Ateliers d'hypnonaissance en février: "Respiration et Relaxation pour l'accouchement"

À la demande de mes élèves de Yoga futurs mamans, j’organise un cycle d’ateliers exceptionnels en février. Ces ateliers vous introduire plusieurs techniques et pratiques de respiration et de relaxation visant à faciliter un accouchement plus apaisé et plus confiant.

Nous pratiquerons des techniques d’hypnonaissance, de Yoga, et de pleine conscience plus en profondeur que lors de mes cours hebdomadaires de yoga prénatal.

A chaque cours je vous expliquerai des pratiques qui vous permettront de vous exercer chez vous pendant la semaine qui suit.

Ces ateliers incluront un mélange de théorie et de pratique autour des hormones du travail et de l’accouchement ; ainsi que les exercices qui les facilitent !

Inscrivez vous par mail: parisdoula@gmail.com

**Ces ateliers ne sont que pour les femmes et seront engseigné en français. Si vous voulez suivre mes cours d’hypnonaissance ‘classique’ en couples, et en anglais, voyez ici : www.doulaparis.com/group-courses/**

La méditation du sourire, pour bien se préparer à l’accouchement!

La méditation du sourire, pour bien se préparer à l’accouchement  

Dans mes cours de yoga prénatal ces dernières semaines on a pratiqué la méditation du sourire, qui vise à cultiver la gratitude. C’est l’un de mes exercices de respiration préférés pour bien se préparer à l’accouchement, tout en étant très utile dans le postnatal!

On n’a même pas besoin d’être enceinte pour tirer bénéfice de cette pratique… tout le monde peut en profiter!

Cette méditation consiste à visualiser une image du sourire qui d’abord commence au ciel et qui traverse tout votre corps.

C’est une méditation de gratitude qui permet de cultiver les sensations de remerciement, bien-être, chaleur et compassion.

Pourquoi faire cette méditation pendant la grossesse? A quoi sert-elle ?

On peut utiliser ce type de visualisation qui accompagne les respirations ‘pleine conscience’ pour bien se préparer à l’accouchement, pendant le travail même, et aussi après l’accouchement dans la période postnatale, pour se remonter le moral.

Rappelez vous aussi que le simple fait de sourire (oui ! même pendant le travail et l’accouchement !) permet de stimuler les hormones d’endorphines et d’ocytocine - et tant mieux si vous pouvez même rire, ce qui produit encore plus d’ocytocine ! 

L’ocytocine est l’hormone qui facilite les contractions de l’utérus pendant le travail, et qui rend le travail plus efficace et rapide, si elle se secrète en abondance.  Les endorphines sont les hormones naturelles ‘antidouleur’ ou de confort que votre corps produit naturellement pendant le travail s’il est dans un état de relâchement et de calme…

La visualisation d’images paisibles et agréables (en complément de l’ancrage aux sensations de respiration) permet de rester concentrée et calme pendant le travail et d’attacher votre attention au moment présent, dans ce qui est en train d’arriver dans votre corps. Cela vous aide à rester calme, présente, consciente et à éviter les peurs. Cela facilite un travail et accouchement plus serein, efficace et confortable, en étant véritablement connectée dans le flux du travail.

La pratique

Vous pouvez écouter un mp3 (gratuit !) d’une méditation du sourire que j’ai enregistrée pendant un des mes cours de yoga prénatal ici

On commence d’abord par bien s’installer confortablement pour la méditation, se connecter avec le rythme et les sensations de respiration.  Puis, on imagine doucement, l’image d’un ciel bleu et vaste.

Ensuite on imagine la forme d’un sourire qui apparaît progressivement dans le ciel, et qui se diffuse dans le ciel tout en entier.

Puis on imagine la forme d’un sourire qui apparaît sur vos paupières, et on reste connecté à cette image pendant quelques respirations. Ensuite, l’image du sourire descend à votre bouche, puis votre gorge, vos épaules, votre cœur, votre poitrine, votre abdomen et dernièrement sur votre bassin…

Lorsqu’on arrive à l’abdomen (pour celles qui sont enceintes), on peut rajouter l’image du sourire qui enveloppe votre bébé dans votre utérus, et qui berce votre bébé.  On peut aussi imaginer un sourire qui apparaît quelque part sur le corps de votre bébé…sur sa bouche ou autre part sur son corps.

La deuxième partie de la méditation de la gratitude consiste à mettre vos mains (une main sur votre cœur et une main sur votre utérus/votre bébé) et de ressentir quelque chose pour laquelle vous avez de la gratitude :

Il peut s’agir de la gratitude pour cette grossesse même, la gratitude pour votre corps qui a nourri et gardé votre bébé à l’abri, la gratitude pour quelqu’un qui vous a soutenu ou inspiré pendant cette grossesse. Ou même de la gratitude pour quelque chose ou quelqu’un dans votre vie en général.

Au cours de cette méditation on reste conscient des sensations de respiration, et on prête attention aux sensations qui sont produites dans votre corps grâce à cette visualisation du sourire qui traverse progressivement l’ensemble de votre corps. Ressentez les sensations, vos réactions, et vos émotions face à ces images.  Revenez souvent à votre respiration et à la sensation de respiration ! 

Enjoy!!!

More Happy Hypnobirthing News in Paris - and why Dad's heart Hypnobirthing

This week I received a lovely email from one of the mums who did my Hypnobirthing Group Courses in Paris recently, and gave birth to her first baby a few weeks ago.

As always, it made my little heart leap to hear that the Hypnobirthing course had been so useful to yet another couple during the labour and birth of their baby... But I was especially happy in this instance to hear about the benefits of the Hypnobirthing preparation for the Baby Daddy too!

I’ve received lots of lovely feedback from Dad’s in Paris recently who have really enjoyed and benefitted from the Hypnobirthing course  Even the one’s who at first seem reluctant that we’re all going to sit round in a group holding hands and making Dolphin noises, very quickly transform into super enthusiastic Hypnobirthing converts when they see how clear and useful the information is.  And whilst most Dad's 'Do it for Their Partners' they quickly realise that by doing the practice together as a couple, they themselves too start to feel much more relaxed and at ease about the whole birth process.

I dedicate a lot of time in my Hypnobirthing group courses to explaining the science behind the progress of labour and signs for Dads/Birth partners to look out.  Admittedly this often involves me getting down onto All 4's and acting out a labouring women -  in all of her hip-rocking and low-groaning glory -in order to demonstrate the more, errrrm, visual signs & auditory signs of labour progress.

I find that this information is really crucial to demonstrating to Dad's/birth partners how they can be such a vital support their partners during labour, helping them to stay calm, focussed and relaxed.

And I have to say that the feedback from Dad’s recently has been really great!

I find that what dad’s/birth partners really want is clear and tangible information and techniques that they can use to be both useful and helpful to their partner during pregnancy & birth – and the KG Hypnobirthing course gives them exactly this.

SO it was really great to hear how this couple used the techniques and information learned during the course to get the best out of their birth experience.

I was ESPECIALLY pleased when I received this message as this particular couple had their baby at a very ‘classic’ maternity clinic in Paris which is not at all renowned for a ‘natural’ or physiological approach to birth.  We had discussed this during their hypnobirthing course and how in fact, one of the positive things about these classic maternity clinics (where they are used to an approximately 80% epidural rate) can be that couples are pretty much left to get on with the labour on their own, with the Midwife coming in once every hour or so to ‘check’ what’s happening.  For a Hypnobirthing couple who are very well prepared and know exactly how to manage the labour alone this can actually be a very positive thing, as they are left to get on with out without too much interference. And this turned out to be exactly the case for this couple…who were left to do their thing and did it brilliantly!  

Well Done You Guys!!!!!!

I hope this story will be of benefit to other couples in Paris who are wondering how it all works out with the Hypnobirthing in one of the more classic/private maternity hospitals.

As I always say, hypnobirthing helps you – as a couple – take control and responsibility for you own birth experience. And preparation is everything…

Saying YES to Birth: Saying YES to Life

What if we weren’t afraid any more? Then what would birth look like?

What if women really weren’t afraid –I mean really not afraid- then what would birth look like ?

What if Midwives, too,  weren’t afraid any more– then what would birth look like ?

What if our doctors, sisters, friends – even our hypnobirthing teachers & Doulas -  weren’t afraid either - then what would birth look like ?

What if we were no longer afraid of Ourselves ? Afraid of our Bodies, Our emotions, our behaviours, our fears even….

What if we were no longer ashamed – then what would birth look like?

These are all quesions myself & my good friend - and fellow Midwife –Julia Clark (@birthupnorth) are asking ourselves, right now: What would a totally new vision of birth look like? 

What if we were really honest with ourselves – then what would birth look like ?

Birth has been so entrenched in FEAR for so long, that I honestly think we’re not quite sure.       SO we have to dip deep.

We have to start asking ourselves some pretty uncomfortable questions : facing our Egos and examining our own deceptions.  

In other words we have MAN UP (or WO-MAN UP?)

What if we were all truly liberated – then what would birth look like ?

Women are still gagged – from truly expressing themselves physically, emotionally and spitirually – they are gagged & ashamed of following & expressing their instincts & desires. 

And the big questions is :if you don’t listen to you instincts –then what the hell do you listen to ? And if you can’t follow your own personal truth, your heart’s desires….that what DO you follow ?

What about if « I trust my body » was more than just an affirmation you wrote on a post-it note and stuck on your fridge ? – then what would birth look like ?

Here’s the thing : I think we do have the answers.  I think we really do, but I think it lies below layers and layers of bullshit that we have been feeding ourselves and each other for decades…

 There’s so much superficial bullshit going around the birth circuit that it’s totally blinding women to the real work they need to do -  on themselves.

The birth world has become a crazy fuzz of posting, and re-posting catch-phrases….And  YOU CAN’T REVOLUTIONISE BIRTH by posting and re-posting a F**CKING Quote by Ina May. 

It’s a good start, It’s really good start…But surely you have to reach down – inside of yourself- and find the place where that quote came from in Ina May herself– that deep & soulful place - and find where it lives in YOU.

Because otherwise we will all keep living in this superficial land of « let’s make birth better » and nothing really changes, not really…

Nothing will change for our daughters or our grand-daughter, or our great-great grandaughters because we will just keep passing on the same lies & fear on to them too.

UNLESS WE MAKE A STAND  - NOW.

What if we totally owned it ? Then what would birth look like ?

I was recently having a beer with Julia in Leeds and mulling over my predicament about setting up as a independent Midwife in Paris :

ME: “I’m just cautious, reticent, not scared- but…”

Julia: “Sounds to me like you are scared… it’s ok to be scared…”

ME: “I’m not scared, it’s just I don’t know all the medical systems & protocols here, and it will take time…maybe it’s better if I start by working in a hospital first...”

JULIA: “Sounds to me like you’re scared…everyone gets scared – even when we simply change to a new hospital ‘trust’ within the UK, we get scared. ”

ME: “You’re right, I’m scared, it’s normal to be scared.”

You see: I was scared of admitting I was scared.

When I owned up to what I had to overcome – I felt much less powerless…And this is where I started to feel like we were on to something: Some of the answers must truly lie, in absolutely owning it.

So WHERE DO WE START ?  A BASIC PRINCIPLE I learnt from Godfrey Devreaux

Godrey is well know in the yoga world for calling BULLSHIT on pretty much everything. 

He rips the entire notion of ‘enlightenment’ and ‘spirituality’ to pieces…. And he also says the F word, a lot…. 

Godrey shines a very bright light on the years on years of deceptions and marketing ploys that have infested the yoga world, and made what is essentiallly a loving and enlightening practice  – into something completely vacuous and even malignant.

I think we need to do the same with the birth world.  I think that we started with something really really beautiful and heartfelt and authentic with the likes of Ina May, Sheila Kitzinger, and Francoise Freedman…but somehow it all got lost in a pseudo-spiritual quagmire….

Firstly – there are No ‘Guru’s : there is only you. There is only you, yourself, and your own free will.

This is the revolutionary act: you are your own Guru. And if you’re not, then nobody is, and then you’re just an idiot reading somebody else’s empty words from a post-it note.

Saying yes to life : saying yes to birth

I went to a talk with Godfrey Devreaux at the Red Earth Centre in Paris last week, and in this particular ‘lecture’ (he definitely wouldn’t call it a lecture!) Godfrey was discussing the notion that life has 2 basic instincts : ON / OFF, YES/NO, ENGAGE/RETREAT…

Whatever you name them, they are both manifestations of the 2 very simple human behaviours, that are at the basis of all life : our ability to either actively engage with life or to escape and retreat from it.

How can we apply this notion to Birth ?

It’s in this idea of « engaging or retreating » that I think we could really shake up birth, and I’m beggining to experiment with it in my Prenatal Yoga & Hypnobirthing work….

Summed up simply, it can be expressed as « SAYING YES TO LIFE »  

SAYING YES TO LIFE IS ESSENTIALLY SAYING YES TO EVERYTHING, EVEN TO FEAR.

It’s about saying yes to all of it : and not being scared to LIVE and FEEL and EXPERIENCE -  all of it.  Or as my mindfullness teacher « Ayala Gill » puts it : Welcoming life : Welcoming eveything.

Saying yes to all of our emotions : good, bad, gentle, tough…and accepting them all as a a necessary & inevitable part of life’s rich tapestry….

Because if we don’t say YES – if don’t welcome them ALL -  then we are in a constant state of ‘NO’ or RETREAT – a perpetual state of rejection, deception, escape and avoidance…fear.

This brings us full loop back to my initial questions :

What if we weren’t afraid, ashamed, gagged, to feel – experience – and act? What if we weren’t afraid to really Love- ourselves, each other – and life???  Then What Would Birth Look Like ?

I think it would look like LOTS of women running round the street shouting YES YES YES to everything -  like some kind of crazed state of perpetual orgasm ! 

Godfrey leaves me – US - with this interesting question, that I feel could sew the seeds of something revolutionary in birth, and it’s this:

WHEN WE SAY YES TO LIFE – really say yes to life - DO WE NOT ALSO SAY YES TO BIRTH ? 

Arteliers d'Hypnonaissance: les bases

Pourquoi pratiquer les techniques d'auto-hypnose?

"Le connaissance « incorporée » de la relaxation et du calme est indispensable pour une grossesse et accouchement plus serein, doux et sain. Plus serein et libre…

Dans la relaxation profonde on pars dans un état de ‘transe’ et c’est là où on a accès au subconscient : on peut profiter de cet état pour y "planter" les associations de confiance et d'assurance, par rapport à la grossesse et l’accouchement."

How to Hypnobirth: Explaining Hypnobirthing to your mates

A picture says a thousand words...

« It all sounds perfectly logical » - that’s the response I generally get after  explaining the physiology and psychology of Hypnobirthing to Dads.

Ask those Papas to then re-explain to me how it all works and they can kind of clam up.

Voilà, why I came up with this very simple info-graphic on Hypnobirthing Hormones.

Hypnobirthing really is very simple – almost TOO simple : once you’ve got your head around these few basic factors you should be able to explain Hypnobirthing to virtually anybody!

It Really Is ALL ABOUT OXYTOCIN

Oxytocin is what causes uterine contractions or ‘surges’ in labour.  Keep the oxytocin flowing and you’ve cracked it. 

Great ! How do we do that ? 

Simple : 1. know how and when oxytocin is produced

                2. know what INHIBITS oxytocin

Oxytocin in a Nutshell

Oxytocin is produced when we feel safe, secure, protected, relaxed. In short, when we don’t feel under threat. 

Conversely, when we feel FEAR - both real or anticipated – we produce adrenaline, which inhibits Oxytocin production.

Understanding & promoting Oxytocin is the absolute cornerstone of encouraging physiological birth, and FEAR is Oyxtocin’s arch enemy. 

That’s pretty much all you need to know to get started.

Calm + Confidence – Fear = OXYTOCIN PARTY     = beautiful birth

This is why during hypnobirthing courses we learn some very effective and simple techniques to promote deep relaxation, and transform subconscious fears into positive and confident feeling about birth. TA DAAA !

Add the PROTECTION element and you’re laughing – literally.

SInce we know Oxytocin is produced when women fell SAFE, SECURE and PROTECTED, Birth Partners  can play a vital role in ‘protecting’ their partner during labour, by promoting an environment of relaxation, calm and safety.

This is why Hypnobirthing courses highlight to Dads how their role as ‘protector’ is absolutely crucial, and how they can powerfully protect the labour environment through their actions and behaviour.

This weekend I was at a Doula conference in Paris with the old Oxytocin Icon Michel Odent, who was hammering home this vital aspect of physiological birth.

Michel Odent at the Doulas de France conference this weekend: "How can we protect the labouring woman?"

What Mr Odent also adds to the mix is that when women’s ‘rational brain’ is overstimulated during labour, it can interupt the flow of oxytocin, and therefore the flow of labour.

Essentially : Stimulation of the rational brain (what he refers to as the neocortex) can bring women out of their ‘primitive brain ;’ their fundamental primal instincts which assist a simple and swift birth.

MONSIEUR ODENT SAYS :

Q : The key word is « PROTECTION » How can we protect the labouring women?

A :  Minimise  any stimulation the ‘neo-cortex’ or the ‘thinking brain.’

Q : So How do we do that ?

A : Think about Lights, Language, The Unfamiliar – or feeling ‘observed’

Without going into too much detail, what Monsieur Odent is basically telling us is that careful use of language is pivotal to supporting a ‘undisturbed’ physiological birth.  Any other factors such as bright lights, feeling observed or being in an unfamiliar or unsafe environment will inhibit the flow of oxytocin.

Great ! SO that’s why in Hypnobirthing we heavily emphasise the careful use of language during labour, and other ways in which partners can protecter the birthing environment !  We also explore how we can divert any ‘rational’ questions to Dadsso they can be the ‘BRAINS’ during labour, protecting the birthing woman to stay in her positive birth bubble and connected to her primal instincts.

SIMPLE RIGHT ?

Hopefully this begins to explain just how excellent Oyxytocin is -  and why hypnobirthing is wonderfully adapted to teach women and their partners how to optimise Oxytocin during labour – resulting in a swift, simple and peaceful birth!

And if you have already done a hypnobirthing course you should now be able to go away and explain all of this to your friends and family by using my magic diagram !

I’ve mainly focussed on Oxytocin in this post as it is the vital ingredient  (if you keep Oxytocin flowing then everything else follows)…. you can read more about other hormones such as Adrenaline and Endorphins in any hypnobirthing book or in my other blogposts here :

Hypnobirthing teachers : please feel free to use this diagram in your teaching or re-create a similar one -  I’ve found it really useful & effective.

Hope you all have a great week!

Jodi

These precious first moments : positive birth & the first hour

Last night we had our second Positive Birth Movement Paris meeting! 

The theme for the May group meeting was : « The first hour after birth » 

One woman shared with us her beautiful memory of her first baby’s breast crawl immmediately following birth : how amazed she was that – when left undisturbed - her baby knew exactly what to do and latched on straight away.  The whole group shared in the awe of how miraculous it is to see a Baby’s first instincts at play.

Another member of the group described how important it had been for her to avoid any routine separation from her baby in the first hours following the birth « I just wanted my baby to be with me : I needed to see where she was all the time.» This is something she had anticipated  before the birth of her baby and so she ensured that she would be supported with this at her maternity hospital « Les Bluets» where any routine examinations were delayed until after she had bonded with her baby.

These heart-felt accounts re-enforced just how precious the first hour following birth is to women & their babies, and therefore how important it is for health care professionals to disturb women and their babies as little as possible during the first hour – and indeed hours –after birth.

In my own training as a Midwife I was taught - and indeed tested!  - on the importance of delaying any routine examinations and separation until after mum and baby have had the chance to have skin-to-skin and to bond.

However, so often in the busy hubbub of hospital life there is an imperative to quickly weigh and measure the baby, and get the new mum down to the postnatal ward within a couple of hours of birth, to free up the labour room for someone else.

Sometimes it feels there is no space, there is no time for these precious moment to be fully given the importance and respect they are due.

It’s something that I think we can all reflect upon, both as mother’s and as health care professionals.  Whilst there are clearly times in hospitals when labour wards are very busy and there is a genuine need to move women down to the postnatal ward-  freeing up a labour ward bed for another women who is waiting for it – there are not always these time imperatives.

It’s thus important to question routine ‘systems’ that have been blindly respected because « that’s the way we do it » and find creative solution to respect & protect the sacred first moments in a baby's and a new mother’s life.

In short – putting women and babies at the centre of care and not the needs or assumed needs of the hospital ‘system,’ and thinking of new ways of re-structure our ‘routines.’

More generally, it’s about listening to what women are telling us is important for them and important for their babies, and adapting our care as much as possible to accommodate this: Building systems of care around women and babies – and not woman & babies around systems.

Undoubtedly this would all be simpler to facilitate with more hospital resources and more midwives – but that’s another story for another day.

Back to the positive birth meeting… In our conversations around the « power hour » we also explored delayed cord clamping, what are the benefits and how does it work in practice - including thinking about how this could be best negotiated for twin births.

Most of the group were amazed to realise that it is simply a question of delaying clamping & cutting the cord for just a few minutes – and it has such massive benefits to baby!  But again this comes back to potentially unexamined hospital routines, and therefore it’s important to speak to care providers in advance, to discuss your preference around this.

For more info on delayed cord clamping take a look at Amanda Burleigh’s page « Optimal cord clamping » www.facebook.com/Optimal-Cord-Clamping-WaitforWhite-414578291919270/?fref=ts

There are numerous other FB forums on this important topic such as this one: www.facebook.com/delayedcordclamping 

Beyond the 'power hour' discussions our conversations last night moved onto all kinds of other birth-related subjects and sharing lots of great local events that are taking place for the "Semaine mondiale de l'accouchement respecté" in Paris next week.

The great thing about the positive birth meetings are that the flow of discussion is open and spontaneous, so conversation is free to go in any direction it takes us...I feel like this lack of rigid structure allows what is important to the group – at that moment - to come out, and what the group really needs at that time to emerge…

For me, personally, I had just arrived back in Paris the night before the meeting, after a lovely long week spent at home back in the North of England.  Transitioning back into city life after a whole week or glorious nourishing countryside air, and being at ‘home’ with family and friend, is always a bit of a physical and emotional leap.  So for me, last night, I simply enjoyed being in an open and supportive women’s space – enjoying the laughter and the passion - of women working together towards something important for women.