Hospital

By Dr. R. William Davey

LVO MD LRCP FFHOM AKC

Former Physician to Her Majesty the Queen

Natural childbirth without drugs needn’t mean intense pain any more.

Dr William Davey says he now recommends hypnobirthing for a less painful delivery...

WHEN I TRAINED IN THE 1960’S and did my midwifery course as a medical student, we had to deliver at least 40 babies as part of our pathway to qualification. We had intensive and thorough training at my medical school and I recall this as one of the best parts of learning to become a doctor.

The outcome was always triumphant for the mother (and for me!!) even if there were a few complications sometimes.

I really grew to admire the “Mums” who seemed to be so good and stoical and long-suffering. I think they knew full well I was under training and I wonder even now at their forbearance and tolerance.

Quickly I grew quite good at playing “the Stork” and seriously considered becoming an Obstetrician.

We had no shortage of ladies to care for, because then it was de rigueur, all first pregnancies were born in hospital. No argument, that was the rule.

In those days doctors were viewed as demigods and if that was the rule then all first pregnancies without question were delivered in hospital. It was then considered far too risky to “allow” home births!

Hypnosis for Birth is a term often used interchangeably with Hypnobirthing, and it does emphasise a little some of the interesting aspects of the process that we teach.

When you talk about hypnosis people instantly seem to associate the activity with television shows - you know the type where the volunteers go up on to the stage, and are then hypnotised into doing strange things they would never normally do.

"Hypnotherapy for birth" is a broad term describing the number of processes using self-hypnosis and relaxation techniques to make it easy for you as a mother to give birth to your child.  It is a term that is being used more and more and goes hand in hand with a mother's desire to give her child and herself the best possible start in this world.

Hypnobirthing is without doubt the most well know 'brand' in the hypnotherapy birth arena, but there are some similar systems including "Hypnobabies", "Natal Hypnotherapy" which are similar, though of course they naturally claim to have some differences.

Typically some of these techniques include much more than simple hypnotherapy.  Many mothers at our classes are heard to make comments like "when is the hypnosis going to begin?", because no body has started waving pendulums in front of their faces, or told them they are going to sleep!  In reality the process is really much more subtle than that, and might better be described as "relaxing while practising thinking about a certain action or process in order to make the practice of it easier later on!"  It includes a variety of techniques to help you relax and be in control of your own body and mind.

So What is the Childbirth problem that this helps?