Thread: Sharing this post from my blog

So, I admit this is partly to get my blog some more exposure (as I wonder if anyone even reads it), but I thought this post might interest some of you, especially those who are using hypnosis:

http://birthunplugged.blogspot.com/2...hildbirth.html

I welcome comments!

That's a wonderful post, and I am sharing it with a friend who has been asking me a lot of questions about this very thing.

I am going to put this in my lodge because I have put a lot of personal thought in this post. i hope you don't mind.
That was a great blog post. I also read the Birth Attendant as a Lifeguard and love that analogy. I also read your post about Born Free. I am going to have to read that. I had never heard of it. You may have read enough of my usually back-handed comments about wanting to be "left alone" during birth to know that I am someone who, if it were not for my fear of various social problems, would like to give birth unassisted. I really have to hand it to those women who can be untethered from societal norms enough to have unassisted birth, if that is their heart's desire. I appreciate the birth stories I have read where the mother describes the midwife as just "watching" and letting the mother birth her child. I read a birth story of an unassisted birth on pg.org about 2 years ago. That was the first I had heard of it...OTHER than the sad story of a teenage mother giving birth in secret.

I am trying to embrace the hypnobabies terminology in my mind, but whenever i speak, the "old words" come out, because I feel like i wouldn't be understood. Besides, it isn't the words that bother me. In fact, I am struggling to incorporate the word "Easy" into anything related to childbirth. Whenever I hear Kerry say "easy" or "easily" on the tracks, it catches my attention and I start to object to it in my mind. Same with the word "comfortable." It is almost a stumbling block for me. It probably would be even more so with the word "painless." I need to think about what I feel my body doing in a different way, probably because I have done well with certain imagery in the past, and i don't want to change that. I love the idea of a Lightswitch and also from hypnobirthing, the idea of turning up the endorphin dial. I am working on the hypnoanesthesia, but until I put it into actual practice it will be difficult for me to judge how that goes for me. It has been very helpful for me to read how women can feel the baby coming down the birth canal. I felt that with my last one, even with an epidural, because he was in there for so long, being posterior and acynclytic. I appreciate your comment about not being "hardcore" because I am obviously not, and it doesn't seem like many of the women on this board are, either. Many of us have come to desire NCB because of past experiences of childbirth and wanting something different for the next birth. If it was all peaches and cream we wouldn't want anything different. It is just part of the mothering instinct, I think, to find the best place and situation we can, to bring new life into the world. And that brings some of us to desiring NCB. I appreciate the sisterhood of motherhood in general, and especially of those of us trying to do something that is in the minority these days. We often have to be looked at strangely, or worse. It is interesting and sad how the knowledge of the intricacies of childbirth has been taken away from women and given only to those who seek it out. And then only given back to women as "information as needed" and not a full picture. I wonder if it has anything to do with the feminist movement. Seems like a true feminist movement would include reclaiming childbirth and the knowledge needed to help each other as women. The "old school" ob's I have encountered are the ones trained in the late 60's and early 70's. They are the ones who made me feel like a cookie-cutter in the office and "delivery room". (I despise that term). It was my (most favorite) younger ob (4th and 5th pg's) and this younger ob (this pg) who seem to have a more open mind to avoiding unnecessary interventions and this one, open to a waterbirth. Maybe the tables are starting to turn? (Slowly?) Let's not forget that medicine is a consumer-driven field as much as anything. If more women insist on less intervention and more natural options, the medical providers will have to respond in kind to stay competitive.

Great post! Obviously, I agree with you. Can I link to it from my blog?

I read it and appreciated it (sorry for not being better about commenting). Mostly I didn't comment because my opinions are the same as expressed a few weeks ago on this board- that if changing the words helps your body accept and work through the pain, then change them- but don't expect there to be no discomfort. The knowledge that the undesirable sensations have no control over you, are productive and nothing to be feared- that's where the power comes from.
I do find myself saying "intense" rather than "painful" so I guess I do it too, to an extent.

PS Laura I added your blog to my reader now too, yay!

Originally Posted by jooniper

if changing the words helps your body accept and work through the pain, then change them- but don't expect there to be no discomfort. The knowledge that the undesirable sensations have no control over you, are productive and nothing to be feared- that's where the power comes from.
I do find myself saying "intense" rather than "painful" so I guess I do it too, to an extent.

This is how I choose to approach hypnosis for birthing as well. I made a way too long comment on the blog (I'm The Irreverent Mama). It reminded me I need to update mine which I don't think I've done in months! I am going to go back and read more of yours....thanks for posting it.

TFS!! Here is the comment I posted:

Ooooo I enjoyed reading! I will be experiencing my first Hypnobabies birth soon and I am really looking forward to what I will bring from it. I also think that the perception of "pain" signals us to do something at times; for example change positions, use the bathroom, PUSH, rest, etc. So there again, like you said, there is a positive spin on the terminology. Thank you for sharing what you have learned along the way!

Thanks for reading, everyone, and thanks for the responses. Feel free to leave comments on my other blog posts as well, if you'd like.

Originally Posted by Winky_the_HouseElf

Great post! Obviously, I agree with you. Can I link to it from my blog?

please do, Laura!

Elizabeth--you might enjoy reading the Born Free thing--it is really long, though (I never knew writing a doctoral dissertation was like writing a book). I read it over the course of a few days--reading while nursing. Rixa is LDS, she's one of the collaborator's on the Gift of Giving Life. Her first birth was a UC and her second was a homebirth with a "hands off" midwife. Her paper is really well put-together and offered some great insights.

You know, my only complaint about Hypnobabies is that it's a bit "one size fits all," and I think it's possible this may be more true of the homestudy course than the live classes. I want to teach Hypnobabies because I really think it offers the best preparation for birth available, but I recognize that it is not for everyone, and also that some parts of it will not be best for some people, and other parts may not be best for other people. I personally was able to commit to the "comfortable childbirth" idea (though, in experience, it was not "comfortable" in the way that the $3600 bed we tested at the mattress store over the weekend was "comfortable," but "comfortable" in that I wasn't bothered by what was happening to me). but the affirmations sometimes really annoyed me because of certain words/phrases (e.g. "bodily functions"), which is part of why I listened to them in my sleep, so I didn't have to hear stuff that bugged me over and over. A childbirth preparation program does you no good if it doesn't meet your individual needs. You have to make it work for you and I have to make it work for me and the next person has to make it work for them, and we all might have different ways of doing that.

The lightswitch is a great tool--I used it a lot during my birth. The relax cue was also helpful even though we barely practiced it. I found the peace cue and visualizing anesthesia very helpful as well, but I usually didn't "feel" my anesthesia when I was practicing, so it was hard to know if it was working or not. Other than the one time I was listening to the special place track, I did not think about my special place during the birth. My DH also did not use the phrases from the birth partner's guide--I focused on listening to the CDs. What I'm trying to say is that you can pick and choose what you use--you don't have to use all of the tools.

Brittany, I agree with the "one size fits all" description. I know the program doesn't recommend it, but I'm REALLY glad that my hubby and I did Bradley along with Hypnobabies Home-study. I learned so much more about the body, anatomy, birth process, and ALL the possible circumstances that may arise and choices that can be made through Bradley, but Hypnobabies has helped with the relaxation and positive thinking. I am an information-seeker personality so to me the more info I have the better. I don't think taking Bradley will influence my Hypnobabies negatively b/c I have viewed them almost as two separate entities.

After DD's birth I NEEDED information and choices as that is what was lacking the most. I needed to know why everything happened the way it did, and if I truly took the best course of action. After working through those things with Bradley I needed the relaxation and trust in the process, as well as a super duper dose of MY BODY CAN DO THIS which is what I have gotten from Hypnobabies. I do not think I would have been as prepared as I personally needed if I had done one program or the other. I'm glad that I have combined them, and of course my whole opinion may change once I birth this little one

Originally Posted by krazykat

Brittany, I agree with the "one size fits all" description. I know the program doesn't recommend it, but I'm REALLY glad that my hubby and I did Bradley along with Hypnobabies Home-study. I learned so much more about the body, anatomy, birth process, and ALL the possible circumstances that may arise and choices that can be made through Bradley, but Hypnobabies has helped with the relaxation and positive thinking. I am an information-seeker personality so to me the more info I have the better. I don't think taking Bradley will influence my Hypnobabies negatively b/c I have viewed them almost as two separate entities.

After DD's birth I NEEDED information and choices as that is what was lacking the most. I needed to know why everything happened the way it did, and if I truly took the best course of action. After working through those things with Bradley I needed the relaxation and trust in the process, as well as a super duper dose of MY BODY CAN DO THIS which is what I have gotten from Hypnobabies. I do not think I would have been as prepared as I personally needed if I had done one program or the other. I'm glad that I have combined them, and of course my whole opinion may change once I birth this little one

I'm glad you've found something that works for you. I've never done the Hypnobabies home study, but Bradley and the live Hypnobabies class would be major overkill, lol. I think there's just some information that "sinks in" better when you're discussing it in a group. The reason Hypnobabies suggests not combining programs is because if a mom has a Bradley (or whatever) teacher that emphasizes pain as inevitable and says birth is ALWAYS hard, etc. it makes it much more difficult to ALSO accept suggests from Hypnobabies that birth can be comfortable an easy. Some Bradley teachers are in the "birth can be easy" camp, which then makes the whole class less of a conflict with Hypnobabies.