Well …..more and more women now want a ‘natural’, childbirth and the problem that we have in our culture is that childbirth is generally viewed as very long and very painful…especially for first time mothers.

The expectation of pain can, in itself, evoke fear and anxiety’.

It has been inherited through generations of horror stories that it has to be extremely painful …..because that is just the way it has always been.

Therein lies the answer as to why in our culture there is the expectation of pain   

 … Historical programming of the mind.

In other cultures around the world childbirth is automatically regarded as a natural, normal event and women support each other and young girls are present to witness this special event.

They then grow up with a different view to our culture in that they see the birth as a positive event and not some form of dreaded painful illness. They grow up without the historical programming of …..

Fear, tension and pain.

In other words it’s all about…..

…. Belief and expectation.

And that is where hypnosis for childbirth comes in, because hypnosis is all about belief and expectation…..and in this case its role is about changing the belief and expectations of an expectant mother from a negative painful experience, to a positive one where she can be …..

….Calm Confident and In Control

The belief is that there is a self fuelling…..

Fear….tension…..pain, cycle.

It is initially fuelled by the historical belief and expectation of pain causing fear and it is then self-fuelling.          
                
Hypnosis is used to break the cycle, by removing the initial and self-fuelling inputs  to fear and thus stopping the input to tension and pain.

The actual hypnotic model that I use and am fully qualified in,  is known as the ‘Easibirthing’ method which has been used successfully for 12 years and is a UK model of hypnosis for childbirth. 

It was developed in conjunction with UK midwives and does in fact have the largest NHS contract for hypnosis for childbirth in the UK.

The actual process revolves around 5 sessions of approximately 1 ½ hours each and both the expectant mother and birthing partner (if there is one) attend, and
this can be in group or individual sessions.

They are all taught all the following necessary procedures …..

• reduction and management of anxiety,
• relaxation and breathing techniques,
• positive and calming visualisations,
• hypno-analgesia,
• ‘Anchoring’ to an individuals own safe thoughts.

All attendees are also given CDs to take home and practice the self-hypnosis techniques and all attendees are of course made aware that not all births go according to plan, but even if a situation such as this arises, they can use all their learning to remain….. Calm, Confident and Controlled.

So……is there any proof that hypnotherapy works?

There is now a large amount of statistical information available to show that the programmed use of hypnosis, when applied by qualified practitioners to expectant mothers and equally importantly to their partners, will result in a more calmer, confident, controlled birth.

The statistics therefore confirm…..

• less complications,
• less intervention,
• less use of drugs to the mother, ( with the resultant less amount of drugs in a new born baby ),
• less time in labour,
• less postpartum depression.

I have listed below just one piece of statistical information, out of the many, that are available to support the use of hypnosis for a calm, confident and controlled childbirth………

The average conventional time for labour for first time mothers is cut from 9.3 hours to 6.4 hours with an hypnosis group (Jenkins and Pritchard 1993).

This is an average reduction of 31% of  labour time for first time pregnancy women and is therefore……

31% less time…….. to experience pain/discomfort of any severity during labour.

That in itself is a statistic to be envied!