T: 07884 497 744 E: katie@birthcare.co.uk
The mind is powerful, the body would be useless without the mind to control it. Everything we do and feel is controlled by our mind. As we go through life we form opinions from what we have seen, heard or experienced. Our thoughts, feelings and opinions are absorbed into our subconscious mind, often without us having any knowledge of how they got there, and frequently without ever questioning whether the information that we have based these thoughts, feelings or opinions on was accurate in the first place!
Birth is a perfect example of this, and perhaps it isn’t until we are pregnant that our previously formed opinions come to the forefront of our mind. Opinion is often that birth will be incredibly painful, that it will be hard work, awful and it is something to be feared and worried about. We then start to doubt our ability to cope, feeling that it is something that we have no control over and have to just get through.
As humans we are naturally designed to survive, therefore we are more likely to pay attention to negative input as this will help to keep us safe and alert for danger. As soon as we inform folk we are pregnant, they seem to delight in reinforcing our negative thoughts, feeding our subconscious mind with all their horror stories of birth, but… it doesn’t have to be that way!
Let’s reframe this a little….
“No other natural bodily function is painful and childbirth should not be an exception.”
— Grantly Dick-Read, M.D.
A woman giving birth enables the survival of the human race, so why would nature make this difficult? Women are perfectly designed to give birth, however, when we are fearful of something our bodies react differently and this can interfere with the birthing process, if we understand this, then we can help our bodies to birth as nature intended.
Let’s imagine for a moment that birth is wonderful, that it is something to feel excited about, an invigorating experience that women have been enjoying for years. It is intense but not painful, it is amazing! Now I can’t promise that! But let us imagine how we might view birth if that was all we had been told or seen our whole life. I would imagine we would approach birth with an entirely different mind-set. We would probably look forward to our baby’s birthday. We would begin labour feeling confident in our body’s ability; we would feel happy, calm and relaxed. We would produce an abundance of hormones that would make us feel empowered and comfortable; and would produce plentiful amounts of natural endorphins to assist us during the intensity of surges.
Hypnobirthing is much more than relaxation and breathing. Hypnobirthing is a full antenatal education programme that with practice helps to reframe your subconscious mind so that you can feel in control, positive and excited about your upcoming birth, be prepared and confident in your body’s ability to give birth so that you will remember your baby’s birthday because it was amazing! Hypnobirthing is logical and it really works, and it always makes a difference in any situation for any type of birth….
This is why I am so passionate about Hypnobirthing!
Hypnobirthing supports the entire perinatal period, and one could be forgiven for thinking it’s all about the birth… it isn’t! Yes hypnobirthing is about preparation and practice for birth, it’s about lots of little things that are done during pregnancy that make a big difference to the experience of birth, but it has a much wider impact. It can positively impact the postnatal recovery, the baby’s experience, and the bond that is developed with baby. It also influences feelings about giving birth again in the future. Naturally women that have had a good experience of birth will feel better about doing it again in the future.
As a specialist mental health midwife I see time and time again the impact on women and partners of negative experiences of birth, I know that when things don’t go well for couples it can be devastating and very challenging to deal with, and can take a long time to recover from. Of course a negative experience of birth does not necessarily relate to ‘what happened’, but more about ‘how it felt’ at the time. For example, a woman can give birth in a way that may be deemed as straightforward, but can feel traumatised for one reason or another, and alternatively a woman may experience a very complicated birth, but feel it was a positive experience, and this is an important distinction to make. Hypnobirthing is not about the ‘type of birth’, yes it certainly does help to facilitate a straightforward physiological comfortable birth, but it also supports couples to feel empowered, in control, and calm throughout the pregnancy and during the birth experience.
Benefits – to name but a few!
– Releases fear of giving birth, allowing mother to look forward to her baby’s birthday!
– Gives partner practical techniques to help the birth process, and highlights the importance of their role during labour and birth process
– Strengthens the relationship between the couple by exploring relaxation and breathing techniques together, making decisions together, and spending regular dedicated time to focus on their baby which helps promote family bonding
– Boosts confidence in mothers ability to give birth by providing knowledge of the birth process and how to promote this
– Aids informed decision making by providing evidence based resources and knowledge of the maternity system, enabling couples to feel confident to deal with situations if things stray away from their preferred path
– Birth will be more comfortable and calm with less need for medical forms of pain relief, which will mean that both mum and baby will be more alert around the time of birth to support baby’s instinct and ability to start feeding sooner.
– Baby has a calmer experience of birth
– Increased ‘feel good’ hormones at birth that will promote positive feelings and facilitate bonding with baby
– Parents will learn skills that can be used for life to promote and enhance emotional wellbeing for the whole family
