Hypnobirthing Article

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News: Hypnosis in Childbirth

 

Published Sunday, July 2, 2000, in the Miami Herald

 

Special delivery: Hypnosis may ease childbirth pains

Obstetrician-hypnotist and institute among growing number using method

BY SHARI RUDAVSKY

srudavsky

 

Forget epidurals, Demerol and Lamaze.

 

Miguel A. Gonzalez, a Broward General Medical Center obstetrician, now offers

his patients an alternative way to tough up through childbirth: hypnosis. He

belongs to a small but growing number of childbirth professionals embracing

the technique to help patients experience relatively pain-free, completely

natural births.

 

Since it was founded in 1989, the Hypnobirthing Institute, based in Epsom,

N.H., has trained more than 400 nurse-midwives, labor and birthing nurses,

and hypnotherapists. The institute's graduates, based around the country,

teach women how to hypnotize themselves to manage their labor.

 

A master of hypnotherapy and fully accredited physician, Dr. Gonzalez

describes his technique as tapping into the woman's subconscious mind to

persuade her to relax and ride through the contractions rather than writhe in

agony.

 

``The whole idea is to transform the sensation of pain so that she feels

something but she doesn't recognize it as pain,'' said Gonzalez, who started

offering the method to his patients a few months ago. ``The word `pain' is

out of my vocabulary. That's very important because pain is a very suggestive

type of condition. You can block it out.''

 

Weeks before giving birth, Jessica Gomez, of North Lauderdale, planned to

have hypnosis. Then her first serious contractions set in. Her boyfriend

offered to induce hypnosis but Gomez wanted none of it.

 

``The pain was so strong,'' said Gomez, 23. ``I was like, `Forget about the

hypnotism. Just give me something.' ''

 

 

`MORE LIKE DISCOMFORT'

 

About two hours after Gomez arrived at the hospital, Gonzalez persuaded her

to try to close her eyes and relax, as he had taught her. The pain receded

instantly like noise muting when you dunk your head under water.

 

``Under the hypnosis you still feel the pain, but it's more like

discomfort. "

 

Fifteen minutes later out came all six pounds, 10 ounces of Jose Marcus

Santiago.

 

Hypnosis in the birthing room is not new. In the 1920s British obstetrician

Grantly Dick-Read touted the notion. Hypnosis enjoyed flickers of popularity

but never became a mainstream practice. Twenty-five years ago when Gonzalez

first started practicing, he delivered his own children while his wife was

under hypnosis.

 

Marie Mongan, who founded the Hypnobirthing Institute, delivered her four

now-grown children, using the method.

 

The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists does not have a

position on hypnosis, and the technique has not secured a place in the labor

and delivery room.

 

``The general medical profession has never accepted hypnosis in any global

kind of way. It's like an offshoot somewhere,'' said Dr. Raphael S. Good, a

professor of psychiatry and obstetrics-gynecology at the University of Miami

School of Medicine.

 

Recently, however, the medical profession has started paying more attention

to hypnosis, not just for childbirth but to control pain during surgery.

 

 

`VALID AND VIABLE'

 

``Hypnosis is a very valid and viable tool,'' said Dr. Charles Mutter, a

psychiatrist at the UM School of Medicine and past president of the American

Society of Clinical Hypnosis. ``Pain is predicated by fear because pain is a

subjective complaint. No area in the brain measures pain or the degree of it.

It's how you're taught from childhood.''

 

In the sessions, which start about a month before a woman is due, Gonzalez

tries to recondition the way the mother-to-be approaches childbirth.

 

``Labor pains don't mean anything to you. You're going to have uterine

contractions that are rhythmic and when they're rhythmic, it's not labor,

it's the childbirth process,'' he says soothingly.

 

Relax your pelvis during contractions. Do not be afraid, be confident.

 

The Hypnobirthing Institute sends a similar message that childbirth does not

need to be painful. ``What creates pain is the fear that causes the muscles

to tense and constrict rather than to open,'' Mongan said. ``We teach mothers

to bring themselves into a really profound state of relaxation. They just

turn birthing over to their bodies.''

 

During Gonzalez's prebirth sessions, he tests his persuasive powers, pricking

the woman's arm or belly with a needle or giving her a hard pinch after

telling her she will not feel a thing. To demonstrate, he called in his very

pregnant secretary Marlene Orozco, due to deliver her baby girl Bianca any

day.

 

COMMUNING

 

The 28-year-old woman closes her eyes and quickly follows his direction to

``go to that special place'' and commune with her subconscious. Gonzalez

brushes his hand against her forearm, ``anaesthetizing'' it with his touch.

He then plunges a sterilized needle into her arm, drawing a bead of blood.

Orozco does not flinch. Her face remains placid.

 

Such preparation and support alone go far toward helping Orozco and other

women when her contractions begin, said UM's Good, who never used hypnosis,

in part because he did not feel he would be a good hypnotist.

 

``It's important to note that being prepared, even without hypnosis, makes a

major difference with the perception of pain and that's not limited to labor

pain. If you have a supporting environment, you can reduce pain,'' he said.

``Pain is a complicated story.''

 

Flora Boatner of Pompano Beach had hoped to avoid that. Pregnant for the

first time at 39, she heard over and over again from people how hard labor

would be for her -- and she feared needles. But she was delighted when she

saw that her obstetrician had a hypnosis certificate hanging in his office.

 

Two months after giving birth to Cameren Alysse on April 26, Boatner

remembers feeling pain only once during two hours of hard labor.

 

 

`ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL'

 

``It was wonderful, absolutely wonderful. I was completely coherent. I

remember everything that happened,'' she said. So coherent, in fact, that in

between contractions she talked on the phone with her stock broker. The pain

blocking techniques worked so well that Gonzalez was able to perform an

episiotomy on her without anesthesia.

 

The only negative side effect of the experience: Boatner's afraid to touch

her forefinger and thumb together -- the cue Gonzalez used to induce hypnosis

-- for fear she will inadvertently place herself under hypnosis once more.

 

 

 

 

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