Optimizing Your Pregnancy With Simple Strategies - Laurel Wilson

01/15/2021

Optimizing Your Pregnancy With Simple Strategies
Laurel Wilson

This episode was sponsored by:

Please donate HERE

We are a 501 3c Non-Profit. Our aim is to prevent and heal birth trauma through education. Women need to understand their options and rights in childbirth so that they can have a safe and healthy birth.

Today, we talk with Laurel Wilson, TEDx and international speaker, pregnancy and breastfeeding specialist, consultant, educator, and author. Laurel is also the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever (http://motherjourney.com/books.html).

We begin by defining and discussing “the attachment pregnancy” approach to bonding with your child. We talk about how this approach can apply to circumstances such as unwanted pregnancy, disconnection with your child, traumatic birth, or surrogacy, among others. We then talk more about the different ways of bonding with your child, starting with defining and discussing the terms "conscious agreement” and “conscious attachment.”

We break down specific things we can do each trimester to help our attachment and bond develop. We talk about how our babies are affected by our emotions while in the womb, and how they benefit from a wide range of emotions, including challenges and effective stress management in the lives of their mothers. We define and discuss epigenetics; how they are affected by the limbic system and our heart regulation, and how they relate to our child’s development.

We then talk about the benefits of breastfeeding, and discuss the important nutritional and developmental content that human milk gives to babies. We discuss how the more we become aware of the importance of human milk, the more we will consider options like community milk sharing and other ways to get human milk to more children.

We express our gratitude for infant formula and emphasize the importance of parents making educated and informed decisions that aren’t so driven by advertising or society. We talk about how any amount of human milk at any stage is good for your baby, and discuss how knowing the critical developmental periods of your child should guide your supplementing with colostrum. We discuss adoption and induced lactation. To learn more, visit http://motherjourney.com/index.html.

3:00 What is Attachment Pregnancy?
10:32 Different Ways of Bonding
39:07 Making the Decision to Breastfeed; Benefits of Human Milk
56:09 Effects of Breastfeeding Across Generations

“We are becoming bonded at an unconscious level, a conscious level, and a physical level. And the more we recognize that is happening, and the more we put a mindful awareness to that, the better off the health of our relationship is with our children…we can start to see that it also has significant impact on long-term health of the baby as well.” 3:30

For Any Questions, Email Me at media@birthcircle.com

http://motherjourney.com/
Check Out Her Books Here

Connect with our guest!

instagram.com/motherjourneylaurelwilson
facebook.com/motherjourneylaurelwilson

Podcasts are sponsored in part by Empowering Fearless Birth
donate@empoweringfearlessbirth.com

When it comes to birth, most people tend to assume that the emotional work of creating a healthy bond between the birth parent and the baby doesn't start until after birth, and so many people enter parenthood underprepared to make an emotional attachment with the baby. Newer research has shown that creating a more conscious emotional bond during all stages of pregnancy can help to ease the disconnect that some parents feel after giving birth.

Sarah and Laurel talk about what "Attachment Pregnancy" means, and how a pregnant parent can make a conscious effort to collaborate with the baby during gestation to create a bonding environment that is free of guilt or resentment. They also talk about human milk, its components, and the amazing properties it has for helping the development of newborns.

Laurel Wilson is a TEDx and international speaker, pregnancy and breastfeeding specialist, consultant, educator, and author. Laurel is the co-author of two books, The Attachment Pregnancy and The Greatest Pregnancy Ever. Her passion is blending today’s recent scientific findings with the mind/body/spirit wisdom to help professionals and families realize the magnitude and importance of the perinatal period. Spending 17 years as Executive Director for Lactation Programs for the Childbirth and Postpartum Professionals Association formed the foundation of her inquiry into the science of human milk. She acted as a board director for the United States Breastfeeding Committee from 2016-2019 and currently serves as an advisor for InJoy Health and Kindred Media. Laurel has been joyfully married to her husband for nearly three decades and has two wonderful grown sons, whose difficult births led her on a path towards helping emerging families create positive experiences. She believes that the journey into parenthood is a life-changing rite of passage that should be deeply honored and celebrated. 

This episode was sponsored by:

Please donate HERE

We are a 501 3c Non-Profit. Our aim is to prevent and heal birth trauma through education. Women need to understand their options and rights in childbirth so that they can have a safe and healthy birth.