Advanced Clinical Hypnosis And HypnoBirthing Classes | Studies

Hypnofertility

“If your mind can conceive it, your body can achieve it”

The American Society of Reproductive Medicine recently reported that 6.1 million women and their partners experience infertility. Each year more than a million North Americans spend millions of dollars to seek out medical intervention for infertility.

Since the 1980’s a great deal of research has been done to find out how conception occurs and what prevents it making today’s A.R.T. (assisted reproductive technology) the best it has ever been. Even though each clinic offers different success rates to perspective patients, the average mean success rate for in vitro fertilization (IVF) is about 20%, similar to the 20% chance that a healthy reproductively normal couple has of achieving a pregnancy that results in a live birth in any given month.

For those willing to take the medical route, the options are plentiful; Gamete Intra Fallopian Transfer (GIFT), Zygote Intra Fallopian Transfer (ZIFT), Intra Uterine Insemination (IUT), Egg Donation, In vitro Fertilization (IVF) and Surrogate pregnancies. It is truly amazing to see what is possible medically, however there is a great expenditure of money and emotional energy spent by the majority of couples longing to become pregnant, who unfortunately never do realize their dreams of having their own children.

The average price of IVF is $10,000-15,000 and is often repeated 3 or 4 times. To hire a surrogate can cost around $65,000 and there are no guarantees.

To boost the 20% A.R.T .success rate and maximize chances for medically assisted conception to occur, women are seeking out complementary therapies such as chiropractic, massage, acupuncture, herbology, hypnotherapy, homeopathy, mind/body private and group counseling, meditation and prayer. In the last five years, hypnotherapy has risen in popularity in fertility circles because of the powerful results women are experiencing.

Since the creation of the HypnoBirthing Fertility Specialist program by Lynsi Eastburn and The HypnoBirthing Institute in 2003, more and more women are seeking out HypnoFertility sessions to assist them in becoming pregnant. The two types of women who come for HypnoFertility sessions are those who are seeking to become pregnant naturally and those who are actively engaged in A.R.T. Those who are in the active A.R.T. process usually come for fertility hypnosis to increase their chances of a successful embryo transfer.

The field of fertility has had several notable researchers investigating the effectiveness of hypnosis and other mind/body therapies over the past decade or more. In the summer of 2004, an Israeli professor named Eliyahu Levitas, conducted a study from Soroka Hospital in Beersheva with 185 women awaiting IVF embryo transfer.

The results of his study indicated that hypnosis can double the success of IVF treatment. Professor Levitas found that the women in his test group who received hypnosis at the moment of embryo transfer had a 28% pregnancy rate versus a 14% pregnancy rate of the control group which received no hypnosis at the moment of transfer.

According to Levitas, stress can cause tiny contractions which may interrupt or even expel the embryos from the uterus at the same moment they are being introduced. He told the Berlin conference where he released his findings “ performing embryo transfer under hypnosis may significantly contribute to an increased clinical pregnancy rate. The bottom line is, I think it’s a good thing, it will work. Patients should be given the option if the facilities are available.”

Perhaps the most notable researcher in women’s fertility is Alice Domar P.h.d. Professor Domar is the director of the Israel Deaconess Behavioral Medicine program for infertility in Boston. Dr. Domar is the author of “Conquering Infertility” and has published numerous articles in the field.

In her second study, published in “Fertility and Sterility” in 2000, 55% of previously infertile women who met regularly in a mind/body program, conceived compared with 20% of the control group who did not use any mind/body techniques. Fertility hypnosis is a wonderful personalized adjunct to any fertility mind/body group a woman is attending.

Dr. Elizabeth Muir, a clinical Psychologist who works with hypnotherapy for fertility explains that hypnosis works by its affect on the hypothalamus, which is the neural center at the base of the brain that works together with the pituitary, sending hormones out as needed to support different functions in the body systems. The hypothalamus registers stress by turning emotions into physical responses via the hormone levels, which has a direct affect on fertility. Dr. Muir believes, as does Dr. Domar, that women struggling with fertility issues often do not have necessary support and that counseling and hypnotherapy can remove unresolved issues related to having a baby.

It is not just women who have unresolved issues about getting pregnant and what it will mean in their lives. At the Institute of Applied Psychology in Lisbon, Portugal, a team of researchers led by Katharina Hirschenhauser, discovered that men who actively want to become fathers automatically adjust their testosterone levels at exactly their partners most fertile time! Clearly, being in inner alignment with becoming a father is the best possible hypnotic suggestion for the male partner.

Lynsi Eastburn expressed best what we as HypnoFertility Counselors regularly observe in our fertility clients when she said “Often, what I see in my office are women so desperate to have a baby that their lives are on an emotional roller coaster. Some of these women are obsessed with talk of cycle days and basal body temperatures to the exclusion of almost everything else. Paralyzed with fear, dreading the start of another period, consumed with thoughts of yet another failed attempt, marriages in tatters, beaten down self-esteem with the body in a perpetual state of fight or flight, is it any wonder pregnancy doesn’t occur?”

The media is filled with reports that subconsciously create deep anxiety and fear for women regarding the rise of infertility and the need for medical intervention from conception to birth. These collective unconscious beliefs we now know from Dr. Muir’s earlier explanation can “rev up” a woman’s hormones and affect her conceivability or even the way she births her baby. Currently 35 years old and above is considered to be “high risk” for a woman to become pregnant and it has become a common cultural belief that it is just not easy to have a baby these days.

Because all of these fear based thoughts are ingrained in our psyches, the very first part of HypnoFertility sessions and HypnoBirthing childbirth education classes is the same; dehypnotizing women of their personal limiting beliefs that society, friends or family pass onto them intentionally or unintentionally. It does make one wonder how much of our infertility problems or difficult labors could be eliminated if the collective unconscious held more life supportive and optimistic outcome based thinking.

Indeed, it was the father of natural childbirth, Dr. Dick Grantly Read who completely changed the way he practiced obstetrics in London in the 1920’s after a poor, laboring Cockney girl he had been called to attend, looked up at him just as he was about to put an ether cone on her face and said with wide eyes “It’s not supposed to hurt, is it Doctor?” Dr. Read withdrew the ether and watched the young woman have a pain free birth which changed the way he thought about labor and delivery and caused him to observe and name the “fear-tension-pain syndrome.” This syndrome has far reaching affects into many areas of life but in the realm of IVF one can easily replace the word fear with stress and acknowledge that pain certainly is the outcome if an IVF procedure fails to implant an embryo(s) properly.

The truth is that many people underestimate the power of words and their unconscious affects on physiology. Stress and fear are close cousins which feed each other and have much greater affects on our bodies than we give them credit for.

HypnoFertility can help to release fears and worries for both partners and transform them into a single minded force. Hypnosis is much more than simple imagery and positive thinking. Working with a skilled and certified HypnoBirthing Fertility Specialist (HBFS) can: 1.) help perspective parents identify and let go of limiting thoughts and emotions about conception, pregnancy and any other issues surrounding bringing a baby into the world 2.) bolster confidence and mood enabling both partners to come to a more peaceful inner space, no matter what the outcome, 3.) restore hormonal balance with stress reduction hypnosis 4.) create motivation to choose healthy lifestyle habits, (which can be the first to go when stress is critically high) including; eating in balance, exercising, sleeping well, meditating or doing self hypnosis and staying tobacco free and 5.) teach the client life long relaxation skills for stress relief that the whole family can learn to put to practical use.

Clients typically come to a HypnoBirthing Fertility Specialist’s office for 5-7 sessions lasting one and a half to two hours. It is possible for out of town clients to have a private phone consult and have an individualized tape or cd made based on their exact needs, which they listen to at the moment of IVF embryo transfer on headphones to maximize their chances of success.

The second session is offered to the male partner only, to allow for any anxiety or concerns he may have to be brought to the surface and cleared so that there can be total alignment from the perspective father. Having both parents fully “on board” is an integral part of the work. The first and remaining 4 or 5 sessions are attended by the perspective mother only.

Some mothers, once pregnant choose to come once a month throughout the first five or six months to reinforce their relaxation and remain calm and at peace throughout their gestational period. For those with a history of miscarriage this may be a valuable support system to put in place. Ultimately, those who become pregnant using HypnoFertility methods alone or in conjunction with A.R.T., often choose to continue the stress reduction approach from conception to birth and complete their baby journey with HypnoBirthing® Childbirth Education Classes. HypnoBirthing,® in addition to being a wonderful way to learn to birth a baby into the world safely, easily and more comfortably, also has an 80% success rate in turning breech babies, just by doing from one to three hypnosis sessions.

HypnoFertility sessions work beautifully as part of an integrative approach to conception. Most of my clients are seeking adjunctive support for their medical fertility treatments so it is common for me to work with other health care practitioners as part of a team approach.

Women who come for HypnoFertility sessions who are seeking a natural, non medical approach to conception will only incur a small fraction of the cost of IVF and will learn invaluable life skills that many look forward to teach the children they will have one day.