Alternative Therapies During Pregnancy

Su Laurent: Hello! I am Su Laurent. I am a consultant pediatrician and I am a medical advisor for Baby Channel. We come today to Viveka which is a center which provides integrated healthcare for adults, children, and babies. We have come to meet several of the practitioners who work here and see what goes on. Male Speaker: Do you mind if we quickly listen to your baby's heartbeat? Muriel: It's alright. Male Speaker: And then Gauri can give you a treatment. Have you had any treatments during this pregnancy? Muriel: Yes, this is maybe fourth treatment. Male Speaker: Breathing sounds good, doesn't it? Muriel: Very strong. Male Speaker: Yeah! Baby is running around in there. Baby's heartbeat is about 150 a minute. And it's a great pleasure for me to be with Gauri, in the integrated clinic and to be doing this together. It's really a lovely thing to do. Gauri: And I am not going to be complacent, so I am going to treat you as if you are a first-time mother and treat you exactly like that because every pregnancy I feel, it has to be treated like a completely new event and to honor the baby who is here and to honor your body. And to do the same drainage, the same reflexology, and to really keep on loosening the muscles and the thighs. For instance, I could just keep on doing some muscle release techniques. Every time you come to see us, we will be doing that because we want this birth to be even better than the last one, even more gentle and more relaxed feel. While I am doing this, I may just call Debbie for a few minutes so that we can have a double treatment which I like to do because if you are here with me for an hour, it's nice to help the mother to relax even more by just doing a bit more on the feet at the same time. So as I work on the whole of the uterus, I'll also check and see if you got a little bit of extra gas or little bloating in the colon which you have actually. So today, we'll have to do abdominal toning with a little bit of pancreatic drainage. This usually is done for a total of 20 minutes. While I am doing that, I invite you to join me in visualizing that your baby is very happy in your womb and you welcome your baby because you've already started to bond with your baby now. The baby has already been welcomed into your family, and all the other children and your lovely husband already seem to be giving your baby an identity of the baby's home. Then the baby can slowly begin to test the space within your pelvis because all babies are born with an intrinsic knowledge of how to be born. They are growing within the world of genetic programming on how to present and how to be born. As all the fear from the mother's heart is released, that birthing is a positive experience, is a gentle experience. It is a loving experience and a comfortable one for both mother and child. And in your case, you have already proved that it can be the best the day of your life. Here is a gorgeous opportunity to have one more of those wonderful days in your life which is a blessing for you and indeed for this gorgeous little baby in here, a fabulous, fabulous chance to be born through a mother who has already given birth beautifully so that this baby is coming with a lot of power, with a lot of knowledge, with a lot joy. As I finish the pancreatic treatment, I gently cover that bit up very gently, just do a few releases of your neck on the back because you have been sitting up quite straight for a while. As you are relaxing, just draw my finger down the forehead down to the tick of your nose. As you do so, and visualizing for you as well, as I invite you to take your mind forward to the day of the birth of your gorgeous fifth baby. And to see how you will be 10 times more relaxed than you ever have been. As you release the front side, as you go deeper and deeper into relaxation, this end often slow through to your baby through your uterine arteries. The baby also feels very calm. Thereby relaxation during the pregnancy on a regular basis. So at least 10 or 15 minutes a day, gives your baby that sense of tuning into your relaxation. Your baby will just automatically breathe throughout of your baby. As I test your arm for looseness, I am checking to see how relaxed you are and I am totally delighted that all the muscles in your body are twice as relaxed as this arm muscle. So when I drop this arm to your side, double the relaxation in your body. I have just invited Debbie to come and join us because we are restricted for our time and so I invite Debbie to join me in the usual way that we do with all our clients. I'd like to have two therapies together so that we maximize the gentle softness and preparation that we are introducing into your system to be maximized. So Debbie is doing some reflexology and I invite Debbie to work on the pancreatic zones of the feet so that as I am doing the pancreatic treatment, you can also be stimulating those zones and working on the pelvic ligaments and a little bit of pelvic drainage of the feet on the reflex points. Of course, the most important thing that you'll also be invited to do is to keep to a healthy eating pattern which is being invited to give up, especially in the last four weeks of your pregnancy. During your birthing process, when anybody touches you to give you some very gentle massage or reflexology, you'll be able to become twice as relaxed, releasing twice as much endorphins which are your feel good hormones, which are also your own morphine-like substances, which will make you feel totally elated all the way through your birthing process. Coming to the treatments in the clinic here, is a training for a wonderful release of endorphins because no doubt, two practitioners working on you right now, your central nervous system is feeling very supported and is releasing large quantities of fabulous endorphins for you. Su Laurent: Hello Gauri! Thank you very much and thank you Muriel, and thank you also Debbie. Debbie: Thank you. Su Laurent: Can I start as well by asking you to what that felt like? You looked amazing to me. Muriel: It is very relaxing and maybe also because I had two women working on me, so it's fantastic. Su Laurent: Nothing very unusual to have two women working on you? Female Speaker: It is, but also the voice of Gauri I think is very special; the way she talks, what she says, it just takes me -- Su Laurent: So you are visualizing out there as well. I thought it was just so wonderful relaxing. Can you just quickly tell us how your birth with Gauri differed from your other two natural births? Muriel: I think I was much better prepared, much more confident and looking forward to it. The day of the birth I was really, that's the day, very actually excited and happy to go there and very, very positive. Also, more knowledgeable and I had some fears about, for instance, I had the fear that if I was pushing too much everything was coming out of me, but it was just a funny fear. But I talked to Gauri about it and I then she just like taking the treatment session, explaining to me how my body was made and how I push half of the baby, my whole intestine and my lower -- So also some funny fears like I said you can talk through and that was very helpful. Su Laurent: Thank you. And Gauri, it's an unusual combination to be both an obstetrician and a healer. Can you tell us a little bit about what you are doing and what makes the difference? Gauri: It is very simple really, because a woman's body has -- it's got few structures there; lymphatic blood vessels, bones, ligaments, muscles. So the birth passage as such has to be cleared as much as possible. We try our very best to help mothers to realize that the birthing passages are mostly soft tissues through which a baby can be born. But a lot of mothers for instance can have a lot of fear which constricts the muscles in the pelvis. We have to work harder on some mothers than others. Some mothers, very easily flowing to understanding and helping the tissues to become as softest it can be to allow the baby to breathe out of their body. Su Laurent: Gauri, thank you very much. It's been really fascinating watching you work and also very relaxing. And thank you also Muriel for letting us watch what was happening.