difference here. You are welcome to complete your hypnobubs® hypnobirthing course when you have the time, availability, and headspace and all on your own terms. This course can be completed at any stage of your pregnancy, and you are in control of the times that suit you and your partner. Hypnobirthing can be just as empowering when learnt through virtual and online platforms. Local experts have been offering this style of support for a little while now, and many have found that it is equally effective when practised properly.

This unique labour birthing course aims to bring together various essential tools to alleviate pain, stress and anxiety. Hypnobirthing techniques are supposed to equip you with relaxation and mindset skills for birthing your baby calmly, regardless of what situations you are presented with on the big day. Hypnobirthing classes will enhance your understanding of pregnancy and childbirth. Being empowered with this knowledge can go a long way in impacting your experience.

If you take the advice of a certified birth and postpartum doula, the best time to start hypnobirthing classes is anywhere between 20-32/34 weeks gestation. This gives you a good time allowance to properly practise and take in all the knowledge, tools, and techniques that you and your birth partner learn in class. This doesn’t mean that you can’t start earlier or later either. Whether you are 15 weeks pregnant or closer to 40 weeks pregnant, all birth givers and their partners can benefit from the Positive Birth course immensely in their way.

Birth remains a deeply personal experience, so there is no set time for when it is best to start unless you decide it is so. It is up to you and your partner to make that decision, but it is never too late! Join a class and you’ll learn so many helpful tools and techniques that will help you have the most wonderful and empowering birth experience.  Many certified hypnobirthing Australia practitioners will tell you that they believe any time is the right time for you to start. Your inner instinct will tell you when you’re ready to commit to the techniques and principles you’ll come to learn.

Many people are sceptical about the techniques involved in hypnobirthing, but that scepticism only heightens when discussing online learning. Keep reading and we’ll tell you how hypnobirthing can be just as empowering when learnt through virtual and online platforms. Little Bird Flies has been offering this style of support for a while now, and we’ve found that it is equally effective when practised properly. This is because the online learning path requires that you play an active role in your own birth journey and progression. Listening to the mp3 content now and then isn’t enough to properly practise the learnings. You’ll need to do much more than that to see how online hypnobirthing classes can work for you.

Hypnobubs® remains one of Australia’s most popular hypnobirthing online courses and it’s easy to understand why. They are distinctly different from other learning options for hypnobirthing, but their biggest benefit is the feature of flexibility. There are many types of online hypnobirthing courses on offer across Australia and the world. It gets even more complicated when you consider all the varying approaches to the guided techniques included in the courses. You’ll gain some more clarity on what’s involved in online hypnobirthing classes with an experienced practitioner

No matter where you are in Australia or the world, you can sign up to learn hypnobirthing tools and techniques to help you prepare for your birth from the comfort of your own home. Our online classes are still as interactive as you can imagine, and they usually run over 4 x 3hr live zoom sessions where we’ll teach the entire Hypnobirthing Australia™ Positive Birth Program.  Like with our in-person classes, you will still receive over $200 worth of Hypnobirthing Australia’s resources, including a parent folio, MP3 albums, affirmations, and music to download as well as access to Hypnobirthing Australia™’s online learning and mobile App platform with extra resources, articles, and videos to download

The best hypnobirthing courses are the ones where you feel fully informed, supported and empowered during the learning journey. Hypnobirthing is a deeply personal and unique avenue for everyone, and we all have our own experiences. Some of the techniques may resonate with you more than others and that is the case for everyone who signs up for it. While the outcome is highly dependent on the registered hypnobirthing practitioner you choose to guide you, it is solely based on how you practise hypnobirthing techniques. 

The most popular hypnobirthing course in Australia is the hypnobubs® course because it is a modern take that many prefer. It uses common tech platforms to give birthing people and their partners access to up-to-date information at a pace that suits them best. The registered hypnobirthing practitioner will ensure the delivery of all the required content and resources. They will also guide you in learning techniques and so much more. 

This style of hypnobirthing course is considered the best because the generated content is easily accessible to participants 24/7 (via your phone, tablet or computer). Little Bird Flies will ensure to continually update and improve our content and resources regularly. Other than this, you can rely on Melissa to give you highly personalised levels of support in a number of ways. Whether it is a hypnobirthing refresher course or otherwise, she’s got you covered. Sometimes the things that define the best hypnobirthing learning experiences from others, are the levels of customisation and specialised support. And that is exactly what you will get with us.

Hypnobirthing isn’t an easy journey and many think that it is. For you to truly experience an empowered birth, you need to endure, persevere and practise techniques to help you manage negative feelings. Negative feelings can be overwhelming and not every single person who signs up for this course will retort with a positive birth story. The one disadvantage of hypnobirthing, therefore, is that it won’t work for everyone. It requires a great deal of practice and mental strengthening over time. 

Self-hypnosis may not be something that works for you during labour. Some birth givers may reach a point in labour where self-hypnosis isn’t effective, and they’ll lose grip on all of their coping tools. Even with this in mind, there are no winners or losers when it comes to hypnobirthing techniques during labour. You already have the tools within you to experience an empowered birth but there are many things that could block you from accessing them. 

The biggest disadvantage of hypnobirthing is that it won’t work in the way that you may have envisioned. However, it is in your action of creating an ideal vision of how your birth should occur in which you may be manifesting failure. Labour and birth are highly unpredictable processes and there is no approach which guarantees this. Hypnobirthing only ensures that you are able to rely on a variety of relaxation and labour coping tools on hand, in addition to self-hypnosis.

We want to keep reminding you that birth is a deeply personal experience, so there is no set time for when it is best to start a course with Melissa. It is all up to you and your birth partner.  If you realise at 36 weeks gestation that you really want to know more about labour and birth but think it’s too late then think again!!!   It is NEVER too late!! Join a class with Little Bird Flies and learn all the tools and techniques that will help you have the most wonderful and empowering birth experience.  Learn your rights as a childbearing person and woman, learn how to ask questions and advocate for yourself.  learn how to work with your body and not against it!!  Come unleash your Badass Birthing Goddess!!! Give us a call and we can discuss an option or plan that works best for you. We offer hypnobirthing classes in Melbourne. And you can take online classes from anywhere in Australia.

With Little Bird Flies, we offer classes in different ways and all of them are all-embracing to your needs and limitations. Our in-person Positive Birth Course usually runs over two weeks on two consecutive Saturdays and Sundays or as a Workshop Weekend. Our online live webinar classes run across 4 evenings of a month and whilst our online option popped up in response to the pandemic, this option is sticking around due to its popularity!  You also have the option of completing the hypnobubs online class which allows you to learn the tools and techniques of Hypnobirthing at your own pace, whilst this is a much shorter course it is still jam-packed with all the benefits of the in-person and live webinar Hypnobirthing Australia Positive Birth Course. 

It’s really common for people giving birth to feel that it is somehow a process that needs help. Fortunately, for us all, your body is already designed to do this. Your perineum is already designed to stretch, it has a huge amount of stretch, and it does so beautifully. All you have to do is trust your body and feel confident in it. It already did the most magical and miraculous thing spending 9 months to grow your baby. So, of course, it already knows how to birth your baby too. Firstly, you need to really understand how your body works to birth your baby, and what’s going on in your body throughout the whole process of labour. How the hormones work, how your muscles work and how the mind can influence this hugely.  You will learn all these things and much more in your Brisbane hypnobirthing classes.

When you are in the ‘down’ stage, you may feel the need to push and to bear down. You should listen to your body and go with it if it feels right but you don’t need to actively force and push your baby out. This can tense your body and we don’t want to do this. The aim is to work with your body and not against it. That’s why you’ll learn the down breathing in hypnobirthing labour, so you are working WITH your body to move the baby down and allowing your breath to help this.

If you don’t understand your body and how it’s working in labour to birth your baby then this can make you worried and fearful, and tight and tense – including in the pelvic floor. And you really need to relax and release your pelvic floor in this important stage of labour, in hypnobirthing we call this the ‘down’ stage also known as the ‘pushing stage of labour’. So, you need to have really good learning and support systems to provide you with ample information about pregnancy. The more – the better – because it all helps you to understand your own body. This will help you to learn how your body and mind can work together in the best possible way.

Believe it or not – an Australian local is one of the world’s fastest birthers. She gave birth to her fifth child in two minutes flat in 2015. Reports say she’s never been in labour for longer than two hours and that has been the case with the delivery of all of her children. Her name is Mary Gorgens and she sped through the traditional cycle of childbirth naturally to deliver many healthy children. Labour typically has three stages, but the active phase of the first stage is what may last the longest. This is when the doctor, or medical professional, is monitoring when contractions become stronger and more frequent. 

The worldwide average for this stage of labour is between 4 to 8 hours. In all of the stages of labour—from when the baby ‘drops’ to delivery of the placenta—can take 12 to 24 hours for first births and about 8 to 10 hours for subsequent ones. These are widely generalized ranges can that change from situation to situation. While we’ve given you highly average estimates, it’s important to remember that every labour and delivery is different. Most importantly, it is often very unpredictable. 

Hypnobirthing doesn’t guarantee that you will labour quicker. It is one of the most well-rounded antenatal classes around and whilst it is about educating the birthing person and giving them all the knowledge, tools and techniques to help them through labour, it also places a huge emphasis on how birth partners can support them.  Hypnobirthing will teach birth partners a range of tools and techniques that will help them better support their labouring partner

Proper practice and hands-on learning with Hypnobirthing Australia’s course material has proven successful at helping birth givers manage pain, fear and stress; and in many instances, can reduce the number of medical interventions needed during labour and birth. The one thing that research cannot deny is that most women who attended a hypnobirthing class (online or in-person) are happy they did and are quick to refer their friends and family members who are expecting. They felt less afraid and anxious during delivery and many later reported having had positive experiences, saying that hypnobirthing helped them feel calm, confident and empowered before, during and after their births.

If you still have some questions, feel free to give us a call at Little Bird Flies, and we can discuss our range of courses that cater to any schedule and any learning pace. We offer hypnobirthing classes in Melbourne. And you can take online classes from anywhere in Australia – Sydney, Brisbane, Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast, Cairns, Townsville, Darwin, Perth, Adelaide, Hobart, Central Coast, Geelong, Newcastle, Canberra, and Wollongong.

Benefits of hypnobirthing

• Birth partners feel more confident and connected to the birthing process
• Reduced rates of medical intervention and pharmacological pain relief
• Calmer births are likely to welcome calmer babies and a reduced rate of maternal trauma
• Faster recovery post-birth for both birth giver and baby, with reduced rates of postnatal depression
• Highly beneficial for relaxing and empowering mums and birth partners during a caesarean birth
• New-borns typically feed better and are calmer
• Increased birth satisfaction and empowerment

Whether you are 15 weeks pregnant or closer to 40 weeks pregnant, all birth givers and their partners can benefit from the Positive Birth course immensely in their way. Birth remains a deeply personal experience, so there is no set time for when it is best to start unless you decide it is so. It is up to you and your partner to make that decision, but it is never too late! Join a class and you’ll learn so many helpful tools and techniques that will help you have the most wonderful and empowering birth experience. We have much more helpful advice about when to start your hypnobirthing classes but you are also welcome to reach out to us for a personal session with Melissa. 

We need to stop looking at pain as something bad or something we need to get rid of. As 21st-century humans, we are conditioned to find resolutions for absolutely everything that gets in our way, including when we feel pain. And look, yes, pain is how our body tells us that there is something wrong- we are meant to feel pain when we break a bone, have gallstones, or cut open our leg so that we can seek help.

But not all pain is the same.  The pain we feel in labour is the by-product of the intense work our uterine muscles are doing to labour and birth your baby.  Labour is the most incredible feat a uterine-beholding person can experience.  We’ve been doing it for centuries.  It is raw, it is NATURAL, and it is INSTINCTUAL.  Your body is not trying to hurt you, in fact, it’s just the opposite.  It’s trying to work with you. So…what if we looked at pain from a different angle, what if instead of trying to find a way to fix it with an external force we surrender to its cries? 

We know that if we can surrender to our body’s sensations, we are sending a message to our brain and our nervous system that we are still safe, there is no reason for our fight/flight system to kick in and create a reason for more pain and more tension. 

Breathwork helps us to surrender to the sensations of labour, and if practised properly can reduce anxiety and tension throughout our entire body. Deep breathing techniques (such as the relaxation and surge breathing techniques) that you’ll learn with Little Bird Flies teaches will help you to stay present, be mindful of the incredible process that is birth and give you the courage and strength to continue to move through the amazing sensations within your body. Surge breathing is used to help centre our mind and body during sensations of discomfort i.e., our contractions. 

Surge breathing is similar to our relaxation breathing- it assists us to surrender to the sensations of our body whilst reminding us to “flop” and let go- releasing all tension.  Surge breathing helps us to “open up,” relax through our pelvis and welcome baby earthside. Midwives and hypnobirthing practitioners encourage surge breathing to healthily manage uterine waves from the very beginning of your labour, right up until the moment you start feeling downward pressure and an urge to start utilising your breathing baby down breath work (also known as the “pushing” stage of labour). 

Similarly, to your relaxation breathing, you can practice your surge breathing at any time but make sure you have the ability to completely surrender your body- ensuring you practice your “flop” by releasing all the tension in your body before you start drawing up your first breath through your nose.  You might also like to place your hands on top of your uterus to feel the rise and fall of your belly as you inhale and exhale.  Remember it’s all nasal breathing so that we trigger our parasympathetic nervous system receptors.  You will use your surge breathing throughout the entirety of a surge and slowly revert to your relaxation breathing in between surges.

For some women, it will feel better and more helpful to hold their breath in for a few seconds with each bearing down. For others, it will feel better to slowly release that breath, with a groan, moan or sigh. Do what helps you release your pelvic floor! You’ll likely have the urge to bear down a few times at the peak of each contraction. When the strong urge and sensations of the contraction pass, let your body be relaxed and bring your breathing back to normal. 

This breathing technique is the healthier alternative to the forceful “pushing” that can take place during labour.  Don’t get me wrong, some women and child-bearers need to use all the techniques… breathing, bearing down and pushing to move the baby down through the birth path but utilising just the pushing technique can actually lead us to inhibit the baby’s progress.  When we hear “push” we are generally going to think “forwards”, but in actual fact, we need to be bearing down behind the baby towards our anus, like we need to do a REALLY, BIG Poo!

We use the breathing/bearing-down technique when our body is signalling to us that the baby is ready to start moving further down the pelvis and into the birth canal.  There is a point in labour where you will no longer be able to breathe through your surges and you will have this innate urge to “push.” Your breathing/bearing down technique is quite different to relaxation and surge breathing.  Unlike the first two techniques, it requires a quick inhale and a long exhale to help breathe/move the baby down through the pelvis and around the coccyx (the hardest part of the bearing down stage). In our Positive Birth Class, you will learn how to practice this breathing technique, it might also require a little visualisation to help your practice so that you bear down in the right area.   You want to picture moving your breath down the back of your throat, down your spine and all the way down behind the baby into the birth canal.