The pain of labour -- is it less painful if you don't panic / can you re-train your mind??

[electra]

I'm reading 'Childbirth Without Fear' which discusses the fear / tension / pain issue and the theory that the reason childbirth hurts so much is because if we're fearful or apprehensive the muscles that work in labour are not able to work together properly so that painful spasms result.

I am wondering what your experiences are? Is it all to do with the situation you are in and how you feel about it mentally? Could we make it less painful by relaxing and not being fearful of what our bodies are doing?

I know that of my two labours the second was very bearable until I went into transition and panicked. The first time, I could not believe that my body could actually do it!

I have symphysis pubis dysfunction and I have found that the visualisation techniques that I learnt on my natal hypnotheraphy course really useful.

I can sit on my birthing ball, imagine myself sitting on a beautiful beach and I find the pain of SPD bothers me less.

Yesterday I had an anti D injection and I did not feel it. It will be interesting to know how these visualisation techniques work for more extreme pain like labour.

No one is saying that pain isn't real, but there are strageries for coping with pain that don't involve drugs. However pain is in the brain and you can learn to control it with practice. People have undergone full blown operations with nothing more than self hypnosis.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-560534/The-hypnotist-snubbed-anaesthetic-sent-trance-painful-bone

Well, pain isn't just in the brain - the signals triggered at the pain sites go to the brain - the pain is a physical phenomenon. These signals can be reduced by action from neurons coming from the brain, but it doesn't mean that pain is just in the brain, iyswim.

"No one is saying that pain isn't real" - my suspicion is that that's what Childbirth without Fear chap is trying to say.

Pain is processed by the brain. If the brain blocks signals from the pain sites then you will not feel the pain.

For example in life threatening situations your brain does not think about pain as it has to concentrate on other matters. Ie. fight or flight.

For example imagine a mother who substains serious burns to rescue her baby from death. She will be agony afterwards but during the event she will not think about her personal pain as she is concentrating on saving the life of her baby.

I think you are absolutely right! Probably it is also that effect which helps you bond with the baby, I guess.

Have a look at this video

www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8eNxqedO-c

I am not quite as sure I could be as brave as these volenteers. They must have had quite a lot of practice.

The natal hypnotheraphy course involved being given a chinese burn while under self hypnosis. I had the chinese burn done to me and seriously I did not feel it during the hypnosis, although I had quite a red mark on my arm afterwards. I have no idea if the hypnobirthing course involves anything similar.

I think an advantage of a course is that you see the pain relief of hypnosis with your own eyes.

Thanks for posting that Reallytired - interesting certainly!

"bodily functions don't usually hurt, so there is no reason why childbirth should, except that we have been conditioned to fear it"

That doesn't even make sense

Some bodily functions don't hurt, others do. Ever heard of period pains? Mine were kind of excruciating in my teens.

Even if childbirth were the one and only bodily function that hurt, there could be a hundred other reasons why it hurts - like, say, because it stretches tissues well beyond levels they have previously been to.

Hypnobirthing works because hypnosis (or self-hypnosis) works in blocking pain from the mind, not because fear was the only reason childbirth was painful in the first place.

People self-hypnotise and then walk on burning coal. Is it because we fear it that normally walking on burning stuff would be rather painful?

Yes, Cote - I agree about period pains. I thought of that one myself. I remember a girl at school being hospitalised because hers were so bad. I find that since I had children they hardly hurt at all though....so maybe it is down to tissue stretching in ways they haven't before. If you do a hypnobirthing course are you actually hypnotised?

If you do a hypnobirthing course, or even habitually listen to hb cds, you learn to self-hypnotise.

It works for many different kinds of pain, apparently. Migraine or chronic pain for example.

I don't know about hypnobirthing, but the natal hypnotheraphy course I did was self hypnosis. I was not under anyone's power and mentally in full control.

I am still waiting to see if it works for proper childbirth, although I did use the hypnosis techniques when getting anti D injections done by an inexperienced student midwife. The first injection left an awful bruise, yet I felt no pain.

Also its impossible to hypnotise anyone who does not want to be hypnotised. Its nothing like the stage entertainment shows done by Paul McKenna. It is more like a series of distraction techniques. If your brain thinks about pain of any sort then it will hurt more.

In many ways I think medical hypnosis has more in common with deep mediation than with stage hypnosis shows.

As far as the walking on coals that is something completely different and nothing to do with hypnosis. See this for how fire walking works

Is there a difference between hypnobirthing and natal hypnotherapy?

It is a bit of a funny assertion that red hot coal doesn't transfer much heat , as anyone who has ever sat across from a fireplace with a dying fire knows.

That link is full of funny statements, like "The coals start out as pieces of wood. But because they've been burning for a while before the stunt, the coals have burned down to nearly pure carbon, like charcoal." Err... coal isn't wood. It's mined, not harvested. Coal is pretty much entirely carbon. Not surprisingly, since it is a fossil fuel.

I think they are different brands - both self-hypnosis techniques but with some slight differences (not sure what, sorry).

When I was having DC4 I was keen to avoid panicking, which I had done to lesser and greater extents with my other labours. I did self-hypnosis and it was the only labour in which I didn't panic. It gave me very specific techniques to use that, with practice, became instinctive. Rather than just a vague idea of relaxing and not panicking (which I'd before).

My 1st birth was fine - it hurt but manageable - no drugs or tears or anything.

2nd birth was pain free

My theory is that if you really get yourself fully informed on labour and what is happening so that you can make sense of the different sensations, then that will help. I also learnt from my 1st birth that if I was standing or sitting or lying down it was quite bad in my low back so I tried sitting on a gym ball to take the weight off me and then I sat and looked out of the window and focused on one thing every time (which happened to be a tree) and that I was in the tree in the sunshine like a bird would be etc. (but it could be whatever you wanted).

I just felt braxtons and finally thought that I might be nearly there because I suddenly became very sweaty. I let the MW examine me then and I was 10cms. If I got up to walk around it hurt or if I lost concentration or focus on the tree, it hurt. So - yes there can be a certain mind over matter. Incidently, birth no.2 - it was no drugs or tears or grazes or anything. 2 hours active labour and DSs head was at the top of the scale and he weighed 9lbs 4oz.

I was on the inducing drip and my contractions hurt loads but I was managing them by breathing - however, it just got too much as they were coming one after the other and I was 18 hours in by then, I got an epidural. Just as well as I ended up having a c-section.

When I think about it, I remember being in pain but can't remember the actual physical pain iyswim.

I agree about the sensations - I felt frightened by the transition stage last time and a vibrating feeling I had in my pelvis. But it only hurt badly when I tensed up and tried to resist it all. I think the environment you're in does alter how you feel the sensations. When I had dd2, I very quickly felt despondent when a midwife came into the room and said 'Miserable, aren't they - these contractions?' She was trying to be kind but it didn't help. All these things are why I believe that I'm better at home!

I've never studied any hypnobirthing but just want to reassure Electra that relaxing and going with the flow in labour is possible and helpful. After a nasty induction experience with DC1 where I was bullied into having an epidural and left in 5 weeks pain after the birth, I have had 2 children naturally (one another induction). Both times the midwife has praised me for going totally floppy and relaxing all my muscles during contractions. I also never make any noise during contractions, because I feel more tensed if I do. My mother gave me this tip (she's had 5 of us naturally with no tears or cuts). I found gas and air helped me concentrate on slow breathing and relaxing. When I felt any part of me tense, I felt the pain increase. I did not experience pain free deliveries, but very much enjoyed them, and the pain was positive. I am pg with DC4...

Also want to mention my sister, an aid worker in a developing country. She was unable to come home to have her baby, and ended up giving birth with DC1 in a midwife clinic with no pain relief on offer, not g&a or anything. If she couldn't cope, she knew the other option was a big hospital where epidurals were done on everyone routinely, and she wasn't sure how well qualified the anaesthetists were to be performing them... She experienced a pain free birth - apart from the pushing which "hurt a little bit". She's studied no hypnobirthing - hadn't even done an nct-type class or read a childbirth book! Party, I think she felt very relaxed, and her DH was very supportive, but also she thinks it was a random chance thing - not everything can be explained. She could have spent 9 months freaking out about her birth choices (I would have been!) but staying relaxed is a decision, and she managed it.

So try to relax!

I thought I was pretty prepared for my first birth, but when it came down to it I panicked and forgot everything I had read and unfortunately had a dreadful midwife who did nothing to help (quite literally, she was barely in the room!). It ended up that although I was fully dilated my contractions stopped and I had to transfer from the midwife unit to hospital to get them started again with a drip.

So, to answer the question - I don't know that it would have been any less painful but I am convinced that if I had been able to relax and stop panicking I would have managed to deliver DD without the intervention that was needed in the end. A midwife who I have since become friendly with has said the same - in her experience if women become very panicked labour can just stop