Birth Journeys: Lifting the veil on the birth experience
Did your childbirth experience go as planned? Then The Birth Journeys Podcast® is for you! We share powerful and transformative birth stories that illuminate the realities of childbirth. Hosted by a labor nurse and prenatal coach who specializes in transformational coaching techniques, this podcast goes beyond traditional birth narratives to foster healing, build trust, and create transparency between birthing individuals and healthcare providers.
In each episode, we dive into essential topics like birth preparation, debunking common misconceptions, understanding hospital procedures, and promoting autonomy in the birthing process. We also bring you the wisdom and insights of experienced birth workers and medical professionals.
This is a safe and inclusive space where every birth story is valued, honored, and deserves to be heard. Join us in exploring the diverse and unique experiences of birth givers, and discover how transformational coaching can empower your own birth journey.
Contact Kelly Hof at: birthjourneysRN@gmail.com
Birth Journeys: Lifting the veil on the birth experience
Jennifer Schlueter: Hypnotherapy in Pregnancy and Childbirth
As I sat down with Jennifer Schlueter, a certified hypnotherapist who lives and breathes the power of spiritual hypnosis, we unraveled a transformative approach to pregnancy and childbirth. Jennifer offers a sanctuary for expectant mothers to not only prepare their bodies for the journey ahead but to also heal from past traumas. Our conversation invites you into the sacred space where moms-to-be can connect with their inner wisdom and create a nurturing environment for the new life they’re about to welcome. By tapping into the subconscious, Jennifer helps women release stored emotions, setting the stage for a serene and empowering birthing experience.
Her own transformation through hypnosis didn't just reshape her career; it deepened every relationship in her life, signaling a universal truth about the mind's incredible impact on our paths. Jennifer and I explore the indispensable practice of relaxation, meditation, and addressing emotional baggage that can subtly influence generations. We weave together a tapestry of self-care strategies for moms, spotlighting the necessity to prioritize one’s own needs to fully embrace the role of parenting. This heart-to-heart is a treasure trove of guidance for aspiring parents, punctuated by the profound ripple effects of emotional wellness on a family’s lineage.
Closing out this episode, Jennifer extends her hand, offering free access to her trove of resources for those navigating the complexities of pregnancy, including loss. For the healers among you, she opens her doors to share her knowledge of spiritual hypnosis. Whether you're seeking support or aiming to enrich your own practice, Jennifer’s insights into the soul-to-soul connections between parent and child are a beacon for anyone on the parenthood journey. Join us as we explore the depths of the subconscious, the resilience of the human spirit, and the bonds that transcend our physical existence.
Connect with Jennifer here:
https://mindyoursubconscious.com/about/
Coaching offer
Kelly Hof: Labor Nurse + Birth Coach
Basically, I'm your birth bestie! With me as your coach, you will tell fear to take a hike!
Connect with Kelly Hof at kellyhof.com
Medical Disclaimer:
This podcast is intended as a safe space for women to share their birth experiences. It is not intended to provide medical advice. Each woman’s medical course of action is individual and may not appropriately transfer to another similar situation. Please speak to your medical provider before making any medical decisions. Additionally, it is important to keep in mind that evidence based practice evolves as our knowledge of science improves. To the best of my ability I will attempt to present the most current ACOG and AWHONN recommendations at the time the podcast is recorded, but that may not necessarily reflect the best practices at the time the podcast is heard. Additionally, guests sharing their stories have the right to autonomy in their medical decisions, and may share their choice to go against current practice recommendations. I intend to hold space for people to share their decisions. I will attempt to share the current recommendations so that my audience is informed, but it is up to each individual to choose what is best for them.
Hello, today I have with me Jennifer Schlute. Jennifer is a certified hypnotherapist and is teaching spiritual hypnosis as well. She helps her clients feel their best and create a light they love. She works with individuals as well as groups and is the founder and host of the Mind your Subconscious podcast. Today we are going to talk about how she helps women feel safe with their birthing process and to get pregnant. Jennifer, welcome and thank you for joining me.
Speaker 2:Hi Kelly, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:Well, I was so intrigued when you reached out about the things that you do to help moms get ready to get pregnant and help with fertility and all of that stuff. I've always been fascinated by hypnosis, so I'm really excited to hear about how that whole thing works.
Speaker 2:So how it works is basically you know, let's say you are trying to get pregnant or you are pregnant you have to feel safe in your body, right, your womb has to feel safe. You as a whole being have to feel safe physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. You just have to feel safe. You have to feel good for your baby to have the ideal conditions to grow. And when you don't feel safe whether that is because you have been sexually assaulted in the past, whether it is because you've had miscarriages or you've had an abortion, or whether that is because you've had difficult births, these are all kinds of factors that may not make you feel safe. And if you work not only with your body because you know some women, they try to be more fertile with food that they take or they try to get into ideal conditions with their pregnancy, with food but when you leave out the mind, you leave out the whole feeling side of things. And so when you want a birth that is safe and that's the mom feel safe in her mind and in her body then you work with hypnosis to help people achieve that. If you've been through something in the past that doesn't make you feel safe, you work with hypnosis to achieve that. Because what we can do in hypnosis I'm going to give a few examples is when somebody has had a miscarriage or an abortion, we can actually, in hypnosis, go and talk to that soul of the baby, like, why didn't you choose to come this time around? Are you going to choose to come back? What was my lesson here for me? What is it that you want me to know? How can I feel safe in my next pregnancy? Like?
Speaker 2:These are all kinds of things that we can do in hypnosis. When you've had that or, for example, when you've been sexually assaulted or harassed in the past, when your womb doesn't feel safe or when your body doesn't feel safe, we can also work on that. We will go back to that point in time if we need to. If we don't need to, we won't, but it's more beneficial. And then we work around it and we also we extract the lessons for you. We extract everything that is important for you to feel safe now in your body. And if you had, like, a difficult birthing process, we will also go back to that and see how you can now make your body feel safe, because our soul knows, like everything that I just talked about. Your soul knows Everything you need to do. Your soul knows and this is what we get down to in hypnosis that is so amazing.
Speaker 1:So I'm not sure that everyone, especially over here in the US, knows necessarily what all goes into hypnosis I think we have, especially if we grew up watching cartoons as a kid. We think of someone being hypnotized and then they walk around clicking like a chicken. So can you walk me through a little bit of how it might look when we do a process to help a woman feel safe in her body for maybe getting ready for the birthing process, Like if she's already pregnant and moving towards the birth process and trying to feel safe in her body to have a positive childbirth?
Speaker 2:Absolutely so. What we do is basically so, first of all, the hypnosis that you see on cartoons and everything, we leave that out. Okay, like, just don't think about that at all, and what we're doing now is hypno therapy, so let's call that hypno therapy is a little bit different. So in hypno therapy, what I do with people, basically we take people into relaxation. First we have them close their eyes, then we have them breathe a certain way, and then we relax their body and then we relax their mind and we, as hypno therapists, we do that with our voice, only with a voice. So basically it's like a guided meditation. You can imagine a guided meditation I'm sure you've listened to one on YouTube or something, or on an app or whatever, and it's very similar to that, except you'll be taken into a very, very deep point of relaxation. And then, let's say, when the woman is pregnant, we can go into her room. So we will give you a visualization and, like, just like a guided meditation, we will give you a visualization in which you will go into your womb and check, okay, like, where does my womb feel safe? Are there any emotions or trauma stored in my womb that do not need to be there right now and then I can actually release that I can let go of. Then we let that go and we extract the lessons. So we have that, because with everything that's happened is always, it's always important to really extract the lessons and to really understand why that happened and how is it benefiting us. And once we understand that, then we can go into.
Speaker 2:Okay. So what, what do you need right now? Well, what do you want me to do? What do you want me to eat? What do you want me to do for you? What do you not want me to do? Like, do you want me to start doing yoga? Do you want me to stop lifting weights, like all these kinds of things? Right, and it's like we let our womb speak through us and you will hear that. And then, when you actually do that, you will feel you. You you think like, oh, I knew this, but I needed to hear it, basically in order to believe it. Right, Because we know already, we know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I agree, I really work to promote emotional preparation for childbirth especially. I don't necessarily work on the pregnancy side, but as a labor and delivery nurse I see so many people coming in with past trauma or maybe not necessarily past trauma, although I think a lot of it probably has to do with that but just coming in and being afraid of the space, afraid of what's going to happen to them, and so afraid that they don't prepare mentally or emotionally so they don't know what's going to happen to them and they're also afraid and they haven't worked through any of those fears. So I love that this is another way to do that and to get in touch with that internal knowing that you have about what is right for you and for your body. I think this is kind of along the lines of we store trauma in our body and it's important to find those places that you're feeling that trauma, because I don't think everybody's necessarily in touch with that.
Speaker 1:I know definitely I wasn't. But then when I go back and I think about things in my life that have had a big impact on me and that cause negative feelings, I can feel. If I'm quiet and I listen to my body, I can feel where I feel, that when I have that emotion. I don't know that in, at least over here in the US, I don't know that our society really teaches how to find those emotions in your body and release them. So I just I love that you have a way of doing that and I'm curious how did this become your passion?
Speaker 2:So for me, how I got involved into hypnosis was because when I did my first hypnosis session, I also had a lot going on in life. I didn't really fulfilled in my I feel, fulfilled in my job and it. So it happened so that I actually had some really bad things happen in my private life then as well. And so my friend was like, hey, why don't you try hypnosis? And I said, okay, I guess I will try it because I trust you. And then that first hypnosis session made me quit my job and travel the world. And this is how I started with hypnosis. And then, like, hypnosis helped me really fix the relationship with my mom. It helped me build my own business and completely transform my relationship to money, it helped me manifest my dream partner and it helped me with so many things. And so that's why I became a sort of hypotherapist myself.
Speaker 2:And then it so happened that I had clients who were pregnant, friends who were pregnant, and we would always just also, you know, have sessions where we spoke to the souls of the children. You know, like, oh, what is it going to be? What does it mean? Like, what is it going to teach mom, what is it going to teach dad and it was for me. This is one of the things that I'm really passionate about, because I think our children are our future, and it is just also for me, for a selfish reason. It is just so much fun, like it is beautiful to see a mom becoming a mom or, you know, a second mom or whatever, and it's beautiful to to to to help people really feel safe within themselves, whether it's with birth or whether it's with something else. But that's just that's what I love doing.
Speaker 1:I feel like with any type of therapy or mindset work or meditation, anything like that, there is a need to figure out how to slow down and actually achieve that deep state of relaxation, and some people maybe all people have difficulty with that. I'm wondering if you have any advice for people that think that they don't have time to do the emotional work or the mindset work or maybe feel like they can't actually slow down and get in that relaxed state.
Speaker 2:Absolutely so that you cannot do it in the line, because all of us can slow down and relax. And I want to. I want to show you why. Because imagine, when you do something that you love, that isn't your work, that's a hobby, whether that's drawing, whether that's dancing, whether that's I don't know, like whatever it is that you love doing, right, you forget time and space, you relax, you don't think of anything else, you just do the thing because you love it and because you enjoy it, and it's just fun. And so the fact that you can't relax is not true.
Speaker 2:However, relaxation is a constant, constant practice. Even me, I've done this for years, almost a decade now. Even we I will still have to sit down, take the time and get myself into a relaxed space of light, right, sometimes it's easier, sometimes it's not easy. But what I want people to start with like if they, let's say they want to start, you know, with meditating or relaxation or whatever I would say start with something simple as okay, I'm going to meditate every day for one minute, then I'm going to increase the duration. I'm going to meditate every day for three minutes, then increase the duration every day for 10 minutes.
Speaker 2:So, really, start slowly, and when you miss a day, you're going to do it the next day again and you're going to do it again and, again, and again, and really keep practicing. Because, as with everything else in life, relaxation is simply just practice, and I know this world isn't meant for us to relax and we're not taught to relax. We're not taught to be silent with ourselves. We're not taught to feel our emotions in our body. We're not taught that, unfortunately. But that's why it's even more important to really really take the time to relax and make the time. Everybody has 10 minutes in a day.
Speaker 1:You cannot give me an excuse. Let's hold everyone accountable. Give yourself 10 minutes. So then I talk about this a lot, but I would love to hear your take on it. Why is it important for people that are becoming parents to explore those emotions, to get in touch with their body, to go through this process that you described in hypnotherapy, doing that mindset work? Why is that important when you're becoming a parent and going to childbirth?
Speaker 2:So it is important because you obviously all parents like most parents, right? They want their child to have a better life than they had. They want to be better parents than their parents. And in order for us to be the best versions of ourselves, we have to understand ourselves better. For example, if I understand what makes me angry, what makes me frustrated, what makes me, you know, just any kind of what we call negative emotions then I will know that when I'm with a child as well and it's the other way around too, like whatever gives me positive emotions and I will know that with a child as well and the child will repeat the patterns that you haven't worked on. The child will repeat the patterns that you have not solved. If you have a shitty relationship with your mom or your dad, or if you have not resolved any trauma or something like that, then your child will emulate you. They will do the same. They will just be that. They will feel that. And also, what is really interesting is that everything that you have stored in your body, every trauma that you have, your child will have that too in their body, because it's in the genetics, right? So there was an experiment done on rats, where they had rats in cages and they sprayed cherry blossom spray and then they taste them or they hurt them, and so whenever they smell the cherry blossom spray they would anticipate being hurt, and that lasted for generations. That lasted for generations At least two. I think. They did at least two experiments and then it's still going. So whatever you haven't worked and released from your body, your child will have that in your genes, the genes they can get turned on and off. So if you provide a good environment for your child, it doesn't necessarily need to be turned on. That gene that they have, that trauma gene doesn't need to be turned on.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to give you examples with humans, right? My grandparents one of them has lived through both wars, both world wars, like World War I and World War II, in Germany. I'm German, I was going to raise there and my other grandparents they have been raised through World War II. So for me there have been certain moments when most of the time I realize it, when I want to stop eating, like they would never have enough food. So whenever my plate is not empty, I would be like, oh my God, I need to eat, I need to eat. I cannot leave any food on the table. I cannot leave any food on the table. So these little things with money, right, like, oh, there's not enough money, like you know, we have to save for a bad day, or whatever. It is Like these little tiny things, if you don't work on them, your children will carry them on, and that's why it is so important for us to work on ourselves and keep that going and work with our parents as well.
Speaker 1:If, if you know, we have a good relationship or we want one with them, yeah, and then I how does that translate? Going into childbirth? Because I feel like that's probably one of the most momentous days of your life, and what kills me is when patients are so so. You know, in the hospital as a nurse, when I see patients that have come in and haven't done the mindset and emotional work and that experience that's supposed to be so happy and wonderful is a big cause of stress. So how, how do you help moms get ready for that?
Speaker 2:So I have not personally have I've not had death case, but I've had, like where where there was stress around them before birth, right? So the stress before birth, you know, with your parents and with everyone trying to know like, oh, is it there yet, is it there yet? It's like, oh, that's stress.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Right and the preparation body and your mind. What you do is it's it's a simple way, but you talk to people you. You talk about like what are your expectations, what do you want, what do you need? And you have to set boundaries. You cannot allow your birth as your experience. This is not your mom's experience or your dad's experience. It's your experience and you're meant to have the most beautiful birth, like you say.
Speaker 2:But also what we see, what we're programmed with from TV, from books, from series, from anything, is most of the time for experiences. They cannot remember seeing a birth on TV that was, you know, flawless or whatever. And like we are programmed to have bad birth experiences in the West. We are programmed to have births and hospitals in Africa. That's not the way in Latin America. That's not the way there's, literally, and it's also not the way that we take forever to give birth, like hours and hours and hours and days and days and days. There's people that pop out of baby within 45 minutes because they're not programmed that they have to be in the hospital for hours or days on end. And so you have to really de-program yourself and you have to reprogram yourself with good birth experiences. And then also, like I said again, when it comes to other people, you have to let them know what you want, what you need and what you don't want and what you don't need. And again, this is your birth. This should be the happiest day of your life and this should be the most beautiful experience for you and not for other people.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, I want to talk about how important it is when we've had miscarriages or abortions or any other birth trauma like that, where people don't think it's important to work through that sometimes, or people think they have worked through it or whatever, but at the end of the day, it is, I find, with my clients, it is crucial to work on that, even when it comes to a woman's business.
Speaker 2:We're us women. We create from the womb. The womb is our space of creation little life creation, but also business creation. So if we want to create anything, our womb needs to be healed from whatever we have experienced. And so really allow yourself to take the time and go back to this vulnerable space where you've had this experience of a miscarriage or abortion or some other womb trauma. Allow yourself to go back there, even if it's painful. But once you allow yourself to go back there with a person that can guide you into safety, that can guide your body and your mind into safety. Then you will feel so different and you can create such a safe space for yourself and for your child as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think that is so important. I think that we have a tendency to stuff things down and hope that when they get buried they disappear, and I just find that when you are in such a vulnerable space as becoming pregnant or having a baby, there's so much that surfaces. I don't know if it's necessary. People over here say it's hormones, but I'm not sure if that's what it is. I think that you're kind of forced to look at yourself and look at your life and really prioritize, and that suddenly becomes so urgent when you are about to either get pregnant or deliver your baby, and I just think I agree so much that it is so important to do that work so that you can feel empowered once you become a parent.
Speaker 2:So what I also think is really important, what you just said is you said you have to prioritize yourself. As women, we are not being taught to prioritize ourselves. We're being taught, we're being conditioned, to prioritize others. We're the nurturers, we're the mothers, we're the creators, we're the people who do the things right, who makes shit happen? But when we give birth, when we prepare for birth, we need support.
Speaker 2:We need to allow support, and I see that often in clients as well, that they're like well, I think I allow myself to receive a lot of support. You know I think I'm fine, but then they're not. So I can only encourage, like every person, to really allow more support and to ask yourself where do I need more support? What can my husband handle, or my partner or whoever? It is right, what can they handle? What can my mom handle? What can my parents support me with? What can my friends support me with and really allow to receive that support? I think that's another really hard. We have a hard time as women to just receive more support. So just really get aware of that and get aware of where you are Actually. Try to dismiss the support that is being brought to you and try to get aware where you can call in for more support and where you can allow yourself that.
Speaker 1:I agree. I really encourage moms to build their village and to ask for help and to make sure that you surround yourself with people that are safe to ask for help. The other thing that I notice is that, especially once the baby's born, there's this shift of priority where you stop prioritizing yourself and you're dealing with such basic needs with your baby Eat, sleep, basically, that's it. You're just trying to get them to eat and sleep and keep them clean. And I see what happens is and I definitely did this your own physical needs get put to the wayside because it's so important that you make sure that you're able to feed your baby and help your baby get sleep and then maybe try to get sleep yourself.
Speaker 1:So it's really hard sometimes as moms to even begin to see what you need and how to get that, and I think also it's hard to take the time to explore what you might need. So there's so much just ignoring of your own personal basic needs. That happens as a mom and even sometimes as a pregnant person, especially when you're having your second. It's just really really hard. Are there any tips that you have on how to achieve that in such high stress times?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a very simple tip that I have, because I really do see also that the happiest moms are the ones that take care of themselves, because only when they're happy themselves they can take care of their babies. It's counterintuitive that, as that may sound, sometimes right or as that may feel, but these are the happiest. And so a simple tip and this goes for everybody, actually not just moms, it goes for everybody. We don't know what we need sometimes and we don't make it a habit to ask ourselves what do we need? So a few simple questions and various ways to ask the same question would be what do I need right now? What would make me happy right now? What would make me feel good right now? What would bring me joy right now? What can I do for myself so that I feel my best? What can I do for myself so that I fill my cup?
Speaker 2:These are questions that you can literally ask yourself and then answer them and then actually go do the thing, even if it's something as small as I don't know. I just need a protein bar, or I just need something simple, right, or I just need some fresh air for like five minutes Really simple things, and believe that five minutes outside can change what it is that you're feeling, or believe that five minutes of silence when you ask your partner like, hey, take the baby for five minutes, please Just take five minutes for yourself, even if it's small as this, and then really listen to yourself and go do the thing, because we know what we need. But sometimes we're just like I'm just not going to listen to myself because I've other things to do right now. But it's again, it's the slowing down, it's the silence, it's the slowing down that we need to really know what we need. Deep inside we know. So it takes the silence and the slowing down to really allow the answer to the answer.
Speaker 1:I think what came up for me just then was, like, take that shower, mom. I just remember, yes, I really resonate with the outside, but I think that the biggest takeaway for me was it's so hard to coordinate a shower and it feels so good once you're in there. Like, make it happen. I used to bring the little tub into the shower with me and they had a little sling and I'd bring the baby in there with me and just we both shower. Because, like, where do you put the baby when you're showering? If you put the baby outside of the shower, you run the risk of the baby waking up and you have to jump out and get cold and do all those things. Yeah, and listen to what your intuition is telling you that you need and find a way to make it happen. I think that's such great advice.
Speaker 1:I love your questions. I love it. Those are amazing questions that everybody can just sit and ask and I think, especially if I encourage my clients to go into the birthing space and have a plan for how they want to feel, and if they're focusing on that plan, then they know what is right for them in the moment, because nothing goes as planned in birth. But if you are in touch with how you want to feel, then you can be authentic to yourself when you make those decisions and I think those questions really get to the point of how you want to feel. You can ask what do I need right now? What do I want right now? All of those questions that you just went over really will help ground you in that space and I think that is really, really helpful.
Speaker 1:And I think, especially if you're a breastfeeding mom, most of the time you spend in postpartum is breastfeeding your baby or feeding your baby.
Speaker 1:If you're bottle feeding and that's just time spent sitting, and if you're sitting and you're kind of going through those questions and maybe doing body scans and trying to find where some of that stress is sitting in your body and how you can talk to it and release it, I think that that would be so helpful for moms to get into the habit of doing so that they can make sure that they are taking care of their needs. And, like you said, sometimes it only takes five minutes, you know, a five minute outdoor trip or maybe a five minute call to get a pelvic floor physical therapist, or you know, or a five minute call to a chiropractor to set up that appointment and figure out how to make that happen. If you're denying yourself over and over again, the habit becomes denial. And if you're asking yourself those questions, the habit becomes solving the problems for yourself and then therefore solving the problems later for your child, who is watching you make those decisions for yourself.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and this is practice too. Yeah, I do this all the time like that and some you know there are days when I don't do this, but then there's other days when I do it, and you just have to remind yourself over and over again to ask yourself these questions and don't beat yourself up when you forgot for like a week or a month. It doesn't matter, it really doesn't matter, it's in the past, like it doesn't matter. So you just start over again. It's nothing bad. So you just start over again. And, like you said, if your habit becomes denial, it's gonna become denial for your child, but if your habit becomes asking and satisfying your needs, that's what your child will see.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's so true.
Speaker 2:The only thing that I didn't talk about is actually giving people recordings when they're birthing.
Speaker 1:Oh, I love that. So this is what's who do the? Birthing, yeah yeah, how does that work? I see some of the most successful births that I've seen unmedicated births that I've seen have been through hypnobirthing, and I know that that's a specific brand, but I would imagine that you do something similar. So how does that work?
Speaker 2:So hypnobirthing is like you said.
Speaker 2:It's something on its own right, it's an own term and hypnobirthing works in a sense when preparing for the birth.
Speaker 2:They work to program your mind into having the best births you can have and into allowing yourself to go with the flow because that's what you have to do and to really listen to your intuition and to de-program you from all the bad birth experiences that you've seen on TV and have read about or whatever it is right.
Speaker 2:But then another part of hypnobirthing is also giving the person, either giving them a recording that the hypnotherapist makes. So basically, I can give you a guided meditation on to calm yourself down, or to listen to your intuition, or to breathe or whatever it is that you need in that moment, or you can make yourself a recording, because what happens with hypnosis and hypnotherapy is you trust your own voice the most. So when you make that recording for yourself, that is actually the best way to do it, so I can advise you on how to do the recording or the person who does hypnobirthing. They can advise you how to do the recording and what to say in the recording. But if it's made with your voice, then you will trust your voice the most and it'll calm you down the most and you will know, okay, maybe this is what I need right now, maybe I need the recording, and this is what part of hypnobirthing is about.
Speaker 1:Nice. And then you did mention like kind of or maybe my brain was just going to this like guided meditations, or I think I was thinking guided visualizations or imagery Is that? Would that be part of it, or is that something separate?
Speaker 2:This can totally be part of it. So, for example, let's say, like a guided visualization of holding your baby already, or a guided visualization of something that has happened already, that you want to happen and to really see that birth, because we manifest with our thoughts. Right, I'm not saying that any birth is going to according to plan, is literally it's not happening. But what I'm saying is, the more you rehearse in your mind of how something is going, that's how it's going to happen. And there's also science on this, because there was an experiment being done, for example, when somebody was practicing the piano in real life. They were practicing, they were playing and they were playing this one song and then it had other people practice the piano in their mind, just in their mind, with on the keys right, just in their mind, but they had almost the very same outcome as the person who practiced in real life. Same with basketball they were having people throw free throws, I think they're called yeah, that's what they're called. One group was practicing in real life and they were hitting. They were hitting, and then the other group was practicing in their minds and they almost again, almost the same quota. So what you rehearse in your mind eventually comes to happen, and so the more you rehearse the birth process in your mind, the more that's going to happen as well. And what's more important, though, for me is because, no, a birth goal is planned. What's more important for me is that you rehearse how you're going to react in a case where it doesn't work out the way you want it to, the way you plan, the way you visualize. How are you going to access your intuition? How are you practicing accessing your intuition before birth? And this is what is also done in hypno birthing. It's what is done in hypnosis and not only with birth.
Speaker 2:I am, literally I am putting so much emphasis on helping people on how to listen to their intuition, how to listen to their body you said body scans, right and also talking to the emotions that you're feeling Like hey fear, what is it that you need right now? Hey fear, how can I make you go away? What do you need for it to go away? Hey, fear, do you want to transform into a different emotion and help me really? Just, you know, not be fearful, but transform into a different emotion that I can use, and really helping people to get to know themselves, their emotions, their body, their feelings, their mind and how they react, for example. This is an example of what I can think about.
Speaker 2:But when we're women, when we're on a period, right Before we're on a period, or while on a period right, things are more annoying. Let's be real, things are more annoying. Our partners are more annoying. But being aware of that thought or of these thoughts and just saying, oh, I know, it's that time of the month, right, of course my partner is annoying me, or of course this is annoying me, or of course I just don't want to go out because I'm a time of the month, so, really coming in tune with your body, with your mind, with everything that's going on with you, getting to know yourself and taking the time to do that you are, this is the best investment that you can make in yourself. Getting it's getting to know yourself and your needs and what you want yeah, this is the best.
Speaker 2:Thing you can do. Oh, I agree no-transcript Any case, not only pregnancy, but when?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely and I really love that you are talking about how you're going to react when things don't go as planned. I love walking people through what it might look like, especially like. Just take, for example, if you end up having to have a C-section. Most people, that's their I wouldn't say biggest fear, but they're trying to avoid a C-section and I don't want that to ruin the day that their baby is born and so having, and most people are afraid to even think about it. They don't want to think about it because then if they think about it, they think they're manifesting it.
Speaker 1:But imagining how you're going to react in some of these situations, visualizing the good situation, the one that you want, but also having planned out your reaction in the moment of the situation that you don't want is so important because it helps you not let that color the way that you perceive the event and it helps you come back into your body and make those decisions appropriately so that you can choose the most authentic and important way that you want to do things.
Speaker 1:I feel like if we are so rattled by something turning out not the way you want it, then we can't quickly pivot and help get back on track and then you just feel completely derailed and what I try to do with my clients is help them course correct when things don't exactly work out the way that they want. Because what I see happen a lot is one thing doesn't quite go as planned, and so then they're rattled, and then the next thing doesn't go as planned because of that reaction, or if it isn't because of the reaction, then it's made worse because of the reaction, and then something that could have been so wonderful and beautiful and could have gone back on track just becomes this snowball effect of negativity that didn't have to happen. So I think that that's so important.
Speaker 2:Exactly, I totally agree. It's super important to really know how you would react in a situation. And you can practice that. Yeah, for sure, practice that.
Speaker 1:And the other thing I think I remembered what I was wanting to ask you about. I feel like many people don't necessarily know the history of hypnotherapy and how there have been studies that it's. Not only is it the oldest, it's one of the most effective forms of pain control, because back when there was no medicine necessarily, or we were just taking willow bark Is it willow bark? I think that's asperis, I don't know. There wasn't a whole lot else you could do. You have to use your mind to get past that. I was wondering if I'm sure you have more expertise on the subject than I do.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so, first of all, hypnosis goes back, like thousands of years ago, back to the Egyptians and everything. It goes back Hypnosis again. What we do in hypnosis is relaxation, and there have been people who have done surgery solely with hypnosis, with absolutely no anesthesia. So still to this day, there's people who don't want to go under anesthesia. Maybe it doesn't work for them, maybe they're allergic, maybe it's whatever it is. There are people who undergo surgery with simply hypnosis, with pain control. So how that works is literally, you can sort of say numb a body part or you can focus on another body part, and dentists use that a lot too. If you're dentists, if you don't want to do that, or if your clients want to do something else, then this is what they do. And people use self-hypnosis. They don't need a hypnotherapist to do that, for them to put themselves into that relaxed space of mind, but they use self-hypnosis to do that. So they will bring themselves into that relaxed state of mind where they will focus on something that is not painful, or where they will focus on numbing that body part and not feeling that body part.
Speaker 2:I think that's incredible. I have not done that myself to somebody. Well, I actually do. I do pain control, but I don't do it in a sense of oh, I'm going to hypnotize myself to not have as much pain, but again, I focus on the body part and when it hurts I'm just like, okay, let me focus on a different body part right now, or let me just breathe into the pain and imagine that with every exhale, my pain will go away more and more and more. So these are a lot of things you can do as well. Yeah, so it's studied, it's been proven, it's been successful and people are still doing that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, if you think about it when you're distracted, you don't feel the pain as much. So there is something that we can tap into in our brain that can help decrease the pain. And I know, at least from my experience with moms that have come on doing the specific hip-no-berthing process the trademarked one they talk about, how we call it pain. But true pain is an indicator that something is wrong. But the majority of the time when we're delivering a baby, that's a natural physiological process and so it doesn't mean that there's anything wrong. So if you reframe that sensation and assume that things are all going right, then you can kind of start to move yourself out of that space that you think that it's actually pain and start to work with the sensations.
Speaker 1:Now again, I have not done that myself. I Didn't even know hypnobirthing was a thing Meet, for my kids were born but I just think it's amazing and I've seen it work. I've seen it. I've seen people just have a very calm, unmedicated, physiologically normal births Without a whole lot of pain, or at least what they've reported.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and and this goes also for fitness, right If you're doing something like an exercise or whatever, and then if you start feeling pain, my boyfriend, he's a fitness expert, so he would always ask me Okay, what is the scale from the pain? Is it on a one to ten? You know if it's a two, if you can push through it, then it may go away by itself. How often has that happened to me, now that I'm aware of the scale, and then you know if it's like a nine, if it's really painful and if I need to stop, if I need to do something else.
Speaker 2:Again, I need to listen to my body. I need to see, like, what's actually what's up? What's up with that? What is the pain? Where is it coming from? Does it start somewhere else? And to really be aware of that and, like you said, is it the physiological pain or is it just a pain that's like a muscle soreness, or maybe the muscle is like oh, I don't like this movement, or something you know, and this can be translated into into birth as well, because obviously we're using a muscle boy, are we quite a workout, Well is there anything that we haven't touched on that you wanted to talk about what I want to talk about is Also that it can be really helpful and really soothing for moms to get in touch with the soul of their unborn baby before it's even born, and it's such a beautiful process because it's not very known about or people are not doing it.
Speaker 2:And also, what I want people to know is that everything that happens to the child While it's in your womb, your child will know. If you're fearful During your pregnancy, your child will know and it will subconsciously know. And if I were to take somebody who was, you know, like a grown-up person right now, maybe like a 38 year old, if I were to take them back to the womb during pregnancy and then they could tell me hey, how was in my mom's womb? And actually it felt quite unsafe. My mom was worried all the time. My mom was this. My mom was that, like Babies know, grown-ups know whether it is that they subconsciously know. That means like they unknowingly know that there was happening.
Speaker 2:It is so important to already during pregnancy, be safe, not only after for the child, but while the child is in there. Already it is so important and then just to communicate with the child whether it is through the soul communication. So what I reckon I can give you guys the process here as well, what you can do is you can literally imagine yourself as a, as a light I call it the light of love and peace and wisdom, which is your soul and you can imagine your baby as the light of love and peace and wisdom, as well as a light in your womb, and then you can take a golden thread and Make the connection, build the connection and then just talk to your baby soul. Talk to your baby soul, talk to it. You know, like, even out loud, you can do that, you can do that in relaxation, you can do that whenever. But the more you talk to them, the more they will also know like, hey, I'm safe, mama feel safe, mama feels good, she feels safe and all of that.
Speaker 2:And I have a process on my tick-tock and on my Instagram account for that, like a guided meditation that you can try it as well, and I actually have one on on YouTube as well where you can speak to the unborn soul of your when you've had like a miscarriage or a pregnancy loss, when you've had that, and Speaking with the soul of the baby is such a wonderful process for moms, how I can see it, because you can also find out like, hey, what is this soul going to teach me? Because less beyond, his children are Teach our teachers. It's not the other way around. We choose to balance their mind. They are teaching us the actual lessons, right? So just really finding out. Okay, why did you? Why did you choose me as your mom? Why don't you choose your dad as your dad? And and getting that conversation started already while your child is in the womb was the soul. It can be a really beautiful process for parents as well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. That is. That's really amazing. I feel like I knew my kids when the second I got pregnant with them, and like I knew their names and their Personalities, I just I totally resonate with that. That's really, and I feel like they came out being those people. So I feel I definitely, I definitely think that's possible.
Speaker 1:The other thing that I was thinking about, just from the scientific aspect, is we know that when you have stress, you secrete the hormone cortisol, so that goes in your bloodstream and that affects your baby. So, yes, absolutely, if you're stressed out, your baby is stressed out, your baby is getting that jolt of cortisol. It's the same thing as if you've ever taken steroid medication. If you've gotten sick, you report feeling that Rhoid rage. You start to feel like just this pent up Negative energy. It's that. It's that it's a stress hormone and that's the way that it makes you feel. So if you're secreting that stress hormone, then your baby is feeling it because it's in the bloodstream.
Speaker 1:With a stress hormone, for instance, in war zones and they've gone to, you know, retrospective studies when they've looked at babies that were born in War areas that were just really high stress. They had much higher incidence of negative health effects to the babies that were born in those areas and the hypothesis is that it comes from that stress hormone, then the same negative effects that you receive from that stress hormone as An adult when you're stressed out and they say you know the cardiology aspects, all the other things that can go Negatively wrong, like the effects of high blood sugar on your body, all of those things, those are the same things that can happen to your baby while you're stressed out. So the importance of managing those emotions and that stress cannot be over emphasized. So how can, how can my audience work with you or how can they find you in your podcast and your programs?
Speaker 2:So they can find me on Instagram, tiktok, facebook, youtube. I have loads of guided meditations and a lot of him, lots of hypnosis Free ones on every social media platform and, like I said, I have one specifically for pregnancy loss. I have one other one for connecting to Any soul that you want, whether that's your onboard baby, whether that's your baby already, like you can connect to their soul While they're alive as well. So it's just a soul to soul connection that is free to. And if you want to learn Spiritual hypnosis, like everything that I just talked about, if you're maybe a little bit familiar with hypnosis, if you want to learn that for your own clients, to really help them have a better birthing process or to just help them in life in general, I Do teach hypnosis as well. If you want to do that, you can just ask me, you can message me. I'm very available and you can always send me a DM and I'll send you everything that you need.
Speaker 1:Okay, and you have a website that we can go to.
Speaker 2:Yes, I do have a website.
Speaker 1:I will send you a link and you can post it. I love that.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Amazing. Well, Jennifer, thank you so much for joining me. This has been very enlightening and I just feel like it's gonna help a lot of moms prepare for birth and Parenting.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much for having me. I appreciate it.
