What is Hypnobirthing?

by Hervé Boisdé

Many people have heard of celebrities or acquaintances who have given birth naturally or more comfortably by using a hypnosis technique called “hypnobirthing”. Many potential clients who call me for information about it mistakenly believe the hypnotherapist will be in the delivery room with the expectant mother, putting her into a trance and having her wake up after she’s painlessly given birth to a healthy newborn.

That’s really not how it works.

First of all, hypnosis is very similar to meditation. It’s a natural altered state that allows you to be more relaxed and focused, but you’re not unconscious or asleep. And the hypnotist doesn’t need to be in the delivery room because hypnosis is something that can be taught to the client, and self-hypnosis is all the mother needs to manage pain and stress, be more comfortable, and actually have a shorter labor.

The mind and the body are connected. Medical science has confirmed this and over 80% of doctors’ visits are due to stress-related issues. Stress and anxiety are caused by fear. We can manage fear with hypnotherapy. Society and popular culture have filled expectant mothers with fear about giving birth. All of the movies and TV shows with dramatically chaotic scenes of a woman in agony and war stories from otherwise well-intentioned friends or relatives about their personal experiences with childbirth can naturally create feelings of dread in a soon-to-be mother. Hypnosis allows you to access the subconscious mind, where fears reside, and replace negative expectations about childbirth with more positive ones.

Pain is also a construct of the mind. It’s possible to do surgery without anesthesia, simply by using hypnosis. According to the Washington Post: “hypnosurgery has been used in Europe for minimally invasive procedures, such as hernia repair, lumpectomies, biopsies and some mastectomies in breast cancers for several decades. But in the United States, hospitals and doctors have shied away from the therapy.” When I was doing my hypnotherapy training, our instructor showed us a video of himself getting a crown replacement at the dentist without novocaine. He used self-hypnosis to imagine himself at the beach, comfortable and pain-free, throughout the procedure, while his wife recorded it on video. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed.

So what are the benefits of hypnobirthing?

• Natural childbirth - women can give birth without pain medication or minimize the use of drugs during or after childbirth

• A shorter and more comfortable labor - hypnobirthing practitioners report that using hypnosis can substantially shorten the amount of time the mother is in labor and deliveries are easier with fewer complications

• A deeper connection with the baby - many women can use hypnosis to form a closer bond with the unborn child which may result in a more peaceful newborn that nurses more easily

• Postpartum benefits - hypnobirthing mothers tend to feel better after giving birth, recover more quickly and have lasting mood benefits even after leaving the hospital

Is Hypnosis An Alternative To Opioids?

by Hervé Boisdé

By now most Americans have heard of the "opioid crisis". News reports regularly bombard readers with scary stats and stories about an ever increasing US dependency on prescription pain medicines and the "epidemic" abuse of those drugs. Opioids are largely blamed for rising drug-related deaths and the fact that overdoses are now the leading cause of death for Americans under 50.

While healthcare administrators and politicians struggle with the ramifications of this national problem, Americans are left wondering; what are the options for pain management?

One often-overlooked safe alternative is hypnosis.

A quick search on WebMD reveals the following: "When researchers at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York analyzed 18 studies, they found moderate to large pain-relieving effects from hypnosis, supporting its use for pain management."

Hypnosis is being increasingly used for medical procedures as an alternative for anesthesia for patients that don't handle either general or local anesthetic drugs well, or for lowering the doses of those drugs. When I was doing my hypnotherapy training for medical support hypnosis, we watched videos of surgery being done on patients who were neither unconscious or drugged, with no pain, thanks to a deep hypnotic trance. In fact the lead teacher at my school shot a video of himself getting a crown replacement at the dentist after he did self-hypnosis to make himself numb to the pain of that dental procedure. He didn't do it simply to impress his students, although it did do that as well; he is one of many people that simply can't comfortably tolerate the pain-numbing agents that dentists typically use on their patients.

I've also heard from friends and relatives in France that have tried hypnosis for other medical procedures offered in the hospitals there. One female relative explained to my mother that she had undergone cataract surgery painlessly with nothing more than hypnosis to make her feel comfortable. It appears that in Europe these approaches to pain-management are becoming more and more common. So it stands to reason the US could be following suit.

But besides surgery and a visit to the dentist, hypnosis could also be an option for managing chronic pain. With little to no side-effects, hypnotherapy is safe and can have other healthy benefits, such as a way for patients to manage stress on their own, with self-hypnosis and hypnosis recordings.

Hypnosis for Pain and/or Suffering

by Herve Boisde

Pain equals suffering and suffering equals pain. Right? Actually no. They are different and one does not necessarily need to follow the other. Pain is a physical response to a stimulus. Suffering is emotional. We need to experience pain in certain situations in order to be safe. If there was no pain response we could burn ourselves and not even notice it. Or we might not be cautious when playing rough sports. Pain is important feedback for our health. Suffering on the other hand may linger after the physical pain has died away, because, like many emotions, it can be habit forming. When we expect to suffer we tend to help those expectations come true. Suffering is the emotional pain caused by the resistance to what is. Sometimes we suffer because we don't accept our situation. Sometimes when we get sick we fall into self-pity mode and think "why me?"  And that very attitude can cause us to neglect doing the things that would help us to get better. In those situations we're not only resisting 'what is' but we're actually making things worse.

With chronic pain or injuries people tend to tense up when they are in situations that usually cause pain. For example, if someone has back pain and they are dreading having to bend down to tie their shoes, they will usually brace themselves and tense up as they are bending down. Again, this is a form of resisting the pain and making things worse. Fear of pain leads to tensing up, which then leads to a cycle of suffering. You might be thinking: "It's impossible to NOT brace yourself for pain. Pain hurts!" Yes, pain can hurt and it's perfectly normal to want to avoid it but there are techniques that work to allow your mind and body to feel more comfortable in those situations. Hypnosis can be used to condition your body to relax in those 'trigger' situations and help break the fear-of-pain cycle. The hypnosis practitioner would actually deliver a post-hypnotic suggestion to the client's subconscious mind such as:

“(Client’s name), when doing things like bending down to tie shoelaces, you are calm, confident, and relaxed. More and more now, your back muscles are flexible and comfortable when bending down and standing up. Because you expect to be comfortable, you are more comfortable when bending down and standing up.”

One of the more impressive things that happened when I was at hypnotherapy school was when the class watched a video of a patient undergoing major leg surgery (with a bone saw and everything) with no anesthesia except for hypnosis. I felt like I was in more discomfort just watching the video than the patient. A close second was a video that our instructor shot of himself getting a crown replaced at the dentist. He doesn't like Novocaine so he instead used self-hypnosis to put himself into a comfortable trance where the dentist could do the procedure and he was awake and conscious, just feeling no pain.  I'm not sure that I would attempt that but he was well practiced enough with self-hypnosis that he was completely confident that it would be successful. Of course he had also instructed the dentist that if he put his hand up it meant that he was feeling pain and would receive the Novocaine. He never raised his hand.

The conscious mind can only focus on one thought at a time so hypnotherapy can direct the client to empty his mind of the experience of pain by filling it instead with pleasurable thoughts.  A person with a broken limb might visualize that they are on a beach in Hawaii and focus instead on the warm sun on their face, the cool breeze, the relaxing sounds of the ocean, and the feel of the fine sand next to their plush beach blanket. The hypnosis practitioner could either anchor that comfortable feeling so that it can summoned up whenever the client touches their thumb and forefinger together, or teach the client self-hypnosis so they can go back to Hawaii whenever they want. They might also record a self-hypnosis CD or audio file for the client to listen to as they are falling asleep at night, with added suggestions for a comfortable night's sleep!

These are just some examples of how hypnosis can be used for pain management. But all of us have the ability to look at pain and suffering in a different way.