Can 'hypnobirthing' really take the pain out of having a baby?

By Julia Lawrence
Updated: 07:22 EDT, 16 February 2011

Emma Shaw admits that she turned up for her first hypnobirthing class with a strong dose of scepticism.

A down-to-earth and pragmatic TV producer, she fully expected to walk into a room ‘full of hippy, airy-fairies giving birth in yurts’.

Like most mothers-to-be, the 30-year-old had been drip-fed horror stories from colleagues and friends of women screaming, swearing and assaulting their husbands, surrounded by beeping, blinking monitors.

She was convinced that was ‘the only way’. Anything else was just a pipe dream, wasn’t it?

Relax: The theory behind hypnobirthing holds that 95 per cent of labour pain is due to fear and tension, which could be eliminated through relaxation techniques

But after researching alternative birth techniques for a documentary, Emma was introduced to the idea of using her mind to seize control of the birthing process through hypnosis. 

And when her son Leo was born 14 months ago, following a relatively pain and stress-free labour, Emma is convinced hypnobirthing is most certainly ‘the other way’.

‘When I first started doing those classes, I was almost embarrassed about it, convinced people would laugh,’ says Emma, from Brockley, South London.

‘Now I want to tell everyone to try it. If it can work for me, and believe me I was the biggest cynic going, then it can work for anyone.’

This is exactly what the NHS is seeking to investigate in an 18-month study on the effectiveness of hypnobirthing being launched this week, which, it is hoped, will reduce the financial strain on tightening NHS budgets caused by costly drug treatments such as epidurals — and also make births easier and safer for women and babies.

Birth: But hypnobirthing aims to uses the mind to seize control of the birthing process through hypnosis

At present, 60 per cent of women opt for forms of pain relief which some professionals have blamed for everything from difficulties with breastfeeding to postnatal depression.

More than 800 first-time mothers have been recruited to take part in the trial, which is being led by Professor Soo Downe, a specialist in midwifery at Central Lancashire University, at hospitals in Blackburn and Burnley.

Women will be taught deep relaxation techniques which are said to induce an almost trance-like state, making women calmer and more able to block out pain.

Hypnobirthing is based on the work of Dr Grantly Dick-Read, an English physician whose principles provided the foundations of the National Childbirth Trust (NCT). In his book, Childbirth Without Fear, originally published in 1933, he controversially opened the debate on pain in childbirth and even questioned whether it exists.

Braving the wrath of mothers everywhere, he wrote: ‘In no other animal species is the process of birth apparently associated with any suffering, pain or agony, except where pathology exists or in an unnatural state, such as captivity.’

Dr Dick-Read went on to conclude that fear and tension was responsible for 95 per cent of labour pain, which could be eliminated through relaxation techniques.

For while hypnobirthing conjures up images of pregnant women being put into a trance-like state, in fact it is a series of deep breathing and deep relaxation techniques which the women and their partners are taught to self-administer.

As a chorus of indignant scoffs ring out from women for whom the agony of childbirth is a not-distant-enough memory, there are plenty of obstetric professionals who claim pain-free labour is entirely possible.

One of them is Judith Flood, a 41-year-old midwife who trained as a hypnobirthing teacher eight years ago after noticing the difference it made to women’s experience of labour. 

Judith who, unlike Dr Dick-Read, has given birth four times says: ‘The first time I saw a hypnobirth I was blown away by it,’ she says. 

‘I was working at St Thomas’ Hospital in London when a women walked in, a first-time mother in her late 30s, who was totally calm, smiley and chatty.

'I nearly sent her away again, assuming labour couldn’t be established — for us the benchmark is whether a woman can talk to you throughout contractions.

‘When we examined her she was almost fully dilated. Even as she gave birth, she was totally calm and able to talk, simply by practising her deep breathing techniques to manage the pain.’

Super mum: Model Gisele claimed giving birth in her bathtub at home in Boston with no pain relief didn't hurt after having prepared with yoga and meditation

From that point, Judith became fascinated with the practice, noticing in many cases it actually halved the duration of labour from an average 12 hours to four to six hours. She now teaches hypno-birthing techniques, at a cost of £200 for a full, 12-hour workshop, both at her home and at a centre in South-East London.

‘It teaches women how to become deeply relaxed, quickly and easily. It is a skill like any other that gets better with practice, so that as she goes into labour it is second nature. We also use association techniques, where a woman’s partner can use a simple touch as the trigger to relax.

‘A lot of women afterwards say that “pain” is not the word to describe their sensations during labour, calling it “pressure” and “a force of nature”. And yes, there are women who do end up with a Caesarean, but they in turn say hypnobirthing techniques kept them calm throughout, making the experience positive and enjoyable.’

Emma, from South London, wouldn’t go so far as calling her labour pain free, but says it was nothing like the horror she was expecting. 

‘I was in established labour for seven hours, and the contractions — or surges as we learned to call them — were totally manageable. It was more like period pain, a cramp or tightening. When I told my story to other mothers afterwards, the reaction was always: “Wow, there is another way.”’

From a father’s perspective, however, hypnotherapy has both its positive and negative sides, according to John Palmer, whose wife Julie gave birth to their son Sean after attending hypnobirthing classes three years ago.

‘Some of it was laughable,’ he says. ‘Our teacher was desperate to get her message across; she was coming up with outrageous statements about the “power of the mind”.

'We particularly remember this unfounded “study in America” that showed how newborn chicks could move objects with their minds.

‘We sat there, with a group of five or six other middle-class couples, all swopping “what the hell are we doing here” looks.’

However, they pressed ahead with the classes, at a cost of £300, and when Julie gave birth, it was following a 16-hour labour, with only gas and air for pain relief.

‘She probably wouldn’t call it pain free, but it was most certainly stress free. The hypnotherapy gave us a toolbox, something I, as a father, found extremely useful, as it gave us a focus and perspective.’

However, critics are concerned that hypnotherapy, which is said to work in a quarter of cases, should never be hailed as an alternative to established pain relief.

Maureen Treadwell, co-founder of the Birth Trauma Association, says: ‘I always believe research is a good thing, but we need to be cautious and look critically at the data and decide whether this is a good use of NHS resources.

‘We know the only proven, 100 per cent effective pain relief in labour is a spinal-administered analgesic. We don’t want to find ourselves in the position where women are forced to attend hypnobirthing classes when there’s no guarantee it will definitely work for them. Hypnotherapy relies on people being suggestible, and not everyone is.

‘If this can be managed within a hospital’s budget, then all well and good, but I’d rather the facilities are there for a woman who is in terrible pain, and that if she is begging for an epidural, she gets one.’