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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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