V. was referred to Dr. Stone by her ob/gyn physician. V.’s medical doctor had heard Dr. Stone lecture two times, once at a hospital and the other at a women’s clinic. Dr. Stone had worked successfully with several of V.’s ob/gyn’s patients before.
V. married her college sweetheart; both V. and her husband came to the U.S. to attend college on athletic scholarships. V. was twenty-nine years old at the time of her pregnancy and working at her dream job as an executive. The previous year V. was pregnant with twins. V. lost the first twin at 10 weeks and the second unborn child at 30 weeks. V.’s primary goal was to have a natural childbirth. V.’s extremely supportive husband came to every appointment.
At the first session, V. said she wanted to focus on eating healthier, which was difficult because V. left her home at 6:00 AM and did not return until 6:30 PM. Dr. Stone gave V. dietary tips to fit her busy schedule. At the first session V. drew the red circle figure below. Her verbal interpretation was “I feel empty and hollow.” Note V. could have put the red circle anywhere but she placed the circle in the upper right hand corner of the paper. Also note that two uneven lines come together to form the circle are also in the upper right hand of circle. If the placement of circle and the joining of the two red lines correspond to the body, then V. potentially was holding on to unresolved feelings at or near her right shoulder. V. confirmed she felt the burden and responsibility of last year’s miscarriages. V. left Dr. Stone’s office with her customized CD to help her relax and imagine carrying a healthy baby to full term.
In subsequent sessions V. was taught self-hypnosis, and her husband learned to coach V. the way V. thought was most effective. V. reported all her medical tests were normal, and that she was gaining weight properly throughout her body. V. said proper weight gain did not happen during her previous pregnancies. V. reported that one time when her blood pressure was 145/100 at work, she went to a break room to listen to one of Dr. Stone’s CDs. After the CD helped V. to relax, V. reported her blood pressure returned to normal.
During her third session V. reported a disturbing dream that she did not understand. V. said that in her dream she was standing on the 14th floor of a distorted and unstable building. V. said the building swayed side to side in the wind. Dr. Stone told V. that her unconscious purposely chose the number 14 in her dream; Dr. Stone gave V. a post-hypnotic suggestion to understand the significance of the number 14. In the next session V. reported the significance of the number; her last miscarriage occurred on August 14. After she understood the dream’s meaning, V. replaced the dream image with that of her healthy daughter to be.
Because of the miscarriages the year before, V.’s doctor induced labor two weeks before her due date. V. held out for 25 hours before she took an epidural. Thirty hours from the start of labor V. gave birth to a healthy daughter. V. did not meet her natural childbirth goal, but because her daughter was born in very good health, it did not matter to her. In all, V. and her husband had one session a month during V.’s last five months of pregnancy.