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This is a side study of the Hypnosis Antenatal Training for Childbirth (HATCh) Trial conducted at the Women's and Children's Hospital Adelaide. The aim was to assess knowledge, previous experiences, beliefs and attitudes of pregnant women recruited to the HATCh program. A total of 337 participated in the study. As 90% of this sample had completed Year 12, it was concluded that this group might not be representative of chid-bearing women in the general population. The survey revealed a high level of acceptance of hypnosis as a potentially useful modality to reduce labour pain and increase the birth experience.
Keywords: hypnosis, antenatal, attitudes to hypnosis, misconceptions.
Clinical hypnosis is a skill of using words and gestures (frequently called suggestions) in particular ways to achieve specific outcomes. This form of communication facilitates patient focused attention and dissociation (Yapko, 1990). During hypnosis patients experience an increased receptivity to verbal and non-verbal communications (Spiegel & Greenleaf, 1992; Yapko, 1990). Hypnotherapy is the utilization of hypnosis and suggestions to effect clinical outcomes.
Hypnosis in obstetrics has been used for more than a century (Werner, Schäuble, & Knudsen, 1982) and there is increasing evidence that it is an effective form of pain relief in labour and may be associated with other benefits such as reduced need for pharmacological labour analgesia, a decreased use of oxytocic augmentation during labour and an increased incidence of spontaneous vaginal birth (Cyna, McAuliffe, & Andrew, 2004). While it is said to increase maternal satisfaction with the childbirth experience (Freeman, Macaulay Eve, & Chamberlain, 1986), there is anecdotal evidence of hypnosis reducing the incidence of postpartum depression (Werner et al., 1982) and anxiety (Goldman, 1992). Self-hypnosis for anxiety management can be taught to the expectant mother (Schäuble, Werner, Rai, & Martin, 1998) and it has been demonstrated that the receptivity to suggestion and hypnosis increases during pregnancy (Tiba, 1990), while stress increases the response to suggestion (Spiegel & Greenleaf, 1992). Previous studies in this field are often limited by methodological and analytical problems. Substantive conclusions about timing and delivery of hypnosis and the effect on analgesia requirements, and the incidence of spontaneous vaginal delivery remain unclear.
The Hypnosis Antenatal Training for Childbirth (HATCh) trial is the largest prospective randomized controlled trial to date that...