Life has a way of satisfying your curiosity, even if you’re not aware of asking the questions. For the past week, I have been working on a story about hypnobirthing and coincidentally (or perhaps not so coincidentally) I also rented and watched the successful indie film, What the Bleep Do We Know? The connection between the quirky movie and this odd-sound birthing technique, for those who have heard of neither, is that we humans can profoundly change our reality with the power of our minds. We’re not talking about changing a mood, but our physical reality. For the hypnobirthing story, Anne Hughes, a Traverse City nurse practitioner talked about her deep interest in the mind/body connection led her to teaching self-hypnosis to expectant moms. Women who learn the art of deep relaxation can actually experience a far more comfortable delivery, she said. Hughes is used to wholesale disbelief, so she’s ready with a string of videos of moms-to-be in the final stages of labor. They literally look as if they are drifting in and out of sleep. When it comes time to push, they make these uumph sounds like they’re hefting up a barbell, but no sounds of agony. (You can read scores of stories at www.hypnobirthing.com). Hughes has an office on West Front Street, in a complex of “alternative” health practitioners, including Dr. Katherine Roth. As you walk in, the colors, the music, the subtle fragrance all wrap you in a warm cloud of calm. Hughes’ brochure reflects her philosophy: “Taking the Birthing World by Calm.”
THE RIGHT WORDS Hughes said the mind is everything when it comes to giving birth. A woman needs to believe that having a baby can be comfortable. She also needs to hear the right words, as do all of us. Pay attention, she counsels, to how certain words make you feel. For example, Hughes calls contractions “surges” and instead of saying rupturing a membrane, she says “releasing” a membrane. Hughes gives her patients buttons that say, “Happy Birthing Stories Only Please. My Baby is Listening.” “The stories that complete strangers feel compelled to share at Meijer are not exactly what a woman needs to hear,” she said. Kelly Greene was one of Hughes’ first patients and went through several sessions of hypnosis with Hughes and also practiced self-hypnosis with a “Rainbow Relaxation” CD. Hypnosis is strange, she said, because it doesn’t feel as if you’re really “under.” But when Hughes described eating a lemon, Greene said she felt her mouth water and could really taste the sour juice. Greene ended up having a C-section because of last-minute complications, so she wasn’t able to use self-hypnosis to deliver her son, Weston. But she doesn’t regret all the practice. She used self-hypnosis to calm herself before the scheduled surgery, and even during the surgery. “I could feel myself getting really nauseous and getting nervous, so I started using the deep breathing. “The mind is so amazing and I do believe there is a mind/body connection,” said Greene, a psychologist who specializes in neurology. “I’ve talked with my colleagues about hypnotizing a client before they underwent surgery and they required no anesthesia at all. It’s just amazing.”
BODY/MIND SCIENCE Part of the scientific basis for hypnobirthing has to do with the fight-or-flight response. The reason is this: When the fear reflex kicks in after contractions start, the blood flows away from the organs that aren’t immediately necessary for survival -- and that includes the uterus. Without a plentiful blood flow, the uterus cramps and causes pain. But without the fear factor, the uterus performs far more efficiently and causes much less pain. First written about in 1933 by a physician named Grantly Dick-Read, the concept was later refined by Marie Mongan, a master hypnotherapist, who published HypnoBirthing in 1989. So although new in Northern Michigan, the program is nearly two decades old and has spread to dozens of countries. There’s also a new brain-imaging study conducted by the University of Iowa that revealed how hypnosis stops pain signals from reaching the part of the brain that perceives pain in a conscious state. Also, when a person is in a hypnotic state, the brain cannot tell the difference between real taste, sounds, and images from hypnotic suggestions. It all lights up the same part of the brain. That’s why hypnosis is being used in all kinds of ways; to slow or stop blistering of severe burns, to help cancer patients cope with nausea from chemotherapy, to cure irritable bowel syndrome, and even to get rid of warts! “If we knew a fraction of what we are capable, oh my gosh, it’s so exciting,” said Hughes, who is a certified hypnotherapist. “I think part of the difficulty is people don’t believe it. But if we opened our minds just a little bit to the potential of what we have inside of us, it would be just incredible.” The theories in the movie, “What the Bleep Do We Know?” are also scientifically based, although my husband (who has not seen the film) called it “Science by Art Majors.” The plot is quite loose; the camera follows a divorced photographer (Marlee Matlin) on her walk through a day in her life. Her mood is sour, her memories of a cheating husband clouding her outlook. She seems to believe everyone else has a problem. But the movie is dominated by prestigious scientists who relate quantum physics to human reality and spirituality and ultimately to the existence of God within us. Very trippy! What I found especially persuasive was the science of how emotions cause a chemical gush that change receptors at the cellular level. A repetitive emotion can ultimately create an “addiction” because certain synapses are strengthened over time, while others atrophy. A person whose emotions are out of control, who are chronically angry, for example, are actually chemically addicted to that emotion. You create a groove of sorts of naughty neural pathways. Now, isn’t that fascinating? In another interesting spin, there is scientific proof that you cannot see what you don’t recognize as possible. The movie dramatized Indians who were unable to see Columbus’ ships on the horizon because they didn’t fit in with their reality. You must believe to see. So there you go. Limited vision. Naysaying. All those mean niggling comments you make about your dimpled thighs are damaging. On the other hand, the positive messages you give to yourself are life changing.
PATIENT POWER Hughes’ path to HypnoBirthing is actually an outgrowth of exactly this kind of thinking. She worked as a registered nurse, taught Lamaze, and attended to birthing mothers. Later, she became a nurse practitioner working in a family practice. But traditional medicine typically does not assume the power of the patient -- on either side of the patient table. The way it plays out is that a person feels bad, automatically perceives something must be seriously wrong, and expects the doctor to fix the problem, preferably with a pill. For example, an obese, TV-watching type comes in with back pain, wants a pain pill, and isn’t exactly keen on exploring what he could do. Hughes believes the patient must be willing to do the heavy lifting. Lose weight, perhaps, do sit-ups, take a Pilates class for core strength. Eat the right foods for healthy bones, get enough sleep, and examine what stresses -- a boss he hates, maybe -- are causing his muscles to tighten up. Stress is particularly important. We humans still live with the “fight or flight” reflex, but our modern-day problems never wump us silly like the old days, but simply keep us tense --as if something bad is going to happen. As a result, we never quite relax. Television can be a huge assault on the subconscious. As we’re watching TV, we often turn off our conscious mind, and make our subconscious a sitting duck. Meditation is an excellent way to regain your center, Hughes said, but she prefers hypnosis because her mind races too much when she meditates. Hypnosis is a tool to deeply relax your inner mind—the seat of emotion, memory, imagination, motivation and habits. “I think the ability to find a place of calm within makes us better parents, better partners, better friends … better in all our life roles,” Hughes said.
Anne Hughes and Karla Blackmer teach HypnoBirthing; Peg Dunn, a midwife, integrates the principles of HypnoBirthing with her clients and advocates self-hypnosis to area doctors, nurses, and midwives. Hughes is also a certified hypnotherapist. All three can be contacted at www.thenursesofficetc.com.
Quick Energy Medicine Ever notice how you seem to remember the most painful parts of your day (or even your life), but the happy moments don’t seem to stick with you. Who knows? Maybe it’s a survival mechanism that deeply imprints the pain of a mistake so that you don’t repeat it. But here’s the advice of nurse practitioner Anne Hughes. When you go about your day and something joyous or wondrous happens, tap it in—take your fingers and just tap the joyful energy between your eyebrows. When you need a dose of the same, sit down, tap, remember and relax!
You're Getting Sleepy Most people are familiar with stage hypnosis where a performer gets people to do the craziest things. Football players doing a strip tease, that kind of thing. But self hypnosis is private, relaxed … okay, not nearly as entertaining to watch. Hughes gives expectant moms a Rainbow Relaxation CD, but anyone can benefit from the technique. Soft music plays in the background and a woman softly invites you to deeply breathe and relax your body, naming the muscles and limbs one by one—the jaw, the shoulders and so on. You’re invited to release all your tension and to notice a feeling of wellbeing spreading through your every muscle, every cell. In this relaxed state, you’re next invited to picture a magnificent rainbow, noticing each of the colors, the way they shimmer and glow. Then you might see yourself on a bed of soft mist, a mist that gently cradles you in a comfortable and gentle relaxation. At first the mist is a lovely strawberry color—vibrant, full of life. Next, imagine yourself relaxing on a mist of soft peach or orange. Drawing on the color, feeling in tune with the color, is even more soothing and relaxing. Proceed through the colors of the rainbow, connecting color to nature, to yourself and to relaxation. By the time you reach the color violet, you’re told your mind is filled with confidence and calm. The CD talks about trust, trust in the body to birth, trust in nature to play out its own perfect design
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