Holding my baby Owain is a dream come true. For four years, I had tried to get pregnant, by almost every method imaginable, and now I have my longed for son.

But Owain is not a triumph for science. He was not created in a laboratory.

Last December, I was at rock-bottom emotionally. Doctors said in-vitro fertilisation was the only option left. It didn't seem the right way to make a baby and neither of us were happy about it. It is invasive, unpleasant and the odds of success are not good. But we were desperate to start a family.

We made our appointment to see a consultant at the hospital in January. By chance, I was listening to a local radio station when I heard the voice of celebrity hypnotist Paul McKenna.

He was talking about a New York career woman whose problem was the same as mine. When she tried for a baby, nothing happened, though medical tests found no problems.

Paul said that the mind has a powerful control over the body. If you tell yourself long enough and often enough that you don't want a baby - as many women do when they have to earn a living - your body listens.

It is a process that is hard to reverse, but hypnotism could help. After working with the woman, she fell pregnant with twins.

For most of my adult life, babies were not on my agenda. When I was a teenager and my girlfriends were dreaming of their future lives, they invariably hoped for a family, but not me. I love children. I have nieces and nephews I adore, but I lacked a strong maternal instinct.

I met Mark at a swimming gala, which we were both attending as teachers, in 1990. We fell in love and married a couple of years later.

Even then I had no desire for a baby and Mark knew this, and felt the same. We were enjoying our lives too much. I had a horse and enjoyed riding. We both love skiing. We had an active social life and loved our work.

But five years ago, something changed. I felt within myself that I wanted a child. There wasn't any great turning point, more a growing realisation. I brought the subject up with Mark. Until we discussed it, we hadn't realised we both felt the same way.

I assumed it would happen easily and I wasn't worried. I was only 32 and there was no reason to doubt my fertility. A baby would mean a huge change to our lives, but I was ready for it.

For the first two years, it was obvious nothing was happening, but it wasn't a problem - I knew of other people who had taken a long time to get pregnant.

But it was time to see a doctor. Waiting every month - only to be disappointed - was becoming frustrating. On the NHS - it would have taken four months just to see a consultant - so we had tests done privately.

We nervously waited for the results and were told there was nothing medically wrong with either of us. That was a huge relief, but also raised the question of why had I not been able to conceive.

On the advice of my consultant, I gave up alcohol. Keeping fit wasn't a problem as I was a PE teacher.

We also watched our diet - eating more fruit and vegetables and less processed food. I took note of my cycle and we had sex when I was most fertile. We also began to consider the idea of adopting a baby if we couldn't have our own.

One of the worst aspects was not knowing why I wasn't conceiving.

We were being pointed towards IVF without anyone being able to tell us why when the tests said there was nothing wrong. That was the most frustrating and upsetting aspect.

After two years we began to resign ourselves to the fact that we weren't going to have a family. It had become an unspoken subject between us. We had tried everything short of IVF.

I am a level-headed, sensible person and this was totally out of character, but I wrote a letter, which I left at the box office for Paul, asking for advice or if he knew anybody who could help. I didn't think he would get it - let alone respond. And I had not told Mark.

A few days later I got a call from Paul. I was astonished. He asked me if there was any medical reason why I couldn't conceive.

He said that he didn't claim to cure medical problems, but was keen to work with women who couldn't have a baby for no obvious reason.

He said there was often a mental block which could be fear of the change to lifestyle a baby would bring, the pain of childbirth or a feeling that as a mother the woman would not be able to cope.

Subconsciously the brain was sending out messages saying a baby wasn't wanted and the body was responding. Hypnotism could break down that mental barrier.

Because I had not wanted a family for such a long time he thought he might be able to help me. Mark was shocked that I had contacted him. But, when I explained he was hopeful, too.

Friends joked about the swinging watch beloved of stage hypnotists and me being in a deep trance. But it was nothing like you'd imagine.

Paul has a wonderful melodic voice that is very soothing. He talked about what our lives were like and how I felt about children. He was very positive.

He wanted me to visualise the whole process from the egg, to it being fertilised, the foetus growing and the final mental picture was always me holding my baby.

After two sessions I was more positive. I think I had decided that having a baby was not going to happen and after seeing Paul those doubts disappeared.

I used the visualisation exercises he recommended and we both tried his tapes aimed at overcoming stress. We still use them now. Always my last mental image was of me holding my new baby.

Within three weeks of the sessions with Paul I was pregnant. I couldn't believe it when the pregnancy test turned blue. Just to be sure though we dashed out and bought another testing kit and the result was the same.

Many doctors who work in conventional medicine are dismissive about alternative treatments.

I know it's something that can never be proved 100 per cent, but as far as I am concerned the results speak for themselves. You have to believe the mind is powerful and able to control the body.

Overjoyed, I rang Paul to tell him I was pregnant at last, and he was as pleased as I was. My pregnancy went fine and the baby was born a few days early.

Originally Owain had been due on September 11, but I gave birth naturally to a 7lb baby boy on September 6 at Stoke Mandeville Hospital, the very place where I would have had my IVF treatment.

Looking back, I think people can end up going for IVF because there seems no other choice. IVF should be a last resort. Its costs - both financially and emotionally - can be enormous. If there is an alternative, surely it is worth considering?

I'm delighted with my baby. That he arrived just when I was giving up hope makes him all the more special. It's early days yet, but it's not beyond the realms of possibility that we will try for a second child in the future.

A happy postscript is that when my friends discovered I was pregnant, one contacted Paul. She had struggled to conceive for several years and had tried IVF once, which had failed.

She was embarking on her second try when she contacted Paul. She is now expecting twins.

Was it hypnotism or the IVF? Who knows. She's just delighted to be expecting.

Hypnosis 'doubles IVF success'

By Caroline Ryan
BBC News Online health staff in Berlin

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hypnosis can double the

success of IVF treatment, researchers

have claimed

A team from Soroka University, Israel, found 28% of women in the group who were hypnotised became pregnant, compared with 14% of those who were not.

The study of 185 women was presented to the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology conference in Berlin.

But other experts said the research failed to account for key differences between the two groups.

The longer a couple have been trying to conceive, the less likely they are to conceive

Dr Francoise Shenfield
The Israeli researchers were looking to see if hypnosis could make the embryo transfer stage of IVF more successful.

During this stage, the embryo is transferred into the womb. However, if the womb is contracting, it can affect the chances of the transplant being a success.

It was hoped hypnotherapy could help women relax and therefore improve the chances of success.

Stress

Women undergoing IVF were assessed to see if they were suitable to be hypnotised.

Eighty-nine women were then given hypnosis while their embryos were implanted. Some underwent more than one cycle of IVF treatment.

Ninety-six other women underwent embryo transfers without hypnosis. All received one cycle each.

Dr Eliahu Levitas, who led the research, told the conference: "Embryo transfer is known to be a stressful time for patients, and it may be that the procedure is the peak of their stress in IVF.

"Hypnosis may be related to a tranquilising effect.

"Performing embryo transfer under hypnosis may significantly contribute to an increased clinical pregnancy rate."

But experts said the study failed to take into account key differences between the groups which would have a major influence on their chances of conceiving.

On average, women in the non-hypnosis group had been trying to conceive for 7.4 years, compared with 4.7 years for those who did receive hypnosis.

Dr Francois Shenfield, of University College London Hospital, UK, said: "One of the very important confounding factors in this field is the duration of infertility.

"The longer a couple have been trying to conceive, the less likely they are to conceive spontaneously, and with technical help."

 

New generation anti-depressants have little clinical benefit for most patients, research suggests.

A University of Hull team concluded the drugs actively help only a small group of the most severely depressed.

Marjorie Wallace, head of the mental health charity Sane, said that if these results were confirmed they could be "very disturbing".

But the makers of Prozac and Seroxat, two of the commonest anti-depressants, said they disagreed with the findings.  

A spokesman for GlaxoSmithKline, which makes           Seroxat, said the study only looked at a "small subset of the total data available".

 

Reviewed data

And Eli Lilly, which makes Prozac, said that "extensive scientific and medical experience has demonstrated it is an effective anti-depressant".

There seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients   Professor Irving Kirsch University of Hull   Q&A: Anti-depressant study Popularity of 'happy pills'

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, has announced that 3,600 therapists are to be trained during the next three years in England to increase patient access to talking therapies, which ministers see as a better alternative to drugs.

Patients are advised not to stop taking their medication without first consulting a doctor.

The researchers accept many people believe the drugs do work for them, but argue that could be a placebo effect - people feel better simply because they are taking a medication which they think will help them.

In total, the Hull team, who published their findings in the journal PLoS Medicine, reviewed data on 47 clinical trials.

They reviewed published clinical trial data, and unpublished data secured under Freedom of Information legislation.

They focused on drugs which work by increasing levels of the mood controlling chemical serotonin in the brain.

These included fluoxetine (Prozac) and paroxetine (Seroxat), from the class known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs), alongside another similar drug called venlafaxine (Efexor) - all commonly prescribed in the UK.

The number of prescriptions for anti-depressants hit a record high of more than 31 million in England in 2006 - even though official guidance stresses they should not be a first line treatment for mild depression.

There were 16.2m prescriptions for SSRIs alone.

The researchers found that the drugs did have a positive impact on people with mild depression - but the effect was no bigger than that achieved by giving patients a sugar-coated "dummy" pill.

People with severe symptoms appeared to gain more clear-cut benefit - but this might be more down to the fact that they were less likely to respond to the placebo pill, rather than to respond positively to the drugs.

 

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