HypnoBirthing

How to use birth affirmations

by Esther Jones

Using positive birth affirmations is a simple but effective way to replace negative, self sabotaging thoughts around labour.

In this post, Esther explains why affirmations are so powerful and how she used them to prepare for her birth.

And once you finish reading, you can listen to the video!

Close your eyes and sit back and relax as she guides you through her favourite birth affirmations.

Esther Jones is a specialist HypnoBirthing practitioner and she has been helping couples prepare for birth since 2007.

Preparation for birth

The power of affirmations

Hi, I’m Esther Jones. I’ve been working as a Hypnobirthing practitioner since 2007.

I’m also a mother of three. And I really learned the power of affirmations when I was pregnant with my second child.

I was determined that this birth wouldn’t be hard and painful like my first labour, and that this time, my mind and my body wouldn’t be tense and resistant.

So, I prepared for his birth with HypnoBirthing, and a key part of that was these very simple affirmations.

I’m going to share them with your in a moment, but first I’d like to explain to you why affirmations are so powerful.

All in our minds

Remember that what is in our minds in childbirth will determine how our body responds to labour

Anxious, fearful thoughts create tension in the body, and tension creates pain.

Unfortunately, human beings have a tendency to really fixate on the negative.

This negative bias is how we keep ourselves safe – we remember more clearly the bad things we hear about or experience so we know what to avoid in the future.

In the case of childbirth, the messages around pain and danger are quite powerful, so these negative thoughts tend to be really entrenched in our minds.

They create habitual patterns of thought, that often we’re not even conscious of. Sometimes, they pop up in our internal dialogues or in our self talk.

Other times, we barely notice the thought, but we feel some sense of dread or worry in the body.

New habits

Challenging old thoughts

What affirmations do is they challenge these old thoughts, by replacing them with new, positive thoughts.

The more we use the affirmations, the more deeply we’ll take these new thoughts on, until they finally become our new habitual way of thinking.

So, how can we use the affirmations?

I would recommend saying them aloud every morning. You can use the ones that I use here, or you can create some of your own that you think will be most useful to you.

At the beginning you may notice some resistance in your body as you say things that you don’t quite believe yet.

But as the days go by, you’ll find yourself saying them with more conviction.

Reassurance

Write your affirmations

Another thing I did was to print the affirmations and carry them around with me.

Whenever I felt a twinge of worry or of doubt, I would take them out and read through them. And that was enough to get my mind back to where I needed it.

They were enough to reassure me and stop my thoughts spiralling to somewhere fearful or disempowering.

You may well also find that there are one or two affirmations that resonate particularly deeply with you.

In that case, hold those ones close. I often hear from women I’ve worked with who found themselves using one specific affirmation during labour, almost as a mantra.

So, very simple, but very effective.

Affirmation video with Esther!

Before you start the video below get into a relaxed comfortable position. Close your eyes softly. Take a moment to relax your face, all the little muscles around your eyes, your forehead, cheeks, and jaw. Try making the time to enjoy these 6 minutes with Esther and your baby every day!