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WATERBIRTHS

GP TAKES THE PLUNGE AND TRIES AN UNDERWATER BIRTH
Martyn Halle

The decision of Dr Jane McGrath was prompted by a chance meeting.

Dr Jane McGrath had not been planning anything revolutionary for the birth of her first child. 

‘It was going to be a managed hospital delivery with plenty of pain relief. The notion of alternatives like waterbirths hadn’t entered my head,’ the east London GP said.

But a chance meeting led her to become the first doctor in Britain to give birth using hypnotherapy.

Dr McGrath bumped into Dr Gowri Motha, once a registrar in obstetrics and now a firm believer in water births and hypnotherapy.

Dr Motha invited Dr McGrath to attend her classes from week 24 of the pregnancy.

‘I have to confess that I was sceptical about whether hypnotherapy could really work in easing labour and reducing pain, but I was prepared to have a go at it,’ said Dr McGrath.

‘I went once a week to start with, and then every other week towards the end of the pregnancy.’

‘We were encouraged to relax.  A regular activity was to lie down and raise our legs in the air and tighten and relax all our muscles.’

‘Then we were told to concentrate on something pleasant.’

‘The whole idea is to create a feeling of tranquillity where we became detached from the body mentally.  The mind goes into an altered state,’ Dr McGrath said.  ‘You are taken into hypnosis in stages.  Dr Motha’s words are soothing and she uses mental imagery to put you into deep relaxation.’

‘The concept is to mentally ‘anaesthetise’ the body so that it feels no pain in labour.’

‘After a few sessions it was quite easy to get the hang of and we had to go home and practise with the help of our partners.’

‘Although it appeared to work in our sessions with Dr Motha.  I was still unconvinced it would work for me in labour.’

‘I know it sounds silly for a doctor to say, but I’m a wimp when it comes to pain and I couldn’t see how mind over matter could be better than pethidine and gas and air.’

‘Nonetheless, lying on a sunkissed Greek beach and the sensation of floating on air, were my chosen alternatives.’

When Dr McGrath’s waters eventually broke at 2.30 one morning, she case herself off to her Greek island and experienced very little pain.

‘I couldn’t believe how well it was working.  I called Dr Gowri and she came round to examine me.  By then I was experiencing pan down the sides of my legs and beginning to think I was a failure and hadn’t been doing the hypnotherapy properly.

Hypnotherapy and water minimise pain.

‘I later realised that the discomfort must have been caused by the way the baby was lying.  It must have been touching a nerve.’

‘When Gowri examined me, I was already almost fully dilated.  I was flabbergasted, particularly as this was my first baby.’

‘She asked me whether I wanted it at home or in hospital.  I plumped or the safety of the delivery suite.’

Dr McGrath had been expecting an ‘on-bed’ delivery, but she soon found herself being prepared for a water birth.

Dr Motha is an NHS pioneer of water births and she believes water, combined with hypnotherapy is the most relaxing and pain-free ways of delivering.

‘When I should have been feeling pain at the height of each contraction there was none.  I kept on thinking this couldn’t last. But it did,’ said Dr McGrath.

‘Gowri encourages her patients to think that the vaginal opening is not really narrow.’

‘It helps break that feeling it will be painful or that you might tear and encourages the muscles to loosen.’

Three and a quarter hours after starting labour, Oscar was born with Dr McGrath still sitting in the pool.

‘The delivery was calm and stress-free, and my blood pressure was low.  My pulse was only 64 when it should have been much higher.’

Dr McGrath is now a firm supporter of birth hypnotherapy.  ‘I remember seeing a lot of pain and suffering experienced by women in labour when I was an SHO and the thought of having to go through such an ordeal really frightened me.’

‘I was very fortunate to meet Dr Motha again because she has proved that there are alternatives.’

GP Medicine, 20 May 1994

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Giving birth: Mrs Jill Sims in the pool with her husband Dr Mike Sims

Case history

GP trainee in Essex Dr Mike Sims and his wife Jill called on Dr Motha’s services for the birth of their second child.  Mrs Sims had a drug free labour and delivery in a waterbirth at home.

She said she felt ‘relaxed and confident’ when she went into labour, which lasted under four hours.

Dr Sims was on an obstetric attachment at the time.  ‘He nearly had a heart attack when I made it clear what I wanted for the delivery, but I won him round,’ said Mrs Sims.  But he was well prepared with painkillers should anything go wrong.

How hypnosis work

Dr Motha is convinced that hypnosis works.

‘It bypasses the critical faculty, something attained only when the mind is fully relaxed,’ she said.

‘I test this with the women I teach by pinching their hands.  They are unaware they are being pinched and feel no pain.’

‘I also have my own evidence – 150 women have been through the pregnancy programme, and every one of them has said she has got something good out of it.’

She believes it is important to remove the blocks that sometimes exist in the mind.

‘Some women have a terrible fear of birth and the pain they believe will be associated with it.’

‘With hypnoanalysis it might then be possible to make them think more positively.’

Midwives at two London hospitals have agreed to let Dr Motha offer lessons to antenatal classes.

Woman are already being shown the technique at Whipps Cross Hospital in Leytonstone, east London, and classes are shortly to start at Rush Green Hospital in Romford, Essex.

Woman and their partners wanting to use hypnotherapy in birth can attend a course by Dr Motha for £100.

She also offers a course in self hypnosis and other relaxation therapies, leading up to an assisted water birth for £600.