An English obstetrician, Dr Grantly Dick-Read,
summed it up beautifully in his book, "Childbirth without Pain". In a
nutshell, he described the "Fear-Tension-Pain" Syndrome as programming
by society on womenkind to expect pain. And what you expect is what
you get.
The expectation of pain, introduces the "fight or flight
syndrome". This increases blood flow to the limbs by 200% -300% and
also produces adrenaline.
The effect of this, is to direct the blood away from the uterus
and placenta where it's needed most critically. The uterus, which
needs to expand gradually, is hit with the adrenaline, which
constricts muscles. The sum total of this disast
-------Original
Message-------
Date: Wednesday, 20
November 2002 02:51:32 PM
Subject:
[ozmidwifery] birth and the power of the mind
I have often thought that the power of
the mind would have a vast impact on labour and so forth. Haven't
'been there' for too many birth and each has been with women who were
really sure, informed and so forth, but fear played a HUGE factor in
my experiences. Could people please share their knowledge on how
fear can impact (or doesn't if the case may be) on labour lengths and
especially in regards to vbac. My vbac although supported and
informed was still long and hard, but the second vbac was great as
there was that self assuredly and understanding that my body knew what
it was meant to do so my brain didn't fear what my uterus was
doing.
Also does anyone have comments on "is
simply providing information alleviate fear?" When women are
'empowered through information' is this really all that needs to be
done to empower, or does faith have an important role to play?
Does the faith or trust of those around the birthing women have an
impact on her empowerment?
There's a couple of questions for those
beautiful midwifery students to ponder (and the seasoned
professional).
Jo Bainbridge
founding member CARES
SA
email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
phone:
08 8388 6918
birth with trust,
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