Hypnosis

A couple of years ago, Brody and I went to a seminar on hypnosis. It was offered by his work, at the time, through the sheriff's dept. We chose a seat in the back, in a room of about a hundred people. We giggled as they started talking, thinking this would be good free entertainment. We expected to see people barking like dogs, or dancing around on chairs.
Instead we ourselves were hypnotized along with everyone else there. It felt like I was in a complete state of relaxation, unable to move my body, sinking further into the chair. I knew where I was, and who was around me, but my eyes were so heavy that they didn't want to open. The speaker told us affirmations in a soothing tone, and encouraged us to eat healthy and told us that we loved water, and couldn't get enough of it. Ironically after the seminar the line to the water fountain nearly went out the building.
The highlight of the evening, for me, was at the end, when we all stood in a train around the room, with our hands on the persons' shoulders in front of us. Brody has an aversion to touching strangers, especially elderly women, like the one that he had his hands on at that point. When the speaker instructed us to give the person in front of us a good shoulder massage, Brody glanced back at me with a look of terror in his eyes, but proceeded to give this nice old lady a good shoulder rub!
After experiencing the state of relaxation that takes place in hypnosis, I began to research it for childbirth. I watched an amazing video about it, and have heard many testimonials about getting through labor relaxed and enjoying it. I've also learned a lot about myself in my past two pregnancies and births, and that is mainly, that I am shy and don't enjoy the attention that being in labor brings, which therefore tenses my body, and works against the contractions, causing stalled labor over and over again. The best that I have handled it in the past was when I sat In the dark with headphones on listening to relaxing music, unaware of who was in the room, or the machines beeping. I have also had such bad experiences with epidurals, my first leaving me with toxoplasmosis the next day, and my second leaving me with a spinal headache, where the fluid surrounding your brain drains out of the punctured hole in your spine, and is incredibly painful.
I don't want to enter childbirth this time around with the fear I feel from my last two experiences, therefore I figure that learning to completely relax, even when in pain, or when strangers are around me, will prove to benifit the labor in one way or another. It may sound strange, but I hope it works, and if it doesn't, I'll just ask Brody for a good shoulder rub, I've seen his work with the elderly ladies.