Hypnosis in Childbirth and all that Jazz! I accidentally came upon Hypnotherapy because I was looking for help for my son who was diagnosed with Type 1 when he was 12 years old and although he had learnt to, control the condition as much as he could with insulin, exercising and eating correctly over time he felt he has lost the ability to know when he was going in to a hypoglycemic attack. He felt he was missing the physiological clues.
Also he wanted to maintain his blood levels as steady as possible (The blood sugar level is the amount of glucose (sugar) in the blood. It is also known as serum glucose level. It is expressed as millimoles per litre (mmol/l).
Normally, blood glucose levels stay within narrow limits throughout the day: 4 to 8mmol/l. But they are higher after meals and usually lowest in the morning. In diabetes the blood sugar level moves outside these limits until treated. Even with good control of diabetes, the blood sugar level will still at times drift outside this normal range. This is what we wanted to address but my question was how?
I read all I could on diabetes (a very depressing time) I looked at a range of therapies each good in their own way and just happened upon Hypnotherapy, I was excited that it appeared to address the mind body connection which I was looking for.
I trained with the Brief Strategic Therapy Foundation in central London gaining my certificate and diploma in Hypnotherapy, I have since enhanced my therapy, training in NLP, Rapid Eye Technology and HypnoBirthing® as I write this I am working towards completing my advance hypnotherapy training and gaining a qualification in EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique).
Having qualified in hypnotherapy and using my son as a willing (at times) guinea pig we found we could start to bring back to him some of the tell tale signs of an hyperglycemic attack he had been previously missing which was of great a relief to us, he also appears to have better control of his blood levels since we started to work together. I was thrilled and I still work with him whenever he lets me…he is 21 years old now and much less willing to sit still for to long! Although I did record a hypnotic CD, which he does listen to fairly often!
This insight into how our brains and body appear to work and communicates was thrilling and led me into other areas of interest i.e. helping people with cancer; the diagnosis and coping with cancer treatments and its side effects, in fact I have been so thrilled with Hypnotherapy in this area, I now run a six week course three time a year for clients of The Nightingale Community Hospice Trust (Enfield) teaching breathing, visualization, self hypnosis and self help techniques to support them throughout their care.
The area which I have seen most public interest grow is in applying hypnotherapy to childbirth, I trained as a HypnoBirthing® Practitioner so I would be better prepared to help pregnant couples to have the best birth possible for them. In this modality the Dad plays a very central role in the birthing process, Mum is supported and baby is born in a much calmer environment and the labour is often shorter! The preparation consists of around 12 hours of class time, working with both mum and dad equipping them with tools and skills that will be effective in childbirth and throughout their lives.
There has been recent media coverage of a growing concern at both Government and public level of the number of some would say unnecessary medical interventions, many leading to increasing the number of caesarean births being carried out in this country.
Research shows the effectiveness of hypnosis in all areas of childbirth particularly in helping a woman to overcome the fear/tension/pain cycle, which may not only influence her decision on the use of invasive analgesics but, in increasingly more cases, her decision about opting for a caesarean delivery when not medically necessary.
We have taken on the mistaken belief that childbirth must be painful (isn’t this how the media very often depicts it) and stories are passed down the generations of how awful it was for Mum, Granny Aunt etc and the next generation absorbs this and lives in this mistaken belief and fear. Well HyonoBirthing® changes this, giving back at last, control to Mum and her birthing body.
HypnoBirthing® is often applauded by midwives who have attended a HypnoBirthing® mother, there is often little for them to do, the labour can be shorter in some cases, Dad is fully engaged and birth is put back in its rightful place of natural, calm and beautiful.
The tools and techniques of HypnoBirthing® can be used from the early days of pregnancy for morning sickness, helping with Symphysis Pubis Dysfunction, relaxation, connecting with baby and it does appear that babies are often calmer after birth and HypnoBirthing® Mums don’t seem to experience the same level of baby blues or post natal depression as we have grown to expect new mums to have.
I thoroughly enjoy my work and I am constantly amazed at how well equipped and resourced we are to live our lives fully and well. There used to be a program which I am sure you are familiar with ‘Startrek’ “Space the final frontier” well I would have to disagree, because I firmly believe that if there is a final frontier then we are it! We I believe have only scratched the surface of what we (our bodies, brains, mind and spirit) are capable of and just how wonderful we are!.
If only each of us lived as this were true and treated each other as it was true for them too, what a wonderful world it would be!
