“But if it’s so simple, why don’t we hear more about it?”
- Article ecrit par Marie-Anne Oswald
“But if it’s so simple, why don’t we hear more about it?”
This question, I am regularly asked in session, especially during childbirth preparations with hypnosis.
By dint of conditioning, we have forgotten that giving birth to a child is a natural act regulated like all our vital functions by the law of evolution.
Our body is an extraordinary machine that has an innate capacity to regulate itself. When you cut yourself, you don’t need to think about which cells to activate for your body to heal and repair itself. Even when you break your arm, all you have to do is immobilize the bone to give the body room to do its work on its own.
How could it be possible, then, that the most important function for the protection and preservation of the human species, namely the ability to give birth naturally, should fail and require medical intervention at all costs?
What is not talked about, or too little, is that the majority of women in the world give birth naturally and that if medicine has made it possible to reduce the birth rate, it is above all by improving hygiene conditions, not by assisting women.
During childbirth, the body naturally secretes endorphins – endogenous morphine that is much more powerful than synthetic morphine – to allow the uterine muscles to contract extraordinarily strongly in order to deliver the baby.
What blocks endorphin production? Stress, fears associated with childbirth, horrific tales of tearing and other complications that sneak into the pregnant woman’s subconscious and become self-fulfilling prophecies…
Because under stress, the muscles retract and block the descent of the baby and thus lead to an unleashing of complications – induction, episiotomy, forceps, suction cups, caesarean section… events as traumatic for the woman as for the baby, which in many cases could be avoided.
Giving birth naturally is not a question of mental strength but of trusting your resources, your body, your baby AND of preparing yourself with the right resources – the ability to regulate stress and the secretion of endorphins.