Hypnobirthing has become increasingly popular in the States in the past year. The anecdotal stories about it are astonishing and the results of Hypnobirthing consistently show a reduction in the need for chemical pain killers, a reduced length in labours, less fatigue, fewer breech presentations, fewer complications with easier resolution when they arise and most importantly an increased likelihood of having contented babies.

The experience is similar to the daydreaming or focusing that occurs when someone is engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire, but because her body has been programmed to experience hypnotic anaesthesia the birth is free of the fear and tension that prevents the muscles of her body from functioning as nature intended. She can therefore experience her birthing in an atmosphere of calm and relaxation, without fear and tension. Her body’s natural anaesthesia (endorphins) replace the stress hormones that constrict and create pain. When it’s time for the baby to be born, she is fully awake and involved.

Adrenalin is produced in labour when we are afraid. Invariably because of our negative expectations about pain during birth, most women have some degree of fear during labour.  Animals stop labour if they produce adrenalin during the course of it, in order to run away from the cause of the fear. The blood necessary to oxegenate the uterus for uterine contractions and to keep the unborn baby soothed, gets diverted to the action muscles used for escaping from the source of stress.

In a calm and stress free mother and in animals the longitudinal uterine muscles predominating over the top of the uterus contract to pull up the circular cervical muscles which correspondingly dilate and relax. There is a harmonious synergy between the cervical and the longitudinal uterine muscles. If there is adrenalin present during the labour the cervical muscles tense up and contract working against the longitudinal muscles, causing severe pain.
HypnoBirthing has brought the birth experience to a new level of enjoyment
The Hypnobirthing web-site has many letters of recommendation from delighted parents and their doulas - the women who provide emotional support during labour. They can be found at www.hypnobirthing.com
 
Worth quoting for its interesting comments is the letter written by Dr. Jeffrey Segil, FACOG, an obstetrician who has been employing HypnoBirthing techniques with his patients for the past 2 years.
He states that, “It has been one of the few things that I have done in the past several years that has truly changed the way that I practice obstetrics, and it really has given me more enjoyment than almost anything else within obstetrics.  HypnoBirthing has brought the birth experience to a new level of enjoyment, not only for the birthing woman and her birth companion, but also for me as a practitioner.  It has also made my job a little easier and certainly more satisfying.

The couple who uses HypnoBirthing is not always what we would expect.  It isn’t always the woman whom you would think of as the natural childbirth-type patient.  HypnoBirthing virtually works for every patient who comes into the office.  It works for the “type A” personality, who you might think of as too neurotic to even consider sitting through a class to the person who already is very accepting of natural and alternative methods and who knows that she wants a natural birth.  It works for the woman who knows that she is going to have a scheduled C-section, as well as the person who knows that she is planning to have an epidural. 

When we talk about HypnoBirthing we talk about how for every person using it, it can be a different experience.  Like any childbirth method, HypnoBirthing is going to help them through their birthing, get them further along and work for them at whatever level and to whatever extent that they want it to. And that’s success for that person.
Part of the premise behind HypnoBirthing is that it empowers the patient.
Part of the premise behind HypnoBirthing is that it empowers the patient.  By definition, it takes the power away from me, the practitioner, and transfers it back to the birthing mother and her birth companion, empowering them to be in charge of the birthing process, seeing it as a very natural process, as well as theirs.  It takes us back to a basic concept—chiefly, that a woman, when she was born, was born to give birth.  We go with the premise that this woman, if she allows herself to get in tune with her body and follow her own natural birthing instincts, knows how to give birth without instruction from the outside world. 

The philosophy and the techniques of HypnoBirthing give power and credence to the belief that the birthing mother is capable of being in control of the situation. It’s clear that the more a woman and her birth companion practice at home the better they get at it.; but it is also true that we have seen patients begin this work only two weeks before birthing, and they were able to get tremendous benefit from it.

There is, of course, a variable from patient to patient, and we talk about that variable.  For some women it may be thinking that they want an epidural even before they step off the elevator.  These same women may be able to move to 7, 8, or 9 centimeters before they have an epidural, and that is very much a success for them.  For some women, it may be that they are concerned and worried about the second stage of labor and HypnoBirthing is able to help them get through that second stage with ease and comfort. Others already know that they are quite capable of getting through the second stage of labor, but they want something that will help them to remain comfortable and be more relaxed.

What we are finding is that during that second stage of labor, which can be rather tumultuous for other patients, Hypnobirthing mothers are much more calm and relaxed.  It’s clear which rooms on the birthing suite are rooms in which the woman is using HypnoBirthing because the women and their partners are calm.  There’s no yelling or screaming; there is not a lot of commotion.  They are actually very quiet rooms.  These women are really quiet and calm throughout their birthing experience.
Certainly, nine times out of ten, when the babies come out, they are calm and very content and go to the breast immediately
The vast majority of women actually breathe their babies down all the way to complete crowning, and they are totally in control and very involved with the birthing.  They are able to reach down and often help to receive the baby themselves. Certainly, nine times out of ten, when the babies come out, they are calm and very content and go to the breast immediately.  The mother is alert and involved in the birthing process and in bringing her baby to the breast and helping the baby to breast feed.   All in all, Hypnobirthing is a wonderful birth experience.”

I thought back recently to stories I’d been told by my mother about how her mother and grandmother had perceived sex to be a painful and unpleasant duty. The Victorian insistence that sex was sinful and shameful meant that no one discussed methods to make it pleasurable, and most women were hypnotized by the belief system of the day and by whispered expectations to anticipate soreness and discomfort. The only thing that has changed since then are our belief systems, and everyone thinks sex is so great that you’re an uptight weirdo if you dislike it. Perhaps it’s time to start changing our belief systems about birth too.

Robyn Sheldon is a Natural Birthing Specialist. You can find out more about her work on www.mamabamba.co.za.