The Tips Meghan Markle's Pregnancy Guru Gave Her Before The Birth Of Lilibet Diana

Meghan might have given birth in California, but she brought a bit of the UK with her. While Dr. Melissa Drake guided The Duchess of Sussex through the birthing process physically — and, per what an insider told Vanity Fair, "a big security team" guarded Meghan and Harry's privacy so "they could enjoy the birth in peace" — another Dr. guided Meghan from a distance. 

Dr. Gowri Motha has helped deliver celebrity babies from Gwyneth Paltrow to Madonna. She told People that she was "honored" to be virtually present with Harry and Meghan while Lilibet Diana came into the world. Gowri Motha was no doubt a comforting figure for Meghan when she went into labor — it was, after all, Gowri Motha who helped the Duchess of Sussex give birth to her first child, Archie. "Second births are always easier," the doctor observed to People, "[The parents] have done it before and they are experienced and better prepared." 

The doctor advocates a very specific kind of pre-baby prep for expecting parents, which she calls "The Gentle Birth Method." This is the kind of advice she probably gave to Meghan.

Designed to allow parents to experience an intervention-free pregnancy, Dr. Gowri Motha's pre-birth program centers around visualization techniques, reflexology, massage, yoga, exercise, reiki, nutrition, and supplement advice (via People). In an article on The Tot, Gowri Motha promotes "general suppleness" through a gluten-free diet, yoga, pregnancy-safe herbs and tea, reflexology and creative healing, cranio-sacral therapy, and full body fascial unwinding techniques, and massages. The idea is to "get rid of fear of birthing and embrace the truth that birth is a natural physiological reflex." In a second The Tot article, Gowri Motha promotes visualization and self-hypnosis to allow the birthing parent to "access an altered state of awareness that make the experience of birthing seem distant and bearable and pleasant." 

The doctor's website is filled with glowing success stories. One "mother from California" wrote that the recommended dietary changes worked wonders (via Dr. Marie Gowri Motha). Another gushed that the hypnosis and visualization techniques Motha taught  "allowed me to deliver with total focus" (via Dr. Marie Gowri Motha).

As for what Gowrie Motha may have recommended to Meghan for her post-pregnancy care? "For the first two weeks, definitely eat vegetarian food to help your liver detoxify after the birth," Motha advised to People. She also recommended that new parents use a "soft cotton tummy wrap" to "help to get everything back to normal."