Mind over Pregnancy

For all those anxious couples who are desperately trying to get pregnant, here is some food for thought.

Where no physiological obstacle exists, why then should it prove so difficult for some women to fall pregnant?  And, in many cases, where adoption has been the last resort, as soon as the newly adopted baby has settled in the new mother falls pregnant, why should this be?

I believe that the cause, in most cases, is due to anxiety.  This may seem trite or superficial, and many may argue that the anxiety they experience is as a result of not getting pregnant, and not the other way around.  However, anxiety may manifest in many different ways, and may be triggered by a variety of situations or events.  For instance, it emerged that one young woman I was working with was very afraid of gaining weight.  This attitude came from her mother, who had described being pregnant as like being an 'elephant', hideous, uncomfortable, ungainly and generally undesirable.  Despite the young woman's logic and rational thoughts, and very positive attitude towards pregnancy, noticing how radiantly happy most women look, this message from her early years was firmly locked into place. Another woman really enjoyed her freedom, and, despite the biological clock ticking away, this created an inner conflict - result?  Anxiety. 

This illustrates that anxiety can stem from all kinds of sources, not necessarily related to pregnancy at all.  So, I hear you thinking, is it possible to overcome these issues, and what if you can't think of any reasons that might cause anxiety?  This is where the process of clinical hypnosis is hugely beneficial.  Through this process it is possible to access any hidden worries, and once they have been identified they can be resolved.  Every person has the resources they need within him/herself to resolve their own issues, they just need the right therapeutic approach to facilitate them.  Each person is different and that requires a therapist who is flexible in approach with a wide variety of tools at their disposal.

The power of the mind should never be underestimated.  Take the example of the young woman with high blood pressure, 20 weeks pregnant, but terrified that she would experience pre-eclampsia as she had on her first pregnancy.  The first pregnancy had ended with an abruption at 28 weeks resulting in an emergency caesarian, which was very traumatic.  Imagine then, this young woman's anxiety levels, knowing that again her blood pressure was rising to dangerous heights, and that this second pregnancy was with a different partner to the first one (which means that she would very probably experience pre-eclampsia this time too), she felt that the odds were seriously stacked against her - and she was right. 

This was a complex case, and I considered the first priority was to give her some relaxation strategies, for which I used hypnosis to establish a 'safe place' for her, where she could go to in her head to be calm and to feel completely protected and safe from harm.  The second priority was to remove the trauma of the first pregnancy to avoid exacerbating the blood pressure, and thereby a self fulfilling prophecy.  For this I used a process called EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Re-processing), which is wonderful for taking the 'heat' out of any traumatic experience.  It is widely used for war verterans and disaster survivors.  The next priority was to help her to control her blood pressure and the volume of blood supply through the placenta, to create an even flow.  For this I used hypnosis with guided imagery.  I also made sure that I gave her an anchor (based on the Law of Dominant Effect, where two opposing emotions cannot be felt at the same time) which she could use when faced with any kind of challenge.

These were the techniques that I judged to be right for this patient.  The outcome was that she controlled her blood pressure, her pregnancy went full term and she gave birth naturally to a healthy little boy.  Of course, there is no scientific proof to say that my input empowered her to make the difference, it may just have been co-incidence, but she doesn't think so and I would have to agree - I believe she took every tool offered to her and worked very hard at keeping herself stable, and succeeded.

My point is this, there is concrete proof to show that anxiety can be reduced through therapeutic processes, if hypnosis can unlock hidden sources of anxiety, and EMDR can deal with trauma, then there is a good case for helping anxious couples who want to get pregnant, but, for some unknown reason, are not successful.  I do know of many cases where hypnosis has been used to help women, in particular, to relax and they have subsequently become pregnant.

Recent studies have also shown that hypnosis increases the likelihood of success for women being treated with IVF:

'Hypnosis can double the success of IVF treatment, researchers have claimed.  A team from Soroka University, Israel, found 28% of women in the group who were hypnotised became pregnant, compared with 14% of those who were not.' BBC News 

I sincerely believe that whatever is holding you back, if it is not something physiological, then it can be addressed and resolved, and hypnosis is a wonderful tool for enabling you to do just that.
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