Diane S Speier, PhD, practices psychotherapy and hypnotherapy, specializing in perinatal psychology, perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, and recovering from birth trauma in the UK. She is a member of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Conception to Age 2: the first 1001 critical days, advocating for improved infant and perinatal mental health in the House of Commons. Diane has written a chapter on birth trauma for the book Transforming Infant Wellbeing: research, policy and practice for the first 1001 critical days (2017, Routledge).

Before emigrating to the UK, Diane was the founder/director of The Family Tree Centre for Parents in New York, offering classes, groups and workshops for prospective and new parents for 20 years in the US. Diane became a certified childbirth educator and started attending births as a doula in 1978. Diane is the author of the book Life After Birth: A Parent’s Holistic Guide for Thriving in the Fourth Trimester (Praeclarus Press, 2019) drawing on her 40 years of experience to help parents make a smooth transition from pregnancy to parenthood. The book has an app attached to it called Digital Doula®2.0 and it’s designed to complement and supplement the book with additional material and resources not included in the book, and bringing the links in the book to life. The app is a virtual doula and is available at any time of day or night! Digital Doula®2.0  was first launched in November 2013 and has been upgraded and released on a cross platform basis in 2020. 

Diane is an international speaker at conferences on a range of subjects related to childbirth, the postnatal period, perinatal mental health, and parenting.

In this episode, we talked about:

• Having a baby includes the spiritual dimension, “welcoming in new spirits in embodied form”

• Facilitating birth as a soft landing for the new generation, so that they can begin life peacefully, that begins the tone for their life

• Diane attended the birth of her stepdaughter’s baby, Imogen, and felt she is a ‘crystal child’, who orchestrated Diane’s presence in her birth and beyond

• “The baby has its own electromagnetic field when it’s born that protects it, the ‘vivaxis’, the interim field between the womb and the outside world. It’s created by the triple warmer meridian in Traditional Chinese Medicine’. The vivaxis field is orientated towards the direction the baby was facing when it was born and it helps to make the transition and prevents any further traumatic event. When the baby has adapted to life on earth, the vivaxis disintegrates

• The vivaxis overlaps with The Fourth Trimester

• Eden Energy Medicine Training 

• For some babies who have experienced trauma, the vivaxis doesn’t disappear. This is known as  ‘Vivaxin Syndrome’.

• In pregnancy the mother and baby are sharing an energetic field

• It’s importance for mothers and stay close together (around 9 feet), as the babies feel the disconnection of the field otherwise

• During the Fourth Trimester: skin to skin (for smell, sound, tactile contact and bonding), recovery from birth, hormonal changes for both partners, the involution of the uterus, integrating the baby into your life and adapting into parenthood, spiritual connection as a family

• “The changes in the Fourth Trimester are almost as profound as the pregnancy itself”

• The general lack of support, care and information for the postnatal period

• Diane’s app ‘Digital Doula 2.0’

• Increasingly risk-averse society coupled with “overarching medicalisation of the birth process” nowadays, as well as the presence and pressure of social media

• Whilst only 3-6% of women experience Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after giving birth, 33-45% of women feel traumatised by their birth experience

• Improving the postnatal care with a support worker role to check on the new family

• The changing dynamic of couple relationships with a new baby- couples becoming a ‘duet’ and creating a harmony together 

• “It takes a village”: community fosters connection such as peer group, extended family, elders, professionals

• ‘Othermothering’: stepping in to help with childcare and maternal assistance. This form of community care is common within African-American culture and has roots in slavery

• Energy medicine to simply and easily reduce the stress of the fourth trimester. 

• Admitting that you’re not coping and getting help 

• “Instincts are there waiting to open up. They aren’t taught...Instincts are gut-level experiences”

• When baby’s cry a lot, women often think there’s something wrong with them or the baby. Self-judgement

• “Having a baby is a trial and error process. We have to make mistakes” 

• Discerning from a ‘need cry’ and a ‘memory cry’ 

• Listening to your own heart and tuning into the baby, rather than getting stuck in information overload

• Diane shares the analogy of trainee pilots having to stall the plane. We need to fail in order to learn

• Moving away from the desire for perfection and comparison, as it sets people up for mental health issues

• Diane’s Postpartum Wellness plan: W- ‘we’ E- ‘energy medicine’ L- ‘loving kindness’ L- ‘less is more’ N- ‘new normal’ E- ‘expectations’ S- ‘self-care’ S- ‘support’

• Creating the conditions for a soft landing 

Resources

Life After Birth: A Parent’s Holistic Guide for Thriving in the Fourth Trimester

Digital Doula website

Digital Doula 2.0 App:

Digital Doula 2.0 App - google

Diane Speier website

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