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Want to unlock your baby’s full brain potential from day one?

Heather Mrak has spent over a decade using cutting-edge brain training techniques to help children maximize their learning potential. But even after seeing incredible transformations in kids of all ages (including her 10-year-old son), she realized something powerful — the best time to start is from birth.

In this eye-opening episode, she’s sharing simple, science-backed strategies that parents can use to help their baby build strong cognitive foundations, reach key milestones with ease, and thrive in all their future learning.

Press play to discover: the powerful brain training techniques that can set your baby up for success, how simple daily movements can supercharge cognitive growth, the surprising impact of everyday movement on learning, the dramatic differences between children who start brain training from birth and those who don’t, the biggest developmental roadblocks kids encounter (and how to prevent them), and the truth about playpens, bouncers, and swaddling.

So if you want to give your child the strongest possible foundation for their learning, development and brain power, then press play now — this fascinating episode is for you!

About Heather Mrak

Heather Mrak is an expert in brain training with over a decade of experience helping children unlock their full learning potential. Trained in Neurodevelopmental Movement Foundations (based on the work of Dr. Mastagova and Dr. Harold Blomberg), Dr. Melillo’s Brain Balance techniques, and Brain Gym® 101, she has worked extensively with children to enhance cognitive development through cutting-edge techniques.

After witnessing remarkable transformations in the children she worked with, Heather realized that the best time to start brain training is from birth. Now, she teaches pregnant moms and parents of newborns how to stimulate their baby’s brain from day one, giving them the strongest possible foundation for future learning. Through her online course, she shares the science behind early brain development and provides parents with simple, actionable techniques to support their child’s cognitive growth from the very first week of life.

In this episode we chat about:

• The surprising personal story of how she became an expert in neurodevelopment (2:36)
• The most powerful brain training techniques and why earlier is always better (5:25)
• Hidden factors that slow learning and reflex development (and how to fix them) (8:54)
• Are playpens and bouncers helping or hurting your baby’s development? (11:00)
• Why baby milestones matter more than you think (and what they reveal about your child’s brain) (14:41)
• What to do if your baby struggles to crawl (and why this stage is crucial) (16:40)
• How to identify reflex issues — and the simple fixes every parent needs to know (17:17)
• The surprising link between dyslexia and reflex integration (18:03)
• The truth about swaddling — is it really essential? (19:43)
• The brain-boosting techniques that set babies up for lifelong success (23:37)
• Simple daily habits that can supercharge your baby’s brain (25:39)
• The dramatic differences between brain-trained babies and those who aren’t (28:11)
• Why skin-to-skin contact in the first weeks is so powerful (31:03)

Episode resources:

• SheLaunch (join here)
• Mastering Your Mean Girl by Melissa Ambrosini (book)
• Open Wide by Melissa Ambrosini (book)
• Comparisonitis by Melissa Ambrosini (book)
• Time Magic by Melissa Ambrosini and Nick Broadhurst (book)
• Heather Mrak (Instagram) 
• Baby’s Best Brain (website)
• The Baby Moves Method (course)
• Treating ADHD, Autism & Neurological Conditions in Kids & Adults with Dr. Robert Melillo (podcast)

Prefer To Read?

The following transcript has been automatically generated and not checked for accuracy.

Melissa: [00:00:00] Welcome to the Melissa Ambrosini show. I’m your host, Melissa, best selling author of Mastering Your Mean Girl, Open Wide, Comparisonitis, and Time Magic. And I’m here to remind you that love is sexy, healthy is liberating, and wealthy isn’t a dirty word. Each week I’ll be getting up close and personal with thought leaders from around the globe, as well as your weekly dose of motivation so that you can create epic change in your own life.

Hey beautiful, welcome back to the show. I’m so excited about this episode because I love all things babies and anything that is going to help my children, I am all in on. Now, I first came across Heather on Instagram where she was talking about how to make your baby smarter. Now, her story is pretty remarkable.

After [00:01:00] brain training children with cutting edge techniques and watching them transform their learning abilities, she knew that she had to teach this to pregnant moms and parents with babies so that they could be prepared to help their baby grow to be as smart as they possibly could be. Now, she has over 10 years of experience using cutting edge brain training techniques for children and she is trained in neurodevelopmental movement foundations and Dr.

Melillo’s brain balance techniques and Brain Gym 101. And you guys might remember Dr. Melillo has been on the podcast. I will link to that episode in the show notes for you. Now, she teaches parents how to stimulate their baby’s brain from the very beginning. The first week of birth, even, and she has an online course to teach the science behind this and how to show parents exactly how to do it.

And I have been inside her program and it is amazing. There’s so many incredible things that we can do to support our babies. Now, for everything that we mentioned in today’s [00:02:00] episode, you can check out in the show notes and that’s over at melissaambrosini. com forward slash Heather. Now without further ado, let’s dive in.

Heather, welcome to the show. I’m so excited to have you here. But before we dive in, can you tell us what you had for breakfast this morning? 

Heather: I had one scrambled egg and two pieces of bacon with coffee and cream. And whereabouts are you in the world? I’m in Canada, so I’m in Vancouver, BC. 

Melissa: Wow. Well, thank you for joining us.

Mm hmm. Thank you so much. I would love to hear your story. Like how did you get into this work? How did this all unfold for you? 

Heather: Mm hmm. That’s a good question. It had, it started a long time ago when my kids were quite young. They’re all young adults now. My oldest is 28 to my youngest are 21. So I homeschooled.

I’ve always had a passion for how kids learn. I don’t know where that came from. My dad was a teacher. [00:03:00] Who knows? And so, when one of my first sons struggled to read in an extreme way, maybe struggle probably isn’t enough, dyslexic, I just knew I had to find solutions. I was determined because it was always drilled into my head that the last thing you want as a child is to feel stupid in school.

And, of course, my son was so bright. This was crazy. How could he be struggling to read? It did not make sense to me. So I had to go on a mission, and back then the internet wasn’t very good. But I went on this mission. I found literally brain changing kind of therapy, I guess you would say. That opened his brain to allow him to learn.

How old was your son? So this was between the, you would start learning around age six, but still at age nine, he hadn’t taken off and the struggle there and the hate for it was there. And yet he was such a verbal child and so almost gifted with, you know, his people skills, which anyways, you know how that goes.

So it led me down this path of learning about [00:04:00] brain changing therapy slash activities, whatever ever you want to call it. That aren’t mainstream, but that can allow, that can make a brain change and allow the child to learn. Now of course you’re probably familiar with a lot of brain training kind of things anyways because the world has changed a lot now compared to then.

And so I went on a mission to do that and it worked and in three months. You know, it takes 12 weeks to make a brain change. In three months, he took off reading as he should, and that was great. And then, and then it happened again with my daughter, and they were so unique. I just, from one another, I did not expect that.

But anyway, so again, I, I always had that in my back pocket, but in that time, I had read a book called The Gift of Dyslexia. And so that’s a whole nother technique and written by a genius and anyways, that helped her in three months. She took off reading, but, and after that I was just even more passionate than ever because like you, I know you have a passion for opening and encouraging [00:05:00] women into their full potential.

I feel like that with kids. I’ve always felt that with my own or any child. And so to know that this existed, I just could talk for hours about it. And so I, I, I met up with a teacher, it was also her passion, and we became colleagues. And we both got different kinds of training for these cutting edge techniques and we started to work with kids.

So that’s where I kind of started. 

Melissa: Wonderful. I love it. So, can you explain to us some of the key brain training techniques that you teach and why starting as early as birth can be so beneficial? I know most people listening, we want to be the best parents that we can be. We want to give our children everything.

We want to set them up for success. When I had my daughter, she’s now three and a half and I’m pregnant with my second. I remember like going, should I be playing baby Mozart to her? Should I be read like from birth? I was like thinking about all of [00:06:00] these things. So can you talk to us and explain some of these key brain training techniques that you teach?

And I mean, do we start from birth? I’d love to know. 

Heather: Right. So there is a sort of a whole story. I’ll start from the beginning. So part of what I learned about developmentally for children in general, their development that they need to go through to blossom to their full potential. So then when I worked with these children, and we use several different, Approaches and therapies, but one of the main ones was addressing their primitive reflexes.

And not a lot of people, I don’t know if you’ve heard of those, have you heard of primitive reflexes? 

Melissa: Yeah, I’ve had Dr. Murillo on the podcast. Okay, so my colleague was trained by Dr. Malala. He’s amazing. So we have spoken about primitive reflexes, and if you have no idea what we’re talking about, it’s something that you definitely, if you have kids or you want kids, it’s very important.

Yes. 

Heather: So what we did was address this with [00:07:00] children. Now the first year of a baby’s life, there are many of these primitive reflexes active. that are supposed to get integrated into the brain, but to just say it simply, they’re supposed to disappear by age one or three. What happens if they don’t disappear?

It causes stress in the body. It prevents them from growing to their fullest potential in so many different ways. But again, not every child will look the same. It could, it could impede on their cognitive skills. It could impede on focus, memory, physical coordination, strength of core. But without getting too complicated, because I know this is new, What made me passionate was I saw these children with several, or with many of these reflexes active, and I realized, wow, moms need to know this, no?

With their children, with their babies, and I didn’t know any of it when I had my four babies, and so I always thought, oh, I’ll come up with a class, and I’ll just start going to preschools, [00:08:00] and talk to pregnant moms, But then, you know, life gets in the way. So when COVID hit, I had this time to sit down, make my class, and I just started sharing it online for expecting parents.

So where it starts, what does that look like? Your baby is born with several of these reflexes, and several develop throughout that year, and they layer upon one another, and it is literally forming a strong foundation for brain connections and learning. And you just, you want it to all come together. So it’s not, I’ll be, I’ll be like sort of frank about it, it’s not that I do brain training with babies, it’s let’s provide the environment they need to use these reflexes so they get integrated and disappear.

And today, in today’s culture, the way we live, we’re very convenience oriented, a lot of it’s impeding in this process. 

Melissa: Okay, so what are the things that are impeding the process, because we want to be aware of those. 

Heather: Yes, yes. [00:09:00] So, two big things. Babies only learn in two ways, with sensory stimulation and motor stimulation.

Motor means movement. So your baby needs to move. Now that’s the very simplified way of saying it. And so your question was, how do we do this? Well, we provide the environment for movement. And I want to say almost like extreme movement. But I’m saying that because. We do other things that are extreme, like you just said, what prevents that?

So I talk about this on Instagram a lot, swaddling prevents movement and the way we use containers prevents movement. And by containers I mean, a simple bouncy seat. I mean, a swing, entertainment chairs, and exercisers, there’s different names for them. 

Melissa: Like the 

Heather: play pens. But let’s pause about the play pen because I’ll tell you why I like a play pen.

I know that might sound contradictory, but. So I’ll give you an example. Picture your [00:10:00] baby in a bouncing, or a bouncer seat. It’s just that, you know, the seat that just kind of. 

Melissa: Yes. 

Heather: So they can’t really extend their arm fully, or their leg fully, and they don’t really, they’re kind of like this, so they don’t really turn their head fully.

And those actions of turning the head, if you can believe it, instigate a reflexive movement for your baby, and you want your baby to use these reflexes. So they, they get used mostly when your baby’s on their back, but all the time when your baby’s on their tummy. And again, it’s to the extreme. So I’ll give some better examples.

But going back to containers, so that we don’t get sidetracked here, that’s the reason why I like a playpen, because a baby can be on their tummy in a playpen, they can sit in a playpen, and they can be moving freely in a playpen. And who would have thought? Because even back You know, when I had kids, you know, I thought, Oh, play pens are like for the women in there from the back in the 1950s, you know, and here I am recommending them now, but [00:11:00] anyway.

Melissa: I didn’t have a play pen. I didn’t have any of those swings or those chairs or anything with my daughter. I did have a bouncer and I used it. Only when I was having a shower, so I would bring her into the shower or into the bathroom and I’d put her in there while I was having a shower and I’d have a chat to her.

Is small amounts of time in those things like the bouncer, okay? Or are you kind of saying never. 

Heather: I would say small amounts of time, yes is fine. Obviously everything in moderation, but. There has to be such a balance of getting that extreme stimulation on the baby’s stomach. And because in the old days, babies were slept on their tummies.

And in the 90s, I’m assuming where you live, it’s there too, I’m not sure. In the 90s, they had a back to sleep campaign, let’s help prevent SIDS, only sleep your baby on their back. And that’s now the mainstream idea for safety, sleep your baby on their back. So I’m not going to recommend not doing that. But it means we have to [00:12:00] compensate in the day.

With the time on the tummy. And so yes, once in a while, of course, we can’t be extreme in that, right? And we do need convenience and safety for other reasons sometimes. But in general, it’s too easy to put our babies in things for convenience for hours and hours. And it’s literally just stealing away time when they can be moving their body.

And that is when they’re making brain connections. I say this over and over, movement literally grows the brain. Movement grows the brain. And I’ll give another example of that reflex I was saying earlier, it’s called the ATNR. And when the baby, you know how babies are kind of like this and they’re always moving and if they’re on their back, for example.

So then if they turn their head to the side, that initiates a reflex of movement. And what happens is this arm comes up like this, and this arm extends straight. And this side, if [00:13:00] this is my left, the left leg comes up and the other leg extends. And you don’t really see it because it happens slowly, but if the head turned, you would cut slowly over a minute or whatever.

This would happen. And then if you turn the baby’s head this way, slowly, you know, babies jiggle, but this will happen. It’s a reflexive movement. And there’s all kinds of amazing things going on in the brain. So vision is activated, hearing, balance, all these systems. And this is just how, you know, babies are made to be.

So why does this matter? Because there are so many kids with active reflexes as Dr. Malelo talked about. And this is the time in that first year to give your baby that stimulation so that all of those actions are integrated and disappear as they should. So it’s really just almost going back to giving our baby’s brain that environment that they need so that they, [00:14:00] you know, so their nervous system develops properly so that they grow a super strong core.

You can’t grow a strong core if you don’t get enough tummy time. And I don’t, you know, I’m not saying a few minutes a day, I mean, little bits all day long and starting from the first week of birth. 

Melissa: Yes. Okay. This is so important, this information. So we had like this non toxic squishy mat that we would put our daughter on and she would just have the best tummy time and I’d put some toys and things around and she would just have the best time because we have tiles.

It’s not super comfortable to be having tummy time. So we just got this like squishy non toxic mat that she loved. And, yeah, it’s so important. It’s so important. And I remember Dr. Morello saying to me that all these different milestones that our babies hit. So, you know, obviously they first learn to push their head up and they roll and they roll both sides and then they push themselves up and they rock back and forth and then they start to crawl and then they pull themselves up and then they walk.

[00:15:00] And he said to me, they’re milestones for a reason. And it’s not about comparing, Oh, my child got there at six months and my, you know, it’s not about that. It’s about tuning in with your child and making sure they’re hitting those milestones because they are really important. They are milestones for a reason.

I’d never heard anyone say that before. 

Heather: Yes, exactly. And have you heard this, which is really upsetting to me. The CDC has taken crawling off of the milestone list. Wow. Yeah. And the reason that is so concerning is because Well, for two reasons. One is, why would they do that? Is that because they’re seeing less and less babies crawl so they don’t want to make it a milestone?

Also, crawling is an amazing opportunity for movement. It is the first time your baby will move, now I’m going to say this in layman’s terms, because they want to. So, I described [00:16:00] everything as being a reflex of movement before. All of your baby’s movements are due to a reflex. They’re not wanting to do it.

It’s the reflex. Whether they’re rooting or sucking or whether their hand closes, it’s a reflex. But crawling is the first time bilaterally, which means they’re using both sides of their brain coordinating movement. And it’s growing amazing brain connections, left side, right side, left side, right side.

Those are the kinds of brain connections you need to read. So, crawlings. Awesome. But not all babies will crawl. And when they miss that stage, often it’s because they didn’t get enough floor time. 

Melissa: So what if your baby’s a little bit older and they missed that? What would you recommend? 

Heather: So that would have been part of our brain training that we did with children who were struggling.

You get them to do crawling games. Yeah. And the more fun it is, the better it will be, the better they’ll receive [00:17:00] it, the more likely they’ll do it. And that’s just part of that brain training. And it’s, it, it overlaps with what Dr. Malalo does for brain balance. Getting those primitive reflexes integrated by doing the movements that they should have done as babies.

Melissa: If someone has a child who may be three, four, five, or even eight, nine, ten, and they’re noticing some things, what would you recommend? for them to do with the parents? Like, what would you say to them? 

Heather: I would say you can start with Dr. Malolo’s book, Disconnected Kids. I would also say you can just Google that in wherever they live to see if there are any practitioners who could work with their child.

And those practitioners will assess the child and see if any of those primitive reflexes are still active, causing stress in the body, which means that they’re being prevented from developing and operating as they could potentially to their fullest potential. Because it can hold [00:18:00] them back, that would be a place to start, 

Melissa: yeah.

So you were talking about dyslexia before. Is what you’re saying, a reason for dyslexia is because a reflex hasn’t been integrated? 

Heather: No, we can’t say that definitively, no. Because firstly, every child is so unique, right? And every child is so smart in different ways too, which I believe, right? Secondly, dyslexia means I extreme struggle to read, and that could be for so many different reasons, and sometimes it’s brain imbalance.

So as Dr. Malolo talks about, one side of the brain could be more dominant than the other, and now you’ve got real great strengths, but then with that comes often weaknesses. And, and also in the teacher world, at least where we are in Canada, I know that children with learning disabilities, when they get assessed, one of the questions is, did you crawl?

Because we know it’s related. Can we say, Oh, if you [00:19:00] don’t crawl, you’re not going to read. No, we cannot say that because humans are resilient, but we know there’s a correlation. So when you ask me about dyslexia, we can’t say that. And in fact, we also know that so many dyslexic kids are just so gifted visually, and so that’s where their brain dominates.

So some people would argue dyslexia is a gift and just go with it. you know, but I was determined to make my kids read, you know, so it’s, there’s different ways of looking at it and no, nobody can prove it because no one’s going to take a study and prevent babies from crawling and then let’s see what the effects are long term.

But we do see correlations. 

Melissa: Yes. So talk to me about swaddling. You mentioned that before because I’ve got a new baby that is It’s going to be coming very soon. I didn’t swaddle my daughter. I did put her in a couple of those sleep bags, those sleep sack things early on, but she actually [00:20:00] slept on her tummy and well, I didn’t know about all of this stuff.

Like I was like, Oh, okay. And I was thinking I was going to swaddle my next baby. So I want to know what the thought around this is swaddling for a little while. Okay. Okay. Like, what are your thoughts? 

Heather: Well, again, I want to also state I’m not a doctor, so it’s not medical advice, but with what I know about the importance of just movement and free movement, it just doesn’t make any sense to me to swaddle.

I also had four kids and back then swaddling was not what it is right now because I believe it is a marketing, part of marketing for sleep. You know, moms swaddle to help your baby sleep better. And for sure, swaddling can be very comforting, right? Just as holding your baby can be very comforting. But with everything I know, I would not swaddle.

Yes, I’m sure swaddling for short periods is probably fine in the newborn stage, [00:21:00] you know, in my opinion, three to six weeks. Would it actually do harm? Probably not. But if your baby in the morning compared to having free movement for 10 minutes before they get out of bed or cry for mom or whatever that is.

They would have free movement to be moving their, their head, their arms, their legs, and if they’re swaddled, they don’t. And I also want to mention with that, if you recall, I said one of those reflexes movements is just activated by the head turning sideways, and another one is activated by the head going up and down and extending, and then the body responds.

But if you’re swaddled, then you can’t respond, can you? It’s prevented. I also have this other story, and this is just from my own brain, so I don’t, you know, I don’t say this, but I just want to say, you know, who in nature, we know that if a horse has a foal or a cow gives birth to a calf, you’re not to interfere with the baby animal [00:22:00] standing up.

And if you interfere, they might even get sick and die. So, and what is it they’re supposed to do? They’re supposed to stand up. They have to move, right? So babies are born with a lot of reflexive movements. In fact, I’m sure you know this, if you put them on the belly of the mom right after birth, there’s a little reflex that where the legs will push up to the breast so the baby can nurse.

It might take two minutes, it might take half an hour, but it will happen. That is a reflexive movement that is stimulating the brain like you wouldn’t believe, and. That would not happen if they were swaddled. Also I want to add too, in the room, your baby is moving a lot. 

Melissa: Oh yeah, I can vouch for 

Heather: that right now.

Like arm, it’s going up, it’s going to the side, the legs are going out, right? They’re moving. They’re moving their head. Those reflexes are activated [00:23:00] during, you know, a pregnancy. So why would we start swaddling all of a sudden to prevent arm and leg movement? I just want to put that out there. You know, why would we do that?

But don’t get me wrong, I do understand a lot of people want to swaddle for sleep. I think most newborns sleep the heaviest they’re ever going to sleep without a swaddle. But that’s just my personal opinion. And if moms want to swaddle, then you know, you have to do what’s best for you. Being a mom is a very personal thing and you go with your intuition and yeah, I hope I’ve answered your question.

Melissa: Yeah, I want to present everything on the table and people can then choose what feels right and true for them. So what are the neurodevelopmental movement foundations and brain balance techniques and how do they support the cognitive development in infants? Is this just what you’ve been sharing like the crawling or is there anything else we’ve missed?

Heather: It’s everything I’ve just said. There’s also neurodevelopmental movements. There’s some psychologists in Europe that have [00:24:00] observed that babies do sort of like these little jiggly movements. You’ve probably seen even a baby on all fours before they crawl. They they raw. So that would be considered a neurodevelopmental movement also.

And it’s all just layering brain connections. So if you combine all of that with this whole process of primitive reflexive movement, providing the environment so that the baby gets, you know, the full opportunity for that free movement. For the entire year, that’s it right there, yeah. And so even when, you mentioned before, milestones and meeting them early.

So the interesting thing is, if your baby gets a lot of movement, they will meet some of those milestones early, but that’s not important, like you said. At that point, every baby does sort of, you know, you have to let them progress at their individual rate. It’s, you only want to compare when there’s an issue and they’re not making them at all.[00:25:00] 

And, you know, if the baby skips crawling. It’s not like to the fullest potential experience they could have had, do you know what I mean? But on top of that, if your baby’s a really strong crawler, there is no rush to walk because they’re going to get all that left right activation of using their full body in the crawling mode.

So I always recommend get them crawling up and down stairs every day, obviously with your supervision and really close. Because they will become so physically coordinated and they will grow such a strong core and all of those things, it might sound simple or very physical, but it overlaps to the brain.

All of it overlaps. 

Melissa: Yeah, absolutely. For parents who might be feeling overwhelmed by the idea of all of this and the brain training, like what are some simple daily practices that they can start with to stimulate their baby’s brain besides encouraging the tummy time and all of those things? Is there anything else?

Heather: Well, so there’s a few other things, for example, other systems in the brain, the [00:26:00] vestibular system is one of the largest systems in the brain, and it’s the balance system. So that’s a different kind of movement stimulation. That would be when you’re holding your baby, say for example, you hold them down and up and down, not throwing them in the air, but when they’re little, you’re, you know, lifting them up in the air, if that makes sense.

That alone is actually very good for their brain. It’s the same with rolling. I would recommend rolling, as you said earlier, left side, right side, and when I say that, sorry, let your baby roll in one direction, but then you can roll them in the opposite direction to encourage that brain balance. So a lot of it’s also about balance, because we want what’s done on the right side activated on the left side.

So the vestibular system can be activated basically through all movement, twirling in a circle, which is why kids love to do that, because it feels so good, it’s like the brain is saying, yes! So even with your baby, you [00:27:00] can, you know, slowly twirl in a circle. You wouldn’t just whip around, you know, you go with your intuition.

So all kinds of movement, dancing around the room with your baby, up and down movements, swaying, swinging, twirling, all of those things are stimulating the vestibular system. You can put them on an exercise ball, forwards, backwards, and you can do that from the beginning gently, and slowly, and then as they get older.

You can get a little more, you know, aggressive. 

Melissa: Yes, my chiropractor taught me the one on the ball where they’re on their tummy and you go forward and back. And so I did that with my daughter from, oh, I can’t even remember, very, very young and she still loves it. She’s like, mama, do that thing to me. She loves it.

It’s like fun and playful for her now. 

Heather: Yes. That’s amazing. It sounds like you’ve done so many things. You obviously had a lot of good support. 

Melissa: Yes. Well, I read a lot of books. That’s great. And I interviewed, you know, people like Dr. Morello and all of these amazing people. So [00:28:00] I wanted to be equipped with all of this wisdom and knowledge.

So yeah, it’s so powerful. Like when we know this stuff, then we can make choices that are aligned with us and feel good for us. So, I’d love to know, like, what are some of the most significant changes that you’ve seen in children who start doing this brain training from birth compared to those that don’t?

I’d love to hear some stories. Sure. 

Heather: And this can be a touchy subject because we don’t want to compare babies, you know, it’s, I don’t want to say it’s hurtful, but, so here’s an example. The moms who’ve done my program often message me and say, oh, everyone tells me how smart my baby is or, but you know, how alert they are, how engaged they are.

And people comment all the time, et cetera, or I’ll hear comments that, well, my baby just seems so much more older than maybe the other baby that was there. So You know, it’s all developmental based, but if your baby’s getting those movement stimulations, that’s really going to help them develop [00:29:00] instead of just sensory.

As I said earlier, babies grow, or sorry, learn in only two ways, through the senses and then motor stimulation, which is movement. And I, I just think it needs to be talked more about today so that moms can really understand and know that and what it looks like. So, now I can’t remember, did I answer your question?

Oh, okay, and also, I work with a non profit, and we work with a lot of newcomers to Canada, and they bring their babies, and you can tell which babies spend too much time in strollers. And it’s nobody’s fault, it’s not mom’s fault, these people often come, many of them are refugees, so let’s just say that right away, they’re just doing the best they can.

Will not meet their milestones. They won’t be necessarily as alert or engaged. Their posture or their, even their walk stance is not great. Now, those might [00:30:00] sound minor, but because of my work with children, those things are often huge indicators of some form of cognitive either delay, disability, or challenge.

You know, I’m not going to say it’s a hundred percent of the time. But it is all, can be connected, so, and it’s a reflection of them not getting that movement stimulation they could have had or should have had as a baby, but I don’t want to condemn anyone or make them feel bad, you know. 

Melissa: Yeah. I think why this conversation is so important is because so many people don’t know about these reflexes.

They’re just not aware. And I think. One of the major reasons why I wanted to have you on is to highlight how important it is so that we can support our children and so that they can just grow and flourish and thrive into their fullest potential. So is there anything [00:31:00] else that you want to share that you haven’t spoken about?

Heather: Yeah, I was going to give almost like a little exercise moms can do that first week. Now, a lot of moms have already heard about skin to skin, and if they haven’t, skin to skin means, you know, that first week you can get nude baby in their diaper, on mom’s chest or dad’s chest or any loved one, skin to skin.

So that there’s all of these beautiful health benefits for baby and mom, bringing your milk and all these hormonal beautiful benefits. So we love skin to skin. So I like to take it just one simple step further. If you’re going to do that. Then lie down flat, either on the bed or the couch or the floor if you like.

So if you lie down flat and now you have baby tummy to tummy with you, then now they’re going to have to try and lift up their heavy head, right? And they’re right away stimulating those reflexes. Many newborns don’t have strength yet. Some newborns are born with strength. So that part doesn’t matter.

Just let [00:32:00] them be wherever they are. And a lot of them might be kind of floppy. But it’s a great way. That first week to not just get in the skin to skin benefits, but if mom lies flat, that’s the key. So I don’t mean just on an angle in a chair, I mean lying flat, but now baby is literally on their tummy on you.

And you can literally do this for weeks. You could do this as a habit after every time you nurse your baby or bottle feed your baby. This is what you do, even if it’s just a minute, little bits all day long so that your baby is starting to lift up their head or to the side. Because they are using those reflexes, they are developing strength, and that strength is really important.

It’s not to be taken lightly. Core strength, neck strength, back strength, it will all contribute to posture. And the stronger the core you have, the more likely every movement you make extends from the core. We need that for sports, music, dance, everything. So it’s how we’re [00:33:00] wired to be, I believe. So I think that would just 

Melissa: be 

Heather: great if every mom with their newborn could do that.

Melissa: I love that tip and I’ll definitely be doing that, so thank you for sharing. Now let’s pretend you have a magic wand and you could put one book in the school curriculum of every high school around the world. So it’s going to be for females and males. That 15, 16, 17 year old, it could be on any topic, but what is the first book that comes to your mind?

Heather: Wow. And do you mean a perspective of just as a mom or a woman in this world, is that what you mean? Or you’re just, doesn’t matter? 

Melissa: It could be a spiritual book. It could be anything that you just think is like essential reading for that age. 

Heather: Oh, that’s a really good question. 

Melissa: I know it’s 

Heather: tricky. It’s hard to pick one thing.

It’s really hard to pick one thing. I would want to see a book that could encourage that individual to somehow [00:34:00] guide them into who they’re meant to be based on their strengths. But also based on their personality and how to get there. A book that would influence them, encourage them, how to get there so that they can be nurtured to figure out how to do what they want to do as an adult in their life.

But not just necessarily according to what society expects and also that would empower them. I don’t know. I know that book probably doesn’t exist. 

Melissa: I love it. Well, thank you. That’s, yeah, it’s so important. It is so important. And those years, they’re just so transformational for both boys and girls. You know, that 15, 16, 17.

So yeah, maybe someone can go out and write that book and let us know. Now I would love to hear about. More about you personally, like how do you move through your day? I want to know what time you wake up, what are your rituals, your [00:35:00] routines? Talk us through a quote unquote typical day in your life. 

Heather: Good question.

Well, I’m a bit of a night owl. So right now I’m always trying to battle making myself go to bed earlier for my own good and my own health. I’m, I’m 53 now, so I’ve hit menopause and now it’s time to sleep. Step it up a little bit more. Taking care of myself, I really want to feel my best for the next 30 years.

So that’s one of the things I’m implementing. So I get up around, it depends on the day, anywhere between six and seven. Pretty much eat breakfast and have coffee right away. And then I get to my list, I make my list for the day, my everything I have to do, which I’m, you know, have probably already written half of it the day before anyway.

A lot of that includes posting on Instagram because I sell my course on Instagram. So I check in with my work emails and then post for the day, answer people’s questions. And then the other part of my work [00:36:00] is learning how to market my course on Instagram, how to market and how to serve my audience of parents better.

So I also am continuing to always learn about that. I am. I love learning, so that’s an easy thing for me. What else? I still only have one young adult child at home. He’s 21, so my others are all well on their way. But it’s nice, you know, we don’t do family dinners as much as we used to, so that routine has changed.

I also work at the non profit once a week with moms and babies, and those are newcomers to Canada. So that’s lots of fun. I love that work. Very life giving. What else? I mean, I love to go for walks. I’m always going for walks. That’s like an easy one. Try and encourage myself to lift more weights. But that’s my normal humdrum life.

You know, I talk to my daughter, I talk to my friends. I grew up back east, so I have a lot of family still there and I talk to them a lot too. [00:37:00] 

Melissa: And how long is your program? 

Heather: My program is, it’s about an hour and a half of educational videos. Really going over the science and going over the why, why we should care, and then what to do and how.

And then the second portion is demo videos filled with all kinds of ideas and activities of what that looks like daily. And 

Melissa: any parent can sign up? 

Heather: Yeah, pretty much. I recommend going through the program when you’re pregnant so that you’re ready to start that first week of birth. You know, ideally, if you can begin from the beginning, that’s great.

But if your baby’s already three or four months old, it’s still a great time because that first year is such a window of opportunity. So I kind of recommend getting through the program, you know, by the time your baby’s six months before they crawl. That’s when you would be able to take the most advantage.

Melissa: Beautiful. I love it. So I’m in the perfect spot to do it [00:38:00] right now. Exactly. I love it. Okay. I’ve got three rapid fire questions for you now. Are you ready? 

Heather: I don’t know. 

Melissa: For us adults listening, what is one thing that we can do for our health today? Just one thing. That’s a good question. There’s so 

Heather: many things.

I, okay, here’s something pretty unique. I’ll just really put this out there. Something that I’ve learned over these last two years that I’ve learned to do myself, and I, I started it after I read a book about physics and quantum physics, about praying love for people, and physically trying to imagine sending love.

And since I started doing that, I almost sort of just did it for fun the first time. Boy, did I ever see the difference. Like really. And I did it with my kids. And, but I thought, what’s the difference? I think it’s me. So that’s just been a really sort of powerful [00:39:00] discovery. So there you go. Putting that out there.

Melissa: I love that. That’s so beautiful. What’s one thing we can do for more wealth in our life? 

Heather: Well, I did happen to listen to one of your books this summer. And. so much. It rang true because. Which book was it? Mastering Your Mean Girl. So I have learned all of that myself these last three years and learning what it means to truly love yourself.

So what was the question again? 

Melissa: What is one thing we can do for more wealth in our life? 

Heather: Learn to love yourself. 

Melissa: I love it. And what is one thing we can do for more love in our life? 

Heather: Wow. Well, obviously, figure out what that means. Yeah. Deep, true love is sometimes with our emotional issues, that’s tough.

What can we do? I mean, I had someone sort of coach and guide me through it, so I’m not even sure if I could say what to do by [00:40:00] yourself. Basically, when you focus on that love from your heart. What does that really mean? It’s almost like you want to love your inner child and picture yourself when you were young and all that love they deserved and focus and meditate on that.

And then, and then even when you do it with others, it’s beautiful too. Absolutely. 

Melissa: Now, is there anything else that you want to share with us or any last parting words of wisdom or any gold nuggets that you want us to walk away with? 

Heather: Well, I do often ask myself that question, and I do get asked that too, even just from a parenting perspective, or what I learned from parenting my kids.

My two biggest takeaways were, one, when I read a book about attachment parenting, that really changed how I parented my kids, written by Dr. Gordon Neufeld and Dr. Gebber Monte, I think that’s how you pronounce his name. So I was having power struggles with my daughter, she was [00:41:00] six. And I didn’t know why. My oldest son, he was easy.

So why was this happening? It didn’t make sense to me. Well, he was very easy to connect with. He was a very verbal child and that’s how he would connect. And at this time I didn’t really understand love languages, but now I understand what was happening. And so my daughter would sort of, I’d be making breakfast in the kitchen, for example, and she might come in the room and stand at the doorway.

And I would, from a distance, say, good morning. And that just wasn’t good enough. She might just sort of stand there, disconnected. And I’m talking, she’s about six years old, whereas there’s my son on the chair, chiding my ear off, feeling fully connected, you know. So this book basically taught me, well, how do you, you maintain that strong attachment?

They use the word attachment. I’m using the word connection. And so it said, you get down on their level, you go over to them, lean down, and you talk in that high voice that we kind of talk to our babies. How did you [00:42:00] sleep? Good morning. And you wait for the smile, and when you get the smile, then you know you’ve got them again.

It’s like gathering them in. And it changed our dynamic. It just did. So, it changed how I parented my children. Yeah, and you know I didn’t have that issue with my son, but that’s just because his way of relating was different. And he could feel connected across the room, and she couldn’t, right? 

Melissa: Yeah, and everyone is so different.

That is definitely something that my mother did really well. So every morning when I would walk downstairs, she was always sitting on the couch, she would have the TV on, she’d have a cup of tea and she’d be folding, washing, usually. And every time I would walk downstairs in the morning, she would just greet me like I was the most important person on the earth.

Good morning, beautiful girl. So excited to see me [00:43:00] and I will never forget that feeling ever. So beautiful. And I’ve had other things that I’ve needed to work through. Don’t get me wrong. Like I’ve had other things that I’ve needed to work with, but. That feeling was always there when I would come down in the morning.

And so I remember that. And so I do that with my daughter now. Like when I go into her room, it is the most exciting. You know, the tone of my voice, my energy. It’s like, good morning, beautiful girl. Like it’s so lovely. And I just think, isn’t this, doesn’t everyone want to be greeted like that? So I love that you shared that.

And it’s such a simple thing to do. Even if I have been up multiple times to go to the bathroom, like I am right now, because baby is sitting right on my bladder. Even if, you know, I haven’t had the best sleep, it doesn’t matter. What matters is me being of [00:44:00] service to her. What matters is me showing up to her to make her feel like she is the most important person on this earth.

And I love doing it. It’s so beautiful. It’s such a simple thing to do. 

Heather: It is. It really is. And the other large thing about that that I noticed, just to add to that, It’s once you have, you know, several kids in that dynamic and if you have filled their cup so that they feel that strong attachment, they all get along together so much better.

They just do. Really. Yeah, it’s really noticeable. 

Melissa: Yes. Interesting. Interesting. I love that. Now, you are helping, you are serving, you are supporting so many people all over the world with your work. And so I want to thank you for that. But I want to know what I and the listeners can do to give back and serve you today.

How can we serve you? 

Heather: I’m not even sure what you mean. I can’t imagine. 

Melissa: What can we do that would just make your day? 

Heather: Oh, well, besides giving [00:45:00] their loved one a hug, follow me on Instagram. So if you’re interested in baby’s best brain development, for sure, that would be lovely. Thank you. 

Melissa: And we’ll link to that as well as your program and everything that we’ve mentioned in the show notes.

So people can go and check out you and your amazing work. And I love following your Instagram. That’s how I discovered you was your Instagram and I just love it. Like I said, I’m a student for life and I always want to grow and learn and evolve. And so if there’s things. It’s that I’m like, wow, I want to do this because I want to give my children the best possible chance of reaching their full potential.

So definitely go and follow Heather and I’ll link to the program and everything in the show notes. But thank you for being here. Thank you for the work that you do in the world. It’s been such a treat having you here. So thank you. 

Heather: Thank you so much, Melissa. I appreciate it. Pleasure.

Melissa: I hope you got a lot out of this episode and you feel inspired to support your [00:46:00] little one on their journey to being the best version of themselves. Now, if you loved this conversation, please subscribe to the show and leave me a review on Apple podcasts, because that means that we can inspire and educate even more people together.

And it also means that all of my episodes will just pop up in your feed so that you never have to go searching for a new episode. Now, come and tell me on Instagram at Melissa Ambrosini, what you got from this episode. I absolutely love connecting with you and hearing from you. Now, before I go, I just wanted to say thank you so much for being here, for wanting to be the best, the healthiest and the happiest version of yourself and for showing up today for you.

You rock. Now, if there is someone in your life that you can think of that would really benefit from this episode, please share it with them right now. You can take a screenshot, share it on your social media, email it to them, text it to them, do whatever you’ve got to do to get this in their ears. And until next time, don’t forget that love is sexy, [00:47:00] healthy is liberating, and wealthy isn’t a dirty word.

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