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Three women curled up on couches on Saturday and lulled themselves into self-hypnotic states. A soft voice spoke in calm, even tones as the first-time mothers, all in late stages of pregnancy, absorbed positive messages designed to prepare them for pain-free births.

"Hypnosis is not relaxation, it's different. …Hypnosis is entering information directly into your subconscious mind," said Rose Quintilian of Gaithersburg, a certified hypnotherapist and the women's instructor. "If you go to different parts of the world where women don't think of childbirth as painful and don't expect to have a painful birth, they don't."

She likened a self-hypnotic state to "watching television or driving," a hyper-aware place between asleep and awake, where focus and concentration are so deep that all else falls away.

Quintilian teaches "Hypnobabies," a five-week class designed to ease woman through childbirth, often without medicine. Hypnosis helps mothers train their subconscious to feel labor contractions as pressure, tightening or pushing – small sensations or baby movements — but not pain. Strategies, based on master hypnotist Gerald Klein's Painless Childbirth techniques, include "fear release" and "hypno-anesthesia," a technique envisioning anesthesia flowing throughout the body. It incorporates elements of the Bradley Method of Natural Childbirth, including body relaxation movements and nutrition planning.

A goal of the "hypno-mom" is often to keep drugs out of childbirth, Quintilian said, but the techniques can be used with medicated births too.

"Once I was pregnant, I started recognizing what I didn't want," said Amaya Lambert, 29, of Silver Spring, who is due to give birth this fall. "When I thought of birth the natural way, I thought of a woman in a small village who leans up against a tree, births her baby and walks back to the village. It's a very simple concept that the body is already equipped to do."

Lambert, a biomedical engineer who once worked in diagnostic imaging for GE Healthcare, knew that she did not want an epidural catheter inserted into her spine to numb her lower body – or a team of medical professionals yelling at her to push, she said. She began looking into natural childbirth and when she talked to women with short labors, she found they often spoke of "mother-directed care" and that some had used hypnosis.

Hypnobaby strategies help mothers have shorter labors and less pain by helping to lower blood pressure, adrenalin, resistance, heart rate and temperature, Quintilian said.

"Compounding" is necessary for "deprogramming" fear and negative ideas about the birthing process and hypno-moms practice self-hypnosis and deep relaxation for 30 to 45 minutes a day with workbooks, cassettes and CDs.

"This is for healthy women who want to have a natural childbirth…listening to their bodies," said Lambert, who was quick not to dismiss benefits of science. "There are instances where things come up where it's wonderful that there's a hospital or an environment that can handle complications."

Alexandra Pallas of Ellicott City, who has studied yoga and meditation and has nearly completed a master's degree in Ayurvedic medicine, a 5,000-year-old Indian practice of herbology and herbal medicine, said the course is ideal for women who want a holistic childbirth approach. "It's all based on your fear and comfort zones," said Pallas, 31, who plans to give birth at the Bay Area Midwifery Center. "I know I'll be more afraid in a hospital."

"I'm a little different because I want to go to a hospital," said Christine Mayes, 38, of Reston, Va., who hopes to have a natural birth. "That said, I don't want a lot of [medical] interventions." She is working with a doula, who takes care of the mother's emotional needs during childbirth, and a certified midwife to prepare.

"It's all about choice," Quintilian said. "And that's power."

For more information about Rose Quintilian's "Hypnobabies" class, visit www.mygentlebirth.com.