[http://www.abc4.com/content/news/top_stories/story/Hypnosis-helps-women-deliver-babies-without-pain/EaKfD-Jt7Uq0dY6i4IJvpg.cspx]
Published: February 24, 2012
Hypnosis Helps Women Deliver Babies without Pain
Reported by Barbara Smith
SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News)- Childbirth is considered one of the most physically painful
experiences a woman can go through, but now Utah women says they are giving birth without
pain or drugs through the use of self-hypnosis.
Barbara Thornton delivered her second son, George, using hypnosis techniques she learned
through a Hypnobabies course. She says the birth was entirely different than what she
experienced with her first son Charlie. “With my other birth I was in pain from the beginning,
agonizing every contraction was so hard.”
Charlie was born with the help of epidural pain medication. Thornton says while the birth was
still a good experience, she didn’t like the groggy feeling she had, or the lethargy she noticed in
Charlie. So she looked for a more natural approach to delivery with George. “A lot of natural
childbirth methods just teach you how to cope with pain, but Hypnobabies, in particular, you
really learn to teach your body how to interpret pain as pressure instead of pain.”
Marinda Lloyd is a hypnobabies instructor. She says it is becoming more mainstream, and most
mothers who choose it deliver in a hospital setting. “89-percent of our moms make it through
completely un-medicated saying that they never felt anything more than pressure; sometimes
intense pressure, but in never escalates to pain.”
She says feeling pressure, and not pain, is not something that can be achieved overnight, or
without training. “If you want to have the great experience of easy, comfortable, birth you are
going to have to put in the practice.”
That requires a six week course, three hours a week, attended by the mother and her partner. It’s
also a commitment of one hour a day of personal practice with a CD at home. Barbara Thornton
says she did it faithfully. “At least one a day you are listening to a CD that is helping you
practice hypnosis to reinforce the programming that birth is easy and comfortable.”
Thornton says the work pays off. “I had a really comfortable labor, talking and laughing, and
visiting with people. My labor was great.” She says the outcome was even better. “I liked how
involved my husband was. He was like my coach and I had a healthy baby, that’s pretty much
perfect.”