In our classes we learn to birth without fear. Rather than focusing on ways to “get through the pain” we learn to eliminate the cause of most suffering in labor. We dispel many of the myths surrounding labor and birth while explaining exactly how the female body has evolved perfectly for childbirth. We are consistently updating and revising its materials to reflect the best, most recent evidence based care in Obstetrics.

Hypnobirthing is a childbirth preparation method that teaches deep-relaxation and guided visualization skills along with powerful breathing and hypnotic-anesthesia techniques to help couples achieve a positive, joyful, and more comfortable birth experience.

In hypnobirthing-based childbirth preparation, parents practice and perfect self-hypnosis cues and relaxation prompts that enable the birthing mother to enter a state of deep relaxation quickly and easily. With hypnosis and guided relaxation, we are able to quiet the conscious mind and affect change in the subconscious mind through positive affirmations, prenatal bonding and fear-releasing meditations. Hypnotic-anesthesia is a powerful and simple mental skill that anyone can learn in order to reduce tension, eliminate discomfort and diminish pain naturally and without medication.

In our classes, mothers learn about the Fear-Tension-Pain cycle and learn how to break that cycle. The deep-relaxation skills we learn and perfect enable a mother to call upon her natural birthing instincts to birth her baby as nature intended: peacefully, joyfully, and without unnecessary suffering.

In self-hypnosis you will be awake and aware, but deeply relaxed and focused. You will not be asleep or having an out-of-body experience. You will not be numb or “out of it”. You will be able to open your eyes, walk, move and remain active during labor, while remaining in hypnosis. This “active hypnosis” is one of the most important things you will learn to do. Rhythmic motion helps work with gravity to assist baby down through the pelvis more quickly, easily, and comfortably.

The Birth Companion of the mother’s choice can be an integral part of the birth experience. He or she practices with the mother regularly in helping to prepare for childbirth. We also help birth companions release their own fears about birth while teaching them a variety of comfort techniques to assist the mother. During labor the Birth Companion guides the laboring mother through tension-relieving hypnosis scripts, deep relaxation and hypnotic-anesthesia techniques, and provides various other comfort measures throughout labor.

While natural, unmedicated birth is our focus, the Curtis Method classes is NOT anti-epidural or fundamentally against other interventions. The deep-relaxation, breathing, and affirmation techniques learned in class will help every woman have the birth that is best for HER and her baby. We honor and respect every woman’s birthing journey. We have had a number of couples use our techniques to prepare for a positive, empowering cesarean birth. Their skills enabled less anxiety, better bonding, quicker healing and easier recovery after a c-section.

The Curtis Method does not promise pain-free birthing, although some women do have pain-free births. You will feel your baby be born, and those sensations can be intense. But most mothers who prepare and practice can have drastically easier and more comfortable births, and often experience the birthing sensations as “pressure”, “power”, “intensity” instead of pain. We learn that “all pain is in your brain” and that you can learn to change your perception of the sensations in your body. When a woman is released of fear and deeply relaxed, her natural birthing instincts turn on and she is able to experience her contractions as waves of pressure, opening, power, and release. Waves of love and confidence.

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