Prayers can create peace on so many levels: peace in our world, globally, collectively, locally. Prayers can promote peace and birthing can create a sense of peace. Not possible? Consider the following statement from HypnoBirthing® Maine’s website. “Imagine bringing your baby into the world while you feel calm, relaxed, and in control.” While birthing can create physical discomfort and anxious moments Megan Connolly helps mothers access resources deep within their bodies, that help mothers alleviate physical discomfort during labor and birth through HypnoBirthing®.

While HypnoBirthing® may be a term that is gaining recognition, what is it exactly? Basic research identifies HypnoBirthing® as a technique that focuses on relaxation, natural birthing instincts, and focus while the mother maintains control  She becomes freed from the fear and tension that prevent the muscles in her body from functioning as nature intended. Through HypnoBirthing® giving birth becomes a fulfilling and loving experience for mother and baby.

Megan Connolly, a Registered Nurse, became passionate about childbirth while studying in San Jose, Costa Rica, and through volunteer work as a labor companion in a public hospital. Megan was interested in and wished to study midwifery, so she decided to pursue her goal by first obtaining a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Nursing from the University of Southern Maine in 1997.

After giving birth to her own sons, Megan’s passion for natural childbirth grew. “I experienced the amazing power of natural childbirth during the births of my two sons. I received HypnoBirthing® training from veteran instructor Jessica Porter in 2007.” Today she lives, works, and plays on Munjoy Hill in Portland with her husband Kevin and their two home-schooled sons Henry and Andrew.

According to her website, www.hypnobirthingmaine.com, the method of HypnoBirthing® that she practices is called the Mongan Method which “is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. This concept of natural childbirth is not new, but rather a ‘rebirth’ of the philosophy of birthing as it existed thousands of years ago. More recently, it was recaptured in the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read, an English obstetrician, who first presented the concept of natural birthing in the 1920’s. In the late 1980’s, Marie Mongan, hypnotist and mother of four children, developed a course teaching these techniques now known as HypnoBirthing®.”

Through class training, mothers gain “an understanding of how the birthing muscles work in perfect harmony—as they were designed to—when your body is sufficiently relaxed. You will learn how to achieve this kind of relaxation, free of the resistance that fear creates, and you will learn to use your natural birthing instincts for a calm, serene, and comfortable birthing.”

When mothers give birth through HypnoBirthing®, they are not in a trance or a sleep. They instead have an experience similar to daydreaming or focusing as they would when engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire.

Typically they can carry on a conversation and remain in good spirits… “totally relaxed, but fully in control.” The mother is awake throughout, aware of her body’s surges, but because she trained herself to reach complete relaxation, she’s able to determine the level of birthing surges. Mothers experience birthing with the awareness of “calm relaxation, free of the fear and tension that prevents the muscles of your body from functioning as nature intended them to. In this calm state, your body’s natural endorphins, replace the stress hormones that constrict your muscles and cause pain.”

Megan shared some thoughts from parents that she worked with earlier. Portland, Maine’s Andy and Coleen expressed their thanks in working with Megan last spring. Andy shared some of his wife’s experience, "…as soon as the nurses got her (Coleen) into her bed she instantly felt safe again and went right back into her zone. She lay in the bed, breathing and even humming through the remaining surges. She was in complete relaxation and almost silent as she breathed down the baby. Anaia arrived by 6:34 and although it was a whirlwind for a moment we both think everything was just perfectly amazing."

Parents Emily and Trevor are from Hollis. Baby Juliet was born in June of this year. “Trevor was amazing and knew just what to do to help me calm down. I closed my eyes, and I don’t think they opened for more than 5 minutes total over the next 10.5 hours.” She applied the breathing techniques she was taught while Trevor used a light touch massage along with their nurse, Nicole. Nicole was “great. She knew HypnoBirthing® and made a real effort to use the terminology we used in class along with keeping the music soft, lights off and without much loud talking. I could go on about the rest of the labor experience. It was the most amazing, miraculous thing I have ever experienced.” Emily explained that as long as she remembered what was happening and visualizing her body opening up for her baby all went very well. She used the affirmation, “I trust my baby and my body to know what to do” several times during her labor and noted “there was no pain involved, only pressure.” Emily said she lost her focus once and found herself tensing up which also resulted in experiencing the pain of childbirth, but she refocused and regained her “out of body experience” which relaxed her while easing the pain. Emily found her birth “experience incredibly special and magical instead of painful and scary.”

The classes involve twelve hours of instruction taught over five weeks. The instructions help the mother and her birth partner learn to replace the fears and tensions of birth with calm, comfort, and confidence.  During the classes, Megan Connolly teaches and facilitates practice sessions of specific “deep relaxation techniques” that would be used during labor as part of the course. “The class will cover the physiology of the body in labor, and how gracefully it will work when freed from the constraints of fear and anxiety.” Birthing videos will be shown of women calmly giving birth with laughter and ease. Group and private classes are available. Group classes are offered at $235 with private classes at $350.  Her website offers class times, location, and a map for directions.

Megan asks that those interested in taking the HypnoBirthing® course should contact her by email through her website www.hypnobirthingmaine.com or by phone (207) 780-1004.

As with most holistic practitioners, Megan Connolly’s work is more than work. It’s a way of life, a life of helping others bring new life into this world gracefully, calmly, and with joy-filled love. Her true passion about her work is summed up in her words. “I am very grateful for the chance to do this work. It is an honor to accompany parents on their path to a peaceful birth. Watching their transition from an expectant couple to a happy family brings me great joy. I believe every woman deserves to experience the surge of confidence that comes from birthing naturally,” and so it is through Hypnobirthing® Maine.