Tranceforming Childbirth by Tina Taylor

Whilst studying NLP and Hypnosis one of the things that interested me was the minds ability to do amazing things, and I was drawn to the minds ability to control pain. This question brought my attention to childbirth, the fact that there are women in the world today that give birth within a few hours and then return to work with their babies swaddled to them. These women don’t need hospitalisation nor drugs and I began to question what makes birth easy for some women and difficult for others?

I began to study these phenomena.

My studies led me to a scientist, Dr Candice Pert, who discovered that we all have opiate receptors in our brain. That there is an area of your brain that ensures a chemical called endorphin, the body’s own natural opiate, is sent around the body where and when needed. This is your body’s own pain control mechanism. In fact we are all carrying our own chemistry set around inside of us and are quite capable of producing all the chemicals needed to run our bodies the way it was designed to run.

Then a few years ago I heard about the work of an English doctor Grantly Dick Read who studied childbirth and how women had easy births. His books make very interesting reading. He grow up in a rural area of England at the beginning of the 20th Century and having seen animal husbandry at work could not understand why humans had such a problem giving birth. He spent many years investigating this, it is his theories and findings that contributed to my childbirth classes.

Many childbirth classes, particularly those run by local authorities in the UK have evolved into an information group. Informing you of the medical choices that you have, the drugs available to you, they will explain what happens if something goes wrong and also give you information on the services available to you locally after the birth. Some of these courses suggest that pain is inevitable, a part of your destiny, the price you pay for having a baby.

For centuries Yogi’s in the east and practitioners of other disciplines have been able, through breathing techniques, to alter their state and perception of physical awareness. They are able to access an area with their mind and reset their awareness threshold. Their expectations and beliefs managing to eliminate discomfort.

How can the mind do this?

The breathing techniques used by Yogi’s, and women in labour, are extremely powerful. The changes in the rate and depth of breath producing changes in the chemicals released from the brain; many of these chemicals are endorphins and you soon achieve a change of state, of physical awareness the state known as trance.

In the 19th Century a doctor, James Esdaille became an advocate of hypnosis, although at that time it was known as mesmerism. He held a medical appointment in India and successfully conducted over 300 major surgical operations using mesmerism (hypnosis). At that time hypnosis was the first pain control available for operations, if we discount alcohol.

When my daughter had my grandson, Joshua, her labour lasted around 6 hours, she birthed him at home and the only drugs involved were those she created herself, endorphins and serotonin. The midwives were amazed, and yet this is something that our bodies are designed to do.

Following on from Dr Richard Bandler who sought out people who got over their fears and phobias to find out how - I decided to speak to women who have experienced a pain free labour and they all tell me a similar story...................

Tina Taylor is a Master Trainer of NLP and Hypnotherapist who runs Childbirth Classes in Harley Street and her clinic in Surrey. Her Childbirth CDs are available through www.amazon.co.uk as well as from this site. Tina also an hypnosis and NLP practice group in London see www.nlpmasterclass.co.uk