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"Birth by hypnosis" Reporter: Rohan Wenn, November 7, 2003
Birth by hypnosis
Some couples are using hypnosis as an alternative to conventional painkillers during childbirth. Supporters say it almost eliminates the pain and claim hypnotic trances can also be used to treat chemical addictions, anxiety and depression.
It seemed impossible to believe Kylie McGuire was just a few minutes away from giving birth.
"I felt pressure, I felt heat, I felt a lot of warmth, but I didn't feel pain, I wasn't in pain."
Mrs McGuire and husband Paul are among a growing number of couples choosing an extraordinary alternative to conventional painkillers. As her labour began, Mrs McGuire was hypnotised.
"I was a bit of a sceptic in the beginning - alternate therapy and hypnobirthing was a little bit new to me, but after going through the classes it was great," Mr McGuire said.
For weeks before baby Kaitlin was due the couple would meet with hypnotherapist Diane Gardiner.
"They have very comfortable labours, often pain free, but certainly without most of the discomfort that women generally go through in labour," Ms Gardiner said.
"We teach them breathing techniques that actually help to slow the system down a little bit, it slows down the panic reaction, it slows all the bodily things down that you would normally go into if you were starting to get frightened or panicked."
Mrs McGuire says not only was the birth virtually pain free, it was also very short - perhaps three quarters of an hour.
"I was always conscious of the baby, of Kaitlin and visualising her working her way out with me," Mrs McGuire said.
In recent years, hypnotism has been best known as a form of entertainment, by performers like world-renowned Martin St James.
And, as amusing as it is to see people pretending to be white goods, proponents say the medical use of hypnotherapy is no laughing matter.
Dr Graham Weeks regularly uses hypnotherapy as an alternative to anaesthetic.
"You can't completely abolish pain with everybody for everything but it's extremely useful particularly in situations of acute pain," he said.
Dr Weeks used hypnotherapy as the only form of pain relief while Bev Sayers underwent major abdominal surgery.
"I'm aware of what was happening right throughout, cutting didn't worry me at all, and the stitching didn't worry me at all," Ms Sayers said.
"It's an interaction between mind and body and to be frank it's still a mystery," Dr Weeks said.
Back in the delivery room, Diane Gardiner says hypnotherapy isn't meant to replace the role of doctors during childbirth. Rather, it's there to make the whole process easier.
"If something did go wrong a doctor would much rather have a woman who was totally focused and relaxed and in control of her own body than have someone screaming and out of control and panicked," she said.
Hypnotherapy is not just used in major surgery and childbirth. As Rhondda Stewart explains, hypnotic trances can also be used to treat chemical addictions, depression, anxiety, and sleep apnoea.
"A trance state is very much like when you wake up in the morning and you know you could get up, you could wake up fully if you wanted to, but a part of you thinks 'I'm going to stay in bed for another ten minutes or so', and you drop back to sleep," Ms Stewart said.
"It's very much like that where you're in that semi-conscious state, you're very aware and yet you're not, by choice."
For her part, Mrs McGuire says she is really glad she wasn't drugged to the eyeballs when her little bundle of joy came into the world.
"It was wonderful, it was fantastic, it was exactly the sort of birth that I always dreamed I'd have," she said.
"I've only got fond memories of it and that's exactly what I wanted."
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