This article examines how relational environments shape the structure of consciousness in contexts that require the temporary suspension of cognitive control. Through the case of birthing consciousness, conceptualized as an adaptive altered state that may emerge during physiological labor, the article argues that certain forms of consciousness are constitutively relational. While dominant...
One-on-one professional support during labor is recognized for its role in promoting physiological birth, reducing interventions, and enhancing women's birthing experiences. Throughout physiological birth, many women encounter an altered state of consciousness. This state not only facilitates the normal birth process but also empowers women during and after childbirth. Recently, the flow-a...
The subjective childbirth experience is crucial for a woman's well-being. This study examines the relationship between 'birthing consciousness' - a flow-like state of hyperfocus, self-efficacy, and calm - and birth outcomes, including subjective experience, labour duration, and postpartum mental health. Data were collected prospectively from a cohort of birthing women (January-September 2023)...
Postnatal debriefing is often framed as a therapeutic conversation that helps women make sense of their birth experience and prevent psychological distress. However, emerging research reveals that debriefing can have highly variable effects, particularly for women who experienced trauma. This commentary offers a theoretical critique of postnatal debriefing through the lens of "set and setting,"...
A flow experience typically occurs when the challenge of a demanding physical activity aligns with an individual's abilities, resulting in a sense of empowerment and fulfillment. Experiencing flow during physiological childbirth occurs in various birth environments, but quantitative studies comparing home birth and hospital birth in this respect are scarce. Childbirth is a psychological,...
It has been demonstrated that birth without medical intervention conveys significant physical and psychological benefits to the mother and her newborn baby. However, there is a need to include women's subjective experience of physiological birth to understand and promote it. The theoretical concept of "birthing consciousness" hypothesizes that women during natural childbirth sometimes...
The subjective childbirth experience is crucial from a public health standpoint. There is a correlation between a negative childbirth experience and a poor mental state after birth, with effects that go far beyond the postpartum (PP) period. This paper offers a new approach as to how birthing experiences, and birth in general, can be navigated. The theory of set and setting proves that...
In this article, I present the concept of “birthing consciousness,” a psychophysical altered state of women that can occur during natural and undisturbed birth. I demonstrate that this altered state of consciousness (ASC) has phenomenological and cognitive features of hypofrontality; thus, birthing consciousness probably shares a similar brain mechanism to that postulated by the...