Hello, I'm Dr. Stephen Hassan with another episode of the influence continuum.

And you know, I named this podcast because of the influence continuum,

and people know me as a cult expert, an undue influence expert,

and so a lot of my stuff is focusing on the dark

side of the influence continuum, but I'm so happy to introduce Julie Hartman to you, who's going to

talk about ethical, positive parenting things. Julie Hartman is a certified birth dula, a certified lactation counselor, and a new

parent educator. And she supports families in the perinatal period through support groups,

teaching classes on living with a newborn. And most importantly, she says, she's a mom to three adult children and can really connect

with the people that she works with through shared experiences.

And Julie, we sat and talked and you were telling me about your fascinating career, and I

invited you to the influence continuum, and I'm grateful for your willingness to share

your wisdom with my audience. Thank you so much, Steve, for having me. It's really a pleasure to be here.

And of course, I think we're both going to be in a, maybe in a domain that we're not used to to uh you know to working within

so i'm really looking forward to to hearing uh what you have to say about your world and how we

how our worlds interconnect and certainly support one and yeah so i'll just start by saying

my wife and i adopted a 22-month-old from Ukraine and had all kinds of

medical issues that we needed to deal with.

And we missed that critical first two-year period that is so well established that's critical

for secure attachment. But you focus on that perinatal, you know, pregnant,

not yet giving birth to the birth, to what do you do afterward. And I just don't think the public

has a clue of what to expect and what to do. And so that's why I really want you to share.

And before we go too much further,

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