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Mind and Body

No more hard labor

Painless childbirth iwthout drugs? Practitioners of HypnoBirthing say it's possible
By Richard Saltus, Boston Globe

While most expectant mothers these days still choose to give birth numbed by epidural anesthesia and surrounded by high-tech equipment, a small, stubborn minority opt to forgo the drugs and "medicalization" of childbirth that they say spoils what should be a deeply positive, and natural, experience.

Some are mothers who had their first child in a hospital and want to try something different the next time - Lamaze, Bradley, or "prepared" childbirth, often with a midwife instead of an obstetrician, perhaps at home or in a birthing center.

For these women, a relatively new method is drawing a lot of attention, and hospitals are beginning to offer classes in it. It is called HypnoBirthing, and its goal is to reduce fearful expectations of labor, helping a woman achieve a state of deep relaxation in which she "breathes down" her baby (the term preferred over "pushing"). Its practitioners say it shortens labor (called "uterine surges" in HypnoBirthese) and can make it virtually pain-free.

"It's not really new; it's as old as ancient times," says its developer, Marie "Mickey" Mongan, a former college dean, counselor, and hypnotherapist who travels widely from her base in Pembroke, New Hampshire, to teach HypnoBirthing.

Mongan developed the method about 10 years ago and describes it in a book, HypnoBirthing: A Celebration of Life, available through her Web site at www.hypnobirthing.com.

"Physiologically, there is no reason for pain in birth," says Mongan. In the past, and even today in some cultures, Mongan says, childbirth has been regarded as a natural process steeped in celebration, not fear and pain. She says that when doctors and hospitals expropriated childbirth, it became viewed as a painful ordeal that required medical assistance.

Unlike other natural childbirth programs that teach a regimented, "panting" rhythm of breathing, HypnoBirthing uses slow, relaxed breathing and mental images that reportedly release fears and distance the woman from the pain but don't put her into a trance. The woman remains in control.

"This is very, very different from any of the other childbirth methods, and it goes deeper," says Nancy Wainer Cohen, a midwife and author based in Needham. Cohen is probably the most experienced HypnoBirth practitioner in Massachusetts, having assisted with about 75 births using this method. "Women are incredibly nervous" about childbirth, she says, and the self-hypnosis discipline has made "all the difference in the world" to some of her clients.

Mongan says she took some of the ideas of a 1920s British natural childbirth advocate, Grantley Dick-Reade, and formulated her system, with self-hypnosis as its basic tool. HypnoBirthing makes epidural anesthesia (an anesthetic injected into the spine that reduces pain below the waist) and other drugs unnecessary, says Mongan. She believes that drugs in labor increase the chances of caesarean sections and forceps deliveries.

Classes in the method for expectant couples began this winter at Newton-Wellesley Hospital, the first in Massachusetts to do so, according to childbirth education coordinator Becky Sarah. "One of our nurse-midwives saw it and said this is a great thing," she says. "What we're trying to do is let women have some choices" of classes that cover traditional birthing methods and several alternatives.

Women and their birthing partners are advised to begin HypnoBirthing training early, in the second trimester or even before. It's usually taught in two or more sessions totaling about 16 hours, but Mongan and other instructors recommend daily practice in relaxation and self-hypnosis.

Dr. Paul Gaither, an obstetrician at Women's Health Associates in Wellesley, knows about HypnoBirthing but hasn't had personal experience with it. Coping with pain by distraction or mental suggestion is valuable, he says, and women do better when they feel "safe, not threatened, and in control." But Gaither, who's been delivering babies for 22 years, says, "To say there's no pain in childbirth - I disagree with that."

Gina Lachapelle, 35, of Ashland had her first child with HypnoBirthing at St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Brighton in late January, and she calls the experience "fabulous." She says that "as soon as actual labor began, I started getting into the visualizations" - mental images of calmness and positive emotions. "There was no pain," she says. "There was pressure and there were intense moments" but nothing she would describe as pain. That's one of HypnoBirthing's main tenets - that what some call pain can be experienced differently by using less scary language.

Lachapelle says that nurses in the labor room thought that she had had an epidural because she was so calm - but she hadn't. Indeed, those who have seen Mongan's videos of women in HypnoBirthing remark on how quiet and relaxed they are.

People vary in their susceptibility to hypnosis, but HypnoBirthing doesn't involve going into a trance. It's better described as self-induced deep relaxation, and Mongan insists that the birth method can be taught successfully to anyone. Still, not all midwives view HypnoBirthing as a one-size-fits-all technique.

B.J. Mackinnon, a longtime midwife in Brimfield, says she doesn't call what she does HypnoBirthing but does use relaxation techniques frequently. She says that midwives "will try to put a lot of different things into their little satchel of tools."

"It doesn't matter what you call it," Mackinnon believes. "We have to be able to picture ourselves in labor as a powerful woman who can do it, without fear and anxiety."


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