About calmbirth®
The calmbirth® method of childbirth education was created by Peter Jackson in 2005.
As a midwife in a country hospital for 20 years, Peter witnessed mothers whose experience of childbirth was one of fear, pain and trauma. As a result he began to search for ways to help improve the experience of these mothers.
He consequently qualified as a Private Subconscious Mind Therapist and in 1997 traveled to the USA and there qualified as a HypnoBirthing (® practitioner. Peter brought this programme to Australia in 1997 and until 2004, trained HypnoBirthing® practitioners in this country. Over 100 certified HypnoBirthing ® practitioners attended his training.
As a result of feedback he received from couples attending his classes and some of the practitioners he trained in the HypnoBirthing® method, Peter realized the need for a unique Australian childbirth education programme. calmbirth® is the result.
The calmbirth® technique was developed to reduce pain in labour by eliminating the fear and tension that many women experience during childbirth. calmbirth® draws on Dr Grantly Dick Read’s (1889–1959) theory of fear – tension – pain which revolutionized the way people perceived childbirth in the early half of this century. His model outlining the relationship between fear tension and pain in the body of the labouring woman is based on the way the sympathetic nervous system reacts to signals of distress or potential danger.
In his work as a Private Subconscious Mind Therapist Peter has experienced first hand the remarkable healing which takes place when a person is taught to accesses his or her subconscious resources. In the calmbirth® classes couples are taught skills such as relaxation, visualisation and breathing which help to tap into these resources. This in turn reduces fear and anxiety about birth. In his book “Timeless Healing “Herbert Benson (1996) explains that the bodily calm we call the “relaxation response” has the opposite effect to the well know “fight and flight” response. The relaxation response is a state in which blood pressure is lowered, heart rate, breathing rate metabolic rate brought on by simple “….mental focusing or meditation techniques”. Benson believes that when we encourage patients (mothers) to play an active role in their health care (birth process) we are utilizing a contemporary understanding of mind body medicine. All of the above can have a beneficial effect on a woman’s pregnancy, labour and post partum period as has been proven over and over again by pregnant couples who have used the calmbirth® techniques in childbirth.