Did you know that the connective tissue in your body—fascia—not only supports movement and stability but also holds the stories of our lives and can influence a baby’s position during pregnancy? What if understanding fascia could transform the way you support your pregnant and postpartum clients? Tune in to discover how this incredible system impacts everything from cellular communication to birth outcomes!

Fascia is an amazing structure in the body that connects and surrounds everything. It is made of collagen that creates support and flexibility within the tissues it surrounds and has many functions including: 

• Support 
• Protection
• Slide and glide to help movement
• Force transmission
• Stability to joints
• Maintenance of shape and position
• Cellular communication
• Sensory system functionality
• Fluid dynamics
• It is a part of our unconscious

In short the fascial system is an information superhighway for the body. 

Although there is little research on how our fascial trains are affected during pregnancy we do know they are important. The deep posterior fascial line that goes from the calcaneus to the occiput crossing over at the sacrum can impact the sacrotuberous ligament of the uterus. The spiral line crosses from the rib cage to the hip and down the IT band. This affects the body’s ability to create space for the baby to grow. The superficial front line impacts the rectus abdominis and linea alba which is important when treating DRA.

It is important to take a full body approach to all clients but especially pregnant clients because pregnancy creates changes that affect the entire fascial system. If you are interested in learning more about the fascia in the body in relation to pregnancy the Institute for Birth Healing has created a new class called Pregnancy, Pain and Beyond that addresses how to work the fascia of the pregnant body. Registration opens on May 5, 2025.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

What do you do when a client is stuck with their shoulders rounded and head forward but they are not able to move to a more neutral position? 

In today's episode, Lynn talks with Dr. Anna Hammond, PT, DPT, a lead therapist at Core Exercise Solutions, about ways to examine the shoulders and ribs to improve posture and make lasting changes.

NOTE: Anna visually shows the movements in the video and the audio is not always clear as to what she is doing. Please refer to the YouTube links referenced for the visuals.  https://youtu.be/Zq-Z_FV1-mE

As pregnancy progresses the growth of the baby causes the body to change. These changes need to occur but can expose imbalances in the pregnant person’s body that can affect their ability to move with balance and ease. They can also impact the load on the pelvic floor and create potential issues with prolapse. Addressing posture during pregnancy can set a pregnant person up for a more successful experience postpartum.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

How confident are you working with clients who want help turning their breech positioned babies?

Do you have clients who want to try and deliver vaginally even though their baby is breech? 

Over the past few months, in preparation for the Birth Healing Summit, Lynn has been learning a lot about breech birth. In today’s podcast, she shares the highlights of what she has learned and talks about what we can do as bodyworkers, PTs, and OTs to help clients with breech babies.

Breech births account for 4% of all term babies. Although breech presentation is considered a normal variation of birth in most of the world, in the USA most physicians and hospitals require the birthing person to have a c-section when the baby is breech. Listen in to learn what is required (or rather what isn’t) to support the client and the baby during a vaginal delivery of a baby that is breech. Lynn also shares some information you can use prenatally to help give a baby more space, opportunity and balance.

Keep an eye out for Lynn’s new pregnancy course, Pregnancy Pain and Beyond, which will be opening up for registration on May 5th. This course will give you a strong foundation for working with pregnant clients and expanding beyond just addressing pain. You will learn how to prepare the body for birth, including utilizing techniques to help with breech positioning. 

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Have you ever noticed how your connection with a client impacts their treatment session? What happens when you don’t connect with a client?

In today’s episode Lynn talks with Susannah Haarmann about the importance of creating connections with your clients.

Our current medical model is very top down. We, as providers, are supposed to know what to do and our clients just have to receive the guidance we are providing. In truth, our sessions are more effective when we walk beside our clients and help them be an active participant in their care. By working together, we help the nervous system stay in an optimal response which helps with healing.

Susannah’s tips to connect with clients and improve treatments: realize treatments are not a checklist, but require a connection to a person who has a nervous system, describe what you are going to do before you do it and continually ask for consent, give the client autonomy and control (they are doing this for themselves no for you).

Susannah’s advice for practitioners: know your boundaries, create rituals between clients, take care of yourself not just your clients 

Susannah Haarmann will be joining us for the 2025 Birth Healing Summit! She will be talking about the nervous system. The Birth Healing Summit will take place April 7 - 18, 2025.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues.  

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

ABOUT TODAY’S SPEAKER

Susannah Haarmann, PT, WCS, CLT specializes in pelvic health treatment. She is a certified lymphedema therapist and an international leader in advancing rehab care for patients with  cancer. In 2013 Susannah entered the ranks of ABPTS Women’s Clinical Specialists in 2013; an honor of which only 333 licensed physical therapists hold in the United States as of 2016.

Susannah is a faculty member for the Herman & Wallace Pelvic Rehabilitation Institute teaching continuing education courses nationally to medical practitioners on the topics of pelvic dysfunction and rehabilitation during and after breast cancer treatment. She is the creator of the 2-day course “Rehabilitation for the Breast Cancer Patient" which she teaches internationally.

Susannah is the writer and artistic renderer for the Your Core PT book series which provides easy access to patient handouts and clinical reference tools for patients and practitioners. 

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Have you ever had clients tell you that their doctor recommended they be induced because their baby was too big only to find out that the baby was 5-7 lbs.? 

In today’s episode Lynn talks with Kate White, the founder and director of the Center for Prenatal and Perinatal Psychology, about the impact inductions or threats of inductions can have on both the mother and the child.

Clients should be empowered to make a decision that is best for them and what they believe to be best for the baby once presented with all the facts.

It has been shown that if parents are included in decision making there is no trauma. Trauma can occur when the relational aspect between parent and provider falls apart. Kate teaches clients to make decisions using the acronym BRAIN. 

B - Benefits

R - Risks (understand)

A - Alternatives

I - Intuition

N - Now or Nothing 

Potential impacts on the baby from induction include: time is a trigger, authentic impulses have been overridden, not being able to determine his/her authenticity, difficulty with finding his/her way, challenges with decision making, feeling overpowered, feeling rushed, tempo feels pushed toward the completion of a project, and prone to collapse.

Reference to Rachel Reed’s book: Why induction matters

Listen to today’s podcast to learn Kate’s advice on what you can do to help support your clients who are navigating induction and what can be done to reduce any trauma for your clients and their baby.

Kate White will be joining us for the 2025 Birth Healing Summit. She will be talking about her 3 steps to approach birth. Join the Institute for Birth Healing mailing list for more details about the upcoming Birth Healing Summit taking place April 7 - 18, 2025. Registration will open on March 24, 2025.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues.  

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

ABOUT TODAY’S SPEAKER

Kate White is the Founder and Director of the Center for Prenatal and Perinatal Programs and the Prenatal and Perinatal Somatics Institute. Kate has developed educational training programs in understanding the baby's experience, especially how to prevent and treat birth trauma. She is the co-creator of Integrated Prenatal and Perinatal Dynamics, Founding Director of the Education Department at APPPAH, and the creator of the Prenatal and Perinatal Educator Certificate Program for professionals (an 18-day basic training program and a 12 day advanced program).

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

We all know that pregnancy can produce some aches and pains in the body, but what are they really telling us and how might they impact birth?

In today’s podcast Lynn talks with Gabrielle Brennan, a midwife and body worker in Australia, who shares what pains and aches are telling you and your client about your client’s pregnant body.

Pain during pregnancy is not normal. It may be common, but when there is pain or discomfort in the pregnant body, it means that something is unstable or imbalanced and needs to be addressed. Often, aches and pains are due to the baby’s lack of space in the body. The baby will maneuver into a creative position to avoid tight or tense areas in the body which can often be uncomfortable for mom.

By working with the body to create space and get the baby into a good position, you are helping set your client up for a smoother birth. It will be easier for your client’s body to perform its job during labor and birth when there are fewer restrictions and when there is better alignment, and you will also help the baby have an easier time getting into the birth canal. 

Listen in for the details on what to address and look for when your pregnant clients come in complaining of different aches and pains. Gabrielle will give you some great tools for addressing the round ligament which is extremely important for helping the baby get into a better position.

Gabrielle Brennan will be joining us for the 2025 Birth Healing Summit! She will be talking about the importance of troubleshooting early labor. Join the Institute for Birth Healing mailing list for more details about the upcoming Birth Healing Summit taking place April 7 - 18, 2025.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues.  

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

ABOUT TODAY’S SPEAKER

Gabrielle Brennan is a nurse/midwife and personal trainer who provides bodywork and techniques to encourage optimal fetal positioning for labor. She is dedicated to getting pregnant people out of pain and attuned with their body to create an optimal birth. For more information, check out her website at: https://glorrilabourbodywork.com.au/about

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Birth Interventions are so commonplace these days that we just assume they are normal and ok. But what do these interventions really do to our bodies? 

In today’s episode, Lynn talks with midwife, Bernadette Lack, about the impact birth interventions have on the body and what healing needs to happen because of them.

As a society, we may be unaware of the impact modern medical interventions have on the body as it has become largely normalized to give blood, to have inductions, and to even have c-sections. What we may not realize is that the body is programmed by thousands of years of physiology and many of these interventions are not part of the program. 

When a medical intervention occurs, the body continues to relive the experience and can feel stuck in that time from the past. It continues to relive the trauma instead of acknowledging that it is over.

So, as practitioners we can make a difference by getting curious: How does an epidural impact the relationship between baby and body? What healing has to occur because of any medical interventions that my client experienced? 

Connection to the body is a connection to one’s ability to heal. As practitioners we are in the unique position to go into the stuckness of interventions and hold space for our clients to heal what needs to be healed. Often this can occur through acknowledgement and honoring. 

Becoming a mother for the 1st or 9th time is a unique opportunity for a mother to be supported by others. The safety felt through this support and recognition can impact the body and baby for a lifetime. 

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

ABOUT TODAY’S SPEAKER

Bernadette is a midwife, personal trainer, wife, mother, published academic and speaker. She has worked as a midwife in Australia and overseas since 2007, across homebirth, large city hospitals and in remote First Nations communities.

Visit her website: https://coreandfloor.com.au/blogs/meet-the-team/bernadetta-b

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Do you feel you need to avoid certain points on the body during pregnancy for fear it might stimulate birth?  

In today’s episode, Lynn speaks with Suzanne Yates, a Traditional Chinese Medicine provider and shiatzu practitioner,, about how she works with the body during pregnancy. Suzanne shares the areas she addresses in the pregnant body and her belief that women’s bodies are strong and powerful.

Listen in as Suzanne talks about how work in the first trimester is important because it is the foundation for the entire pregnancy. She talks about how there are no forbidden parts with acupressure and acupuncture in the first trimester and shares the cues the body gives, so you can become better attuned with the body to improve your treatment sessions. Suzanne also talks about what points on the body can help strengthen the cervix in some women which can also strengthen the connection to the womb.

Suzanne shares how when we do not let fear in, when we touch a point on a body we are helping the body do what it needs to do. We as providers do not create a miscarriage we support the body to finish the miscarriage. These are transformative points and we need to respect the power of the points to help transform the body. If the baby and mom are strong there is little we can do to end the pregnancy. 

You don’t want to miss all the insights Suzanne shares in how Chinese medicine techniques can support women especially in the first trimester.

Suzanne Yates will be joining us for the 2025 Birth Healing Summit! She will be sharing 3 specific techniques to support the birthing person. Join the Institute for Birth Healing mailing list for more details about the upcoming Birth Healing Summit taking place April 7 - 18, 2025.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues.  

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

ABOUT TODAY’S SPEAKER

Suzanne Yates is an acclaimed international therapist, teacher, researcher and innovator. A published author and expert in the field of pre and postnatal shiatsu and bodywork, she has taught doctors, midwives, nurses, shiatsu therapists and massage practitioners to work with mothers and babies over the past 30 + years.

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Do you have clients who are told they will need to have a cesarean birth because their baby is in a breech position, but your client still wants a vaginal birth?

In today’s episode Lynn talks with mother of 4 soon to be 5, Anna Crow, about her experience with breech birth and how she made her dream of having a natural breech birth possible. 

Anna, originally from WI, had moved to CO and was pregnant with her second child. She found out at 40+ weeks that her baby was breech. She desired a natural home birth, but in the state of Colorado, midwives are not allowed to deliver a breech baby. Anna wound up traveling back to Wisconsin to have the birth she desired with a midwife who had over 500 breech births to her name.

Due to higher liability with a breech birth many physicians are denied learning how to deliver this normal presentation for birth. It is up to moms who desire the opportunity to have a vaginal delivery to reach out to the local hospitals and practices as well as legislators to make the change they desire to hear. If you are interested in learning more, Breech Without Borders is an organization that supports breech births and has resources on their website: https://www.breechwithoutborders.org/. 

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode.

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE

Do you wonder what impact birth has on the baby, let alone a traumatic one? The early years of life can influence a person’s entire life. 

In today’s podcast, Lynn’s guest is midwife and author, Geneva Montano. Geneva shares what you can do to create a shift to help your clients and their babies heal their births. 

She shares about the imprints we all receive in the first 6 minutes, 6 hours, 6 days, 6 weeks and 6 years of life. What happens in those early moments can set up their beliefs about the world and about their safety. These early imprints; however, can be shifted through the process of replaying them.

Geneva shares about what each stage creates. The first 6 minutes are related to grief around leaving the womb and finding safety in a new environment. The first 6 hours focus on co-regulation between the mother or primary caretaker and the baby. The first 6 days are centered on adjusting to being in the world. The first 6 weeks is about learning to receive from others. The first 6 years impact the subconscious thought and belief systems.

In each of the times there are opportunities for injuries but also repair. How we help prepare clients for this is important as there are ways they can help replay these moments and create a different imprint.

Listen in to hear all the golden nuggets Geneva has to offer about these impactful moments in time. 

Geneva Montano will be joining us for the 2025 Birth Healing Summit! She will be talking about the magic of a baby-led birth. Join the Institute for Birth Healing mailing list for more details about the upcoming Birth Healing Summit taking place April 7 - 18, 2025.

Have a comment or question about today’s episode? Message Lynn on Instagram or Facebook, or Email Lynn.

If you enjoyed today’s podcast and are interested in more topics to support your clinical practice and treating your clients, find us on your favorite podcast app and subscribe so you don’t miss an episode and share this podcast with your friends and colleagues.  

To learn more visit: InstituteforBirthHealing.com

ABOUT TODAY’S SPEAKER

Geneva Montano is a Colorado native and mother of four. She has been a birth worker since 2003 and is a Registered and Professional Midwife in Denver, Certified Doula, Registered Yoga Teacher, CPR instructor, body and energy worker, teacher, mentor, author, artist, and activist. Geneva has had a lifelong passion for spirituality, art, and self-exploration. She believes that each birth teaches her and the families she serves the life lessons they have been seeking.

Visit her website: https://www.genevamontano.com/

Check out her book: Wisdom From the Womb: The Magic of a Baby-Led Birth

Visit Institute for Birth Healing to learn more about how to care for the pregnant and postpartum body: CLICK HERE