I am today treading carefully… The last time I talked about childbirth and womens experience of it, I got a cavalcade of feisty responses at facebook…
Anyway, since I posted up the film clip last week about the Cesarean birth in Iran using only hypnosis as anaesthesia, most of my professional peers have been mentioning it, discussing it and there is much more in the news relating to this aspect of hypnosis… I want to mention two very contrasting nds of the pregnancy experience, both of which are aided greatly with hypnosis…
So first up, this NBC hypnosis report gives a film clip and tells the story of Kristie Press from Grovetown. The article states:
Imagine a pain free child birth without the help of medication. One Grovetown woman is instructing expectant mothers on a technique she says can offer that and more.
“It was really painful. I felt really out of control. I couldn’t deal with the contractions towards the end especially,” Kristie Press said.
After one painful childbirth, Press was terrified of what was to come when she heard she was expecting again.
“When I first got pregnant in the first couple of months even the thought of going to the hospital just really made me want to cry,” Press said.
Then she found a video of a woman using hypnosis during childbirth on the Internet.
“I was like wow that’s completely amazing. She didn’t appear to be in pain she wasn’t screaming she was actually smiling,” Press said.
The woman was using a technique called hypnobirth.
“Complete physical comfort and relaxation. The deepest relaxation you can possibly get to,” Christen Phillips said.
Phillips also had painful births.
“With the first two I had instrumental delivery and I tore and it was not a fun experience,” she said.
Then she used hypnobirth for the delivery of her daughter Sarah.
“I went on to have a completely pain free birth,” Phillips said.
Now she instructs other women, including Press, on how to relax by reprogramming.
“Things that have a negative association we replace those like instead of labor it’s your birth instead of contractions it’s pressure waves,” Phillips said.
The technique uses music, thoughts and phrases to reach extreme relaxation.
“It kind of feels like being in a tub of warm water.”
Believe it or not, Phillips says the techniques may actually have you asking for more.
“I really wished it would have lasted a little longer because I was enjoying it so much,” she said.
Hahaha… It is rare to have someone say that, eh?
I then move on to a piece of research about the other end of pregnancy. This hypnosis article at Doctor NDTV website cites the Journal of Obstetrics & Gynecology which talks about the use of hypnosis in alleviating abortion pain. The article states:
Pain management during abortion remains a challenge and current findings suggest that hypnotic pain relief might help in relieving women’s pain and anxiety during the procedure. During hypnotherapy, patients are aided in getting into a relaxed state of consciousness, and then given suggestions for ways to manage symptoms or change their behaviour.
Researchers from Canada studied 350 women who had a first-trimester abortion. Half the women were randomly assigned to have a hypnotic relaxation session where they were offered ways to deal with their pain during the abortion. The hypnotherapist then remained with them during the procedure. The rest of the patients received standard care; a nurse specialist stayed with them during the procedure and gave advice on relaxing and deep breathing, but offered no specific instructions on decreasing pain or anxiety.
It was found that 63 percent of women in the hypnotherapy group ended up requesting IV pain medication during the procedure, compared with 85 percent in the standard-care group. Such drugs do partially relieve pain during abortion, but there are good reasons to reduce women’s need for them. In general, less medication means a faster recovery, fewer side effects and a quicker discharge. Other studies have shown that hypnotic pain relief can affect nervous system activity in a way that dampens the body’s response to pain.
The results of this study strongly support the need for a larger study to confirm that hypnosis can be offered to patients without any risk, with better care satisfaction and recovery during stressful gynaecological procedures.
There is so muh that can be done utilising hypnosis in a variety of ways — even with such contrasting matters around related areas.
