The pregnant women will be taught how to hypnotize themselves prior to labour, would work as a substitute to painkillers. Mothers to be learn to put themselves in a trance-like condition during labour, in expectation that they will not require expensive treatments like epidurals, laughing gas or morphine.
According an estimate approximately eight hundred women who are becoming mother for the first time will take part in eighteen months NHS trail study on the efficacy of hypnobirthing. To teach women how to control their pain would also reduce the requirement of supervisions from midwives, this would relieve the pressure on overextended maternity wards.
In some hospital more than sixty percent of pregnant women have epidurals, whereas many others are injected dopamine. These drugs are costly and there have been claims that they could be harmful to mother and baby. The use of epidurals has been found to increase the length of childbirth and increase the chances of caesarean birth.
The use of epidurals may also delay mothers ability to breastfeed and there use also linked with post-natal depression. There are god evidences that hypnosis works well in other areas of health management. The idea is to give women the capacity to manage their labour themselves, explained trail leader Prof Soo Downe, a specialist in midwifery at Central Lancashire University.
If the results are promising they will do further trials. The target would then be to give free hypnobirthing training on the NHS. Hypnobirthing has become more and more popular and Britain has around two hundred and fifty qualified therapists. The courses are inclined to last some hours and teach women to put themselves into a state of deep relaxation.
The sessions also teach women massage techniques which enable them to stimulate the release of endorphin, the natural painkiller of the body. According to critics claim such methods work for only one in four women. There are also worries that if mothers are left to cope on their own during labour their babies may be at risk.