Hypnobirthing: Breath-work for an Empowered Labor & Birth and the Benefits During Pregnancy & Postpartum with Mandie Medford
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HypnoBirthing is both a technique and a philosophy of birth that aims to allow mothers to experience birth free of fear and stress. Techniques are based on the physiology of a woman's body in labor and allow moms to tap into innate tools and resources that make birth a more positive experience.
In this episode with Mandie Medford — a mom of 3, HypnoBirthing educator of 14 years, and owner of HypnoBirthing Las Vegas — you will learn what HypnoBirthing actually is, how the technique aligns with the physiology of birth, how the pillars of HypnoBirthing can be carried over into postpartum and motherhood, and you even get a guided ground meditation at the end!
What is Hypnobirthing?
HypnoBirthing gives you the tools and the techniques that help you call upon your natural birthing instincts. It is as much a philosophy as it is a technique and is on the belief that every baby deserves to be born into an environment of gentility, calm, and joy. When a mother is properly prepared, not only physically, but also emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually, both mom and baby can be strong participants in this intense experience while still experiencing a great sense of joy thorough the process. During HypnoBirthing classes you learn about the muscles and hormones in play during birth, the baby’s role during birth, how fear affects labor, and the 5 Pillars that guide all of the practices used in Hypnobirthing.
The Five Pillars of HypnoBirthing:
Relaxation
Breathing
Visualization
Self hypnosis and deepeners
Affirmations
Will doing HypnoBirthing prevent me from experiencing pain?
In essence, HypnoBirthing is built on the belief that “severe discomfort does not naturally need to accompany labor.” Often the pain associated with labor has more to do with our emotional state than anything else. While it is an intense experience, it does not have to be extremely painful.
What is hypnosis?
Hypnosis is a natural, normal state that we pass through several times a day. In hypnosis, you are basically operating out of your subconscious which is that place right above natural sleep. Some examples include driving, massage, or when you realize you’re “spacing out.”
All hypnosis is self hypnosis — it’s voluntary. You have a choice of how deeply relaxed you want to be — there is no mind control going on during HypnoBirthing.
Hypnosis via HypnoBirthing is simply tuning out what’s going on around you and tuning into your body and connecting with your baby during labor.
The practices in HypnoBirthing help you get your mind out of the way so your body can take the lead.
Explain the physiology behind HypnoBirthing, relaxation, and birth itself.
Relaxation of the mind allows the birthing muscles to be free of tension so they can perform exactly as intended.
When our mind is in the way we can enter the fear-tension-pain cycle which takes us into fight or flight and floods the body with stress hormones called catecholamines. This sends all oxygenated blood in your body to your arms and legs so you can “fight” or get out of there. Your uterus is not one of those things that will help you fight for your life, so it’s not getting the amply oxygenated blood, thus, it cannot optimally perform. And then it hurts.
When the uterus gets what it needs, it can perform optimally… just like any other muscle in your body!
What are the benefits of relying on the body’s natural hormones (like oxytocin) for birth?
Oxytocin crosses the blood brain barrier so if your body needs a break during labor, your labor naturally will slow down. The synthetic form of oxytocin — Pitocin — does not cross that blood brain barrier meaning any message from the body of birth needing to slow down cannot be received by the brain.
How does fear impede labor?
Any feelings of fear or threat in your birth environment do slow your labor down. Hypnosis is a place of surrender — a place where your instincts can naturally take over.
Fear release guided meditation is used to deal with any fears, worries, or anxieties that could affect your birth.
HypnoBirthing focuses on what you WANT to happen and not all the negative and scary that COULD happen. Birth is a natural, physiological process that does need assistance 5-10% of the time — so HypnoBirthing accepts and honors when that assistance is necessary and can be used in all types of births and birth settings.
There is a huge focus on language used around pregnancy, birth, and labor because the only way our minds react to language is through emotion and our emotions have a physiological and chemical response in our bodies.
HypnoBirthing uses words that are closest to what our body is actually doing rather than medical language or fear-based language. You speak about birth way you see it happening.
What practices and strategies are used or learned about in HypnoBirthing?
Birth preferences
Exercise and nutrition education for pregnancy
The stages of labor
Massage techniques
Positions for labor
Positions for birthing
Postpartum and breastfeeding education
Affirmations and Breath-work
Affirmations play a big role in Hypnobirthing as, again, language is a big part of how our bodies respond to the birth process. One of my favorite affirmations is “I will accept whatever turn my birthing takes.”
Breath-work plays a huge role in general relaxation, postpartum healing, breastfeeding, and having patience in parenting over the years.
Conclusion:
HypnoBirthing is a great way to not only learn about the birth process, but to experience it in an empowered, peaceful way. The practices you learn from HypnoBirthing can be carried over into motherhood for the years to come as well.
Connect with Mandie!
Mandie Medford: 702-385-3331
hypnobirthinglasvegas@gmail.com
Other resources:
Go to Hypnobirthing.com for resources and classes across the world!
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Book your Starting Point Session and let's get you on track to your healthiest life!
FULL TRANSCRIPT
[00:00:00] The first time I heard of hypnobirthing, I thought my initial reaction was it's something abstract hippyish and this mystical approach to birth that wasn't applicable. Wasn't hands on. Wasn't tangible. And personally, I like to understand the how and the what and the actual physical things going on in my body.
And at the time I, I wanted to know what to do to grasp some control over my birth. Right. We all, as humans have this need for control. And I thought hypno birthing, no way that would give me that. So if you've given birth ever before, which you're fearless Ander, you're a mom, you probably have in some capacity, you know, that it requires no matter how you give.
Fully letting go of control. Right? We come to learn this big old life lesson during birth that we do not have control over the outcome of things. I learned that big time in my first pregnancy and labor. And no matter how your babies were born. Absolutely. We learned that lesson at some point during pregnancy and during birth.
Now during my second pregnancy, a close [00:01:00] friend recommended a hip birthing class. Specifically taught by Mandy, who you get to hear from today. She's a hypno birthing childbirth educator with 14 years of experience teaching hypno birthing. She's the owner of hypno, birthing Las Vegas, and a mama to three girls, all of whom she birthed using hypno birthing and she's born and raised in Las Vegas.
The business is based out of there obviously, but hypno birthing is used globally. So today you get to learn a lot about what hypno birthing actually is. If you have any of the misconceptions that I did before, I actually learned about hypno birthing for real, um, we're gonna address those today. Totally normal.
I full transparency was in the camp of, again, that's a hippie thing. No way that's for me, you know, I wanna know what actually is happening in my body. What's amazing is Mandy's approach to birth. And just the hypnobirthing in general approach to birth is that you understand that birth is a normal physiological process and you learn how it happens.
And what's amazing is that what Mandy taught me helped me [00:02:00] not only come to terms with things that happened in my first birth needing to be induced because of preeclampsia and just how all of that transpired. But what I learned also helped me fully understand what was happening in my body during that first birth and why it was happening.
And then I learned what I could do moving forward to assist my body in doing what it was created to do during my second pregnancy and second birth. So today we get to talk about what hypno birthing actually is, how it's helpful in any type of birth, any setting, any preferences that you have, how hypno birthing is helpful in Tru.
Any birth for any mom and even what can be carried over into motherhood and postpartum from what you could learn from hypno birthing. And honestly, what you're gonna learn today, we dive in deep, you are gonna be so equipped. You're gonna be so encouraged. We even get to do a guided relaxation, uh, meditation at the end.
So just side note here, when you get to that point, if you're driving or on the walk or [00:03:00] doing anything that requires your eyes to be open, save that part of the episode for later, when you can actually sit down and relax, because you do need to have your eyes closed and be relaxed for that. I promise hypno birthing is not mine control.
She's not gonna be taken over your brain. You are taking yourself and do a state of hypnosis, and you're gonna learn about all of what that means today. Uh, again, I had a lot of misconceptions before learning this practice for birth and just for life in general, and it was transformative. For me. I know you're gonna be so touched today.
I'm so excited to bring you this conversation, so let's get into it.
Hey mama. Welcome to the tough love mom podcast. I know you're here because you're ready to get consistent and finally lose that weight. And you're not afraid of a little tough love, you know, what to do to lose weight. But following through on those things feels impossible. You wish you could just feel like your strong, confident self again, and want to be good example for your little ones, but you get thrown off by mom [00:04:00] guilt and the unpredictability of motherhood.
It's frustrating taking on your journey. Postpartum is hard, but it's not IM. Hey, I'm Liz. And I've been where you are. I gained a lot of weight in my pregnancies, 90 pounds, and then 60 pounds. I needed to lose that weight to take control of my health. And honestly just wanted to feel like myself again, with the sustainable approach to weight loss, simple consistency in working on my mindset.
I lost it all in just over a year, both times. And I'm here to help you do the same. I believe that we have an ingrained ability to figure out what we need to do, make it happen and do it in a way that AWS the world, if you're ready to stop falling off the wagon, create solid routine and healthy habits.
And finally feel your best inside and out all while enjoying D nuggets on your salad, you are in the right place. We're about to transform your journey. My friend get pumped up. It is tough. Love time.
Welcome Mandy. I'm so glad that you're here today. Thanks for coming [00:05:00] on and taking the time to just share your expertise with the listeners today. Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate the opportunity. Yeah. So the listeners already got to hear a little bit of your background and who you are, but not necessarily why you got into hypno birthing.
So tell us about that. Like, how did you get into hypno birth? What drew you to this? Cause I know, uh, you practiced it during your first birth. So what initially led you to hypno, birthing and eventually led you to become an educator as well? When I found out I was pregnant with my oldest daughter McKenzie, it was, uh, February of 2007.
And when I found out I was pregnant with her, I was newly married. Young, just started my career as a first grade teacher and was, Hey surprise. You're having a baby. And of course I always wanted to be a mom and I always wanna have a baby. I come from a huge Catholic family, but I never really heard a birth story that I thought was great.
um, you know, birth to me, birth was really [00:06:00] scary. Mm-hmm um, the idea of being pregnant was really scar. So my best friend Anne had a friend named Missy, Missy just had, had given birth to her second child and she had a home. And she used hypno birthing. And I remember her sharing her home birth story with me even before I got pregnant.
And I was like, you had your baby where like what? She had her baby in her bathroom, like on her bathroom floor. And here I am 23 years old at the time. And she's telling me this, I had my baby at home, caught my baby on my bathroom floor. And I'm like, wow, were you nervous? And she's like, it was the greatest experience.
It was so cool. So when I found out I was pregnant, my best friend Anne said, you know, like, let's calm down, let's have you talk to Missy. So I talked to Missy and she told me about hypno ING. And she said, you know it at this point, whether you decide to have your baby at home or the hospital, you really need this education, you really need this.
And I said, okay, so we went on to go ahead and hire a, a hospital based [00:07:00] midwife planned for a hospital birth in a hospital that was really natural birth friendly with a midwife who was very natural birth friendly. But meanwhile, hypno birthing was gonna be my vehicle because it's, I really didn't know anything, but I had this one friend who said, trust me, you gotta do it.
So she hounded me as I got closer and she's like, listen, schedule's up for this summer gets signed up. So, uh, that's how I even heard of it, knew of it. Anything was Missy and I, I thank God for her. I mean, she and I are still friends, but found out about it from her. And then I, um, took classes. We took our classes like starting July, summer, you know, summer 2007.
And it took one class, you know, I'm sitting in class one. And the first question she asked us was how many people are afraid to give birth. And I, my hand is the first one to go up. I'm like, oh, thank you for asking me that question. I, I just wanna know this is gonna be all. Okay. Cuz I really do wanna be a mom, but I, I wanna know that this is gonna be all.
Okay. So, um, You know, as I sat through that first class and first class number one of hypno, [00:08:00] birthing is all about that. It's about building up a positive belief system, a positive vision of what birth is and dispelling the myths surrounding childbirth. Because so much of the stuff we hear about birth creates fear.
So it was such a breath of fresh air to hear that birth is normal. And most of the time it goes well. And to just hear how the birthing muscles work. And I walked out of that class and we're sitting there the whole time. My husband's nudging me. He's like, see, I keep, I told you it's gonna be fine. I told you it's gonna be fine.
You know? So we left that class and I was just like, so I finally felt like. I had permission to be happy that I was pregnant. Yeah. The whole time we're sitting there in class and he's nudging me because he's like, see, I told you, I told you, you know, she's talking about how, you know, she's talking about 3000 BC.
Like birth was a celebration of life. Women were healers and they had midwives. They didn't call 'em midwives back then, you know, she talked about how women didn't used to fear birth the way we fear birthed today and kind of took us through the, uh, you know, the history of what went on for a couple hundred years and [00:09:00] how we got here and, um, why things are different now and what's normal in birth and how the muscles work.
And really just continued to emphasize birth is a normal human physiological experience. So we, we, you know, I loved it. I walked away from that class feeling just happy. Like finally, like I could give myself permission that I was happy that I was pregnant. Like I could, I could be excited for this birth and that it really didn't have to be as scary or as painful.
That's a big deal as painful as people I tell you. It is. So, um, you know, we did our five week. Class. And I said to my husband, at the end of that series, I was like, this is what I wanna do with the rest of my life. This is it. Like, this is what I wanna do. I, I can't tell you how I just something inside me.
I felt so passionate that moms needed to know this. And not only about birth, cuz that's why birth education is important. It's important for us to understand birth, but that there were concrete tools that I could utilize and practice. And that the emphasis of this program is [00:10:00] not about okay. Teaching you how.
Power through the pain or ignore this pain that is so incredibly necessary. That's not what, what HYP number thing is about. It's about this is what your muscles are doing, and this is how you can help your body so you can be comfortable. So I went and got certified to teach H number thing when Mackenzie was six months old, we, me and Larry Mackenzie went up to LA and I went through the training course.
I was certified and I was teaching hypno birthing. The following weekend. I already had a full. Ready to go because Ann Swanson, who was the previous owner of hypno birthing Las Vegas, she moved to Arizona and she, I was gung ho man, as soon as like, I was like, listen, I'm gonna do this. And so pretty quickly she said, you know, I've got, I've got classes and clients in Vegas, and I'd love for you to teach.
And I taught one series and then she called me up after my second class of the series, she said, Mandy, I've been praying about this and I wanna sell you the business. She says, I've been waiting for somebody like you to come along. Who will love. She's like hypno birthing Las Vegas is my baby. And I've been emotional about it.
[00:11:00] And, uh, I wanna pass it on to you. And I like dropped to my knees. I was like, this is. This is a gift from God. This is amazing. And so I quit my full time job teaching school and, um, came home to, uh, you know, be with my daughter through the day. And I could teach classes at night and it's been an amazing job as a mother to my kids are the reason, I mean, at the end of the day, right.
They're my reason. They're my big why. And, uh, they're the reason I teach HNO birthing. They're the reason I believe in hypno birthing and hypno birthing has helped me have all three of my children give birth all three unmedicated. So then I had right Gracie, three years later, we had a ho home birth with her cuz we made a believer outta my husband.
So we had a home birth with grace and Reagan. So the other night we were sitting right here in the living room when my friends were over and Reagan's like, I was born in the tub, like right up there in the loft. So, and H number thing helped us, you know, all three times. And so. It's so amazing and cool hearing how your first class was so impactful on you and your beliefs around birth and actually understanding it.
[00:12:00] Cuz when I took my classes with you, that first class was just, I remember I, I came up to you afterwards and talked about it, but I had my planner out and I was like taking furious notes in the back with all these light bulbs going off in my head with cuz I took hypno birthing for my second birth cuz my first one I was induced after having preeclampsia.
I did do birth education before that, but it was a different method and great. Like, I, we still learned a lot, my husband and I did, but it was, I don't know, just not as thorough, I guess, as I like, and hypno birthing what you taught in that very first class filled in all the gaps that were still questions in my head of why did this happen?
Why did my body respond this way when this happened? And these synthetic hormones versus my real ones and the muscles and the way they work, I was just, it all made sense finally, and gave me so much peace in what happened. And it was that stepping stone too. Okay. Like birth can be normal. I can have that experience in the past, but move forward and have a different one now.
And it was so healing. I'll never forget what that felt like. And at the time my husband was deployed. So I was at that class. [00:13:00] So I was only solo parent there. And I was like, oh, this is awkward, but I'm gonna take full advantage of this education. And. Transformative. So explain what hypno birthing is because I had the misconception, honestly, until I took the class that it was this, you hear H no anything.
And you're like, okay, am I gonna be put in a different, you know, universe with my brain or what's going on with HNO birthing? How does it actually work? I've come to learn. It's very different than what I initially thought. I fully believe that God created us to do what our bodies need to do to birth babies.
And we are given all the tools we need. And I think HNO birthing points to those tools that God has put in us to get through labor. You know, if we have a healthy and uncomplicated birth and pregnancy and all of that, we have that endowed in us, like it is just there. And hypno birthing helps you tap into those resources.
So can you explain what hypno birthing actually isn't dispel some of those myths of like, okay, is my practitioner gonna be there with a, with a clock in front of my face? Or, you know, am I being told these weird [00:14:00] things that are making me, you know, what, what actually is it? Tell the listeners what it actually is.
Okay. So first of all, I love how you set and you were so cute because I remember after your first class, you sent me an email and you were like, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. I already feel so much better. Like Liz. That's the reason I do this. Like that. That is the reason I continue to shout from the mountaintops about this program.
Um, because if we can impact mothers, if we can impact children, if we can help kids get here just a little more gently and their mothers are treated better. I mean, I feel like we could change the whole world. We brag. We're like we could change the whole world if we just change the way babies are important.
Um, but you know, you said like, God, God has given us. We have been endowed with the power. And when, when you think about empowerment, you know, this idea of an empowered birth. I'm not empowering. You it's power you were born with, but I don't hold the power and I'm giving it to you. You have it. You're born with it.
That's part of our main philosophy. Big picture hypno birthing is that hypno birthing is [00:15:00] going to give you the tools and the techniques that will help you call upon the natural birthing instincts. The instincts that have been ingrained in us since the beginning, it it's part of who we are in. And it is something that we have the right to do in the way that we want to.
So hypno birthing is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. It's relaxing, rewarding stress-free method of birth. That's based on the belief that every baby deserves to be born into an environment of gentility, calm and joy. And when a mother is properly prepared, not only physically, which you know is so important, strong, healthy mothers grow strong, healthy babies, and then both can be really good.
Strong participants in that process, cuz it's work. It's an intense experience and it's normal and healthy and it's great, but it, it requires work for mom and baby. So no, but not only that physical aspect, but um, when a mom is emotionally, psychologically, spiritually prepared, she can experience a great sense of [00:16:00] joy through the process.
Being able to welcome her baby safely, comfortably, gently, and with ease. So hypno birthing gives us tools and techniques and our five main techniques, our relaxation, breathing, visualization, self hypnosis and deepeners and affirmations. So five main techniques, but, you know, we give 'em a handout in the beginning and so many things, right?
You think five categories and then many tools under each category. So specific breathing techniques for the different stages of labor specific visualization techniques that we attach to a breathing technique or a deepening technique. Um, really cool techniques that will help. For example, associate a word or a color with immediate relaxation and we practice these things in class.
So those are our main techniques. And within those we go through in class, we do several different guided meditations. One that's really important. We do is a fear release [00:17:00] guided meditation, where we take moms through visualization. And ahead of time, we ask them to do a little bit of homework. They make a list of anything and everything that might be limiting them.
Fears, worries, anxieties, anything in your life that you think will affect you emotionally on your birthing day, we ask them, write it all down. This is your personal list. You don't have to share with anybody, but get it all on a paper. Sometimes, you know, moms aren't afraid to give birth, or they're not afraid to become mothers, but there's other stuff in their life.
That they wanna eliminate, like these are tools you can use long after you've had a baby too, by the way. But we do this meditation with them and they'll have an opportunity subconsciously to go through them and identify. And what we're looking to do is move through and work through those challenges, those limiting thoughts, fears, worries, anxieties, move through those things, move past those things and then replace the things that aren't serving us anymore with the picture and the ideal of what we want for our birth and hypno birthing is very much about focusing on what you want.
We're not big on going, going there with all the bad and all the scary and all the things that could go wrong or might go [00:18:00] wrong as responsible parents. We need to know that sometimes, you know, five to 10% of the time birth needs help nature needs as. We recognize that we honor that. And we honor that there are medical professionals in our community that are there with a great purpose to ensure the safety of the outcome.
So I definitely will talk about, okay, these are the signs like, like if you experience any of these things, you need to get in touch with your practitioner. Like this is a special circumstance, besides that we're very much focusing on what's normal in birth. We talk about the stages of labor, but we explain it in a way that's easy for parents to understand.
We don't break it down. Medically early active transition. Oh my goodness. Where am I in the birth is a continuum. So we explain it in those terms. And we talk about the muscles. We talk about the hormones. We talk about the baby's role. We talk about how your birth, your body has been working with you. And for you since the beginning of your pregnancy birth truly is a celebration of life.
We refuse to buy into the myth. It's such a [00:19:00] perfect thing. That's going on in your body for the nine-ish months that you carry your baby, right? Your body you're growing a human being, the body that they're going to inhabit for the rest of your life. Your body's doing all that for you, with you while you live your life.
Pregnancy changes our bodies and slows us down. But I mean, we work our full-time jobs. We raise our other kids. We, God forbid we mop our floors, do our grocery shopping, all that. Well, you grow a human being a brain, right. A nervous system. So cool. So, you know, we talk about what's normal, how the body works with you and for you.
And that way, when you have a good understanding, you don't fear birth as much. We also spend quite a bit of time talking about the nervous system and how fear affects labor, um, because it does. And most often why moms are so incredibly uncomfortable it's because they're terrified. They don't feel supported in the space.
They've heard everybody's story again, we explore those things as well. We dispel many of the myths surrounding childbirth so that we can start working through that once again, and just building up a positive belief system. We're also really big on language. The only way the mind can react to language is through emotion and our emotions have a [00:20:00] physiological and chemical response in our bodies.
So we use words that more nearly describe what the body's actually doing rather than medical language. That's sort of stressful, scary, confusing. So we're big about speak about your birth, the way you see it happening. Talk to the people around you about what you want, not what you don't want. Here's what I need.
Here's how you can help me. Can you accommodate, can you support really important that we get our healthcare providers on board with what our birth preferences are as well, and make sure we take the time to secure a care provider that will support us. So those are some of the topics that we talk about.
We will create a birth plan. We go through the stages of labor. We do massage techniques. We show them different positions for labor. We talk about how, you know, some babies need a little bit of help getting into a better position. So freedom of move it's important. So we go through that exercise, nutrition.
Those are a big part of our program. Postpartum. We spend a whole last class talking postpartum and breastfeeding and what you're gonna need [00:21:00] postpartum to be healthy and have a more peaceful transition, cuz gosh, it should be the most joyful time in your. Best time of our life, right? So, uh, it's not easy, but it's, it's amazing.
We became brand new. We become brand new human beings. It's like a whole new extension of our life when we welcome a baby. So again, I want that to be a time of joy for you. So AI, we talk about infant sleep and how often they're gonna be nursing. And that time doesn't have to be micromanaged with schedules and things like we have to work ourselves into a routine and doing what works for your family.
Um, so those are all educational aspects as well. Again, the philosophy is based in the belief that severe discomfort does not naturally need to accompany labor. When a mother is properly prepared and she trusts her body. Now I can't promise you pain free birth, but I can tell you that from a physiological standpoint, birth does not have to be as uncomfortable as people tell us.
And as they, you know, we've been taught and told like pain's inevitable fight through it, push through it. It's so necessary. It, this [00:22:00] level of discomfort that we hear describes surrounding childbirth is not necessary, oftentimes that has more to do with our emotional state. So we get back to that place of birth as a natural, normal, healthy human experience, focus on what's normal, and that's how hypnosis can help create better birth outcomes, more comfort in labor.
So hypnosis is a very natural state. If you've ever meditated. If you've ever done yoga, if you've ever closed your eyes and just imagined you were someplace else, , if you're toddlers having a tantrum and you've gotta walk in the other room and close your eyes and make, you know, you take a couple breaths and you know, maybe you imagine you're you're hiking or you imagine you're at the beach.
I mean, that's hypnosis if you've ever driven from work to home and you don't remember how you got there, that HYP. I I say it all the time. Oh, I'm gonna stop at the store on the way I don't stop. You go into autopilot. You've ever been in a room full of people if you've ever been [00:23:00] maybe at a party. I think about like Christmas party.
Sometimes you're sitting on the couch and you're just looking at this Christmas tree and you're just kind of right. And there's people in the room and they're talking, you have no idea what they're talking about. You may hear them. You may not hear them. That's hypnosis. Yeah. It's all voluntary. It's all voluntary.
So it's a, it's a really natural, normal state that we pass through several times a day. And when you're in hypnosis, you are basically operating out of your subconscious or inner conscious, which is that place sort of right above natural sleep. You're not unconscious. It's like I said, it's a voluntary experience and all hypnosis is self hypnosis.
What we do like as the birth partner or me in class guiding a meditation, or if you are listening to a guided hypnosis, we give them audio recordings too. If you're listening to something like that, what they're doing is guiding your experience. You have a choice of how deeply relaxed you wanna be, how deep you're able to go, but we're all capable.
You're not under anybody's mind is spelled. It is no [00:24:00] sort of mind control. Some moms in labor will say, yeah, there were 12 people in the room. I didn't see 'em I didn't hear 'em. There were people coming in and outta the room. I had no idea they were there. It's only because you chose as labor advances.
And even when we do any kind of meditation, you're choosing to tune out what's going on around you, cuz it's not serving you and tune into your body, connect with your baby, especially in labor and as labor advances. So too, does your depth of relaxation. So it gets to a point where I'm so deeply relaxed.
Like I don't care. It, it requires too much effort for me to join the conversation, but it's not mind control. You're never gonna say, think, act, feel, do anything in hypnosis that you'd be morally against like nothing at all. It, it's more about teaching you. And I know this is a loaded question and we're all women, but people are just like, we can just help women learn to relax, but it, it really is about giving us tools to.
For labor, really get the mind out of the way. So the body can take the [00:25:00] lead. We use hypnosis for birth so that we can give parents specific tools. Like I said, it might be a key word. It might be guided breathing. It might be a visualization technique or a meditation script where we take mom through a visualization of some sort, but we give them those tools so that we can initiate very, very deep relaxation of the mind so that the birthing muscles are free of tension and can perform exactly as nature intended, used an example in our class, all the ones you gave were like, spot on.
I'm sure moms were like, oh, that's okay. I've been in a state of hypnosis before, but it wasn't even on purpose. Right? One that you said, I'm pretty sure you said it during our class was that when you're getting a massage and you feel like you fall asleep, but you're not really asleep, you're awake. Yes.
That, that is literally it. And I was like, that is exactly what it feels like in birth. You are like so relaxed that you think you're sleeping, but you're not sleeping cuz you know, you're awake. that's it. And that's, that's just what I kept going back to. Yeah. When I was learning to do it for myself, um, during pregnancy and then during the birth [00:26:00] itself.
And personally, I, I, I listened to a couple scripts, but I, I listened to worship music and that just brought me down to that place. Right. That's one of the things that with, with meditation like that, even if it's music mm-hmm and we told moms like, relax to the same music, if you like music, like that's conditioning, our mind has to be conditioned.
Our body already knows what it's doing, but you're absolutely right. Like one of the best ways to experience hypnosis is what you described. It's we call it ultra depth, hypnosis that like you get to a place of just void. Yeah. You're not asleep, but you're not thinking anything you think about worrying about anything.
You're not hearing anybody talking, even if I were reading a meditation to you, you might just not even hear me, but you're not thinking anything else. Either people will say is like, I just remember that you brought us out, like you counted 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and, and came out. But it's a place of, of total surrender.
It's a place. Just void. And that's a big deal in labor surrender because , we're scared if we're scared and that's again, I kind of go back to [00:27:00] that fear thing, right? Yeah. If we're afraid we go into fight or flight, it's called fear, tension pain. So if you're scared, you secrete CATA. Those are stress hormones.
They cause all the oxygenated blood in your body to be redirected to your arms and your legs. So you can fight for your life or get out of there. Your uterus is not gonna help you in a dangerous situation. So if you walk into your birth, afraid, feeling threatened, like any other mammal mother, you're gonna slow your labor down.
And cuz you're not gonna let your baby be born into an environment. You don't feel safe in, but your uterus is oxygen deprived and blood. It's not getting oxygenated blood. So it just physically cannot perform. And then it hurts. So again, if we can get you to that place using hypnosis, as you described, it's a place of surrender.
It's a place where the instinct just is allowed to take over. Cuz mom is feeling. No doesn't feel threatened, feels protected, feels comfortable. And then again, the instincts are just, you know, the muscles will work. It's, it's [00:28:00] totally a function of our nervous system. And we really have to surrender to the nervous system and labor, but hypnosis, like you said, these deepening tools get us to that place where my mind is just out the way, what they need.
And they perform like they should, by the way, like any other muscles in our body yeah. Is a muscle like any muscle in your body, it needs oxygen and blood. If it's getting that, it's gonna do its work. Yeah. Like the rest of the muscles in our body do, when you explain the physiology of that with the cat catecholomines, is that the word?
Hmm. What happens when you feel that fear and then the stress and it, yes. It's applicable on birth, but you think about it after my second was born, I had really bad back issues, um, with some herniated discs and just major back pain. And it took me almost a year postpartum to realize this, but I was a lot more stressed the first year postpartum after my second than when with my first age, struggled with that transition a lot more.
So emotionally, I was a lot more stressed and fearful, and that response was in my body present a lot more often [00:29:00] than relaxed. And I found that the pain in my back was a lot better when I practiced the breathing techniques we learned in H birthing because I was allowing my body to just relax and not feel stressed.
And then the pain in my lower back would lower. And it, and it was caused by a lot of tight muscles in my lower back and my legs and my glutes just, you know, from the way pregnancy brings IMB balances in your body muscularly. And you know, the way I did have an injury in my lower back. And it was just all.
All messed up back there. It took a lot of physical therapy and relaxation techniques to get over that. But it was huge when I started to realize, oh, wait a second. What I learned in hypno birthing about relaxing my uterus and not letting stress and fear in, but instead just letting actual oxygenated blood breathing deeply relaxing my body fully.
Allowed my uterus to chill out. I'm gonna let my other muscles in my body chill out. Now that I'm postpartum by also breathing and not letting this, these short tenses breasts cause more pain in my body. Cause it genuinely does in [00:30:00] any podcast or book or video that you watch about breathwork in general, not even dealing with birth, but just like Breathworks become this big thing.
Box breathing, all this stuff over the course of the pandemic. I feel like people have learned a lot more about that and therapy and everyone knows what it is. The four counts in and eight counts out. It has a purpose. We breathe. So shallowly that yes, it can cause chronic issues in our body pain included and it applies to birth.
And I think it's so cool that it is our natural physiology that wants us breathing. It wants us relaxed. We don't need to be in a constant state of stress and tension and fear because it's, it's not what our bodies are designed to be in. So yeah, it, it fascinated me when you started to talk about all that because in my first birth with being induced, it's artificial hormones, which again, Throws a little wrench in how your body's reacting to that and trying to relax and, you know, trying to help birth the baby.
And so all of it, just like I said, light bulb moments, everything started to connect. And I was like, okay, it wasn't because I was broken. It was because [00:31:00] medically I needed to be induced. I needed that, you know, thank God for the medical professionals. I just remember after the fact, I was like, wow, I'm so grateful.
I live in the age and day I do because I needed that. I would've been hundreds of years ago. One of the mothers that died during birth had I not had that kind of medical support. I was so grateful. And it really made me actually accept that like moms that need Cnce mom that need induction because of whatever medical issues going on.
Thank God we live in the day and age that we do and have that support. But at the same time, we're not broken because of it. Something went wrong in our body. It happens. And that process that Mandy you've explained just can't happen naturally the way that it wants to because something got thrown off, but we had the support we needed at the time and could still birth our baby.
But there's also a way. You know, if we're blessed to have a healthy, uncomplicated pregnancy and birth a second or third or fourth time after that fact, we can support our bodies in a way that makes that happen. And it's so healing to understand that and actually live it out. So just thank you for giving [00:32:00] me that to realize that you're totally right.
And, and like you said, I mean, thank God we have the tools available to us when our body needs help. It doesn't mean our body's broken and I, I, I. Love it that in those instances, because I've had moms who have taken my classes and then have had certain medical issues they've had introduced. And we talk through that, um, okay.
If you need to go in and be induced, like we understand Pitocin is different than oxytocin. It it's a synthetic version of oxytocin, but we gotta remember like oxytocin crosses the blood brain barrier. So it's regulated by your brain. And if your B body needs a break, your brain's gonna need get the message.
So it's regulated Pitocin, doesn't cross the blood brain barrier, but how can we still have a gentle induction? So we talk through that. And also too, once again, I believe in that one of our affirmations cuz affirmations are also a big part of our program. One of our affirmations is states that I will accept whatever turn my birthing takes.
That one was the biggest one for me. [00:33:00] I'll take this minute by minute. And you know, what, if God has a different plan, if something is thrown at me, when I'm in labor, that I was not accepting, I'm so glad that moms have tools to still embrace those turns with peace. Yeah, because babies can still be born.
Gently. Mothers can still be treated well. Mothers can still be treated gently and know that they were an active participant along the way. I mean, you can visualize medication working to bless your body. Mm-hmm you can use focused breathing. I've attended births with moms using HYP number thing, uh, scheduled cesarean births that I was by the side of the mother, as they were preparing her for surgery.
And the nurses are like in awe, that moms are doing really great when they're putting IVs in. And because we're breathing through it, we're focusing through it. We're understanding this has to happen. So this is gonna work. You know, these help medication is gonna help bless my body. My baby's gonna be heres safe.
My baby's gonna be in my arm soon. And then after those unexpected outcomes, once the baby's here, you, one of those affirmations is that I, [00:34:00] every time I hold my baby, I'm healing. Every time I feed my baby I'm healing, that's another way oxytocin helps us and it works over a lifetime. Um, but again, breath awareness.
We'll still help calm our system down as we recover from intervention or possibly surgery. Yeah. How can a mom use affirmations like that? I like those last two. You just said even months out postpartum, what are some ones she can bring in? And Melissa can probably already make these connections cuz you've made it so clear.
But how does using those affirmations the way our mindset is day to day? How are those things intertwined? How does it affect our body? All of it. So you're talking postpartum now. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So once we make that, that big leap to the real, to the real fun of, of motherhood. Yeah. I think that affirmations and mindset are, are such a big deal because the truth is we need to give ourself grace, especially if it's your first baby or it's your second or your third, it's always gonna be a change in your life because it's more responsibility than you previously.[00:35:00]
Whether it's your first baby or your fifth baby, it's still an innocent human being that it, we have no choice. They are a hundred percent dependent on us. That's that is what it is in the beginning. And of course they, they grow up and they get to be more independent through our loving guidance and, and you know, that building up that sense of trust.
But, uh, the truth is there's strangers to this planet. I use the example in class, like if you've ever had jet lag, you know, you travel to another country, you travel across the United States or, you know, you get there, you're hungry, you're crabby, you're tired. It's a major transition. They're only learning about this world through our actions.
They're, they're learning about this world through us. So I think daily affirmation, you know, and it doesn't have to be anything that's that you have to overthink. But I like to remind moms. It's true. Every time you're holding your baby, you're bonding. Every time you hold your baby, you're healing. Every time you hold your baby's skin to skin, you're helping them grow.
I mean, and that's a fact when we [00:36:00] pay attention to them, their body systems are more organized. They're visual and auditory systems develop. We, we are the nourishment for our children. So congratulating yourself, you are doing an amazing job, congratulating yourself when your baby's growing. My, my baby's growing because of my actions.
My baby is thriving because of my actions when I hold them. And when I pay attention to them, they're growing, their brain is growing. This is gonna help them in the future. I'm helping them to learn to bond. I'm teaching them how to form relationships. And I think with the kids too, every time you go to change their clothes or change a diaper, anything like that, congratulate them for the work they're doing.
It's going into their SUBC. It really is congratulate them, remind them that they're so big and so strong every single moment that you have an opportunity to do that. Remind 'em because truly it does impact their subconscious. And again, the breath awareness is key because especially when you're breastfeeding, The [00:37:00] hormones that help us breastfeed.
And mostly it's a prolactin that prolactin is that hormone that helps us to make milk. But oxytocin, once again is helping us like oxytocin helped us in labor because it causes uterine contractions, postpartum, oxytocin causes your milk glands to contract and push milk into the ducts and with a good latch and with a baby, you know, when a baby's skin to skin, I got an oxytocin.
It's amazing. But when a. Skin to skin they're gonna latch better. And then you get more of an effective letdown. And again, prolactin is secreted, but those hormones obviously are gonna be more free flowing. The more relaxed you are. So we always say things like bring the baby to the breast, because if you're like hunched up with your shoulders and you're trying to bring the breast to the baby, and you're kind of tweaking your body, it's harder for your milk to let down.
So that's a big deal as well. Again, just simply visualizing you think about your, your milk ducks, sort of like, um, grapes. And when you have oxytocin secreted by the pituitary, when the oxytocin is [00:38:00] secreted, it causes those grape, those little grapes kind of squish. So like if you take a bite of a grape, you know, you get the, the juice in your mouth, sort of that same thing when your baby has a good latch, that's kind of a cool visualization.
You know, my body is producing the right amount of milk for my baby. My milk is free flowing, breathing through that. and again, using the, we teach a calm breathing technique in our class. Like Liz mentioned, it's into the count of four and out to the count of eight. And that's a fantastic breathing technique to use, especially at the start of a feeding, because milk lets down after a couple of minutes, sometimes babies are a little bit harder to get them.
It's a little harder to get them to latch. Initially, every baby is different. Some babies go right on and it's like, no big deal. They open their mouth. Like they're supposed to wide mouth latch. They latch no big deal. Other babies need a little bit of help. You know, again, it's the baby's instinct to go there, but it is our instinct to help them.
But our first part in that is relaxing and calming down. We have to be able to calm [00:39:00] ourselves down. And so if you're struggling, if you're trying and treating, baby's just not open in the mouth or the baby's fussing and struggling a little bit, you know, it's okay. If you have help, if you have somebody by your side, like if you could pass the baby over and just give yourself 10 minutes, have some tea, have a glass of water, go out in the sunshine.
If you're by yourself, it's not the end of the world to put a baby in a swing safely. If you need to take a minute for yourself, because if you're frustrated, they're not gonna latch anyway. So if you take that moment to yourself again, just remind yourself, like I am the perfect mother for this perfect child.
I am everything. This baby needs. My milk lets down freely, my breath flows easily. And just taking a few minutes to go through breathing even really changes. Like you mentioned to the nervous system, it puts us back into the parasympathetic. It takes us out of the sympathetic. It takes us out of fight or flight.
So going back to that breath pretty quickly, you know, the brain's pretty good and pretty quick at switching back over to parasympathetic through just a few cycles of [00:40:00] breath, because again, the truth is some babies just have things going on and they need more practice. They need more. And if they're latched onto your nipple and it's hurting and their lips are pursed and they're not doing what they need to do, we need to help.
'em do it, right. We're not delivering milk anyway, if they're not latched. Right. But again, this is one of those examples of a time where I think the breath awareness and the visualization can be really useful because the milk does let down better. When our shoulders are more relaxed. When our upper body is more relaxed and we're calm that baby's not gonna be calm if we are not.
So if that means you take a few minutes to yourself, you do that. Whether you have help in the house or not, as long as they're somewhere safe to put the baby, you take a few minutes for yourself and just reaffirm that you are doing the best you can. Yeah. Every day and every way I'm doing the best I can.
Yeah. I would even venture to say, cuz my boys are both toddlers. Now. moments when you feel I know. Right. When those, those moments, when you feel super tense and [00:41:00] stress cause Manny, okay. Manny and I have known each other since. I was pregnant with Cal and Royce was like one and a half. So over two and a half years now, which is crazy.
pandemic class. You're my first. I know. I remember I had a moment again, it was like a year postpartum when I realized, wait a second, I need to like practice this deep breathing this relaxation and not to the point of like, I've got worship music on in my earbuds and I'm tuning the whole world out and I'm not paying attention to my kids, but just taking a step away from them and taking a few breaths to myself.
And then responding to them. Yes. My toddlers want me immediately. They still don't understand delayed gratification. They want things now, like that's the age they're at, but when they see me take a second to self regulate, so I don't explode and yell or, you know, get frustrated with them. When they see me do that, they learn how to self-regulate their emotions and their own nervous system too.
And something we do a lot with our four year old now is well almost four is when he gets [00:42:00] really frustrated or really, you know, up there or just say. Let's take a deep breath real quick. Let's take a couple deep breaths. If I notice they're still really shallow ones. I'm like, Ooh, let's do one more. okay.
Let's do another one until he gets to the point where he's taking an actual deep cleansing breath that is chilled out and he can actually come back to his senses. He's not in that fight or flight mode. And I think we operate in this mode. At least, maybe I'm just speaking for myself, but when your kids get to the age where they can verbalize and they do know what they want and they want it now, and everything's just a little more intense all the time.
Maybe it's being a boy, mom, probably not, but just their age right now. I'm like, wow. It is so important for me and for them to learn how to breathe. So we can actually self-regulate and we're not destroying our bodies by constantly being in fight or flight, cuz it really is impactful on our physiology.
In general, if we're constantly in fight or flight, it is not good for our brains or our, our bones or our muscles, any of it, our hearts. Just completely depleted. We're not meant to live in that state [00:43:00] yet. Many of us do throughout the week. And you know, I can, I'm not a perfect per person, you know, we're not, we're not perfect people, no live in a perfect world.
Um, but it is true. Like we only have so many resources, like there's only certain times when fight or flight is actually necessary yet. Yeah. We get into a place where we're like always going there. And I think with kids, and I don't necessarily know that it matters the age, but as they get older too, and their needs, they have more needs, more wants, more requests, things like that.
Like, like you said, we gotta give ourself a minute to think to breathe. So we don't make an irrational comment or an irrational decision or were. I think for me sometimes I'm just really quick to say no, and I don't need to be, but, or quick to say yes. Um, you know, they're gonna hold you to it. And so it's, we're the they're, we're their mothers and it's our instinct to like, I wanna go to them.
I wanna help them. I wanna give them what they need in the moment that they need it, but that's always the best thing. , you know, so if, like you said, it's just, it's a matter of, um, you know, if that's stepping [00:44:00] away and that is taking a run or listening to a podcast or listening just again, to some music to get our back into a good head space, then we're better off for them in the long run too.
Yeah. And it's a beautiful thing. When you can learn that in pregnancy and then carry it on through months of carrying your child, the birth, bringing them into the world and then their whole life. It's beautiful to be able to understand that. on a level that's this is how it impacts my body, how it's impacting my baby during pregnancy and after they're born and just all of it.
It's so important and so awesome. What you do and the impact it's making on families and generations. It's amazing. Thanks. yeah. Would you guide the listeners and myself cuz I'll do it too through like just a, a couple minutes of relaxation, some sort of relaxation, maybe some visualization. Yes. So this is a grounding release.
You could use it for fear release. I just kind of like it started doing it with clients actually around the time of the pandemic [00:45:00] when things are so uncertain, but I think it's great for everyday life. No matter what, to just help us feel a little bit safer in our space and that way we. Make more clear, confident decisions as we go about our week.
So this is a grounding release, and I'm gonna guide you in with some calm breathing like Liz and I were talking about with the calm breathing technique is actually a really good tool. It is a tool that we teach in our classes and it's the first breathing technique that we teach. And we tell our moms, this is everyday life breathing.
This breathing technique will induce or initiate hypnosis. And this is also a good breathing technique that you can use in labor in those breaks between the surges. You know, if you are a pregnant mom, but postpartum too, this is just a great win that you could even use during breastfeeding. So if everybody's calm and comfortable, and if you like to just allow your eyes to gently close and never feel like you need to hold them shut or force them shut, allow them to gently meet [00:46:00] and notice, um, the space that you're resting in.
Now, where are you? If you're sitting on a couch, a chair. The floor, just bring your awareness to your physical surroundings and notice the points at which your body makes contact with, where you're resting. Just like settle a little bit more deeply into those contact points. Notice where your elbows are.
Um, notice your feet on the floor. Just notice where your body makes contact with, where you're resting and just settle a little bit more deeply. Now, listening to the sound of my voice and allowing it to be your guide. Please slowly inhale through your nose. As I breathing in into. Three four pause. And now slowly exhale out your nose and down [00:47:00] the back of the throat.
2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Once again, breathing in through your nose to three, four, pause slowly, exhale down the back of the throat to the count of eight. As you allow your breath to move down the back of the throat, into your shoulders, your chest, your abdomen, your lower back down the backs of your legs and all the way down to your toes in two, three.
For hold exhale down 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8. Each time you exhale, you release [00:48:00] even more completely.
Imagine yourself now seated under a magnificent tree. This tree must be hundreds of years old. The trunk is so wide and thick. There are many wonderful branches joyously reaching toward the sky and the sun. This tree feels ancient wise and comforting. Just knowing that something as beautiful as this tree has been a constant in this world for hundreds of years makes you feel peaceful, calm, and hopeful.
Under the tree is soft, lush, green grass. It is thick and cushioning under your feet. Sit down under the tree, allowing your back to rest against the [00:49:00] tree trunk, your legs stretch out comfortably in front of you. You feel connected with the tree, the earth and the sky relaxed, peaceful, comfortable. You imagine the tree roots going deeply into the earth, allow this tree to be deeply connected to the earth, the branches reaching high into the sky, allowing the tree to be connected to the universe.
You imagine now that each of your. Has a cord, a cord that reaches deep into the earth. And even though these cords ground, you and connect you with the earth, you're able to easily move your feet and your legs any time you choose. Now, imagine that these cords allow you to [00:50:00] release into the earth any and all stress worry or tension.
Just let it drift down through your body, down through your feet, down into the earth. And it is safe to allow that to happen as the earth will transform that energy just as she transforms coal into diamonds.
Allow any and all negative energy, hurtful emotions or limiting beliefs to drift down through your body, down through your feet, down into the earth. Let any anger, resentment, or frustration drift down through your body. Down through your feet, down into the earth. Let any guilt, [00:51:00] grief or sorrow drift down through your body, down through your feet and down into the earth.
Let anything in everything known and unknown. Drift down through your body, down through your feet and down into the earth. Anything and everything that has ever blocked your path or kept you distracted, just let it drift down through your body, down through your feet, down into the earth, let it all go.
This is your opportunity. You don't need it anymore. You don't want it anymore. It is the time to let it all go.
As that continues to happen as all the things you need to release [00:52:00] drifts down through your body, down through your feet and down into the earth. You imagine now that the other cord is located at the base of your spine, the cord at the base of your spine reaches up high into the sky higher than the branches higher than the clouds.
So high that it reaches up and out into the universe, connecting you with a never ending supply of ancient, peaceful energy, an energy that fills you mind, body and spirit, and it moves down through your chord and into the body. See, and feel that wonderful, abundant energy move through your entire being
feel so good to let your entire being feel to overflowing with such pure energy. You feel as though [00:53:00] you can do anything and accomplish anything you notice now that your body has begun to actually glow with all of this energy. See and feel your entire body pulsing with this incredible energy, giving you the energy you need to create or accomplish anything you wish, see what you wish to create or accomplish coming into your life.
Now
become aware of what it looks like, what it feels like all the world, all of the wonderful changes that will occur. Take a moment and really enjoy that experience.[00:54:00]
You can come back to this place and reexperience this release and fill yourself with this abundant, ancient energy. Any time you choose,
you can fill yourself with this abundant, ancient energy. Any time you choose.
I invite you now to slowly begin to bring your awareness back to your physical surroundings, noticing movement in your hands, your feet, your facial muscles, now movement in your shoulders. Whenever you feel comfortable and ready, allow your eyes to [00:55:00] open feeling calm and confident. That was so awesome. I hope moms re-listen to that anytime they need, as long as they're not driving, long as they're not driving, forgot to make that note at the beginning.
Don't get hypnosis if you're driving unless it's on accident. Right. And you must exit well, there's that? Yes. You know? Repeating your affirmations while you're driving. That's nice, but yes, don't close your eyes. Don't so let everyone know where can they find you and follow you and get the goods, especially if they're local in Las Vegas.
I know your classes are in person now again. Yep. We're in person. I teach group classes in Henderson, Northwest Las Vegas and in private. So I go to people's houses. If they want one on one instruction. Um, you can see my schedule for the year and read more about the program. I have a couple YouTube videos on my website as well.
Mm-hmm www dot hypno, birthing Las vegas.com. So it's [00:56:00] long H Y P O birthing Las vegas.com. I'm on Instagram at hypno birthing, LV. And on Facebook at a hypno birthing, Las Vegas, childbirth education. Um, Mandy Medford, I'm on Facebook and Instagram too, but that's the name associated with both of those accounts.
I'll like get all below for everyone as well. Oh yep. Do you have connections with other educators in other parts of the country too, that you could PO possibly refer people to that are not local? Yep. So HNO birthing.com. I'm a certified by and affiliated with the hypno birthing Institute. So hypno, birthing.com.
They are the main HNO birthing Institute. And you can put in your address, your zip code and absolutely we have people and I'm also in a, a Facebook group of all the HNO birthing practitioners. Cool race all of the world. I mean, Hep no birthing is really global all over the yes. So, um, we definitely are, are connected and I am very well tied to the birth community here in Las Vegas.
Yeah. So if you need resources, I'm [00:57:00] happy to provide any kind of resources. If I can't answer the question, I can give you the, an, the name of somebody who can. Perfect. Internet is amazing these days as well. So, so much information out there. Um, I do ask every guest one final question, and this will be interesting.
I feel like hypno birthing kind of, uh, is like a different approach than the word. Tough love but the definition of tough love, like listeners get to hear every interview is simply love expressed in a straightforward manner. So not beating around the Bush, but truly getting to the PO, getting to the point, getting to the heart of an issue instead of saying, oh yeah, like sugar coat stuff.
We don't wanna do that. It's tough. Love is truly saying, Hey, I see this. Problem or I see this good thing and just saying, you know, I acknowledge you for that, or I'm gonna call this out cuz I'm your accountability, whatever it is, it's, it's being straightforward because you care about someone. So with that in mind, what tough love do you wanna leave the listeners with today?
What, you know, just straightforward. I care about you so much. Do you wanna leave the listeners with today? I think that's a great [00:58:00] question. I think as parents, I think tough love. What's real important in on this journey. I think as a mother is that I wanna take ownership of the experience and I wanna help moms take ownership of their experience too.
I want them empowered enough to, to open their mouth and know they have a voice and know they have choices and not surrender their power to somebody else. We've put a lot of faith trust and you know, again, medicalization is amazing and our care providers are great, but we feel like this as mothers. Oh, they all know what better than.
So they're in charge. I'm just gonna do whatever they tell me to do. And unfortunately, that's why so many moms walk away from their birth going, gosh, I wish I would've known and that's what breaks my heart. It's not, interventions are not bad. It's when moms don't even know they had a choice and they didn't know what their options were.
So I would encourage you to own experience because this is something magical happening in your body. And no matter what, and who's on your team at the end of the day, the team is so important. You're the one that takes that baby [00:59:00] home from the hospital. Yeah. And how you're treated during the process will impact you for the rest of your life.
And we want you walking away from that feeling empowered on top of the world. Like I can do this. I just encourage moms to get in the driver's seat, hire care providers that you trust, that share your philosophy that are willing to accommodate you. Choose a birth space. You feel safe in listen to your instincts, pay attention to how you're feeling when you're leaving those doctor's appointments.
After you tour that hospital or speak with the midwife about a home birth or anything, pay attention to how you're feeling, pay attention to how you're being treated. You know, if you're leaving there feeling really defeated, listen to that instinct. When I say hypno birthing parents are very inspired.
They're willing to own the experience they're willing to learn. They're willing to practice. They're willing to ask the questions to get that birth plan on paper and, and do the activities daily that will help them get as close to what they want for their vision of their birth, whatever that is. [01:00:00] Whether it's a totally medical birth or totally natural birth or anywhere like that, there's no wrong way to give birth.
But as a mom, I, I just, I feel like we need to be feeling more empowered that this is our baby. This is our birth. This is our body's process. And you, at the end of the day, need to know you have a voice and you get to make decisions. Yeah. Alongside care providers you trust. Yeah. Well, so good. Thank you for that.
I think every mom needs to hear that at some point along their journey, because when we don't, that's when it's really hard to comprehend what happened after the fact. So thank you so much for that. And thank you for this amazing conversation today. Right? Well, thank you for the opportunity once again, I thank you, Liz.
Absolutely. This is one of those episodes that you're gonna have to come back to and listen to again and again, even me having taken the weeks long course with Mandy and consuming everything, hypno birthing that I could prior to Cal's birth, and then even postpartum getting back into the breathwork getting back into the visualization.
I learned so [01:01:00] much during this interview during this conversation. And I know you did too, so bookmark this episode, save it for later, you know, copy the link and put it in your notes so you can come back and listen or come back and do that guided VI visualization later on, because I know for me personally, I did it alongside you today.
I am so different with my boys. This afternoon, then I usually am because I let myself just breathe. I let myself relax, get out of that sympathetic nervous system, state into a parasympathetic state. And so it's so beneficial to allow yourself to relax, allow your body and your nervous system to chill out for a minute.
So come back to this any time you need it, it will always be here for you. And I wanna remind you if you wanna connect with Mandy, if you want to reach out to her Instagram, Facebook, it's all linked below for you also her email. And I also just this little bonus, the extra resources that I use during my birth and pregnancy and all that related to hypno birthing.
So I found some Christian hip number. [01:02:00] Tracks and resources and an app event. And I created my own Spotify playlist that were again transformative for my birth and the pregnancy in general and just keeping my stress levels down. And I linked all of that in the blog post for this episode for you, if you're listening live any point this week before Friday, that blog post will go up on Friday.
But if you're listening after the fact, if you're finding this even years later, when you go to the tough love mom.com/blog/hypnobirthing, you will find all of those resources. So make sure you head there. And again, if you wanna connect with Mandy, you can head to any of the links below. If you wanna find hypnobirthing instructor in your local area, hypno birthing.com.
Again, I'll link that below as well for you. And in the meantime, remember to breathe. Remember to let your body relax. Remember to honor. Who you are as a mom, what your body has done and all that. It continues to do day in and day out. And if you're pregnant right now, I just pray [01:03:00] that piece over any birth, any turn that your birth takes, that you have complete peace with that, that you are ready for it.
You feel equipped. And again, like Mandy said, be empowered. You have choice, you have a voice, use it in your birth, use it during your pregnancy. Honor it honor your instincts. I am, I think we have so much. And I was telling Mandy after the conversation, we have so much information in this day and age that this ex expert says one thing.
And that expert says another thing and they're contradicting themselves. So if I don't even know to trust who to trust in the expert field, how am I supposed to trust my own instincts? Right? That's how it can feel sometimes. And I think it's important that we can come back to our own bodies because they were endowed with the tools and the abilities and the practices that can.
Do what we need to do, like give us the ability to do what we need to do both. When it comes to our hunger cues, when it comes to birthing babies, when it comes to knowing what's best for ourselves in the moment, we need to make sure that we honor that. So , [01:04:00] it's time to go. Cuz I hear my little boys playing with a whistle out in the living room and I know you can hear it in the background.
So I'm gonna get going. I hope this honored you and just encouraged you today. I hope you feel empowered and relaxed leaving this. And again, remember to breathe before you go. Thank you for spending this time with me on the tough love mom podcast. If this episode encouraged you in any way, the number one way you can thank me is to leave a review.
Letting me know how this show has impacted you. Then send this episode to another mom friend or take a screenshot, post it on social media and tag me so I can personally thank you for helping me on this journey to impact thousands of moms. I'm so grateful to be on this journey with the sister until next time get after it.
