Podcasts about Arvigo

Welcome to The Wellbeing Room.In this  episode, I interview Julia Rossmanith.Julia is the mother of four children, has a Science degree majoring in Anatomy and Physiology, and is a certified practitioner of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy, Holistic Pelvic Care and Traditional Maya Healing. Through her business, The Nurtured Womb, Julia has worked with thousands of women to help them bring awareness, connection, and healing to their womb and pelvic area. Bringing a wealth of life experience and empathy to her healing practice, Julia integrates the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical bodies, creating safe spaces for women to address the impact of unresolved issues and unexpressed emotions on their physical and energetic wellbeing.In this episode, Julia shares:her journey through birthing her four children and how she learnt to trust her bodyabout the Arvigo techniques of Maya abdominal therapy and holistic pelvic care and how it is used to help bring the uterus back into alignment and promote energy flow in the lower bodyhow she connects to the internal energy of her clients and the techniques she uses to guide them on their healing processthe emotional and energetic blockages that women face and how they impact abdominal and pelvic healthhow we have a tendency to move away from our emotional trauma and her strategies to help women feel into and release those blockagesthe gentle approach she uses to help her clients when it comes to releasing stored emotions and trauma, and the freedom and joy that comes when women go through the healing processthe importance of being able to connect to ourselves and techniques to facilitate this processone thing that has improved her wellbeing and helps her get more out of life.Find Julia at https://www.thenurturedwomb.com/Connect with her on Instagram @thenurturedwombSupport the showSupport the show so I can keep producing more episodes here:https://www.buzzsprout.com/1756648/supporters/newRate & Review The Wellbeing Room on Apple Podcasts - Click on the Listen on Apple Podcasts button and add your review in the Podcast app. Scroll to the bottom of the page to Ratings & Review and select Write a Review. Get in touch: leah@thecentreofki.com.au

In this episode of the Functional Fertility Podcast, Dr. Kalea Wattles chats with acupuncturist, herbalist, and Arvigo abdominal massage therapist Holly Leever. We'll cover:  - What is Arvigo abdominal massage, and how does it support fertility? - Who is a good candidate for this type of treatment? - How tracking your cycle can help you add abdominal massage at the right time to support fertility - Strategies for developing a deeper connection to the womb during your fertility journey   Thank you to our season two sponsor, NEEDED! This episode highlights Needed Egg Quality Support, a blend of targeted antioxidants designed to support egg quality. Use code FUNCTIONALFERTILITY for 20% off your order at thisisneeded.com. 

Today I speak with Sali McIntyre and Naomi Jannsson.Sali is an antenatal educator, author midwife, Arvigo practitioner and teacher, and mother of four adult children, all born at home. She also runs Heart and Soul of Wellness which is a wellness centre in Murwillumbah where she runs pregnancy and postpartum groups, amongst many more offerings. Naomi is a traditional medicine practitioner, with over 20 years of experience. She weaves a wealth of expertise from diverse healthcare settings to provide clinical care and education.  She is dedicated Advocate for Traditional Medicine especially in Women's Health and Birth/Reproductive Health services. She holds the vision of Culturally oriented and Mother centred experiences for Women during childbearing and rites of passage. Naomi often speaks at conferences and for podcasts to inform on the importance of Cultural Practices and Medicines in Women's Health.Together, these two run a festival called Birth Wellness festival, which is a coming together of parents, families, and practitioners and clinicians in the area for greater connection of community and services relevant to the pregnancy, birth, and postpartum period. In this interview we speak a lot about the importance of gathering in real life embodied spaces to create greater sense of care and togetherness in community. Birth Wellness Festival: https://events.humanitix.com/birth-wellness-festival-2024Sali: https://heartandsoulofwellness.com.auNaomi: https://www.gentletraditions.xyz/

Holly Leever is a licensed acupuncturist, herbalist, Arvigo abdominal massage therapist and Fertility Awareness Method educator. She works with women to optimize their menstrual cycles and their fertility. She founded her practice, Rosebud Wellness in 2014, and works with clients locally in Ojai, CA and virtually all over the world. When Holly isn't solving period problems, she is spending time with her sweet daughter, practicing yoga, gardening or cooking.   Website - rosebudwellness.com IG - https://www.instagram.com/rosebud_wellness/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/hollyrosebudwellness Free FAM Video - https://rosebudwellness.com/opt-in-free-training-how-to-track-and-chart-your-cycle-to-support-your-body-for-optimal-health-and-fertility Holly's Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-fertile-womb-natural-fertility-optimization/id1568908543   For more information about Michelle, visit www.michelleoravitz.com   For Fertility Resources: https://www.thewholesomelotusfertility.com/fertilityresources   The Wholesome FertilityFacebook group is where you can find free resources and support: https://www.facebook.com/groups/2149554308396504/   Instagram: @thewholesomelotusfertility   Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thewholesomelotus/       Transcript:   Michelle (00:00) Welcome to the podcast, Holly.   Holly Leever (00:02) Thank you so much, Michelle. I'm really excited to be here.   Michelle (00:05) I'm excited to have a fellow acupuncturist here. It's always fun talking   to my   Holly Leever (00:09) It is   Michelle (00:10) my acupuncture family.   Holly Leever (00:10) Yes. Yeah.   Michelle (00:12) Awesome. So give us a little background on yourself and what got you into women's health specifically, infertility,   acupuncture.   Holly Leever (00:20) so it's a long and winding road, like all of our stories, right? But I started studying acupuncture when I was pretty young. I was just naturally really interested in yoga and holistic health and nutrition. It just kind of came out of the womb that way for some reason. And I went to acupuncture school and I learned about how hormonal birth control...   could potentially be impacting some of the issues that I was experiencing at the time. And when you're really young, you can get away with a lot. And so I didn't feel terrible, but I hadn't had a natural period. I probably had three in my whole life at that point and I was 24. So I started, yeah.   Michelle (01:10) Wait, so give us a background. So when did you first get your period? When did you first start and then when did you get on the birth control pill?   Holly Leever (01:18) Yeah, so that's the tricky part, the annoying part, is that I got my first period when I was 14, and I was already on birth control by the time I was 15. So I don't remember exactly how many months, and I would only get it every three months. So I went to the gynecologist and I was like, oh, is that, I mean, I had enough of an awareness to know that it was supposed to happen every month at the time, and they were just like, oh, that's really...   Michelle (01:29) Uh.   Mm-hmm.   Holly Leever (01:46) problematic and here you can just have the birth control pill to regulate your cycle, of course. And I did have pretty significant period pain too. I think it was just young bodies don't just start menstruating perfectly right away and having significant period pain I think also was partially related to my diet at the time. I grew up really just eating   Michelle (02:00) Yeah.   Holly Leever (02:10) Total crap food, just convenience foods, only snacky kind of things, really had no guidance around nutrition at all. And I think the period pain was partially related to that, and also just being young and my body doing something new for the first time. I did become sexually active really early too, at 15. And so I do think it was maybe helpful that I didn't get pregnant when I was 15 years old. And...   Michelle (02:36) Yeah.   Holly Leever (02:38) I wish that I had a little bit more education about what it was actually doing to my body. I had a lot of emotional struggles as a teenager and who knows if that's just being a teenager, how that manifested for me or how much of it was related to synthetic hormone exposure at such a young age. And so then I developed a really severe eating disorder during the end of high school, really through college. So that was part of...   Even the times, sometimes I would stop taking birth control within that nine year timeframe of from 15 to 24. Sometimes I would stop taking it if I wasn't in a relationship and I really just never would have a period. So it was almost like that part of me was completely removed from my experience of being in a female body. So then when I went to acupuncture school, as I'm sure you know, and maybe a lot of your listeners do too, that...   it's a really central piece of understanding a female's overall health and wellbeing is what their period looks like. We were talking about the color of the blood and how frequently it comes. And I mean, there are so much more that I know about it now as a fertility awareness method educator, but even that little seed of women's period is really important for assessing their health. I was sort of like, oh.   I guess I'm completely missing that whole part of the equation of, you know, being able to really understand this medicine. And so I stopped taking the pill really immediately after that I found that out. I remember that it was, I started school in September and then by October, November, I stopped taking it, just completely stopped taking it and never, and have not taken it since.   But then I didn't have my period for a few years after I stopped taking it because I was still struggling with my eating disorder. And one of the things that I find really interesting about eating disorders and under nutrition is that people think sort of like you have to have this like raging, horrible eating disorder, which at times I really did. I was very severely anorexic at times.   Michelle (04:34) Mm hmm.   Holly Leever (04:53) And at other times, not so much. Like you could look at me and think like, oh, that looks like just like a healthy woman. You wouldn't really think she's, you know, nutrient depleted, but it was for me, always this relationship with food, you know, not prioritizing optimal nutrition was sort of the issue for me. So it would be, maybe my weight would look okay.   Michelle (05:19) Right.   Holly Leever (05:22) but I wasn't getting in the amount of protein and fat and carbohydrate structure and having regular meals and things like that. That was really the issue for me. So a lot of my time through acupuncture school, that four years that I was in acupuncture school was spent trying to figure that out. And sometimes I would get a period and I'd be like, oh, what was like the perfect cocktail of things that I did that made that happen? And it was just...   So, I mean, now to me, it's so obvious. It was that I let go of the reins a little bit and ate a little bit more. And then I would just be like, oh my God, that was too much. And I would go too far and freak out. And then I would lose my period again. So it's just kind of very intermittently getting it here and there. Then I finally went into residential treatment center a few times for my eating disorder. And that was the catalyst really for...   Michelle (05:59) Mm-hmm.   Holly Leever (06:20) being able to kick it finally. And it wasn't until I was 32, so not terribly long ago, that I started learning the fertility awareness method because I had been single for a lot of my life. I think anybody that has struggled with an eating disorder understands that it's very isolating experience that you kind of don't wanna date. You don't want anybody to look at or touch your body. And I was feeling interested in maybe   Like, can I have children and can I have a family? I'm 32, like, what am I doing with my life? And although I didn't have a partner at the time, I was kind of getting curious about my fertility and if I had kind of destroyed my body at that point, you know, it's like, has it been too long? And so for anybody that has struggled with hypothalamic amenorrhea, which really is what that is, whether it's an eating disorder or if it's just disordered.   or under eating or over exercise, stress, like some combination of those things. Anybody that has had that experience, especially if it's been for a significant amount of time, which for me, it's kind of like 10 to 15 years, like most of my adult life was spent not menstruating. And then to fast forward to the end of my story, I do have a daughter. So, when I was 32, I was in this place of...   Michelle (07:18) Right.   Holly Leever (07:45) I had just gotten out of my most recent residential stay. Every time I would go, I would get my period back. It was very obviously nutritionally related. So we can take all these teas and even getting acupuncture. I got so much acupuncture. I was on so many herbal formulas throughout acupuncture school and I just needed to eat more. And they would always say that to me. And you're only able to receive and really integrate.   Michelle (07:51) Mm-hmm. Wow.   Holly Leever (08:14) what's being recommended to you when it's the right time for you or whatever. So it is what it is, but that was really what my system needed. And so when I was 32 is really when a big transformation happened in my life where I really kicked my eating disorder. It's not something that you just all of a sudden are cured from, but that was a really pivotal time where I haven't really looked back.   Michelle (08:18) Yeah.   Holly Leever (08:44) Um, since that it's only kind of been getting better since then. And I started learning the fertility awareness method with my teacher, Lisa Hendricks and Jack. So she has, she hasn't made she, maybe she's been on this podcast. I don't know. I think you've been on hers. I know too. Um, but yeah, fertility Friday is an awesome podcast for anybody out there. I it's she's really, oh, that's so. Yeah.   Michelle (08:54) Love her. Yes, yeah.   It inspired me to start mine, my podcast. Oh yeah, I love her. I got so much information from her podcast. It was just, she's such a wealth of knowledge.   Holly Leever (09:14) She... And that podcast is the tip of the iceberg in terms of what that woman knows. It's really, really amazing. And yeah, so I started to study with her really just personally at first. I was like, okay, I want to be in a relationship and I don't want to accidentally get pregnant and I don't ever want to go back on birth control. So like, what do I do?   Michelle (09:22) I know.   Holly Leever (09:41) And so I started learning about the fertility awareness method from her. And I took her fertility awareness mastery program where you can, you know, she had two groups at the time. I'm not sure how she structures it now, but one was like the pregnancy prevention group and the other was the conception group. So I was in the pregnancy prevention group and was just learning so much about. How my body worked and you know, what it meant.   that my period would just go missing and also gave me a lot of insight into sort of like catching myself before I go too far. I think anybody that has had an experience with an eating disorder or being underweight, there's this tendency that even now I still have to be really conscious of making sure that I'm getting like...   planning meals and like really prioritizing that because my tendency is still to under eat because it was so ingrained in me for such a long period of time. So for example, in the fertility awareness method, now I can see like if my temperatures start to get a little below what's more optimal or like if my mucus pattern is a little bit different because I've learned all of these like subtle details of learning how to read.   Michelle (10:46) Hmm.   Holly Leever (11:03) what's going on with my fertility. It really opened up a whole other space of just in the hypothalamic amenorrhea space, which is actually, it seems kind of like it's becoming more of a hot topic thing these days where people are like actually specializing in just hypothalamic amenorrhea. A lot of times the focus is on the period. It's like we're getting the period back, but it's sometimes missing.   that actually you can't even have a period if it's not preceded by ovulation. And if we're not tracking ovulation with mucus and basal body temperature, potentially LH strips or OPKs, I use those in my practice too sometimes, cervical position. If we're not tracking all of these things, we can be having bleeds even at regular intervals, which I do think this is part of what was happening to me. I'd have these like random bleeds where I'd be like,   what did I do right this time that I had that random bleed? It may have been an ovulatory. So all that means just for, I know you know what it means, but for anybody that's listening, if you don't know, it just basically means that you are bleeding, but it hasn't been preceded by an ovulatory phase, basically. So you didn't actually ovulate. Your estrogen levels just built up enough to build up an endometrial lining, and then it's just being...   shed, but it is not an indication that your body's actually going through a very health promoting process of ovulation before that. So anyway, that was kind of my basic story into learning fertility awareness. And now, several years later, I had actually started...   working with it a little bit with my clients. I was trying to have them do temperature and track their mucus. And what I was noticing is that you can read from a textbook. And I even learned from Lisa, I learned sort of like the basics and I learned how my body works. But it's really different to learn about the basics from a book and other like online resources. And then also just learning about your own body and being able to apply that in working.   with actual patients because what I have found in my practice is that many of them don't follow and including me, I definitely have never followed what's in the textbook. So I've never ovulated on day 14. I've never had a 28 day or 30. Maybe the shortest cycle I've ever had is 30 days and that was like miraculous. So yeah, I mean, I will say that I was feeling somewhat limited and then Lisa created this.   Michelle (13:22) Yeah.   Mm-hmm   Holly Leever (13:49) program for practitioners called the fertility awareness mastery mentorship. So it's different from just the, like for women to learn about their own cycles. It's a practitioner program for women that want to learn or not. Yeah, it is women only, but for women that want to learn how to incorporate it into their existing women's healthcare practice.   And I actually wanted to do it the first year that she launched it, but I had just had my daughter. So that goes back to my personal stories that I did end up meeting my daughter's dad and I did get pregnant and had a healthy pregnancy after 10 to 15 years of amenorrhea and thinking that my body was probably broken.   being told by doctors that my body was probably going to be broken or I was going to need fertility drugs and things like that. I didn't do anything other than optimize my nutrition. Even now with how much I've learned from Lisa and so many other resources since that time, which was she's going to be four next month.   there are things I would have done differently in terms of optimizing nutrition and lifestyle and other things that maybe I think could have made it even more wonderful. But I had a really healthy pregnancy, really wonderful birth at home. And yeah, I'm just really amazed by the human body that when you give it what it needs, it will perform.   I don't know, perform isn't really the right word, but function optimally. And fertility is part of optimal function for women, whether they want to get pregnant or not. I mostly work with women that want to get pregnant. So that's sort of the lens in which I see everything. Yeah.   Michelle (15:36) Yeah.   Me too. But yeah, I mean that I always say it's just a reflection of overall health. If it doesn't have the resources or if it's at a deficit, it's going to, you know, it's not going to give you what you want or it's not going to be functioning optimally and it's definitely not going to prioritize reproductive health. That's for sure. So that's, and a lot of what you're saying is pretty much my history. I mean, I had the same thing like three months cycles.   Holly Leever (16:08) Okay.   Michelle (16:16) And this is what I, you know, for a couple of years, and then I went to the doctor, he put me on the birth control pill and it was just like on and off, on and on and off. Um, there was a time where I also under eight, I was in college and I guess I probably did. I mean, I never really called it that, but I had a bit of an eating disorder myself. There were times where I was like, I want to, you know, look really thin. Like this next person that just is genetically a lot thinner build than I am.   And it was kind of like this thing I just got in my head. And so for a little while, I mean, it was on and off for me, but it definitely impacted my hormones. It was all over the place. So.   Holly Leever (16:54) I mean, even what has been normalized in our culture, like in, I remember magazines when I, I don't know what it kind of trashes in there these days, but I actually was reading them when I was in high school or whatever. And they would talk about like 1200 calorie diets. That's an eating disorder. If I eat that amount of calories, I'm very, very underweight. I mean, maybe somebody could do that if they're like four feet tall or something, but.   Michelle (17:12) Yeah.   Yeah, no, I mean, we need the   nutrients for sure. I mean, that's what it is. It really comes down to that. It comes down to energy. And so it's not even about eating, it's about what you're eating. Because as we know, just like a chi in the body, food has chi as well. And so there's some food that's kind of very low chi, very low energy or vitality, let's say.   Holly Leever (17:25) Yeah.   Mm-hmm.   Michelle (17:45) and versus live whole foods which are way more nourishing and nutrient dense for the body. So those are all important aspects. But as you were talking, you know, and this is something that I've thought about recently, and it's not something that's often talked about, but we're in the fertility world. And do you tend to see, because there's such like, there are a lot of rules, you know, you have to like be, you know, avoid   toxins and you have to eat certain foods and you have to do this and that and the other. And I feel like if you have a tendency or have any history with eating disorder or some sense of obsessive compulsion for your life, it can trigger that. Being on the fertility journey and focusing, even if you're trying quote unquote naturally, it can trigger that feeling. And that can be very...   stressful on top of like everything else.   Holly Leever (18:43) Mm-hmm.   Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, man, this is something I think about pretty much every day. Because, yeah, my experience in residential treatment for my eating disorder was very much based on, I guess, conventional guidelines of optimal nutrition, like low fat and pretty carb heavy.   and just kind of, and very weight goal based. And at the time, I think that was what I needed. I needed to just like know rules and they would have things like fun foods and there's a perspective of choosing relationship with other people over your eating disorder. So for example, if your friends want to go out for ice cream and you're like, oh no, I'm like too, I mean, this is...   very much something that I experienced, like totally not gonna go to that. I do not wanna eat ice cream or, you know, there were times that I would go and just not eat it or whatever. And so the choosing relationship was something that really resonated with me. And now I think about a lot too, with a young daughter of how I want to model things for her. And so I will say that my own approach to food, like for myself,   Michelle (20:05) Yeah.   Holly Leever (20:11) now is one of really trying to get optimal nutrition in when it's available to me, and also not to demonize anything primarily for her. And yeah, and also for her relationship with other people and knowing that, you know, if a friend gives you something, even if it's not like the healthiest thing ever.   that you know that your body is strong because it's mostly exposed to really nutrient dense foods. And the tricky part about that, because when I was in treatment, it was definitely like, this is what I'm doing right now. I'm like recovering from my eating disorder. So there's like the psychological piece of it, where I do think that it can be helpful in that kind of situation where like, yes, just get yourself to do the things that are hard for you.   so that you can overcome this psychological aspect of it. I had someone on my podcast that focuses a lot on just like body neutrality, not necessarily related to fertility, but it feels relevant because one of the things she struggled with was rheumatoid arthritis. And if she eats gluten or dairy, it flares it and it really hurts. And she said that she prioritizes her mental health over that.   physical experience. So she just still eats gluten and dairy, even though she knows it makes it worse. So that's something that's really empowering, I think, for people that if you know how things are affecting you and you're, you get to make that choice about like what the priority is. So for me, I, I like to feel really good. And part of my job is relies on me feeling really good.   energetically, you know, when I'm doing acupuncture, I do feel, or just being present with my client, like it feels to me, I know that I feel better if I'm eating a higher protein, higher fat, and that I'm eating mostly whole foods. So that's, that's a priority for me. And I do have to be thoughtful about like, is this an eating disorder? Like, am I kind of making myself crazy? Thanks.   So in the HA space, a lot of it is just like, fill yourself with, and I talked about this on my own podcast and Lisa's podcast. And my hope is that it's not triggering for anybody that's going through that experience because I do think it can be relevant and helpful to like eat, I'm trying not to say specific foods because I don't wanna demonize anyone food, but to eat things that are, you know, like more processed or something like that.   that you really like that brings a lot of joy to your life and also helps you to get over the psychological aspect of it. I think there's space for that. I don't think that just cramming yourself full of things that make you feel crappy, which was my first experience in residential. I was there for a really long time, for four months I was living in this place with this   you know, not so health promoting food and very based on like weight gain. And I, I did get my period back and I do think it was a step on the journey. And I, I feel. I also, after that left and lost a ton of weight, even more than I had before. So I, I went kind of the opposite direction because I was pushed so far.   Michelle (23:55) Bye.   Holly Leever (23:55) away from where I really wanted to be, I felt awful. And I don't think that is optimal health or fertility if you feel awful. But it's such a nuanced conversation. And this is where I think the individualized work in fertility is so important because I can say all these things about, you know, like optimize getting 100 to 150 grams of protein per day and having a balance of nutrition or recommend.   certain dietary resources like Real Food for Pregnancy is one of my favorite books. And I'm not sure if I'm allowed to talk about the new book yet, but there's another new book that's coming out soon that is a really great resource that I've just recently read through and been wowed by. But it is also about making it...   Michelle (24:34) Mm-hmm.   Holly Leever (24:46) it fitting into your life. So one of the things that I do a lot is I have women fill out a food log and also like a lifestyle log of how they're sleeping, what their screen time is like, what they're eating, you know, any number of things, what the exercise level is like. And then I make specific recommendations for each individual woman about what will be most supportive for her and what actually feels possible for her.   Michelle (25:13) Mm-hmm.   Holly Leever (25:14) If a woman is super busy and traveling all the time, she's not going to be able to eat like I do because I'm home cooking all the time. I'm home a lot of the time. That's not possible for everybody. So I also have a lot of ideas and ways that I work with women on getting in optimal nutrition that doesn't have to be done in such a specific way where you're tied to the kitchen all the time unless you want to be.   Michelle (25:20) Right.   Holly Leever (25:43) Yeah, it's a very nuanced, nuanced conversation that in an HA situation in particular, really requires individualized support, in my opinion.   Michelle (25:55) Yeah, for sure. I mean, the way I look at it in general is it's all a strategy. So that's how I see it with every patient. It really depends on their circumstance and what they feel and ultimately like what aligns for them. And if it's too much of a push, then people retract and it's not realistic. So everything has to be small steps to get to that point. Building a foundation, that's for sure.   Holly Leever (26:22) Yeah, one of the things that I shared about when I recorded my own podcast about HA is that if I went from, you know, where I was at, the first time I went to treatment was when I was 29. If I were to contemplate eating what I do now, back then, there's no way I could do that. There's no way. I needed to have these like bridges throughout my journey. And I do think that one of the things   Michelle (26:45) Yeah.   Holly Leever (26:52) found really helpful during my own, it wasn't really a fertility journey because I was sort of just doing it anyway, like not necessarily thinking about, it wasn't like I went through a long, like trying to conceive phase. I just did get pregnant because I had already optimized my fertility because I saw its relevance to my overall health.   I would maybe do a few things a little bit differently now.   Michelle (27:21) Yeah, I mean, it's always that way. I think we look back and there's so many things that we could have done differently. And, you know, that's, I guess that's hindsight. Hindsight is so perfectly clear versus like looking into the future. And that's, I think that really teaches us to be easy on ourselves and give us ourselves some grace and, and that I think is what helps the recovery is just.   Holly Leever (27:24) Yeah.   Yes, exactly.   Michelle (27:49) giving yourself that love and grace and acceptance, and also meeting yourself where you are. I think that's ultimately, it's very healing to do so. It feels more soothing, honestly, on the soul and on the body. And it's more realistic. It's more, it's something that you can really adopt and take in to your life.   Holly Leever (27:55) Mm-hmm. Yeah.   Absolutely, yes.   Michelle (28:11) in a way that's going to last. So as far as, well, fertility awareness is amazing because I think a lot of people don't realize just how powerful it is. But for people who are not as familiar with it, what is it besides I think people think of the BBT, like basal body temperature charting, besides that obviously it's so much more.   Holly Leever (28:23) Mm-hmm.   Yeah.   Michelle (28:34) I look at it like a body awareness.   mindfulness practice of your menstrual cycle.   Holly Leever (28:39) Absolutely. Yeah. So fertility awareness, like the term fertility awareness, is kind of just having a basic understanding of how your fertility works. But the fertility awareness method, there are actually many different types and I'm not an expert on all of them. I have been trained by Lisa, so she's been very much informed by the justice method, but she doesn't exclusively teach that.   And it is a symptom thermal method, what I have been trained in. So that means we're tracking symptoms like cervical position and cervical mucus and thermal temperature. So we're tracking BBT. So there are other methods that only use mucus or use urine metabolites to test hormones and things like that. So what I'm sharing about is purely based on the style that I've been trained in. So there's definitely differences and definitely differences in the way that they chart that we all.   chart things, so it's a little bit tricky to interpret another method's charting because they don't always line up perfectly. But the method that I've been trained in is pretty similar to the Taking Charge of Your Fertility, which most people that know anything about fertility and fertility awareness know about that book. And that was my first exposure.   I don't know what your acupuncture education was like, but I know that all we learned about was BBT and it was sort of this like general awareness that this could tell women about their fertility, but there was really not any more detail given about all of the implications of what you can actually learn from the fertility awareness method, not just from a fertility perspective, but also from a health and metabolic function.   perspective. So yeah, so we're tracking BBT, basal body temperature. So that's just your waking temperature. So you take your temperature first thing when you wake up in the morning before you drink or talk or go to the bathroom or anything like that. And in the method I teach, there are some very specific guidelines around that, that I'm not going to go into everything because we'd be here forever. That's a lot of the work that I do. So that's the first part of it. And then from that, you create a chart.   Michelle (30:51) I'm sorry.   Holly Leever (30:58) you know, an XY graph, and then there's the cycle days and the temperature. I use Fahrenheit because I'm in America, but there's also Celsius charts available. I use the Read Your Body app with my clients or paper charts. I don't ever recommend using any of the apps that have any predictions. I used to use another app, but I just recently learned that they started adding predictions into their method.   And so I don't recommend that one anymore. So it's a big bummer when that happens. And if women have enough awareness about how it actually works, then if, as long as they can ignore the predictions and the algorithms and things, that's fine. But especially as you're learning, it makes things way more confusing. I've had women that have, they have like two different apps and then they're also taking their temperature and they're so confused because they're like.   Michelle (31:53) Yeah.   Holly Leever (31:56) This one tells me I'm ovulating here. And then my chart says something different. And I'm like, OK, that's because there's a lot of inaccuracy here. And the best way to know what's going on inside of your body in terms of your fertility is to actually track it manually yourself. Lisa compares it to the weather. If you can look on.   the weather prediction app or whatever and see what they think is gonna be happening, or you could walk outside and go see what's happening. You know? So that's really what the, I love that comparison because it's such an obvious thing. Like nobody would be like, is it raining? Or like they would just go outside. So the other part of it is cervical mucus tracking, which that is a lot of the education that is different. Learning how to do BBT is really pretty straightforward.   Michelle (32:27) I like that. That's good.   Holly Leever (32:50) And once you learn how to do it and the things that can impact your temperature, like the amount that you sleep. So you do need to have, in the method that I've been trained in, five hours of uninterrupted sleep, there's other methods that say that less sleep than that is fine. So I always recommend just doing your best and taking your temperature and always noting if there's something out of the ordinary.   but it can be impacted by alcohol, traveling, so many different things. So those are all things that I teach people about and then they learn to mark in their chart so that we can most accurately analyze what's going on with temperature. But it really is pretty straightforward. Like in a healthy cycle, you'll have a temperature shift and it will stay high throughout the entire luteal phase. So that's from ovulation until the day before the next period. And it should be within an optimal range   the pre-ovulatory phase and in the post-ovulatory phase. So that's part of the work that I do, which is an indication of metabolic function. And that's one of the reasons that I'm so obsessed with talking about protein is because getting adequate protein regularly throughout the day is really important for metabolic function. And that will show up in your temperature.   Also thyroid function too will usually show up in the temperature too, but we need to make sure that we're accurately tracking temperature first before we can draw any diagnostic conclusions from what we're seeing in the chart. So cervical mucus is the other part of it. So we have a very, in this method, a very specific way of collecting cervical mucus. So I use external wiping.   So usually when women will come to me, they'll be like, I saw this in my underwear and I pulled this out of my vagina. And you know, like there's, they're so confused about what they're actually tracking. And there's not any, there's not like a consistent way that they're tracking it to reduce the variables in kind of assessing what's really going on. So we use this external wiping method and then looking at the toilet paper and.   taking the mucus off of the toilet paper and stretching it between your fingers. So it is a more intimate type of fertility awareness, but it doesn't require you to actually insert your finger unless you're tracking cervical position. And as someone, I totally left this out of my own story, but it was a significant part of my story that I had really painful sex and the insertion of anything, a finger tampon, like...   Michelle (35:19) Yeah.   Holly Leever (35:20) really painful for me for a lot of my life, which I think was also connected to under nutrition and having such low estrogen levels and also being on birth control can shrink your vaginal canal, which I only learned within the past couple of years. And I think that was part of what was happening for me. So for other women that I've worked with, it's painful for them to insert their finger. So we don't use cervical position tracking and   Michelle (35:46) Right.   Holly Leever (35:49) it's really great that they don't have to do the internal checks for cervical mucus either for that reason. And it can also be more confusing if you're doing internal checks because there isn't really ever a day that your vagina is totally dry. So it makes your dry days harder to identify. And I mean, this is where there is a difference between textbook learning and actual in the field experience.   Michelle (36:07) Mm-hmm.   Holly Leever (36:19) in, if you look in a textbook, it's just like, Oh, they, a woman has her period, then she has dry days, then she has mucus, then she ovulates, then she goes back to dry days. And most of the women in my practice cycles don't look like that when we first start working together. And part of that is, you know, I've talked about my eating disorder, but I, there's a, most of the women I work with are nutrient depleted.   And it's not because they're intentionally trying to under eat or lose weight most of the time, it's because there hasn't been adequate education on what is actually optimal nutrition for a human. You know, we've just been so, I know in my family, it was just like convenience based. And a lot of the women that I work with, it's very much convenience based. So maybe they're getting enough overall calories, but they're not getting.   Michelle (36:53) Mm-hmm.   Holly Leever (37:11) actual nutrients from those calories, for example. My friend just sent me a reel from this guy and he was like an avocado and this like Snickers thing have like the same amount of calories. But in terms of nutrient density, there's really no comparison of what that, the message that that's going to send to your body about what to do with that food. So.   Michelle (37:27) Right.   Yeah.   Holly Leever (37:36) I went off into a little nutrition tangent again, but it's so relevant to cervical mucus production. So I see all sorts of issues with cervical mucus production, whether it's limited or if the mucus phase is too long, if there is mucus in the post-ovulatory phase. And this is the difference between taking her, Lisa's, class in learning how to chart my own cycle versus learning how to apply it for many, many women. This is what we...   Michelle (37:41) Bye.   Holly Leever (38:05) learn about is how to really get into the nitty gritty details about like, what does this mucus mean? And the other part that I'll say about fertility awareness is that although we're getting into the nitty gritty details about BBT and cervical mucus and cervical position, any individual like day or data point is sort of irrelevant outside of the context of the full chart. It's just like Chinese medicine. I'm sure that   Michelle (38:33) Yeah.   Holly Leever (38:34) people are like, I have a headache, what would you do for that? And you're like, do you have like an hour for me to explain to you all of the potential causes of headaches? Because that's really, you know, we're not looking at symptoms on an individual basis, we're looking at the overall pattern of like what is causing that for that individual person? And so the chart really feels very similar to Chinese medicine in that way, in that it gives us...   Michelle (38:43) Yeah, it's true.   Yeah.   Holly Leever (39:03) It's like its whole own diagnostic process, which is really fun to compare with also the Chinese medicine diagnosis too. So I love kind of weaving those two things together too.   Michelle (39:18) I'll be honest, it makes it easier for me to do my job. I can see what's going on. I can see if I need to increase some young herbs, increase the heat in the body. And then I'll see after a while, things shift based on what I do, which is based on what I saw early on. So it's huge because it's such a great tool. So when people come in to see me and they say, I have a couple of months worth of my   Holly Leever (39:27) Mm-hmm.   Mm-hmm.   Michelle (39:46) charting, I'm like so excited. So it gives me a lot to work with.   Holly Leever (39:48) Yes. I mean, working with fertility, I started working with fertility pretty early on in my practice, and I just started really incorporating fertility awareness in the way that I do it now within the past couple of years. And it was like doing it blind before I had as much information as I do now. If you don't have a chart, you don't even know if they're ovulating. So-   Michelle (40:11) Yeah, it's a game changer.   Yeah, I mean, you could do sometimes like a progesterone metabolites, not so much LH, you know, just to make sure to confirm, but, you know, there's definitely like other things and other more expensive kits that you can get, but I mean, this is just gold standard. It's like, it's so great, you know, it's such a great way to look at it. It gives you so much insight, it connects you with your own body and   Holly Leever (40:18) OPKs. Yep, right.   Mm-hmm.   That's it.   Michelle (40:40) I think it's amazing, but I could talk to you for hours, Holly. I mean, this is so interesting. There's so many things that we can obviously talk about, but it's so important for people to learn this and to know that it is something that can actually benefit them. I think some people get really stressed out by it initially. And I say it's the same thing as like meditation. When you sit down to meditate, at first it's uncomfortable or you're starting something new, it's going to be uncomfortable.   Holly Leever (40:58) Hehehe   Michelle (41:07) But if you can kind of get through that discomfort, eventually on the other side, it's gonna give you so much more. It's gonna benefit you in so many ways that you didn't even imagine.   Holly Leever (41:17) and sometimes the overwhelm is because they don't understand it. That's what I found, is that people will be reading into each little peak and valley in the chart, and they're just kind of like, I don't even know what it means. And that's really stressful. And if you... I don't... I mean, I could tell people it within an hour session how to...   Michelle (41:23) Yeah.   Yeah.   Oh yeah, because...   Holly Leever (41:45) actually interpret the BBT and they could really get a lot of, it's just like going to a meditation class. If you learn just actually what is happening and what's normal, that can really help to sort of calm your nervous system about the overwhelm around it.   Michelle (42:03) Yeah. And also knowing that eventually it's going to get easier. It's just, it's like anything. It's like anything new eventually does get easier. So for people who do want to hear your podcast or reach out to you and work with you, how can they find you?   Holly Leever (42:07) Let's move.   Yeah, so I'm very active on Instagram. I'm on Instagram at rosebud underscore wellness. I also have a website rosebudwellness.com. And I do have a free fertility awareness for conception video on my Instagram linked there. Maybe we could also link it in the show notes. I could send it to you. So it's just a 30 minute video kind of going through a little bit more details about what's involved.   So I know that fertility awareness is not for everyone. Not everybody's gonna want to get into this level of detail. So that video is really helpful for people to kind of get a feel for it and see like, does that sound crazy or could I maybe try that? So, yeah.   Michelle (43:05) That's awesome. Well, this is great because people are listening to this. They're probably really curious about it. So it's awesome to have a free resource. So thank you for that. Um, so Holly, thank you so much for coming on. This is so great. I mean, I can talk to you for way um, than we have time, but this is just great information. I'm sure so many people got so much value from this. So thank you for coming on today.   Holly Leever (43:13) Yeah.   My pleasure, thank you so much for having me.

This is a unique Pray for Micah Podcast experience where Micah and some new friends from Asheville, NC (Scott Asbell, Elijah "E" Schneidewind, and Luca Rade) decided to bust out the recording equipment to capture a deep conversation they were having while sharing a late-night hookah. They cover a range of topics from human consciousness, artificial intelligence, technological advancements, post-modernism, religious constructs, Christian mythos, and the consequences they have on culture, society, and future generations. About Scott Asbell: Ever playful and ever the student of the Paschal mystery, Scott Asbell dances through dizzying and often concurrent life, death, and resurrection journeys to joyfully and artfully weave his life well lived. Growing up in the spiritual worlds of Young Life and the Presbyterian Church, Scott now feels most at home in the perennial tradition, including and especially mystical/contemplative Christianity. He is a student of the Enneagram and Integral Theory and credits those energies for initiating and ushering him into the second half of his spiritual life. While business management and entrepreneurship has been a cornerstone of Scott's life from an early age (he even bought and ran a bowling alley at the age of 21!), he considers his creative pursuits and endeavors to be his life's purpose and work. A self taught musician and song writer, Scott writes and releases music under the names Cardinal Folk, Absolute All, and Wander Yonder. His other main creative endeavor is building tiny houses and creating DIY carpentry videos via YouTube under the moniker Slacker Scott. About Elijah "E" Schneidewind: Elijah "E" Schneidewind is a dedicated and innovative healthcare professional boasting over a decade of diverse experience across various domains including physical therapy, athletic training, personal training, nutrition coaching, massage and bodywork, and Arvigo therapy. He maintains an insatiable thirst for knowledge and is deeply committed to leveraging integrative and personalized approaches to enhance human health and well-being. E is driven by a mission to instigate positive lifestyle changes and promote overall wellness within his community. His core values revolve around nature, sustainability, justice, equality, peace, and love. Beyond his professional endeavors, E finds solace and joy in spending quality time with his beloved family – his partner, Lizzie, his faithful dog, Terkie, and two adorable cats, CoCo Bean and Daisy May. Together, they immerse themselves in activities such as gardening, cooking, homesteading, and engaging in building projects on their picturesque homestead nestled in the Appalachian Mountains. About Luca Rade: Luca is the founder of Flourish, a platform for everyone to find the guidance, healing, or training they need to flourish. He is the author of The Infinitely Pronged Hunger for Life, an alchemical and prophetic book of poetry, and The Journey of Being Alive podcast series. Having taught Contact Improv workshops and worked as a decision coach in the past, he is now creating Rewilding and Playfight containers in Asheville, NC to enable deep and primal connections between people and with the natural world. He holds a BA magna cum laude from Princeton University. Flourish emerged from Luca's years-long journey of embodying, awakening, grieving, and loving, which brought him into contact with dozens of guides, healers, and teachers and sparked his own explorations in guiding others. He experienced the challenges and confusions of finding and trusting the right guides, healers, and teachers outside of limited mainstream-sanctioned options. He realized that without the right digital platform, the new yet ancient aliveness emerging across the world today will not break through the grip of our society's disembodied and disconnected ways of being. Flourish is the Portal, the Ark, and the Trojan Horse for this emerging aliveness.

The Arvigo Technique of Maya Abdominal Massage was developed in Belize by Dr. Rosita Arvigo who spent years studying with traditional Mayan Shaman. This therapy is an external, gentle manipulation that helps to reposition internal organs of the digestive and reproductive system and can help with optimizing fertility. In today's episode I interview Holly Leever, an Arvigo Massage Therapist (among many other things) and we get into all the goodness of what Arvigo massage is, when to use it and how it can help you improve your fertility outcomes. Episode HIghlights What is an Arvigo abdominal massage? How it can help reposition a ‘stuck' uterus Different tools to help optimize your womb  When to use the Arvigo massage technique when TTC The benefits of doing self abdominal massage for fertility How to find an Arvigo massage therapist  For full show notes and related links: https://www.naturallynora.ca/blog/75 Please Note: The contents of this podcast are for educational and informational purposes only. The information is not to be interpreted as, or mistaken for, clinical advice. Please consult a medical professional or healthcare provider for medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.

  Quelles fausses idées se cachent derrière la ménopause ? Comment vivre l'alchimie de la ménopause et retrouver notre pouvoir personnel?   Face au manque d'informations soutenantes et holistiques pour la femme, mon invitée France Richard nous partage ici son expérience et ses recherches approfondies sur une vision naturelle de la ménopause. Une émission qui va vous étonner et, je l'espère, vous réconforter et vous donner envie de vous préparer à ce chapitre de nos vies autant déroutant que puissant ! La ménopause est vraiment un élément fondamental de notre féminité et pourtant dépourvu d'informations pour soutenir ce passage de notre vie. Beaucoup de femmes vivent cette transition comme un fardeau, avec des symptômes difficiles et l'impression de vivre une certaine malédiction. Pourtant il est possible de s'y préparer, de réparer notre relation à notre ménopause et de ne plus en être victime. France est Naturopathe et praticienne Arvigo®. Elle a fait l'expérience de signes de périménopause qui l'ont surprise par leur force émotionnelle. C'est ce qui l'a lancé dans une quête profonde sur le sujet pour mieux comprendre ce qui se passe dans le corps physique, mais aussi au niveau énergétique, psycho-émotionnel et spirituel. Avec la ménopause, il y a eu une grande distorsion de la position de la femme dans la société, dans sa vie, dans sa famille, dans son couple, dans sa sexualité, dans sa place, sa relation à elle-même, à son propre corps. Alors il est normal de se retrouver très perturbée à l'approche de la ménopause. Notre conversation cherche à changer les croyances et ramener le caractère sacré et puissant que cet événement apporte dans la vie d'une femme.   Voici les sujets abordés dans la conversation: L'expérience personnelle de France Qu'est-ce que veut dire être ménopausée ? Quelles sont les étapes? Quelles fausses idées se cachent derrière la ménopause ? L'interprétation de la ménopause en médecine traditionnelle chinoise et selon la roue de médecine amérindienne Comment préparer la purification émotionnelle & vivre l'alchimie de la ménopause? Activer la maturation féminine et retrouver son pouvoir personnel   Retrouve France Richard sur son site internet pour ses accompagnements: francerichard.com (En introduction à cette émission je fais référence à l'épisode #27, enregistrée avec France sur les vapeurs vaginales ou yoni steam. Écoute l'émission ici).     Quelles fausses idées se cachent derrière la ménopause ?   Ce qui est important de comprendre, c'est que la ménopause ne signifie pas juste l'arrêt des saignements pour la femme, c'est une transition. Et cette transition là c'est intéressant de la nommer autrement, de la nommer péri-ménopause. En effet, la réalité est que la femme vit une période de transition durant laquelle son corps vit la recherche d'une nouvelle orchestration hormonale, d'un nouvel équilibre. Et cette période-là, selon les femmes, leurs histoires, leur condition de santé, elle va durer entre 3 et 6 ans, voire même de 10 ans, donc cela varie.   Il est important de comprendre que la ménopause est un continuum où le corps est à la recherche d'un nouvel équilibre. Avec l'arrêt des menstruations, le corps se rend disponible à l'intérieur pour autre chose. Alors ce n'est pas un processus de vieillissement, c'est un processus de préservation.   La ménopause dans les traditions ancestrales   Selon la roue des 4 saisons en médecine chinoise, la femme a déjà vécu les 4 saisons de sa vie, et lorsqu'elle arrive à la ménopause, elle va s'ouvrir vers un 2nd printemps. C'est un changement de paradigme en comparaison au message véhiculé par la société moderne. En médecine chinoise, le canal central qui alimente les organes génitaux en sang va commencer à se tarir progressivement, donc l'apport en sang qui va vers les organes génitaux va diminuer. Le corps est en recherche d'un nouvel équilibre pour qu...

This week I'm highlighting my friend, Janelle Gullan, the visionary behind 'The Wild Orange Tree.' Janelle, an occupational therapist, holistic pelvic care provider, bodyworker, and Arvigo practitioner from Melbourne, Australia, joins me in one of our most vulnerable Soul Sister Conversations we shared back in early 2021. I'm deciding to re-share our talk here on the podcast. Together, we delve into the profound realm of womb wisdom, empowering women to transcend their thoughts and embrace their bodies for enhanced ease, confidence, and vitality on their mothering journey. Let us embrace the stories held within our womb space, unlocking the transformative power of feminine cycles. Janelle invites us to awaken to the empowering stages of our mothering journey, recognizing it as an expression of creativity at its core. Be sure to immerse yourself in Janelle's sublime guided meditation, an exquisite offering to nurture and uplift your precious womb space.Connect with Janelle:http://thewildorangetree.com.au/https://www.instagram.com/thewildorangetree/You're Invited!! JOIN the 2024 MOON MAGIC & MANIFESTATION community https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.com/moon-magic-2024CONNECT with Lisa & get IVF COACHING SUPPORT https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.com BOOK a complimentary DISCOVERY CALL: https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.as.me/20-min-discovery-callFERTILTIY HYPNOTHERAPY SUPPORThttps://ivfmanifestingamiracle.com/hypnotherapy-programORDER BOOK: ‘HOLD ON, BABY! A Soulful Guide to Navigating the Ups & Downs of Infertility & IVF.'https://ivfmanifestingamiracle.com/holdonbabyInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/ivf.manifesting.a.miracle/LISTEN to the PODCAST on Apple and Spotify:https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/soulful-ivf/id1661561097**Please Rate the show & Subscribe! THANK YOU so much for your Reviews of the podcast - It means the absolute world! Music Credit Closing Song by Sam Costigan. Follow her on Spotify and IG ...

“It's not just drinking water. It's making sure that your mitochondria can generate that structured water, that exclusion zone water, that is really what is hydrating you,” explains Dr. Lauren Dodds, quantum chiropractor and founder of South Alabama Quantum Health where she combines her work in upper cervical chiropractic care, craniosacral therapy, and the Arvigo techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy with her deep understanding of quantum health. In this episode, Dr. Lauren discusses cellular hydration and why it is so important both to the structural integrity of the body as well as to one's mental and emotional states.  Cellular hydration refers to your mitochondria being able to generate enough structured or exclusion zone water for all of the body's processes. In this case, cellular dehydration occurs anytime there is a dysfunction within the fascia or in the quality or quantity of available structured water. When your body doesn't have enough structured water, the flow of electrons in your body will be disrupted. This can lead to an array of symptoms from brain fog and fatigue to gastrointestinal problems and muscle pain. In order to keep your mitochondria hydrated, it is critical to fix any dysfunction in your circadian rhythm by getting enough sunlight, observing the sunrise and sunset, and avoiding artificial light at night. You can also help your body out by improving the quality of your drinking water through filtering out toxins like fluoride and adding minerals like electrolytes. Drinking water is not enough to ensure healthy levels of cellular hydration. Your mitochondria need the infrared light from the sun and free electrons from the Earth in order to generate enough structured water to maintain good flow throughout the body. If you have been suffering from the effects of cellular dehydration, consider working to improve your circadian rhythm and being mindful about the quality of your drinking water.   Quotes “Fascia and water go together. If one is dysfunctional, then the structure is not going to work.” (10:42-10:48 | Dr. Lauren)  “The water that we drink is called bulk water…doesn't have the same structure that the water that our mitochondria makes.” (11:36-11:58 | Dr. Lauren)  “It's not just drinking water. It's making sure that your mitochondria can generate that structured water, that exclusion zone water, that is really what is hydrating you.” (12:46-12:57 | Dr. Lauren) “Making sure that you're getting good sunlight during the day, and then making sure that you're blocking the artificial light at night, I think are two of the biggest things that you can do for your mitochondrial health.” (17:28-17:40 | Dr. Lauren) “A lot of things come back to dehydration and not enough of that structured water. And then when you start to repair that mitochondrial function, to create that good water, it seems like a lot of things start to take care of itself.” (47:09-47:25 | Dr. Lauren) Links Connect with Dr. Lauren Dodds: Website: https://soalquantumhealth.com/ Instagram @drlaurendodds Clinic: Spark Wellness www.sparkmywellness.com @sparkmywellness   To find a practitioner who understand the health principles of quantum biology: www.quantumbiologycollective.org  To become a QBC member and get invites to live deep dives & access to our video library: www.quantumhealthtv.com  To take our 8 week practitioner certification in the science of quantum biology so that you can add it to your existing area of expertise: www.appliedquantumbiology.com    Follow on Twitter, Instagram & Facebook: @quantumhealthtv    Podcast production and show notes provided by HiveCast.fm

In this episode I had the great pleasure of chatting with Nicole Kruck. Nicole is an acupuncturist and Arvigo Abdominal Massage therapist that specializes in working with women's health. Nicole Kruck LAc, LMT, is the founder of Fertile Garden Wellness in NYC. She has over 40 years of experience providing holistic treatments such as acupuncture, The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®, herbal medicine, and nutrition to treat women at any age and stage. Nicole focuses on getting to the root cause of the problem. Focusing on an integrative approach to treat women's health (fertility, menstrual issues, assisted and natural fertility cycles, menopausal concerns, pre, and postnatal care) and abdominal issues (digestion, IBS, constipation, incontinence, and acid reflux). She also provides emotional support pertaining to anxiety, depression, stress, injuries, and sleep disorders. Her mission is to provide women with caring and personalized support to achieve their optimal health goals and live out their dreams.  Her private practice is located in New York City, a city very close to her heart. Connect with Nicole: Website - https://www.nicolekruck.com⁠ IG - https://www.instagram.com/fertilegardenwellness/ FREE FAM 3-Part Video Series - ⁠⁠https://www.rosebudwellness.com/free-fertility-awareness-method-3-part-video-series⁠⁠ Connect with Holly: Website - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.rosebudwellness.com/⁠⁠⁠ IG - ⁠⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/rosebud_wellness/ --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/wombwisdom/message

Join us on this episode of the Birth Journeys where Amy shares how she unexpectedly went into labor early with her pregnancies and her experience with natural birth in the hospital. This episode covers Arvigo massage, hospital birth, and natural birth. Podcasts mentioned by Amy:  https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wine-about-birth-podcast/id1494063129 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-birth-hour-a-birth-story-podcast/id1041801905 https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/evidence-based-birth/id133480813

Santiago Pont Lezica y Gisela Larsen hablaron con Lucas Arvigo, periodista que está en Qatar, sobre su experiencia.

In this episode of Wombspace, Nicole Kruck joins us to talk about how we can use traditional medicine to help us conceive. Nicole is a womb-centered reproductive health practitioner who has been providing holistic treatments such as acupuncture, Arvigo abdominal therapy, and herbal medicine and nutrition for over 25 years. What we'll explore in this episode: Nicole's story of healing period pain and painful sex through bringing her uterus back into alignment How traditional medicine and bringing the uterus back into alignment can support our bodies with conception What the conception preparation process can look like and how to create a welcoming space in your womb for new life to grow for 9 months Advice for people who are not conceiving right away How traditional and western medicine can be integrated for conception support Connect with Nicole for virtual consultations & in-person services in NYC: Instagram @fertilegardenwellness / Website: nicolekruck.com Connect with Your Host, Lindsay: Follow me on instagram and tiktok at @flowwithyourflow

Rosita Arvigo, is a Doctor of Naprapathy, ethnobotanist, spiritual healer, author of 8 books on traditional healing of Central America, and she is the founder of The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® & the Arvigo Institute. Donna Zubrod is a nationally certified, North Carolina Licensed Massage & Bodywork Therapist, a DONA certified Birth Doula, and a certified practitioner and teacher of The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®. Her practice, Seven Generations Massage & Birth, offers support towards positive reproductive and digestive health experiences and outcomes from menarche, throughout the childbearing years, to menopause and beyond. She helps couples with fertility challenges to successfully conceive and nurtured expectant mothers during pregnancy through postpartum. In today's episode I share a special interview with both Dr. Arvigo and Donna. We focus on abdominal therapy for fertility and period pain, and how it differs from conventional medical treatments. Today's episode is sponsored by the Fertility Awareness Mastery Online Self-Study Course.  The most in-depth and comprehensive online fertility awareness self-study program available. Click here to join now! Topics discussed in today's episode: What is The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®? The process of Arvigo® Therapy How you need proper hemodynamics to find homeostasis within the body What inspired Donna to conduct her observational study on measuring the affects of Arvigo® Therapy on the menstrual cycle parameter Some of the factors she had the 10 participants track during their cycles How Donna measured the effects for each participant Why goal of the study was to see if abdominal therapy had any effects on the menstrual cycle Was ovulation confirmed during the study? The importance of self-care by the participants during the study Did the participants have less painful period during the study? What were some of the results that stood out to Donna? How does abdominal therapy potentially improve mucus production or luteal phase length? How can Arvigo® bring women with extreme menstrual pain back to a normal cycle The importance of getting informed and being an active participant in your health Connect with Dr. Rosita Arvigo & Donna Zubrod: You can connect with Dr. Arvigo on her website and on the Arvigo®Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy website. You can connect with Donna on her Website, and on her Facebook. Resources mentioned: You Can Do It! Doulas Workshop FFP 050 | Journeys in Healing | Arvigo® Therapy for Fertility and Pregnancy | Donna Zubrod & Diane MacDonald FFP 018 | Arvigo Abdominal Therapy | Vaginal Steaming | Traditional Maya healing for Fertility and Menstrual Cycle Irregularities| Dr Rosita Arvigo The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility (Book) | Lisa Hendrickson-Jack Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Workbook Fertility Awareness Mastery Online Self-Study Program Related podcasts & blog posts: FFP 202 | Vaginal Steaming for Period Problems | Steamy Chick | Keli Garza FFP 067 | Healthy Menstruation | Fertility Awareness | Fertility Massage Therapy | Rachel Eyre FFP 050 | Journeys in Healing | Arvigo® Therapy for Fertility and Pregnancy | Donna Zubrod & Diane MacDonald FFP 018 | Arvigo Abdominal Therapy | Vaginal Steaming | Traditional Maya healing for Fertility and Menstrual Cycle Irregularities| Dr Rosita Arvigo Join the community! Follow Fertility Friday on Instagram! Subscribe to the Fertility Friday Podcast in Apple Podcasts! Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by J-Gantic A Special Thank You to Our Show Sponsors: Fertility Friday | Fertility Awareness Programs This episode is sponsored by my Fertility Awareness Programs! Master Fertility Awareness and take a deep dive into your cycles and how they relate to your overall health! Click here to apply now! Fertility Awareness Mastery Mentorship Program (FAMM) This episode is sponsored by FAMM! Are you a women's health practitioner looking for a solid way to incorporate comprehensive fertility awareness chart analysis into your practice? If yes, FAMM is the program you've been waiting for. Click here to apply now!

After a LONG break, The VBAC Link podcast is back again! We have missed hearing your stories and feeling inspired by your strength. We promise that you will smile, cry, and celebrate with Francis as she shares her beautiful heart with us today. While pregnant with her hopeful VBA2C baby, Francis created these birth goals:“I wish for a healthy mother and baby, both physically and emotionally. For my intuition to guide me and to be trusted by those around me. For labor to begin and continue as hands-off as possible and to feel heard, empowered, and respected.”She strived for an empowering birth experience no matter what the outcome was, which only made her successful VBA2C that much sweeter. We also discuss why you shouldn't be afraid to birth a big baby and how your intuition can be your greatest asset in the birth room.   Additional linksThe VBAC Link Blog: Get That Big Baby OutThe VBAC Link Shirt ShopThe VBAC Link on Apple PodcastsHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull transcriptNote: All transcripts are edited to correct grammar, false starts, and filler words.  Julie: Welcome to The VBAC Link podcast. We have Francis with us today. And my gosh! I did not sing. I was going to sing a song, “Guess who's back, back again?” Oh, yes. I was going to sing it. I was going to sing it, but I did not sing it. Meagan: Guess who's back? Julie: Back again. Meagan: Oh, I love it. Julie: Julie's back. And Meagan! Meagan: Yeah! Julie: Dang it. I sang it. Gosh. The only other time I have sang on the podcast was when I sang myself “Happy Birthday” for me in Korean on my birthday episode. That was fun. Do you remember that? Meagan: Yeah, that was forever ago. Julie: That was super fun. Julie: Oh my gosh. We are back! Meagan: We're back! Julie: It's been a while. Meagan: Yes it has. Julie: Holy cow. Meagan: We have had a lot going on, but it feels good. It feels really good. It feels a little weird and out of sync, but I am excited to be back. I'm sitting here. I'm so excited to have guests again. I'm excited to be with you. It's going to be great. Julie: Wow. So much has happened since we aired our last episode. Do you want to just kind of give a couple little things about what you have been up to and I'll do the same, and then we will get into our story? Meagan: Yeah. My life is always crazy with children. What have I been up to? Gymnastics meets, soccer games, working on children's mental health. COVID impacted my kids more than I ever even realized. And so, working with kids and their mental health, getting ready to move– a sporadic, spontaneous move. Yeah. Working with my husband, just letting him work, doing doula stuff for my doula business, hiring new doulas. It's been a lot but it's been great. Julie: Yeah. Holy cow. I know all that already and I am starting to feel a little bit overwhelmed for you. Kind of the same for me, keeping up with kids. My oldest has had some mental and physical health struggles as well, and so lots of things going on for him, and soccer, and gymnastics. My oldest two boys are doing bouldering classes, so learning how to climb big rocks. Meagan: That's awesome. Julie: I know. It's super fun. Super fun for them. And I actually have shifted in my role in the birth work field and I am a birth photographer now. So still a little bit of doula-ing, but birth photography mostly and that's been really fun. I really love it a lot. Meagan: And you're great. You're so great at it too. Julie: Thank you. Thank you, thank you. Yeah. It's been really fun. Really interesting, but it's also kind of like starting a whole new business while restarting everything with The VBAC Link so it's kind of been a lot. We have been up to a lot recently. So thanks everybody for hanging in there with us while we took a little bit of a break to catch up, and maintain, and restart some things in our busy lives. We appreciate everybody for supporting us while we were hanging out in the background for just a little bit, but we're back. Meagan: We're back. Julie: We're back. Review of the Week Alright, as always, we have to start the episode with a review of the week. Thank you so much, everybody, for leaving reviews. We love them so much and Meagan is going to share one with us right now. Meagan: Yes. We have a review from holmclaugh90 and the title is “I listen every single day.” It says, “After a traumatic cesarean with my first baby five years ago and multiple miscarriages in between, this is a breath of fresh air as I await my chance to have a VBAC this October with my second. Love every story I hear on this podcast and it makes me feel so much stronger in knowing that I can do this.” I love it. Julie: I love it too. I love it. Meagan: That was in July of last year, so she definitely has had a baby. So holmclaugh90, if you are still listening, email us at info@thevbaclink.com. We would love to know how your birth went. Julie: Yeah. Or tag us in your birth story on Instagram or Facebook and we can share it. Meagan: Yeah. Francis' Story Meagan: Alright. Julie: Alright. Meagan: I can't wait for this new story. Julie: I know. We are really excited. We are bringing it back with a classic story about– can you guess? Drumroll please. Big babies! Meagan: I was gonna say, VBAC with a big baby. Julie: VBAC with a big baby, and we are also going to sprinkle in some talk about maternal mental health, and the importance of trauma processing, and working through prior births, and some cholestasis there for a little bit of variety. But before we do that, I want to introduce our guest, Francis. Francis is a married mother of three from Raleigh, North Carolina. She balances motherhood with a full-time job in international business. Wow. Really need to hear more about that. She enjoys swimming, CrossFit, outdoor adventuring, and traveling. So Francis, welcome. Thank you so much for being with us. We cannot wait to hear more about your story. Why don't you go ahead and tell us a little bit more? Francis: Sure. Well first of all, it's so good to be with you guys. I am so glad that you're back doing this. Julie: Thank you. Francis: It was just such a resource that I used in my pregnancy, and so I am so glad that there are more episodes for women to listen to, and hopefully be inspired by, and learn from. You guys are just amazing and congratulations on all that you guys have been up to. And Julie, I think that's awesome that you are doing birth photography. We had a birth photographer at all three of our births and it's just something that I hold so precious and dear to my heart. So I think it's incredible that you are doing that and giving that back to moms as well. Julie: Aw, thank you. Meagan: I would totally agree with you. It's actually one of my biggest regrets not having one at my birth. I wish so badly that I had someone there to take more pictures and videos so I could experience it from a different perspective too. Francis: Yeah. Meagan: Because when you are in the thick of it, it's hard to even comprehend what is happening. I wish I could have just seen, I don't know. I wish I could've seen it from a different angle. But yeah. She's awesome. Francis: Yeah. And you know, it's funny. I didn't even think about this as part of my birth story when I was thinking about it, but we did have a birth photographer with all three of my births and as you'll hear, my first two births did not go as planned, but I still have the photographs from that and it actually really did help in my healing when I had the courage to go through them to look back and see, you know what? Even though this didn't go as I thought it might, there is still a lot of beauty in my births. Meagan: Absolutely. Yeah. Francis: So I think it is for any woman. To have that moment captured is special, no matter how the birth turns out. You know? Julie: Yeah, I love that. Thank you. Francis: Yeah. Julie: Nice plug-in. Francis: Yeah I know, right? So speaking of– my first pregnancy was in 2012 and prior to getting pregnant, I had been introduced to homebirth by my sister who had a really beautiful homebirth for herself. Prior to her having a homebirth, I honestly didn't really know that that was a thing that people were doing. I just assumed everyone had hospital births and that was just the way it was. And so when I saw her experience and I educated myself on what a homebirth was, I decided I really wanted that for myself. So after I got pregnant, I looked into having a homebirth, but unfortunately in the state where I am at, it's not real easy for midwives to operate in a homebirth setting. So it wasn't in the cards for me, but I did find a freestanding birth center that was about 30 minutes from my home staffed by midwives and then backed up by physicians where I could give birth. I hired a really amazing doula and took a Birthing From Within class with her, and then I hired the birth photographer. We had everything lined up. My pregnancy was super easy and very normal up until I got to about 40 weeks and started stressing out, like a lot of moms do. I knew it was normal and natural to go past 40 weeks, but I don't know. I guess I just thought it would never happen to me. I don't know. But I started to get really stressed out. I hit 41 weeks and my provider wanted to do an ultrasound to check the fluid and check in on baby. Everything was healthy, but they did end up measuring my baby and they estimated that my baby was over 12 pounds. So as you can imagine, I really started to freak out. My provider was still supportive and supportive of me trying for a natural birth at the birth center if I could go into labor on my own, but I do know that it planted some seeds of doubt both with them and honestly within myself. But I do know that women birth big babies all the time and that ultrasounds can be wrong.  So we moved forward. I luckily ended up going into labor on my own right before I hit 42 weeks. I had a long labor, but it was steady. I was at the birth center and everything was normal, kind of until it wasn't. I didn't know this at the time, but I ended up basically stalling at 8 centimeters for a number of hours and then my labor basically stopped. And so we decided to go to the hospital which was really devastating to transfer, but I knew it was necessary at that point. So we transferred. I did get an epidural and some Pitocin to try to pick things back up. But at this point, it had been 36 hours and I was just kind of ready to be over it. There was this question mark of how big my baby was and maybe my baby really wasn't going to fit. So I consented to a Cesarean and my baby did end up being really big. He was a surprise gender. He was a boy and he was 11 lbs. 2 oz. So not quite 12, but still really big. Meagan: Wow. Julie: Really big baby. Meagan: Yeah. Julie: That's a big, chunky baby. Francis: Yeah, exactly. So my Cesarean was fine. You know, physically I was fine. My recovery wasn't bad. But I mentally struggled as I know a lot of Cesarean moms do. I was just really disappointed in the outcome. I went from really wanting a homebirth, to then being at the birth center, to then transferring to the hospital, and then having a Cesarean. I felt like a failure. And I know looking back now that I wasn't, but it felt that way at the time. I've been a physically active person my whole life, and so I think for the first time ever, I really felt like my body failed me. That was really hard. I had a hard time swallowing that. I also felt guilt. I felt like it was my fault, like maybe I ate too much pie and that's why I had an 11 pound baby. Or maybe I should have kept trying at the birth center and not gone to the hospital. But either way, you know, it worked out the way it did. We were healthy, and that, of course, is the most important thing. But I was really– I did struggle for a while with that birth and just processing everything that I went through. Fast forward a couple of years later, my husband and I decided that we were ready for another. I had regained some confidence in myself and in my body, and decided that I did want to go for a VBAC. I was able to go back to the birth center midwives from my prior pregnancy, but in my state, you can't do VBAC out of the hospital, so they have admitting privileges in the hospital. So I knew it meant an automatic hospital birth which was disappointing because again, I really didn't want to be in a hospital environment, but I didn't have much of a choice. But I found the midwives were really supportive and I was ready to go. We had the same doula and the same photographer, and everything was really great. And then at right about 40 weeks, I got cholestasis, which, I know you guys have covered on the podcast before, but it causes insane itching and it can be harmful to the baby. So at that point, we decided I really needed to be induced. That was, again, really devastating, I had hoped to be able to go into labor on my own and labor at home as long as possible before going to the hospital, but having an induction that I knew in my heart was really medically necessary, I had to be at the hospital.  I am super grateful our midwife group– I didn't know a whole lot about VBAC protocol at the time with induction, but what I know now, I know that they really followed it to a T. We did a low and slow induction. We did a Foley and very gentle Pitocin. I was honestly kind of on and off Pitocin for about three days trying to get this baby to come out. At the end of the third day, I think I had gotten to 3 centimeters. I got a cervical check and they felt my baby‘s ear instead of the top of her head, so she was almost completely sideways. Julie: Oh wow. Francis: Yeah. So that was obviously quite unexpected. We spent a little bit of time with the doula and the midwife trying to sort of shimmy and shake and get her to move, but after some time, it just wasn't happening. I had already been there over three days. We had a toddler that was being shuffled around between family at home. I just knew in my heart at that point it was time to consent to another Cesarean. That was a super difficult decision, but honestly, I came to it really feeling genuinely supported and that I had been involved in the decision making every step of the way, so it wasn't a bad experience. Rght about that time, the concept of family-centered Cesareans was coming to the forefront, and so I was able to have a really gentle Cesarean. I did have a clear drape. I think I was the second person at this hospital to have a clear drape and it was fine.  Again, I did end up having another really big baby. This was also a surprise gender. It was a girl. She was 10 lbs. 10 oz. So at that point, I realized I just grow really giant babies. Again, processing the Cesarean was difficult, but probably not as difficult as the first time just because I had been so well supported by everybody. You know? So after that, life moved on. My husband and I weren't entirely sure that we were done having kids, but pretty sure we were done having kids, and so I just fell into life. You know, work, being a mom. I unfortunately had a couple of really difficult personal situations that came about during the couple of years after my daughter was born. The biggest one being my mother was diagnosed with cancer and then passed away. That was really difficult. Meagan: Yeah. That's heavy. Heavy, heavy. Francis: Yes. Yeah, very. Meagan: I'm sorry. Francis: Thank you. I decided I really needed to take some time to work on myself. You know? So I found an amazing counselor who I went and saw very frequently. We just spent a lot of time processing everything. Some of that, of course, was my births, and processing the trauma of my births, and just those feelings of failure, and disappointment, and guilt. And then, we just spent a lot of time processing everything else that life throws at you. Through that, one of the things, and probably the most important thing, that I learned was that I have really good instincts. I think that honestly, most of us do, especially mothers. We have really good instincts, but it takes some time, and some practice, and some patience to learn how to trust them and how to follow them. Going through all of the counseling really helped teach me how to lean in to my intuition and how to trust my gut. That was an experience that just has obviously helped me in every area of life. Julie: That's such a valuable thing to learn. Francis: Yeah. Julie: It's a hard way to learn it, but it's such a good skill to have and a good thing that came out of that. Francis: Yeah, exactly. Yep. So I was in a really good place and then 2020 happened, right? The pandemic and then in July 2020, I found myself surprised pregnant. Obviously, my husband and I had not closed the door on having children, but we weren't really planning on it. So when I found out I was pregnant, it was a bit of a shock. Honestly, it took us a little bit of time to really get excited about it. It was just such a surprise that we weren't really sure how to feel about it, but eventually, we did come to be very surprised. To be honest, I didn't know right away whether I wanted to try for a VBAC again. And honestly, I didn't know whether it was an option for me, like whether the hospital would allow me to or whether my personal circumstances were right for a VBAC. So I started doing a little bit of research and then seeking out some opinions and taking into consideration my personal circumstances. And I do have, like I've mentioned, I have a history of big babies. I had cholestasis in my last pregnancy. I had this “failed VBAC”. I was almost 40 years old and was just like, “I don't know. Is this a good idea for me to try for a VBAC? What happens if I fail again? What does that mean?” So I really spent some time thinking about it and I did briefly check out a different healthcare provider just to see if maybe a change in my provider would be helpful. Also, this one was a bit closer to my house. I'll never forget at that first appointment, I was just trying to feel out what my options would be and they said to me, verbatim, “No doctor at this hospital will ever support you in a VBAC.” I just remember thinking like– I didn't know a lot at that time about a VBAC after two Cesareans, but I knew that that didn't feel right. Meagan: Yeah. Francis: Yeah. That like, “Wait. I don't have a decision in what happens to my body?” I knew that didn't feel right. And so I decided. I was like, “Okay. I'm not going to stay with this practice. Let me do more research and let me seek out additional opinions.” So I ended up going back to the midwives with the birth center that I had been with before for my prior two pregnancies. And again, they only do VBAC in the hospital. I inquired with them whether they would take me on and they said, “Yes.” They did share some of the same concerns as me, but ultimately they did support me in being a part of the process and making a decision of what happens with me and my baby. So at that point, that's when I found you guys. Meagan: That's really how it should be, by the way. When you said that, it reminded me of my conversation with my old doctor. I went to go get my medical records and he said, “Good luck. No one is going to want you out there.” And it was like, “Okay.” And it wasn't even like, “Yeah. Let's talk about it,” or “Let me tell you why I don't feel comfortable with it.” You know? Francis: Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Well, anyways. Yeah. I felt that someone shouldn't be making that choice for me. If I choose not to try for a VBAC, that's my choice. But for someone else to just say, “No. You must have major surgery.” It just didn't feel right and it didn't sit well with me. Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. Francis: But luckily, I was able to go back to my previous provider and find support. I know a lot of women don't find that, so I was really lucky in that regard. At that point, that's when I really, really start a diving deep into VBAC research and that's when I found you guys. I looked at all of the research you put out. I started listening to your podcasts and all of the other stories, and it really gave me strength and confidence.  One of, perhaps, I think the most important things is in listening to other women's stories, it opened my eyes to this possibility of this perfect “birth” that I had in my head before. It didn't have to be like that. I could accept a hospital birth or I could accept interventions and that could still be a beautiful birth. It doesn't have to be this like, I don't know, what you see in a movie or just that perfect, serene birth. I realized and I accepted that I could open up my mind. Things might turn out not precisely like I hope they do, but that could still be okay. You know? Julie: Yes. I love that. Francis: I really shifted my mindset and in this pregnancy, I didn't worry about all the things that sometimes people do. I really just focused on taking care of my mind and taking care of my body. I did do chiropractic care, and I also did– I don't know if you guys have heard of the Arvigo abdominal massage? I did that. Meagan: No. What is that? Francis: Oh. Yeah, so it's really interesting. It's a Mayan technique and it's an abdominal massage. It's actually really great after a Cesarean. It really helps with scar tissue. But even during pregnancy, it just– I actually don't know all of the benefits of it other than for one, it feels really great. I think it can help with the round ligaments and stuff. It just helps the positioning of your baby and I don't know. I found it really relaxing and comforting, so I did do that. I also did go to an acupuncturist and overall, just stayed active and well. But I did all those things not for some arbitrary reason, but because it made me feel good. So I really just focused on that. With this different approach to this pregnancy and accepting that things might turn out differently than what I had initially hoped, I shared all of this with my provider. I think that was super helpful because I think that they realized that I was in this mental space where I knew I could trust myself and I could trust my instincts and make the right decisions. In turn, they really trusted me. So it really helped in that and having support from them. One of the things, though, that did bring up some concern was that I did do a maternal fetal medicine consult about halfway through just to talk about my prior Cesareans and go over my operative history. One thing that came up that was a bit unexpected was in my second Cesarean, the surgeon had noted that I had really dense adhesions from my first Cesarean. He put almost a note in there to say, “A note to future surgeons, you might experience a prolonged surgery because of all of this dense scar tissue that was in there.” Julie: Interesting. Meagan: Well, and I actually wonder if the dense scar tissue extended– because you said you made it to 8, and you stalled, and you made it to 3. We just had a client that, same thing. She only made it to 3.5 and her body was in active labor. Her cervix just wasn't going and she had super dense adhesions. Francis: Yeah. I mean, for sure. I don't really know, obviously, all of the ways that it can affect you, but I am sure, it's not natural to have all of that scar tissue in your abdomen, right? It's there because you've had this major surgery. So the one thing, though, that they did mention and why it concerned them is they said that if I attempted and it ended up in an emergent situation, it might not turn out well for me because they wouldn't be able to get through all of that scar tissue super quickly either to save my baby or me, right? That was a little bit scary to hear, but my first thought was like, “Well, if I have got all of the scar tissue and it's going to be super hard to open me up, don't you guys just not want to have to open me up? Wouldn't the best case scenario be to just not have another surgery?” Julie: Right? Meagan: And avoid that completely? Yeah. Francis: Right. And add more scar tissue. I know when you have these adhesions, they can accidentally cut into your bladder or things like that. So I was like, “Well, isn't it best case scenario just to not have surgery?” And they were like, “Oh, yeah I guess so.” It was kind of funny, almost like they hadn't really thought of that option, but they wanted me to schedule a repeat Cesarean before I went into labor so they could do it on their own time so they wouldn't have to rush. Which on the one hand, I understand, but the other hand I was like, “Well, let's just try to not cut me open at all.” Right? The other thing too with that was again, I really trusted myself to be able to make the right decision and I trusted that if I were to attempt a VBAC and get to the point where a Cesarean was necessary, that I was capable of making the decision to head to the OR before it was an emergency. I had done that twice before, you know? The other thing too was I had done the research. I know you guys have talked about this before how rare uterine rupture really is and that's kind of like the big deal with VBAC's, right? Also, not only how rare it is, but then when there is rupture, how few of them are really catastrophic. You know? It seemed a little bit silly to go in for a Cesarean just because there was a one in 1000 chance that I might have a catastrophic rupture.  Julie: Yeah, exactly. Francis: Yeah. So ultimately, I respectfully appreciated their professional opinion, but decided I still wanted to go for a VBAC. So anyways, I went for it again. Basically, the rest of my pregnancy proceeded as normal. As far as I know, I did not get the cholestasis again. I did take some herbals that maybe played a role, but I didn't get itchy, so I was super happy about that. Although, I was in my head in it a lot about it. If you think about being itchy, you can find an itch on your body right now. You know? So it was hard not to be paranoid about it.  But ultimately, I avoided getting it which was great. So I didn't have to be induced, because I was worried about that. My pregnancy continued to progress and I did again go past 40 weeks. There were times when I was mentally struggling, but my husband, and my doula, and photographer were super supportive. I was able to lean in on them for support. I did start having a little bit of prodromal labor about 40 weeks and that was really exhausting, but it was reassuring that something was happening. I was taking the wins where I could find them. As I approached 41 weeks, I started to feel a little bit of pressure about how late I was going to go again. I did agree and scheduled an ultrasound to check on the fluid and check on the baby, but I made it very clear that I would not consent to them measuring my baby because I just thought, “What good does it do to talk about the size of my baby at this point? I know I grow big babies. It's got to come out one way or the other.” Julie: Yes! Francis: Let's just not even talk about it. Julie: Absolutely. Francis: There were a couple of the midwives that would make comments about it that rubbed me the wrong way, but I did my best to just brush it off. Because again, this baby is coming out, so what good does it to really think too much about how big it's gonna be? As luck would have it though, I didn't even get to that ultrasound. I didn't have to put my foot down, but I was prepared to, to not have them measure my baby. So I ended up going into labor on my own. It was about 41 weeks. I happened to have an appointment with my favorite midwife and she just put me into this really peaceful place. Sure enough, that night, I went into labor. It started overnight and was kind of slow. My husband was in the other room, so I was up by myself for a bit and about 5:30 in the morning, I realized I was struggling to cope on my own. So I woke him up and he came into the room with me. About an hour later, he ended up calling our doula. Actually this time, we were only allowed one support person in the hospital other than my husband, so our photographer who had been with us before was double dutying as my doula. Julie: Nice. That's called a doula-tog. A doula photographer. I do that sometimes. Francis: Yeah. She's been with us in all of our births and she's had birth experiences of her own that she can really relate to, so she was really great filling both rolls. She came over because my husband, and we laugh about this now, but he was like, “You were making noises that I was really scared of.” So he called her over to help me and my labor did slow down a bit, when things kind of picked up. Some people came over to pick up my other children. I think that's pretty normal.  But then once everyone left and my birth space was undisturbed, my labor really picked up really quickly. I was contracting about every 3 to 4 minutes I think. A solid minute contraction and after a little bit, I started throwing up. In my labor with my son, I started throwing up when I was pretty far along, so I was like, oh my gosh. Maybe this is really happening quickly. Like, we should go to the hospital. We headed over to the hospital which was about 30 minutes and not really a fun drive, but we made it. We got checked in and I knew I wanted to labor in the tub for a little bit. They just have hospital, small tubs but I was allowed to get in and they had the wireless monitors. I wanted to get checked just to know where I was starting from and I was only a 2. I was so defeated. Julie: Oh, that is so discouraging. Oh my gosh. Francis: Yeah. Yeah, I know. There's part of me that regrets finding out but it is what it is, right? But I knew at that point, I was like, “Okay. I am going to switch my mindset.” I already saw drugs in my future which I had decided I was totally okay with, but I wanted to see how much farther I could get. So I got in the tub and it really slowed down my labor, so my doula made me get out. I think I fussed and complained at her. I got out and I tried nitrous, but it did nothing for me. I'm honestly not even sure if that thing was actually working.  I decided at that point, I was like, “Just give me the epidural.” The other thing too is, maybe this is coming from a little bit of an athletic background, I was really having trouble holding tension in my pelvic floor and in my bum. I just couldn't release, and so I knew that the epidural would help with that. That's one of the things that I have learned on this podcast and listening to other women's stories is that sometimes you can use these interventions to your advantage. Getting an epidural doesn't mean that that's the end of it for you. You can use it as a tool in your tool kit. Julie: Absolutely. It's available if you need it. Francis: Exactly. I knew at that point I did need it. So I got the epidural. I was only 3 centimeters and that really scared me because I really wanted to be farther along, but I did it anyway. I labored for a bit and then I got checked again and I was– I probably had been at the hospital about 12 hours at this point. I'm still only 3 cm and I was like, “What am I doing? Like why am I doing this?” The midwife that happened to be on call was such a saint. I look back and I'm like, “I couldn't have landed with a better midwife for me.” She looked me in the eyes. She said, “I will not recommend anything that will put you and your baby in harms way, but I will do everything in my power to help you achieve a vaginal birth.” It was just so reassuring to really know that she had my back. We did start Pitocin at that point, which I know can be a little bit controversial in a VBAC or a VBAC after more than one Cesarean, but we did a really slow Pitocin and I could tell it was working. I did have an epidural, but I could feel it working. I continued to labor throughout the night into the early morning. I tried to catch some rest, but there were definitely times I was looking around and like, my husband was trying to sleep on the floor and our doula photographer was there with us this whole time and I was just like, “Gosh.” I felt almost guilty, like I was putting them through the ringer with me. I just kept having these feelings like, “Will I end up in another Cesarean? I'm doing all this for nothing.” But I tried to quiet those doubts as much as I could and at one point in the middle of the night, I felt a pop and a gush of fluid. I called the nurse and I was like, “Hey, either I've just peed myself or my water broke.” She came in and confirmed it was my waters, so that was exciting. Julie: Yay! Francis: I was like, “Okay. Something's happening, right?” And then, as I was laying there trying to catch some rest, I could feel that I was having some pressure in my bum and my sacrum, but I didn't want to get too excited, so I kept it to myself. It was probably about 3 o'clock in the morning. My midwife had been tending to a couple of other women and she was going to try to catch some rest, so she was like, “Well, let me just check you really quick.” When she was doing it, I knew that it was a do or die moment for me. If I hadn't progressed anymore at that point, I felt like that was going to be it. So I was really, really nervous. She went to check me. She didn't say a word and she had this poker face. She checked me. She went to the sink and washed up. My heart is pounding, right? Like, “Oh my gosh.” She walks over to my bedside and then she looks at me and she said, “Francis? You're more dilated than you've ever been in your life.” Julie: Yay! Francis: And I just– yeah. I let out this scream and everybody in the room was cheering. I think the nurse might have even shed a tear. That was the first moment where I was like, “Oh my god. This might actually happen.” So I did labor down a little bit longer and at one point, the nurse rushed in. She had me change positions and got me on my hands and knees and I knew. She wasn't saying anything, but I knew that that meant they were having some sort of concern about baby. I tried not to panic, but I was really scared. The midwife got called in. She gave me another check and she was like, “You're at 10 centimeters. Let's just get this baby out.” So I was like, “Let's do it.” Julie: “Let's do it.” I love it. Francis: So my doula was like, “Hey, do you want the squat bar?” I was like, “Yes. Give me the squat bar.” Coming from an athletic background, I was so excited to feel useful. I was like, “Alright. Let's go.” I had never pushed before, so I didn't know what that was like. I was being coached. I was using the squat bar, basically squatting on the bed using the bar and apparently, according to the midwife, was really doing a good job. After about 45 minutes, my baby was right there. She was like, “Come down. Touch your baby's head.” I touched his head, and then she had me lean back a little bit. We did some of those slow, panty pushes to do it pretty slowly. I felt my baby's head come out, and then she had me push again for the shoulders. I could tell when I did that that she had a little bit of trouble, but he ended up coming out really without a problem. I really wanted to catch my baby. My husband was amazing support throughout all of it, but he had zero interest in being part of that process. And so I was like, “Well, I want to catch my baby then.” So my midwife was like, “Well, reach down and catch your baby!” So I reached down and she helped me, and I brought him up to my chest. He was beautiful and perfect, and it was that moment that I know we all dream about. Our photographer caught that moment and I have shared it on your Facebook page before. It's a little bit graphic. Not too much so, but it was just– you can see it in my face. I was just in heaven. My baby was on my chest for all of the nurse checks and everything. I remember when he was laying there, I was like, “Oh, I think he's my smallest baby. He's so small.” And then finally, they came and took him to do the weight and the measurements, and he ended up being 10 lbs. 12 oz. and 22.5 inches. Julie: Wow! Francis: He was not my biggest baby, but my second biggest and I just couldn't believe it. You know? Like, “Oh my gosh. I pushed that baby out of my body!” Meagan: Yeah! Francis: I did have some tearing. It was a third-degree tear and my midwife said it was from his shoulders. She did say he didn't have dystocia, but she had to give some traction, I think, is what she said. But I was repaired right there in labor and delivery and honestly, I didn't care because I had my baby with me and I was just in euphoria. The recovery was not a walk in the park, but so much better than a Cesarean. I avoided major abdominal surgery.  One of the things in my birth plan– I had this long birth plan– but at the very beginning, I said that I had birth goals. These were my goals. This is where I'll get emotional. Sorry. I said, “I wish for a healthy mother and baby, both physically and emotionally. For my intuition to guide me and to be trusted by those around me. For labor to begin and continue as hands off as possible and to feel heard, empowered, and respected.”  At the end of the day, my birth checked all those boxes. I couldn't have asked for more. I have no doubt that your podcast played a huge role in my success. If me sharing my story can help just one other woman achieve her own birth goals, then I am just overjoyed. So thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to share my story. Julie: Aww. Meagan: Wow. I have tears in my eyes right now. Francis: Aww. You guys are so sweet. Meagan: I just felt that. When you were talking about when you reached down and grabbed your baby, it was like I was flashing back to my son‘s birth. I just remember that feeling and I was feeling it for you. It's such an incredible feeling to reach down there and feel the baby's head, and pull him out, and have that support, and what your midwife said too. I am so happy for you and so proud of you. Francis: Well, thank you. I appreciate it. Like I said, I really, truly feel like I could not have done it without you guys. I really mean that. I know you've heard that before, but it's the truth. Julie: Well, I just don't think– I can safely speak for Meagan when I say we probably won't ever get tired of hearing that. We love it! Meagan: I don't think we will because this is what we are here for. This is what we want to do. We want to help. We want to empower. We want to inspire. We want to guide. We want to educate. We want to create that community where it's not even just us, right? It's you guys helping others and feeling that support all around the world. You have people rooting for you and you don't even know where they are at. That's what we want. That's what we want. We want our mission here too be better and make birth after Cesarean better. Sometimes, that means a repeat Cesarean and that's okay. Listen to how healing it can be. Francis: Yeah. Meagan: Especially coming back for the first podcast after taking so much time, it's so refreshing to hear, “Hey, this is still what people love and this is what people want. They want to hear the stories. They want to see all the stories.” The emotion I just felt with you sharing your story, and I'm not even pregnant or having anymore kids and I'm feeling it. I'm just imagining being in that room with you guys and cheering as you're the furthest dilated that you've ever been. That's such a huge moment. Just so many fun things. I am so glad to be back. Julie: Yeah. I love it. I think it's so incredible. I just think back– I know Meagan, maybe you are doing the same thing, just all the births I have attended as a doula and now I get to do that as a birth photographer– of parents who have had these babies over 10 pounds. I feel like sometimes maybe the big ones come out a little bit easier because they have gravity working on their side, right? Gravity gets to pull on them a little bit easier. Francis: True. Julie: I am on call right now for a threepeat doula client, my third time being her doula. The babies that I was with for her last two, one was over 9 pounds and one was over 10. It's not a VBAC birth, but her babies– She's 5'1” by the way. She's 5'1” and very petite. She births these ginormous, sumo wrestler babies. It's just so fun to watch her labor and birth because she just doesn't hold still. She's constantly moving. There's a lot to say about giving the birthing person time, and freedom, and space, and ability to let their body do what it needs to do instead of jumping to conclusions about the babies size and the ability of whether it will or will not work. I think that that's really cool that your midwife supported you in that way. It's really just neat when you hear about providers wanting the type of birth you wanna just as much as you do and it really kind of felt like that's what happened there for you. So it's really cool. Francis: Yeah. It did. It's kind of funny because when I was seeking out opinions about whether I should go for a VBAC or not, and then of course just checking myself, honestly, the fact that I grow really big babies was almost not even brought up. It was all of the other things that were more concerning. Like the scar tissue, or my age, or potentially having cholestasis and maybe having to get induced or just go for a repeat Cesarean. So it was interesting to me. One of the things I think I was most fearful of when I was thinking about having a VBAC was whether my baby would be too big, but my provider almost didn't even care. Do you know? Julie: I love that. Francis: That surprised me. Five Tips for Birthing Big Babies Julie: I love that. I love it a lot. Alright well, we are going to wrap it up but before we do, we have a blog all about big babies and how we can have the best chance at gettingg that big baby out vaginally. We are going to link it for you in the show notes. I am going to go over five tips for you right now. The first one is knowing the facts about macrosomia, which just means “big baby”. Macrosomia– it's really interesting because different organizations define what makes a baby big differently. Some places define it as a baby that's larger than 8 lbs. 13 oz. and some places define it as bigger than 9 lbs. 4 oz. I mean, your babies checked both of those boxes. So that's okay. So either way, 8 lbs. 13 oz. or 9 lbs. 4 oz.  So sometimes, there is a little bit of flexibility about what really makes s baby big. And also know that estimated fetal weight– the only way to actually know the actual size of your baby is birthing the baby and getting the measurements after it's born. Ultrasound scans are notoriously inaccurate about measuring gestational weight. They can be off by a pound or two difference like yours. Your first was still really big, but about a pound different than what they measured it, right? Francis: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Julie: Yeah. The second thing you can do to help get a big baby out is hire a doula. Studies show that having a doula improves just about every single aspect of your birth and delivering a large baby is no exception about that. A skilled doula will help you communicate your needs and your perceptions to help realize your dream of having a healthy, positive birthing experience.  There are actually a lot of statistics that prove how doulas improve birth outcomes. They actually reduce your chances of having a C-section by 39% which is really cool for my data-junkie brain.  The third thing you can do is move as much as possible, even with an epidural. Moving, switching sides, even just moving your legs a little bit every few contractions is going to help keep your pelvis being flexible and help create that space for your baby to move down.  We say in our blog, “ditch the epidural”, but you don't actually have to to have an unmedicated birth in order to birth or to have a VBAC or to have any vaginal delivery. Go as long as you can without getting it, but it's okay if that's a lower number than you want. As we talked about earlier, an epidural is a great tool to have in your toolbox if you need it. Knowing how to use an epidural and how to move, and a doula is a great way to help you utilize this tool properly. As long as you are not laying down and staying still in one spot for too long, that's the biggest thing you need to take away from that. And the fifth one, we say, “believe in your body.” I know I'm probably going to get a lot of eye rolls for this. “Believe in your body. Woosah. You can't always manifest your baby your out.” Yes. That is very true. Sometimes things happen, and interventions are needed, and Cesareans are life-saving. We definitely believe that and we have seen it. But there is a lot to be said in believing in yourself, and believing in your baby, your body that knows that it can do this and that it is designed for the birth process, and having that confidence going into it and having the confidence in yourself, and your birth team, and your support environment. If you don't have that confidence, do whatever you need to do or change whatever you need to change in order to create that confidence and that belief in your environment because where doubt exists, that brings in the uncertainty that can shift your entire birth experience. I'm going to end that with a period and an exclamation point. Meagan, what would you add in there? I've been talking for a few minutes. Meagan: No, you're just fine. I mean, I feel like we have talked about the intuition and mama's gut the whole time. But I love that during your pregnancy and everything, you were able to hone in on that and not only learn what intuition necessarily is, but how to really tune into it because especially for birth and especially for a VBAC– I want to say it's for anyone. It really is, but with VBAC, there is so much coming at us with all the things. For instance, when you went to that different provider and they were like, “Yeah, no. Not one person in this hospital is going to touch you. Like, no.” A lot of people would be like, “Oh, okay. There's that many doctors that won't even see me. I better just have a C-section,” which is totally fine if that's what their intuition is how they feel.  But a lot of the time, I feel like it's hard to tune into that intuition and to be like, “Wait. I still feel like I should probably still get some other opinions.” Right? Versus just being told what I said to you. I think that if we can, in life in general, just learn how to tune in to that intuition and really how to follow it, I think it's going to help us in so many things in life in general. That's one of the highlights of your story that I got because I had to personally work through a lot of that during my pregnancy because I was told that I would rupture if VBAC'd and I didn't realize how much that impacted me, but it impacted me. But my intuition was telling me otherwise, right? Anyway. That was one of the biggest things I took away. One of the biggest takeaways from your story is learning how to hone in on your intuition, following it, and trusting it. Trusting your gut. Francis: Yeah, precisely. Hit it on the nose. Julie: Alight. Meagan: I– yeah. Julie: Oh, go ahead. Meagan: I was just going to say, I love it. I loved everything about your story. So thank you so much for kicking us off with such a great empowering story. Julie: Yes. It was the perfect story for our welcome back. Francis, it was such a joy to have you on and share your story today. But before we leave, we want to ask you– I think I might know what the answer is– but I am going to ask anyways. What is your best tip for somebody preparing for birth after Cesarean? Francis: Well first, I thought you were going to ask whether I was going to have more children. And I am like, “Hard no.” Julie: I'm right there with you. Francis: That door has been closed. Yeah. I think it is, it's what I think– Meagan, what you just talked about is learning, taking the time to focus on yourself and your mental health. I think ideally before you get pregnant, but you can obviously do that while you're pregnant if you're already pregnant. But taking the time to really focus on your mental health and learn how to trust yourself because we all have good instincts. We just have to know where to find them sometimes. Julie: Oh I love that. “We all have good instincts. We have to know where to find them sometimes.” I'm going to make a social media post about that. Just one second while I write it down. Francis: You guys are too sweet. I appreciate it. Julie: Maybe it will go on a shirt. I don't know. I need to start making shirts again. Meagan: I know. Francis: Do I need to trademark that real quick? Julie: Yes, you need to. Meagan: She's like, “Wait a second.” Yeah. Trademark that for sure. Julie: I will credit you. What's your social media? Should I tag you? Francis: No no, not necessary. Thank you though. Julie: Okay. Speaking of shirts, we do have a bunch of VBAC shirts available for you to purchase if you want to rock, and represent, and support the podcast. You can find them at thevbaclink.com/bonfire if you want to head over there and rock some swag from the VBAC shop.  So, Francis. You're amazing. Thank you so much for sharing your story with us today and everybody else, good luck on your journey. We are so excited to be back along for the ride with you.ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Head over to thevbaclink.com/share and submit your story. For all things VBAC, including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Julie and Meagan's bios, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

In this “non-episode” episode, Rachel speaks about the importance of having a guidance and support system. She reminds us that we are all always supported no matter how alone we might feel, and that we always have the option to hire support. She speaks to how important her own self-investment with guidance and support has been, and gives shoutouts to all of her mentors and holistic healing team who have been helping her for the last 5 months as she has been in the midst of a Dark Night of the Soul. Listen to this episode if you're feeling alone, unsupported, or in need of that extra push to seek out support. Show Notes: Rachel's Mentors' Current Offerings: Twin Flame Revolution's R.I.S.E. Up Event: https://www.twinflamerevolution.com/a/2147508295/8jr6tqLo Twin Flame Revolution's energy clearing Sovereignty Protocol audio track: https://www.twinflamerevolution.com/a/25583/8jr6tqLo Explore Deeply's Wisdom of the Four Directions Apprenticeship Program: https://exploredeeply.com/walking-the-path-of-purpose Rachel's Mentors: Dov and Nicole of TFR: http://twinflamerevolution.com/ Astara Solae of Laughing Goddess: https://laughinggoddess.com/astara/ Lorraine McKnight of Brighter Hope Counseling: https://www.brighterhopecounseling.com/llpc-supervision/ (please note that you will see me listed as a counsellor on this website. I am not currently accepting counselling clients at this time, nor is this podcast a referral point for counselling clientele) Chloë Rain of Explore Deeply: https://exploredeeply.com Rachel's Concurrent Support Team: Jennifer Feldman Fritz of Limitless Movement (i.e. the Body Witch) for myofascial release: https://www.limitlessmvmt.com Sarah Mokma, N.D., of Luminosity Community for naturopathy and more: https://www.luminositycommunity.com Kate Block of Little Dipper GR for massage therapy, Arvigo, emotional release, and more: https://www.thisislittledipper.com Dr.Brit Finkbeiner of Dynamic Essence Chiropractic for soul realignment through chiropractic adjustments: https://grandrapidschirocenter.com Jamie VanDam for epic energy work: https://www.theremedyhouse.org/holistic-team Find and Follow Doorway to Self and Rachel Leah Gerson: Website and email list: www.doorwaytoself.com Facebook: facebook.com/doorwaytoself and facebook.com/thedoorwaytoselfpodcast Instagram: @doorwaytoself and @thedoorwaytoselfpodcast and @rachel.leah.gerson YouTube: youtube.com/c/doorwaytoself Donate to Support the Podcast: Donor Website: donorbox.org/doorwaytoself Venmo: @doorwaytoself Cashapp: $doorwaytoself Referenced Episodes: Ep.33: The Energy of Money: https://anchor.fm/doorwaytoselfpodcast/episodes/Ep-33-The-Energy-of-Money-ev03i7 --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/doorwaytoselfpodcast/support

Today we're continuing with our endo and IBS theme as part of my IBS Awareness Month series. Most of the clients who come to me have endo and IBS, now of course, I tend to see more of these clients because I am specialised in endometriosis, endo belly and SIBO, so naturally I attract these types of endo clients – but, generally, the majority of people with endo tend to have IBS problems in some form. In fact, more research is being done into this area, but The Center for Endometriosis Care found 25% of patients had painful bowel movements, 35% had constipation and 60% had diarrhoea.  But that doesn't mean that we just have to put up with it. And it doesn't mean that all of your IBS issues are because of endo, in fact, some of them may just be because of your hormones – and people without endometriosis will be affected by these issues too. A very common problem, is constipation, during the luteal phase, which is the phase after ovulation and before your period. When clients come to me, they often report this symptom, and many of them are perplexed by it, and think it's to do with endo. They report constipation in their luteal phase, and then diarrhoea during their periods, and maybe, if they're lucky, they get some normal bowel movements in their follicular phase. So what's happening here? Well, a few weeks back we discussed why the inflammation from our periods can cause diarrhoea, so if you experience that, head back to 188 for tips. But in terms of constipation during the luteal phase, let's look at what's happening in this time of our cycle. The luteal phase occurs after ovulation, the follicle that once held your egg, has released the egg during ovulation, and the follicle has transformed into a temporary gland, called the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum releases the majority of our progesterone supply during this part of our cycle and oestrogen levels decrease. Now progesterone has many roles, and one of them is to relax our muscles, in case pregnancy has occurred, and this is so the pelvic muscles can begin relaxing to allow for expansion. However, this muscle relaxant effect affects all of the body – including the muscle of the intestines. The muscle of the intestines is responsible for the movement that pushes food through the large intestine, and out of your colon. When we are in the luteal phase, this process slows down because the contractions, known as peristalsis are lessened. Now, it should take two hours for food to travel through the small intestine, but once it's in the large intestine, it should take about 12-24 hours. And in terms of optimal health and bowel movements, we're aiming for at least one bowel movement a day, but ideally, 1-3. This allows for old hormones, waste materials,  and food to leave regularly, as a build-up of these in the body can start to create problems because hormones, etc. can be reabsorbed. So, ideally, even if things slow down during this phase and your bowels feel a bit more sluggish, you should hopefully still be having at least one bowel movement a day. Now, a really easy way to test how long it's taking your gut to process food, is the ‘polka dot poo' test, which Dr. Nirala Jacobi teaches us in our training. So all you need to do is swallow hulled sesame seeds with water, so don't chew, just swallow, and then look for sesame seeds in your stools, and when you see them, that is your transit time. You could do this in your follicular phase to see what your normal transit time is like, and then in your luteal phase, to see if things slow down. Now of course, if things have slowed down, it means there's more waste built up in your intestines, more gases building and more time for bacteria to eat our food and ferment that food, creating more gas, so then as a result, you may also have more bloating during this time, due to the expansion of the intestines. And it's important to note that you might not think you're gassy because you're not passing wind frequently, but this will happen with motility and peristalsis being slower, because it's not just food that's moving slowly, but gas too.  Now, there are quite a number of other things that can contribute to the endo belly in the luteal phase, including inflammation and oestrogen dominance, and I have a whole episode on that which I've linked in the show notes. But back to constipation. Whilst it's normal for there to be a level of slower bowel movements during this time, we want to still try to aim for once a day if doable.  If you're prone to a history of SIBO, or gut dysbiosis, and both are common with endo, you're likely going to need to do some additional gut healing because those can both create IBS and constipation, so you may experience worse constipation than others during this time, and I do tend to see this to be true with many of my clients with SIBO or extensive gut health issues. Additionally, if you already have adhesions from endo or surgery pulling on or distorting your intestines, that could create more intense problems with constipation during the luteal phase, so looking into getting those addressed with some adhesion treatment like visceral manipulation, Clear Passage, Neural Therapy or Frequency Specific Microcurrent would be part of treating the root problem. But for now, I'm listing some short-term strategies to bring you relief on a day-to-day basis. If you find that these don't work for you, or don't help that much, look into the other root causes I mentioned. It simply could mean that you need to try some other strategies, of which there are many, but if you suffer with bad constipation in this phase and you tend to get a lot of IBS all cycle long too, it may be worth doing some more in-depth gut healing, like taking a course, doing a gut healing protocol or doing some testing to determine what's going on. It's likely you'll need a combination of these things, because they're sort of targeting different areas of the body to support more regular or easier bowel movements. Number one is correct positioning on the toilet. The standard way we sit on the toilet for a bowel movement isn't actually a helpful way to pass a stool, and this is exaggerated if we have pelvic floor issues too, which most of us do. To help your body adopt the best position to most easily pass a stool and to support your pelvic floor, try elevating your feet so that they are higher than your hips – essentially, it's a bit like a squat. You can do this with a squatty potty, which is just like a step that sits around the toilet, or you can put your feet up on some spare toilet tissue rolls, or a stack of books or magazines.  Number two is actually helping to push stools through the intestine and break up hard stools with my go-to suggestion, and that's abdominal massage. There are so many massages that can support with constipation, so I encourage you to do your research, but the ones that I use with clients are Arvigo massage and the ‘I Love You' massage. You'll need to learn an at-home method of Arvigo from a practitioner, and my colleague Tara offers online sessions, and I've linked to my interview with her and her website in the show notes. Then the ‘I Love You' massage is free, and that's on YouTube, and I've put the link in the show notes again. My clients love using these and report that they can feel the hard, stuck stools and can feel them moving along as they massage, and that they're really effective. These massages also stimulate the motility of the small intestine and digestion overall, so can really speed things up and support healthy digestion and bowel movements in general.  I see best results when massage is performed nightly or at least a few times a week. Number three is movement in several forms. Exercise in general can help stimulate gut motility, especially walking, running (if you can manage it) and rebounding (which is essentially the new name for jumping up and down on a mini trampoline!). If you find you're worn out during this phase of your cycle, try more gentle walking, rather than the more energetic ones. Anything that gets you to twist or move your abdomen can really help too, so yoga is a great one, and there are actually a number of online yoga videos for constipation and digestion problems, and I've linked to one or two that I'm a fan of, but you can look for others online too. Number four is softening and bulking the stools so they're easier to pass. I recommend trying magnesium citrate or oxide, which draws water into the intestine, creating a looser stool and stimulating a bowel movement. In my training with leading SIBO doctor, Dr Siebecker, she advises the dose is 500mg  up to 2000 mg at bedtime (two hours after food), daily or as needed until you have a bowel movement. However, 1000 mg is normally effective for many, but see what works for you. It's best to work up slowly, and give it a good few days between dose changes as it might take a little while to see the initial effects, and you don't suddenly want to suffer from stomach upset because you moved up too quickly. If you find you don't tolerate that too well, high dose vitamin C also acts in the same way, and there's no maximum dose because what your body doesn't need, will come out in a bowel movement. You could try a powder form in water or tablets, either way it's best to use a type of vitamin C that you swallow, rather than a tongue spray or dropper, or a vitamin C skin patch, because we want it to go through the intestines. Now, to bulk up the stools, you can try chia or flax seed, or partially hydrolysed guar gum. I recently shared how to use flax or chia in a recent episode on constipation, so I'll link to that in the show notes.  Partially hydrolysed guar gum is a low FODMAP soluble fibre, and actually helps with both constipation and diarrhoea by bulking up stools. It's usually well tolerated by SIBO patients too, but each SIBO patient is unique, so test your personal tolerance because for some, it just makes SIBO symptoms worse. Dose wise, you can try 5-6 g daily, ideally dissolved in hot water on an empty stomach, for at least one month and likely ongoing for maintenance. Some people do put it with tea, coffee, smoothies or even porridge, but many of the labels suggest on an empty stomach – it seems to work well either way.  To avoid side effects like bloating or gas, increase to full dose across one to two weeks, especially if SIBO positive, so start out lower, with say one gram, and then increase by a gram or half a gram a day. I wouldn't use all of the above at once, because you might end up with the opposite problem and you won't know what's working or what you're reacting to! So pick one, and try that for a cycle, then pick another, and try that for a cycle, etc. Number five is increasing fat content. This is a super helpful strategy in the luteal phase because firstly, fat stimulates large intestine motility, triggering a bowel movement, but secondly, fat helps slow down glucose release to our blood, and in our luteal phase, we're more prone to blood sugar instability, so this can help manage those levels and as a result, improve PMS and reduce pain and inflammation. I talk more about using fat in my recent episode for constipation, so you can head to that episode for more in-depth details, but generally, look to get two tablespoons of fat with each meal at a minimum, building up slowly to test your tolerance, as high levels can cause abdominal cramps and diarrhoea because it can over stimulate the large colon. Our last strategy, is a simple one, but is often very overlooked, and that's hydration. If you're not drinking enough water there will be less water in your stools, creating harder stools, that are more difficult to pass when peristalsis slows down in the luteal phase. To work out if you're drinking enough, the calculation is half your body weight in fluid ounces. So, say you're 100 lbs, you would halve this to get 50 lbs and then simply replace the pounds sign with fluid ounces. If you're in the UK you'll have to then covert to litres. This is the minimum you should be drinking. If you exercise a lot or are breast feeding, you'll need more. I've linked to a water calculator in the show notes which helps you to work out exactly how much you need. So that's it, now you have six strategies to try if you struggle with constipation and endo belly in the luteal phase. Like I said, I wouldn't mix up the laxatives and stool softeners, just try one of those, but combining one of those with a few of these strategies could really help. If you've found this helpful, don't forget that I'm currently running a free Endo Belly Challenge. We've already started, but you can still sign up and catch up on all the previous emails. Each week, I send you a new email with some endo belly education and a tip to help you reduce your endo belly symptoms that week. I've put the link in the show notes. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.  On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.  Show Notes https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/2021/5/28/bloating-before-your-period-with-endo-the-oestrogen-and-gut-connection https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/tips-reduce-premenstrual-endometriosis-bloating- https://nicolejardim.com/howyourperiodaffectsdigestivetract/ https://centerforendo.com/endometriosis-and-bowel-symptoms/ Squatty Potty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQ5pxBXPJUg&t=4s Massage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOkKVlBHzk&t=2s https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/arvigo-massage-for-endometriosis https://taraghosh.com Movement https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVv7sxDGnpg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uP__6dM3SvQ Magnesium https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf Vitamin C https://drhyman.com/blog/2017/01/13/simple-steps-dealing-constipation/ https://lpi.oregonstate.edu/mic/vitamins/vitamin-C https://www.tinypioneer.co.uk/desert-harvest-buffered-vitamin-c Chia https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/four-easy-home-remedies-for-constipation-with-endo-belly https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13197-015-1967-0 https://ift.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1750-3841.12444 Flax https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/four-easy-home-remedies-for-constipation-with-endo-belly https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5944250/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8077314/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15702593/ https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.nutr.17.1.353?journalCode=nutr PHGG https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25843197/ http://ecite.utas.edu.au/121479 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16413751 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25519526/ https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf   Fat https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/four-easy-home-remedies-for-constipation-with-endo-belly https://www.siboinfo.com/uploads/5/4/8/4/5484269/sibo_symptomatic_relief_suggestions_jan_2020.pdf https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1051227614001411 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3460325/ Hydration https://www.hydrationforhealth.com/en/hydration-tools/hydration-calculator/

It's IBS Awareness Month and because IBS is so common within the endo community, I'm going to continue with this theme of IBS and endo belly, which I've been focusing on over the past few weeks. Now, one of the key causes behind IBS is SIBO. In fact, current research estimates that the majority of IBS cases are really SIBO cases, and as you've probably heard about 100 times by now, research estimates that up to 80% of endo patients may have SIBO. This is based on a small amount of research and so that number may change in the future, but I would say that this number is accurate, at least based on the clients I see. Before you start thinking about SIBO testing and treatment, I first want to say that I don't always think jumping straight into SIBO treatment is wise. SIBO tends to be tricky to treat and a long process, so I require my clients to be in a reasonably stable place with their endo and mental resilience before we begin SIBO treatment. Now of course, treating SIBO also helps with the endo symptoms, so in some cases, we do start with the SIBO first, but as much as I can, I like to get endo to a place where it's not ruling my client's lives and they're not feeling ill on a daily basis. So, just keep that in mind. Now, if you know you have SIBO or you suspect you do, it's important to understand what your journey may look like and the truth is, whether you have endo or not, two thirds of people who clear their SIBO, will relapse. Which means they will fall into the ‘chronic' category. This doesn't mean they can't live well or clear the SIBO again. What it means is that there's a root cause that's hidden and maybe trickier to treat, which is causing that person to relapse. After this relapse, they may be able to find the root cause, treat it and then treat the SIBO again, and move into the not-chronic category and never develop SIBO again. For others, their root cause may be less treatable, they may never be able to fully heal the root cause, but they may be able to dramatically improve it. This could then give them longer time frames between relapses of SIBO, or mean that they have less SIBO, and could generally overall improve their quality of life with SIBO. And on that note, if you have chronic SIBO, that doesn't mean you'll always have SIBO all the time, the time between relapses tends to be two months to one year. If that time frame is less, you're known as a rapid relapser, which is what I am (yay for me) – and that means there's a pretty big root cause to be addressed, which I'll get to later. But whether you relapse straight away or in two years, you can live well with SIBO. You can manage symptoms, live a full life, and improve digestion and nutrient absorption. I mean look at Dr. Allison Siebecker. She is a chronic case, and she lives a full and healthy life, and eats a pretty normal diet too! It's about understanding your condition and knowing your personal tools for management.  But today, I want to talk about some of the main reasons why people with endometriosis may relapse with their SIBO, so that if it happens to you, you know what to do – or so you can prepare ahead of time and get these issues checked out. Number one is pretty obvious and that's adhesions from surgery or from endo itself. Structural issues are one of the two most common causes of SIBO. There are two direct causes of SIBO; so, a structural problem or a functional issue with the migrating motor complex, and there are many risk factors like diseases or problems that then lead to these direct causes. So, it's not that these diseases or risk factors cause the SIBO, but they cause a problem which leads to the SIBO – and with endometriosis or surgery for endo, this can lead to alterations in the structure of the intestine, because adhesions can distort them.   These adhesions can cause kinks, loops, pockets of intestines that bacteria get trapped in and obstructions, which all lead to the same result: bacteria get stuck in the small intestine. Now remember, SIBO stands for small intestine bacterial overgrowth. A condition where bacteria accumulate in the small intestine, when they should be living in the large intestine, and this community of bacteria create gases that cause IBS symptoms like bloating and damage the small intestine, resulting in malabsorption of nutrients and full body problems like chronic inflammation. Given that 50-100% of people who have abdominal surgery will get adhesions, it's quite likely that most of you listening will have them. Now, that doesn't mean that they're distorting your intestines, but it's worth checking because when they are, you could get this bacterial build up that I'm talking about. When I work with SIBO clients, I try to do this earlier on. Normally, you might actually just wait and see whether you relapse before you spend money on investigating the root cause, unless it's an obvious one. At least, this is what Dr. Siebecker advises and that works well for her, and she's one of the leading experts. You also have the prevention of relapse phase, which is 3-six months, post-treatment and that itself addresses some of the root causes and is really an essential step to the overall SIBO protocol, otherwise you pretty much are guaranteed to relapse without it. But, for us endo peeps, because we're so prone to adhesions, I just assume from the get-go that this may be a problem, and we get these assessed early on, either during treatment or during the prevention of relapse. People who have body work in the prevention of relapse phase, like abdominal massage, tend to recover better and have a prolonged remission time, so I always advise this as standard during the prevention of relapse phase, and I recommend Arvigo, visceral manipulation or Clear Passage, all of which can support with adhesions. So, whoever you see, will be able to feel for adhesions and then work on them directly. Now the extent to which these massages can clear these adhesions increases in the order I listed them, so Arvigo can do some mild work on adhesions, but Clear Passage is like the cream of the crop.  However, there are also other methods for clearing adhesions, including Frequency Specific Microcurrent and neural therapy, and I've linked to these in the show notes, but I'll probably do a whole episode on these at a later date too. For affordability, I would first recommend you just get assessed by a visceral manipulation therapist who can feel for any adhesions or tight areas, and then you can decide on your course of treatment. Next up is our most common cause of the diarrhoea or mixed type SIBO, and that's a history of food poisoning or gastroenteritis, and when I say mixed type I mean your SIBO causes you to fluctuate between diarrhoea and constipation. With these sicknesses, the body creates antibodies to attack the toxins released by the infections, but the issue is that the toxins look a lot like a protein that is a part of the interstitial cells of Cajal. The interstitial cells of Cajal are nerve cells which are responsible for the migrating motor complex, and just as a reminder, the migrating motor complex, or MMC for short, is a wave like motion that occurs in the small intestine, and clears out bacteria and old food debris, moving them into the small intestine. It's not the movement that pushes your food into the large intestine, but it's the movement that cleans the small intestine after the food has gone through. So, the body creates these antibodies to attack the toxins, but accidentally attacks the MMC nerve cells because they look the same, resulting in a damaged MMC. In cases like this, relapse is quite common because the body now has these antibodies. You can test for these antibodies with something called the IBS Smart test, which is not available in all countries, but is growing in availability. It generally is a private test and is not often something you can get on the NHS, and I've linked to a few places you can get this test.  Now in some cases, if the food poisoning or gastroenteritis occurred a long time ago, like in my case I had gastroenteritis when I was just a baby, then you probably won't come up as positive for the antibodies, but the damage will still have been done. Unfortunately, many people with this root cause are often chronic, and need to stay on MMC support long-term, so that's those pharmaceutical drugs or natural supplements which stimulate the MMC overnight, however, just clearing the SIBO itself can help the MMC to repair and improve, and there are other things you can do to lower the antibodies and repair the MMC including following autoimmune healing protocols like the AIP diet, healing leaky gut and using nerve healers like lion's mane. These options won't necessarily completely eliminate the antibodies or heal the MMC, but they can certainly improve things and may even do so to such an extent that with the right support and management, you can stay in remission. It's not always the case, but it could be possible.  Alright, next up is a trio of issues that are sort of one and the same, and all affect the migrating motor complex, and I see these three issues often in my endo-SIBO clients and they are vagus nerve problems, trauma, and chronic stress.  The vagus nerve is a large nerve that travels from your brain all the way down to the base of your spine. It controls multiple functions and is responsible for your ‘rest and digest' response and plays a leading role in digestion and stimulates the migrating motor complex . Now, the rest and digest response is the part of the nervous system that activates when we're asleep or resting and is responsible for digestion and repair in the body. When this system isn't on, we can't digest food or heal – and stress turns it off, so you can see here how stress comes into play.  The vagus nerve can be damaged from trauma to the spine and head. It actually doesn't have to be a severe injury, even just a bang on the head when playing as a child or falling on your spine can cause some damage to the nerve. But as I've just alluded to, the vagus nerve can also be affected or impaired by trauma or chronic stress – and for many of us with endo, just living with the condition can cause trauma and chronic stress, and statistically, many people with chronic pain conditions have a history of childhood and adolescent trauma, and this is normally the case with many of the clients I see. Now, trauma doesn't have to be something huge and dramatic, there are multiple things that can be considered a trauma during these ages, and I've linked to some info in the show notes so you can have a look and do further reading if you wish to. If the vagus nerve function is impaired, we'll struggle to move into rest and digest and will often find that digestion is affected. But we may also have immune issues and many sensitivities, as vagus nerve impairment can affect immunity and cause a hyper reactive stress response, where our nervous system begins to see everything as a threat. In these people, I tend to see they generally feel sicker, have more sensitives and more immune problems, and it may feel like nothing is working for them.  One way to check how your vagus nerve is doing is to monitor your heart rate variability. Your heart rate variability is the variation of time between each heartbeat. There are numerous gadgets on the market that monitor your HRV, so shop around. But essentially, if you have low heart rate variability, so there isn't much variation of time between heart beats, this is an indication that your vagus nerve isn't doing so well, and if you have high heart rate variability, so the amount of time between each heartbeat varies, then this indicates a healthy vagus nerve.  There are simple ways to support your vagus nerve and more extensive ways, and I take my clients and students through both, but some very simple ways to begin supporting your vagus nerve includes deep breathing, yoga, singing and body work like massage. These are just some of the things that can help and are really more so the initial, simple changes, but diving into vagus nerve support is a whole episode in itself! In fact, I have whole lessons dedicated to it in my courses, but if you're curious as to whether this is affecting your SIBO recovering, your first step could be to check your HRV. Next on our list is another triad and this is the triad of mast cell activation syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome and postural tachycardia. So, let's do some quick definitions of these – MCAS is a condition where mast cells, which contain immune cells like histamines and other inflammatory immune cells, are hypersensitive, and release histamines and other inflammatory immune cells more frequently and in larger amounts than needed. This causes problems like histamine intolerance, but also creates other inflammatory issues, and generally a person with MCAS will have a myriad of symptoms that seem random and unconnected, and often feel very unwell most of the time.  Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is a collection of syndromes that all affect connective tissue in the body, with the most common one being the hyper mobile form of EDS, which I see in a number of my clients, and is somewhat connected to endometriosis, painful periods, and heavy periods – and I have a whole podcast episode on that for those of you would like to know more. Then finally, we have postural tachycardia, which is a condition that affects blood flow, heart rate and blood pressure when someone goes from sitting to standing, though the affects and symptoms of this condition don't just happen when someone stands up - and can occur after exercise, or from a hot bath, hot weather, and other circumstances. Now research is showing that POTs and MCAS are co-conditions of EDS, and so it's important to look for all of these conditions when one of them is present.  And the keys reasons why these can cause a SIBO relapse, is because EDS can cause someone to have what's known as ‘droopy bowels', where basically, the intestines are floppy and collapsing, which means the MMC can't functioning properly and move bacteria out, and the bacteria gets trapped inside. In fact, research has found that 48% of IBS patients have EDS! EDS can also cause slowed motility and affect the valve between your small and large intestine, allowing for bacteria to flow back up into the small intestine from the large – and these are just some of the ways that EDS can affect the gut and lead to SIBO. Additionally, histamine can affect gut functioning, so excessive levels can impair recovery too, and then with POTS, because it's a form of dysautonomia, which means it's a dysfunction of our autonomic nervous system, the system that controls involuntary responses in our body like heartbeat and digestion, this can also suppress motility.  Finally, let's look at hypothyroidism. Hypothyroidism is a condition where we make too little thyroid hormones, and people with endometriosis have an increased chance of developing the type of hypothyroidism that is caused by autoimmunity, known as hashimoto's thyroiditis, in fact, we are six times more likely to develop the disease (though there are ways to prevent that, which is a whole other episode, but know that everything we discuss here on this podcast generally helps!). Hypothyroidism slows gut motility and the MMC, which can of course lead to SIBO, but if you're able to manage your hypothyroidism well with the right levels of medication and lifestyle support, this impact could hopefully be lowered. If you have hypothyroidism already, I've linked to a few webinars on the link between SIBO and hypothyroidism, so you can do further research.  If you're not sure what's going on with your thyroid, but you struggle with fatigue, weight gain or struggle losing weight, you have constipation, dry skin, brittle hair, and hair loss, this could be a sign of hypothyroidism. Ideally, you should get a full thyroid panel, which is not often done by doctors, but I have listed some private tests in the show notes, alongside the functional medicine reference ranges for optimal levels. Okay, so that's it. Those are some of the most common causes for SIBO relapses in people with endo. Now, there are many risk factors for relapsing with SIBO, so these aren't the only ones, and I have linked to some further reading and resources in the show notes, but these are some of the most common ones I see with my endo and SIBO clients. I hope that this gives you some info on what symptoms to look out for, what to check for and some starting steps on how to manage some of these issues. Please share this episode or get in touch if you found it useful! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to The Endo Belly Course wait list here.  On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes IBS/endo/SIBO/causes https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12591062/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12397741/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/437407/ https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/600349 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23614961/ Adhesions https://www.siboinfo.com/prevention-of-relapse.html https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endo-belly-after-endometriosis-surgery?rq=adhesions https://www.iahp.com/pages/search/index.php https://clearpassage.com https://www.merciertherapy.com (You currently need to email them directly for a referral) https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members https://naant.org https://frequencyspecific.com/frequency-specific-microcurrent-practitioners/ Food poisoning https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25970536/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31152332/ https://www.siboinfo.com/testing1.html - IBS Smart test links Stress/vagus nerve/trauma https://endometriosis.net/living/trauma-chronic-illness https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22450306/ https://www.caringmedical.com/can-repair-vagus-nerves/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355787 https://selfhacked.com/blog/32-ways-to-stimulate-your-vagus-nerve-and-all-you-need-to-know-about-it/ https://www.jessicamaguire.com/the-vagus-nerve-masterclass https://www.heartmath.com/science/ https://ouraring.com/blog/what-is-heart-rate-variability/ https://www.heartmath.com/tech/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22450306/ https://www.caringmedical.com/can-repair-vagus-nerves/ https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/gastroparesis/symptoms-causes/syc-20355787 EDS/MCAS/POTS https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/endometriosis-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-is-there-a-connection https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx https://www.siboinfo.com/associated-diseases.html https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29687534/ https://www.ehlers-danlos.com/pdf/2018-annual-conference/N-Blagowidow-2018Baltimore-OB-GYN-and-EDS-HSD-S.pdf https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/ehlers-danlos-syndromes/ https://www.rcgp.org.uk/clinical-and-research/resources/toolkits/ehlers-danlos-syndromes-toolkit.aspx https://ehlers-danlos.com/wp-content/uploads/hEDS-Dx-Criteria-checklist-1.pdf https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31267471/ https://drbeckycampbell.com/mast-cell-activation-syndrome-postural-orthostatic-tachycardia-syndrome-and-ehlers-danlos-syndrome-what-is-the-connection/ https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/postural-tachycardia-syndrome/ https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/6004-dysautonomia https://join.sibosos.com/page/94124 Hypothyroidism https://join.sibosos.com/page/94127?ref=13663 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6601386/

Okay so today we're talking about the all-important migrating motor complex. Let's start with what the MMC, which is just what's it usually abbreviated to for ease, actually is. The migrating motor complex is a wave like emotion that occurs in the small intestine, not large, between meals and overnight. This wave motion clears out any old food debris and bacteria once food has already passed through into the large intestine, so basically, see the MMC as the washing up, once all the leftover food has been cleared off the dinner plates.  Now, the MMC is crucial for good gut health and when it slows down, we get a build-up of bacteria and old food, this means that not only is there a constant supply of food debris in the small intestine for bacteria to munch on, but every time food enters the small intestine, that food will be munched too.  So, why is this a problem? Well, you're not supposed to have bacteria in your small intestine – at least, not much at all. There should be a teeny tiny amount, but the large intestine is where you should be housing all your friendly gut bacteria. The small intestine is designed for absorbing nutrients, not for housing bacteria, so this excess of bacteria damages the small intestine and we end up having trouble absorbing nutrients. To top that off, the bacteria actually compete with us for our food. If that wasn't enough, the bacteria ferment the food, and create gases. These gases not only cause bloating (which could be the leading cause behind your endo belly) but also cause problems like diarrhoea, gas, acid reflux, burping, constipation, abdominal pain and sensitivity, brain fog, fatigue, histamine intolerance and full body pain to name a few. If this sounds familiar, you'd be right. What I'm describing is small intestine bacterial overgrowth, also know as, SIBO.  And SIBO is arguably one of the leading causes of endo belly with endometriosis patients, in fact, current research estimates that 80% of people with endo have SIBO and the same study found that 100% of people with endo have an impaired migrating motor complex. Now, SIBO or not, it's important that we all have a healthy migrating motor complex as it keeps food and bacteria in the right place, and even if our MMC isn't damaged to the point that SIBO can occur or may eventually occur, a sluggish MMC could result in bloating, like the endo belly. In the case of SIBO, ensuring that your MMC is supported is the essential piece to preventing relapse once you get the all clear.  Now, unfortunately, sometimes the MMC is so damaged that recurring SIBO is going to be an issue for us, and we have to use natural supplements or pharmaceutical drugs long-term to keep it working as efficiently as we can. Post SIBO treatment, there is a process called the prevention of relapse, which lasts about 3-6 months, and requires these supportive drugs or supplements, known as prokinetics, during this time frame. If you relapse once weaned off them, it suggests that your MMC is very deficient and further investigations will need to be done. However, there are also some at-home methods we all can use to support the MMC, now these won't be strong enough alone to prevent a SIBO relapse, so a prokinetic agent is always, always required post-SIBO treatment, at least for the prevention of relapse stage, but these suggestions are nice add-ons and if you don't have SIBO, try one or two of them and see whether your endo belly improves, because regardless, our MMC still needs some love. Number one is ginger.  Ginger is actually a prokinetic that we use in SIBO treatment, during the prevention of relapse stage. Unfortunately, it's not normally strong enough to prevent a SIBO relapse so we tend to combine it with another prokinetic to increase the effects. However, for some people with SIBO, it's enough to keep them in remission and for those of us without SIBO, it helps give our MMC a nice boost and moves things along the digestive tract. Because the MMC is turned off for two hours after food, you don't want to take ginger during this time frame, as it'll push your food through too quickly and your small intestine won't have enough time to absorb it. Instead, you can take it two hours after food and overnight, again, making sure you take it two hours after dinner. Fresh ginger won't work here, it needs to be ginger root powder, 1000 mg, which you can take at night or twice a day – just don't exceed 2000 mg a day and always check with your doctor first, especially if pregnant, though ginger is normally safe and beneficial during pregnancy at these doses. Our second method is meal spacing. Now, this might be triggering for some of you, so just skip forward by a couple of minutes if so. Meal spacing is another essential step used in the prevention of relapse stage of SIBO treatment, and it is the practice of spacing out meals with enough time between that we allow the MMC to work. When we're constantly grazing and eating late into the night, we're not giving our MMC enough time to do its job. Many people can get away with this if they tend not to eat overnight and leave around a 12-hour gap between eating (so say from 8pm to 8am) but for those of us with SIBO or with other IBS issues, we may need to give our MMC a little more support. I will say that some people leave an even smaller gap overnight, like 8 hours, and they're okay because their MMC is strong, but generally those of us with gut issues tend to need longer.  So, what does that look like? The ideal time frame is 4 hours between meals and 12 hours overnight, as our MMC does most of its work when we sleep, so that's the really crucial time.  Now this doesn't mean you can't snack and it doesn't mean you have to practice meal spacing all the time or at all if you don't fancy it, this is just an option you could try if you're really struggling with the endo belly and you want to see if this can help. If you can't do four hours, aim for three, or two and a half, and if you can't do that, then maybe you can manage meal spacing in the morning, but not the afternoon, or vice versa. Or maybe you can't do meal spacing during the day at all, but you can manage 12 hours overnight, or perhaps in the beginning you start with 8 or 10 hours.  If you find that you're needing to eat before those two hours are up post meal, I would also focus on the meals you're eating because it could be that your blood sugar is dropping soon after meals and you need to do a bit of work on them to leave you satisfied for a little longer. For me, meal spacing did not come easy because I've really struggled with blood sugar in the past, BUT now my blood sugar is more stable than I think it's ever been and my continuous glucose monitor readings are looking really optimal, I can actually do meal spacing almost without thinking about it – and when I do manage to do it, my gosh do I feel better! My gut feels so much lighter, I'm not heavy and weighed down in my abdomen and I'm not as bloated. Now, a quick note before we move onto our next tip – anything that we eat or drink that expands the stomach or contains calories, will turn the MMC off. So that includes tea or coffee with milk. But water, black tea, herbal teas, and black coffee, sipped rather than gulped, is fine! For me, I do like a decaf tea with milk either mid-morning or mid-afternoon, so I tend to only meal space one side of lunch and overnight, but even then, I feel better! Finally, if this feels too much for you, don't even worry about it – don't even think about it! Try one of the other tips and don't give this another thought. This is more something that is important for those of us treating SIBO, but it can help us all with our MMC, which is why I included it, but it's not essential so please don't stress. Next up is vagus nerve support. The vagus nerve is a large nerve that travels from your brain all the way down to the base of your spine, to your colon. It controls multiple functions and is responsible for your ‘rest and digest' response and plays a leading role in digestion. It also stimulates the migrating motor complex, which is why we're talking about it today! Now the vagus nerve can be damaged in a myriad of ways, including a bang to the head or spine and trauma or chronic stress. This affects its ability to regulate digestion and to stimulate the MMC, so what we want to do is support it and improve what we call the ‘tone' of this nerve, basically we're working it out like a muscle. Now, normally, I find that people with endo and the clients I work with, have such an extensive history of trauma, that they need deeper vagus nerve healing and I talk about that in my course, The Endo Belly Course, but just an introduction to vagus nerve support, we can start with really simple techniques including – ·      Gargling ·      Gagging ·      Singing loudly ·      Cold water exposure ·      Alternate nose breathing  ·      Meditation ·      Yoga ·      Qigong ·      Tai Chi  Now, as I've said, many of us tend to need deeper vagus nerve support, but give one or two of these a good run. Try one or two on a daily basis for a couple of months and see if things improve with your digestion, endo belly or SIBO. Finally, our last strategy is one you're all going to be bored of hearing by now, and that's abdominal massage. Yes, I sound like a broken record because I am such a big fan of this stuff.  Regular abd0minal massage can improve digestion overall, ease constipation and even begin loosening a frozen pelvis and adhesions, but when practised in the evenings before bed, it can help boost the MMC overnight, and it actually does this by stimulating the vagus nerve. When I am working with SIBO clients or clients with constipation or excessive bloating, I really encourage them to try to practice abdominal massage nightly if possible, or a couple of times a week. A free massage you can try is the I Love You massage, which was actually designed for constipation, bloating and other IBS issues, and I've linked to that in the show notes.  Alternatively, you could try Arvigo massage, which is designed for gut health issues and gynae problems like endo. You can book in an online tutorial with a teacher and then after one session, you can go away and perform it on yourself, so whilst it's not free, it's a low-cost option. I've linked to my go-to Arvigo teacher in the show notes. So that's it! I really hope one or some of these tips help you to better support your MMC, and I hope that brings you some endo belly relief. I'd love to hear if you try any of these strategies and how you get on – please email me or reach out on Instagram and let me know. Don't forget to share this episode with other endo warriors if you found it useful.  On March 28th I am running my second Endo Belly Challenge! In this 4-week challenge, you will learn the first steps to identifying the root causes of your endo belly and the initial tools to heal your swelling, gut issues and abdominal discomfort. Every Monday, you'll receive a new email with a little bit of endo belly education and an action to implement that week! This challenge is perfect for anyone who experiences abdominal swelling/bloating, gas, constipation, nausea, diarrhea/loose stools, acid reflux, indigestion or stomach cramps with their endometriosis - and it's entirely free. You can sign up here. Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is produced by Ora Podcasts. Ora provides audio editing, management and other services to make podcasting simple and sustainable for their clients. Health coaches, nutritionists, mediums, personal trainers, tarot readers, teachers, or just those striving for a better world, Ora can help you start and maintain your podcast. Get in touch today. This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order. Show Notes MMC https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/ https://www.siboinfo.com/mmc-videos.html https://www.siboinfo.com/prevention-of-relapse.html https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9660426/ Ginger https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10442508/ Massage I Love You massage Arvigo therapist Tara Ghosh interview

Hi out there to our listeners, its Annalee. It is Tuesday, 8th of March in 2022. We are bringing you a special bulletin on the catastrophic flooding in Northern NSW, Australia. In the early hours of Monday 27th February, a little over a week ago, heavy rains causing what was already severe flooding, took a fast turn and created what has been deemed by some scientists as a ‘rain bomb'. The scenes across Northern NSW have been nothing short of harrowing and the community response as a result a powerful reminder of immense good that is available within us all. I'm catching up with PBB's Oni Blecher who's on the ground in Mullumbimby, one of the region's badly hit towns. We address the current needs in the community, what our organisation is doing to support families and lessons for the wider community. MUSIC:The music you will hear on this podcast is by local Artist and song- weaver Olivia Rosebery, her potent song REMEMBER echoing a message of hope for everyone in need during these trying times. Find Olivia on socials @olivia.rosebery.music and www.oliviarosebery.comDONATEPregnancy, Birth and Beyond Fundraiser for Northern Rivers Birthing Families https://gofund.me/777ad721EPISODE INFORMATION:Guest: Oni Blecher. Oni is a PBB Media Producer and Creator, Craniosacral, Arvigo, Visceral + Myofascial release practitioner and Poet @thetempleofwords and Village keeper @@earthedtobirth. Find Oni @oni_keeperofthehearthGet in touch and info about The Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond Community Hub www.pbbmedia.org / hello@pbbmedia.org SEEK/GIVE support at Northern Rivers Community Volunteer Directory NRVD.ORGGuardian Article Anatomy of a ‘rain bomb': scientists strive to understand phenomenon that caused Australia's east coast floods https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2022/mar/05/anatomy-of-a-rain-bomb-scientists-study-phenomenon-2022-australia-east-coast-floodsMore links coming soon. Produced by Annalee Atia for PBB Media. All rights reserved. www.pbbmedia.orgThis episode was recorded on Gadigal lands and Bundjalung Country.Pregnancy, Birth and Beyond comes to you from Bundjalung Country at the Cavanbah or Byron Bay and we acknowledge with respect and reverence the Arakwal people of the Bundjalung nation, neighboring clans and people for caring for this country since time immemorial.

So last week we talked about oestrogen, and so today, clearly I'm going to move onto the other predominant hormone in the menstrual cycle, progesterone  So, let's get started. Progesterone is famous for ‘fluffing' up the uterine lining in the second half of your menstrual cycle, which occurs after ovulation, and this phase is called the luteal phase.  When we say fluffing up, progesterone is essentially further preparing the uterine lining to allow for implantation of a fertilised egg, whilst halting oestrogen's effects of  cell-proliferation which thickens the uterine lining.  If the egg is fertilised, it will begin stimulating a steady blood supply to the lining to nourish the egg, via the formation of new blood vessels and additionally will trigger the release of nutrients from glands hidden in the endometrial lining (which is just another fancy word for uterine lining). It will also prevent uterine cramping so the egg can stay nice and secure and plays an absolutely essential role in maintaining the endometrial lining and pregnancy throughout.  Progesterone is a muscle relaxant, which is to further support pregnancy by allowing the muscles of our pelvis to open and stretch as the abdomen begins to expand with pregnancy. However, because it is a muscle relaxant, it also relaxes the intestines, which slows down intestinal motility, leading to fewer bowel movements. In people who already have gut health issues (which let's face it, is most of us with endo) this can then lead to constipation in the second half of the cycle. Progesterone is also immune suppressing, and this is so the immune system doesn't reject a potential implanted egg by seeing it as a foreign invader. Coupled with elevated levels of inflammation that build from ovulation to menstruation, we might end up feeling like we have the flu if we don't keep our immune system strong and inflammation down. This is what you may have heard of as the ‘period flu' or ‘PMS flu'. But, that's not all. Progesterone plays a huge role in brain and nervous system health. Firstly, it actually protects and repairs the fatty layer that wraps around the end of nerve fibres – these are called myelin sheaths, though remembering the name is not what's important. What's important is the progesterone allows these to stay intact and functioning, and these myelin sheaths support proper communication between brain neurons (otherwise known as nerve cells) which allows for healthy cognitive function and communication between the brain and nervous system. Think about these myelin sheaths like a sheath on a long sword, the nerve fibre is the sword, the sheath is the fatty layer, and if that sheath starts to get worn down, the sword will be exposed in places and may start to get blunted or rusty. The next way that progesterone supports brain and nervous system health is through its effect on GABA, the calming neurotransmitter. When progesterone is used up in the body, it produces a metabolite, which is just a by-product of progesterone being used – it's sort of what progesterone is transformed into once it's done its job. So, this metabolite is called allopregnanolone and  allopregnanolone binds to GABA receptors. Think of receptors as a lock and key, the receptor is a lock on a cell, whilst the keys are GABA or allopregnanolone. The binding of allopregnanolone to a GABA receptor actually enhances the soothing effects of GABA, creating a sedative like response which can improve sleep, calm anxiety, and generally soothe both body and mind. Progesterone also helps protect us from breast and uterine cancer, supports bone density and heart health. Aaand plays a star role in ovulation, the production of progesterone is essential to kicking off the last hormonal change that aids in ovulation. Finally, progesterone raises our temperature, which is why when using the fertility awareness method for tracking your cycle, you'll use a basal body thermometer to take your temperature upon waking. Before ovulation, your temperature will be 36.11 to 36.50 degrees Celsius, after ovulation, it should rise 36.55-8. to If your temperature jumps up and stays there for three days in a row, you've ovulated and this temp change should be sustained and then drop just before your period as your progesterone levels drop. So just like oestrogen, it's actually an integral hormone to overall health.    Progesterone and the Menstrual Cycle Now you know the benefits, let's look at how it's made and its patterns during the menstrual cycle. Progesterone is made in something called the corpus luteum. The corpus luteum is a short-term gland made from the follicle which the chosen egg ovulates from, and this transformation occurs as ovulation takes place, so mid-way through your cycle. If the chosen eggs becomes fertilised, the corpus luteum will continue to make progesterone to sustain the pregnancy for the first three months of the cycle, if levels aren't high enough, this is when miscarriage can occur. It's why whenever my clients are having trouble conceiving or have miscarried, I like to keep checking their progesterone levels, because shockingly this is not something that is standardly done by doctors in relation to this, not until at least, recurrent miscarriages have occurred. After the first trimester, the progesterone supply comes from the umbilical cord.  Now, if fertilisation doesn't occur, progesterone will be made for between 11 to 17 days post-ovulation, and then drop sharply just before your period, triggering the shedding of the uterine lining. Progesterone goes on to stay low during the menstrual and follicular phase of the menstrual cycle, with oestrogen dominating during this time, and then progesterone dominates after ovulation. So, what happens if there's a problem with progesterone – and why would that occur? The biggest imbalance we see with progesterone is low levels of progesterone. Like oestrogen dominance, there can be two ways that low progesterone occurs.  So the first would be that your progesterone levels are actually normal but are low in contrast to oestrogen, creating an oestrogen dominance affect. Remember, this would only occur in the second half of your cycle, when progesterone is supposed to be higher than oestrogen. Or you actually have low levels of progesterone itself. So, let's look at the first scenario briefly. This would of course occur from elevated levels of oestrogen, in which case, we need to look at what could be affecting that and we covered those points last week.  So what if you actually have low levels of progesterone? The key culprit would be because of lack of ovulation. If we're not ovulating, the main follicle doesn't get a chance to turn into the corpus luteum and produce progesterone. The number one cause of lack of ovulation is some kind of physical or emotional stressor. This occurs because stress hormones like cortisol actually suppress the release of GnRH (which is short for Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone). GnRH is essential to get the menstrual cycle moving, it essentially tells the pituitary glands to make follicle stimulating hormone and lutenising hormone, and follicle stimulating hormone is essential for the growth of the chosen follicle whilst luteinsing hormone is vital to ovulation. When GnRH is suppressed, so are these, and so of course is ovulation and the resulting progesterone levels.  Additionally, cortisol also further prevents ovulation by making the ovaries resistant to the effects of FSH and LH. Now even if ovulation still manages to occur, the downstream suppression of LH and FSH can still lower progesterone production and finally, cortisol actually binds to progesterone receptors, meaning even if progesterone is made, it then can't go on and do its job in the body and is essentially just floating around with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Now remember, a stressor doesn't have to be an actual stressor in your life, it could be inflammation from SIBO, or lack of nutrients from undereating or having SIBO, or over exercising, or living in chronic pain. Now if you have managed to ovulate, and stress isn't an issue, but you have low levels of progesterone, you may have something called luteal phase insufficiency, which is essentially where the corpus luteum is unable to make enough progesterone. Whilst there may be numerous causes and it's always best to work with a practitioner if you are struggling with this, I commonly see this to be a problem in my clients who are unable to absorb enough nutrients from their food due to SIBO, or who have a lot of diarrhoea from SIBO so are underweight. They basically aren't taking in enough nutrients to create healthy follicles.  Another cause would be thyroid issues, whether that's hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism, but can affect ovulation and progesterone output. Other conditions can affect ovulation and ultimately progesterone production too, like PCOS and high levels of the hormone prolactin.  Finally, progestin IUDs can also create low progesterone overall. Progestin is not progesterone and therefore works differently in the body, and whilst you may have been told the IUD doesn't stop ovulation, it does for many in at least the first year of use.  Symptoms of low progesterone may sound familiar, because of course, once we have low progesterone, we also have oestrogen dominance, so here are some of the signs: ·      Heavy periods ·      PMS ·      Tender breasts, especially before your period ·      Missing periods ·      Shorter cycles (indicating that progesterone wasn't around long enough to have a full luteal phase) ·      Irregular cycles ·      Miscarriages or fertility struggles ·      Low moods – especially anxiety, anger and irritability in the second half of your cycle ·      Breakthrough bleeding in the luteal phase   Now, when it comes to progesterone, low progesterone is the most common issue we see, so much so, that going through all of my courses, I realised we don't even cover high progesterone levels! However, Dr. Jolene Brighten briefly covers the symptoms of high progesterone in her blog post on hormonal imbalances, so here are the symptoms from her: ·      Irritability ·      Feeling tearful ·      Sore breasts ·      Headaches ·      Tiredness   High progesterone levels can be caused by: ·      Progesterone cream, which is a common treatment used by many people with endometriosis. And according to an article by Clue app., high progesterone can also be caused by: ·      Congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH) ·      Some ovarian cysts  ·      Certain ovarian tumours  ·      Pregnancy complications Because this is not my area of expertise, I've linked to a couple of evidence-based articles on high progesterone in the show notes.  So, how does progesterone affect endometriosis? Firstly, we have the obvious issue that progesterone counteracts the proliferating effects of oestrogen, so without enough progesterone, there is the risk that oestrogen will go unchecked and could encourage endometriosis growth. However, this is a slightly simplistic view because some endometriosis cells are resistant to the effects of progesterone and some do not even have progesterone receptors at all, so progesterone literally cannot act on those specific cells.  The other benefit of progesterone is that it is immunosuppressive and we know there is significant immune dysfunction in endometriosis, where certain immune cells are creating excessive levels of inflammation but are doing a poor job of cleaning the endometriosis up. Having sufficient progesterone levels can potentially help quiet some of that excessive inflammation in the second half of the cycle.  Finally, progesterone can inhibit the formation of new blood vessels to the endo lesions, which are essential to their growth and development. Now of course, indirectly, if you already have gut issues related to your endometriosis, because of SIBO or adhesions or gut dysbiosis, then the natural rise of progesterone in the second half of the cycle can cause constipation. The answer isn't to supress progesterone, as I hope you can already see the benefits, but it's more so to support your gut, and this could look like different things depending on what is going on with your body. If you have adhesions affecting the transition of food through the gut, daily massage like the I Love You massage or Arvigo can make a huge difference and I see this work so well with many of my constipated clients. I've linked to resources for both of these in my show notes. If it's SIBO related or gut dysbiosis related, obviously taking the necessary steps to heal the gut is essential, but in the short-term, in the second phase of your cycle, you can use some symptomatic relief strategies, which I outline in episode 169 and I've linked to that in the show notes. Another issue you may have with endo is a tight pelvic floor, which when coupled with sluggish intestines, may result in constipation, so any form of pelvic floor relaxation or movement that helps gut motility like yoga, or rebounding or simply walking, is going to help. Of course, we also have the issue that endometriosis can cause anxiety and depression, so if we have low levels of progesterone in the second half of the cycle, those conditions may feel even worse. The answer is of course, to work to balance your oestrogen and progesterone levels with good hormonal practices, including blood sugar balancing, stress management, supporting the detoxification pathways, etc. Everything I cover in this podcast, in my nutrition masterclasses, courses and coaching. As I said last week, one of the most powerful ways to transform your hormones is with blood sugar balancing, so I would begin there. But if your biggest problem is lack of sleep, maybe that's where you start – or if its stress, maybe you bring in meditation. The key is, we want to make sure you're ovulating. Now there are a few key nutrients and some hacks for raising progesterone, and I'm going to keep that for another episode because this podcast is pretty long already! But initially, we really want to get those foundations in place rather than chasing supplements and shiny hacks that are short-lived.  If you're not sure about what your progesterone is doing, you can get a simple blood test. This blood test should be taken five to seven days after ovulation, if you're not sure when you ovulated, then you can do days 19-22 of an average 28-day cycle (remember, this is just an average, 28 is not the ‘perfect' cycle length). If your cycle is much longer, then check with the test provider.  And a great way to actually be sure you're ovulating is to use the Fertility Awareness Method, which uses three different markers you can track daily, to actually know for sure whether you've ovulated or not. I've linked to a couple of resources and episodes on this in the show notes.  So that's it! I hope you now feel confident that you understand how progesterone is made, how it affects endo and how it might be impacting you personally! If you've found this episode helpful, please remember to share with others and let me know what you thought!  Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free workshop Creating a Roadmap to Endo Healing in 2022: The Foundations Workshop here. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My new Nutrition for Endo Masterclasses are out now and are on special offer for Black Friday. Get one masterclass for £29.99 (full price £40) or both for £50. Find out more here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk This episode is sponsored by Semaine. Try their supplement for period pain and daily supplement for hormonal balance and PMS prevention with code ENDOLIFE to get 20% off your first order.    Show Notes Progesterone menstrual cycle/imbalances: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK279054/#female_the-normal-menstrual-cycle-and-the-control-of-ovulation._1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4653859/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4436586/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5689497/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20595939/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11994369/ https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/jne.12179 Episode 169: https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/symptom-management-supplements-for-the-endo-belly Prolactin https://academic.oup.com/mend/article/4/1/13/2713978 High progesterone https://www.verywellhealth.com/high-progesterone-symptoms-5185751 https://helloclue.com/articles/cycle-a-z/progesterone-101 https://drbrighten.com/hormone-imbalance-symtpoms/ IUD https://nicolejardim.com/how-does-the-mirena-iud-work-is-it-right-for-me/ Fertility Awareness Method https://nicolejardim.com/how-to-track-your-cycle-to-know-if-when-youre-ovulating-when-your-period-will-arrive/ https://www.freebirthsociety.com/blogs/the-free-birth-podcast/fam-understanding-the-basics-of-the-fertility-awareness-method Endo and progesterone https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnint.2020.00026/full https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5077092/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/8671374/ Hormone testing https://nicolejardim.com/hormone-testing-cheat-sheet/ https://nicolejardim.com/the-best-way-to-test-hormones/ https://drbrighten.com/when-is-the-best-time-to-test-hormone-levels/ 

In this episode, Malia shares her knowledge around womb wisdom & Ayurveda. We chat about how we can be more in tune with our bodies natural wisdom & self-heal. Malia shares her own healing journey that led her to the discovery of Ayurveda. Listen to gain more awareness around this holistic practice✨ Malia has a Bachelors of Exercise Science with a concentration in Health Promotion. Her passion has always been exploring the intricacies of the human body and acknowledging the innate way to self heal. Eventually her passion led her to India where she obtained her 500 RYT and discovered one of the oldest healthcare systems in the world, Ayurveda. Ayurveda is the deepest construct to achieving overall vitality and well-being. Malia is a Women's Ayurvedic Practitioner and Ayurvedic chef. Along with Ayurveda, she incorporates other modalities such as, Arvigo's self-care Mayan Abdominal Massage, doula work, and cacao ceremonies. Malia also obtained her additional 30 hours in the Back-bending Method from LAAIC, recognized by the Yoga Alliance. Malia's purpose is to help guide others into the wisdom of their bodies, creating space for limitless transformation and healing. You will learn.... What exactly is Ayurveda & what are the benefits? How has Ayurveda changed your life? What are your own Ayurvedic practices & how have they aided in your own healing? How can we tap into our womb wisdom & what is the best way to hear the messages being channeled through us? How can we heal past traumas from our womb space? How can we shift our view on our wombs to a more loving lens?

Hilary Lewin is a fabulous person, a pioneer in many ways but especially reproductive health. She was part of the group that set up Doula UK , she's one of the most experienced Arvigo abdominal massage teachers in the UK and part of the Abdominal Therapy Collective , a facilitator and author of the soon to be birthed book Menopause: Your Brilliant, Bloodless Revolution. We talk about Hilary's book, how to survive and heal in menopause, the toxicity of comparisons, the importance of resting and how to do it, why we write, the joys and hell of writing life and the joys of coffee.You can find out more about Hilary and her work at:hilarylewin.comabdominaltherapycollective.comYou will find the podcast on Spotify, iTunes and all major platforms, just search for 'Life - An Inside Job'.If you enjoyed the episode yourself, then it would be fab if you shared it with a friend or with your community on social media.MusicTrust Me (instrumental) by RYYZNCreative Commons — Attribution 3.0 Unported — CC BY 3.0Free Download / StreamMusic promoted by Audio LibraryArtworkPortrait by Lori Fitzdoodles

So, you've had an endometriosis surgery and you're really hopeful that's this is it – you're going to have some relief, for a while at the least. Maybe your periods are better, your chronic pelvis pain is better, things are improving. But after a few months, the endo belly comes back. Or maybe you get it for the first time ever. You're bloated all the time or maybe you bloat badly after meals, or maybe it gets worse over the day? Perhaps it's also accompanied by IBS issues like constipation, gas, or loose stools. If any of this sounds familiar, this episode is for you. Whilst surgery is essential for many people, it doesn't come without its risks. And I honestly feel like it's a disservice that these aren't more talked about. So today, I'm talking about why you may get endo belly for the first time, a return of it or a worsening of it as a result of adhesions, and what you can do to prevent them.  If you haven't heard me bang on about these guys before, adhesions are a form of scar tissue. They are web-like structures and bands of collagen that grow in response to injury and trauma, to ‘knit' back together a wounded area and as part of the healing process from infection and inflammation. Collagen strands bond together to protect the damaged area to allow healing to occur in a safe and isolated environment, and if an infection is present, they protect the rest of the body by preventing the spread.  Adhesions occur in nearly all cases of abdominal surgery, the results vary from study to study, but one large and long study found that between 55% to 100% of women who had pelvic surgery developed adhesions, and up to 90% of people who had major abdominal surgery - so something like a caesarean - developed adhesions. So, if you've had even one or more surgeries for endo, it's very likely that you have some adhesions. Now adhesions are a leading cause of the condition, small intestine bacterial overgrowth. This is another topic I bang on about all the time, but if you're new here, I am specialised in endometriosis and SIBO, because SIBO is so prevalent in our community, the research at present is indicating that 80% of us have it. And SIBO is a condition where the normal bacteria which should be in our large intestine (this is referred to as our gut microbiome), starts accumulating in our small intestine, where it shouldn't be. Normally, bacteria are moved through the small intestine into the large intestine with the help of something called the migrating motor complex, and this MMC is a wave like motion that sweeps the small intestine of any left-over food bits and bacteria, and it kicks in about two hours after meals and at night whilst we're asleep. Now a number of things can damage the MMC or prevent it from doing its job. Food poisoning or gastroenteritis is the main cause of damage to the MMC, and that actually damages nerves and muscles that control it. But adhesions, even if the MMC is working well, they can stop it from doing its job properly. And they do this by pulling on our intestines. So, imagine you have an adhesion that is going from your pelvis to somewhere on your intestines, it's going to be pulling down on your intestines and distorting the shape or the flow of the intestines. In fact, your intestines need to be able to slip and slide over each other, they need to be able to expand and accommodate food and waste, but if they're being yanked in different directions and they're being held in place by adhesions, the flow is going to disrupted. There may even be adhesions wrapped around the intestine, which would create an obstruction, or the adhesions may have caused the intestine to loop over itself, creating a pocket area that the bacteria can't escape from. Whatever is happening, the result is the same. The small intestine can't get clean, and bacteria builds up, causing SIBO. And the small intestine isn't designed to house bacteria, so this causes all sorts of problems like bloating, which is a main cause of the endo belly and IBS issues. The gases that are released from the bacteria can also cause brain fog, fatigue, joint pain, and body pain to name a few symptoms. I've linked to a couple of episodes where I break down SIBO in more detail, so if you're not familiar with it, have a listen to that. Now even if SIBO hasn't developed yet, adhesions may still be a source of your bloating. If they're not affecting your small intestine, they could still be affecting your large intestine and may be causing a build-up of waste or gas, you may not be able to have regular bowel movements or your intestines might be sluggish and slow, allowing for gases to accumulate, creating that swelling. So, what's the solution? Prevent the adhesions from taking root in the first place, or if they have, start to break them down. So first up, just as a caveat, we want to be lowering inflammation levels before and after surgery with good anti-inflammatory nutrition. Now inflammation occurs during healing, it's actually part of the healing process, but too much of it for too long will encourage adhesion formation. We want a healthy level of inflammation that aids in healing, not a chronic level that accelerates the growth of adhesions. So, before your surgery and during your healing phase, make sure you're filling your diet with those anti-inflammatory foods I always harp on about: colourful vegetables and fruits; healthy fats like avocado, olive oil, nuts, seeds, and fatty fish; antioxidant packed herbs and spices; and organic lean protein sources beans and lentils, free range organic omega 3 rich eggs, wild caught fish and free range, organic, grass-fed meat. If you want to learn more, I've linked to a few of my podcast episodes on anti-inflammatory nutrition and a free copy of my cookbook in the show notes. I should also be bringing out a nutrition for endo workshop in the next few weeks too, so keep your eyes peeled for that. Okay, so now that's cleared up, let's dive into the extra strategies. I'm going to start with what you can do before and initially after the surgery, and then what you can do once the scars have healed. 1. Number one is supplementing with omega 3 fatty acids.  Fish oil was shown to reduce adhesion formation following surgery on mice with induced endometriosis, and reduced the inflammatory healing process post-surgery, which could reduce the chances of further endo development as inflammatory chemicals like prostaglandins fuel endometriosis. This led to the mice who were fed with fish oil to have fewer lesions than those who were fed a standard diet without fish oil supplementation, so even though we don't have research specifically on adhesion formation and omega 3 on humans with endo,  this could be a potential helpful supplement before and after surgery (though I would argue it's an essential daily supplement).  The therapeutic dose is between 1000mg to 3000mg a day. I personally find I get more pain relief from the higher doses, but it can be tricky to get hold of those levels without exceeding the dose recommendations on the bottle. I have linked to a few higher dose supplements in the show notes, but if you chose to exceed the dose recommendations on the label, obviously that's your choice but you'll need to consult with a practitioner to be on the safe side. However, omega 3 fatty acids are generally very safe at these doses.  If you're vegan, look for an algae-based supplement that contains both DHA and EPA, because we need both. I've linked to a few in the handout.  The only risk is that they can sometimes thin blood, so speak to your surgeon ahead of surgery to see whether you need to stop taking them a few days beforehand, for keyhole surgery it's unlikely, but just check.   2. Number 2 is proteolytic enzymes. Proteolytic enzymes are natural substances that break down protein, and of course, the building blocks of muscle and tissue are amino acids, which form protein. As a result, proteolytic enzymes help to reduce adhesion formation and they also reduce inflammation post-surgery and aid in clearing waste products from the wound site. The research is limited, with most of the research being in oral surgery or sports related injuries but there is one study on endometriosis.   So, the only study we have on enzymes for endo is the use of a brand we use commonly at IWHI and that's Wobenzyme. In the study, Wobenzyme was shown to reduce pain and inflammation post-surgery, reducing the chances of adhesions growth and it also inhibited the formation of new blood vessels, reducing the chances of further endo development. The dose used in the study was the label dose for 40-60 days pre-op and then 60 days post op.  One thing to note is that because proteolytic enzymes reduce adhesion formation, there is the risk that if there is an infection at the site of the wound, that it could spread, as adhesions play a role in isolating infection sites from the rest of the body. This is rare but has been known to happen.    3.  Number three is home Arvigo Massage. Now, everyone is different, but my recommendation is as soon as your scars have healed and the therapist gives you the go ahead, learn Arvigo massage from a licensed therapists and start practising on yourself every day or a couple times a week. This really increases blood flow and helps to clear away scar tissue. It only takes 10 minutes and can be part of your evening routine, because if you do it at night, it actually helps to stimulate your MMC, so that will also help to reduce your chances of clearing SIBO. So that's a great tool you can be trying at home and that's like your daily maintenance. But we do want to go in with the bigger guns and that's so that's number four.    4.  Number four is having some form of professional abdominal massage known as manual therapy, which is designed to break up adhesions. Manual therapy is a form of organ massage and manipulation to break down and prevent adhesions from forming, unstick organs and release a frozen pelvis. Your main options are visceral manipulation or Clear Passage.  Visceral manipulation is a form of manual therapy which was designed by Jean-Pierre Barral. It's generally the more affordable and accessible option and is very effective for treating adhesions. Not much research has been specifically done on its effects on endometriosis, but there is plenty of research on its effects for pain conditions and lots of clinical research with endo patients experiencing success from treatment. The holy grail of manual therapy is Clear Passage. This is a unique form of manual therapy which is designed for adhesions and is incredibly effective for SIBO and endometriosis. In fact, there is even amazing research behind it for these conditions, showing its effectiveness. If you're contemplating a surgery but you're not sure it's necessary or the right path for you, for whatever reason, and you have the money to afford Clear Passage, you may want to look into it first because it can even prevent the need for surgery with endometriosis. Of course, if you have cysts that need removing or deep infiltrating endo that's damaging your organs, I am not saying to ignore the advice of a surgeon and not have surgery, but in some cases, surgery isn't the best option – especially if you've already had a few. Research has shown that the pain relief from Clear Passage is the same as surgery and is long lasting, and they all have remarkable results for endometriosis related infertility, pain during sex, and menstrual or ovulatory pain.  They also have wonderful results for SIBO and are endorsed by many of the world's leading SIBO doctors. Honestly, I wish all of my clients with SIBO, and endo could have Clear Passage because the results from the studies are so positive. However, it's very expensive so if you can't afford it, honestly, don't worry and try the Arvigo massage and visceral manipulation approach. 5. Lastly, you could also try regular castor oil packs. I know countless leading women's health practitioners who use castor oil to soften and break down adhesions and who experience great success with it with their clients. However, it's generally considered that more research needs to be done, though there is research on castor oil's abilities to lower inflammation, reduce symptoms of constipation, improve circulation, and stimulate muscle relaxation.  I actually asked Arvigo Therapist Tara Ghosh about using castor oil packs for breaking down adhesions and she explained how it works. So, castor oil actually triggers the immune system, due to some of its chemical components, but once it responds to the call and finds no poison to clear, the immune system goes about utilising its tools on repairing and healing the pelvic area seeing as it's already there, which in turn helps to break down and clear adhesions. She also emphasises that it lowers of inflammation and improves of blood flow to the area, and that this also helps to clear adhesions or prevent their formation. If you want to learn how to make your own castor oil pack and how and when to safely use them, I advise listening to my interview with Tara who has a really quick and easy method as opposed to the often messy and sticky traditional approach! You can try a castor oil pack alongside your Arvigo massage a couple of times a week once your scars have healed. And if you're years past surgery, don't worry – other than the proteolytic enzymes, you can use all of these strategies to break down any old adhesions that have formed! With the proteolytic enzymes, we only have research that focuses on pre- and post-surgery, so I really couldn't say whether they would work years after surgery, you could try, but I just can't make any guarantees! So that's it! I hope that this episode provides you with a bit of a protocol for healing post-surgery and preventing adhesion formation. I think it's actually appalling that we're not told about them and how to manage them, given that they cause people with endometriosis so many problems, but hopefully this gives you some tools to get to work with.  Listen and subscribe on your favourite player or listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here. To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes' in the subject line. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk

Okay, so a number of you have reached out to ask me whether I'm going to talk about my next steps for SIFO treatment, which I wasn't originally going to do as I have an expert in mind to invite onto the show, but as a number of you asked, I hope that sharing my story will be somewhat helpful for you!  So, unlike with SIBO where I had quite a long-term plan in mind, this I am more so feeling out my journey because as I discussed in my previous update, I'm not 100% sure if the issue is gut dysbiosis or SIFO. So, to recap, let's start with what SIFO is. SIFO stands for small intestine fungal overgrowth and it's when fungus like yeast (or other fungi) grow in the small intestine. We do have some normal, non-harmful levels of fungus and yeast in the large intestine, but they become a problem either when they overgrow or when they're found I the small intestine.  Unfortunately, the symptoms of SIFO are exactly the same as SIBO, so it can be very tricky to identify between the two. What makes it harder is that testing for SIFO is unreliable. Often the fungus hides in biofilms, which are protective mucosal-like layers, so they don't show up on tests and even if they do, there's no way, without a very invasive biopsy, to tell whether the fungus is in the large intestine or small intestine. What we do know is that the organic acids test tends to be the most reliable test, at least according to the practitioners I've trained with. We also know the candida tends to be the culprit behind SIFO in many cases, and just to be clear, that's the type of yeast which causes thrush, and we also know that about xxx of SIBO cases.  Now there are some extra tell-tale signs of candida specifically, if that's the fungus behind the problem, and those are…  ·       Allergies ·       Yeast overgrowth (vaginal, oral or on the skin) ·       Nasal congestion and excess mucus or phlegm  ·       Rashes ·       Joint pain ·       Brain fog and chronic fatigue ·       Headaches The difficulty is that unless you have the obvious thrush, whether oral, vaginal or on your skin, this symptoms are also typical of histamine intolerance, which you know if you listen to my podcast, is very common with our community and is also very common with SIBO, and hydrogen sulphide SIBO specifically.  As I had suspected hydrogen sulphide and for sure, have histamine intolerance, any possible SIFO really wasn't obvious. Until more recently. As you may know, about two months ago, I cleared my SIBO! But unfortunately, I still had the majority of the SIBO symptoms. I also had an unusual test result, which showed no hydrogen gas in my large intestine, which is where it should be. In a healthy negative result, you should see little hydrogen gas in the small intestine and then a rise in the large intestine, but I had a flat line. So, this indicates two possible issues – either hydrogen sulphide or a bacterial imbalance in my large intestine, essentially, the bacteria in my gut having been wiped out. Because I'd done so many treatment rounds and most of them would target all three types of SIBO, I felt it unlikely it was still hydrogen sulphide remaining, and my colleagues agreed. Secondly, I had done a round of antibiotics, and I react quite badly to them, having lots of diarrhoea, fatigue, and headaches, and after I finished the course, I got shingles, which you only get when you're very immune compromised. And 70% of the immune system is in and around the gut. If your healthy microbiome in the large intestine is wiped out, you can bet your immune system will be too. So, for sure, I was certain that there was some gut dysbiosis happening. But I didn't believe it was enough to cause all my symptoms.  And a few clues made me suspect SIFO.  Firstly, I was doing pretty well with symptom reduction until the third week of the elemental diet, which is full of simple sugars. Suddenly, I began to bloat up again. I also had a strong white film throughout the entire elemental diet, which indicated the sugars were feeding bacteria or yeast in my mouth, and secondly, I started having thrush symptoms during the elemental diet. Then, from the elemental diet, I went onto the antibiotics, and I got thrush symptoms again! Now Dr Siebecker warns that the elemental diet may cause yeast or fungal overgrowth in people who already have it, in contrast, Dr Ruscio uses the elemental diet for candida overgrowth, because he says the simple sugars are absorbed too quickly for the yeast to eat it. I think it's probably the case that both doctors are right, but that it depends on the individual and that they see different types of patients. Either way, it seemed quite clear to me that I had some yeast overgrowth as a result.  I went to my doctor at Vala, and they agreed that it looked like candida overgrowth in my mouth.  Additionally, I've always had a white film on my tongue, honestly ever since I could remember. I used to ask dentists about it, but they would shrug it off, and tell me it was down to what I had eaten, but I was waking up with it before I had eaten a thing. Back then I just took what they said as gospel. Then a few years ago, my boyfriend and I went through a real sweet tooth phase, long before I had gotten on top of my endo and eating an anti-inflammatory diet, and we were eating a lot of sugar. At that point, I got full on oral thrush, which thankfully was cleared with 24 hours of taking the medication – or so I thought! I've only ever had vaginal thrush a handful times, so again, initially, I really didn't think candida was an issue for me! However, the fact that I then started getting the symptoms from two things which we know may cause yeast overgrowth – the elemental diet and antibiotics – made me think that maybe I have had SIFO all along, but the white film never got out of control, and it wasn't really affecting my vagina too much. Now having said this, according to Dr Jacobi, candida can also cause a burning bladder pain, and for sure, that's what my pain feels like inside my bladder. Like I have a fire going on in there, and there's also a few rusty knitting needles sticking through it too!  So, alongside my colleagues who I trained with in SIBO and my doctor, I concluded I do likely have SIFO and gut dysbiosis.  The problem is, if you have SIFO, its usually quite hard to clear SIBO or to stay in remission, and even though I still had all the symptoms of SIBO, I felt like I relapsed about 2 weeks into my all clear. The changes were subtle, but they were there. I was still having bloating and loose stools, that hadn't changed. But what had improved is I could no longer feel fermentation happening in my gut, like active bubbles forming and moving around in my gut, which I used to get all the time – and that returned. The second issue was that my stools changed, and I won't go into the detail, but it was reminiscent of when my SIBO used to be really bad. Then I started getting the burping back, which was a new symptom originally, that started I think in 2019, but it went during treatment, and came back around the same time as these other symptoms. So, this occurred whilst I was in my prevention of relapse phase. So, when you clear your SIBO, you move into a three-to-six-month period where you put in place meal spacing, prokinetics (which are supplements or drugs which stimulate your migrating motor complex in the small intestine overnight, to clear out bacteria) and some kind of SIBO diet. There are also some additional extras you can do, which I was doing. I was pretty much doing everything perfectly, but I relapsed.  So, I was two weeks in, whilst deciding what treatment to start for SIFO. And at that point, sometime after my relapse, is when we decided to go to Greece.  Now originally, you'll know my plan was to do a very specific reintroduction of foods, following the usual elimination diet reintroduction phase, where you try one new food basically a week. But now I had relapsed, and I was at a point where I never didn't have symptoms. I bloated after every meal, despite being on the SIBO bi-phasic, so I couldn't get any more restrictive. So, trying to tell what I was specifically going to react to was going to be incredibly difficult and frustrating.  Also, we have been wanting to travel for years, but in addition to COVID, we hadn't because of my SIBO. I didn't want to be in a position where I had to eat outside of a SIBO diet and ended up relapsing. But now I had relapsed. And part of what may cause relapse is chronic stress and an elevated nervous system. I won't go into it now, but many of you know that I have felt very, very stressed and unsafe in our current home in Margate, but we've had continual circumstances that have prevented us from moving – one of them being that we didn't want to just move to a new flat, we really wanted to move overseas and roam around for a while. Additionally, we had mould, which we've cleared as much as we can, but there's likely a lot of hidden mould as the entire flat was flooded not long after we first moved in, and it was after that that I got very sick with histamine intolerance, which can flare up from mould triggering the immune system. But this is a stressor on the body and nervous system, and additionally, can cause relapse if your immune system is being compromised by something like mould. On top of that, I'd worked really hard, for really, really long and it had been a tough few years. So, we made quite an overnight decision to go to Greece for six week. You know, our original vision was to pack up, leave the flat entirely and just travel Europe for six months, because that's all we're allowed to do thanks to Brexit, but because of the restrictions with COVID, etc. it was just all so limited and so fingers crossed, we can do that this year. But we both decided enough was enough and we wanted a break from the house and a change of scenery, of course it was something we just wanted to do in life, but in a large part for me, my health was my motivation and my therapist even called it an intervention, and that's for sure what it felt like. So, I made the decision to go to Greece, knowing full well I wouldn't have total control about the reintroduction of food, but by this point I was pretty certain I had relapsed and giving that I still had the SIFO road ahead of me, a break away seemed not just like it wouldn't do much more damage, but that it would be good for me. So, my plan for SIBO and SIFO basically revolved around Greece because I would have to take all my treatment with me. And I established three goals, I mean I didn't, I'm not that organised, but that's this is what I focused on – ·       Keeping SIBO at bay and continuing the prevention of relapse to the best of my ability so it didn't progress rapidly. ·       Beginning to take on SIFO, but gently, to avoid any die off reactions whilst away. ·       And to rebuild my microbiome and improve my gut lining, which I was already working on anyway. So as a result, here's what my current protocol looks like:   Diet Before we went away, I began expanding with one to three new foods a week. Just some of the key ones that I thought I should try before we went, that I would likely rely on in restaurants, like lentils and some nuts. Then, as we planned for Greece, my aim was to eat as expanded as possible, so basically the more lenient end of a SIBO diet, which looks more like the expanded version of the low FODMAP diet and the paleo diet. This is fine by the way; you won't relapse if you expand. The point of the prevention of relapse phase is to expand to tolerance as rapidly as possible. Of course, I had no bloody idea what I was and wasn't tolerating, so I just decided to follow the low FODMAP serving guidance to help me to stay within some kind of relatively low carb (that's the basis of a SIBO diet) protocol. So, before we went, I basically started transitioning from the bi-phasic, which is very, very restrictive, to low FODMAP. Because we are here for six weeks, I had the advantage of not eating out all the time. So, I my plan was, and what I have implemented whilst here, was to eat low FODMAP during the week at home, and then at the weekend, to eat as low FODMAP or paleo friendly as I could manage whilst out and about, but also allowing for treats and just basically enjoying and appreciating a different cuisine. Now my doctor, who is a functional medicine doctor, sent me a candida diet. There are a few different versions, but essentially, it's a low carb diet to a degree, that removes yeasts and sugars. I had a look through it and because in terms of servings, it's generally less restrictive than the low FODMAP, I was essentially doing it, other than when I have some bread or ice cream over the weekend. But I didn't really want to go down a rabbit hole with that, especially as I'm not sure how suitable the candida diet is for SIBO and equally, some practitioners debate whether the candida diet is even necessary. So that's going to be a bridge that I cross when I get home. But for the most part, I am naturally doing it anyway. So, we've been here for about two weeks now and I've settled into a routine of this kind of pattern. The first weekend we were in Athens for 48 hours and were travelling and didn't really have time to seek out gluten free and dairy free, etc. We did stumble across a few places, thankfully, so that was great. But I ended up eating quite a bit of gluten, and by the third day I felt really nauseas and started getting an upset stomach. I also had dairy too, once, or twice, because it turns out that in Greece, it's really hard to eat vegan and gluten free in general restaurants. The protein options are mainly meat, fish or dairy and often the fish was things that I just wouldn't be able to stomach, like octopus, and as you know, I was hoping to transition back off of meat after having to eat on the bi-phasic, so I had some cheese every now and then, as being a health coach, blood sugar is important to me and so you do need protein with every meal. Also, my blood sugar is very suspectable to lows, so just having a plate of carbs would really mess me up and ruin the rest of the day, so I had to make choices about having enough fat and protein and that sometimes looked like a little dairy. Now I know I'm intolerant to dairy, which actually might be due to having SIBO, because it causes temporary lactose intolerance until you clear it, so I wasn't eating huge amounts and I tried to choose cheeses that I know I tolerate better, and I avoided cow's dairy and milk for the most part – except for a scoop of ice cream here or there, but in Athens I could get vegan.  So, because I was nervous about eating foods out, that I hadn't eaten for a long time, I took with me betaine HCL, which is stomach acid support; digestive enzymes; FODMATE, which is digestive enzymes specifically for FODMAP foods and charcoal capsules, which absorb gas if you have bloating and can also be helpful with diarrhea, and all of these have been really handy when out. I've still not had the happiest bowel movements, but I wasn't having sudden severe reactions whilst out and needing to dash to the loo, which is what I used to get and what I was scared of. So that's the diet side of things.   SIFO For SIFO, I didn't want to go in too hard core now and then have lots of die off reactions whilst away, which would leave me feeling really unwell. So instead, I started subtle. I have a one-week course of an anti-fungal from my doctor, but I am also taking a high dose of saccharomyces boulardii, which is a healthy yeast probiotic that competes with candida for space in the gut and has been shown to be very effective. I am also taking another probiotic called lactobacillus acidophilus NCFM, which creates candida antibodies to kill it off.  I am also taking immunoglobulins, which are naturally a part of our immune system and line our gut, but I am very low on these. They bind to toxins and help expel them, and when they're low, we're more suspectable to infections, parasites, yeast, etc. So, I am taking them to help with both the SIBO and SIFO. Additionally, I am taking glutathione, which is an antioxidant that's absolutely essential to liver function, and so this is supporting my liver to clear out all the toxins as the candida, fungus, etc. clears, helping me by lessening the die off.    SIBO For SIBO, I am keeping it at bay with the strongest prokinetic, called prucalopride. This is a pharmaceutical drug, but unfortunately, the natural prokinetics aren't normally strong enough and this was certainly the case for me. I tried them all, and they just didn't do the job. Whilst doing that, I am of course doing the diet 80% of the time, and then meal spacing as much as possible. So that's 4 hours between meals and 12 hours overnight. Sometimes I can't manage the 4 hours between meals because I'm hungry or I need to support my blood sugar, but at a minimum we're required to do 12 hours over night. I think maybe three days I ended up doing less than that because of travelling, maybe 10 hours or something. And alongside that I am taking low dose allicin, which is an extract from garlic, and I use multiple times in my SIBO treatment with success, and allicin also kills off fungus. It's reportedly not strong enough alone to kill fungus and yeast, but it can help and in combination with the probiotics, I think it's a nice combo to keep the SIFO at bay at least, if not begin killing it off.  So, I am taking the allicin at a low dose to keep the SIBO at bay, and this is a common approach. Dr Siebecker doesn't use it, but some other doctors do use it between treatment rounds instead of a prokinetic, and it does work. So, it may not be enough to kill the SIBO, in fact I know it's not, but it just sort of keeps it from growing like crazy.  Then of course, the immunoglobulins help too.   Microbiome and gut lining repair So, I am taking high dose fish oil, about 2000mg, which helps to repair the gut lining.  I am taking 2000mg of quercetin, which again helps to repair the gut lining, and also lowers inflammation in the body and gut and is a natural antihistamine. I was taking l-glutamine before I left, which is the best leaky gut healer, but the tub was huge and was open, and is a white powder, so I thought I might get arrested for that one! Additionally, the saccharomyces boulardii also helps to repair the gut lining, and the lactobacillus acidophilus also contains two other strains which have been shown to repopulate the gut and increase levels of beneficial bacteria. Now normally, I wouldn't take so many probiotics with SIBO, because taking too many can cause a flare up and even cause it to grow, but it's about testing your tolerance. If you take a probiotic and you're bloating or SIBO symptoms get worse, it's probably not the best one for you because it's feeding your SIBO. In contrast, certain single strains are better tolerated. I like to build people up to a few strains, and I was already on two, so with this combo I'm on four, and I tested them out before I left to make sure I wasn't reacting. But essentially, I couldn't find a single strain of lactobacillus acidophilus for the life of me, so this was the best I could find!  And the immunoglobulins help to rebuild the gut lining and support the microbiome too.  Additionally, in general, I have been supporting my gut by using the app. Nerva, which improves the gut-brain connection and using Arvigo massage at night to stimulate the migrating motor complex overnight. Both of these also help to lower stress, which damages the gut lining and microbiome, so addressing a stressed nervous system and an anxious gut is really important too – and I see Greece as part of that. I have to say, I haven't been able to be consistent with the massage and the Nerva with all the travelling, but we're a week into our new temporary home now and we're here for another three weeks, so I can get back into my routine.  So that's my current protocol. When I return to the UK, I am going to move into a high dose of oregano and another yeast antimicrobial, likely Candibactin AR, but continue with the probiotics, and I'll of course retest for SIBO. If I am positive, I may do the elemental diet again, whilst taking anti-fungals, as that should kill it at the same time. I may then need to continue with the candida treatment for several months, as it can take some time to clear. But I think that will be judged on whether I am seeing any improvements, because if it's not candida, then I don't want to waste time treating the wrong issue. I'm hoping to do an organic acids test too, to see if any candida shows up. What I'll do is take an anti-biofilm for two weeks ahead of the test, and that will hopefully break up the biofilm so it can be detected. It doesn't always work, but we'll see. But there are plenty of natural anti-fungals to rotate through and I have all the doses from my course with Dr Jacobi, so I'll let you know which ones I'm doing as I go through the treatments. If it's not candida, I may be still having symptoms because of possible Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which I am being assessed for when I return, and I've been talking about that over on Instagram if you want to learn more about its connection to endo and SIBO. And it could also be that I am just rapidly relapsing and severely reacting because of an upregulated nervous system, in which case, there are two great courses for rewiring your brain if your body is very reactive, one is called DNRS and the other is the Gupta Programme, so I may consider those too. I see a lot of this with my clients, an upregulated nervous system from years of pain, inflammation, etc. It's really too early to say which route I'm going to go down until I see what my SIBO results say, and I see how I respond to the candida treatment that I try when I get back. So that's it. I hope that sharing my journey has given you some insight into your own, has maybe offered you some hope or some motivation to keep going. I know clearing these guys is tough, and I'm with you on that, but feeling well is possible.  Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. Sign up to my free Endo Belly Challenge here. To become a The Endo Belly Course Founding Member, email me at hello@thisendolife.com with ‘Yes' in the subject line. Sign up to the wait list for my course, Live and Thrive with Endo here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk   Show Notes Nerva DNRS Gupta Programme Arvigo massage practitioner  

Today we talk to Dr. Rosita Arvigo, Naprapathic physician, International author and lecturer, and founder of The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®. She has dedicated her life and practice to preserving and elevating traditional Mayan abdominal massage practices, and using them to heal patients from all manner of reproductive system dysfunction in both body and spirit.   We talk about Dr. Arvigo's apprenticeship in Mayan abdominal massage with her mentor Don Elijio Panti, and how she merged those methods with her existing work in Naprapathy to develop the Arvigo method. We also talk about uterine displacement and the way that Mayan abdominal therapy is intended to help correct it.   We talk about how the displacement of the uterus disrupts blood flow, and the sorts of issues that can cause, as well as how correcting the placement and blood flow can help with a large number of reproductive issues. We also talk about how easily the uterus can become misaligned during a woman's life, which contributes to how common menstrual pain is for most women.   We discuss fertility challenges and the mechanics of how lymphatic blockages caused by uterine displacement may heavily contribute. We talk about Premenstrual mood issues and which parts of them are normal and natural, and which parts may be aggravated by misalignment.   Finally, we talk about some of the spiritual elements of menstrual regularity, and the ways that being misaligned be emotionally and spiritually damaging for a woman. We talk about the affects of birth control on uterine flow and discuss the considerations involved.   To Learn More Visit: https://abdominaltherapycollective.com or  https://rositaarvigo.com   For Any Questions, Email Us at media@birthcircle.com

Sali McIntyre and I have a conversation about the practice of yoni/vaginal steaming: what it's good for, how to do it, contraindications, incorporating prayers and gratitude into the practice, and how it works on multiple layers of your being, from the physical to spiritual. We talk about reproductive health, reclaiming authority over our own bodies, the healing power of community and connection, and the ways our Western culture is unwell. Sali is a certified Arvigo® Practitioner and Educator and Co-Founder of the Heart and Soul of Wellness Centre in Murwillumbah, NSW, Australia. She is a mother, grandmother, trained midwife, Arvigo® therapist, prenatal yoga teacher, birth educator and advocate for women with an enduring passion for birth on every level. She believes passionately that we are on the brink of/in the middle of the Birth Revolution that will see women taking back birth and their reproductive health into their hands. You can find Sali, her book “Womb Medicine: The Art of Yoni Steaming for Women's Health” and accompanying card deck at www.heartandsoulofwellness.com. Book a free Clarity Call with me https://www.carolanne.com.au/work-with-me. Connect with me on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/carolannealive/. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/reawakeningloveandpower/message

So, now you've learnt all about the link between HPA axis dysfunction and endometriosis, in today's episode I want to provide you with some of the core foundational strategies for healing HPA axis dysfunction.  Before I dive in, I do want to state that healing HPA axis dysfunction can take some time, especially if you're prone to living in the flight or fight response – so what I mean is, you're default mode is feeling stressed, or anxious, or you spend a lot of time rushing around or over-committing yourself to endless to-do lists. If this sounds like you, don't worry, that's me too, and it's many of my clients and for those of us who are like that, it can take some deep unlearning of these patterns before we can really get to see significant improvement. We can certainly feel better, and many do, but I think to really thrive and not keep returning to this cycle of low cortisol burnout, we need to change some of these habits. So, for example, one of my clients loves to work and runs her own business like I do, so we make traction with her HPA axis dysfunction, but then if she goes through a busy period, her default mode is to put her sleep, and the strategies I'm about to share, on the backburner, because that's always been her strategy. To push through, to keep going, to reach for perfection. And I totally get it, because I'm exactly the same too. So for her, we've seen improvement with her HPA axis, most definitely. She used to not be able to get out of bed! But we still have a long way to go because it's a few steps forward and a few steps back. And the same goes for me. I could feel a noticeable difference, I could feel my energy returning and my sleep schedule becoming normalised, and then I released the course, and it was incredible, but it was one of the hardest things I've ever done. Now moving forward, it won't be like that, because I've now made the course, but beforehand, I was building a course from scratch and learning how to market a course – and it was more work than I think I've ever done in my life. So my cortisol levels really depleted again, and I'd love to see where they were after the course, but with the SIBO treatment I just couldn't afford more testing on top.  I feel like they're getting back on track, but until my SIBO is fully resolved (and if there are any other infections, having them addressed too) I don't think my cortisol will be at optimum levels. I think it will be good, much better than it's been for most of my life, but the chronic SIBO and maybe an underlying mould infection will be keeping my body in a state of flight or fight, and I'll explain about that a bit later in the episode. The length of time it can take to recover from HPA axis really varies. I've seen studies showing it taking weeks to recover, whereas someone who is completely burnt out, like chronically fatigued, can't get out of bed most days, that can take much longer. I did have one client like that, and I consulted with Dr Jessica Drummond, and she said to me, you know, this could take two years to heal, and we're about a year in and she's waking up early and working, but she's not fully recovered yet. So, it's a journey and just know that your healing will really depend on what's happening in your life, in your body and the strategies you choose to implement, which will all become clear in time.  So please don't give up if it doesn't feel like it's working, because honestly, what I'm about to share we should ALL be doing every day, for optimum health and a healthy stress response and circadian rhythm, so it will be benefitting you, but it may take time for your cortisol levels to fully recover.  What I suggest is, if you can afford to do so, take a CAR test, and again, I've linked to some options in the show notes, and then take another test after three months or sooner, if you're feeling a difference, and then at another three months after that, just to see what your body is doing. You can usually tell, because you'll notice changes in your energy, sleep, when you wake up, etc. but it can be helpful and just interesting really, to see what your levels do in response.  So, what I'm going to share today is four of the key strategies, there are a couple more and there are some additional strategies and tools which can help, but to avoid overwhelm, I'm just going to provide you with some of the initial key steps. These may be enough on their own to heal your HPA axis or you may need to do some further work later on down the line, but these are some of the key foundations to get started.     1.  Number one is a nice and simple strategy, get sunlight to your eyes for 30 minutes as soon as possible in the mornings. Your body relies on patterns, to set its internal rhythms and it especially relies on light and dark. Your circadian rhythm is essentially controlled by day light, so getting light exposure for 30 minutes in the mornings, is going to tell your brain what time of day it is. The light changes throughout the day, and your cortisol levels will respond to that, so getting that morning light is going to really help to raise your cortisol levels to healthy levels. Over time, this continued pattern will basically reset your internal body clock, and your circadian rhythm will be able to set its pattern to this once more and your cortisol levels will start rising when they should.  You can get this light in a number of ways. It could be that you eat your breakfast in your garden in the mornings, if you have one, it could be that you sit by an open window to get ready, or you could go for a walk or commute to work ensuring you get lots of light along the way. As long as you are getting unfiltered light, so not through sunglasses or through a window, you're all good. And if you can't manage 30 minutes, just do as much as you can.    2. Number two is probably the most important one, but I appreciate is often the hardest one. Get at least 7.5 hours sleep, minimum, each night, whilst also going to bed and waking at the same time every day.  I know this sounds intense but let me explain why it's important. Your body needs regular sleep and wake times in order to know when to raise and when to lower cortisol. If you're going to bed at 1am, of course you'll struggle to go to bed at 9pm, because your cortisol isn't low enough yet as it's been programmed to lower around 1am, and if you have a flipped curve, as we discussed last week, where cortisol is rising at night, this training of a new sleep routine will be hard but will be essential to getting those cortisol levels down.  It's the same if your cortisol levels are low in the morning. If you're going to bed late, then the body won't be elevating your cortisol levels to their waking levels until about 8 hours later. Yes, they start rising before that, but not enough to wake you up, so if your alarm is going off and you've only had five or six hours sleep, your cortisol levels just won't be high enough.  So, if you have HPA axis dysfunction and your cortisol levels are low in the morning or generally low all the time, you can see why not having enough sleep or irregular waking hours is not going to help. The body needs to know when it should be elevating cortisol, and to do that, it needs a reliable pattern. We're essentially resetting your alarm clock here.  On top of that, the reason why our HPA axis is dysregulated is because of stress, and that comes from both physical and emotional stress, and a huge physical stressor on the body is lack of sleep. So, if we want to allow our HPA axis to regulate, we do need to invest in improving our sleep quality.  Now this is of course easier said than done, so that sleep routine piece is going to take practice in order for your body to get into a rhythm, and in most cases, it's going to take sleep hygiene practices. These are essentially strategies which help your cortisol levels to lower and melatonin levels to rise at night and improve your sleep quality. That's a whole other podcast, but I have linked to an Instagram post I did on sleep hygiene strategies and of course, if you want to dive deeper, I cover both HPA axis and sleep optimisation in my course, which you can get on the waiting list for now – I've put the link in my show notes. If you have insomnia, I understand and I go through cycles of this, which truthfully, I think this is down to a flipped cortisol curve because I so often default to living in a state of flight or fight, and I also truly think a large majority of insomnia cases are down to cortisol dysregulation. So, if this is you, rather than getting stressed about the sleep piece, perhaps look at working on all of the other areas, because they will start to regulate your cortisol levels, which over time, should help you to sleep.  And I would start teaching your body a pattern of the same sleep times and wake times, if possible, even if you're not getting to sleep, even if you're not trying to – just sitting in bed and practice calming, restorative techniques to help lower cortisol at night. Don't make the focus on getting to sleep, but rather on just lowering cortisol. So, a dark room, maybe candles or very soft lighting, breathing exercises, massage, listening to sleep stories (which you can now find on loads of meditation apps), just anything gentle or soothing and I hate to say this, but I would avoid watching TV, being on your phone or your laptop or computer like the plague. I know I'm often very careful with my language and say to do what works for you and to tailor each strategy, but there's really no way around this one. Blue light from your TV, phone and laptop will elevate cortisol and suppress melatonin and not only that, but they're also designed to engage, stimulate, and activate your brain, they're not designed to help you wind down.  If you need your phone for the meditation or sleep story, put it on night mode, ideally get an app that creates a red screen and wear blue light blocking glasses, and turn the brightness right down. Now finally, I know you're probably thinking – what about the weekend? Well, research has shown that we need this consistent pattern all day, every day, but I know that's not realistic, so I would just try to do your best. If you're out late at a birthday, it's a one off and I wouldn't stress about it. If you're at home and you just tend to stay up later at the weekends, see if you can curb that slightly and bring it closer to your normal bedtime. So, if you go to bed at 10pm normally, can you make it 11pm at the weekends? That kind of thing!   3. Number three is to eat at regular times and to balance your blood sugar. Just like with light exposure and sleep, eating at similar times can help give your body reliable patterns to set its internal rhythm to. So, if you can eat at roughly the same time each day, that'll help. This pattern is less important that the first two, so don't worry if sometimes you're travelling or something and can't eat at the same time, but roughly and as often as you can will be helpful. But what is really important is blood sugar regulation. You know I've talked about this so many times by now, but high and low blood sugar are stressors to the body and activate the HPA axis stress response. And even if your cortisol levels are low, it's still going to activate, it's just going to be pumping out adrenaline in cortisol's place and so the stress response will still be occurring, just of course, not as it should. And as long as we keep repeatedly stimulating that stress response, the HPA axis is going to stay dysregulated.  I've shared how to regulate your blood sugar in previous episodes, so I'll link to that for full details, but in short, we need to include protein, fat, fibre, and complex carbohydrates with every meal. And the general ratios for good blood sugar balance are 50% of your plate consisting of low starchy veg which provides you with fibre and complex carbohydrates, 25% of your plate consisting of protein, and the final 25% being split into healthy fats and starchier, yet complex carbohydrates. For fat, we want at least two golf ball size servings, so that could look like say about a third of a large avocado or two tablespoons of nuts and seeds, and with starchier complex carbs, it could be sweet potatoes or quinoa, or beans if you haven't got them as your protein source, and the serving size you have really depends on your energy needs. Of course, if you look at it in relation to the other ratios, it's not a huge serving, about a handful, but you might need to increase it if you have a very physical job or you're very active. Be guided by how you feel! If you find you're getting hungry soon after meals, first try increasing your fat and protein sizes.  The other key strategies for balancing your blood sugar are to not allow yourself to get starving or super hungry before you eat – if you're shaky or hangry, you've waited too long, and of course, try to keep refined carbohydrates, and added sugar to special occasions rather than everyday foods. If you want to understand this in more depth, have a listen to the episode I've linked to or a read of the articles I've added to the show notes, and my course also has an entire module on blood sugar balancing and its impact on endo and our hormones, and how to balance it.  I know the idea of reducing certain foods can be triggering, so if this feels that way, then focus more on the balancing of your plate and all the wonderful foods you can add in, and on eating regularly. Of course, if you have a history of an eating disorder it is always best to work with a nutritionist, coach or dietician who can guide you, as well as a mental health practitioner.    4. Number four is stress management. I know I said sleep was the most important, but actually it probably ties with stress management! Now in order for our HPA axis to recover and get back to some kind of normal regulation, we need to stop chronically activating it.  This means we need to learn how to move regularly out of flight or fight and manage our stress response, plus look at any areas that may be a source of stress that we can address. Of course, there's always going to be some element of stress in our lives, but we can change how we cope with and respond to stress, and even how we perceive stress. So firstly, let's begin with the simpler changes. We want to practice moving out of the stress response, called the flight or fight response, and move into the rest and digest response on a regular basis. This is particularly important if your default mode is anxiety, stress, worry, fear, etc. because for you guys, most of the time you're going to be in flight or fight, and that's not good for the body. You know the impact that chronic stress can have on the HPA axis and on pain, from our last episode on this, but being in a constant state of flight or fight has far reaching effects on our health.  Personally, I've found that I have a harder time trying to get my mind to calm down, but utilising stress relief methods for my body, practices that actually put us in rest or digest, then calms down my mind or at least takes me out of flight or fight, even if my mind is still ruminating.  So, some strategies which calm down the stress response and put us into rest or digest include: Massage, any kind, but I really like abdominal massage like the I Love You massage for IBS issues or Arvigo massage for IBS, period pain and endo in general. These are really great to do before bed because they put your body into rest and digest but also support digestion overnight. I've linked to a free I Love You massage on YouTube, and you can learn Arvigo massage in one Zoom session with a therapist and then practice on yourself. I've put the links to both in the show notes. Tapping, also known as Emotional Freedom Technique is an exercise where we tap on the body – on the side of the hands, the eyebrows, side of the eyes, under the eyes, below the nose, on the chin, on the collarbone, under the arms and on the head, whilst repeating certain statements. The practice combines acupressure, originating from Chinese medicine, with more Western psychology practices. It's now gathering a wealth of data behind it and has been shown to take us out of flight or fight and calm the stress response. It's also been shown to reduce anxiety, depression, and pain, and is even helpful with managing SIBO! You can learn tapping with a practitioner, or you can use an app or watch free YouTube videos online. I've linked to an app I like in the show notes.  Yoga Mindfulness meditation Walking in nature Mild to moderate exercise (such as Pilates, brisk walking, Zumba, etc.) Being in community   All of these have been shown to reduce stress levels, taking us out of flight or fight and into the rest and digest state. And what I also love about these is that they're a way to process trauma or emotion out of the body. Often if we don't want to think about something that is distressing to us, or we don't feel like we're safe to express it in the moment, for whatever reason, and we store that tension in our bodies, which can lead to hypersensitive nerves firing off danger signals, triggering pain because the brain thinks we're unsafe. But if we're able to physically work off some of that emotion, the physically damaging effects of that stress response can be reduced.  I've found it really helpful for me, being a health coach, it's of course sometimes a stressful job because I am looking after people's health and that in itself is a lot of pressure, but of course hearing about someone's pain or distress is emotional, so afterwards I can sometimes feel worried or anxious. So often I'll come off a call and I won't really know how to think my way out of what I'm feeling, I struggle to soothe myself with just my thoughts, so I tap, or I get on my rebounder for five minutes, or I do some mindful breathing, or I do some of my weightlifting exercises, which I do at intervals throughout the day. And I sort of imagine myself shedding the stress as I do it. Not all the time, but especially when I'm jogging on my rebounder, I sort of see myself running the stress off, and it really, truly helps. It's become a wonderful way for me to process my feelings.  The next area to look at with stress is whether you have any past trauma that needs working through. I've been talking a lot over on Instagram about the ways in which childhood trauma, known as Adverse Childhood Events or experiences dramatically increases our chances of developing chronic pain, autoimmune diseases and chronic conditions, and the pathway for most of these developments is through HPA axis dysregulation, which has occurred due to chronic stress. If we haven't worked through these past traumas, they can be subconsciously keeping us feeling unsafe, causing our bodies to be in a near constant state of flight or fight or easily stressed and activated.  This could be a whole topic in itself, so my recommendation to get started with this healing process is to read my Instagram post first, and then I've linked to a couple of books, podcasts, and therapy resources to help you work through the trauma in the show notes. We also need to look at how pain is triggering your stress response. Of course, the more stressed we are about our pain, the more unsafe our brain feels, and then the worse the pain gets, because it is our brain which creates pain and controls the intensity – and if the brain feels like there is a reason to make pain (so if the brain feels at threat or in danger in any way at all, and this could be as small as a stressful email) it will increase the pain levels.  So, changing the way we experience pain and perceive it is also important and of course, this and the above step about trauma can take some time. Don't worry about that, don't stress about having to get it all done. Put the easy practices in place, like maybe getting sunlight, trying tapping before bed, eating at the same times, balancing your blood sugar, etc. Put the practical bits in place and implement them over a time frame that feels manageable, and then when you feel strong enough to work on your pain perception or trauma, begin then. By this point, I would hope that you would have better cortisol levels and a more robust and healthy stress response, so you can actually better handle the work involved in these steps.  So anyway, that was a side note on how to approach this, but back to actually changing the way we perceive our pain… Again, this is a podcast in itself but there are a few therapies and approaches to help you to do this. You could try: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for pain Curable (which is a brain retraining app for chronic pain and I highly recommend it)  Mindfulness Based Pain Relief  And there are a couple of great books I recommend too, so I'm going to link to those in the show notes. Finally, we also want to look at physical stressors, but this where it can get a little complex. If you're dehydrated, if you're eating an inflammatory diet, if you're over-exercising, sleep deprived, or have SIBO or gut health infections (or any underlying infection for that matter), chronic inflammation or nutrient deficiencies, these will all be stressors on the body and can make it harder to recover from HPA axis dysfunction.  Now what I would say is that this is more advanced healing and I feel like for many people with HPA axis dysfunction, they need to have more energy and better cortisol levels to be able to take this stuff on, otherwise it can just feel too overwhelming, so I'm not going to dive into this today.  Instead, what I will say is to focus on a nutrient dense diet rich in anti-inflammatory foods, so your body is well fed, is getting a good amount of nutrients and we aren't fuelling the inflammation fire. You can of course also add one or two supplements to help lower overall inflammation, which we know is generally a problem for most people with endo, being an inflammatory disease, and I talk about my favourite anti-inflammatory supplements in episodes 130 and 131.   Also make sure you're drinking enough. The calculation to work out what your body needs at a minimum is to drink half your body weight in fluid ounces. So, you take your weight in pounds, so say someone was 100lbs, then you halve it, so we have 50lbs and then you just replace the pounds with fluid ounces, we're not converting, just swapping. And if you're very active, you'll need more than that, this is just your minimum. I have linked to a water calculator in the show notes, which helps you to work out how much water you need if you're very active or breast feeding, or something like that.  You could also add some essential basic supplements too, like a multivitamin and minerals supplement and omega 3 fatty acids, to ensure you're covering the basics. Now of course, if you're not absorbing your food well due to gut health issues, or you're deficient in a nutrient, these may not be enough, but again, I'm just covering the foundations.   If in time you feel ready to get some thorough nutrient status tests and gut health tests, or to explore anything else you think may be going on in your body, of course, that will help, but I want to emphasise these foundations first, because they can make such a difference and can give you the strength for the bigger stuff.  So, there's the initial four steps. And what I wanted to emphasise, what should be underpinning all of this, is joy and fun. If this is stressing you out, then it won't be helpful. So, we need to tailor the healing in a way that will make you feel pleasant feelings and that allows you to have fun or enjoy yourself, in whatever way that is.  So, for example, instead of seeing a 10.30pm bedtime as a curfew, how can you make it feel luxurious? Can you turn your evening routine into a min spa retreat each night with a candle, an abdominal massage and calming music before bed? How can you spend more time with loved ones who you enjoy being around, in a way that feels joyful and nourishing to you? Can you go to restorative exercise classes with friends or have regular catch ups, so you feel supported and connected? Could you do things you enjoy more often, like heading to the cinema or doing fun activities? Are there things you stopped doing that brought you joy, which you can bring back into your life? Could you take a cooking course to learn how to make delicious but healthier desserts, so you can feed your body and taste buds, or could you get some new cookbooks to learn how to eat more fruits and veggies? Or maybe, if you don't like cooking and can afford it, can you try a meal delivery service which offers you not just healthy meals, but more time for you to relax?  Basically, whatever it is, make this healing path feel good. If it feels stressful, take a step back and think about how you can make this process more joyful. My course, Live and Thrive with Endo is opening for enrolment again soon. Join the waiting list now to access early bird pricing and special bonuses. Sign up here. This episode is sponsored my free workshop Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021: Overcome Overwhelm, Identify Your Core Endo Challenges, Learn the 8 Key Pillars of Healing and Set Goals and Next Steps So You Can Begin Managing Endometriosis with Confidence and Clarity and take action after the workshop. Sign up here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk Show Notes Creating a Roadmap for Endo Healing in 2021 Live and Thrive with Endo course CAR tests https://regeneruslabs.com/products/cortisol-awakening-response https://www.letsgetchecked.com/gb/en/home-cortisol-test/ Light https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2699216/ https://www.sleepfoundation.org/circadian-rhythm Blood sugar https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/reduce-fatigue-endometriosis-symptoms-and-oestrogen-dominance https://endometriosis.net/living/diet-sugar Sleep https://www.instagram.com/p/CIBrBCmDMuj/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12941057/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12220314/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/10849238/ Massage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTOkKVlBHzk https://www.thisendolife.com/this-endolife-podcast-episodes/arvigo-massage-for-endometriosis https://www.arvigotherapy.com/team-members https://selfhacked.com/blog/32-ways-to-stimulate-your-vagus-nerve-and-all-you-need-to-know-about-it/ https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.00082/full https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2095496418300372 Tapping https://www.thetappingsolution.com https://www.thetappingsolution.com/science-research/ Yoga https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3768222/ https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/yoga-could-slow-the-harmful-effects-of-stress-and-inflammation-2017101912588 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3111147/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/15750381/ Walking in nature https://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/about/sciencehttps://www.natureandforesttherapy.org/about/science Exercise https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27956050/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4013452/ Mindfulness https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0272735813000731?via%3Dihub Community https://scholar.harvard.edu/marianabockarova/files/tend-and-befriend.pdf Trauma https://www.instagram.com/p/CQJvnf1BYum/ https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/call-of-the-wild/ https://cmbm.org/thetransformation/ SelfHealers SoundBoard podcast Sex Birth Trauma Pain resources This Might Hurt Film Tell Me About Your Pain podcast https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pelvic-Pain-Hurts-Adriaan-Louw/dp/0985718684 The Way Out by Alan Gordon Curable Water https://www.hydrationforhealth.com/en/hydration-tools/hydration-calculator/

Today's episode is phenomenal because Donna Zubrod is here with us today explaining what "YAM" short for "your abdominal massage" is and how it can be a game-changer for your health and fertility! Donna is a licensed massage and body work therapist that also works as a doula, fertility awareness educator and has tremendous intuitive healing abilities as far as I'm concerned. She's an amazing wealth of knowledge and I know that you will love her. She works in person but teaches abdominal massage via Zoom as well!  You can contact Donna via her website https://www.sevengenerationswellness.com Donna is a guest expert in my upcoming course, Hold Up! a digital course for women with pelvic organ prolapse if they are contemplating surgery as well as a prehab and rehab course for prolapse surgery!

In this interview, Andrea Donsky, co-founder of Morphus for menopause, interviews Dr. Christine Matheson, Naturopathic Doctor, and Claire Yorston, Registered Pelvic Floor Physiotherapist. They each share their expertise on how maintaining good pelvic floor health can help with pelvic pain, incontinence, urinary leakage, and sexual health in perimenopause and menopause.  Dr. Christine Matheson, ND - Blog: https://www.christinemathesonnd.com/blog/tag/self-careClaire Yorston, PT, MSCPT - Blog: https://www.christinemathesonnd.com/blog/pelvic-health-jaw-tension-connectionPelvic floor physiotherapists in Canada- https://pelvichealthsolutions.ca/Find a pelvic floor physiotherapist provider in the US: https://bit.ly/3ciQJ2DArvigo Massage Practitioners: https://www.arvigotherapy.com/00:00 Introduction2:56 Why and how your pelvic floor changes3:40 The basics of your pelvis4:30 The 5 functions of the pelvis5:45 What happens to our pelvis as we age9:05 The purpose of a pelvic floor assessment and what information is discussed12:42 How to choose the right pelvic floor physiotherapist13:50 The jaw and pelvic floor connection15:50 Pelvic Floor health and hysterectomies, Arvigo massage21:29 Sexual health and your pelvic floor23:02 Hormonal changes and your pelvic health26:08 The core function of the pelvic floor29:29 Should we be doing kegel exercises31:45 Self-care at home33:40 Vaginal, rectal and uterine prolapse36:40 Arvigo massage practitioners38:12 Training our bladder to avoid leaks===== Are you in perimenopause or menopause? Join our Wearemorphus PRIVATE group here: https://bit.ly/2MsxBBf ======

This week as part of my IG Live series for Endo Awareness Month I chatted with my friend and colleague Tara Ghosh to learn all about the benefits of Arvigo Therapy for endometriosis, bloating, constipation, adhesions and SIBO. Tara is a wonderful Arvigo Therapist and wellness consultant dedicated to supporting people with periods to improve their health through accessible and simple at-home strategies. In this conversation we discuss... The origins of Arvigo Therapy. How Arvigo Therapy works and how it benefits the body. How and why Arvigo Therapy can help with endometriosis pain. How Arvigo therapy can help you reduce IBS and SIBO symptoms that often accompany endo such as bloating, constipation and nausea. How Arvigo Therapy differs from visceral manipulation and whether Arvigo massage can help with adhesions or a ‘frozen pelvis’ How to work with Tara and learn Arvigo Therapy to practice at home! I really hope you enjoy this conversation and find it as fascinating as I did! Listen and subscribe on all podcast players, listen directly/download MP3 here or just listen below! Let's get social! Come say hello on Instagram or sign up to my newsletter. This episode is sponsored by my free guide ‘A Natural Pain Relief Tool Kit for Endometriosis’. This four page guide includes evidence based and effective remedies which you can use at home to reduce your pain with endo. Download your copy here. My cookbook This EndoLife, It Starts with Breakfast is out now! Get 28 anti-inflammatory, hormone friendly recipes for living and thriving with endometriosis. Order your copy here. If you feel like you need more support with managing endometriosis, you can join Your EndoLife Coaching Programme. A 1-to-1 three month health and life coaching programme to help you thrive with endometriosis. To find out more about the programme and to discuss whether it could be right for you, email me at hello@thisendolife.com or visit my website. This episode is sponsored by The Pod Farm. Learn all about how to start your own podcast with the complete course from The Pod Farm. Aimed at beginners, this course takes a simple and straightforward approach to planning, equipment buying, setting up, recording, editing and hosting your own podcast. With hours of audio and video materials, and downloadable guides and useful links, this multimedia approach aims to have something for every kind of learner. From now until April 15, newsletter subscribers get 20% off the course price. Visit www.thepodfarm.com to enroll or find out more This episode is sponsored by BeYou. Soothe period cramps the natural way with these 100% natural and discreet menthol and eucalyptus oil stick on patches and CBD range. Click here to find out more and to shop: https://beyouonline.co.uk   Show Notes https://www.arvigotherapy.com Tara’s Instagram: @_taraghosh_

✅ Essential episode for all women, with Jade's accessible wisdom and warmth we unravel the basics and profound healing available through pelvic health with Jade Groff, CNM, LMT, Arvigo and Holistic Pelvic Care Practitioner. Jade shares her early inspirations and curiosity for women's health and her gems of learning through decades of learning, practicing and witnessing the power of women. She confides that part of her learning was also showing up for her own healing and being part of the shift in mindset needed to offer women the care and courage they need, to heal and to learn their own body's needs and power. Learn more at www.journeywithjade.com || Stay connected to Rebirth at www.katebrenton.com --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/kate-brenton/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/kate-brenton/support

In this episode we have with us Arvigo Therapist and Health Coach, Tara Ghosh, who is going to help us understand women's cycles and how they can reduce period problems, and also help us know that it is normal to feel different at various times during the month. She tells us her story of when she didn't have a period for 2 years and finally got into Arvigo massage, which caused her menstrual cycle to come back within a week. Tara provides a way women can track themselves through their cycles and what point they're at by taking notes and comparing it to seasons. We also discuss the pill and how it affects your health, and then things you can do to improve your chances of getting pregnant. Tara's story 1:12Her tip on recording your cycle 4:05Your period doesn't have to be awful 9:20The pill 12:33If you don't have a cycle but want to get pregnant 16:56Her 5 week course 25:57“My big takeaway for clients are, ‘What are the 3 things that we can do to transform our health straight away?' I talked about eating and nutrition and things, but it's how can we prioritize our sleep? How can we get more sunshine? Because vitamin D is so important for your cycle, and how can we have fun? We need more fun in our lives. Life is so serious. We need more laughter.” 24:56Tara's Instagram:@_taraghosh_https://www.facebook.com/theirishmummy/https://www.instagram.com/the_irish_mummy/https://www.theirishmummy.comhttps://www.theirishmummy.com/ebook

Connaissez-vous le Yoni Steam ? ses bienfaits dans la régulation de symptômes féminins inconfortables ? Voulez-vous découvrir un rituel simple et puissant à faire à la maison ?   Le Yoni Steam, également connu sous le nom de Vapeurs Vaginales, est une pratique holistique de bien-être qui consiste à utiliser la chaleur d'une vapeur douce aux herbes pour imprégner l'entrée du vagin. Il s'agit d'une pratique utilisée traditionnellement pour les femmes dans de nombreuses régions du monde, depuis très longtemps. Ce processus est incroyablement nourrissant pour notre essence féminine et il vise à soutenir l'utérus, la cyclicité, la fertilité et la transition de la ménopause. Les femmes qui l'ont essayé déclarent se sentir autonomisées, revigorées et rajeunies après des séances de yoni steam. Dans cette émission, j'ai le plaisir d'accueillir France Richard qui est naturopathe et praticienne Arvigo au Québec.     De quoi parlons-nous dans l'émission : Qu'est-ce que le Yoni Steam ou bain vapeur vaginal ? Comment cela agit sur notre corps et notre bassin ? quelle est son importance pour l'ensemble de la santé féminine et pour les cycles menstruels ? Quels sont les bénéfiques directs pour la femme? quels sont les symptômes qui peuvent être résorbés par le Yoni Steam ? Quelles sont les contre-indications ? Comment peut-on le mettre en place à la maison facilement et quelles plantes utiliser ? Retrouvez France Richard sur son site internet : francerichard.com Ressource en anglais: steamychick.com Ressource en francais: Formation sur les Vapeurs féminines par Cécilia Gauthier   ************** Lien utile: Rejoignez le groupe Facebook ‘Conversations conscientes pour Elle‘   ************** Et pour aller plus loin... Et commencer à suivre vos cycles, recevez le calendrier menstruel et lunaire gratuitement maintenant ici : .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_content { background-color: #562249 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container .et_bloom_form_header { background-color: #ffffff !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .carrot_edge .et_bloom_form_content:before { border-top-color: #ffffff !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .carrot_edge.et_bloom_form_right .et_bloom_form_content:before, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .carrot_edge.et_bloom_form_left .et_bloom_form_content:before { border-top-color: transparent !important; border-left-color: #ffffff !important; } @media only screen and ( max-width: 767px ) {.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .carrot_edge.et_bloom_form_right .et_bloom_form_content:before { border-top-color: #ffffff !important; border-left-color: transparent !important; }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .carrot_edge.et_bloom_form_left .et_bloom_form_content:after { border-bottom-color: #ffffff !important; border-left-color: transparent !important; } }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #f5eee6 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_fields i { color: #f5eee6 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_content .et_bloom_custom_field_radio i:before { background: #f5eee6 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_border_solid { border-color: #424242 !important } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_content button { background-color: #f5eee6 !important; } .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container h2, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container h2 span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container h2 strong { font-family: "Raleway", Helvetica, Arial, Lucida, sans-serif; }.et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container p, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container p span, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container p strong, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .et_bloom_form_container form input, .et_bloom .et_bloom_optin_1 .

In this episode, Jason Stein interviews Maisie Hill, menstrual health expert, birth doula, and author of “Period Power,” a best-selling book that serves as a profound but practical blueprint to harness your hormones and get them working for you.  Having struggled with debilitating period pain for years, Maisie set out on a journey to discover ways she could better understand and connect with her reproductive system. In questing for an answer, she trained in Chinese medicine acupuncture, the Arvigo techniques of Mayan abdominal therapy, reflexology, aromatherapy, and paediatric acupuncture. Now she uses this knowledge - and her own unique way of treating - to help women discover the power of their own menstrual cycle Join Maisie and Jason as they talk about:How to combat the stage-fright and perfectionism that comes with going viralKnowing the worth of your service and experienceThe transformative opportunities fear createsGetting published and finding an ideal agentInvolving men in discussions surrounding menstrual healthChoosing between passion projects as a entrepreneurStrategic alliances in businessHow to build a quality following Connect with MaisieWebsite: https://www.maisiehill.com/contactFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/maisiehillwombwhisperer/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_maisiehill_/?hl=enTwitter: https://twitter.com/maisiehill_?lang=enLinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/maisie-hill-40468517a

In this week's episode, Dr. Emily Gannaway ND, LAc chats with us about her approach to helping women with pelvic pain, prolapse, and urinary incontinence. We also talk about the importance of an anti-inflammatory diet, and upping protein intake to decrease pain! She also explains when she uses each therapy: Arvigo technique, pelvic floor therapy, and the Emsella. - If you liked this episode of the Naturopathic Times Podcast, share it with someone you know!  Comment, rate, review, and subscribe to the show on iTunes, Spotify, or Podbean. Interested in learning more about us? Visit www.naturopathictimes.wordpress.com to sign up for our newsletter. Follow us on Instagram @Naturopathic.Times, like us on Facebook. You can also email us at naturopathictimes@gmail.com with your questions, comments, or feedback we would love to hear from you!    

Grace MacNeil is a trained herbalist, an Arvigo therapist, and the founder ofMonarch Apothecary where she creates artisan herbals and soaps using herbssustainably, harvested and cultivated in a 24 acre farm in southern Indiana since2006 for the local and internationally community.She is a Certified Advanced Holistic Doula through The Matrona, Certified Cuppingtherapist and Reiki practitioner. She is the co-founder of the Heartland School ofHerbal Studies and mom to three grown children.She was born with an amniotic band syndrome and spent much of her childhoodhaving reconstructive surgeries.Her interest in Plant Medicine started 1995 when she got pregnant from her firstchild and read the book Hygieia: “A Woman’s Herbal” by Jeannine Parvati Baker aherbalist from Utah.In 2000, she moved with her husband to North Carolina and began her professionalherbal education training completing a 2 year and 400 hr certificate program inherbal medicine at the North Carolina School of Natural Healing with the herbalistHimani Ellis.Grace offers the Arvigo®Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy along with holisticassessment, herbal consultation, FIRE and biomagnetic cupping, self care massageinstruction, and other supportive modalities such as herbal remedies.Support the show (https://www.patreon.com/Roots_of_Impact_Podcast)

In this episode, Oni Blecher interviews Sali McIntyre. Sali is an Australian midwife, antenatal educator at Tweed hospital, Arvigo practitioner and teacher, and mother of four adult children, all born at home. Sali founded and runs 'Heart and Soul of Wellness', a wellness centre in Murwillumbah and has just released her first book; a comprehensive guide and to and history of Yoni or vaginal steaming. Oni and Sali had this conversation during the first COVID lockdown in NSW. Since then, her book, 'Womb Medicine, The Art of Yoni Steaming for Women’s Health' has been released. Sali is an elder woman, passionate about re earthing feminine ancient wisdom and integrating it into our society and through attitudes toward motherhood and womanhood. Enjoy this conversation and find out more of Sali and her offerings through heartandsoulofwellness.com.au

In this episode, Oni Blecher interviews Sali McIntyre. Sali is an Australian midwife, antenatal educator at Tweed hospital, Arvigo practitioner and teacher, and mother of four adult children, all born at home. Sali founded and runs 'Heart and Soul of Wellness', a wellness centre in Murwillumbah and has just released her first book; a comprehensive guide and to and history of Yoni or vaginal steaming. Oni and Sali had this conversation during the first COVID lockdown in NSW. Since then, her book, 'Womb Medicine, The Art of Yoni Steaming for Women’s Health' has been released. Sali is an elder woman, passionate about re earthing feminine ancient wisdom and integrating it into our society and through attitudes toward motherhood and womanhood. Enjoy this conversation and find out more of Sali and her offerings through heartandsoulofwellness.com.au

Belly rubs are great. But the Arvigo Mayan Abdominal Therapy® takes tummy massages to a whole new level. Learn about how ancient Mayan bodywork, brought to the modern world by Arvigo practitioners, can center a tipped uterus and decrease constipation. You’ll also get a bonus overview of vaginal steaming and uterine lavage. Megan Backus is a Licensed Massage Therapist specializing in reproductive and digestive health as well as massage for infants and children. In addition to Swedish Massage, she practices this non-invasive manual technique to decongest the abdomen and pelvis and help organs find their optimal positions. The massage techniques she discusses in the episode can be beneficial for relief from infertility for both men and women, menstrual pain, fibroids, endometriosis, prolapse, PCOS, benign prostate conditions, constipation, bloating, IBS, and more. Learn about her work at https://www.mbodimentmassage.com/.

“Ayurveda is the science of life. And its purpose is to heal and maintain the quality and longevity of life. It is the art of life as it is practical, philosophical, and spiritual. Because it's the understanding rootedness of creation.” Malia is a Women's Ayurvedic Practitioner and aspiring Ayurvedic chef. Along with Ayurveda, she incorporates other modalities such as Arvigo's self-care Mayan Abdominal Massage, doula work, and cacao ceremonies. Currently, Malia is also an ambassador for a women's collective called, Embracing the Feminine, where she facilitates events. Malia's purpose is to help transform and guide women back into the wisdom of their bodies, holding space for transformation and healing. In this episode you'll hear: Ayurveda 101: what it is, identifying your dosha, & eating for your dosha Your Karma is your Dharma: journey to awakening Healing our womb: amenorrhea, red tents, Mayan Abdominal Massage, & honoring our cycles The intersection of Ayurveda & the wisdom within our yoni + womb Holistic tips for stepping into your radiance Self care practices, natural face care, & hair car Deconstructing what being a witch really is Malia's Offerings: Find Your Dosha Type Quiz 1:1 Coaching + Website Coming Soon: To keep a look out on for these, follow Malia on IG for virtual coaching sessions + website Malia's Awaken My Soul Book + Product Soulections: Love Letter to the Earth by Thich Nhat Hanh Books on Ayurveda: The Complete Book of Ayurvedic Home Remedies: Based on the Timeless, Wisdom of India's 5,000-Year-Old Medical System by Vasant Lad, Ayurveda Cooking for Beginners: An Ayurvedic Cookbook to Balance and Heal Divine Feminine Books: Feminine Genius: The Provocative Path to Waking Up and Turning On the, Wisdom of Being a Woman by LiYana Silver, Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer, Wild Feminine: Finding Power, Spirit & Joy in the Female Body by Tami Lynn Kent Holistic Self Care + Ayurvedic Products: https://www.sweetwaterlabsnyc.com, https://www.khadinatural.com, https://biossance.com, Banyan Botanicals Connect with our guest, Malia: Instagram: instagram.com/holisticmalia Connect With Your Host, Melissa: Melissa's Instagram: instagram.com/melissa_mcewen Melissa's Website: awakenmysoulcoaching.com Liked this episode? Share with a friend & leave us a review!

Women and men alike will love this episode and find it SO expansive. Victoria is a Medical Herbalist and Arvigo Maya Abdominal Therapist, working with clients on issues that specifically affect the abdominal and pelvic organs and has a passion in sexual health and empowerment. Inspired by her clients, Victoria is currently training to become a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist in order to further support people with the connection between their mind and their body.   In the show we speak about the beauty of healing through Arvigo Maya Abdominal Therapy and about herbalism training with shamans in the Amazon rainforest, as well as why herbalism is such a beautiful & integrative healing modality. Vaginal steams were a big topic, and Victoria cleared up any misconceptions, telling us why they're so great (which we also know from experience!). We open up the discussion around sexual health, reclaiming our sexual power, sexual identity and how we can get back to a place of sexual confidence through Victoria's treatments, which combine both ancient and contemporary techniques for best results.   You can find Victoria on Instagram @arvigolondon and on her website http://kmherbalists.co.uk/   What are we into: Lauren: Why I'm No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-Lodge Tilly: Body brushing and Weleda wild rose oil Victoria: Appreciating nature   Products mentioned in the show: The New Male Sexuality by Bernie Zilbergeld Come As You Are by Emily Nagoski     If you enjoyed this episode, please consider sharing it with friends, and please also make sure to subscribe / follow and review! It really helps us to reach more people. And if you would like to help me keep it going for as long as possible, please consider offering a small contribution to my Go Fund Me page.   You can get my FREE 6-Step Guide to Complete Wellbeing by subscribing over at www.laurenvaknine.co.uk and if you'd like to connect with me, get in touch on Instagram. You can also see me over on my YouTube channel.   Reconditioned with Lauren Vaknine supports Solace Women's Aid Charity, who support survivors of domestic abuse and sexual violence, working with over 27,000 people each year to build safe lives and strong futures.   Season 2 of Healthy Happy Home is sponsored by Megahome Water Distillers. Use the code HHH5 at checkout for a 5% discount www.megahome-distillers.co.uk @megahomedistillers1  

Women and men alike will love this episode and find it SO expansive. Victoria is a Medical Herbalist and Arvigo Maya Abdominal Therapist, working with clients on issues that specifically affect the abdominal and pelvic organs and has a passion in sexual health and empowerment. Inspired by her clients, Victoria is currently training to become a Psychosexual & Relationship Therapist in order to further support people with the connection between their mind and their body. In the show we speak about the beauty of healing through Arvigo Maya Abdominal Therapy and about herbalism training with shamans in the Amazon rainforest, as well as why herbalism is such a beautiful & integrative healing modality. Vaginal steams were a big topic, and Victoria cleared up any misconceptions, telling us why they’re so great (which we also know from experience!). We open up the discussion around sexual health, reclaiming our sexual power, sexual identity and how we can get back to a place of sexual confidence through Victoria’s treatments, which combine both ancient and contemporary techniques for best results. You can find Victoria on Instagram @arvigolondon and on her website http://kmherbalists.co.uk/ What are we into: Lauren: Why I’m No Longer Talking to White People About Race by Reni Eddo-LodgeTilly: Body brushing and Weleda wild rose oilVictoria: Appreciating nature Products mentioned in the show:The New Male Sexuality by Bernie ZilbergeldCome As You Are by Emily Nagoski  Please head to the website www.healthyhappyhome.uk to read more about us, and to sign up for our free 6-step guide to living your healthiest, happiest life. You can also find us on Instagram @healthyhappyhomepodcast @laurenvaknine @tilly.wood. Use the Hashtag #elevationnation to connect with us.Don’t forget to rate, review and subscribe / follow!Season 2 of Healthy Happy Home is sponsored by Megahome Water Distillers www.megahome-distillers.co.uk @megahomedistillers1 

Tahnee welcomes Heba Shaheed to the Women's Series today. Heba is a qualified women's health nutritionist and physiotherapist who specialises in pelvic and sexual pain, menstrual health, bladder and bowel health, pregnancy, postpartum, and complex trauma. Heba provides women’s health and paediatric pelvic health services including physiotherapy, exercise and nutrition. Heba’s mission is to make women's health information accessible globally and to provide high-quality women's healthcare in the privacy and comfort of a woman's own home. Heba believes women's healthcare needs to be disrupted so that women can stop suffering in silence. Heba is a global leader in her field and an absolute wealth of knowledge. Today's chat is informative and truly inspiring, if you're a woman or know one - tune in!   Tahnee and Heba discuss: The anatomy and physiology of the pelvic floor. The normalisation of period pain. What healthy bowel and urinary movements should look like. Mechanical constipation. The functionality of the squat. The pelvic floor and child birth. The use of Jade eggs - best and worst practice. The East vs West approach to pelvic floor therapy. Releasing trauma from the psoas. Multidimensional health and the importance of taking an integrated approach, heart, mind, body.  How and where the body stores emotion.  The subjective nature of pain. Retraining the brain and neuroplasticity. The correlation between pelvic pain conditions and childhood trauma. Sensitivity, self awareness and the importance of developing emotional boundaries. Tips for creating a happy and healthy pelvic floor.   Who is Heba Shaheed ?  Heba Shaheed is co-founder and CEO of The Pelvic Expert, a digital wellbeing platform specialising in maternal, menstrual and hormone health. Heba was inspired to work in this space following her own challenges with a 15-year history of chronic pelvic pain and endometriosis, and after witnessing the devastating effects of birth injury following her sister's first birth. Through the The Pelvic Expert Heba provides holistic and research-based, women-focussed, online wellbeing programs to corporates, government, private health insurers, workplaces and individuals. A qualified physiotherapist, Heba has supported more than 2000 women on their journey to better health and wellbeing, and instructed more than 1200 therapeutic yoga and Pilates exercise classes.  Heba is a leading authority on women’s pelvic health and is a media commentator on this important yet under-represented issue, and a regular speaker at global health and women’s conferences. Heba also offers specialised physiotherapy for complex female pain and endometriosis in her private practice.     Resources:   Heba Website The Pelvic Expert Website The Pelvic Expert Instagram The Pelvic Expert Facebook The Pelvic Expert Youtube The Pelvic Floor Program - Paid 4 Week Course   Q: How Can I Support The SuperFeast Podcast?   A: Tell all your friends and family and share online! We’d also love it if you could subscribe and review this podcast on iTunes. Or  check us out on Stitcher :)! Plus  we're on Spotify!   Check Out The Transcript Here:   Tahnee:   (00:01) Hi everybody, and welcome to the SuperFeast podcast. Today, I am here with Heba Saheed, and she's a qualified women's health nutritionist and physiotherapist. Her expertise lies in pelvic and sexual pain, menstrual health, bladder and bowel health, pregnancy, postpartum and complex trauma. And a lot of that is as you guys know, a massive area of interest for us at SuperFeast. So I'm really excited to have her here today.   Tahnee:  (00:27) She offers one-on-one pelvic health physiotherapy consultations in the Sydney CBD area. And this is for complex pain conditions like endometriosis, bladder pain symptoms, chronic constipation. I may not do these words justice, but I'm going to try, vaginismus and vulvodynia and painful sex, you can laugh at my pronunciation Heba. And she's also the founder of The Pelvic Expert where she blogs about pelvic health and provides online pelvic health programs and consultations which especially right now, given that everyone's in lockdown, is really useful for people.   Tahnee:  (01:01) She has also got a really great Instagram account with is how I came across Heba. It's @thepelvicexpert but we'll put a link to that in the show notes as well. And she also has a really awesome website, so if you guys want to go check that out after this, I would highly recommend it. Thanks for joining us today, Heba. It's really nice to have you on the podcast, finally.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:19) Thanks so much for having me. I know we've been going back and forth for a while now.   Tahnee:  (01:23) I know.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:23) But yeah, it's great and I really hope I'm able to provide some insight on this wonderful world of pelvic health. It's kind of a bit, it's almost sometimes hard to understand if you don't really get it.   Tahnee:  (01:41) Yeah. In researching you and preparing for this podcast I listened to a view other interviews you did and I was, because I've got a bit of a background in anatomy too, and I think you made the point in one of them of how a lot of people when they imagine a pelvic floor they're thinking about a banana hammock shaped piece of tissue in the pelvic area that just contracts. And they don't really have much of a three dimensional concept or a visual of what the pelvic floor actually is and how it functions.   Tahnee:  (02:15) Is that fair to say when you start seeing people, that you're educating them as well as obviously working with them?   Heba Shaheed:  (02:22) Ah yeah, absolutely. Education is the first thing. Educating them firstly, part of that is anatomy and that it is a three-dimensional, multi muscle system. I think people picture the pelvic floor as just this one little muscle that goes from your pubic bone into your tailbone, but it's more complex than that. It's got a right side, it's got a left side. It's got muscles that go to your hips, muscles that go to your tailbone, muscles that go to your pubic bone, muscles around your vagina, muscles around your urethra, muscles around your anus.   Heba Shaheed:  (02:55) It's a very complex system and they all have to interplay together. It's more than just muscles, it's connective tissue and fascia and nervous system and an immune system. There's just so much going on down there that we're almost oblivious to how important it is. There's organs there as well. Your pelvic organs, your bladder or your rectum, your uterus if you're a female.   Heba Shaheed:  (03:21) A lot of that is just beginning with education about yes, anatomy, like your physiology. But then even more than that, it's education around simple things like habits. What's appropriate for emptying your bladder? How often should you be going? What position should you be emptying your bowels in? How long should you be spending on the toilet? What should your periods feel and look and how long should they last? And all that sort of stuff. It's a lot of, more advice around simple things like your basic pelvic habits that we often have to educate people. And they're coming to us when they're in their 20s, 30s, 40s, even up to their 80s and not having known such simple concepts.   Tahnee:  (04:11) Yeah. I think back to health ed at school, which was pretty poor. It's such a mystery area for so many of us. And obviously then there's all the cultural stigma around bums and vaginas and vulvas and all those kinds of things.   Tahnee:  (04:30) When you're talking about these general health markers I suppose, something I'm really passionate about educating women around, is it's not actually normal to experience bad periods. For example, I have my period right now, and apart from feeling a little bit more introspective and a little bit quieter, like physically I don't have symptoms and that took me quite a long time to work out through my own journey of course. I think that's the same with things like bowel movements and urination. These are natural processes that require a really complex interplay of the nervous system and the myofascia and all of these things.   Tahnee:  (05:16) They're bio-markers. They're ways of us actually assessing our overall, more holistic state of health, right? So if you were talking to someone, what would you say how many times should we be going to the toilet? And what should we be looking for? And same with bowels. What are the averages, I suppose, if there are any that you would be looking for?   Heba Shaheed:  (05:35) Mm-hmm (affirmative). I can empathise with you on that front of having had periods that weren't great. And I agree with you in that we've kind of normalised period pain to the point that we don't even acknowledge that period pain is not normal. It's to the point where, "Oh I know, that's normal. Everyone goes through it. That's, you just kind of have to put up with it. That's life as a female."   Heba Shaheed:  (06:04) But the thing is, we know that period pain it still comes along with, if you start off your periods having had severe period pain and then you go on to have severe period pain through your whole teens and your 20s and whatever, that actually sets you up for development or exacerbation of both bladder and bowel symptoms. Because, as you mentioned before, it is a very complex interplay of the myofascia, which obviously your uterus is connected to your bladder and your bowels, fascially and muscularly as well, and of course your nervous system, the nerves are all supplying the same kind of area, and then the immune system and so on, right?   Heba Shaheed:  (06:46) In terms of what is acceptable in terms of behavioural habits when it comes to the bladder and urination, unfortunately what I often see in my clinic, because I see mostly complex pain patients is, "Oh yeah, I go about two or three times a day to empty my bladder." And I'm like, "Well, that's not right." And they're like, "I have such a strong bladder, I only need to go two or three times and I can really hold it." And I'm like, "Well, that's not actually something to be proud of, because you're actually putting a lot of strain on your bladder when you do that. Actually what you should be doing, is going around about every three hours."   Heba Shaheed:  (07:25) The bladder capacity, think of a bladder like a balloon. It's deflated when it's empty and then that balloon slowly inflates and the nerves send us messages when the bladder's more on the full end. But, you should also be getting minor nerve messages saying, "Ah, yeah. It's a little bit full," or, "It's moderately full." But if you're only going when your bladder is like stretched to extreme capacity, that's not actually healthy. Every three hours is good. That's about four to six times a day, or six to eight times a day. Six is kind of like a good, round about average number. If you're going less than four times, then I find that unhealthy.   Heba Shaheed:  (08:07) It should be a steady stream, a straight stream. If your stream's going off to one side or spraying, that could indicate that there's something going on. There should be no burning. It should be a steady stream, there shouldn't be any start stop of the flow. The flow should be relatively normal, not too slow, not too fast. Unless your bladder's full, then of course it's going to be a little bit fast. We also need to pay attention to what's happening. I think a lot of people, even when they're coming to my clinic and I'm asking them these questions, they're like, "Oh, I don't know. I don't know if it starts and stops. I don't know if it's a slow flow. I don't really know. I'm not aware."   Heba Shaheed:  (08:50) Or things like you go to sit on the toilet and it takes a few moments before the stream actually starts. That's suggesting that something's off with the muscles there as well. It's like these little things that if we start to become aware, I mean obviously we don't want to be hyperaware in that we're just fixated on it. But it's just like little cues that your body's telling you that the bladder or urinary system is functioning optimally or not. That's that.   Heba Shaheed:  (09:22) In terms of your bowels, the literature is strange, in that it says three times a week is okay to go to the bathroom for bowels. But I really don't believe that.   Tahnee:  (09:35) Yikes.   Heba Shaheed:  (09:38) I really don't believe that that is [crosstalk 00:09:38]-   Tahnee:  (09:38) Is that the scientific literature, I suppose in inverted commas?   Heba Shaheed:  (09:41) Yeah. It goes from three times a week to three times a day, is the realm of acceptability.   Tahnee:  (09:48) Geez louise.   Heba Shaheed:  (09:49) Yeah. I'm not really a huge fan of that. I'm thinking of it biologically and physiologically and mentally, psychologically the impact of not emptying your bowels on a daily basis. I'm a big proponent of, bowels should be emptying every day. If you're eating every day, you should be emptying your bowels every day. And if you're not, then that is suggesting that something is off in the digestive system, or in the immune system or in the nervous system. And it is something that needs to be addressed.   Heba Shaheed:  (10:22) And the fact, the thing is because I work with so many women who have complex pain and chronic constipation, irritable bowel and Crohn's disease and all sorts of bowel disfunction, I know for a fact that every single one of them is able to achieve daily bowel movements. Regardless of whether they came to me having said, "I haven't been in a month," or, "I haven't been in a week." In clinical practice I'm able to get them to go every day. It further justifies my belief that we should be going every day.   Heba Shaheed:  (10:53) And of course, it's just logical that you should be going every day. If you're having three massive meals a day, you could very well be going three times a day to empty your bowels, right? And they could be three type four stools, which is like a long smooth sausage, and that would be considered healthy. I would say at the very least once a day, and up to three times a day is good. But it's more about the consistency of the stool as well. It shouldn't be, "Oh, I'm going three times a day, but it's coming out as small pebbles and I'm incompletely emptying."   Heba Shaheed:  (11:27) It should be a complete empty of a type three to four stool, which is a long smooth sausage, and it should be easy to come out and I should be done instantly, I shouldn't be sitting there for 20 minutes trying to empty my bowel. And there shouldn't be any pain when I'm emptying, there shouldn't be any fissures, I shouldn't be straining, I shouldn't have haemorrhoids popping out. It should be a complete empty and I should feel like once I'm done, I'm done. I don't have to sit there trying to get little bits and pieces out.   Heba Shaheed:  (11:58) And if you're feeling that there is, sensations that aren't as I described, then it is starting to suggest again, that there might be some dysfunction. Whether that's a pelvic floor dysfunction, so for example the pelvic floor muscles, because the pelvic floor muscles surround your rectum, one of the muscles is called puborectalis, it surrounds your rectum and another is your external anal sphincter, these two muscles are part of your pelvic floor and if they're too tight, then they can make you functionally constipated.   Heba Shaheed:  (12:33) A lot of people get confused in that they think, "Ah, I just have to have more fibre. Or I just need to drink more water." It's a very nutrition focused approach, which is important for sure, but there is also a type of constipation that is purely mechanical. It is the muscles of the pelvic floor are extremely tight, and then it's actually physiologically difficult to push your bowel motions out. Or they are dyssynergic in that when you visualise yourself trying to push out your number two, it's actually tightening instead, because you're having this poor coordination. Your brain is sending the wrong message to the muscle.   Heba Shaheed:  (13:15) This is where pelvic floor physio comes in. Because it's like, "Okay, what's going on? How do we figure it out?" How do we... that's why we have such a great success rate with functional physiological pelvic floor dysfunction based constipation. What else? Yeah, I think that's the main kind of things. When we do go to the bathroom for number twos as well, positioning is super important. As I mentioned before, puborectalis slings around your rectum. It's part of your pelvic floor.   Heba Shaheed:  (13:45) When you're sitting on the toilet in just a general normal position like you're sitting on a chair, that puborectalis muscle is kinked, right? But as soon as you elevate your feet onto a stool and you lean forward, that kink relaxes, so that pelvic floor muscle actually physically relaxes just by being in a squat position. So think, eastern countries and so on, where they squat to empty their bowels, that's actually physiologically healthy and normal. We need to replicate that in the western world and that's where you would get a stool, and you'd lean forwards to produce that same effect. And that, again, physiologically, physically releases the muscles and you're able to actually empty your bowels without having to sprain and or without feeling uncomfortable.   Tahnee:  (14:36) Yeah. We have squatty potties in every toilet in our house and office. They are-   Heba Shaheed:  (14:42) Perfect.   Tahnee:  (14:42) They are very popular. But it's interesting just thinking about that, because I was lucky enough to have a birth that I was in control of. And I found the birth also I wanted to squat to deliver my baby. My mum, as I was growing up, always talked about that as being the most natural position to deliver in. I remember when I studied physiology that bend in the pelvis as well, you can really when you start to look at the muscles in the anatomy you can see how being in that squat position just allows everything to relax.   Tahnee:  (15:17) I think one of these misconceptions around the pelvic floor is that we always want to be tightening it, because and I was taught this through more the Taoist tradition but we work a lot with jade eggs and I don't know, you might not be into this, but taught me certainly to actually be able to relax and contract my whole pelvic region. And one of the practises we do is like almost using the vagina like a hand to like swirl them up and then down through the vaginal canal.   Tahnee:  (15:49) The first time I tried that I was just, "Oh my God, I have no connection to the... Like I can't feel anything in there. I don't," it was like one area was quite strong and then everything else was really weak. Is that kind of a similar thing when you're doing internal exams, what you're noticing is that people are quite tight in certain areas, but then really unable to get their brain to talk to their tissue in other areas? Is that what you're talking about with the anal sphincter as well? Things just gripping and holding on?   Heba Shaheed:  (16:23) Yeah. There's varying presentation that would come I guess. I think the biggest thing is that we have a complete lack of awareness of our pelvic floor. That's number one. It's just this disconnect, like our mind, body disconnect between the, well with the pelvic floor and pretty much that whole female region.   Heba Shaheed:  (16:50) If we go back to firstly what you mentioned about birth, yes, we're traditionally and physiologically you're supposed to birth, not supposed to birth, but it's inherently more conducive to birth to be in a squat position, right? Because we know that physiologically that opens up the pelvic floor muscles. And whereas in more kind of medicalized births where they're lying on their backs, that's completely not conducive to birth at all, because just the fact of lying on your back shuts your tailbone, it doesn't allow that tailbone to move. And that in itself tightens up, well not tightens, but it reduces the capacity of the pelvic floor to open, right? Yes, you're in a contractile state rather than a relaxed state, which is what it's supposed to be and then a bearing down state which you're supposed to be in for birth. That's number one. That's birth, right? But then aside from birth, well to be honest for birth you need to be connected to your pelvic floor.   Tahnee:  (17:58) Mm-hmm (affirmative). Totally.   Heba Shaheed:  (17:58) The issue that we see a lot with now is things like obstetric anal sphincter injuries. And that's because it's almost like women have been told, "Push through your butt like you're trying to push out a poo." But that's not the same muscles. They're part of the muscular system of the pelvic floor, but the vagina is very different to your anal sphincter. The anal sphincter in your posterior compartment, which is why you'll end up with an obstetric anal sphincter injury and perineal tears. And your vagina is your medial, like the middle system, but it's also part of the anterior system of the pelvic floor. It's very different, even the imagery that we are giving women is completely inappropriate. That's number two.   Heba Shaheed:  (18:55) We need to be connected to our pelvic floor, but not just, and I guess this is what you're saying, is like part of it is strong, what part of it is weak and part of it is connected, but part of it's disconnected. Well, that's the thing. If a person is visualising the pelvic floor as that little banana hammock thing, then of course you have no idea what's happening in your pelvic floor, because it's beyond that. Like I said, there's part of the pelvic floor that surrounds your urethra, part of it that surrounds your vagina, part of it that's part of your anus.   Heba Shaheed:  (19:25) Then you have another part that is a triangle that goes from your pubic bone out to your sit bone and across to the other sit bone and it creates a triangle. Then you have your perineal muscle, which are also part of your pelvic floor. Then you have a deeper perineal muscle. Then you have puborectalis that goes from your pubic bone and slings around your rectum and goes around to the other side of your sit bones. Then you have iliococcygeus, then you have pubococcygeus. Now I'm just putting words out there.   Tahnee:  (19:54) Then all of those are ligaments.   Heba Shaheed:  (19:55) That they have no idea what I'm talking about.   Tahnee:  (19:57) Well, [crosstalk 00:19:57].   Heba Shaheed:  (19:57) Yeah.   Tahnee:  (19:58) They're all ligaments of the uterus and the bladder and the vagina.   Heba Shaheed:  (20:02) Exactly. You've got all the ligaments which are your, so you've got contractile tissue that's under your control, but then you have ligaments that you can't really [crosstalk 00:20:11] control.   Tahnee:  (20:11) Yeah, not innervated.   Heba Shaheed:  (20:12) Yeah, exactly. Then you have your connective tissue beyond that. You have fascia, pubovesical fascia, you have the rectovaginal fascia. You've got all this complex system that I feel, yeah it might sound like it's hard to understand, but if you're going to go and give birth, at the very least you can develop a basic understanding so that you're able to differentiate between a posterior compartment push, right, as opposed to an anterior compartment breathing and let go and just facilitation of birth. It's not about forcing birth, it's about facilitating birth. It's changing the focus from a straining kind of action to allow the body to generate force from within to facilitate the birth, right?   Heba Shaheed:  (21:12) You mentioned jade eggs. Yeah, in traditional cultures there has been an emphasis, and the thing is today a lot of the, I guess western pushers of jade eggs aren't using it accurately.   Tahnee:  (21:30) Yeah, I know. Don't worry.   Heba Shaheed:  (21:33) A lot of them are more about, yeah.   Tahnee:  (21:33) I have that pet peeve too.   Heba Shaheed:  (21:33) Yeah. A lot of them are more focused on, "Ah, let's tighten up the vagina and tight, tight, tight. And squeeze and tighten." And it's all about squeezing, right?   Tahnee:  (21:43) Yeah, and like better sex and blah blah.   Heba Shaheed:  (21:43) That's right. Like you want to have... The thing is even if you want to have better sex and you want to have better everything down there, it's actually every muscle has the ability to contract and relax. And the pelvic floor is part of that. The pelvic floor musculature, rather than just a muscle, the pelvic floor musculature needs to be able to engage in contraction and relaxation. And traditional cultures who were using the jade egg in more traditional form, we talk about the engagement of the muscles in a contractile state, but also in a relaxation state. It's a bit of, not ballooning, but it's opening. It's letting go as well. And that when you have the jade egg, you shouldn't feel discomfort in there. You shouldn't feel sticky and uncomfortable and painful, but it also shouldn't feel like it's just going to fall out. It's like two concepts.   Heba Shaheed:  (22:39) The jade egg is something that's used in traditional cultures, but in more physical-   Tahnee:  (22:47) Modern context.   Heba Shaheed:  (22:47) Yeah, modern physical therapy context, we use something similar, but it's, what are they called? Vaginal weights. So they use vaginal weights, which are usually like a silicone thing or a plastic type of thing which I'm not really a fan of, so a silicone type of thing with magnets or weights in there that helps. It's a similar kind of concept. And-   Tahnee:  (23:10) Yeah, because I use weights. But just I use crystals.   Heba Shaheed:  (23:15) Yeah. And it's in the sense of that they use them more again, for strengthening and coordination, but again there is that kind of focus on tightening things as well. Usually you wouldn't see vaginal weights being used in somebody who has already a tight pelvic floor. However, in saying that, I could see the benefits of doing that in a sense that you're getting them to be more aware of their pelvic floor. And for them to desensitise the pelvic floor. Because a lot of issues with pelvic floor, pelvic floor pain in particular, is that there is an over sensitisation of the nerves and the muscles and the connective tissue of the pelvic floor.   Heba Shaheed:  (24:03) Can we go back to, what was the last question that you asked me?   Tahnee:  (24:07) I feel like I've gone so many places now, I think I was asking about in examining women and what your actual experience was as a clinician, I suppose. In the back of my mind, because we don't know each other super well, but I've studied with this guy in Thailand who's a Chinese man. Part of his system is you actually have internal massage to relax all of the tissue. And they work on your psoas through your vaginal wall and the psoas attachment at the femur and everything. It's interesting.   Tahnee:  (24:45) Yeah, so [crosstalk 00:24:46]. I was curious as, because for me I had probably six or seven treatments in a period of time. And then obviously didn't find many people here offering that sort of thing. But it's become more common lately, I've noticed. I just wondered, because for me I could really feel where there were areas of tension and pain, and then areas where I was, like you were saying, desensitised or didn't have a lot of awareness. I had that pre-birth and it was, I think, one of the reasons I had such a great birth. Because it had given me some context and some of biofeedback. I was able to, I love manual therapies in general because they teach you how to connect into your body in this new way, the tactile kind of way. I guess I was leading into what is your experience as a clinician and what do you see?   Heba Shaheed:  (25:34) Yeah. I guess my qualification is as a physiotherapist, but I work specifically in pelvic floor right, and women's health. But even more deeper than that, my expertise lies in female pain. I work specifically with women as you mentioned earlier, with women who have sexual pain, pelvic pain, period pain, vulva pain. Very specific to dysfunctions of pain down there. If we talk about the guy in Thailand, in a lot of traditional cultures we know that they utilise a lot of abdominal myofascial work.   Tahnee:  (26:23) Yeah, that's what I'm trained in.   Heba Shaheed:  (26:24) Yes. And intrapelvic myofascial work. And that's kind of in that whole body worker type of thing. And it's a traditional kind of thing, but then there's the Westernised modern thing which is pelvic floor physical therapy or pelvic floor physiotherapy where there's a medicalised version of it. Depending on the physio that you see, because again we're also divided in our approach. A lot of physios are moving towards more of mind focusing thing where it's like change your brain, change your body kind of thing, was my approach is a little bit more hands-on.   Heba Shaheed:  (27:09) I'm like change the body and the mind and the heart all at the same time, integrate them all. I know that I'm very, I don't know, just a bit more progressive in my approach and I'm very open, because I've also studied. I did a lot of South American Mayan type of abdominal massage training.   Tahnee:  (27:31) Yeah, like Arvigo and stuff.   Heba Shaheed:  (27:32) And I've done Ayurvedic and Abhyanga type stuff. I'm very open to all disciplines and all medicines. I'm not the type that's like, "No. It's all just about evidence-based pelvic floor physiotherapy." I'm not like that. And I'm very open about the fact that I'm not like that. And it's not exactly, it doesn't sit well with a lot of the evidence-based physical therapists, but I don't really care anymore.   Tahnee:  (28:00) I was curious about that, because when I saw you, I saw that you were working in kind of in clinic and like quite, like at universities and things. And I was thinking that's interesting that you're so open-minded, because I've, I guess in my career, bumped up against a lot of people who are evidence-based who think a lot of the stuff we practise is really wild. I've seen amazing transformations, and I also believe strongly in evidence-based stuff as well, but I'm like traditional evidence is still evidence to me.   Heba Shaheed:  (28:31) That's right. And clinical practise is still evidence. The thing is I find that the discussion or the disputes kind of occur because a lot of people get so focused on evidence-based being what is researched and done in a trial and done in a research study, but the thing is, most practitioners regardless of whether you're eastern, western whatever, most practitioners aren't sitting in research studies. They're actually with people.   Tahnee:  (29:04) Every day.   Heba Shaheed:  (29:04) Fixing the people's bodies. They've treated thousands of people using their practises. And this is where Ayurvedic medicine and traditional Chinese medicine and all these other traditional medicines come in. They've been doing that for thousands of years with beautiful results, right? And it has nothing to do with sitting in a lab or in a research group or whatever. I think people forget that clinical practise is actually, so there's three type of evidence-based medicine. One of them is research study. But the other one is clinical practise. Thousands and thousands of hours of clinical practise.   Heba Shaheed:  (29:40) And you know what? It comes down to a personality thing. We are all structured, we all have proclivities, right? I have an extreme proclivity for openness. Openness to experience and openness to intellectual things and openness to all sorts of things. But then you have other people who are more about like conscientiousness in like orderliness, or very low on the openness scale. And that's fine. That's who you are, like whatever. We're going to attract whoever is aligned with us. That's the people that I attract to my clinic. Most of the people, well 95% of my clientele are like intuitive, feeling, empathetic type of people who are very disconnected from their bodies, which is pretty much exactly who I am.   Heba Shaheed:  (30:29) I'm very intuitive person, a very feeling person, and I was very disconnected from my body, that I didn't realise that I had all these pelvic pain problems coming up, but they were there from when I was little, I just didn't realise until my periods came, and it hit me like a tonne of bricks that I wasn't emptying my bowels on a daily basis, that I was holding my bladder and only going twice a day. All these little things that you don't even realise, and it comes down to just who you are I guess biologically and psychologically anyway.   Heba Shaheed:  (31:05) The people who are a bit more, I suppose, conservative would end up with the more conservative physios. And then the people who are a bit more liberal end up with the bit more of the open physios or a bit more with the open traditional type of medicine. You're going to attract whatever, and that's fine. There's room for everybody. There's room for everything. And so I guess if we go back to what you were saying about what do I actually encounter in my practice, because I see mostly pain patients, they're coming in with these pelvic floors that are really tight, really uncomfortable, the fascia's yuck the nerves are very sensitised and all sort of things.   Heba Shaheed:  (31:43) And because I have such a touch-based approach, like I do a lot of intra-vaginal massage with them, and I do a lot of abdominal massage. And not just that, I do whole body massage. I work through the whole, if you're looking at meridians or myofascial lines, I work up into their ribs. I work down into their feet. I work into their cranium. Whatever I feel like, because I'm more of an intuitive person, it's like they come in and I don't know. It's just a weird thing that I have. I don't know how to explain it, but I can just look at them and I'll be like, "Yeah, this, this and this." And then I work into it and it frees whatever's holding. It's like it's something deep inside that you just have. You either have it or you don't. Or you can grow it, I guess.   Heba Shaheed:  (32:28) That's why, some people say, "Oh, she's a bit woo." But I don't care. I'm like, "Yeah, I am, but it works." And my patients are attracted to that and they love that. And then while I'm working with them, I'm talking to them, like anatomy and stuff. In talking to them, to their rational mind too. Obviously there's a rational part of this. There's and intuitive part and there's a rational part too. And I'm talking to them. And usually when I'm working on something and it might be the psoas interiorly, right? And they were like, "Oh yeah, my ex-boyfriend was very abusive," or something like. Things come up. You know that when we interact with the psoas, you're talking trauma extroverting muscle. As soon as you start to engage with it, the person starts to remember and wants to get out the trauma that occurred or whatever.   Heba Shaheed:  (33:24) Part of that is also allowing them to verbalise stuff, because we know a lot of stuff is repressed or held in. And because I attract this certain type of clientele who are the type, they're usually very assertive females who are assertive in their life, what they want, they're all like a bit type A type personalities. Type A, type B, I guess, but then they don't put their own needs ahead. They're putting other people's needs ahead of their own. And then they hold things in and a lot of them are quite out of touch with what is actually their feeling, because they're just constantly looking after people around them.   Heba Shaheed:  (34:09) It's like getting them back in touch with, "Okay, what happened to you and how did it change your life?" It's more like I do a lot of coaching stuff with them at the same time. It's an integrated thing. I've been to a lot of other pelvic physios and I can see the difference in the way that I treat, because a lot of them will just sit there quietly and do the work. Or ask you about your weekend or something, and I can never ever remember what I've done on the weekend, so it's like well what's the point of that?   Tahnee:  (34:45) You have a three year old, it's like, "I don't know."   Heba Shaheed:  (34:48) [crosstalk 00:34:48]. Yeah, you're having a deep meaningful conversation where you're freeing a lot of repressed stuff, whether it's microtrauma or a macrotrauma, it doesn't matter, they're still traumas. Even microtraumas have an impact and they're repressing them. And when a body comes to me in that state of, this inflamed state of severe period pain, chronic constipation, bloating and all this stuff, oh man, there's shit going on in there. There's stuff. It's not just, "Oh yeah, I fell over on the weekend." It's not that. This is deep stuff. What do you have to do? You have to have a deep conversation, otherwise that person's going to be going from one therapist to another never really figuring out what's wrong with them.   Heba Shaheed:  (35:33) And they're the ones that end up, because they start with the modern medical stuff and then it's not working, and then they have all this surgery and it's still not working, then they end up seeing traditional Chinese Medicine and Ayurvedic Medicine and any of these traditional type of stuff, Mayan and whatever. And you know what? That's okay, because for you that is what is going to work, because it isn't just a body thing for you. When it becomes this complex and angry really, it is, there's like a poor alignment of your heart, your mind and your body. And it's trying to integrate all of them so that you actually feel like you're in control of your body, and it's not your body that's kind of controlling everything else.   Tahnee:  (36:19) Mm-hmm (affirmative). That's a such a common theme I think with women, is repressed anger and this sense that they have no control. I think especially women that are sensitive and like you were saying, empathetic and intuitive, because they take on so much and then it's this kind of push back or rage against what they've... It's their gift as well. I know you're an empath, and I am as well. It's my gift, it's also my curse sometimes. But I can feel, and that's certainly been my lived experience in my body, is when my own boundaries get brittle I start to really find that my body starts to lean back into the patterns that I've worked really hard to unravel.   Tahnee:  (37:11) I think it's just a constant process. But it sounds like you have such a holistic focus that people are able to work on that multidimensional level which I think, I mean for me it seems outrageous that that idea of bedside manner and all these things have been lost from the Western Medical system. Because, I think about just how important therapeutic touch and therapeutic listening is. I can remember going to older GPs when I was a little kid, who were like grandfatherly and gentle and kind. And just being in their presence was really healing. And I think now the system is really flawed obviously. But I can see how this disassociation of body from mind, from spirit has really led us down this path.   Tahnee:  (37:56) I'm super inspired to talk to someone who's actually gone through that system and continues to integrate, because I think that's really the future of medicine. That we need to have the evidence-based deep research and for me studying anatomy has given me so much power. But on the flip side of it, I have to keep remembering that the body is an integrated system and it's a holistic system and I can't just work on my pelvic floor and not have an overall effect on every single part of my body. It's this kind of dance always I think between the poles, I suppose, the Yin and Yang to use the Taoist ideas. But I mean-   Heba Shaheed:  (38:32) Yeah, well, it makes so much sense because what happened was in the last 50 or odd years or whatever, it really went into a more of a biological focus, like medicine went into a really biological focus. And then in the last kind of 20 years or so, they're like, "Oh no. We have to look at the mind as well." It's now kind of like a bio-psycho process, biological and psychological and then they're like, "Oh well, we know we do better in community." They're at this stage going to go into bio-psycho-social kind of thing. But the thing is, even the psycho-social stuff is still from a biological point of view, because it is like looking at psychology from a biological point of view.   Heba Shaheed:  (39:19) Really, depending obviously on what you believe in and stuff, and I'm assuming that obviously many of the people listening to SuperFeast are going to be more on the spiritual side. We feel like we have a, it's like a deeper connection, it's like a bigger connection, it's not just about my body right now. It's my body, it's my mind, but it's not just my body and mind, it's my heart and my soul as well. I need to be nourished in my soul too, for me to be really healthy. It's not just about always focusing on the physical elements.   Heba Shaheed:  (39:53) And that's part of it. It is part of it of course. You need to nourish your body to nourish your soul, but it's also vice versa. It's interesting. And the other thing that you mentioned before as well was about anger. One of the things that I've studied is when you look at, we have the mind or the head. And the mind and the head is where you hold fear. And then you have the heart, and that's where you hold shame. And then you have the gut or the pelvis, the gut and the pelvic paradigm where you hold anger. And that anger could be like anger to others, or it could be anger to yourself, or repressed anger.   Heba Shaheed:  (40:39) A lot of, that's often what we see. People are angry at themself, or they're angry at their bodies for not working the way that they want to, and it just feeds that cycle of anger. And their pelvic region gets worse and worse and worse. But if you really, really trace it back, you trace it right, right, right, right, back, there is that initial sliver of anger that started, but even before that there might have been an element of shame. There's even the heart isn't integrated. It could be shame, like shame at your own self. Or it could be a shame because somebody put a belief of shame onto you. Like, "Ah, that's not what girls do," or something like that.   Tahnee:  (41:18) Cultural.   Heba Shaheed:  (41:20) Yeah, cultural type of things. But it's somebody else's thoughts and feelings that you manifested of your own shame, or it's somebody else shame. Or even with a partner that you're with, or the parents, or whatever. Or society. And then even more so than that, your head is where you hold fear. Then what happens with a lot of my clients is that they get so stuck in their head, in that they're afraid that, "Sex is always going to hurt. That I'm always going to have period pains. Like, this is my life for the rest of my life. I'm never going to get better."   Heba Shaheed:  (41:56) It's like constant looping of fear in their head. What I try to do, is I try to get right to the beginning. It's like, "Okay, what was the first thought and feelings? What was the first thought?" If we go right back it could be something, a shameful thing that happened when you were two. Or it could be a fear driven thing that happened when you were just born. Maybe you were born to very abusive parents. Or like anger driven thing where you weren't allowed to be your authentic self, for example.   Heba Shaheed:  (42:33) It's like tracing it right back, because a lot of the time you can get so caught up in trying to treat the body, and then you think you're treating the mind because you're giving them pain education advice and all this stuff which is important, but at the end of the day the heart is completely not even involved. But I feel like that's really crucially important especially with the patients that I see, because they're all the kind of the feeling heart centred type of people. And then sometimes it's something as simple as, "I just hate my job. My heart's not in my job, and because I'm in my job," and I've had patients like this where it's like, she wants to be a naturopath for example, but she's working as a lawyer, you know what I mean? And she just hates her job. And I'm like, "Well, if your heart's not in it, your body's going to rebel against it."   Heba Shaheed:  (43:21) It's like even simple concepts like that could be the key that unlocks why a woman is having so much dysfunction.   Tahnee:  (43:31) Yeah. I can hear a little girl. Hello darling.   Heba Shaheed:  (43:35) She's dancing in the room.   Tahnee:  (43:37) Super.   Heba Shaheed:  (43:37) Spinning around, dancing.   Tahnee:  (43:39) Very cute.   Heba's Daughter: (43:39) Dah.   Tahnee:  (43:40) Yeah. It's you.   Tahnee:  (43:43) I'm curious-   Heba's Daughter: (43:47) Dah.   Tahnee:  (43:47) You're in a podcast darling.   Tahnee:  (43:50) I'm curious about complex trauma and pain and stuff, because one of the big epiphanies for me, I mean I was so scared of pain when I was 20. To the point where I've made some hilarious statements that now make me laugh. But I remember being 18 and 19 and saying, "There's no way I'm giving birth naturally. I need drugs to do that. I don't want to feel it." And obviously 10, 15 years later had a home birth naturally and blah blah. I changed. But a lot of the pain science and stuff I researched, I know that's an area you've studied a lot, like pain is just this completely subjective and incredibly difficult thing to measure and track. And so much of it is really due to this, I guess inability to be intimate with ourselves and to really give ourselves permission to have the full human experience, which is warts and all. It's not always sunshine and rainbows.   Tahnee:  (44:47) Is that kind of, I assume that's something because you work so much with really chronic difficult issues, is that something that you're always trying to educate people around? Is that, I'm not trying to say pain isn't real, because I feel like that's a really difficult thing to say, but it's sort of like from my experience, I've changed my relationship with sensation so much that pain and I have a very different relationship now. Is that what you're trying to work with people toward? Is to redefine their experiences, sensation and how they relate to their body?   Heba Shaheed:  (45:20) Absolutely. So it's all about perspective. We can create a relationship with our body that is pain driven. Or we can create a relationship with our body that's pleasure driven. Memories create little tags in your brain, neurotags, that can latch onto experiences as being with negative emotion or with positive emotion. And it depends on which part of your brain that you're using. We know that the right side of the brain is more associated with negative emotion, and the left side of the brain is more associated with positive emotion. Actually, we know that people, the ideal, so positive emotion isn't to do with being happy. Positive emotion is to do with not suffering. We don't want to suffer. And pain is an embodiment of suffering. We don't want to be in pain. If you're the type that is so fixated on not wanting to be in pain, that you'll use that-   Heba's Daughter: (46:25) Mum.   Tahnee:  (46:25) Exactly.   Heba Shaheed:  (46:31) If you're the type that doesn't want to be in pain, you'll become so fixated on that, you can become so fixated on that negative emotion, because you don't want to suffer, but unfortunately that actually propagates the feeling of suffering because you've become so fixated on that part of your brain that, because pain in itself is a negative emotion. Now here's the thing, right? Your brain actually doesn't know the difference between truth or lies. And this is a fact. It doesn't know. It's what you feed it. The food that you give your brain, food that you give your mind, is going to nourish it. If you're feeding it negative thoughts, which is fear of pain, and fear driven messages, and suffering driven messages, negative polarity based messages, then the brain will be nourished by that. And it will become hyper aware of that.   Heba Shaheed:  (47:28) But on the flip side, if you're feeding it positive thoughts, like I'm safe. I am content. If you're sending it positive messages, that will then nourish the brain in that sense. Think of it as like negative emotions and negative messages drying out the brain and making it hard and inflexible and uncomfortable. And positive thoughts and feelings and messages nourishing the brain and lubricating it, and filling it up that the brain is sitting in a soup, and it's relaxed and chill.   Heba Shaheed:  (48:01) Firstly a lot of it is just education on that sort of thing. Like visualisation based education, but then also anatomical and physiological based education in that explaining the actually neurophysiology of pain can be very helpful. But not just explaining that, but also getting them to do little workbook tasks to help them identify their patterns and behaviour. Because, remember a lot of it is beliefs driven as well. If you have this belief, that belief can be changed. We know that the brain is plastic, it's neoplastic. That means that it can be changed.   Heba Shaheed:  (48:40) Within three months, six months, 12 months, you'll have a completely different brain and cells in your body, if you continue to send it specific type of messages. That's why we can see a person, for example myself, I had like a 100 out of 10 pain 10 years ago. Literally every moment of every day was severe, excruciating neuropathic pain. From migraines to pelvic pain, or pain down my leg, sciatic nerve, and just like fibromyalgia type, like just horrific pain. That was because I was so fixated on the pain and the fear that I was always going to be in pain. Remember what I said about the head space being driven by fear.   Tahnee:  (49:29) I know. I call is the loop, like that constant feedback.   Heba Shaheed:  (49:32) That's right. And the thing is, that is very draining. That is very, very draining. Then you've got this rock hard brain that is completely devoid of lubrication, whereas today 10 years on, I can't even remember the last time I had a migraine. I can't remember the last time I had severe period pain. You can very drastically change it. And it's a constant work of it on daily basis. Obviously there are some times where I might regress and it's oftentimes where my mental state isn't well. Like if I fall into severe depression because of whatever, at the end of the day it is my thoughts and feelings. But certain events can trigger it.   Heba Shaheed:  (50:21) And that also comes down to trauma. We were talking about trauma just before, you mentioned trauma just before. Trauma, especially childhood trauma effects your hard-wiring. I was born into a very malevolent, narcissistic personality disorder family. To the point where there were times where I would be left by myself in the apartment crying my head off under the age of one, because of like no safety. No... Obviously that would've triggered a, what's it called? Fight or flight response in the brain. And we know that the nervous system is divided into two. Your sympathetic nervous system which is your fight, flight, freeze or fawn system. And your parasympathetic nervous system which is your relax, reproduce, digest, rest, chill system.   Heba Shaheed:  (51:17) If a baby is living in a chronic state of sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity, fight or flight, screaming and crying and being scared and feeling unsafe and all this sort of stuff, that's going to send your nervous system into overdrive. And your brain is just going to shrink, not shrink, but it's just going to become like that dried sponge. If it's a dried sponge, well all your nerves are coming out from your brain, well then those nerves aren't lubricated. Your immune system is then compromised. Your immune system is largely lubrication, right? It's mucous membranes.   Heba Shaheed:  (51:57) That's what I mean about going right back with my patients is that we're trying to figure out what caused this nervous system to go nuts? What caused your immune system to go nuts? And the musculoskeletal system is only the end product, the end thing. This all started way back when. It's like, "Okay, how do I then manage that?" Because I was one of those kids that when I was young, I had all this auto-immune stuff, like severe asthma, eczema, this condition called vitiligo where my skin turns white if I'm like severely stressed.   Tahnee:  (52:34) Yeah. I've seen that.   Heba Shaheed:  (52:36) It was just like super auto-immune type condition. And a lot of this stuff said, "Ah people say it's incurable. You'll just have to live with it. And maybe you'll grow out of it or something like that."   Tahnee:  (52:44) Those people are wrong.   Heba Shaheed:  (52:46) That's right. Exactly, because it's your immune system. Your immune system doesn't care, like it's trying to tell you that, "Help me. Help me. Save me. I need to feel safe."   Tahnee:  (53:03) This is the thing. If it's this line of defence, our protection and we're constantly being bombarded, like you're going to end up with immune responses.   Heba Shaheed:  (53:13) Mm-hmm (affirmative). If a patient comes to me and then they report to me that they had childhood asthma. I'm not going to be like, "Oh, you just had asthma." I'm going to be, "Woo, hang on."   Tahnee:  (53:21) Yeah, what happened?   Heba Shaheed:  (53:22) "Why did you have childhood asthma? Why did your immune system react like that?" And it's like 99% of the time that my patients will tell me and I'll be the first person that they've ever told, "Oh yes, this happened to me when I was little." Or something like that. There's a really, there's quite a correlation between persistent pelvic pain conditions and childhood trauma, whether we recognise it or not. And it could be just neglect. It could be neglect, it could be severe abuse, it could be sexual abuse, it could be physical abuse, emotional abuse. It could be anything. It could be sibling abuse, right?   Tahnee:  (53:55) I think even like-   Heba Shaheed:  (53:55) Or it could be bullying at school.   Tahnee:  (53:56) Yeah, I had a really, my family are loving and kind. But my parents had a really weird relationship and I'm super sensitive and I think took on a lot of that. And I disassociated from the body really early. I remember my mum having to be like, I'd be like, "I'm sick." And she's like, "Have you pooed today?" And I'd be like, "Oh yeah. I have to poo." I fully had that complete lack of biological connection. And it'd like that was my whole 20's it was working back to that. It's really interesting, because if I look at it, it's like I had a really happy childhood, but even just being in that energy all the time because I was sensitive to it.   Heba Shaheed:  (54:34) Absolutely.   Tahnee:  (54:35) It's like I can't [crosstalk 00:54:36] put blame onto them, but I have to do my own healing now to work out what my boundaries are.   Tahnee:  (54:43) And I'm curious, because you're an empathetic person and you're working with a lot of people's pain and suffering. Do you have boundaries for yourself on how much you can take on? Or how do you handle that sort of work?   Heba Shaheed:  (54:54) Ah yeah, for sure. I have massive, massive, massive boundaries. I only allow myself to work once to twice a week, and it depends on the week, it depends on my menstrual cycle.   Heba's Daughter: (55:09) I'm hungry.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:13) And with my patients, I used to think it was better to have breaks between patients, but it's not. For me, I need to just see them bang, bang, bang, one after the other with no break. Because then I don't allow all of the emotions to overwhelm me between patients.   Heba's Daughter: (55:32) I'm hungry. I'm hungry.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:35) That's my daughter crying out, "I'm hungry. I'm hungry."   Tahnee:  (55:38) I know, we're nearly finished, darling. They eat so much at three. My daughter's like a bottomless pit.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:44) I know.   Tahnee:  (55:44) It's ridiculous.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:48) Yeah, so.   Tahnee:  (55:50) Boundaries.   Heba Shaheed:  (55:50) Yeah, so boundaries. Yes, I discovered for myself that I need to see them bang, bang, bang, one after the other, because I couldn't allow myself to experience the overwhelm of emotion in between patients, because then it would be too draining to see the next patient. And then what I do is, I only, I actually see a lot of patients in one day. I can see between eight to 12 patients in one day, which is quite-   Tahnee:  (56:18) Whoa.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:18) A lot for-   Tahnee:  (56:18) That's heaps.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:20) Yeah. That's why I only work one to two days.   Tahnee:  (56:23) Yeah. Sure.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:23) And it depends. I do these really weird stuff, but before I go to work I tell myself, "Okay, who am I going to be today?"   Tahnee:  (56:38) Good. Yeah. I love this stuff.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:42) Which mask, which costume am I going to put on today? Even like now when I'm talking to you, this isn't the real, like it is, it's a part of me.   Tahnee:  (56:51) Yeah. It's one aspect of you.   Heba Shaheed:  (56:52) Mm-hmm (affirmative). But like the real me is actually very quiet and I kind of stick to myself, like a very introverted type of person. But, I'm like, "Okay, which costume am I going to put on today?" And that almost serves as like a physical barrier between my emotions and theirs. And then I have to physically tell myself, "Everything I feel today, none of this is my emotions. Anything that I feel," so like if I'm with a patient, the patient walks in and I immediately feel depressed, I'm like, "I know I am not depressed. She is depressed. Why is she depressed? What's happening?" Or if a patient walks in and they're like super happy, super excited and I suddenly feel like really bubbly and stuff, I'm like, "I know," I'm like, "Yes, I have the capacity," like obviously you have a capacity to be depressed and bubbly or whatever, "but in this moment every emotion that I'm feeling, is her emotion."   Heba Shaheed:  (57:45) Being conscious of that, so when the person walks in having that immediate consciousness of, "This isn't my emotion." And in that way I'm able to kind of, so I reflect. I imagine myself as a mirror and I'm reflecting her. So whatever I'm feeling is only hers. What I do, and this is a really amazing thing I've discovered is like I feel her emotion and then I allow myself to process her emotion, and then I actually speak out her emotion to her. I rationalise what she's feeling. And then she comes back to me with something, but it's allowed her to heal in that moment, that emotion that she was feeling, because instead of just feeling it inside, we've brought it to her outside. She's extroverted it out.   Heba Shaheed:  (58:30) And that in itself can be really powerful. What I've done, is I've also rationalised that it's not my feelings. It's like being very, very in the moment conscious of everything that you're feeling isn't actually your feeling, and it's theirs, but you're also letting them process their feelings. It's a really amazing thing to be an empath in the sense that you can allow other people to actually sort out their own feeling. It's a really amazing thing.   Tahnee:  (59:00) Yeah, in mirroring them.   Heba Shaheed:  (59:02) Yeah. And then-   Tahnee:  (59:04) Do you have meditation practises or anything as well around that? Or you just-   Heba Shaheed:  (59:07) What is it?   Tahnee:  (59:10) What do you do other... like yeah, obviously you're going to keep talking, so go. I jumped in.   Heba Shaheed:  (59:14) Oh, I was just saying and then at the end of the day I get on the train back home, and all I do is just filter everything out. I'm like, "Okay, what am I feeling right now? Is it mine? Or is it someone else's?" And then just letting it out. And then by the time I get to my car to go pick up my daughter, I've already sorted everything out, because I'm on the train for half an hour or whatever. It's like, "Okay, I've done it." And then it's like I could be super drained if I just let myself, because the thing is you have to filter them. Because in the past I hadn't done that and I would be so exhausted.   Tahnee:  (59:46) Oh it smashes you, yeah.   Heba Shaheed:  (59:47) After a day of work. Ah, my God, like I would be dead literally, and I'm just, "Leave me alone. Don't talk to me. I just cannot deal. I need to be on my own." But if you do that filtering process, and then you reflect on the day. And you reflect on how much you helped them, because remember as an empath helping other people, helps you as well. You feel that sense of, you get energy from that. And then it's the end of the day. And then I go pick up my daughter and I'm fine, because I know what's my feelings and what's not.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:00:17) I could do this every day if I wanted to, because I've kind of gotten really good at filtering my feelings, but I don't want to. Because I know there's a capacity to give, right? And a capacity to give, because we're giving people, but then there's also an importance of individually as well. I need to also be myself and do stuff that I want to do, and it's not always just about work and helping other people.   Tahnee:  (01:00:41) Yeah. And being a mum as well. For me certainly when I had my daughter, my priorities shifted a lot around she needs me more than others do a lot of the time. That's the priority.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:00:53) Absolutely. Especially that zero to seven really, it's like they need you, to nurture them.   Tahnee:  (01:01:02) Yeah. I wonder, I'll start wrapping up, but I was wondering if you had any advice for home care for the pelvic floor for people. Because I get frustrated that the Kegel thing, because I'm like that's not really good enough. But for so many people, it's pretty foreign territory down there. Is there stuff that people can-   Heba Shaheed:  (01:01:25) I'm not really a huge fan of Kegel, I actually am like well what the?   Tahnee:  (01:01:30) Yeah, it's just more tightening which people don't need.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:01:33) Yeah, so I don't. My focus for home care is more around your daily habits. We talked about it right at the beginning. Healthy bladder habits, going every three hours. Healthy bowels habits, going every day. And that means eating well, because we know your diet heavily influences your ability to empty your bowels. And just healthy bladder habits, healthy bowel habits, sexual health habits and vulva health habits as well. Like not using all these creams and douches and washes and all this stuff. The vagina's a self cleaning machine.   Tahnee:  (01:02:07) Leave it alone.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:02:08) Just use warm water. Yeah, just leave it. Don't put anything in there, except if you're having penetrative intercourse or if you're using jade eggs and whatever, that's okay as well. But, just leave it. Let it do its job, kind of thing. You don't want to mess with the PH and all that. And when you're having sex, simple hygiene practises.   Heba's Daughter: (01:02:31) [inaudible 01:02:31].   Heba Shaheed:  (01:02:31) Like washing your hands and stuff beforehand. And wiping from front to back. And emptying your bladder after sexual intercourse rather than before. And using a tissue. Stuff like that. Just simple sort of stuff. And even like the underwear that you wear and the pads that you wear. I'm a very, because I know this, I've seen it, like just simple thing of changing your pads to an organic cotton pad, or a menstrual cup or something, can be very helpful, rather than a lot of these mainstream pads and stuff that are like heavy with perfumes and toxins and stuff like that.   Tahnee:  (01:03:10) Yeah. And that stuff actually gets into your tissues and create issues.   Heba Shaheed:  (01:03:12) Mm-hmm (affirmative).   Heba's Daughter: (01:03:12) [crosstalk 01:03:12].   Tahnee:  (01:03:14) Yeah, inflammation. Okay, well, I think you have a little darling that needs you.   Tahnee:  (01:03:21) I will say thank you so much for your time and for this conversation. I really enjoyed speaking with you. And for anyone who wants to connect with Heba, she's on social media @thepelvicexpert and she's also online at www.thepelvicexpert.com.   Tahnee:  (01:03:36) I saw you have some courses up there. People can have online consultations. There's lots of ways people can reach you. Is there anything I've missed? Or anything else you wanted to add?   Heba Shaheed:  (01:03:46) Yeah, no that's all. If you are in Sydney and you do want to book a consult, if you have any complex

The Doula Dispensary is a weekly podcast, prescribing a weekly dose of all things doula. Siobhan and Kicki bring you a show which is a bit like sitting down with your mates for a cup of tea... So put the kettle on, sit down and enjoy listening to familiar issues as a working doula, woman and mother.This week, Kicki and Hilary Lewin chat about the birth of Doula UK and The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® (ATMAT). They explore how this holistic therapy can help with painful periods, infertility problems and peri-menopause. A very interesting episode for anyone interested in women's health and who would like to understand more about Arvigo. You can follow Siobhan and Kicki on social media -@siobhan_thebirthdoula@kickihansard 

In today's episode I am joined by Amber Lackey who is the Witchy Woman behind “Between Two Moons”. She is an amazing Mayan Arvigo Practitioner, Women’s Health Therapist, Massage and Bodyworks Healer, and an AdvoCate for Women’s Health and empowerment. We chat alllllll about moon cycle phases, bleed time, birth control, Arvigo womb massage, and so much more! This is such a powerful episode. Enjoy!!

Rosita Arvigo, is a Doctor of Naprapathy, ethnobotanist, spiritual healer, author of 8 books on traditional healing of Central America, and she is the founder of The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® & the Arvigo Institute. Donna Zubrod is a nationally certified, North Carolina Licensed Massage & Bodywork Therapist, a DONA certified Birth Doula, and a certified practitioner and teacher of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy. Her practice, Seven Generations Massage & Birth, offers support towards positive reproductive and digestive health experiences and outcomes from menarche, throughout the childbearing years, to menopause and beyond. She helps couples with fertility challenges to successfully conceive and nurtured expectant mothers during pregnancy through postpartum. In today’s episode I share a special interview with both Dr. Arvigo and Donna. We focus on abdominal therapy for fertility and period pain, and how it differs from conventional medical treatments. Today’s episode is sponsored by the Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Workbook. The first fully customizable paper charting workbook of its kind, available in both Fahrenheit and Celsius editions. Click here to grab your copy today! Today’s episode is sponsored by The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility. The Fifth Vital Sign is available for purchase on Amazon. Exciting news!! The audiobook is finally here! Listen to The Fifth Vital Sign for FREE when you sign up for a 30 day free trial with Audible. Click here to download now.   Topics discussed in today's episode: What is The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®? The process of Arvigo® Therapy How you need proper hemodynamics to find homeostasis within the body What inspired Donna to conduct her observational study on measuring the affects of Arvigo® Therapy on the menstrual cycle parameter  Some of the factors she had the 10 participants track during their cycles How Donna measured the effects for each participant Why goal of the study was to see if abdominal therapy had any effects on the menstrual cycle Was ovulation confirmed during the study? The importance of self-care by the participants during the study Did the participants have less painful period during the study? What were some of the results that stood out to Donna? How does abdominal therapy potentially improve mucus production or luteal phase length? How can Arvigo® bring women with extreme menstrual pain back to a normal cycle The importance of getting informed and being an active participant in your health Connect with Dr. Rosita Arvigo & Donna Zubrod: You can connect with Dr. Arvigo on her website and on the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy website.   You can connect with Donna on her Website, and on Facebook.   Resources mentioned: You Can Do It! Doulas Workshop FFP 050 | Journeys in Healing | Arvigo® Therapy for Fertility and Pregnancy | Donna Zubrod & Diane MacDonald FFP 018 | Arvigo Abdominal Therapy | Vaginal Steaming | Traditional Maya healing for Fertility and Menstrual Cycle Irregularities| Dr Rosita Arvigo Fertility Awareness Mastery Charting Workbook Fertility Awareness Mastery Online Self-Study Program The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize your Fertility | Audiobook | Lisa Hendrickson-Jack The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility (Book) | Lisa Hendrickson-Jack Get The First chapter of The Fifth Vital Sign for FREE | thefifthvitalsignbook.com Related podcasts & blog posts: FFP 257 | Mercier Therapy for Pelvic Pain and Infertility | Dr. Jennifer Mercier, ND, PhD FFP 248 | Abdominal Therapy for Fertility, Conception, and Emotional Healing | Andrea Thompson FFP 202 | Vaginal Steaming for Period Problems | Steamy Chick | Keli Garza FFP 067 | Healthy Menstruation | Fertility Awareness | Fertility Massage Therapy | Rachel Eyre FFP 050 | Journeys in Healing | Arvigo® Therapy for Fertility and Pregnancy | Donna Zubrod & Diane MacDonald FFP 018 | Arvigo Abdominal Therapy | Vaginal Steaming | Traditional Maya healing for Fertility and Menstrual Cycle Irregularities| Dr Rosita Arvigo   Join the community! Find us in the Fertility Friday Facebook Group. Subscribe to the Fertility Friday Podcast in Apple Podcasts! Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by J-Gantic   A Special Thank You to Our Show Sponsor: The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility This episode is sponsored by my new book The Fifth Vital Sign: Master Your Cycles & Optimize Your Fertility. Click here to buy now. Fertility Friday | Fertility Awareness Programs This episode is sponsored by my Fertility Awareness Programs! Master Fertility Awareness and take a deep dive into your cycles and how they relate to your overall health! Click here to apply now!  

In Episode 3 Maria and Liza surprise Lena with a treatment – a vaginal steam – that takes place during the interview. "It’s interesting to have a positive sensation in a part of your body that's not sexual,” says Lena about her first vaginal steam experience. Recorded in the comfort of her bed, the filmmaker discusses living with chronic pain and the support of her parents during her healing journey. This episode is very personal; Lena opens up about her surgeries. After her hysterectomy, her doctors referred to her remaining ovary as ‘dead’. Lena shares how her spiritual healing/ Arvigo® therapy treatment with Liza woke up her ovary. Now Lena has healthy eggs to freeze. Through her work with Liza, her dream of having a baby might just come true. Last but not least, they all crack up about how awkward sexting has affected their love lives.

Elephant in the Womb: Practical Prenatal Ed 10/9/19 Arvigo Therapy Maya Abdominal Massage Mary and Rowan chat about one of their service options, Arvigo Therapy, and then it rolls into a chat about consent, privacy, and how we want you to have the safest most healing opportunity possible, our goal is to help your body find homeostasis. We want to teach you how to heal your body. FYI This is a good session to watch/listen too if you are considering hiring Mary and Rowan for your midwifery care, our personalities and how we practice are pretty well portrayed. The Arvigo Therapy ~ https://arvigotherapy.com/ and description of a typical Arvigo Session https://arvigotherapy.com/about/typical-session/ Possible benefits from an Arvigo session ~ https://arvigotherapy.com/about/benefits/ Book a session with Mary ~ https://square.site/book/7DC14HTYMACP9/mary-ames-bratcher-lmt-wombsday-prepper-houston-tx Book a session with Rowan ~ https://square.site/book/1YFF4R4P1D3ZF/preggers-can-be-choosers-houston-tx Text reminders so you can join us LIVE, alternating Tuesdays at 11 central right here https://tapit.us/jdoa5 As always, you can find us at www.Preggers.rocks in Houston Texas. Alert ~ Be wary, we are a little sweary. Get your earbuds if you are concerned about tender ears and sensibilities. #houston #love #preggerscanbechoosers #massage #thisiswhathealinglookslike #AfterBirth #4thtrimester #mayaabdomnalmassage #mayanabdominlamasage #abdominalmassage #elephantinthewomb #prenatal --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/pcbc/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/pcbc/support

On this episode of Birth Circle we talk about the womb and reproductive system with Rachel Jackson. Learning to love our womb and periods is something that could seem foreign however Rachel Jackson talks about how she was able to do this. The real purpose of this episode is to help us eliminate anything that can negatively affect our relationship with our children and ourselves. - Rachels Story 1:44 - Arvigo therapy 7:36 - How does Arvigo Therapy impact Infertility? 21:24 - Arvigo in Conception and after Birth 33:35 “My relationship with my menstration is a direct reflection of my relationship with my reproductive organs. My relationship with my reproductive organs is a direct reflection of my relationship with my body, as a whole. My relationship with my body as whole is a direct relationship of my concept of self.”

In this episode, Kimberly interviews women's wellness expert, and midwife with over 30+ years. Her holistic approach to women's health has led her to additional studies in nutrition, homeopathy, herbology, prenatal exercise, energy medicine, cranial sacral therapy, visceral manipulation, the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® and Holistic Pelvic Care™. She is a Certified Arvigo® Practitioner and works with women at all stages in their lives to support healthy menses, fertility, digestion, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, and beyond. In addition, Abigail is a Certified Arvigo® Self Care Teacher and Doula Trainer. She is currently enrolled in Dr. Aviva Romm's Herbal Medicine for Women training and studying shamanism with Don Oscar Miro-Quesada. Abigail is a member of the California Association of Midwives, the Midwives Alliance of North America, the Association of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health and the Maya Arvigo International Association. OMG OMG, you're going to discover so much in this episode about ALL things women's health - from pregnancy to labor to birth control to IVF. You'll also learn why focusing on the pain of labor is keeping you in the pain (12:30), how to heal bad cramps (15:30), how women over 40 can get pregnant with ease (20:00), why impatience is killing your chances of getting pregnant (28:00), what is IVF and when you should use it (31:00), birth control pills do for your body (38:00), how to combat inflammation by investing in your health (43:00), why connecting to your childhood desire will set you up for success in all areas of your life (49:00), and how spiritual compassion is integral to source from in all that you do (51:00) If you're in Los Angeles and are in need of some Arvigo abdominal massage, or are looking to get pregnant in a more holistic way, then contact Abigail Regan here: http://www.rebirthwomenswellness.com Get the Garden of Life Wild Rose Detox I went o here: https://amzn.to/2NLdcpg This episode was originally recorded inside my 4-month high performance group coaching program, The Queens Way. Enrollment begins this summer. GET ON THE WAITLIST HERE! If you're a high-achiever looking to take your life and business to the next level, and don't want to wait for The Queen's Way to open up, the I've got a few spots left open for my 6-month high performance + business building coaching program. To apply is $147 for the initial 1:1 90-minute consult, where, no matter what, you will walk away with 5 personalized strategies to take your mindset, energy, productivity, and influence and impact to the next level. APPLY NOW FOR 1:1 COACHING Of if you're of a more visual learner, you can watch the episode on Youtube and SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL TOO HERE! Thank you so much for tuning in! Please leave a review on iTunes so we can keep the magic coming your way. For more biz inspo + mindset tools, follow us on Instagram: @crownyourself.now Follow my own mompreneur journey to #CrownYourself on Instagram: @kimberly.spencer Join the Facebook Group: "Crown Yourself Coaching" For more mindset, motivation, actionable strategies, and business-building tips, check out: crownyourself.com

In this episode, Kimberly interviews women's wellness expert, and midwife with over 30+ years. Her holistic approach to women's health has led her to additional studies in nutrition, homeopathy, herbology, prenatal exercise, energy medicine, cranial sacral therapy, visceral manipulation, the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® and Holistic Pelvic Care™. She is a Certified Arvigo® Practitioner and works with women at all stages in their lives to support healthy menses, fertility, digestion, pregnancy, postpartum, menopause, and beyond. In addition, Abigail is a Certified Arvigo® Self Care Teacher and Doula Trainer. She is currently enrolled in Dr. Aviva Romm's Herbal Medicine for Women training and studying shamanism with Don Oscar Miro-Quesada. Abigail is a member of the California Association of Midwives, the Midwives Alliance of North America, the Association of Pre and Perinatal Psychology and Health and the Maya Arvigo International Association. OMG OMG, you're going to discover so much in this episode about ALL things women's health - from pregnancy to labor to birth control to IVF. You'll also learn why  focusing on the pain of labor is keeping you in the pain (12:30), how to heal bad cramps (15:30), how women over 40 can get pregnant with ease (20:00), why impatience is killing your chances of getting pregnant (28:00), what is IVF and when you should use it (31:00), birth control pills do for your body (38:00), how to combat inflammation by investing in your health (43:00), why connecting to your childhood desire will set you up for success in all areas of your life (49:00), and how spiritual compassion is integral to source from in all that you do (51:00) If you're in Los Angeles and are in need of some Arvigo abdominal massage, or are looking to get pregnant in a more holistic way, then contact Abigail Regan here: http://www.rebirthwomenswellness.com Get the Garden of Life Wild Rose Detox I went o here: https://amzn.to/2NLdcpg This episode was originally recorded inside my 4-month high performance group coaching program, The Queens Way. Enrollment begins this summer. GET ON THE WAITLIST HERE! If you're a high-achiever looking to take your life and business to the next level, and don't want to wait for The Queen's Way to open up, the I've got a few spots left open for my 6-month high performance + business building coaching program. To apply is $147 for the initial 1:1 90-minute consult, where, no matter what, you will walk away with 5 personalized strategies to take your mindset, energy, productivity, and influence and impact to the next level. APPLY NOW FOR 1:1 COACHING Of if you're of a more visual learner, you can watch the episode on Youtube and SUBSCRIBE TO THE CHANNEL TOO HERE! Thank you so much for tuning in! Please leave a review on iTunes so we can keep the magic coming your way. For more biz inspo + mindset tools, follow us on Instagram: @crownyourselfnow Follow my own mompreneur journey to #CrownYourself on Instagram: @kimberly.spencer Join the Facebook Group: "Crown Yourself Coaching" For more mindset, motivation, actionable strategies, and business-building tips, check out: crownyourself.com

Welcome back to horizontal! I missed you. This is the podcast of intimacies recorded while lying down, wearing robes. It aims to make private conversations public in order to dispel shame, diminish loneliness, and alchemize connection. After a hiatus, during which I went to Burning Man, also known as: surviving a giant art project in the middle of the desert, and then came home and felt very sad to no longer be out adventuring slash surviving said art project in the middle of the desert, and then questioned nearly everything about my life, as is, apparently, rather typical, I’m back on schedule! This episode marks a couple of horizontal milestones. And because I’m rewiring my nervous system for joy, I’m committed to celebrating successes of every size and volume. So… This is episode number 50! And in a bit of neat numbership, horizontal just surpassed 50,000 downloads. Thank you so much for listening, and for sharing this work with your people. Don’t stop. Keep sharing it. Let’s have a revolution! For all things horizontal, including photographs of me horizontal-in-unexpected-places, intimacy resources, and my writing (some recent titles have been “the Wednesday night meltdown,” “the right to choose,” and “brave on the rocks, or, choosing to open when you want to shut but you know it would really be better if you opened”), sign up on horizontalwithlila.com In this episode, I lie down with Pamela Samuelson. Pamela is a bodycare witch, a sex ed teacher, a renegade, an instigator, a libertine. Or perhaps she’s really more of a wizard than a witch. A sexy female Dumbledore minus 50 years. Gravitas and twinkly eyes. As a bodywork specialist, she is trained in sexological bodywork, holistic pelvic care, and the Arvigo techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy. This means that she works on the pelvis and the pussy, inside and out. She's a warrior of bodily empowerment, Rosie the Riveter with a speculum. We first met the day before we were supposed to record, in the gender neutral bathroom at an event called Cycles & Sex, which is about pussies, not bicycles. Pamela was leading roomfuls of women in a campaign called “Take Back the Speculum,” which is part anatomy lesson, part show and tell, and part hands-on practice. Pamela shows the sexual anatomy of her own body, by inserting a speculum, and allowing the participants to see her cervix with a flashlight. Then, the participants are given a speculum, and get to try it on their own. I didn’t do it that day. You’ll find out why in the episode. In this part of our conversation, we talk about ambiverts, cervical self-exams, femme-drag and bespoke suits, wonder women, moving people’s wombs into a more optimal position, arousal vs. wetness, the husband stitch, and Pamela’s viral rant. My dear listener. Come lie down with us. Patronage is what makes it possible for me to continue making independent, uncensored, ad free homemade radio. When my crowd-funding grows, I’ll be able to dedicate myself to intimacy work. I believe that when we make private conversations public, intimacy becomes contagious, and the more intimate relationships we nourish, the happier our lives. For $10 a month, you’ll get access to the love poem of the month, a private recording of one of my favorites. For $15 a month, you’ll get a ticket to a live show, or access to a secret episode, and so on. Be part of making the world a more intimate place. Patreon.com/horizontalwithlila. Season Two has been edited by Chad Michael Snavely. Check out his slew of podcasts on chadmichael.com. Shana Shay drew my sensual cover art, and you can hire her through 99designs. And Alan Markley created my intro music. He’s plasticcannons on Instagram. Until next week, may you have someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to.

  The winter solstice is a time to move slowly – a time to be wise with our bodies. Book of the Week:  The Tao of an Uncluttered Life: Lao Tzu’s Ten Principles for Organization by Karen Hicks. The five elements, or phases, in Chinese medicine are fire, metal, wood, earth, and water.  Fire melts metal – [...]Read More »

Susun Weed answers 90 minutes of herbal health questions followed by a 30 minute interview with Dr. Rosita Arvigo. Rosita Arvigo was born in Chicago and trained in the United States as a doctor of naprapathy. In addition to her natural healing practice in Belize, Arvigo is the founder of Belize's six-thousand-acre Terra Nova Medicinal Plant Reserve, the founder of Ix Chel Tropical Research Foundation, the cofounder of Rainforest Remedies, and the creator of the Panti Mayan Medicine Trail, a popular and educational tribute to Don Elijio. Rosita's lifework, THE ARVIGO TECHNIQUES OF MAYA ABDOMINAL THERAPY®, help to restore the body to its natural balance by correcting the position of organs that have shifted and restrict the flow of blood, lymph, nerve and chi energy. Today the Arvigo® techniques are employed by Arvigo® Practitioners across the globe bringing the benefits of natural healing to their clients. this episode Q&A includes: • Susun's next book "Abundantly Well" • cancer of the tongue (HPV) human papillomavirus (memorial sloan kettering) • get a real second opinion, "not a seconding of the first opnion"  • high CBD shrinks tumors (look for Susun's cancer treatment video course in Feb '18) • "loving support" for people going through cancer (or a difficult time)  • necrotic growth and comfrey, 7 medicines, inquiry; visualize a curtain that reveals myself in 5  years • travel herbal medicine kit for India + vaccinations for travel (risk and rewards) • success stories with Poke Rt + Echinacea, St Joan's Wort and asking the body what she needs • abnormal paps and birth control  • herbal allies + breathing with plants to support chanting (meditation) practice  • castor oil

In Episode 15, Brodie talks with Li-lan Hsiang Weiss, Licensed Acupuncturist and practitioner of the Arvigo Technique of Mayan Abdominal Therapy. Western medicine is just beginning to understand the link between the digestive system and the brain, but other cultures have been using the brain/digestion relationship for millennia to heal both mind and body. Li-lan's experience is unique: born in Taiwan and transplanted at an early age to Guatemala, she brings a very multicultural approach to her practice where she focuses on reproductive, digestive, and emotional well-being for women, men, and children. In this episode, we explore: The Arvigo Technique: what is it, what can it treat? The link between the belly and the nervous system Similarities between Mayan healing practices and Chinese Medicine Other Mayan healing practices What IS vaginal steaming? Emotional tension manifesting physically in the body and what abdominal massage can do to release it   Resources: Wind in the Blood:  Mayan Healing and Chinese Medicine by Garcia, Sierra, Balam Li-Lan's 2014 case study publication in Journeys in Healing: Inspiring Experiences of Arvigo Practitioners and their Clients available through the Arvigo Institute LLC, where you can also find other Arvigo practitioners, Rainforest Remedies, and Arvigo courses. How to do a traditional Mayan vaginal steam, video by Natural Fertility Info: https://youtu.be/ilfBrNLXhLo  

Donna Zubrod is a nationally certified and NC state Licensed Massage & Bodywork Therapist. She is a certified practitioner with advanced training in preconception wellness, fertility enhancement, and pregnancy of the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy®. She has numerous certifications including a certification in Mercier Therapy and various massage techniques including pregnancy massage, fertility massage and both pre and perinatal massage. Diane MacDonald is a Registered Nurse with over 30 years in the field of nursing. She has her Masters Degree in Nursing and is a former Family Nurse Practitioner. She has worked extensively in mainstream and alternative health care. She has been an Arvigo® practitioner for 15  years integrating this modality into her practice. She teaches all levels including Hands on Health (one day class) Self Care and Professional Training. She has taught workshops in England, Australia, Belize and throughout the States. Her practice focuses on the Arvigo® Techniques as well as health and wellness support, herbology, Reiki, Reflexology and much more. Together Donna and Diane edited the recently released book "Journeys in Healing: Inspiring Experiences of Arvigo® Practitioners & Their Clients".  This book was published last October by the Arvigo Institute and is a compilation of 30+ clinical case studies authored by Arvigo® Therapy practitioners from around the world.  The case studies featured in the book demonstrate the profound healing that Arvigo® Therapy can offer and cover a wide variety of reproductive and digestive conditions including fertility related issues. In today’s show, we discuss the book, the inspiration behind the book as well as the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® and the implications this work has for women struggling with fertility issues. Topics discussed in today's episode What is Arvigo® Therapy? How to become an Arvigo® Therapy practitioner The inspiration behind the book Journeys in Healing: Inspiring Experiences of Arvigo® Practitioners & Their Clients How does Arvigo® Abdominal Therapy help women to improve fertility and menstrual irregularities How does Arvigo® Therapy improve alignment and circulation of the reproductive organs What other health conditions benefit from Arvigo® therapy? The ways that Arvigo® Therapy can encourage emotional healing as well as physical healing How Arvigo® Therapy can help women with fertility challenges Connect with Donna and Diane You can connect with Donna on her Website, and on Facebook and LinkedIn! You can connect with Diane on her Website, or via email! Resources mentioned Journeys in Healing: Inspiring Experiences of Arvigo Practitioners & Their Clients Arvigo Institute | Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy® Seven Generations Massage and Birth | Donna Zubro Join the community! Find us on the Fertility Friday Facebook Fan Page Subscribe to the Fertility Friday Podcast on iTunes! Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by Sirc of (The Nock)

Dr. Arvigo is a Doctor of Naprapathy, an herbalist, an international lecturer, and an author and teacher of Maya medicine. Dr. Arvigo is the Director of the Arvigo Institute and she is the author of six books on the traditional healing of Central America. She has lived in Belize for thirty years where she studied with more than a dozen traditional healers. She is also the founder of The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy and courses in Maya Spiritual Healing. Rosita is dedicated to the preservation of traditional Maya healing for the benefit of the people of Belize and the world! And in today’s show, we are going to be talking about the Arvigo technique of Maya abdominal therapy, and vaginal steaming. In today's episode Dr Arvigo teaches us how vaginal steaming can be used to treat fertility challenges, prepare the womb for a baby, support women after giving birth, in addition to helping to alleviate and resolve many menstrual related issues including painful and/or irregular periods, amenorrhea, fibroids, endometriosis, and much more. Topics discussed in today's episode What is Arvigo Therapy? How this 4000-year-old traditional healing practice has been helping women for countless generations, and why it is still applicable to women today What is Maya Abdominal Therapy? How gently massaging the uterus can bring it back into alignment, improve circulation, blood flow and restore menstrual health and fertility How Arvigo Therapy is an effective way of treating painful menstruation, heavy bleeding, Why Vaginal Steaming is a common, everyday practice in many parts of the world including Central and South America, Korea, Japan and many others Dr. Arvigo describes how vaginal steaming is done from start to finish What herbs are typically used for vaginal steaming? The power of these natural healing methods to help restore fertility How these non-invasive procedures can help to support women going through medical fertility treatments Why many women have been able to conceive after receiving Maya Abdominal Therapy Connect with Dr. Arvigo! You can connect with Dr. Arvigo on her website and on the Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy website. Resources mentioned Dr. Rosita Arvigo | Rainforest Remedies The Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy | Dr. Rosita Argivo Practitioner Directory | Arvigo Techniques of Maya Abdominal Therapy Vaginal Steams | Forgotten Ancient Wisdom for Women's Healing Music Credit: Intro/Outro music Produced by Sirc of (The Nock)