Think Hypnobirthing is Too Woo for You?
A lot of parents are surprised when they learn just how much science is behind the GentleBirth hypnobirthing approach. It’s far from alternative or ‘hippy dippy’ and very much evidence based.
There are two very important chemical messengers in labor - oxytocin and adrenaline. Oxytocin is like the accelerator for labor and adrenaline acts as the brake. More like applying the brake AND handbrake. Try driving your car like that and see how your engine does and how far you get.
Adrenaline evolved to give you a quick burst of energy and redirect blood away from your uterus to your arms and legs (to fight or run away from a threat) such as a hungry bear. Thankfully that’s not something most of us have to worry about but the ‘old’ parts of the brain haven’t gotten that memo yet and it freaks out easily!
When adrenaline is released over and over again in labor you end up emotionally and physically exhausted - and that’s before you get into active labor. When we are emotionally distressed we feel out of control and in more pain so it becomes a cycle. The more stressed you are the more adrenaline your brain releases. Without retraining your brain when you have that first contraction it’s likely your brain thinks BEAR instead of YES - we get to meet our baby today!
The brain is an amazing organ but it is also a very inaccurate ‘guessing’ machine and often mistakenly releases adrenaline just by thinking about labor….or when you open your credit card bill. The brain will always assume the worst until it has been proven wrong especially if all it knows are scary birth stories and graphic YouTube videos. You’ve already been well trained to think of labor as something awful so the brain is just reacting to what it already knows. So you can see how annoying and difficult it be when someone tells you to ‘calm down’ when you’re stressed. Your brain is trying to protect you and isn’t going to let go of that stress response without practice. That’s why your daily brain training is so important. You’re building out new circuitry in the brain when you start to focus on what usually goes right in labor.
Make sense?
Oxytocin is needed to make contractions and it needs very specific circumstances so it can flow freely. Most importantly - you need to feel safe.
Close your eyes and imagine yourself in labor.
Right now you’re most likely NOT in labor but you can see how just thinking about it changes what’s happening in your body. Of course a little adrenaline is not a bad thing (during the pushing stage adrenaline gives you that burst of energy to push your baby out). With GentleBirth you’re retraining your brain not to associate labor with something negative but something exciting and positive - meeting your baby. There is some fascinating research by Lauren Whitburn demonstrating how the ‘meaning’ of labor pain for a mom can make it more or less painful. Pain is also determined by where your focus is? (WTF - what we call it - where’s the focus).
Every second of every day your body is also sending messages to your brain (the scientific term is interoception). If your brain processes signals from your body that it thinks are danger signals your brain will release adrenaline. But if your brain is retrained to interpret these signals as safety messages the oxytocin flows. These different messages are called ‘DIMS and SIMS’ (‘danger in me’ or ‘safety in me’). This is why GentleBirth includes mindfulness as a core practice each day in the GentleBirth app as well as your hypnobirthing training. You’re intentionally connecting with your body daily so you’re tuned into what’s happening so much more easily. A racing heart can mean you’re feeling anxious….or it can mean you’re feeling excited. Your mindfulness practice helps you to stand back and see what’s happening in your mind and be a curious nosy neighbor. Thoughts aren’t facts and we don’t have to believe everything we think. You’ll have lots of ways to turn off that adrenaline response simply by where your focus is and we’ll help you turn ON more oxytocin.
Combining mindfulness training + hypnobirthing is more effective on reducing pain than just hypnosis. Mindfulness practice also physically changes the physical structure of your brain. The part of your brain associated with positive mood grows and the part of your brain that triggers the stress response shrinks! So you also get the benefits of reduced anxiety and depression during pregnancy and postpartum.
I hope this was helpful - we haven’t even touched on the sport psychology principles or CBT….there’s soooo much more to learn - it’s all in the book in the app!