Welcome to the Postpartum University podcast, where we support you and your provider in understanding the science, the art, and the sacredness of healing after birth. I’m Maranda Bower, your host, your Postpartum Nutrition Specialist, and homesteading mom with four wild kids. It’s time to get you the holistic, whole-body healing that works. Hello, everyone. Of course, welcome to the Postpartum University podcast. Of course, I’m Maranda Bower, your host. Of course, of course, you guys know this and have been with me for some time. I’m so, so grateful. Today, we have a very important guest here. And I cannot tell you how excited I am to have this conversation. We’ve actually been trying to get this in the books for quite some time. And it’s one that you’re not going to hear anywhere else. I’m gonna open this up. We’re gonna say hello to Mitra Sessions. She’s a perinatal energy healing expert and creator of the Reiki for birth workers, Reiki for birth partners and Reiki for parents. She uses multiple modalities, including Reiki obviously, obviously, systematic kinesiology. And you do this acupuncture, and you’ve developed some simple yet effective energy techniques as well. I’m so excited to have you, Mitra. Tell us how you came into this field.
Mitra: Thank you, Maranda. I’m super happy to be here too. Thank you. Well, I’ve been an energy healer since 2010. And then I did the thing that I think lots of us do after we have our children. of wanting to start working with pregnant people. So after I had my first son in 2015, I really pivoted my work towards the pregnant population. And then I got to a point where I realised that I was so limited in how many people I could help. Energy work is so, so helpful during the whole perinatal period. And there aren’t very many people specialising in supporting people during that time. But it’s so powerful. There’s an OBGYN who trained in Reiki and she started giving Reiki to her patients when they were in labour and her personal C-section rate dropped from 20% to 5% just by adding Reiki into her birth room. So it’s got this very, very powerful power to support birthing people. So there was just me seeing the people in my office who I could see and I knew that like really I wanted more birthing people to have access to this amazing support. So I decided to create a training for birth workers because I thought these are, you know, birth workers are at the front line of birth. So these are like the people who can really get this work into into the field. So I created Reiki for Birth Workers and I included in it all this, all the stuff that I’d learned over my time as an energy healer and as somebody working in the perinatal area and created a training that basically allowed doulas, midwives, any other birth professionals who were interested to learn how to do really powerful things. in birth that maybe aren’t possible other ways. But energy healing, because we’re coming from a very different angle, we can all of a sudden start to do very different things. So teaching them how to do things like turn breech babies, move previous out of the way, like things that don’t have that we don’t have a lot of options for if they’re going on. So I created that. And then I started teaching that in Los Angeles. where I was living, I was partnering with a really awesome birth centre, they’re called Kindred Space LA, I don’t know if you’re familiar with them, they’re wonderful. And then I started teaching on zoom and able was able to teach birth workers around the world. So I’ve taught hundreds of birth workers how to do this. Then I evolved that training to become also for birth partners. So that it didn’t require there being a birth worker in the birth experience for a pregnant and birthing person to have access to this kind of support. So then I also teach that to partners. So really, yeah, I got into it the same way I think many of us do get into birth from our own experiences of becoming parents and realising how much support we need with that journey and me having this specific angle that didn’t seem to be available. When I was pregnant, I didn’t see anybody offering this kind of support, so I really wanted to make that available to more and more people. And it’s really my goal to have Reiki as standard care in the bathroom. That’s my big vision that I hold for the world.
Maranda: This is so beautiful. And I will tell you, for those of you who are listening in, and maybe you’re not sure of what Reiki is or maybe you are aware that this is obviously energy work and that kind of feels a little woo, especially if you’re listening into this and you love science as much as I do. I will tell you, I am a science nerd. You hear me all the time speak on science. I had my upteenth Reiki session this weekend because it is so powerful and there is actually… a lot of scientific data on the significance of this. Mitra, can you explain for those who are listening in, what is Reiki?
Mitra: Reiki is, you know, when your kid hurts themselves and you comfort them, you sit them on your lap and you hold them or you put your hand on their knee that they just bumped. And there’s this very deep presence and connection between you and your child in that moment. And your child gets better very quickly. You can make your child feel better when they hurt themselves much more quickly than another person can, right? The reason that happens is because when you’re in this space with your child as a parent, you are very, very deeply connected to source in that moment. And all of us have the ability to harness source energy, universal energy and use that for healing. All of us have that capacity. Reiki is an energy healing modality, a hands-on energy healing modality that amplifies that and gives us a system and a way to harness that energy from source that it’s just the energy of life, it’s life force energy, to harness that energy and to use it for healing and to use it to influence the energy that’s in our body. So more Eastern traditions really understand how energy moves in the body, but even from a very Western point of view, we can look at the energetic field of the heart or the electrical field of the heart away from away from the body, we can read those signals from the heart. So we are electromagnetic, energetic beings, we can use that energy from source to influence that energy in the body. So Reiki is Reiki by itself is just harnessing that source energy, putting your hands on someone and allowing their body to use that source energy to back up what’s going on in the body. With what I teach I do it in a slightly different way where we kind of manipulate that to hack the energy systems of the body to get the outcomes that we really need in birth. But it’s very gentle, it’s non-invasive, it has no contraindications, it’s totally safe in all moments, it’s basically tender loving energy from the universe that we’re all made up of, that we can use to essentially amplify what already is in existence within us.
Maranda: It’s such a beautiful explanation. And I feel like we have this understanding of what happens on a physical level, right? The biology, the chemistry, and we’re still learning that. There’s terms of women’s health, in terms of birth and postpartum and even pregnancy. But we don’t really talk about this energetic level, which is the physics, the quantum physics. It’s kind of like an unknown, almost elite topic, right? I was never good at physics. It was always for the for the elite students, right? How, what happens? energetically during pregnancy and birth and postpartum?
Mitra: We, we have, we need a lot more energy when we’re pregnant, right? We kind of, we know that experientially, that there’s a lot more energy required in our body. We need to eat more to get more energy, etc. So there’s an expansion of our energy field and a bigger requirement for energy in our energy body. There’s also the energy systems in our body, they don’t necessarily change, but the requirements on them really shift. The main source of that additional energy that we use when we’re pregnant and when we’re birthing is our kidneys. It’s our kidney energy. The kidney energy is considered like the car battery of the body. So everything all the energy systems need to function really well for us to be in an optimal state. But if any of them don’t, we can kind of cope. But if the kidneys are not functioning well, the car just doesn’t start. So we really have to have our kidneys in a good space. So we run down our kidney energy. If we don’t have enough energy from other sources, we run down our kidney energy and pray for it. and in birthing. And it’s really the main reason when you’re looking purely from an energetic perspective, it’s the main reason we get so depleted in postpartum is because we’ve run really run down our car battery. So we have to be we have to be replacing that and nourishing that so that we don’t run down that car battery, we don’t deplete those kidneys to to ensure that we’re in a better energetic position in in postpartum, then we have more energy, we’re not so tired, we’re not so depressed, we’re not so depleted, so exhausted, we can make enough milk, like all those things can happen when we’ve got that resource there. So all of a sudden our kidneys become like a really important, they’re always important, but like an extra important part of our energetic body that we need to take care of to support us through a healthy pregnancy and a, I don’t necessarily want to say an easy birth, but like a birth that we can handle, that we can manage that marathon of birth. And then even when we’re looking on the level of the chakras, different ones start to become really important. So the lower chakras, the root chakra, which is at the perineum, the sacral chakra, which is at the womb, the solar plexus, which is in the lower chakras, which is at the perineum, the solar plexus, which is at the perineum, the solar plexus, which is at the perineum, the solar plexus, which is at the perineum, the solar plexus, upper abdomen, these lower chakras start to become more important as more is happening in the lower part of our body. This is where our body really needs lots of energy. And the things that those chakras help us with also support us with birth. So the root chakra is about safety.
Mitra: So if we’re not feeling safe, that’s not a good, that’s not good for birthing. Right, we need to feel safe in our body. birth space. We need to feel powerful in our birth space. So if the chakras that govern these qualities are low in energy, then it’s difficult for us to hold those states of being to feel safe, to feel powerful. So it’s just another shift in how we’re going to nourish a pregnant body compared to how we might nourish a non-pregnant body because there’s just a different in how energy is required in the system to navigate that whole perinatal period. And when we don’t do that, that denies us the energetic framework to give us a really good experience throughout that whole period.
Maranda: If you’re a birth and postpartum professional who wants to give the families you see serve some solid holistic evidence-based information regarding nutrition, repletion, and nourishing your body after baby, this is for you. I have 18 beautiful pages in a handout form that is completely free. Free full guide to nutrition completion, common misconceptions, supplement support, favorite recipes, 30 healthy and quick snacks. snacks, and so many more. You can download your free collection with handouts at postpartumU, that’s the letter you .com /handouts. So how, I mean, this brings me to my next question. So how do we support the body during this sacred time? There’s so much involved in the intricacies of the body and the energy system. and as you said the kidneys, what do we do? How do we have our body set up in the right framework?
Mitra: Yeah, so there are lots of ways we can do it. Any kind of energy work can help, especially if you have this understanding of what the framework and the context is during the perinatal period. So you can target those things effectively and you know, you can do it with yoga, you can do it… with food. There are so many different ways that you could approach it. I personally think Reiki is the best way because you can work with all of the energy systems with Reiki. And Reiki is very, very simple. The key thing for working with it is around intention and intention setting. So if you know what you want to achieve, you don’t have to have loads of different technical know how to be able to do it, you just need to have this very basic skill and know how to apply it, which it’s, it’s really simple, it’s very easy to learn very quickly. So I personally think that’s the best way, which is why out of all the different modalities and skills that I had, Reiki was the one that I wanted to share with birth work, because I know it’s the most straightforward, simplest. simplest, one that you don’t have to spend loads of time learning and have loads of understanding to be able to apply. And it’s also something that we can do for ourselves. So yes, you can have a practitioner do it for you, but you can also do it for yourself if you if you learn how to do Reiki. That’s beautiful. I have to ask, is there a difference between the energetics of pregnancy labor, and postpartum?
Mitra: Yes. So they’re very similar. So the kidneys are always important, for example. The chakras, they all remain important throughout all three phases, but just the priorities are maybe a bit different, and they also shift depending on the individual. So, for example, some of the things that we do in pregnancy, who had a disempowering birth experience, who’s now going into a second or subsequent birth, is going to need more support with their power center, their solar plexus, than somebody who doesn’t have a history of disempowerment. So it’s also like your unique makeup and what you’re going to need help with. If you’ve had a historical sexual trauma or pregnancy loss, you’re going to need more help with your sacral chakra than somebody who hasn’t had those experiences. During birth, the sacral labor, shall I say, during labor, the sacral chakra’s importance is amplified, for example, because here we are, like in the womb. So, so we really need to have as much energy in this part of the body as we can. as possible. So it does shift. And it’s also so unique to the individual that that it’s good to be attuned to what your specific needs are energetically, as well as just looking at that phase that you’re in.
Maranda: That’s beautiful. I keep saying that’s beautiful. But truly, it is in such a deep and unique way. And it is in such a deep and unique way. And often, again, we don’t use this energy to our advantage. And there’s so much benefit. And I will tell you, if you’re like, “Man, this sounds really woo, I’m not sure about this. I’m telling you, go look into the science because there is so much juiciness and goodness into this.” Again, this is something that I feel very strongly about as someone who is in the scientific field. And find that this is incredibly beneficial, not just to myself personally, and I’ve witnessed the benefits, but also to the clients that I serve. So definitely look into this. Where, Mitra, can people find you so that they can learn more about this information and your programs?
Mitra: You can find me at my website, which is Reiki for both. .com. I have a guide with more detail about the stuff we’re talking about, the energetics of birth, which is at https://www.reikiforbirth.com/. I’m also on Instagram. My handle is also @reikiforbirth. And of course, we have all of those in the show notes. Thank you all for listening in. I hope you love this episode. Be sure to leave a review. And meet you at Mitra. thank you immensely for sharing your knowledge and for doing this work and bringing this to birth workers and to birthing parents everywhere because we need an energetic shift. Truly. Thank you. We really need this. So thank you for that.
Mitra: Thanks for having me, Maranda.
Maranda: Of course. Love this episode. Let us know by leaving an amazing review. Your support is everything. Want more? Head over to postpartumu .com, that’s postpartum, the letter u .com, and explore how we support moms like you and holistic whole body healing that’s specific for the unique needs of mamas in the years postpartum. See you there.
