http://janetfraser.id.au/blog Where birth and feminism intersect. Wed, 01 Feb 2012 10:14:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 http://janetfraser.id.au/blog/homebirth-faq/comment-page-1/#comment-6279 Claire Mon, 29 Aug 2011 07:59:06 +0000 http://janetfraser.id.au/blog/?page_id=32#comment-6279 I am not Janet (obviously)and as such these comments cannot be taken to be hers, but I saw your comment as I was browsing through and felt I had to say something. Hypno Birthing, I believe, can be a very valuable tool. There is so much uncontrolled fear present in modern day women re giving birth, and it can really help those women with a method to manage their thoughts and fears. But while managing those fears, it does not address them. As in – get to the root of why they were so fearful in the first place and de-bunk those myths. So in my experience (a former midwife), while providing some very useful tools for women to use, it ignores the importance of good research and how to navigate the medical understanding of birth. For some – hypno birthing works amazingly. For the majority of HB mothers that I have worked with, a few things happen. 1/ something occurs where they lose control of their thoughts and the underlying fears, which are still there, rise and take over and then there is nothing left in the bag of tools 2/some women do hypno birthing as their sole preparation, and when the cause of their long labour is not attributed to fear – but some mechanical reason – then it is often too late and learning “new tricks” is hard in late labour 3/some women, are not wholly prepared for how overwhelming labour can be, and thinking things will be ‘painless’ are left high and dry by the techniques they thought would save them from pain. You see, I believe, labour is supposed to be overwhelming, and pain is not necessarily a bad thing. In my experience, hypno birthing women are woefully underprepared for the realities of what labour IS. The emphasis is on avoidance, where I believe the real power lies in meeting it head on, going through it, in it, swallowed by it and then carried away . . . I am not Janet (obviously)and as such these comments cannot be taken to be hers, but I saw your comment as I was browsing through and felt I had to say something. Hypno Birthing, I believe, can be a very valuable tool. There is so much uncontrolled fear present in modern day women re giving birth, and it can really help those women with a method to manage their thoughts and fears. But while managing those fears, it does not address them. As in – get to the root of why they were so fearful in the first place and de-bunk those myths. So in my experience (a former midwife), while providing some very useful tools for women to use, it ignores the importance of good research and how to navigate the medical understanding of birth. For some – hypno birthing works amazingly. For the majority of HB mothers that I have worked with, a few things happen.
1/ something occurs where they lose control of their thoughts and the underlying fears, which are still there, rise and take over and then there is nothing left in the bag of tools
2/some women do hypno birthing as their sole preparation, and when the cause of their long labour is not attributed to fear – but some mechanical reason – then it is often too late and learning “new tricks” is hard in late labour
3/some women, are not wholly prepared for how overwhelming labour can be, and thinking things will be ‘painless’ are left high and dry by the techniques they thought would save them from pain. You see, I believe, labour is supposed to be overwhelming, and pain is not necessarily a bad thing.
In my experience, hypno birthing women are woefully underprepared for the realities of what labour IS. The emphasis is on avoidance, where I believe the real power lies in meeting it head on, going through it, in it, swallowed by it and then carried away . . .

]]> http://janetfraser.id.au/blog/homebirth-faq/comment-page-1/#comment-6224 Charlotte White Sun, 28 Aug 2011 10:40:35 +0000 http://janetfraser.id.au/blog/?page_id=32#comment-6224 Hi, I love your blog, wondered if you have much info on hypnobirthing, I found it envaluable after two traumatic births for my third I did hypnobirthing and the practise made the labour very smooth it allowed me to set aside my fears and birth took over. X Charlotte Hi,
I love your blog, wondered if you have much info on hypnobirthing, I found it envaluable after two traumatic births for my third I did hypnobirthing and the practise made the labour very smooth it allowed me to set aside my fears and birth took over.
X Charlotte

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