The HypnoBirthing® childbirth method is as much a philosophy of birth as it is a technique for achieving a satisfying, relaxing and stress-free birth.  HypnoBirthing® teaches you, along with your birthing companion, the art and joy of experiencing birth in a more comfortable manner.  You will learn to call upon your body's own natural epidural and thus lessen or even eliminate discomfort and the need for medication.  When a woman is properly prepared for childbirth and when mind and body are in harmony, nature is free to function in the same well-designed manner that it does with all other creatures.

You will be fascinated as you view HypnoBirthing® films showing laboring mothers--awake, alert and in good humor as they experience the kind of gentle birth that you, too, can know when you are free of the Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome.  HypnoBirthing® teaches you to release all prior programming about birth, how to trust your body and work with it, as well as how to free yourself of harmful emotions that lead to pain-causing fear and unyielding muscles.

HypnoBirthing® will teach you the art of using your own natural birthing instincts.  With HypnoBirthing®, you will not be in a deep trance or sleep state.  You will be aware and fully in control, but profoundly relaxed.

HypnoBirthing® is offered in a series of 5 weekly classes.  You will learn:

• Everything you need to know to achieve a safer, easier and more comfortable birth.
• To explode the myth that pain is a necessary accompaniment to labor.
• What's wrong with labor as it exists with other childbirth methods.
• Techniques of deep relaxation to help you eliminate the Fear - Tension - Pain Syndrome.
• How your body is naturally designed to nurture and birth your baby with ease and comfort.
• To create your body's own natural epidural, the only safe labor enhancement.
• Natural ways to bring your body into labor without artificial chemical induction.
• How you and your birthing companion can create a birthing environment that is calm, serene and joyful rather than tense and stressful.
• Gentle birthing techniques that allow you to breathe your baby into the world without the violence of hard physical pushing.
• To use your natural birthing instincts to birth your baby in a way that most mirrors the way that nature intended.

All Chicago-area HypnoBirthing classes are 5 weeks long, with classes 2.5 hours each.  The fee for group classes is $350, with private instruction rates set by each practitioner.  Class fees include the book HypnoBirthing:  The Mongan Method, 2 CDs (with two tracks each) and numerous handouts.