Pregnant Laura Kenny reveals why she WON'T be having a hypnobirth

Its been a while since I have written a blog, but, after reading an article this morning relating to the Olympic cyclist gold medallist, Laura Kenny, I felt compelled to get typing...

Ok, so the title says it all “Pregnant Laura Kenny reveals why she WON’T be having a hypnobirth”.

Naturally I was intrigued as I truly believe that “informed choice” is paramount.

I also get that hypnobirthing is not for everyone, so, hands up to Laura for just speaking her mind.

Saying that, I was very surprised as this is coming from an outstanding sports person who I always believed would use the power of the imagination and prepare for BIG events (they don’t get any bigger than the Olympics!) with sport visualisations.

For anyone that doesn’t know, this is a way that many sport persons prepare for events by imagining their way to success. Wayne Rooney, Jonny Wilkinson, Andy Murray, Ennis-Hill to name just a few.

For example, Wayne Rooney finds out what kit they are wearing for match day, not for fashion purposes, but, so that he can use this as part of his “rehearsal” of creating a positive mental experience in order to enhance the ability to achieve success. Wayne thinks about the perfect technique, he gets the perfect image in his head to compliment his physical performance.

Wayne has used this technique his whole life and the night before each match he lies in bed and visualises himself scoring goals and doing well. He is preparing himself, he is making a future memory prior to match. Whether you call it visualising or daydreaming, its the same thing.

The same goes for Jonny Wilkinson who use to perform visualisation sessions prior to his matches. “You are creating the sights and sounds and smells, the atmosphere, the sensation, and the nerves, right down to the early morning wake-up call and that feeling in your stomach. It helps your body to get used to performing under pressure”.

Of course, no one can promise that this preparation works, none of us have a magic wand, but, it would be really interesting if for ONCE Mr Rooney didn’t do this ritchual – what outcome do you think it would have on his performance, but, whether you are into this or not I think we all know the answer to this don’t we?

Infact, imagine if every sports man or woman on the run up to their big event imagined a loss or an injury, that would just be unproductive and who would want to do that, just in case it did come true.

So why accept as Laura Kenny has done, that “birth is going to hurt”?

The power of the mind is immense and if its good enough for some of the best sports persons in the world then surly its good enough for us mums-to-be too.