“Rest & Digest”

The calm side of the nervous system

 

Video Transcript:

 

Hey mums, so I’ve been doing some tai chi in the mornings and some qigong because we’re in lockdown. I’ve got plenty of time, and it reminded me to get this video across to you that all things are relaxing. 

 

So, yoga, tai chi, qigong, deep breathing, meditation, relaxing, they’re relaxing, and they stimulate the side of our nervous system that puts us into a relaxation state, and that’s called the parasympathetic side. The other side, the stress side, is the fight-or-flight side. 

 

That’s the sympathetic side of the nervous system. So, you’ve got the sympathetic side that’s fight-or-flight; the parasympathetic side. 

 

Now listen to what this is known as the rest and digest side of your nervous system. Rest and digest what are the two things that we would love your baby to be doing if they’re colicky or windy or refluxy?

 

We would love them to be resting and being calm, and we’d love them to be digesting their milk properly. So, as I was sitting there doing this bit of meditation and things i thought, rest and digest. 

 

This is what we want all babies you want to put them into the rest and digest state, so if your baby’s kicking off and screaming and going crazy, you will know that at that point it’s super, super difficult.  

 

But can you put them into that when they’re not kicking off and crying so much? So, can you when they’re quite relaxed. 

 

Anyway, can you kind of influence them more into that? And this rest or digest for adults so is tai chi, deep breathing, and things, so what can we do for a baby?

 

We know from the research and the videos and everything in the course that you can pass as the mum, you can pass your parasympathetic state your rest and digest to your baby. You can influence your baby so, if you’re in a rest and digest state you can influence your baby into that.

 

Tai chi, yoga, deep breathing, relaxation, meditation, sitting down and resting, and taking some time out. In the evening though it’s dim lights, it’s not your phone and the TV and music. 

 

You know, as the night comes in, it’s not livening things up. It’s going naturally with calming them down. So, those things can directly influence the baby. 

 

They’re influenced by you, your mood changes, the baby picks up on that. Your hormones change and then you can pass those via breast milk. 

 

The melatonin which helps the baby sleep that goes across to the breast milk to your baby in the evening as well. So, you want to do all of these things to calm your baby. 

 

If your baby had a traumatic delivery, you will know that that has put them in the sympathetic side of the system. The sympathetic side is opposite to rest and digest. 

 

It’s not good for digestion so that stimulating side like you would know eating whilst walking, eating whilst running, eating whilst stressed. 

 

We don’t get on with that our matured digestive system doesn’t do with digesting food whilst buzzy on the go, and stressed, so why would your babies? 

 

So, if you’ve had maybe a traumatic delivery forceps, ventouse, very very long.  Your baby might be in that sympathetic system state where they’re not digesting and not resting so well. 

 

So, you’ve got to bring them from there to there. That’s the secret and that’s what a bit hard during this lockdown that we’re in because you could have some treatment to help them. 

 

But, baby massage or things that you can do skin-to-skin, the deep breathing whilst skin-to-skin allowing them to smell you which is relaxing, so that’s what I wanted to get across. That if your baby’s in that sympathetic, buzzy, wild state, as you calm them down, the digestion and things get better because it’s not so good because they’re in that stressed state. 

 

So, you might be, if you’re thinking: ” Oh they’re crying and they’re not sleeping and they’ve got colic.” you think of these three things as well.

 

If you can calm them down quite often all of these other things, and just slot into place as well. So, I hope there’s a bit better understanding of rest and digest.

 

So, parasympathetic and the stressy sympathetic side, and you want to bring them. Obviously, over to the rest and digest and there’s lots of ways to do that, and that’s in.  

 

Just check out my other videos, the blogs, the course, and there’s countless tips on how to do that, okay. Thanks.