A full term pregnancy is 40 weeks as it apparently takes at least that amount of time for the unborn baby to fully develop.  Some pregnancies last for up to 42 weeks, but that’s a topic for another article.

 Aside from the physical development there is also the mental and emotional development to consider.  Results of a Swedish population wide study suggest that prematurely born children have some risk of developing anxiety, depression or other psychiatric disorders in adolescence or young adulthood.

Based on these findings it follows that children born prematurely should be watched closely for signs of these disorders.  It also follows that prevention of premature birth is preferable to an induction or even to an elective Cesarean section.  

HypnoBirthing® the Mongan Method is remarkably effective in preventing premature birth.  The pregnant mother learns to communicate with her body and her baby.  She also learns the fine art of self hypnosis and deep relaxation with the result that a HypnoBirthing mother can convince her unborn baby to remain unborn until the time is right for being born.  

The Swedish doctors observed a stepwise increase in psychiatric admissions with an increasing degree of premature births.  As such, 3.5 percent of people born moderately preterm at 29 to 32 weeks of pregnancy and 5.2 percent born very preterm at 24 to 28 weeks of pregnancy had been hospitalized because of a psychiatric disorder.  

Compared with those born at 40 weeks, the risk for psychiatric disorders was 68 percent in the very preterm group and 21 percent higher in the moderately preterm group.

With the rising cost of mental health care and the even higher cost to the individual and to the family it makes excellent sense to utilize prevention as opposed to treatment.  HypnoBirthing education offers five classes where the parents receive childbirth instructions.  The cost of the classes varies with the region and also depends on if it’s a group or a private class.  Psychiatric hospital beds and psycho pharmaceuticals are very costly in all parts of our nation.  The personal cost to the family and to the individual is beyond calculation and lasts for a life time.

Consequently prevention clearly offers the preferred alternative and I recommend that all pregnant people find a HypnoBirthing practitioner and start taking classes to increase the number of full term HypnoBirthing babies being born.

Contact the HypnoBirthing Institute for a list of national and international practitioners’.