WHY CONFIDENT CHILDBIRTH?

In a few hour-long sessions you can let go of fears, worries, and anxieties about labour and delivery. You can overcome any negative beliefs, thoughts or memories that are getting in your way and discover how to look forward to the achievement of giving birth. Most mothers have four sessions, some, with extra issues to work on, come for six.

This approach is flexible, positive and interesting . It'll take account of how you feel now, respect your wishes and guide you towards the birth that you wish for you and your baby.

YOU'LL LEARN:

• Self-hypnosis: how to go into a state of calm relaxation
• Personal visualisations to aid your labour and delivery
• Relaxation and a range of pain control techniques
• How to remain positive, in control and in communication

By the end of your sessions, you may be surprised just how much your mindset has shifted, so that you can look forward to childbirth in a much more relaxed way than before. You'll have taken your mind and body through so many positive mental rehearsals for the birth that your body can be "primed" to go through its natural process very smoothly.

THE BENEFITS OF CONFIDENT CHILDBIRTH?

Before the Birth

• The experience of pregnancy becomes more enjoyable and exciting process as you learn to think more positively about labour and delivery
• The skills you learn enable you to relax, look after yourself and cope more calmly with challenges such hospital waiting rooms
• Self-hypnosis helps you get sleep better and get back to sleep if your nights are disturbed

During Labour and Delivery

• Being positive and calm with a range of pain control techniques to use, you're much less likely to need chemical painkillers.
• Research shows that labour is likely to be significantly shorter
• Research also shows that there's a much reduced likelihood of forceps, ventouse, or Caesarean section
• You'll have learned a proven method for communicating with medical staff which means you'll feel involved in any decisions that are made as labour progresses
• You'll have a range of tools and visualisations to use so that you can stay positive and comfortable

After Your Baby is Born

• Your baby is likely to have a higher Apgar score (measurement of wellbeing immediately post-delivery)
• Reduced use of pain medication means reduction of
  undesirable side effects for mother and baby.
• You're likely to need a shorter hospital stay and have a quicker postnatal recovery.
• Reduced incidence of post-natal depression.
• Many mothers report that their babies are calmer and feed and sleep
  better due to their gentle passage into the world.
• Self-hypnosis and relaxation aid breast-feeding
• Your new tools can help you cope more easily with family life and get more easily
  back to sleep during any disturbed nights

TO BOOK SESSIONS or for more information please ring 020 8743 0962. I'm very happy to discuss the best programme for you.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Surely pain is purely physical - how can my mind have any effect on it?
In fact feelings of pain are a complex response in which how the mind is feeling influences the sending of the pain signal. For example, relaxation has been shown to raise the pain threshold by releasing endorphins - the body's natural painkillers which block pain signals from reaching the brain.

And neurologists at the University of Iowa scanned the brain activity of hypnotised people as they dipped their hands in lukewarm water and in painfully-hot water. When it was suggested under hypnosis that the painfully-hot water was lukewarm, the brain activity in the part of the brain which registers subjective pain was the exactly the same as when the water actually was lukewarm.

Your attitude to pain can also diminish its importance to you. Think of how marathon runners cope with and overcome discomfort so that it becomes very secondary in an experience more marked by a sense of achievement and satisfaction.

Will I be able to learn self-hypnosis?
It's surprisingly easy. You go in and out of trance all day long so your mind knows how to, even if you're not aware of it!

When you daydream, drive on autopilot or become absorbed in tv, music or a book, then you're in a trance. When you imagine yourself on your next holiday or evening out, you're taking yourself into trance. If you find yourself reliving your school days or a job interview, you're in trance.

"got it" by the time they come for the second session. During the rest of the course you learn to deepen it and to prepare for the birth itself.

I don't want to be "out of it" during the birth!
You won't be! You'll be in control, communicating clearly with your partner and medical staff.

So will the birth will be pain-free?
There is no guarantee of this but it is possible. Hypnosis CAN completely remove pain - many people have had surgical operations purely under hypnosis, with no anaesthetic at all. They've remained comfortable throughout and recovered remarkably quickly. (Surgeons Jack Gibson - now retired - and Angel Escudero have carried out over 1,400 operations with only hypnotic or psychological anaesthesia).

It's been observed that plenty of practice increases the depth of trance - so if your goal is to have no discomfort at all, be prepared to spend plenty of time learning to relax profoundly! And as you do, you and your baby can gain huge benefits before and after the birth too.

Attaining even a light depth of trance means any discomfort is likely to be less than it would have been; you can relax more between contractions and so feel better; and labour is likely to be shorter so both you and your baby recover more quickly.

In any case before it even begins, you'll have the reassurance of knowing that you have a range of mental tools to make the whole experience more positive and enable you to manage your feelings.

I'm going to yoga classes, isn't that enough?
Yoga's fantastic. In combination with self-hypnosis you can be even more in control. And then you can use your self-hypnosis to cope more easily with family life (like getting easily back to sleep during those disturbed nights.)


TO BOOK please ring 020 8743 0962 or e-mail jane@confidentchildbirth.co.uk