Birthworks | News

The world for the pregnant woman is one filled with excitement, anticipation, anxiety and, in many instances, a very real fear or trepidation, particularly for first timers. HypnoBirthing® is designed to alleviate the factors which cause fear, allowing you to birth your baby using your body’s natural, perfectly designed, and ultra-efficient muscles and pain relief to manage the process calmly and with minimal discomfort.

Understanding how pain occurs

At the onset of labour, all the senses mentioned above become heightened, and all too often, the fear responses take hold, and begin to govern the progress of the labour. In physiological terms, the body’s response to fear is to release adrenaline, causing muscles to tighten (the flight, fight or freeze response), and blood to divert to the major survival organs (of which the uterus is not one). Thus, the very muscles designed perfectly to birth your baby begin to work against each other and cause pain. The pain causes the body to release more adrenaline, and a cycle of pain-adrenaline-pain is triggered. Added to this, the lack of oxygen in the uterine muscles creates lactic acid, increasing the level of pain even further.

•               The way your body is supposed to work

In contrast, when a woman is excited and relaxed about meeting her baby, and she understands and trusts that her body is perfectly designed for the task, she releases endorphins, the body’s natural relaxant, at the onset of labour, which supplement the hormones specifically released to allow her to birth her baby easily. This powerful natural combination of endorphins (which help the muscles relax and are also 200 times more potent than morphine!) and hormones makes the birth an exhilarating and exciting process, rather than one filled with escalating pain and discomfort.

•               How HypnoBirthing® works for you

By using a range of simple self-hypnosis, breathing and relaxation techniques, from around 28 weeks of pregnancy, HypnoBirthing® mums are, with regular practice, able to reach a deep state of relaxation, allowing them to switch off the part of the mind which is responsible for triggering the adrenaline release. You’re in full control - the techniques produce an effect no different to the mild state of hypnosis experienced when you become engrossed in a good book, watch TV, daydream, or drive (ever got somewhere and not remembered parts of the journey?). The relaxation makes pregnancy easier and more enjoyable, and HypnoBirthed babies are on average significantly calmer and more relaxed infants.

•               HypnoBirthing® statistics speak for themselves

95% of women are capable of having a ‘comfortable’ birth without medical intervention; 70% of women that have used HypnoBirthing® used no pain relief at all; a further 15% used only something mild such as Entonox (gas and air).

HypnoBirthing® was founded by Marie Mongan in the late 1980s in the US and is now taught in 34 countries worldwide. Only practitioners affiliated with the HypnoBirthing® Institute (still run by Marie Mongan) are qualified to teach the course, of which there are now many generic versions.

•               How HypnoBirthing® worked for me

Our daughter Kiera was born in 2005 in hospital, after a fairly “typical” first labour - 14 hours, lots of shouting, stalling and screaming, all of which was exhausting and painful. I discovered HypnoBirthing® shortly after falling pregnant for the second time in 2007, and this time I was determined to have a more positive experience, and take control of the process. After learning the HypnoBirthing® methods, our son James was born, at home, in under 2 hours following a pain-free, drug-free labour. It was one of the most incredible experiences of my life and inspired me to train as a practitioner so that I could pass on what I had learned and experienced. I trained and qualified as a practitioner in the UK in 2008, and have been lucky enough to teach many mums who have all had wonderful birthing experiences.

I returned to Cape Town permanently at the beginning of Dec 2009 and founded ‘Beautifully Born’. I hope to help women in South Africa have comfortable, natural and fulfilling birth experiences, and offer a viable alternative to the “standard” labours that have for so long been the only way to bring children into the world.

For more details on HypnoBirthing® in Cape Town or to contact Kim visit www.beautifullyborn.co.za

The current US Health Care System is failing babies and families before, during and after birth. At this critical moment when the US government is re-envisioning our health care system, we are seizing the opportunity to make a 10-12 minute video not only to point out the flaws in the way we care for babies and families, but also to identify the keys to improved care. Our infant mortality ranking is 42nd on the world stage which means 41 countries have better statistics. This places us right in the middle of the following countries: Guam, Cuba, Croatia and Belarus, with over double the infant deaths compared to the top 10 countries of the world. (CIA World Factbook).

Our astronomically high African American infant mortality rate at 16 deaths per 1,000 is similar to countries such as Malaysia and the West Bank. Not only are babies dying needlessly, but the ones who survive this failing system are also often adversely affected by unnecessary procedures and separation from mother and family. Our intent with this video is to encourage policy makers to consider a health care system that holds prevention of these calamities as a high priority. The midwifery model of care for healthy low-risk women is a simple solution which addresses many of these issues simultaneously.

We are advocating for a health care system in which it will be standard procedure for mothers and babies to thrive and not merely survive through birth and early life. The midwifery model of care will save our health care system millions of dollars each year.

Reducing Infant Mortality from Debby Takikawa on Vimeo.

If you are employed and are going on Maternity leave, Birthworks has found a much needed service provider to assist you in your UIF maternity claims / payments.

The cost to you for this service is R400. Please click here to read the FAQ’s to ensure that you qualify for UIF claims and then contact vicky for the forms that need to be filled in.

The largest study of its kind has found that for low-risk women, giving birth at home is as safe as doing so in hospital with a midwife.

Research from the Netherlands - which has a high rate of home births - found no difference in death rates of either mothers or babies in 530,000 births.

Home births have long been debated amid concerns about their safety.

to read more - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/7998417.stm

A study published earlier this year in the US agrees with earlier, smaller studies and states that babies born after 39 completed weeks have fewer complications than babies born earlier. A large study of births involving 13,258 women in the US and published in the New England Journal of Medicine earlier this year has declared that even a few days make a difference. The study urges inductions and C-sections to be done near the due date after 39 completed weeks of pregnancy. To read more click here

Relocation Expert -
Offers you a hassle free way of obtaining your baby’s birth certificate. They specialise in the registration of births of new born babies, providing an easy and cost effective solution to parents. This eliminates the frustration of standing in long queues at Home Affairs, and allows you to spend more time at home with your new born.

Requirements:
• A Completed form containing the parents’ and child’s details.For a copy of the form - email vicky
•Proof of the birth i.e. maternity certificate or clinic card (original)
•Supporting docs – if married, please provide a marriage certificate

A growing number of women have been opting to give birth in the intimate and familiar surroundings of home - even in small New York City apartments. This is an interesting article published in the New York Times this month illustrating how American women are returning to home birth in search of more satisfying birth experiences.

SQUATTING in an inflatable pool in the open kitchen of her apartment in Astoria, Queens, a very pregnant Alecia White Scharback, nude except for a bathing suit top, groaned in pain. It was 7:30 a.m. on Nov. 1, and Mrs. Scharback, 29, an actress, had been in labor for more than 36 hours. The contractions had been only mildly painful at first, but had grown increasingly fierce as a second night gave way to morning.
Click here to read complete article