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. 

Public Again

I started this blog some time ago in hopes to get healthy (and loose the weight I needed to) and inspire and be inspired by those of you who were also trying to do that as well.  I ended up putting the blog aside because of other things I was trying to focus on but worked away at getting healthy.  In the process I found support and continued to write on the blog off and on.  I am happy to report that I met my goal last summer and over the course of two vacations, an anniversary and the holiday season I put on 8 pounds from where I was at in July.  I am at 135 now and am hoping to be lower then my first original goal and get down to 125.  I feel like for my height and build this is doable.  Over the course of time that I wrote on this blog in private I put my weight on it not thinking that it would ever be public again.  I debated on taking my weight off but decided to keep it on here in hopes that it can possibly motivated and empower some of you.

I am happy to report that I do feel like a new person in a lot of ways.   As I read over the past posts the last few days it was very encouragine to see where I am at now and to see where I was at then.  I have put a few recipes on here during that time and will continue to put more recipes on here.  I also feel like I have become a lot more educated about fitness and food along this process and also because I have had some health problems in the past year and half that have really made me have to change the way I eat.  I will be posting a lot about what I have learned. 

I hope that this will be a blog that you can come to and be inspired.  I hope that this will be a blog that you can come to and share your stories.  I would love to hear them.  =) 

ERIN

Journey to Rejuvenation

This past June I gave birth to my first daughter! There were many inspirations for this blog all surrounding this one event.

Something about having a child and wanting to provide them with absolutely the best life you possibly can is probably the greatest inspiration. If I want her to grow up living a healthy life then she better see my doing it as well.

The second reason is a little more selfish! While pregnant with {E.G.} I only gained about 20 lbs. from my pre-pregnancy weight. (I should inform you that I did loose about ten pounds in the first trimester and was sick through the majority of my pregnancy. I was not trying by any means to only gain a small amount). It did feel like an accomplishment, but the reality was that I was overweight before I got pregnant. After I had her, the weight literally fell off with no effort. Within a week I had lost all the weight I gained while pregnant and within a month I was ten pounds lighter then when I got pregnant. I felt great! I do not tell you this to brag. I just say this because I thought that the weight was going to continue to fall off. I lost a few more pounds and for a few months I was able to maintain not really working at it. Now six months after having my little one, I am at about the same weight I was before I got pregnant. I now know that the weight is not going to continue to just
"fall" off. So the second inspiration is purely so that I can be happy when I look in the mirror.

Another reason is just so that I feel better in all aspects of life. As any mother knows, for the first little while after having a child I was sleep deprived. After a while though, she was sleeping through the nights and I was getting plenty of sleep. Even then, I would wake up completely exhausted. I wondered if I had a disease or was sick. It didn’t take me long to realize that there was something wrong but it was in the way I was living. I am not a smoker or a drinker so it wasn’t anything major but it was the way I was eating. I resolved quickly that this is not exactly the way I want to feel for the rest of my life. So I decided to make a change. Just as the quote of the week says, "Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being" I am not only seeking health physically but in all ways and this is the beginning of my journey to Rejuvenation. There will be recipes, weekly goals and other random posts!

~ I am educating myself in every way possible and would love for you to join me. If you have a topic you would like to learn more about, let me know! I would love to research it and do a story about it. ~