Hypnobirthing is a programme that involves hypnosis, breathing and relaxation techniques to prepare mums during the labour... when fear does not exists, there’s no pain.  This theory was known to be the fear-tension-pain syndrome.

Whenever people (most specially women) think of birth, they also think of pain.  Recent studies showed that 60% of women make use of some form of pain reliever during their childbirth which some experts believe is the primary cause of mums having difficulty in breastfeeding and coping with postnatal depression.

Surprisingly, there is an emerging notion that pain is not really (and should not be) an accompaniment of labour.  The NHS has just launched a test to see if this is correct by introducing hypnobirthing.

Hypnobirthing refers to the application of hypnosis or hypnotherapy techniques for women to be able to control their mind and deliver their child safely and with no pain.  NHS encouraged 800 first-time mothers in the hospitals of Blackburn and Burnley to undergo said therapy.  By doing this, NHS hopes to reduce the increasing expenses in childbirth because of the use of expensive drugs just to experience easy delivery.  Hypnobirthing trial will be headed by Professor Soo Downe from the Central Lancashire University, a specialist in midwifery.

Hypnobirthing- ‘no fear, no pain’

The concept of hypnobirthing is not new.  It was introduced by Dr Grantly Dick-Read, a British obstetrician in the late 20^th century.  The idea of whether pain and childbirth is indeed related came to his mind when he attended a woman giving birth in the east end of London in 1913.  The woman refused to take pain reliever when Dr Dick-Read offered and when he asked why, the woman said it simply didn’t hurt.

Because of that, Dr Dick-Read began researching about the pain during childbirth and came up with a theory- when fear does not exists, there’s no pain.  This theory was known to be the fear-tension-pain syndrome.

Hypnobirthing is a programme that involves hypnosis, breathing and relaxation techniques to prepare mums during the labour.  It is coupled with different activities which will greatly reduce the dependency of mums to drugs and medical treatment.  By undergoing hypnobirthing, mums are more likely to have natural birth.

Benefits of Hypnobirthing

The aim of hypnobirthing is to make the labour process as easy as possible.  A lot of women opt to undergo caesarean just to escape from the painful delivery even though this medical procedure entails a lot of health risks not just to the mother but also to her child.  Moreover, hypnobirthing has the following benefits to all mums-to-be:

• Mums will realize that giving birth is one of the most splendid events that can happen to their lives.  They will not see it as a painful experience, rather an enjoying and pleasant one.
• They will not run through post-traumatic stage and the possibility of postnatal depression is likely to decrease
• Hypnobirthing can also reduce the duration of labour

The good thing is every mum can go through this programme again and again every time they will give birth and enjoy a comfortable, safe, and natural birth.

For more information about hypnobirthing, please visit the video by BBC ’Mother-to-be Sophie Kreitzmann tries the technique’

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