Category: Hypnobirthing

THE HYPNOSIS OF THE LECLAIRE METHOD

The center of the Leclaire Method is to keep the mind out of the body’s way so that the body can do its work, and this requires psychological, spiritual, and emotional preparation. Once some of that work has been done, you can let go and allow yourself to be hypnotized, making your labor easy and nearly pain free. Hypnosis for labor and birth is a state of deep concentration of your mind and deep relaxation of your body, which permits the easy passage of your baby through your gradually widening birth canal. Your mind and body can do amazing things, and when we take the time to observe and remain mindful of what they can do, we can harness that power to give the baby a magic carpet ride from womb to mother’s arms. For these reasons, I hope you’ll take the time to learn these techniques of hypnosis for pregnancy and labor.

The word hypnosis derives from the name of the Greek god of sleep, Hypno. It conveys the idea of the ease and rest of sleep, of letting go and allowing the body to do its natural work. Hypnosis also enhances the progress of your labor and allows you to positively participate and calmly assist in the birth of your baby.

With hypnosis, you can easily get through labor without chemical anesthesia. The choice is always yours, of course: You may ask for and receive drugs if you like. Be aware, though, that new evidence indicates that children of mothers who receive opiate derivatives during labor have a higher incidence of drug abuse later in life. In contrast, mothers who experience severe pain and feel out of control can later in life experience an increase in suicidal ideation. In contrast, hypnosis gives you full control.

The Leclaire Method of preparation is the best anesthetic for optimal short- and long-term benefits of pain relief and continued emotional serenity for both mother and baby. The hypnosis of the Leclaire Method offers demedicalization of labor and birth by creating a natural physical anesthesia in the mother. This allows her natural and instinctive ability to birth her baby to become manifest. Hypnosis also allows the mother to move about freely in a comfortable, natural manner. She is able to change her position as needed, which in turn increases her comfort and facilitates the progress of her baby’s birth.

It is important for you to begin preparing for birth by playing your Hypnosis and Pregnancy tape (see Store in this website to place your order) throughout your pregnancy. Practice will increase your confidence in your ability to imagine desired outcomes and to relax deeply. By preparing early in pregnancy, you will foster your expectancy for a comfortable, easy pregnancy, labor, and birth.

The Leclaire Method is your baby’s inherent way to come into your world, and it is your inherent right to believe that you can have a healthy, comfortable birth. You do not have to learn how to birth comfortably. You only have to be allowed to do what is the nature of your body-that is, to progress through labor unrestrained by chemical anesthesia, unrestrained by confinement to bed, unrestrained by continuous electronic fetal monitoring, unrestrained by the beliefs of the medical culture. All you need to do is to remember, silently, to reconnect to your nature. It is your body’s nature to know how to respond to your contractions, and it is the nature of your body to know when to push. If chemical anesthesia or the direction of others (except in a medical emergency) takes away your sensations, you are not honoring yourself. We have the right to vote; we have the right to work; we must now have the right to squat and move about freely during labor and to follow our bodies’ instinctive wisdom to know when to push. Hypnosis is your baby’s easy way out.

More next week.

 

While meditation may be defined as emptying the mind to make space for our inner self to speak to us, or clearing the mind of clutter, there are other ways to use the power of our minds. One way is through imagery. Imagery could be defined as a formalized approach to daydreaming; we’ve all used it, whether we are aware of it or not. Have you ever found yourself smiling as you think of a pleasant time you have had, for example? Have you had a very clear vision of the way you would decorate the baby’s room if money were no object? Both of these are forms of imagery. In the Leclaire Method, I have used imagery to help many women sort through and come to terms with negative thoughts or emotions about pregnancy, labor, birth, and motherhood.

Emotions and thoughts can have a profound effect on our bodies. Our emotions affect the flow of our blood, constricting or dilating our blood vessels. Likewise, our bodies can limit the expansion of our minds. Even if our minds want us to, we can’t necessarily “leap tall buildings in a single bound” or fly through the air, for example. If our bodies say stop, we can’t continue reading or working on mental challenges endlessly. We can’t memorize the encyclopedia. If our mind goes in one direction, then, will our body follow? If our mind does not want pain, how can we create that reality?

The goal is to become conscious of our behavior and thus to direct change and redirect our biological responses. I have observed that our unconscious reactions to our experiences are “habits.” It is necessary to redirect these habits at a time when we are not stuck in a situation, at a time when we are relaxed and are not pushed to alter our behavior at that very moment. The purpose of trying to change unhealthy mind/body responses during pregnancy is to allow for the free flow of blood supply to the brain and uterus and uborn.

Using imagery is one good way to do this. It seems that imagery can be used to train the autonomic nervous system so that its two branches do not act as antagonists. The first of these branches, the sympathetic nervous system, regulates the function of the body as a result of unconscious thoughts or involuntary or habitual reactions; it enables us to mobilize in reaction to emergency situations, creating the fight-or-flight syndrome we all have heard about. This system allows us to use our adrenaline instead of letting our adrenaline use us. It mobilizes our neuro-transmitters in a true emergency situation.

 

Aristotle wrote:

…emotions of any kind are produced by melody and rhythm; therefore by music a man becomes accustomed to feeling the right emotions; music has thus power to form character, and the various kinds of music based on the various modes may be distinguished by their effects on character – one, for example, working in the direction of melancholy, another of effeminacy; one encouraging abandonment; another self control, another enthusiasm, and so on through the series.

If the air vibrations of sound are capable of shattering glass and causing nausea and headache, it can perhaps also “soothe the savage…” of the unconscious and allow for a more relaxed and peaceful state of being, or as the Chinese stated, music can balance the vital energies.  Music is the midwife between the physical body and the spiritual self.  Therefore, it is advantageous to listen to music that elevates us to a state in which we want to be.  Since childbirth is miraculous and should be joyous, certainly we would not like to be influenced by the music of a mechanistic composer.  Rather, it would be beneficial to listen to music throughout pregnancy that is uplifting and reaching toward the sublime.

Much of the music of the twentieth century is mechanistic and materialistic.  Pregnancy and birthing have been handled in just such a manner.  Perhaps by moving towards sounds that are spiritual, we can reconnect to that aspect of the self.  We must place our own value on our experiences in life and not be manipulated by the mechanistic culture in which we live, just because it is expedient for the technicians who attend to us.  Perhaps to arrive at a resolution within our own self we should use all the tools that we can.  As our dreams tell us of our self, our center, our soul, so the music that we play can facilitate that journey.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony raises the question of worldliness and resolves it into the selection of that which is spiritual.  During the final trimester, why not fill the air with the five final string quartets of Beethoven?  Certainly these quartets can lead us to the joy and serenity and alignment of mind, body and spirit that is so imperative for an easy and joyous birthing.

The study of plant growth under certain kinds of music seems to reconcile the belief that music is objectively good for us or bad for us; that is, if we believe that the growth and proliferation of plants under the influence of Bach, and the withering and ultimate death of plants subjected to rock music, are inherently good and bad effects of music.  A similar study was done with rats that were placed in identical mazes with a connecting bridge to each.  When Bach was piped into the right maze and rock music into the left, all the rats hovered in the Bach box.  The music now reversed, and the rats scurried from the right rock box over to the new Bach box.  No one knows exactly what the rats felt, but it seems that they experienced some kind of pain when they heard rock and an absence of pain or perhaps pleasure or comfort when they heard and felt Bach.  It appears, then, that certain tunes are life enhancing, while certain other tonal combinations are detrimental to the life force.

A preliminary study has been executed with bacteria, finding that they die under some musical conditions and multiply under others.

If the joy of life comes with the alignment of mind, body and spirit, certainly music is the perfect vehicle for arriving at this joy.

Through the recommended music, your mind is engaged, thus concentration becomes automatic; the heart rate, regulated by the rhythm, reaches its natural state, and the sweetness of the music fills the heart with the tenderness appropriate for the miracle of birth.  The composition of the music also calls forth the spirit, thus bringing into play all of the aspects necessary to connect to the joy of life.  As Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun.  In each age we rediscover the same truths in a way in which they will be able to accommodate themselves into our society and our belief systems.  The ancient cultures felt that all disease was an imbalance and that music, in proper tonal combinations, was capable of healing all ills.  Through music one’s entire being can be exalted, and therein lies the fulfillment of life.

When a society lives in a certain condition for a long length of time, that condition becomes an unconscious way of life.  Pain and childbirth and anguish in it have been imposed upon women of our Western culture for a long, long time.  For many women, to have a pain-free childbirth is a dream, a complete unreality.  Many women want to get out of that belief system, but are holding on to it in some part of their unconscious.

Disharmony can cause illness and pain, thus it is harmony that provides the cure.  Perhaps the saying, “as in music, so in life,” can come to pass.  It may be difficult to change our belief systems overnight, but the peace, serenity and harmony provided by “good” music is automatic.

For the past 6 years we have been recommending Gregorian Chant to be played throughout the second and third stage of labor.  The more intense the rhythmic risings (formerly known as contractions) the lower the volume.  Our evidence based program shows that labor is much easier and the “Gregorian Chant Babies” are the most blissful.  We use it in conjunction with the Leclaire Original Hypnobirthing Method.

 

“Bringing Peace to the World One Baby at a Time”

          “I despise a world which does not intuitively feel that music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.”                          Ludwig Von Beethoven

            The Egyptians felt that music affected humans both by creating a physical sensation and by arousing a mental state somewhat similar to enchantment.  The Chinese felt that music had a magical influence and was able to sustain Universal Harmony.  They also felt, however, that if used improperly it could influence so greatly that it could destroy the harmony.  To create harmony of mind, body and spirit, the ancients used music.  Many cultures used music for healing, and the ancient Greeks honored Apollo as both the god of healing and of music.  In the Old Testament we learn that it is the playing of musical instruments that heals King Saul’s psychotic depression.

Just as pain requires awareness and attention, so does sound.  When we hear a sound, it also has a memory component to it.  In the background I now hear chirping birds, a flute and guitar sonata on my stereo, some vague carpentry sounds, and my dog licking herself constantly.  Each of these sounds affects me physically, emotionally and spiritually.  The birds make me clear-headed and relaxed; the music uplifts me and fulfills some of my spiritual needs; the carpentry, as it is in the distance, arouses a very pleasant and soothing memory of a childhood summer long gone.  Molly, the dog, constantly licking herself, is, fortunately, mostly in the background.  When I attend to it and it becomes foreground, I become irritated, and my breathing becomes more rapid, and I am unable to concentrate.

The purpose of using music during pregnancy and in preparation for labour and birthing are:  Certain kinds of music relax us physiologically and help us to focus on the present in a positive way.  It is this music that we use during pregnancy – the long, slow movements of the baroque concertos.  When played in conjunction with deep relaxation, the largo movements create a memory pathway that we now automatically associate with physiological relaxation and positive emotional feelings.  This music is aesthetically very pleasing, and it is also spiritually fulfilling.  Thus, it enhances the alignment process of mind, body and spirit, which is essential for a joyous and pain-free birth.

While the body is in a deep state of relaxation, the music enables the mind to concentrate on the task at hand.  The mind/body is thus able to function at maximum efficiency, with the brain waves being maintained between 7 and 13 C.P.S. (cycles per second) (alpha wave).

The combination of this state and the music can facilitate the flow of energy throughout the body, thus eliminating the emotional stress and rear that can cause pain.

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Track 03 – Mass XII_ Credo VI (Mode 4)
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Read more: Part 2: Gregorian Chant Babies

Begin by doing the simple meditation described in the previous exercise once a week, and increase gradually until you are meditating six days a week for twenty minutes a day. Write out a schedule for yourself. Make the goals easier to meet than not to meet. Do not set yourself up for failure. We human beings change slowly. Respect who you are. Make your goals measurable and doable.

Here is a sample goal chart.

My Meditation Goals

Week 1:  I will meditate Saturday at 4 p.m. for five minutes. I’ll turn phone off.

Week 2:  I will meditate Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. for ten minutes. I’ll turn phone off.

Week 3:  Same as week 2.

Week 4:  I will meditate Wednesday before dinner for twenty minutes; Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. for twenty minutes. I’ll turn phone off.

Week 5:  Same as week 4.

Week 6:  Same as week 5.

Week 7:  I will meditate Monday before dinner, Wednesday before dinner, Saturday and Sunday at 4 p.m. for twenty minutes. I will turn phone off.

Week 8:  Same as week 7.

Week 9:  Same as week 8.

 

 

The purpose of observing your breath is to keep you in the now. Your body knows exactly how to breathe, even during labor. All you need to do is be mindful of your breath. Observe it and observe it and continue to observe it. Continue to receive the next breath. Your jaw will relax. Your hands will relax. This practice of observing your breath will benefit your labor when you reach it. Using the breath to calm yourself will seem like second nature by then and you and your support person can use it to remain calm and focused.

 

This is all you need to do when you meditate. Many feelings will arise when you begin to focus on your breath. It’s okay. Feel them. They, too, will pass. Continue to focus on your breath.