There are a lot of things to think about when you’re trying to conceive, from what time of the month to have sex to how often. If you’re like me, you want to do everything possible to increase your chances of getting pregnant. If I were trying to conceive again, these are the things I would do.

What you’ll learn:
1:49 How Reiki helps with pregnancy
2:36 Importance of assessing relationships
3:21 Why developing a hobby is helpful during pregnancy
4:08 Choosing the proper medical provider
4:36 Importance of knowing the laws of the state related to birth
5:25 The type of beliefs about birth
5:53 Why writing a reasonable birth plan is critical
7:40 Is internal work important?
8:09 Benefits of Reiki and Chiropractic care during pregnancy
8:32 Why hiring a pregnancy support/birth doula will help you a lot

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Professional bio
The Carolina Sotomayor Podcast is brought to you by Carolina Sotomayor and the Fertility Foundation.

Carolina Sotomayor is an Expert Womb Healer who helps women conceive by removing physiological blockages with Reiki. She is the host of the Carolina Sotomayor Podcast, a show that covers everything from fertility to postpartum to motherhood, and the creator of Fertility Foundation Collective, an online membership that helps women heal at their own pace to boost their fertility.

Carolina has served over 500 women from around the world to heal. She is passionate about helping women create their families. As a result, there are over 60 reiki babies in the world.

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Full episode transcript:

Hi, I am Carolina, your podcast host and expert Ricky Womb healer. And before we start a podcast episode today, I wanna thank Jenny O for her five star review and rating on Apple Podcast. And she stated, I’ve been lucky enough to. Gotten to know Carolina before the podcast.

I instantly loved her energy and care for women during their fertility journey. This podcast is everything you didn’t know you needed. So I just wanted to thank Jenny so much for that chat out to you. Thank you for supporting our podcast and letting us be a part of your fertility journey. So today’s podcast episode is really important because if I had to do things over again, I would definitely wanna know these things.

If I was trying to conceive again, this is what I would. And I think that this is prefacing understanding that this is coming from a spiritual and a healing perspective in addition to also being trauma informed and understanding how to prevent more trauma from happening. I would have definitely learned reiki during my pregnancy so that I could have the ultimate healing tool whenever I had stress.

Anxiety, nausea, or pain. Because being Reiki attuned, you have the ability to heal yourself. You have the ability to reduce pain automatically with different symbols, and there’s different levels of reiki. So I would’ve learned reiki as soon as I found out I was pregnant, or if not as part of my fertility toolbox.

That would’ve been so life changing. To be able to heal all of the things I went through during my pregnancy and the nausea and the pain, and to reduce the vomiting, to reduce the pelvic floor pain, I would’ve learned reiki right away. The second thing is I would assess my relationships to ensure. I felt emotionally safe in them and the relationships I had during my pregnancy are actually very triggering for me, and I am actually don’t have those relationships around anymore.

I have made meaningful, healthy, emotionally safe relationships now, and I’ve learned to set boundaries in how to have healthy conversations about when things are not working for. I’ve learned how necessary it is to set boundaries in relationships and also trust the red flags when people present them or trust what I’m hearing when people tell me who they are.

The third thing is I would’ve developed a hobby that I’m super passionate about. I use this as a key part in my coaching structure. Anytime I am anxious, I will do that. Hobby as a secondary way of healing. Anything you’re curious about is gonna come from your womb, which is your sacral plexus chakra. So anytime that you are feeling anxious, sad, or mad, Or racing thoughts.

It’s not only just gonna ground you, but it’s also going to allow that sacro Plexus chakra to be open and nurtured and keep healthy. So having a hobby that you’re curious about will lead you to have a passion. And learn more things about yourself and also connect you maybe to other friends or friendships.

So it’s very important. Hobbies are critical. The fourth thing, I would choose a medical provider that aligns with the type of care and birth that I choose. I. I would ask for the provider statistics like induction rates, cesarean rates. I would also make sure that I understand what hospitals and birthing centers and what type of birth environments that they support or are legally allowed to provide services for into.

The fifth thing is I would research my state’s laws related to birth and what they allow. In some states, a home birth can be attended by a certified nurse midwife or C N M. In other states, it is a felony for a certified nurse midwife to attend a home birth and assist in the state of Nebraska. So where you want to give birth is so important, can really change your birth experience.

and how supportive people are of your birth plan. So that could be at home, could be at a birthing center, maybe it’s a birthing center attached to a hospital, or maybe it’s a hospital. So it just depends on what type of birth that you’re wanting and researching. And also making sure that that provider can support that type of birth in the state that you’re in.

I would dive in lastly to the type of beliefs I have around my birth and where did these beliefs come from and what do I want my beliefs to become? As a practitioner of Reiki, I develop new beliefs all the time for the things that I’m healing, but I’m also helping people work through those beliefs around birth to make sure that they’re working towards.

As pain free, as complicated, free birth as possible for what they are wanting. Lastly, write a reasonable birth plan. Knowing what is a nice to have and what is an understanding what is birth is truly completely out of my control that I can plan for everything. , but I may not get everything on my birth plan.

So things that are in your control could be like aromatherapy, asking for a water tub to labor in having. The ability to eat, asking perhaps maybe the gown that I’m going to be giving birth in. There’s like birthing dresses now that are very soft, very modern, very beautiful. They also, some companies sell matching outfits for the newborn, so you can look super like put together right after pushing out that baby, if that’s important to.

I think understanding that a birth plan is just that, it’s just a plan and sometimes plans go awry. We are having this tiny. Soul come through the world and they have their own ways of doing things. So they might come in fast and furious, they might be slow or things may pop up. You just don’t know how your body is gonna go through that, and you might end up in a C-section.

But understanding like what is the most important thing? For you and your birth is actually a key takeaway is I have some mamas who say at the end, I just wanna have a healthy baby in my arms and I’ll be happy. Well, that’s easy. We can definitely do that. That’s, you know, really. Yeah, it’s easy to hit.

Just depends on what you’re wanting. Like if you’re wanting to push and catch your baby. But if you don’t get to catch your baby, how will you feel about your birth experience? And I think it’s really important to have that internal work and know and have those conversations with trusted friends of like, what was important to you?

What did you really love about your birth? And also understanding that a lot of people are gonna love. They’re gonna love to tell you all their negative stories. You’re gonna need to have a conversation. Say, you know what? I would really love and validate your birth story, but maybe a few months after I give birth to mine, I’ll be in a place where I can hear.

Right now I’m only trying to hear positive birth stories. The next thing I would do is I would regularly get reiki and chiropractic care. Chiropractic care really is important cuz your spine changes as your baby grows and the pressures and within your hips also can be a lot of that pain and pelvic floor pain and around ligament pain can be really with a good Webster certified chiropractor.

And the last thing is I would hire pregnancy and labor support birth worker. Who is rep and roll and I trusted, I wouldn’t go with the first one I would interview between three and five. I would not go with an agency just because I think that there’s so much red tape with birth agencies or birth doula agencies.

I would go with more of an independent or maybe a team and I would read the contracts. All of them have contracts. I wouldn’t go with someone who didn’t have a contract. How long are they gonna labor with you? After so much time? Are they gonna be relieved? And someone else is gonna come in, so that’s why maybe a team is better.

Do you get to meet with both doulas? How much care are you gonna get before? How much access do you have with them during your pregnancy? Are they gonna do a postpartum visit? Are they gonna do a prenatal visit? How many hours are they gonna be at the hospital? That’s really, really super important because some contracts, and I think some of the doulas that I have seen, Put a cap at how many hours their contract is.

And then, so if you’re, if they’re with you at the hospital and you’re, maybe you’re six hours in like, okay, my time’s up. But then where are you left with support? Then it’s gonna leave you high and dry and that’s not the experience you want while you’re actively pushing or that you have to like write them a check.

Or settle a debt shortly after baby’s born. So make sure you’re looking at your contracts and you’re looking and asking these kind of questions as to. Like how long is their support? What does the support look like? How much access do they have to you? What if they get sick? Who is gonna be their backup?

Can you meet with their backup? Are they gonna come with you to your provider? Are they gonna mesh with your provider? Ask your provider. Do they allow a doula in the room? Have they worked with that particular doula or birth support worker? Before it’s really important to ask all those kind of things.

Are they specialized? Some of them might be more experienced or might specialize in some type of, like, they might have special training for V A C, so a vaginal birth after cesarean. So maybe you’re having a V a C birth and you want a doula that has that, cuz that kind of training will be more specialized and have specific scenarios.

Items that they are trained to consider. And because as labor support worker or a birth worker, they are there to inform and give you the pros and cons of every birth option that’s presented to you while you’re in labor. And that way they are your advocate for all the things you have planned together up into your birth.

The last thing I would do is know that you can change your provider at any. They work for you. That includes doulas too. Fire them. If they’re not for you, then fire them. Understand that you have a contract probably with a doula, but, and you might lose money, but like these people are going to be around the most important person you’re bringing into your lives.

You need to be a hundred percent emotionally safe with them, and that’s why I recommend interviewing. You can go and do a meet and greet. You’re gynecologist. You can go and do a meet and greet with a midwife. They have those appointments set apart on their calendar. That is a very normal thing. You might be the first person doing it in your circle or in your family, but that’s okay.

You’re a generational breaker anyway, so I don’t think there’s so many options for you. You just have to explore. I hope this is helpful for you and if you have any questions about getting ready, For birth or getting ready for pregnancy or fertility, please shoot me a DM on Instagram at the Carolina Soto, and I would love to chat with you.

I hope you have a wonderful day and just know I’m thinking of you.