American Cathleen Chang, 35, is expecting her first baby in September and is reading up all she can find on hypnobirthing.

The idea, she says, is to avoid all interventions - drugs or injections - in the birthing process.

"I'm talking to my doctors and making sure the hospital respects my wishes," she says.

Australian Johanna Selth, meanwhile, has already been down that path. The 35-year-old mother of two, aged 5 and 2 and a half, says, "I had a lot of problems with my first baby. I was in labor for 16 hours and had to go in for an emergency C-section."

She says the whole experience was "very painful, very disappointing".

When she got pregnant again, she talked to another Australian, Tara Wilkinson, whose father is a practicing hypnotist in Australia.

"She gave me CDs, which were all about relaxation and visual imagery of an easy, successful birth."

She also read the 1960s book HypnoBirthing by Marie Mongan and worked closely with the then head of Obstetrics at Beijing United Hospital, Dr Warren Brooks.

"There was no pain, just pressure," she says, recalling the second time around

"I visualized the baby going down the birth canal ... visualized it pushing through, and felt completely relaxed."

Although she eventually had to go in for a C-section again, as the baby's head did not engage, "the experience was totally different from that of my first baby", she says.

Wilkinson, 35, who has three children, all delivered through hypnobirthing, points out that, "People opting to use hypnosis for childbirth need to be realistic. It can help keep the mother calm and give your body a good shot at a natural birth, but it can't guarantee that medical intervention won't be necessary.

"I broke my arm and tailbone and went into labor at 36 weeks with my first child after falling down some stairs. When I arrived at hospital I was told the baby was distressed and advised to have an emergency C-section," she recalls.

"I was a little shaken and so I did the hypnosis I'd been practicing while I waited. When the doctor arrived, my contractions had stopped and the baby had calmed. After further tests and monitoring, she deemed the C-section unnecessary," she continues.

"For hypnosis to be effective during childbirth, the more practice the mother has the better."

The use of hypnosis for childbirth started with the work of English obstetrician Grantly Dick-Read (1890-1959) and culminated in his book Childbirth without Fear, first published in 1942.

China Daily