By Helene Rose from www.elephantjournal.com
Do you trust your body to birth your baby?
Knowing our bodies is key to trusting our bodies. When we fully know and trust ourselves, we are free to tap into our power center and can birth as nature intended—free from artificial stimulation and augmentation, free from narcotics and analgesics. Our inner strength guides us as we birth and we know how!
Unfortunately, most births do not unfold as nature intended. Why? The answer is F-E-A-R. Fear interferes with our ability to know and trust ourselves. A mother fears that she won’t be able to “handle the pain” or her “hips aren’t wide enough” or her “baby is too big.” Care providers and hospitals fear lawsuits, long births, the natural process.
The good news is that with awareness we can notice our fears, eliminate them, and learn to understand and trust our bodies.
Consider bring more trust and knowing to your being:
1. Notice your fears. Eliminate them.
With keen awareness, notice each thought that you have around birth. With keen awareness, notice the words that others speak that are fear based, and how they affect you. Choose healthy thoughts. Gently, without judging, guide yourself with a loving mantra “My body is perfectly designed to grow and birth a healthy baby.” Repeat often.
2. Choose care providers who are not guided by fear.
As you interview various care providers (midwives, obstetricians, family doctors) pay close attention to the responses that they give you to your questions. Are they fear based responses? Are their words manipulative? Do they let you make your own choices that feel right to you or do they seem to have a standard plan of care?
To read the rest of this article click here.
Showing posts with label fear of birth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fear of birth. Show all posts
Part 2 - Fear and Pain: A Cultural Picture of Childbirth...and What We Can Do to Change It
As discussed in Part 1 of this post, the experience of childbirth - and particularly the experience of childbirth as inherently painful - is strongly influenced by cultural perceptions and norms. In America, birth is largely defined by the culture-bound idea that pain and childbirth are inextricably linked. Insofar as thoughts and beliefs can impact personal experience, women who are told repeatedly to expect that birth will be grueling, difficult and painful naturally internalize these views (and the fears that result from them) over time and, thus, their birth experience could more likely be a painful one.
Challenging Our Views of Birth
If an understanding of birth as fundamentally painful and unpleasant can lead women to experience it as such, one has to wonder if this rule can be reversed. Are women who view birth as inherently comfortable -something to be embraced rather than resisted - and themselves as calm, confident and capable, less likely to have painful, difficult birth experiences?
This idea - that one can "deprogram" the mind of the cultural mindset that childbirth must be painful - is the basic premise of one particular approach to childbirth education and "pain management:" Hypnosis for Childbirth.
The Hypnotic Mind
Remember how in Part 1 I said that my own birth experience was virtually pain-free, drug-free and without any major medical interventions? In large part, I credit hypnosis for this.
There are two major hypnosis programs/styles that cater to pregnant and birthing women: Hypnobirthing (a.k.a., the Mongan Method) and Hypnobabies. There are also a number of childbirth education methods that utilize components of hypnosis. I used the Hypnobabies program for my pregnancy and birth with Little Man.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Challenging Our Views of Birth
If an understanding of birth as fundamentally painful and unpleasant can lead women to experience it as such, one has to wonder if this rule can be reversed. Are women who view birth as inherently comfortable -something to be embraced rather than resisted - and themselves as calm, confident and capable, less likely to have painful, difficult birth experiences?
This idea - that one can "deprogram" the mind of the cultural mindset that childbirth must be painful - is the basic premise of one particular approach to childbirth education and "pain management:" Hypnosis for Childbirth.
The Hypnotic Mind
Remember how in Part 1 I said that my own birth experience was virtually pain-free, drug-free and without any major medical interventions? In large part, I credit hypnosis for this.
There are two major hypnosis programs/styles that cater to pregnant and birthing women: Hypnobirthing (a.k.a., the Mongan Method) and Hypnobabies. There are also a number of childbirth education methods that utilize components of hypnosis. I used the Hypnobabies program for my pregnancy and birth with Little Man.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Fear and Pain: A Cultural Picture of Childbirth...and What We Can Do to Change It
What if I told you that I gave birth to my child without anesthesia or medication of any kind, without any medical interventions to speak of...and the result was a childbirth experience that was virtually devoid of any pain? That I experienced childbirth in its fullest, most visceral state, completely comfortable and aware throughout the whole process? Would you believe me?
Allow me to digress for a moment, and ask you this question, instead: What is it about childbirth that immediately conjures images of screaming pain and terror? Why is it so difficult to believe that a child can be born peacefully and with minimal pain and discomfort?
The answer, it seems, is largely derived from culture-bound ideas about pregnancy and childbirth. Simply put, American culture - from popular media, to personal anecdotes - seems to emphasize that the birth of a child is inherently a painful and difficult process, wrought with potential dangers for both mother and child, and manageable only by those with the proper "authoritative knowledge" and understanding.
As the classic Brigitte Jordan book Birth in Four Cultures reveals, this view is not universal. Women in American culture are taught that this is so. They are told to expect that childbirth will be painful and thus, they experience it as such. For women in many other cultures, this is simply not the case.
This is not to suggest that women who experience childbirth as painful are somehow to blame for their experience, or that they are doing something wrong - far from it. The point is simply to ask how the American cultural picture of birth influences the way women in our country experience this fundamental life process. With fear and pain being interrelated phenomena - one influencing the other - does this expectation that all women are doomed to have an inescapably pain-ridden birth experience increase our fear and, thus, increase our perception of pain during childbirth?
How Fear Influences Pain - And What this Means for Birthing Women
For most, the idea of pain-free childbirth is quite foreign. While I've been interested for a while in the concept of "pain-free childbirth," I really started thinking about how fear can influence childbirth outcomes when I saw this article. The study described in the article examined mothers who suffered from severe or "excessive" fear of childbirth, and the impact of this fear on their birth experience. The main conclusion of this study was that women who suffered from extreme fear of childbirth were more likely to have epidural anesthesia, induction of childbirth, elective c-section, or emergency c-section.
According to the authors of the paper, and other previous studies (cited on page 4), the heightened levels of adrenaline that accompany a fear response can undoubtedly influence the progress of labor. Many of these women had had a previous traumatizing childbirth experience (and the phenomenon of birth trauma is a topic for a whole separate post I intend to write at some point in the future).
While the fear experienced by the women in this study was extreme, the results still raise many questions. Did the women's fear (and the neurological effects created by it) directly impact the progress of their labor, as the authors suggest? Were their care providers just more likely to undertake this type of intervention because of the woman's psychological state? Or is there somehow a correlation between the type of provider (one who is more likely to perform inductions and cesareans) and the experience of fear by their patients? It is difficult to pinpoint a specific cause-effect relationship here, and the study does not directly point to any one answer.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Allow me to digress for a moment, and ask you this question, instead: What is it about childbirth that immediately conjures images of screaming pain and terror? Why is it so difficult to believe that a child can be born peacefully and with minimal pain and discomfort?
The answer, it seems, is largely derived from culture-bound ideas about pregnancy and childbirth. Simply put, American culture - from popular media, to personal anecdotes - seems to emphasize that the birth of a child is inherently a painful and difficult process, wrought with potential dangers for both mother and child, and manageable only by those with the proper "authoritative knowledge" and understanding.
As the classic Brigitte Jordan book Birth in Four Cultures reveals, this view is not universal. Women in American culture are taught that this is so. They are told to expect that childbirth will be painful and thus, they experience it as such. For women in many other cultures, this is simply not the case.
This is not to suggest that women who experience childbirth as painful are somehow to blame for their experience, or that they are doing something wrong - far from it. The point is simply to ask how the American cultural picture of birth influences the way women in our country experience this fundamental life process. With fear and pain being interrelated phenomena - one influencing the other - does this expectation that all women are doomed to have an inescapably pain-ridden birth experience increase our fear and, thus, increase our perception of pain during childbirth?
How Fear Influences Pain - And What this Means for Birthing Women
For most, the idea of pain-free childbirth is quite foreign. While I've been interested for a while in the concept of "pain-free childbirth," I really started thinking about how fear can influence childbirth outcomes when I saw this article. The study described in the article examined mothers who suffered from severe or "excessive" fear of childbirth, and the impact of this fear on their birth experience. The main conclusion of this study was that women who suffered from extreme fear of childbirth were more likely to have epidural anesthesia, induction of childbirth, elective c-section, or emergency c-section.
According to the authors of the paper, and other previous studies (cited on page 4), the heightened levels of adrenaline that accompany a fear response can undoubtedly influence the progress of labor. Many of these women had had a previous traumatizing childbirth experience (and the phenomenon of birth trauma is a topic for a whole separate post I intend to write at some point in the future).
While the fear experienced by the women in this study was extreme, the results still raise many questions. Did the women's fear (and the neurological effects created by it) directly impact the progress of their labor, as the authors suggest? Were their care providers just more likely to undertake this type of intervention because of the woman's psychological state? Or is there somehow a correlation between the type of provider (one who is more likely to perform inductions and cesareans) and the experience of fear by their patients? It is difficult to pinpoint a specific cause-effect relationship here, and the study does not directly point to any one answer.
To read the rest of this article click here.
Why are we scared to give birth naturally?
My belief is that as more medical intervention occurs in childbirth, it leads to a cascade of labour complications and traumatic birth experiences. This has led to a most understandable increase in the amount of fear and aversion felt by women and prevent them even considering giving birth vaginally.
If more money was spent on offering women counselling, fear release and relaxation techniques for those women, who quite understandably felt afraid to undertake childbirth, then not only would women experience the joy of giving birth, but also have less complications recovering from major surgery.
* Opting for caesarean
* HypnoBirthing
* Effects of caesarean
* Explore natural options
Opting for caesarean
A controversial move by NICE to introduce guidelines for caesarean section to be available as a choice for women has stirred up emotions both for and against the move. I am a great believer in giving women informed choice, but one of my concerns is that women are fully informed about the pros and cons of a caesarean section. What worries me even more is that we have such a negative view of childbirth that we are too scared to give birth naturally!
Don’t get me wrong, a caesarean section is a life saving operation in specific circumstances and should be used in those situations. The problem is when it becomes normal practice and we forget that it is major surgery with a higher risk of complications for both mother and baby.
To read the rest of this article click here.
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