All East Lancashire mums-to-be will be offered self-hypnosis to reduce childbirth anxiety

The process will cost the pregnant women nothing and will add just £4.83 to NHS costs.

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East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust is now the first in the country to offer the service free to all mums-to-be.

It supported the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) in largest randomised controlled UK trial into self-hypnosis during labour.

The ground-breaking programme was piloted with more then 200 first-time mothers at the maternity unit at Burnley General Hospital and the Blackburn Birthing Centre on Park Lee Road as well as another 400 in Liverpool and Preston.

The pilot showed self-hypnosis for labour makes little difference to pain but reduces post-natal anxiety and fears about birth.

Self-hypnosis will now be offered under a scheme called EMPOWER at the Blackburn and Burnley centres and at the Rossendale Birth Centre on Bacup Road in Rawtenstall.

It includes face-to-face group sessions where mums-to-be will be given a hypnotherapy script to listen to and use.

Russ McLean, chairman of Pennine Lancashire Patients’ Voice, said: “I think this is a wonderful idea.

“I commend the trust on the trial and extending it to all mothers in East Lancashire.”

International childbirth expert and UCLan Professor Soo Downe who led the trial, said: “Adding prenatal self-hypnosis training to usual care does not seem to affect rates of epidural pain relief.

“However, the results do suggest the therapy might reduce postnatal anxiety and fear about childbirth, which would suggest there may be benefits for their next pregnancy.”

Research findings show that of the women who were randomised to self-hypnosis during pregnancy, 27.9 per cent requested an epidural in comparison to 30.3 per cent of the women in the control group.

East Lancashire Hospitals NHS Trust Head of Midwifery, Anita Fleming, said: “Here in East Lancashire, using self-hypnosis techniques for labour and birth continues to be increasingly popular .”