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EFT during Pregnancy for Hospital Anxiety & Bereavement

by | Jun 4, 2014 | Case Studies, EFT, Motherhood, Pregnancy and Birth | 0 comments

pregnancy_silhouetteWith permission I share this case study: Caroline* was 24-36 weeks pregnant with twins when she contacted me to book 3 EFT skype sessions. This was her 3rd pregnancy having miscarried her second one.  The themes that we explored were fear of hospitals, fear of the unknown, wanting everything
to be perfect and  and increasing levels of trust and acceptance.

When we started to work with the “hospital anxiety”, it emerged that her brother had died in hospital and she had strong images and memories of smells that brought that trauma right back into her being.  As I realised we would be needing to work directly but gently with that trauma in order to release the association of hospitals with that memory.

Before starting, I invited Caroline to place her hands on her belly and say to her baby:

Dear little one
These feelings are my feelings, they are not your
I am working on releasing them now
You are safe
I love you very much

This next paragraph may take a leap of faith for some people but I find it helpful to invite pregnant women to say this in sessions as, in my experience, babies can take on their mothers’ feelings but believe that these feelings belong to themselves. Alternatively, a baby may choose to take on her mother’s feelings in order to protect her mother. Stating the above words, can help a baby separate herself from her mother’s feelings.

We worked on the memory of Caroline’s brother’s death in hospital in a gently way using the EFT Movie Technique which simply involves tapping on a title that represents the event.  On asking Caroline to rate the intensity of this title on a scale from 0 to 10 with 10 being the most intense, she said 10.  After a few rounds of tapping the intensity dropped but would not drop any further as she said she was experiencing tiredness and resistance to letting this go. So, as well as tapping directly on the resistance and tiredness, we also tapped on how it would be if she could let the negative emotions associated with the event while still keeping her brother’s memory in her heart.

Here is a tapping round based on what we said:

EFT-MAR14-005-9913

EFT Tapping on karate chop point for setup statement

Setup statements on karate chop point:

Even though I am tired and resistant to letting this go, I am deeply and completely accept myself
Even though I don’t want to let this memory go I accept myself just as I am.
Even though I don’t want to let this go because I don’t want to forget him I choose know that he will always be in my heart

Statements for tapping points:

Crown: tired
Beginning of eyebrow: resistant
Side of eye: I don’t want to let this go
Under eye:  I don’t want to forget him
Under nose: tired
Under lower lip:  I will never forget him
Collar bone: I don’t want to let this go
Under arm: What if I could let these upsetting feelings go while still keeping him in my heart
Crown: Who would I be if I could let this go
Beginning of eyebrow: What would I be thinking if I could let this go
Side of eye: What would I be feeling if I could let this go
Under eye: What would I be telling myself if I could let this go
Under nose: Open to the possibility of letting these upsetting feelings
Under lower lip: Just a little
Collar bone: In my own time and my own way
Under arm: While keeping him in my heart

After tapping with these statements, Caroline was able to release the rest of the intensity of that trauma. Since the focus of the sessions was on birth preparation, we did not complete the healing on her brother’s death but instead continue with the hospital anxiety which had now changed with concerns such as not wanting stuff done to her, being prodded, baby taken away or being messed around with.  We did some more rounds of tapping on these statements and then tested the level of hospital anxiety which had reduced from 9 out of 10 to 7 out of 10. Not a great jump but this sometimes happens when there are several contributing factors.
Positive EFTAs we had run out of time for this session, I finished with a round of positive EFT created by Silvia Hartmann. So I asked her what quality she would like to feel more of right now about the birth and she said trust.  I asked Caroline to rate her level of trust from -10 (the opposite of trust) through 0 (not here nor there) to +10 (complete trust). She said she was at a  3-4. The EFT round went something like this:

Hands on Heart Centre:

I want to be able to trust
Deep breath
I want to feel trust
Deep breath
I want to feel even more trusting in every cell of my body
Deep breath

Statements for tapping points:

Crown: Trust, deep breath
Third Eye: I want to feel trusting in every cell of my body, deep breath
Beginning of eyebrow: What does trust look like to me, deep breath
Side of eye: What does trust feel like in my body, deep breath
Under eye:  Open to the possibility of trusting myself, deep breath
Under nose: Open to the possibility of trusting my body, deep breath
Under lower lip: Open to the possibility of trusting my baby, deep breath
Collar bone: Open to the possibility of trusting my partner, deep breath
Under arm: Open to the possibility of trusting the hospital staff, deep breath
Crown: Open to the possibility of attracting only helpful, kind supportive people into my birth space, deep breath
Thumb nail: Open to the possibility of trusting the birth energy, deep breath
First finger nail: Open to the possibility of allowing trust into every fibre of my being, deep breath
Second finger nail: Open to the possibility of allowing trust into every cell of my body, deep breath
Third finger nail: Open to the possibility of trusting the process of birth, deep breath
Fourth finger nail: Open to the possibility of trusting myself, deep breath
Karate Chop: Allowing trust to infuse every cell of my being

Hands on Heart Centre:

I choose trust in each and every moment
Deep breath
I choose to trust myself and my baby
Deep breath
I choose trust
Deep breath

I then asked her to rate her level of trust and it had gone up to 8-9.  On speaking to her at the next session, she reported she felt really good in the days in between our sessions and on testing her level of hospital anxiety, it had gone down to a 1-2.  Sometimes EFT can keep working for a few days after a session.

If you liked this blog, check out some of my other posts about EFT and pregnancy:

EFT for Fear of Losing Control during Birth

Surrender to Conception, Birth & Motherhood with EFT & Family Constellations

Does your baby sleep through the night yet? Part 1

Does your baby sleep through the night yet? – Part 2 (EFT video)

Was your birth less than perfect?

Healing Abortion Trauma using EFT/ Emotional Freedom Techniques/ Tapping

If you are a mum who wants to have feel happier in herself, with her children check out my book Frazzled to Fabulous in 5 Minutes a Day Follow my quick and easy step-by-step programme here https://www.frazzledtofabulous.com/

*name has been changed for confidentiality

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