Good Example of Suggestibility

In my HypnoBirthing classes, I love to talk about how suggestibility can affect the labor and birthing process. Plainly stated, suggestibility is the openness to language and predictions that is prevalent when someone is hypnotized--hypnosis is a state of being suggestible and vulnerable to others' predictions about our experiences. Since hypnosis utilizes the altered state of consciousness that is experienced by all of us throughout the day, (we are most familiar with this concept when a commercial makes us feel hungry for a certain food or when the first song we hear in the morning sticks in our heads all day long), it is a normal and natural response.

During labor, suggestibility goes hand-in-hand with the natural trance state of the laboring women. It doesn't matter if you took HypnoBirthing. You will naturally go within and become more focused on your body...and more suggestible to what others predict about your labor. In class, we talk about how laboring women often feel exactly what they are told to feel or have the labor length they are told they will have. THAT is suggestibility. And it is important to be aware of what is being said around you, during your labor, because it can have serious consequences.

As I was sitting on the couch watching TV the other night I came across this episode of Family Guy. Watch from 8:14-8:55 in particular. Summary of the clip: Brian, the dog, arrives at a woman's house and she throws a white powder on his face. He is shocked, but not bothered by this. She promptly predicts that "it's gonna burn like hell in 30 seconds," and continues to banter with him. He notices nothing else until she soon reminds him, "By the way, it's been 30 seconds..." and he suddenly responds by screaming, grabbing at his eyes in pain, and running around the room in a panic.

Interesting! Sounds like a lot of labors where mom was doing just fine, until she was told that she would feel one thing or another, or that labor would progress in a certain way--usually a negative, rather than positive, suggestion. Lo and behold, it happens. And we wonder why!

Well, some of us wonder why. Some of us are not surprised at all.