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“My Pain Threshold is too low for a natural birth!”

PAIN, PAIN, PAIN. Let’s just get something out there from the off… I have had 3 drug free vaginal births and I don’t like pain. I would go as far as saying that I have a low pain threshold.

Paper cut on my finger, I take a sharp intake of breath
Stub my toe on a radiator- I shout,
Bang my head- I scream,
Shut my hand in the boot of car (true story!) the air can become a very dark shade of blue.

So you get the picture…It’s not pretty!

But when it comes to giving birth, it’s not the same. Pain doesn’t have to be the BIG, SCARY overriding factor that women think about when it comes down to the births of their baby’s. If I told you we are all just PROGRAMMED to think that birth is this awful, painful experience and that in reality it doesn’t have to be that way, I’m guessing you would back away from me like I was some kind of oddity…a bit of a hippy…a ‘weirdo’ perhaps! You might think…’she isn’t like me, I’ll move away politely’.

But it’s true; we ARE programmed to feel this way. It’s all around us. Everywhere we go. Negative, scary birth is on the big screen and the small screen. It’s in books, newspapers and magazines. It’s in the stories that our sisters, friends, mothers, colleagues share. There is no getting away from it. Even if we don’t think we are really picking up on it…we are. This is what we see and hear so this is what we believe.

So you believe that birth is painful, horrible, frightening. Those messages whether you are aware or not are buzzing around your mind. When the time comes for you to go into labour your mind will take a look at what information it has about birth…It will discover that it’s all pretty negative. Your mind doesn’t know any different…the sub conscious just believes what we tell it. Your body has to react to the messages your mind is sending to it and so your body reacts in a negative way…You tense up, you clench up, you grit your teeth, you breathe short fast breaths, your heart is racing, you start sweating…you feel pretty rotten. Your body can’t function as it SHOULD. When this happens, birth IS painful.

But just think what birth could be like if you changed how you felt about it…if you replaced all that negativity with something else. If you learnt how powerful, wonderful, amazing your body could be if you just changed the way you feel…That’s where HypnoBirthing comes in. HypnoBirthing (Mongan Method) founder Marie Mongan states “Change the way you feel about birth and the way you birth will change”. It couldn’t be more true. Your body would react differently so you would experience birth differently!

So take it from a low pain threshold mom of 3 like me- you can have a positive birth. Maybe it won’t be pain-FREE but maybe you can make it so it’s not pain- FULL. Maybe it could be calm, and relaxing and beautiful.

I’m running another FREE HypnoBirthing taster session soon. Maybe it’s time for you to start thinking about changing how you feel about birth. This is a great opportunity for you to find out just how you can do that. Send me a text to 07939571542 or email liz@enhanceyourbirth.co.uk to get booked on.