Introduction
There is little wonder why so many women are anxious about birth. Women the world over have been consistently exposed to scare stories relating to birth their whole lives. Society tells us that birth is a painful, traumatic process over which we have no control, and that our vaginas will never be the same again afterwards!
Films portray women lying on their back during labour and screaming in pain. Friends may feel the need to share their own difficult or traumatic birth story. Care providers may categorise women as high risk and bombard them with scary-sounding facts and figures, leading to fear. And for many women, previous negative birth experiences can have a direct impact on their understanding of birth and lead to great trepidation as a new birth approaches.
Approaching birth with fear can have a hugely detrimental effect on labour, causing it to slow down or stall as anxiety and fear take over. A good hypnobirthing course, such as my small group hypnobirthing course in Otley, that combines hypnosis and relaxation techniques with education on birth physiology can enable you to reduce your anxiety long before birth. By taking a course you can give yourself the best chance of having a positive birth experience.
Why might you be anxious about birth?
Your subconscious takes on board everything you have ever seen, felt or heard about birth. It uses the informational blueprint that it has built up to protect you.
Consider how, if you have a parent who has jumped on a chair and screamed everytime they’ve seen spider, you are also very likely to be scared of spiders. Your subconscious has taken on board your experiences of spiders (Mum screams so spiders must be dangerous) and makes you react in a similar way when you see a spider. It does this in order to protect you from this dangerous creature.
In the same way, if you are exposed to lots of negative stories, experiences and information about birth, your subconscious may consider birth to be painful, messy, dangerous, stressful and overwhelmingly negative. It is no wonder that you are feeling fearful and anxious about birth.
The neocortex is what sets humans apart from other animals. It allows humans to reason and think, but it also allows us to hypothesise, catastrophise and attach emotional significance to events. It is our conscious mind.
How does anxiety impact labour and birth?
Physiological birth requires the labouring mother to be in a relatively relaxed state to be effective. If you approach birth with a lot of anxiety and fear, then you will not going to be relaxed.
If we are fearful and anxious then a “fight or flight” response is triggered in our body. This response is activated when we feel stressed or in danger. It triggers the release of increased levels of adrenalin into the bloodstream which cause several physiological changes. The heart beats faster and pumps blood to vital organs and the muscles in the extremities, which tense up, as the body prepares itself to run away. Our breathing becomes shallower and we become more alert, with sharpened senses.
All of these physiological responses can have a detrimental effect on the progression of labour.
For example, blood is pumped to the vital organs and extremities and therefore not to where it is needed most during birth: the uterus. This can make contractions less effective and the uterus may tire more quickly. If you are more alert, then you are likely to stay in the “flight or fight” response and adrenalin will continue to be released.
You may become stuck in what is termed the “fear – tension – pain” cycle. If you are frightened, your muscles tense up, making contractions more painful, which leads to more fear, further tension, and additional pain. And so the cycle continues. The cycle can also cause labour to slow down or even stop. This can have a knock-on effect. Care providers may offer interventions to augment (speed up) your labour. Many of these may increase the intensity of contractions and therefore keep you in the “fear – tension – pain” cycle.
How can hypnobirthing make me feel less anxious about birth?
A comprehensive hypnobirthing course will include elements of hypnosis and mindset work, along with education about the physiology of labour. Combined, these can have a profound impact on how you feel about birth.
Britannica describes hypnosis as a:
“special psychological state with certain physiological attributes, resembling sleep only superficially and marked by a functioning of the individual at a level of awareness other than the ordinary conscious state. This state is characterized by a degree of increased receptiveness and responsiveness in which inner experiential perceptions are given as much significance as is generally given only to external reality.”
Hypnosis for birth involves going into a deeply relaxed state during which your brainwaves slow down and your subconscious becomes more accessible. Therapeutic and post-hypnotic suggestions are made whilst you are in this state to create positive associations with birth within the subconscious. The more your subconscious is exposed to these positive associations, the more you start to believe and feel that birth is positive. Consequently, your anxiety around it reduces and you are able to approach birth with a positive mindset.
A good hypnobirthing course will also give you a comprehensive understanding of the physiology of birth. This will include information on the hormones involved in labour and birth and the stages of labour. Having this knowledge will help you to understand the sensations and feelings that occur during labour and to not feel afraid of the strength of these. Additionally, if your birth partner attends the hypnobirthing course with you, they will gain knowledge and tools to better support you during labour. For example, they will be able to recognise which stage of labour you are in know whether you need reassurance, physical support such as massage, or if they should just stay quiet.
Combined, all of the knowledge and tools that you gain through a hypnobirthing course enable you to feel calm and relaxed when your labour begins. This keeps your “fight or flight” response at bay, and in fact triggers a response, called “rest and digest” or “calm and connect” that has the opposite effect. The heart rate decreases, blood is pumped all around the body and your breathing slows down.
These physiological changes help labour along. More blood can be directed to the uterus as it is not being concentrated on the vital organs and extremities. Your muscles will also be looser, enabling more effective contractions. The “fear-pain-tension” cycle is broken and in its place is the “calm-relaxed-manageable”. The tools learnt during the hypnobirthing course, enable you to bring yourself back into this calm, relaxed state, even when the sensations become more intense.
What next?
Congratulations! By simply reading this blogpost, you are on the right track to changing how you feel about birth because you want to be less anxious and you believe that you can be less anxious.
I hope that this blogpost has given you a taster of how hypnobirthing can help you feel less anxious and fearful about birth. My group and private hypnobirthing course dive into everything that I’ve talked about here in much more depth. You will come away with a deeper knowledge and respect for your body’s amazing ability to give birth. You will also gain a wide range of tools to use in the lead up and during your birth. You will learn to approach birth calmly, drawing on the tools and techniques you have learnt, taking on the responsibility of preparing yourself so that you can have the positive birth that you desire.
If you have read this blogpost and have any questions about how hypnobirthing could help you with any specific concerns or worries, please do get in touch with me.