HypnoBirthing - A Gentle Birthing Choice
After the joy of discovering you were with child, what was your next thought? Tell your family and friends, perhaps? Any what did they say in response? Congratulations! Or something similar? And what stories did they share with you about their births? Positive, happy experiences or the agony of it all, something to dread and be frightened of?
We have all been programmed to believe that giving birth is painful. Growing up, we are inundated with horror stories, media depictions of women in agony and screaming in pain. Now remember that at one time, everyone thought the world was flat. Perception is the key here. How would you like to be one of those moms with a positive birth story? It might mean that after the birth of your baby, you won’t fit into the fraternity of ‘horror’ stories. You just might be excluded from that ritual that has become so common in our society today. But then again, is that such a bad thing?
It was a calm, soothing experience for her, her husband and her baby. Without recognizing it, she had utilized self hypnosis to accomplish this.
Marie Mongan was recently in Singapore and relayed her story and her fearless birth program. In the 1950’s she knew that there was something wrong with the way women were birthing their babies. Women were routinely given ether, completely unconscious while their babies were pulled from their bodies with foreceps. She noticed how animals birthed their babies with seemingly no pain. She requested from her doctor the right to birth without drugs and interventions. It took until her third child to accomplish her goal. She found she had to ensure her doctor informed the hospital staff that she did not want to be tied to the bed and be given ether. She did manage to do just that, without feeling any discomfort, only a tightening feeling in her abdomen. With relaxation and concentration, she birthed her baby gently, into the world. It was a calm, soothing experience for her, her husband and her baby. Without recognizing it, she had utilized self hypnosis to accomplish this.
Childbirth is a natural expression of life. It is fear that keeps women’s bodies tense and closed, creating the pain in childbirth. Fear creates tension and in turn creates pain. Women’s bodies were designed to give birth and have a natural capability to produce its own ‘epidural’. They are designed to work in neuromuscular harmony with nature. Hypnosis utilizes nature, not manipulation to relax the mind in order to let the body do what nature intended it to do. Mothers freed from the fear of birth are empowered to have the birth of their choice.
Have you ever been reading a book and then realize someone has been speaking to you and you haven’t heard a word? Or driving home and realize you have been on autopilot and are in the carpark before you know it? That is a state of hypnosis. Hypnosis is simply being in a relaxed state, mind and body. You remain totally aware of what is going on around you. Hypnotic techniques bring about an easier, more comfortable labour and birthing.
The subconscious is the part of the mind that is utilized in hypnosis and your subconscious mind looks after every organ, muscle and cell in your body 24 hours a day and it never sleeps. Your subconscious mind regulates all involuntary bodily functions including your heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, hormone production (prostaglandins, endorphins, oxytocin and adrenaline) and elimination system.
Your subconscious mind is also the seat of your emotions, your feelings and your sensations. It's also where your permanent memory is stored, so everything that you have ever been told about childbirth over the years and the images and emotions you have formed because of these influences are stored within your subconscious mind. So if you’ve heard nothing but horror stories, that’s what your subconscious believes.
The brain and nervous system respond only to mental images. It doesn't matter if the image is imagined or real. Like a computer your subconscious mind holds good programs and ‘bad’ ones (horror stories of birth). Hypnosis is like a virus scan for your computer – detecting the ‘bad’ programs and upgrading your ‘software’ (imagery).
A woman becomes very fearful and anxious about the thought of what lies ahead of her. This fear activates the nervous system to produce adrenaline. The effects of adrenaline should not be underestimated.
Adrenaline is like the brakes of birth:
- The muscles of the uterus tighten -they become tense and knotted which makes uterine surges less effective thus increasing the discomfort.
- There's a marked increase of blood flow away from the uterus to the arms and legs because stress and tension prepare the body for fight or flight.
- All of this prevents an adequate supply of oxygen to the big contracting muscle, the uterus, so the 3 layers of muscle fiber that make up the uterus start working against each other - whenever there are two big groups of muscles working against each other they soon begin to hurt and in short time the pain becomes very severe.
Sound familiar? If you replace the word uterus with heart in the above scenario you’d be experiencing a heart attack! Our heart beats every day from early in conception until we die and it never hurts…until the blood supply to the heart is reduced. Similarly when oxygen rich blood is redirected AWAY from our uterus (by the action of adrenaline) – birth HURTS.
We continually experience childbirth like the above scenario, in our culture - in part because we very much expect it to be like that. If the mind expects something to happen then it will be realised. So if you expect pain, anxiousness and fear in childbirth, then you will have pain, anxiety and fear.
If you expect comfort and relaxation and you build up a positive mental expectancy of childbirth, then you can change the negative programs in your computer (sub conscious mind) and through hypnosis, upgrade your subconscious thoughts to new positive feelings and imagery about birth.
About the Writer
 |
Di Bustamante is a consulting hypnotist, birth doula, HypnoBirthing; Practitioner, childbirth educator, prenatal massage therapist and a faculty member of the HypnoBirthing Institute. Originally from the US, Di has spent the last 6 years living in Singapore. Her interest in birthing started when she had her children. Her pregnancies were filled with complications and bed rest. After birthing her daughter she became the Director of the Arizona Chapter of Sidelines, a non-profit organization that provided peer counseling for women experiencing pregnancy complications. Di wanted to learn more about the normal side of pregnancy and pursued an education in Doula support services and Childbirth Education. Feeling there was still more to learn to assist parents in achieving a more empowering birth experience, she became a HypnoBirthing Practitioner. This has changed her entire outlook on birthing and she loves teaching families this method of birthing. Continuing to further her knowledge of hypnosis, she became a board certified consulting hypnotist in November 2006. |