A different vision of birth and infants (1).
In October 2010 our daughter Evelyn was born. My mother in-law says that each child arrives with a piece of bread under their arm. In other words they arrive bearing gifts. One of the gifts she bought to us is the discovery of HypnoBirthing. After receiving the book as a gift we (my husband and I) took the course with Ilona Fritsch and we are very happy that we did. The predominant story about birth in our society is one of pain and labor for the mother and a sense of helplessness for the father. We rarely think about what the infant is going through but when we do we see birth as a harrowing terrible experience where we must have doctors who monitor every minute to make sure that nothing goes wrong. And when we think about infants and children we have this story that makes them out to be helpless, just a digestive tube or some kind of incomplete adult. The HypnoBirthing course offered us a different vision. It gave us tools so that the birth was way less painful than we expected. Relaxing the muscles, light touch massage, effective use of breathing and various relaxation, visualization and fear reducing exercises as well as a clear message to ignore time were all very helpful during the birth. Also my husband felt wonderful that he could take part in the process rather than just stand by and watch. The powerful emphasis on the intelligence and capacities of infants was very meaningful for us. The encouragement to recognize that the child is already present even before birth and the importance of starting the relationship before birth was essential. The reflections on what babies need after having worked hard and showing so much competence during the birth process helped us to feel empowered as parents.
