Mind-Body Interventions.
Mind-body practices include relaxation exercises, medi tation, visualization, and breathing techniques. These tech- niques are offered commonly in prenatal classes, and are an easily accessible way to calm anxiety and provide distraction from the pain. Other interventions that fall in this category would be yoga and hypnosis. Smith et al. (2010) in their review included fourteen trials with data on 1537 women and found hypnosis effective in labor pain relief. Smith, Levett, Collins, and Crowther (2011) in a different Cochrane systematic review analyzed 11 studies (1374 women) related to mind-body interventions and found limited evidence to support relaxation techniques to reduced pain, increased satisfaction, and improved clinical outcomes to mother and baby.