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Common Questions and

 Myths About calmbirth®

 

1.     We don’t need to teach breathing, women know how to breathe.

True. But science suggests that conscious, controlled breathing alters the chemicals in the body in a positive way. Candice Pert explains it this way in her book “Molecules of Emotion”

“The techniques employed by both the yogi and the woman in labour are extremely powerful.  There is a wealth of data showing that changes in the rate and depth of breathing produce changes in the quantity and kind of peptides that are released from the brain stem and since many of these peptides are endorphins, the body’s natural opiates as well as other pain relieving substances you soon achieve a reduction of pain.  So it is no wonder that so many modalities both ancient and new have discovered the power of controlled breathing.  The peptide respiratory link is well documented; virtually any peptide found anywhere else can be found in the respiratory centre. This substrate may provide the scientific rationale for the powerful healing effects of consciously controlled breathing patterns” (Pert1997 p186 – 187)

Describing her own birthing experiences, Candace Pert recalls...

“I had chosen to do it my own way when after one high tech, heavily drugged hospital delivery, and a second natural childbirth, again in the environment of a hospital (which required me to fight off a constant barrage of unnatural interventions).  I decided to have my third child at home. My magic bullet had been breathing, which is a sure fire, proven strategy for releasing endorphins and quelling pain.

Obviously, this is what previous generations of women, in the days before IV drips and synthetic pain medication, had relied upon.  Both they and their babies must have been better off for the experience as I certainly felt myself to be.” (Pert 1997 p 167)

2.    Does calmbirth® work for everyone?

calmbirth® is a model of interaction. In a sense “IT” does not work. Rather it is the pregnant couples who understand how marvellously the mother’s body is designed, who develop the confidence to work with their birth process rather than resist it and finally, to eliminate  fear these are the couples who are more likely to create a birth experience unforgettably joyful, calm and even ecstatic.

We are so used to saying “the epidural worked or the medication worked”   The reality is that all those things help the person to achieve their goal.

 

3.   There is an emphasis on taking away the pain, are we are setting women up to    fail?

 

In the calmbirth® classes the pregnant couple explore one of the main reasons why pain is created in the first place. In the basic information imparted to the pregnant couples and the skills taught, the sensations of labour can be seen more in their true light as muscle sensation albeit intense at times. Couples are able to distinguish between hard work and pain. They are reassured that no matter what path their labour and birth take, there are no failures, just different birth journeys just as there are different life journeys. Even if unforseen circumstances arise, the skills taught in the classes assist the couple to remain calm and focused and bring out of that experience the joy of bringing their baby into the world.

 

4.   A woman needs to feel the pain to be empowered and feel like she has achieved something.

 

There are many bodies of knowledge relating to the experiences of childbirth and its physical manifestations. To experience pain and be empowered by it is one approach. However our experience of speaking to calmbirth® mothers demonstrate that a woman does not have to feel pain to be empowered in childbirth.  These mothers who have birthed their babies show that the techniques learned in the calmbirth® classes can be instrumental in the release of endorphins, oxytocin and other pain relieving substances in the body  which result in a birthing experience that is calm, joyful and ecstatic. Some of the comments from the mothers after their labour and birth have been: “I was sad when it was over” and “I can’t wait to do it again”.

 

Doctor Sarah Buckley states that peak levels on birthing hormones can take the mother into ecstasy so that they enter motherhood awakened and transformed. (Buckley, 2003 p 262)

 

5.   calmbirth® women take too long in Second Stage.

 

This concept has its origin in the Active Management of Labour given to us by a group of Irish doctors in 1970s. Their belief was that every mother’s labour and birth has to fit within a certain time frame. This belief was carried on and is still very much in evidence in many of the maternity hospitals throughout the western world. A number of calmbirth® mothers have reported that when labouring in the hospital birthing suite their labour was disrupted by a midwife insisting on them inappropriately  “pushing” when if fact they did not feel the urge to do so.

 

The old and all too familiar scene is one of a pushing, panting and a fatigued mother being instructed to take a deep breath and hold it as long as possible whilst bearing down. It was expected that the mother would be working extremely hard, getting very hot and going purple in the face.  It is often referred to as purple pushing.

 

Scientific evidence shown in the 1980's has to a certain extent been disregarded. This evidence showed that the second stage of labor is not dangerous for the baby but actually helps to stimulate the baby’s digestive, eliminatory and respiratory systems. Pushing, in fact, can be dangerous to both the mother and the baby. When a woman is pushing she is holding her breath. Oxygen therefore is not going to her uterus which makes contraction more difficult and painful. It is also not going to her baby. This can lead to a drop in the baby’s heart rate and fetal distress.

 

Of course, this isn't to say that if a woman has the urge to push, she ignore the feeling. But certainly, she shouldn't feel she has to just because she's been told that this is the way babies are born. Birth is a creative act, and like all creative acts it cannot conform to society's unnatural time constraints. The insistence that pushing is necessary in labor is simply a reflection of our cultural attitude that force and haste are superior to trust and patience.

 

As long as the mother and baby are monitored and all is well, both should be left to “allow” the birth to happen rather than "make” it happen.

 6.        What are the differences between the calmbirth® programme and HypnoBirthing®?

 History

 

Peter Jackson brought the HypnoBirthing® programme to Australia in the late 1990s. He was the sole trainer of practitioners and built a private childbirth education practice in which he took hundreds of couples through the HypnoBirthing® programme. Many of these couples received great benefit from the programme. However, the name along with certain cultural aspects and content (namely the hypnosis element) of the HypnoBirthing® programme limited the number of couples interested in attending the classes.

 

Peter wanted to reach a wider range of Australian couples. He also believed the level of training given to practitioners needed to be of a much higher standard to equip them with the skills needed to confidently facilitate the classes.

 

In 2004 Peter left the HypnoBirthing® Institute in the USA and took time to write his own programme which he named “calmbirth®”

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calmbirth® is not an Australian version of HypnoBirthing®.

 

Each programme reflects the profession of its founder one being a midwife and the other a hypnotherapist.  Each has built on the work of contemporary science and subconscious mind therapy in different ways.

 

calmbirth® is an Australian childbirth preparation programme which was developed by Peter Jackson  in 2005. Peter has worked in General, Psychiatric and Midwifery disciplines of nursing since 1970. During the greater part of this time, Peter worked as a registered midwife assisting hundreds of birthing mothers. He is also a Private Subconscious Mind Therapist. He has developed calmbirth® from his years of study and experience in these fields.

 

The HypnoBirthing® programme is a programme written and founded in the USA in the 1980’s by Marie Mongan, a hypnotherapist who developed the programme firstly, by drawing on her own birthing experiences and subsequent training as a counsellor and hypnotherapist. 

 

The Programme

Dr Grantly Dick Read’s Fear – Tension – Pain syndrome forms part of the foundation of both programmes however the subsequent contemporary science as perceived by each founder is expressed in different ways.

 

HypnoBirthing® was developed to teach couples self hypnosis techniques to achieve a satisfying birth free of the fear that causes pain and discomfort.

 

calmbirth®  promotes the use of deep relaxation which is centred around the normal physiological relaxation response within the body. This is based on Dr Herbert Benson’s extensive research into what he terms the Relaxation Response.

 

Both programmes draw on different sources of contemporary authors and researches in dealing with the subject of Conscious Parenting, Bonding and Attachment.

 

Training of Practitioners / Educators

It is in this area that the two programmes vastly differ.

 

calmbirth® has been through the process of accreditation and is accredited by the    Natural Birth Education and Research Centre.

 

It is vitally important that registered calmbirth® practitioners have the foundation and support to facilitate their calmbirth® classes confidently and competently. A large number of resources have been put into the calmbirth® programme to facilitate this.

 

The calmbirth® training consists of three modules:  a pre reading module, a 5 day face to face seminar and a clinical module in which the students facilitate 3 calmbirth® classes with volunteer couples. These classes are evaluated by the calmbirth® student, and the volunteer couples in the form of a reflective paper written by the student and evaluation forms forwarded to calmbirth®. As well as this calmbirth® students are required to submit an open book review with the view to help students consolidate their learning.

 

A calmbirth® practitioner register has been set up with Standards and Codes of Practice. (www.calmbirthregister.com.au) Renewal of yearly registration as a calmbirth® practitioner is dependent on the practitioner fulfilling certain obligations e.g. on going education, legal obligations, abiding by codes and service of practice. 

 

HypnoBirthing® is not accredited by any independent body.

 

The HypnoBirthing® practitioner training consists of 4 days face to face lectures. The first two days are devoted to the subject of Hypnosis and is followed by two days which deals with running the HypnoBirthing® class programme. Students fill out an open book review and submit this to the HypnoBirthing Institute in the USA. Accreditation can take up to 6 months.

 

There is no HypnoBirthing® register and Australian practitioners are listed on the American HypnoBirthing website under geographical areas.

 

On going support for practitioners.

 

calmbirth®

calmbirth® students and registered practitioners are able to contact Peter Jackson by phone or email should the need arise.

 

Further support is available through the calmbirth® chat line, regular area practitioner meetings (which also include on going education) and an on line newsletter. 

 

HypnoBirthing®

All support comes from the USA with practitioners required to contact the founder by email or phone.

 

There is a HypnoBirthing® chat line available for practitioners which is  facilitated in the USA.

 

Advisory Committee.

 

calmbirth® has a voluntary advisory committee made up of experts in relevant fields who  contribute to continuing development of the calmbirth® programme.

 

HypnoBirthing® does have a Board based in the USA. All decisions are made by the founder of the programme.

 

 

 

References

 

 

Buckley, S.M.B., Ch.B..Dip Obst. Summer 2003, Undistured Birth; Nature’s Blueprint for Ease and Ecstacy, Journal on Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology and Health Vol 17, No 4 pp 261 – 288

 

Caldeyro-Barcia, R. M.D. Spring 1979, The Influence of Maternal Bearing-down Efforts during Second State on Fetal Well-being. Birth and the Family Journal Vol.6 p1

 

Grant,Jane, S.C.M. Jan 1987, Reassessing the Second Stage, Assoc of Chartered Physiotherapists in Obstetrics& Gynaecology Journal, No 60, pp 26-30

 

Odent, M.1999, the Scientification of Love, Free Association Books Ltd, London

Pert, C.B, 2003, Molecules of Emotion, Scribner, New York

Sagady, Mayr,June 8^th 2005, “Renewing Our Faith in Second Stage” The Second Stage Handbook. Midwifery To-day n-news Physiology of Second Stage.

 

Shanly, L. Don’t Push the River, It Flows by Itself  website: freebirth.com

 

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