Anwyn’s Note: Originally post at Electric Venom, but accidentally deleted in a database wipeout. Reposted here.

I saw the URL for this site on the back of a PT Cruiser on my way home today. Joyful birthing? Sure. But just above the “joyful” part, on the Cruiser, were more words: HypnoBirthing: The Mongo Method. The Hypno part is here.

I’m dubious. Most of the stuff it talks about–reducing stress to the mother, reducing C-sections and other interventions–I’m 100 percent in favor of. But it never really gets into the specifics of the “hypno” part, and frankly, I was taught all the things it alludes to–that fear leads to stress leads to pain, that your body can do the work just fine on its own if you can relax to the proper degree, etc.–in my regular childbirth class at the hospital. I can’t believe it takes all these specialized methods to help women help themselves to a reasonable, manageable birth experience. Actually, I take that back–I can believe it. If more women took the time to read up and prepare, with tons of courses and books already out there, these “methods” wouldn’t keep proliferating. As for the Hypno part, well, that page talks a lot about daydreaming and the state you enter just before sleep. If that’s all it is, that’s just the same as The Zone, and yes, I got into it while having my son. So really, if it’s just teaching you to zone out and relax, I’m all for it, but if it’s actually hypnosis that somebody else needs to perform on you, count me out.

And that guff about no-pain birth/labor? A doctor’s endorsement at the site says:

I have made the transition to HypnoBirthing®-The Mongan Method. I now believe that birthing involves no pain.

Yeah. That’s cuz you’ve never done it, Jack.