EPISODE 6 - Taylor Kelly: HypnoBirthing and Beyond

Taylor Kelly is a certified HypnoBirthing® Childbirth Educator and passionate advocate for informed and empowered birth experiences.

Taylor’s journey began more than 15 years ago while studying Human Development and Family Studies at Penn State. After watching The Business of Being Born documentary, she realized how much essential information about pregnancy and childbirth isn’t widely shared - and how many of today's providers are not practicing with the most current evidence-based care - --- and she has set out to change that.

Now a mother of two and based in Amelia Island, Florida, Taylor helps parents prepare for birth with confidence, knowledge, and peace. Her HypnoBirthing classes go far beyond breathing techniques, offering research-based insights on everything from medically-necessary induction vs unnecessary induction, newborn interventions, ultrasounds, baby positioning, and much more.

Taylor’s mission is simple: to ensure every family feels informed, supported, and empowered to make choices aligned with their values and their baby’s wellbeing.

https://www.taylorkellybirthservices.com/
https://www.instagram.com/tkbirthservices/

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Katherine 0:00

Hello everyone and welcome to Hip Talks. I'm your host, Katherine Hinchey. I'm a certified hypnotherapist, NLP practitioner, and SHRM Senior Certified Professional in Human Resources. After spending a decade working in the music industry, my path led me into the world of the healing arts, where science, energy, mindset, and transformation all meet. Each week, I sit down with a different healing practitioner to explore the many powerful modalities available to support our growth, well-being, and personal evolution. So come with me on this journey of discovery and learn about all the opportunities for healing and transformation that are available to all of us.

Speaker 1 1:21 Speaker 1 1:21

And today I'm very excited for our guest. We are joined by Taylor Kelly, owner of Taylor Kelly Birth Services, a certified hypnobirthing childbirth educator, and a passionate advocate for informed and empowered birth experiences. Taylor's journey began more than 15 years ago while studying human development and family studies at Penn State. After watching the Business of Being Born documentary, she realized how much essential information about pregnancy and childbirth isn't widely shared, and how many of today's providers are not practicing with the most current evidence-based care. And she has set out to change that. Taylor is a mother of two and based in Amelia Island, Florida. She helps parents prepare for birth with confidence, knowledge, and peace. Her hypno-birthing classes go far beyond breathing techniques, offering research-based insights on everything from medically necessary induction versus unnecessary induction, newborn interventions, ultrasounds, baby positioning, and much more. Taylor's mission is to ensure that every family feels informed, supported, and empowered to make choices aligned with their values and their baby's well-being. Welcome, Taylor. I'm so excited

What Hypnobirthing Really Teaches

Katherine 2:44

to have you here.

Taylor 2:45

In your own words, tell me more about hypnobirthing. Thank you so much for having me. I'm very excited to be here. To start with hypnobirthing, that method is as much a philosophy as it is a technique. Hypnobirthing is really a method of birthing that is based on the belief that all babies should come into the world gently and that all mothers and parents deserve an empowered birth and bring your baby into an atmosphere of calm and joy. So hypnobirthing prepares birthing parents physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for an easier and more comfortable, and even sometimes women report pain-free birth. It's a very well-thought out program of deep relaxation and self-hypnosis and breathing techniques, including visualizations and affirmations, but it's also really rooted in evidence-based care. So what you mentioned before, induction, do I really need it to be induced? Baby positioning, things that women should know about. There is so much information out there that can drastically change the experience that mothers have giving birth and that babies also go through in the birthing process as well. And it is my goal to make sure that women and parents really understand that their birth story is not pre-written. You have the power to influence and be an author of that story by this education that I just don't think women are given.

Katherine 4:18

Forget about the risks for women of color who are having babies in the United States now, just generally the amount of cesarean sections that have just skyrocketed.

Taylor 4:32

The US rate of c-sections is 32.4%. I can promise you that 32.4% of women do not need c-sections. At most, it would be 10%. But I'm gonna give you an interesting statistic. And I think 10% is high for the record. I think that if every woman went through some type of childbirth education along the lines of what I do, and if medical providers were in power with the education, they're actually not given in the system. This is not a medical provider's fault. I think the system they are put into and the education they are provided is not up to date. And it's focused on the pathology of birth as opposed to the physiological

The Cascade Of Interventions Explained

Taylor 5:12

aspect of birth. But something I'll share about a c-section rate, the most famous childbirth midwife ever, her name is Ina May Gaskin. And from 1970 to 2010 in her midwifery practice, thousands and thousands of women, her C-section rate was 1.4%.

Katherine 5:32

I'm one of those ones that I went through the whole natural childbirth, was in the hospital, and ended up with an emergency C-section. From what I understand, that's a lot having to do with the heart rate monitors. Tell us more about how that happens when that's not your intention. What a great point.

Taylor 5:52

I could do a whole podcast episode with you on the evidence around continuous fetal monitoring versus intermittent fetal monitoring. Women are going into the hospital. Most women today are still going to the hospital, which is perfectly fine. They are then put into that hospital's view of how they think birth should go. And you become the recipient of the cascade of interventions. So a very easy example, and this was highlighted in the business of being born. You have someone explaining what happens. So a woman comes into the hospital. She is having contractions. We called those surges. She's having contractions. She's breathing through them. She's doing well. Then she goes into triage. They put her through an unnecessary cervical check. They hook her up to three different monitors. They take her blood pressure. They're asking her questions. Sometimes they're filling out paperwork. They're being moved from triage to a different room. A new nurse comes in because it's shift change and they are asked more questions. And what often happens is they say, Oh, you know what? We're going to check you again. And let's say it's two hours later. You were two centimeters a couple hours ago, you're still two centimeters. You're failing to progress. Why don't we give you a tocin to help get things moving? We want to see you dilating a centimeter an hour. These absolute arbitrary, random things that nowhere in nature would you ever see this. Would you ever, you know, say to a deer, you need to dilate one centimeter an hour? We are mammals at the end of the day. You get put into this, you go from your home where you're laboring beautifully with your husband by your side, you're in your safe environment, you go to the hospital and your fight or flight turns on. And what happened to a deer in the woods who saw a person or had a light flashed on them, their cervix will close. The same thing happens to us. So this is an example back to the cascade of interventions. This is one that's happening all too often. And it's really contributing to this 32.4%. There's a failure to progress. Women are saying, Yes, sure, Pitocin. I want to get things moving. I want to meet my baby. I'm so excited. Put me on a little bit of Pitocin. Well, you're put on Pitocin. Those contractions come faster and they're much more intense. Uh, the baby is also experiencing that same increase in intensity that the baby wasn't prepared for. So what might happen? The woman is in significantly more discomfort. She might request an epidural earlier than she was planning if she was planning one at all. That can slow down labor. So, what do they do? They up the pitocin. Then your baby's heart rate is starting to increase and then dropping. We're seeing some really big rises and dips. We're not, we're very concerned. We think the baby might be in distress. We need to do an emergency C-section. And then everyone says, thank God we have this medical environment where we could do an emergency C-section, where if you back up, and if that woman was comfortable when she went into the hospital, she was put into a dimly lit room, she was whispered to, she had a dual with her, people weren't taking her into her conscious mind constantly. And she was able to relax and move through her contractions as she felt like she needed. She could still move her body because she wasn't hooked up to a ketosin drip and she wasn't hooked up to a continuous fetal monitor. A totally different outcome probably could have happened in two hours. And this is happening every single day. And most of my clients are people that this happened to and they don't want it to happen to them a second time. They're left with birth trauma, an emergency C-section. They don't know what happened, and they were having just a beautiful, natural, healthy pregnancy. And the medical providers often are doing what they think is best and what they're taught. And that's why it's systemic and why hypnobirthing is just a powerful way to equip people to ask the right questions, pause, know when it is medically necessary, gives them the space to make better decisions to get them to that birth outcome that they want.

Katherine 9:54

It's so true. And I remember learning all about this before it happened to me, and it still happened to me. And it was, oh my goodness, please save the baby.

Taylor 10:05

Talk to me about why birthing services is a passion of yours and what brought you here. When I saw that documentary, I should have paid more attention when I was a sophomore in college because that had a profound effect on me. I wish I was 15 years into doing hypnobirthing and childbirth education, owning this course and owning this business as opposed to two years, but that's okay. This was always in the back of my mind. And then when I got pregnant, I went back to this documentary. I re-watched it and I dove into all the evidence-based information that I could get. And then something happened that

Evidence, C‑Section Rates, And System Gaps

Taylor 10:40

put me on an accelerated path. And this is what happens to women often. I went to my prenatal appointment. I was 16 weeks. I wasn't loving this OB, but I was like, you know what? Waiting room seems full. People don't seem to be going here. She's nice. What does that even mean? She's not sure she's nice. Can she help me deliver my baby the way that I want to? That's a separate thing. And I was 16 weeks, and it was when we did a scan. It wasn't the full anatomy scan, but it was some kind of scan where you could see the baby, you could see the position of the baby. I got all scanned. I went in to see my OB. She goes, Well, your baby is breached, but that's okay. You know, you're 16 weeks in cat. At 16 weeks, your baby is the size of like a pear. They're floating upside down, sideways. It was absolutely ridiculous for her to say something like that to me. That was ridiculous.

Katherine 11:37

Yeah.

Taylor 11:38

For a woman who is a first-time mom who does not know that that literally means nothing. And I can explain why because I love talking about baby positioning. What is she gonna have in her mind and in her subconscious every time she goes to that doctor? Oh my gosh, is my baby still breached? Is my baby still breach? Oh, the doctor said my baby was breached. You're in hypnotherapy. I'm in hypnobirthing. We know about the subconscious. For every single thought, there is a biological reaction in the body. We know that sometimes you can feel them, sometimes you cannot. So instilling something like that in a woman who is vulnerable will have an effect. I truly believe and we teach that our thoughts and our subconscious thoughts impact what our body does and how it behaves. She said that, and my maternal instinct said, you need to run, you need to get out of here. And I did. And I changed medical providers and I finally picked the person who was going to be there to receive my baby at 35 weeks, much to my husband's dismay. But I changed providers all the way up until 35 weeks. Had I not, I think I would have ended up with a C-section based on how my daughter Reese's birth went. So that was a big turning point for me. I'd love to give you a couple of examples of things that happen in these hospital settings that once you learn one or two of these things, you can't believe you did not know them. And then you say, what else don't I know and isn't being told to me that is putting me at risk for maybe an unnecessary intervention or an unnecessary emergency C-section. This is one of my favorite topics because no matter who you are,

Baby Positioning And Why It Matters

Taylor 13:20

if you're a nurse, you're a midwife, you're an OB, you are a parent, you're a sister, if you are a human, the fact that baby positioning is not talked about regularly, there's no excuse for it because it's so simple. So to get to the basics of it, your baby is moving, floating around, doing their thing until the head becomes the heaviest part of the body, which is not going to happen until around like that 24-week mark, between 24 and 30 weeks. And that is why most babies are head down. It's nature's design because we know that it's best for baby to come head down. We can get into breach, but I won't go down that road. So most women go to their 36-week appointment and the midwife and OB is checking the belly. And this is the probably the first time that they will say, Great news, your baby's head down. And what relief does every woman feel who doesn't want to see section right of their baby's head down? That's great news. A couple of things. That is not the full story because head down can mean different things. When your baby is head down, you want them in the left occipit anterior position. You might have heard people say sunny side up. That means when the head is down, but they're posterior, the baby's chin is not going to be tucked when it comes out of the birth now. If they're posterior, their face is going to be raised. That's an extra four inches. It's going to make delivering the baby vaginally more challenging. There are so many things, simple things that you can do to make sure that your baby is anterior. This can be the difference between five pushes in 10 minutes and four hours of pushing. And what happens when you're in a hospital where you know, oh, it's hospital policy. I'm putting that in air quotes for people because hospital policy is not law, but it's hospital policy that we don't go over an hour of pushing. And that's all due to liability. It is reliability, but if you're a competent provider, you should be doing spitting babies, which is the method for getting babies in optimal positions. You should be doing everything that you can to help make that pushing more effective. You should have at 16, 20 weeks, should have educated women on the simple things that we can do. You and I, Kat, are sitting in chairs. Many of us women have desk jobs. What that is doing is it is tilting our pelvises up. And we are seeing many more babies in the posterior position just because of our lifestyle. It is because the ligaments in our body, in our cervix and our uterus, are off balance. It's a body positioning and body balancing issue. Such easy techniques that you can do in pregnancy. Do not lay back on your couch like this with your belly up. It's going to encourage baby to go face up. So women go to their 36 appointment, they hear head down, they think, my work here is done. Or they go and it's breach and they say, You can either have a C-section or you can get an ECV, which is when they manually try to move the baby. There are things that you can do at home with a chiropractor to get that baby to flip, even at 36 weeks. The responsible thing would be for everybody to look at this at 30 weeks because the baby is going to be easier to move that baby because they're going to be a little bit smaller. Friend called me panicking, 37 weeks, said the baby's breached. They told me I should go in for an ECB tomorrow and to be prepared for an emergency C-section if it doesn't go well. I said, Here are the three things that I would recommend that you do. You have to make this informed decision. She went to the chiropractor, I referred to her. The baby was head down within 24 hours. The hospital was ready to give her a C-section the next day.

Katherine 17:16

Wow. Okay. She had a bad little birth.

Taylor 17:19

No problem.

Katherine 17:20

That's wonderful. Tell us more about your story. You had briefly mentioned you were glad you switched to this OB because of what happened with your daughter Reese.

Taylor 17:31

Yes. So I switched and I went to a midwife-based practice. And my story is unique because I am actually one of the people that needed a medical and I had medical reasons for induction. And I know when you don't need inductions, and I opted in. So I think it gives me a little bit of credibility here. You know, I know that there are reasons for it. I actually was going to have a home birth and my blood pressure was not looking good. There's gestational hypertension, which is not pre-eclampsia, and then there's pre-eclampsia. At 37 weeks, I had gestational hypertension. The home birth midwife had said, if you have two blood pressure readings during your home birth that are one over 140 over 90, you have to transfer to the hospital. I was tracking my blood pressure at home and I was not confident. I was like, I'm going to have two blood pressure readings like that. So I transferred to a hospital, but it was a midwife-based hospital. But you're still in the hospital setting. At 37 weeks, they wanted to induce me. My first time mom, it's not looking

Taylor’s Induction Story And Tools

Taylor 18:36

good. You don't have pre-clampsia, but you might have pre-clampsia soon. So do I have it now? What can we do to test out what's going on with me and see if I really need this? We did blood work and the 24-hour urine test at 37 weeks. No preclampsia, gestational hypertension. I declined the induction. 38 weeks, I went to my appointment and I was monitoring my blood pressure. My blood pressure was perfect. So they said, so you still don't want to be induced. Nope. Let's continue to monitor at home. 39 weeks, my blood pressure was high. I said, why don't we do a round of blood work and see where it is? And they said, okay, we're starting to see small traces of protein in your urine and some things in your blood work that are indicating that you are going to most likely have preeclampsia. I said, okay, I agree. I need to be induced. Clearly, there is a medical indication this is the right time. I had done my hypnobirthing and I required no pitocin and had one cytotech pill. My contractions or surges started right away. They never stopped. And I had my daughter like 11 hours later. First time mom induced early with success with no Pitocin. I contribute that to the mind work that I did and the body work that I did and some of the breathing techniques that I did. Make sure I was working with my body. I wasn't fearful. I wasn't contracting through every contraction. I wasn't just tightening my body trying to get through it. I was working through them. And so hypnobirthing really made that successful. I did not know about baby positioning at that time. But Reese was posterior, four hours of pushing. But I had nurses and midwives who did spinning babies with me for two hours trying to get her into the right position. I had a midwife who was able to give me the guidance that I needed. The doctor told me I had a breach baby at 16 weeks. They would have probably suggested our advises section. And that's probably where I would have ended up had I not had a group of midwives who really understand the physiology of birth and helped me get into different positions. I mean, I was like an acrobat. I got into different positions and was able to deliver. And she's totally healthy, wonderful little girl. Apgar was a nine, she's perfect. So you went through hypnobirthing training to have her. And then when did you decide to become an actual provider of hypnobirthing training? That was right after my son Cole was born. When he was born two years later, and while I was on maternity leave with him, I went and got certified. Now Cole was significantly bigger baby. First contraction at 3:37 a.m. and he was out by 11 a.m. Very fast, smooth birth. And then I was like, oh my gosh, this wasn't a fluke with Reese that this was successful. I did this again. I prepared. If I didn't do this with Reese and Cole, I probably would have had two C sections. I couldn't stop talking about it. I said, it's time for you to do it. You are getting no sleep. You're on maternity leave, but sure, why not? Let's go through the hypnobirthing educator process to become certified.

Katherine 21:57

The hypno birthing process to become certified. Does that include these other elements that you're talking about, about positioning and all of that stuff?

Taylor 22:06

It's a great blend of I start every class with a four to seven minute video of a woman giving birth naturally at home or in a hospital setting. It depends on the client. But they're all women who are hypnobirthing clients. Most women haven't seen these peaceful natural births

Quick Hospital Tips For Labor Day

Taylor 22:24

unfold. So my first job is to really dispel the myths that birth is dangerous, birth is scary, birth is tremendously painful and awful experience. They're like, oh my gosh, I had no idea that this is what it could actually be like. So dispel that. And then it's all this education that I'm talking about, baby positioning, ultrasounds, intermittent monitoring versus continuous fetal monitoring. And then it's breathing techniques and talking about the fear, tension, pain syndrome, and what's actually happening with the body when they're going with contractions and what they can do to actually maximize each one. So it's a really great blend of all that.

Katherine 23:05

Let's say you are a listener and you're pregnant and you're going into the hospital and you don't have this hypnobirthing training when you don't have the time to go and find somebody and get trained. What are the one or two or three things that you would say make sure that you are aware of when you go into the hospital to give birth?

Taylor 23:29

That is a great, great question. I would say, and we're talking like you're already there, you're at the hospital or you're about to go to the hospital the day. Yeah, and you've been through the whole regular process with the Yeah.

Katherine 23:44

Okay.

Taylor 23:44

I would say a couple of things, of course. First, even if you are a week out and you realize, oh my gosh, I should have done something, I should have learned, or maybe I don't have the right provider. If you're a week out and you can find a duela and have that dual come, have a couple of sessions with them, get somebody who you trust and get that person in the door with you the week before. If you are already there, if you're listening to this and you know, you your your first contractions happen tonight, it will be okay. Trust your body, affirm yourself that your body knows what to do because it does. Tell yourself, baby, I can't wait to meet you. When you are going through contractions, expand your belly. Breathe so that your belly is actually rising. If you put your hands on it, you can feel that belly rise. Each contraction is a bit of a surge. Try to breathe with your belly, expanding. Contractions are a minute long, so don't hold your breath. Do that multiple times through the contraction. That's the best way that you can work through them and really work through your body. Do not tense up. What makes you feel safe? Is it your husband standing next to you all the time? Is it your husband's hand on your shoulder? Is it dim lights? Is it soft voices? Think, what do you need? If you're in that hospital bed, dim the lights, tell people to uh be in soft voices. Play some water in the background. Water has an amazing effect on the body and helping it relax. Play some music. Do anything you can to feel safe where you are. And then another thing we teach in hypnobirthing is, you know, if they make a recommendation, you don't need to say yes or no right now. Right that very moment. Say, okay, thank you. My husband, I need a couple of minutes to talk about this. Can you come back in five minutes or in 10 minutes? You might get eye rolls.

Water, Hormones, And Feeling Safe

Taylor 25:34

You might get pushback and say, no, I've really just saying you're this baby's parent. It's not going to be the last time that you have to advocate for yourself and protect. But you and your husband should talk through those things. Ask, what are the risks of waiting to do this another hour? What are the risks of waiting to start potos in another hour? What's the benefit of getting this cervical check right now? You can ask questions and you can pause. The hospital cannot force you to do anything. They are obligated by law to take care of you and to treat you. So, to recap, do everything that you can to make yourself feel safe. Breathe with your body and really embrace those contractions. Try to mentally tell yourself you're looking forward to them with every contraction. You're one more closer to meeting your baby. And then three, you don't need to agree to everything. You can ask for five minutes to think about this or to talk to your husband and you can ask questions before making a decision.

Katherine 26:28

Okay, you mentioned there that the sound of water can be very helpful. So are water births totally something different, different approach, or is it just something that you can add? Talk to me about water birthing.

Taylor 26:43

Water birthing is so safe and it is the most comfortable way for a woman to give birth. The place that I gave birth actually had like tubs for women to labor in, and I did as well. There's pictures of me smiling at like eight centimeters sitting in a tub because it provides the body with so much relief. It makes each one of those contractions or surges much easier to go through. If that's not available to you though, playing water just helps you get into that subconscious mind. It helps you get out of that conscious mind where you're thinking that's where you need to go. It's a primal thing. You lose track of time. That water just connects you to that subconscious. In hypnobirthing, we teach visualization

How To Work With Taylor

Taylor 27:24

like where is your safe place? What are the sounds that you hear? Where are you? What does it smell like? Like tapping into that subconscious to help make sure that your body has hormones. We haven't even talked about hormones. You know, oxytocin is what the body experiences it's a surge of oxytocin that causes you to go into labor. And when you are in a fearful situation, you get adrenaline. Guess what goes away? All of your oxytocin. So you need to feed into that. That's why they say have sex if you want your baby to come sooner, because oxytocin, right? And those receptors, there's oxytocin receptors, and those receptors are open. So that is why water really works well for people. Twinkly lights, pictures of your dog works really well for people. And if you do have nothing else, just dim the lights and look into your partner's face.

Katherine 28:15

Before we do something that you lead us through, tell us how we can find you, anybody that would like to work with you.

Taylor 28:24

I will love to work with anyone. The hypnobirthing course is definitely a commitment. It is five weeks for three hours, but I promise you will have a more positive birth experience and feel so empowered. Women who don't have that time commitment or they're gonna give birth next week. I do consultations as well. If you have a specific concern, my provider is saying that they're gonna want to do X, Y, and Z. They want to induce me at 39 weeks for X, Y, and Z reason. I can give you the resources and the information that you need in some consultations as well. So it's not just hypnobirthing. You can find me at Taylor Kelly Birth Services.com. I'm also on Instagram. It's TK Birth Services. My email and contact information is on my website, and I'd love to help. This is a passion for me. As you know, Kat, this is not my day job. This is what I love to do after the kids are asleep and help families. So that is how you can find me.

Katherine 29:16

I can see that it will probably take over your day job because I just know how passionate you are. And having worked with you at a day job before, I know that your business is just gonna blow up and do really, really well. So I can't wait for that. We either. So go ahead and lead us through something

Guided “Lemon” Hypnosis Exercise

Taylor 29:39

here. Are we excited? So yeah, at the end of each herp hypnobirthing session, we do a pretty long script. I play music and you and your partner do it together. I mean, these scripts can be very long. They're 45 minutes. So we don't have time for that. So I'm gonna do something that is much lighter, but it's going to help connect for you what I mean when I say the subconscious is how your subconscious works within your body and how every thought that you have results in a physical reaction within the body. So I will give you that little preface here, and I have it right in front of me. Kat, you're going to be doing this. You're gonna give this a go. I'm giving you my best. Okay.

Katherine 30:23

Oh, Taylor, we have to have you back just to talk about AMA. Or what they told me was geriatric.

Taylor 30:32

Oh my gosh. When they tell women that my blood boils that and you have a big baby or you need to be induced to 39 weeks, any of those things, nope. I would love to come back.

Katherine 30:46

All right, well, everybody you heard of here first, we're gonna have her back. We're gonna talk about more stuff.

Taylor 30:51

This is going to be called the lemon experience. Allow your eyes to comfortably close and breathe in relaxation now. Breathe in to the count of four. Breathe down to the count of eight. In, two, three, four. Out, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Continue to take a few of those beautiful, deep, calm breaths, letting your breath just flow all the way down through your body as your shoulders begin to drop into the frame of your body. Now at your own breathing pace, allow your breath to just strip down through your chest, into your stomach, and down through your body as if it were all going to flow all the way down into your toes. Releasing and relaxing, feeling your shoulders, your chest, your elbows becoming limp and relaxed. Release and relax. And now in your mind's eye and your imagination, take yourself to a kitchen. This is a kitchen that you are very fond of from your near or distant past. A place that holds good feelings for you. It could be your grandmother's, your mother's, a trusted friend's kitchen. One that you would like to go back to at any time. Your subconscious can work quickly, so choose your kitchen now. Look around you. See all the familiar things in this kitchen. Feel the warmth of the room. Breathe in the aroma of your favorite food as it cooks. See the steam, the condensation forming on the windows. Imagine now that you are standing at the counter in this wonderful kitchen. In front of you is a cutting board, and the cutting board is beautiful. On the cutting board is a bright yellow round clump of lemon. You can feel and see every one of the pores of this lemon. Run your fingers over the lemon. It's almost wax-like. Study all the features of the lemon. Beside the board

Takeaways And Closing Notes

Taylor 33:24

is a large cutting knife. Give yourself permission to pick up the knife. And now, in your mind's eye, see yourself cutting the lemon in half. Watch as the juice runs down and makes all puddles of lemon juice on the board. Now take one half of the lemon and bring it to your nose. Smell the lemon. Now take the lemon and sink your teeth into it. Be aware of the juices. Feel them run through your mouth. Slowly move your tongue around the inside of your mouth. Feel what is happening within your mouth. Very good. Be aware of the changes taking place. Now slowly come back to the room, and when you're ready, open your eyes. So it's amazing. You immediately went to a kitchen. What kitchen did you go to?

Katherine 34:30

I went to the kitchen of our beach house that we had to sell in 2019, but I had so many good memories from that kitchen.

Taylor 34:38

What happened when you picked up the lemon? Did you almost feel the texture? Definitely. Did you smell lemon through this exercise?

Katherine 34:47

All right. In full disclosure, I'm a certified hypnotherapist. I go into hypnosis and guided imagery all the time. So I'm really good at it now. I did. I felt it. I felt every little pore. I smelled it. I tasted it. I don't know if you saw me grimace.

Taylor 35:05

I did not. I was concentrating on the script, which I read a little faster than usual for the sake of your listeners' time. But it's really amazing here because we see how thought and belief that you are holding a lemon, that you are tasting a lemon, that you're cutting a lemon. The thought and belief that this is happening is creating a physiological and chemical reaction within your body. Just like it does in birthing, calm birthing, fearful thoughts, stress. It's all about chemistry. And if you're experiencing stress, your body's going to have a much more difficult time bringing that baby into the world easily and as comfortably and peacefully as possible. So it's just a great way to show that this can really work and can really help. And it's a piece of a puzzle, right? It's a component. There are circumstances where things could go one way or the other, but you will always have hypnobirthing to fall back. Even if your birthing changes course, you have this sense of peace because you know everything that you need to know. You don't need to be fearful. You know that you can give birth and that your baby's going to be okay. And you know that you're making the right decisions for you.

Katherine 36:09

It's a skill that you could use for the rest of your life if you ever have to have surgery or have a tooth pulled.

Taylor 36:16

So funny because that's what I do when I go to get blood work now or when I have to go for a procedure. I really use it.

Katherine 36:23

Taylor, thank you so much. This was so informative, and I definitely want to have you back because I have more questions, but it was really great to have you today. Thank you so much for having me too, Cad. You've been listening to Hip Talks, original music by Tracy Moore and the Jazzy Fat Nasties, Podcast Editing and Sound Engineering by Zachary Trainer. If you like what you heard, please like and share and follow us on Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you make a comment, I promise I will respond.