The Birth Ease Podcast Michelle Smith

This time of year can bring a sense of magic and joy and at the same time, the holidays can also bring feelings of overwhelm and stress.  Michelle airs this special holiday relaxation each year session which is designed to help release the stress and strain you may be feeling and gain a sense of clarity regarding what you value in your life as you prepare to enter the New Year.

As a gentle reminder: This guided relaxation recording audio is for just that, relaxation purposes only. It does not constitute medical or mental health advice or treatment, nor does it imply a specific outcome during pregnancy, birth, postpartum, or beyond. Please avoid listening to this guided relaxation while engaging in an activity that requires your full attention. Please stop the podcast and return to it when you can be safely seated or reclining in a supported position. Unless you are the passenger listening to this guided relaxation with headphones on, for everyone’s safety never listen to it while driving or riding in a vehicle.

Connect with Michelle at www.birtheaseservices.com

Natasha Solovieff and Michelle discuss Natasha’s signature strategy which helps parents to stay engaged with their children and each other. Her L.O.V.V.E. Way invites families to begin Listening, Om-ing (centering yourself), Voicing, Visioning, and Exploring in order to unwind any difficult feelings, emotions, and situations and determine what is of value to them as a family. The L.O.V.V.E. Way creates a solid path in this time of uncertainty and provides relationship and self-reflection tools that are extremely vital, and yet, rarely taught. {replay of episode 38}

"What I wanted to give parents is a default way of moving out of our snappy moments and those things that come up in parenting that are really heightened right now that cause us to disengage with our children and to disengage with ourselves, and our partner. Relationships are this dance being engaged, being disengaged, and bringing ourselves back into engagement and that’s a skill." — Natasha Solovieff

About Natasha Solovieff:

With a BSN and M.Ed., she has 25+ years as a Maternal Child Health clinical and public health nurse. She is the author of “The Dance of Parenting: Finding Your Inner Choreographer” a book that invites you to energize and strengthen your parenting dance by using your parenting L.O.V.V.E. skills. And she also writes heartfelt and intriguing science-for-parents blogs at OMGparenting.com.

Connect with Natasha: OMG Parenting Twitter handle - @OParenting, Facebook- @omgparenting
Website - OMGparenting.com https://omgparenting.com/

You can connect with Michelle at www.birtheaseservices.com, on Facebook @thebirtheasepodcast and @BirthEaseMethod, and on Instagram @birtheasemichellesmith

Michelle is excited to interview Natasha Solovieff and Michelle explore the ways that parenting can be compared to an ongoing dance with your child and the importance of acknowledging the needs of both parent and child. Natasha explains the ways you can decrease your stress, filter through all the information and opinions, and connect more fully with your children, your partner, and your own inner wisdom. Natasha shares her L.O.V.V.E. process: Listening, Om-ing (centering yourself), Voicing, Visualizing, and Exploring. Her tools are invaluable when planning a pregnancy, during pregnancy, while communicating with medical providers, throughout your parenting years, and even once your children are adults. {replay of episode 14} You can hear more of Natasha's wisdom in episode 38.

“The challenge of all of this is we don’t live in a listening culture and we haven’t been taught how to listen, let alone, what it is to be listened to. But we have to listen to ourselves and ask to be listened to.” —Natasha Solovieff

Connect with Natasha: OMG Parenting FB link - https://www.facebook.com/OMGParenting/?ref=bookmarks
OMG Parenting Twitter handle - @OParenting
Website - OMGparenting.com

You can connect with Michelle at www.birtheaseservices.com, on Facebook @thebirtheasepodcast and @BirthEaseMethod, and on Instagram @birtheasemichellesmith

If and when your water might break in labor is often confusing and stressful for expecting parents. Michelle explains when this can happen, what to expect, what to look for, and a helpful acronym to remember- MTACOS, Movement of baby, Time, Amount, Color, Odor, and Status of Group B Strep. Michelle recommends also listening to episode 132 featuring Heidi Snyderburn of Birth Story podcast regarding some recent research on rupture of membranes and labor.

You can connect with Michelle at www.birtheaseservices.com, on Facebook @thebirtheasepodcast and @BirthEaseMethod, and on Instagram @birtheasemichellesmith

Each year in October, Michelle is honors Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness month. This year she shares an episode from her Birth Ease Loss Support Podcast featuring samples of the Calm Birth meditations for perinatal loss.
"The loss of a pregnancy or infant is an incredibly common heartbreak. Yet, we are given so few opportunities to grieve a loss that is often invisible to those around us. Calm Birth for Pregnancy and Infant Loss presents an opportunity to move through emotions and to send life on its way with love. If someone you know has lost a pregnancy or infant, this can be a beautiful way of supporting them through this journey. If you lost a pregnancy or infant recently, or in the past, please use these audioguides for healing and moving about life changed but still whole."—Calm Birth

To Purchase the Calm Birth Meditations for Pregnancy Loss: https://www.calmbirth.org/audioguides

Connect with Michelle on Instagram and Facebook @birtheaselosssupport

The Calm Birth prenatal meditation program now has an app for easier access to the meditations. Michelle shares samples of the meditations for listeners to experience. You can learn more about Calm Birth and the practices in episodes 76-80 and about the similarities and differences between Hypnobirthing and Calm Birth in episode 86.

Michelle includes the introduction for each meditation beginning with this 7-minute version of Womb Breathing or Breather as it is named on the App. She also provides a sample of Rest based on the Practice of Opening and Healing based on the practice of compassionate breathing. The app also includes affirmations for pregnancy and birth which parents find extremely valuable. You can listen to the full audio for the Calm Parents meditation breath feeding for nursing in episode 140. The app includes versions of this meditation for parents that are bottle feeding, pumping, and chestfeeding. Michelle also includes the Calm Parents meditation Bond which can be helpful when caring for a crying baby. Please note that there are versions of the Calm Birth meditations for parents planning a cesarean birth, as well.

Please find a safe and comfortable spot to relax and enjoy these samples of the Calm Birth Meditations.

Go to the App store for the Calm Birth App. Reach out at Michelle@birtheaseservices.com for Calm Birth childbirth classes or the meditations for parents planning a cesarean birth or at www.calmbirth.org. You can connect with Michelle at www.birtheaseservices.com, on Facebook @thebirtheasepodcast and @BirthEaseMethod, and on Instagram @birtheasemichellesmith