BREAKING OUT OF THE MOULD: DE-TRAUMATIZING BIRTH
There is a lot of fear surrounding birth, unforutunately this is something that is often portrayed and perpertuated by the media. How does a huge baby come out of such a tiny hole in a woman's body? It's such an unbelievable act. Yet they do, time and time again!
The field of perinatal psychology indicates that women show a tendency to automatically give birth in the same way that they themselves were born - for better or for worse, unless they have sought to understand their inner world and develop a strong grounding in their body and work through psycological issues.
Sometimes complications arise in labour due to traumatic memories or physical or emotional injuries that have been stored in the cellular body from the past and are largely unknown by the conscious mind, yet become triggered by the powerful currents of labour.
Giving birth is a psychosexual experience and it is primal. It is a natural reflex primarily governed by the limbic system, which is also known as the mammalian brain or emotional brain - and also the reptilian brain or base brain which is evolutionarily the oldest part that we share with other reptiles. Many people carry trauma in their body from past experiences. This can be a result of something obvious and tangible such as historical sexual abuse, or it can be an intangible fear that lurks beneath the surface of daily life and has the affect of acting like an 'inner glass ceiling' - it just niggles us and affects our sense of self-expression and creativity. That is also a kind of trauma or frozen-ness. Wounds of the past, when left unprocessed affect emotional development and result in unsafe feelings and coping strategies that can cause harm to ourselves and others. Panic, powerlessness, a sense of defeat all the way over to defensiveness, attacking and fits of rage on the other side of the spectrum. Often there is re-parenting work to do with ourselves and in intimate partnerships where trust has been lost - with others, to enable those parts of us to feel safe to recover, grow up and integrate into our more secure adult selves.
For some women, giving birth in hospital is a safe option. It gives them comfort to know that should any problems arise, they will have immediate medical action. Some women find however that the unfamiliar environment can make them feel alienated within an experience that they should be the center of. It can begin with unfamiliar people, bright lights, the pace at which people move and arguably, the attitudes of those present. Everyone who is present at the birth will have their own attitudes about birth, which impact the mother at best positively, at worst can completely undermine her experience. The attitudes of others can cause a number of things can happen in the body and brain which take a woman out of her innermost state of alignment which make her more vulnerable than she already is.
Notably the amygdala - a structure deep in the limbic system whose job is to scan for danger, alerts the fight or flight response. Surges of adrenaline and cortisol triggered by the hippocampus then cause the cervix to clamp down shut which is very useful for a birthing animal in the wild when a predator is on the scene and it's only hope of survival is to escape from the scene. But this reaction to can be very problematic in hospital when labour slows down due to the mothers base brain's perception of danger. Hospitals have protocols regarding duration of birth. Some labours naturally take longer than the allotted time. Such restrictions can cause a birthing woman to be vulnerable to medical intervention which could have been prevented. In this case just described, the most likely outcome would be the administration of synthetic oxytocin, which causes contractions to be more painful and last longer as they affect the natural balance of hormones in the body. Due to the additional pain, the labouring woman will likely require an epidural to help her cope with the additional pain and because it is harder to give birth when you can't feel anything, she may end up having a caesarian to her dismay, when what she really wanted was to have a natural birth and given an atmosphere of support and encouragement, she could have managed it. Many women's stories of a difficult birth reflect a regretful wish that they could have had more information, had thought to ask for other options or asked to wait before accepting an intervention. The shock caused by an unexpected cascade of interventions, impacts both mother and baby greatly. It can cause problems in bonding and attachment, breastfeeding, post-natal depression for the mother and long term psychological affects in the newborn as concluded by Dr William Emerson in his publication: ' Birth Trauma: the Psychological effects of obstetrical interventions'.
Giving birth can be a most profound psychosexual experience. Shiela Kitzinger - Birth anthropologist - in her new book Birth and Sex discusses how birth has been de-sexed in order to be managed by modern medicine as left to it's own devices, the energy of labour is quite out of control. She speaks of the unbridled passionate energy of labour:
"Birth is like huge tidal waves, the sweep of the wind, the cycle of night and day and the spinning of the planets. We need to explore what it is that makes a woman free to let creative forces sweep through her. How does it feel when we are in control. It is to be free to let go. Empowerment is not something that one person can be hand to another. What does it mean to be empowered? And how are women disempowered?"
The feeling of being out of control in labour is perfectly normal and can cause many women to feel terrified, yet when they surrender through the fear, rather than resist it, labour usually continues unobstructed.
The Birth Into Being work has been developed over 25 years by it's founder Elena Vladimorova, to help prevent history from repeating and enable women to discover the inner strength that will sustain them through the waters of childbirth. It is also for women who wish to resolve past difficult birth experiences.
The continuous support of a partner who is not afraid of intense energies or a trusted friend or doula enables many women to give birth in a passionate and loving way, free from trauma.
There is a lot of fear surrounding birth, unforutunately this is something that is often portrayed and perpertuated by the media. How does a huge baby come out of such a tiny hole in a woman's body? It's such an unbelievable act. Yet they do, time and time again!
The field of perinatal psychology indicates that women show a tendency to automatically give birth in the same way that they themselves were born - for better or for worse, unless they have sought to understand their inner world and develop a strong grounding in their body and work through psycological issues.
Sometimes complications arise in labour due to traumatic memories or physical or emotional injuries that have been stored in the cellular body from the past and are largely unknown by the conscious mind, yet become triggered by the powerful currents of labour.
Giving birth is a psychosexual experience and it is primal. It is a natural reflex primarily governed by the limbic system, which is also known as the mammalian brain or emotional brain - and also the reptilian brain or base brain which is evolutionarily the oldest part that we share with other reptiles. Many people carry trauma in their body from past experiences. This can be a result of something obvious and tangible such as historical sexual abuse, or it can be an intangible fear that lurks beneath the surface of daily life and has the affect of acting like an 'inner glass ceiling' - it just niggles us and affects our sense of self-expression and creativity. That is also a kind of trauma or frozen-ness. Wounds of the past, when left unprocessed affect emotional development and result in unsafe feelings and coping strategies that can cause harm to ourselves and others. Panic, powerlessness, a sense of defeat all the way over to defensiveness, attacking and fits of rage on the other side of the spectrum. Often there is re-parenting work to do with ourselves and in intimate partnerships where trust has been lost - with others, to enable those parts of us to feel safe to recover, grow up and integrate into our more secure adult selves.
For some women, giving birth in hospital is a safe option. It gives them comfort to know that should any problems arise, they will have immediate medical action. Some women find however that the unfamiliar environment can make them feel alienated within an experience that they should be the center of. It can begin with unfamiliar people, bright lights, the pace at which people move and arguably, the attitudes of those present. Everyone who is present at the birth will have their own attitudes about birth, which impact the mother at best positively, at worst can completely undermine her experience. The attitudes of others can cause a number of things can happen in the body and brain which take a woman out of her innermost state of alignment which make her more vulnerable than she already is.
Notably the amygdala - a structure deep in the limbic system whose job is to scan for danger, alerts the fight or flight response. Surges of adrenaline and cortisol triggered by the hippocampus then cause the cervix to clamp down shut which is very useful for a birthing animal in the wild when a predator is on the scene and it's only hope of survival is to escape from the scene. But this reaction to can be very problematic in hospital when labour slows down due to the mothers base brain's perception of danger. Hospitals have protocols regarding duration of birth. Some labours naturally take longer than the allotted time. Such restrictions can cause a birthing woman to be vulnerable to medical intervention which could have been prevented. In this case just described, the most likely outcome would be the administration of synthetic oxytocin, which causes contractions to be more painful and last longer as they affect the natural balance of hormones in the body. Due to the additional pain, the labouring woman will likely require an epidural to help her cope with the additional pain and because it is harder to give birth when you can't feel anything, she may end up having a caesarian to her dismay, when what she really wanted was to have a natural birth and given an atmosphere of support and encouragement, she could have managed it. Many women's stories of a difficult birth reflect a regretful wish that they could have had more information, had thought to ask for other options or asked to wait before accepting an intervention. The shock caused by an unexpected cascade of interventions, impacts both mother and baby greatly. It can cause problems in bonding and attachment, breastfeeding, post-natal depression for the mother and long term psychological affects in the newborn as concluded by Dr William Emerson in his publication: ' Birth Trauma: the Psychological effects of obstetrical interventions'.
Giving birth can be a most profound psychosexual experience. Shiela Kitzinger - Birth anthropologist - in her new book Birth and Sex discusses how birth has been de-sexed in order to be managed by modern medicine as left to it's own devices, the energy of labour is quite out of control. She speaks of the unbridled passionate energy of labour:
"Birth is like huge tidal waves, the sweep of the wind, the cycle of night and day and the spinning of the planets. We need to explore what it is that makes a woman free to let creative forces sweep through her. How does it feel when we are in control. It is to be free to let go. Empowerment is not something that one person can be hand to another. What does it mean to be empowered? And how are women disempowered?"
The feeling of being out of control in labour is perfectly normal and can cause many women to feel terrified, yet when they surrender through the fear, rather than resist it, labour usually continues unobstructed.
The Birth Into Being work has been developed over 25 years by it's founder Elena Vladimorova, to help prevent history from repeating and enable women to discover the inner strength that will sustain them through the waters of childbirth. It is also for women who wish to resolve past difficult birth experiences.
The continuous support of a partner who is not afraid of intense energies or a trusted friend or doula enables many women to give birth in a passionate and loving way, free from trauma.