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Confident Childbirth featured in Practical Parenting magazine. Journalist Karla Napoleon was looking for practical tips for women to prepare for childbirth. Her article for the June 2009 issue of Practical Parenting contains lots of tips from Jane on being relaxed, staying positive if you “hit the wall” and mentally rehearsing for a calm, smooth labour in the same way that athletes mentally prepare for the best race they can run.
Research demonstrates effectiveness of hypnosis for labour An article in The Independent in 2007 summarised some research in Australia: Research at the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide, where hypnosis is used for women in labour, shows it is highly effective. A study showed that women taught self-hypnosis reduced their need for analgesia by half, epidurals by 70 per cent, and were more than twice as likely to be satisfied with their pain management in labour compared with other women. Some other research: In Toronto, a city-wide retrospective survey compared low risk first-time mothers, who had had four 2.5-hour hypnosis sessions, with similar mothers (controls) who hadn't prepared in this way. Variations per hospital noted for the controls.
Some Florida research was published as follows: A.A. Martin, P.G. Schauble, The effects of hypnosis on the labour process and birth outcomes of pregnant adolescents , The Journal of Family Practice, May 2001, Vol.50, No5. In this Florida-based study, 47 pregnant teenagers were randomly assigned either to supportive counselling or to hypnosis. They received 4x1hr sessions at 2-week intervals. No hypnotherapist was present during labour and results were entered by unaware obstetrics staff.
Confident Childbirth and Cognitive Hypnotherapy All Confident Childbirth practitioners are qualified Cognitive Hypnotherapists. How does this benefit you? It means that we are trained and experienced in approaching you as an individual rather than having a one-size-fits-all approach. We know how to work in partnership with you to draw out of you the inner skills and strengths which you need to experience labour and delivery with confidence. It also means that we have the flexibility to meet your precise needs and in session to notice what's going with you and deal with it there and then. If you are motivated to develop yourself in order to make the most of the experience of the birth of your baby, you will find that positive changes are possible surprisingly quickly. You'll get the most out of working in this way if you are curious about how you can use your mind to prepare yourself effectively for childbirth, and willing to practise in between sessions. To find out more about the Quest Institute, where Cognitive Hypnotherapists are trained, please click here.
MIND AND BODY TOGETHER FOR CONFIDENT CHILDBIRTH Say the word "childbirth" and what immediately comes to your mind? I've asked this question of many groups of expectant parents, and there are no prizes for guessing what ninety per cent of them say. "Pain". Isn't this sad? Mightn't joy, happiness or achievement be preferable? Women are very good at swapping birth horror stories and our culture perpetuates the idea that suffering in childbirth is a woman's lot. This means that most mothers approach labour and delivery in a state of fear and anxiety. This in turn tenses up the body and lowers the pain threshold, while at the same time inhibiting the body's natural process in labour which is to relax open the way for the baby. Athletes and other sports people are well aware of the mind's influence on the body's performance. They use sports psychology to train their minds to work with rather than against their body. For childbirth, hypnotherapy is recognised by several research studies as a way for women to have shorter labour, less need of medication, less medical intervention (such as forceps, epidural, Caesarean), a more satisfying experience and a baby born in better shape (as measured by the Apgar score). It can also reduce instances of post-natal depression. The use of hypnosis in pain relief has a long history. Internationally-recognised surgeons such as Jack Gibson and Angel Escudero have carried out hundreds of operations under hypnosis alone. Doctors know that hypnosis is the only known no-risk pain reliever. I'm a cognitive hypnotherapist and when I did a specialised training to work in the field of childbirth, one of the doctors conducting the training told us how she had induced her own hypnotic anaesthesia and then had a comfortable two-hour back operation. Relaxation releases the body's own natural painkillers: endorphins and enkephalins. Women who use hypnotherapy to learn relaxing self-hypnosis for childbirth store up all kinds of positive mental tricks and techniques that make labour and delivery fear-free, manageable and positive. For example, Sue had had a "dreadful" first birth that left her terrified of reliving the same experience. Key to a new approach for her was to learn to find a "safe place" in her mind, in her case, a gorgeous Jacuzzi. She said birth number two was: "A million times better than the last - quick and natural, using only gas and air. I got to 7cm dilated at home in the space of 2 hours, and even then had no plans to go into hospital yet except that the contractions were only a minute apart and my husband phoned the hospital. The pain was manageable despite the baby being the wrong way round and having to turn during labour. In my mind I just went off to my Jacuzzi with its aromas and warm bubbles and visualised the end result." Vicky was having her first baby. Rather than using the techniques deliberately, what happened for her was that labour and delivery simply went in the way that she had visualised them happening. "It was very fast. The safe place that I had always imagined in my mind was on my sofa watching TV - and that was what actually happened. For the first five hours of my labour I was at home, watching TV, talking to friends on the phone, vaguely aware of strange sensations in my tummy, but not even feeling them enough to mention them to anyone. When my husband came home, I was more interested in getting our meal ready than thinking about the funny pains. He suggested we go to the hospital. "That's when it accelerated, just like the opening up that I had visualised. I was 3cm dilated when I arrived. The midwife said not to worry; it takes roughly an hour per centimetre of dilation. Oh really? In 45 minutes I was at 9cm, and when it came to second stage, my son was born in 3 pushes. "One great thing was that I wasn't tired at all. Overall I had by far the easiest birth in my NCT group." Sue and Vicky achieved these results through four hour-long hypnosis sessions and by practising guided relaxation and visualisation for themselves in between. The practice gives expectant mothers a really positive excuse to take time out, relax and think positive thoughts. And then later, with a new baby around, the skill of going calm inside is a terrific one to have up your sleeve! Please contact me to discuss how the Confident Childbirth approach can benefit you.
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