Using hypnosis to relax and to release any stress and tension during pregnancy and birth is not simply a matter of babying yourself but it is actually good for you and your baby. Although some people have weird concepts on hypnosis whether during pregnancy or on the actual birthing process, this technique is actually one of the most effective ways for you to experience a healthier and more comfortable pregnancy and to help intensify that satisfying experience of giving birth while maintaining a relaxed body. So, make your pregnancy and birth more comfortable for you, here is hypnosis to the rescue!

First Trimester

Hypnosis in early pregnancy is a very useful relaxation tool. This is designed mainly to facilitate “focused concentration”. It is a learned response to the mind which will enable you to achieve your desired outcome like anxiety or pain control. Since first trimester discomforts like nausea or morning sickness, unusual tiredness, and emotional highs and lows can leave you feeling restless, uncomfortable, and anxious, hypnosis can be used to help you relax and release the tension or stress that you are feeling. In most cases, within one or two sessions, you will notice that the feelings of nausea already subsided. But not only that, your baby benefits as well. When your baby is monitored, you will be glad to know how relaxed the baby is even at this early stage of pregnancy.

Second Trimester

Unlike in the first trimester, the second trimester of pregnancy is relatively uneventful. So, during this time, you are given in depth understanding on how hypnosis can help you during the third trimester and the actual birthing process. This also gives the hypnotherapist ample time to increase depth of trance and teach self-hypnosis.

Third Trimester

When you enter the third trimester, you will feel more minor discomforts as compared to the previous stages of pregnancy. From heartburn, hemorrhoids, backache, headaches, aching joints, blood pressure, fluctuation in temperature, up to aching of the breasts, all these discomforts will leave you feeling more tired and uneasy because of the increased weight as the baby grows. But then again, there is hypnosis to the rescue! Hypnosis can help control all these discomforts and in most cases, completely remove them. And by also using this technique, your mind will be kept occupied using visualization of the birth without pain, on which your perception of the contractions are altered from painful and prolonged to enjoyable tingling sensations in preparation for birth.

Birth

After nine months of waiting, your most awaited moment has finally arrived – the birth of your baby. But before you can actually see and touch your baby for the first time, you have to go through the pain of labor and delivery. Again, hypnosis comes to the rescue! This technique provides relaxation and relief from pain and fear.

In hypnosis, each contraction during the height of labor can serve as cue for you to go into a deep state of relaxation. Instead of feeling tensed during labor due to reactions to increasing pressure, pain, and anxiety, hypnosis will help you focus on positive feelings like excitement and joy to parenthood and your love for the baby which is gradually coming out. You must know that there is joy and fulfillment in childbirth and hypnosis will help you achieve this by providing relaxation.

Hypnosis can also empower you to eliminate tension and anxiety, which in turn relaxes the muscles of your uterus, thereby finding relief from pain and fear. With this technique, your mind can be kept occupied to other things, a part of which can be enjoying the beach as if you are floating in the water, while another part can hear every word and direction that is given to you during the process and participate on this in comfort and harmony. By simply imagining that you are on a vacation and that you are daydreaming while in fact you are really going through labor, you will realize later on that your labor seem so short and giving birth becomes a wonderful and pleasant experience.

Pregnancy and birth could really become more relaxing with hypnosis to the rescue. With your mind set towards a more positive direction, you will experience the more pleasing aspects of pregnancy and birth rather than the painful ones.

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Hypnosis Childbirth – Benefits

Less or very few drugs are used, which means lower risk of side effects to the mother and the child.
Labor time is reduced as the muscles are more relaxed, and the mother is able to cope with labor cramps better.
Mother is more relaxed and energized after birth.
Lower risk of pregnancy complications during labor.
As the use of drugs is lesser the baby sleeps and nurses well.
Using hypnosis, breech and posterior babies can be turned.

Hypnosis For Childbirth – How To Start

First of all look for a qualified hypnosis therapist in your area to have in-house sessions. Look for a suitable program, some instructors design their own programs which are also very effective. A good one will give you about 4 in-house sessions. CDs or tapes are also given for home practice.
You can also opt for home study courses for hypnosis childbirth. The kit will include CDs, books, handouts, and hypnosis scripts. The most popular one is The New Way Childbirth, which uses audio and videotapes and gives information on the 3 trimesters, bonding and delivery.

How To Choose An Instructor

When you are looking for a hypnosis childbirth instructor you may want to interview them on these areas:

Any experience in hypnotherapy.
Any experience in childbirth education.
How long have they been teaching hypnosis for childbirth and where?
Number of sessions that they give and their fee.
Whether they provide material like books, CDs, scripts, tapes etc.
The success rate of their former students and why they chose to become a hypnosis childbirth instructor.

The expectant mother has full control over her mind and body by using self-hypnosis. Instead of concentrating on the labor pains and labor cramps, she is aware of the baby’s arrival which is a very special moment. Using hypnosis childbirth as a technique for giving birth can be a very pleasant, relaxing and favorable experience for both the mother and the baby.

Hypnosis and childbirth are related to each other, as during pregnancy it helps in:

Controlling nausea
Maintaining blood pressure
Reduce the intake of drugs during pregnancy
Reduces the chances of premature delivery
Controls vomiting
Prevents depression

Hypnosis childbirth prepares the pregnant women for giving birth to a child in an enjoyable way. Further, with hypnosis for childbirth, mother gets relaxed, which gives her more comfort and makes her feel as if she is under no pressure. It can also be used on patients having allergies to anesthesia, so that they can go through surgeries without any pains or drugs.

Usually, childbirth is considered to be a normal and natural thing. Many women agree to the fact and are prepared with no fear for labor cramp. However, there are many cultures, where women are told that delivery of baby is a painful and stressful state. When our mind says that there will be pain, then we experience it a lot, because we already expected that.

Hypnosis childbirth guides the women with the process as to how she can go into hypnosis state and create her own anesthesia. With self-hypnosis, she can go whenever and wherever she needs it. It is said that, taking drugs is dangerous for both the pregnant women and her child. Moreover, if the women choose hypnosis, then there is no need to take drugs. Further, it also helps in multiple births with less pain.

The pregnant women should be given proper knowledge about hypnosis childbirth. With this, they are able to control their mind. During hypnosis, women can feel her baby’s presence, which is very important.

Once women experiences this, she will definitely continue follow it in her next pregnancy.

Today, hypnosis is commonly used by many doctors, psychotherapists and surgeons. It is used as a therapeutic tool, which assists the subconscious mind, without being interfered by conscious mind. It has nothing to do with cure or treatment. Its complete knowledge can also prevent you from false labor pain.

Hypnosis childbirth therapy is given in three sessions. This is followed by a CD or cassette tape given to the pregnant women to understand and follow in her own time and way. If followed properly, it is seen that baby born cries less, sleep better, and is calm. All this is because of hypnosis childbirth, with which you were not into any kind of trauma at birth time.

Most people do not understand what hypnosis really is and therefore cannot appreciate how vital its use can be in taking control of your pregnancy and well being.  Hypnosis is normal and natural and is finally becoming recognized in the medical profession as an extremely valuable tool to assist in many areas of health, not just in pregnancy and childbirth.

In the Jenkins and Pritchard study referred to above, not only was delivery time dramatically reduced, significantly less pain medication was administered.  They also found that the incidence of postpartum depression was reduced and the incidence of spontaneous deliveries was increased. All this of course, is better for mother and child, and also the medical personnel dealing with mother and child.  In the Omer study mentioned above the birth weight of the babies was significantly greater than in a control group.  Again, this is much better for the baby.

Hypnosis is also known to be a natural aid to increasing your chances of conception.  This makes very good sense as hypnosis is a state of relaxation and reduces stress which is known to be a barrier to getting pregnant.  It is also quite logical that the more relaxed you are during pregnancy the more comfortable and relaxed your baby is as well.  Once again, medical research supports this phenomenon. Mothers using self hypnosis to reduce stress and anxiety whilst pregnant had fetuses that moved more actively than those who didn’t. (Zimmer, Perets, Eyal and Fuchs).

Other than the prime importance of having a healthy baby, the thing that every single prospective mum is interested in is, of course, pain control.  A lot of research has been carried out in this field and so I’m not going to refer to particular studies, but merely say that its effectiveness has been sufficiently well proven.  Simply type “hypnosis for pain control in childbirth” into Google and a whole host of information will appear.  It is worth remembering that before pharmaceuticals became available to assist in pain control, the only technique available was mind control; and you can learn to use your mind to put your natural opiates to work.  I’m not advocating that you use hypnosis instead of pharmaceuticals; simply that this is a natural option open to you and both are complementary.  

I think everyone will agree that in the Western world medicine in general has moved from one end of the scale to another with the advent and easy availability of so many new pills and potions.  It has become the norm to look to the medical profession to provide a pill in answer to every circumstance instead of looking to see if there is anything you yourself can do to assist.  For best results, a combination of mind and medicine cannot be too highly recommended.

In what other ways can hypnosis assist in making your pregnancy a more comfortable experience? How would it feel if you could overcome morning sickness?  Or have a confident body image through pregnancy and after the birth?  You can also use hypnosis to avoid the baby blues and overcome post natal depression…and help is even at hand to get your baby to sleep well!

So you can now see that there are many, many ways in which hypnosis can help you to have a comfortable and relaxed pregnancy and an easy childbirth.  Suggestions can be given which will help you through each of the three trimesters, assisting you in reducing not only anxieties and tensions and emotional ups and downs but also physical symptoms like aches and pains, heartburn, flatulence, backaches, swollen feet and legs, high blood pressure and so on. 

What’s great about hypnosis as well is that the more you practice it the deeper the states are that you will achieve.  As you relax in hypnosis your brain wave patterns change from the beta waves of normal waking consciousness to the alpha waves of drowsy relaxation to the theta wave patterns associated with dreaming.  You have plenty of time whilst pregnant to practice your hypnosis so that you can readily access the deeper states (just as yogis learn to do this) which will allow you to more greatly numb your perception of pain at the time of the birth. 

On top of all this good news, you can get hypnosis downloads instantly and listen to them in the comfort of your own home, and they are really very inexpensive. 

Roseanna Leaton, specialist in hypnosis downloads for healthy pregnancy and easy childbirth.

Many of you might be familiar with how hypnosis can help with weight loss and smoking cessation. But, did you know that hypnosis can also be used during pregnancy to help relieve anxiety and aid in calm, natural birth?

Hypnosis has been used for quite some time to help in numerous health-related issues, from relieving IBS symptoms to preparing for surgery to alleviating fear of dental procedures. Many pregnant women are now enjoying the benefits of hypnosis, allowing them to experience natural births with minimal pain.

In order to better understand how hypnosis can help pregnant women, it helps to gain a better understanding of hypnosis itself. To put it in simple terms, hypnosis is intense focus and concentration. Many people have likened the concentration with getting lost in a good book or television program. Utilizing that intense focus, hypnosis can actually slow down your brain waves.

Right now you’re probably in your waking state, which is Beta consciousness. But, by altering your conscious state through hypnosis, you are able to enter Alpha consciousness, where your brain waves actually slow down. And, when you slow down your brain waves you lose the “critical chatter” of the conscious mind and are able to slip in positive suggestions to the subconscious mind. These positive suggestions can be about any behavior you’d like to change, or any outcome you’d like to see take effect, such as having a natural, easy birth.

In addition, when you’re in a relaxed stated and imagining a desired outcome, the brain can’t tell the difference between reality and fantasy, and reacts as if the desired outcome was a reality. This phenomenon can be seen in pain management, when hypnotherapists use hypnosis and imagery on pain sufferers to help them lessen the intensity of their pain.

Hypnosis can aid pregnant women in so many different ways and in so many different stages of their pregnancies.

Hypnosis Can Aid in Fertility

Where inability to become pregnant is not due to a medical condition, many women have found relief with hypnosis. There are many who believe that if you can imagine it you can create it, and hypnosis is often paired with imagery to “visualize” oneself becoming pregnant and imagining a baby coming into one’s life. Hypnosis is also used to alleviate stress, which may be inhibiting a woman from becoming pregnant. Of course, women aren’t the only ones whose stress and anxiety may be inhibiting pregnancy. Many men feel the pressure to help their partners conceive. This stress can affect men’s sperm quality.

Hypnosis Can Aid in Helping a Woman Become More Comfortable

Many women experience discomfort from being pregnant, such as morning sickness, the intensity of which can be lessened through hypnosis. In women with high blood pressure, hypnosis can be helpful in helping them to relax, which in turn can help control the symptoms.

Hypnosis Can Help in the Actual Birth Process

Many women are now using hypnosis to help them have their baby naturally with no drugs. Utilizing hypnosis, women can help themselves relax during the baby’s birth. Since pain responses are greatly enhanced with fear and anxiety, creating a sense of calm helps in reducing the sensation of pain. The women will be awake and aware of everything that’s happening, including the contractions, but will be able to dictate to a great extent the intensity of the sensations she feels.

There are numerous hypnosis tapes and CDs available which can help reduce the fears and anxieties associated with pregnancy and the birthing process. If at all possible, it’s preferable to meet face to face with a hypnotherapist who can tailor the hypnosis to your specific fears, anxieties or needs.

How to Find a Hypnotherapist

The first place to look is your own doctor. (It’s always good to have your doctor’s input before beginning any treatment programs). Ask him or her for a recommendation to a good hypnotherapist. If your doctor does not have a recommendation you can utilize internet hypnotist referral networks to find one in your area. One good referral website is www.registeredhypnotist.com, where you can look up hypnotherapists in your area.

Another good internet resource is www.hypnobirthing.com, which lists practitioners across the country who’ve gone through the HypnoBirthing® The Mongan Method, a program specifically tailored to natural birthing.

Whether you plan on a natural birth or not, hypnosis can still help you relax more about the entire birthing process. Becoming more relaxed can help you gain control over your pregnancy, rather than have your pregnancy gain control over you.