We are going to be talking a little bit more about the power of the mind-body connection and how it can impact your pregnancy and birth.
Now you might be wondering what I mean by the mind-body connection and simply put it refers to the way in which our thoughts,
Emotions and beliefs can impact our physical health and well-being.
This connection has been well documented in research and it's something that we as midwives have known for centuries.
Let me give you an example.
Imagine you're sitting in a chair and suddenly someone comes up behind you and startles you.
Your heart rate quickens,
Your palms start to sweat,
Your muscles tense up,
You get a fright.
It's your body's automatic response to stress and we call it the fight-or-flight response.
Now imagine the same scenario but instead of someone startling you you're simply sitting there thinking about something that's causing you stress or anxiety.
The thing is that your body's response will be the same even though there's no immediate physical threat because your body or your mind does not know the difference between imagination and reality.
In other words your body had the same physical stress response whether or not you actually were given a fright by somebody stepping up behind you and tapping on your shoulder or whether you were just sitting and imagining that happening or imagining something else that caused you stress and anxiety.
Your body responded the same,
Your mind thought it was real and responded with a stress response.
Now during pregnancy and birth this connection is really important because we know that stress and anxiety during pregnancy can have negative effects on both you and your baby including an increased risk of preterm labor,
Low birth weight and developmental issues.
Now I want to sort of say that it's not to say that any anxiety that you experience in pregnancy is going to impact your baby and cause preterm labor or affect your baby's birth weight because anxiety and stress are a part of our daily life.
It happens you know it happens whether you're sitting in the traffic or you're still working and your boss is winding you up.
I mean stress and anxiety happen but it's about learning to manage that stress and anxiety and cutting out known causes or known triggers for that stress and anxiety and learning how to manage it.
Because one study has found that women who reported higher levels of stress during pregnancy were more likely to have longer labors and require more medical interventions and of course the less medical interventions that are required the better it is for both you and your baby.
So what can you do to promote relaxation and reduce anxiety during your pregnancy and of course during your birth?
Now there's many techniques and strategies that can be helpful and it's important to find the one that works for you but this series is all about hypnobirthing and one of the techniques that we use in hypnobirthing is mindfulness.
Now mindfulness is nothing more than learning to focus your attention on the present moment without judgment or distraction and by doing so you cultivate a sense of calm and inner peace which once again you can't imagine being calm or peaceful during labor when you think of all the things that you see on TV where women never look calm or peaceful when they're giving birth.
It is something that is cultivated,
It requires practice,
It requires understanding and the most important thing about mindfulness is that it is about focusing your attention on the present moment.
In other words right now in this moment where you're sitting what it's like that what your surroundings are like what you're experiencing physically mentally emotionally and this ability to be present in the moment is incredibly powerful when you're in labor because it is so easy when you're in labor to look back at what has already happened how long it has taken you to get to where you are if you've been in labor for ten or fifteen or twenty hours thinking ahead and thinking my goodness if it's taken me 15 hours to get to five centimeters does that mean it will take me another 15 hours to get to fully dilated and ready to birth my baby and I just don't think that I can manage and of course that's not unrealistic because labor and the progress of labor is a journey and it is exponential which is part of understanding and learning how to use your hypnobirthing techniques correctly is understanding the physiology of labor and birth but in terms of mindfulness the ability to be completely present in the moment without judgment without distraction of exactly what is happening in your body even if it is an incredibly intense sensation even if it means being aware of your exhaustion but being aware of it and working with it using the techniques that you learn in your hypnobirthing training and one of those techniques is visualization now you will learn many different visualizations and you will go through many visualizations in the training as part of your hypnobirthing preparing for your labor and birth there will be different visualizations of imagining your baby moving through your body you believe visualizing the cervix being soft and stretchy and opening in response to the pressure of your baby's head you will learn about the connection between your throat and your pelvic floor and how being able to relax the face and the jaw and the neck will immediately cause a similar relaxation and softness in the pelvic floor and all of these visualizations when done in preparation will be easier to do when you're actually in labor and will be part of the progress of your labor because your mind does not know the difference between imagination and reality so by practicing the visualizations during pregnancy you are setting up the blueprint the neural pathways for how your body will respond when it's actually in labor because every time you think about giving birth every time you imagine yourself in labor and you are doing it in a relaxed and focused way using those visualization techniques your body thinks it's actually happening it's releasing all those beautiful hormones that take you into a deep state of relaxation and when you actually go into labor when you're actually there you will easily be able to slip into that and your body will respond in exactly the same way.
Hypnobirthing is based on the mind-body connection and all you're doing is you're using relaxation techniques to promote a calm and comfortable birth experience you're reducing anxiety and fear and you're increasing your ability to trust your body and the process of birth and allowing it to unfold as it does.
It's not about being hypnotized or losing control it's about learning to trust your body your instincts and tapping into that incredible power of the mind-body connection to create a positive birth experience and if you're thinking that it sounds a bit woo-woo or new-agey the truth is that mind-body connection is rooted in science and it's been studied extensively in the field of psycho-neuroimmunology the field that explores the connection between the brain the immune system and our overall health and well-being.
It's been shown that the way we think and feel can impact our immune function our susceptibility to disease and even the rate at which our bodies heal from injuries.
So the mind-body connection is a very real and a very important aspect of our health and it's something that is worth paying attention to when you're pregnant and when you're preparing for your birth.
