Liz Scheffey        February 2026

HypnoBirthing Classes will help you plan your birth, and prepare body and mind for experiencing a safe and calm birth.

Living things cannot give birth if they don’t feel safe. Nature is hardwired to wait till the season is safe for birthing. Even then, if conditions or environments are not safe, the birthing will wait. The body instinctively knows how to shut down and put off the process until it is safe. Human beings are born throughout the year regardless of season or light. But we still need to feel safe, dropping into our deep instinct and trust that our bodies are made to give birth naturally.

HypnoBirthing Classes will help you prepare body and mind for creating a safe and calm birth plan.  Classes systematically present visual, verbal, written, and hands-on information. Slides, videos, discussion and materials are provided to support understanding, practice, and the digestion of key information. Take what you need and leave what you don’t, because you are you, and this class will help each couple to discover what they want and need. Everyone’s birthing path is unique.

In the following sections I will break down some key aspects of HypnoBirthing Childbirth Education and what you can expect to experience and learn in the 5 class 15 hour series.

So Many Decisions- How To Balance It All?

Becoming a parent is one of the most sacred and transformational experiences people have in life, and HypnoBirthing Class supports you finding ways to navigate through the start of this journey to ensure you feel great about it, as you should!
Through sequential, evidence based information spread carefully and thoughtfully over 15 hours, this series will cover getting clear about your goals, and ways to become clear and action oriented about them, providing a framework for practicing, reading and spending time with the curriculum in between classes. Then, after the class series is complete, them, you will continue to prepare until the day comes!

Prenatal months and post natal months are an exciting and busy time. There are appointments, check ups, dates, data; there are decisions about birth environments and settings. Do we want a birth center? Birthing room? A hospital? At home? What care providers do we want? How many? There are doctors, nurses, midwives, doulas; there are practitioners of pelvic health, womb health, ceremony, nervous system care; pre and post natal classes. What should I eat? What is the baby doing? How do I stave off anxiety? What is Spinning Babies anyway, and do I need that? Medical decisions about vaccines, routine procedures, skin to skin time, and receiving of the baby at the moment of birth. Things you see on Social Media, things people say to you. It can be very overwhelming. Through HypnoBirthing series we will cover issues like these, a place to unpack what is overwhelming and settling into a clear, coherent plan out of which you will feel confident and at ease. You will create your own blueprint for birth.

Bonding With Baby, New Family Roles, Your Transition Into Parenthood

Some changes the pregnant woman is going through are very visible, while changes for other family members are not visible but are still equally as important. Including the whole family in bonding with the baby and with each other during pregnancy is important. Classes explore the ways you can bond, and the effects it has on everyone involved. Learning how babies develop throughout those 9 months from their skeletal system, nervous system, brain, to their digestion and beyond is exciting and relevant!

The relationship you have with your child begins at conception, and with insight into the emotional life of the child you will easily communicate and love your baby during your pregnant months. You will learn how to easily connect with your baby amidst a busy life.
The value of bonding throughout pregnancy helps with the transitions that come during pregnancy as well as post-natal, while easing everyone into a deep and intentional relationship as a family that will last.

Self Hypnosis Leads To Instinctive Birth

Birth is instinctive if we can get out of our own way. One piece of the HypnoBirthing curriculum is the mind- body connection. The body is a robot – the mind dictates the body responds. The body is the action component of the mind. You will learn to control this mind-body relationship in order to achieve goals, heal the body, and shift from overwhelm to serene self possession, and calm. Internal and external circumstances are often not in our control, but you can control your thoughts.

The brain and nervous system can be altered by intentions by language, breathing methods, simple visualizations, and in-depth guided visualizations. You will begin to practice these skills in the first class, and will soon find the ones that work best for you. You will learn to move easily in and out of the hypnotic state, and to master it. These tools are invaluable in your post-natal and parenting years as well! Create the birth you desire and welcome your baby into the world shaped by loving intention, confidence, and care.

The Nuts And Bolts Of The 15 Hours- Structure, Materials, Practice, Style

Preparation for birth begins when you sign up for a HBCE Class, and goes until you have your baby in your arms. Soon after you sign up for the class, you receive from me your materials in the mail consisting of HypnoBirthing, by Marie Mongan; 1 neatly bound booklet of class presentations and tools such as scripts, affirmations, templates, check lists, blueprints, vocabulary, and more to bring with you to class, and wherever else you are practicing and learning, and eventually right into your birthing place! It is a treasure! ; 2 MP3 recordings, one for yourself, and one for your birth partner for self hypnosis.

Reading starts before our first class. You will begin asking your own questions, and finding answers. There is plenty of time in class to share thoughts, reactions, insights, and questions about any of the material. Home practice is done everyday, both alone and with your partner. Classes take place over 4 weeks and consist of discussion, slides, videos, practice and more practice, and open dialogue.

Fears And Limiting Thoughts- Clear Out The Skeletons and Refresh the Closet

Professionals, media sources, friends, family are all around you giving you well meaning but usually unsolicited inputs and information on all things birth. Be it personal birth experiences, birth stories they heard, birth recommendations, birth suggestions, birth techniques,  do’s, don’ts, musts, and so forth. It quickly can become triggering or/and overwhelming.

One part of preparing for birth involves getting the body and mind to feel safe and confident.  As with many things we need to learn how to do it, and then practice doing it before we master it.  Learning how to access within yourself the power to stop listening, walk away, or kindly change a subject that is not serving your well being is a great lthing.  Then, there are the things you have acquired over your lifetime, the gathered bits of information and the many beliefs we hold as true.  There are more than you realize that have shaped some of your beliefs about birth. Some of them are good, some of them not so good. Those are the parts that must be cleared out.

One part of the HypnoBirthing curriculum works on clearing and releasing fears, limiting beliefs, and thoughts that block your path to a physiological birth, a normal, healthy, and natural labor process driven by the natural potential of the birthing person and baby, free from routine, non-evidence based, procedural medical interventions. Once you empty the closet of the old stories and beliefs you don’t want to have, you then have room to fill that place with what you do want for your birth.

Key Take Aways Ways

• Hypnobirthing emphasizes empowering the mother and birth partner to work with the body rather than against it.
• It teaches practical tools to manage discomfort through mindset, controlled breathing, visualization, and physical relaxation.
• A key principle of HypnoBirthing is the belief that fear increases tension, and tension increases pain. By reducing fear and promoting confidence and trust in the body’s natural ability to give birth, HypnoBirthing can create a more positive, calm, and positive birth experience.
• HypnoBirthing Childbirth Education Class holds a core belief of respect, value, and empowerment for the birthing person, the baby, and birth partner.
• HypnoBirthing believes that calm births lead to a calm world.
• HypnoBirthing is fully inclusive of all people, evidence-based, and provides quality materials for hands-on practice for the whole family both in class and at home.

 

Do you recognize these laws at play in your daily life?

Laws of the Mind and Thought that Affect Change

Law of Psycho-physical Response- (Most important Law in Birthing).   For every thought or emotion, there is a corresponding chemical and physical response and change within the body. The body follows the mind. If the mind is dwelling on a fearful negative image of birth, the body is thrown unintentionally into a defense mode of tension. This is the most important law that affects the conduct of labor.

Law of Motivation and Desire          Motivation creates focus and intent. You must truly want the outcome that you claim to seek. There must be a burning desire for the positive outcome. Developing a belief in yourself as an independent and able person builds agency and creates motivation.

Law of Repetition and Substitution         The mind can only hold one thought at a time. Through precedes reality, New programming in the subconscious is always more powerful and always wins out over past programming when the two are in conflict. Words and thoughts are powerful.

Law of Harmonious Attraction             All that you say, and hear, and believe is what you will get. You will attract conditions and situations that are in harmony with your thinking. It is important that what is NOT WANTED be totally avoided.

Law of Relaxation of Law of Opposite Effort                If you are doing manual work, you must put all effort into it. When approaching mental work, you must step aside and let it come naturally. Desired outcomes cannot be forced or manipulated. Imagery is the tool; thought is the technique. Thoughts are entities, and therefore, have energy that has the ability to bring about the desired change.