Hypnosis calms fetal heart rate

Hello Elly,

How are you? It was so nice talking to you again over the phone after all this time! After we talked I checked out your website and read more about all the wonderful hypnosis you have done for child birth.

Last night I had a wonderful experience in the delivery room that encouraged me to write to you again and learn more about it. Toward the end of my late shift there was a patient in labor who desperately wanted an epidural, but due to some surgical emergencies, the anesthesiologists weren't available for an epidural. The fetal heart rate became increasingly worse, so I eventually went in to talk to the patient about further interventions since the fetal heart could not tolerate it much longer the way it was.

The patient was in a terrible state, fearful and in lots of pain, so I tried to calm her down by using some of your hypnosis techniques. She responded to is so well that I gave it a few more minutes and went on with the hypnosis. Suprisingly, within less than five minutes, not only was the patient much more relaxed, but the fetal heart rate became much better!

I stayed with her and guided her through the hypnosis for another half hour, until I had to leave to take care of other patients. The baby was doing fine by that point and I was relieved that we got around any further interventions. Fifteen minutes after I had left the delivery room, the midwife called me back because the fetal heart rate was becoming critical again. Once again I had to relax the patient first to even talk to her, and once again as soon as I had started the hypnosis, the baby was doing well again!

I was sitting next to the patient and could literally watch on the monitor how the hypnosis was positivly affecting the baby.

Another half hour of hypnosis passed, my shift was long over and I finally decided to leave. By that time the midwives had realized that something weird was going on as they had followed the fetal heart rate on the monitor from the control center as well and they were wondering how I managed to improve the FHR by being into the room. While I explained to them a little bit about hypnosis we could watch on the monitor for the third time this night how the FHR would get worse again.

This was defenitely not a coincidence any more! After all my positive experiences with hypnosis I was once again suprised how powerful it was. It also made quite an impact on my coworkers, and although they had been quite skeptical about the hypnosis so far, I think the experience last night convinced a few of them.

Unfortunaltely I was forced to leave at that point, (German working laws are very strict and you must leave the hospital for at least eight hours between shifts), but at least for the past three hours the hypnosis had spared the patients any interventional procedures.

With all this new motivation and the support of my coworkers I was now wondering if you could give me some more information and advice about hypnosis during delivery. In between the contractions I managed to relax her very well, but during the contractions I often lost her. I tried with images like cold/ice or heat but it did not work as well as I had hoped. I know we talked about using the pain to deepen the hypnosis--could you give me some more cues as to how I can guide the patient towards this direction?

I was also wondering if you knew about any studies that had been done about hypnosis during delivery and in particular about the effect on fetal heart monitoring. I haven't found any information about it yet, but I am convinced that my hypnosis effected the FHR last night.

Best greetings from Germany and a big hug,

Verena