I don't know, the theory seems very sound to me. The fight or flight reaction causes blood flow to be restricted to 'non essential' organs or those not needed for either fight or flight, the uterus obviously not being one of them, blood flow is restricted, the uterine muscles don't get the oxygen they need ergo, lots of pain.

I can totally see why the fear of pain in labour causes actual pain. If childbirth is indeed painful even without the reduced bloodflow to the uterus, I imagine it would be a lot less bearable.

I have read the hypnobirthing book by the founder, Marie Mongon, and she does stress that hypnobirthing does not guarantee painfree labour but can make it comfortable.

Also, as I did a presentation on this subject, I searched for non-biased testimonials and I found a great number of news stories with women saying that they had virtually painfree births thanks to hypnobirthing but I could not find a single article on it not working for women.

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Mum to two beautiful boys.
Student Midwife 2008!!
Student Midwife University Student Representative