By: Brandy Harris, CD(DONA), HCBE, CBE
The first question that I am usually asked when people find
out I teach HypnoBirthing is “Hypno…what?! Birthing?! What is that?” They have “heard” of it or
have “heard stories,” “saw it in a
movie,’ “read about it on the internet” or the on that makes my day, “Oh my
friend did HypnoBirthing® and she loved it!”
What is HypnoBirthing ?
HypnoBirthing is often touted as “pain free” birthing. While it occurs, it is not the sole
motivation of your birthing.
HypnoBirthing believes that with a combination of education
surrounding the physiological process of normal childbirth, mind and body
preparation through relaxation, emotional work, affirmation and healthy
lifestyle activities such as exercise and nutrition, birth can be comfortable, safer
for both mom and baby.
In simple form, HypnoBirthing® is relaxed, natural
childbirth.
As an instructor, I like to talk with my students about the
simple & real birthing they will achieve.
HypnoBirthing is NOT
about “Pain Free” Birthing (it’s a perk).
We talk endlessly about 3 very
important keys:
#1 It is about fearless birthing.
#2 It is about
confident birthing.
#3 It is about
listening to your body.
Why those 3 specific things?
If you have those 3 things, you cannot ever fail or feel as if you did
it wrong or it didn’t work. When you
have those 3 bases covered, you are opening the door to other positive possibilities
for your birth. Comfortable birthing,
safe birthing, gentle birthing, joyful birthing, ecstatic birthing, easier
birthing & calmer birthing. You are opening it up to success! Even in the face of unexpected changes and
special circumstances that may surround your birthing, you are still going to
find success.
The concerns that are most often brought to me by the
families I teach are fear in general (related to various circumstances) and
fear of pain.
Let’s talk about pain
for a second. The most interesting
things I have found through my own research on the cultural perceptions and
expectations of pain is that #1 we do not have a “word” specifically dedicated
for use to describe or name the pains or discomforts of labor and as a culture,
women in the US report more pain in labor than any other culture in the world.
That alone causes me to stop and think knowing that anatomically, for all
intents and purposes, women are built the same give or take a few simple design
variations. Could it be our perception? Could it be our culture? Could it be
both? Think about it!
#2 For
healthy mother with healthy babies, childbirth is a normal, physiological
function. How many other physiological functions are performed daily, by
muscles, like the uterus, [often multiple times per day] that require no pain
to initiate or complete? There are
several however, for the sake of time and length, let’s talk about the heart.
It is a muscle that uses “contractions” multiple times per day to move blood
through your body. Do these movements or contractions, under healthy, normal
circumstances cause pain? No. When does pain become a factor in such a
muscle? When something is wrong; Heart attack (for example). Why on earth do we expect (and are often
told) a normal, healthy function in the body is painful. Define pain. Google dictionary defines pain
as “noun; physical suffering or discomfort
caused by illness or injury.” Without
getting into teaching a class here and now, we use the word pain to describe
most any and all discomforts we experience. A headache is painful, a paper cut
is painful, stubbed toe is painful, a broken femur? Pain. We use adjectives to
describe how serious we are about that pain. “Excruciating” pain for example
then we go on to describe the gruesomeness of the sensation we felt to deliver
the full package to our listener.
What if we just stopped using the word “pain” and simply chose to feel each sensation for what it was? Childbirth is a plethora of sensations running though our body that monopolizes all of our senses and requires our indefinite focus. HypnoBirthing challenges you to use words that describe what you may feel during your labor. Tightening, pulling, pressure, heaviness, etc. You be the word smith of what you feel. This is only a small sampling of how you change your vocabulary, perspectives on expectations, preconceived notions & previous experiences in relationship to your birthing. Re-frame your thought process. Come at it from a different angle and see what happens. To me, that is what HypnoBirthing is and how it can help you is well, up to you.
Birthing is enough work as it is why allow yourself to work
harder when you can work smarter? Let
your body do the work while feeling confident in allowing such work to take
place without being caught off guard or afraid of what it feels like to do that
work.
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