Kate Middleton, like most mommy's-to-be, have fears and concerns regarding the actual childbirth process. How much will it hurt? Can my body handle it? Should I just opt for the drugs? Those are just some of the questions pregnant women are faced with.
The royal Duchess of Cambridge, 30, is considering hypnotherapy as a way to have a natural birth, focusing on the idea that anxiety and fear are what make labor last longer and be more painful, a source told Now Magazine.
A source tells the magazine that Prince William's wife "has researched various birthing methods. She wants it to be natural, so HypnoBirthing is one option that appealed and she had been reading up on it and listening to CDs to get into the right frame of mind."
So what exactly is HypnoBirth and does it work? Most mothers-to-be that seek out this method want to give birth naturally without interventions and medications like the ubiquitous epidural drug. HypnoBirth teaches pregnant women to better understand the muscles involved in childbirth, and encourages women to use deep breathing and other relaxation techniques to reduce the anxiety and fear that can accompany childbirth.
"It's like a self-hypnosis," Joyce Poplar, a perinatal educator with the Cleveland Clinic, told CNN. "They're in a deep, relaxed, limp state." The clinic offers hypnobirth training, along with prenatal yoga and Lamaze classes.
"In this calm state, your body's natural relaxant, endorphins, replaces the stress hormones that constrict and cause pain," according to the website for the Mongan method of hypnobirthing.
However, there is still insufficient evidence to support claims that it's healthier or less painful than other types of childbirth.
A recent study from BJOG (a British journal of obstetrics and gynecology) found no differences in the use of epidurals or in the experiences of pain among 1,222 women, some of whom received hypnobirth training before delivery and some of whom did not.
Other celebrities have spoken out about this alternative method to giving birth. Jessica Alba planned a HypnoBirth for her second child, saying that "It's not like a weird thing."
"It's basically my husband takes me through sort of a meditation. So he's like saying, 'You're relaxed and you're floating on clouds,' while you're going through labor and your contractions. He just sort of does a guided meditation," she told Ellen DeGeneres on her popular talk show.
"I'm just concentrating on breathing and staying relaxed because it's when you get tense that makes the whole labor worse and more painful. That's all it is."
