Angela Monti Fox is a New York State Licensed Clinical Social Worker with an M.S.W. from Columbia University, and a M.S. in Clinical School Psychology from City College School of Education. She has received advanced training in clinical hypnosis from the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis. Her most important credential is, however, her personal experience as a mother, having given birth three times; this fact brings her intimate knowledge of the fears, feelings and concerns that every woman faces when approaching the prospect of pregnancy and childbirth.

Having practiced psychotherapy and hypnotherapy for over 25 years with a specialization in sexual healing, she now devotes herself full time to the practice of mind/body medicine. In addition to teaching birthing with hypnosis she has a general practice in solution/focused psychotherapy, treating clients with a variety of concerns. For more information visit: http://www.angelafoxlcsw.com/

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When I gave birth to my three children in the 1970s, there was no epidural. The drugs offered to laboring Moms were detrimental to infants’ early development. Studies showed such drugs caused significant delays in reaching developmental markers in the first year of life. Therefore incentive and motivation was strong to use alternative methods of laboring. I chose the Lamaze technique and studied with Elizabeth Bing, having read her book on the Six Practical Lessons for a Natural Childbirth. My children’s father and I practiced the assigned exercises regularly, relaxing all muscles except one arm or leg, which was to be held, contracted and tightened, a substitute for the coming contractions. Essential to the practice, in addition to the breath work, was the effleurage, or gentle stroking of the belly during each surge with eyes riveted on a point of focus. Using this method I had three wonderful non-drugged births. The first and third rather long and I remember clearly the ecstatic feeling of the second shorter birth.

             Later, in the 1990s having already trained and practiced as a psychotherapist and hypnotherapist, I became fascinated with Marie Mongan’s hypnobirthing training course. Thinking that this must be a perfect way to control the pain of labor, I signed up for her weekend course. I was completely surprised when the younger women in the course vehemently opposed Lamaze, saying that it simply “didn’t work!” As I learned more about their experiences I realized that their Lamaze was not my Lamaze. There was no “relaxation training, no “effleurage” but most of all no “point of focus.” Suddenly I gained a greater understanding of my own birthing experience. The essential element missing from the Lamaze experience these women described was the “point of focus”, the key to classical hypnosis. Clearly I was in “trance” during my labors, a process that enabled me to tolerate long labors in total control while minimizing the experience of pain.

             My training in pain management continued beyond that weekend course under the auspices of the American Society for Clinical Hypnosis (ASCH). Today I teach the classical approach to hypnosis enabling women to reach the depth of trance necessary for labor.

             More recently, I have learned that commonplace, highly medicalized births and the current climate of fear require a more comprehensive approach to peaceful and natural birthing. Therefore, evidence-based childbirth education information is included in my birthing with hypnosis course. The information I provide in my classes helps birthing Moms and Dads understand their choices and enables them to provide for themselves the support they will need to make birthing with hypnosis a successful process.

-Angela Monti Fox, LCSW