The influence of maternal hypnosis on fetal movements in anxious pregnant women

Women's use of complementary and alternative therapies in reproductive health care

“…What alternative therapies are being used by women, particularly for their reproductive health care needs? The answer is an unequivocal “all of them.” A great variety of practices exist, from the use of hypnosis to treat anxiety in pregnant women (12), to massage, chiropractic treatment, yoga, and acupuncture for the treatment of back pain in pregnancy, to the use of aroma therapy to treat perineal discomfort (13,14). One would need a book or several volumes to comprehensively review the use of complementary and alternative therapies by women during the course of conception, pregnancy, lactation, and menstrual problems.…”

Maternal stress and affect influence fetal neurobehavioral development.

“…Stress induction has been associated with increased fetal heart rate in women with high, but not low, anxiety in one study (Monk et al, 2000) but with no discernible effects in another (Van den Bergh et al, 1989). Interventions designed to reduce maternal anxiety have been similarly inconsistent, resulting in a decrease (Field, Sandberg, Quetel, Garcia, & Rosario, 1985) and an increase (Zimmer, Peretz, Eyal, & Fuchs, 1988) in fetal motor activity. Thus knowledge regarding the proximal effects conferred on the developing fetus by the maternal psychosocial environment is both limited and inconclusive.…”