This book will be a complete game changer and I will be recommending it to mums-to-be from now on’ Sarah Turner, author of The Unmumsy MumExpert hypnobirthing teacher and founder of The Positive Birth Company Siobhan Miller has made it her mission to change the way women around the world approach and experience birth. Reading the title, I thought this would be about hypnosis, but it's actually about breaking a cycle of fear and trying to create an environment where the mum-to-be can relax and allow her body to work its natural magic.

This book has kind of a fancy/ weird title, but I think a better one (and I feel like the author would agree) would be: Just breathe! As someone who enjoys yoga and have experience with breathing techniques for meditation etc, I can see this being useful. Siobhan’s advice and guidance will change your mindset and enable you to navigate your birth with practical tools that ensure you feel calm and in control throughout. The science and breathing techniques are useful, the 'I know better than you' attitude in parts seem less so. I gave birth to my first baby on 21st April and used loads of the hypnobirthing techniques but also wanted a hospital birth and pain relief.

I highly highly recommend this book as one of the top books to read to prepare for birth for any soon to be mom! People can get as crunchy as they want, myself having packed an essential oil to bring to the hospital, but no amount of woowoo affirmations is going to give a newborn baby the Hepatitis B vaccine. That negative feeling can make a difficult birth more likely, causing a vicious cycle of tension that increases pain, that increases fear, that increases tension, etc. I also feel there is a (likely inadvertent) negative tone around a lot of the things said about healthcare professionals and medical intervention and I wonder whether this leaves some women with fears about what may happen. It primes men to feel like useless spectators, and more importantly it primes women to fear giving birth.

Don't get fooled by the title of the book "hypnobirthing", it really doesn't have anything to do with hypnosis.

I also find the various testimonies about birth experiences shared in this book very inspiring because each person birthed their babies in different circumstances and they all had a positive birth experience with the help of hypnobirthing. Siobhan's advice and guidance will change your mindset and enable you to navigate your birth with practical tools that ensure you feel calm and in control throughout. I personally didn't necessarily do hypnobirthing in terms of visualization other than visualizing my baby and I working together, which also changed my life. I’m in my first pregnancy and as I’m sure everyone has experienced, there’s a wee bit of anxiety about labour and birth.

In this book, The Positive Birth Company’s founder Siobhan debunks common myths about hypnobirthing and explains why she believes it can make every type of birth a better experience - from a water birth at home to an unplanned caesarean in theatre. I decided to give this book a go as I had a credit to use and am expecting my little one this summer. Through her teaching she seeks to educate and empower parents - and their birth partners - so that they can enjoy amazing and positive birth experiences, however they choose to bring their babies into the world. Me and my husband are FTP and really enjoyed this book, a lot of it was like oh yeah that makes since or that’s common sense but so worth hearing and actually getting facts and ways to handle situations. Information like birth shouldn't be painful in the majority of cases, that Hollywood depictions are dramatic and wrong can be good for mindset but there are parts where, although she doesn't recommend anything outright, strongly suggesting not to induce because the risk of stillborn going for 4/10000 to 6/10000 is still as small risk and it doesn't matter "how a baby makes it into the world as much as how you feel about bringing the baby into the world" presupposes a successful outcome that would result in more dead babies if applied as a policy to everyone giving birth.Expert hypnobirthing coach Siobhan Miller has made it her mission to show women everywhere that birth can be better. I love how readers can freely choose the techniques they want to practice according to their personal preferences and which one feels most effective. Really enjoyed the techniques and positivity around labor that I think will be super helpful when the time comes! Hypnobirthing certainly doesn’t involve being hypnotised; instead, it teaches you how your body works on a muscular and hormonal level when in labour and how you can use various relaxation techniques to ensure you are working with your body (rather than against it), making birth more efficient and comfortable. One subject I found strange was the natural c-section… where you can ask to dim the lights etc… I’d like my surgeon to see what he/she is doing thank you very much!

In fact, when it comes to pregnancy, birth and parenting, a good rule of thumb is: never miss an opportunity to sleep. I never thought I'd be able to labour and give birth without any pain relief, but I did thanks to what I learned in the book and using breathing techniques with the help of the Freya app. Molte informazioni le ho trovate utili, alcuni esercizi anche e ci sono molte cose sul parto che è bene sapere. Despite a 15 hour labour, I would describe my experience as positive thanks to my mindset throughout, which I definitely wouldn't have had without this book.

The tone and some of content felt a bit patronising - I never want to heat the BRAIN acronym ever again. The advice that she gives in this book is indeed practical and I appreciate how she break things down in detail, explaining the specific role of each person involved in the birth process. I feel like this book was one of the main things that helped diminish my fears surrounding labour and birth, and I ended up having a beautiful experience. In this review, I'd like to share the contents of this book to give an idea to those who are interested in reading it as well. As well, good information about the many posibilities/options that a future mother has when it comes to give birth.