Today I am pleased to have Juliet Eccleston as our guest blogger. She will be sharing two techniques that birth professionals can use in their practice when working with expectant moms.

Many people talk about NLP, or Neuro-Linguistic Programming, however very few people actually know what it is. That’s largely due to the fact that’s it’s a collection of techniques rather than one specific thing. In general terms NLP studies the structure of how humans think and experience the world. The best descriptions I’ve heard is that it’s the “science of achieving excellence” and that it is instrumental in “finding ways to help people have better, fuller and richer lives”

It has been used in many fields and is particularly good for activities such as public speaking, phobias, anxiety disorders etc. Although there are many generic skills within NLP which can be used across activities, using the NLP modeling technique can provide a unique insight in to how an activity can best be performed.

Modeling

Modeling an activity involves exploring the person doing it from multiple perspectives. Perceiving a situation or experience from multiple perspectives allows a person to gain broader insight and understanding with respect to the event.

These positions are:

• First position – trying it our yourself and exploring how you do it,
• Second position – standing “in the shoes” of the person to be modelled, attempting to think and act as much like other person as possible,
• Third position – standing back and observing the person to be modelled, interacting with other people (including ourselves) as an uninvolved witness, for this we suspend our personal judgments and notice only what our senses perceive, as scientist might objectively examine a particular phenomenon through a telescope or microscope.
• Fourth position’ – an intuitive synthesis of all of these perspectives, in order to get a sense for the entire ‘gestalt’.

So as you can see in terms of birth, modelling is an interesting analysis to undertake. In particular the first position, as there are only so many times one would probably give birth purely in the interests of science! That said however, there is something to be said for having gone through the first position as least once in order to experience this particularly unique activity. The other positions are far more easy to organise, whether by reviewing great births which have been filmed, watching in person, reviewing great birth stories or interviewing people who have experienced great births. Of course preferably if would be a mixture of all of these approaches.

As mentioned earlier, NLP is a collection of techniques rather than one specific way of doing things. A quite well known NLP technique which can be used with pretty much any activity is called anchoring and below I have explained how this can be done to help someone bring about a relaxed state when they are in labour:

Anchoring

Step 1
Think about how you want to feel when you’re birthing your baby, perhaps one of relaxation, feeling in control, or confidence?

Step 2
Now think about a time when you experienced those feelings, bring that moment clear into your mind and everything about that moment. What could you see, what could you feel, smell, taste, really use all of your senses to bring back that memory as vividly as possible.

Step 3
Anchor that feeling either by pressing your thumb and forefinger together, or by associating it to specific music or a specific picture.

Step 4
Repeat this process and each time experience the feeling more vividly and use the same anchor.

Step 5
During birth, or whenever you want to experience that feeling again, use the anchor and those feelings will wash over you.

To ensure they continue to be effective, anchors need to be distinctive, unique, intense and reinforced.

Remember that all of these techniques are not only useful during pregnancy and birth, but also when looking after your baby as well as passing these skills and techniques on to them as they grow up.

There are many more techniques out there which can be learned, if you are interested in an NLP course then contact the original Society of NLP which was founded by Richard Bandler. You can find courses and seminars on this website: www.purenlp.com

Juliet is the founder of the “Natural Birth | Birthdownload” website and the creator of the antenatal programme The Psychology of Giving Birth. You can also follow her on Twitter.

These posts may also inspire you:

1. The Inner Work of Building Your Birth Business – The Emotional Aspect – Part 3
2. What Do You Say After Your Cocktail Line?
3. Resource for Clients – Spinning Babies
4. Do You Have a Great Cocktail Line?
5. Niche-ing Your Birth Business