As many as one in seven couples report today that they are having trouble conceiving children. Couples spend billions of dollars annually in their attempts to overcome infertility. For those who do finally get pregnant, it is not unusual for them to have spent a year or more in their efforts. Many couples are waiting longer to start their families, and that wait can present obstacles, both physical and mental.
Once a physician has examined a couple and has identified and treated any physical barriers to conception, hypnotherapy can offer a fast, effective way of increasing success in conceiving. A familiar scenario, one that you may have heard and that I have witnessed in my own immediate family, illustrates why hypnotherapy is a perfect tool for struggling couples. I have a niece and a nephew born fewer than nine months apart. After struggling to have children for an extended period of time, my brother and his wife found out that they would be adopting a baby girl. Almost immediately thereafter, they became pregnant, and a baby brother arrived on the scene. It is a story repeated often for those who have adopted children.
The desire for children is a powerful, innate drive for most couples. Many women played with dolls throughout their childhoods, and the imagery and emotions of such play helped to develop the desire to have and mother babies. Many men develop their own desires for children, as well. If a family is put on hold, whether intentionally or not, a couple knows the “clock is ticking." With the passage of time, pressure to conceive naturally interferes with the relationship. Sometimes real physical obstacles to pregnancy may be the culprit to infertility. Not all physical issues will make pregnancy impossible, but they may warn the couple of the difficulty ahead, adding more pressure to the mix. In addition, the family dynamics of the couple themselves is affected by infertility. Neither spouse wants to disappoint the other, and there is real guilt on both sides during repeated failures to conceive. How do all of these pressures impact fertility, and how can hypnotherapy help?
These tensions manifest themselves into physical stress and emotional anxiety. In regard to fertility, anxiety and stress bring about certain physical reactions that tend to hamper pregnancy. It is really very simple. When a person responds to life challenges, if severe enough, instinctive “fight or flight” type chemical reactions kick in. Chief among these reactions are hormonal changes, which tend to lower the chances of fertilization. With couples, there is double trouble as this hormonal challenge can hit both the male and female, inhibiting hormones that assist in fertilization in both partners. Since hypnotherapy is proven effective for stress and anxiety problems, it can serve as an effective tool for increasing fertility, either alone if no physical cause has been identified, or as a complement to support a couple that is also receiving medical and chemical assistance.
The hypnotherapist will get to know the couple or the individual seeking help in order to identify the conscious and unconscious challenges, review the couples’ history, and to work with the client(s) to establish objectives and a plan to address the fertility challenge. The overall goal of therapy will be to enable the couple to relax enough that the mind and the body do not experience the intensity causing the physical reactions that obstruct fertility. Couples should be able to relax and enjoy the baby-making process, if you know what I mean.
Whether the issues include negative self-talk, wrong or unfair beliefs, guilt, or some other problematic behavior, hypnotherapy, utilizing hypnosis tactically, can give couples a relaxing, confident and enjoyable approach to a very exciting and fulfilling future.