Tina Taylor - Painless Childbirth: Experience Labour and Birth without Pain, Step-by-Step

This book is to be used as a guide by themother to be, giving her exercises to practice for use prior to,during and after the birth of her child. Most women today havetheir babys father with them at the birth and some also have otherfamily members and friends with them for support; within this bookare techniques and suggestions that enable those supporting mum atthe birth to help her achieve a more comfortable birth experience.Each chapter contains information that will be useful to themother-to-be and her birth partners as well as exercises for themto practice.

These exercises use concepts from:

• NLP: Neuro Linguistic Programming

• DHE: Design Human Engineering

• Hypnosis

NLP is the study of how we processinformation and how that affects our behaviour; or very simply howyour brain works. By utilising NLP techniques you can take controlof how you think. The way that we think of something, the words andpictures in our mind, create our feelings and behaviours. Bylearning how to change your thoughts you can change your feelings,get rid of anxieties, old beliefs, limitations that may have heldyou back in the past and create new more powerful beliefs thatenable you to achieve your goals.

DHE contains the basic principles of NLP butwhereas NLP is therapeutic and gives you techniques to fix things;DHE is a whole body/brain approach that enables you to build toolsinside you mind that allow you to take control of what were thoughtof previously as processes out of your conscious control.

In the exercises you will be using yourimagination, your five senses (seeing, hearing, feeling, tastingand smelling) learning on an unconscious level to develop breathingand visualisation techniques as well as relaxation techniques to beused during the birth.

Some of these exercises will require you toimagine, visualise certain situations; some people may think theyare not visual, that they cant see pictures in their mind.

We are all able to visualise, to imagine.Think about your bedroom, how is it decorated? What colour is yourbedding, the curtains? Now imagine the room decorated in acompletely different way, change all the furniture, black out thewindows. Whats it like now?

To do this your mind formed some kind ofimage, a mental picture. Your mind creates pictures, all the time.When you think about where you parked your car, or what you didlast weekend, your mind creates a mental picture. It's these mentalpictures that contribute to our feelings.

As you practice the exercises regularly youwill notice that not only are you developing skills for the birthbut also for your day-to-day life. Whilst learning techniques thatwill enable you to achieve a more comfortable birth experience,they will also help you to become significantly more relaxed andconfident during pregnancy; and during the birth of your child youwill be able to access these resources as needed.

The key to success as with all things is topractice until these techniques become second nature to you.Practice is essential.

Whilst practicing these exercises remembereach time you practice you are gaining in experience; the more thatyou practice the easier it becomes for you to relax. Some peoplefind it takes practice to be able to relax deeply whereas othersfind it very easy to do. Many of my clients have very busy livesand are not used to spending time relaxing, they are often amazedat how easy it is for them to let go completely; and at howbeneficial the relaxation process is for them during theirpregnancy and also after the baby is born. There are many ways torelax, it's just a matter of finding what works best for you.Practice every day, as repetition is the key to success. Each timeyou practice this reinforces the process and so your ability torelax becomes easier.