Childbirth Hypnotherapy

The mental scenes seem as real to us, but they are only in our head. Yet we get into it, just as we become afraid, inspired or sad .

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Childbirth hypnotherapy in most cases is self-hypnosis. With little practice most people can learn to use self-hypnosis to ease their childbirth experience. Childbirth hypnotherapy allows you to experience thoughts, fantasies and images almost as real. Still you know that the experience is illusion, because you do not act as if it is real.

Under hypnosis you can vividly imagine giving birth immersed in natural mineral spring which is floating in the sea basking in the gentle sun and feeling the breeze on your skin. By experiencing a situation differently, you influence your mind to believe that you are capable of acting and thinking in a more positive, less scared way.

The mental scenes seem as real to us, but they are only in our head. Yet we get into it, just as we become afraid, inspired or sad while watching a film.

It is important to remember that we are the ones who call these images in our minds. The hypnotist cannot produce a hypnotic experience without your agreement and participation. That is why all hypnosis is in a sense self-hypnosis.

Hypnosis was used in healing for centuries. In childbirth hypnosis is a fact from the moment mothers have started telling their childbirth stories. When you listen to other mothers about their birth experience you willingly become subject to hypnosis. Your mind pictures in vivid details what they tell you. Later you can manifest a collective image of all those births. Currently the predominant medically managed births are not the most wonderful experiences. We are lucky that no matter what the laws are in your country, the laws of nature has made it possible for us to have a calm and empowering birth. But to have such, you also need to actively choose what stories you listen and how you interpret them.

You might have heard that childbirth hypnotherapy with experiences hypnotherapists could perform impressive feats, but you could not do much. Research has shown that some people can reach deeper trance states in self-hypnosis than with a hypnotherapist. These people are usually creative, have rich and vivid imagination and can reproduce sensual imagery. Self-hypnosis is something you are already doing in your everyday life when you plan your day and make projects. Self-hypnosis is very efficient in childbirth hypnotherapy. It costs nothing; it is easy to produce and allows you to make changes in the procedure so that it works best for you.

An old therapy technique may become even more effective when used by an informed self-helper.

Alternatives to hypnosis are auto-suggestion, popularized by Emile Coue (1922), daydreaming, suggestology, visualization, goal rehearsal. You do not need to enter in a trance state to produce results similar to those in hypnosis. Even watching a video, or listening to a childbirth story, you can produce the effect of hypnosis. Remember that the idea is father to the act.

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Childbirth Resources

The classic book on home birth is now available in a new edition, with updated information on the safety of natural childbirth, new birthing stories, and the most recent statistics on births managed by The Farm Midwives. Included are stories of working with Amish women, shedding light on a different culture with a similar appreciation for natural childbirth. Ina May also provides new information about potentially dangerous techniques routinely used in hospitals during and after birth, as well as the latest findings about VBAC (Vaginal Birth After Cesarean). Improved instructions for handling breech births are also given. When the first edition of Spiritual Midwifery was published in 1976, it introduced an entire generation of young women to the possibility of home birth and breast feeding. It also breathed new life into the all-but-vanished field of midwifery.

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