 Morning, just like Ash Khan said, we're midwives, we're birth center owners, and float center owners. Today we'd like to pull it all together and talk to you about the side effects of floating and pregnancy. So Kirsten's been practicing midwives since 1998, I've been practicing since 2009. Together we opened our first birth center in 2010, our next in 2012, and our third birth center in 2014. Our practice catches on average 150 babies a year, and through our float center we offer all of those moms a free float in pregnancy, which gets us a lot of repeat clients. So we came to Portland in May of last year to meet with a birth center owner that seemed to be practicing at the same level that we were. To say that we were feeling stretched thin would be an understatement. We came here to Portland to improve our practice and improve our quality of life. On our last day in town, after we had gotten some helpful feedback here, we had a free morning and I asked Kirsten, is there anything you want to try while we're down here in cool Portland? And she said she'd heard of something called floating, but she had no idea what it was. So we googled it and we called the first place listed, which is how we found ourselves walking into float on very, very early the next morning. Oh my gosh. As luck would have it, our float guru had been a very happy pregnant floater the year before. She really opened her eyes to floating and pregnancy. We walked out of float on two hours later, our minds just blown. We'd found more peace in that two hours than in two days of discussions with that other float center owner. As we traveled more in the next couple of months, we floated everywhere we could and we're totally hooked. So within three months of our first float here, we had a float tank of our own. We had an open to the public float center and we were on a roll. We had all of these, our intention diving into the world was to provide stress relief. We're midwives, we're moms, we are on call all the time and we're attending these potentially stress inducing births. So we can find ourselves feeling pretty depleted. Yeah, so it was an organic process really to start sharing something that we loved with the women that we were taking care of. For years, we've known that 90% of the ailments in pregnancy could be solved with an epsom salts bath and supplemental calcium magnesium. So when we stumbled into the world of floating, we thought we'd found the mother load. As midwives and floaters, we knew so many of these common complaints that people were bringing to us could be solved with a trip to the float tank. As with any other modality, we're not saying that floating is going to be the thing that cures you, but it's certainly going to help and it's not going to hurt. There it is. That's our disclaimer for pregnancy. That's it. The usual ailments in pregnancy are starting with swelling, which is incredibly common later on in pregnancy. We know that the float tank helps to bring down that swelling and it can actually totally eradicate it, which in turn helps moms really feel more in their body, their joints feel better, their feet don't hurt, and they can wear their shoes again. Hypertension, it's not uncommon for a lady's blood pressure to start creeping up at the end of pregnancy. And we know that oral magnesium has been shown to lower blood pressure. And anecdotally, we can say the float tank does the same thing. And then there's Braxton Hicks. The uterus is a powerful muscle. During pregnancy and birth, it's one of the largest muscles, the strongest muscles that you have in your body. Floating can help relax the uterus just like it does any other muscles. In fact, IV magnesium sulfate is what they use via IV in the hospital to stop preterm labor. Insomnia, all that anxiety, all of those hormones. It's a perfect scenario for zero sleep. Unlike with the general public who come to floating to help with insomnia, the pregnant ladies are no different. Leg cramps can be particularly brutal in the final trimester of pregnancy. They can feel like adding insult to injury when perhaps you're already swollen and you've got some back pain. Magnesium supplements are particularly effective at easing those leg cramps. And anecdotally as well, we know that the float tank can help. Stress. Pregnancy can really compound those high levels of daily stress that we're all feeling to a level that feels epic. We've been really thrilled that the results our pregnant floaters have found. We briefly considered doing an official study, but what we found was it really was going to mess with that zen experience that our mamas were having. And as well, we would have to change the protocols that we were currently working under and we didn't want to do that. Yeah, so we have our unofficial survey, which all of the floaters at our float center fill out afterward pregnant or not. And honestly, the results we got from our pregnant floaters, it wasn't earth shattering, but it did give us some valuable information to build from. We would be remiss if we didn't talk about the concerns that people have in floating pregnant women. We've certainly heard concerns about don't let them float in the first trimester. Don't let them float in the third trimester. Make sure you get a note from the doctor or the midwife. But what I can tell you is that there is nothing inherently dangerous in the float tank for those pregnant women. A float tank isn't a hot tub. It's not like laying in bed when you have excessive pressure on your back, decreasing the circulation to the uterus. It's really a matter of coincidence that we're talking about, like with any activity, exercising, a warm bath, eating eggplant parmesan. Some of these ladies were going to miscarry after they did that or they were going to go into preterm labor. Unfortunately, they might have floated before it happened. But like that eggplant parmesan, it's just the order of events. It's not that it caused the miscarriage, because honestly, parmesan just isn't that powerful. Here's our list of pregnant lady-approved float tips. Everyone loves the props. Everybody. Give these ladies a pool noodle, a neck pillow, a yoga block, and they will go to town. Right. And the positions, they do get more creative as pregnancy progresses. There are two common positions that the pregnant ladies are using later in pregnancy. They're desperate to lay on their stomachs, so they do. They put their hands under their chins and they lay in the float tank and love it. Or maybe they lay on their side with the pillow under the side of their head and a pool noodle between their legs. Right. They have to go to the bathroom a lot. All of that swelling coming off, a baby sitting on her bladder, all the extra hydration means frequent trips to the bathroom and likely it's going to happen mid-float. So be kind, provide robes that are big enough to cover a full-term belly and slippers that accommodate swollen feet. Early in pregnancy, there's nausea. What we've found is that eating small, frequent, high-protein snacks are going to help with that. Our moms that did snack about an hour before they enjoyed their floats a whole lot better. There's the added appeal later in pregnancy of being able to hear the baby's heartbeat when you're in the float tank. And this didn't happen for all of our later pregnant floaters, but when it did, it created this amazing connection between baby and mom. And her own heartbeat is going to be a lot louder in the float tank. She has half again as much blood volume at the end of pregnancy, so it'll really be thumping in her ears. Right. And again, at the end of pregnancy, those really pregnant women might find themselves listing to the side in the tank, the side that the baby is on. Once again, that pool noodle is going to help with that. This is the reason why women are at more risk of falling. Their center of balance is just really different in pregnancy. Everything's happening really fast for them. So we found that a lot of women came to floating to cure some physical ailments they were experiencing, but they stayed for the mental decompression that happened when these moms just took some time for themselves. They had a moment to listen to their own inner voice and to really connect with the baby. We'd like to share with you two of our favorite pregnant floaters to tell you about their experiences. I'm Jessica. And this is Charlotte June and Liam Sawyer. They're beautiful twins. My first pregnancy with my daughter, the swelling started pretty early and set in pretty intensely. And I found out I was pregnant again. This time with twins, I was certainly a bit more worried about the swelling. And it set in about the same time with about the same intensity. However, every time I floated, it went away completely, which was amazing. These little guys stayed in until I was 39 weeks in one day. I think a lot of that had to do with the fact that we were floating regularly. Stress was down, swelling was down, and I was able to connect with them while we were in the float tank, which was huge. I'm Rachel Morris, and this is my seventh pregnancy. In past pregnancies, it was my scoliosis. It's been very painful. And this one with the floating, it has helped tremendously. It's practically non-existent. So I have seven kids at home, and the floating has been marvelous for just getting my alone time and relaxing and being, you know, just able to focus on this pregnancy. We owe it to our families as pregnant women to just take some alone time for ourselves and relax. So we hope you'll take away from today the benefits of floating far outweigh any perceived concerns. Thanks so much for your time, and we're welcoming pregnant ladies in your float centers.