How would a mother do that? Just meditate while baby comes through the birth canal? That can't be real, can it? Some women say, "Yes. That was my experience". Trusting birth is difficult in a culture that wants to promote fear and to make money on that fear.
People aren't really using laboring moms for that end, are they? When there is fear, fear itself, blocks the oxytocin, the hormone which promotes the receptors that provide pain numbing, and then the fight and flight hormones kick in. Baby's natural journey is stopped, while mother still is determined to have baby, and thus, there is a fight to birth, or not to birth. When there is tension, that is when pain takes over. So, yes, some people do experience pain. When in the hospital, it is easy to ask the mother if she'd like to have a pain killer or to augment labor. When these interventions happen, that is when the next birth cocktail is offered. Each intervention does cost money and the hospital does make money on the interventions that mother accepts.
There are some stories how women would work until birth, step into her birthing zone, have her baby and then step right back into the work force with baby on back or front. This was a culture where birth was not feared, but a natural part of life.
HypnoBirth(R) the Mongan way, is a series of 5 classes where the woman and her partner learn to know each other's cues and practice self meditating, through visualizations and music. The visualizations help parents be free of their preconceived fears. They learn non-verbal communication which promotes mother being in the birthing zone of focus and relaxation.
The classes cover options and choices that parents need to know about labor and after birth. The classes empower the parents to research, be in touch with each other's ideas and to determine their choices through information. Really, a person has no choice, if he does not have all the options.
Topics covered in a HypnoBirth class include, the physiology of natural childbirth, the philosophy of HypnoBirth, the Muscles that affect birth, the power of the mind, along with affirmations that prepare a person for the best possible outcome of birth, Nutrition, exercise, recognizing the onset of labor, breathing that assists the stages of labor, breastfeeding and other topics. Seeing some examples of HypnoBirths through video will be part of the experience.
If you are open to this journey, call and set up your classes, either in a group setting ( with friends) or as an individual couple. Learn to let the baby navigate the birth canal, and you just meditate.
Resources:
HypnoBirthing(R) the Mongan Method, by Marie F, Mongan
Gentle Birth Choices, by Barbara Harper
https://us.hypnobirthing.com/about/what-is-hypnobirthing-definition/
Childbirth Without Fear, by Grantly Dick-Read
Birth Reborn by Michel Odent