Why oh why do we still insist on referring to the childbirth process as ‘labour?’
Labour!
Hahaha… If ever there was a way to ensure that childbirth was hard work, nightmare-ish and painful, that is the one to use! It just has so many connotations for a pregnant woman, doesn’t it? I want to get into this today… And I know I am going to face some female resistence…
My Nana gave birth to twins when she was 39 years old having already given birth 6 times previously and if ever asked about it, she shrugged and noted that she simply got on with it and it was all fine.
One of the defining moments of my hypnotherapy career was in my early days when I ran self-hypnosis seminar purely for pregnant women… AFter talking about the role of mind in childbirth for 30 minutes or so, as I was about to proceed, one of the hormonal women shouted “how does he know what the pain is like?” and that was just the start of it…
Women often are told horror stories from relatives and friends of the the 427 hours of painful, soul-destroying, labour they had to endure and often the following fear turns into the body’s fear…
I could go on, but that is not the point of my blog today. The point I want to make is this…
The female body is desinged to give birth and it ought to be a joyous, beautiful experience. I know lots of you that just read that are resisting agreeing with me and coming up with ll kinds of excuses and rationalisations and arguments of various kinds.
So I was delighted to read this today. This hypnosis article at Devon24 website states:
A 40-year-old East Budleigh mum-to-be turned to hypnotherapy when it came to giving birth to her first child.
Dawn Robinson, now 42, said natal hypnotherapy helped control her pain levels when she gave birth to her daughter, Alice.
Mrs Robinson learned about the natural method after reading an article written by clinical hypnotherapist Maggie Howell.
Getting hold of a CD, Mrs Robinson listened to the recording some 25 times before the big day arrived.
When she gave birth at the Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital her labour lasted three-and-a-half hours and was relatively pain free.
Mrs Robinson, who apart for gas and air did not use drugs during labour, said: “I was totally unaware of what was going on around me.
I have written in much detail before about this and similar notions surrounding childbirth.
There are hundreds of issues surrounding the process, of course there are, passing anything that big through your private zone is going to involve challenges to your positive mindset, isn’t it? 😉
Yet the benefits of hypnosis and a good mindset can have your baby being born into a world of serenity and joy rather than spine chilling screams of agony… Yeah, I know, I know… What do I know? How will I ever know what it’s like, eh? It’s easy for me to say, isn’t it?
😉
You can read about natural childbirth with hypnosis here on my website.
