The vast majority of women who have used hypnosis for one child inevitably use the method exclusively thereafter. What brings such great devotion to the wedding of hypnosis and childbirth?
The objective with hypnosis during childbirth is to allow the mother to experience a fully natural childbirth, avoiding chemical and other medical pain management techniques typical of most deliveries today. Mothers often share their concerns with the side effects of these typical medical techniques, or their fears about procedures applied incorrectly, or their worries about extended recoveries. Today, many consider hypnosis-based childbirth to be the most effective method for natural childbirth.
Hypnotherapy provides a mother the techniques with which to deal with the fear, anxiety, and pain that most women experience during childbirth. Fear and anxiety bring emotional pressures that cause the body to become physically tense, slowing and exacerbating the entire process. Using hypnotic techniques, the mother remains calm, in control, mentally alert, and more able to fully participate in the miracle of childbirth.
God promised Eve that “in pain you shall bring forth children,” and most women throughout history can confirm its severity. Hypnosis does not make the physical feeling of pain disappear. In fact, the total discomfort will not be gone at all, but those using hypnotherapy techniques report a new experience of the discomfort, a new understanding, a distinct re-focusing or re-packaging of the pain. A mother is able to refocus the pain, to push it to the background of thought, letting the mind concentrate on other ideas or experiences. Due to the more relaxed state of the mothers, the deliveries tend to advance faster, thus limiting her amount of time in pain.
Hypnotherapy is becoming more and more popular for expectant couples as they move toward more simple childbirth experiences. A mother and her partner can prepare with a hypnotherapist or with classes. On the date of delivery, the mother may have a therapist present, but more likely the couple will be schooled in techniques of self-hypnosis which generally proves successful for fully achieving the goals of a happy, drug-free, pain-controlled delivery.