Scientific Research

 

The HypnoBirthing programme was developed by Marie Mongan, an American Hypnotherapist. She wanted to prove to the world that through preparation in hypnosis and relaxation techniques,  a positive comfortable and tranquil birth

experience could be possible. After using her method of self-hypnosis for her own labours, she went on to develop the HypnoBirthing Programme and has been teaching it since 1989.

Her basis for the programme stems from the work of Dr. Grantly Dick-Read an English obstetrician who put forward the theory of “Fear-Tension-Pain Syndrome” and who went on to publish his book,  “Natural Childbirth” in 1933. (More information can be found in the HypnoBirthing book by M.Mongan).

 Since then, there have been numerous scientific articles produced surrounding the benefits of using Hypnosis in childbirth.

If you are interested, the following are worth a look:

 

· Childbirth Without Fear– Dr. Grantly Dick-Read

· Hypnosis in Childbirth Michael, AM Br Med J. 1952 Apr 5;1(4761):734-7

· Hypnosis for Childbirth: a retrospective analysis of outcomes in one

           obstetrician’s practice. VandeVusse, Irland et al. Am J Clin Hypn. 2007 Oct;50(2):109-19.

            Prenatal hypnosis preparation resulted in significantly less use of sedatives, analgesia,               and regional anaesthesia during labor and in higher 1-minute neonatal Apgar scores.

· Antenatal Self Hypnosis for Labour and Childbirth: A Pilot Study. Cyna,

              Andrew et al . Anaesth Intensive Care 2006 Aug;34(4):464-9

           Clinical findings are consistent with recent meta-analyses showing  beneficial outcomes associated               with the use of hypnosis in childbirth.

· The Effect of Hypnosis on Childbirth and Labour on Iranian Pregnant Women Abbasi, Ghazi et al.  Int. J Clin Hypnotherapy2009 Apr;57(2):174-83

             

Further articles can be found by searching on MedLine/PubMed.

 

The HypnoBirthing® Institute this year published “HypnoBirthing Outcomes United States, 2005-2009”. 1227 parent’s birth reports were collected between Oct ‘05 and Jan ‘09 and the data compared with 2 sources of national statistics for birth data.

It was seen that HypnoBirthing mothers experienced a significantly lower number of surgical births than that reported by the national statistics. In addition,

HypnoBirthing mothers used significantly fewer “labour interventions” eg. Induction/ forms of pain relief, than the National Statistics Data.

 

See also “HypnoBirthing: the art to a peaceful birth” Official Magazine of the Royal College of Midwifery Oct/Nov 2008.  www.hypnobirthing.co.uk/hypnobirthing_in_the_news.shtml