Just to add my 2 cents (once again), the presentations I have seen in the USA usually at midwifery conferences or on a TV segment have tended to show women who are hypnobirthing lying down and rather passive, however from my experince of homebirthers in the states who used hypnobirthing they were quite active certainly hadn't taken to their beds so to speak. Friends who have hypnobirthed have never described their labours as painful: hard work, intense yes, were they present yes, and did I enjoy working with women who used this method, absolutely. Was I amazed yes but pleasantly so. Similarly friends who had used the Bradley Method refused (and still refuse) to call labour contractions painful, the concept of good pain being a difficult concept. To my knowledge these methods have very good success rates for the women who use them. Seems obvious to me that women who have birthed at home, birth centers, or hospital without pharmacological pain relief have found a method that works for them. Unfortunately these women seem to be in an ever increasing minority. If we truly want to find methods that offer ways of dealing with the pain of childbirth that aren't pharmacological then surely we need to consider all options.
For my own childbirths I can truly say that the ctx's were only briefly painful at around 8cm though I was definetly aware of each and every one of them, I was always classically transitional, but could also say this was most definetly NOT the worst pain I have ever felt in my life even though I also felt I was stuck in a time warp and could quite possibly be doing this forever, neverthless for me it was intensely beautiful. I did not hypnobirth, for me it was lamaze. I can also honsestly say that I had one almost orgasmic 2nd stage with my 3rd birth. That was heavily influenced by reading Ina May Gaskin's "Spiritual Midwifery". marilyn ----- Original Message ----- From: "Julia Willoughby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 4:14 PM Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Hypnobirthing > Sue, just had to reply to your comments! > I too have reservations about the positioning in the hypnobirthing videos - > awful and tell the women not to be in them, fortunately we have a great > australian video of a woman in better positions and I encourage all the > usual favourable positions for birth, many of the women I have taught labour > and birth in all fours or or similar still using the hypnobirthing > techniques. As for longer labours - hard to say, my experience is not so > and certainly the testamonials support that being totally relaxed increases > endorphins and the flow of all other necessary hormones, often resulting in > shorter labours. > > I can only quickly tell the story of a yoga teacher friend of mine who had > not done hypnobirthing but was incredibly relaxed and flexible and positive. > We thought she'd have the easiest quickest labour! Not so, after 20 hours > of very active labour, birth ball, walking, going up steps etc. etc. etc. > she was exhausted and the baby was in a very difficult position and starting > to get distressed, still only 5 cms. dilated. I came in and we were > transferred up to delivery suite with talk of augmentation, maybe cesarian. > I took her through a quick and simple relaxation/hypnosis and breath work > with some visualisation and she suddenly "let go" and surrendered her body > to birth. In less than an hour she was fully dilated and had birthed a baby > (brow presentation). She said that she had "tried" so hard to birth her > baby and realized that surrendering was what she needed to do. She has now > trained in hypnobirthing and is due any moment with her second baby. > Perhaps sometimes we "try" too hard to birth and need to "allow" it to > unfold more. > Julia > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Sue Cookson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Monday, November 03, 2003 7:24 PM > Subject: Re: [ozmidwifery] Hypnobirthing > > > > Hi, > > We have a hypnobirthing practitioner in our area, who had her first baby a > > couple of years ago. She had a 3 day labour to the birth of a little baby > > girl - popping up to the local hospital for the last hour. She was 5-6 cms > > about 18hours before baby came. > > > > I have a few comments tho - this women basically laboured on her bed, > > concentrating/hypnobirthing with each contraction. I would have to wonder > if > > this style of labour, being 'not active' is partly why she had such a long > > labour. And by taking herself away from feeling the pain, did she not also > > lengthen her labour ? By that I mean that when labour gets tough and > feisty, > > most women want to get on with it and birth their babies. > > > > This woman had come to my birth group and talked to us about hypnobirthing > > ans shown us an American video of such - women always on the bed, mostly > on > > their back or side. > > > > I guess I am not too happy if the women I deal with wish to divert their > > minds from the tough work of labour, but I can acknowledge that maybe > we've > > come such a full circle to do with scaring women totally about the pain of > > labour, that we have a new generation of women who feel they need to > escape > > the pain of birth. And as many have said, rather hypnobirthing than an > > epidural or aother chemical pain relief. > > > > I do not mean to insult or judge, but I have experienced a pain free > labour > > which was a total gift - the two after that were as painful as expected. > > > > Sue Cookson > > > > > > > > > > > I've been following the discussion about hypnobirthing with interest as > > > this is a topic I wrote about in one of my Diary entries back in > September. > > > I won't go into my reservations here, but you can read what I have said > here: > > > > > > http://www.birthinternational.com/diary/index.html > > > > > > Look for the entry on September 17 (click on the calendar date) > > > > > > I expect that this will fuel the discussion a bit more.... > > > > > > Andrea > > > > > > ----- > > > Andrea Robertson > > > Birth International * ACE Graphics * Associates in Childbirth Education > > > > > > e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > web: www.birthinternational.com > > > > > > > > > -- > > > This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. > > > Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe. > > > > -- > > This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. > > Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe. > > > > -- > This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. > Visit <http://www.acegraphics.com.au> to subscribe or unsubscribe. > -- This mailing list is sponsored by ACE Graphics. 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