Hi, I’m Carolyn. Mother, midwife, nurse and childbirth educator running the Hypnobirthing Australia™ Positive Birth Program at Let’s Talk Birth Townsville.
As a Hypnobirthing practitioner, I work closely with birthing women and their partners. Most commonly, women seek out my services because they have a desire, or at least a moderate interest in physiological birth. Physiological birth being the uninhibited and uninterrupted hormonal process of labour and birth initiated by the readiness of the baby and controlled by the mother and baby’s unique dynamics. I also see many women who have experienced a traumatic birth in the past and are seeking a different experience for themselves and their baby this time.
One of the cornerstones of my childbirth education program is the teaching around physiological pain and the necessary work of labour. I work with women and their partners to reconceptualised labour pain and the shift the focus from a desire for a ‘pain-free’ birth, to a confidence in their innate ability to work through normal, physiological pain. The process of physiological labour and birth relies completely on a cascade of interconnected hormonal processes, heavy influenced by the willingness of the birthing mother to surrender to the process that is unfolding within her, and the ability of her care providers to confidently support her through the work.
Women who are able to lean in to their birthing instincts, move, vocalise, and surrender. They reach peaks in their endurance and emotional capacity and also revel in the lull and sublime rest that come with the ebb and flow physiological labour. Women consumed by fear and anxiety, through a lack of knowledge, trust and awareness of their capability, are more likely to rely on their pain-avoiding instincts to guide their behaviour. These instincts tell us to recoil, tense, withdraw and brace against painful stimuli. Helpful in the instance of accidently touching a hot oven, but not at all helpful in labour. In tensing our muscles, drawing UP and AWAY from a process that is inherently trying to move everything DOWN, we create a feedback loop resulting in pain, causing fear, resulting in tension within the body, culminating in more pain as two forces work against each other. Fear and pain experienced as ‘unbearable’ results in outward suffering, women who are ‘suffering’ usually want to be saved and those around them want to be the saviours. It is inevitable that one intervention in labour and birth will lead to another, some benign, some not so much. Some interventions will have a big impact on the course of the labour and some will not. But for the woman wanting a physiological birth, interventions, particularly chemical pain relief, WILL alter the hormonal cascade and WILL impact the physiological process one way or another.
Little caveat here; I am talking about normal, healthy, physiological labour and birth and the normal, healthy, productive pain that accompanies it. I am referring to healthy women and healthy babies experiencing birth in the absence of any pathology or deviations to the normal progress. Of course, medical intervention is necessary in some cases, and thank goodness we live in a time and place where we have access to outstanding medical care should the need for intervention arise.
“In tensing our muscles, drawing UP and AWAY from a process that is inherently trying to move everything DOWN, we create a feedback loop resulting in pain, causing fear, resulting in tension within the body, culminating in more pain as
two forces work against each other.”
— Carolyn Cornell
Ok……. moving on
Now not all women desire a physiological birth. Some women are perfectly happy with a limited understanding of labour and birth. Are very happy to stay in their ‘pain-avoiding’ mindset (thank you very much!). They are willing to accept pain relief and intervention, accepting of the necessary further interventions that come with it. For these women I say, ‘More power to you!
You do you. You DO NOT need to justify your decisions to anyone’. No one has the right to determine what a positive birth looks like for someone else. But, for the woman who desires a physiological birth, who wants to experience the innate wisdom of her body, who wants the benefit of the hormonal cascade of labour uninhibited by outside influences and who wishes to experience the exquisite ‘love bomb’ of oxytocin as her baby is born and all the benefits that come with it.
These women, I am talking to you. Hypnobirthing is not about a ‘pain-free’ birth experience. Pain or ‘sensation’ free is not the aim, it never should have been the aim. So let’s work to reframe that. The goal of a physiological birth is for the woman to feel completely supported, to have a carefully selected support circle around her, able to hold her through the peaks and trust her in the troughs. The woman wishing for a physiological birth needs to be informed. She must understand the importance of her physical environment and the power of the right mindset. The act of a physiological birth is not dangerous, it is in fact inherently safe, through tweaks and adjustments over centuries of evolution. The tricky part in all this is for the modern woman who wishes for a physiological birth to accept the inevitable pain of labour. To re-learn the art of surrender and to ensure she has enlisted the right people to allow her to experience her true capabilities. To birth her baby powerfully and uninhibited and revel in the exquisite love cocktail that follows. To feel completely confident on her unique path into parenthood.
Carolyn x