Hypnosis is a state of deep mental and physical relaxation that enables the hypnotized person to focus intensely on a thought or feeling, blocking outside distractions. In childbirth hypnosis programs, women and their partners are also taught a new vocabulary to describe labor and birth, to break the traditional association of birth with pain. The evidence appeared to suggest that the use of hypnobirthing: improved ischaemic pain thresholds (pain tolerance), less used analgesia & epidural, decreases labour times in first and second stage, less complication, less surgical intervention, increases spontaneous deliveries, improved APGAR score and shorter hospital stay.
The used of hypnotherapy in pregnancy and childbirth (hypnobirthing) has been practiced for more than a century. However, a concise definition that accurately reflects the hypnotic experience remains elusive. Hypnosis appears to encompass altered states of consciousness, such as daydreaming, meditation or intense concentration, resulting in the failure of normally perceived experiences reaching conscious awareness.
Keyword: hypnobirthing, pain, analgesia, childbirth