Hypnobirthing and Child Birth Articles

Over the last century, a revolution has taken place in childbirth, and the pendulum is swinging towards natural birth, with the back-up of medical expertise where needed, but we are beginning to realize that that need is less than previously thought.

A hundred and fifty to two hundred years ago, there was little if any help for women in childbirth. Over the centuries such herbal knowledge that there was had been withheld from women in labour and, even when anaesthetics were discovered, they were used in surgical operations but not to relieve pain in labour.

There was a time when every woman gave birth at home. Then there was a time when almost every woman gave birth in hospital. Now the trend towards home births is growing again. Why?

Women who decide to have their babies at home are often greeted with horror and disbelief and the question, ‘What if something goes wrong?’ Well, the statistics show that home birth is actually safer then hospital birth. In the paper by Beverley Lawrence Beech entitled Obstetric Care – Benefits and Hazards and available from AIMS (The Association for Improvements in the Maternity Services) it says: ‘Analysis of the infant mortality statistics in the UK revealed that, had women stayed at home at the same levels as they did in the 1950s, our infant mortality rates would be four points lower than they are now.’ Definitely food for thought.