Traumatic Transformation with Gunjani Patel

Introduction

Welcome to my podcast Traumatic Transformations where we help you find hope peace and purpose after a big life change or dramatic event. I'm your host Gunjani Patel and I'm a licensed mental health therapist trauma specialist neuroscience nerd. Join me as I dive deep into resiliency post-traumatic growth and normalize mental health to reduce the stigma associated with it. In each episode, I plan to deliver science-backed actionable tips and strategies so you can take back control over your life and be inspired to be the best version of yourself with each day forward.

Tune in every Tuesday for a featured guest and every Thursday for a solo episode with me where we unpack mind-body brain and spirit connections related to each episode with the featured guest. Just a quick disclaimer before we begin today the purpose of this podcast is to inform you, educate you, and raise your awareness. It is not intended to replace any medical advice or professional help-seeking that you may need. Please use this information wisely and any opinion that I cast is not to replace any medical advice. Before we start today I just wanted to ask you a favor if you like what you hear today don't forget to subscribe so you never have to miss an episode thank you so much. And if you rate and review it would really help us with the algorithm and people can easily search the show if they would like to. I would really love to hear your feedback and what you have to say so I can bring you the content that's most fit for you thank you so much.

In this episode, we have with us Ayelet Schwell, a doula, speaker, and educator for mothers and work professionals. I especially love that she's joining us because she's a true New Yorker at heart. She was born in Brooklyn, New York but is now residing in Israel with her family. I'm really excited to have you here. Over the 16 years of working in perinatal care, she has used her experience knowledge, and intuition to guide mothers as they create their own positive powerful burst stories. Thank you and welcome to the show Ayelet so happy to have you here.

Speaker 1 (Gunjani Patel) - 3:24 mins

I just want to talk about some of that rough and the suffering and that adversity part of your life and then what you learned from it and what made you who you are today?

Speaker 2 (Ayelet Schwell ) - 4:07 mins

I had my first son born in a hospital in New Jersey which made me realize that what I needed in order to just do my birth thing was to be left alone. In my second birth, my husband and I came to the realization that for us having our baby at home would be the best thing. It was amazing it was exactly what I wanted. It was the beautiful birth of my daughter. Then we picked up and moved halfway across the world to Israel. And I was pregnant with my third at the time and I did my doula training after that home birth when I realize like women need to know what's out there and I want to be able to support people in that process. We didn't find our place right away after we moved to Israel. I was 30 weeks pregnant when we arrived where we were when I had my baby. All I needed then was a midwife. I got some recommendations and I give this woman a call. We didn’t hit it off per se but she sounded good. Throughout my prenatal care with her, I just kept having these weird red flags about our relationship. But I pushed into the side because I'm not going to give birth in the hospital.

7:48 mins: When I went into labor the first time, she drives out to me and the minute she walked in the door the contractions stopped. A few days later my contractions started again and she came out and my contractions stopped. I can tell you that I think that my brain was like no we're just gonna trust this person, and my body was like no I don't trust this person. It shows how much we care and how intelligent our bodies are. <span lang="en-IN" xml:lang="en-