The Effects of Clinical Hypnosis versus Neurolinguistic Programming (NLP)‎ before External Cephalic Version (ECV)‎: A Prospective Off-Centre Randomised, Double-Blind, Controlled Trial

Abstract EN

To examine the effects of clinical hypnosis versus NLP intervention on the success rate of ECV procedures in comparison to a control group.

Methods.

A prospective off-centre randomised trial of a clinical hypnosis intervention against NLP of women with a singleton breech fetus at or after 370/7 (259 days) weeks of gestation and normal amniotic fluid index.

All 80 participants heard a 20-minute recorded intervention via head phones.

Main outcome assessed was success rate of ECV.

The intervention groups were compared with a control group with standard medical care alone (n=122).

Results.

A total of 42 women, who received a hypnosis intervention prior to ECV, had a 40.5% (n=17), successful ECV, whereas 38 women, who received NLP, had a 44.7% (n=17) successful ECV (P>0.05).

The control group had similar patient characteristics compared to the intervention groups (P>0.05).

In the control group (n=122) 27.3% (n=33) had a statistically significant lower successful ECV procedure than NLP (P=0.05) and hypnosis and NLP (P=0.03).

Conclusions.

These findings suggest that prior clinical hypnosis and NLP have similar success rates of ECV procedures and are both superior to standard medical care alone.