Childbirth without fear: how to tune and not be afraid? Psychological training

Births are different - painful and light, long and short. The reason lies in the fact that women are different, and with a different attitude, they come to the hospital. The relationship between the psychological and emotional state of the parturient woman and the nature of her childbirth is justified by both scientists and doctors. In this article we will talk about what methods of psychological preparation before childbirth exist, whether childbirth is possible without pain and fear, how to achieve this.

The problems of alleviating generic processes, both in terms of reducing physical pain and in terms of psychological well-being in different years, have long been occupied by doctors and scientists from different countries. Before them, this practice was quite successfully used by shamans and witches. Every self-respecting shaman of any nationality knew what kind of grass to fumigate a woman in labor, how to give a prayer to the gods so that a woman would not be afraid, would not panic and give birth as quickly and safely as possible.

In some nations, the preparation for childbirth rested entirely on the mother in labor. Thus, in Peru, representatives of the tribes gave birth on their own, without an outside presence, they themselves received the baby and presented it to other members of the tribe. This happened after the woman independently attributed the baby to the sacred source and bathed him there. If Peruvians were afraid, they would hardly be capable of such actions.

In ancient Egypt, women gave birth in the presence of family members, but without their help, it was strictly forbidden to intervene in the affairs of the gods. A woman gathered strength for the delivery several days before the event, spending time in the sacred premises of the local priests and in the prayers of Ra - this is not psychological preparation!

Scientists and physicians have been keenly interested in these methods of anesthesia of labor. The greatest success was achieved by the Soviet group of scientists, which included such luminaries as Professor Platonov, Dr. Velvovsky, Professor Bekhterev. A group of Soviet scientists managed to create a hypnosuggestive method of exposure before childbirth and childbirth. Bekhterev believed that treating with a word is the best way to give confidence and reduce pain.

In the 20s of the last century, the development of scientists attracted the attention of the world community. Since the 1930s, the method has been widely used in maternity hospitals and antenatal clinics of the USSR. He received the name of the psycho-prophylactic installation, was given the attention of the Pope, who noted that "the country of atheists (USSR) made a humane gift to all mankind."

Later, the Soviet development attracted the attention of the French doctor Lamaz, who took them as a basis and created a painless delivery program, which was named after him - the Lamaz method. Why is the development of Soviet scientists gradually left the obstetric practice in its pure form, hard to say. But some of their elements to this day are used for the psychological preparation of a pregnant woman to the generic process.

Verbal attitudes, autotraining training, correct thoughts and fear correction can achieve a high degree of relaxation. When a woman is relaxed, the cortex of her brain is not overworked, then the pulse effect on the center of pain becomes minimal. It should be noted that the kind of pain that feared women so much has a psychogenic origin. Knowing and understanding this, it is possible to correct the pain through the correction of the psycho-perception of the birth process. All existing methods of psychological preparation for childbirth without pain and fear are based on this.

Today, pregnant women can attend courses at a maternity clinic where, at the school of future mothers, they will be offered basic attitudes of psycho-programs to overcome their own fears. You can go to an appointment with a hypnologist, a psychotherapist, a psychosomat, a psychologist. These specialists will also work with completely natural and understandable feminine fears. And you can try to prepare for the upcoming birth independently.

The ratio of women to childbirth develops in childhood. If a girl often hears that it is scary and painful to give birth, if her mother says that she suffered and suffered, a strong block of fear is laid in her subconscious. Cinematographers also bring in their mite - in films, childbirth is often presented as a terrible, painful process. These images are also deposited in the deeper layers of the subconscious. As a result, a girl grows up, where it is almost impossible not to be afraid of childbirth, she is used to feeling fear in front of them.

For childbirth to be easier and faster, a positive attitude is needed. Therefore, it's time to work on psychological errors and change your attitude to the generic process. This is not as easy as it seems. Society itself dictates the stereotype that children must be born exclusively in agony. And these same torments in all colors (and sometimes exaggerated) retell the representatives of the fair sex to each other. A woman or a girl who has never had a chance to give birth, while listening to these stories, involuntarily accepts other people's verbal attitudes on his own account, gradually they become her own. So fear is born.

What can fear do? Yes whatever. Psychosomatic consequences can be different: from psychogenic infertility (setting “I'm afraid to give birth, I'm afraid to get pregnant” causes persistent and intractable psychogenic infertility) to severe complications during pregnancy and childbirth. A woman who is afraid cannot relax. Nature provided everything so that the fearful was tense, alert, had a higher sensitivity and reacted more sharply to everything that was happening. So the pain is born.

To set up for childbirth correctly and to stop being afraid of them means to realize what is happening from a position of strength, and not a victim. Childbirth is a natural process, nature has created a female body, given the fact that it can master this task, everything is provided for it (think of Peruvian women in labor). Therefore, you should not complicate and demonize something that is not necessary to complicate. It is enough to reconfigure your settings to a positive wave. This is what we will do.

What are women who are about to give birth to fear? Uncertainty, pain and consequences. Three "whales" of the wrong kind look like this. There is a giant fear on them. To psychologically adjust yourself to the right wave, you need to overestimate each of these "whales". Ancient Chinese wisdom says that fear needs to be able to look into the face.

The pain of childbirth is rather conditional. It has a psychogenic origin, that is, it is born not only in the uterus and genital tract, but also in the cerebral cortex - in the so-called pain center. The uterus does not have such a number of pain receptors that the pain was symptomatic.Pain is caused by over-stimulation of the pain center. That is, it is a nervous process, not a physical one. Accordingly, it can be controlled.

Panic and fear lead to the excitability of the pain center. Quiet attitude to what is happening, the perception of birth pains and the attempts as a natural process helps to relax between contractions, which reduces pain by a factor of ten. Uncertainty is always side by side with fear.

If a woman doesn’t even approximately imagine what is happening to her physiologically now, how long it should last, how and when it will be completed, and the doctors operate with unfamiliar terms, then the fear will increase.

Ignorance of the physiology and biomechanisms of the clan process seems in this case to try a small and weak person to enter a large and dark cave. Even if there is no one in it, it is warm and cozy, imagination in the absence of accurate information draws such terrifying images that it is almost impossible to take a step forward - the fear “paralyzes”. Roughly the same thing happens in childbirth. A savvy woman who has studied well the mechanism of childbirth and knows how the stages and stages of the process replace each other, as well as how to behave at one stage or another, what to do so as not to interfere, but to help the medical staff, always gives birth more easily and less painfully .

Fear of consequences can be many-sided. One woman in labor is afraid for the state of health of the baby in the process of his birth, the other does not know where to bring it and how to feed the child after it is born. There are many situations in life, not to list them all. With any fear to fight is the hardest. But the struggle is sure to succeed if the woman clearly understands that the newborn is her child. Her own, in need of protection and love. He's scared too. Besides the mother, there is simply no one to protect the crumbs. Usually the method of assuming responsibility in this situation for the state and life of the little ones mobilizes the internal reserves of the female psyche and gives confidence.

Moral preparation for childbirth will help not only work with their own fears. It is necessary not only to “depreciate” the fears, which we tried to do above, but also to create positive attitudes to them in return. If you repeat something a hundred times to yourself, sooner or later you will begin to believe it. This, in simple terms, is based on methods of psychological reprogramming and auto-training. What settings need to be repeated pregnant?

• "Childbirth is an important job." This means that it is psychologically necessary to accept the upcoming birth as a job, as a responsible assignment. A woman is tasked to give rise to a new life. She has to handle it. It is necessary to perform this work from the position of a professional who never under any circumstances loses self-control. Pros never allow actions that can harm the result of labor - a woman should not be nervous during childbirth, so that the child does not receive a "horse" dose of stress hormones with cord blood. Professional approach never implies opposition to circumstances.

• "Screaming is bad." Whatever images of film directors and book authors screaming in the throes of laboring women are not worth repeating the feats of heroines of works and films. Creek takes a lot of power. During pregnancy, you can see this. After a long and strong cry of strength, there is simply nothing else to do. After such an ejection, a woman just wants to lie down and rest. The cry exhausts a store of forces and energy which are necessary for the woman in labor to help the child to be born faster.
• "Childbirth is creativity and joy." This setting helps to give birth to a baby faster and easier. How to understand her? Very simple. The intervals between contractions - a great time for creativity and fantasy, which will facilitate the psychological state. A woman can draw any pictures she likes in her imagination, it will promote muscle relaxation - relaxation at the muscular level. One can imagine that the fight is a wave, and the woman herself is now not in the hospital ward, but on the white warm sea sand. The waves cover her body and let go. They don't hurt, they just go away and come back. You can mentally draw a picture of a winter forest or a favorite place on the planet. It is important to try to present this place in as much detail and concretely as possible.

• "I'll be fine." Simple installation of cancellation of someone else's negative experience. Even if in the process of giving birth there are treacherous pernicious thoughts about what is happening once described by someone with a negative color, you need to resolutely stop such thoughts immediately, erasing someone else’s negative scenario. "I am different. I will be different. Everything will be fine". This installation, brought to automatism even during pregnancy, allows to avoid panic, to tune in correctly for any possible changes, because there is no possibility to predict the course of labor.

A woman's willingness to give birth at the "finish line" is manifested by her calmness and confidence. Such women involuntarily radiate peace, positive. When someone tries to tell another terrible story about childbirth, she only smiles sympathetically and does not take everything told to heart. Such women before childbirth do not rummage feverishly in medical reference books, do not sit on the forums of expectant mothers on the Internet. They calmly wait for the onset of labor, accepting them as a job, a creative task and an important assignment, the fulfillment of which is their direct duty.

The author of the method of psycho-prevention of preparing pregnant women for childbirth is a French obstetrician Fernand Lamaze. About him and his method mentioned above. The complex of measures and installations offered by the doctor helps to cope with the psychological component of generic pain, to overcome fear, to create a positive attitude. Pain, according to Lamaz, at birth is not at all necessary. And many who have tried Lamaze on themselves, claim that this method works.

The method is intended not only for doctors who work with pregnant women and women in labor, but also for women themselves, it is not so difficult to study. If there is no time to attend the courses during the childbearing, it will be enough to work out according to the method in the last month of pregnancy. The method includes several classes.

• Elimination of illiteracy - A woman needs to learn as much as possible about how the birth canal, uterus, ovaries, what processes occur during labor, expulsion of the fetus, birth of the afterbirth. This will help to clearly understand everything that should and quite naturally will occur in the process of birth of the baby.
• Mastering the model of correct behavior in childbirth - how to breathe during contractions and vagaries, how to make yourself a massage of the sacral area in between contractions.
• Mastering the rules of behavior in the maternity hospital as well as a list of permissible and unacceptable in obstetric institutions.

Lamaz's method is built on the confidence of a woman in light and good labor who will give her a meeting with a long-awaited baby. It includes breathing exercises, autotraining exercises, the study of postures in which the mother will be easier to endure labor contractions, the study of the effects of aromatherapy, as well as warm and cold compresses. By the way, the fitball for waiting out the birth pains was also the first to come up with Fernand Lamaz.The French specialist suggested that women try to coordinate the activities of the cortical and subcortical parts of the brain. The following doctor's recommendations will help to launch the coordination processes

• Stimulation of childbirth initially violates their natural course, burdens them. A woman should begin to give birth by herself, at the behest of nature, then childbirth will be easy and less painful.
• The more active a woman has been before birth, the better her muscles will be ready for the birth process. - Yoga, Pilates, swimming and other types of physical activity for expectant mothers are welcome.

• Affiliate labor is always preferable., than lonely stay in labor in unfamiliar surroundings with strangers. A native person nearby can not only relieve pain, make a massage, give water, but will create a mood of importance and solemnity of what is happening.
• Pain relief childbirth is not welcome. Experiments with females of animals showed that moose cows and horses, which were anesthetized by childbirth with medicines, were flatly refused to accept and feed the pups after giving birth.
• To give birth on the back is uncomfortable. Pain is stronger, and the probability of birth injury is higher. To help the woman in labor will come the technique of vertical labor, if the maternity hospital chosen by her supports this method.

These methods are closely related to the Lamaz method and only complement it in terms of the physical fitness of the pregnant woman. It has been proven that a woman who finds something to take on physically, transfers mood changes more easily, she passes the prenatal stage more easily, when the mood before birth changes like the weather by the sea. Such methods imply loads permitted by a doctor who is observing a woman - therapeutic exercises for strengthening all muscle groups, Kegel exercises for strengthening the pelvic floor muscles, walking, swimming, and special yoga for pregnant women.

To maintain composure in childbirth, psychologists recommend women to come up with at least 20 different activities in advance, to which she could switch her attention to control her own feelings and relax in time. So, what can you do during the fights.

• To take a shower - warm water allows you to relax, the pain is reduced. Most modern maternity hospitals and perinatal centers have every opportunity to give a woman access to the shower.
• Make a massage - A woman can massage her face in between gaps, rub the lower back and the sacrum, and do a point massage of the hands. Pre-master several techniques for muscle relaxation.
• Count a hundred steps - during fights, you can walk, sit down, get up, unless the doctor has a different opinion on this matter. With normally proceeding childbirth, the one hundred steps method effectively helps - count one hundred steps along the corridor or ward, and then start the countdown.

• To talk - conversations with others very well distract from their own feelings. When partner birth communicate with a partner, discuss the upcoming vacation, shopping, whatever, just do not concentrate on your own feelings. If you are single in the maternity hospital, you can talk to the medical staff or the neonatal maternity ward if the woman is not alone in it. If you talk to no one, you can talk to your friend on the phone, write someone a message. According to reviews of pregnant women, viewing news feeds in social networks between fights helps to relax.
• The favorite music - If the rules of the maternity hospital are permitted, take the headphones and the player with you.Favorite songs or relax songs created especially for pregnant women will help to maintain a positive attitude.
• Singing and reading prayers - According to psychologists, singing in the voice and prayers help to focus on the other, which facilitates the process of childbirth.
• Visualize the pain - Psychologists offer to present pain in as much detail as possible. It can be a ball or a beast, a nasty plant or gigantic insects. The image of any color by the end of the fight must be mentally destroyed - hit, scatter to the wind, drown. After several attempts, everyone usually gets it, and the pain actually becomes less pronounced.

How to get rid of the fear of childbirth, see the following video.