Episode 150: Helping children heal from their birth through play with Adrienne Harper-Pike

In today's episode I talk with Adrienne Harper-Pike, who is an Aware Parenting instructor who also works in the deaf/blind community as a social worker, works with queer people and their families, and works with families with multiples, including twins, triplets and higher order births. Please note that we discuss things that might help you connect with painful past experiences, including the journey to conceiving through IVF, pregnancy complications, birth and postnatal trauma and complications as well as early separation between parents and babies. Adrienne shares her story of coming to Aware Parenting, which began when her daughter asked her to heal some of her birth trauma through play. She also talks about her journey with IVF and the stressful and traumatic experiences during pregnancy and during and after the birth or her premature twins and how that affected her – including with postnatal anxiety and depression, and guilt, shame and worry – as well as the babies and her partner. Adrienne talks about the huge healing they have all done since then, and the hope this gives to other families about what is possible. She talks about how the system isn't set up to support parents to heal so that they can support their babies or children to heal. Adrienne goes on to share specific examples of how her children have indicated that they were healing from their experiences in utero, during birth and after birth, and what she and her partner did to support them. She talks about the information that her partner and she have given their twins about what happened to them and how that has built over time. She finishes by sharing about the wondrousness of the healing that is possible and what she would love to share with other families who might be in similar positions. You can find out more about Adrienne and her work at: www.alongsideparenting.com and on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/alongsideparenting and on Instagram at: https://www.instagram.com/alongsideparenting/