ļ»æEpisode 65 - Breath work for birth with Emma Johnston
Mel:
[0:00] Welcome to the Great Birth Rebellion podcast. I'm your host,
Mel:
[0:03] Dr. Melanie Jackson. I'm a clinical and research midwife with my PhD. And each episode, I cast a critical eye over current maternity care practice by grappling with research and historical knowledge to help you get the best out of your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journey. Welcome everybody to this week's episode of the Great Birth Rebellion. I do have a very special guest who I've invited today to talk about breathwork for birth. And I'd love to introduce my good friend, Emma, who is one half of The Reconnected. She works with a woman named Eleanor Mann who will actually be coming to the Convergence of Rebellious Midwives to do some breathwork for midwives. But I've got Emma today. We're going to hone in on breathwork for birth. Now, I've own emma probably for about 10 years now yeah
Emma:
[1:00] It would be 10 now.
Mel:
[1:01] Yeah because i was with you for your first three babies yeah midwives and you've since had two more babies twins at home amazing and talk us through what's your i guess i don't really a list of qualifications is lovely but you're way more than that yeah tell us about you and how you moved into this breath work world?
Emma:
[1:27] Well, it was actually after the birth of my first son, Atlas, that you were at. That was a 24-hour labor right on the end of the 24 hours, I think, that he was born. And, The thing that I remember most about that birth was I was escaping my breath all the time. I had my breath constricted. I was really just caught in that real fight or flight, wanting to escape all of the sensation. I hadn't really fallen into the wisdom of let go, receive, deepen the breath, be with the pain, ride the waves. And so I actually just had a lot going on in my life and I knew I needed to go deep. I knew I needed to reorganize my emotional world. I needed to essentially go into what was being activated in me because I had this concept that I was going to be like the gentle conscious parent. And then when my child became a toddler, I just started to do all of the patterns that I resented from my own childhood. You know, I was just reacting the way that my mother would react. And I felt like I had no choice in my reactions.
Emma:
[2:50] And I also had external things going on, just like heavy problems. And so I just fell into this breathwork retreat. I didn't have any money for it at the time, but I kept seeing the poster everywhere. And I was like, I reached out to my teacher, Redland Parker. And I said, I really want to come to that retreat. I don't have any money for it. And she's like, well, come and you'll figure it out.
Emma:
[3:20] And I went and I had such an epically profound experience. It's in the lineage of Rebirthing Breathwork under the founder of Leonard Orr. And I just had such a profound experience and I really got in touch with a lot of what was happening for me that I was unaware of. And I just fell so deeply in love with Breathwork that I had a massive yes to keep going. And at the time I got a present from someone. I have an Instagram following. I've had a big Instagram for years and someone who is just like a very wealthy celebrity from overseas sent me a gift and it was a card, like a Master card, and it had exactly the right amount of money on it that could pay for the retreat. And it was such a magical yes that I was like, okay, I've found what I'm meant to be doing. And then when I was at the retreat, there was another person there, a very successful business person who was.
Emma:
[4:36] I had been breathing with the whole week and he said to me at the end, he said, I really think you need to keep going with this. So I'm going to pay for the rest of your training. So the door just opened for me and I just went really deep into this world. And I am so glad I did because I ended up having my second baby in a tent. You came to that birth as well. So I set up a bell tent in my in-law's yard and had my baby. And that was the first time that I really connected with my breath. And I remember the first words that I said when he was born was, wow, that was too easy. Because I had really actually just kind of had an orgasmic birth where I'd just been able to fully be with all of the sensations. And not be taken out by them and just feel really able to go there. And then I went on to do my mastery in rebirthing breathwork, which is a lot and a lot of work. And once I got to my final stages, we had a process where we had to write out our five-year plan.
Emma:
[5:51] And you really just had to kind of come up with it intuitively what you were going to do. And I presented this idea to like you had to present it to everyone in your breathwork training and I had I had come up with this kind of idea that I was going to have a school of some sort where I was going to be teaching thousands of people breathwork and how they can reclaim.
Emma:
[6:18] Their own authentic masterful selves with breathwork because I just knew it had changed everything for me. And little did I know that that intention was coming at me because my business partner, Eleanor, reached out with an idea and she said, hey, I have a senior Instagram. I've got a really good idea for a parenting program. It's going to use breathwork and also play therapy that I teach. And I'd done a little bit of play therapy work with her. She had taught me some of the connected play skills when I was in the mountains. And I was like, wow, this is an incredible idea. And we just were talking and we just kind of constructed this whole idea and had the very basics of a course ready to go. We launched it without it fully being constructed to a private Facebook group on PDF documents. We had a really good first launch where I think we had 100 people sign up and say yes. And that was the birth of Reconnected Parenting, which has now gone on to, we've had 160, 70, 80,000 people come into our world. Reconnected Parenting is such a spectacular community. So I literally am teaching thousands of people breathwork.
Mel:
[7:45] And can I say too that even as a midwife watching from the outside in on your births and on your parenting journey because you know yeah we lived we lived here in the blue mountains together for many many many years until you got you know went to new paradises and just watching your birth journey and the comparison from Atlas's birth to the fourth birth was significant to watch for me as well, you know, just this incredible new maturity and confidence in managing such a big circumstance as having a baby. Yeah. So if you're listening, so Emma's Instagram is New Earth Mama. That's the one that you've had for a long, long time.
Emma:
[8:34] Long time, 10 years. Yeah. And I have just a lot of following because it went viral once, a really cute video. And so I've just kind of had this awesome community for 10 years that have stuck by and watched my progression as a human and evolution and all of my kids coming onto the earth. So it's been awesome.
Mel:
[8:53] Yeah. And lots of parenting stuff on there as well so yeah um all of this information including about the reconnected will be in the show notes so that's not lost if you want to follow what emma's working on so can you explain to us what is breathwork because some people would be just coming to this not really sure we have some very loyal listeners who will just listen to everything that we put out so right um so what's breathwork to explain to someone you
Emma:
[9:22] Know that's such a loaded question because everyone will have their own claim about what breathwork is and I am studied I am trained in rebirthing breathwork which comes from the lineage of a man named Leonard Orr who discovered with his own explorations that he was having memories of his earlier years of life and his birth when And he was using a connected breath, so a fuller than usual breath and having there be no disconnection within the inhale and the exhale. That was happening at the same time as a man named Stanislav Grof was also exploring breath work and there was just a lot going on in that 60s, 70s era.
Emma:
[10:17] I also am a kundalini yoga teacher, which there is a lot of breath work within kundalini yoga, but completely different to rebirthing breath work.
Emma:
[10:29] So I would say there's like pranayama, which is a more directive style of breathing. And there's infinite amount of pranayama practices that you can use. There's holotropic breathing, which is a more dynamic breath and it's inhaling through the mouth, which is a sympathetic activating breath. But what I have my mastery in rebirthing is a parasympathetic breath using through the nose. And our nervous system carries the signature of our entire life. So every single thing that we have experienced from conception, the moment that we were created until this very moment is stored within our breath signature which is directly linked to our nervous system and the breath is so fascinating because it is it's an inhale so it's inner world it's an exhale it's outer world so it's subconscious and it's also conscious it's a really fascinating experience and thing that we all do all day every day consciously or not but one of the most fascinating things about the breath is that when you consciously breathe.
Emma:
[11:58] It starts to release stored stress within the system and so many different breath workers have very different ways in which they use the breath but I use it in a way where I set an intention of how I would prefer things to be something that is current for me and then when I consciously breathe laying down eyes closed starting to connect with the breath fuller than usual breath It will bring up things, either emotional, cognitive, physical things.
Emma:
[12:41] In order to be released from my nervous system or actually new ways of being which can be anchored into my nervous system so it is a fully loaded question because it's something that you have to experience in order to fully understand and the breath is such an interesting thing because it's the air element and so it's hard to pin down it's like what actually is it it's like it is so many different things. Whereas in Kundalini yoga, I can use it in an extremely directive way. It's like, do I want to have energy? I'll use a particular breath. Do I want to calm down? I'll use a particular breath. Do I want to regulate my nervous system? I'll use a particular breath. Do I want to create more energy within my whole entire being? I'll use a particular breath. You know, like you can really use it as a really directive force and then you can also use it as like the ultimate healing modality.
Mel:
[13:43] What if you're like asking what is breath work? He's like asking what is birth?
Emma:
[13:49] Seriously, that's exactly it. And the breath and birth are just one in its own, you know, like our first breath happens in birth. That's what's so fascinating about rebirthing breath work because it's so birth-centred. Like it's all about birth and it's all about the limbic imprint, you know, the imprints that we pick up and that are stored within the breath unconsciously from the first moment we breathe, even in utero, you know, even a mother's breath. So it's so birth-based breath. Rebirthing really the whole idea birthed from people realizing, wow, we aren't tabula rosa or whatever they call it. You know, we're not blank slates when we're born. We're actually highly sensitive beings having a really intense physical experience. And those things are imprinted in our breath, give us inhibitions within our breathing mechanism. And then so therefore inhibit us in life, you know, because when we have a fuller than usual breath, we have a fuller than usual life.
Mel:
[15:08] And when you need your mastery, and this is in your training is where they would teach you all of the different techniques that you could apply in various situations.
Emma:
[15:19] Yeah. You know, so rebirthing breath work is a very specific style, but when you get into the yik style in kundalini yoga, that's where I learned all of the different ways that you can use your breath for a whole multitude of different things so when you become a breath nerd like me it's just like teach me all the things and I find it so fascinating learning all the different styles and the different awarenesses and there's truth to all of it like there's truth to all of the different breathwork styles. So that's why what is breathwork is such a loaded question because it's just like, Who's truth? I don't know. Right.
Mel:
[16:02] But you're essentially using your breath and breathing techniques to create change within your body.
Emma:
[16:10] Yes, to create more space within my nervous system in order to hold more, to integrate things that are unintegrated on a subconscious, unconscious level, to be able to expand my capacity to be with things, to tap into the truth and it's just a conscious way in which to tap into that. It's a deep intuitive practice.
Mel:
[16:39] So why does it work? Why does breathwork work?
Emma:
[16:44] Well, I think it's because we have so much stored stress within our system. We live an inhibited life because we have breathing inhibitions. We have stored stress, which is keeping us in fight, flight, freeze, or thorn, we're also highly conditioned to look outside of ourselves for the answers and to give away our power. That happens from the moment we're born because there's often an expert in the room outside of our own mother's guided intuition who takes over the moment that you're born. It starts there, then it moves into school, and then it moves into your job and it's just like this kind of nonstop layering of giving away your power.
Emma:
[17:34] And breathwork works because when you learn to trust your breath and to trust what's there and what's arising and what is happening in a session, you learn to start to trust life more. And so you trust the pings that you get. I call them pings. It's like insights. It's like sometimes things don't quite make sense in a breathwork session. It's like you'll get a directive of like, you should do this. And it's like, well, that doesn't make any sense because my social conditioning tells me that I should have more in order in order to take action on that. But when you start to trust the messages that you're given or the insights or the experiences, you start to trust life. And then therefore, you listen less to the noise outside of yourself and you trust your intuition first and foremost. Mm-hmm.
Mel:
[18:32] Beautiful. Does it take practice or can people learn this and immediately start to feel the benefits?
Emma:
[18:43] They can immediately start to feel the benefits because our natural state of being is to be more conscious. And you can come into breathwork and be like, what the heck just happened, because that's often what happens when people start to do it like they set themselves up for a breathwork session. It's always best to do it with someone who can guide you because they're going to trust the process. And so therefore you are going to be able to co-regulate with them as in, you're going to be able to have them guide you in a sense.
Emma:
[19:24] And so people come to Breathwork and they're so intrigued because they're like, what was that? Like, what happened there? Like, it's like, well, it's hard to explain, but it's like you're actually just tapping into all of those things that have already been there and are there unconsciously. Or sometimes consciously. Sometimes people come to Breathwork because they're just in pain enough. They're like, I can't do it anymore. Like I don't want to have these repeating patterns or I don't want to, you know, I don't want to have this stress in my life or I don't want to have that. And so they'll go there and then they'll make a touchstone to, well, that stress is actually coming from a place when I was five years old and this particular thing happened. And then therefore I created a belief in the world. I created a belief that I've been living from. and so I keep recreating that belief in my life and it's painful now because it's actually just not the truth of who I really am and so yeah and so when breath work will enlighten them and be like wow I hadn't even thought about that moment you know I didn't even realize that that impacted me you know people.
Mel:
[20:41] Would do with a practitioner like with like just like going to the acupuncturist or something
Emma:
[20:46] To your breath, Vishnu. When you start, it's always like because a breath worker is going to have that experience of understanding the process and being able to help you to make a connection to why these things are arising.
Emma:
[21:08] Because I do breath work a lot on my own and a lot of people do now once you learn the process. Um and i'm talking about rebirthing breath work like the more um going deeper into your like subconscious patterns like that's where i would have a practitioner but the yogic style of breathing you can do that right now anytime and it's actually just about learning to take a moment use a particular technique see how it feels for you but what we teach at the reconnected is yogic breathing whilst spectacular and so lush it's a bit of a band-aid solution and it's spectacular for in the moment regulation but it doesn't actually get you to that stored stress like it doesn't get you resolution around what you may be coming from now that could be really outdated you know and that it's kind of in that moment band-aid solution and it's spectacular and I use it all the time but it's the rebirthing and like the deeper breath work sessions that I've really been able to move a lot of heavy energy and reclaim my life and really just start to live way more masterfully and way more on the pulse of my truth you know and living my dream life, really.
Mel:
[22:37] Yes. And so then if it's all really quite about tapping into nervous system and releasing stress and all these things. How does it, I mean, that kind of half answers the question I was going to ask you. It's how it relates, how breathwork relates to challenging or painful situations. So, you know, birth in itself is a massive challenge for a lot of women and many, yeah, many women will perceive it as quite painful and distressing.
Emma:
[23:09] Yeah. Well, there's a lot of science now about the breath and pain. Like there is a lot out there that you can research about how a fuller than.
Emma:
[23:19] Usual breath will give you pain relief because.
Emma:
[23:23] Pain is way more exasperated and I have really physical like sensation of this when I relate it to my first birth and I escaped the breath and when I say I escaped the breath it was like I don't know that I took a full breath my entire labor like it was just that kind of like like that constriction you know like that like I want to get away from this feeling like this is horrible like and so it's like a tensing up and a and a freeze response and that just gives you more pain like if you constrict with pain when and I'm especially talking about birth pain you can't escape it like it's right there whereas when you take a fuller than usual breath there's something about that that floods you more with the oxytocin which takes away that adrenaline which drops you more into the process and you meet the pain and it's like i can expand around this feeling now and it is no longer um got a hold of me like and so when you start to use the breath to move energy in the body because uh our breath is prana life force Yes.
Emma:
[24:51] And so when we're breathing more life force into us, we're able to move energy in our body, like, and really, like, meet the pressures and the pain and, like, and take a moment, you know, like, there's just so much happening. And you can look into the science of it. Like, they've proven that breath and pain, it's, like, one of the most ultimate remedies. And it also allows you to soften. And so when you soften, the pain becomes less because you're able to, you know, really go there. And there's a whole other out there. You know, I'm sure everyone who is listening to this knows that when you're feeling like you're in a more safer environment, when the lights are low and you are left alone, breathing deeper is going to be a whole lot easier. But um it's just one of the very powerful things that you can do is to be with your breath and to breathe you know really breathe i had that with my twins when i had a free birth with surprise twins it was like i.
Mel:
[26:04] Remember that text message i think all you wrote was uh that it's twins or there was too. And so did you have specific breathwork techniques that you used for your subsequent births that just really helped you in your, you know, births after atlas? Yeah. Was there specific techniques that you were like, right, I'm doing this?
Emma:
[26:39] Well, rebirthing, to be honest, was like being with my breath and going into that longer style therapy sessions. Yes. And then something that I can give people to have an experience of their breath and to just see how your breath can actually give you different experiences is a yogic style breath. And it's really good for mothers because sometimes we come up against lethargy and we feel really flat. And sometimes we need to calm down because we feel dysregulated and we're yelling. So our bodies are absolutely masterful and our breath is truly just so magical. In the yogic science, they say that your left nostril invokes the energy of the moon. And so when they say that, it's the calming, reflective, stilling energy within the body.
Emma:
[27:41] And our right nostril is the energy of the sun. So it builds energy, fire and heat within the body. And so if you play with the experience of putting your right thumb over your right nostril, closing your eyes down for a moment and just taking long slow full breaths in and out of the left nostril.
Emma:
[28:12] You'll feel that it brings in this really soothing, calming energy. And it's a really great breath to do if you feel like you can pause for a moment in your dysregulation. And then if you are trapped on the couch in a doom scroll on your phone in that freeze state on, you know, just overload of parasympathetic energy, which so many parents are now, you know, it's like your kid asked for one more thing and it's like, I can't get up off the couch. Like I can't handle this. Putting your left thumb over your left nostril and breathing in and out of the right nostril, you'll feel that it gives you energy and it really does build up the energy in the system. And it's just a mega power move because we can actually use our breath really consciously all throughout the day in order to regulate ourselves more and invoke these energies and these practices are ancient you know they've been around forever and it's just that we're starting to become more aware of it you.
Mel:
[29:20] Just keep breathing until you feel the impact yeah I have a quick question and this is something because I've seen you do some some breath work in your courses and online. My question is, what happens if your nose is blocked?
Emma:
[29:37] Yeah, so what's really fascinating is.
Emma:
[29:42] It's very often that you'll be crying in a breathwork session because you will tap into some stored emotion and your nose will block.
Emma:
[29:51] If you can just stay with the feeling of my nose is blocked, my nose is blocked, and I'm just going to continue to try and breathe as efficiently as I can, even if I need to take a breath through my mouth, then just be with that until it unblocks. And there's a lot of people who have deviated septums who are not breathing optimally at all you know and what I find so fascinating whenever I teach the left and the right nostril is a lot of people freak out the fact that they have a completely deviated blocked left nostril and yet and so they always feel activated and it's because they're not getting that natural soothing moon energy because our breath runs in a cycle so we will breathe out of the left nostril and then it will naturally flip into the right nostril you know they've scientifically proven this and so if you aren't getting that optimal breathing state you will be dysregulated because our breath is actually so important and it is its function is like you know ultimate that's why there's so many people on breathing devices now when they go to sleep and they're wearing, yeah, because they've realized that if you don't breathe optimally through your nose, you don't sleep well and that's because sympathetic breathing happens through the mouth.
Emma:
[31:16] And sympathetic breathing, it's not that there's anything wrong with that because in Kundalini yoga or yogic practices and even holotropic breathing, they use the mouth breath in order to activate the sympathetic system, but you don't want to have that breath happening all day. And so there's people trying to close their mouths at night because they know now that if you're breathing through your mouth, you're not going to have a good sleep. And that's just because you're actually activating your sympathetic nervous system. But if you can breathe optimally through your nose, you're going to have that parasympathetic experience. So science is only proving it. And people are realizing that your breath is everything, you know. It's the one thing we share in common everywhere, all over the world, all humans, animals, the whole thing, breath.
Mel:
[32:06] This also really puts it gives people the power over their own well-being because yes world we've been taught to have low health literacy and to defer to experts for everything so every right and so breath i mean it's free and it's free and once yeah once you share this knowledge about how we can use it to be medicine and therapy, that is massively freeing in a world where everything costs money and requires some kind of input from us.
Emma:
[32:46] We don't know who to turn to, I think, because we've given our power away so much. And I can give you insight to how powerful breathwork can be and that it's not about completely disengaging from experts but you know I've had so many people who have been breathing for their health and one story has always stuck out for me someone that I know very dear to me found out they had a cancer diagnosis and they trust breathwork and they trust in life so they took their cancer diagnosis into their breathwork practice and there was a lot of emotional content there you know they realized these particular scenarios over their life where they had felt less than you know just a lot going on in their emotional world but they also got insight to things that they needed to do one of them was you need to reach out their breath told them this, You need to reach out to this particular doctor, an integrated doctor who they'd heard about, but they don't usually go to experts. You need to reach out to this doctor. So that's what they did. They reached out to that doctor. They got a great relationship with that doctor. They went through some of the more Western part of medicine.
Emma:
[34:14] And they healed their cancer. And that's because they found the road to go with their breath. And so it wasn't looking outside of themselves, but it was making really conscious decisions about, well, I'm going to lean on that expert because my breath told me where to go. And I felt like that with my pregnancy, like especially with the ones after Atlas. It was just like, I was able to be with the experts, you, Emma, you know, and then I went on to have a free birth because I trusted the pings that I was getting. And so I was making the decisions that were truly authentic to what I needed and not out of fear or out of like, um, you know, doubting myself. It was like, no, well, this is actually what I know to be true for me. You know and so I'm going to go with that and so that's how how powerful breathwork is and it's not about completely disengaging from the world and western medicine or whatever it's like actually just being more conscious about life and being more conscious about where our decisions are truly coming from yeah you know powerful yeah yeah um.
Mel:
[35:34] Do you have some specific breathwork techniques that women can use during their pregnancy in preparation for their birth that then they can hopefully fall into while they're birthing being able to pass into these breathwork techniques.
Emma:
[35:54] Well, you know, we actually have our most popular program ever, and it is so epic. It's our nervous system reset that we're doing. I think it's on the 22nd of January, but don't quote me. I'm terrible with details. But if you go to the Reconnected, we are going to be starting to talk all about it. And we do a spectacular 21-day nervous system reset where we teach you our very simple parasympathetic breath, intention-based breath work, which is so beautiful and really puts people in their power and that they are able to really consciously be with life.
Emma:
[36:37] And then if I couldn't do that and I was listening to this after the fact I would just start to be really conscious about my breath and starting to have a pranayama practice and it's just about tapping into what is in my breath so if I'm breathing a fuller than usual breath and I am just connected to this breath and I am slowing down and I'm going inward, then I would do that as much as possible. And just to know that when you're in labor and you feel that, um, the fight flight feeling coming up, they're like, I'm escaping my breath. Take a deep breath, slow down there's no rush and see what it gives you because
Emma:
[37:33] it will seriously take your labor in a totally different trajectory like.
Mel:
[37:40] Yeah i think people think that's too simple to work i know yeah it does and even if you try it in a stressful situation in life so you're in a hurry and you're in traffic and you're thinking come on I need to get somewhere think to yourself right this is actually an opportunity to do some breathing don't drop in yeah don't focus on the situations happening around you at the moment tap into your breath do some of that big deep breathing you just spoke about and see what happens to you
Emma:
[38:19] It can put you on a completely different trajectory. It really can. It's about being free to choose your response to the world, and that's what breath gives you, and that's what the awareness of your breath gives you, is the freedom to choose your response. Micro moment by micro moment, like, you know, the smallest of moments. And those small moments can really mean just walking a completely different path.
Mel:
[38:51] Yeah and if you're listening to this episode i think what would be amazing is if women could share this with their partners because during yes right because during birth it's very easy to forget the things that we've learned to deal with big things and if your your partner is right there with you and all of a sudden they start practicing some big deep breaths then before you know it the woman has realized what's going on and gone oh yeah that's right you know I do it myself even when there's a baby coming down and the and you can hear them kind of going oh like the baby's coming and I just go ha ha
Emma:
[39:33] Yeah because we so regulate with others around us and if you're the strong nervous system in the space, then people will naturally co-regulate. You can actually practice this if you've already had your baby and your baby is crying and feeling distressed and your usual go-to is like get the baby up, bounce them, you know, like do all the things like in order to calm the baby, lay there with the baby in your arms and just start to deep breathe. You'll be really fascinated about how the energy can shift because our babies will co-regulate and mum's not stressed and mum's not dysregulated. She's regulating and they will naturally go with you. Very...
Emma:
[40:20] To explore and play with your breath it's really fascinating exploration and you know I love that you're talking about it with midwives because I think that if midwives and people in the birth space have a more conscious connection to themselves birth will be a more conscious and connected space because we act from our triggers and if we have stored stress within our system we are being triggered about the world around us and we're not free to choose in the moment where we're we're choosing from our triggers and so if we can offload that stress and have a personal practice that alleviates this stress then we're making much more in-tune decisions and being more conscious about our presence in the space absolutely.
Mel:
[41:16] And and oh man your partner your work partner is coming to the convergence of rebellious midwives in
Emma:
[41:23] All good listening.
Mel:
[41:24] Guys there's still some tickets for sale she's gonna do yeah breath work sessions for midwives specifically to do with managing workplace stress in the moment so you're at work and you think what can i do i haven't had lunch i need to wee this woman needs that and that one needs that just using breath in the moment to come down off that swirly situation and that we're virtually in every day.
Emma:
[41:56] Yeah, I don't doubt it. It's so epic to be able to drop the belief that you can't slow down in order to create more momentum. You know, it's actually the biggest power you can do is to just slow down and drop in. It makes things move quicker, actually.
Mel:
[42:19] Ultimate flex is just using your breath to manage life. Yeah.
Mel:
[42:25] Amazing love it that's in that's been so insightful i don't have any specific questions more to ask you but is there anything else that you feel like you wanted to impart for women they may be pregnant coming close to giving birth i
Emma:
[42:40] Would just say trust yourself ultimately and just breathe deeper during birth you know trust your birth trust your breath and trust your body it's been my ultimate motto through my births five now well four but five.
Mel:
[42:58] Yeah four birds five babies i mean they were all born five four labors four labors yeah four labors yeah and five birds yeah yeah incredible thank you so much for being here if you want to learn more about emma and eleanor's work the reconnected is it at the reconnected on instagram and the reconnected the underscore
Emma:
[43:23] Reconnected yeah and the reconnected.com you'll pop in for us and we've got a reconnected app if you look up the reconnected on the app store or the other one what's it called for people who use android android um it's there it's.
Mel:
[43:42] There And if you want to find out more about Emma, new at New Earth Mama on Instagram.
Emma:
[43:49] New Earth.Mama, yeah.
Mel:
[43:51] New Earth.Mama. But that'll be all in the show notes. Thank you, Emma, so much for your insights and being with me. Thanks so much. You're welcome. Thanks, everybody, for being here. That was this week's episode of The Great Birth Rebellion, and I will see you next week. Bye. To get access to the resources for each podcast episode join the mailing list at melanie the midwife.com and to support the work of this podcast wear the rebellion in the form of clothing and other merch at the great birth rebellion.com follow me mel at melanie the midwife on socials and the show at the great birth rebellion all the details are in the show notes
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Ā©2025 Melanie The Midwife
