Pregnancy & Baby 

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Hypnotherapy in pregnancy and childbirth

If you're nervous about giving birth, hypnotherapist Maggie Howell has some suggestions about how to get you to see things differently

For so many women, birth has become an event to be feared. We read one horror story after another, women you meet are desperate to tell you their story in such graphic detail and even the antenatal classes are filled with so much 'what can go wrong' information. The media is full of scare stories that can influence a pregnant woman's mind before her baby is even the size of a pea.

How does fear affect the birth?

Bear with me here, but imagine a woman going into labour in the jungle. Suppose she saw or even thought she saw a tiger lurking in the shadows. What do you think would happen? Would she have a conscious choice on what happens next?

She may think she could control the situation, but her body would already have made the decision. Simply believing there is danger in her birth space would instantly stimulate a healthy 'fight or flight' mechanism. Labour contractions would slow down or stop and would not resume until she felt safe.

The fear would activate the nervous system to produce adrenalin, giving her the power to prepare to fight or run away. Her cervix would tighten to prevent her baby from being born in an unsafe environment and the increased level of adrenalin would neutralise the oxytocin (the hormone responsible for stimulating the uterus to contract) and endorphins (painkilling hormone), naturally slowing her body down or even stopping the birth.

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