Hypnobirthing

[introibo]

Has anybody here used hypnobirthing?  What can you tell me about it?  How are the techniques different from other methods like Lamaze?
Christina

[nicollette]

I really wanted to do hypnobirthing and even found a local person trained in the technique.  Unfortunately she never returned any of my calls to her office and I was unable to purchase the "learn-it-yourself" kit before the end of my pregnancy.  If I get pregnant again I will certianly make it a priority.  

A friend met a young woman at LLL who had done hypnobirthing and she loved it.  There was some pain she said, but nothing she couldn't handle without meds.  She had a natural birth.  I keep hearing good things about it.  If you use it please let us know how successful it was.  Good luck!

[nicollette]

Has anybody here used hypnobirthing?  What can you tell me about it?  How are the techniques different from other methods like Lamaze?
Christina

I apologize, I didn't answer your question.  :embarras:  

At the hospital we took birthing classes in we were told that (around here anyway) Lamaze is no longer taught.  We were taught several different breathing techniques, not just the Lamaze method.  The hypnobirthing technique, from what I understand, is just typical hypnosis.  Unless you've been hypnotized it is hard to explain.  You are taught (again, from what I'm told) to not think or focus on the pain.  

From my personal experience with hypnosis I would say it should give you a better way to cope with birthing by showing you how to direct the pain, breathe through it and, in theory, not feel most of it.  It should help give you a chance at keeping a very focused mind, which people like me would not be able to attain due to fear, etc.  By being able to keep focused you should also be able to choose what you are focusing on.  If you can choose that then you actually have the ability to choose to not focus on pain and direct efforts elsewhere.  You should have better control, period.  In the end it  is a powerful way of teaching mind over matter.

When under hypnosis I found this to be quite true so I wanted to use the system for birth.  I certainly will next time.

[Mommie2Boys]

You are taught (again, from what I'm told) to not think or focus on the pain.

And this really works? This is one facet of natural birth that I've never heard of! I've had two inductions, and two epidurals. So from what I hear, I've never felt the worst of it. To be honest, the thought of experiencing what many women refer to as the "ring of fire" scares the living crap out of me. But if there was a way to lessen that (without Stadol--I HATED that stuff)...if this hypnosis really works, I would look into it. Can you do hynobirthing in a typical hospital setting or is it only in birthing centers and home births?

[miss_fluffy]

I haven't tried hypnosis, but I've done alot of very in depth meditation techniques, some designed to work with pain.

One technique involves focusing on the pain completely, and checking your reaction to it.  It's sort of like just having a curiosity about what you're feeling, instead of reacting to it by trying to push it away, or tense up or whatever.  As you go deeper, you begin to see pain differently, as simple information, and you can use pain sensations to trigger deeper relaxation.

Is this kinda like what hypnosis is like Nicollette?

[introibo]

It can be done in a hospital setting...my hospital is offering a class, alas, starting the week I'm due. 

Christina

[maryskey]

"Hypnosis is not only powerless to effect a moral or physical cure, to heal radically any malady whatever, but it is also, and above everything else, a dangerous method. It is right that this point should be insisted on. In the practice ofhypnotism there are physical or physiological, psychic or  intellectual, and above all moral, dangers."

"Hypnotism, therefore, is a dangerous, if not a morally detestable, practice. In the process of suggestion the individual alienates his liberty and his reason, handing himself over to the domination of another."

(both quotes above taken from the Catholic Encyclopedia under HYPNOTISM www.newadvent.org)

"While Gnosticism seeks to open the door to a superior intellect, esoterism and occultism offer a passage to superhuman activity. These two currents, sisters of Gnosticism, strive in distinct ways to empower the human will, making use of supposed secret, cosmic forces. By means of a thousand techniques, new and ancient, they would come into contact with angels, disembodied spiritual guides, with so-called "previous lives" according to the myth of reincarnation, etc. Numerous people and organizations offer services such as fortune telling and horoscopes, hypnosis, magic, channeling, (medium), astral projection, and other equally absurd activities that are causing lasting damage to their clients, who, for the most part, are confused and vulnerable people. In short, commercializes what is irrational and harmful to the human soul and sells it by guaranteeing the transformation of the consumer."
(taken from http://www.ewtn.com/library/BISHOPS/ACALL.HTM)

"“The point of New    Age techniques is to reproduce mystical states at will, as if it were a    matter of laboratory material. Rebirth, biofeedback, sensory isolation,    holotropic breathing, hypnosis, mantras, fasting, sleep deprivation and    transcendental meditation are attempts to control these states and to    experience them continuously”.⁽⁷⁰⁾ These practices all create an    atmosphere of psychic weakness (and vulnerability). When the object of the    exercise is that we should re-invent our selves, there is a real question of    who “I” am. “God within us” and holistic union with the whole cosmos    underline this question. Isolated individual personalities would be    pathological in terms of New Age (in particular transpersonal psychology). But “the real    danger is the holistic paradigm. New Age    is thinking based on totalitarian unity and that is why it is a danger...”.⁽⁷¹⁾    "
(taken from "JESUS CHRIST THE BEARER OF THE WATER OF LIFE : A Christian reflection on the “New Age”" released in 2003 and available at the Vatican website: http://www.vatican.va)

You want to be calm and collected during labor by just thinking? Meditate on the mysteries of the Rosary, or say Hail Mary's (that is what I  do), and who better to help you than Mary? But I would steer VERY CLEAR of this hypnotism crap.

[Mommie2Boys]

I seriously doubt that this kind of hypnosis is any attempt to reach an astral plane or contact an angel, spirit, or otherworld entity of any type. It's purpose seems to simply shift the focus off of the pain like the meditation described by Miss Fluffy.

[miss_fluffy]

I do think you make a good point maryskey, but you don't have to yell at us!

I've thought about praying the rosary during labor too.  Have you tried this?  What was the experience like?  I went through a really rough mouth surgery last year and was saying many Ave's to myself, it definitely helped.

I do think you're right that theres a connection to new-agey stuff with hypnosis.  You really have to be on guard, as well-meaning alternative healers will sometimes try to "teach" you about how the universe is all oneness and fluffy clouds etc.

[JLeigh]

I seriously doubt that this kind of hypnosis is any attempt to reach an astral plane or contact an angel, spirit, or otherworld entity of any type. It's purpose seems to simply shift the focus off of the pain like the meditation described by Miss Fluffy.

Hypnosis is hypnosis, regardless of how it's used.