Natural Birthing

See some of our newest Hypnobabies!

2012-02-23T12:55:00.011-08:00

To see all of our Hypnobabies click here to read their stories.

Introducing our newest Hypnobabies, Heath and Henry.

2012-01-10T14:29:00.000-08:00

Group Hypnobirthing Classes :

*Please note there are only 5 spots per group available, so please book early.

Winter 2012

Every Tues March 6 - 27, 6:00 -8:30pm **** 2 spaces left

Spring 2012

Every Tues April 10 - May 1, 6:00-8:30pm

Every Tues May 8 - 29, 6:00-8:30pm

If these dates don't work with your schedule you can always book private classes

Pooping During Childbirth

2011-10-06T14:46:00.000-07:00

How I Learned To Stop Worrying And Love Pooping During Childbirth

Truth: If you're pregnant, and if you squeeze that thing out through your vagina, you're probably going to poop while doing so. I know what you're thinking: Does this mean I might lose even more weight in the hospital? The answer is yes, every little bit helps. No one can take that away from you. Now let's all put our heads together here and think this damn thing through.

One: You're pooping the baby out anyway, right? It's like the same muscles. And, giving birth basically feels like you're taking the biggest dump of your life and you don't even care who knows. Yes, childbirth is a Miracle Tender Moment Incorporated full of the most tender feelings a human can pretty much ever experience, and yet, you. are. pooping. out. your. baby. Stand in your truth! Feel the now! Taste the rainbow!

Two: You don't even know it's happening. Honestly, I think this may be the best part, but I understand that to some women this is actually the very worst part. I suppose that's because they were hoping maybe they could stop it from happening.

Three: You cannot stop it from happening really. A nurse friend was all, yeah, you're probably gonna. ESPECIALLY when the baby's head comes out. That's just too much of a big thing being pooped out at all at once and so you're also going to mix some poop in there. (Last sentence is mine and not that of a medical professional.)

Four: But your husband or family or partner or whoever is standing around looking right there and probably with a camera and is totally going to see it. Up until now, they probably were not looking at your butt in this way this whole time? Maybe even never? Even if you started dating in HIGH SCHOOL? Sigh.

The theatrics and agony of labor are about many things both literal and symbolic, but let us all agree right here and now that they are about transitions and releases. Therefore, the poop must come out. And it must be ushered in joyously, as gently as Nature's Pillow, as the Big Finish to nine months of gassy purgatory. And as we all know by now: That which cannot handle the poop surely cannot handle the scoop!

And the scoop is this: I'm afraid there are no easy answers here. But really, going forward, now that you'll have this baby, I think that's a good theme for everyone involved to get used to - the no easy answers thing. And the poop. So, go ahead: Release the Kraken!

Five: At least knowing this helps you figure out who you really want in the ol' delivery room, eh? Let's take that list, cut in half, and then burn whatever's left. Hey - some people have honest-to-God orgasms when they give birth. Is that what you want your mother-in-law to see? I think you're beginning to see that pooping is clearly the more family-friendly option here.

Six: Listen. It's not every day that you, as an adult woman, get to poop in front of multiple people, not even care, have it cleaned up for you, and with no pressure to get anyone off while doing so. No offense to scatophiliacs, but this thing is looking more like a day at the spa every minute.

Seven: OK, so my nurse friend also says that if you MAYBE if had diarrhea at the beginning of labor, which is pretty common, like even before you ever got to the hospital, that you might have been cleaned out already in that regard. So maybe you won't poop? Also, enemas were routinely given in the past to avoid the embarrassment caused by the "leaking from the back passage," she told me, but that's less common now, although not apparently out of practice and not even always effective. And super uncomfortable! So maybe you can reduce your chances? But remember the baby head still? So yeah. You probably still will. Also, she did say, and I'm sorry, that some women have been known to drop like, full-sized loads. I'm sorry?

Eight: The labor and delivery nurses have SEEN IT ALL BEFORE. They will not be remotely fazed by this. I asked my OTHER nurse friend, so you could fart, bark and take a big dump while you were in labor and it'd be no bigs? "That's routine," she said. Then I was like, would anything shock these people? And she was like, maybe explosive diarrhea? And even then, no.

Nine: When you get to the part of giving birth where it's time to actually push (i.e., Poop Time) you're going to LOVE the whole little setup they have ready for you. It's like this whole little kit at the end of the table that's like basically there to wipe away your poop super quickly. It's like a slip-n-slide with a basket at the end.

Ten: I relay to you a story for your consideration. A cautionary tale passed down from prego to prego: Once, a prego found out as she neared her due date that she was probably going to poop on the delivery table. She fretted and worried so much that she went to her husband.

"I really don't want to poop on the table," she confessed to him. She was so upset that she made him promise to tell her if she did. For weeks leading up to the delivery she talked about it and worried about it. And when the day finally came, she was so nervous about it that it was in the back of her mind during the entire labor. Eventually, she had her baby, who was healthy and precious.

"Well?" she asked her husband.

"You were great," he said. "You were perfect. No poop!"

Finally a day passed in the hospital and it was time to check out with a postpartum nurse before going home.

"Did you have a bowel movement yet?" she asked the patient. "No, not yet," she replied. "But should I be worried? It's been more than 24 hours."

"Oh honey," the nurse replied. "You went so much on the delivery table that you won't need to go for three days."

Tracy Moore is a writer living in Los Angeles. She did poop during childbirth, but it was the super-cute kind and everybody applauded.

Birthing Centre Opening in Edmonton

2011-08-11T09:55:00.001-07:00

When I found out about Lucina Centre Birth and Family Wellness was opening I was thrilled. This will be a wonderful addition to Edmonton and the surrounding area. This a great option for women that don't want a hospital birth but aren't completely comfortable birthing at home. These ladies be able to birth with their midwife in a beautiful, comfortable, environment, and after their birthing a tasty nutritious breakfast.

This centre is not only for birthing but also a one stop shop for family wellness, offering services in Hypnobirthing, Hypnotherapy, Massage therapy, Acupuncture, breastfeeding and birthing.

I'll be excited to watch the centre evolve in the next few months as more services are added.

Why Hypnobirthing and not some other class?

2011-06-12T10:48:00.000-07:00

Why should you choose Hypnobirthing?
Hypnobirthing has a long standing reputation and has built a solid foundation for education to be delivered to expectant mothers and their birthing partners.

The difference between this and some other forms of relaxation birthing is the manner in which Hypnobirthing is taught. We are not just teaching relaxation techniques we are working with the subconscious mind. By accessing this part of the mind via a relaxed state we use suggestions and anchors, such as touch, sound, and the body's natural responses during labour to deepen the state of relaxation.

Why not just teach it in a weekend?
This question has come up from time to time and often people will look for the quickest way to learn something. However is it the most beneficial?

Hypnobirthing was designed to be taught over a 4-5 week period to benefit the mother and her partner. This allows both to absorb and practice the material taught week by week. As Edmonton's only a Clinical Hypnotherapist, specializing in Hypnobirthing , I am able to teach the parents in depth hypnosis techniques, providing them with years of my experience as a Hypnotherapist.

Basically this gives your mind and body time learn and practice, gaining confidence each week and feeling the deepening effects of relaxation. This also allows you to ask questions, and gain clarity regarding the process and understanding how hypnosis truly works, removing all of the myths associated with it.

Hypnosis and Hypnobirthing are tools that you can use far into the future, before, during and after the birth of your child. This is a true investment in natural birthing, and feeling a wonderful connection with your partner and your baby.

I truly love teaching this class and I hope it shows when I'm with my Hypnobirthing parents how passionate and confident I am about the benefits of Hypnosis and Hypnobirthing.

Learn more about Hypnobirthing

Natural Birthing Back to Basics

2011-06-11T16:35:00.000-07:00

History

Historically, most women gave birth at home without medical intervention. These births were generally attended by a midwife, local family physician, or members of the birthing woman's family. At the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the 19th century, giving birth at home became more difficult due to congested living spaces and dirty living conditions. This drove urban and lower class women to newly available hospitals, while wealthy and middle-class women continued to labour at home.

In the early 1900s there was an increasing availability of hospitals, and more women began going into the hospital for labour and delivery. In the United States, the middle classes were especially receptive to the medicalization of childbirth, which promised a safer and less painful labour. In fact, the ability to labour without pain was part of the early feminist movement.

With this change from primarily homebirth to primarily hospital birth came changes in the care women received during labor: although no longer the case, in the 1940s it was common for women to be routinely sedated and for babies to be delivered from their unconscious mothers with forceps (termed by Dr. Robert A. Bradley as "knock-em-out, drag-em-out obstetrics"). Other routine obstetric interventions have similarly come and gone: shaving of the mother's pubic region; mandatory intravenous drips; enemas; hand strapping of the laboring women; and the 12 hour monitoring of newborns in a nursery away from the mother.

Beginning in the 1940s, childbirth professionals began to challenge the conventional assumptions about the safety of medicalized births. Physicians Michel Odent and Frederick Leboyer and midwives such as Ina May Gaskin pioneered birthing centers, water birth, and safe homebirth as alternatives to the hospital model. Research has shown that low-tech midwifery provides labor outcomes as good as those found in hospital settings with fewer interventions, except for a small percentage of high-risk cases. Today natural childbirth is taught through a variety of childbirth classes and books.

Back to Basics

Natural childbirth aims to maximize the innate birth physiology and labouring movement of healthy, well-nourished women.

Many women consider natural birth empowering. A woman who is supported to labour as she instinctively wants to, is a woman who will likely feel positive about her birth experience and future parenting skills. Her baby is more able to be alert and placed on her skin (promoting maternal bonding) and breastfeeding is more likely to be enjoyable and successful.

A variety of methods are implemented during natural childbirth to aid the mother. Pain management techniques other than medication include hydrotherapy, massage, relaxation therapy, hypnosis, breathing exercises, vocalization, visualization, mindfulness and water birth. Other approaches include movement and different positions (i.e. using a birthing ball), hot and cold therapy (i.e. using hot compresses and/or cold packs), and receiving one-on-one labour support like that provided by a midwife or doula.

Some methods used to augment labor without medication include changing positions frequently, remaining in an upright position to increase pressure of the baby on the cervix, and walking or walking up and down stairs. Methods to reduce the need for an episiotomy include managing the perineum with counter-pressure, hot compresses, and pushing the baby out slowly.

Preparation

Some women take birth education classes such as Bradley Method or Hypnobirthing to prepare for a natural childbirth. Several books are also available with information to help women prepare. A midwife or doula may include preparation for a natural birth as part of the prenatal care services.

Article on Trauma Free Childbirth

2011-03-28T19:13:00.000-07:00

The Search For Trauma Free Childbirth

Hypnosis eases the pain of mom's labour

2011-03-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

Please click on the article to see a larger image.
This article was published July 9/09 in 24 Hours Edmonton

Interview with Birth Source

2010-12-29T11:11:00.001-08:00

Check out Tracy's interview with Birth Source

Natural Birthing Specialist

2010-08-26T15:32:00.000-07:00

Tracy Martin is a Clinical certified Hypnotherapist and Hypnobirthing practitioner providing services for Edmonton and surrounding areas for the last 5 years.

Tracy has a strong belief in the power of the mind and body, to achieve a gentle natural birth. Using relaxation and deepening techniques via hypnosis allows the mother to go deeply within the birthing body. Empowering them to flow with the body and allowing the natural process of birth to progress calmly, and gently.

Tracy prides herself on her level of expertise with Hypnobirthing, and as a Clinical Hypnotherapist feels she is able to provide a unique level of knowledge and expertise to couples seeking a natural birth using Hypnosis and Hypnobirthing techniques.

Interested in natural birthing in the Edmonton area, contact your local Hypnobirthing specialist Tracy Martin.

Email: martinhypno@shaw.ca
Phone: 780 232 3827

See just a few of our Hypnobabies

Childbirth:Hypnotherapy

2010-05-19T10:43:00.000-07:00

CHILDBIRTH: HYPNOTHERAPY
Loose the Lamaze; ease the pain with hypnosis
Globe & Mail, Jun 24, 2008

From the outside, it would appear the birth of Ashley Desson- Demetriadis’s first child was a chaotic experience.

The Oakville, Ont., resident’s plans for a home birth with a midwife were derailed when the baby’s heart rate dropped and she was rushed to hospital.

But because Ms. Desson-Demetriadis, 25, was versed in a form of self-hypnosis geared to birthing moms, she says she was able to close her eyes and keep the complications at bay. A very healthy baby Noah arrived quickly, with the help of vacuum assistance.

“If you ask me, I say it was great. Fantastic,” the interior designer says of the February birth. “As everything turned south, I don’t feel like I experienced it. I feel like I witnessed it.”

Forget Lamaze and its offspring. The latest in childbirth support is all about benign mind control. It’s called hypnobirthing - and it has nothing to do with men in tuxedos waving pocket watches.

In the past 10 years, as hypnotherapy has grown in popularity for treatments such as smoking cessation, the practice has started inching into the mainstream. As Ms. Desson-Demetriadis’s Hamilton-based instructor, Lara Stewart-Panko puts it, she’s hearing a lot less “hypno what?”

Ms. Stewart-Panko teaches a trademarked technique called HypnoBirthing, created by a New Hampshire hypnotist, Marie Mongan, whose first client was her own pregnant daughter.

Others teach variations on the technique, such as Toronto hypnotist Shawn Gallagher, an associate with the Ontario Hypnosis Centre, who calls her course Hypnosis for Childbirth. The centre also trains hypnotherapists in the specialty - about 20 certified practitioners a year since 2002.

The underlying philosophy of hypnobirthing suggests that the more tense and afraid the mother is, the more pain she will feel; so controlling stress and fear are the starting point to a more comfortable experience.

Practitioners teach moms-to-be how to close their eyes, breathe deeply and sink into a deep meditative state, often with the help of their partners, who can offer a physical cue such as a hand on the shoulder to initiate the hypnosis. Visualization methods are also used, as are tips on how to manage pain, especially during contractions, which the hypnobirthing community calls “waves” or “surges.”

Last weekend, Ms. Gallagher had students hold their hands in buckets of ice water to learn how to numb pain using positive affirmations. Another goal is to shorten the time spent in active labour. Many of the mothers she has trained in the past 10 years happily report short labours - about 4 1/2 hours seems to be the norm, Ms. Gallagher says.

Still, while Ms. Gallagher is encouraged by the interest in her practice and in hypnosis in general, she is careful to explain that self-hypnosis may not be for everyone.

“Some people are naturally talented at it, but there are a range of responses,” she says, adding that couples looking for courses should be wary of anyone who promises a completely pain-free experience.

Ms. Desson-Demetriadis was intrigued when a friend told her about using the technique. She was looking for an alternative to the gruesome, painful birth stories she was hearing from friends and family.

While the practice is a form of natural childbirth aimed at steering expectant moms away from rising numbers of induced births, epidurals and cesarean sections, hypnotherapists are not all vehemently opposed to these practices.

It’s not an either-or choice, says Janice Daigle, a doula and hypnobirthing practitioner in Richibucto, N.B.Ms. Daigle uses the analogy of a baseball team: A woman about to give birth needs everyone on her bench, she says. Her starting player may be hypnobirthing, but she’s also got to have doctors, nurses, the epidural and the caesarean section on her team. Hypnobirthing can help her deal with the worst of it.

Practitioners say they are starting to receive referrals from obstetricians and nurses. And some doctors and nurses are enrolling themselves.

Ms. Daigle currently has five doctors enrolled in her course. One Montreal medical resident, Marie (who asked that her name not be used because she wasn’t offering her professional opinion), says she’s taking a hypnobirthing class to balance her medical knowledge.

“I’m a rational person. It’s really simple,” says Marie, 27.

“It gives me more tools. I don’t want to be passive.”

Even women who know their pregnancies are high-risk are turning to the practice.

Oakville mother Nancy Ortenburg, 38, choose hypnobirthing for her second birth after her first baby was stillborn in a very difficult labour.

“I was hysterical with pain,” she says. “I thought, ‘There has to be a better way.’ “

When her second daughter started to arrive prematurely in January, Ms. Ortenburg and her husband rushed to hospital in Oakville, but there was no neonatal intensive care unit there. If Ms. Ortenburg could hold on until the next morning, there would be room for her baby at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto.

She credits hypnobirthing with slowing her contractions. “It got me through 28 hours,” she says. When mom and baby were ready, it took only five pushes for baby Charlotte to appear. While she did need a pain reliever near the end, Ms. Ortenburg feels that hypnobirthing helped her and her husband “make the best we could have out of the situation at hand.”

Note: This information is for educational purposes only. It is intended to supplement your current health program and not to replace the care of a doctor. For diagnosis or treatment of any disease please consult a licensed physician.

You're in Labour, and Getting Sleeeeepy

2010-05-19T10:41:00.001-07:00

New York Times, April 27, 2006

My parents definitely thought I was a bit crazy when I mentioned a hypnobirth," Adrienne Pratt said. Ms. Pratt, eight months pregnant, and her husband, Armando Guato, gathered with two other expectant couples on Easter Sunday afternoon to learn a newly popular technique for helping women remain serene during childbirth.

For many, the word "hypnosis" conjures up an image of a swinging pendant lulling a hapless woman into a trance. But hypnobirth is not about inducing a trance; it is a combination of relaxation, breathing and visualization techniques to control labor and birthing pain, said Linette Landa, the hypnobirth teacher.

Slow, smooth breathing counteracts what Ms. Landa called "the fear-tension-pain syndrome," the notion that women fear birth, so their muscles tense up, resulting in pain.

"We're all about the subconscious mind," said Ms. Landa, a tall, tranquil woman who teaches yoga. "The conscious mind is out of the picture."

Move over, Lamaze. Today, many women are reaching out to a variety of other drug-free childbirth alternatives, including aromatherapy and birthing pools, according to experts on gynecology and obstetrics.

They are inspired by Web sites like Urbanbaby.com, reality birth television shows like "House of Babies" on the Discovery Health Channel and celebrities like Angelina Jolie, whose sojourn with Brad Pitt in Namibia spurred speculation that they would have their baby using water birthing. Tom Cruise caused a stir when he said Katie Holmes would give birth in silence. (He later explained that she could make noise, but that others had to be quiet for a calm delivery of their baby, a girl, born on April 18.)

While "silent birth" raised eyebrows, even the more widely practiced hypnobirth, with more than 2,000 instructors nationwide, still draws its share of skepticism.

"When you hear 'hypno,' you think weird, hippy, earthy type stuff," said Kelly Yeiser, 31, of Ashville, N.C., who had her first baby last August using the technique. "But it's really more about meditation and getting yourself into a calm, relaxed state."

Byron Bailey, a government worker in Washington who attended the hypnobirth class with his wife, Jaylin, said, "The idea of someone swinging a pendant — that's the sideshow aspect." The couple are expecting their first child in May.

The women attending the class said a big appeal of hypnobirth is that it builds confidence. Mothers-to-be complain that people are quick to share their worst childbirth stories, in excruciating detail, at the first sight of someone else's pregnancy, feeding worries about labor and delivery.

Ms. Pratt, 36, a project specialist with the Inter-American Development Bank, in Washington, said hypnobirth helps banish such fears because it focuses on the positive.

She was practicing its deep, distinctive breathing — no Lamaze-style panting. The mother "breathes the baby down" and out instead of pushing, according to the tenets of HypnoBirthing. (The name was trademarked in 2000.) During sessions over several weeks, and daily home exercises, the mother also practices visualizing the baby easily descending and leaving her body so often that the image becomes imprinted in her mind; a CD is available for practice and for last-minute guidance. A birthing companion — husband or midwife — tries to keep the mother in a positive, totally relaxed state of mind.

HypnoBirthing mothers even use a different vocabulary. For example, a contraction is a uterine surge or wave, pushing is birth breathing, and false labor is practice labor.

Getting used to all this takes practice, admitted Jennifer Stanton-Brand, 38, who was attending the class with her husband, Stephan, a sales manager in Baltimore. They are expecting their first child next month.

Ms. Stanton-Brand has not yet developed a routine that is second nature, as the method recommends, but said the exercises "have helped me become more inward."

"When something gets tense, I breathe and go inward to a place I can control," she said.

Obstetricians interviewed said that expectant mothers are more focused on finding new ways to reduce, or even eliminate, labor and birth pain.

At one end of the spectrum, women are opting for Caesareans in record numbers. According to the National Center for Health Statistics, the combined percentage of women who had C-sections or used drugs to induce labor was about half of the 4.1 million childbirths in 2004.

Of the remaining women, many fear that drugs will hurt their newborns and want a way to avoid them as well as to control the pain.

Some of the alternatives they are selecting include water birthing, in which the woman immerses herself in a tub or pool to reduce labor discomfort, and sometimes for the birth. Another technique is for the woman to change positions so she is not always lying down, but is sitting on a giant ball, for example. Some women have acupuncture, and others use aromatherapy to create a soothing environment.

The trend is toward nonmedical methods, said Dr. William Camann, associate professor at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and co-author of the recently released "Easy Labor, Every Woman's Guide to Choosing Less Pain and More Joy During Childbirth" (Random House).

Once, he said, "there was no overlap, and there tended to be animosity and distrust" between those who espoused natural childbirth and advocates of medical procedures. But that has changed, he added, because women are researching alternatives and finding them on the Internet.

Hospitals today are also more accepting of a woman's desire to be in control during labor and delivery, Dr. Camann said. "There's been a gradual trend toward acceptance of alternative methods, even though five years ago, asking for a hypnobirth was almost unheard of. Now it's much more common."

SO, does it work? In 2004, The British Journal of Anesthesia said studies involving 8,000 women found that those who used hypnosis techniques during childbirth rated their pain as less severe than those who did not.

Jennifer Macris, 38, of Annapolis, Md., said that during the three-hour labor for her baby, born on March 26, she listened to a HypnoBirthing CD through headphones. She was so calm that nurses asked her husband, Jeff, if she was sleeping.

"There was no pain," she said. "I felt a bit of pressure, and the baby was out. There was only a little tear that required one stitch."

Still, Dr. Camann and other doctors warned mothers against rigidly adhering to any single alternative.

Ideally HypnoBirthing allows a woman to remain so relaxed through contractions that there is no screaming to tire the mother or alarm the baby, and labor is shorter.

It doesn't work for everyone: Jennifer Richards, 29, said she gained self-confidence from hypnobirth methods, but had an epidural because of the intense back pain during her 30-hour labor.

"I used some of the things I learned," she said, "but not as many as I would have liked."

In contrast, Ms. Yeiser of Asheville, whose baby was born after only two and a half hours of labor, said, "I was so relaxed that I slept through the first stage of labor."

That's what Marie F. Mongan was seeking when she set up HypnoBirthing after her first two deliveries, the first in 1954, when women were routinely strapped down and given ether, and their legs tied to stirrups.

The first birth using her program, which is based on her training in hypnosis, was that of her grandson, Kyle, in 1990.

The number of those taking HypnoBirthing's four-day instructors' course has doubled in recent years and has increasingly included nurses, she said. Her 1992 book, "HypnoBirthing, the Mongan Method" (Health Communications) is in its third printing.

Her HypnoBirthing Institute, outside Concord, N.H., is just starting to keep statistics on how many women deliver using her techniques, something hard to measure because women who take the classes may later find that a medical necessity calls for drugs. The course is usually a series of five classes, which in Bethesda cost $200.

Ms. Mongan said natural childbirth has been derailed by medical intervention. When Queen Victoria insisted on chloroform during the deliveries of her nine children, she set the precedent for ceding control of birthing to doctors, Ms. Mongan writes in her book.

While many hospitals now permit hypnobirth, doctors are wary because they fear litigation. The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists leaves it up to the individual doctor's judgment.

Such techniques are not a surefire way to avoid pain, but rather "adjuncts and not the end-all to birth," said Dr. Jeffrey M. Segil, an obstetrician who offers the HypnoBirthing option to every patient in his practice in Dover, N.H.

"Women should not be set up to feel that they've failed if they can't follow through to a totally natural delivery," he said.

Benefits of Natural Birthing and Hypnobirthing

2010-03-31T17:04:00.000-07:00

Benefits of Natural Childbirth
1. Mothers who labour naturally can move freely, go to the bathroom, walk and change positions throughout labor. According to the Cochrane Review, recent studies have shown that getting medication makes changing positions even after birth more difficult.

2. Since you can feel your body's reflexes in natural childbirth, mothers can push better and generally faster. In fact studies show that getting an epidural prolongs your pushing time.

3. The discomfort during labour serves a purpose by guiding the mother to seek certain positions. For example, if her back hurts, she will naturally seek positions off her back which can help to turn her baby. Having back pain is one sign that the baby might be posterior and needs to rotate.

4. Mothers often describe that their recovery after a natural childbirth was faster and easier since they could get right up and walk and shower. Usually they eat right away and their appetite is normal.

5. Endorphins secreted during a natural childbirth have been found in the placenta and umbilical cord. This may serve a purpose to help the baby adjust to life outside as well as make the journey more comfortable for baby.

6. Research has shown that in mothers who have natural childbirth, babies are more alert and show more interest in pre-breastfeeding behaviours such as sucking and massaging the mother's breasts, as well as the actual length of time they spend nursing within the first 90 minutes

Benefits of HypnoBirthing
1. Eliminates the Fear - Tension - Pain syndrome before, during and after birthing.

2. Reduces or often eliminates medical interventions.

3. Lessens fatigue

4. Shortens the thinning and opening( effacing and dilating) phase of labour

5. Bonding Mom - baby -partner

6. Birthing companion (father, partner) is an integral part

7. Baby blues, reduces postnatal discomfort

8. Babies are better adjusted

9. Mom - no hyperventilating from shallow breathing

10. Birthing is back to going within the body, following natures queues

For more statistical information regarding the benefits of HypnoBirthing please see the Hypnobirthing Institute

Relaxation - Health Benefits

2010-03-31T16:35:00.002-07:00

What is relaxation?
There are a number of definitions and explanations when it comes to the term "relaxation". Ultimately, however, this is the process in which the tension among all the muscles in the body is absent. Furthermore, it defines a state of mind in which stressors, negative self talk, and other worries are eliminated from the mind.

Relaxation, is both a physical state, and a mental state of mind. In order for an individual to maintain and optimize their physical and mental well-being, relaxation is an essential element.
Sometimes people say they have not got the time to relax. If this is correct, then it's exactly the time to make time to practice relaxation. Our lives have speed up; we barely have time to take a breath from finishing one task before we have to start another task. People who live in urban areas even walk faster than people in rural areas. Some people are taught that you must always be active, busy and productive and that to sit down doing nothing is almost a sin. Sitting down doing relaxation is not sitting down doing nothing and is not being unproductive. In fact, the opposite is true; if you regularly practice relaxation it will actually make you more efficient and productive. Relaxation is a chance to re-charge our batteries.

Relaxation training is a skill and like any other skill it takes time and practice to get the maximum benefits from it; it needs to be practiced on a regular basis, not just when we are having difficulty. It can take a few weeks of practicing relaxation to start to feel the benefits. The benefits are cumulative and regular relaxation practice supplies the best benefits.

Relaxation works because it is impossible to be relaxed and tense at the same time and fortunately, just as our body has an inbuilt fight/flight response mechanism, it also has an inbuilt mechanism for triggering relaxation. This is called The Relaxation Response.

There are some stressors that are impossible to remove from our lives but that doesn't mean there is nothing we can do to reduce their impact. Practicing relaxation techniques on a regular basis can help to reduce the impact of these stressors. Relaxation is an excellent cushioning technique that can be used when it's impossible to remove the stressor.

Benefits of relaxation:
The benefits of relaxation are more than simply a refreshed mind and rejuvenated spirit. Did you know that there are significant health benefits associated with relaxation? Reducing stress, reducing or eliminating insomnia, and improving your reaction to stress and depression can decrease your chances of developing certain health conditions, such as heart disease and cancer. It will also help lower your resting heart rate, breathing is slower and deeper and a drop in blood pressure can be noticed almost immediately.