Tiffany Araura Rose, CMD, LMT, RYT 


    


    
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Birth Hypnotherapy
   Would it surprise you to know that birth doesn't have to be a long, arduous and agonizing experience? Women in many countries around the world give birth without the drama and screaming that we in the West associate with childbirth. When you use visualization and hypnosis in the process of birthing you stand to gain so much.

    Many people hear the word "hypnosis" and think of people acting foolish on stage or on television shows. Hypnosis for childbirth is not like this at all; it is more like a type of meditation. It puts the woman in a very relaxed state, but she is still herself and still very aware of everything that is happening around her and within her body. She is able to take herself out of the relaxed state, or out of hypnosis, any time she wishes, and will never do anything that she doesn't want to do while in a state of hypnosis.

     Research has shown that birthing with hypnosis can help to achieve the following:
    • Faster labor
    • Efficient labor
    • Less pain relief
    • Less interventions
    • A relaxed and healthy baby/less chance of distress
    • Faster recovery
    • Reduced incidence of post-natal depression
    • Breast-feeding success


Isn't this what every pregnant woman wants?! A comfortable birth, with a healthy baby and a swift recovery.

So how does hypnosis help birth?

1. Relaxation. The state of hypnosis is highly relaxing for the mind and body. In this state the entire body relaxes and so do the blood vessels. This relaxing or dilation of the blood vessels ensures a better blood flow throughout the body and especially to the womb.


2. Efficient Birth. During labour, a relaxed body will ensure that blood is diverted to the uterus in order that it can contract efficiently and progress labour smoothly and swiftly. A relaxed mind and body will ensure that the womb has the blood supply it needs. Post-natally a better milk supply is encouraged through good blood flow.


3. Calm the Emotions. The effect on the mind and emotions is profound. With hypnotherapy a woman can relieve stress and anxiety. This relief can help to achieve a calm birthing experience and later calm the emotions during the post-natal period.


4. Overcome Fear. Fear is the single greatest factor that you can change about your labour. Fear inhibits labour, constricts the blood supply and increases the perception of pain. This leads to the Fear-Tension-Pain cycle, where fear creates tension, which creates pain, which creates more fear of pain and so it goes on. If you can remove fear then you can aid your own body to do what comes naturally and that is to birth a baby comfortably and easily.


5. Stress Relief. When we are stressed or fearful we release adrenaline and other stress hormones into the blood stream. This tenses our bodies and a tense body feels pain and creates its own pain. Blood rushes to the arms and legs ready to fight or run, taking blood away from the uterus where it is needed to help the uterus to contract. If there is not enough blood flow to the uterus, it works less efficiently and slower and blood flow to the baby can be disrupted, resulting eventually in distress. Other blood vessels can be constricted, again stopping the uterus from working well. You can see that when hypnosis removes stress from the experience of childbirth, then a swift, comfortable birth of a relaxed baby will normally result.


6. Relaxed Baby. A tense mother will release stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol into the blood stream. These can in turn stress the baby, who then appears distressed to medical staff and interventions can result in order to speed up labour or bring the baby out quickly. Babies are designed to withstand many hours of labour and a relaxed baby will cope well even if labour does not progress as smoothly or quickly as hoped.


7. Post-Natal Recovery. A relaxed mother will have good blood flow around the body. This blood flow will assist soft tissues in recovery and promote a good milk supply. Stress is known to have an adverse effect on milk production so the relaxed mother has a head start.



By using hypnosis, a mother in labor can help herself to remain calm. Blood flow is improved and comfort increased. A relaxed mind and body can ease a labour to feel in control and positive. This good perception of labor and good blood flow will help post-natal recovery and the production of milk.

So how is all this achieved?

A woman’s body is designed for childbirth, it naturally opens up to allow a baby through, the brain naturally releases pain-relieving endorphins. But if you are too tense and trying to run away from the sensations then you can interfere with this process and end up feeling pain. Many women fear feeling out of control during labour. But what do they really mean by this?

Yes, the body is doing something strange that we are not in total control of but it is giving birth to a baby – a happy event. Firstly the cervix is opening and then the uterus is contracting hugely, it is a big muscle working hard. With a first baby, the woman has never felt these sensations before. But they are only sensations, just as tensing up an arm or a hand produces a sensation, a sensation of muscle contraction. If you can overcome the fear of something never before experienced then you are halfway there. The sensation of the uterus contracting to push out a baby is a powerful feeling, and you cannot stop it. You need to embrace the feeling, acknowledge it and accept it and then you will be able to achieve relaxation and allow your body to get on with what it needs to do. If you try to fight or run away, that’s when tension is produced and the fear-tension-pain cycle is started.

Women who have used hypnotic techniques as part of their childbirth preparation will have learnt how to induce their own trance, how to turn off pain, they will have addressed their fears and will have learnt how to use time distortion. Their lack of fear and acceptance of powerful feelings in the body usually contribute to a very comfortable and positive birth experience, which in turn contributes to a positive post-natal phase and less instances of depression.

It is difficult to find major disadvantages of practicing hypnosis for birth because there are no real risks associated with it. In the worst case scenario, if the woman finds that hypnosis isn't working as pain management for her during labor she can choose to ask for an epidural or endure the pain.



 

                                                          Guided Imagery/ Visualization


How Does Guided Imagery Work? Practitioners say that guided imagery works because, in terms of brain activity, picturing something and actually experiencing it are equivalent. Brain scans have verified that this is the case. Stimulating the brain with imagery can have a direct effect on the nervous and endocrine systems and can ultimately affect the immune system as well. If you picture yourself luxuriating at the beach on a tropical island, your muscles will actually relax and your skin will feel the warmth of the sun's rays. Likewise, if you imagine yourself recuperating quickly and effortlessly from gallbladder surgery, you are more likely to heal faster and with less pain. The brain's visual cortex, which processes images, has a powerful connection with the autonomic nervous system, which controls involuntary activities such as pulse, breathing, and physical responses to stress. Soothing, uplifting images can actually slow your pulse and breathing and lower your blood pressure, as well as help trigger the release of hormones such as endorphins, which make you feel good and nurture your body's restorative powers.

What You Can Expect From Guided Imagery? Although you can learn guided imagery techniques on your own from books, it is best to work with a midwife, doula, or other health care practitioner or purchase an audiotape dealing with the issue important to you. If you're a creative individual, you can write your own guided imagery script, read it onto a tape, and then use the tape as your guiding tool.

If you work with a practitioner, it will probably take only a couple of sessions to learn a technique that works well for you. The sessions may be as short as 30 minutes or as long as 90 minutes. It will speed the process considerably if your practitioner allows you to tape the session for home use. During the first session, the practitioner (who may also be a psychiatrist, psychotherapist, or psychologist) will take your medical history and ask you why you want to use guided imagery. The practitioner will probably ask you questions about your favorite vacation spots and times of year, and about experiences that have made you feel confident and secure. Your answers will help you and the practitioner develop images that make you feel good. Next, the practitioner will ask you to lie on a couch or sit in a chair. You will want to wear comfortable clothing and may want to take off your shoes. Before beginning, be sure you are warm enough or cool enough, and that pillows support you in a comfortable desired position. You can have soft, sustained music playing in the background, maybe one with ocean sounds, if you want to do the ocean visualization recommended below. The music should be soft enough to hear your own breathing. Once you are settled in, the practitioner will guide you through a visualization exercise, using all five senses and perhaps focusing on a special place where you usually feel happy and peaceful. The suggestions could be spoken in a low, soft tone, with long pauses. The pauses allow you frame the image, relate it to yourself, and then to experience the sensations of that image. The practitioner may suggest some ideas, but will leave most of the imagining up to you. The best images are the ones you conjure up yourself because they will have personal meaning for you. The amount of touch involved depends entirely on the individual situation. It is possible that the midwife or doula may not touch the mother at all, or that her birth partner may be holding her hand or stroking her lightly, in concert with her breathing pattern. With practice, you will be able to bring up healing images quickly - anytime, anywhere. You'll be able to use guided imagery to help yourself relax during stressful moments, such as being in labor, as well as to treat a particular health problem.


The belief that the power of imagination can help people heal has ancient roots. Traditional folk healers known as shamans used guided imagery to treat ailments. In Eastern medicine, envisioning well-being has always been an important part of the therapeutic process. In Tibetan medicine in particular, creating a mental image of the healing god would improve the patient's chances for recovery. The ancient Greeks, including Aristotle and Hippocrates ("father of modern medicine") also had their patients use forms of imagery to help them heal.


It was not until the 1960s, however, that psychologists exploring the emerging field of biofeedback first began to appreciate the powers of the mind on the physical body. Through biofeedback, they could teach patients to slow heart rate, lower blood pressure, or open lungs stricken with asthma. Then, in the 1970s, O. Carl Simonton, M.D., chief of Radiation Therapy at Travis Air Force base in Fairfield, California, and psychotherapist Stephanie Matthews-Simonson, devised a program - today known as the Simonton method - that utilized guided imagery to help his cancer patients. The patients pictured their white blood cells attacking their cancer cells (sometimes in scenes that resembled the popular video game "Pac-Man"). Simonton found that the more vivid the images his patients used (for example, ravenous sharks attacking feeble little fish), the better the process worked.


Since then, a good deal of research into mind-body connections has appeared in mainstream medical literature. And while many conventional physicians remain skeptical that the mind has an actual physical effect on the reversal of an illness, guided imagery (often conducted by psychiatrists or psychologists) is now used in many medical inpatient and outpatient programs throughout the world. Furthermore, many holistically oriented psychologists and other counselors routinely employ guided imagery for stress reduction, smoking cessation, weight reduction, immune stimulation, and the relief of both physical and emotional illness.

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