Home Birth Advice - Lancashire

Practical Home Birth Advice

Lancashire Teaching Hospitals:

"Planned home birth is associated with good outcomes when women are healthy and their pregnancies have been free of problems. Many women have said that they feel more relaxed and in control in their own homes where the ability to move around freely can reduce the need for strong pain killers"


Adobe 9.5 is needed with the following link.

Lancashire Home Birth

Antenatal Classes, Blackpool, Lytham & Preston

Relaxation Classes

Antenatal birth preparation and practice is the key to achieving a positive birth experience.

There are excellent locally run NHS and NCT classes which address many practical elements of pregnancy and birth such as bathing and feeding your baby. 

Traditional parentcraft classes also address the medicalised side of birth - such as hospital policy, pain relief options, and give you the opportunity to look around the hospital facilities.

Non-Medicalised Birth

Natal Hypnotherapy™ offers a natural alternative to pain relief.

If you choose we can give you the tools and techniques to give birth without drugs and embrace a natural birthing experience.

Natal Hypnotherapy™ can be used no matter how your birth happens.

If things don't go exactly as you planned Natal Hypnotherapy™ will give you the confidence to make decisions as your birth unfolds and feel empowered by your experience.

Hypnobirthing Lancashire

Lancashire Self-Hypnosis for Birth Trials

 

Dr Soo Downe at the University of Central Lancashire is running SHIP Trials (Self-Hypnosis for Intrapartum Pain management).

Summary of Hypnosis Trials

 

"Self-hypnosis is a way of training the mind and body to experience things differently.

It usually involves listening to a voice on a tape or CD which gives hints and suggestions about how to change unhelpful ways of thinking.

By listening to the CD regularly the belief is that the listener will ‘absorb’ the suggestions and their experience will change. 

It is sometimes used by health professionals to help people give up smoking or to reduce their fear of flying. 

Recent studies have shown that self-hypnosis can be used successfully to treat the pain associated with chronic gastro-intestinal complaints like Irritable Bowel Syndrome and Crohn’s Disease.

In this study we would like to find out if self-hypnosis could help women to deal with the pain associated with labour and childbirth.

Our theory is that if women feel more relaxed and in control during labour then they are less likely to experience intense pain and less likely to need medical assistance or even surgery. 

So far there have been few studies conducted in this area and most of them have been small or of poor quality. 

However, the results have been encouraging and we would like to find out if this would be an effective way of providing pain relief to pregnant women in the UK."


The proposed completion date for these trials was June 2013 so results should be expected into the public domain soon.

'Just Relax'

The following article was published by the telegraph at the time the trial started.

"A new trial into ‘hypnobirthing’ will assess whether women can give birth happily without painkillers. But will expectant mothers will ever forgo the epidural and learn to 'just relax'"

Hypnobirthing Lancashire

The Results

The SHIP trial should give an excellent clinical insight into the effectiveness of self-hypnosis. It should be noted that antenatal classes such as Natal Hypnotherapy™ and Hypnobirthing give much more than hypnosis alone.

Natal Hypnotherapy ™

 

Hypnosis for birth is just one powerful element included in Natal Hypnotherapy™. The course teaches many other tools and techniques for managing birth and labour - thus empowering a woman to have a positive birth experience.

For more information see Natal Hypnotherapy™

Perfect, Natural Birth

Kate Middleton - Natural Birth

"Kate Middleton, 31, is said to be happy that the birth went without a hitch – and she was able to give birth naturally.

"She spoke to some of her best girlfriends after the birth and described the birth as perfect," a source told Vanity Fair.

“She said it was straightforward and there were no complications. She wanted a natural birth and she was so happy she was able to have one.” Yahoo Lifestyle.

Without Pain Relief

 

It is also said that Kate managed her 11 hour labour without pain relief. Hollywood Life.

Her secret must be 'Hypnosis for Birth'


Natural Birth

Without Pain Relief

Animal Instincts for Birth

Birthing like a Panda...

Love this article by Milli Hill as Edinburgh Zoo await the birth of the UK's first giant panda.


"It's interesting to read about the lengths the zoo team has gone to to ensure a positive and successful birth for Tian Tian. She has a specially created nesting box, and her enclosure has been lined with extra insulation to keep out noise and ensure she won't be disturbed. Staff have also installed dark blinds to offer her privacy and minimum light, and since the weekend, the panda area has been closed to visitors.



It's funny how we understand so well what birthing mammals need – be they giant pandas or our pet cats and dogs. When they're in labour, we keep our distance, and let them have quiet, darkness and no interruptions. We know that it's vital that we don't frighten or disturb them. We trust that they know what they're doing, and we leave them to it.

Contrast this to your average human birth. A brightly lit, unfamiliar room. A narrow bed, surrounded by unidentified machinery, wires, plugs and equipment. Strangers come and go, sometimes talking about time or danger, or their plans for the weekend. Unfamiliar hands touch us, and stern voices tell us what to do next: "Breathe!", "Wait!" or "PUSH!".

To put it bluntly – you wouldn't treat an animal like this! And yet this is how many women in western hospitals are expected to deliver their babies"

To read the full article see link below:

Pandas

Home or Hospital Birth Preston, Lancashire

Giving birth in Preston

Lancashire Teaching Hospital have their own guidance on helping you decide whether you would prefer a home or hospital Birth if you are in the Preston area.

"All women are entitled to reach their own decisions about how and where to give birth, with the benefit of midwifery or medical advice."

 

 

 

See link below

Giving birth in Preston Hospital or Home

Cumbria Hypnobirthing Story

I had my baby under Hypnosis

This article looks at Dr Kelly Woodcock from Wigton in Cumbria, who claims the first hypnobirth in the UK.

"Having lived in a Africa for four years I had seen women give birth naturally and was keen for a similar birth myself. I lived in a remote village in Tanzania, working for a forest conservation group and doing research for my PhD, and I remember seeing an old lady coming out of a mud hut with a newborn baby. I hadn't heard any screaming or shouting beforehand and it made me think perhaps childbirth need not be as painful as people here make out."

To read Kelly's full story see:

Cumbria Hypnobirth Story