Audio Transcript Auto-generated
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before the trauma happened.
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So whether or not you have a foundation for wellness
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and well being through healthy connection with a caregiver or
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not so something I've known for a long time but
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also sort of solidified the information through this course waas.
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How our foundation for wellness and resilience begins in the
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womb. And it is something that I've always been concerned
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about. Where, um, systems have started intervening too little, too
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late, in my opinion, such as when Children start school,
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that's where the funding is.
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And that's where the intervention is, such as head Start,
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etcetera. And there's not enough being done at the beginning
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of life and what I mean, the beginning of life
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is literally conception, um, for overall life and well being.
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Um, so that's all I can elaborate on with the
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time. Um, I learned a lot in this class about
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EPA genetics, and it sort of blew my mind.
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Knowing that you can see epigenetic effects up to 14
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generations back is mind boggling to me and fascinating and
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really puts slavery into perspective.
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And how how are black, indigenous and people of color
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are still very obviously feeling the effects of their intergenerational
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trauma and how we really need to acknowledge that.
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And we need to work fixing that, Um, significantly.
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Um, I also wanna acknowledge that I think the system
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is broken, and I'm not sure if I'm hopeful or
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if I'm ready to just burn it down.
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Depends on the day.
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Um and I also want to say that we still
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have a lot to learn.
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It is something that I think we all have to
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acknowledge that in health care and then, um, medical care
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in general, you know, it takes many years from when
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we have the science for the practice to change and
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many things that we take us, you know, for granted
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today, 20 years ago was not available.
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And I do wonder what in 20 years, you know,
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it will look like and what will think about about
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this time.
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And so just being careful and acknowledging how how much
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we still have to learn about about all of this
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information. But I will say that what I've learned in
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this course and just, you know, as a a sort
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of, ah, deep based level, the interventions and the treatments
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that we've discussed seems so safe and seem to not
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carry any harm.
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And the ripple effects of those treatments and interventions are
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very, um, more positive overall, and I haven't seen.
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I can't think of a lot of consequences that would
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be negative.
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But maybe in 50 years we'll find out.
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I'm also really to acknowledge that a lot of the
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things that we've learned in this class and a lot
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of the things that finally, um no, we're using.
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And in this, yeah has its roots in other cultures.
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And it's only now that it's been given the stamp
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of approval from the Western world that now it's being
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utilized. And so just sort of honoring the past and
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the other traditions and the other peoples that have been
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doing this for a long time.
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We sort of had all the answers, and we we
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consider them savages and our like, Oh, we can quantify
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this. So now it's OK, right?
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So a lot of Eastern and African religions, medicine and
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philosophy are now currently backed by science, and um, yeah,
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I'm going to think about, um, we've learned about meditation
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and prayer, neither of which I use pretty much at
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all, Um but I would like Thio.
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We learned about yoga and dancing and other rhythmic movement
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also something I don't dio.
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But I used to dance and very interested, particularly because
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of this class and in integrating dance back into my
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life. We learned about music and chanting Um, not a
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musician, but I am a lover of music and, uh,
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I feel very strongly that music regulates me.
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And so I'm interested in also using that more and
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my daily routine and at work and with my patients,
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Um, acupuncture and massage, which definitely have used and massage
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is probably my favorite thing in the world.
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And I'm really happy to have Science Thio justify my
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constant asking and requests for massage and attachment parenting, which
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is probably my biggest soapbox issue and something that is
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very valuable to me and something that I integrate in
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my day to day, right.
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So in my practice with my staff and in the
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work environment, I have decided that I'm going to call
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my employees and my people that I worked with my
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clan because I got that from one of the videos
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and I really enjoyed that idea and that had to
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do with evolution and how we used to be in
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small groups and clans and there was the other.
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And you know how we relied on each other was,
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you know, the science of we is me, that sort
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of thing.
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Um, so I'm just gonna take that and run with
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It s so I try to set the tone by
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creating a space that allows for healing in time and
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work. Life balance.
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One of the ways that I do that is through
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giving my staff of retreat every year.
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And we're actually going on one in January.
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Very excited.
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There's always a cabin where not always cabin, but there's
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a place.
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There's a destination generally has a hot tub.
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We've had hot springs.
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We've had places where we've gotten massage and other nice
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treatments. There's always good food.
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There's always fun activities, games, um, et cetera, um and
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I I feel like this was encouraged what?
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Something that we've done for years.
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But it was in one of the other videos where
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they were talking about a school where they spend the
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first two weeks camping and playing in order to sort
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of lay the foundation for education and transformative experiences.
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And so this just really kind of just added fuel
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to this desire for me to offer this to my
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client, hurt to my employees and so that we have
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that connection, that we're family, that we can rely on
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each other, that we are building resilience within our teams,
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that we can deal with heavy and difficult things with
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our clients.
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We also play games.
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We have a game at work where we, um, catch
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people doing something awesome, and it gives them the opportunity
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to get basically stamps on a chart.
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And then after you get so many stamps, you get
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a prize, and it's just a lot of fun.
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And people are nominating each other, and it's just sort
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of building camaraderie.
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And like team, I'm always trying to work on our
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schedule so that we have work life balance, you know,
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as a home birth midwife that did, um, all the
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births myself for many years.
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I know how detrimental that is for health.
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Um, to the point of, you know, just about to
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break and throw it all away.
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And so I've hired employees and I want to give
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them time off and whether that's holidays and birthdays and
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time for C use and vacation and then making sure
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that our schedule isn't, uh, so difficult that we're missing
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days of sleep at a time.
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So I'm always looking at balancing that.
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I want to sort of encourage more dozing of so
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mad a sensory techniques, Um, and tapping out it works
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because we do have these 24 hour long shifts.
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I would like to integrate some of these techniques, um,
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into the workplace and really make sure that I'm giving
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people the freedom and making sure they know that they
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could take these opportunities and should take these opportunities.
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Um, let's see, I'm big on cheat sheets at work,
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so we use them for all sorts of lab work.
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And you know eso on etcetera.
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I love toe laminate things.
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I like to put them on a ring by, you
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know, ring and hang them up on the wall so
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everybody has access to it.
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You could flip through your cheat sheets.
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I'm really excited about putting some of these meditation and
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mindfulness techniques on cheat sheets and sort of pointing that
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out and referring to it frequently.
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So that's sort of part of the culture is that
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we do those things.
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Um, I have a dog that I really want to
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make. A therapy dog and having at work.
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I've actually allowed patients to bring their dogs to the
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clinic when they've been delivering because their dog is important
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to them.
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And, uh, I love having the freedom to do that
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at work.
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I just love that I don't work in an institution
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where that's not available in an option.
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I want to integrate music a little bit more in
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tow work, um, and healthier food.
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And the place is very important to me.
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We like our place, but we're actually in the process
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of sort of buying and building and transitioning into a
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different space.
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And the motivation for that isn't financial, actually.
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And, uh, it is completely in our staff well being,
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we're not really out of space.
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We can function in the place that we're in, but
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we want outdoor space.
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We want to do pre needles outside.
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We want to do staff lunches outside way.
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Want to be able to walk in nature?
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We want a private midwife, only space where you could
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just, like, take a break and not be disturbed.
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Um, everybody really wants a staff shower in bathroom, because
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when you're on a 24 hour shift, you need some
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privacy and you need a bathroom.
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And so I am willing to put a lot of
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money into those things because it's important to me that
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there will be, um, the environment of well being.
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Um, I already mentioned nature gonna get this video done
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this time, by golly.
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Okay, next is my clients.
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So this is one of the areas that I feel
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like we've really shined as, um, and out of hospital
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midwife, um, attachment and relationship is something that it's just
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a hallmark of what we dio.
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We do our long prenatal ZX.
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It's a very small staff.
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You get to know everyone, your sometimes in their home,
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you know, you know, anyway, our clients are part of
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our family.
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They're part of our clan, and I think that they
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feel that, and I know that we all feel that.
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And I think that that's why we have good outcomes.
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Um, one of the videos there was e think was
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the one talking about parole officers and I'm not having
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breaks and then being cold or being hungry and how
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the outcomes are poor.
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I could go on and on about this, but we
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encourage and allow people to eat and drink.
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We keep the room cozy and warm.
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We let them invite whoever they want into the environment
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to the birth so that they are comfortable and they
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andare. Outcomes are excellent, and I know this is why
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attachment, parenting and education on that has always been a
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part of something that we've done.
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We have childbirth education.
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We have a reading library.
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I have lots of books and attachment parenting there.
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I'm constantly trying toe model that behavior, whether it's bringing
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my own baby to work or having my staff and
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students allow them to bring babies to work.
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We're modeling what it looks like to be an attachment
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parent to breastfeeding, on demand, to sleep with our babies,
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to regulate them with ourselves.
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Um, when a baby comes in, it's a little bit
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off. I really love to say Can I can I
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hold your baby for a little while?
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And I shushed and I soothe and I bounce and
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I rock and I love and I tell them their
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most beautiful baby and I make faces and ICU, and
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I'm like modeling.
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Those behaviors also really like it, and I don't want
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anymore kids, so it's really good for me to sort
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of cut that out.
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But what I hope that I'm doing and what I
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think that I'm doing is showing them that this is
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natural. This is normal.
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We talk a lot about sleep arrangements we talk about.
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What's your community going to be like?
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Postpartum? Who's taking care of you?
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Who's taking care of the dishes?
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Who's making your meals?
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Who's, you know, where's your tribe and your clan for
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you to heal and rest postpartum.
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We spend a significant amount of time talking about perinatal
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in postpartum mood disorders.
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Um, where I wanna do more about this is fine.
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More resource is which is difficult in our area.
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Um, but I'd like to also add some more handouts
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and research, um, and sort of those cheat sheets and
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I'm going to use for my staff.
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I want to also do that for my clients, for
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on this regulation and, um, mindfulness practices.
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You know, I've always said to them like if you
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have a colicky baby and you just you're at the
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point where you thinking about shaking.
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I'm just put them in a safe place and call
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me. We'll be there for you.
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We'll always be there for you.
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And I know they know that they can reach us
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24 7 via text or phone, et cetera.
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Um, so that's what we're doing.
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Really, really good.
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But we could do better.
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So I wanna make sure that everyone is being handed
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that information.
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I want everyone to be aware of aces.
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I want every woman to know, You know, that thing
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is really important.
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You know, babies are very smart and they're learning a
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lot, Um, very quickly, you know, one of the foundations
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for me I do not identify as a Christian at
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all. But there's a very famous midwife, Ina May Gaskin,
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who wrote a book called Spiritual Midwifery and It's Not
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Christian Base, but about spiritually midwife.
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And she, um, has a line in that book where
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she says, Treat ah, spiritually midwife treats every child as
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if he is the Christ child, and that has had
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such a big impact on me my entire career that
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every single baby deserves the same amount of love and
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attention and care and tenderness.
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Um, and one of the videos, I think was it
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Pope Francis of something about a revolution of tenderness?
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And that's something that we do in my practice and
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we and we model and it's I don't know, it's
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my drive and it's my it's my thing.
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Um, I really want to encourage dreams and goals setting
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with my mom's.
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It's something new.
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I wanna try.
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Oh my God, I have 30 seconds E.
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Especially our young are teen moms or moms are in
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difficult situations.
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That's something I really want to do and continue to
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encourage baby wearing and silence and mindfulness and prenatal XYZ
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something that I'd like to dio.
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I'm going to myself.
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Maybe I don't have to talk about myself that much.
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Um, e I have a lot of dreams, a lot
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of goals, and that keeps me going, and that gives
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me meaning and value and