No doubt about it: Deep breathing, visualization and relaxation tools are powerful when it comes to having a positive birth. HypnoBirthing not only helped me, but hundreds of my couples to have comfortable, natural births. But the tools alone aren’t enough, and they won’t serve anyone who walks into the hands of an obstetrician with a sky-high cesarean rate.

Embracing Change

To me, changing practitioners is an indication that the birthing mother feels informed, empowered, and ultimately responsible for her birth outcome. She realizes it’s up to her to hire – yes, hire – the right medical expert. For some, this “right practitioner” is a hospital obstetrician, and for others, a midwife (who can attend your birth in hospitals, birth centers or your own home). Unfortunately in modern culture, we tend to put more energy into choosing the right real estate agent than the right childbirth practitioner. Philosophies and practices can differ dramatically from one practice to the next, and your job is to find the caregiver whose values, goals and approaches are best aligned with your own. What matters is how much you trust her, and the degree to which you are convinced she shares your emotional longing for the most natural, unhurried, satisfying birth and postpartum bonding experience possible.

While many couples are aligned with the right practitioner from the start, others realize somewhere along the line that they’re with a caregiver who’s all wrong for them. (When I was twelve weeks pregnant with my son, my own obstetrician drew an imaginary C-section line across my bare abdomen with her finger, presumably to acquaint me with the scar she anticipated despite my perfectly healthy, low-risk pregnancy.)

The notion of ending a relationship with one’s caregiver is intimidating to some, but it needn’t be. For me it was as easy as requesting a copy of my records from the receptionist (remember these are yours by law, so you owe no explanation), and handing them over to the new caregiver.