Understanding the Use of Hypnosis in Childbirth--for the Christian

I have decided to train to become a certified doula with Hypnobabies.  The use of self-hypnosis (as distinct from the much more well-known stage hypnosis we have all seen in movies and cartoons) is a raging trend in the childbirth field.  I have been carefully considering making this move for years.  Why the hesitation?  For one, I have had a number of my clients tell me that they decided to take my birth classes specifically because of their own reluctance to take classes involving hypnosis.  One couple told me that they decided to drop out of their hypno-birthing classes because of some rather bizarre activity their class did involving meditating on a blue blob!  As Christians, we would prefer NOT to meditate on blobs of any color, thank you very much!

So why have I decided to take this step?  I hope the following explanation will be helpful to my supporters and alumni, as well as prospective students.  First and most importantly, you must understand that self-hypnosis is not the same as stage hypnosis.  Stage hypnosis involves someone else controlling your mind.  This is wrong because we are all autonomous persons with free will.  If truly hypnosis, and not merely a performance, stage hypnosis removes free will and essentially makes the person a living puppet for the enjoyment of an audience.  Conversely, self-hypnosis during childbirth is a decision of the free will to temporarily "turn off" the perception of pain.  No one is"hypnotizing" the birthing woman!  That is a huge difference!

This training program will give me the tools I need to assist women who have chosen to use self-hypnosis during childbirth.  Since it is SELF hypnosis, and not something someone else can "do" to another person, I am fully prepared to use all the other techniques to assist birthing women who do not want to use this tool during their childbirths!

This leads right into a discussion of pain, and specifically pain in childbirth.  We have all been conditioned in our culture that childbirth is one of the worst possible experiences a woman can have.  As a woman who has given birth to five children, I can say that my births are most definitely among the most wonderful experiences I have had!  So in my classes, as with all good family-centered childbirth classes, the instructor spends a lot of time explaining the process of birth, how it feels and ways to encourage your body to open up.  The Grantly Dick-Read method, which is what I am trained to teach, was the original childbirth education method.  Dr. Dick-Read's life was changed by one of the mothers whom he helped during birth, who refused his offer of pain medication by telling him that she didn't need pain medication because she didn't feel any pain!

Does this mean we've all been lied to?  That childbirth is painless and any pain is "all in your head"?  Obviously not!  Many women, including myself, do feel pain in childbirth.  It would be a lie to deny this.  But, as Grantly Dick-Read discovered, SOME OF THIS PAIN ORIGINATES FROM THE DECISION TO BELIEVE THAT YOU WILL BE IN PAIN.  In other words, the pain originates from fear in the brain, rather than in the body, and this fear of pain increases the likelihood that all sensations from the body will be perceived as pain.  An example might suffice.  We've all seen a toddler or young child fall down and bump into something.  When well-meaning Auntie Suzie says, "Awww...dearie...you poor thing...that must be soooo awful!!" grabs the child up in her arms and generally acts terrified, what happens?  Little Johnnie begins wailing, right?  But if the adults around him act like the child is capable and can handle this event, the child might whimper a bit, but he usually shrugs it off and moves on.  The same thing happens with birth.  Something that in actuality might be a little uncomfortable or even just pressure actually becomes more and more painful the more afraid a woman is, and the more the people around her magnify this perception with their words and actions.

The people around a birthing woman are vital to her understanding of her experience.  And those people, being people, do things and say things.  If those things are medical procedures, they might well be painful.  Believe it or not, I distinctly recall that I felt more discomfort from the tape used to keep my epidural in place with my first birth than I had felt from the contractions!  And that is just one tiny example.  Procedures and practices like vaginal exams, encouraging or requiring women to stay in bed, (directly or indirectly) (and yes, this happens a LOT--where else do you go when you're stuck in a tiny room tethered to a heavy machine that is right next to...a bed!), denying birthing women basic needs like food, drink or taking a bath, putting in IV's, not to mention episiotomies, vacuum extractions, etc., cause a lot of unnecessary pain!  Add on top of that an authority figure coming in every few hours asking you to rate how much pain you're having and possibly even offering you some pain meds, then yes, you're really getting the message that you should be having a lot of pain, even if you're not!

During my last birth--a necessary hospital birth---the nurse had trouble putting in an IV.  I remember that the poked spot on my hand where the first "little stick" had not worked caused so much pain and pressure when the nurses would check my blood pressure, that I literally thought my hand was going to pop open and blood was going to gush out!  So if you are working in a environment where these types of medical procedures are universal, or nearly so, you are going to be of the mindset that birth involves a lot more pain than it really does or needs to. 

Self-hypnosis is another way of saying deep relaxation.  It is a technique a woman can use during childbirth to essentially remind herself not to freak out!  To let her body do its work, and not to complicate this process with fear.  Fear is the very first complication of childbirth.  And where does fear come from?  "God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind." (II Tim 1:7)  Self-hypnosis techniques, along with encouraging support and basic TLC, enable a woman to use the power of her own sound mind to help herself give birth as God intended--with love, not fear.

3 Months Since Birth and Counting

I thought I would post a recent photo of my son.  He is so adorable!!  I am so blessed!

My work as a fertility and childbirth educator involves lots of babies.  As I wrote about earlier, my son's pregnancy was complicated with pre-eclampsia and I am now at a pretty high risk of it occurring again, a complication that seriously endangers both me and any future children.  I have been wondering how it will feel to help other women through these amazing experiences after my fertility returns, since it is now dangerous for me to become pregnant. 

I so enjoyed giving labor support some weeks ago to a new friend I met through St Croix Birth & Parenting.  I was filled with joy!  This experience has given me hope that despite the very real sadness I feel at the probable loss of my own future biological children, the joy of seeing other new families "born" will be greater.

Fertility after...a "Complicated" Pregnancy

While I don't tend to blog about personal matters...I am breaking that rule this time.

I taught my fertility education course early this year to a young couple who had just had their first baby.  Pregnant (again) and announcing that I already had four at home, they probably had cause to be suspicious when I said that none of our children were "surprises."  I can't say for sure, but the fact that they didn't return to the second class and wouldn't return my phone calls or emails certainly seemed to indicate a lack of faith in my method!  :)

So I'm putting it in writing.  Why do we have five children?  Not because Natural Family Planning--or the fertility education method I have developed "failed" to work properly---but because our marriage and family is filled with love!  We have five living children because there was never a reason to "avoid" having another.  Most importantly, we have a strong marriage.  Sure, we have our share of disagreements, but overall, we agree on the Big stuff.  We also have a good house, adequate food, clothing and shelter, and (gasp!) we like kids!

Unlike some women, I actually enjoy charting.  As a teenager, my body was a complete mystery, and not the good kind--more like a horror show.  I had undiagnosed PCOS and endometriosis--two conditions that left me filled with questions that no one bothered to help me answer, despite trying on several occasions to get medical help.  When I learned how to chart my signs of fertility, I finally had answers; I finally began to understand what was going on inside of me.  After years of never knowing when I would get my period, (could be waiting anywhere from 5 weeks to 3 months!) NFP gave me this basic and important bit of information.  Since marrying my dear husband, I have welcomed the challenge of learning the minutiae of charting so that I could predict by the 7th-10th day after ovulation if I were probably pregnant.

Around this time last year, I realized: we have been so blessed...  We have four healthy children and we've had four normal, healthy pregnancies and four normal, healthy births... 

At the time, many friends of ours were struggling with infertility, pregnancy and infant losses, difficult births.  While some may disagree, I had a feeling that to be given the blessing of (relatively) easy pregnancies and births and healthy babies carried some responsibility to use these gifts. 

Despite this sense, it was not our goal to get pregnant again.  In fact, at the time it was my conviction, based on my charts, that my PCOS was getting worse, so I began to use a variety of strategies to counter it, for my own long-term health.  It also looked like we had experienced two very early, unconfirmed miscarriages during the year before this.  As a fertility educator, it is my opinion that these possible miscarriages were due to lower levels of progesterone as a consequence of the worsening of the PCOS, as well as my advancing age.

Though it was not our intent to become pregnant--as I wrote above--we also had no serious reason to avoid pregnancy.  My motive for charting was to simply track my health, not to postpone or achieve pregnancy.  No big surprise therefore, that we found ourselves expecting a new baby again when I was began to use a variety of natural means to enhance my health!

Overall, the first 30 weeks of the pregnancy were a breeze.  I often felt like I had more energy than ever!  However, after 30 weeks, things changed.  As it turned out, I developed pre-eclampsia and in order to avoid the heart-breaking possibility of stillbirth, as well as the terrifying possibilities that I could have seizures, go into a coma and possibly even die, baby and I had to have our pregnancy ended prematurely, when he was induced at 36 weeks+5 days.  It was obviously the right decision, and thankfully, our baby came out strong and healthy.  I was not so healthy, but the last few weeks I have been getting stronger each day.  I thank God for the blessings of a healthy baby and returning health.

However, sadly, this history means that now we do have a truly serious reason to avoid another pregnancy.  My risk of having another pregnancy complicated by pre-eclampsia, with the same risks for fetal and maternal mortality, are quite high.  All of a sudden, we now find ourselves in a different group.  From a blissful 13 years when NFP was no more than a means to confirm when a new baby had come into our lives, we now find ourselves in the group who actually need to use NFP to avoid pregnancy (unless a prevention or cure for pre-eclampsia is found).  I plan to share (in a discreet way) the effects that this change of status has on our marriage and family, and for me personally.  I have created a new blog where you can read more about our journey, if you wish.  It is at www.remainingopentolife.blogspot.com 

I am glad that I had the time last year to develop my own fertility after childbirth course, because it gave me a lengthy period of time to study this subject intensively---information that I now need for myself!  I welcome comments or questions, personal or general.  My motive for doing so is that I hope that my own experiences, as a wife, mother, as well as a fertility educator, will be helpful to others.  You may post comments or questions here, or send me an email through the contact us page on my website: http://www.stcroixbirth.com/