30 What is Hypnobirthing? Meet Michelle Smith Expert Hypnotherapist and Host of Birth Ease Podcast

Michelle Smith of The Birth Ease podcast drops by Birth Story Podcast to talk with your favorite host Heidi about the ins-and-outs of Hypnobirthing, Hypnobabies, and guided relaxation. Michelle addresses the misconceptions surrounding these practices as well as provides guidance on preparing for the birth plan of your dreams, no matter what it looks like.

Looking for a Virtual Doula to create a custom birthing experience and guide you through your journey to parenthood in the United States? Contact Heidi at www.mydoulaheidi.com For additional free birth education resources and to purchase Heidi’s book, Birth Story: Pregnancy Guidebook + Journal, visit www.birthstory.com. Want to share your thoughts on the episode? Leave a review and send a message directly to Heidi on Instagram.

TRANSCRIPTION

As a contraction feel like, how do I know if I'm in labor and what does the day of labor look like? Wait, is this normal? Hey, I'm Heidi. My best friends. Call me hides. I'm a certified birth doula host of this podcast and author of birth story and interactive pregnancy guidebook. I have supported hundreds of women through their labor and deliveries, and I believe every one of them and you deserves a microphone and a stage.

So here we are within each week to get answers to these tough questions, birth story, where we talk about pregnancy labor deliveries, where we tell our stories and share our feelings, and of course chat about our favorite baby products and motherhood. And because I'm passionate about birth outcomes, you will hear from some of the top experts in labor and delivery, whether you are pregnant.

Trying desperately to get pregnant or you just love a good birth story. I hope you will stick around and be part of this birth story, family, Michelle Smith. Welcome to the birth story podcast. I am so excited to have you today. Thank you. I'm so honored to be here. Very excited. Today's episode is all about hypnosis, so we're gonna unpack it.

What hip? No baby's hypnobirthing private hypnotherapy is in regards to pregnancy and birth. And first, I just wanted to tell everyone that if anyone listened to the adoption episode with Rochelle, my best friend, Megan was highlighted on there as code name, push. And Megan actually brought me to Michelle Smith.

So I think about 10 years ago, Michelle, you helped my best friend and her birthing VBAC through guided hypnosis. So I just, you were such an instrumental part of her life that you're already such a special person to me. And I want you to tell everyone who you are, where you live, how to find you, how to contact you and what your story is.

So, like we mentioned, I'm Michelle Smith and I am a doula and I'm actually a birth and bereavement doula. And I have a clinical hypnosis practice and my specialty is women's health. So fertility. Pregnancy birth. I work a lot with families with grief. My main focus over the years has really become helping women to do is decreased stress in their lives.

Um, families to decrease stress because it impacts us in so many ways that we don't even realize. And, and that's part of why I have. Created my own childbirth program, which is the birthdays method. And the focus of it is creating a profound relaxation habit like we did with Megan, but also to help reduce stress and to help support women, no matter how they want to give birth, whether that is a natural birth or a birth was an epidural, or if they feel more comfortable being.

Induced. And over the years, as I've worked with families, when I've had families, tell me what you taught me, helped me when my birth didn't go the way I planned when my baby was breached and I needed a Syrian or my birth took a sudden turn and needed a Syrian, those techniques. It's helped me through that.

To me, that's what it's really about versus whether it's unmedicated or even pain-free, which can be the focus with some birth hypnosis methods. And I think that's an amazing expectation and I've had women do it. Don't get me wrong, but over the years I've kind of taken my focus. You know, more to reducing stress and supporting women, however they want to give birth.

And the majority of my women to give birth naturally here in central Florida, I forgot to mention that I'm in Orlando. So if somebody wanted to reach out to me, my, they can reach me@birthdaysservices.com and birthdays on Facebook or birthdays. Michelle Smith on Facebook. Excellent as you're talking, Michelle, it just first, I just want to say thank you.

I think our philosophies as doulas are quite aligned and those that have been listening to this podcast for a while, know that I take on all clients. One of my platforms and education through storytelling is helping to. Empower and support moms to know that we're here to love on you and support you, no matter what type of birth you desire, no matter what type of birth outcome occurs too.

It's one of the big myths out there that's published actually in many books is that if you're planning to have an epidural, then you don't need to have a doula. Or a tried and true right. Or childbirth education or, or anything like that. And so this is a really big part of my platform is bringing on people like you and Michelle that really understand that our role in supporting women through easing that anxiety.

I love the name of your, your company birth ease. I think that's beautiful. Early, really speaks to what we're talking about here. So anyone who's listening this episode is for you. If you don't know what hypnosis is, if you've never heard of hypnobirthing hypnotherapy hip, no baby. We're here today to unpack all of that kind of what Michelle does and central Florida.

Um, what she could do for you. I'm just like a really excited to dive in and learn. So let's start at the beginning of your story, Michelle, how did you, like, how did you become a hypnotherapist? Well, I've always been fascinated with hypnosis and have found it beneficial in my life. And early on in my career as a doula, I had a run of families that said.

This was my worst fear realized. So I thought there's got to be a way to help people to reduce their fears, because I don't want to say that fears cause things to happen in a labor, but at the same time, fear can. Definitely influenced on labor. It can cause a woman's labor to shut down all those things.

I'm sure you've talked about with your audience. And so I thought there's gotta be a way to reduce fear and to give women tools, to be able to do what I believe were intrinsically designed to do. And so I found a book by Winifred Conkling. And I can't remember the name off the top of my head, but it talks about using hypnosis and labor.

And from that I became certified in hypnobirthing. And then maybe about a year later, I became certified in hypno babies as well. So. I am familiar with both methods where as many, the practitioners are not, um, there's, uh, they kind of have stickers guidelines now that you can certify in one or the other.

And when I certified you could still certify in both, which I really liked because I feel like one method serves. Some map women better and the other method can be better for other mamas. And I liked the ability to teach them which method I felt would serve them best because that's really what I'm about.

And so over the years, I've just developed my own hypnosis practice. Like I said, and working with women to meet their needs individually. Because I've only ever taught privately, I've taught over 600 classes now, and I want to focus on what my clients' needs are. So I just wanted to be able to offer that diversity, to be able to help women where they're at.

And then my, my birthday's message that focuses more on guided relaxation versus hypnosis. But there's so much benefit in using hypnosis and labor. And it makes me kind of sad that hypnosis gets such a bad rap because it's a really powerful tool. Yeah. Well, let's, let's break it down right here because the audience that's listening.

Most of the audiences pregnant, newly pregnant, or they just love a good birth story. So if someone's listening and they're newly pregnant, and they're curious about childbirth education classes and where to go, some of the things that they're being offered, like the most popular childbirth education classes right now are Lamaze Bradley method birthing from within, um, hip, no babies.

And hypnobirthing are also on the, on the top of those really popular courses. Am I missing any really popular ones that are in your area? These are the ones being taught in my area. Yeah, I think you've hit the main ones. I know there's calm birth as well. And. But those are, those are the main ones right now.

And also moms are deciding, do I just do that the hospital classes, or do I find an online childbirth, more of a generic online childbirth education course. And so moms, Michelle and I are here to walk you through, like, why we believe that hypnotherapy in, in, in the type of hypnobirthing would be beneficial to you.

Maybe. Depending on your personality type, how much time you have that kind of thing. So the first thing I would like for you to do Michelle is a walk moms right now that are very confused on what is hip, no babies. And what is hip? No birds since you're certified in both. And how are those two things?

Different types of personalities might be drawn to one versus the other, in your opinion. Well, first, I need to clarify that I have certified in both, but I'm not affiliated with either institution anymore, because again, I wanted to offer more individualized care, but the. History of it is that Marie Mongan created hypnobirthing over 25 years ago.

And her main meditation in it is the rainbow relaxation. And that's the crux of the course and it's well founded and been around for a long time. And I'm very grateful all for her for all she's done for the natural birth movement. And. I think I'm not sure how, how long hypno babies has been around. Now.

I want to say probably at least at least 15 years or more, probably about little over 15 and the founder of hiphop they're babies. She felt in her experience that it did not have enough hypnosis. Practices and techniques and structures. And so she based her program on Gerald clients' painless childbirth program and the founder, Carrie was a former Bradley instructors.

So it has a bit more structure and definitely utilizes more medical hypnosis and. There's times where both methods can be beneficial. And I really don't think I know out there sometimes in the, in the forums and on Facebook, people say that one brand is superior to the other, and I really haven't found that to be true.

I think each one can serve women differently. If someone. Has a lot of fear and they need to release that if they need more structure, if they want more of a, this is this and that's that, and this is how you practice it. Hypno babies is a, I think, a better method. Hypnobirthing I think can work well for someone that doesn't have as much time to practice that the multiple recordings would overwhelm them because there's so much factors within it.

And hypno birthing. Again, it is based in hypnosis, but. It is a little more guided imagery, meditation based than hip, no babies. That is more. True medical hypnosis. Does that make sense? It does make sense. And so I want to go even one step deeper and more of a broader than of understanding hypnosis in regards to birthing.

So if someone's listening. And they're thinking, okay, well, why, why would, why, why would I want to be hypnotized during my birding time? And why would that be important? And so I wanted to kind of, if there's a first time mom listening and she's really curious right now, like, okay, what, what is this? Um, could you just walk us through.

What an expectation would be for choosing childbirth education or preparedness with hypnotherapy as part of it? Well, first I want to point out that all hypnosis is self hypnosis and. It really is just a natural state that we all go into every single day. I don't know what your, a major highway is where you live, but here in Florida, it's I four.

And so when we talk about, I'll tell mamas, you know, if you're driving down I four and all of a sudden you think, Oh, how I, how did I get here already? That is a state of every day hypnosis because your subconscious mind is driving the car, not your critical thinking. Mind, you've slipped into a daydream like state and our subconscious holds all of our habits.

Good and bad. So the subconscious knows, Oh, here here's the exit. And it's time for me to pull over. So if your subconscious mind. It holds, it holds those habits. So if somebody pulls out in front of you or if there's construction, then your critical thinking mind comes forward. And, and it makes us decisions on how to handle the traffic accordingly.

But before that, yeah, yeah. And your subconscious was doing the driving. And so you're in an altered state. Essentially. And when you go into hypnosis, it can happen when you're engrossed in a conversation and you look. And say, Oh my gosh, we've been talking for two or three. That's a state of everyday hypnosis getting engrossed in a television show, getting lost, looking, you know, at a, at a fire, getting engrossed in that those are States of everyday hypnosis.

It's just a shift in brainwave. You're going more inward. And again, I keep stressing, but it's a natural straight, but that's why. I know many of us do Liz and childbirth educators. Don't like the scary birth stories, but for me working in the field of hipness as. Watching those shows the television is the biggest hypnotist out there.

And you're watching those scary shows and you're in a relaxed state, which lowers the filter almost between our critical thinking mind and our subconscious. And so that information goes in more readily. Women are in this state of expectation wanting to learn and all of that media hype. Negative information regarding birth because you and I know it's both manipulate, it's manipulated many times to make good TV.

It just goes directly into their subconscious mind. And it's basically programming the subconscious, our subconscious works like a computer and the information just gets stored in there. And so it's really important. To be careful while we're pregnant, you know, what's, you're watching what you're taking in because it programs your subconscious.

So what we're wanting to do with hypnosis assisted birth is to help let go of fears to help release some of that negative programming about birth. That's so prevalent and to help. Mothers create a deep and profound relaxation habit. And the longer I do this, the more I've decided that's really what we're doing.

And when you elicit that relaxed response, it's called the relaxation response. You are. There's a number of things. See a logical changes that take place. Your breathing can slow. Your heart rate can, so your blood pressure can go down. If it's up due to stress, it dumps beneficial hormones and chemicals into the body that not only benefit mom, they benefit the baby.

As well, because so many of us these days, yeah. We're in a constant state of perceived threat, especially when we're pregnant with all of these stories and some of the practices that are happening in birth. And so it's important to take that time. And elicit that response. And it's also been shown to help reduce inflammation in the body.

And so there's so many benefits, but it's really just a natural state that is a shift and brainwaves your brain to cycles town, like when you're sleeping and it cycles back up and it's like cycles down and it elicits this state of deep relaxation. Does that make sense? Now we're going to take a short break to just share a few things with you.

Thanks for listening to the birth story podcast. I am so excited to announce the launch of my book. Birth story, a 42 week guide for your pregnancy, a collection of these birth stories, a ton of doula advice. And journaling prompts. You can order a copy today@birthstory.com. It also will mean the world to me.

If you'll spread the word about this podcast, so on Stitcher or on iTunes, just leave a review. Thanks. And so I did practice hypnobirthing in my own births. And then also I just completed a hypno babies course with one of my moms. Who's a single than I was her birth partner through that. And one of the key things that I have taken away from my own practices and from now being on the other side, being a birth partner, and then also being a birth doula, helping moms that have practiced the hip.

Well, most of my moms in this area have either gone through hip, no birding or hip, no babies or private hypnotherapy sessions like they would do with you, Michelle. And so kind of what I've learned is that in practical use, it's that what to do when your body she is experiencing being sensations, then it's never felt before.

And so I was hoping that we may talk a little bit about what is like to go into labor with the use of hypnotherapy in different cues in order to achieve a deep state of relaxation, because there are people that are listening that are going to go, I'm really intrigued by mindfulness, but I'm really terrible at it.

Right. And so one of the things that I would say is it's so important that the more we practice deeply relaxing. And that's why a lot of these classes are very long time commitments. It's like training for a marathon. You can't just walk out your front door and expect to run 26 miles if you've never run before.

And it's very similar with. Trying to go into hip, a deep state of relaxation with hypnosis and childbirth. Um, but I was hoping that we may talk a little bit about when those first surges or pressure waves, we use all different types of terms to explain the medical term of a contraction and, but a more positive, uh, action.

One would be a pressure wave or a surge. I don't know what all the terms you use, Michelle, but when that hit, then how. Does one guide themselves or what do you learn to guide themselves or what is, how, if you have a birding partner doula in the moment. So that's what I kind of want to look at right now is like, what does that look like when labor begins?

Well, first of all, like you said, it requires a, a level of commitment. And practice because some people get into this relaxed state, very easily, very readily people like me. I always say, if I can learn to do it, anybody can, I had to practice a lot. And there's also a level of belief involved in it too. And, but it requires that practice, like I said, we're creating a habit.

And all habits are learned through repetition and I compare it to, I drive a manual transmission. I can get in there and drive a car. I don't have to think about it. Most people can't drive it because they haven't created that habit. Does that make sense? So that is really one of the most important elements is practicing and working with this at least five times a week.

I think even if you just listen to something, she falls asleep at night. And with that habit, it becomes natural. Your subconscious mind can take over. And when you have those surges or pressure waves or contraction, I go between the words. If you have that skill and that ability to know how to relax, then the body will respond.

And that's the difference, I think, with hypnobirthing or. Practices that utilize meditation or guided relaxation as we're creating that habit so that women really do know how to relax. You're not just saying, well, relax. There's, it's a very in depth dice, I teach a very incremental approach to do it. So when women are in labor, they often have the soundtracks, the audios to listen to, to help them to stay in this relaxed state.

I've been doing this a long time and it still amazes me the way women can go. So inward simply by talking, talking to them and they become conditioned to the sound of my voice. And it's amazing. Amazing. I can say relax your forehead. And they will do it instantaneously because we've created this habit and each of the methods have their own cues.

And ultimately though, for myself as an instructor, I want to teach women to learn how to do this on their own and give them skills to do that. Because if I make them dependent, On me as the instructor or me as a doula or on their partner or on their doula, I'm not serving them. They need to learn to do it on their own.

I feel. And then if their doula or their partner can reinforce it, then it's all the more powerful. Yes. And I would also say, because this practice is anxious and practice is important. Long after your birthing process, right? Like there are, there are the surges. There is transition. You have to go deeper and deeper into relaxation to stay.

Calm and in some pain free through transition, but then the third stage, Jeff Lieber, you're still in labor to deliver your placenta. And then into motherhood nursing. I have many moms that have gone through this practice and they still have to do, um, like in hypno babies, a finger drop tech. Meek or bring themselves into a deep state of relaxation when they need to more deeply bond with their baby during the nursing stage, when your baby is irritable or a crying and you're learning each other and you don't know the cries yet.

Um, and then on into toddlerhood and. Uh, you know, puberty in middle school years. I mean, there are, this is a lifetime of, um, training the brain to get out of that fight or flight response, um, and, and stay in a deep state of relaxation. So Michelle and I are on here today because I really want to promote individuals to choose this type of birthing.

Um, if they're open to it and. One of the things I wanted to say, Michelle is because as a dual, I've been a dual for about 15 years now. And even my moms that I did not go to a hip, no babies, or a hypnobirthing or hypnotherapy class for childbirth education. My role as a doula to emotionally and physically support them is most easily achieved.

When I can help my moms get into a deep state of relaxation. Yes. Yeah. And if they've never practiced that before for men, sometimes I have to coach every single contraction through all, you know, up to 24 to 50 hours of labor. And for the moms that have practiced mindfulness. They may listen to my coaching for the first few hours.

And then they'll literally signal to me that they're okay. That just with the music and I use, I use in particular, in my business, I use Stephen help Hearns inner peace. It's one I've just used for many years as background music and my client's births, but. But regardless of if, and this is what's important is that if someone's listening and they ha they're, you know, they're 38 weeks pregnant and they haven't chosen to take one of these classes and they're like, Oh my gosh, I'm about to burn out.

My podcast is stressing them out. Um, I think that the important message here is that getting your body and your mind into a deep relaxation, if you are desiring. To have, you know, a peaceful birthing experience. And that may be that we are deeply relaxed until we choose a medical intervention, like an oven.

Right. But I have noticed that my mom, when they remain deeply relaxed, even if they planned on having an epidural many times will open their eyes in the middle of transition. And now, you know, there are 10 centimeters dilated at plus two station and they're like, okay, I'm ready for that epidural. And we're like, um, your, your baby's coming out of you time to Bush.

And then on the next contraction, the ejection reflex it's in there. And they're birthing there. They're their baby. So we're going to like right now, listeners are going to be trying to get pregnant early in their pregnancy, late in their pregnancy. And so I wanted to, maybe in our last couple of minutes, have you leave us with some of the ways in which you believe, um, you know, we've talked about.

Practice right. Practice, practice, practice. What are some other things that moms could do right now, too? Find a hypnotherapist to have no babies that have no birthing or to kind of start a practice of deep relaxation to prepare for their birthing time. Well, I will say I've had some women find me at 38 weeks and they've gone on to have very nice natural burrs and been able to utilize the techniques because they've still gotten some practicing in.

Right. But I think yoga is a nice compliment for women that are open to that as well. But it's preparation is key. For birth, whether you want a natural birth or not a feel that preparation of some type is really important. And my other focus is really to help people connect with their own inner wisdom, because we have an inner wisdom within us that.

Usually kind of gets trained out of us as we grow up, but there's an inner wisdom and we can trust that inner wisdom. We just have to read, learn how to do that. And that inner wisdom knows what's best for you knows what's best for your baby and for parents to remember too, that they know their baby better than anyone.

And. So often, sometimes we're treated like we don't no, our baby very well. Then we do, and to learn to trust themselves and their bodies and their babies. Just listening to you. Michelle makes me go into relaxation, your voice. I'm like, okay. I'm like, I have some things I need to hire you for right now. Um, and my life, one of the things, and this is probably the last thing I want us to focus on today is that moms will call me as a doula.

And they can see on my website and are we are we're talking. And I talk about all of the different methods in which I'm trained because I've been trained and birthing from within and Bradley and Hypnos babies and hypnobirthing. And as a dual, I've gone through all of these trainings and deploy different techniques.

And I have moms that will say, I just want to make sure that you don't hypnotize me. Right. It just makes me giggle because I would like us to, like, I would like to at least somewhat finished this with debunking, this myth, that hypnotizing like that I cannot hypnotize someone that I can help someone hypnotized themselves.

By going into a deep relaxation. So I just, we touched on it at the beginning a little bit, but I just want to, if you're out there and you're pregnant and you're like, I don't want to do a lot who does hypnosis and I don't, I'm not into that. Um, I hope today's episode has kind of shifted that a little bit for you, but a want Michelle to share, like why this isn't something to be afraid of and how you're in control still.

Well, again, all hypnosis is self hypnosis and you cannot. Make anyone do anything against their will or against their moral compass. It's just, it's not possible. And I know, and most. Anyone that's working with birth hypnosis, their motivations are to help you to have a better birth. And I know that there's stories out there and there are people that are unethical in all fields and it gives all fields a bad name, but it really is a state.

Of focused concentration and deep relaxation. It is a natural state that we all go in and out of every single day, it's just a shift and brainwaves and women naturally go into an altered state and laborer, especially in transition. You've seen it. They all go very, very inward. They are in technically. An altered state, but I understand people's concerns.

They have concerns for religious reasons and things like that. And you know, maybe finding a method that. Focuses more on meditation or my birthday's method focuses more on guided relaxation versus hypnosis techniques because sometimes people do have those concerns, but I do want to reassure you that it really is a natural state that we all go in and out of.

And we're really just tapping into the mind body connection and you can do really amazing things. I've had women have completely. Pain-free burse. My daughter who's five, one pushed out a nine pound baby completely. Pain-free. She said it was really hard work, so it's a possibility. And I like to dwell in possibilities.

It is a possibility. I've seen so many women birth very differently and the key to the best birding experience in all my 15 years, if I could break it down is what we talked about. That fear based components. When I see moms get. Fearful or get triggered or something seems scary. And they allow that to take over.

I see their birds get very difficult, very painful stop. I see the cervix regress and swell when they are able to stay completely relaxed with every muscle in their body turned off except for their uterus. And they are able to just kind of surrender to the process and deep relaxation. Those moms will say they've had a pain free or, uh, lately painful or, you know, they just don't use the word pain.

And they use, that was hard. That was, that was tough, but, or intense. It was really intense, but I did it. Yeah. Yeah. But they, they did it. And so, but I've had some women that have severe anxiety. And if I can help them to work through that. And they got an epidural, but they didn't have a panic attack. That's a huge accomplishment.

Yes. And itself. And so it's really meeting women where they're at and giving them tools. They can use the rest of their lives, just like you said earlier. Yep. And, and, and we could not reiterate that enough. This is not, these tools are not just for moms that want to have a natural childbirth. These are for all.

Moms, these tools are for moms that are pregnant or not pregnant that are becoming moms. And other ways to, you know, will help us become better parents. There are knowing how to stay deeply relaxed. And so well, I will link in the show notes to all of the ways, so much to get ahold of you and Michelle, but I was hoping that you may spend.

Just a few minutes and I'm just going to throw you into the wind because I didn't prepare you for this, but your voice is so hypnotic to me. Um, if you're driving, turn my podcast off, this is the conclusion. But if you are not driving, then I want you to put your feet flat on the floor, relax your shoulders and your arms.

And I'm gonna, um, ask Michelle to just give us an example of walking us through, you know, a breath or guided short hypnosis to just give us an idea of what it feels like to enter into a state of relaxation. Are you open to that? I am. I am. So I'd like you now to just take a moment and focus on this, on the feeling and perhaps even the sound of your own breath and breathe in and released.

And again, just breathing in peace and as you exhale, letting go of any stress. Strain or tension. And if you find at any point that your eyes begin to feel happy or want to close, you can just allow them to close. He's only comfortably, and you may even notice how good it feels to have your eyes comfortably closed, pleasantly closed.

As you just allow yourself. To relax into your own breathing, pace and dash you too. He began to feel a wonderful wave of relaxation flowing down over your body, starting at the top of your head, moving down across your face, down into your cheeks and jaw. Gently releasing any tension that may have been remaining there and this wonderful, relaxed feeling flows down across your head, down the back of your head, into your neck and shoulders, releasing relaxing, letting go.

And you may even find that your shoulders begin to sink down into the frame of your body as this wonderful relaxed station flows down through your arms, reaching your elbows. It's such a pleasant feeling to discover how heavy with relaxation your very elbows can become. And that pleasant feeling flows down through your arms.

And out your fingers with every breath, he relaxed more and more, and just allow this relaxed feeling to flow down through your chest and through your upper back down along your spine, releasing relaxing, letting go flooding your abdomen. Relaxing all the muscles in your hips, your thighs, your knees flowing down through your halves.

It's such a pleasant feeling. Has that relaxation flows down to the tips of your toes easily. Naturally. And if you are pregnant, you can focus on your baby and your womb, or after you have children to simply focus on that and let them know how much you love them, what joy they bring to your life.

And you may even find that your children or your baby shares with you. Something that they'd like you to know,

and you feel a feeling of love and connection flow between you both or between you all. And that feeling of love grows stronger and brighter. And in a few moments, I'm going to count up from one to five. And when I reach the count of five, you'll open your eyes and you'll feel alert, focused, and refreshed, ready for the next segments of your day.

And you'll bring this feeling of love and connection with your child, with you. Number one slowly, easily, and gently feel your awareness. Coming back to the room. Number two. More and more aware of your presence surrounding circumstances. Number three, each time you practice your relaxation, you will find that you relax much more quickly and deeply than before, because it does just get easier and easier.

So simple. So natural number four, your eyes begin to feel sparkling clear, and on the next count, your eyes will open. You'll be spiritually alert. Peaceful calm number five, us open now, feeling focused, fully refreshed and energized alert, focused and ready for the next segment of your day.

Excellent. Thank you so much, Michelle. As I'm coming awake myself, you are very welcome listening to yours. Well for everyone listening, Michelle also has a podcast that is launching. Is it the birth ease podcast? It is. Yeah. Okay. It seems to the berth ease podcast. And when that's available, it will be linked in the show notes as well.

We hope that you really enjoyed everything that Michelle brought to this interview and helping to teach each of you the differences between, um, hip, no babies, hypnobirthing hypnotherapy, but the benefits that no matter what method you choose is right for you and your family, that learning how to enter into a deep state of relaxation.

Like you just experienced with Michelle that it feels so good. And to imagine entering your birthing time with that tool. So if this is something that you haven't considered, we hope that this episode will really help. Prompt you to consider this for your birthing time. Thank you so much for Michelle.

And while we're going to have you back on the show to talk about your own birth story. Oh, thank you. I would love that. I would love that. And it's just been really fun. Thank you. You're welcome.

Thank you for listening to birth story, Michael it's. You walk away from each episode with a clear picture of how labor and delivery might go, and that you will feel empowered by the end of your pregnancy to speak up plan and prepare for the birth you want. No matter what that looks like.