Hypnobirthing and Child Birth Articles

Katharine writes a number of articles and has appeared in the press a number of times during the course of her work. Please read and enjoy a selection of her writings here - we hope you find them useful and entertaining. We also have guest authors and will post other interesting articles here.

Any comments, questions or feedback is always appreciated.

Katharine in The Times

Katharine had a lovely article in the Times recently. It wasn't about her Hypnobirthing work, but it was about her Kinesiology, and specifically how she managed to help an initially sceptical client to get over some problems with Back Pain. The full article is here: Katharine Graves - Disarming Back Pain in The Times.

Why I Chose Hypnobirthing

There’s a lovely article on the BBC website that you might like to read. It’s called ‘Why I Chose Hypnobirthing’ at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/2136691.stm It gives the story of a typical hypnobirthing birth.

The thing about hypnobirthing is that it is not ‘managing pain’. This dreadful phrase is on the lips of every midwife. The concept that it is unnatural for pain to exist in childbirth is something that people find it very difficult to understand because they have been programmed from a very early age to ‘know’ that birth is painful. But when you stop to think for a moment, how is it that one muscle, working in the way that it is intended to work, is painful when every other muscle in the miracle that is the human body is comfortable? It seems illogical, doesn’t it, and, when you reflect, it’s a pretty bit design fault when everything within our bodies is so complex that it’s almost magical, and it works so well.

All mammals give birth in comfort. We are mammals. And yet many women suffer extreme pain. The difference between us and other mammals is that we have the rational brain, the neocortex, and it is this part of the brain that registers fear and is the cause of pain in childbirth. In the hypnobirthing course you learn why this is so, and how to drop the programming that is the cause of all the trouble.

Fascinating? Yes. Almost unbelievable? Possibly. But it works.

Water Births

Until twenty to thirty years ago, no-one had thought of giving birth in water. Now it’s considered perfectly normal, if not desirable. Why should this be, and how has the change come about?

One of the obstetricians who has made the greatest difference to our view of birth today is Michel Odent. At his unit at Pithivier near Paris in the 1980s he propounded many aspects of natural birth that are widely used today.

Read more... [Water Births]

History of Natural Childbirth

Before they’re pregnant, many women think they’ll take ‘the soft option’ and have a caesarean. Then they become pregnant and their hormones do somersaults. They read some more about caesareans and realize that maybe they aren’t the soft option they’d thought, either for themselves or their babies, and it dawns on them that there’s only one way out, and people say it’s painful.

The other thing that happens when you’re pregnant is that people immediately feel entitled to express an opinion and give you advice. You are inundated with horror stories about other people’s labours, or other people’s wives’ labours, or other people’s sister’s labours, etc. etc. etc. Somewhere along the line somebody mentions that their sister’s cousin’s mother-in-law’s step-daughter did this thing called HypnoBirthing and she raved about it. So you go home and google it. This is how it all began.

Top 7 Tips for Having a Baby Naturally:

1. Make sure you have a healthy lifestyle and diet 6 months before you are pregnant. The health of both mother and father before your baby is even conceived is important for a happy healthy pregnancy. When asked, everyone, without exception, maintains that they eat a healthy diet, but this can vary widely. One book which is definitely worth reading is Eat Right 4 Your Type by Dr J J d’Adamo.
Read more... [Top 7 Tips for Having a Baby Naturally:]

5 Effective Uses of Herbs During Pregnancy, Labour and Birth

For thousands of years, herbs have been used to ease a woman’s path through pregnancy, labour and birth. Recently much research has been done, and herbal remedies are still effectively used in childbirth:

1. Morning Sickness

Ginger Root, Lemon Balm, Chamomile

Ginger Root can be grated into a cup and boiling water added to make a tea. Leave to infuse for 5 to 10 minutes and add honey if required. This can be taken 3 or 4 times a day.

If anxiety is part of the problem, Lemon Balm (Melissa) or Chamomile can be very effective. Both make soothing teas, or they can be mixed with ginger root as well.