Recently, hypnorodia - childbirth without pain in a state close to the state of trance - has become particularly popular all over the world. In this way, the Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton gave birth to her third child, and the biological twins of Angelina Jolie were born. The technique comes to Russia.
Already today, women planning childbirth can find courses on teaching methods. What this method is, how it works and how to master it, we will tell you in this material.
What it is?
Hypnorods is a multi-module technique that allows you to give birth naturally without intense pain or tearing. The speed of the birth process also increases markedly. Such childbirth is not at all similar to how they are portrayed in books and films - no one screams, no one pushes to bleed in the eyes. The woman feels more confident, calm, she adequately perceives reality and communicates with doctors, but does not feel severe pain.
The history of the method has very deep roots - doctors of different generations, observing how easily women of indigenous tribes of Asia and Latin America give birth unaided, involuntarily wondered what their secret was.
Long-term studies of the nature of labor pain began in the 19th century, but Soviet scientists achieved the greatest success in this. In 1949, Soviet psychiatrist Ilya Velvovsky found out that pain during childbirth is nothing more than overexcitation of the cerebral cortex... Based on the discovery, he created a method of psychoprophylaxis for pain relief in childbirth. It consisted in creating a normal interaction of the cortex and the subcortical layer of the brain in the woman in labor with a certain verbal approach during childbirth.
Velvovsky's theory was also supported by other scientists: Professor Vladimir Bekhterev, Dr. Lurie. In 1950, Soviet developments formed the basis for the work of the French obstetrician Fernand Lamaze, who became the founder of the method "Childbirth without pain and fear." Thus, the first birth under hypnosis took place back in the Soviet Union., the experiments were carried out in the capital's maternity hospitals under the leadership of Bekhterev. And the results were amazing.
Methods of verbal influence were recommended to all obstetricians in the country, but in the 90s they were undeservedly forgotten. Doctors began to rely on potent pain relievers.
The developments of Soviet psychiatrists and physiologists did not disappear into oblivion - their work was continued by the hypnologist Mary Mongan, an American who formulated the basic principles of hypnorods. Her method (Mongan's method) is often called the author's, but, in fact, it is a continuation of the work of great doctors, scientists, biologists of the USSR, France, England.
Mary herself was so interested in their methods that she decided to test them on her own daughter - Mary took her birth herself, carrying out all the necessary psychophysiological training. Then she wrote a book about hypnorods, and the method that she proposed gained popularity in Europe and the USA. Now it has begun to be practiced in Asia, Africa and Russia.
Method essence
To understand what the techniques of hypnosis are based on, it is important to know the nature of birth pain. Experts believe that the underlying cause of pain is nothing more than fear. Women are afraid to give birth, and with fear of childbirth at the psychosomatic level (which Velvovsky established) involuntary muscle clamps appear.
Fear has deep roots - girls from childhood see in films, read in books, hear stories of adult women about their pain in childbirth and draw conclusions that giving birth is scary and painful. Fear, settled in the subconscious, excites the cerebral cortex, does not allow a woman to relax... Muscle clamps, "dictated" by nerve impulses in response to overexcitation of the cortex, increase pain, slow down the stage of contractions, attempts, increase the likelihood of ruptures, weakness of labor forces, prolonged labor.
Nature takes care in advance that the birth process is as gentle as possible - A few weeks before delivery, the myometrium (structural tissue of the uterus) gets rid of a large number of nerve fibers. This mechanism is provided to reduce sensitivity. But the fear that a modern woman experiences before childbirth reduces the efforts of nature to zero.... The women of the tribes of Africa or Latin America, which were mentioned above, are less well-read and educated, they do not watch films and do not read books describing childbirth, and therefore they perceive childbirth as a completely natural process.
Women's fear has another nature - it also stems from a lack of information about the birth process, about how their body works, their reproductive system, how organs behave during childbirth. And the third fear is connected with the future - the fear of not coping with the child, of giving birth to a sick baby. A woman creates fears for herself, she can control them.... Pain during childbirth exists in the head (cerebral cortex), which means that it can be prohibited, excluded, canceled. It is optional.
Hypnorrhea is a technique that helps prepare for childbirth both on a physical level (relaxation, breathing) and on a psychological level. Hypnosis in childbirth is used if necessary, while most of the effect is due to auto-training and the internal mood of the woman.
The Morgan Method does not involve anesthesia or stimulation during labor. Everything should flow as naturally as possible.
Training
A woman can get the basics of hypnology at courses - seminars, trainings are held in almost every city in paid clinics. You can use the services of trainers-hypnologists - such courses are offered by Anastasia Ivanova, Natalia Snigireva and others. But it should be understood that the services of these specialists will cost a lot.
This does not mean that women with modest incomes are out of reach of hypnosis. Mary Mongan also points to the possibility of self-training, for example, according to her author's book.
Learning involves mastering breathing techniques, relaxation, and certain affirmations (positive attitudes).
We invite you to familiarize yourself with some of them.
How to breathe?
Correct breathing allows a woman to save strength and energy during childbirth. Also calm and deep breaths and slow exhales promote the production of serotonin, which additionally has an analgesic effect.
Get into a comfortable position, close your eyes. Take a deep breath of the "abdominal" type (with distension of the abdomen with an immobile chest). Count slowly to four. Breathe out twice as slowly for a count of eight.
How to relax?
We accept a comfortable body position. We close our eyes and mentally divide our own body into several parts with the assignment of numbers: arms - 1, head - 2, legs - 3, and so on. We begin to count slowly. We say “one” to ourselves and relax the corresponding part of the body, “two” - we relax the facial muscles, the muscles of the occiput, neck, “three” - the legs relax, and so on.
The more often you practice this exercise during pregnancy, the easier it will be to immediately relax the whole body during childbirth, according to Pavlov's theory, mental counting will be closely related to reflex relaxation of the muscles.
As soon as the contraction begins, you will mentally count, and the body will relax, allowing the cervix to open painlessly, without clamps, bringing the baby closer to the birth.
Deep Rainbow Relaxation Meditation
Having mastered the previous exercise, you can move on to more effective and serious techniques that will help make childbirth easier and faster.
Take a comfortable position, count in your mind, relax all muscles. Imagine that you are lying comfortably on a pink cloud, it is soft and moist. Its tiny drops easily settle on the skin, enveloping you entirely. The cloud changes color to yellow or orange, becomes warm, the skin feels not only wet droplets, but also gentle warmth. In the same way, mentally “recolor” the cloud in all colors of the rainbow, and then smoothly return to this world.
This meditation will help in the stage of violent contractions that precede pushing.
While doing these exercises, it is recommended to turn off your phone, TV, so that there is peace and quiet around you. Experts recommend choosing the same time every day, but not before bedtime, so as not to accidentally fall asleep during exercise.
In groups and in individual lessons on the system of hypnology, clinics often use dim lights, quiet relaxing music in combination with a pleasant low voice of the hypnologist. You can create such an atmosphere in your own apartment.
Affirmations and Attitudes
Positive attitudes according to the Morgan method will help to gradually replace the negative frightening psycho-models in the subconscious. It is recommended that you approach affirmations with great responsibility.
So, here is a list of attitudes that a woman needs to repeat as often as possible so that they become part of her "I". They can be combined with the exercises described above, or they can be practiced separately at any time - on the way to work, on a walk, in the store:
- I cope with fears, they become small and gradually disappear;
- I am happy because a meeting with a baby is coming soon;
- I am in the mood for a calm, painless labor;
- I believe my body, it always tells me what to do;
- I am safe, I am relaxed and ready to become a mom;
- all the muscles in my body help the baby to be born.
Human psychology is structured in such a way that repeated repetition is perceived as real. Labor pain will not scare, because the woman will know exactly how to cope with it.
The opinion of obstetricians
Obstetricians-gynecologists strongly agree that the mood of the woman in labor greatly affects the nature of the course of her childbirth... Based on this, many are inclined to respect hypnorods, although today it is impossible to find a solid evidence base for the effectiveness of such techniques - there are not so many developments to draw general clinical conclusions.
Today, two types of hypnosis are used in obstetric practice: in the first case, in the delivery room, in addition to the woman in labor and the obstetric brigade, there is a hypnologist who constantly, from the first contractions until the birth of the baby, contacts the woman, gives her the correct settings, commands, keeps her in a light trance state. The second method is self-hypnosis, when a woman herself regulates her mental and emotional state in accordance with the techniques that she mastered in the classroom during pregnancy.
As an independent method of anesthesia, hypnosis is used today only in isolated cases, when childbirth is not complicated, and only by those doctors who fully support the method of hypnosis.
In other cases, quite traditional medicines and epidural anesthesia are used when the situation requires it. The insistent demands of a woman in labor not to give her painkillers because she gives birth "with hypnosis" are unreasonableif aggravating factors have appeared, when the use of anesthesia is the only reasonable way out for the mother and baby.
All doctors agree that women in labor who are trained according to such a system give birth more easily, they rarely require anesthesia or other intervention. But at the same time, practicing obstetricians-gynecologists doubt that a woman in a trance state is able to control the process. Her reactions can be inhibited.
If a woman wants to give birth under hypnosis, she must definitely give written consent to this. - the doctor-hypnologist will not be able to apply hypnosis if such consent has not been obtained.
All actions of doctors in the delivery room are subject to uniform standards and clinical recommendations of the Ministry of Health. There are no recommendations regarding hypnosis - it is not clear when and how to start it, how to control its depth, how to control other reactions of a woman in a trance, there are no recommendations regarding the actions of a hypnologist if something goes wrong, if a woman turns out to be hyper-suggestible, or, conversely, completely immune to hypnosis. And therefore officially hypnorods with the presence of a hypnologist are not carried out... Only private maternity hospitals and clinics decide to do this.
In certain cases, at the insistence of a woman, she can take a hypnosis trainer or a hypnologist as a partner for a joint childbirth, some maternity hospitals and perinatal centers agree to this. Self-hypnosis can be used without restrictions.
Reviews of women in labor
According to the reviews of women who have already given birth using the method of hypnosis, the process really proceeded easier and faster. Some did not even have time to feel severe pain at the moment of attempts.Women are not advised to completely abandon auxiliary obstetric techniques.
If you really do not want to experience the effect of epidural or other anesthesia, according to reviews, you can easily "breathe" the contractions, but you should not give up amniotomy, for example, with polyhydramnios.
Therefore, experienced moms recommend not only preparing for childbirth psychologically, studying breathing and relaxation techniques, but also familiarizing themselves with basic obstetric concepts in order to understand what exactly and why you are being asked to do.
