Kelly O'Connor Kay, Executive Director, oversees the programmatic, fundraising and marketing operations of Maternal Mental Health NOW. Her goal is to ensure that all of Los Angeles County’s new families have the resources they need to address maternal mental health disorders so that women and their families can grow and thrive. In Los Angeles County, 25% of birthing people reported a depressed mood during pregnancy and/or the postpartum period. Moreover, rates are highest amongst Black women and Medical patients. And, across the state of California a staggering 72% of people with perinatal depression or anxiety have never received counseling or treatment. Kelly previously served as Maternal Mental Health NOW’s Development Director for 7 years. Before joining Maternal Mental Health NOW’s team (which coincidentally corresponded with her own transition to motherhood), Kelly worked for a number of nonprofit organizations in the human services and environmental fields in the US and the UK as a freelance fundraising consultant and staff member. Kelly is a graduate of Northwestern University, having received a BS in Communication Studies & Sociology. She also holds a MS in Elementary Education form Brooklyn College, part of the City University of New York. Kelly discusses the important work of the Maternal Mental Health Now Task Force (previously known as the Los Angeles County Perinatal Mental Health Task Force started in 2007). The Maternal Mental Health NOW Task Force plays a key role in helping to reduce the stigma and shame around maternal mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety and sometimes psychosis, during pregnancy and after pregnancy. Additionally, the MMHN Task Force advocates and supports many different organizations and hospitals for women in Los Angeles County. www.maternalmentalhealthnow.org  

Shattered Conception

41. Maternal Mental Health NOW Task Force Executive Director, Kelly O'Connor Kay

On Episode 40 I am welcoming back Elizabeth Krasnoff (she is on my Episode 2 of Shattered Conception) I thought it would be helpful to many listeners to hear Elizabeth and I discuss how incorporating sound, sound frequencies and music can soothe our bodies, our minds, our spirits/souls, and our emotions during these unprecedented times of COVID interrupting our daily lives and daily routines. This is such an important topic for myriad reasons - however especially for those with a trauma history, or people who have overactive nervous systems, and for those of us who are highly sensitive individuals - humans in general do not like uncertainty - the human mind needs order and a sense of safety in our daily life. Elizabeth connects how FEAR releases hormones and neurotransmitters that significantly impact brain waves! Elizabeth’s main passions of music, healing and consciousness complemented and co-mingled in 2016 with the start of her private practice Sound Medicine. She has trained and immersed herself in the Biosound Healing™ methodology, a configuration of a vibrating sound bed, meditation, music, video and Heartmath®, and combines this with the other skill sets in her practice to help clients deal with stress using sound and biofeedback.   In 2018, Elizabeth was published in the World Futures Journal and twice in the Society for Consciousness Studies newsletter. She presents on sound and consciousness at venues such as the Yale Divinity School with Deepak Chopra, The Graduate Institute, CIIS, CIHS, the Academy of Intuition, the Globe Sound Healing Conference and lastly JFK University, where she now teaches the annual Sound Healing class in the Expressive Arts Program. Website: www.sound-medicine.com

40. Sound Medicine with Elizabeth W. Krasnoff, Ph.D.(c), MIM

My guest on Episode 39 of Shattered Conception is Dr. Harvey Kliman who has, in addition to an M.D., holds a Ph.D. in cellular biochemistry from the University of Chicago. He is currently a Research Scientist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Yale University School of Medicine and the Director of the Reproductive and Placental Research Unit with a special interest in infertility, pregnancy complications, pregnancy loss(es) and stillbirth. He has over thirty years of anatomic pathology training with particular emphasis in electron microscopy, immunohistochemistry, endometrial and placental pathology. He has over ten patents, including the patent for the Endometrial Function Test® (EFT®)—“The soil test for the endometrium®” and “Method and system for determining placental volume.” His contributions in the field of placental research include the development of the “Kliman” method of trophoblast purification, research into the mechanisms of trophoblast differentiation and invasion, the role and genesis of syncytial knots, and more recently, the clinical utility of abnormalities in placental growth patterns, especially trophoblast invaginations and inclusions, to diagnose genetic abnormalities in pregnancy, including autism. We spoke at length before recording this podcast and thought we could begin this episode talking about the inability to become pregnant. What would you want a woman to know about her inability to get pregnant or sustain a pregnancy…where should she start to gather the needed information to see what is going on with her uterus? (This is where we discuss the different types of uterine lining tests, including the Endometrial Function Test®, "EFT®") There are approximately 2 million pregnancy losses a year in the USA. We are talking about the women who are pregnant but lose the pregnancy AND there are women who lose their pregnancy between 20-40 weeks gestation. (This is where we talk about the Estimated Placental Volume Test®, "EPV"® ) Dr. Harvey J. Kliman can be reached at 203-785-3854 or http://klimanlabs.yale.edu    

39. The Placenta and What It Tells Us with Harvey Kliman, M.D., Ph.D.

My guest on Episode 38 is Dr. Daniel B. Singley.  Dr. Singley is a San Diego-based board certified psychologist and Director of The Center for Men’s Excellence. His research and practice focus on men’s mental health with a particular emphasis on reproductive psychology and the transition to fatherhood. Dr. Singley and I discuss a range of topics such as: men and postpartum; men and their relationship to their spouse or partner after the birth of a baby; sex after baby, and more... Dr. Singley’s won the American Psychological Association’s 2017 Practitioner of the Year Award from the Division on Men & Masculinities. He is Past President of the APA’s Section on Positive Psychology and currently serves on the Board of the APA’s Society for the Psychological Study of Men and Masculinities as well as Postpartum Support International. He conducts trainings and presentations around the country to assist individuals and organizations to enhance their level of father inclusiveness. Dr. Singley founded the grant-funded Basic Training for New Dads, Inc (nonprofit) and Padre Cadre a social networking application just for dads in order to give new fathers the tools they need to be highly engaged with their infants as well as their partners. Follow Dr. Singley @MenExel and www.facebook.com/MenExel/

38. Men's Paternal Mental Health with Dr.Dan B. Singley

My guest on Episode 37 of Shattered Conception is Amanda Daniels. Amanda is a heart disease survivor, mother of three daughters and a spiritual counselor. At 18-years-old she suffered her first Heartquake™ - a term she uses to describe that moment in time when your life is forever changed - when she joined the ranks of the millions worldwide living with heart disease, and heart failure at 25.  She spent years in and out of doctors’ offices, hoping that her heart would improve.  While continuing on her regiment of medications, Amanda set on a soul journey to reconnect with her authentic self.  Through years of traditional psychotherapy, spiritual counseling and shamanic training as a modern day medicine woman, Amanda pierced through the layers of emotional pain to heal her heart.  Amanda created Flight, a lifestyle brand, to empower a broader audience of people who don’t have the ability to see her for one-on-one sessions. Flight speaks directly to people who are either suffering from their own Heartquake™, living with heart disease, grieving the loss of a loved one, longing for more purpose in their lives, learning to manage their own spiritual gifts as sensitives or looking for better overall health. She's broken down Flight into a simple formula. Force x Light = Flight. That's the Flight Formula. "Heartquake™ will Force you to ignite the Light that's always existed within you so that you can take Flight to a healthy, more purposeful and fulfilled life."  Amanda works with clients in her Santa Monica studio, she co-founded the first peer led support group in Los Angeles for women living with heart disease, and she sells intention crystal pouches to help her clients with some additional energetic support. www.FlightoftheHeart.com Follow Amanda on IG: @FlightoftheHeart Email Amanda at: amanda@flightoftheheart.com

37. Heart Disease and Pregnancy with Amanda Daniels

My guest on episode 36 of Shattered Conception is Elizabeth Carman. Elizabeth is the leading author and researcher—along with her husband Dr. Neil Carman—of 3 books on the extent of consciousness before birth and the incarnation process from spirit to human realms. Elizabeth’s educational background includes a bachelor’s in psychology, a Master’s in Interdisciplinary Studies, and an honorary doctorate for her prebirth research. She recently completed her certification as a prenatal and perinatal psychology educator. In the 1970s, Elizabeth did social service work in adoption and foster care. She later spent years teaching inner development courses and meditation. In 1989, Elizabeth began exploring life before birth and interviewed mothers reporting communications with their unborn children via dreams, visions, an inner voice, feeling the child’s presence, telepathy, and a host of other announcing signs. Mothers also reported memories of their journey from the spiritual world to conception, life in the womb, and birth itself. Elizabeth and Neil’s prebirth research did not stop there. Their first two books were Cosmic Cradle (2013), and the book Souls Waiting in the Wings for Birth. (1999) In Cosmic Cradle, Spiritual Dimensions of Life before Birth (2013) they explored philosophical, religious, ethnological, and anthropological sources from nearly every culture showing the soul’s immortality. We are conscious spiritual beings coming into human life with purpose and design. In the Carmans’ recently released book, Babies Are Cosmic, Signs of Their Secret Intelligence published in 2019, they document extraordinary findings of babies’ awareness of their birth, life in the womb, and before. With a firm foundation in prenatal and perinatal psychology and medicine about the consciousness of unborn and newborn infants, Elizabeth and Neil touch on such topics as — Children’s memories of choosing parents. Children who recall a mother’s miscarriage, abortion (or as I refer to abortion as a pregnancy release), and/or birth loss and return in a subsequent pregnancy. Advanced abilities of unborn babies such as telepathic communications, clairvoyant sensing of events inside and outside the womb, and sensing the difference between being loved and unloved. These stories will draw you into a new world of wonder about consciousness before birth and suggest the need for a new standard of medical care that includes the power of love. Elizabeth Carman can be reached through email: elizabeth9carman@gmail.com Website: www.babiesarecosmic.com www.cosmiccradle.com Journey to Birth on YouTube

36. Babies Are Cosmic Author Elizabeth Carman

My guest is Dr. Julie Von. Dr. Von is a Manhattan-based holistic doctor specializing in fertility who merges her medical education with intuitive-based practices. The method she developed, called Spiritual Fertility, expresses her unique capacity and experience within both reproductive medicine and medical intuition. The energetic and intuitive work she shares is grounded in real clinical and medical experience. Julie’s work has been called evocative, eloquent, mystical, and practical. Manhattan Magazine called Julie the “baby whisperer". Her most sincere desire is to help individuals to connect to the spirits of their children while guiding them to Earth in the most gentle and loving of ways. Her recent book, Spiritual Fertility: Integrative Practices for the Journey to Motherhood was published by Hay House, and released earlier this year. She has an unmatched success rate in fertility cases and her method has assisted countless couples in conceiving and carrying healthy children into the world. Dr. Christine Northrup, (who wrote the first seminal women’s health book called Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom in the early 90’s and The Wisdom of Menopause) endorsed Dr. Julie’s book, saying “Spiritual Fertility contains everything and more - that anyone dealing with fertility issues on any level needs to know. Before proceeding with any fertility treatment - or even worrying about it - you must read this book. It’s a treasure!”  Her book, Spiritual Fertility, offers readers the same expertise she offers her patients, showing them how to access their deepest intuitive wisdom and use it as a powerful tool for fertility. Julie shares tools to help heal family wounds, balance hormones, identify and unblock past trauma and grief stored in the body and create receptive energy in order to connect to the spiritual and unseen aspects of creating life - and even connect with the energetic spirits of your future children. Contact Dr. Julie Von: www.drjulievon.com    

35. Spiritual Fertility with Dr. Julie Von

My guest is Lindsey Henke. Lindsey is the founder and Executive Director of Pregnancy After Loss Support. This is also a website and important resource for women and their families who go on to conceive another pregnancy after losing a pregnancy, their baby is stillborn and/or their infant dies after birth.  She is a clinical social worker specializing as a reproductive mental health therapist with a focus on the grief and trauma that happens after a perinatal loss and the pregnancy that follows. She is also a writer, wife, and mother to two beautiful daughters and one sweet boy. Tragically, her oldest daughter, Nora, was stillborn after a healthy full-term pregnancy in December 2012. Lindsey’s second daughter, Zoe, was born healthy and alive in March of 2014 and her son Liev was born in 2016.  Her writing about life after having a stillborn daughter has been featured in Listen to Your Mother, Scary Mommy, Healthline, and The New York Times. Lindsey has had the honor of speaking all over the world on conceiving a pregnancy after a experiencing the unimaginable trauma of previous perinatal loss, including at the 2020 Moms’ Maternal Mental Health Forum, The Pregnancy and Infant Death Alliance Conference, The Postpartum Support International Conference, The Stillbirth Summit, and at The International Women’s Maternal Mental Health Conference in Paris.  She is currently working on her first book. Contact:  https://pregnancyafterlosssupport.org

34. Pregnancy After Loss with Lindsey Henke

My guest on Episode 33 is Dr. Julie Cantor. Dr. Cantor is a physician and a lawyer. She graduated from Stanford University, the Yale School of Medicine, and Berkeley Law at the University of California. She was a visiting student at Yale Law School and is on the faculty of the UCLA School of Law where she teaches an upper division seminar on reproductive rights, medical ethics, and the law. Her writing has been published in legal and medical journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine. She is often called upon by the local, national, and international media to comment on issues that arise at the intersection of law and medicine.   You've seen the headlines: A woman is arrested after giving birth because a drug screening test was positive. A state law eliminates religious and philosophical objections to vaccination, while leaving medical exemptions in place. A court orders a pregnant woman to submit to any and all medical treatment her obstetrician deems necessary. A statute restriction to abortion access raises questions about the rights established in Roe v. Wade. An expert with deep knowledge of both medicine and the law needs to be able to unpack these kinds of situations, both with clinicians, medical providers, hospitals and the public. Dr. Cantor does just that. She offers unique perspectives on issues that traverse law, medicine, and medical ethics. When she lectures, Dr. Cantor draws on medical evidence, case law, history, and art to create multi-media presentations that navigate cutting-edge dilemmas, leaving audiences with a deeper understanding of complex cases and a firmer grasp on potential solutions.   Additionally, she is an entrepreneur in fashion and the founder of Harlen, a luxury brand that elevates women’s work bags to Modern Career pieces, all made exclusively in Italy. Dr. Julie Cantor can be reached through her website: www.juliecantor.com

33. Women's Reproductive Rights, Medical Ethics, and the Law with Julie Cantor, M.D., J.D.

My guest is Joy Burkhard, MBA. Joy is the founder and Executive Director of 2020 Mom. Joy founded 2020 Mom in 2011 after her personal, volunteer and professional worlds collided. She is also the Chair of Mom Congress. In this role, Joy has used her knowledge of the complex health care system to advance change in maternal mental health. She has over 20 years of experience working in several roles with the health insurer, CIGNA, including working in service delivery, quality improvement, and regulatory affairs. She has a passion for scaling change and putting the patient and customer first. She is a member of the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology Expert Work Group on Maternal Mental Health and the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative Executive Committee.  Joy has been recognized for her leadership and vision with several awards, receiving the "Emerging Leader" award in women's health from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Women's Health (2016), The California American Mother, Mother of Achievement Award (2019), a Women in Business Stevie Award (“Silver”) for Non-Profit/Government Leadership, Cigna's Volunteer of the Year Award (2016), and the Junior League of Los Angeles' Founders Cup (2014) and Community Achievement Award (2016).  She spearheaded the three important legislation laws that passed recently, including the Maternal Mental Health Screening and Support Act (AB 2193) that went into effect as of July 1, 2019. This law requires an OB-GYN to screen their patient for a Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorder during their pregnancy and/or at their followup visit after their baby is born. It also requires private and public (Medicaid) health plans (HMO's) and health insurers (PPO's) to create maternal mental health programs. 1 in 7 women will experience a postpartum mood and anxiety disorder up to a year after giving birth (studies are now concluding postpartum symptoms may last longer than once believed). Suicide is the second leading cause of death in postpartum women. Screening will save lives. Postpartum depression is a misnomer as women can experience "postpartum" during the perinatal period (during pregnancy). When including women who have had a miscarriage or stillbirth, around 900,000 women suffer from postpartum depression annually in the United States - this is not taking into account, traumatic births and the post-traumatic stress symptoms and disorders that also can develop regardless of the birth outcome or loss of the pregnancy. Joy Burkhard can be reached through her website: joy@2020mom.org  

32. Improving Maternal Health Care Through Advocacy with Joy Burkhard, MBA

My guest is Ivy Joeva. Ivy specializes in providing support throughout the woman’s reproductive life cycle, including fertility coaching, preparation for labor and birth, postpartum recovery, and pregnancy loss counseling. She brings to her practice a profound appreciation for the mind-body connection and a holistic approach including physical, emotional, sexual and spiritual aspects of care. She directs the Meditation program at the Jonathan Beach Club and facilitates pregnancy loss support groups at LOOM, a Pregnancy, Parenting and Reproductive Empowerment Center where she also offers Pregnancy Coaching and serves as the lead Loss Doula for LOOM in Los Angeles. Ivy graduated from UC Berkeley and the Institute of Integration Nutrition. Ivy has served as a doula since 2009. She is called to this work because she believes thriving parents create happier families and a kinder, more peaceful world. Ivy Joeva can be reached through her website: www.ivyjoeva.com IG: @ivyjoeva      

31. Fertility Coaching, Pregnancy, Postpartum Recovery with Ivy Joeva

My guest is Dr. Mara Tesler Stein. Dr. Stein is a clinical psychologist in private practice in Chicago. She specializes in the emotional aspects of coping with crisis around pregnancy & parenting, parent education, child development, and relationship-based and developmentally supportive care to babies and their families. She presents internationally on these issues and consults to health care providers and hospitals, guiding their efforts to improve the level of psychological support and care to families during and subsequent to perinatal crisis. She is the co-author of Parenting Your Premature Baby and Child: The Emotional Journey (Fulcrum, 2004) and Intensive Parenting: Surviving the Journey Through the NICU (Fulcrum, 2013). Dr. Stein is a certified EMDR therapist, EMDRIA Approved Consultant and EMDRIA Approved Trainer for the Institute for Creative Mindfulness where she is on faculty. She is also certified in Emotion-Focused Family and Couple Therapy, is a Gottman Certified Therapist, and continues to pursue training in Clinical Hypnosis, Advanced applications of EMDR, and Ego-State therapies.  She brings a wealth of clinical expertise and insight along with all she has learned interviewing families around the world for her two books to her EMDR Basic Trainings and advanced practice workshops. All of this is grounded in her personal perinatal journey, which began 25 years ago and took her through infertility, twin pregnancy, prolonged hospital bedrest, the NICU, and years of raising NICU graduates. Those children, identical twin girls born 10-weeks early who spent 10-weeks in the NICU, and a son who was almost full-term but not quite, are out of their teens and making their way in the wider world. Contact Information: www.docmara.com Email: mara@docmara.com Phone: 773-338-2980

30. NICU and Healing Trauma with Mara Tesler Stein, Psy.D., PMH-C

My guest on Episode 29 of Shattered Conception is Clinical Psychologist Dr. Alyssa Berlin. Dr. Berlin specializes in pregnancy, postpartum and parenting in Los Angeles. She offers private counseling for women individually and/or with their partners on issues such as anxiousness and emotional fluctuation during pregnancy, postpartum blues and depression, and the complex issues that can arise between and around new and expectant parents. Dr. Berlin is the creator of The AfterBirth Plan Workshop, a program that prepares couples for what to expect after a baby is born and how to prepare for a physically and emotionally healthy postpartum transition for the baby, for each partner and for the evolving relationship. Also known as the fourth trimester. Dr. Berlin was a labor support doula, combining her psychological background and her doula training to help women and their partners feel empowered and comfortable in the labor and delivery process, both on a physical and emotional level.  Dr. Berlin has a specific expertise addressing anxiety, fear or any other emotional concern that may arise around having a baby before, during and after the birth. Dr. Berlin is on the Board of Advisors for the International Cesarean Awareness Network (ICAN) and is a faculty member of Maternal Mental Health NOW Training Institute.  She conducts a multitude of live pregnancy and parenting workshops throughout Southern California and globally via Skype. You can read Dr. Alyssa's blogs on the Huffington Post where she contributes to PBS's "This Emotional Life" project. Dr. Berlin received her doctorate at Argosy University in Atlanta, GA, went on to become a certified Gottman educator and is a member of the American Psychological Association. Dr. Alyssa and her husband, prenatal chiropractor, Dr. Elliot Berlin live in Los Angeles and are the proud parents of four amazing children. Website: www.drberlin.com IG: @dralyssaberlin

29. Pregnancy, Postpartum and Parenting with Dr. Alyssa Berlin

My guest is obstetrician and gynecologist Dr. David Finke. Dr. Finke specializes in high risk pregnancies and values patient education above all else--assessing a patient's expectations with holistic care outcomes. He has been recognized for 8 years in a row as a "Super Doctor" in Beverly Hills. He finished residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology as Administrative Chief at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and received his undergraduate and Medical Doctor degrees from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  He is one of several talented and caring doctors at his office at Women’s Care of Beverly Hills. We cover many topics in this podcast including but not limited to: High risk pregnancy, screening for post-partum mood and anxiety disorders aka perinatal mood disorders, team approach to a healthy pregnancy and outcome, miscarriage, infertility treatments, advice and information for men and or partners during and after pregnancy, as well as his thoughts on infertility statistics and grief. Dr. Finke takes the time to get to know his patients and provides the compassion and thoughtfulness everyone needs when feeling possibly vulnerable and unsure during pregnancy, or trying to get pregnant. Website: www.womenscareofbeverlyhillsgroup.com Office phone: 310-657-1600    

28. High Risk Obstetric Care with David Finke, M.D.

My guest is Sara Banta. Sara is a Health Coach and owner/founder of Accelerated Health Products. She has devoted her life to providing guidance for all natural health supplements and solutions that heal the body and the root cause of many serious health issues.  She was diagnosed with PCOS at the age of 26 after the birth of her first child. She was given Clomid to conceive her second child, with really no other information or options. She completed her undergraduate studies at Stanford University with a bachelors degree in Economics and Psychology in 1998. In 2016, she graduated from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition with a certificate in Health Coaching and learned Chinese and Ayurvedic Medicine at The Invincible Wellness System. Through the years she has had to figure out and solve many health issues within her family including her son's diagnosis of leukemia at the age of nine, her daughter having allergies, anemia and asthma, her husband having heart issues, and her other daughter having comprehension and learning challenges as well as chronic headaches. She investigated on her own to connect the dots and find out what was causing all of these health issues. She strongly believes in the mind body connection. And has come to realize that a lot of the same solutions that heal the gut, and the brain, are the solutions that help to successfully treat her PCOS and fertility issues, achieve weight loss, improve fitness and restore metabolic health.   She has offered a coupon code for my podcast listeners on her website acceleratedhealthproducts.com for 15 percent off, using the code SHATTERED15  Email: sara@acceleratedhealthproducts.com

27. Healing Infertility and Supporting the Immune System with Sara Banta

Shattered Conception is an important resource for women who are navigating their way through unfathomable grief after losing a much wanted pregnancy or baby. This podcast offers strategies for relief from the profound emotional pain of grief and trauma of infertility, birth trauma, postpartum mood and anxiety disorders, miscarriage(es), terminations, late pregnancy loss, stillbirth and infant death. Additionally it is a podcast for wellness and finding ways to incorporate different healing modalities to create ways of supporting the mind, body and spirit into a softer way of living. This podcast is hosted by Dr. Ivy Love Margulies, a licensed clinical psychologist, death midwife (aka bereavement doula), Reiki healer, mindfulness teacher, ritual facilitator and licensed funeral director. If you are looking for emotional support, information on trauma and normalization of your grieving experience, this show is a needed tool for your emotional tool box!

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Shattered Conception

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