Hypnobirthing Giveaway

HypnoBirthing (aka "the Mongan Method") is a form of form of childbirth education developed by Marie Mongan, M.Ed., M.Hy., and first published in her book "HypnoBirthing-- A Celebration of Life" in 1989. Her philosophy is simple: severe pain does not need to accompany childbirth in the absence of fear and tension or special medical circumstances. After much research before having my own baby, I decided to go with the HypnoBirthing philosophy...and am I ever glad that I did! One can learn the HypnoBirthing techniques by reading studying her book and accompanying CD's or by attending HypnoBirthing classes taught by a certified HypnoBirthing educator. What, you say? How can this work?

HypnoBirthing works to make birth a gentle and amazing experience by teaching the expectant mother how to deeply relax her mind (this would be the self-hypnosis part) and muscles, breathe in a helpful instead of harmful manner, release all fear, and work with her body instead of against it. The result is a calm, serene birthing experience that allows the mother to be completely aware during the birthing process (I was so aware that I was able to catch my own daughter) while remaining relaxed and unafraid.

Mongan believes that "when you change the way you view birth, the way you birth will change." Explaining the history of childbirth in her book, she educates the reader on how birth in Western cultures was first a normal part of life that produced few anxieties and complications, but then became something that women feared as it moved into the hospital setting. The causes of pain and fear that women so often think will accompany their birthing experience is also explained with sound reasoning as to why pain and fear are unnecessary and actually harmful--and also how to avoid them.

Don't be fooled by the idea of self-hypnosis presented in this method, either. Self-hypnosis allows you to remain fully aware and in control and is something that you already do without realizing it--like when you zone out while watching TV or driving a car. Learning how to do this whenever you desire to gives you the ability to reduce a lot of tension, fear, and pain during childbirth (and it also helped me to sleep a whole lot better during those late-stage pregnancy nights). In fact, some women are able to achieve a completely pain free child birthing experience through this!

HypnoBirthing is beneficial for all women looking at giving birth whether vaginally or by c-section. Trust me, you want to learn these techniques. The winner of this giveaway will receive three things:

• HypnoBirthing; The Mongan Method book, 3rd edition (spiral-bound--it's beautiful!) including a HypnoBirthing CD with "relaxation" and "birth rehearsal imagery" by Marie Mongan on it.
  
• Rainbow Relaxation CD with birthing affirmations (these are so wonderful to listen to) and the rainbow relaxation script (this especially helped me to fall alseep within 10 minutes of going to bed).
• Button that says "Please Only Happy Birth Stories...Baby is Listening..." with the HypnoBirthing symbol.

To enter, you need to head over to the HypnoBirthing website and then come back here and leave a comment with one interesting thing that you learned from their site. You also need to tell me your expected due date or when you hope (in an ideal world) to have your next child. Be sure to leave your email address in your post or it won't count! This contest will end at 12:00 pm EST on Sunday, May 31, 2009. Good luck, and be sure to check back all of this week to earn additional entries and other prizes!

Extra Entries :
(leave another post w/email address for each thing below)

*Fav me on Technorati (2 additional entries)
*Follow me on Blogger (1 entry)
*Subscribe to me otherwise (1 entry)
*Send an email to four friends telling them about this contest and/or my blog and CC me (LifeMoreSimply at yahoo dot com) (1 entry)
*Blog about this contest including a link (1 entry)
*If you did something worthy of an "extra entry" from this post and want to include those entries here, leave one comment per extra entry stating what you did before (still including your email address).

NOTE: contest is only open to mailing addresses within the US or Canada. If you live in Canada, you must prepay the shipping of this item for me. If you live within the US, I'll still gladly accept payment for your shipping costs, but won't require it. :-)