#22 What Fascia Teaches Us – Final Episode of the Season!

We have some news that I don’t know if we’ve told anybody yet, but this is our last episode of Season 1 of Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses.

You made that sounds so positive. “We have some news. Yay.”

We’re about to peace out. For how long? Not that long. It’s really not going to be that long. A couple of weeks.

We’re just taking a little breather. Reevaluating.

Giving everyone time to catch up on all the episodes.

Yeah, there’s a lot.

And we’ll be back with a fun and exciting Season 2, but we wanted to kind of share that, share some things we’ve been doing and learning and we had a fun week this last week. We went to Palm Springs for our second annual Bundle Birth Retreat. It was really fun because we got to, not only go again, the same house, the same week, but we each doubled in size and we had…

Yay.

… a bigger team, which was really exciting. We got to meet two of our mentors in person, Jess and Carly, if you are listening or if you have them as mentors, we got to meet. That was really fun. Meeting internet friends is weird though because you feel like you know them.

Yeah.

And then when you meet, it’s like, “Well, don’t we know each other?”

Yeah, yeah. It feels like, “Oh, I didn’t know that about you. And I should, but I shouldn’t because I don’t actually know you.”

For sure.

But I know you.

For sure. Speaking of the internet weird, I was on the internet the other day and this girl, I don’t know her, I just know her from the internet. And she’s in the waiting room and I know that her sister was a patient because I helped her sister but her sister doesn’t know me, but I know that she’s the sister of this girl. And the girl walks out of the waiting room-

How do you know that from internet?

Well, because social media and stuff when we went to the same high school, but they don’t know me.

Oh, God.

And the girl walks out of the waiting room, the one that I do follow and I was like, “Hi,” and she was like, “Hi.” And in a second, I was like, “Oh.” She just thinks I’m being a friendly nurse and not someone that stalks you on the internet. Internet is weird.

But we had a great time. Sarah is really intentional with anything she does, if you’ve noticed about anything we do at Bundle Birth. And so, we always have planned sessions and planned learning sessions and morning meditations and really trying to get out of our head. And it was a great time. And Brian, if you’re listening to this, Brian was an amazing host as well and he just took care of us all week and it was just really lovely.

One thing that we focused on, though, the theme of the week, was fascia, which was really interesting, the theme, but now it makes sense. When you said it, I was like, “Hmm.” But you guys will get it and we’re in fascia land, especially Sarah, because that is going to be a very big component of Cancun. And Sarah has been doing a lot of work in that and if you’ve come to our physiologic birth class, I feel like most of our evals in the next class to teach, they’re like, “Fascia, fascia, fascia. Teach on fascia.” And so, we’re like, “Okay, teach on fascia.”

Or mind-blown, right, literally.

About fascia. Yes, yes or their word at the end is fascia. They just could not believe it and it is an amazing thing. And I will say that I got to practice some techniques that Sarah taught us on my husband yesterday and he was not a believer and now he is, so that was cool.

That’s awesome.

“I don’t know what you’re doing. What are you talking about? Your hands are obviously moving.” I was like, “They’re not moving.” Some kind of crazy voodoo hand magic is basically what we did. Totally real and physiologic, yes. On the topic of fascia, Sarah is going to lead us into a little… how we can relate fascia to our life and clinical experiences.

Yeah, and as we were talking about how to end the season, there’s so much pressure.

There’s a lot of pressure.

How do we land the plane for, I say, the season, the year ago, it’s really truly the year of 2022. And I think what I love about fascia and what it’s teaching me in my personal life and in my professional life is that there’s so much application clinically. And then there’s also so much metaphor here, interpersonally and so, that’s sort of why we landed here. Plus, it’s one of those very interesting things. If you haven’t been to physiologic birth, your mind will be blown through the little session that we do on fascia. And it probably takes up, I don’t know, 10 minutes, 15 minutes of the class.

But it really truly is, one, it’s going to be a huge component of Cancun. And I could now begin to teach on fascia for hours and hours and hours because there’s just a lot of new. And for us as nurses, I think it’s easy to think that we know all the things and like, “Oh, we’re in the…” is it the 21st Century?

I have no idea.

Right? How do you say that? It sounds so good when it comes out my mouth, but is it the 21st Century, right? Because it’s 20… I don’t know ’21, because it’s 20?

I don’t know. Whatever.

No, whatever. We’re in a land of advanced technology. We’re really smart. It’s also the morning, so bear with us. And that we should know and like, “Wow, we can save lives. We can beat the heart outside the body,” or all the crazy things that we can do and that we know, but also there’s still so much that we don’t know and that is coming to light, one of those being fascia.

If you don’t know what fascia is, let me give you just a quick little teaser. If you want more come to physiologic birth, but really come to Cancun because there will be some hands on techniques that we work on in Cancun. Everyone, I can picture everyone at the pool trying to release each other.

That’s so awesome. But they had be dry though?

True. But that’s where the towels come in.

It’s true.

And sunscreen. Just do it in your rooms. I don’t know. Everyone’s going to be touching each other by the end and being like, “I feel it.”

And so, fascia is one body system that connects every single bone structure organ down to the cellular level in our bodies. If you think back to nursing school or when you’re learning about anatomy/physiology of the body that I think about the fact that we hear that, “We’re 70% water.” And I remember thinking that and going, “Where’s the water?”

No, totally. Eric yesterday was, so basically, “So, you’re telling me that you’re moving water.” Like, “I guess so.”

Yeah, sort of. Water with collagen-elastin in it, but the water/ground substance makes up in pads are every cell muscle fiber. It surrounds all of it and it’s one singular connected system that helps us communicate to one another. It helps us glide in space and not be so stiff. It helps us move our way through life. It helps us sense our environment. It helps us with our nervous systems. It helps us connect with what’s going on. It is where our trauma is stored, physiologically, if you’ve read. Everyone, I feel like I read this book probably 10 years ago and no one knew what it was when I was all hyped and talking about it. But now, I feel like everyone knows the book, The Body Keeps The Score.

I’ve never read it.

I have it on audio book and I have it on physical book, so you need to just steal it from me.

I need to read it.

It’s a lot about military work, a lot of trauma, and actually, the study of trauma really originated through working with veterans. And finding that those with PTSD in particular, not just trauma, in general, whether they have full-blown diagnosed PTSD or whatnot, that they found that the body actually carries the trauma. That there are physical sensations, that’s where you have a pit in your stomach. That’s a physical symptom of anxiety, which in theory is happening in your brain, but how is there a connection from the mind to the gut, et cetera. It’s all being communicated through the fascia.

The fascia is so incredibly interconnected to all of it. It’s also the second most sensitive to pain in our body, which is where it got me going with Cancun because the topic of Cancun is physiologic coping. If we have discomfort in our body, if you have a knot in your back, you’re actually not. It’s not the muscle fibers, it’s the fascia surrounding every muscle fiber that is knotted up or that you feel discomfort with.

You wake up in the morning, you’re feeling stiff. You’re like crickety, crickety until you start moving. You do a little bit of stretch. You listen to your body and move it around. And all of a sudden you’re more flexible, you have less discomfort, et cetera. What you’re doing is you’re waking up the fascia because it is equally part solid as it is liquid. Our bodies are meant to glide. They’re meant to stretch. They’re meant to be able to maneuver through this world.

But what happens throughout life is we create routines and systems. We don’t move our bodies in certain ways. That’s also where exercise is a huge component of healthy fascia. We stop moving in many ways. Think about the different little micro movements of even a face of a baby. If I started on my face, you’d be like, “What’s wrong with her face?” Whereas I’m conditioned to stick to my routines and that alone can cause the fascia to kind of get stuck and whatnot.

But then we have physical trauma, we have emotional trauma, all of which is affected by our fascia. You think about also a newborn and their flexibility, they have gumby legs. They have legs that can go over their heads. You’re not going to overstretch a newborn unless you really do something crazy and that is how our bodies are meant to function. And so, if you have restriction anywhere, it’s likely originating in the fascia.

And so, if you can release that fascia, release that restriction or even scars, scars are, or adhesions, are just fascia trying to protect yourself, remember if it’s a 3D web through every area of our bodies, it’s going to surround our blood vessels, our nerves. And if it’s tied up or caught up or traumatized, it may squeeze the blood vessels. You may have decreased sensation because of nerves tingling, et cetera. It’s also like do you ever had a knot in your shoulder blade and I’m like, “My left arm is just like my fingers are tingling.” And you somehow you no longer have that knot and your fingers can feel again.

Yeah, it makes sense.

That’s fascia.

When I think of my C-section scar and when I’m sick and I’m coughing really hard, it hurts my C-section scar. So, I’m assuming there’s tied up fascia which-

100%. Anytime you make an incision, this is where I think we think, “Oh, no big deal.” With C-section, we know there’s risks. If you look at the morbidity/mortality of a C-section, the numbers are wild on that. But also if you think about from a fascial perspective that there is regardless going to be layers of the body healing itself, creating dense fascia there, density, stuckness, even just moving the skin around. Try moving a skin around one of your scars and compare it to somewhere nearby that doesn’t have a scar, it’s going to be restricted.

Do you think there’s anything… we might edit this out. This is such a silly question, but is there any reason that this is why it’s better to tear naturally versus an episiotomy? Could fascia be a part of that?

Yes. Yes.

It’s really interesting.

I don’t know if I can fully explain that, but from everything I’m learning, it 100% makes sense. Because also the fascia then is stretching and it’s meant to stretch all over our bodies. And that goes into even our brains., the dura mater is a fascial plane. The respiratory diaphragm is entirely fascia. The pelvic bowl has this fascial component of structure and also fluidity, so that there’s movement. Think about that with our respiratory diaphragm.

Anyway, I could go on and on and on. That’s sort of the idea behind fascia, but in there there’s collagen and elastin fibers. They allow us to be stretchable. If you take your hands on your skin, touch your skin and just stretch your skin to its max, two hands or fingers apart and stretch it. Your skin only moves so much and you hit this barrier of resistance. That is stretching those collagen elastin fibers. And the ground substance, which is the water or gelatinous fluid surrounding everywhere, but in your body that the goal then is that you need a release.

If there’s fascia that is tied up, I’m going to say or restricted that you can manually release those that fascial restriction through intention and touch and connection and particular technique. And we’re going to learn some of that in Cancun, which is really fun, and we did all weekend. And I will say that to me the concept is hard to grasp, but the actual release, when you get it, it’s like, “Oh, anybody can do this.” Now, mind you, everybody can’t do this because you actually need a license to touch in order to release fascia. Because we’re RNs, we can do this.

It’s pretty cool.

Yeah, very exciting. Now that you have a foundation, when we talk about the release, there’s some technique things there and some considerations to pay attention to, so I will talk about that. But I want you to, because you’re not going to, like you would need to come to Cancun or go to a workshop and actually, practice this stuff to really get it. But I think the concepts are really important for life and this ended up being our theme through retreat and what I personally am being challenged by in my life at all times.

And so, some of the technique rules of thumb are one, that prior to touching a patient or prior to releasing anything, there’s this element of intention that is important. That if you just throw your hands on the patient, like, “Err.” Go into it that one, you’re going to miss it and two, you’re not going to be as effective. And so, for the first lesson, for all of us is this idea of just added layer of awareness and presence. If we go back to, whatever episode that was, I cannot remember which one. Do you know which one I’m talking about? You are.

No, which one? I don’t of any-

That hand on the door. Which episode was that?

No.

Somebody help us out. You’re going to have to listen back. But if you remember, I think it might have been the one where we talk about the importance of our jobs. Where my challenge was before you-

Maybe number 11, Why Our Job Matters.

Why Our Job Matters. So, try it. First of all, you need to listen to that one because that one to me we could repeat and just throw in as our final episode. It’s like, “You need to listen to this again.” But the challenge was to prior to entering the door to pause and symbolically just touch the doorframe and say to yourself, “I am connected. I’m choosing to be present here and I will give my best to this patient. I will believe them. I will listen to them. I will call them by name.”

Like whatever that mantra is, but the idea is that “I am going to apply myself regardless who sits behind that door. I’m going to give them my best. I’m going to treat them like the beautiful human that they are. I’m not going to write their story and I’m going to give them the best care that I possibly can. Helping them advocate for themselves and advocating for them when necessary.” And so, I think it’s important for us to revisit that challenge because to me, as simple as it is, imagine, imagine, if we all did that, the impact that it could have, honest and just.

2023 goals.

Yep.

Because that’s crazy, the idea of the impact.

Yeah, yeah. And how often, so many of our mistakes or so many of the concerns or a lack of just paying attention to the human that’s in front of you. And not asking questions about the look on their face or not respecting them for who they are or how different they are from you. That in the same way with fascia is the same challenge that you have to be present. That if you are distracted, that especially as you’re learning the technique, there is such subtle movement.

This very, and you can speak to this Justine, because you’re fresh to this, there’s this intention and it requires such intense focus. I usually tell people to close their eyes. I can’t really feel much unless my eyes are closed, so you have to be present in that moment. And you have to enter the space as the practitioner with the intention of love and connection and lack of agenda.

You know, too, I think body mechanics are super important. And you know what you want, because you’re going to be there a minute and you’ll talk about that. But I’m thinking, too, even with intention, you also want to go in having taking care of yourself. So, if you have to pee, you go pee first.

So true.

If you’re super thirsty, if you’re super hungry, prepare yourself to be able to have good intention.

Yeah, and pay attention to yourself first in those body mechanics before you ever lay hands. And that’s that self-care component of the metaphor I hope you’re catching here of like, “I am going to be less effective if the bed is not high enough, if I’m wearing the wrong shoes and if my bladder’s full.”

Totally or I’m really irritated or you just need to take a couple breaths, take a second for yourselves.

Yeah. And set it aside.

They deserve your best self.

Yeah, yeah. So, I love that and that is the technique for fascial release. And then also, the metaphor for our lives in how we enter our patient’s room. And then you lay your hands, obviously with consent and as you lay your hands there is this motion of lay and wait. Allow the tissues to sink to that piezoelectric layer/to the fascial layer and then when you’re connected, you begin to move.

And so, I think there’s a million ways that I could go with this. My brain is exploding because I think that’s so beautiful. But as you’re laying hands, whether physically or emotionally on your patience or in your life that that connection is the prerequisite for any movement, any impact, any actual treatment that has lasting impact. And that’s the thing with myofascial release. There are people that get released in certain areas of their body and it fixes them in one treatment. And sometimes depending on how deep the wound goes that you need a lot of releases.

My tailbone, I went into my very first class because I’ve done six days of all-day classroom training with the experts in this. I’ve traveled for it in order to learn and bring this back to you and apply it to our practice. I went into the first day of the fascia pelvis class with excruciating tailbone pain and I fell. I went snowboarding a year ago and ever since, my tailbone has not been the same and by the end of the class I had no tailbone pain. To this day, depending on how I sit for long enough, I might start to have some discomfort, but in the past I could squeeze my butt cheeks at any moment and elicit discomfort. And right now, I’m squeezing my butt cheeks and I feel fine.

What about back pain, too? Because you got into a car accident, is that better?

I didn’t go in with back pain. My back pain has been mild to, there’s certain things that trigger it. But I mean, yeah, in theory I don’t have any back pain.

That’s awesome.

And I’ve been released a whole lot in the last two months. So, anyway, I think that for all of us to understand that our intention, our presence is the prerequisite to the release and the release being whatever we want to move in our lives.

And for us this weekend at retreat, it was the release of what’s coming next for Bundle Birth. Where do we fit in this world of birth and change? The change we want to see in obstetrics, in patients lives, in nurses lives, in providers lives? Where do we fit? And I was asking for the release of, “What’s our next steps?” I think we have some vision on that. That’s exciting. You’ll know eventually.

But in the meantime, what we sense for the future is not a snap your fingers and it’s done. And we are very much in this holding pattern of, and the ask is I feel the ask for myself and for us as a team is to actively lay our hands and let them sink, be fully present and connected and then wait for the release. And I think that applies for a lot of things in our lives. We want that immediate reaction. We want that immediate healing, that immediate response and that immediate impact. And I think there’s a lot that happens in the waiting and it’s the pre-work for the movement and the release. Am I talking too much in metaphor here?

I don’t think so. I think it’s great.

When you’ve laid hands, you are laying hands, you are letting it sink. You’re stretching to that resistance and then you wait in the resistance. And this, I don’t know necessarily how this applies to us with our patients, but I think about this for our life that a lot of times we feel called to something. We want change. We want skin to skin in the OR and the ask isn’t force it to happen.

And honestly, if you force the tissue is what happens in our body and the fascial system because it’s so highly linked to trauma, is you add any force and the body goes, “Uh-oh, sympathetic nervous system turned on guarding, uh-uh.” And there’s no possible way for the release and why the intention is so important and then the wait is so important is because within that timeframe of the wait, the body goes, “Ooh, this is different. I feel a stretch. Uh-oh, is there danger here?” And then you wait there for three to five minutes minimum for those releases to happen. You time out three to five minutes, that’s a long time to just sit. And…

It’s a long time.

… in that wait, you go, “I’m just present here. I am trusting that the release is happening.” And then the release happens after that three to five minutes. And so, in that waiting holding pattern, it’s easy for the brain, this literally happens when you’re doing this techniques and then also, metaphorically, in our lives.

I think in the wait you can go like, “Oh, okay, but should I be doing something else? Maybe should I change up the technique? Maybe it’s not right. Let me readjust my hands.” The moment you release your hands, you are starting over that technique in that clock. And so the ask then is just be present. Just actively, and you are engaging your muscles in that time in a very subtle way. Not in a way that you’re dripping in sweat, but in a way that you’re actively present, actively waiting and not letting go. Holding the vision, holding the hope. Doing the work that needs to be done, waiting for the release to happen.

And I think, especially when we think about the dream that we have here, and I know a lot of you are on board of the culture shift we want in obstetrics, it’s like all of us need to lay our hands on this. All of us need to be actively present. But we’re in a holding pattern. The full release has not happened. The healing has not happened in our culture of OB. The healing hasn’t happened in our own lives. But if we let go, we’re starting over, we’re wasting time.

And so, the challenge to all of us is be present in what you feel called to, be present in your job, be present with your patients. Actively lay your hands. That doesn’t mean being lazy. That doesn’t mean just going like, “Whoop, my hands are in the air.” The moment you do that. What’s that? What good is that going to do in waiting for the release? But then there’s this element of trust that the release is always coming.

And that I felt the entire weekend, I worked on everybody this weekend. And even in the moments where I’m like, “I don’t think it’s going to happen. Goodness, I feel so much restriction here. Oh, my gosh, am I doing it wrong? Maybe I’m in the wrong spot. Maybe I need to zone in. Maybe I need to be more present. Maybe a little more pressure. Oh, my gosh, maybe too much pressure. Maybe I’m trying to force it.”

That my brain goes crazy and the moment I calm my brain, there’s also an element of the recipient has to be present as well, so flux and flow on that. But the moment I calm my brain and I just say, “None of it matters. All I have to do is be present here and actively present here,” then the release happens.

I hope everyone is really taking that part to heart because I’m even thinking if I would’ve had this at the start of my career, I probably wouldn’t have left the hospital. And I wouldn’t have gotten so frustrated and I would’ve stayed. And I would have done the work in my mind of, “Am I just getting mad at a problem and not trying to find a solution? And am I looking at the evidence? Am I talking to people about it in a productive way instead of getting angry about it?” So, that was really helpful.

And I see there being, if we’re going to relate it to our role in the culture change and in bettering the patient experience and bettering our own lives of the job we do. We all want to feel satisfied in what we do and live our best lives that the first step is being present there with the intention of connection and doing our best. The second step is consent. I’ll just say that because that’s like what we do. And then the third step is to actually actively place your hands on the problem area and apply yourself in a way that’s not forceful, that’s super gracious, and that only your hands can do.

That I’m not called to write research articles right now. Goodness me, that’s my nightmare. If there are people out there that want to do it, we want to work with you and I want you to do it and not me because that’s not my role in this big picture. My role is very different than just dean’s role in the culture change. And so, my hands, my specific energy, my actual hands bring potential for healing to this culture, of this imagine the whole culture change being the body of the whole body.

If we all lay our hands and we all are actively waiting, what are you doing that is actively contributing to the change in Obstetrics? That could be as simple as the way you practice and putting your hand on the door and modeling that for other nurses. That for sure is going to mean how you train up the next generation of nurses. That’s how you talk about Obstetrics. That’s how we talk about each other. That’s how we loop in and hold each other accountable for things that maybe aren’t okay that we’re seeing happen at the bedside.

Those are all ways amongst many of us actively laying our hands on the problem, but it also doesn’t mean that we’re forcing the problem. And I think so much of where I see the world of people that want change is there’s this aggressive energy. “The whole world sucks.” And even that you feel my energy, I hope you do through your ears right now that it’s “Aaah.” My nervous system is turned on. That is not going to cause active change and healing.

And so instead, it’s this idea of just be present and trust that your hands matter and keep your hands on the issue. Don’t lift your hands away. The body, meaning that the OB, our patients, our worlds, and this could be very much taken out of OB, but this is Happy Hour with Bundled Birth Nurses, so take it and take it with a grain of salt. But all of OB needs your hands present on the problem and they need you to wait there. And as you feel releases happen, then start to move your hands. And then you’ll hit another barrier, another restriction, and then you wait there.

And then together, we create this super fluid, little super healthy, super connected system of how we treat families in the birthing process, into postpartum. And we completely create this healing body of where there is no more restriction. There is no more, obviously, that’s never going to happen. But in general, we have this healthy, interconnected specialty where these hands, these nurses, they laid their hands and they made this happen because of how active they were, but that active is so subtle. All it takes is your presence and your consistency and the energy that you bring to the problem.

This just turned into a whole another metaphor that I was not ready for.

It was really good.

Justine, I want to hear how your experience was. This is all new to you as of this last weekend.

Yeah.

You’ve heard bits and pieces from me debriefing these different trainings or being like, “Oh, my God, this happened or I’ve got it, or I’m totally in my head,” or whatever in my process. But what are some takeaways for you from learning from fascia, whether it be metaphorically or actually, physiologically?

Well, I feel like all my takeaways really just happened with what you just said to all of us. God dang, yeah, that was good. But I will say that the sit and wait and especially with someone like me, that’s really challenging and I think that’s really good in life. But I like to actively wait. It’s not just sit and just not think about it. It’s like, “I am thinking about it. I have intention. I’m doing something, but I’m not running.” If that makes sense.

Why don’t we go live on Tuesday? You’re coming out here on Tuesday.

Yes.

Right?

Yes.

And this will be out on Monday. And so, you can come and see, we’ll save the video, but I’m going to show when a release happens, what a release looks like. You’re literally going to see nothing, but I’ll talk you through it because it’s a trip. Because I feel like some of this-

So, are we going to release you?

No, I’ll release you.

Okay, because I was going to say you being released is a different story.

Yeah. I know. We got to-

We’ll see that in Cancun.

Yeah, yeah. Exactly. I don’t know if we’re going to save that for Cancun. That’s saved for the quiet spaces of my life, my releases elicit a lot of response, which can happen. That’s a whole another episode. But no, we’ll release you and just show and I’ll talk through what I’m feeling. Because I think this makes a lot of sense to us because we have felt the release. And I think if you saw it, you might be like, “Okay, okay.” And then when you come to Cancun, you’re going to be like, “Oh, my gosh, this is crazy.”

And tell all your family members to be like, “I have to go to Cancun because I’m going to learn how to do releases on you. I’m going to come back with skills.”

Yeah.

I would say, too, I think focusing looks different for people. With Sarah mentioned that she has to have her eyes closed to be able to focus. And I realized if my eyes are closed, my brain will go everywhere and so, I have to find a focal point. So, there’s little things and even metaphorically, this is all going to look different for all of us. And as we sit and wait, I think it’s important to be it’s active, waiting with intention. Not a like, “I’m just going to give up or I’m going to tune out for the next five years and hopefully, something happens.” Because I would have people that do that, too. It’s just being more intentional.

Well, and then you’re not a part of it. And if you want to be a part of the healing change and look back 10 years from now and see, “Whoa,” join the movement. That’s what we’ve been doing for the past years and that’s what so many of you have joined us on. And think about what has happened. And even culturally, everything in OB is talking advocacy now. Hashtag team underwear started forever ago.

That’s true.

And that’s because of you. That’s because you’re talking about it. That’s because you’re listening to episodes like this. And going to the bedside and choosing to apply yourself.

So true. I got a message last night that was something like about the Lavonne circuit, which we know works wonders, but she was at the end, she said, “Thanks so much for…” she said, “Imagine how many patients you’ve saved from C-sections.” And I replied, I was like, “You helped save that patient from a C-section.” It has nothing to do with us, so that’s really important. Just because you’re not on the bun, in this office filming this podcast, you guys are the ones doing it.

Yeah, yeah. And without you, I say this all the time, people will thank us. We’ll be in random places and they’ll be, “Thank you so much.” Like, “You did this.” I’m like, “No, you did this, because if you don’t take it and you don’t put it into practice, literally, nothing that we do matters, nothing. It does nothing.”

100% of the time.

Yes. Justine is going to post on Instagram. She’s going to post. She’s looking at me like, “Okay, what am I posting?”

What am I posting?

Something about this episode. Go find that post and comment, where do you feel like you can be proactively present in this culture shift?

I love that.

And define the culture shift yourself. Obviously, some of that I’ll make very clear is decreasing morbidity, mortality, decreasing disparities, how we treat each other, removing obstetric violence from the situation. Increasing the humanity that we bring to our care where we’re really interconnected and people are walking away not traumatized, but healed through their birth experiences. And so, that’s my quick summary, but that could mean a lot of things.

That could be, “I want to change the culture of bullying and gossip on my unit.” So, how are you going to actively lay your hands? Meaning, actively place yourself with minor effort, minor. This is not sweating, dripping, forcing your way through to find healing and release. This is, “I’m going to apply what I have, which are my two metaphor cans on this restriction, on this discomfort, on this problem area and I’m going to be present there actively waiting for a release.”

This could be an interesting breakout room, too, in Cancun. If you’re coming to Cancun and like, “Ooh.” Talking through it.

I want to do that one.

Workshopping through it.

I want to do that one.

Different strategies.

There’s so much work we can do in Cancun. I’m overwhelmed that we don’t have enough time and I want you to have fun on the beach, too. But yeah, if you want it, let us know in the comments as well on that post on Instagram. Let us know. Connect there. We want to see how you’re laying your hands because it really will take you, applying who you are. Every single one of us has that innate wisdom. We have the ability to release the fascia, AKA make change in our worlds. That may also be personal, too. That maybe you don’t have much for work, but you have something going on in your personal life that you feel like you need to intentionally be present in and apply yourself to, so let us know.

Thank you for listening this “season.” It’s funny to call it a season. I feel like that feels very official. And we’re like two girls in our homes just making chat nut about, stuff.

Talking, but 22 episodes. I’m impressed.

Yeah, yeah. And for us, and we talked about this in the beginning when we did our little teaser episode, it was like, we want to connect in a deeper way. And social media is great, but these longer, more intentional conversations are really hard to have on social media and they’re hard to access on the go. And so, we really hope that this season has been a helpful supplement to your personal lives and your professional lives.

That you’ve taken away some tools that you can add to your toolbox and bring back to the bedside. Bring into your own personal lives that help you not only feel more equipped as a nurse, but also more whole as a human. And reminded that your job matters when sometimes it doesn’t feel that way based on how we’re being treated or what our environment says.

And so, we believe in you. We do this for you because we believe in you and we need you as a part of the change. And we’re right there with you holding our unique hands and our unique calling into this movement, I guess. But we need your hands. And so, if you’re tired, if you’re overwhelmed, take a second. That goes into that very first step. Empty your bladder, metaphorically. Adjust the bed. Shake it out. Go take a nap.

Really do that check in with your own body of what does your body need, what does your heart, your soul need, so that you can stop at that door frame and be present with every single patient. That might be the only action step and that action step matters. And together, that’s where we’re going to see this, this all shift and you get to be a part of that change that is coming.

Thanks for spending your time with us here on this season of Happy Hour with Bundle Birth Nurses. If you’ve liked what you heard, it helps us both if you subscribe, rate, leave a raving review, and share it with a friend. If you want more from us, head on over at bundlenirthnurses.com or follow us on Instagram or TikTok.

Now, it’s your turn to go and give the care that you would want to receive to your patients and treat your coworkers with love and respect, not writing anyone’s story. And we will see you next season.