5c3
lS
By RALPH V. AUGUST, M. D.
as told to
James C. G. Conniff
A pioneering obstetrician t&lk why h& and his patients art?
Family WeeJcIy December l, 198S
enthusiastic about this painless method of de
Or. Auffttsf holds weekly group hypnotic
Editors' Note: This busy Muskegon Heights,
Mich., obstetrician believes hypnosis is often the
only painkiller a woman needs in childbirth. He
has found that chemical agents for pain relief,
whether inhaled as a gas or injected by needle,
cannot compare although they continue to be
useful under certain conditions.
In a monumental study, "Hypnosis in Obstet
rics" (McGraw-Hill), Dr. August has reported
on 1,000 consecutive cases of childbirth-by-hypnosis
from his own private practice.
To give family weekly fenders o close-up of
this amazing procedure, we went to Dr. August
for this firsthand report on the facts every
woman facing motherhood might ask herself
about this dramatic aid to safer, easier childbirth.
Doctor, just what it medical hypnosis?
It is a state of mind into which the patient
permits her doctor to guide her. She is in control
at all times; she can enter and leave hypnosis
at will. In that sense, I have never hypnotized
anyone. What I have done has been to help
the obstetric patient to hypnotize herself. It's
like driving a car: I show her how.
Why it hypnosis a better tray to re
lieve pain in childbirth?
For two reasons : ( 1 ) it protects the baby
f
Family Weekly. December 1. 1MJ
Safer, Easier
sessions with mothers-to-be. A patient
as nothing else can, and (2) it makes
things easier for the mother.
Take the ordinary anesthesia of childbirth.
Through the mother's blood stream, it imposes
on a seven-pound baby the same doae of
powerful chemicals needed to affect a woman
weighing 120 pounds or more. No wonder so
many babies are born groggy, and worse.
No wonder that 22 percent of newborn infants
who die (and 8.4 percent of new mothers who
die) do so as a direct or indirect result of
the chemical anesthesia that is normally
used in childbirth.
Many medical schools still do not teach
hypnosis in their regular obstetrical programs.
But more and more obstetricians are training
themselves. Their desire to offer hypnosis to
their patients underlines a growing awareness
that it is an absolutely safe form of pain
relief for both mother and baby not least
when the mother is a cardiac.
How does it make (kings easier tor
the mother?
Paradoxically, hypnosis sharpens her senses
even while it is making her more suggestible. -As
a result, it helps a woman in labor to
cooperate passively, as it were, with any
reasonable recommendation the doctor may
make for her benefit or the baby's. In this way,
the hypnotic state greatly improves her
Childbirth -
is put into trance in her hospital room
ability to perform well in giving birth.
At the same time, hypnosis permits the
skilled physician to have his patient direct her
attention elsewhere as the need arises thereby
keeping her from experiencing any pain
whatever. When properly "hypnoanesthetized,"
she later will retain nothing but pleasant
memories of her delivery.
How about discomfort immediately
alter the "waket up"?
Once a mother comes out of her trance,
posthypnotic suggestion takes over to let her
actually enjoy her hospital stay, free of all
pain and discomfort That means no anesthetic
hang-over, no breast problems, no afterpains,
no pain from surgical repair, no constipation
or hemorrhoids, no restlessness or sleeplessness,
no complaints that the room is too hot or
the mattress too hard.
Elimination of pain and discomfort by -
posthypnotic suggestion works so well, in fact,
that the doctor must take special care in
examining his patient during her hospital stay
to make sure he overlooks nothing that might
need attention.
As a final touch before leaving her trance,
the new mother is asked if she wishes to nurae
her baby or not. If she does, ve implant this
posthypnotic suggestion: on the second day
after delivery, she will have all the milk her
Through Hypnosis
baby requires. And she does, unfailingly! If she
docs not wish to nurse, she is assured there
may be only a drop or two and that her breasts
will retain their present size and they do!
We always suggest that the milk flow will
start on the second day after delivery to
reinforce the mother's confidence in hypnosis.
A new mother's breasts would freshen anyway
on the third day after giving birth.
We can even use hypnotic suggestion to reduce
blood loss a feature that is particularly
useful in Caesarean sections.
Whqjt if she comes out of her trance
at the wrong lime?
The actual moment of delivery and ensuing
repair is the one time she is not free to leave
hypnosis and even that is so only because
she has agreed beforehand to let the doctor
tell her "when we are through."
Couldn't an unterupulont doetor pro
long that moment Indefinitely?
No. During each training session, I instruct
the patient that she may leave hypnosis
whenever she wishes "except when you are
in the hospital in the process of having your
baby." By repetition, I give this statement a
degree of emphasis which equals or supersedes
all other suggestions designed to encourage
compliance. I believe this to be of the utmost
pfcom from the Wn. "Hypnotlt en Sol AneMhmio lor Conoroon Section," copyright 1o3. tf Upjolra Co.
Under hypnosis, the patient is encouraged to
importance and one of the main reasons why
95 percent of my patients will accept hypnosis
for delivery, in contrast to the commonly
quoted 20 to 30 percent.
Furthermore, even the deepest levels of
hypnosis are self-limiting. They are always
of fairly brief duration and will dissipate
of their own accord. No one can hypnotize you
or make you hypnotize yourself once and
for all. Nor can anyone make you do something
under hypnosis that is against your principles.
To test this, I once tried to have a
well-educated patient repeat after me a sentence
with deliberately garbled grammar. She
repeated the sentence obediently enough but
with the bad grammar corrected ! If training
makes people that careful about grammar,
it is certain they will react much more strongly
about more serious matters.
Can anyone be hypnotized?
Medical authorities estimate that from 20
to 30 percent of our population is readily
hypnotizable women more so than men. .
Hypnosis, after all, b only a learning process;
some are quicker at it than others.
Age is no barrier. In my series of 1,000
cases, where hypnosis was attempted with 85
percent of the patients, we had 95 percent
success in delivering mothers whose ages
ranged from 14 to 46.
hallucinate pleasant events until birth takes place.
The ideal candidate for hypnosis is the
woman who goes to sleep easily and enjoys
a good night's rest. The excessively critical,
highly intelligent, demanding patient is hardest
to help with hypnosis. Yet I have used hypnosis
to deliver a fellow physician a well-educated,
brainy woman who, like all expectant
mothers, had the best possible motivation:
her baby's well-being.
Are there any typet of persons who
should not be hypnotized?
Doctors generally agree that the psychotic
or prepsychotic patient, the very young and
the very old, the person of markedly subnormal
intelligence, and those who do not wish to
be hypnotized should not or cannot be helped
in this way.
What are the chief potient require
ments for hypnosis?
Above all, motivation and the willingness to
accept useful suggestions and to make sacrifices
for the baby's Bake. Fortunately, the maternal
inBtinct takes care of this, especially during
pregnancy. A patient also Bhould have the
intellectual capacity to understand what she
and the doctor are trying to accomplish and
to go along with his instructions. For that,
of course, strong rapport with the obstetrician is
a must Here again, nature lends a hand, for
(Continued on page S)
Family Weekly. December 1, 1MJ I