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

Yesterday I went to watch a local event on Hove seafront. It was the annual Superhero 10KM race where everyone dresses up as a recognised superhero. (See this link for more information Superhuman Effort Breaks World Record )

As I was standing there it got me wondering about whether the NLP technique of "standing in someone's shoes" to improve your success in something, would result in the runners taking on elements of the superhero they were dressed up as, and whether this would actually impact their run time.

For example, would the Hulk be slowed down and more lumbering, would Spiderman feel as though he were swinging from lampost to lampost to make him quicker and would Superman run his all time best? I actually think the Silver Surfer won and as it was torrential rain at the start, maybe there is something in it!

Anyway, why am I posting this on a birthing blog you may ask? With any activity there are people who excel at them and people who don't do so well. The NLP technique I mentioned of imagining as though you were standing in someone's shoes applies just as much to birth as it does to say public speaking. If you were to speak in public and imagine you were Barack Obama, Steve Jobs or Richard Branson then this would have a huge impact on your performance. So, if whilst in labour you take on the persona of Naolí Vinaver Lopez from the Birth Day DVD (see sidebar), or maybe of someone close to you who has told you of a great birth experience, then standing in their shoes will enable you to tap into the skills they used.

This technique involves firstly finding someone who is a role model for the particular behaviour. Then you try on their body language, how they hold themselves, how they walk, how they talk, see how it feels to be them and how just by stepping into their shoes, it has an impact on you. This exercise can be done in a mirror, physically pretending to try on a coat/shoes/whatever of the role model and becoming them as they do. This technique can be seen quite easily when you know someone who wears a uniform for their work. Perhaps you know someone who is a policeman or policewoman or a traffic warden?

So why not consider who your birthing superhero might be and try their suit on for size…?

Take care… and remember…"I have the power!!!" (He-Man was a particular favourite of mine - just wish I'd thought of shouting it out whilst in labour!)

Many women use visualisations to help them during labour. It helps to focus the mind inward as well as helps you avoid distractions. Visualisations can also help you focus on a rhythm of breathing. Visualising to help you manage a situation is a form of self-hypnosis and something that you can practise over time to increase the impact is has. One thing I've never been entirely sure about is when antenatal classes are prescriptive in what a woman should visualise. I remember being told to visualise a flower opening during my classes, but no matter how hard I tried, it just didn’t work for me, instead my mind kept going back to visualising what was physically happening. The reason this happened was that I was interested in what was actually happening and how each part of my body was working to enable a natural birth. I decided to take my own visualisation forward and utilised it during labour, as it was something I felt much more comfortable about, I believe it was much more powerful for me that something which didn’t quite fit.

So, if you're pregnant and you are finding it hard to stick with the visualisations you have been given, then think about what interests you have and how your visualisations can fit around those. For example, if you like cycling, imaging a rhythmic wheel turning in time with your breathing may help, or if you like scuba diving, imagine the slow breathing you do through your regulator and how wonderful it feels to be underwater. If you're a care provider, then utilise what resources and skills your client has rather than ask them to learn new skills. You will find they will be able to visualise things much more easily, which will enable them to maintain inner focus and work more effectively with their bodies. The Psychology of Giving Birth programme available on this website works with mum and birth companion to teach them how to create their own relaxing visualisations, once you know how to do this, you will have these skills for life and you can pass this wonderful technique on to your children too.

Following a recent question I posted on Twitter asking people to send me what visualisations helped them during their labour, below are the responses, these also include feedback from mums I have helped. As you can see, many of them are completely unique and wouldn’t be found in any antenatal class! Take a look through these and see if any of them might work for you.

• The actual mechanics of the body and focusing on each part working effectively, almost in slow motion
• Contractions/surges as pate being spread on toast (this lady really missed pate!)
• A feeling of warmth spreading over my body
• I intuitively imagined a flower opening in bloom
• Clouds of different colours - went through the spectrum
• I visualised my cervix opening the size of a football field, with my baby coming through easily and with love
• A quiet warm beach with gently lapping waves
• Being in warm soothing water
• A positive energy force washing over me body in waves (had a particular interest in reiki)
• Breathing in time with a hot air balloon rising and falling across the sky
• My uterus was an icing bag and I was gently massaging the icing down (a cake decorator of course!)
• Fields of wheat in the wind
• Blowing up balloons and watching them drift away
• In a squatting position imagining there was a magnet on the floor helping to draw my baby down and out
• My body was made up of different instruments which made an orchestra, me and my baby were conducting the symphony, each part coming in to play at just the right moment with just the right tune
• There was a wonderful imaginary carer, gently massaging my uterus with each contraction
• In the last few weeks of pregnancy I began to see a more animalistic side come out in me and during labour I completely took on the characteristics of this animal, the animal gave me confidence that my body and mind was capable of a having a natural birth

And of course it's not just the mums who can utilise visualisations, here's some from birth companions too…

• The room was a fort and I only let down the drawbridge to people we trusted
• I was a lion protecting my family
• I was on top of a mountain, being able to clearly see everything and had the strength of the mountain within me
• I was a tree, solid, strong and sheltering my partner

I will continue to share new visualisations I hear about, so if you would like to share yours, please do add a comment.