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Hypnotherapy is a complementary form of medicine focusing on the connection between the mind and the body. Today hypnotherapy is commonly used to treat phobias and a variety of addictions including smoking. Its application to the field of fertility is relatively new and provides a totally different approach to existing outlooks on infertility.

Our understanding of hypnotherapy is that is enables deep-rooted thoughts and feelings you may have about pregnancy, childbirth or motherhood to rise to the surface making you consciously aware of the issues and able to address the problem. Pregnancy may not happen until the problem has been dealt with.

The mind and body are inextricably linked. We know this from the effect that stress has on the body. Our mind busies itself with thinking about the problem while the body shows the physical side of stress like a raised heart rate, raised blood pressure and headache. Hypnotherapy assumes that every thought or sensation experienced in the mind shows itself as some physical change in the body and every physical change will have mental and emotional associations. The reproductive system is no exception.

The evidence

Some therapists have experienced a live birth success rate of 46% by using hypnotherapy on their patients. This sounds a promising complementary especially when you compare it to IVF clinics, the average of 22% and even the best at 43.4%.

A recent study at Harvard Medical School measured what happened when women who were having difficulty conceiving were given group cognitive behavioural therapy, a technique that replaces negative thoughts with positive ones. During 10 weekly two-hour sessions they were taught how to identify recurrent negative thought patterns and how to separate truth from fear. 55% of the women who participated subsequently had a baby, compared to 20% of the women who received none.