A US hospital has started offering HypnoBirthing to its mothers for the first time, and the first birth has been predictably a great success. A great story here in the New Jersey Times, it looks like sanity may finally be catching on!
Story follows…..
“The Hopewell Township woman was in paradise — not as a result of frequent-flier miles or winning a contest. She reached the imaginary place through self-hypnosis — and did so while in labor, opting for the self-induced state over pain medication to deliver a healthy baby boy, her first child, after four hours of labor.
Giller is the first to deliver her baby at University Medical Center at Princeton after completing the hospital’s new HypnoBirthing course. The five-week course teaches expectant mothers self- hypnosis techniques such as visualization, guided imagery, special breathing techniques and positive affirmations. It can result in a faster, less painful and less stressful experience during a time traditionally distressing for the mom-to-be.
Says Linda Stout, certified Hyp noBirthing instructor and class teacher at UMCP: “Often the discomfort and pain felt in labor is brought on by tension caused by a mother’s fear of pain. A woman who learns how to decrease her anxiety through techniques of Hyp noBirthing can also reduce the pain she feels.”
For Giller, it couldn’t have gone more smoothly. The pain of labor was manageable, she said, using hypnosis to work with her body instead of against it.
“The breathing technique helped me tremendously, and when I let go of the fear and pain, it was as if someone had just given me drugs,” she says. “It totally re laxed me. I pictured a place where I was happy and a beach in the Caribbean is a happy place. In between the contractions, I pretended I was there.”
Childbirth changes The business of birthing has changed over the years from the traditional hospital setting to one that now includes involvement by a midwife and the use of hypnosis as a way to reduce or eliminate pain medication. Some clinical studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of hypnosis in reducing pain following surgery, as well as provid ing relief from cancer, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, headaches, arthritis and other conditions.
The HypnoBirthing program taught at UMCP was developed 18 years ago by New Hampshire hypnotist Marie Mongan and has since grown in popularity. Today, it is taught internationally by more than 1,700 doctors, nurses and midwives, including Stout, a registered nurse, who were trained and certi fied by Mongan’s institute.
For the excited parents-to-be, the big moment arrived at 5:35 p.m. Dec. 16 when Susanne and husband, Oliver, welcomed a baby boy, Alexander Heinz Giller, who weighed in at 8 pounds, 4 ounces.
Four hours of labor.
No pain medication.”
Katharine Graves is the teacher at The HypnoBirthing Centre, where she runs HypnoBirthing Courses in London and Southern England for expectant couples.
