When you become pregnant, there can be a desire to learn as much as you can about birth, this includes the process of birth as well as how it feels, what emotions you may have and advice. Unfortunately, due to families being much farther apart than they used to be and it not being quite as common for women to talk openly about their birth experiences and be involved with each others birth, this knowledge can be difficult to track down.

In all of my blog posts my aim is to provide you with knowledge and information and if you are concerned about your birth day, then I aim to reframe your view of how calm and gentle birth can be. Since helping people with their births, one of my biggest concerns has been the accessibility of some of the natural birth footage which may cause someones anxiety about birth to increase rather than decrease. A perfect birth can never be promised by anyone, but you are so much more likely to have a calm and gentle birth if your exepctation of birth is positive, rather than negative. As these videos can result in a birth experience which is not what mum or baby would have wanted, this story or video is then replayed and the cycle continues, resulting in less positive birth experiences and greater opportunity for intervention.

This is why I have been trawling Youtube and other similar video sites for natural birth footage which will embed a positive expectation and decrease your anxiety about birth. Some of these video's are collections of photos and others contain footage of actual natural births. All of them are wonderful to watch and incredible examples of inner power, strength and the amazing ability of a mum and baby to work together so intuitively. So pop to the loo, grab yourself some refreshments and sit back and join these women on the most amazing journeys of their lives.

Yours for calmer births, more often,

Photo credit: benmcleod

It wasn’t the plan for Emiloju Fatima Lawal who was on her way to hospital for a routine check, but all that changed as she began to go into labour on the 394 bus from Homerton Hospital through Hackney to Islington.

You might think that this would be a nightmare situation, but actually, the support from the bus driver Pauline Jacobs and fellow passenger Carole Allen enabled the situation to remain calm and for the baby to be born naturally and quickly.

Rather than following the advice of pleading passengers telling her to speed up the bus to get to hospital, thankfully Pauline parked at the side of the road and alerted controllers to dispatch an ambulance, then she and Carole supported Emiloju as she gave birth. (I can't imagine anything worse than being in labour on a speeding bus!)

Emiloju, 37, of Hackney said: "A man asked if I was OK, I said 'No, I'm in Labour.'
"A few minutes later he came out and I said 'Excuse me, the baby is here'."
Carole said: "he just flew out onto the floor. I didn't feel panicked, just relieved."
Olatidebe Dennis Agboola, weighing 7.5lbs, is believed to be the first birth aboard one of London's buses. His middle name 'Dennis' is named after the manufacturer of the London Bus. Dennis Specialist Vehicles, originally known as Dennis Brothers Ltd, was founded in 1895 by brothers John and Raymond Dennis.

Yours for calmer births, more often,

Source : http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8328833.stm

Photo credit: aurelijus

A recent study in the US shows that a relaxation-type CD, asking children to imagine themselves in scenarios like floating on a cloud led to dramatic improvements in abdominal pain. The research, published in the journal Pediatrics, follows on from studies showing hypnosis is an effective treatment for abdominal issues including irritable bowel syndrome.

Out of 30 children using the CD, 73.3% reported that their abdominal pain was reduced by half or more by the end of the treatment course compared with 26.7% in the standard care group. Not only that, but in two-thirds of children the improvements were still apparent six months later.

It's great to see research continues into the effectiveness of visualisations and hypnosis, especially as these are such simple techniques which, once learned can be used again and again and are such a gentle way of healing. A local Professor, David Candy, a consultant paediatric gastroenterologist at Western Sussex Hospitals, said his team had tried hypnosis in a small group of children with severe abdominal pain problems and had 100% success rate. Now he is keen to try the guided imagery technique to see if they can replicate the US findings.

So, other than helping our own children with these techniques, what else can we learn from this study? Maybe the success of these results are due to the participants being children? Children have such fertile open minds, willing to open up and learn new things as well as having wonderful imaginations. Perhaps as adults we need to explore the child within us to enable the door to our child-like mind to be opened to enhance the effectiveness of our visualisations. Certainly in the work I do, I have found it extremely effective to bring about a child-like mind before progressing with visualisations, especially when there appears to be barriers in the way of relaxing.

So, if you are working through birth relaxation CD's or have downloaded the free resources or Psychology Of Giving Birth Antenatal Programme from this website, give yourself a moment before listening to them to open up your child-like mind. It doesn’t even have to be what you were like as a child, just a free mind full of creativity, sprit, openness to learn and no inhibitions.

I'd love to hear from you with how well this technique works for you, so please do drop me a message through any of media on this site and I'll get back to you straight away

Yours for calmer births, more often,

Photo credit: istargazer

When I was pregnant, all of my focus was on giving my child the very best start in life though enabling a calm, gentle and if possible, natural birth. Once my child was born, this focus didn’t stop, it continued on into looking at how I could raise my child in the most natural and respectful way, this led me to choose to educate my child through a Montessori school. The reason I chose Montessori at the time was because it fitted well with my approach to therapy in that I work completely client centered. I act as a guide and a facilitator and recognise that a client brings their own unique resources and skills to a session which you can tap in to. I related to Montessori being very similar to this in that they use a childs naturally "absorbent mind" and the built in motivation to learn, to enable a child to become their unique selves.

As my little boy has begun his Montessori schooling and I have grown to understand more about the approach and ethos, my interest has continued to increase. In particular, some of the wording I recently came across in their literature rang so many bells not just for how it fits with my idea of how education should be, but interestingly for the actual birth of a child. For example:

• The Montessori method discourages children being obviously monitored for example taking exams and tests
• The teacher is an "observer" of the child as they go about what comes instictively to them
• Children are masters of their school room environment, which has been specifically prepared for them, rather than for the ease of the teacher
• Children spend a lot of time alone during periods of intense concentration. During these self-chosen and spontaneous periods, the child is not to be interrupted by the teacher
• There are no time limits for the child - she may work with whatever he chooses for as long as she likes.
• When a difficulty arises the teacher is able to step in and give help but is always careful never to give more help than is needed.
• Children work at their own individual pace and naturally develop their own rhythm and work pattern.

Now try replacing the word "Teacher" with "Doctor", and "Child/Children" with "Mum/s".
Interestingly, just in the same way as studies of natural birth show that birth can be calm and gentle with little or no intervention, studies have also shown that Montessori Education Provides Better Outcomes than Traditional Methods.

One study in particular comparing outcomes of children at a public inner-city Montessori school with children who attended traditional schools indicates that Montessori education leads to children with better social and academic skills. The study appears in the Sept. 29, 2006 issue of the journal Science.

The general lesson from these approaches is that guiding rather than forcing, observing rather than examining, flexibility rather than being timebound and helping only when it's needed will lead to trusting in someones (a child or a mum to be) intuitive, built in knowledge that they know what to do for the best outcome.

If you would like more information on the Montessori approach, please see this website: http://www.montessori-ami.org/

Thanks go to my local Montessori school for opening my eyes and mind to this wonderful approach: Brighton Montessori School

Yours for calmer births, more often,

Photo credit: valilouve

Well it's almost upon us - HypnoSummit 2.0. HypnoSummit is taking place on the weekend of 19th/20th September 2009 and it's an amazing opportunity for therapists to have access to 50+ hours of streaming live lectures from some of the most forward thinking and experienced therapists worldwide. As it's a virtual conference, there's no traffic problems, crowds or time conflicts (you get 3 weeks to watch the lectures at your leisure) and you get the opportunity to interact with presenters not only during live lectures, but also in their booths during breaks.

Here's some feedback from the last conference:

All in all, a completely fabulous learning tool. I feel completely inspired and motivated by all the styles and philosophies of the presenters

This year I am pleased to confirm that I will be presenting on the topic of the psychology of giving birth. My 1 hour live lecture will be focused on helping existing therapists extend their skills and knowledge to enable them to help facilitate calm and gentle births.

Here's my description from the program of activities:

When considering the birth of a baby, many people think of the biology of birth rather than the Psychology, however birth itself is a trance state and how well someone can maintain this trance state can impact the outcome of labour. I will walk through each of the area's of consideration when helping a mum and her birth companion with their birth and I will show you how they can actually look forward to their birth day.

So, if you are already a therapist keen to hear about my lecture, (and did I mention the other 50+ hours of streaming video lectures?!) then head on over to the HypnoSummit website and sign up straight away.

Yours for calmer births, more often,

PS At the HypnoSummit I will also be giving a sneak preview and early bird discounts for my new Psychology Of Giving Birth distance learning course for care providers and existing therapists which will be launching in 2010! So sign up now to not miss out!