When you tell a young woman that the pain of childbirth is unnatural and that it can be eliminated without injections or anesthesia, the first thing she does is shake her head in disbelief. Isn’t this pain a given? Doesn’t the obvious misunderstanding between the girth of the child’s body and the narrowness of the female reproductive organs inevitably lead to the most intense pain?
Origin of the fear of pain during childbirth and delivery
The sensation of pain so greatly increased in individual women is due to changes in the nervous system. Such harmful influences on the nervous system come from fear and misconceptions. On the same day that the growing girl learns for the first time of the emergence of human life from the womb of the mother, the germ of fear also sinks into the young soul along with the happy anticipation of motherhood. The future mother has no idea of the meaningful effect of hormones, which are produced in enormous quantities in the placenta and for nine months prepare, loosen, soften the birth passages of the pregnant woman for the passage of the child. No one probably tells her that the child’s head paving the way in the gradual advance presses the blood out of the extremely stretched soft tissues and that the resulting bloodlessness makes the vagina, perineum and labia so insensitive that tears can be sutured immediately after birth without anesthesia. In their imagination, the certainty that the child must cause pain when leaving the womb through such a narrow opening prevails. Countless impressions of the world of experience consolidate this certainty from a young age, starting with the observation that most births take place in a hospital and that doctors play an important role in this, similar to the role they play in illnesses and operations. It comes to it that one finds novels and stories, in films and audio books much more frequently frightening than encouraging representations of the birth. In addition, births that are difficult or even unhappy are a popular topic of conversation that can be expanded upon, and even the easiest birth is painted rather than trivialized in the exchange of women’s experiences. Thus, an elementary fear complex, anchored more in the subconscious, develops and grows, which is fostered by numerous influences in the course of pregnancy. Its effects are by no means limited to the emotional life. As soon as the rhythmic contractions of the uterine muscles (labor pains) announce the beginning of birth, fear and ignorance, pain expectation and panic mood set a complicated mechanism in motion.
Birth and delivery without fear and pain
Its end product is birth pain, which more than 90 percent of childbearing women among Western peoples feel and express more or less clearly. Modern research, however, suggests that normal, uncomplicated childbirth is naturally painless, or at least without significant pain. Of course, the act of childbirth is accompanied by irritation of sensitive nerve endings that can trigger unpleasant sensations. Metabolic processes during uterine contraction, tissue stretching, compression of adjacent organs, etc. That these mechanically induced stimuli need by no means be painful is proven by the five to eight percent of all births that are painless without our intervention. (According to recent studies, this percentage is said to be 90 percent among the still existing indigenous peoples of Africa and Asia). Only the processing of these sensations in the higher sections of the nervous system (diencephalon and cerebrum) often turns them into the most severe pain. The cerebral cortex, the organ of our consciousness formation and of the thought processing of all sensory perceptions, constantly receives an endless number of impulses from the body organs. Its excitability threshold is normally adjusted so that our consciousness perceives only the vital ones from these constantly inflowing impulses, while all others are inhibited. By increasing the excitability threshold, the cerebral cortex can transform impulses of little vital importance into subliminal impulses in order to spare the organism unnecessary reactions. In this way, during birth, it can inhibit the mechanically induced, natural sensory impulses from the organs of the lesser pelvis, thereby keeping them below the wave of pain sensation.The threshold of excitability is usually lowered in women who are unaware of and unprepared for the onset of childbirth. It is not only the elementary fear of pain and danger described at the beginning that robs the cerebral cortex of its tension and makes it difficult to inhibit the rhythmically incoming stimulus impulses from the uterus. Varied discomfort and disfiguring stretch marks have awakened feelings of unwillingness. Not infrequently, social distress, professional anger or even marital conflicts weigh heavily on the mind. Numerous unfavorable mental influences are to blame for the fact that in most expectant mothers the functioning of the cerebral cortex is more and more disturbed as the pregnancy progresses. The situation further worsens during delivery. The woman enters the delivery room, where not infrequently some “suffering companions” are already wailing. And like generations before her, she makes her way through the dark gate of anxiety and fear: ignorant, despondent, resigned to fate and passive. She takes the pain upon herself like an unalterable toll. The crying out under the contraction brings relief. In an instinctive urge to act, she tosses and turns. The cramping of the voluntary muscles spreads to the muscle fibers of the uterine closure, complicating the opening process.
Birth without pain through psychoprophylactic birth preparation.
Physical and mental strength is wasted in this process, exhaustion makes itself felt. The birth lasts longer, puts more strain on the child, requires more frequent medical assistance. Certainly, this behavior is not the rule. We have described it in this clarity in our article: Birth without pain through psychoprophylactic birth preparation to make the starting points of psychoprophylaxis understandable. It is a program of pedagogical, psychotherapeutic and gymnastic measures that prevent the above-mentioned disturbances in the processing of natural birth sensations. The first priority is the elimination of disturbing mental and psychological stresses that affect the activity level and inhibitory capacity of the cerebral cortex. An individual medical consultation and the exhaustion of all social and material possibilities of help are of fundamental importance here. In order to eradicate the fear of childbirth that has been carried from one generation to another since time immemorial, expectant mothers learn the most important basics during psychoprophylactic birth preparation as early as the third to fifth month. For more information, as mentioned earlier, see our article on giving birth without pain through psychoprophylactic birth preparation.
