FERTILITY ISSUES
Today fertility is a huge issue; women come to a stage in their lives where they decide its time to have a child; then find out that the one thing that for so many years they tried to prevent is much more difficult than anticipated. Women from all walks of life from the rich and famous to those who have sacrificed a lot to pay for treatment.
In the pursuit of a baby, some women spend their time living with anxiety, creating so much stress as they wait each month to see if its happened yet. Whilst waiting some turn to alcohol. Many not realising that alcohol can actually lower fertility levels as it’s a hormone disruptor.
Others create a strict regime of diet, exercise, no alcohol and lots of supplements. Creating a different kind of stress, as they regiment their lives. Insisting on having sex on baby days, on the days they are ovulating, some even forgetting about their loved ones. Lost in project baby, peeing on sticks and insisting husbands and partners come home as its time.
You may be consciously saying yes to having a baby and yet fail to get pregnant, this may be due to your mind saying no deep down. Emotions can affect the delicately balanced hormonal system, which in turn controls ovulation, spermatogenesis and pregnancy.
To develop the perspective needed to conceive you need to view yourself as a fertile person. Many have been conditioned to looking outside ourselves for healing rather than how we can help ourselves. Drugs and surgery may be necessary but an over reliance on them has led us to stop trusting the wisdom of our bodies, our instincts. Using all the resources available to you to achieve you goal.
Instead of only having sex on baby days, have sex throughout the month. Regular sex is thought to create fresher sperm with fewer abnormalities. I think that ovulation sticks are a mixed blessing; I’ve seen people’s sex lives radically change as they only have sex a couple of days a month. So forget about peeing on sticks and make love whenever and as often as you desire to.
Positivity makes all the difference, we’re just beginning to understand the power of the mind. The work Bruce Lipton is doing working with how our beliefs can change our DNA will I am sure become more readily known and used in the future. Use positive visualisation, stop worrying about becoming pregnant and focus; visualise your eggs being fertilised and developing inside you into a wonderful healthy baby
Last year one of my clients conceived at age 45. She was refused IVF due to the fact that her FSH levels were too high; and there were other health issues whereby they said she would never conceive naturally. She never gave up believing in herself and the fact that she would be a mum one day. She is today the mum of a very health normal baby girl.
www.tina-taylor.com
Thursday, 6 September 2012
Tuesday, 17 January 2012
Stop Worrying or You'll Make Yourself Ill
Whilst I’ve been posting links regarding PNI (Psychoneuroimmunology) lots of people have been asking about it, mainly asking me what is, whilst some are wondering where it came from.
The name was thought up by Dr. Robert Ader, an experimental psychologist who conducted some of the original experiments in the field he named himself, psychoneuroimmunology.
His research begun in the 1970s and became the foundation for studies that have since mapped out the communications network among immune cells, hormones and neurotransmitters. He introduced a field of study that proved the science behind a notion that was once considered balmy:
that meditation helps reduce arterial plaque;
social bonds improve cancer survival;
people under stress catch more colds; and
that placebos work not only on the human mind but also human cells.
At the core of Dr. Ader’s research was an insight that was already obvious to any grandmother who had ever said, “Stop worrying or you’ll make yourself ill.” He managed to demonstrate scientifically that stress worsens illness and can trigger it; and that reducing stress is essential to good health.
That idea, now widely accepted among the medical profession, contradicted the previous principle of biochemistry, which said that the immune system was autonomous. In fact in 1985, the idea of a connection between the brain and the immune system was dismissed in an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine as “folklore.”
And today there is not a physician in the country who does not accept the science Bob Ader set in motion, PNI - the study of how the nervous system affects the endocrine system which in turn affects the body.
PNI Two Day Course at Kingston upon Thames, London
www.aventesi.com for details
The name was thought up by Dr. Robert Ader, an experimental psychologist who conducted some of the original experiments in the field he named himself, psychoneuroimmunology.
His research begun in the 1970s and became the foundation for studies that have since mapped out the communications network among immune cells, hormones and neurotransmitters. He introduced a field of study that proved the science behind a notion that was once considered balmy:
that meditation helps reduce arterial plaque;
social bonds improve cancer survival;
people under stress catch more colds; and
that placebos work not only on the human mind but also human cells.
At the core of Dr. Ader’s research was an insight that was already obvious to any grandmother who had ever said, “Stop worrying or you’ll make yourself ill.” He managed to demonstrate scientifically that stress worsens illness and can trigger it; and that reducing stress is essential to good health.
That idea, now widely accepted among the medical profession, contradicted the previous principle of biochemistry, which said that the immune system was autonomous. In fact in 1985, the idea of a connection between the brain and the immune system was dismissed in an editorial in The New England Journal of Medicine as “folklore.”
And today there is not a physician in the country who does not accept the science Bob Ader set in motion, PNI - the study of how the nervous system affects the endocrine system which in turn affects the body.
PNI Two Day Course at Kingston upon Thames, London
www.aventesi.com for details
Monday, 9 January 2012
Fears and Anxieties
Fear is part of our survival instinct, it sets our body and mind in motion in preparation for a perceived threat. Its hard wired into the sub conscious and is one of our oldest emotions; sometimes generated without any conscious awareness. We feel uneasy, yet don't know why. It makes us jump when something moves on the ground or touches us, makes us blink when something is coming towards our eyes. We respond due to sensory input driving us into action.
Fear makes you focus. There’s a moment of awareness, with our unconscious telling us something isn't right, and as we sense "something" we freeze. This freezing may stop predators from seeing us it also gives us a chance to evaluate the situation and if it is OK we continue - returning to what we were doing.
When in danger, the full flight mode signal is sent from the mind to the body; muscles become stronger and the heart beats faster, pupils dilate so we can see better as we think about our escape.
Then there is the moment of panic, when some people are overwhelmed with feelings with no direction or purpose, scared without knowing what to do or where to go. Heart beating faster, muscles stronger but unable to use our mind to plan a course of action.
Fear is all about chemicals, epinephrine and norepinephrine; epinephrine (adrenaline) is secreted by the adrenal glands. These chemicals are released in moments of fear to prepare us for the fight or flight response; and changes occur to improve chances of survival. As well as increased strength an increase in oxygen increases sensory acuity whilst non-survival process like digestion are put on hold.
Fears and phobias are extreme anxieties. As we go through life we learn a great many things by experience, things we are not even aware of. An unconscious learning, fear is one of these experiences and is a demonstration of how quickly we learn an automatic response.
From one experience the mind can generalise and attach fear. Then the flight or fight response kicks in. Your imagination is far more powerful than conscious will and the area of the brain that you use to imagine something is the same area that is used when experiencing things. Which is why your nervous system can’t tell the difference between a real or vividly imagined experience.
For an event to be coded as traumatic its said that four conditions need to be met. First it needs to be a emotional event; second, have a meaning for the individual; third, the chemicals need to be in place and fourth the experience is perceived as inescapable. If these are present it is possible that the brain will categorise the event as traumatic.
And yet there could be 2 people at the same event and one will be traumatised whilst the other will not. How can this happen?
Life is full of traumatic moments, in order for an event to be traumatising it must produce an emotional response. Meaning is attached to the event, and whereby one person may code something as traumatic another may not. A good example of this is those who are afraid of riding on roller coasters, they produce the four conditions in their mind and they know its scary and dangerous; whereas someone who loves roller coasters will have all the same conditions in place yet they love the thrill of the ride.
When afraid we panic, a panic attack is a sudden attack of terror usually accompanied by a pounding heart, feeling week, faint or dizzy. During these attacks people may also feel flushed or cold possibly becoming short of breath; some people experience chest pain and feel they are going to die.
People have looked for ways in which to help people overcome their fears and phobias for many many years. We have tried many different approaches from flooding (a rather extreme way of feeling the fear and doing it any way), desensitisation, Hypnosis, NLP, CBT, EMDR, TFT (or EFT a version of TFT) to name but a few.
The majority of my clients need help overcoming fears and anxieties, from the OCD who has numerous rituals to help them cope with their fears, to the bulimic who uses food to cope with theirs, to the business man who needs help making a presentation and the people who just want to be able to get on a plane. Fear seems to be present in a lot of peoples lives.
Steve Crabb and I have for many years successfully helped people overcome fears, phobias and anxieties. On February 25 & 26 at Kingston University we will be sharing our strategies with you.
Check out www.aventesi.com or call Sarah on 02085403366 for more details or to book your place.
Fear makes you focus. There’s a moment of awareness, with our unconscious telling us something isn't right, and as we sense "something" we freeze. This freezing may stop predators from seeing us it also gives us a chance to evaluate the situation and if it is OK we continue - returning to what we were doing.
When in danger, the full flight mode signal is sent from the mind to the body; muscles become stronger and the heart beats faster, pupils dilate so we can see better as we think about our escape.
Then there is the moment of panic, when some people are overwhelmed with feelings with no direction or purpose, scared without knowing what to do or where to go. Heart beating faster, muscles stronger but unable to use our mind to plan a course of action.
Fear is all about chemicals, epinephrine and norepinephrine; epinephrine (adrenaline) is secreted by the adrenal glands. These chemicals are released in moments of fear to prepare us for the fight or flight response; and changes occur to improve chances of survival. As well as increased strength an increase in oxygen increases sensory acuity whilst non-survival process like digestion are put on hold.
Fears and phobias are extreme anxieties. As we go through life we learn a great many things by experience, things we are not even aware of. An unconscious learning, fear is one of these experiences and is a demonstration of how quickly we learn an automatic response.
From one experience the mind can generalise and attach fear. Then the flight or fight response kicks in. Your imagination is far more powerful than conscious will and the area of the brain that you use to imagine something is the same area that is used when experiencing things. Which is why your nervous system can’t tell the difference between a real or vividly imagined experience.
For an event to be coded as traumatic its said that four conditions need to be met. First it needs to be a emotional event; second, have a meaning for the individual; third, the chemicals need to be in place and fourth the experience is perceived as inescapable. If these are present it is possible that the brain will categorise the event as traumatic.
And yet there could be 2 people at the same event and one will be traumatised whilst the other will not. How can this happen?
Life is full of traumatic moments, in order for an event to be traumatising it must produce an emotional response. Meaning is attached to the event, and whereby one person may code something as traumatic another may not. A good example of this is those who are afraid of riding on roller coasters, they produce the four conditions in their mind and they know its scary and dangerous; whereas someone who loves roller coasters will have all the same conditions in place yet they love the thrill of the ride.
When afraid we panic, a panic attack is a sudden attack of terror usually accompanied by a pounding heart, feeling week, faint or dizzy. During these attacks people may also feel flushed or cold possibly becoming short of breath; some people experience chest pain and feel they are going to die.
People have looked for ways in which to help people overcome their fears and phobias for many many years. We have tried many different approaches from flooding (a rather extreme way of feeling the fear and doing it any way), desensitisation, Hypnosis, NLP, CBT, EMDR, TFT (or EFT a version of TFT) to name but a few.
The majority of my clients need help overcoming fears and anxieties, from the OCD who has numerous rituals to help them cope with their fears, to the bulimic who uses food to cope with theirs, to the business man who needs help making a presentation and the people who just want to be able to get on a plane. Fear seems to be present in a lot of peoples lives.
Steve Crabb and I have for many years successfully helped people overcome fears, phobias and anxieties. On February 25 & 26 at Kingston University we will be sharing our strategies with you.
Check out www.aventesi.com or call Sarah on 02085403366 for more details or to book your place.
Thursday, 15 December 2011
Tis the Season
When our thoughts turn to babies, well one particular baby who was born over 2000 years ago in a stable without any medical aid or assistance. It was hearing about things like this that originally had me thinking about the process of childbirth. When I was expecting my own child I refused to believe that something that we were designed to do should be as painful as some would like me to believe. What made human women different from the other female inhabitants of this world.
Most of the research for my book was completed nearly 30 years ago as I began to look at the history of childbirth. This journey took me way back in history to a time before the birth of Jesus where Greek Scholars such as Aristotle wrote about the miracle of birth and talked about using the power of the mind. Interestingly these scholars made no mention of pain. Both the Ancient Greeks and the Romans wrote about relaxed births.
Studies of documents written by the Greek scholars Hippocrates and Aristotle give no indication of any discomfort in childbirth, unless there was a problem. At that time if women needed assistance whilst in labour they were brought into a relaxed state, sometimes using herbs and potions, so that the problem could be dealt with. These ancient scholars believed that whilst women were giving birth their feelings should be accommodated and that mum needed people around to attend to her. Hippocrates was the first person to run childbirth classes for midwives. Both Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote that nature is the best physician and that it (nature) should be allowed to function without any interference. Aristotle wrote of a mind body connection during childbirth and emphasised the importance of a deep relaxed state.
Another Grecian scholar, Soranus, began putting the writings of Hippocrates and Aristotle into book form. His writing earned him the reputation of being the greatest obstetrical authority of the time. He stressed the importance of listening to the needs of the mother and suggested using the power of the mind to achieve the relaxed state needed for an easy birth.
So following in these auspicious footsteps my childbirth classes were born, teaching women what I believe is the way that we were intended to have our children. Naturally, listening to our bodies just as our ancestors did and probably just what a women called Mary did oh so long ago.
Seasons Greetings to one and all
www.tina-taylor.com
Tina’s book Painless Childbirth is available on Kindle and from Amazon
Most of the research for my book was completed nearly 30 years ago as I began to look at the history of childbirth. This journey took me way back in history to a time before the birth of Jesus where Greek Scholars such as Aristotle wrote about the miracle of birth and talked about using the power of the mind. Interestingly these scholars made no mention of pain. Both the Ancient Greeks and the Romans wrote about relaxed births.
Studies of documents written by the Greek scholars Hippocrates and Aristotle give no indication of any discomfort in childbirth, unless there was a problem. At that time if women needed assistance whilst in labour they were brought into a relaxed state, sometimes using herbs and potions, so that the problem could be dealt with. These ancient scholars believed that whilst women were giving birth their feelings should be accommodated and that mum needed people around to attend to her. Hippocrates was the first person to run childbirth classes for midwives. Both Hippocrates and Aristotle wrote that nature is the best physician and that it (nature) should be allowed to function without any interference. Aristotle wrote of a mind body connection during childbirth and emphasised the importance of a deep relaxed state.
Another Grecian scholar, Soranus, began putting the writings of Hippocrates and Aristotle into book form. His writing earned him the reputation of being the greatest obstetrical authority of the time. He stressed the importance of listening to the needs of the mother and suggested using the power of the mind to achieve the relaxed state needed for an easy birth.
So following in these auspicious footsteps my childbirth classes were born, teaching women what I believe is the way that we were intended to have our children. Naturally, listening to our bodies just as our ancestors did and probably just what a women called Mary did oh so long ago.
Seasons Greetings to one and all
www.tina-taylor.com
Tina’s book Painless Childbirth is available on Kindle and from Amazon
Saturday, 2 July 2011
Remember to inoculate ……
Just seen client I worked with about a month ago. A young man of 22 who graduated last year with a first and begun to feel anxious about his future. So much so that he stopped going out and socializing, stopped seeing his friends, in fact all he wanted to do was to stay with his parents as that was the only place he felt safe. This is a tall (6 foot 2), good looking young man who felt that the world was a too scarey place.
After a couple of meetings he was able to go out, and begun to look for work; we worked on his CV and prepared for interviews and he was excited about the future.
Then at a visit with his doctor (a family friend) he talked about his meetings with me and how I had helped him – his doctor talked him into seeing a counselor “just to be sure” everything was OK now. Interestingly, his dad who originally spoke to me didn’t want him to see a counselor as he said he felt I would be able to help him much quicker and easier.
Because of my conversation with dad I decided not to inoculate about what others may say …….
And after just one session with the counselor he told me that he felt much worse than he ever did. Now I must say that I do know some counselors who are very good at their work, but I’m not sure this one is.
So today we met again, inoculations firmly in place and he’s back on track looking forward to taking a holiday with some old friends he’s reconnected with.
www.tina-taylor.com
After a couple of meetings he was able to go out, and begun to look for work; we worked on his CV and prepared for interviews and he was excited about the future.
Then at a visit with his doctor (a family friend) he talked about his meetings with me and how I had helped him – his doctor talked him into seeing a counselor “just to be sure” everything was OK now. Interestingly, his dad who originally spoke to me didn’t want him to see a counselor as he said he felt I would be able to help him much quicker and easier.
Because of my conversation with dad I decided not to inoculate about what others may say …….
And after just one session with the counselor he told me that he felt much worse than he ever did. Now I must say that I do know some counselors who are very good at their work, but I’m not sure this one is.
So today we met again, inoculations firmly in place and he’s back on track looking forward to taking a holiday with some old friends he’s reconnected with.
www.tina-taylor.com
Tuesday, 28 June 2011
Hypnosis and Pain Control
Over the centuries hypnosis has been viewed as a magical cure-all, and has a history of acceptance and rejection by the medical profession for over 200 years. Over the years many people have utilized hypnosis with great success and it has been reviewed many times over.
Friederich Anton Mesmer in the 18th Century, believed Mesmerism would hinder the development of disease and had some success in curing various illnesses as well as helping people with pain control. Then in 1834 and English surgeon John Elliotson reported on numerous operations performed painlessly using mesmerism.
In England around 1846, another surgeon James Braid revisited the phenomenon of Mesmerism and renamed it hypnosis, after the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos. He was the first person to attribute the phenomenon to psychological rather than physical variables and his findings brought a renewed interest in the subject. He had evidence on 345 major operations performed with hypnosis as the sole anesthetic.
In 1990, Evans investigated the possible ways in which hypnosis effectiveness varies according to the type of pain. He concluded that the style of hypnosis was important. For acute pain, he suggested hypnotic suggestions focusing on anxiety-reduction and emphasis on minimizing the importance of the pain; and for chronic pain, he suggested directly confronting the pain under hypnosis, dealing with both the pain's physical and psychological effects on the patient (Evans, 1990).
The American Psychology Associations examine of hypnosis for pain control came to the conclusion that hypnosis had a similar effect as the placebo effect; that the belief that the hypnotic suggestions can reduce pain had the effect of reducing pain.
The management of pain using hypnosis is in a strange position. Although hypnosis has been shown to be effective in many cases, it still tends to be overlooked. Hypnosis is an easy-to-administer procedure with no side effects, yet most doctors ignore its effectiveness in lieu of more traditional methods. Probably because no one really knows how it works, yet it still has merit.
Regardless of the various conclusions made over time, hypnosis has been shown to be a useful tool for pain management in many situations with some articles suggesting that hypnosis is one of the great misunderstood treatments of our time and hypnosis has been shown to be a relatively effective, safe, and inexpensive way in which patients can deal with their pain.
www.tina-taylor.com
Friederich Anton Mesmer in the 18th Century, believed Mesmerism would hinder the development of disease and had some success in curing various illnesses as well as helping people with pain control. Then in 1834 and English surgeon John Elliotson reported on numerous operations performed painlessly using mesmerism.
In England around 1846, another surgeon James Braid revisited the phenomenon of Mesmerism and renamed it hypnosis, after the Greek god of sleep, Hypnos. He was the first person to attribute the phenomenon to psychological rather than physical variables and his findings brought a renewed interest in the subject. He had evidence on 345 major operations performed with hypnosis as the sole anesthetic.
In 1990, Evans investigated the possible ways in which hypnosis effectiveness varies according to the type of pain. He concluded that the style of hypnosis was important. For acute pain, he suggested hypnotic suggestions focusing on anxiety-reduction and emphasis on minimizing the importance of the pain; and for chronic pain, he suggested directly confronting the pain under hypnosis, dealing with both the pain's physical and psychological effects on the patient (Evans, 1990).
The American Psychology Associations examine of hypnosis for pain control came to the conclusion that hypnosis had a similar effect as the placebo effect; that the belief that the hypnotic suggestions can reduce pain had the effect of reducing pain.
The management of pain using hypnosis is in a strange position. Although hypnosis has been shown to be effective in many cases, it still tends to be overlooked. Hypnosis is an easy-to-administer procedure with no side effects, yet most doctors ignore its effectiveness in lieu of more traditional methods. Probably because no one really knows how it works, yet it still has merit.
Regardless of the various conclusions made over time, hypnosis has been shown to be a useful tool for pain management in many situations with some articles suggesting that hypnosis is one of the great misunderstood treatments of our time and hypnosis has been shown to be a relatively effective, safe, and inexpensive way in which patients can deal with their pain.
www.tina-taylor.com
Tuesday, 29 March 2011
Painless Childbirth
Whenever I mention the possibility of painless childbirth and woman’s ability to achieve this herself without the use of drugs; so many people respond with comments along the lines of “but that’s what an epidural is for”.
I first began to look at childbirth in the 1980’s when I was pregnant with my daughter. I believed as I was only pregnant and this was a perfectly natural state to be in that it would be a relatively easy process. Then I read all these books telling me about what to expect and the various procedures that were at that time considered necessary during labour. I’m sure my doctor thought I was “difficult”; I remember going into hospital with a whole list of things that I had decided wouldn’t (and didn’t) happen. Happily today most of these are a thing of the past.
Whilst studying NLP and Hypnosis one of the things that intrigued me was the way that the mind creates our thoughts, beliefs and responses to situations, and I was drawn to the minds ability to control various sensations or our perception of sensations specifically the sensation labeled pain. How is it that we have different “pain thresholds”; and that one persons pain can be another’s pleasure. This question brought my attention back to childbirth and 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. What is it that makes birth easy for some women and difficult for others?
During my research I found Dr Grantly Dick Read also had this question; he was a doctor at Whitechapel Hospital, East London, in the early 1900’s. One evening when he was called out to assist a woman in labour, he offered her chloroform, the only chemical pain control available at the time, which she refused. Afterwards when he congratulated her on her bravery she replied “it didn’t hurt. It wasn’t meant to was it Doctor?”
This comment spurred him onto investigate pain in childbirth; he found that this women wasn’t an isolated incident and that many women achieved what appeared to be a pain free birth experience. He begun to wonder about the differences between those who said they was in agony and those who had an easy time. Interestingly he said that women who had an easy time in childbirth “appeared to be in a trance like state”.
Intrigued by his findings, I went along to a few new baby coffee mornings with the National Childbirth Trust (NCT. During my research I found that Dr Grantly Dick Read inspired the creation of the NCT in its early days it was called the Natural Childbirth Association). New mums enjoy talking about their babies births and whenever I heard a woman telling a story of how easy it was I became very interested; and asked some questions. I wanted to find out what they did, what was their strategy in achieving an easy birth. And I found out that they all had similar stories to tell; they said things like “this sounds really strange but ……….there was a picture on the wall of my room and as the contractions got stronger I seemed to climb in the picture; or I remembered a place from my childhood/past and it was as if I was back there until it was time for baby to be born and suddenly I was back……….
Their descriptions reminded me of a kind of hypnosis known as deep trance phenomena and I begun to wonder if this was what we were supposed to do whilst in labour.
In 2001 a friend asked me to help her achieve natural childbirth she had a teenage daughter and was disappointed that her first birth hadn’t been a natural one. I met with her, her partner and her daughter, and we began to design what later became the blue print for my childbirth classes. I was honored to be asked to be present at the birth also, and so got to review the system first hand so to speak. The midwifery staff were all excited when I arrived at the hospital with my friend. You’re the hypnotist they said, we’re looking forward to seeing what you can do.
Over the years, these classes have evolved and now contain a combination of hypnosis, NLP and DHE™ all designed to teach the mum to be how they can enter a deeply relaxed state during childbirth to create their own phenomena. Many of my students have asked me during our classes whether they will actually be able to access that state during labour and they have contacted me afterwards to say how wonderful the whole process was for them and how they were able to relax and follow my instructions “just as I said they would”.
From the classes that I have taught over the years, I know that women can have a natural birth experience without fear, worry or discomfort. There is one side effects that seem to result from using hypnosis and NLP during pregnancy as you prepare for labour - the babies are very happy, contented and relaxed.
Painless Childbirth available from www.tina-taylor.com
I first began to look at childbirth in the 1980’s when I was pregnant with my daughter. I believed as I was only pregnant and this was a perfectly natural state to be in that it would be a relatively easy process. Then I read all these books telling me about what to expect and the various procedures that were at that time considered necessary during labour. I’m sure my doctor thought I was “difficult”; I remember going into hospital with a whole list of things that I had decided wouldn’t (and didn’t) happen. Happily today most of these are a thing of the past.
Whilst studying NLP and Hypnosis one of the things that intrigued me was the way that the mind creates our thoughts, beliefs and responses to situations, and I was drawn to the minds ability to control various sensations or our perception of sensations specifically the sensation labeled pain. How is it that we have different “pain thresholds”; and that one persons pain can be another’s pleasure. This question brought my attention back to childbirth and 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. What is it that makes birth easy for some women and difficult for others?
During my research I found Dr Grantly Dick Read also had this question; he was a doctor at Whitechapel Hospital, East London, in the early 1900’s. One evening when he was called out to assist a woman in labour, he offered her chloroform, the only chemical pain control available at the time, which she refused. Afterwards when he congratulated her on her bravery she replied “it didn’t hurt. It wasn’t meant to was it Doctor?”
This comment spurred him onto investigate pain in childbirth; he found that this women wasn’t an isolated incident and that many women achieved what appeared to be a pain free birth experience. He begun to wonder about the differences between those who said they was in agony and those who had an easy time. Interestingly he said that women who had an easy time in childbirth “appeared to be in a trance like state”.
Intrigued by his findings, I went along to a few new baby coffee mornings with the National Childbirth Trust (NCT. During my research I found that Dr Grantly Dick Read inspired the creation of the NCT in its early days it was called the Natural Childbirth Association). New mums enjoy talking about their babies births and whenever I heard a woman telling a story of how easy it was I became very interested; and asked some questions. I wanted to find out what they did, what was their strategy in achieving an easy birth. And I found out that they all had similar stories to tell; they said things like “this sounds really strange but ……….there was a picture on the wall of my room and as the contractions got stronger I seemed to climb in the picture; or I remembered a place from my childhood/past and it was as if I was back there until it was time for baby to be born and suddenly I was back……….
Their descriptions reminded me of a kind of hypnosis known as deep trance phenomena and I begun to wonder if this was what we were supposed to do whilst in labour.
In 2001 a friend asked me to help her achieve natural childbirth she had a teenage daughter and was disappointed that her first birth hadn’t been a natural one. I met with her, her partner and her daughter, and we began to design what later became the blue print for my childbirth classes. I was honored to be asked to be present at the birth also, and so got to review the system first hand so to speak. The midwifery staff were all excited when I arrived at the hospital with my friend. You’re the hypnotist they said, we’re looking forward to seeing what you can do.
Over the years, these classes have evolved and now contain a combination of hypnosis, NLP and DHE™ all designed to teach the mum to be how they can enter a deeply relaxed state during childbirth to create their own phenomena. Many of my students have asked me during our classes whether they will actually be able to access that state during labour and they have contacted me afterwards to say how wonderful the whole process was for them and how they were able to relax and follow my instructions “just as I said they would”.
From the classes that I have taught over the years, I know that women can have a natural birth experience without fear, worry or discomfort. There is one side effects that seem to result from using hypnosis and NLP during pregnancy as you prepare for labour - the babies are very happy, contented and relaxed.
Painless Childbirth available from www.tina-taylor.com
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