About Holly | embryoga-intuitive

Holly Lammer, BSN, RNC, RYT-500, RPYT, PPNE

So what do all those initials mean? I really am not the sort to add a bunch of initials after my name, but in this case I will use them to tell my story: I'll start with BSN which I earned at Oregon Health Sciences University. When I became pregnant with my first child my life changed forever. It was revealed to me like a lightning strike (seriously) that I needed to work with the miracle of birth. For reasons I can't really explain, I went the path of a nursing degree with intent to get a Master's in Nurse Midwifery. During that time I gave birth to 2 beautiful boys; Isaac and Benjamin (take note... they grow up in the blink of an eye).

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

11082374_10203877095434765_3760982200945065337_o

11078139_10203911328250564_4843713119986912993_n

10689631_10203224364636903_2646348658754638373_n

11138103_10204427351110813_971104849443075960_n

12108834_10205157964295686_3822589895368278033_n

I ended up in a busy high risk Labor and Delivery unit in Boise, ID where my jaw dropped over and over and over again witnessing the miracle of birth in all it's splendor and scariness. Thousands of births! Medicated, unmedicated, complicated, high risk, low risk, twins, triplets, c sections... you name it! I was a charge nurse, I chaired committees, I trained new nurses and nursing students. It was during this time that I pursued further certifications for nurses through the National Certification Corporation. I earned my RNC in Inpatient Obstetrics and was the first in my hospital to earn my certification in Electronic Fetal Monitoring. It was not long into this that I began to question much of what I was seeing.

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

10885528_10203269469484496_6117053283158850165_n

10346540_10203630877199463_6247866943093334060_n

14939626_10207611235665937_1058440685601848030_o

I spent the next few years advocating for policy and practice change to support physiologic birth. I researched, proposed, lectured, developed educational modules, presented my findings to leadership, doctors, nurses... whoever would listen to me! Persistence paid off, but at an exhausting price. (For more detail, see my CV.) During that time I was also pursuing a second interest in fitness and yoga, basically exhausting myself and completely taxing my adrenal glands! This, in addition to life events caused a shift towards the more contemplative practices of Yoga and Meditation. This practice changed my life, prompting me to pursue a teacher training in Yoga and I received my Yoga Alliance 500hr and Prenatal Teaching Certificate through Shanti Yoga School. It was during my the next few years that I developed the curriculum for Intuitive Birth and Embryoga.

The combination of my experience watching thousands of women give birth; noticing what worked and what didn't work so well, hours of research and study in physiologic birth; combined with my own mindfulness practice which was changing my life profoundly prompted me to develop something different for women in the community. This journey has developed into a passion: researching the evidence and science behind the contemplative practices and how they support fetal growth, bonding, parenting and generally speaking a more peaceful world. I quickly became very interested in the 'pychology' of gestation and birth, joining the Association for Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health (APPPAH) and pursuing my Prenatal and Perinatal Educator certificate (PPNE).

To play, press and hold the enter key. To stop, release the enter key.

15726348_10208115295187110_2361240677726152882_n

1526657_10203334922880790_3538833793118947593_n

12038460_10204996143330263_133822915495275510_n

12108892_10205095805341751_8663347465310389645_n

13087870_10206284065767519_598200887101681365_n

1889003_10204187811682477_4610712108275964960_o

At this point in time, I spend most of my days as a Clinical Educator for St. Luke's Health System (see CV for all the juicy details of my history as a nurse), still work as a bedside RN in the hospital setting, and continue to develop and refine my mindfulness-based childbirth and parenting curriculum as well as my prenatal yoga teacher training work. I teach yoga regularly and believe it or not I still find energy to pursue my 'leisure time' hobbies of gardening, hiking, dipping my toes into the water (ice cold mountain lakes and natural secluded hotsprings), hiking with my friends and family and adventuring with my husband in our little camper.