This blog post is part of a transcript from a recent podcast episode I released at the beginning of 2025, however I have shortened it to create an easier reading experience. In season 3 of 'The Doula's Guide To Preparing For Your Birth' podcast I focused solely on 'birth myths' and in this specific episode I wanted to discuss mainly the myth that hypnobirthing is for one type of birth, I hope you find this a helpful read that gives you lots to think about! If you'd prefer to listen, my podcast is available on all podcast platforms and this specific episode is season 3 episode 3.
So this post is inspired by a comment that I received on TikTok that said, "can you still do hypnobirthing if you're planning on getting the epidural?" And I thought, that's a great question, and something that I wanted to address, because I do think a lot of people are put off from doing a hypnobirthing course because they've got this preconceived idea that they're either wanting an epidural, or wanting to be induced, or wanting a caesarean, or whatever it is that you're wanting out of your birth experience, and so you just think that hypnobirthing is not for you, because why would it be if you're having those things.
But hypnobirthing is for all births, you don't have to be planning a birth that looks like the people on Instagram who are having the twinkly water birth at home in their living room with their family around, the calm music on, breathing deeply, so lets discuss why. There's a couple of angles that I'm going to come at this from, but hypnobirthing is for everyone, in my opinion. Also this is not a diss on those twinkly water births, as a doula I love attending those births! But I'm not naive enough to think that is going to be everyones experience.
Hypnobirthing is a valuable, valuable tool. I cannot tell you how much I love it. I think it has a bad rep for so many reasons. I think it has a bad rep because of the way people look down on anything that they don't particularly understand, and hypnobirthing is very positive, and we perhaps don't want to get on that train because it seems twee or simplistic to just wish for a positive birth. I also think it has a bad rep because some people teach it badly too. The reason I know some people teach it badly is because I know people who do hypnobirthing courses and then find their births traumatising because hypnobirthing set them up in a way that you can have a positive birth regardless of how your birth goes if you just breathe. And that's not enough. We can't just give people hypnobirthing tools and tell them that they will be enough because it simply isn't, for a hypnobirthing course to be good enough, it needs to help you see the positive in any sort of birth. It needs to be a full antenatal education and it needs to be really, really well-rounded.
So I want to address the myth that hypnobirthing is not for people who don't want that picture perfect home birth or just don't think that it's available for them. To start with I actually think that a lot of people go into hypnobirthing with these preconceived ideas of wanting an epidural purely because of everything we've ever been taught by our friends and family and society and the media and what we see on TV, that birth is really horrible and stressful and the only way to get through it is to like numb it out with all of the drugs.
Again, all of these things are not true, but that's just what we all have in our brains, isn't it? And I think actually a lot of people who come to a hypnobirthing course with these preconceived ideas then learn everything that you would learn from a hypnobirthing course; you learn how birth works, you learn how your body spends literally nine to ten months preparing to give birth to your baby. And then you learn about how you can use hypnobirthing techniques throughout your pregnancy to help you have a better birth and about things like fetal positioning and different positions that you can use during labor to make it easier. Then at that point they're thinking, you know, maybe I don't want to be on a bed anymore.
You start to learn about pain relief and you learn about the things that you can use that don't have any side effects and about the side effects of using some of the things that they use in hospital. You learn about birth rights and you learn about how to navigate maternity services and you learn really important decision making tools.
And then what happens is that people, after they've got all of that knowledge, often actually change their minds. Even the people who are very staunch, very "I'm having an epidural, I don't care what you teach me, I just want to know the hypnobirthing tools so that my birth can be a little bit easier because I've heard that it might be helpful" often at the other end of it, come out of the course and go, "actually, I don't think that's my first plan anymore."
But that is not because hypnobirthing demonises the epidural. I am not anti-epidural, I do not think that any person giving birth shouldn't have an epidural, I think they absolutely serve their purpose in birth for people who want them. But it's just to say that a lot of people, once they've got all of that information, actually don't want the epidural anymore, because they realise that the reason they wanted the epidural in the first place is because they were scared, and they're no longer scared, so they don't feel that they need it.
They know that it's there as a backup option, but so many people finish the course and then think, oh, actually it will just be my backup option now. Actually, I do feel prepared. I do feel like my body does know how to do this. I do feel like I've got enough tools to utilize throughout the process, so now it's not my first option. I'm not going to go in there and just demand the epidural straight away because I feel like I can actually deal with it. But equally, if I can't and I want the epidural, I feel comforted in the knowledge that it's there as a backup option.
So it's a complete myth that if you're planning to use an epidural, you shouldn't do hypnobirthing for a few reasons, but firstly because if you're wanting to use it from a place of fear, hypnobirthing is going to get rid of that fear. And how incredible is that? Like, why would you want to go into your birth really scared when you could go into it feeling really confident and understanding what is actually going to happen and knowing that you have a full toolkit, but then if you do still want the epidural, you can still have it. I think that's really empowering.
On the flip side of that, like I said, some people will do the course and they'll learn all this stuff and they will still want the epidural and again, that's absolutely fine. That's actually a good thing for us to know as teachers because then we can still make sure that when we're making your birth plan with you at the end, we're advising you on ways that you can get the most out of your epidural; how can you get into the best position with the epidural? How can you utilise the breathing techniques and the affirmations alongside the epidural? How can you still make the environment amazing, because if you're having an epidural, you're going to be on the labor ward so the environment's going to be very clinical. So how can we use hypnobirthing tools to create that nice birth environment that's going to create more of your own oxytocin, that's going to create an easier birth and easier labor? How can we ensure that your birth partners know how to best support you as you move through early labor where you will not have the epidural yet and then as you move to hospital to get the epidural, how can they support you with decision-making tools? Because once you had an epidural, you're more likely potentially to end up on what we call a cascade of intervention. This is where you have one intervention, like the epidural, and it leads to further interventions, which can be because you're laid on your back, so you've got less space in your pelvis, so maybe pushing takes longer, and then that can lead to a cascade of intervention, for example. How can we help you avoid those situations first and foremost, but how can we help you to make really empowered and informed decisions around whether there's further interventions are needed or not?
So whether you want the epidural or not, by the end of the course, it's 100% still worth doing, because we're going to tailor that course to whatever you decide.
It's absolutely a myth that you cannot do hypnobirthing if you want an epidural or a labor ward birth or a birth with lots of pain relief. 100% you will still get so much out of it.
I hope you enjoyed this read! Ready to get started on your hypnobirthing journey? Join my digital courses now from just £25 - click here
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