I'm not sure if those who read this blog are aware that I have had unmedicated childbirths so far. And as long as everything is going well when baby #3 comes, I'll do the same thing. I'm not saying that to brag, it is simply a choice I made. I came to the decision to have my babies without pain medications after witnessing the placement of many epidurals while in nursing school. After watching that procedure (both successful attempts and attempts that had to be redone many times) I became terrified of having an epidural myself. My fear of epidurals only intensified when I cared for patients in the hospital after their babies were born, who had problems because of epidurals that were placed incorrectly. To correct this problem and relieve the resulting headache, they had to undergo another procedure where once again, a needle was inserted into the spine. How's that for ironic?
Anyway, when I was pregnant with Jace I shared with my doctor my desire to have natural childbirth if possible. He recommended I look into HypnoBirthing and gave me the name and brochure of a licenced hypnotherapist who taught the class. I'll be honest, I thought it sounded a little strange just based on the name. I wasn't sure if I was hippie/new age enough to try it, and reading the birth stories on the HypnoBirthing website (
http://www.hypnobirthing.com/) made it sound too good to be true.
But Casey was very encouraging and supportive and I decided I didn't have anything to lose by looking into it. Well it definitely worked and I had the epidural-free labors I wanted. I had relaxing labors where I was completely aware of everything that was happening. I wasn't actually hypnotized the way that most people think of. No one had control over me or my actions and I wasn't in a trance-like state. It is best compared to "the daydreaming or focusing that occurs when you are engrossed in a book or a movie or staring into a fire." It's basically just a really deep state of relaxation.
HypnoBirthing also teaches breathing techniques that allow the body to remain relaxed. It is not the fast panting breathing that people tend to think of when labor breathing is mentioned. I also learned about getting rid of fear related to childbirth. If fear is not there, the body will not have tension that leads to pain. This cycle is what leads to pain in labor. The last concept (that I believe is unique to HypnoBirthing) is the fact that the body has the ability to release natural pain-eliminating chemicals called endorphins and they are actually stronger than morphine.
So that's HypnoBirthing in a nutshell. I pretty much summed up some of the key concepts they teach so I don't know if that made much sense or not. But I have had a few people ask me about what it is and how it works, so that's why I did this blog entry. And now you all know why I choose to have medication-free childbirth.
