Couldn't agree more with sanne panne. I wasn't up for the total hippie hypno thing and I couldn't afford the classes anyway, but the book did give me the most incredible confidence that the birth was going to go well and my body was perfectly designed to handle it. So much of the pain of birth is actually deeply ingrained fear from years of hearing that it's horrendous, when actually if you really believe it's what your body was intended to do, you feel much calmer about it and can therefore cope with the pain. I gave birth to a 9lb 8oz baby boy at home with no pain relief after reading the hypnobirthday book and using some of the imagery it suggests. This was after my first birth at Kings, when I didn't know about Hypnbirthing, which ended up in screaming in pain, vomiting, complete panic, an epidural and nearly a forceps delivery. Give it a go!
