Podcasts about pediatric physical therapy

Burning Topic for Pediatric Physical Therapists: In the USA and Globally Pediatric Physical Therapy Editor-in-Chief Linda Fetters PhD, PT, FAPTA, gives reporter Peter Goodwin her assessment of the organizational crisis that has enveloped pediatric and other clinicians in the USA and globally since the new Administration took office in 2025.Predictors of Length of Physical Therapy Care for Infants With Congenital Torticollis. We talk with Pediatric Physical Therapy author Heather R Aker PT DHSc, Physical Therapist, at the Children's Hospital, Philadelphia, about her research findings published in Pediatric Physical Therapy on: Predictors of Length of Physical Therapy Care for Infants with Congenital Torticollis. Pediatric Physical Therapy Editor-in-Chief Linda Fetters adds her comments.PLEASE JOIN THE CONVERSATION!! We need to know your views, and we would love you to take part in the podcast. Please send us your perspectives and interpretations of the issues you would like us to air on the podcast. You can contact us at: E-mail: pediatricphysicaltherapy@audiomedica.comText Messages, WhatsApp, What's App Video or Audio: +44 7771 642 333

Welcome to season 4 of the SNP Podcast! In this episode, we will be hearing from Carol Huegel PT, HPCS. Carol is a Coordinating Faculty member of the American Hippotherapy Association, Inc. as well as the Co-Chair of the American Hippotherapy Certification Board. Carol will be giving us some insight into what it looks like to practice with the pediatric population in the specialty setting of hippotherapy. As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more ways than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy).Hosted by Robyn McGowanEdited by Annabelle HearneMusic by Scott MillerSpecial Thanks to Carol A. Huegel, PT, HPCS 

We have another article review to bring to you on today's episode! As there is yet to be a clinical practice guideline (CPG) for this patient population, this article gives a great insight into how current PTs manage children with down syndrome, what assessment tools they utilize, and interventions they prioritize. Sheila and Sara will explore the contents of this paper and discuss the implications for clinical practice as well as board exam preparation.  “Johnson R, Looper J, Fiss A. Current Trends in Pediatric Physical Therapy Practice for Children With Down Syndrome. Pediatric Physical Therapy. 2021;33(2):74-81. doi:10.1097/PEP.0000000000000781” Resources discussed in today's episode can be found on our website Use code PUSHINGPEDS for $150 off your Medbridge subscription!  Check out our website, and subscribe for our subscription only episodes Follow us on Instagram This episode was brought to you by the Pivot Ball Change Network.

Thanks for joining today for another episode of Pushing Pediatrics. Today Sara and Sheila will be reviewing an article you can find below in the show notes on the effectiveness of serial casting and ankle foot orthosis for toe walking children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We will be discussing the methodology, results, and implications for practice as Pediatric Physical Therapists. Our intent for this review is to provide some actionable insights for practicing PTs but also to cover some board exam prep as this is a newer article that could be testable material. We hope you find today's episode helpful!  “Barkocy M, Schilz J, Heimerl S, Chee M, Valdez M, Redmond K. The Effectiveness of Serial Casting and Ankle Foot Orthoses in Treating Toe Walking in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder. Pediatric Physical Therapy. 2021;33(2):83-90. doi:10.1097/PEP.0000000000000784” Resources discussed in today's episode can be found on our website Use code PUSHINGPEDS for $150 off your Medbridge subscription!  Check out our website, and subscribe for our subscription only episodes Follow us on InstagramThis episode was brought to you by the Pivot Ball Change Network.

In this heartfelt episode, Dr. Meghan Teitz welcomes Tina Nail, a Physical Therapist Assistant (PTA) and owner of Wonderfully Made Pediatric Therapy in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. Tina shares her inspiring journey from becoming a PTA in 1994 to opening her own clinic dedicated to serving children with special needs. She discusses her diverse experiences in various therapy settings, her passion for pediatrics, and the emotional fulfillment that comes from helping children achieve their milestones. Tune in to learn about the challenges and triumphs of running a pediatric clinic, the importance of building strong relationships within the community, and Tina's innovative vision for integrating therapy with daycare services to better support families.Tina Nail is a seasoned Physical Therapist Assistant and the proud owner of Wonderfully Made Pediatric Therapy clinic in Okmulgee, Oklahoma. With nearly 30 years of experience in the field, she has worked across multiple therapy settings, including acute care, outpatient, and pediatric services. Tina is deeply committed to making a positive impact in the lives of children and their families, focusing on helping them achieve their developmental milestones. She is an advocate for PTAs and emphasizes the importance of teamwork and communication in providing exceptional care.To connect with Tina Nail, you can reach her via the following channels:Email: tnail@wonderfullymadepediatrictherapy.comFacebook: Wonderfully Made Pediatric TherapyInstagram: @wonderfullymadepediatrictherapyFeel free to reach out if you're interested in discussing pediatric therapy or if you want to learn more about the innovative services at her clinic!

“Fidelity Tool” Helps Pediatric Physical Therapists Implement Guidelines for Patients with Cerebral Palsy Findings from a study looking at a method of ensuring physical therapists can more easily implement evidence-based guideline therapy for children with cerebral palsy has been published in Pediatric Physical Therapy journal. First author Michelle Jackman PhD, Occupational Therapist & Research Fellow, at the Cerebral Palsy Research Institute of University of Sydney, Australia and the CP Alliance Research Foundation in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia has been discussing her group's findings in the latest edition of the Pediatric Physical Therapy podcast with correspondent Sarah Maxwell, in the company of Editor-in-Chief, Linda Fetters PhD PT FAPTA, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, USA. JOURNAL TITLE: Implementing Clinical Practice Guidelines for improving function in Cerebral Palsy: Development of a Fidelity Tool

SAFETY LISTENER NOTE: This presentation will discuss aspects of trauma, its impact on children, families and practitioners. We acknowledge that the content in this discussion may trigger your previous experiences with trauma or the trauma that your patient's have experienced. We encourage you to perform self-care practices even within this podcast; if you need to take a break and pause, please do so as you need. Today is the continuation of Sheila and Sara discussing Trauma Informed Care with Katelyn McNamara-Kays PT, DPT, PCS and Bridget Griffin, PT, DPT, PCS. Kate works at a level 1 pediatric trauma center in Louisville, Kentucky and Bridget works at a large children's hospital in the pediatric ICU in Cincinnati, Ohio. If you have not listened to last week's episode, please go back and listen to part 1 and then come back to today's episode for part 2 as we wrap up our discussion of Trauma Informed Care. Links and Resources:  Trauma-Informed Care Fact sheet 1  Trauma-Informed Care Fact sheet 2  “Trauma-Informed Care in Pediatric Physical Therapy as a Standard Precaution: The Time Is Here” “What Happened To You” by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, MD, PHD, and Oprah Winfrey  “In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope” by Dr. Rana Awdish Use code PUSHING PEDS for $150 off your Medbridge subscription!  Check out our website for resources discussed in today's episode, and subscribe for our subscription only episodes. Follow us on Instagram This episode was brought to you by the Pivot Ball Change Network.

In this episode of the Experience Miracles podcast, Dr. Tony Ebel interviews Beth Saip, a pediatric physical therapist with nearly 20 years of experience and clinical director at Dream Riders. They discuss the power of collaborative care between physical therapy and chiropractic care, particularly focusing on how hippotherapy (horse therapy) and Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic work together to help children with complex cases.Key Topics Covered:[00:00:00] - Episode introduction and overview of team-based approach to pediatric care[00:02:00] - Introduction of Beth Saip and her background in pediatric physical therapy[00:04:00] - Discussion of how Beth began working with complex pediatric cases[00:07:00] - The importance of provider collaboration in complex cases[00:15:00] - Explanation of "ready state" and how horses help regulate children's nervous systems[00:19:00] - Detailed breakdown of how horse movement patterns affect children differently[00:23:00] - Different positions used in hippotherapy and their benefits[00:29:00] - Discussion of proper developmental sequence and its importance[00:32:00] - Why gross motor development must precede other developmental areas[00:36:00] - Explanation of compensatory patterns and their impact on brain function[00:40:00] - The importance of crawling in development[00:44:00] - Connection between movement and academic performance[00:48:00] - Strategies for breaking through plateaus in treatment[00:54:00] - Connor's case study: Dealing with Lyme disease[01:03:00] - Tips for finding the right therapy providers[01:07:00] - How their collaborative community was built[01:11:00] - Call to action for parents and providersTo learn more about Beth and Dream Riders Hippotherapy please visit:https://www.dreamriderstlc.com/-- Follow us on Socials: Instagram: @pxdocs Facebook: Dr. Tony Ebel & The PX Docs Network Youtube: The PX Docs For more information, visit PXDocs.com to read informative articles about the power of Neurologically-Focused Chiropractic Care. To watch Dr. Tony's 30 min Perfect Storm Webinar: Click Here Find a PX Doc Office near me: PX DOCS Directory Subscribe, share, and stay tuned for more incredible episodes unpacking the power of Nervous System focused care for children!

SAFETY LISTENER NOTE: This presentation will discuss aspects of trauma, its impact on children, families and practitioners. We acknowledge that the content in this discussion may trigger your previous experiences with trauma or the trauma that your patient's have experienced. We encourage you to perform self-care practices even within this podcast; if you need to take a break and pause, please do so as you need. Sheila and Sara will be discussing Trauma Informed Care with Katelyn McNamara-Kays PT, DPT, PCS and Bridget Griffin, PT, DPT, PCS, who are both highly qualified to tackle this topic today. Kate works at a level 1 trauma center in Louisville, Kentucky and Bridget works in Cincinnati, Ohio. Today we will be breaking down exactly what Trauma Informed Care is, why it is important to consider when interacting with pediatric patients, considerations for different ages of children, and how to apply it to your practice. Come back next week for part two of this topic! Links and Resources:  Trauma-Informed Care Fact sheet 1  Trauma-Informed Care Fact sheet 2  “Trauma-Informed Care in Pediatric Physical Therapy as a Standard Precaution: The Time Is Here” “What Happened To You” by Dr. Bruce D. Perry, MD, PHD, and Oprah Winfrey  “In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope” by Dr. Rana Awdish Use code PUSHING PEDS for $150 off your Medbridge subscription!  Check out our website for resources discussed in today's episode, and subscribe for our subscription only episodes. Follow us on Instagram This episode was brought to you by the Pivot Ball Change Network.

Wendi McKenna, a devoted doctor of physical therapy specializing in pediatrics, joins Tina Paulus-Krause for a compelling conversation about the power of transformational leadership. Wendi shares her personal journey from experiencing unexplained sadness in her teenage years to discovering purpose and connection through a life-changing leadership camp. Her story reveals the profound impact that transformational leadership can have, not only on individuals but also on communities as a whole. Through her work with teenagers, Wendi demonstrates the potential for growth and change when young people are supported in a structured leadership environment. As Tina and Wendi explore the dynamics of the Global Leadership Academy's teen leadership program, they emphasize the importance of continuous support and the role of parental involvement in fostering growth. Drawing from personal experiences, they discuss the necessity of offering teens a solid next step, allowing them to evolve into leadership roles themselves. The Global Leadership Academy's Teen Leadership Experience has a unique parallel track for parents that enables families to transform together, creating a supportive environment where both teens and their families can learn and grow. By nurturing these relationships, we build stronger partnerships that pave the way for lasting personal development. The episode wraps up with a broader look at the ripple effects of transformational leadership, highlighting stories of community support and personal breakthroughs. Wendi and Tina discuss how challenging deeply held beliefs and fostering a mindset of unity can inspire change on a larger scale. Wendi's work with teenagers serves as a testament to the power of seeing others at their best and the potential for transformational leadership to unlock new possibilities. Tune in for an inspiring episode that explores the transformative potential within each of us and the communities we are connected with. ________________ Timecodes 0:00 – Intro 3:54 – Transformational Leadership & Wendi's Aha Moment 7:44 – It's the Journey: Don't Be Afraid of Going All In & Not Getting “There” 9:24 – It Starts With You First: Balance & Deep Listening Create Greater Capacity 13:33 – Coming Full Circle into the Teen Leadership Experience 20:38 – Changing the Family Dynamic & Not Taking It Personally 28:49 – How Global Leadership Academy Aligns with Wendi's Mission & Vision 36:26 – The Lasting Impact of Choosing Happy & Seeing People as Their Greatest Self 37:55 – Conclusion ________________ Wendi McKenna, DPT, Doctor of Pediatric Physical Therapy and Founder of Move Play Grow, is a stand for you and your family to create extraordinary lives. As a master transformational leadership trainer, facilitator and coach for adults and teens, she supports you to identify and commit to what's important to you, build the skills for the win, create a journey of wonder, grace, and joy, and to build your dreams in results and relationships. Wendi, married 22 years to her husband, Neil, is blessed with three children at home and college (Martha 18, Skipper 16, and Kellan 12). Together in partnership, they are navigating the beautiful and challenging landscape of parenting and being a growing human, nurturing relationships daily, dreaming and manifesting visions, building emotional intelligence and upleveling leadership skills. Working with families is an exquisite dance, one that is very personal and heartfelt in all the ways. Wendi recognizes and honors the great responsibility and privilege it is to be entrusted with that role. She is a committed partner with you to create your magic. Website: https://www.wendimckenna.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/wendiwmckenna/ ________________ Your Leadership Legacy Website: www.tinapauluskrause.com/yourleadershiplegacypodcast/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5C8bf4UC4Npymj1KTzfm9k?si=ximhczT_SJaKY7Otzm6QuQ Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/your-leadership-legacy-with-tina-paulus-krause/id1495401836 Tina Paulus-Krause Website: https://tinapauluskrause.com/Facebook: www.facebook.com/coachtpk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/coachtpk/

On Unstoppable Mindset I have rarely met someone who is as outgoing and, yes, as confident as our guest this time, DW Starr. DW's childhood was by no means normal. Within his first six years of life, he suffered a broken leg as well as two traumatic brain injuries that came from automobile-related accidents. He even encountered a third traumatic brain injury at the age of forty, again from being hit by a car. Oh, make no mistake! None of these were the result of carelessness. No matter what, he persevered through all of these challenges.  For nearly thirty years as an adult, he worked in sales for companies and was a top performer. Mostly after his last brain injury he began using mnemonics techniques to help remember things that, for him, were easy to forget. He had developed some techniques as a child, but didn't resurrect them until his last accident. He also began learning more about confidence and how to use it in his own life. He also began working a bit as a performer giving shows to children and adults on how they could improve their own confidence and thus become better and stronger people. Now, his performances and talks are a full-time job. He tells us about his shows and gives us insights into what he does while performing. He even discusses some of the memory techniques he uses during his performances and how he teaches them to his audience.   DW has visited and performed in forty states in America as well as fifteen countries. He is quite an inspiration we all should value and from whom we can learn much. He discusses, for example, the difference between confidence and arrogance and he discusses the difference between assertiveness and aggression. I think you will gain much from DW's time with us. If you visit his website, www.dwstarr.net you can obtain a PDF copy of one of his books.   About the Guest:   DW STARR, confidence expert, performer, speaker and author empowers teens and adults to unleash their hidden confidence superpower to be the superhero in their own lives. DW draws from his multiple areas of expertise to help his teen and adult audiences reach peak performance success. He is uniquely qualified: started selling at 9 years old, endured and survived traumatic brain injury (TBI), over 25 years of corporate experience as a million-dollar sales executive excelling with the largest medical information analytics company on the planet, international award-winning U.S. Army movie/tv director, amateur magician, and author of 4 books with two more in the works. Using their favorite movie and his proprietary S.T.A.R.R. formula, DW empowers and connects with his audiences as he performs his audience-interactive one-man show DW LIVE! and through his transformational speaking presentations. They learn to re-direct the inner movie running in their minds. DW has performed and spoken in 15 countries and 40 U.S. States … His “Confidence Matters“ message speaks a universal language that resonates with people and organizations worldwide.   He lives in Southern Florida with his wife and his dog.   Ways to connect with DW:   INSTAGRAM….. DW_STARR FACEBOOK…….. DW STARR YOUTUBE………. @CONFIDENCECRUSADER TIKTOK…………… @CONFIDENCECRUSADER LINKEDIN……….. DW STARR WEBSITE………… WWW.DWSTARR.NET WEBSITE………… WWW.WOWUNOW.COM/DWSTARR   https://www.dropbox.com/s/q1x0v88barglevm/Teens%20Need%20Our%20Help.mp4?dl=0    MY MISSION TO HELP TEENS   https://www.dropbox.com/s/ffj4d55iyfjwlm4/DW%20Promo%20On%20Site%2034%20seconds.mp4?dl=0  34 second DW Promo     About the Host:   Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/   https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening!   Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast   If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset .   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review   Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.       Transcription Notes:   Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Well, hi everyone, wherever you happen to be, we want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset, once again, unstoppable mindset, where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet and unexpected gets to be a fun part of what we get to do today, by any standard. And I'm not going to tell you anymore, because I want it to be unexpected until it happens. We do have a wonderful guest today. I love people who are really animated and engage me in conversation and teach us a lot. And that's true of our guest today. DW Starr, and I'm not going to tell you anymore. I'm just going to say, dw, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset.   DW Starr ** 01:57 Hi, Michael, how are you?   Michael Hingson ** 01:58 I'm doing lovely. And you,   DW Starr ** 02:00 I'm doing great. I'm doing great. Did you know that late maybe you, or maybe even your audience? Don't know that Lady Gaga was fired after her first record album, after only three months that Michael Jordan didn't make his high school basketball team, the first time that Taylor Swift was told she was too young for the music industry. Get that and really that JK Rowling, the author the Harry Potter series, was turned down by 12 publishers. Was a single mother, and she was in poverty, and wrote her book in in a in a in a coffee shop. Now the reason I'm telling you that is because all those people figured out how to find the confidence to be the successes they became.   Michael Hingson ** 02:57 And it really is about confidence, isn't it? It is confidence matters, and it's not arrogance, it's confidence. And there's a big difference, correct?   DW Starr ** 03:06 Absolutely, the difference, to me, is authenticity. When someone is truly confident, they don't need to prove it to anybody, because it's internal, it's it's authentic, it's who they really are, and that comes with the good and the not so good sometimes, and the recognition of those things within ourselves. Good point. Well, how   Michael Hingson ** 03:32 did you I'd love to learn more about your story of how you did all that, and maybe you can tell us a little about the early dw and kind of how you evolved over time, as it were,   DW Starr ** 03:43 well, how far back to you? What we just Oh, go   Michael Hingson ** 03:46 to the beginning. What this early memories you got to tell us about you?   DW Starr ** 03:50 I'm two years old. I mean, there you go. I'm two years old. I'm in the backseat of my mother's car, and, damn, I fall out, smash my head on the ground and fracture my skull. Wow, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 04:06 Do you remember that?   DW Starr ** 04:07 No, okay, I just know that. People told me what happened, and then I was lucky. I didn't get run over by a car or a truck. So then I'm six years old, I'm riding my bike, playing, follow the leader, my friend goes across the street. I follow my friend on my bike, and bam, I get hit by a truck. I fly 15 feet in the air, smash, smash my leg on the curb and break my femur, and I hit my head on the ground and go unconscious. Brain Injury number two, when I when I wake up, yeah, when I wake up, I don't mean to interrupt you. I No go ahead times. So if I do that, tell me to stop interrupting.   Michael Hingson ** 04:56 I was just going to ask if you remember that one. Uh,   DW Starr ** 04:58 no. Okay anyway, so you broke your leg, and you hit your head right, and when I woke up my I found out that I had a broken leg, and they had put and then eventually they put me in a cast from my stomach down to both my feet, with a bar in between. So I had a cast on both legs, connected at the stomach area all the way down to my toes, and then a bar in between, so I couldn't even move without being carried around the house as a six year old.   Michael Hingson ** 05:33 Why was there a bar? Oh, so   DW Starr ** 05:36 that the legs would grow evenly, got it, um, and so that I would and so the two, the two, the two legs would be stabilized, okay, otherwise, what I would have two separate casts. So it was one giant cast right now when they took the cast off with, you know, with a buzzsaw, and they took off the cast. My leg had atrophied because it had been in the cast for so long, both of them, actually, and the strength of my leg, the broken leg was still in a healing process. So I had to, I slept on a cow a mattress in my living room, rolled off the mattress and crawled on my hands and knees into the kitchen and taught myself Pediatric Physical Therapy, because it didn't exist back then, and I taught myself how to walk again. Wow, at six, that wasn't really good for my self confidence. When I was crawling around on my hands and knees, I felt, I do remember feeling a little bit like a loser, you know, because I'm six years old, I'm supposed to be able to run and jump. And here I am crawling in my house, and then I go about living my life and different things. And at 40 years old, yep, it happened one more time. I'm in a car on the way to a Billy Joel concert listening to the music of Billy Joel, and I get hit at 55 miles an hour in a car. My wife breaks three ribs, and I hit my head in the inside of the car, so hard I dent the inside of the car with my head, and I don't know it, because what happened was, after that happened, my wife was complaining about these broken ribs. So what? She didn't know they were broken. She just knew she had pain. And so I crawled over the back seat of the car, went out the passenger side. I didn't realize what I was doing. I was on an adrenaline rush, obviously, and I just told her to sit still and everything be fine. The emergency people came. They took us to the hospital. They asked me if I was okay. I said, Sure, I just have a little cut in my in my leg, on my ankle. They said, well, we'll take care of that the hospital. I said, Sure. Went there. She got tested. She was okay, except for the broken ribs, and the way broken ribs heal is just time. So she was okay. We came home, I went to work the next day, and I was in corporate I was in corporate America, working with one of the largest medical informatics companies on the planet. It's one of the top 1000 companies in the world, and I was in sales management, and so anyway, what happened was, a couple days later, I started screaming at her, and that's not my personality at all. So I thought, something's not right. And so we ended up, I ended up going to a couple doctors, and the neuropsychiatrist said to me, I know what your problem is. I went, Oh, good, good, Doc. Tell me what my problem is. He said, Oh, you've had a traumatic brain injury. I said, That's not possible. He goes, Well, why is that? I said, because I've already had two. He said, Well, now you've had three.   Michael Hingson ** 09:14 You know, you just don't know how to keep your head out of the way   DW Starr ** 09:17 you think. And people say you should stay away from cars.   Michael Hingson ** 09:24 You got to mind your head better is what it is. It is so he told you he had a traumatic brain injury, yeah. And   DW Starr ** 09:30 he explained to me that it's a very unique kind of a thing. When you get a traumatic brain injury, you never really know what the long range effects are. He had me read an article about a female steeple jumper, someone who rides a horse and jumps over those, those railings, you know, the steeple jumper, right? And he said she fell off her horse, hit her head, and she had trouble the rest of her life addressing envelopes. Mm. And probably just like you. I said, What? What? What, what, how, what's it doesn't make sense addressing he said, Well, the way it works is that our brain is very, very, very unique, and different pieces do different things, so we never know what your long term effects are going to be. So I was out of work for three months because somebody would say, I want to buy one of these, one of these, and one of these, and I couldn't remember the first thing the person pointed to within, within a split second at the time they pointed to it. So I couldn't work because I couldn't remember. And I was really scared. I was scared that I wasn't going to be able to be a good provider for my family, be a good father to my sons, be a good husband to my wife, and just be okay. But after about three months, things really started to get better, and at that's the time when I remembered, when I was a kid, how I remembered things. Because even as a kid now, remember I had two head injuries by the time I was six. I don't know if the reason I had trouble remembering things when I was six was because of that or not, but I do remember my teacher telling me how to spell arithmetic. I'm doing all the talking here. That's okay, it's funny. It's your story. All right, all right.   Michael Hingson ** 11:30 People have heard mine.   DW Starr ** 11:32 Okay, cool. I gotcha. All right, so arithmetic, a rat in the house might eat the ice cream, A, R, I T, H, M, E, T, I C, a rat in the house might eat the ice cream. And I I love that as a kid, and I remembered that as an adult. And I said, Wait a minute, maybe I can start remembering things by using that kind of a technique, and that's what I did. I started creating memory hacks for myself in different arenas in my life, and that's how I remember remember things, to the point where even today, I use the some of those memory hacks for my own presentations, my own performances. I use my last name star as a memory hack to remember my own stuff. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 12:34 how long ago? So you had the last accident at 40? And how many years ago was that?   DW Starr ** 12:40 Well, that's going to give away my age. Oh, well, that's up to you. Let's just say I'm somewhere around 60. Okay,   Michael Hingson ** 12:51 so it's been a while, and so you've been using the memory hack, if you will, techniques for for quite a while, and you still use them   DW Starr ** 12:59 to people too. Sometimes, yeah, yeah. Do you ever forget? Let me ask you a question. Michael, do you? Do you ever forget something that you want to remember when you are going from one place to another? I do okay. Do you? Do you? Um? Do you have things that you always like to carry with you when you go from one place to another, like a phone or a notebook or or something like that. I do so do you ever forget them?   Michael Hingson ** 13:33 The things that I carry, typically not. I've gotten into the habit of carrying them and I don't   DW Starr ** 13:38 Okay. We find that that many people do forget things like their their glasses or their phone or their or their keys or whatever. So what I did for myself is I created an mnemonic device called, please bring a kazoo guide. Now, a kazoo is that thing that you play, that you humid like that? Yep. So please, I have one. Oh, you have one. I   Michael Hingson ** 14:07 do not right here, but I have one.   DW Starr ** 14:11 So do I? I got it as a kid? Yeah. So I used to use that in my performances sometimes. So I said, All right, I'll create a mnemonic device. Please bring a kazoo guide, phone, briefcase, attitude, keys and glasses. I never want to forget my good attitude, but I also don't want to forget my phone or my briefcase or my keys or my glasses. So that's the kind of mnemonic device, memory hack that I'm talking about, that I've used for myself to help me be confident and stay confident in my memory portion of my my life.   Michael Hingson ** 14:51 And I use mnemonics for some things from time to time or not so much mnemonics, but something I. Um, oftentimes, when I'm creating something that I want to remember, I will convert print characters to Braille dots, and I will create combinations that for whatever reason I remember to help me not forget the things that I don't want to forget when when I do that so I hear what you're saying, and I appreciate it a great deal. And I think that there's a lot of value in everyone finding ways to remember things. One of the things that I've always been good at remembering are phone numbers, and I work really hard, even today, when I have a smartphone that is very accessible that I can put contacts in and do I still want to remember the phone numbers, because I think that keeps me sharper by remembering things. So I remember a lot of phone numbers, and I've made it a conscious effort to do that so that, and it's worked for me specifically to be able to do that. I remember the phone number that we had when I grew up in Palmdale, California, and I even remember the phone number that I had in them in my dorm at UC Irvine and and some of the other phone numbers like that.   DW Starr ** 16:26 And any of them start with 213,   Michael Hingson ** 16:30 huh? No, mine started with 805, and then 714, because I went to UC Irvine. So it was 714, and I have a friend who, and I still remember it his phone number at UC Irvine, actually, he, yeah, he was a PhD candidate at UC Irvine, but he lived off campus, and his number was 714, Om, war, 1o, H, M, W, A, r1, and I always thought that was a clever way to remember it. Yeah, and I had one, I'm trying to remember. I know the last I've got to think about it. One of the phone numbers that I worked with at UC Irvine ended with jet one, and I don't remember right off. I'll think about it the first three digits, but it's good to have the little acronyms, or not acronyms, but mnemonics and memory devices, and they're very valuable to use, and more people should probably use them, they might remember things better. So   DW Starr ** 17:33 what I figured out, Michael is I figured out why we forget some of these things, and that has helped me help people understand more about building their own confidence, and the reason that we forget these things is because we're already where we're going instead of where we are. We're already thinking about getting in the car, walking into the other room, leaving the hotel, getting off an airplane, we're already thinking about those things as if they're already starting to happen, instead of paying attention to where we actually are at the moment. So this, this memory hack, actually creates something that we all call mindfulness, which is pretty wild, because I never knew that was going to be one of the outcomes. But because of that, I'm able to stay in the present a lot more often, and I like that feeling, yeah, and, and it, it's that's all part of about being confident, is being confident with who you are in the moment   Michael Hingson ** 18:42 you you asked earlier if I have a phone, and remember my phone and other things I know I've stayed in many hotels, and one of the things, again, it's a discipline that I've developed, is that I never leave A hotel key laying on a table, it stays in the pocket, and my phone will either be in my pocket, or if I'm in a hotel room, I will make sure that it is plugged in by the head of the bed, so that when I get up in the morning, it is one of the first things that I touch, and I'm very deliberate about that. But the hotel key, especially, I just have always developed this habit, this technique of never leave it laying around. And for me, there are several reasons. One, I am too much an out of sight, out of mind kind of guy, and so the bottom line is, not seeing the hotel key, if I put it down somewhere, that's going to be a problem. So the better thing is to keep it in a pocket.   DW Starr ** 19:45 Makes sense to me. It works, yep, but,   Michael Hingson ** 19:52 but people really do allow their minds to I think you pointed out very well. Uh, move to, um, away from where we are to where we're going to be, and we lose that control, and we never seem to learn from our mistakes. Or we think, Oh, well, I can just see the hotel key so I won't forget it. Yeah, that works really well.   DW Starr ** 20:19 Well, if you think of if the people in your audience were to think of people who they have in their life, who they feel are confident and would like to have some of that confidence, or somebody in a movie or TV or in a book they read that has has a really good, solid hold on confidence. They'll see that those characters or those people live in the present moment. And so that's a really important piece of the puzzle of confidence. It's not the only thing. Obviously, there's lots of other pieces of the puzzle, but that, like, I say that's, that's an important piece. So, yeah, it   Michael Hingson ** 21:07 is. Well, so you weren't doing any of this coaching, I presume, or hadn't really thought through as much about confidence and so on, before you had your accident at 40,   DW Starr ** 21:25 I was dabbling, dabbling. I I, I was inspired through many different people. In fact, I use a mnemonic memory hack, to even remember who inspired me. It's to rise t, w o r, I, instead of an S, it's a Z, Z e, t, w o r, I, z e, to rise to rise above, to rise ahead, and it stands for Tony Robbins, Wayne, Dyer, Oprah Winfrey, Ronald Reagan, Indira Gandhi, zig zigular, and Eleanor Roosevelt. So I use my name like I said. I use these memory hacks all the time, but those those people, along with Nelson Mandela and his life, were an inspiration to me that I decided that I needed to share my message with the world, and I so I studied these people and saw all the different roadblocks and the different the different things that stopped them, that held them back. And I said, if all these different people, I mean, Nelson Mandela was in jail for 20 years, yeah. And he was put there by the country that he eventually became president of, yeah. So if these people could rise above, to rise above their own circumstances. I certainly could teach myself how to do that too. And so that's what I did. And once I did that, then I said, I want to share this message with the world. And so I I did that for many, many years with adults. And then there's this thing that happened called covid. Yeah, all the speakers, right? It just shut down, yep. And during that time, some of the speakers and performers realized they could use this concept called Zoom. And I did a program in Ethiopia on Zoom, and I saw how successful it was. And this program was with college students and their professors. And up until that time, I had only been working with corporate America and adults, you know, big, big fortune, 500 companies that's all on my website, if somebody wants to look me up, and all the different companies I work for, worked with. But anyway, so during covid, and I did that, and I said, You know what, when I come out of this, I want, I want to make an, a really strong effort to make a big focus on teens and young adults, because I figured something out while I was, you know, while we were in this covid coma, almost at times, it felt like is that young adults and teens were going to their older mentors, whether it was their parents or whether it was their boss, and saying, I don't understand this covid thing. Can you please help me understand this? And their boss and their parents and their grandparents had no clue what to tell them, because they didn't know what to do either. Right, yeah. So what happens is all these young people who have these people on a pedestal, the pedestal starts to drop, and this hurts their the teens and young adults self confidence, to the point where you start seeing all kinds of major issues going on with it, with young people, and it's all over the news, and even even the Surgeon General talked about it, depression, higher rates of suicide, anxiety, heavy social anxiety, and on top of that, social media. So the teens and young adults sometimes can't even talk to each other because they only know how to do it on this machine.   Michael Hingson ** 25:45 Yeah. Or, or with text,   DW Starr ** 25:49 yeah, yeah. Well, that's actually yeah, both computer and text. And like, I'm holding up a phone right now and it says, Bs, Oh, I better tell people what that stands for, or they're going to get freaked out. That reminds me, me, that's my memory hack that stands for belief system. Okay? It says BS, but it stands for belief system. It reminds me that the way I perceive my life is all based on what I believe. If I change my beliefs, I can change my perception, yep. And   Michael Hingson ** 26:28 the other part of that is, if you need to change your beliefs, that is, we should always look to grow. We have a belief system. We have what we believe in. And I'm not saying that people need to question what they believe in, but they should always be open to learning new things and letting that augment their belief system.   DW Starr ** 26:46 Absolutely. Yeah, so that's designed, that BS is designed every time I pick up my phone to remind me if what I believe is in my best interest, if it's healthy for me, and if it's not, then I need to do something about it, you   Michael Hingson ** 27:02 know, during covid. And I'm not trying to brag or sound arrogant or anything, but I know, and I think I can connect it up here. I didn't have a lot of social anxiety. My wife didn't even have a lot of social anxiety. We We went through it, but we also felt we lived in a in a house, the two of us, we live, where we where I live. Now, she passed away in 2022 but, but just she was in a wheelchair. Well, she was in a chair her whole life, and her body just started slowing down. So we lost her in November of 2022 and it's just kind of one of those things, as her physical medicine doctor once told her, you know, the body doesn't come with a lifetime warranty. So it happened,   DW Starr ** 27:46 no, no, just get out of here alive. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 27:48 not in that sense. And you know, but the thing is that we we felt okay. We got a lockdown, we'll lock down. And we did, but we were much more oriented toward, as you would say, living in the moment and not worrying about all the things that we couldn't control. And I can think about that very intellectually and say that's how we reacted to life. We didn't worry about what we couldn't control. We focused mainly on what we could Oh, occasionally we worried about one thing or another, but mostly we just didn't worry about what we couldn't control and focused on the things that we had control over. And we had control over things mail comes in, spray it with a little bit of Lysol, just to play safe. And neither of us ever got ever got covid, but we we always wore masks when we went out. And I still, when I fly, wear a mask, just because you never know. But I also had a lot of fun with masks, because I've told this story a couple times on on unstoppable mindset. We went to a bank one day, and I went into the bank wearing a mask. I was carrying my white K and I didn't use my guide dog. It was a quick trip, so he stayed home, and I walked. We walked. I walked in. Karen stayed in the car because she also had an autoimmune situation with rheumatoid arthritis, so she drove me to the bank, but she felt she shouldn't go in, and I agreed. Anyway, I went in wearing a mask. Go up to the teller, and they all know me there, but I go up and I say, when we when we greet each other? And I said, Hello. And they said, Hello. And then I said, Don't you think it's funny how today somebody wearing a mask can walk into a bank, and then I held my cane up and say, This is a stick up, right? And the manager came over and he said, you know, we haven't had such a good laugh all day, which is exactly why I did it. But you know, we all have choices to how we deal with things and and how we react to things. And I think so often I heard so many people being so anxious about. Using Zoom Zoom fatigue and everything else. And I realized the fact of the matter is that covid offered and still offers us a great opportunity to deal with a lot of things in a different way, and that, rather than having zoom fatigue, use it to your advantage, and unfortunately, we just don't worry about that, because we are so used to doing it one way, we don't get innovative anymore.   DW Starr ** 30:31 Yeah, so it's, if you look at the people, typically, that are most happy in life, it's because they're continually looking for a way to to grow. And it doesn't necessarily have to be financially, it can be spiritually, it can be emotionally, it can be psychologically, it can be financially, it can be educationally, but if that's even a word, educationally, but it works okay today anyway, yeah. But the key I guess, is that if you're continually growing, you're firing this. And trust me, I've studied the brain a lot. You can only imagine after three head injury,   Michael Hingson ** 31:15 have you discovered that you do you need to mind your head and keep it out of the way.   DW Starr ** 31:20 Absolutely, okay, absolutely away from   Michael Hingson ** 31:24 cars, cars. Yeah, please.   DW Starr ** 31:28 So, so what happens is, is that we're, we're, we're continually reassessing our ourselves, that those are, seem to be the people who are the most happiest.   Michael Hingson ** 31:46 I think there's a lot of truth to that they don't worry about the things that they don't have a lot of control over, because all that's going to do is drive you crazy, exactly, and it does. It just drives too many people way too crazy, which is too bad.   DW Starr ** 32:04 I think another thing for me, though that's really important that I want to share, is that that your life doesn't happen by chance. It happens by choice. Yes, and, and, and. So, you know, we, we've all heard this, but, but it's so true that by not making a decision, you're still making a decision. So if you're in a situation, you go, Oh, I don't really know what I want to do about this. Well, you're making the decision not to make a decision. And that, in itself, is a choice. And you always have a choice. Always say, you know, in Viktor frankl's book, A Man's Search for Meaning, which is quite an amazing book, if anyone in your audience hasn't read it and they want to really understand the deep psychological meaning for how people survive the concentration camps, is in his book, he talks, he talks about the the importance of of of recognizing that it's a choice, that it's a choice that they it's your choice to search for meaning. It's, you know, I made a post. I did a post just the other day. I said, it's not what happens to you, it's how you perceive what happens to you. It's not what happens to you, it's what you it's what you feel and think about what happens to you. It's not the actual occurrence itself, it's how you deal with it. And I think that's really important when it comes to confidence, because you can look at failure as failure, or you can look at failure as a stepping stone. I mean, we've all heard this stuff for years, but it's true. That's why we keep hearing it, because it's true,   Michael Hingson ** 33:57 September 11 happened, and I believe that we didn't have any control over it happening. I still don't think that, no matter what happened, we for could have foreseen it coming, but it happened, and that's not something we have any control over, but we all have control over how we choose to deal with it, which is exactly what you're saying.   DW Starr ** 34:21 Yeah, absolutely. And you know, for me, my parents were very dysfunctional. Okay, so I had a choice. I could, I could use that as an excuse not to be happy, not, you know, to be dysfunctional as a parent when I had kids, although, but, but I, I choose to look at those things as as lessons for me to grow from, to become who I want to be, you know. And that's I, you know, there's one thing I want to make sure I say in this podcast, and that's that, you know, somebody once said to me, well, dw, if I could just like, learn how to do. What you're talking about like in five minutes. Five just five minutes because everybody's in a hurry. Everybody wants to right? So five, I say, Well, here's the key. The key is figure out what you want. Figure out why you want it. Keep showing up. Don't let go of that desire. Don't let go of that dream, and then find somebody either in the real world or in the make believe world, meaning movies, TV, books, whatever, or in the real world, a mother, a father, an uncle, a boss, a librarian that you know a school teacher, whatever, find somebody who has the kind of confidence that you want to strive for, and then let them mentor you. And if you don't have a direct connection to them, use what I call a virtual mentor. And that's what I did. Ronald Reagan, Indira Gandhi, Zig Ziglar, Ellen Ro I didn't have any connection with those people, but what I did was I let them virtually mentor me, and that's what I would suggest the person do, and then for two minutes every morning and every night, imagine yourself being like that person, and then for two minutes during the day. Take a situation in your life, whatever it is, and for two minutes be like that person's confidence would be. Act as if you were that confident for just two minutes. You can do it for two for two minutes in the morning and two minutes in the evening, you just imagine you have that kind of confidence. What would that person do in the situation you're trying to be more confident about and then during the day, for two minutes, simply like, let's say you're nervous about making phone calls as a salesperson a cold call, or, let's say that you don't have the confidence you want to have for playing the guitar in front of five friends for two minutes. Just pretend like you're you have the confidence of that mentor, and just act as if you have it. And that's what I did, and over time, eventually I became DW star. That's not my legal name. That's my professional name.   Michael Hingson ** 37:31 I'm curious why Indira Gandhi? Well,   DW Starr ** 37:34 if you look at how big that country is and how populated it is and how, how she was one of the first females to be in charge of a I think she might have been the first female to be in charge of a country that big. And her, her, her personality, her her, her, her graciousness, her, her tenderness was an important piece of what I wanted for my life. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 38:07 yeah. I was just curious, because I figured some people might ask that question if they were here, so I thought it was probably relevant to ask, and I I agree with the answer. Well, so you, you went off and you, you had all these brain injuries. And so was, you were 40. Did you go back to work eventually, for the company that you?   DW Starr ** 38:31 Yeah, after three months, I went back to work. And slowly, well, I went back to work. I, if I were, I'm not sure I remember this, but I went back to work, I think, a few days a week, and then eventually I went back to work full time, and I was fortunate enough to be one of the top sales producers in that company for many, many years, And I worked for that company for, wow, about 30 years,   Michael Hingson ** 39:04 but then you decided to switch what caused. While I   DW Starr ** 39:08 was doing that, I started doing what I'm doing now in a smaller way, and then eventually it just grew and grew to where I was working. So I was selling to some of these corporations, and eventually I ended up doing programs for these corporations through my other act. And oh, by the way, people want to know why I'm dressed like this. You can't see it, but I'm wearing leather pants and leather boots. And that's because, if you go to my website, or you look at the front cover of my book, one of my books, I got, like five books. It's I'm wearing what looks like a movie director's outfit, because I play an old fashioned movie director. And what I do is I help people rewrite the script that's running inside. Their mind that isn't always so positive. So I'm an inner movie director, helping them rewrite the inner script that runs the inner movie in their mind. So I'm dressed as an inner movie director, and that's why I've got the megaphone in the box,   Michael Hingson ** 40:16 just gonna say. And hence the megaphone. And if anybody wants to know how I know about it, because DW told me, yeah,   DW Starr ** 40:22 yeah, and I, and I, and I use that in my presentation, because my presentation is oftentimes also a performance. Oh, I forgot to tell you this. I was in the US Army for three years. I wrote, produced, directed, acted in commercial. Commercials for the US Army stationed in Korea for one year. Cool. Now that's probably some other things I forgot to tell you, too. That's okay. Amber emulet, you know,   Michael Hingson ** 40:54 that's fine, but you so you you became a speaker, you became a performer. You're also a writer. And tell me. Tell me about your books, if you would. Okay,   DW Starr ** 41:07 well, I wrote two books on change, and as I what happens is, just like we're talking about recognizing how to be better, how to evolve. I wrote two books on change, and as I was working with corporations and doing some personal coaching and consulting, I realized that the reason people are having so much trouble with change is because they didn't have enough confidence. So I said, Why don't I help them with their confidence? And that way that'll automatically help them change. And so I shifted from change to confidence, and I'm really glad I did that. So the first two books are on change. The third book was written to be a very easy this is, this is the one I was talking about. And by the way, if they go to my website, they can get a free PDF for that book. What's   Michael Hingson ** 42:03 your website? By the way? Well, we'll do it again later. But what is, since you've mentioned it so many times, sure,   DW Starr ** 42:08 it's D, like dog, W, like wagon, S, T, A, R, r.net, D, W, star, with two R's, dot net. Okay, now what's really crazy, I have to tell you this. I tell this to people, and every time I say it, I think to myself, that's crazy. If you Google me, dw, star, right now, anyone in your audience Googles me, I am fortunate enough to have the entire page with no advertising. It's crazy to me that that that has happened, but it's because I've been able to be prolific in many ways. I mean, I have a song, I have a poem, I have my books, I present I you know, I do some personal coaching consulting. So I'm doing all these different things. So obviously, that's why Google finds all those different things. So anyway about my books? So first two books was change your size and when change means business. This book is be self confident anywhere, anytime and with anyone. It's a 30 page book so that every day, you can be a little more confident in a particular arena of interest in your life, and it lists 30 different ones, and I'll read to you really quickly off the back of the book. In this book, you will learn improve the inner movie and self talk running in your mind. Use actions and thoughts that will propel your success, gain a greater self confidence mindset day by day, and that's what it's designed to do. And like I said, they can get a free PDF copy if they want, if they want to buy the actual book, they can just shoot me an email and we'll take care of that later. It's 10 bucks, and anybody on on your program that they'll get a 20% discount, so we'll send it to him for eight bucks, plus shipping   Michael Hingson ** 44:03 if they if they just say that they heard about it here. Yeah. Okay, great.   DW Starr ** 44:07 And then another book I recently wrote with the partner is is on memory and AI working with AI, and I'm working on another book with that partner now about imagination and AI. And then I'm also working on a book called Confidence matters. I have about two thirds of that book written now, cool.   Michael Hingson ** 44:35 So lots going on. Yeah,   DW Starr ** 44:38 I like to stay busy.   Michael Hingson ** 44:40 Well, tell us about your show, your one man show, DW live, and maybe tell us a story about it, or something that happened in it, a memory you have of it recently and so on. Sure,   DW Starr ** 44:54 sure. Well, you know, I do it with adults, but the ones that really offer. Touch my heart or the younger, yeah, because there are future leaders, and also they're really struggling. I was in, I did, I did a my dwive Live show for the Police Athletic League, and the was Boys and Girls Club after school program at a recreation center here in Florida, in southern Florida, and when I was done, well, like I said, I played old fashioned movie director. I actually teach them very specific techniques that they can do in depth, like what I talked about real quick in the five minutes I go into depth in my program, where they can actually teach themselves how to be more confident, and within 30 days they are. It just happens. If they do it, you have to do the work, but if you're willing to do the work. So I was done with this one presentation, actually was the performance. And people were coming up and getting, you know, the school had the recreation center had bought copies of the books for all the kids. So I was doing some autographing, and one came up to me, and he goes, I really enjoyed that. Well, he didn't say, I really he's I really like that. And I said, Oh, great. And then I always ask people to be more specific so I can know what they like or don't like. And she and he said, I said, So what's, what did you really like about it? And he said, I liked everything. I went, Whoa, that's really cool. And then I said, you want to take a selfie? And he goes, Yeah, yeah. And I said, Okay, give me your phone. And he goes, Mr. DW, I don't have a phone. I don't have a phone. And I said, You, I think I actually was in disbelief. And so I said, Oh, you mean you left it in the class? He goes, No, no, no, I don't own a phone. And I said to myself, that's why I'm here. I'm here to help that son, that of a mother and father who can't financially afford to buy a phone for their son help him still feel like he has value and hope. And so I said, I'll tell you what. We're going to take a selfie with my phone, and then I'm going to make sure the selfie picture gets to your your I think he was called a coach, your coach, and he'll make sure you get to see it. And so they did that. But that was that was an awakening for me, because I knew why. I knew that some of these teenagers, were in situations that weren't ideal, in their family life and in their home life and in their economics and all but it for some reason, it it finally dawned on me that they can't their parents can't even afford to get them a phone when it's so prolific, everywhere, you can forget that. So that was a great that made me feel good, that I was giving back like that well, and that is, that's really cool story. I got plenty more, but, you know, I don't want to inundate people with stories.   Michael Hingson ** 48:37 No, that's fine. So, so tell me, what are the key qualities and skills that people need to learn or that you use to help people become engrossed in the STAR method, the STA RR method, and what does STARR stand for?   DW Starr ** 49:01 Okay, so S, T, A, R, R stands for something that I can remember by using that memory hack. I figured, yeah, and it does it three different times in my program, it stands for three different things, but I always use the same mnemonic so I can remember it. So let's try this. Michael, what, what's one of your favorite movies?   Michael Hingson ** 49:28 Et, perfect.   DW Starr ** 49:31 Who is the star in that movie? ET, okay, so the s, the s in Star stands for the star or the superhero of that movie. Okay, now the T stands for Task. What is the task of that character?   Michael Hingson ** 49:56 Well, in his case, of course, ultimately, it's to get home.   DW Starr ** 49:59 Exactly to get home. Okay? And who is ETS arch villain, the A in Star arch villain,   Michael Hingson ** 50:13 the law enforcement, the military. Okay?   DW Starr ** 50:17 Now the first R stands for reach coach. Now I could have said mentor, but mentor doesn't fit the formula of S, T, A, R, R, so I had to come up with a word, and I came up with Reach, reach coach. That's clever. Who, who in the movie helps the star attain the task by reaching deep and down, deep down inside themselves and finding the confidence they need to find.   Michael Hingson ** 50:44 And I don't remember the actor's name, but the young man, right? You don't need to   DW Starr ** 50:48 know the name. You just need to know the character. Perfect, the boy, the little boy, right? And the final r, what was the reason that et wanted to get home.   Michael Hingson ** 51:04 Well, he wanted to be back with his people, right,   DW Starr ** 51:07 right? He wanted to feel like he was with people he belonged with, right? Or extraterrestrials in this case, right? Well, so, so that's the start, so that's the STARR method, right, right? So what that is, now you take that and you have the audience. I take that and I have the audience take their favorite movie and apply the same formula, so each one of the people in that audience is connected to my concept through something that makes them happy and feel good. Okay? Then I say, Okay, now that you've done that, now what we're going to do is we're going to make your inner movie. We're going to help you rewrite the script to your inner movie. So guess what formula we're going to use, S, T, A, R, R, of course. Yeah, the S stands for star. Well, who's the star they are? What tasks do they want to achieve? So I asked them in the audience, what do they want to have more confidence in? And they and they think about that to themselves, while I have one person up front be the example. And so I bring a student or an adult up front, and I have them be the example and explain their favorite movie, just like I did with you, right? But I'm having the audience do it at the same time. Does that make sense? It does okay. So, so this is an interactive presentation and interactive performance all at the same time. So then the then, who is the arch villain? I have them figure out who the arch villain is in their life. It could be a friend, a so called friend. It could be a brother, it could be a it could be a school teacher. It could be an uncle. It could be, you know, be a number of different people in different roles, but somebody is their arch villain that is holding them back. And if it's themselves, it's the arch villain. And oftentimes I hear that people go, Oh, I'm my own worst enemy, or something like that. I say, okay, but isn't it possible that maybe you heard that from somebody else when you were growing up, that you're no good at you're, you're not a good singer, or you're never going to amount to anything. That's what my father actually said to me, you're never going to amount to anything. That's another story. I don't want to take the time to do that now, but that's part of what I had to overcome, along with the head injuries.   Michael Hingson ** 53:55 Did he say that because of the did he say that because of the head injuries? Or no in   DW Starr ** 53:59 in addition to the head injury, wow, I had to overcome my father's attitude that I would never amount to anything. And also, just as a sideline, my mom had a stroke when she was 15 years old, and was a very angry person as an adult, so I had to deal with a lot of that junk. But anyway, that's another story. So back to what I'm telling you. A stands for Arch villain, then the R stands for reach coach. Who can you create if you don't have a mentor in your life, who can you make a mentor? Or who can you make a virtual mentor? So if you don't have anybody that you really feel comfortable as a 15 year old making your mentor, you know, maybe it's Superman, or maybe it's Barbie, it somebody who has or something that has a kind of confidence you want to gain more of, and you use that virtually. You. To help. And then I walk them through these steps, step by step, which we don't have time for now, and then the final hours, reason. What's the real reason you want to do this? Why is it a burning desire? And I talk about that earlier in the presentation. The importance of it's not, it's not how to do something that's most important. What's most important is why? Because when you know the why, you'll figure out that how. So that's that. So now I've got all that, but that's just a formula. It's not a strategy. So then I walk them through the strategy, and the strategy is S, T, A, R, R, what a surprise. S stands for self assess. Well, that's what they've just done, they've assessed themselves. T stands for take a risk. What risks do they need to take in order to achieve the results they want? And I talk about some of the risks I had. One of the risks is this stuff, notes. Performers don't use notes typically when they're doing a performance, and I was told, don't use notes. It doesn't look good. I said, Well, I have to. I have no choice, but my memory won't be able to remember all my stuff, and I want to make sure I remember. So a couple of those phrases I said to you throughout this program were written down so I remember to say them. So and then the other risk was, of course, that I was told I wasn't going to amount to anything. So who do I think I am? Yeah, I'm nobody special, so I had to get over that hump. So those are my those are my risks and that so the T and star take a risk. I asked them what their risks are, and then the A stands for act as if. And that's where I have them do, where they're where they're at home. And the two minute thing that I talked about earlier, and I go into more depth about that in the presentation too. And then the first star is reassess. See how it's going after a month, see if there's been some major changes. If there have do the final R, repeat, repeat. But if it's not working, you got to go back to the original S, T, A, R, R, and see if you're really clear on what task you really want to you really want to achieve it, who really is your arch villain? And if you your reason is a burning desire, because it has to be in order for you to make the shift to have the confidence you want to have, right? Does that make sense? It does. It   Michael Hingson ** 57:28 makes absolute sense.   DW Starr ** 57:29 And the teens are like, Wow, no one's ever taught me this before. Yeah,   Michael Hingson ** 57:36 I'm sure that's true. Yeah.   DW Starr ** 57:38 And the and the college kids and the adults. There's plenty of adults that go, afterwards, they go, dw, no one's ever like, broken it down like that. So it's like concrete. I can actually follow this step by step. I give them a handout they take with them at the end that they can follow step by step. Wow.   Michael Hingson ** 57:59 All right, I have to ask, since we got the star part, what? What is dw?   DW Starr ** 58:03 Oh, man, I don't usually put this out on on the airwaves. Okay, well, I guess I will.   58:12 I'll leave it to you. No, no,   DW Starr ** 58:14 I'll do it. I'll do it. So when somebody meets me, and they go, Hi, and I go, Hi, I'm dw, and they go, Oh, what's that stand for? And I go, Oh, well, most of my friends call me dw, so you can call me DW too. And that usually works. That's fair, okay, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna say it here. Yeah, I'm gonna say, why not? Okay, so I say, once somebody gets to know me and understand me more, then it'll make more sense what DW stands for. If I tell them right up front, it's weird, okay, but now that people have heard me and they've listened a little bit about my story and how you know my personality and my my attitude about life, it'll make more sense. So Ringo Starr had a great last name. I loved it. So when it was time for me to become a writer at nine years old, because at nine years old, I started writing little short stories, I called myself my legal first name and star as my last name that became my pen name when I got to be an adult and decided I was going to be this character that helps people with their confidence. I said, Okay, I don't even want to use any part of my legal name. I want a completely different professional name. So I said, Okay, well, what is it that I do. I help people weave their dreams into their life on a daily basis. I'm a dream weaver, dw, and so every time I introduce myself to somebody and say, I'm dw, I'm. Myself that that's where my focus is. Yeah, people to do that, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:06 And I appreciate you telling us that story. And I, I thank you for doing that. Tell me what are some of the common misconceptions about confidence?   DW Starr ** 1:00:18 Well, let's look at politics for five seconds.   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:21 No, there's confidence or lack of it or something. But anyway, sure,   DW Starr ** 1:00:24 I'm not, I'm not going to get specific about anything about politics. Oh, I understand. I'm going to be totally generalized. The reality is that if you are truly confident, you don't need to tell anybody or prove it. So if you see any of that in politics, you'll know that there's a possibility that there's some low self esteem floating underneath Yeah. And that's true not just in politics. That's true when you talk to somebody at a party who is using the most sophisticated words they can come up with to try to prove to you that they are smart, that they know their stuff, the most confident people can explain what they believe like you're Five years old, not talking down, but making it their complicated wisdom in a way that it's understandable to people who don't have that education in that particular arena or training. Einstein even talked about that make it as simple as you can, but not too simple. And that's a paraphrase of one of his   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:42 quotes, right? And then there's the common phrase of, keep it simple, stupid,   DW Starr ** 1:01:50 but you know Exactly, yeah. So overconfidence is usually a camouflage for low self esteem, yeah? So what true confidence is is, like I said earlier in the show, it's authenticity. It's being who you are with all your good parts and your not so good parts, whether it's your physical nature, whether it's your emotional nature, whether it's your psychological nature, whether it's your educational background, you're if you're truly confident, then you accept it all, and then you build from there. Yeah, that's my belief, that one ain't changing, nope. And I buy it. I   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:41 think you're absolutely right. I think that we all too often. I think there's a difference. We all too often just don't project the confidence that that we can we I think there's a lot of difference between a lack of confidence and humility. And there's nothing wrong with being confident. There is something wrong with being arrogant, but, but confidence doesn't mean arrogance. Confidence means that you have convictions, you have things that you know and you're certain about them, which is a fine thing.   DW Starr ** 1:03:18 Yeah, absolutely. In fact, some people get confused with aggressive and assertive. It's the same thing. It's that same concept. You want to be assertive. You just don't want to be aggressive, because if you're assertive, it shows your confidence. So if you're in an interview for a job, you want to show that you're assertive in that interview. You don't want to just have that interviewer feel like they're not, that they're not running the whole show, but that the the that you count in the interview, you're just not another number where they're just going checking off the list. You show you show your confidence by being assertive, and it's the same. You know people, you know they get a meal at a restaurant. You see this a lot, in a lack of self confidence. They get a meal at a restaurant, and it's either something they didn't order, period, or it's just not done correctly, and because they lack the confidence, they're not assertive to take a step to correct it, and and that's not aggressive, and that's not a complainer, that's someone who's valuing their their own self worth. So there's these fine lines sometimes that are important to recognize the   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:44 aggression comes in. How you if you decide you're going to deal with the incorrectness of the meal, how you deal with it exactly, and, and, and I know I'm I actually had a situation just last week. I went with someone to a restaurant. I. Yeah, and my food came, and it was cold, and it wasn't supposed to be was supposed to be a hot meal. So when the when the server came back, I just said, Hey, this is cold. Touch it and you can see. And she said, No, I won't touch it. I said, I guarantee you, it's cold. If they could heat it up, I'd sure appreciate it. I wouldn't ever be rude to a person and be obnoxious and say, You dummy, you brought me a lousy meal and all that. You know. Well, what happened was that it came back nice and hot, but it also came back being brought back by someone who I think was the manager. He heard that we had sent it back, and he actually had come over and said, What's the problem? And we explained. And then he was the one who actually brought the meal back, and it was, it was nice and hot, and it was so much better. So but I know I have,   DW Starr ** 1:05:54 I have something I call personal gratitude program, and I've taught that to in corporate America, and I've taught it to my my now adult sons, and that's that when somebody gives me over the top great service, I recognize it, yep, by going to their boss, either personally, in person or by phone or by email or by a form of some kind, and letting them know that I don't take for granted the exceptional service I got. I do that too. It's, it's, it's such an amazing feeling, because when you do that, I'm sure you know when you do that, it's a win win all across the board. Of course, it is the employee feels good, the person who hired the employee feels good, and the next person that employee sees is going to get some of that good, that good vibes to them. And you feel good Absolutely.   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:00 Well, tell me so you do some coaching. You said, in addition to doing the one man show,   DW Starr ** 1:07:05 very it's, it's very limited, uh huh,   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:09 how do you how do you choose to or who you coach? Or how does that work?   DW Starr ** 1:07:14 It works with, working with, with a client that is clear about their why, and they are passionate about their why, and they just need some guardrails or guideposts to help them figure out how they can find the how got it. So it's very it's very limited, and it's, it's at a it's at a very high level, economically and corporately,   Michael Hingson ** 1:07:54 but mostly you travel and you do your show, and you've clearly been to a lot of states, and I know that because everyone DW told me about the map behind him. So he's been to a lot of states, and he's been to a number of countries,   DW Starr ** 1:08:09 40 states, and I think it's nine countries,   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:13 which is cool. No, it's   DW Starr ** 1:08:15 15 countries. Okay, sorry, 15, yeah.   Michael Hingson ** 1:08:20 Well, you know, I want to thank you for being here. So tell us once again, if people want to reach out, learn more about you, maybe even contact you. How do they do that?   DW Starr ** 1:08:31 So there's a there's a few ways. One is then go to my website, which is D, w, s, t, a, r, r.net they can find me on Instagram, on at DW star, on LinkedIn, at DW star, they can find me on YouTube and Tiktok at confidence Crusader, confidence Crusader. And, yeah, I think, I think that's good. I mean, if you want to give my email address out, we'll just use the info at DW star.net, that's cool. Certainly shoot me so they can feel free to follow me, or, you know, get a free copy of my a PDF copy of my book, and they can Google me. Like I said, I'm all over there. That's just still crazy to me, that I, I have the I'm I'm lucky enough to have all of that without any advertising.   Michael Hingson ** 1:09:37 It's a great blessing. Well, I want to thank you for being here and being with us, and taking all this time, I've enjoyed it, and I've learned a lot, and I would think and hope that that everyone listening has as well, and that if you, if you like what you heard, let DW know, and I certainly would appreciate it if you'd let us know, you can reach me easily enough by emailing. At Michael M, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I at accessibe, A, C, C, E, S, S, I, B, e.com, or you can go to our podcast page, which is w, w, w.michaelhingson.com/podcast, and Michael Hinkson is m, I, C, H, A, E, L, H, I N, G, s, O, N, yes. And we're on LinkedIn and Facebook and a number of the social media pages too, but love to get emails, and whenever you are thinking about this, would certainly appreciate it if you give us a five star rating wherever you're listening to us and listening to the podcast, and as DW does the one man show and travels and speaks and so on. So do I, if you ever need to Speaker, would love to hear from you. Speaker@michaelhingson.com we appreciate it. But most of all, once again, I want to thank you, dw, for being here with us today. I think this has been a lot of fun, and we ought to do it again sometime, absolutely,   DW Starr ** 1:10:56 you know. And just just a shout out to some of your other your other podcast videos. I had an opportunity to watch you do a fantastic job, Michael, and keep up the good work.   Michael Hingson ** 1:11:10 Thank you. I appreciate it. Well, let's let's do it again. Let's do it again, right? Sounds great.   DW Starr ** 1:11:16 Take care, buddy.   **Michael Hingson ** 1:11:21   You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you'll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you're on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you're there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an

Dr. Denise DeRosa is a Pediatric Physical Therapist from New York City. She had two Cesareans and was confident that those would be her only birth stories. But when she unexpectedly became pregnant with her third, Denise started looking into her options. She researched VBAC, found The VBAC Link, and felt that she could have a VBA2C. Having worked in the hospital where she planned to give birth, Denise knew she would face pushback. She knew they were skeptical and she knew they would try to meddle. She worked hard with her doula to get her mind solid, her body strong, and to prepare for any situation or anything that would be thrown at her. Ultimately, she believed in herself. So with an unsupportive provider in an unsupportive hospital with an apprehensive family, Denise's preparation paid off! She labored hard, advocated for herself, and vaginally birthed a 9-pound, 5-ounce baby. Gina, one of our VBAC-certified doulas from California, co-hosts today's episode and shares information about how C-sections affect an infant's gut microbiome. She also mentions things we can do to help mimic the benefits of birthing vaginally if a Cesarean is necessary. Dr. Denise DeRosa's WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan: Hello, everybody. Welcome to the show. We have our friend, Denise, from New York City with us today. Hello, Denise. Denise: Hi. Meagan: I'm so excited for you to be sharing your stories. You are a VBA2C mama just like myself. Denise: Yes, I am. That's right. Meagan: Yes and when we were talking about the C-section aspect of things, it reminded me a little bit of myself. Didn't dilate, baby didn't come down. What do we know? We know that this is a very common, common thing. In addition to Denise, we have a very special co-host today and her name is Gina Benson. Hello, Gina. Gina: Hi. Meagan: She is one of our VBAC doulas. Tell us where you're at, Gina. Gina: I am in the Sacramento area of California based in Roseville. Meagan: Okay, all right. Then we‘re going to make sure that she has her website and everything so if you guys are in her area looking for a doula, go check her out for sure. She is going to do a Review of the Week for us today. So I'll turn the time over to you. Gina: All right. “I've waited and prayed about this moment to be able to write the words, ‘I got my VBAC' feels surreal. Two years ago, I gave birth to my daughter via Cesarean and since the OR, I've been dreaming of a VBAC. It felt like a primal right I was robbed of. Yesterday, I gave birth at home with gestational diabetes to a 9-pound, 2-ounce baby. I pushed him out of my vagina, pulled him out of the water, and sobbed in joy relishing in my redemption and power. This would not have been possible without The VBAC Link. I listened every day postpartum, sobbed and cheered with the Women of Strength. I cannot recommend this podcast enough to all expectant parents. Thank you, thank you, thank you.” Oh my gosh, do you guys have the chills? Because I literally have the chills. You know how when as a woman you shave your legs and you're like, Oh, I just felt my leg hairs grow? Yep, that just happened. Oh my gosh, thank you for such an amazing review and huge congratulations. I'm so glad that you've been able to walk the walk with us here at The VBAC Link. This is why we're here. We want to inspire, encourage, empower, and help you know for yourself what is best for you. We don't judge here at The VBAC Link, but we really, really do love your reviews. So thank you so much. Okay, so that review also talked a little bit about a big baby. Denise also had a larger baby with her VBA2C baby. I feel like there are so many things that are going to come together within this review and within everything. So, Denise, I want to turn the time over to you to share your C-sections to start and then your VBAC. Denise: Perfect, thank you. Hi everybody. I'm Dr. Denise DeRosa. I'm a pediatric physical therapist. I feel like I have to lead with that because who I am is what I do. That with motherhood is all merged together and really helped me in my journey for a successful VBAC. We'll start at the beginning with my first baby. I was pregnant. Everything was going great. Everything was wonderful. I was still working. I had an uncomplicated pregnancy. The only thing that was a little off was that the baby was measuring big. I was like, okay. Whatever. It should be fine. Those machines are way off anyway. I go to 40 weeks, 40 and 1, 40 and 2, 40 and 3. I'm 40 and 5 days and my doctor is like, “All right. I want to induce you tomorrow.” I'm like, “Okay, sounds good.” I didn't know anything. I worked at the hospital as well so I'm just trusting that we've got this and we were good. I loved my doctor. Everything was going great. That night before I went in to get induced, I actually did start feeling something. I was like, What is that? It feels like cramps or something. I don't know. At 3:00 AM, I think I'm in labor. “Hon, get up. We've got to get to the hospital. Let's go. Let's go.” We get to the hospital. It's 3:00 AM and I'm 3 centimeters dilated. I'm like, “Oh, okay. I guess that's good. I don't know.” We get all the things– the epidural, the Pitocin, and I pretty much just lay in the bed, sleep, do a puzzle game on my iPad, and relax because that's what they tell me to do. It is very easy for me to relax now. It gets to be 11:00 AM the next day. I'm like, “I feel a little bit different. Can I be checked?” I get checked. 10 centimeters, wonderful, beautiful. They turn off everything. You know when they turn off that epidural, it's like, bam. This is intense. Meagan: Especially when you were not feeling anything before. Denise: Exactly. Meagan: It can definitely pick up and be a little bit more than maybe you were expecting. Denise: Yes. I am in a Semi-Fowler position which is the one where you're essentially leaned back but not all the way back. You're inclined at a 45-degree angle. My hips and knees were at 90/90. It was essentially like I was sitting on the toilet but I was leaning back. I'm sure everybody knows the position that I'm talking about. That's the position to push. My husband is holding one leg. The nurse is holding the other leg. My doctor is telling me to push. It's just a disaster. I have to be honest with you. It was crazy because I didn't know how to push so he was telling me to push like I'm pooping and I'm pushing like I'm holding it in. Everything was spasming and everything was just a disaster. I remember saying, “Let me get up. Let me move my body. I'm a physical therapist. Let me move my body. I just need to move around a little bit and I'll be good. Just let me get up.” “No, you can't get up. You have the catheter in.”Meagan: Intuition. Your intuition was kicking in to move. Denise: Yeah, exactly. My pelvis was stuck in the position. I was just lying there. The only thing they did was flex my knees up and down. I think I got the peanut ball at one point but it's not like it was side-lying. There was no internal/external rotation. It was just one plain movement. Anyway, I pushed for 2 hours and nothing happened. My doctor was like, “All right. Why don't we give you a break? We'll turn on the meds. Relax for an hour and then I'll come back and we'll push again for an hour.” I'm like, “Okay, sounds good. I need a break. Wonderful.” A rest. He's like, “But you know, if nothing happens, we're going to have to get the C-section.” I'm like, “Okay, well let me try again.” No food. No water. Only Jello and ice chips. I hadn't eaten since the day before. I was just so out of it between the drugs and the not eating. I did sleep a little bit when I was relaxing there but I was shot. My doctor came back after an hour and he goes, “Denise, I just went across the hall and the girl across the hall, I turned off her meds and she pushed 3 times and the baby came out.” I was like– let's just say my hand went up in the air with one specific finger up. I essentially flipped off my– it wasn't even the doctor. It was just the situation. I was like, “Forget this. This is ridiculous.” Okay? Now that's the kind of relationship my doctor and I have that we can joke around and all of that stuff and after, I apologized. He was like, “Don't worry. I deliver people in handcuffs. That was not the worst thing.” Meagan: What? Denise: Yeah, you know if you are stationed at the hospital, you deliver everybody. You know?Meagan: Yeah. Denise: What do you think happened? I stayed in the bed. I pushed. Inefficient pushing. Baby never dropped. I was dilated to 10 centimeters but nothing happened. Okay, by the end of it, I was like, “Please give me a C-section. This is the worst day of my life.” She came out. They lifted her up and everybody in there was like, “Oh my god. Look at this big baby.” I was like, “What is she, 100 pounds?” I was so delirious. You know, at that point you are so delirious. Anyway, it was a girl. She was 9 pounds, 10 ounces. It was a big baby. She never dropped down. I didn't move my body and had a healthy baby, a healthy mom. Everybody was happy and I was just like, oh gosh. This is the best and the worst day of my life. When you become a mom, it's just the best but maybe not the best experience. Meagan: Yeah. Denise: That was my first birth. At the time, I was like, okay. It is what it is. I'll try harder for the second one. Now that I know what my body does, I'll VBAC. My doc was like, “That's fine. You can VBAC for the second, no problem.” Okay, great. In between my first and my second, I actually was pregnant and I was 8 weeks. I went to the doctor. I had a heartbeat but my doctor was like, “Come back in 2 weeks. Something is not right on here.” I'm like, “Okay.” I was going down the shore, the Jersey shore with my family. All 20 or us, a big Greek family vacation and I remember I was there and my doctor was like, “Okay, I want you to come back after that because the baby is measuring a little small.” I'm like, “Okay, no problem.” I'm down there and of course, that baby didn't make it. I wound up miscarrying while I was on vacation with my family. I called my doctor and he was there for me. He would call me every day and be checking in, “How are you doing?” I thought that was something doctors don't really do. He's a special guy. I could really tell. I felt like he really cared about me and cared for what was happening. In between my first and second, that happened and then I wound up getting pregnant with my second and I was like, oh I'm going to VBAC. Everything's going to be good. I took a labor and delivery course. I read my whole textbooks because sometimes physical therapists will be part of labor. So I'm like, I'm going to read up on this a little bit more. I take the course. Fast forward to 40 weeks and I started. I woke up in the morning. It was 6:00 in the morning and I was like, Oh, I feel something. This is great but let me not call my doctor right now. Let me stay home. Let me do the movements. I'm bouncing on the physioball. Of course, I have one of those. I'm walking around, doing the stairs, doing lunges, doing different positions. I'm like, “Let me just see where this goes,” and waiting as long as I can. I'm in touch with my doctor the whole day. 7:00 comes around. My husband comes home from work. I call my doctor. He's like, “Okay, well why don't you just come to the hospital and I'll check you? You've been in labor the whole day.” I'm like, “Okay, that sounds good.” I go to the hospital. He checks me. I'm 0 centimeters dilated. Zero. I'm like, “Come on.” He says to me, “Well, you've tried. You did.” He's like, “But what do you want to do? You want to keep contracting on an old uterus scar and something bad happens?” Meagan: Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear. Denise: I was like, “No, I don't want to do that.” At the time, I didn't educate myself enough on risks. I just thought it was me. I was like, I'm a physical therapist. I've got this. I exercise every day. I'm good. I'm going to do it. When he said that to me, I was like, “No, I don't want something bad to happen.”Essentially, I had a repeat C-section because I wasn't really in labor is what I tell people. Yeah, that was my second and he was fine. This baby was 9 pounds, 4 ounces. Meagan: Staying in the 9's. Denise: Another large baby. Yeah, it was fine. I felt like at the time, I was like, I did everything I could. Obviously, now I know I could have done more but at the time, I was like, I did my best. This is just my story and I'm fine with it. It is what it is. I have been growing my business for a few years at that point. My pediatric physical therapist business here on Statton Island and I felt like that was my third baby. You know, when you are a businesswoman, your business is like your child. Meagan: Yeah. Uh-huh. 100%. This business is one of my children. Yes. Denise: Yeah, exactly. I was like, I have my boy and my girl. I have three bedrooms in the house. I have a healthy boy and a girl. That's another thing too. As a physical therapist, I see a lot of different things and all babies are miracles. That's how I feel. All babies are amazing and I'm like, You know what? I'm good. I'm going to work on the business. I'm going to go back to work. We have healthy babies. We're good. You know that expression? You make plans and God laughs. Right? You know? I was like, you know what? I wound up getting pregnant when I wasn't trying to get pregnant. I had been trying for the other two and I was nursing and that's the other thing. You can't get pregnant, right?Meagan: A lot of people think. Denise: But you know, it's funny. I got pregnant the month after my ya-ya passed away. Ya-ya is Greek for grandma. I was like, You know, this biotch just had to reincarnate herself and she hit me. I'm like, Why couldn't she get my cousins? They don't have any kids. They could have kids. I'm like, Ah man. She reincarnated herself. She cursed me. I don't think babies are a curse. It's just at the time that I was feeling all the feels. Meagan: You weren't in that space. Denise: I was like, you know? I was done having kids. I was like, oh my god. I can't get pregnant. I'll have another major abdominal surgery. Here we go. Also, Meagan, I know you know. No one wants to watch more than one kid so it was– I was shocked. Yeah. I was shocked. Denise: I was like, you know what? I did have two miscarriages. One before my first and one between the first and second. Let's just see what happens. I'm not going to tell anybody. Let's just see where it goes. I'm not going to decide what to do now. I'll just wait a little while and see what happens. You know, when you have two kids and you're pregnant with a third, that pregnancy flies. Meagan: So fast. Denise: Very fast. I was like, oh my gosh. I'm almost in the third trimester. What am I going to do? At every appointment, my doc's like, “Denise, when are we going to schedule your section?” I don't like to pick baby's birthdays. For me, I would rather they come when the baby is ready and I wanted to go into labor at least and then get the C-section. Then I was like, I got to this point where I was like, I have to make a decision here. What am I doing? Am I going to just schedule a Cesarean or am I going to actually try to do this? So I'm like, let me look things up. I found you guys. I found out that women actually have vaginal birth after two Cesareans. This does happen. I'm thinking with my own individualized plan here, I had no complications with either one. I didn't have high blood pressure. I didn't have anything go badly so I really felt like I was a great candidate. Then there's there my doctor who was like, “No, you're not a good candidate. Your baby never dropped. Your babies were big and you didn't dilate on your own.” I'm like, “I know, but I just feel like I can do it.” So this is something that I tell my patients all the time that you need to listen to your mom intuition. There's nothing that can steer you wrong. If you feel like something's wrong with your baby or yourself, you need to get it checked out. It's probably nothing and everything is going to be fine, but at the same time, the way that mom feels directly impacts baby and I just felt like, you know what? I feel like I can do this. I feel drawn to this and I'm going to go for it. Then the things that really drove me over the edge was that my cousin had a successful VBAC at the beginning of my third trimester so I was like, oh. If she can do it, I can do it. Then I also got in touch with a doula who I had been talking with professionally and we met. She said something to me that I will never forget which is, “I have total and complete trust in your body's ability to birth.” I'm like, “No one has ever said that to me. I've only been told I don't dilate and my pelvis is too small and I grow too-big babies,” not “You grow really healthy babies, really chunky ones with lots of rolls and that's the best.” I was never told that. I'm like, you know what? If anyone can do this, it's me. I trust in myself. I've got to go for it. This is my last chance because if I got another section, then it would be my tubes tied and that would be the end of the road. That would be fine with me too because I don't really want more than three abdominal surgeries anyway. I made that decision to go forth with trying to achieve my VBAC. I have to tell you, I left all my cards on the table. There was no stone left unturned. I went in. I stopped working in September and I used all of October to prepare myself mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually because I would be reading even on The VBAC Link, the Facebook group all of the things people did. I didn't do everything. Listen, you only have so much time in the day when you have two kids already. But at least I was doing things that felt right for me and my body. Meagan: I love that you pointed that out because there are so many things, right? We even suggest it here at The VBAC Link. We're like, here's a whole list of things you can do to improve. Gina, I'm sure as a doula you have things that you suggest to your VBAC clients and I know I do too but it one, can get a little overwhelming honestly and two, like you said, time is a thing but three, here's a list. Pick what is appropriate for you. If every single one of those things is achievable, great. If not, pick some. Go with it. Right?Denise: Yeah. There are a thousand, bajillion things you can do. Meagan: There really are. Denise: Like I said, I picked what was right for me. I met with my doula. We did a pre-labor class specific for my body and how I would plan to move my body based on my anatomy. I know I'm a little asymmetrical from holding baby on one hip. I'm like, oh I've got to get that checked out. I prepared a lot and it was actually fun now that I'm looking back. I listened to you guys. I listened to other podcasts. I listened. I watched documentaries. I read books. I tried to do what felt right for me and then also educating myself on papers and even looking at my own research about different things that they tell you to watch out for when you're trying to achieve something that I achieved. Meagan: Out of the list– sorry to interrupt you– what were maybe your top three things that you were like, these were the best things? Obviously, you hired a doula and you got some education. What are, in addition to those, the top three things you did that really, really impacted the situation?Denise: The top three things were that I got my mind solid. I literally was like, Denise, you can do this. There was no– I had an intention. I think I listened to that– Henci Goer. Meagan: Henci Goer? Uh-huh, so good. Denise: I listened to that podcast maybe the week before and she said something like, “Have an intention, but not a goal because when you don't get it and it's a goal, then you feel all the feels. You feel like you failed.” I had an intention but I also had a feeling of, I'm going to do this. I'm not going to try. I'm just going to do. I'm an athlete as well so if you're an athlete or you're someone who pushes yourself physically, you can labor naturally like I did. I'm telling you, you can. You know like when you're on the treadmill and you're running and you just keep going and going? It's the same thing in labor. If you mentally train yourself with the physical, you're going to be successful. My top three tips would be get your mind solid and really find your why. Why do I want this VBAC? How is it going to feel? What is it going to be like? Imagine it. Then two, get your body right and then three, prepare for any situation that they're going to throw at you because they are going to throw things at you to make you sway the other way. They're going to tell you that you can't do it. They're going to tell you, as I get into my story, when you get to the hospital, they're going to throw things at you. I'm not even mad at the doctors in the hospital and the nurses because honestly, I really feel like doctors are really great people. They're not bad people at all. They are good people and the nurses are part of birth. This is the most sacred part of healthcare in my head– also palliative care and hospice care is important too but birth is really so important. Unfortunately though, there are policies in place and there are rules and regulations. I think everybody is just doing their best with that but my top tips would be mind solid, body solid, and prepare for anything they are going to say and throw at you because it's going to come. Meagan: Yeah, it's probably going to come. I love that. In our VBAC course, we focus so much on the mental prep too. I think a lot of times, we are more focused on that physical prep and what we can do with our body, but I think the mental part connects so deeply to the physical part that we cannot skip it. Denise: No, you cannot. Meagan: I skipped it with my second and look at what happened, I had a repeat section. Denise: So yeah, that's that. I guess I'll get into my third birth now yeah? Meagan: Yeah. Denise: Okay. Another healthy pregnancy, uncomplicated, everything was fine. I get to my third trimester and that's when I decided to go for the VBAC. I'm doing all the things like I said and I get to 40 weeks. I get to 40+1, 40+2. I go to the doctor and I'm like, “I'm not going to get checked today. I'm just going to talk to him.” He comes in the room, arms folded, you know? He's like, “What's going on? You don't want to schedule?” I'm like, “Doc, I want you to know that I have so much respect for what you do.” I essentially did a fear release which you talk about in the course as well. It's so important and holding things back and preventing it from labor. I essentially did a fear release with my doctor where I told him that I loved him and I respected him and I didn't think I know more than him because I definitely don't. I don't know how to cut through and do all of the surgeries and everything. I'm a conservative health profession, okay? We don't do any surgeries. No blood, no thanks. I just said that to him. “I don't think I know more than you. I just feel like I can't schedule it and I feel like there are things that I can do.” We talked about successful VBACs after two Cesareans at the hospital and it was essentially, “You have to get there when you're pretty much ready to push. They're going to try and give you a section and they're going to try and give the epidural and they're going to try and do the things and they're going to try and meddle. You come to the hospital in pain, you're going to get pain medicine because it's part of hospital regulations and all of that stuff.” I was like, “Okay.” He gave me my answer. It was too late to switch at that point. I thought about switching to a midwife and having my baby at home, but that was just something I really knew my husband would never go for. He was already scared that something bad was going to happen to me and the baby because that's what he was told at the appointments.We did essentially fear release on the 7th and on the 8th of November, I woke up with the same cramping I had with my second. I was like, oh, this is something. I think the fear release must have worked. Awesome. All right. Let's just see how this goes today because I have to keep my mind right. I have to go about my day. That's what everybody in every single VBAC Link story said they did. I walked my daughter to school. I take my son for a walk around the block. I did the curb walking. I did the Miles Circuit. I ate my dates and my tea. It was a normal day. I just ignored it and the contractions would get closer together and they would get farther apart and then change in intensity so I thought this was prodromal labor. I think I said that right. Meagan: Prodromal. Denise: Prodromal. Okay, sorry. I'm like, okay. This is what this is. I'm just going to rest and that evening, I put the kids to sleep and I was like, let me try to rest because I don't know what tomorrow is going to bring if I'm going to be fine or if I'm actually going to do this. So I go to sleep. I wake up 2 hours later at 12:00 and between 12:00 and 4:00 AM, I was laboring by myself. I didn't want to wake up my husband because I didn't want to go to the hospital too soon. I didn't want to wake up my kids obviously because no one wants to be around them when you're in labor, right? Or maybe you do. I don't know.I went in the bath. I'm trying to manage my contractions. I'm in the shower for an hour. I'm in the bath for an hour. I'm trying to sit. I'm trying to stand. Everything was worse sitting. 4:00 AM comes and I'm like, I think these are getting closer together. I download the contraction timer on my phone. I'm like, let me actually time these. They were 5 minutes apart. I'm like, okay. Let me text my doula. I text her but you know when you are past 40 weeks and everybody is texting you, “How are you doing? Did you go into labor yet?” All of the questions. I turned my phone on the Do Not Disturb thing a day before because I couldn't take anymore of these questions. I already had my own anxiety and stress about this. I turned my phone on Do Not Disturb. I called and texted her and then she texted and called me back and I wasn't getting any messages because I turned my phone on Do Not Disturb. I was like, oh goodness. 6:00 AM rolls around. I finally get in touch with her. I text my mom, “Can you please come here?” My doula gets there and at this point, I'm trying to just focus on my breath like we've practiced.I'm like, okay. Breathe in. Breathe out. I was trying to do whatever I can to manage this pain. I didn't want to go to the hospital at all at that point but I didn't want to go too early. When my doula got there, it was a complete 180. Oh my gosh. She came. She did the pain pressure points. She massaged. She got the essential oils. She did the rebozo think. I put on my Folklore and Evermore soundtracks for my Swifties in here and I was just jamming. It was like I was on the treadmill running like I used to do back when I was young and had better knees. It was great. I could have stayed there forever. I probably did it for an hour because I remember I listened to both albums and I was just fine. I was kneeling on the physio ball and everythings was good. I thought, man. I should have tried for a home birth. Oh well. I'm not going for a fourth so no home birth for me. My doula was like, “All right, Denise. Do you want to try to bring baby down and try some different positions?” I'm like, “Yes, let's do it,” because I knew that would be one of the things. I go to my stairs with one leg up and one leg down. I go to down on the floor into a half-kneeling position and I'm like, “Okay, let's do this contraction. Breathe in. The contraction comes.” My water breaks. I'm  like, “Oh my gosh.” Water is just dripping down my leg. That never happened before. My water just broke. Wow, this is amazing. I'm like, “Okay, let's go get changed.” My doula was like, “Okay, this is time to go to the hospital.” I'm like, “Oh my god. This is great. I'm getting on way.” I go upstairs and change. She's like, “Okay, we've got to move,” and my mom is like, “Come on, Denise. We've got to go to the hospital now. Come on!”My mom was very anxious and I said to her, “Mom, I know it's your birthday and I'm trying to be nice to you but please don't push me. If I'm not ready to go to the hospital, I'm not going to go.” I love my mom. She's my best friend and she really just cares for me.Meagan: Yeah, and a lot of the time, they're like, if you're in this much labor, you go to the hospital. That's how they were raised too. Denise: Right, exactly and that's fine. It's just that I knew I didn't want to go and also, I think the day before I listened to your podcast with Julie about going to the hospital and how everything shifts from when you're at home and you're so calm, cool, and collected and everything is good but when you get to the hospital, it's like, bam. Interventions, stress, people talking at you. Meagan: Touching, talking, questions, lights, new voices, new space, new smells. You have to re-acclimate. Denise: Meddling. Right. That was fresh in my brain too. I'm like, “I'm going to go when I'm ready.” Anyway, we're ready. We're ready to go. Let's go. I get in my husband's car. My mom is in the back seat. My doula drove herself because she was going to leave from the hospital when it was done. I live in New York City. There's traffic everywhere. It's Thursday at 10:00 AM and there really shouldn't be traffic then but of course, there was. I couldn't sit, right, because everything was getting worse. I'm leaning on my husband's truck with my arms in the middle and my butt at the window. God help whoever was next to us in the car like, “What is happening over there?” Meanwhile, my mom is in the backseat crying in between. I lost control of my breath so I was literally screaming during contractions. It was like I was at a concert except it wasn't fun. I said to my mom while she's in the back, “Mom, I'm okay. The baby is getting ready to come out. It's going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. The baby's fine. I'm fine. See? I can talk in between contractions just when it comes, it's very strong.” She was like, “I know. It's okay. It's all right.” My poor mom on her birthday. She thought I was going to have the baby in the car. That's what she thought. Meagan: I'm sure she did. Denise: Yeah, she was like, “Oh my god. There's a police cop over there. Flag him down. Flag him down.” She opened the window but then we already passed. It was quite a scene actually now that I think about it. Anyway, we get to the hospital and of course, there's construction at the hospital so it takes me 10 minutes to walk up to L&D.” Now this is the hospital that I used to work at so I'm like, oh god. Please don't let anybody see me like this, not my old co-workers or my boss. Please let me get to L&D. Please, please. All right, I make it up. It took me 10 minutes but I make it up. It was 10:45 AM. I get there and the nurse was like, “Come on, hon. Let's get in the room.” I have a contraction, I'm like, “Please wait.” She's pushing me, “Come on, come on.” I'm like, “Please don't push me. I'm in the active stages of labor.” Who do I think I am? I think I know stuff. Meagan: You do know stuff. You do know stuff. Denise: Thank you. I get into the room and girls, I'm not joking. There are 12-15 people in that room with me. They're all talking at me, talking at me, “Do you want the epidural? Do you want the C-section? We need to give you an IV. We need your insurance card.” Where am I going? You're going to get my insurance card. Relax everybody. Chill. Because you can't get a bracelet on me? Everybody knows who I am. The doctor has probably been talking about me for days. It's fine. You're going to get the insurance card. Meanwhile, I'm in such late stages of labor at that point. I'm contracting every 30-45-1 minute. I forget. I was like, “Please. I prepared for this.” I knew they were going to come at me like this. Not me, specifically. It's not a personal thing. It's just what I was. Meagan: It's just what they do. It's just what they do. You're a label. Denise: And I'm not offended. I didn't take it personally. I was ready though. I knew they were going to come at me and I had a plan which was, don't say no and don't shut down. I also heard along my journey, “Don't say no. Don't have negative energy.” You're not able to control other people's feelings, but you are able to control yourself. When they came at me like that, I was like, “Please just give me a second. Can you wait a minute? Please let me get through this contraction. I just want a second. Not right now.” I had all of the things listed of what I was going to say when they came at me. Came is a bad word. When they said things, I just knew how they were going to say things. Meagan: When they were approaching you, you knew your response wasn't going to be no. It's, “I prefer. Not right now. In just one moment,” and stuff like that versus, “No, no. Get away.” Denise: Right, exactly. Exactly. I could have been like that but I wanted to bring my baby into the world in the most positive way that I could and that's just how I approached it. I'm like, “Just check me. Just check me before you do all of these interventions.” They checked me and I was 9 centimeters. I'm like, “What's that? I dilated by myself.” My doula was like, “That's amazing.” My OB was like, “Yeah, but the baby is really high.” I didn't even hear him say that. She told me he said that after. I think I was blocking out a lot of negative things on purpose. That was one of the things I prepared for. He's like, “Oh, but the baby is really high.” I'm like, “Okay, just give me a second.” The anesthesiologist was like, “Let's give you the epidural just for insurance.” I'm like, “Not right now, just give me a second.” They're like, “The baby's heart rate is dropping.” I knew they were going to say that too. I said, “Okay, well what's it dropping to and what's it coming back to?” When they said it something that was essentially normal, I said, “It's a 9-pound baby in there. Of course its heart rate is dropping. It's being contracted by a strong uterus to get it out. Give it second.” I don't remember saying this but my doula said that I said this which is, “I'm okay. My baby is okay. I know no one in this room thinks that I can do it, but I can. Okay?” I was like, “That's what I verbalized.” I don't really remember saying that but I was outside of my body I guess. She was like, “I got the chills when you said that because everybody was so anxious in that room and only you held it together.” I was like, “Well, yeah. I knew what was going to happen.” I worked in the hospital for 7 years. I get it. There is litigation. There are policies in place and people are scared for their jobs. I get it. It's fine. So anyway, that went on for about a half hour and then the nurse who pushed me in the hallway that I wasn't so nice to was like, “All right, Denise. Can we try a position?” I was like, “Yes, please. Let's do it. Let's try to switch positions please.” She gets the peanut ball and I got onto my side into internal rotation where you put your knees together and you have your feet on the physio ball. That opens the outlet of the pelvis to get the baby to drop down. I already know all of these things but no one had offered it and I wasn't thinking straight to even bring it up. I flipped into the position and the anesthesiologist was like, “Can I give you the epidural while you are on your side?”I'm like, “No.” Meagan: Oh my gosh, he's still pushing this epidural. Get out of my room, sir or ma'am. Denise: I know. I didn't push anybody out because I didn't have time for that. I was focused on what I had to focus on and what I came here to do. So I go on my side. One contraction and I'm like, “Um, I think I have to poop.” I was saying it but I had that feeling that baby dropped but I really thought that it was number two. They flipped me on my back and they were like, “All right, hold your knees up to your chest.” I'm like, “I don't like this position.” Remember, this is the position that they put me in with my first to push baby and it didn't work? I had PTSD from it. I was like, “I don't like this position.” They were like, “Just try it. Just try it.” I hear my doula say to me, “Denise, J breathe.” I'm like, “Oh my god. That's the cue. That's the cue that I need to push. The breath that I need to push this baby out. That's the cue we talked about. Oh my god. It's almost over. It's almost here.” Then I hear the whole room shift and my OB says, “All right, well if she wants to have a vaginal birth, let's do it.”I hear my husband say– my husband was very nervous about this whole situation and he wasn't really talking. He was there but he wasn't really saying anything. I hear him say– everyone was saying, “Push, push.” But I hear him specifically say, “Push, push. Breathe in. Breathe out. Push the right way.” This 9-pound, 5-ounce baby shot right out of me. The doctors didnt even catch him. He landed on the table. I didn't know that but I heard that later. That was it. I said, “Baby, baby.” They let me hold my baby right away. We did skin-to-skin. My husband got to cut the cord. I got to call out the gender and you feel the room anxiety shift. The anesthesiologist leaves of course. Meagan: He's done. Denise: The whole energy of the room just shifts into, “Oh, okay. She did it. All right.” Meagan: It's actually possible. Maybe we shouldn't doubt her. Denise: Yeah. I don't mean that in a negative way, but there is so much anxiety and nervousness about birth whether if you don't educate yourself enough like I did or didn't do with my second and even in the L&D, room, things can go wrong. He could have gotten stuck. I don't know. So many things could have happened. When the air in the room changed, everything was great. Everybody laughed. The doc stitched me up. I got to nurse the baby right away and the nurse said something to me. She was like, “Wow. You are such a strong woman.” I was like, “Oh yeah, I'm a Woman of Strength now. I can say that.” She was like, “Wow, you are a really strong woman. I'm surprised the doctor let you have a TOLAC.” I said, “Oh, no honey. This was not his choice. This was my choice.” My choice was not the same choice I recommend for everybody. I put in a lot of work for this obviously as I've said and it's not really for everybody and that's okay. It's okay to have the birth that you feel the safest and the most comfortable with because this is your start into motherhood. But if anyone feels inspired today, I'm glad that I was able to help with that. Obviously, I joke around and my OB, I still love him. He came into my room the next day and said, “Ah, here's the champion.” Yeah. You know and he said, “Listen, you were the right person to do it. You put in the work and you knew what to do.” Yeah. Meagan: You put in the work and knew what to do. Denise: Yeah, so that's my story. It's a doozy. Meagan: Oh my gosh, I love it. Gina: It's perfect. Meagan: Yeah, right? I mean, Gina, tell me about your area. Do you have a lot of unsupportive hospitals and providers in this way where they come in and you would expect a scenario like Denise's? Gina: Probably not quite. They actually have gotten a lot better. Meagan: That's good. Gina: They are pretty supportive even after two C-sections. We do have supportive providers for that and hospitals for that. It's not unheard of. It's not like, oh. You can't do this. Meagan: Right. Right. Gina: Yeah. Meagan: That is the case in so many places. Gina: Yes. Meagan: Like in Denise's situation. Denise: Yes, New York City and New Jersey as well. In New Jersey, if you have two Cesareans, you cannot be with a midwife. It's not allowed. Meagan: Yeah. Even here in Utah, which is a supportive VBA2C state, but some of those hospitals also do that. They are like, “Oh no, if you're a VBAC in general, you can't be with a midwife.” It's a little frustrating. We have a lot of work to do but Denise, I bet you probably didn't change your provider's perspective completely on VBAC. I bet the next VBAC after two Cesarean mama that came in, he likely may have said, “No. Not going to happen.” But you never know. He might have been like, “Okay. We can try it.” It takes us to show the world that it's possible, that it can be safe, that it's reasonable, our bodies are amazing, and so many of the things you could have had with the heart rate or the baby wasn't coming down or a bigger baby or whatever. All of these things could have stalled you up and you were like, “No. I can do this.” You put the power in your pocket and took the lead. Denise: Yeah. Yeah. And you know, I also read this along the way too. I had three births. My doctor has been to 20,000 births. Does he remember my birth? Probably because it was so dramatic. Meagan: Monumental for him, yeah. Denise: I'm his special patient as he calls me. But it's not the top of his list. He's on to the next thing and that's okay. This is his job. This is what he does. Like I said, he's not a bad person. He just wants to control the situation so he can make it the most safe in his opinion. But for me, I felt like by the end of it, my grandmother didn't curse me. She blessed me with an opportunity. My son is of course named after her and a lot of other amazing people like my dad and I just feel like you have to make your own story your own and you have to be comfortable with what you feel comfortable doing. I was more comfortable staying with a provider and a hospital I knew wasn't going to be like, “Oh yeah, Denise, you can do it,” but I knew in myself that if I believed in myself and I did the work and put in the work, I could do it. And it worked out for me. I wish I had that for three births but at least I had it for one and I get to come on here and share it with everybody that they can have the same experience I did. Meagan: That's really how I feel. Yeah, I didn't have the experience that I wanted for birth number one and birth number two but it brought me here today and that's okay. That's okay. So you have said that you have even more detail of your story on your website. Can you tell everybody, and we'll have it in the show notes, but can you tell everybody if they want to read more details on your story where they can find that?Denise: Absolutely. My business is milestonesinmotionptw.com and on there I have blogs about lots of different things but I decided to write my birth story which took me the entire fourth trimester because I had three kids by then. I wasn't sleeping. You know all the things. But yeah, it's a completely unedited version with a few more details. If anyone ever wants to reach out to me, I do have resources and I'm working on some virtual stuff with the business so if you have any issues post-birth with the baby with tummy time and crawling and stuff, I have some resources up there for you guys if anyone wants to check it out. And just reading the story– reading and listening to stories like on this podcast really made the difference for me too so thank you for doing it. Meagan: Oh my gosh. Thank you and like I said before, we'll have her link in the show notes so you can go and check it out. I love that you were pointing out tummy time and all of those things that you can help with. Then cute Gina actually is going to be talking about the gut biome and the effects of it and what birth can do and all of these things. Gina, I'd love to turn the time over to you to add this extra topic. Gina: Thank you. One of the reasons that we want to try to avoid unnecessary Cesarean births is because of the type of impact that that type of delivery can have on a newborn's long-term health. Some of the outcomes that we know can be associated with C-section births are increased risk of diabetes, obesity, and asthma. There is some research that indicates that those increased risks are because of the way the newborn's gut microbiome develops after a C-section versus after a vaginal birth. The microbiome is basically an ecosystem of bacteria and there are microorganisms that live in a digestive tract. For a C-section birth where the amniotic sac hasn't even been broken before you get to surgery, the baby basically has no exposure to any of the flora that are in the vagina which they would get in contact with if they were coming through the vaginal canal. That's part of what helps to populate that healthy gut biome. It gets the healthy gut bacteria in there for the newborn. The other part we know that helps build that healthy biome is actually the contact the newborn has with the perineum. If you think about where the perineum is in relation to your anus which is the exit of your digestive tract, that's where those bacteria are going to be. The baby also gets that exposure so it's a combination of all of it. In a C-section birth, sometimes they get none of it or only part of it. That's what seems to be a trigger for some of those outcomes that we see long-term for people if they have had a C-section birth. With all that said, is there anything we can do about it? Actually, yes. There is. There are a few things. One of the things that I do with my doula clients is I discuss the choices that they have for their birth and we use that to draft birth plans. I make sure we cover options for spontaneous vaginal births as well as induction and also C-sections because reality is that some babies are going to be born via C-section and I don't want anybody unprepared for it or not knowing what their options are to make it a better birth experience than just a sterile, surgical procedure. We have documented preferences for each of those outcomes. There are a few things that I make sure we include in a family-centered C-section birth plan that help support that healthy newborn microbiome. I learned about that somewhat from The VBAC Link doula training and I also attended a conference earlier this year called Micro Birth that was basically two days worth of people talking about newborn microbiome and how breastfeeding helps with it and everything. It was fascinating. The first option that I make sure we include in the C-section birth plan is to delay the use of the prophylactic antibiotics. That's what they give you ahead of time to try and prevent an infection from coming on during surgery. That's not a bad idea, but when we do it right away before the baby is born and before the cord has been cut, they can also get some of those antibiotics and that will interfere with their ability to build that bacteria in their gut. One of the ways that we can easily manage that is just delay it. Make sure they don't give us antibiotics until after the baby is out and cord has been clamped so we know that they have gotten all of their blood and they aren't getting anything else from the surgery or anything else from the IV. In most non-emergency C-sections, that should be an absolutely reasonable request because there's just a matter of timing. You're not trying to tell them, “Don't give it to me,” it's just a matter of when and all they do is just push it through your IV. It's also possible for some emergency ones depending on how much time they have. That's one of the really important ones that helps all of the other suggestions. Meagan: Fascinating. Gina: Yeah, the other one that we include in the birth plan is vaginal seeding. I know that's part of the VBAC Link course. Vaginal seeding is using gauze or a swab in the vagina to collect the fluids that are there prior to surgery and then you use that and you wipe it on the newborn's face. You make sure you get it in around their mouth and nose the same way they would be exposed to it if they came through the vagina during birth. That helps to transfer that to the baby. You can also make it even more effective if you make sure you include the perineum so maybe after you do the vagina one, make sure you include the perineum swab as well so you get all of it at one time and transfer it to the baby. There are a couple of times where some things that you don't want to use this for if the birthing parents has Group B strep or genital herpes, especially if they have an active outbreak, some of those conditions we know pose a risk to newborns and this wouldn't be a good idea. You don't want to try to introduce that just to get the flora there. It can be difficult to get the hospital to participate in this directly. I believe that ACOG has said it's still under research so unless you are being supervised, you shouldn't be doing this, but if you include it in your birth plan and you actually want to do it yourself, you can get the gauze. You can get the swabs. You can do it and either you or your partner can do it for the newborn. They can't stop you from doing it yourself but they may not want to particpate. Meagan: Yeah, they usually don't. We have clients who have ordered the gauze and everything online and then in Denise's situation where she was like, “I want to labor at home as long as possible,” and all of this stuff, they did it right before. They washed hands really, really well, got gloves even and did it, put it in a bag, and put it in their hospital bag because in case it does go a Cesarean route or whatever, they had it and then they don't even have to deal with the staff. Gina: Exactly. There are always those types of things where you can take it upon yourself and do it yourself. Yeah. Like you mentioned, doing it at home would be a great idea because you want to make sure that you've done it and the swab and everything is out before they start prepping you for surgery because they will use the sterile cleansing options and that will destroy some of it. Always make sure you do it beforehand if you can. Then the last thing that I talk about which isn't necessarily part of the birth plan, but it's a really effective way to help restore and build the healthy microbiome for the baby is probiotics. You can start them yourself prenatally and have a prenatal probiotic that you take. You can continue using it while you are lactating because it will transfer to the baby as well. There is one I know Needed offers.Meagan: There's a pre and probiotic. I really love it. I take it myself. Gina: Yeah. That one's on my list of options that I give to people. I have a few different ones I've looked into that have the right mix of bacteria that they're looking for so that's a great one to use. The other one is that you can actually have probiotics for a newborn. That's proven to be pretty effective if you have a C-section baby. That's one of the most well-researched ways of helping rebuild that microbiome for them especially if you are using it in combination with breastfeeding because human milk has the perfect sugars to feed those bacteria that we are looking for so it's a really great combination. There are a lot of different infant probiotic options out there and not all of them have the right mix of bacteria or the right type of bacteria that we know research shows comes through a vaginal birth and is also associated with good long-term health outcomes. There's one that they have studied the most to be effective. It's in Australia and it's called Imploran. You can buy it online and I'll provide the links as well but I also have a couple of others that have similar makeups that you can use. That's what I have to say about that but it's a very fascinating topic. I love to see even some of the negative outcomes with C-sections be improved by things we have learned along the way. Meagan: I love that. Thank you so, so, so much for sharing that with us. Denise, thank you for sharing your stories and your VBAC and your journey and all of your tips are so incredible. I'm so grateful for you. Denise: Thank you. Thanks for having us. Gina: Yes, thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Have you heard of torticollis or W-sitting? Pediatric physical therapists Jill Mall and Kris Fought explain common issues kids face, like toe-walking, in-toeing, and flat heads. You'll learn how physical therapy helps treat these conditions and what parents can do at home to support their kids' development.     This episode was made possible by our sponsor Begin Health. Begin the journey to a happier and healthier future for your little one with Begin Health's tasteless and textureless Daily Growing Up Prebiotics. Visit beginhealth.com/NEXTDOOR or use code NEXTDOOR for 25% off your first order.      Send your questions to hello@pediatriciannextdoorpodcast.com or submit at drwendyhunter.com  Find products from the show on the shop page.   *As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases.    More from The Pediatrician Next Door:    Website: drwendyhunter.com   Instagram: @the_pediatrician_next_door  Facebook: facebook.com/wendy.l.hunter.75  TikTok: @drwendyhunter  LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/drwendyhunter    This is a Redd Rock Music Podcast  IG: @reddrockmusic  www.reddrockmusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Pediatric Physical Therapy Podcast, September, 2024 This special edition of the Pediatric Physical Therapy podcast is reviewed by Pediatric Pediatric Physical Therapy Journal Editor-in-Chief, Linda Fetters PhD PT FAPTA, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. This podcast examines the 2024 Updated Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline on the Physical Therapy Management of Congenital Muscular Torticollis. Podcast host Sarah Maxwell is joined by first author of the Updated Guideline, Dr. Barbara Sargent and clinician author, Dr. Jill Cannoy PT, DPT, PCS. Podcast Speakers: JILL CANNOY PT, DPT, PCS, Orthotics and Prosthetics Department, Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia. BARBARA SARGENT PhD, PT, Associate Professor of Physical Therapy, University of Southern California Journal Abstract: Physical Therapy Management of Congenital Muscular Torticollis: A 2024 Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline From the American Physical Therapy Association Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy Barbara Sargent, PT, PhD, PCS; Colleen Coulter, PT, DPT, PhD, PCS; Jill Cannoy, PT, DPT, PCS; Sandra L. Kaplan, PT, DPT, PhD, FAPTA Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry, University of Southern California (Dr Sargent), Los Angeles, California; Orthotics and Prosthetics Department (Drs Coulter and Cannoy), Children's Healthcare of Atlanta, Atlanta, Georgia; Department of Rehabilitation and Movement Sciences, Rutgers (Dr Kaplan), The State University of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey Background: Congenital muscular torticollis (CMT) is a postural condition evident shortly after birth. The 2013 CMT Clinical Practice Guideline (2013 CMT CPG) set standards for the identification, referral, and physical therapy management of infants with CMT, and its implementation resulted in improved clinical outcomes. It was updated in 2018 to reflect current evidence and 7 resources were developed to support implementation. Purpose: This 2024 CMT CPG is intended as a reference document to guide physical therapists, families, health care professionals, educators, and researchers to improve clinical outcomes and health services for children with CMT, as well as to inform the need for continued research. Results/Conclusions: The 2024 CMT CPG addresses: education for prevention, screening, examination and evaluation including recommended outcome measures, consultation with and referral to other health care providers, classification and prognosis, first- choice and evidence-informed supplemental interventions, discontinuation from direct intervention, reassessment and discharge, implementation and compliance recommendations, and research recommendations. (Pediatr Phys Ther 2024;00:1–45)Key words: clinical practice guideline, congenital muscular torticollis, infant, pediatrics, physical therapy

When today's guest reached out to me about bringing a pediatric physical therapy conversation to the table, I was all in. Apart from my well-known love for all things anatomy and my own experience with PT, I was really curious how it even works with newborns and babies! For this episode of Yoga | Birth | Babies, I am joined by Dr. Emily Schlict. Emily is a pediatric physical therapist who primarily treats patients from birth to 5 years old. She is trained in dynamic movement intervention (DMI) and Schroth Therapy for Scoliosis. Emily is also a Board Certified Autism Specialist. Emily is the owner of EMpower PT, which provides pediatric physical therapy to children in their homes throughout Manhattan. In this conversation, Emily goes over the reasons a newborn may need to see a physical therapist, what PT looks like for a newborn or baby under three, and how to recognize when it may be time for parents to seek out PT for their child. We even discuss some general things, aside from PT, that you can do with your newborn to help them develop and reach their milestones. I am really excited for you to hear this conversation. Get the most out of each episode by checking out the show notes with links, resources and other related podcasts at: prenatalyogacenter.com (*hyperlink episode link from Wordpress!) Don't forget to grab your FREE guide, 5 Simple Solutions to the Most Common Pregnancy Pains HERE  If you love what you've been listening to, please leave a rating and review! Yoga| Birth|Babies (Apple) or on Spotify! To connect with Deb and the PYC Community:  Instagram & Facebook: @prenatalyogacenter Youtube: Prenatal Yoga Center Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Our guests this week hold special meaning to ETL, as they have been the physical therapy providers for the kids of our ETL team members and have been cheerleaders for them every step of the way. In this episode, Rianna Silverstein, DPT and Kaitlyn Evers, DPT share their perspectives on their experience treating children with trisomy 18, discuss what to look for in a PT, explain the purpose of DMI, and speak to the power of intensive therapy. We hope you will feel encouraged by hearing the way these two amazing therapists champion the trisomy community and the abilities of children with a trisomy diagnosis. Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions shared in this episode are personal perspectives and experience and are NOT meant to replace the guidance of your child's licensed healthcare and therapy providers. Please consult with your child's therapists and doctors for care specific to their needs.  Extra To Love is a non-profit organization that aims to improve the lives of people with Trisomy 18 and Trisomy 13 by supporting their families. Through Extra To Love: A Trisomy Podcast, we hope effected families will be empowered, connected, supported and educated by hearing personal stories from parents and healthcare providers. To receive support or learn more about our mission, visit www.extratolove.org Follow us on socials!https://www.facebook.com/extratolovehttps://www.instagram.com/extratolovehttps://www.instagram.com/extratolovepodcast

Pediatric Physical Therapy Podcast Volume 36, Issue 3, 2024 Creator: Pediatric Physical Therapy AN INTERVIEW WITH: Toby Long PhD, Department of Pediatrics, Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University, Washington DC, USA. “Inclusion, Participation, Belonging = Surviving, Thriving, Flourishing” Toby Long PhD tells podcast anchor Sarah Maxwell about the role physical therapists play in helping children with impairments participate in day-to-day life: the theme she addressed in her lecture to the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy for the prestigious Ann Van Sant Global Scientific Writing Lectureship, now documented in her Pediatric Physical Therapy article. Title: Inclusion, Participation, Belonging = Surviving, Thriving, Flourishing Author: Toby Long, PT, PhD, FAPTA Author affiliations: Department of Pediatrics, Center for Child and Human Development, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA Conflict of Interest Statement: The author declares no conflict of interest. Correspondence: Toby Long, 2115 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, Suite 600, Washington, DC 20007. Email: longt@georgetown.edu ABSTRACT Purpose: To share my perspectives on how pediatric physical therapists support children with disabilities and their families to maximize their potential to flourish. Key Points: Best practice supports the inclusion of people with disabilities in all aspects of society. Policy statements from governmental agencies, research universities, advocacy, and non- governmental organizations all support inclusion. The concept of belonging and how pediatric physical therapists can promote belonging is less familiar to pediatric physical therapists than that promote belonging. Key words: International perspectives, inclusion, participation, belonging inclusion and participation.

In the Season 3 Finale, we will be hearing from Bailey Endres, PT, DPT. Bailey practices in the inpatient rehab setting at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH. She will be sharing what a typical day in the inpatient rehab setting looks like, how it may differ from other pediatric settings, and more. We want to say a special thank you to all of our listeners this season! It has a pleasure to bring you these episodes. We hope you found them as informative and helpful as we did! Please be sure to tune back in in January of 2025 for season 4! As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more ways than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy).

In this episode of the Healthy, Wealthy, and Smart podcast, host Dr. Stephanie Weyrauch engages in a thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Stacy Menz, the owner of Starfish Therapies. They delve into the challenges and triumphs of balancing motherhood and professional life, touching upon single parenthood, parenting, and achieving professional balance. Stacy's personal journey as a parent and business owner serves as an inspiration for others navigating the complexities of combining parenthood with career goals. Time Stamps:  [00:02:36] Path to parenthood difficulties. [00:04:49] Balancing motherhood and business. [00:10:18] Transparency in leadership and support. [00:13:05] Maternity leave challenges. [00:18:42] Building support networks as parents. [00:20:48] Balancing motherhood and career. [00:24:43] Seeking mental health support. [00:29:12] Finding the right therapist. [00:31:23] Embracing discomfort in growth. [00:01:28] Parenting challenges and empathy. [00:06:34] Strategies for meal prepping. [00:09:49] Balancing life as a practice owner. [00:14:31] Empowering employees through delegation. [00:15:37] Parents bringing kids to work. [00:19:44] Parenting challenges and surprises. [00:25:03] Balancing work and parenting. [00:27:04] Parenting and empathy. [00:31:14] Empathy in leadership. More About Dr. Stacy Menz: Stacy Menz, PT, DPT, PCS is a pediatric clinical specialist and the owner of Starfish Therapies. Stacy received her Master's degree at Boston University in 2000 and her Doctorate of Physical Therapy at Boston University in 2005. She is the founder and owner of Starfish Therapies a pediatric physical therapy company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Their mission is to make a difference in the lives of each child and family that they interact with. In addition, Stacy has experience as a teaching/lab assistant for Boston University, South College, Baylor University, Bowling Green State University, and Chapman University's Doctor of Physical Therapy programs, has presented at state and national conferences, and teaches continuing education courses for pediatric physical therapy. She is currently a board member for WAWOS and a past board member of KEEN San Francisco. She is the treasurer of the pediatric special interest group for the California Physical Therapy Section and the past editor of Impact, the Private Practice Section's. Stacy consults with various companies on how their products can enhance development in children. She has been interviewed on various podcasts and radio shows to discuss Pediatric Physical Therapy and Private Practice. Resources from this Episode: Starfish Therapies Website Instagram YouTube Facebook Free Gift Jane Sponsorship Information: Book a one-on-one demo here Jane Payments Mention the code LITZY1MO for a free month Follow Dr. Karen Litzy on Social Media: Karen's Twitter Karen's Instagram Karen's LinkedIn Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: YouTube Website Apple Podcast Spotify SoundCloud Stitcher iHeart Radio

Welcome to Season 3 of the SNP Podcast! In this episode, we will be hearing from Ashley Parish PT, DPT, CRT, ABPTS Board Certified Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Specialist. Ashley practices in the Pediatric Acute Care Setting at Children's of Alabama and is also an assistant professor for the DPT program at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She will be sharing what a typical day in the pediatric acute care setting looks like, what she loves about this setting, and more! As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more ways than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy). Hosted by Rachel Thompson Edited by Annabelle Hearne Music by Scott Miller Special Thanks to Ashley Parish PT, DPT, CRT, ABPTS Board Certified Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Specialist

The Pediatric Physical Therapy Podcast March, 2024 Edition: AN INTERVIEW WITH: Eilish M Byrne PT, DSc, PCS, CNT, Assistant Professor, Camino Hospital and Stanford Children's Hospital, California, Visiting Professor University of St Augustine, San Marcos, California. In conversation with Peter Goodwin, Editor, The Pediatric Physical Therapy Podcast (March, 2024 Edition) DESCRIPTION: Dr. Byrne discusses the research her ream has published in Pediatric Physical Therapy, Volume 36, Number 2, 2024 on: “Introducing the i-Rainbow- An evidence-based, parent-friendly care pathway designed for even the most critically ill infant in the Neonatal Intensive Care setting.” AUTHORS: Eilish M. Byrne, Katherine Hunt and Melissa Scala SUMMARY: This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel, evidence-based developmental care pathway to be used by healthcare providers and parents in the neonatal intensive care setting. PURPOSE: This study investigated the feasibility and effectiveness of a novel, evidence-based developmental care pathway to be used by healthcare providers and parents in the neonatal intensive care setting (NICU). The iRainbow is based on current evidence and responds to individual infant health status. It is not base on infant age. METHODS: After development and implementation of the iRainbow, pre-and post- implementation nurse and parent survey data were collected, and pre- and post-developmental care rates were compared. RESULTS: After iRainbow implementation, disagreement among providers on appropriate developmental care interventions significantly decreased, total minutes of daily developmental care and swaddled holding increased significantly, and parents reported that they would recommend the tool. CONCLUSION: The iRainbow is a unique, parent-friendly, infant-based tool that guides sensory interventions in the NICU by staging infants based on cardiorespiratory status and physiologic maturity, not age. The iRainbow improved the delivery of developmental care activities in our unit and was well received by parents and nurses. KEYWORDS: iRainbow, Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, Neonatal Therapy, Developmental Care, Neonatal Sensory Interventions, Neonatal Care Path, Family Education WHAT THIS EVIDENCE ADDS: Current evidence: There are many studies and programs demonstrating the benefits of providing evidence-based developmental interventions for both neonates and caregivers.1-4 Gap in the evidence: There is less agreement regarding the safety and timing of developmental interventions7-9, and what does exist tends to rely on gestational age, while recommending performing activities per infant tolerance.5,6 However, this approach can be problematic because preterm infants progress at variable rates, and infant tolerance is not objectively defined. How does this study fill this gap? This study provides objective clinical criteria to define neonate tolerance for intervention guided by the cardiorespiratory stability of the infant, and in later stages, behavior cues of the infant, not gestational age. Implication of all the evidence: Optimal timing of and tolerance to evidence-based developmental interventions in the NICU is still being described. Relying solely on gestational ages may not be ideal for many infants. The iRainbow serves as a valuable tool to objectively identify an infant's readiness to participate in a developmental care program.

Welcome to Season 3 of the SNP Podcast! In this episode, we will be hearing from Hannah Jasurda PT, DPT, OCS, who practices in the Pediatric Sports setting at Phoenix Children's Hospital in Arizona. Hannah, will be sharing what a typical day in the pediatric sports setting looks like, why she chose this setting instead of a typical outpatient orthopedics setting, and more! As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more ways than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy). Hosted by Rachel Thompson Edited by Annabelle Hearne Music by Scott Miller Special Thanks to Hannah Jasurda PT, DPT, OCS

Welcome to season 3 of the SNP Podcast! In this episode, we will be hearing from Krista Koch PT, DPT, PCS, who practices in the school based PT setting in St. Paul MN. Jen will be sharing what a typical day in the school setting looks like, what made the school setting stand out to her when choosing which setting she wanted to work in, and more! As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more ways than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy). Hosted by Robyn McGowan Edited by Annabelle Hearne Music by Scott Miller Special Thanks to Krista Koch PT, DPT, PCS

Welcome to season 3 of the SNP Podcast! In this episode, we will be hearing from Jen O'Loughlin PT, DPT, PCS, who practices in the early intervention setting in Portland Oregon. Jen will be sharing what a typical day in early intervention looks like, what made early intervention stand out to her when choosing which setting she wanted to work in, and more! As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more ways than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy). Hosted by Robyn McGowan Edited by Annabelle Hearne Music by Scott Miller Special Thanks to Jen O'Loughlin PT, DPT, PCS

Welcome to season 3 of the SNP Podcast! This season we will be interviewing pediatric PTs who practice in various common settings. We will be getting to hear what a typical day working in their setting is like as well as how they came to be where they are. The goal of these interviews was to provide insight to you (students and new professionals) about settings that you may be interested in working in one day. This season will consist of 6 episodes with a new one being released the first Monday of each month from January to June. Today's episode features an interview with Molly Peterson PT, DPT, PCS, who practices in an outpatient pediatrics setting at Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare. As always, thanks for listening to the SNP Podcast where we talk about all things pediatric physical therapy for students and new professionals! If you liked our show, subscribe so you never miss a new episode. To connect with us in more was than one, follow the APTA Pediatric Academy on Instagram (@acadpedpt), on Twitter (@AcadPedPT), on Facebook (APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy), and on Youtube (@PediatricPhysicalTherapy). Hosted by Rachel Thompson Edited by Annabelle Hearne Music by Scott Miller Special Thanks to Molly Peterson PT, DPT, PCS

Andy & the Real Alex Jones sat with us in studio for a special recording where we dove into deep “life path” waters and learn why Andy chose Pediatric Physical Therapy over a career as a surgeon, and how that was received by his family who have a tradition of higher education, high achievement, and high expectations. Meet our Son-in-Law, our 1st grandchild, and our daughter, the Real Alex Jones!

Join Sheila and Sara this week as they cover Developmental Coordination Disorder (DCD) and Intellectual Disabilities. They also touch on some genetic conditions. Make sure you are supplementing our conversation with charts, tables and pictures from the Campbell text referenced below and don't forget the DCD CPG. Cheers and happy listening! Affiliate Codes: ------------------------------------------ Medbridge Affiliate website: https://www.medbridgeeducation.com/pushing-pediatrics Medbridge Affiliate Code: PUSHINGPEDS ----------------------------------------- Resources: Palisano, R. J., Orlin, M. N., & Schreiber, R. (2023). Campbell's physical therapy for children. Elsevier. Dannemiller, Lisa PT, DSc, PCS; Mueller, Melinda PT, DPT, PCS; Leitner, Adrah PT, DPT, PCS; Iverson, Erin PT, DPT, PCS; Kaplan, Sandra L. PT, DPT, PhD, FAPTA. Physical Therapy Management of Children With Developmental Coordination Disorder: An Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline From the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy of the American Physical Therapy Association. Pediatric Physical Therapy 32(4):p 278-313, October 2020. | DOI: 10.1097/PEP.0000000000000753

Boo! This week join Sheila and Sara as they cover torticollis, cranial deformity and arthrogryposis. They start off this episode with torticollis and cranial deformity.  Last season, they did an entire episode covering the torticollis CPG.  That was the most comprehensive episode we have done and we definitely feel that it covers the full depth of torticollis. The book chapter leans heavily on the CPG so a lot of this information will be repetitive with that, but that is ok! Repetition is good. They then move on to cover arthrogryposis through the life span. Affiliate Codes: ------------------------------------------ Medbridge Affiliate website: https://www.medbridgeeducation.com/pushing-pediatrics Medbridge Affiliate Code: PUSHINGPEDS ----------------------------------------- Resources: Palisano, R. J., Orlin, M. N., & Schreiber, R. (2023). Campbell's physical therapy for children. Elsevier. Kaplan, Sandra L. PT, DPT, PhD; Coulter, Colleen PT, DPT, PhD, PCS; Sargent, Barbara PT, PhD, PCS. Physical Therapy Management of Congenital Muscular Torticollis: A 2018 Evidence-Based Clinical Practice Guideline From the APTA Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy. Pediatric Physical Therapy 30(4):p 240-290, October 2018. | DOI: 10.1097/PEP.0000000000000544

In this episode, we sit down with pediatric physical therapist, Melissa Howard, DPT to talk about the basics of pediatric physical therapy. Melissa explains what physical therapy is, signs a child may benefit from physical, how it differs from occupational therapy, and ways she collaborates with other therapists. While many areas physical therapists treat were familiar to us, such as developing an efficient gait, building strong core, and rehabbing muscles after injury, one specific area was surprising to learn about- potty training, constipation, and incontinence! Melissa spends time in the episode discussing ways physical therapists can help children of all ages with those difficulties. Melissa Howard is a pediatric physical therapist and owner of Bloom for All Physical Therapy, a private practice in Houston, Texas. She received a Doctor of Physical Therapy from Texas Tech University Health Science Center in 2011. Melissa is board certified as a Neurologic Specialist and certified in Neurodevelopmental Treatment.  She has taught at Texas Woman's University Physical Therapy school, Gaza, Palestine, the Cerebral Palsy Annual Academy, and APTA sections at Pediatrics Conference.  Links:  Bloom For All Physical Therapy Website Bloom For All Instagram The Parish School Website Unbabbled on Instagram Sponsors: Soccor Shots Houston Kids 360 Pediatric Dentistry Support the show

In this episode of "Pushing Pediatrics," Sheila and Sara explore the critical role of standardized outcome measures in pediatric physical therapy. They discuss how these measures shape clinical decisions, including eligibility, intervention strategies, goals, and service intensity. The hosts emphasize the importance of understanding the purpose of testing and considering the goals of the child and their family when selecting appropriate outcome measures. They delve into the two critical types of standardized tests: norm-referenced and criterion-referenced, highlighting their differences and applications. Sheila and Sara also touch on psychometric properties, validity, and the importance of adhering to test administration guidelines. They provide insights into the use of outcome measures for screening, prediction, determining differences, and evaluating change. The hosts recommend utilizing the ICF model and the APTA fact sheet on outcome measures for comprehensive understanding. They then dive into motor development and control. They emphasize that the chapter is crucial for understanding foundational concepts. The hosts recommend reading the chapter in full and utilizing bonus content, such as videos and developmental milestones offered in the e-book version. They discuss various developmental theories, including neural-maturationist theory, cognitive-behavioral theory, cognitive: Piagetian theory, motor-learning theory, and dynamical systems theory. Sheila and Sara highlight the importance of internal and external factors in development and provide insights into postural control and reflexes. Listeners are encouraged to dive deeper into these concepts and refer to additional resources for a thorough grasp of the subject matter. Affiliate Codes: ------------------------------------------ Medbridge Affiliate website: https://www.medbridgeeducation.com/pushing-pediatrics Medbridge Affiliate Code: PUSHINGPEDS ----------------------------------------- Don't let outdated research hold you back. Embrace the future of pediatric physical therapy with scite.ai. Sign up today and experience the power of evidence-based practice at your fingertips. https://scite.ai/?=sheila ----------------------------------------- Resources: Palisano, R. J., Orlin, M. N., & Schreiber, R. (2023). Campbell's physical therapy for children. Elsevier. https://pediatricapta.org/includes/fact-sheets/pdfs/FactSheet_ListofPediatricAssessmentToolsCategorizedbyICFModel_2013.pdf

In this enlightening episode of "Pushing Pediatrics," hosts Sheila and Sara delve into a wide range of crucial topics that form the bedrock of evidence-based pediatric healthcare. Join them as they explore the intricacies of evidence-based decision making, the PICO format, the 6S pyramid, the GRADE system, the ICF model, the bioecological framework of child development, the ecobiodevelopmental framework (EBD), social determinants of health, health equity and disparities, family-centered care, trauma-informed care, cultural competency, and the Knowledge to Action (KTA) cycle. By tuning in to this episode, you will gain a comprehensive understanding of how to approach questions and dissect them effectively. Sheila and Sara provide invaluable insights into the importance of research evidence, child and family preferences, home and community factors, and practice knowledge in making informed decisions. They guide you through the process of formulating clinical questions using the PICO format, ensuring that you can gather knowledge efficiently. The hosts also shed light on the 6S pyramid, which categorizes evidence based on its level of synthesis, and the GRADE system, which helps assess the quality of evidence in systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines. With their guidance, you will learn how to navigate through the vast landscape of evidence and identify the most reliable sources. Furthermore, Sheila and Sara introduce the ICF model, which takes a holistic approach to pediatric healthcare by considering the interplay between functioning and disability, as well as contextual factors. They illustrate how this model can be applied in a specific example, to provide comprehensive care that addresses the unique needs of each child. The hosts also emphasize the significance of social determinants of health, health equity, and disparities in pediatric healthcare. They discuss the importance of family-centered care, trauma-informed care, and cultural competency in promoting inclusive and effective healthcare practices. By exploring these topics, you will gain a deeper understanding of the factors that influence health outcomes and learn how to provide equitable care to diverse populations. To further enhance your knowledge, Sheila and Sara introduce the Knowledge to Action (KTA) cycle, a framework that facilitates the translation of research findings into practical action. They outline the steps involved in this cycle and provide a real-life example of how it can be applied to implement a new treatment method. By the end of this episode, you will have a solid foundation in evidence-based decision making and a comprehensive understanding of the various frameworks and models that underpin pediatric healthcare. Join Sheila and Sara as they equip you with the tools and knowledge necessary to dissect questions and arrive at the correct answers, ensuring that you can provide the best possible care to your young patients. Affiliate Codes: ------------------------------------------ Medbridge Affiliate website: https://www.medbridgeeducation.com/pushing-pediatrics Medbridge Affiliate Code: PUSHINGPEDS ----------------------------------------- Don't let outdated research hold you back. Embrace the future of pediatric physical therapy with scite.ai. Sign up today and experience the power of evidence-based practice at your fingertips. https://scite.ai/?=sheila ----------------------------------------- Resources: Palisano, R. J., Orlin, M. N., & Schreiber, R. (2023). Campbell's physical therapy for children. Elsevier.

INTERVIEWS IN THIS EDITION: Studio Guest: Linda Fetters PhD, PT, FAPTA University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Pediatric Physical Therapy Editor-in-Chief, adds her comments and reflections on clinical implications arising from the research discussed in the podcast by Pediatric Physical Therapy authors. Author Interviews: 1. Catie Christensen PT DPT PCS, Evidence Based Practice Coordinator, Nationwide Children's Hospital, Columbus, Ohio, USA “2022 APTA Pediatrics Knowledge Translation Lecture: Clinicians and Researchers Collaborate to Implement a Segmental Approach to Trunk Control” Christensen discusses her team's detailed investigation of how collaboration between clinicians and researchers can help implement the “segmental approach” to trunk control in patients with cerebral palsy. 2. Kate L. McLeod, Queensland Cerebral Palsy & Rehabilitation Research Centre, University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. “Effect of Active Motor Learning Interventions on Gross Motor Function and Mobility in Children Aged 2 to 6 Years With Bilateral Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis “ McLeod tells the podcast about her group's meta-analysis of studies investigating active-motor learning interventions among children with bilateral cerebral palsy. 3. Stacey C. Dusing PT PhD FAPTA PCS, Sykes Family Chair of Pediatric Physical Therapy, Health, and Development, Division of Biokinesiology & Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA. “Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on a Clinical Trial: A Quantitative Report on Study Engagement and Strategies” Research on physical therapy practice during the COVID pandemic suggests that lessons have been learned and that clinicians will be better prepared for a future pandemic. Dusing tells the podcast about her group's report in Pediatric Physical Therapy on a study of infants in a rehabilitation clinical trial, that took place before and during COVID. 4. Kelly E. Rock PT, DPT, PhD, PCS, currently Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Physical Therapy, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA and former PhD student at the Department of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Science, University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore, Maryland, USA, discusses: “Muscle Properties, Gross Motor Performance, and Quality of Life in Children With Sickle Cell Disease”. The group looked at muscle properties and motor performance as metrics to guide and individualize physical therapy plans for children with sickle-cell disease. Rock explains how these outcome measures can provide an evidence-base for therapy planning. 5. Kimberley S. Scott PT DPT PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska, USA. “Fidelity of Delivery in a Multisite Randomized Clinical Trial of Intervention Efficacy for Infants With Unilateral Cerebral Palsy” For children with unilateral cerebral palsy, the consistency of interventions between centers and between individual clinicians has been checked in a new study. Scott tells the podcast about her group's investigation of the fidelity of therapy delivery in a multi-site randomized clinical trial. 6. Jodi Thomas DHSc, School of Physical Therapy, Texas Woman's University, Dallas, Texas, USA “The Head Control Scale: Responsiveness and Concurrent Validity With the Alberta Infant Motor Scale” Although head control holds the key to a number of developmental issues it's not easy to measure objectively in a new-born infant. Thomas talks about the validation of her group's recently developed “Head Control Scale” as an accurate measure of head control in young children. 7. Melissa McIntyre PT DPT, Department of Pediatrics, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA. “Daily Quantity and Kinematic Characteristics of Leg Movement in a Child With SMA Type I” The rare genetic condition: Spinal Muscular Atrophy, or SMA, can now be treated with specific molecular drugs or gene therapy. These treatments alter disease progression, resulting in improved motor function and development. In the best of cases, infants who previously had dismal outlooks and very short survivals can demonstrate near-typical motor development. McIntyre talks about her case study, giving insights into physical therapy for neonates and young children with SMA who demonstrate previously unseen development trajectories and motor achievements.

How about a holistic approach to empowering your parenting journey?  As a Doctor of Pediatric Physical Therapy and the founder of The Movement Mama, Kailee Noland brings a wealth of knowledge to our latest episode. We talk about her innovative Thriving in the First Year Summit, the true necessities for new babies, and explore the sometimes complex world of baby development, Kailee shares her journey as both a therapist and a mother and shares her perspective on the importance of allowing children to develop at their own pace and how her courses can offer much-needed support for parents. From the evolution of the shoe industry towards minimalist designs to the mental health benefits of outdoor play, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Kailee underlines the importance of letting children develop at their own pace and providing an empowering perspective on the beauty and challenges of motherhood. Don't miss out on this enlightening conversation that promises to leave you with a deeper understanding of early childhood development.For more information visit The Movement Mama and follow her on Instagram @themovementmamaAlso, check out more resources on speech, language, feeding and play at The Speech Source and follow us on Instagram @thespeechsource

INTERVIEWS IN THIS EDITION: Studio Guest: Linda Fetters PhD, PT, FAPTA University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Pediatric Physical Therapy Editor-in-Chief. Linda begins this special edition of the podcast by talking about our inspiring former leader, the late Cindy Miles, President of the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy at the American Physical Therapy Association. Author Interviews: 1. Hércules Ribeiro Leite PhD, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil I Would Like to Do It Very Much! Leisure Participation Patterns and Determinants of Brazilian Children and Adolescents With Physical Disabilities Hércules tells us how the needs of youngsters with physical impairments are often overlooked, especially in low- and middle-income countries. His group's new program increases their participation in leisure activities such as sports providing new opportunities to improve outcomes. 2: Jeanette M Cadieux PT DPT, Cadieux Physical Therapy, Cooper Landing, Alaska, USA Pediatric Walking Speed Normal Reference Values in a Local Population In a new research study, Janette has been calibrating pediatric walking speed in typical children as a comparator to help assess performance in children with impairments. 3 Joseph Schreiber PT PhD FAPTA, Physical Therapy Learning for Practice, Pittsburg PA, USA Clinical Outcomes of an Intensity Program for Children With Movement Challenges Joe tells the podcast about his group's high intensity program of physical therapy for children with movement challenges: a massive initiative developed by his co-authors at the Children's Institute, in Pittsburgh, bringing clinically important improvements in outcomes. 4: Adriaan Louw PT PhD, Evidence in Motion, Story City, Iowa, USA Pain Neuroscience Education in Elementary and Middle Schools Adriaan explains how our attitudes towards pain influences our experiences of pain. He discusses his research findings on the role of pain neuroscience education among children, and explains how physical therapists are pivotal to implementing this. 5. Deanne Fay PT, DPT, PhD, Professor & Director of Curriculum, Physical Therapy Program, AT Still University, Mesa, Arizona, USA Influence of Modified Instructions on Locomotion Subtest Scores Using the Peabody Developmental Motor Scales, Second Edition Deanne explains how departing from the published scripts for instructing children and asking them questions while you are conducting motor function scores can markedly affect the score and should be discouraged. 6. Tanochni Mohanty, MPT, JSS College of Physiotherapy, Mysuru, Karnataka, India Predictors of Risk for Cerebral Palsy: A Review Tanochni gives the podcast some of the key findings from her group's big new survey reviewing data on predictive risk factors for cerebral palsy. In particular she highlights the significance of absent fidgety movements among infants and of prenatal general movements. 7. Kara Boynewicz, PT, PhD, DPT, East Tennessee State University, Johnson City, Tennessee Early Identification of Atypical Motor Performance of Infants With Prenatal Opioid Exposure Coping with new-born babies heavily exposed to opiates in utero became a key specialist activity for Kara who has been studying how best to give these infant as good a start in life as possible by setting up a carefully controlled investigation of motor performance in new-born infants with: Neonatal Opiate Withdrawal Syndrome, NOWS.

Dr. Brittany Zis is a physical therapist and founder of Mother and Baby Wellness Collective and she joins us on the show to talk about pediatric physical therapy.  She's passionate about caring for mom as well as baby, and she does this through in-home 1:1 pediatric physical therapy, gross motor play classes, virtual Breath and Core series and so much more!  We talk about:What is pediatric physical therapy?How does it differ from adult care?Why might an infant need physical therapy?What do pediatric PT sessions look like?What are some common issues she works with?What are the treatment outcomes?How does Mother and Baby Wellness Collective support moms? Connect with Dr. BrittanyMother and Baby Wellness CollectiveOn Instagram On FacebookSupport the showWant to show your support? Want to help us continue doing this important and impactful work: Support the Show (we greatly appreciate it!)Don't miss new episodes: Join the Aligned Birth CommunityInstagram: Aligned Birth Email: alignedbirthpodcast@gmail.com Find us online:Sunrise Chiropractic and Wellness North Atlanta Birth Services Editing: Godfrey SoundMusic: "Freedom” by RoaDisclaimer: The information shared, obtained, and discussed in this podcast is not intended as medical advice and should not be relied upon as a substitute for professional consultation with a qualified healthcare provider familiar with your individual medical needs. By listening to this podcast you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others. Consult your own physician for any medical issues that you may be having. This disclaimer includes all guests or contributors to the podcast.

West Lake Hills, TX - Axiom Physiotherapy - (512-808-3904) - https://axiompt.com/massage-therapist-austin-tx/ offers pediatric physical therapy for developmental growth and support. Led by Dr. Ben Shook, their skilled team helps children reach their full potential with personalized care in West Lake Hills. Axiom Physiotherapy 1015 Beecave Woods Dr #300f, Austin, TX 78746, United States Website https://www.axiompt.com/ Phone +1-512-808-3904 Email prc.pressagency@gmail.com

In recognition of World Autism Acceptance Day (April 2), host Ann Garton welcomes special guests to "The IPCC Podcast":  Megan Hinton, MA, CCC-SLP; Katie Powers, DPT, PCS, C/NDT; and Jennifer Petersen, OTD, OTR/L, C/NDT, C/SI.Megan Hinton, MA, CCC-SLPMegan Hinton completed her Bachelor's degree at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign and her Master's degree at the University of Iowa. She has been a Speech-Language Pathologist for three years and currently works specifically in pediatric therapy with GenesisOutpatient Pediatric Therapy. Megan returned to her home in the Quad Cities after spending two years in Des Moines. She and her husband enjoy time with their two dogs, and in their free time, they enjoy spending time with family, renovating their home, and experiencing finding good local restaurants.Katie Powers, DPT, PCS, C/NDTKatie Powers is a St. Ambrose University Doctor of Physical Therapy program graduate and currently serves in a faculty role in the department. She practices as a Board-Certified Clinical Specialist in Pediatric Physical Therapy and has worked at the Genesis Outpatient Pediatric Therapy Center for 14 years. She serves in multiple roles as a volunteer for the American Physical Therapy Association Academy of Pediatrics and the President of a local non-profit organization, Mississippi Bend Trykes. She stays busy teaching dance lessons at a local dance studio and participating in many community activities with her husband and two children.Jennifer Petersen, OTD, OTR/L, C/NDT, C/SI  Jennifer Petersen completed her BA in Psychology and Master of Occupational Therapy at St. Ambrose University. She graduated with her Doctorate of Occupational Therapy from Thomas Jefferson University. She has specialty certifications in Autism, Neuro-Developmental Treatment in the Management and Treatment of Children with Cerebral Palsy and other Neuromotor disorders, and holds Advanced Sensory Integration Certification. Jennifer's current research includes the development of an evaluation in Ayres Sensory Integration which assesses and analyzes outcome measures within pediatric practices. Jennifer is currently employed as an Assistant Professor within SAU's DOT program.Here are some additional resources you will find of use:Cari Eberthttps://www.cariebertseminars.com/https://open.spotify.com/episode/5vFSCXfIafaS9deosOjwME?si=10ea577dad7e4406Autism Society of Iowahttps://autismia.com/Autism Speakshttps://www.autismspeaks.org/Autism Society of Iowahttps://autismia.com/The Autism Program of Illinoishttps://tap-illinois.org/National Autism Associationhttps://nationalautismassociation.org/Connect with us! Let us know topics YOU want us to explore!Email: ipcc@sau.eduFacebook: facebook.com/SAUIPCC/Twitter: @sau_ipccWeb: www.sau.edu/institute-for-person-centered-careSt. Ambrose University is located in Davenport, Iowa, USA.

Join Sheila, Sara and Katie P. as we discuss outpatient pediatric physical therapy. Katie graduated from St. Ambrose University's DPT program in 2008 and immediately began working in outpatient pediatrics. She began guest lecturing at St. Ambrose in 2010 and is currently in a half time role as a core faculty member in the DPT program. She continues to work part time in the same outpatient clinic she has been at for 14 years! ______________ Need more help? Consider a Medbridge subscription. More content plus FOUR practice exams to get you ready for TEST DAY! Medbridge Affiliate website: https://www.medbridgeeducation.com/pushing-pediatrics Medbridge Affiliate Code: PUSHINGPEDS

INTERVIEWS IN THIS EDITION 1. Amy Bailes, PT PhD Director of Physical Therapy Research, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, OH “Inpatient Physical Therapy After Orthopedic Lower Extremity Surgery in Children With Cerebral Palsy” A new study in Pediatric Physical Therapy reveals the proportion of children with cerebral palsy having physical therapy during inpatient stay after their orthopedic lower extremity surgery. The value of such therapy to inpatient care is discussed by lead author Amy Bailes. 2. Rachel Bican, PT, DPT, PhD Assistant Professor, Division of Physical Therapy, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio “Comparison of Gross Motor Outcomes Between Children With Cerebral Palsy From Appalachian and Non-Appalachian Counties” Pediatric Physical Therapy researcher Rachel Bican talks about her investigation of cerebral palsy outcomes in the US Appalachian area compared to nearby non-Apalachian regions. 3. Nancy Lennon, PT DPT MS Department of Orthopedics, Division of Therapeutic and Rehabilitation Services, Nemours Children's Health, Wilmington, Delaware, USA “Factors Associated With Short-Term Recovery Following Single-Event Multilevel Surgery for Children With Cerebral Palsy.” Nancy Lennon talks about her group's research findings of the effect of physical therapy on the outcome of single event multilevel surgery performed to improve motor function in children with cerebral palsy. 4. Natalie Fairbairn, MPH/MHM, OT Grace Centre for Newborn Intensive Care, The Children's Hospital, Westmead, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. “Risk of Developmental Coordination Disorder in 8- and 9-Year-Olds Following Newborn Cardiac and Non–Cardiac Surgery” Natalie Fairbairn discusses the risks her group found of cardiac and non-cardiac surgery on newborn babies—in particular its effect on developmental co-ordination disorder. 5. James E Gehringer, PhD Research Assistant Professor Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska “Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Training in Virtual Reality: A Feasibility Study” James Gehringer explains how his group integrated virtual reality with Hand-Arm Bimanual Intensive Training (HABIT) for treating unilateral cerebral palsy. The research appeared to overcome some of the frequently encountered barriers to progress. 6. Johannes J Noordstar, PhD MSc, Assistant Professor, Center for Child Development, Exercise & Physical Literacy, Wilhelmina Children's Hospital, University Medical Centre, Utrecht University, Netherlands. “Is Measuring Physical Literacy in School-Aged Children With Cystic Fibrosis or Congenital Heart Disease Needed?” Physical therapy researcher Johannes Noordstar talks about his group's research on whether “physical literacy” should be assessed in school-age children with cystic fibrosis or congenital heart disease. 7. Helen Carey, PT DHSc PCS College of Health Sciences, University of Indianapolis, Indiana USA “Early Developmental Trends in High-Risk Neonates Later Diagnosed With Autism Spectrum Disorder” Helen Carey talks about her findings (published in Pediatric Physical Therapy) from a study of high-risk neonates showing how autism spectrum disorder can be detected very early in life.

We've all been there. You're at the park or on a playdate with your mom friends and their babes who are about the same age. You're trying not to - you really are - but you can't help but notice that your friend's baby is crawling or walking or doing something that your child is not yet doing. And they are the same age.You try not to panic. But the truth is, we've never done this before. We don't know what is considered “normal” and what isn't when it comes to so many things about our children, particularly their developmental milestones. I'm talking about things like rolling over, crawling, walking and other gross motor skills your pediatrician asks you about at every check up.Today, Dr. Brita DeStefano helps take the guesswork out of those developmental skills. Dr. DeStefano is board certified as a pediatric specialist and focuses her work primarily on babies between 0 and 2 years old where much of these developmental motor skills occur.We talk about lip ties and tongue ties as well, sleep positions, flat heads and helmets, and so much more.Get ready to feel empowered and to truly understand what's going on for your child in those very formative years so that you can work together to make this time enjoyable. Because it can be.For more information about Dr. DeStefano and her work, visit https://www.ptpdenver.com/ Follower Dr. DeStefano on InstagramFor full show notes, visit https://themomfeed.com/dr-brita-destefano-2/ Follow along on Instagram @themomfeedpodcast Sign up for our newsletter for weekly inspiration and advice on motherhood and beyond.Remember to subscribe to the show if you don't already! xoxo

1: Dana Tischler, PT, DPT, MS, PCS, Doctor of Physical Therapy Program, Rocky Mountain University of Health Professions, Provo, UT, USA “Quality of Life, Participation, and Individualized Support in a Community-Based Yoga Class: A Case Series” Physical therapy researchers in Utah have been trialling a ten-week yoga training class as therapy for children with impairments. In it, they assessed quality of life and participation with the help of doctor of physical therapy students who gave the children individualized support. 2: Noelle Moreau, PT PhD, Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center, New Orleans, LA, USA Safety and Feasibility of 1-Repetition Maximum (1-RM) Testing in Children and Adolescents With Bilateral Spastic Cerebral Palsy New insights about optimal use of the 1-Repetition Maximum (1-RM) test have emerged from a study among children with bilateral spastic cerebral palsy. 3: Pamela Tucker PT DPT, Upstate Medical University Hospital, Syracuse, New York, USA Effectiveness of Robotic-Assisted Gait Training and Aquatic Physical Therapy in a Child With Long-Chain 3-Hydroxyacyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency: A Case Report A case study of a child with the rare, variable condition Long-Chain 3-Hydroxyacyl-CoA Dehydrogenase Deficiency (L-CHAD) brings encouragement that practical management strategies can bring big benefits. 4: Kari S. Kretch PT, DPT, PhD, Division of Biokinesiology and Physical Therapy, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA Developmental Surveillance Milestone Checklist Updates: “Learn the Signs. Act Early”—Implications for Physical Therapists Physical therapist’s perspective on the Centers for Disease Control updated developmental assessment milestones. 5: Ramona ClarkeBExSci/BPhty, Griffith University, Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia International Delphi Recommendations for Pediatric Lower Limb Neurological Test Protocols for Muscle Strength, Reflexes, and Tactile Sensitivity An assessment of lower limb neurological testing in children, with recommendations on muscle strength, reflexes and tactile sensitivity. 6: Andrina Sabet PT ATP, Cleveland Clinic Children’s Hospital for Rehabilitation, Cleveland, Ohio, USA ON Time Mobility: Advocating for Mobility Equity And: Darrien Fann, Patient Self-Advocate, Cleveland OH, USA Equality in mobility—irrespective of physical impairment—is the focus of a new program of information and communication aimed at establishing mobility equity as a human right 7: Hércules Ribeiro Leite, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil Research on Children With Cerebral Palsy in Low- and Middle-Income Countries World Health Organisation data on cerebral palsy services in low- and middle-income countries (discussed at the recent 75th Annual Meeting of the American Academy for Cerebral Palsy and Developmental Medicine) identified big geographical disparities and key areas for improvement in access to good therapy and research. 8: Sudha Srinivasan PT PhD, Physical Therapy Program, Department of Kinesiology, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT, USA Feasibility of Using Joystick-Operated Ride-on-Toys to Promote Upper Extremity Function in Children With Cerebral Palsy: A Pilot Study While children who can’t walk can benefit from using a powered ride-on toy, those who have impairments not severe enough to prevent walking altogether can also benefit. This is according to a new study of powered mobility assistance among children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy using a mobility toy controlled by a single joystick. 9: Sofie Meijer MSc HU University of Applied Sciences, Master of Pediatric Physical Therapy program, Utrecht, the Netherlands Reliability of Using a Smartphone Application to Objectify Skull Deformation Research using a smartphone app called: the Skully Care App shows that smartphones can be used to quantify infant skull deformation. 10: Carole A Tucker, PT, PhD, Associate Dean of Research, Chair of Physical Therapy, University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX, USA Enhancing the Content Validity of Self-Reported Physical Activity Self-Efficacy in Adolescents: A Qualitative Study A study of self-efficacy in adolescents reports that measures to increase self-confidence among youngsters can help them achieve physical therapy goals.

In this episode, Physical Therapist and Advocate Dr. Mercedes Aguirre Valenzuela, PT, DPT, talks about advocacy in physical therapy. Today, Dr Valenzuela talks about the different types of advocacy and the latest updates in advocacy. How is grassroots advocacy different than lobbying? Hear about APTA advocacy, making a difference as one person, and get Mercedes' advice to her younger self, all on today's episode of The Healthy, Wealthy & Smart Podcast.   Key Takeaways Three types of advocacy: Self-advocacy. Advocating for yourself. Individual advocacy. Advocating for someone else. Systems advocacy. Advocating for changing policies, laws, and rules. “You don't have to be a member of a certain group in order to send an email or make a phone call.” “Don't feel like you have to start on your own.” “You can really make a difference, even as one person.” “Get used to making mistakes, not being perfect. It's all part of learning.”   More about Dr. Mercedes Aguirre Valenzuela Dr. Aguirre Valenzuela received her Doctorate in Physical Therapy from Rutgers School of Health Professions in 2020. Her dedication to professional advocacy has led her to leadership roles in the APTA on a National and State level. She was selected to serve as an APTA Board-sponsored Centennial Scholar and worked on the APTA “PT Moves Me” national campaign. In 2022, she began her term in the public policy and advocacy committee (PPAC) and CSM Steering Group. Within the Academy of Pediatric Physical Therapy, she is an active member and was elected to be in the Nominating Committee. In the state of New Jersey, she is an APTA Delegate as well as a Key Contact in her district. Clinically, she currently works in the early-intervention and school-based settings. Outside of the clinic setting, she uses social media to educate PTs/PTAs/students on how to advocate for their profession and encourage them to run for office.   Suggested Keywords Healthy, Wealthy, Smart, Physiotherapy, Advocacy, Lobbying, Legislation, APTA, Representatives, Interventions,   Resources Our Experiences Matter When it Comes To Advocacy APTA Patient Action Center   To learn more, follow Dr. Valenzuela at: LinkedIn:         Mercedes Aguirre Valenzuela Instagram:       @theptadvocate   Subscribe to Healthy, Wealthy & Smart: Website:                      https://podcast.healthywealthysmart.com Apple Podcasts:          https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/healthy-wealthy-smart/id532717264 Spotify:                        https://open.spotify.com/show/6ELmKwE4mSZXBB8TiQvp73 SoundCloud:               https://soundcloud.com/healthywealthysmart Stitcher:                       https://www.stitcher.com/show/healthy-wealthy-smart iHeart Radio:               https://www.iheart.com/podcast/263-healthy-wealthy-smart-27628927   Read the Full Transcript Here: 00:00 Hi, Mercedes, welcome to the podcast, I am happy to have you on and to see you again.   00:06 Nice to be here. Thank you for having me. Yes. And today we're gonna be talking about advocacy, which, in physical therapy, which I have spoken about with a lot of different people over the years. And I think it's great to get different perspectives on advocacy, especially from younger therapists, because I think it's great that you guys get involved. So my first question to you is, how did you get involved into an advocacy work for the profession? And why is it important to you?   00:37 So I graduated in 2020.   00:43 I was very even before I started PT, school, I was very into politics, legislation and public policy.   00:53 And then once I went into PT, school, I never learned about what the abt does in terms of advocacy, I felt like he kind of mesh, kind of like the two things that are really impassionate about and enjoy. And so I became more involved as a student. And then once I graduated, I wanted to create   01:16 content that was related to advocacy and explained in a very simple way. What are like the current updates going on right now? Because I feel like legislation, can we, it can be a bit intimidating for people to understand and to really get into. And I wanted to show people, what are the updates without all these extra details that they don't really want.   01:46 And that's what I've been doing thus far. And it's been really a great learning experience. When we talk about advocacy, I think that there are a couple of different types of advocacy. So could you go into a little bit more detail on the different types of advocacy, especially in the PT world?   02:09 Yeah, you're correct. So there are several definitions of advocacy.   02:16 I can just give you three of them. So number one, is self advocacy. So advocating for yourself, for example, you're advocating for a pay raise or a change in work conditions. There's individual advocacy, so advocating for someone else, for example, sending out a letter to your patient's insurance company in order to get more PT visits. Then there is systems advocacy, which is my personal favorite. And it's about changing policies, laws, rules, and how they can impact multiple people's lives. And that is more targeted at a local state or even national level.   03:05 And when you're talking about systems advocacy, is that when you know we as physical therapists, ourselves, and maybe encourage our patients to send a letter to CMS or send a letter to your Senator, advocating for whether it be you know, the stock, the Medicare cap, that was a number of years ago, things like that.   03:26 Yes. So what are you are describing right now is a grassroots movements.   03:34 So, grassroots movement is similar to how the way grass grows from the bottom up. So we are the grassroots advocates, we are at the bottom we are what legislators call constituents meeting, someone who can vote.   03:53 And we advocate for things that affect the top so the top is like policy, law, etc.   04:03 And the APTA has grassroots movements. For example, as I mentioned before with CMS, it was the hashtag fight the cut movement, which was one of them. And there are examples of different types of movements in grassroots, such as me to or love wins, black lives matter. So that's kind of how grassroots advocacy works. How is that different than lobbying? So how does that work if you can compare and contrast the two?   04:35 Sure. Let me explain what a lobbyists first perfect, though a good start. So a lobbyist is someone whose job is to build relationships and network with legislators and their staff. And that lobbyists represents an Oregon   05:00 datian So the APTA hires lobbyists. And their job is to advocate for us, they don't have to be physical therapists themselves. But we can also do the acts of lobbying, such as making phone calls to a legislator, sending emails, even having meetings.   05:24 But it's not like our job because you know, we have our own stuff to do.   05:30 Right, exactly, exactly. So you can be part of a grassroots advocacy effort, and then kind of take that into the act of lobbying not as a professional lobbyists, like you said, but like, for example, when a PTA and I know the private practice section will do this, will have groups of physical therapists go to meet with their lawmakers from their state on Capitol Hill, and also individual states will have lobby day within the state. Yes, correct.   06:08 And you don't have to be a member of a certain group and whatnot, in order to send an email write a phone call is really what you want to see change personally, or even like a small group of people don't ever feel like you have to like be a part of something big. Like, it's about what you are passionate and care about. Right. So if you're not part of the APTA you can still lobby on behalf of patients. Is that correct? Yes, I wouldn't call it necessary lobbying, but like advocating, advocating, like, you can still send a phone call, Hey, I had this patient experience and I want you to know about this and be aware about this. There's going to be a one this change in my practice, ag whatever like your state is advocating for you can still do that without being a member. Right. And how do we know as physical therapists? What is on legislative agendas, let's say for the APTA Is there a tool we can use to find out what's going on? Yes. So the APTA has an advocacy network, and you can join, it sends a newsletter,   07:29 every month, every couple of months, you can also visit that abt patient Action Center, which they have pre written emails that you can send out to your legislators, and you don't have to be a member in order to do those things. Great. So the APTA patient Action Center, and there's an app for that, right? Yes, there is a PT,   07:57 advocacy app that you can use, and you can also go on your browser as well. Right, right. So I think the big takeaways from there is there, there is an app for that.   08:10 Or, or you can go online, and you can find sort of pre written letters and things that you can send off to your senators or your congress people, whether that be at the federal or the state level. And you don't have to be an APTA member in order to have access to that. Yes, perfect, perfect. Okay, what are our current advocacy updates? What's on the table? What's on the line? What do we need to know? So for the last couple of Congresses,   08:47 there has been a bill that has been introduced called the Allied workforce diversity Act, which helps in recruiting a more diverse allied health workforce, as well as retaining those students and   09:07 just increasing the graduation rate as well, because sometimes you get these students in these programs, but they don't graduate. So that's the goal of that bill. It has not passed in the last couple of Congresses, but it was that bill was merged. Like the right the wording of it was merged into a pandemic bill, which has a high very high probability of passing. So that has been great news. That bill is called the prevent pandemics act.   09:43 And it's just to modernize the country's pandemic response, and they felt that workforce diversity was really important in it. So that's   09:56 that that's pretty huge since it was, has been a battle   10:00 To get this bill to pass for the last couple of Congresses, another one, if you're in pediatrics going to try to diversify these updates.   10:11 So there is a bill called the specialized instructional support personal services act.   10:21 You can also find it as a gross gross CIPS Act, as well, they call it hr 7219.   10:30 So this bill is going to create grant program, a Department of Education to increase partnerships between school districts and colleges to train specialized instruction support personnel. So PTS are included as that type of personnel, as well as PTAs. And they, and this is great, because, um, I was I worked at a school based physical therapist, and there is such a need for more therapists, so I could understand why they wanted to kind of increase, have more of a network between programs and school districts in order to retain the therapists.   11:17 Especially I,   11:21 you know, I saw, we're going to school way therapists, but like, I just always get emails all the time, like, we need therapists, we need therapists. And, you know, there's some kids that like I can't even see, even in the same school. So   11:34 very important for you school, PTs and PTAs. Out there, there is also a pelvic health bill that has been introduced. So moving on to pelvic health, the purpose of this bill is to educate and train health professionals on the benefits of pelvic floor physical therapy.   12:00 I think that's such a huge thing for pelvic health therapists is just a lot of people that don't know what it is. And you know, patients that go to their physicians for answers, they don't provide them the enough guidance, because they don't know that that help is out there.   12:20 So they'll be great. And the bill will also help to educate postpartum women on the importance of pelvic floor examinations and physical therapy.   12:33 And what it is and how to obtain a pelvic physical therapy examination, which would help increase access. And this bill was actually worked by representatives from a BT pelvic health, which is pretty amazing that, you know, Pts helped in creating this bill.   12:57 Yeah, and that was introduced into the house already are in committee. It was introduced, like into the house. Yep. Fabulous. Yeah. Anything else on the legislative docket? I can talk about a federal agency. Yeah, go for it. Update from the NIH. Okay. So the ABA is part of the disability rehab research coalition. And they some, which is occupational therapists are part of it, a lot of associations are a part of it. And they submitted a comment to the NIH requesting them to consider designating people with disabilities as a health disparity population, which I didn't think that they weren't. So I was really surprised by that. And this is just so important, because for the purposes of federal research, for this minority group, and it will develop and inform critical policy solutions to reduce and eliminate health disparities for people with disabilities. So I don't know the current update, but it is great that it is being brought up at this time. Perfect. All right, so we've got allied workforce diversity act. We've got the HR hr 7219, which was for school based PTS, and that was a really, really long   14:29 name for that bill. Yeah. And then we've got the pelvic health bill. So all those those three bills plus an update from the NIH. And if people go to the advocacy APTA PT Action Center, they should be able to find more information on that on those bills and how to contact their Congress person, correct?   14:56 Yes, perfect. So   14:59 in turn   15:00 terms of like federal agencies, if you're talking about the CDC, NIH, that's not necessarily something you just send an email to.   15:09 But for other legislations, yes, you can find pre written emails in regards to that. Excellent. All right. Well, that is a great overview of where we are right now. And current current advocacy updates. Thank you so much. Now, next question. What advice do you have for students and younger physical therapists, new career physical therapists who might want to get into advocacy? But maybe they feel like, Oh, I just don't know enough? Or I'm too new. What do you say to that?   15:43 Well, I will say contact me because I love   15:48 going to students sake meetings at different states and talking about advocacy, I have been to a few SEC meeting, so contact me and I will gladly, you know, present and help you guys out in any way possible. But also, when I was a student, I was really interested in to advocacy. And there wasn't much going on around in my program student lead wise. So I contacted my trusted professor, which is someone that I looked at as a mentor, and they really helped and guided me. So don't feel like going to have to start on your own, you know, find a professor that you trust and you feel is kind of already involved in advocacy in some level.   16:37 And they will help you out as well. Perfect. And who was that professor for you? Let's give them a shout out. It was Dr. Mike Rella. Ah,   16:48 yes, yeah. She just retired, right? Yes, he did. Yeah, that's a loss for sure. Yeah. But yeah, she really helped me out a lot. Oh, amazing. Yeah, she's a nice, she's a nice lady, for sure. Well, it's great that you had that professor to help guide you. And I think that's great advice for students and, and new graduates is reach out to those professors, because they, they can really help to guide you through advocacy, and through a whole bunch of other things as well. And they can also follow you on social media. Right. So what is your what is your social media handle? And where can people find you? At the PT advocate? Perfect, and that's on on Instagram? Perfect. That's the gram. Just the gram for now. That is great. And is that the best way for people to reach out to you they can just slide into your DM. Vic about advocacy only please?   17:48 Yes, or piece, you know, yeah, yeah, or pediatric care. Perfect. Perfect. All right. So what do you want people to take away from this conversation? If you can kind of distill it down to a couple of points? What would that be? I know, sometimes we can feel that we're just one person, one change can we make? And I know I feel that way. Sometimes too. Even though I have this advocacy, Instagram, sometimes I'm just like, all the stuff that's going on in the world's I walk in Mercedes do what can I even do about this, but you can really make a difference even as one person, that phone call that email that you send, even just reading about it and being aware and talking to colleagues about it or your patients about it, increasing a word that awareness of that can still be great and can still make a change. Don't feel like you are alone. There's a whole Association backing you up in this, and it's all for, you know, to progress our profession. So don't feel alone. And don't feel that like you can't not make a change because you can and your voice is really important. I love it. And last question, it's when I ask everyone, knowing where you are now in your life and your career. What advice would you give to your younger self? I would say get used to making mistakes not being perfect.   19:21 Because when I was a student everytime made a mistake, I was like, oh proceeds How could you do that? That's horrible scar for life. And as a new grad, I make a mistake every other day, every day. So just get used to it saltwater learning. Yeah, and I can say as someone who's been out for over 20 years, I make mistakes every day, too. Yeah. So it's never it's never ending we'll have mistakes and that's okay. Because like you said, you'll constantly learn from them. Thank you so much, Mercedes, for coming on and talking about advocacy. I love your passion. And I think it's great to see new graduates out there and making a difference. So thank you for that. And thank you for coming on. Thank you   20:00 for having me. My pleasure, everyone. Thanks so much for tuning in. Have a great couple of days and stay healthy, wealthy and smart.   20:13 Thanks for listening. And don't forget to leave us your questions and comments at podcast dot healthy, wealthy smart.com

Pediatric Physical Therapy is a vital aspect to child development.

Join us as we chat with Pediatric Physical Therapist Nicole Crippen Schremp, PT, DPT, PCS She is currently working with Children's Hospital here in CO To learn more about pediatric developmental milestones check out Pathways: https://pathways.org/all-ages/milestones/ CDC Guidelines: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/index.html Connect With Nicole: nicole.c.schrempdpt@gmail.com Connect With Dr. Antonio and the Live LOUD team: hello@liveloudlife.com Subscribe Live Loud YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/LiveLoud Visit the Live Loud website: http://www.lifeloudlife.com Like Live Loud Facebook page: https://web.facebook.com/liveloudchir... Follow Live Loud on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/live.loud.l... Address: Live Loud Chiropractic and Coaching Top Chiropractor and Physical Therapy in Lafayette Colorado Serving Boulder County Boulder, Longmont, Louisville, Erie, Broomfield, and Arvada Colorado

Show NotesOn today's podcast, I chat with Abbie Ogilbee, a pediatric physical therapist about what pt can look like from both the therapist and parent perspectives.I loved hearing Abbie's balanced perspective on pediatric physical therapy. Hopefully you learned as much as I did from this episode. My top takeaway:You know, your child best and pediatric PT can be that little boost your child needs in their development, but isn't an indicator of how you're doing as a parent. Don't wait if you're seeing things you're concerned about - but instead, trust your gut and find a qualified professionalAlaska Early Intervention: https://mydou.la/AK-early-interventionIf you want to learn more about the federal early intervention programs: https://mydou.la/early-interventionFinding a certified pediatric PT through APTA: https://mydou.la/find-a-PTJust a reminder that what you hear on this podcast is not medical advice. Please remember to always do your own research and talk to your provider before making important decisions about your healthcare. Thanks for listening and sharing!

Creator: Pediatric Physical Therapy Volume 34 Issue 2Duration: 56:10secs INTERVIEWS IN THIS EDITION: Ketaki Inamdar MPT, Department of Physical Therapy, Rehabilitation and Movement Science Program, Motor Development Lab, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA. Effect of Contingency Paradigm–Based Interventions on Developmental Outcomes in Young Infants: A Systematic Review The purpose of this systematic review was to identify controlled trials evaluating the efficacy of contingency paradigm-based interventions to improve feeding, motor, or cognitive outcomes during the first year of life. QUOTE: “There are these really interesting, low cost and practical interventions out there” CO-AUTHORS: Sonia Khurana and Stacey C. Dusing          Mary E. Gannotti, PT PhD, Professor, Dept of Rehabilitation Services, University of Hartford, W Hartford, CT, Research Scientist, Shriners Hospital, Springfield, MA Characteristics of Interventions to Improve Bone Health in Children with Cerebral Palsy: A Systematic Review A systematic review evaluated exercise parameters and ages that produced the most improvement in bone among individuals with cerebral palsy ages 3 to 21 years.  QUOTE: Let’s not under-estimate the importance of the skeleton” CO-AUTHORS: Brianna Liquori, Deborah E. Thorpe and Robyn K. Fuchs Laura K Bess PT DPT PCS, Physical Therapist, Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, St Petersburg, Florida Prevalence of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease in Infants With Congenital Muscular Torticollis: A Prospective Cohort Study The purpose of this study is to prospectively determine the prevalence of gastroesophageal reflux disease in infants with congenital muscular torticollis and to compare the demographic and clinical characteristics between infants with and without gastroesophageal reflux disease. QUOTE: ”Do we need to treat the GERD early?” CO-AUTHORS: Jessica Costa, Anh Thy H. Nguygen, Ernest Amankwah and Michael J. Wilsey Marietta van der Linden PhD, Centre for Health, Activity and Rehabilitation Research, Queen Margaret University Edinburgh, Scotland Leisure Time Physical Activity in Children and Young People With Cerebral Palsy: a Population-Based Study This study describes leisure time physical activity for children and young people with cerebral palsy and identifies barriers and facilitators to participation. QUOTE: ”These people who were not able to walk can actually run around the track” CO-AUTHORS: Sarah J. Wordie, Bethany K. Dufton , Kavi C. Jagadamma, Cathleen Hunter, Thomas H. Mercer, Mark S. Gaston and James E. Robb Sara K Arena PT DSc PT, Associate Professor, Physical Therapy Program, School of Health Sciences, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan Doctor of Physical Therapy Students’ Perceptions of Engagement in Service Learning With Scouts: A Descriptive Study This study describes Doctor of Physical Therapy Students’ perceptions following their engagement in a health promotion and wellness service-learning event with adolescent boy scouts. QUOTE: ”Service learning experiences are a wonderful way to engage our students” CO-AUTHORS: Samantha, Austin Lewis and Erica Matero Anjana Bhat, MS, PT, PhD, Dept of Physical Therapy, University of Delaware, Newark DE Using Telehealth to Conduct Family-Centered Movement Intervention Research in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder During the COVID-19 Pandemic This describes a home-based, telehealth format for intervention delivery to support children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and their families. QUOTE: “We shouldn’t think that face-to-face interventions are the only way to do things” CO-AUTHORS: Corina Cleffi, Wan-Chun Su, Sudha Srinivasan Natasha Benn MPT BSc, School of Physical Therapy, Western University, London ON, Canada Chronicling Research and Practice Evolution in Pediatric Physical Therapy This article describes the research and practice trends in the journal, Pediatric Physical Therapy, as a proxy for the field. QUOTE: “We saw—very much—an increase in active based therapies, also an increase in the rigor of the scientific studies”  CO-AUTHORS: Elizabeth Birchard, Evelyn Korompai, Maryam Davari, Vaidehi Patel and Laura K Brunton Marina Ferre-Fernández PT, OT, PhD, Facultad de Ciencias de Salud, Universidad Católica de Murcia, Murcia, Spain Intra- and Interrater Reliability of the Spanish Version of the Gross Motor Function Measure This study assesses intra- and inter-rater reliability of the Spanish version of the 88-item Gross Motor Function Measure and its correlation to age and severity of children with cerebral palsy. QUOTE: “Before using an outcome measure in a different country from which it is developed:  perform a cross-cultural adaptation study.” CO-AUTHORS: M Antonia Murcia-González and José Ríos-Díaz

In this episode of Food, Freedom and Fertility we are having a special episode to focus on Plagiocephaly and Torticollis with Dr. Brittany McGeary. Brittany is a pediatric physical therapist who specializes in torticollis, plagiocephaly, and developmental delay. She owns Grow Physical Therapy, a mobile pediatric practice whose purpose is to spread awareness about torticollis and plagiocephaly and advocate for early referral and intervention. Early referral is essential in order to prevent a helmet as well as gross motor delays. Brittany provides treatment in patient's homes and offers virtual consultations. Her passion is to empower parents through education and treatment to allow your little one to flourish.   This episode came to fruition because one of our hosts, Caitlin Johnson had noticed her 3rd baby moved his head with preferences and would not turn to the left. Caitlin shares the signs she experienced and how she advocated for her baby and learned about his diagnosis of plagiocephaly and torticollis.     Torticollis is a condition caused by tightened or shortened neck muscles. The typical presentation is a head tilt to one side and a rotation. Dr. Brittany helps listeners understand exactly what is torticollis and where it happens. She shares a few initial signs such as baby not looking in one direction or never wanting to to turn their head to one side. She also discusses explains what Plagiocephaly is and that typically Plagiocephaly and Torticollis present together 90% of the time.   Dr. Brittany walks listeners through potential risk factors that could heighten the risk of Plagiocephaly and Torticollis with container use (swings, doc a tots, and other such items), the fetal risk factor increases with a first born, multiples birth and  longer babies due to the positioning of the baby in utero. Also, the use of forceps or suction devices can up the risk of developing the conditions.     It is very important to address it Plagiocephaly and Torticollis immediately. There are important windows that can change the treatment plan. Babies can start screening for these conditions as early as 2 days. If the conditions are not treated there are cosmetic features that could develop but also run over into gross motor milestones. Dr. Brittany dives deeper into what that could look like. Remember to keep and out for equal and symmetrical movement, particularly neck and head and also take notice if you baby seems fussier when they face a certain direction.   Treatment can assist with both conditions and Dr. Brittany's helps listeners know the timeline that would best optimize the likely hood the baby could gain normal range of motion the treatment can range between physical therapy such as stretching and strengthen. Also, assistance in your home for environmental adaption:  crib placement, position during sleeping purposeful play ideas.   If you are not in the Kansas City area are looking for an in-person Doctor such as Brittany you will want to search for a PT that is a pediatric physical therapist but do note that you can successfully work virtually as well. If you would like more information on Dr. Brittany McGeary, PT, DPT be sure to check her out via the links below. As always remember to advocate for you and your baby and trust your mom intuition.   IG: Grow Physical Therapy FB: Grow Physical Therapy www.growphysicaltherapy.com

On this episode of the Sultans of Soil we talk with Justin Pettit, co-owner and operator of Santa Carota Beef. The Pettit Family have been raising and producing extraordinary full-flavor beef for over 30 years. They had the inspiration to start feeding their cattle carrots back in 1989. The cattle are grass fed and carrot finished. They graze the rolling, lower foothills of Breckenridge Mountain, east of Bakersfield, California and enjoy a 95% carrot based diet. additionally, the Santa Carota Beef is gluten free, hormone free and never fed additional antibiotics.  Justin talks about how he has grown the business over the past five years, and how he survived the pandemic as restaurants had to close their doors and had loads of beef to give away. Talk about a family that doesn't give up! When faced with an obstacle they see an opportunity. Their youngest daughter was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy and while navigating through therapy and a pandemic the Pettits opened a Pediatric Physical Therapy office right here in Bakersfield, California called LEAP Physical Therapy.  Listen to this episode to hear the full story, but this is one of the leading sought after pediatric physical therapy centers in the United States.  Find more information on Santa Carota Beef at https://santacarota.com/ Find more information on LEAP Physical Therapy at https://www.leappedtherapy.com/ Find more information on Walking with Cora at https://www.leappedtherapy.com/ (A non-profit which focuses on giving back to families affected with cerebral palsy and other genetic disorders)

Welcome to the first LIVE podcast broadcasted from the Guidepost Pediatric HQ!  In today's episode, you'll hear from a local pediatric PT, Katy, who shares:  What pediatric physical therapy is  How physical therapy can help  Fun PT ideas to do at home  Enjoy today's show!  Contact guidepost pediatrics: www.guidepostpediatrics.com 

Join us for a great discussion with Stephen Magee from PT Solutions. We discuss a variety of treatments and therapies - from PT to Dry Needles, their impact and the numerous types of injuries and ailments they can treat - from spine, back, ankle to migraines, and more! Show Links Learn more about the Brighton Chamber by visiting our website. Guest Links PT Solutions Physical Therapy Physical Therapy, Cardiac Rehabilitation, Concussion Rehabilitation, Dry Needling, Golf Screening, Hand & Wrist Therapy, Manual Therapy Movement DisorderRehabilitation, Neurological Rehabilitation, Orthopedic and Sports Injuries, Pediatric Physical Therapy, Performance Enhancement Post-Operative Rehabilitation, Running Analysis, Stroke Rehabilitation, Temporal Mandibular Disorder – TMJVestibular, TherapyWorkers' Compensation  Website: https://ptsolutions.com/clinics/brighton/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/stephen-magee-pt-dpt-ocs-85a16784/  Sponsors This podcast is sponsored by Cabinets Express. They are Brighton's local source for quick, easy, and affordable cabinetry. Stop by during their grand opening from August 16 through the 31st for a chance to win free kitchen cabinets and countertops, a $7,000 value! For every order placed over $2,500 during the grand opening, Cabinets Express will donate $100 to Habitat for Humanity of Livingston County.  Visit their website: https://cabinets-express.com