Hypnobirthing class 1 part 1-Our bodies response to fear

Warning:  This is a lot of information and could be completely boring to some.  For me it is just AMAZING to know how the biology of our bodies work.  This is just more of a testament that a very loving, amazing Heavenly Father created our bodies to function in a very powerful way.  I also feel that knowledge is power and in the case of accomplishing a natural birth especially after having a fully medicated birth I feel that this knowledge truly is POWERFUL!

We had our first hypnobirthing class last night and it was so informative and gave me a lot of respect for our miraculous bodies.  I had a friend that that sent me her book and CDs because she felt that the book was just as beneficial as the class but I decided to go ahead and take the clase because I am a very visual person and I can already tell that it is sticking in my brain  A LOT more then just reading the book.  I also know the instructor taught a lot that came from her experience and not from the book. (I greatly appreciate my friend trying to save me some money I think it ultimately comes down to each persons preference.)

Our instructor showed us a video of Marie Mongan who is the women who discovered hypnobirthing and has made it what it is today. 

We spent some time talking about how the muscles in our uterus work and the functions of our body. 
We spent a lot of time talking about fear and how fear affects our body.  This is when things got really interesting for me. 

I'll Start with the Fear Tension Pain Syndrome (FTP)

As you can see above when we are afraid it causes tension.  Which causes our muscles to tighten and when we are not relaxed it causes pain.  Pain in turn causes Fear and it is a cycle.  This also made me think of cold months.  Bear with me cause it makes sense to me!! In the cold months I feel a lot more tension in my body and just ache more because I spend a lot more time tensing my body because of the cold which is exactly what fear does to us.  Fear causes us to be tense. Does that make sense?

Okay  my FAVORITE part of the whole class was when we learned about the:

Autonomic Nervous System (ANS)-

Which is made up of two parts

Both of these amazing parts of the ANS are very crucial to us.  However, if we were to remain in the sypmathetic state for a good portion of our lives you can see how this would be detrimental to us. 

So what does this have to do with Childbirth?

Here goes...

The fear tension pain sydrome or FTP as far as labor is concerned can also be labeled as:

Failure

To

Progress

Our labor cannot always progress when we are tense and afraid.  For me this made SO MUCH SENSE! When I was in labor with Lulu my body was not progressing very quickly after my very intense (induced) contractions started.  I was very tense and I was really afraid.  However when they gave me the epidural I was able to progress again because I went from a state of being tense to being completely relaxed.  My blood pressure even went pretty low after I got the edidural because I was so relaxed. I have heard many women say, "Well my body wouldn't even progress until I got the epidural."  Of course it wouldn't.  Chances are your body was so tense from fear which in turn was causing pain and your body could not do its job as quickly because of your body being tense! (this is not to say that SOME women have other complications but this is the majority of what causes things to slow down)

So what about the ANS working with labor?

This is just AMAZING to me!
As I showed above the Sympathetic part of the ANS releases Catecholaimines and the Parasympathetic Part releases Endorphines.  These two things CANNOT be released at the same time.  The Sympathetic part and the catacholaimines are also considered the Emergency Response system.  This is literaly how our body responds in times of distress.  However the problem with this when we experience it in Labor is that the Uterus is not part of the emergency response system.  In labor our body is working to release endorphines but as I said our body CANNOT realease endorphines if it is releasing Catacolomines becaue we are allowing the Sympathetic part of our ANS to be working rather then the parasympathetic.

This is Where Hypnobirthing comes in!
Which I am hoping to sit down and explain later today.