5 Reasons to Consider HypnoBirthing® – The Mongan Method
When it comes to childbirth, most pregnant women are unsure of what they should consider in terms of having their first or their next baby. “Should I have an epidural?” they may ask. “Should I just go without drugs?” is another consideration they may have.
What if I told you there was a way you could have your baby naturally—and it wouldn’t hurt as badly as you think it might? Learn about these five reasons why you should consider trying HypnoBirthing® – The Mongan Method when it’s time to have your first or your next child.
What is HypnoBirthing® – The Mongan Method?
Marie “Mickey” Mongan, M.Ed., M.Hy., Harvard University Ford Foundation member, and highly awarded hypnotherapist created HypnoBirthing®. This revolutionary hypnotherapy technique and program centered on birth education is based off of the work of Grantly Dick-Read, MD, an English obstetrician who wrote Childbirth Without Fear in 1944.
Using hypnosis, labouring women can break the cycle of what Dick-Read termed the “Fear-Tension-Pain syndrome.” It’s believed that this syndrome causes tension in the mind and body thus interfering with the natural processes of delivery, resulting in that pain.
Relaxation through hypnosis can prevent the Fear-Tension-Pain syndrome from happening during labour. Through HypnoBirthing®, practiced deep breathing, visualization, positive prompting from their birth partners, and labour comfort measures, mothers can train their brain to draw a deep relaxation response on demand.
Rather than pain, mothers who have experienced HypnoBirthing® describe it as feeling pressure as opposed to pain, and instead of contractions they feel “surges” or “waves.” It is truly a mind over matter way of approaching labour.
You can find trained and licensed HypnoBirthing® practitioners in 46 countries throughout the world, including myself in Port Coquitlam BC, Canada.
5 Reasons You Should Consider Hypnobirthing®
- Natural form of pain management
There is no medication used in this process, meaning no potential side effects for you or your baby. This experience is an atmosphere of calm relaxation, eliminating the fear which prevents the muscles of your body from functioning as nature intends (when you are fearful). When in this calm state, your body releases its own natural relaxant, endorphins, which then replaces the stress hormones that constrict and cause you pain.
- Provides comfort, relaxation, and relief during labour
Like regular hypnosis, HypnoBirthing® is based on the power of suggestion, using positive affirmations, suggestions, and visualizations to relax the mother’s body, guide her thoughts, and control her breathing. Unlike hypnosis, the mother is not actually placed under a trance or to sleep. Rather, she is placed into a state of deep relaxation, and is completely awake, aware, and fully in control of her labour.
- Decrease stress and fear during childbirth
We have been brought up to learn about the fear of giving birth and associate it with non-comparable agony. This is the reason why stress and fear in turn causes your body to connect the thoughts of birth with pain. When considering HypnoBirthing®, you will learn about the physical and chemical changes that occur when you allow fear and anxiety build up over time. Being aware of fight, flight, or freeze response helps to choose to calm instead. Once you learn calming techniques, you can help create endorphins to open and avoid the effect of negative hormones that cause the body to constrict.
- Allows you to remain alert and awake
Rather than being in a hypnotic trance, or asleep, your experience is more like a daydream, or sharp focus, like when you are captured by a good book or movie. Fully in control, you will be completely awake, relaxed, and conversant, aware of your body’s surges and progress of your labour. Since you will have been trained to reach complete relaxation, YOU will be in control of the extent and way you will feel the surges.
- Creates a better postpartum experience
By making your own best decisions no matter how the birth of your child plays out, you will have an easier postpartum period. HypnoBirthing® babies tend to be more easygoing and will nurse better, which makes it easier on you and your partner. It helps strengthen the mother-baby bond, being immersed in Mother Nature’s blissful birthing hormones. It will seem easier for everyone, making you transformed and empowered. Mothers then have a birthing experience where they feel heard and supported, and they are less likely to have postpartum depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
Hopefully you’ll give the birth education program a chance. If you’re interested or want to start your journey to a more natural birth, you can check out my workshops to see when the next classes become available to you and to your birth companion. Even if you’re not pregnant, perhaps you know someone who is, or may be interested in the subject? If so, feel free to share this article with them.
Let me help you bring your baby into the world without pain on your part. It really can be done. Why not consider it?
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