Hypnobirthing: A Gentle Birth by Dolly Lefever   Did you know that a safe, gentle, pain-free birth is within the grasp of most mothers and their babies? It is common knowledge that our attitudes often condition and create our experiences. This is true with labor and birth as well. If we expect birthing to be traumatic and painful, we become fearful and tense. The birthing experience then follows suit, becoming traumatic and painful to meet our expectations. But what if we rearranged our expectations and, thus, our experience of birth? Did you know that a safe, gentle, pain-free birth is within the grasp of most mothers and their babies? Like so many discoveries, the concept of fear and tension creating pain is not new, but overlooked, forgotten, and now rediscovered. In the early 1900s, Dr. Grantly Dick-Read published a book called Childbirth Without Fear. His interest in fearless childbirth followed an experience with a Cockney woman delivering at home. When he offered her pain medicine, she responded, “Why would I need pain medicine? I’m just having a baby.” The woman’s calm, natural view of birthing as a normal event differed greatly from the many hospital births the doctor attended daily. With further investigation over time, Dick-Read concluded that fear of giving birth leads to tension, which causes pain. As a midwife, I have watched many women deepen and venture inward, trusting the natural process of birth with a great sense of accomplishment. I have also watched many women struggle endless hours with pain and frustration. As these women reach a state of exhaustion, they finally give in to the process and birth shortly after “letting go.” What seems to separate the experience between the two births is the attitude of the mother towards birthing her child, most notably, the ability to let go of fear and embrace being a mother. HypnoBirthing is both a philosophy and technique that teaches women how to reach a deeply relaxed state throughout the birthing process. This state of relaxation increases blood flow to the uterine muscles and to the baby. Muscles saturated with oxygen function without pain. As any athlete knows, pain occurs in muscles when lactic acid builds and blood flow through the muscle fails to clear the build-up. With good blood flow, muscles will function for long periods of time without pain. The second component (for both athletes and birthing moms) is to set aside distractions such as fear or worry, and, instead, focus on one’s goal. Fear leads to the release of our fight or flight hormones, which cause muscle contraction and tension. Contracted muscles have intermittent blood flow, fatigue quickly, and become painful. The use of relaxation in the birthing process alleviates the fight or flight response, allowing good blood flow to the uterus and baby. Relaxation also releases natural endorphins to bring a sense of well being to mother and baby. HypnoBirthing applies the tried and true process of hypnosis to the birth experience and, specifically, to the fear and other attitudes that turn the birthing process into an ordeal. Women using HypnoBirthing techniques stay in a deeply relaxed, dreamlike state, but remain totally aware of their surroundings. The mother-to-be quietly focuses inward, breathing deeply through her abdomen, helping the surge with her breath and mind, to open the passageway that will allow her child to be born, breathing love, bringing life. This peaceful scene is what HypnoBirthing brings to the birth process. HypnoBirthing techniques can be used in any setting the parents choose for the birth of their child. These techniques can be utilized throughout the pregnancy for fear release and stress reduction. Stress reduction is something all of us can use in this too-busy life; even babies are aware of the outer world, while in the womb. In reality, all of us experience hypnosis on an almost daily basis. For example, the hypnotic state is evident when one is absorbed in a book or movie. We could describe this state as one of focused attention in which the mind is open to creative suggestions. Through HypnoBirthing, women learn to access this hypnotic state at will. This takes practice. It is best to start early in pregnancy (at 16 to 20 weeks) so that the tools can be used through the pregnancy. The birth father, companion, friend or relative is an important part of this process. In classes, both mother and birthing partner learn to do self–hypnosis. The companion is also taught how to be the guide for the mother while she is in hypnosis to help her remain in a deeply relaxed state. Guided imagery and birth affirmations are a part of this training to be used through the pregnancy. Remember: one’s attitude toward birthing and being a parent has a huge effect on the outcome. Self-care and self-determination are encouraged, so classes also address situations that require medical evaluations. This provides a forum for parents to discuss issues affecting the pregnancy. The goal of HypnoBirthing is to help parents have the safe, gentle birth that they want for their child. Dolly Lefever has shared in over 900 births during the 16 years she practiced as a Certified Nurse Midwife in Alaska. Her hypnosis practice includes HynpoBirthing classes and hypnotherapy sessions. Call 223-9927.

 

Gentle Birth Choices by Chinmayo Forro   If we can change the way babies are born, we can change the world. Can humanity survive obstetrics? So asks the world-known obstetrician, Dr. Michel Odent, in his 1999 book, The Scientification of Love. The question is food for thought, especially considering the many scientific studies conducted by the Pre and Perinatal Psychology Institute (See www.birthpsychology.com for more). These studies, many of them published in the highly regarded Lancet Magazine, demonstrate how a newborn’s first impression of the world will directly affect its ability to love. From the hormonal point of view, the birth itself and the hour following birth appear to be a series of interactions between two individuals: the mother and her baby. During the birth process, both mother and baby reach very specific hormonal balances at the same time, and all these hormones have a particular role to play during the hour following birth, before they are eliminated. Therefore, if, just after the birth, the interaction between mother and baby is disturbed, the mother will not release the desirable level of hormones. So, what triggers the appropriate release of hormones during labor? Consider this: we humans share an incredible machine with other mammals – the primal brain, or limbic system. Leave it alone during labor and its wisdom will perform the miracle of creation right before your eyes. Interfere, or “manage labor,” and we are heading for a long, intervention-filled process. This is not to say that interventions are sometimes necessary and do save lives; there is no doubt about that. However, 99% of the time, if a woman is allowed to labor undisturbed in a dark, quiet environment, she will tap into her own wisdom and power and deliver her child as nature intended her to do. How can we provide that kind of environment? Simply, anything that puts the neocortex (our civilized brain) to the side will do. Watch a cat or a dog giving birth and you will see: they choose a quiet, isolated place to make sure they will be undisturbed; they follow their instincts. Giving birth is typically a situation in which a woman has an absolute need to drop her mask. When she is provided with a quiet environment, undisturbed by conversations (which bring her right back into the neocortex), and provided stimulus that allow her primitive brain to relax into the process, for example smells (aromatherapy), touch (warm water and massage) and relaxation (a few whispered encouragements), she taps into her own wisdom and her own power, and comes out transformed by the process of birth. She is not only giving birth to a baby – she is giving birth to herself as well. Primal Health Research, established by Dr. Michel Odent, has compiled a data bank with hundreds of reference studies published in authoritative scientific and medical journals (www.birthworks.org/primalhealth). This data bank sheds some light on self-destructive behaviors and the epidemic in juvenile violent criminality, which can be regarded as a form of impaired capacity to love others. One of the studies, conducted by Adrian Raine and his team from the University of California, Los Angeles, found that the main risk factor for criminal violence at age 18 was the association of birth complications together with early separation by the mother. Dr. Bertil Jacobson, from Sweden, studied how people commit suicide, and found that suicides involving asphyxiation were closely related to asphyxiation at birth, while suicides by violent mechanical means were associated with mechanical birth traumas. His studies on drug addiction conclude that if a mother had been given certain pain killers during labor, her child was statistically at increased risk of becoming drug-addicted in adolescence. Three doses of opiates or barbiturates given to the mother at birth were associated with a five-fold increase in the risk of the child becoming addicted. Can humanity survive obstetrics? You do the math, and draw your conclusions. The good news is that women have choices, readily available everywhere, including Alaska. (Medicaid will even pay for gentle birth choices!) Truly, if we can change the way babies are born, we can change the world. Chinmayo Forro, CDM, has had a homebirth practice in Anchorage since 1994. For more information visit her website: www.childbirthwithlove.com. Chinmayo can also be reached at (907) 274-3168 or at Total Health (563-2929).

 

The Industrialization of Childbirth by Chinmayo Forro In his 2002 book, The Farmer and the Obstetrician, French obstetrician Dr. Michel analyzes interesting similarities between the industrialization of farming and the industrialization of childbirth.  Both developed side by side during the 20th century and both created a dichotomy between humanity and the laws of nature. According to a British report, epidemics such as Mad Cow and Foot & Mouth diseases developed as a consequence of intense farming practice.  Swift & Company, the Chicago meat packer, was the first to mass manufacture rendered protein and fat as animal feed just a century ago.  London based Primal Health Research, established by Dr. Michel Odent, notes intrauterine pollution by fat soluble synthetic chemicals that accumulate over the years in our adipose tissues as equally threatening, with long-term consequences, and the warning must be taken seriously because they originate from a great diversity of medical disciplines. Industrialized childbirth was well established long before World War II, at least in America. The C-section rate in 1910 was 2% in the United States.  The rate was still around 5% in 1968 (and lower in Europe).  In the l970s, hospital births had become the norm, electronic fetal monitors suddenly appeared and women were giving birth in an electronic environment.  At the end of the 20th century, epidural anesthesia was introduced and the C-section rate had reached to 25%!  In Western Europe, the average number of births per day in many hospitals was 10 or more, while in the US it was above 20.  Routine and Protocols became key words of modern obstetrics and birth became an assembly line.  In the age of industrialized childbirth, the mother has nothing to do.  She is a patient. Keep in mind that a century ago in the United States the risk of dying from pregnancy or childbirth was above 400 per 100,000.  In the 1980s the maternal mortality rates in Western Europe and America were around 8 per 100,000.  That is why it is easy to convince women that the expansion of obstetrics is a solution to provide successful birth outcomes. However, Dr. Robert McCarrison, a medical doctor who joined the Indian Medical Service in 1901 and stayed in India until 1935, summarizes it quite clearly: the health of human beings, the health of animals, the health of crops and the health and fertility of the soil are inseparable.  One of his revolutionary contributions to medicine was to shift attention from the prevention and treatment of diseases to the development of good health.  In particular, Dr. Carrison’s scientific mind led him to undertake animal experiments in order to complete what he was learning in clinical practice.  He compared the health and longevity of a large group of rats fed with faulty foods with a control group of well-fed rats. The well-fed rats flourished physically and co-existed harmoniously, compared with the others who suffered a greater incidence of disease, especially pulmonary and gastro-intestinal.  His conclusion: healthy plants create healthy animals and healthy humans. For healthy babies, a mother’s nutritional focus should thus include the pre-conception preparation of healthy foods, such as consuming organic produce that minimizes the unborn child’s exposure to PCB and other pollution by heavy metals. Did you know that in the United States in 1960, farmers sprayed approximately 300 million pounds of synthetic pesticides on crops? (Not to mention the use of antibiotics as growth promoters!) Nutrition has recently been accepted as part of the medical school curriculum, so there is hope that more change will occur. And you can help! For example, many low-income women want to buy organic foods and healthy supplements, but Women, Infants and Children (WIC) won’t provide coupons for this category.  Consumer pressure, however, can do miracles. Consider sending your comments or suggestions on this issue to WIC via email found at the following websites:  www.nwica.org and www.usda.gov/ContactUs. Holland has been a guiding light as far as childbirth is concerned.  80% of the midwives in that country are independent and 30% of births occur at home.  In rediscovering authentic midwifery, we might look at the analogy of falling asleep. Both childbirth and falling asleep require the same conditions: darkness, reduction of mind activity, total feeling of protection and silence.  As the saying goes, a good midwife blends into the walls.  The midwifery model of care focuses primarily on well being: emotional, physical and mental, with great importance to healthy nutrition. Does this have a role in the fact that the streets of Amsterdam are safer than the streets of Chicago, or why Holland has the lowest rates of abortion, imprisonment and teenage pregnancy, with low rates of drug addiction in spite of the open sale of marijuana and hashish? In Japan, a country with many midwives, huge maternity hospitals that produce thousands of birth a year are nonexistent. The average number of births a year in a maternity hospital is around 500 – half that as in the United States. Japan also has the lowest peri-natal mortality rate in the world and an epidural rate still lower than Holland. I’d like to think that we will soon enter the post-industrialized era of farming and childbirth, and by the same token, rediscover authentic midwifery. Chinmayo Forro has had a homebirth practice in Anchorage since 1994. For more information visit her website at www.childbirthwithlove.com. She can also be reached at 274-3168 or at TOTAL HEALTH 563-2929.

 

Mothershare & Healthy Babies by Chinmayo Forro    The United States has the most expensive medical system, yet the mortality rate for American babies under one year of age is higher than that of any other Western industrialized nation in the world.  If you are pregnant or considering pregnancy, the book Prenatal Parenting by Dr. Frederick Wirth is not an option: it is a must. The author, a renowned expert on neonatal and perinatal medicine, is a staff neonatologist at Reading Hospital & Medical Center, PA, and a clinical professor of pediatrics at Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, MA. In addition, he has spent 25 years caring for premature infants. In Prenatal Parenting, Dr. Wirth offers interactive exercises to help promote positive thinking and increase communication between parents and their unborn baby. He also addresses the psychological as well as spiritual aspects of pregnancy. We’ve been led to believe that the outcome of pregnancy depends solely on the quality of the mother’s medical care, thus underestimating the importance of her emotional needs. But where can a mom-to-be turn to when faced with fears, anger, stress, and how do these emotions affect her unborn child? What happens to a mother when she is negative, has low self-esteem, does not express her emotions or can’t handle stress? Believe it or not, these emotions do affect the baby, and Dr. Wirth’s vast experience on the subject offers an answer on why this is so.  Here is how it works: brain activity starts six weeks after conception. Every time the mother feels, thinks or says something, her brain sends neuropeptides into her bloodstream. These messenger molecules cross the placenta to bathe the developing brain and body of the unborn child and affect the synaptic connections in the baby’s nervous system. Neuroscientists are positive about this: later behavioral patterns build on the ones developed early in gestation. Mind boggling facts: Did you know that an adult’s brain has about 100 billion nerve cells – about the same number of stars in our galaxy, the Milky Way? Our brain, our personality and our intelligence are all products of an elaborate interplay of intrauterine nurture and genetic heritage. This complex process is already in place by 18 weeks of gestation, with 200 billion brain cells all the way to birth. An infant’s brain metabolic rate, during the first two years, is three times that of an adult! Unacceptable facts: The United States has the most expensive medical system, yet the mortality rate for American babies under one year of age is higher than that of any other Western industrialized nation in the world. Why are we ranked so poorly in global infant mortality, and why has the rate of premature births continued to climb for the past 25 years in this country, while it has decreased in other industrialized nations? Wealth is not measured in dollars alone. If it were, we should be the wealthiest nation in the world. By looking at the fear and violence invading our schools, one might wonder what kind of neuropeptides these children were fed while in utero. What kind of support and nourishment did their mother receive during pregnancy? It appears that support for pregnant women is at the bottom of the list in this country. Sure, prenatal care is available. But what kind? How about mothering the mother? I mean this not just in a clinical way, but on all levels as she carries her child and also after she has given birth. (Did you know that in Holland, a nurse aid visits the new mother at home every day for the first week, for several hours a day?) I have a lot of hope in the Mothershare groups in Alaska.  These grass root support groups, by and for women in the childbearing years, meet on a weekly basis to share. They support and nurture each other after birth.  They hold a space for mothers to feel and express their feelings, concerns, hopes and joys, as well as tears. They organize lectures on topics of interest, and trade tips on pregnancy and raising children. I’d like to suggest they take it even further. Since we know how government agencies are in the red and are more concerned about money these days, I’d encourage them to become non-profit organizations, that way they are more readily eligible for donations or even grants. What if there was a Mothershare in every neighborhood? What if a stressed out pregnant woman could just walk in and receive (free of charge) a relaxing and nurturing massage, or even (why not) a free facial or pedicure? I strongly believe that women helping women is the solution to raise healthier families in this country.  We can’t afford living in isolation anymore. It’s time for women to join hands and bring forth the healing power of mother love. For more information on joining or starting your own Mothershare group, contact: Girdwood Mothershare (Amy Stone ~ 783-0848; Caressa Brannon ~ 783-0889) “Mom’s Club” in Anchorage (Audrey Hasle ~ 344-0335). Chinmayo Forro has had a homebirth practice in Anchorage since 1994.  For more information visit her website at www.childbirthwithlove.com She can also be reached at 274-3168 or at Total Health 563-2929.