I use the phrase “learn to relax” often, and when most people hear it for the first time it usually sounds strange, but we really do need to learn how to relax.

Think about your day yesterday, did you take time out to relax? Is it something you prioritise? Often, even when we take time for a walk during our day, we’re thinking about so many things; what we’ll have for dinner,  a call we need to make, an email to send. We rarely take the time to physically and mentally relax.

For some of you, you may be attending pregnancy yoga or perhaps you already meditate, so you may already be practicing relaxation, but for must of us we have to relearn, something that came naturally to us as kids.But why is relaxation so important? There are two key pillars to birth preparation – understanding how your body works and relaxation. You need to be able to relax to let your birth hormones flow. When you’re stressed and anxious it can slow your labour down and make it less comfortable, your body tries to protect you and baby when you’re signalling that you’re not safe, that you feel stressed. Relaxation is key to a more positive experience and it can make a huge difference if circumstances change.

Learning to relax takes practice, in Hypnobirthing we use a mixture of breathing, self-hypnosis, guided relaxations and specific anchors that you can use in labour.

You can start simply by taking a few minutes each day to practice breathing techniques or listen to guided relaxation each night before bed. There are lots of breathing techniques you can use to relax, I recommend you start with Calm Breathing which is one of the three Hypnobirthing breathing techniques, it is really quick to learn and helps you get used to relaxing and learning to quieten the mind. You can access the Calm Breathing Video here.
Don’t worry if it takes you a whirls to tune out your chattering mind, it’s normal to take a while to get used to it when you’re used to being busy all the time, but it will get easier with practice!

If you’re ready to learn deep relaxation you can join us on ounce of our upcoming classes in Stonehaven and Bridge of Don.