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more photosThree couples listen to Hypnobabies instructor Kristin LiaBraaten, who is sitting on a red ball, during their last session for the childbirth classes. This technique aims to teach expectant mothers how to use self-hypnosis to help reduce pain and tension during birth.
Andy Tullis / The Bulletin
Your method, your birth
New hypnobirthing class added option for moms-to-be searching for a mindful birthing experience
By Alandra Johnson / The Bulletin
Published: April 03. 2009 4:00AM PSTWhen Bend mom Shayne McCarl went into labor with her first baby, she didn’t have a plan. She hadn’t attended any birthing classes and just figured, because so many moms give birth every day, the process would just work naturally.
“I figured I was pretty tough, I can handle pain,” said McCarl, 36.
But the experience didn’t go smoothly. She ended up getting induced, having an epidural, and said the process was pretty horrible.
So, when she became pregnant with her second child, Shaelyn, now 8 months, McCarl knew she wanted to do things differently, starting with attending a birthing class. She took Hypnobabies, taught by her friend Kristin LiaBraaten. The class teaches women how to use a form of self-hypnosis to reduce pain to assist them in having a natural birth.
McCarl thinks the class helped give her tools to cope and “definitely helped with the pain.”
Hypnobabies is one of the newer birth classes available in Central Oregon. Local expectant parents can choose from an array of courses, including Lamaze, the Bradley Method and more. Some, like Hypnobabies, emphasize natural birth and offer moms-to-be tools to help them give birth without the assistance of an epidural or other medical interventions. Some other classes present an array of options for parents to consider — including pain medications — and let parents decide what works best for them.
Most classes include information about much more than the birth itself. They also focus on prenatal nutrition, exercise, general pregnancy issues, breast-feeding and more.
Figuring out which class to take depends on the parents’ values, schedule, finances and desires.
Benefit of classes
Birthing & Beyond owner and founder Anne Carlson has been teaching childbirth classes for 28 years. She estimates about 80 percent of first-time moms seek out a birthing class. She thinks even those women planning to use an epidural can gain information from the classes. They learn the best time during labor to use an epidural as well as information about their body and the baby, such as the difference between true labor and false labor. Expectant mothers also share all sorts of information, such as how to handle back pain or heartburn, and end up forming friendships, says Carlson.
“It’s an opportunity to ask questions in a nonthreatening environment.”
Most of the childbirth classes share a common thread in focusing on the fear-tension-pain cycle. The idea is fairly simple: If you are fearful, you are likely to tense up, and when you are tense, you feel more pain than you would if you were relaxed, and feeling pain can make you more fearful, which leads to more tension, which causes more pain. Many of the classes talk about ways to break this cycle, either through breathing techniques, focusing on an object, visualization, positive affirmations or self-hypnosis.
Carlson says giving birth used to be an entirely different experience than it is today. In the mid-20th century, women couldn’t bring their husbands or family members with them, and they were often giving birth inside a labor ward alongside six to eight other laboring women. Carlson says sometimes women were strapped down to beds and received nitrous oxide or something that gave them a form of amnesia so they didn’t remember the birth at all.
While conditions have changed a great deal, Carlson says many women are still very fearful about giving birth. She thinks this is due in part to people sharing their birth horror stories. When a woman is pregnant, strangers or acquaintances share scary stories about giving birth that end up making the woman tense.
“I wish there were ways people could hear more birth stories that are positive.”
Christine Walters, a Redmond mom who teaches the Bradley Method, agrees with this sentiment. She is sick and tired of “hearing people’s birth stories — and they’re awful!”
Carlson likens the experience to a marathon. It’s hard, but ultimately rewarding in the end, and many people end up signing up for another one.
“I think human beings always have fear of the unknown,” said Carlson. When you take a class, you relieve some of that fear.
Hypnobabies
LiaBraaten, 30, has coached about 16 couples through her Hypnobabies training since she started teaching the class last June. She also teaches Birth By Design at Birthing & Beyond and is a certified birth doula trained to help support women during childbirth.
LiaBraaten felt well prepared for the birth of her son Soren, now 3. But despite all of her training, she felt anxious about the birth and ended up toughing it out through a 30-hour birth.
When she began thinking about having a second child, she knew she wanted to find a different approach. A friend turned her on to the idea of hypnosis. LiaBraaten looked into the options available (there are about seven or so different methods that utilize hypnosis for birth), and she found Hypnobabies.
She liked that it is a complete childbirth education class, including nutrition and health in addition to self-hypnosis. She ordered the affirmations CD through the program and decided to plan for and expect the best. Instead of focusing on the worst-case scenario, she decided to follow the method and think, “What if everything happened perfectly?”
Those in the class try to focus on the notion that birth can be comfortable, powerful and enjoyable. The goal is to learn to use self-hypnosis to create a kind of anesthesia. LiaBraaten says she felt pressure, tightening and stretching during her second child’s birth, but not pain.
The class members attend 18 hours of class spread out across six weeks. They listen to recorded scripts during the class and are supposed to listen to CDs with similar positive affirmations every day at home.
While the classes focus on the best outcomes, LiaBraaten also talks about some of the complications that can arise. They talk about epidurals, C-sections and other issues.
Bend resident Katie Mollman was one of the first local parents to sign up for LiaBraaten’s Hypnobabies classes. The 28-year-old knew she wanted to have an all-natural birth and liked the idea of hypnosis. She enjoyed the classes, which she found relaxing. She also liked listening to the CDs at home and found that they helped her sleep.
Mollman experienced a number of complications during the birth of her daughter Harvey Elizabeth Graham, now 8 months. She went through 13 hours of labor after her water broke, she had to go through back labor and her daughter’s shoulder got stuck under Mollman’s pelvis.
“I can’t say my birth was pain-free,” said Mollman.
That said, she thinks the techniques she picked up helped her to be less scared and let her fears go. Mollman would like to have another baby and plans to use hypnosis again.
Bradley Method
Bend resident Sarah Larson, a certified doula, and her daughter Walters have been teaching the Bradley Method locally since 2005. They are the only certified instructors in Central Oregon and teach out of Larson’s home in northeast Bend.
The classes are longer than traditional childbirth sessions, running 10 weeks. Most of the individuals who sign up for the class intend to try to have a natural childbirth experience, without drugs or medical interventions, or at least want to see how far they can get without using the drugs. The classes focus on nutrition and exercise.
Walters and Larson talk about the stages of labor and what to expect at the hospital (about 80 percent of the parents in the class give birth at a hospital). They spend one class helping the couples create a birth plan and help them figure out how to advocate for what they want at the hospital. They connect them with local chiropractors, massage therapists and the La Leche League.
Larson covers most of the post-partum issues, talking about topics including breast-feeding, crib death, circumcision and how to help a colicky baby. Their goal isn’t to sway the couples in a particular direction, but to offer them information and encourage discussion.
The pair like the program’s focus on the expectant mother’s birth partner, whether a husband, boyfriend, mother or best friend.
“The biggest transformation is in the husbands,” said Walters.
The class members talk about massage techniques and what the birth partner can do to help the mom feel comfortable, from what to say to what music to play.
“It’s him; he’s the secret,” said Walters. These birth partners are the ones who help the moms feel calm and confident.
Bend dad Perry Rhodes, who took the classes alongside his wife Cara Marsh-Rhodes, liked the approach and felt it helped them both “be as well prepared as possible.” He knew he would be with his wife while she was giving birth, but these classes helped him learn what he could do to help.
“It was nice to be needed and to be able to offer valuable assistance,” said Rhodes, “to know what to say and when to say it.”
He was able to tell her certain things or offer back rubs at key points.
“Instead of feeling like a helpless observer, I could be an active participant and encourager.”
Marsh-Rhodes liked the method’s focus on nutrition, exercise and education, and she liked the longer length of the class.
“It’s really worth the time to spend educating yourself. I think it’s so important.”
Birthing & Beyond
Moms planning to give birth at St. Charles Bend who want to take a birth class are directed to those offered through Birthing & Beyond. The hospital offers a short orientation with information, but not real birthing classes. Most of the classes taught by Birthing & Beyond staff are based on Lamaze principles and offer a general childbirth education. Carlson explains Lamaze is a technique developed by a French obstetrician who became interested in Pavlov and the idea of the conditional response. He worked to develop specific breathing techniques and focusing methods to work with this idea. Carlson says the idea and method came to the U.S. in the late 1940s, but didn’t really catch on until the 1960s.
Carlson explains the true Lamaze method involves specific sets of breathing and focusing. The patterned breathing ensures the women are taking in oxygen and prevents them from holding their breath. The pattern also serves as a distraction. Women are taught to focus on a particular object, maybe something specific or maybe something imagined.
The classes she teaches combine several techniques.
“Any more, it’s all kind of blended,” said Carlson.
The goal is to give expectant mother a whole bunch of tools and then allow her to choose which works best.
“It’s about freedom of choice based on knowledge of options.”
Birthing & Beyond offers a course for parents looking to use minimal medical interventions, called Birth By Design and taught by either Carlson or LiaBraaten. Unlike the regular childbirth classes offered through Birthing & Beyond, this one includes information about how to prepare the body for ways to cope with the pain.
“It’s definitely a different focus,” said Carlson.
She is also offering a labor prep class in Redmond, which is a shortened course for those parents who are busier or more budget conscious, but still want to learn the basics of Lamaze.
Other options
Bend’s Motherwise Community Birth Center hosts childbirth education classes taught by two midwives, Christyn King and Dana Johnson. The classes, called Gentle Beginnings, are open to anyone in the community and are aimed at a holistic view of birth. About half of those taking the classes also opt to have their births at Motherwise. They talk about massage techniques, nutrition, staying healthy, being comfortable and breast-feeding. Women learn to use yoga-style deep breathing to slow down. The midwives also teach stretching exercises, aromatherapy, newborn massage and use of a birthing ball. Certified birth doula Jenny Norris offers childbirth classes for expecting parents who want to have a hospital birth. Norris, a Redmond resident, started teaching the classes in Redmond about four months ago. She has taught childbirth classes at Grandma’s House since 2006. Norris calls her classes “For an Amazing Hospital Birth.” She talks about natural and medicated childbirth options. She teaches some Lamaze breathing techniques. Norris thinks her classes are good for expecting parents who want more information or who haven’t decided what they want to do. She covers hydrotherapy, massage therapy, episiotomy and what it means if moms do opt for an epidural.
“I talk about it in a normal, medical way,” said Norris.
She jokingly calls her approach nondenominational.
Alandra Johnson can be reached at 541-617-7860 or at ajohnson@bendbulletin.com.
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