The official book to the new Lamaze - putting women back in control of the greatest event of her life. Childbirth is not supposed to be a terrible, painful experience, so why is it such a traumatic event for so many women? And why do more than 40% of births now end in caesarean section, the highest percentage in history?
The answer is simple: because our culture teaches women to fear birth, it is a painful and unsettling experience. Fear causes three physical reactions in the body-tightening of the muscles, reduced blood flow, and the release of certain hormones-which increase the pain and discomfort of childbirth. This is not hocus-pocus this is science.
Hypnobirthing drastically reduces the pain of labor and childbirth. It almost always eliminates the need for drugs. It reduces the need for caesarian or other doctor-controlled birth interventions. And it speeds recovery time, allowing for better and earlier bonding with the baby, which has been proven to be vital to the mother-child bond.
Although The Hypnobirthing Institute was founded in 1989, this is not a new technique. It is based on the work of doctors in the 1920s and 1930s-the same work that spawned the worldwide phenomenon of Lamaze in the 1950s and the Bradley Method in the 1970s. What's new is the momentum Hypnobirthing is gaining-more than 25,000 books sold last year through the author's website (www.hypnobirthing.com)-and it's only getting stronger.
