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Liz, a mama of two from Long Island, New York, joins us today sharing her experience with preeclampsia, an unexpected C-section, and her successful VBAC with her second. Liz had a perfect health history and never had any surgeries before her C-section. It was so frustrating to feel so out of control. In between her birth and her second pregnancy, Liz's mom unexpectedly passed away. She shares how she has been processing the intense grief from her mother's passing and from the positive birth experience she wasn't able to have. Liz made lots of changes going into her VBAC birth including diet, switching providers, and choosing to birth at home!Liz's DoulaCoterie Diapers - Use code VBAC20 for 20% offHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan Hello, everybody. We have our friend, Liz, from New York with us today. She is a mom of two and almost two years old. Right? Your VBAC baby?Liz: Yes.Meagan Almost two years since your VBAC baby.And then an almost six-year-old. And yeah, like I said, she lives in New York, and she's going to be sharing her stories with you guys today. With her first birth, she actually had preeclampsia, so she's gonna talk more about that. And then with her second birth, she didn't have preeclampsia. I think this is an important thing to talk about because we know that having preeclampsia again is a possibility, and it might be slightly increased if you've had it, but it doesn't mean you will. So I'm hoping that we can talk a little bit more if you did do anything to try to avoid it. The second one, we'll talk more about that in a little bit. But knowing that it's still okay. If you have preeclampsia, you can still VBAC. Now, in her second one, she didn't have preeclampsia, but you can still VBAC if you have preeclampsia. So we're going to talk about that a little bit after your first birth too, because I want to know more. All right. We do have a Review of the Week today, and this is by jess2123. It says "Best Podcast for VBAC". It says, "I listened to the podcast after my son's birth. I learned so much that I knew I wanted a VBAC for my second birth. When I became pregnant again, I would listen to this podcast during my walks. Thanks to the wealth of knowledge that I gained, I had my unmedicated VBAC in 2023." Congratulations, Jess, on your VBAC, and thank you so much for your review. I know this year we're tossing it up between reviews and educational pieces, but I just do want to remind you really quickly that if you haven't left us a review yet, we would love it. You can push "pause" right now and listen or leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can go over to Google. Google "The VBAC Link", and leave us a review there. These reviews really do help us and bring us so much joy. So without further ado, I want to turn the time over to you.Liz: Thank you so much. I guess every VBAC story starts with the Cesarean story, or at least there's one in there. My pregnancy journey did start with a Cesarean as far as the first birth. As Meagan mentioned, I am a mom of two. With my first son, I fortunately have been reproductively very healthy and otherwise healthy my entire life. I was able to track everything. I had regular cycles and really no issues there, so I feel really, really blessed in that regard. I was able to get pregnant pretty easily. I believe I got pregnant in about February 2018 for the first time. I found out mid-March after I tested in my bathroom and just ran out with the test to my husband, nothing super special. I think I was just shocked. I remember I had gone to a St. Patrick's Day parade and felt so tired that I said to my friend, "I'm going to go home and nap in between that and another event." They were all like, "Why are you napping?" I was like, "I don't know, I'm just really tired." I took the pregnancy test to rule out pregnancy. It was immediately positive which was amazing. My EDD, my estimated due date, was supposed to be Thanksgiving that year, so it was November 22nd which was Thanksgiving 2018. That just made me laugh because I was like, wow, what a far cry from Thanksgiving Eve spent even a decade previous. But yeah, so my pregnancy started out pretty status quo, I would say. I definitely experienced that nausea. My morning sickness was definitely an all-day thing, so it was a little tough. I think it threw me for a loop because I didn't know what to expect. I had always wanted to eat healthier, especially being pregnant, but it was like my body would not allow me to eat what I wanted or what my brain wanted me to eat. It was a lot of carbs to start out. I know that's pretty common. I remember when I went for my first appointment, I had called an OB's office. I'm trying to think. I think I had gone for one well-woman visit before, but I had two friends, actually three friends who had delivered with this OB and had good experiences, so I figured I would give it a try. The funny thing is, pretty much from the jump, I could tell that we weren't very aligned. I didn't really see eye-to-eye with him, but he had this nurse practitioner who was wonderful, and I feel like she drew people in because she was just very nurturing and calming, and she just had that great energy. I knew, obviously, she wasn't going to be at my birth, but I still stayed there.Meagan Oh yeah. So can we talk about that a little bit? So you had one provider that you're like, "I don't know, our energy doesn't match." And then one that you're like, "Our energy totally matches." But then they wouldn't be birthing with you. So tell me a little bit more of what that provider was that wasn't matching your energy.Liz: Yeah. So I guess because I had always been so healthy, my experiences with medical professionals were very limited. I had just gone to doctors for routine checkups my entire life, and everything was always fine. I think because I wasn't very experienced in the medical world, I almost had this aversion to it. I just was like, they're there if there's an emergency, but it'll be fine. Everything will be fine. I'm trying to do this as naturally as possible. He seemed very old school. I don't know how to describe it, just very set in his ways. I remember, I'll circle back around, but towards the end of the pregnancy when I had finally gotten the gall to tell him that I really wanted to try and do this unmedicated because I was so nervous to say that, he was like, "Well, don't expect this baby to just fall out of you. You're a first-time mom."Meagan Wait, what?Liz: He literally said that to me. And I was like, "Okay, I didn't think that." Meagan: I wasn't saying that. Liz: Yeah, I wasn't saying that I didn't think I wouldn't have to work hard. That's not what I'm saying. So just comments like that. The bedside manner just didn't seem very nurturing. He was very by the book, quick appointments, and asking me his little checklists of items, and that was it, whereas I felt like his nurse practitioner was very warm, had great bedside manner, and really just cared about mothering the mother in that situation. It wasn't just about the baby and how I was going to give birth or how I preferred to give birth. It was the entire experience. I remember at one point, she even said, "Obviously, there is a need for testing certain things and for keeping an eye on everything, but I really just feel like if we left women more alone to go through their pregnancies, they might be better off because we're so hands-on in the United States, and it just causes sometimes more anxiety throughout a time that's supposed to be really beautiful."So she did mention that she reminded me of, I don't know, a woman who crouched down in the field and gave birth to her babies in the woods. That's who she reminded me of. I don't know if that's the truth for her. I never did ask anything about her birthing experiences, but that's who she reminded me of. Just super warm and nurturing. I think also I maybe just aligned more with a female provider. It could have been just that too.Meagan: Yeah, it could have been. But I mean, what you were saying, comments like that, if I'm being super straight, we've interviewed providers on here that have come across really great, and then the more I've interviewed them, I'm like, "Oh, I don't know if I like that. I don't know."That can just happen. I think that's where it comes with vetting your provider and going with who makes you feel warm and fuzzy. But at the same time you're in this place where you're like, well, we've got this medical. We'll see how it goes. I've got this to also like, I've got this warm, fuzzy, filling-my-cup over here. So it seems like it's an okay match, right?Liz: Yeah. And I also manipulated it to the point where I would only make appointments when she was available throughout my pregnancy where the office was like, "You have to see the OB. You have to. He is going be the one who's attending your birth." I'm just like, "But I don't want to. I don't want to do that."Meagan: Yeah.Liz: I just stuck with the practice, I think, because I was nervous. I was new to it and like you said, I was getting my warm and fuzzy cup filled by that nurse practitioner's presence. Things progressed. I finally outgrew that morning sickness. By the second trimester, it was week 12 or 13 and it let up, and I was feeling good. I was pretty energetic. I was doing yoga on a somewhat regular basis. Nutritionally, I do want to mention because I think this does play a role in how things may have gone with the preeclampsia. But nutritionally, I was actually coming off of a vegetarian diet. I had been a vegetarian for a few years. I had gotten really deep into yoga in the early 2010s, and I became a vegetarian when I was doing teacher training for that. So I was purely vegetarian for a few years, and then I started integrating poultry back into my diet. I ate very little because my husband also doesn't consume a lot of meat, so we just didn't eat a lot of meat. I feel like I'm already a picky eater even as an adult. I definitely was as a child, but even as an adult, I still have things that I just don't like, so I feel like my diet was pretty limited, and I perhaps was not getting the nutrients that I needed, especially when my body underwent this or got pregnant and was going through this stressful event.Meagan: Yeah. Growing a placenta and a baby. Yeah, it needed its nutrients.Liz: Yeah. So I feel like during my pregnancy, especially once I started to feel good again, I ate whatever I wanted. So that whole like, I'm just going to eat so healthy, I was just like, yeah, no. I'm eating for two. I totally knew that's not what you're supposed to do. Meagan: I did the same thing. Liz: Yeah. I was like, whatever. I'm feeling great. I'm going to eat it. It's there. I'm going to eat it. So I get to my 20-week anatomy scan. I'm not even sure if it was exactly at 20 weeks, and everything goes well. Fortunately, no complications with the baby. Oh, I had also gotten a NIPT to find out the sex of the baby, so I knew I was having a boy. The anatomy scan did validate that. But that week, I don't know if it was right before or right after my anatomy scan, I noticed that I was starting to swell just on my right side of my body. My right foot was swollen. My right ankle leg was a little swollen. I remember reaching out to my social media friends. I just put out a status like, "Hey, pregnant lady here. I don't really know what's going on. Is this normal? Is this something I should bring up to my provider? What do you guys think?" There were plenty of people who were like, "No, it's totally normal to be swollen at that point." I even said, "It's only on one side though. It's weird."Meagan: Yeah, yeah.Liz: So they were like, "Just elevate your feet. See what happens." It would always go down, but it was just odd that I happened to notice just the swelling on one side of the body. So definitely interesting. Yeah. So I keep going. I'm getting bouts of pretty much every pregnancy symptom, but it would always be very short-lived. I definitely had some reflux, short-lived. I got sciatic pain so bad one day that I couldn't get out of the car. I remember I was sitting in the passenger seat and I said to my husband, "I can't walk on my right leg right now because of my sciatic nerve." So I was doing all these exercises to try and get the baby off my nerve and all of that, and everything just waxed and waned. Nothing was long-lived by any means. So I get to 30 weeks. I think it was at my 30-week appointment, and I believe it was the medical assistant who come in and took my blood pressure and wait like they always do. I don't know if it was her or the nurse practitioner who said that I had my first high blood pressure reading. Like, "Oh, it's elevated a little bit." And I was like, "Oh, that's so strange. I've been a 120/80 girl this entire time, and my whole life, I've never had blood pressure issues." And they're like, "Okay, well it's something to keep an eye on. Let's see. We're going to let you lay on your side, and see if we can have it come down. We'll take it at the end of the appointment again." And it did. It would come down, but they definitely were like, "We're going to keep this in our back pocket, and we might have to have additional monitoring if this progresses." I didn't really know what high blood pressure and pregnancy could mean, so of course, I go to Dr. Google like a good pregnant lady does, right?Meagan: Yep. A lot of us, I'm guilty.Liz: Guilty. Yeah. I was like, okay, so it could be hypertension in pregnancy or it could turn into preeclampsia. I was reading all the things, how this could turn and what that all meant. So in the back of my head, I always thought like, okay. I'm aware of what could indicate preeclampsia, but that's not going to be me. I am a healthy person, right? I've always been healthy my entire life. There shouldn't be any issues while I'm pregnant. And that wasn't the case, unfortunately. But I did go in a few more times, and I did get elevated blood pressure readings. So I don't know what week I was, but I know it was the beginning of October. I saw this other nurse practitioner who was not warm and fuzzy. She was new to the practice and she saw me. She took my pressure, and you could see the alarm in her face, but she wasn't saying much. This stuck with me to this day. It's just so crazy. She handed me this paper. The hospital that I was delivering at is a small community hospital, but it's affiliated with this Catholic healthcare system where I live, so they have a few different hospitals that are also within that same system. She just gave me this paper that had a listing of all these numbers for these different departments at these hospitals, and she just said, "You need to call them and make an appointment." And I'm like, "I have literally no idea what this is about." She's like, "Your pressure is high. You need to go make an appointment with them," but that's all she said to me. Meagan: For what? Yeah. Liz: Yeah, what is happening right now? I remember even that day, she asked me about my face. She was just like, "Is your face swollen? Does your face normally look like that?" I was like, "I have a very round face. I have big cheeks. To me, my face doesn't look different." Yeah. So she handed me that paper, told me to call, and like the good patient I am, I was like, "Sure, I'll call." So I called. I found out it was maternal-fetal medicine, which for those of you out there that don't know what that is, that's a high-risk doctor, and I had no idea. So this is my first experience with that. I did call. I made an appointment, and my OB office had me do a 24-hour urine drop or urine drip, however you want to call that. Meagan: Urine catch? Urine catch, probably?Liz: Yeah, so for those of you who don't know what that is, they give you a jug from a lab, and you have to put your urine into that jug for an entire 24 hours. They test it, and they're checking to see if there's any protein that is spilling into your urine because that could indicate decreased kidney function. Meagan: Preeclampsia. Yeah.Liz: Yeah. That is a symptom of preeclampsia. So I did do that. I went and saw MFM, and in the office there, my pressures were labile. They even called them that-- labile. It had elevated a little bit, probably in the 130s over 90s, but then by the end of the appointment, it had come down. My labs for that urine catch did indicate that there was protein present, but it wasn't within a diagnosable threshold. It was below that lab threshold, so I basically wasn't diagnosable. But they were like, "Now we're going to watch you." Most people like to see their babies on ultrasounds. That's an exciting thing. I became so fed-up with having to go in. I was, at that point, a frequent flyer. I was going in weekly earlier than a pregnancy that wasn't having any sort of complications. I was getting not only an ultrasound, but an NST every time I went in, so I'd have to lay there for 45 minutes while they looked at the baby's heart tones and everything. Yeah, at that point, I was just really stressed out because I was like, is that what this is turning into? But I don't have preeclampsia. I think I also saw my OB within that timeframe and he mentioned, "If this progresses, we will be doing a 37-week induction." And I was like okay, so I'm going to keep that in mind. But again, this isn't going to progress to that because I'm healthy and we're going to make it past 37 weeks. I probably wouldn't get the type of delivery that I wanted. And that's probably something I should mention. If I was induced at 37 weeks, I was preparing to have an unmedicated birth, a vaginal birth, and I was even taking a HypnoBirthing class to try and labor as long as I could at home. My whole thing was that I didn't want to go to the hospital until I needed the hospital or until I felt I needed the hospital. So here I am thinking, okay. I want this unmedicated, low-intervention birth, but I'm having all these interventions right now because they need to monitor me. There's some sort of issue that might be brewing. Yeah. I already said I went to MFM and all of that. My symptoms, at that point, were mostly swelling. I was getting very swollen at this point. I had that pitting edema in my legs, so I could press my finger into my leg. Meagan: It stayed. Liz: It stayed, and then my feet were like little loaves of bread. My feet will never forget what they went through. My husband would just massage them every single night, trying to get the fluid to move out of my tissues. It was crazy. I had another experience with a different OB who was not my OB, but I was out at a family event at this restaurant, and this woman approached me, told me she was an OB, and asked me if I was okay because my legs and my feet did not look so great.Meagan: What?Liz: Yeah. I was just standing in the lobby minding my business, and she's like, "Are you okay?" as if I'm not being monitored, but do you think I'm just going through this free and unaware of what's happening? Yeah. So that was interesting. She said that she was an OB. Yeah. So I went for weekly NSTs, the ultrasounds, and everything looked great with the baby. He was never under any sort of distress. No concerns of intrauterine growth restriction, nothing like that, but my pressures just kept being labile. I actually borrowed a blood pressure cuff so I could monitor at home. There were some mornings where I'd lay down on the couch after I woke up, and my blood pressures were reaching into those like 140s over 90, 91 maybe. I just would cry. I was just hysterical. Like, why is this happening? I don't want to go to labor and delivery right now. I don't want to be monitored. I'm already being monitored so much. There were probably some weeks towards the end where it was more than once that I went into my OB's office for monitoring. So fortunately, we made it through that 37-week mark. We made it all the way to, essentially, the end. And we get to Thanksgiving Eve, right? So my due date is the next day. I'm at 39 and 6. This was one of those appointments where they said, "You have to see the OB." I know I just kicked and screamed, not really, but in my head like, "F"ine, I'll see him. So the medical assistant comes in, takes my pressure and my weight, doesn't say anything, and leaves the room. He comes in, takes my pressure in my weight, and he asks me to meet him in his office.Meagan: Really?Liz: Yes. So I get myself dressed out of the gown that they had given me, and I go meet him in this fancy office. And he's like, "Your pressure is very high today, very high. So you're going to be going to labor and delivery straight from here." He's like, "I have a few meetings that I have to attend to here, but I will meet you over there in a few hours." And I was like, obviously, on the verge of tears. I'm just like, "Can I please stop home and get my stuff? Like, I have bags, I have a dog."Meagan: If you can go to your meetings, I can go to my house.Liz: Right. And yeah, my OB's was maybe 12-13 minutes away from my house, and the hospital was about five minutes down the road. So I was just like, "Can I just go home and grab my stuff?" And he's like, "No, no, no. Go straight to the hospital." And he goes, "And you're probably going to have a Cesarean."Meagan: What?Liz: This is after I tell him my natural birth, or my unmedicated, definitely wanting a vaginal birth. I was like, what? Literally, that was when the tears of waterworks really started. I was just like, "there's no shot at me having a vaginal birth?" And he's just like, "Well, I'm going to be putting you on medication to prevent seizures, so you can either labor with that and have it cancel out my induction medication, or you can just be calm and go to a Cesarean." Like, go to the OR, essentially.Meagan: What were your pressures?Liz: 170/110 that day.Meagan: Okay. Okay.Liz: So, high. Meagan: Yeah. But he's like, "You can do this, but it's not going to work, or you could just calm down and do this."Liz: Yeah, yeah. It was like, those aren't options, so that's not really an option. Right? That's what you're telling me. Meagan: Yeah. Liz: Yeah. So I called my mom. I called my husband, frantic. I was just flipping out. I get out of the office, I'm crying in the parking lot telling everybody. They're telling me to go right to the hospital. So, of course, my husband rushes home from work. He was at work. It was a Wednesday, and he got my dog. He had to bring my dog to my mom's, grab our bags to the extent that they were packed, and he met me there. I was crying. I walked myself into the hospital. It was the most surreal thing. I checked myself in knowing that I was going to come out with a human being, which was bizarre. And when I finally got to labor and delivery, my nurse was so sweet, but I was crying so much that she was just like, "Are you going to be okay?" And I was like, "I really want a vaginal delivery." And she's just like, "Honey." She goes, "I understand. I do think he's making the right choice. I do think you're making the right choice," which again, I don't really feel like I had a choice in that.Meagan: Yeah, you're like, "I wasn't really given a choice."Liz: She was also trying to relate. She's like, "I've had three Cesareans. I promise you're going to be okay. You're going to be okay." I was just like, "I've never even had a tooth pulled. I don't know if I could do this."So my husband arrived again. I'm just crying. He's trying to cheer me up, trying to keep our eyes on the prize and the fact that we were going to hopefully have a healthy baby at the end of all this. I want to say between check-in and when my OB arrived and scrubbed himself in, it was probably about three hours. Yeah. And I walked into the OR, another bizarre experience. I just walked in.Meagan: Yeah. Yep.Liz: Okay, so everybody scrubs in. There's a whole host of people in there, including my nurse. I had never had surgery, so they're giving me all the instructions as to how I need to lean forward so that they can put a spinal block, I think, at that point, the anesthesiologist, and it was so bizarre. It felt like the most claustrophobic thing. If any of you have ever had Cesareans, hopefully you can relate to me, but feeling the numbness just go up your legs.Meagan: It is very strange. I walked in for my second one. With my first one I just had an epidural, but the second one I had a spinal.Liz: Yeah, yeah. So I mean, so bizarre. Then, like I had already mentioned I was so swollen, so they had to just take my very swollen-- I felt like a beached whale-- body parts and put them onto this operating table because I couldn't move once. Obviously, the spinal had activated. So that was bizarre. But my husband, I mean, this man is the calmest person and the nicest person I know. Thank God for him and his presence on that day. He kept me nice and calm. Everybody was really, really nice in the OR. The only thing I happened to notice at one point was they had my blood pressure cuff on. That's why I'm here, right? Because my blood pressures are so hig,h and it had slipped down to my wrist, so I had my arms out. I don't think my arms were strapped down. I don't remember that. I had them out, and I look over to the extent that I could to the anesthesiologist, like, "Hey, does somebody want to maybe put this cuff on? Because that's why I'm, here. That's why we're in this position right now." But yeah, my husband and I just chatted and laughed the entire surgery. Everything worked out really well with the spinal. I did not feel any pain. They did talk me through to an extent about what I would feel as far as tugging or pulling or pressure. My son was fortunately born really healthy, screaming, great Apgar score, the whole nine. He came, and oh my god, what a feeling. Obviously, I was so emotional because of how the birth had gone and what had led me there. But becoming a parent and seeing your child for the first time, you can't really describe that. It's amazing. I have really nice photos and video that the nurse took. They brought the baby over to me. They did not do skin-to-skin with me. Again, I had all of these birth plans, preferences, and, none of that came to fruition. None of that pertained to my or situation. I was so, so happy and also so sad. I don't know how to describe it. It was like the happiest and saddest day of my whole life up until that point. So recovery was interesting. I feel like I got maybe 5 hours of sleep in the hospital total. I was on a magnesium drip. People had told me that the side effects could be a little bit gnarly with that, but I fortunately didn't find anything abnormal. I think I had so much adrenaline. But I did try to get my son to latch, and he was having a really hard time latching. They had a lactation consultant from the hospital come in and see me, and I could not get him to latch. I happened to notice that his tongue was really tethered, super tethered. I could see the tie was really far forward, and he couldn't lift his tongue. So I kept telling them, I was like, "He can't lift his tongue up the way that I feel like he needs to." They just kept telling me how to hold my own body to try and breastfeed properly. I'm like, "I don't think that that's the problem though." So that was really challenging. They did want me to stay extra time for some monitoring. So the next day was Thanksgiving. I don't think my OB wanted to be there. It was a holiday, right? He took his sweet time coming in because they wouldn't even let me eat. That was the thing. I was on magnesium. They brought breakfast in at like 7:00, and he strolls in at like 10:30. I just watched my breakfast get cold in the corner. So that was interesting. But yeah, I think at that point, if you had had a Cesarean without complications, they were looking at about a 48-hour stay. But they asked me to stay an additional day because my pressures were still labile. They were still elevated. I did get put on-- I can't remember the name of medication, but it was blood pressure medication. I was taking Motrin for pain management, the hospital-grade Motrin for my Cesarean. I cannot even describe what it was like trying to get up and walk around that first time after surgery. It's insane. That was something I didn't expect. But yeah, I didn't get much sleep. The last day that I was there, my dog had gotten into a place in my mom's house that she couldn't get him. He had gotten into something, and she couldn't reach him, so she was flipping out. She called my husband. She didn't call me and just told him, "Listen, you have to come get the dog. I can't get him." So he did. I told him, "It's fine, it's fine, you can leave." While he was gone, I had friends come and visit me. They were still visitors pre-COVID. The covering physician came in. I had my son on Wednesday. Thursday was Thanksgiving and I saw my OB, and then there were covering physicians for Friday and Saturday. So we're at Friday now, Friday evening. He came in and saw me and he's like, "You know what? I might be able to discharge you tonight." I got so excited because I was like, this is my first experience having a newborn baby. My husband is trying to go deal with my dog. How awesome would it be if we could just go home tonight?So I got super excited. He said this right in front of my friends, too. He comes back in a short while later and was like, "I just looked at your chart. I looked at your pressures." He didn't clear out the room, nothing. And he's like, "You know what? I can't discharge you. Not with pressures like this. I can't do that." And he's like, "And the covering physician tomorrow won't be able to discharge you any sooner than late afternoon, early evening because that is when he will be here." I was like, okay. So here I am in my head thinking I could go home tonight, and now you're telling me I might be able to go home tomorrow afternoon or evening. I'm already very hormonal. I'm very emotional. My husband's not here.My friends wound up leaving, and I just sobbed. I just sobbed in my room like, oh my god. this is a nightmare. Why can't my body get it together? Why can't I just have normal blood pressures again?Meagan: Yeah.Liz: Yeah. We did wind up getting discharged the next day, but I remember that physician just being so the last straw for me in that experience. You didn't have to say anything at all, and then you also set it in front of all of my friends.Meagan: Uh-huh. Yeah. So you didn't stay with this provider, did you?Liz: I did not stay with this provider.Meagan: For your VBAC? Okay.Liz: No, absolutely not. Absolutely not. Yeah. I guess I should probably get into that story, right?Meagan: No, this has been great. This has been great. Yeah. Yeah. So you were done. You went home. You're like, last straw, no more, never again.Liz: Yeah. Yeah. And I did have my. My son assessed by a lactation consultant, and she said that was one of the most severe tongue ties that she had ever seen. She did recommend a release. I was four days postpartum at this point. I wound up supplementing with formula which was something I so didn't want to do, but I was just like, this kid is starving. He can't latch properly. I did. I went and saw a specialist, and I had his tongue and lip ties both revised, and it was severe. That was a severe tongue tie. I know people have mixed feelings about that, but he needed it. Even in my opinion, as a lay person.Meagan: Yeah. Yeah.Liz: But yeah, pretty much immediately I knew I wanted things to be different the following pregnancy and birth. I think I started thinking about my VBAC probably that day. It was probably the day I gave birth to my son. This cannot be how this goes every time.So it took me a really long time to even want to conceive again. Not only did I have all these complicated feelings about my birth because yes, I did have a healthy baby. Yes, I ultimately weaned off of blood pressure medication and my body came back to however you want to phrase normal, but I had had this experience that I was holding onto a lot of trauma from, and unfortunately, my son was four months old and my mom suddenly passed away. So yeah, it was unexpected. It was sudden. I still to the day am shocked that I didn't lose my milk supply, but I was able to pump in the hospital and get my son milk. That is a crazy, surreal experience losing a parent, but I don't think that there's much more cruel than losing someone that you care about so much. My mom and I were so close in a postpartum period that's already complicated by birth trauma. So now I had this grief for my mom. I had this grief for the birth experience I didn't have. I think that largely contributed to me waiting to conceive again. I also wanted to try and find out as much as I could about what causes preeclampsia. What exactly goes on in the body that would cause that to happen? Funny thing is the verdict is still out there. They're not exactly sure what causes it.Meagan: Yeah. And there are things that we can do to try to help avoid it, but there's nothing specifically that's like if you do this, you for sure won't have it.Liz: Yeah.Meagan: The same thing with gestational diabetes. It's within the placenta, but we don't know. It needs to be further studied.Liz: Yeah. I have heard that it has to do with the father. Have you heard that too?Meagan: I have heard that as well, that there's a connection. Yes.Liz: Yeah. So I wound up, I remember I saw a home birth my wife just for blood work between having my son and conceiving my daughter. She did mention, "Preeclampsia is largely a first-time pregnancy illness. Largely. It doesn't mean you can't have it a second time," but she was the one who mentioned to me you have a higher instance of getting it again if you have the same father for your child. And I'm like, "Well, I'm married."Meagan: Well, I am going to have the same father.Liz: Yeah. So that was always in the back of my head. It's like, okay well, subsequent pregnancy, less of a chance. But same father, more of a chance. So I was just wondering what my odds were. It definitely was there on my mind for a long time. I studied as much as I could about what could cause it. I've read Lily Nichols, Real Food for Pregnancy, cover to cover. Obsessed with her. Obsessed with everything she has to say. There it is right here.Meagan: And right here and right here. Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. Real Food for Pregnancy. Food is powerful, you guys. It's very powerful. But it's changed over the years.Liz: I know. I love how she presents the research because she's the one who really delves into it and presents it in such a digestible way. It was such an easy read. I was like, okay. Okay, here are some things that I can control. Can I control everything? No. But here are the things that I intend to do the next time.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: So my mom passed away in April 2019. It took, again, a few years, but by spring 2022, I was feeling ready. And my husband and I kind of discussed it. It was in little passing. "Hey, should we try and get pregnant again?" And it was one time. It's not lost on me how lucky I am in that sense that it took me one shot to get pregnant.Meagan: Which is awesome. Liz: Yeah. I found out my EDD for that pregnancy was going to be on Christmas Day.Meagan: Oh my gosh.Liz: Yeah. And I just said, "Wow, I can't avoid major winter holidays, apparently, with my pregnancies."Meagan: Yeah. Oh, my gosh.Liz: So we did not find out that we were having a girl, but she did wind up being a girl. Spoiler alert. But, yeah, I was really not feeling well that pregnancy. It was like aversions times 1000. I had this really bizarre one that I had never even heard anybody discussed before, but I had so much extra saliva in my mouth. I'm sorry. That might sound disgusting. It felt like when right before you're going to get sick, how your mouth fills up with saliva but all day.Meagan: Like your saliva glands were just excess all the time, giving you all the spit possible.Liz: Yeah, it was disgusting.Meagan: That is interesting. I don't think I've ever heard of that.Liz: Yeah, it was terrible. Fortunately, I was working from home. I was working full-time, but I was at home. I would just walk around with a spit cup. Like, how disgusting. It disgusts me to even talk about it. It's just like, what is happening? I was waiting for those aversions to let up because I couldn't stand the smell of coffee, which, I love coffee. Basically the sight of anything that wasn't pure oxygen was disgusting to me. The sight of opening up my refrigerator was like, ugh. Exactly. The gag reflex. That lasted my second pregnancy until 22 weeks. So it was rough. I joked that I was horizontal for 2022, and that's not even a joke. I really was lying down. I had so much guilt because my son was so energetic at this point. He was nearly four years old, and he had so much energy. He wanted to do things, and I could not muster up the energy most of the time. My husband was the default parent, and I never thought that that would be the case. That was really, really hard. That was probably the hardest part of the pregnancy. But yeah, so I started to really actively plan for that VBAC. I started to see a hospital-based group of midwives. I loved them. I had gone for well-woman visits between as well. But every provider that I saw was just amazing. I didn't have any bad things to say. I knew that I would be with them if I was in the hospital. But deep down in my heart, I really, really wanted to be at home. I had seen so many beautiful home birth videos when I did HypnoBirthing. And I also associated hospitals with sickness. I had been there because I developed preeclampsia.Meagan: Uh-huh.Liz: I had been there when my mom was sick and passing away. It was a sick place. I wanted to be at a place where I felt most safe. For me, that was home. I know people have a lot of feelings and opinions about that all over, but for me, that was what I wanted to do. I wanted to do all of the things to keep myself low-risk and able to birth at home if possible while still making plans for transfer and even surgery if it was needed again. So I wasn't ignorant to the fact that it could turn into that, but I was going to try all of the things.Where I live, there actually aren't a lot of home birth midwives who support HBACs, VBACs at home. But I found one and we clicked immediately. When I spoke to her on the phone, I was like, she is my girl. I need her. I need her energy at my birth. We met in person a few weeks later, and she was so, so gung-ho about it. She had mentioned that her mom actually had an HBAC, and she witnessed her mom having that HBAC. It was just ingrained into her. She really supported me with advice on diet. She helped me with supplementation. I was on a lot of supplements for this pregnancy. I'm not even going to front. I had so many alarms set for all my supplements daily. So yes, I was trying to support myself with diet, of course, but I was trying to also fill in any gaps that might be there with supplementation. I just know my diet's not perfect, and it certainly wasn't when I was feeling terrible.Meagan: Yeah, no one's is. No one's is. That's just the reality of it. We can be eating the best we can, and we still are often falling short. That's why supplements are really great.Liz: Yeah. Yeah. I was seeing a Webster-certified chiropractor the entire time to get myself into the best alignment to have that vaginal birth. The supplementation, I was doing reformer pilates. I had started it the year before, and I did it all the way until the very end of November 2022, so I was staying active. I was really trying. I basically said that I will do almost anything to keep myself at home. That was really my motto. Yeah, I really can't say I was totally worry-free. I was waiting for something to go wrong. I was. I was trying to keep this brave face as like, okay. I can do this. I can birth the way that I want to. I can have this complication-free birth and pregnancy experience. And in the back of my head I'm thinking, when is the next shoe go going to drop?Meagan: I mean, it's what you've experienced in the back story, the last story. And it's hard. Even if we've processed through things, there's still sometimes those little creeping thoughts that come in.Liz: Yeah. That is for sure. My midwife did recommend that I get a third-trimester ultrasound. That was more for her, but it was also for me. She never ever said, "You have to do this." Everything was really a conversation. The appointments, especially with a home birth midwife were an hour long or more sometimes. Just amazing. I loved going to see her. So I did get that third trimester ultrasound. It was more to check to make sure that the placenta wasn't compromised in any way and whether it was in a good position. There was no accreta. That was something that we really wanted to rule out to keep me low-risk and at home. I agreed with that. I am not anti-medicine by any means. I just want to put that out there just because I chose to have a home birth. I do respect medical professionals and their jobs and the need for surgery but I also wanted to keep myself in a place, again, that I felt safe, and that's really what it came down to. So in my head, I had mentally prepared to go to 41 weeks. I think that's where I prepared to go because I had learned that many, many women, especially first-time laboring women, because I did not labor with my son, I neglected to mention that I didn't labor at all. So first-time laboring women will go into labor typically, but somewhere between 40 and 41 weeks. Post-dates is very, very common. So in my head I prepared to go to 41 weeks and we got there. We got to Christmas. We through there. I was like, I'm going to go somewhere before New Year's Eve. No, nothing. So we got to New Year's Eve and here I am in my 41st week, and I'm just trying to keep myself calm. What am I going to do? I cannot go to 42 weeks. I can't do it. Mentally, I can't do it. Physically, I can't do it. I'm going to wind up at the hospital. Of course, all of these negative thoughts are swirling. I went for another adjustment with chiropractor. I went for an acupuncture session. I went for a few of them, but I did induction points with my acupuncturist. I was just trying to do all the things-- curb walking, I did the Miles circuit and all the things to try and help this baby engage. So we get to 41 and 1 for me, which is a Monday, and I was woken up with contractions that felt like period cramps. That's how I would describe them. Around 2:00 AM, I started timing them. They were 12 to 15 minutes apart at that point, but they weren't letting up. They were consistent. I woke up my husband getting all excited like, "Oh my gosh, this might be it. Here we are." And they weren't getting closer, but they weren't easing up. So they just continued like that for the rest of the day. I had gotten up from the couch at one point, and I felt like this small trickle. I went into the bathroom, and it didn't look like anything to me. It didn't look like much. There wasn't a huge gush of fluid, nothing. So I was like, oh, I think it's probably just discharge or maybe part of my mucus plug. I have no idea. I have literally no idea. But I was like, nothing seems off to me, and it wasn't enough fluid to be concerning. I did text my midwife to update her and she mentioned to me, "A lot of women will drop into more active labor when the sun goes down. Things get quiet. It starts to get calmer. I can almost guarantee that we're going to have a baby at some point in the next 24 hours." So I go to bed that night and thinking, I'm going to wake up Tuesday probably either be having a baby or have a baby already. I woke up Tuesday, and I was still pregnant. Here I was.Meagan: You're like, this is not what I was thinking.Liz: I remember I would wake up with a contraction, but again, they were 12 to 15 minutes apart. I would go to sleep between no issues and just wake up, breathe through the contraction, and go back to sleep. And that's how the whole night went. I just couldn't believe I was still pregnant. I really was starting to get a little down on myself. I was like, these aren't coming closer together. They're not intensifying. They're not letting up, but there's nothing really happening at this point. I texted my midwife again that morning, Tuesday morning, and she said she needed to come see me for the 41-week appointment anyway, so she said that she would come by that day. She was going to come to my house. And then we get to the mid-morning. It was probably around 10-10:30 and my contractions stopped, like literally up and left. Like, what is happening right now? I can't. I was in shock, literally in shock. Especially because labor had been going on for over 24 hours. It was absurd to me. But she's like, "Don't worry. I'm going to come see you for your appointment anyway." When she arrived later that day, I did ask her to do a cervical check because at this point I'm like, "Something has had to happen whether the baby moved down into a better station or I'm a little bit more dilated or just more engagement. Whatever it is, I just want to know at this point."Meagan:: Yeah.Liz: So she did. She said, "I'll go in there. I can do a cervical check and if I can get in there, would you like me to do a membrane sweep?" And I was like, "I would love that. Anything to get this going. Let's get the party started." I'm at my house. She does the cervical check. She's like, "I can do a membrane sweep." And as she basically finishes up, I feel this gush of fluid.Meagan:: Your water.Liz: Yeah. She stopped, and I said, "Was that fluid?" She's like, "I'm going to make sure it's amniotic fluid. I have the test strip," and of course, it lit up like a highlighter. She's like, "Yes." She goes, "So guess what? We're going to go after baby today. We're going to get this. We are going to get this party started." I had kept telling her, "I can't go to 42 weeks," and she kept saying, "Let's not go to 42 weeks. You'll be fine. We're going to get it moving." And here we are. She did mention, I was at that point, about 3-4 centimeters dilated, so pretty good. But she was like, "I can offer you, I have a Foley. I can offer you a Foley balloon just to put a little bit more pressure on the cervix and maybe we can get those contractions to start to start up again, and then hopefully come closer together." Yeah. So she did. She put that Foley in and she waited with me at my house, and we just chatted. It came out a short time after. It took very little. I didn't have discomfort with that, thankfully.Meagan: That's, good. I mean, your cervix was starting to come forward. Things were going.Liz: It was going. Yeah, yeah. So again, she stayed with me and once the Foley came out, she just advised me to put on some sort of protective underwear whether it was the adult diapers or a pad because now we knew that my fluid was at least leaking, but it wasn't coming out consistently anymore. I don't think it fully came out. It wasn't a big enough gush for it to be all of the fluid, if that makes sense.Meagan: Yeah, yeah, yeah.Liz: So she told me to do a few things. She's like, "I'm going to head out. You're going to call me when you need me," which, at that point, I was like, I have no idea what that means, but okay. And she's like, "Here are the things that you can do. Obviously nothing in there anymore, because we know that your amniotic sac is open.Meagan: It's broken. Liz: Yeah. Yeah, exactly. But she said, "You could do some pumping. You could use some clary sage essential oil." She gave me her TENS machine, and she's like, "You could try the TENS machine." I had never known that you could actually use that not for pain management. I only thought it was for pain management. So I was like, "That's so interesting." So she's like, "Do the pumping. Do that." So I did. I did one session, I think, before I put my son to bed for the last time as an only child. I did. I went and laid down with him and just knew that was probably going to be the last time that he would wake up or the last time he had woken up as an only child. And then I did it one more time, and not only did my contractions come back, I started timing them on the app, and I'm watching them get closer. They're going from 10 minutes to 8 minutes to 7 minutes to 5 minutes. I'm just watching them like, oh, my gosh. So we get to 11-11:30 at night, and it's just me and my husband there, and they are three minutes apart, and they're not easing up, and they are getting intense. So there it was. They came back.Meagan: And labor begins.Liz: Oh, it began. It began. I have so many interesting photos that my doula wound up taking. Thank God for her. Not only for the photos, but for everything that she did during the labor and delivery. It was intense. It gets intense, or in my experience, active labor when you get the breaks between the contractions and you are able to rest. I took every opportunity to rest. My doula was trying to guide me into different positions. She would help by putting a warm compress on my back at times. She would encourage even location changes in my house just to see if I could use the toilet. She told me to get into the shower at one point. I was like, "I'm too claustrophobic in here." I didn't like that, but she was trying to get me to try different things. But it was so intense. The craziest part for me was transition. That was truly an out-of-body experience. Everybody was doing these hands-on manipulations, my husband and my doula. But I could not do anything but just sway. I was standing, swaying back and forth in my living room, arms up. Why were my arms up? I have no idea, but they were up. I was doing that horse lips, breathing. Yep. It was just what my body did intuitively. I just, at that point, wasn't really getting a break. It was just insane. So that was intense. Out-of-body. I cannot replicate that level of pain in my head. There's just no doing that, but I knew that even if I needed to transfer, which I wasn't planning, but even if I needed to do that for pain management, I couldn't sit down in a car. I was at that point, so I thought to myself, the only way to this is through this. Like that is it. You've got to do it. We're just going to do it. So I knew that in my head. At no point did the pain concern me though. I mean, was it so intense and crazy? Yeah, but it was never like, there's something wrong.Meagan: Uh-huh. Yeah.Liz: So that was really good. I didn't think anything negative during that time except that I was in an intense amount of pain. But it was like pain with a purpose, if that makes sense.Meagan: Productive.Liz: Yes, yes. In the meantime, my doula had set up a birth pool because I definitely wanted to try to be in the pool when I gave birth, but I wasn't sure how I'd feel about the water since I didn't really like the shower experience. It took a while because the hose kept slipping off of our faucet or whatever, so they had to boil pots of water. I just remember my doula walking back and forth. In the meantime, they did call my midwife. Somebody did, and she showed up with her assistant. So there were like three or four adults trying to hold me in transition or do some sort of physical manipulations and then pour hot water into this birth pool.Meagan: Oh my.Liz: Yeah, it was very interesting. But yeah, my contractions, at that point, were 30 seconds apart and they were lasting a minute and a half. It was intense, yes. But the pool was finally filled at 6:45 in the morning on Wednesday, and the only reason why I know that is because we have pictures of me right before I got into the pool. When I got in, my body just relaxed. I didn't think I was going to be wanting to be in a supine position at all, beyond my bottom at all because I couldn't have even tried to sit on land. But once I got into the pool, everything relaxed and it was like, oh, this is what I needed. This is what I needed. I needed some relief. I also kept telling everybody how tired I was. Anybody who walked past me, I was like, "I'm so tired." They were like, "Yeah, no. We know. We know, but we're going to keep working."Meagan: Yeah.Liz: But yeah, I was in there for a really short time and I had heard of this before, but to actually experience it is next level. I had the fetal ejection reflex.Meagan: Oh yeah.Liz: So I did not even have another cervical check. Nothing. My body just started pushing that baby down and out. I couldn't have stopped it if I wanted to. I was making the most primal sounds. I have video of it, like low guttural sounds. It was probably going on for about 15 minutes. My son walked down, I heard his little pitter-patter of his feet, and he walked down. My stairs go right into my living room where I was. And the whole time the most nerve-wracking part of having a home birth for me was that I knew he was going to be home with us, and there really wasn't an adult aside from my husband and my birth support team who I wanted in my birthing space. So there was no other option of anybody to take care of him besides my husband if it came to that. I think in the back of my head, that was the most anxiety-inducing part of this.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: So down he walks. And of course, he's hiding. He sees these three other adults in our living room. I'm in the tub groaning.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: He's a little nervous. He's a little guy. Fortunately, I think it was either the birth assistant or my doula handed him his little digital camera that I had actually bought as a gift from the baby for him. Yeah. She encouraged him. She's like, "Why don't you take some pictures? Take some pictures of mommy and daddy." The minute that she said that and he started to do that, he calmed down and just wanted to be in it and part of it.Meagan: Yeah.Liz: Yeah. And I told him, "Mommy's making some interesting noises, but I'm okay. I'm safe. I'm okay." And he was just really good about it. I feel like all that anxiety went away, thankfully.Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome.Liz: Yeah. I noticed my midwife was starting to gather her supplies and in my head, I actually probably said it out loud like, "Wait, we're doing this here?" And she was like, "Yeah." I was like, "I'm having a baby here in this room." She's like, "Yeah." I was like, "I don't need to go to the hospital?" She's like, "No, no, no. You're okay."And, yeah. My body just kept pushing the baby out. And it was an hour, not even an hour. It was less than an hour from when I first got into the pool until my daughter was out. My husband got to reach down and put his hands there. As she came out, he felt her really chubby cheeks. She has big cheeks like me and her ear, and brought her up to my chest. I was just in shock. I couldn't believe that I had done that. But then, of course, I look and I see that she's a girl. I just knew my mom had sent me her. That's how I felt.Meagan: Oh, that just gave me the chills.Liz: Thank you.Meagan: Oh my gosh. That is so beautiful. I love that your son was able to be involved, and you could feel your mom. Oh huge. Congrats. Liz: Thank you so much.Meagan: Yes. Liz: My mom's name was Faith, and so my daughter's middle name is Faye because everybody who loved my mom called her Faye. She was Aunt Faye to everybody, every cousin. So my daughter's name is Luna Faye. So she is her namesake, and she's amazing. And like you said, I can't believe she's almost two. I can't believe this was almost two years ago.Meagan: Two years ago. I know. We get so many submissions and sometimes we can't get to everybody, but it does take a while sometimes. I'm so glad that you were able to come and still record your beautiful stories and give us so much detail of each one and guidance, and the experience. Yeah. I'm just so happy for you.Thank you so much. I don't think I'll ever come down from that high, that birth high. Like, I think I'll be riding it out for the rest of my life. I'm not sure I'm going to have any more children. I think we're pretty much done, but I would love to give birth like that a thousand more times. It was the redemptive story that I needed. It helped so much with my previous birth trauma, and it made me feel so strong. I have never felt more strong and more powerful than that experience. I don't think I ever will.Meagan: Yeah, well, and there's so much that went into it-- time preparing, research, finding this team, and then even dealing with the prodromal. I mean, that could be defeating within itself. You're so tired, but then you just kept going.Liz: Yeah, I kept doing the things. I mean, that was one thing that my doula and my midwife both commented on. They were like, "You did everything that you could, and you tried to control everything that you can control, and look what happened. That's amazing."Meagan: Yeah. Thank you again so much.Liz: Thank you. I'm so happy to have been able to talk to you and share my story.Meagan: Me too. Do you have any final advice to any of our listeners?Liz: I think my ultimate advice for any birthing person is to find a provider that you align with. I think they can really make or break that experience. No matter where you choose to birth or where you wind up birthing, have that provider that you trust, that you feel like you could have open conversations with. If you say you want a natural birth, they're not going to scoff at that, and somebody who's going to have conversations with you instead of talking at you.Meagan: Yeah, I agree so much. I want to add to just vet them. If they're feeling good at first, okay, stay. And if something's happening, keep going. Keep asking the questions, and if something's not feeling right, don't hesitate to change.Liz: I know. And I not only hesitated, but I knew I had to change with my first provider, and I just didn't. I think at that point, I was so tired.Meagan: Yeah well, it's daunting. It's a daunting thing. I mean, I was there too, so no shame in it. It's just hard when you realize looking back, oh, I could have. I should have done something different. I didn't, but that's okay. We've learned, we've grown, and we've had healing experiences moving forward.Liz: Yeah. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

A huge thank you to our presenting sponsor for The Herbalist Hour, Oshala Farm Oshala Farm is a beautiful and vibrant certified organic herb farm based in southern Oregon where they grow and sell over 80 different plant species.  LEARN MORE AND BUY | OshalaFarm.com In this episode of The Herbalist Hour, I'm joined by my good friend Yaakov Levine. This is my THIRD time sitting down with Yaakov, albeit this interview was done via Zoom. Our first couple of shows I had the privilege of joining him in person.  Yet again he answers the HerbRally audience's burning nutrition questions. Hope you all enjoy and we'll see you in the next episode!  ~Mason LINKS & RESOURCES Yaakov Levine | LEARN MORE Natural Grocers | NaturalGrocers.com Nutritionally Speaking Pt. 1 | WATCH ON YOUTUBE Nutritionally Speaking Pt. 2 | WATCH ON YOUTUBE

As the Dietary Guidelines are put together for 2025, as they are every five years, a question has come up that has many baffled; are potatoes a vegetable? Food Direction CEO Beth Johnson says it's a question activist are raising, but she's not sure why.

As the Dietary Guidelines are put together for 2025, as they are every five years, a question has come up that has many baffled; are potatoes a vegetable? Food Direction CEO Beth Johnson says it's a question activist are raising, but she's not sure why.

Many African and Asian countries, including India, are leaning towards biofortification of crops. It is the process by which the nutrient density of food crops is increased by various means without sacrificing characteristic that is preferred by consumers or farmers. Thus, biofortified crops are more nutrient-dense than non-biofortified varieties.   Experts believe that these crops can help end 'hidden hunger' or micronutrient malnutrition.  Research is underway to add iron, Vitamin A, and Zinc to humble staple foods. Iron-biofortification of beans, cowpea and pearl millet, zinc-biofortification of maize, rice, and wheat, and pro-vitamin A carotenoid-biofortification of cassava, maize, rice, and sweet potato are currently underway and at different stages of development across the world.  In August, PM Narendra Modi released 109 high yielding, climate resilient and biofortified varieties of crops at India Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. So, How can India get the best use of the process? And, what are the challenges involved in it?    Guest: Suneetha Kadiyala, Professor of Global Nutrition, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine  Host: Nivedita V  Edited by Sharmada Venkatasubramanian 

In today's episode, we're talking about how to prepare nutritionally balanced meals. Here is my general criteria for healthy meals: 1. Eat real whole foods. 2. Eat foods that are going to produce energy, satiation, and longevity. My go-to breakfast: Eggs, turmeric, avocados, berries, sprouts, sweet potatoes, seasonal fruit (apple slices, peaches, nectarines) My go-to lunch: A2/A2 and goat whey yogurt, berries, homemade granola, 2 scoops of goat whey protein powder, apple and peanut butter. Family Dinner: Protein - 80% Beef, 15% chicken, 5% fish (how it generally works out in our home) One of the following starches - Basmati rice, black rice, potatoes, sweet potatoes, yams. One of the following vegetables plus a big salad with a homemade vinaigrette dressing - Cucumbers, broccoli, celery, carrots, asparagus, fermented cabbage -------- ➡️Healthy Meals Made Easy PDF Ask your lifestyle health questions on social media, tag @drwholeness and use #accumulatehealth. -------- Connect with Dr. Matt online:

A healthy, balanced lunch is important to help us focus and perform our best at school, work, and throughout the day. Sometimes it can be a tricky meal to plan. It is all too easy to forget to make lunch and instead reach for snacks, eat out or simply not eat until dinner. Eating a healthy lunch can also help us avoid cravings and low-energy crashes. Nutritionally balanced, energizing lunches that are easy to take on the go can make all the difference! https://blt.tamu.edu/2024/08/01/low-maintenance-lunches-to-go/

Dr Michael Lange host of "ask the dr" and Dr Susan Summerton co-host discuss natural macular degeneration approaches. Dr Lange states "macular degeneration is a nutritionally responsive eye disease". Both doctors discuss what foods are good and what foods are bad for macular degeneration. They also go over the importance of weight management for all eye diseases. They also discuss how many diets like ketogenic, carnivore and GLP1 receptor weight loss drugs have potential negative side effects. They do go over what to do to minimize the negative impact from each. Both doctors discuss a few different macular degeneration vitamins and who may benefit most from each type. The doctors mention the positive impact curcumin and omega 3 have on macular degeneration. Many callers direct the topic of conversation today.Support the show: https://www.drmichaellange.com/category/ask-the-doctor/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Have a comment? I'd love to hear from you! S.4 Sp.4 - Extreme Eating Part 1: The Carnivore Diet, with Nutritional Therapist Mark Bennett.This week I spoke to Nutritional Therapist Mark Bennett. We spoke about extreme diets, specifically about the carnivore approach which is animal only products. We discussed its effectiveness, safety and how to implement and follow it properly. We also spoke about what happens in the body while its being followed. Mark has been on MM before, we spoke previously about Sugar, Sweeteners and Metabolic Damage (S.3 / Ep.18). We had a great chat then, and he agreed to come back on to discuss this topic with me.I'm very interested in nutrition generally, but especially in the extremes - from pure meat, to no meat - so I'll be covering the vegan approach too.The carnivore diet is a restrictive eating plan that involves consuming only animal products, such as meat, fish, and animal-derived foods like eggs and certain dairy products. It excludes all plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds. The rationale behind this diet is that humans evolved primarily as meat-eaters and that consuming animal products exclusively can provide all essential nutrients.Proponents of the carnivore diet claim various health benefits, including weight loss, improved mental clarity, and relief from autoimmune conditions. However, the scientific evidence supporting these claims is limited and mostly anecdotal.Nutritionally, the carnivore diet can provide adequate protein and fats, including essential fatty acids and amino acids. However, there are concerns about potential nutrient deficiencies, such as vitamin C, fiber, and certain phytonutrients found in plant foods. Additionally, long-term adherence to the diet raises concerns about cardiovascular health due to high saturated fat intake and the potential impact on gut microbiota due to the lack of dietary fiber.Research on the carnivore diet is still in its early stages, and more studies are needed to fully understand its health impacts and sustainability.Mark BennettNutritional Therapist BSc (Hons) BA (Hons) mBANT CNHCCertified Gluten PractitionerNutrigenetic CounsellorMark is a functionally trained and qualified Nutritional Therapist, having achieved a first class honours nutritional therapy science degree. Functional medicine looks at the body as a whole and is focussed on identifying the causes of chronic disease rather than symptomatic relief. By intelligently identifying the root cause of symptoms and disease, targeted and individually tailored dietary and lifestyle interventions can be recommended to help the client achieve their health goals. Mark is a member of the British Association for Applied Nutrition and Nutritional Therapy (BANT), the Complementary and Natural Health Care Council (CNHC), as well as being a registered Certified Gluten Practitioner and Nutrigenetic Counsellor. Mark runs a private clinic near Reading in Berkshire. Areas of specialism are cancer support, autoimmunity, chronic fatigue/ME and dementia. Mark regularly speaks at well being and lifestyle events and provides content for various online and real world publications/channels. Website: www.entirewellbeing.comI hope you find this useful and enjoyed the podcast. Watch for the next episode soon, please subscribe when you can and please leave us a rating or review. Click the link highlighted to find out more about Lee here.Please also join the Mature Muscle Podcast Facebook Group for the latest info.

Nutritional Science is a fairly new field of study relative to human existence. In the past, humans grew much of their food in and around where they lived, incorporating a variety of nutritionally dense plants and animals into their diet. Fast forward to today, when industrialization has changed how we feed ourselves, humans more often use satiation above nutrition to gauge our feeding needs.To gain nuggets of nourishment about nutrients, Harvesting Happiness Podcast host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD. Sarah founded Nutrivore.com and is the New York Times best-selling author of Nutrivore:The Radical New Science for Getting the Nutrients You Need from the Food You Eat. Dr. Sarah Ballantyne studies the effects of nutrients on our body chemistry and which foods contain the highest levels of nutrients relative to the daily value per calorie. Her Nutrivore scoring system offers simple food swap items and additions to create healthier meals for healthier humans. This episode is proudly sponsored by:Nutrafol— Offers a drug-free whole-body health approach to hair wellness and growth. Get $10 off your 1st month's subscription and free shipping at nutrafol.com with promo code HH.Like what you're hearing?WANT MORE SOUND IDEAS FOR DEEPER THINKING? Check out More Mental Fitness by Harvesting Happiness bonus content available exclusively on Substack and Medium.

Nutritional Science is a fairly new field of study relative to human existence. In the past, humans grew much of their food in and around where they lived, incorporating a variety of nutritionally dense plants and animals into their diet. Fast forward to today, when industrialization has changed how we feed ourselves, humans more often use satiation above nutrition to gauge our feeding needs.To gain nuggets of nourishment about nutrients, Harvesting Happiness Podcast host Lisa Cypers Kamen speaks with Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD. Sarah founded Nutrivore.com and is the New York Times best-selling author of Nutrivore:The Radical New Science for Getting the Nutrients You Need from the Food You Eat. Dr. Sarah Ballantyne studies the effects of nutrients on our body chemistry and which foods contain the highest levels of nutrients relative to the daily value per calorie. Her Nutrivore scoring system offers simple food swap items and additions to create healthier meals for healthier humans. This episode is proudly sponsored by:Nutrafol— Offers a drug-free whole-body health approach to hair wellness and growth. Get $10 off your 1st month's subscription and free shipping at nutrafol.com with promo code HH.Like what you're hearing?WANT MORE SOUND IDEAS FOR DEEPER THINKING? Check out More Mental Fitness by Harvesting Happiness bonus content available exclusively on Substack and Medium.

As the Dietary Guidelines are put together for 2025, as they are every five years, a question has come up that has many baffled; are potatoes a vegetable?

As the Dietary Guidelines are put together for 2025, as they are every five years, a question has come up that has many baffled; are potatoes a vegetable?

What should you really be focusing on when trying to lost weight?

As the Dietary Guidelines are put together for 2025, as they are every five years, a question has come up that has many baffled; are potatoes a vegetable?

We have all heard the phrase, "You are what you eat." After today's episode, those five words will resonate in a deeper way than ever before. If you are someone who has ever suffered from disordered eating, obsession with diet, or hyperfixation on your physical appearance...this conversation will radically shift the way you view food and help you heal your relationship to it to experience more energetic vitality and sustainable wellness in your life.To better understand how our nutrition, or lack thereof, affects the body's internal stress levels, energy output, and mental health symptoms...we invited Kymber Maulden, a nutrition consultant and women's health coach, onto the pod. From the age of 15, Kymber experienced both mental and physical symptoms that were signs of deeper, complex trauma and the flawed social ideals of what a woman is "supposed to" look like from the 90s. Like most people, she went the medical route and was given diagnosis after diagnosis and was prescribed medications to dissolve her symptoms, further disguising the rooted cause. This led her on a winding journey in and out of different diet camps, such as raw veganism, and eventually back to her own intuition.By studying neuro-somatics, nutrition, Internal Family Systems (parts work) and complex developmental trauma, she realized that refining lifestyle choices for peak women's health often goes against the grain of many commonly accepted male-centric beliefs around food, fasting, exercise and energy. Through both her own personal healing work and the professional work she's done with hundreds of women over the past few years, she's come to view everything in health and behavior through the lens of nervous system functions.Nutritionally, she works within the growing niche often referred to as "prometabolic or bioenergetic," which places great emphasis on the impact of stress, in all forms, on the function of our cells' ability to produce energy. Disruptions in the ability of our cells to produce adequate energy to meet the energy demands of our modern lives is at the root of all chronic symptoms and illnesses, making metabolism a central focus within this niche. Tying in the effect of nervous system dysregulation and trauma within this approach to nutrition has provided Kymber with an insatiable desire to explore the intersection of nutritional and somatic healing.Highlights:-The interconnected link between nutrition, somatic healing, trauma, and wellness with respect to women's health-Physiological stress and how it hurts the body-Complex trauma, which often stems from environmental failure during childhood, can impact nervous system regulation and contribute to chronic illness-How under-eating can have negative effects on mental health and overall wellbeing-The male-centric approach to health and fitness and how it often overlooks the unique needs of women's bodies-Embracing the theme of moving slowly and creating a safe space to restTimestamps:00:00 Introduction and Personal Health Journey04:29 The Impact of Medications and Dietary Choices09:25 Understanding Stress and its Effects on the Body13:30 The Difference Between Acute and Chronic Stress18:21 Complex Trauma and its Impact on Nervous System Regulation31:03 The Importance of Nutrition for Mental and Physical Health33:15 The Impact of Food Intake on Wellbeing37:11 The Role of Energy Production and Stress Hormones41:57 Understanding Caloric Intake and Protein Consumption44:21 The Negative Effects of Under Eating and Over Exercising48:04 The Male-Centric Approach to Health and Fitness01:05:17 Moving in a More Feminine WayIf you love this episode and want to chat with us and our high vibe community about anything related to your journey...join us inside the FREE Spiraling Higher Community for conscious dialogue and loving perspectives.We host FREE connection calls inside for our community on the last Sunday of every month. RSVP by joining below:--Join our FREE community: (We host free calls every month!)https://tinyurl.com/SpiralinghighercommunityTry the SUPERHUMAN app free for 6 weeks with code 'SPIRALINGHIGHER':https://www.superhuman.app/registerClear your money blocks & learn how to tap into true ABUNDANCE and become a money master:https://simplifyingsam.mykajabi.com/abundance-money-workshop-replay--Apply for 1:1 coaching with Sam:https://www.simplifyingsam.com/1on1coachingApply for 1:1 coaching with Gina:https://tinyurl.com/1on1coachingbteGet on the waitlist for Sam & Gina's life-changing 6 month mastermind 'The Unlayered Self' (Spring 2024!):https://fantastic-sound-674.myflodesk.com/n2jdgjl7dwFollow Spiraling Higher:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/spiralinghigherFollow Simplifying Sam:Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@simplifying.samInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/simplifying.samFollow Gina:Tiktok - https://www.tiktok.com/@ginabourneInstagram - https://www.instagram.com/ginabournecoaching/For all inquiries, email us at:Spiralinghigher@gmail.com--Find Kymber Maulden:www.kymbermaulden.comhttps://www.instagram.com/kymbermaulden/https://www.facebook.com/KymberMauldenCNCAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

As the Dietary Guidelines are put together for 2025, as they are every five years, a question has come up that has many baffled; are potatoes a vegetable?

This is DAY ONE of the Take BACK Your MidLIFE Health Workshop REPLAY. We talked about Fueling up Spiritually and Nutritionally as a Christian woman in this midlife season. AND you will discover the #1 reason why you are stuck and stagnant in your health! It's NOT what you are thinking it is! In this workshop we address common complaints in the female midlife season of life and we talk about how you can: • Restore your energy • Reduce the fogginess in your brain • Reduce the annoying belly bloat and so much more! Ready to Take BACK YOUR MidLIFE Health???  I pray this encourages & empowers you today! XO, Michelle   ****DOORS ARE OPEN FOR THE NEXT ROUND!!  What is the MidLIFE Health Makeover Program? (formerly Healthy Holistic LIFE) Faith Fueled Coaching + Like-minded group support and accountability + private 1:1 access, WITH God at the center of all you do. DETOX mind & body so you can FUEL UP to FLOW OUT as a Christ EMPOWERED woman to TREASURE your TEMPLE as you TREASURE your WELLNESS. I NEED THIS! Intentional action+ Integration WITH-God + Implementation =Transformation **Get your application in and let's see if you are a good fit for the next round of the MidLIFE Health Makeover Program  We begin again in March!!   ***Join our community, Holistic Health for Christian Women over 40, to be supported, encouraged and educated as you regain energy and take back your health. **Catch the Treasured Wellness Podcast on https://christianmix106.com/   YouTube  AND https://actsmediagroup.net/radio-free-america-internet-radio/   Related Episodes:  Ep.  236 Does your FOOD make you TIRED? Ep. 234 Always have low ENERGY levels? Ep. 240 Too busy & too TIRED to slow down & REST?    

Welcome to The Nonlinear Library, where we use Text-to-Speech software to convert the best writing from the Rationalist and EA communities into audio. This is: Diet that is vegan, frugal, time-efficient, ~evidence-based and ascetic: An example of a non-Huel EA diet?, published by Ulrik Horn on February 6, 2024 on The Effective Altruism Forum. TL;DR I am posting this as I think the diet I am following might be suited to perhaps at least a few other EAs, especially those that are looking for a somewhat "optimized" diet while being hesitant about Huel. My diet aims to be vegan, affordable, evidence-based, time-efficient and is quite ascetic. The intersection of these criteria seems close to EA and also different from how most people think about their diet. Therefore, I thought perhaps posting this might be helpful for some EAs who have thought very little about this but would like to learn about more optimal diets. Moreover, I am interested in feedback from others who have done other or more research and come to other/supplemental findings - what am I missing? I have no expertise in dietary sciences and also have not done deep research as explained in the section on methodology. This post/diet might not be for you if you: Require novelty in your food (i.e. not eating the same handful of different items week after week) Derive a lot of well-being from eating good-tasting food (my diet is not unappetizing but it does require the consumer not to derive much life satisfaction from frequently eating good-tasting food) To keep this post short I will describe the diet briefly so please ask clarifying questions in the comments. A reason to be skeptical of Huel is that the evidence is lacking. As far as I understand, the only diet with considerable evidence is the Mediterranean diet as a whole. This is why, as I explain below, I am trying to make my diet as conformant as possible with the Mediterranean diet. The diet itself The diet consists of the following items and quantities. Note that this is a daily average, I do not consume all items every day. Instead, I aim to consume them all over a week such that the daily average ends up close to the following: Then some notes on how to make this more time-efficient/ascetic: Once a week I lightly (5-7 minutes) steam 4-5 crowns of broccoli, blend with olive oil and keep in the fridge to be eaten over 5 days (2 days a week are without vegetables due to my concerns about extended fridge life of this puree) during a week. I find high-powered blenders required to properly cut the stems. The legumes are just the canned type and I just drain, rinse and eat out of the box. Based on whether I think I need more carbs or more proteins, I change the proportions of the following and eat as much as possible after having consumed the other items: The legumes Oats, wheat/spelt and rice. I pick whatever is most convenient in terms of "form factor" such as pasta, bread or just plain cooked rice. I usually just dip bread in olive oil, or sprinkle olive oil on top of the rice). Sometimes I sprinkle some chili, squeeze some lemon and sprinkle some soy sauce and olive oil on top of rice or pasta - I guess I am not a complete ascetic haha My analysis indicates I might be short on vitamin D and B12 from the above, so I take these daily as supplements. I also take algal omega 3 in the form of DHA and EPA as the diet lacks in this (I think it only contains the ALA form that is much less bioavailable and the Mediterranean diet includes a lot of fish) and this is somewhat likely to be important for both short-term and long-term well-being I also consume some fruit (perhaps equivalent to 5 oranges a week). Nutritionally, this is perhaps not strictly needed according to the calcs below, but as I am inspired by the Mediterranean diet and I am sure most people in those studies ate some fruit, I eat whatever and whenever convenient. Please note that the choice of items above is based on analysis as explained below. There ...

In addition to being a mom of 3, Jill Lane has spent over 15 years consulting, coaching, and teaching functional nutrition and exercise physiology. Her passion for helping pro athletes, sports families, and high achievers attain maximum strength, quick recovery, heightened energy, sharp focus, and optimal body fat for peak performance has become the cornerstone of her business. Some of her current and past clients include coaches and players from the NFL, NBA, and MLB as well as aspiring MMA and Olympic athletes. As a former High School All-American, Olympic Development Team Member, Collegiate, and Semi-Pro athlete herself, Jill has a clear understanding of what competitive athletes require to achieve and sustain their personal best. Her mission to support the next generation of student-athlete leaders (as well as those who lead them daily) comes full circle in her event, program, and academy called Fueling Champions™. Fueling Champions follows Jill's proprietary 3-step process, FEED, LEAD, SUCCEED so families of student-athletes can achieve healthy success, together. Together Jill and I discuss the health challenges facing elite student and professional athletes and the role that practitioners can play in optimizing their performance. Jill highlights the negative impact of RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport), the importance to functional medicine practitioners of understanding RED-S, and offers tactics to help practitioners have more effective conversations with their patients. Together we address key supplements for athletes, including protein intake, fish oil, and Vitamin D. Jill also offers recommendations based on her vast experience for injury prevention and illness reduction and shares the advice that practitioners need to hear to keep their elite athletes on the field, in the pool, or on the track. I'm your host, Evelyne Lambrecht, thank you for designing a well world with us. Key Takeaways: [2:02] Jill's journey into sports nutrition was born out of necessity and personal experience. [5:02] Key changes Jill has seen in performance nutrition in recent years. [7:15] RED-S (Relative Energy Deficiency in Sport) in a timeline and a detailed description of chronic low energy availability. [17:05] The importance to functional medicine practitioners of understanding RED-S and having effective conversations with patients about it. [19:44] The negative impact of RED-S on hormone, bone, and organ development. [22:38] 3 effective communication tactics for setting student-athletes up for optimal performance. [29:21] Key macronutrient needs differences between endurance and strength athletes. [32:22] RED-S intake form resources for practitioners and the importance of raising awareness. [36:47] Nutritionally supporting clients in injury prevention and returning to performance. [45:04] Protein powder age and dosing recommendations. [46:45] Fish oil and Vitamin D action items for injury prevention and risk reduction. [49:26] Evelyn shares an encouraging supplement concussion recovery success story. [52:34] The importance of using Certified For Sports products for all athletes. [58:12] Jill's top three personal supplements, favorite health practices, and the viewpoint on carbohydrates that she has changed her mind about throughout her career.   Episode Resources: Jill Lane 2014 IOC Consensus Statement on RED-S 2023 BJSM RED-S Update Nicky Keay RED-S Endocrine diagram paper Injury and Rehab Nutrition  Fueling Champions Design for Health Resources: Designs for Health Blog: Krill Oil for Muscle Health and Recovery Science Update: Meta-analysis Investigates Efficacy of Vitamin D Supplementation on Bone Health Blog: The Synergy of Vitamins D and K on Bone Health Sports Performance Protocol Nutrition Notes: Fuel Exercise Properly Visit the Designs for Health Research and Education Library which houses medical journals, protocols, webinars, and our blog.

Crystal Nightingale from The Mama Coach joined us a few months ago and is back again today diving deeper into postpartum and breastfeeding than we've ever gone before!Did you know that new research is showing that cold compresses are more effective in helping clogged ducts than warm compresses or showers?Crystal shares her valuable insight gained as a registered nurse and IBCLC of over 10 years. Meagan and Crystal discuss everything from appropriate newborn weight loss to all types of infant feeding to how to have a successful breastfeeding journey starting even before birth. As we kick off 2024, we promise to bring new topics, deeper discussions, and exciting changes that will empower you even more to continue to have better birth AND postpartum experiences.  Additional LinksCrystal's WebsiteThe Mama CoachThe Lactation NetworkHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan: Hello, hello you guys. It's 2024. I cannot believe that 2023 went so stinking fast and we're already here. I think the new year is super fun because I think about all of the exciting things that we want to do for the year and we have this extra motivation. Today, we're actually going to be talking about something that we don't talk about a lot on the podcast. This is going to be postpartum. I'm excited to talk about postpartum because, with The VBAC Link, we are all Women of Strength. You are all preparing for birth. You're all preparing for pregnancy sometimes. We're so focused on the birth, but we forget about what comes after the birth. So we have our friend, our dear, dear friend, Crystal. Hello, Crystal. Crystal: Hello, good morning. Happy New Year. Meagan: Good morning. I am so excited to have you on today. Crystal: I'm excited. Thank you. Meagan: Yes. You are a registered nurse, an international board-certified lactation consultant which is an IBCLC and for everyone who has never seen an IBCLC, you guys, I have three babies and I breastfed with all three of them. I've seen an IBCLC with each baby because I've found that each baby is so different. Crystal: Yes. Meagan: If you haven't seen an IBCLC before, I would highly suggest it. They can help so much. But Crystal is from The Mama Coach and she is going to be talking with us today about postpartum and mood stuff and breastfeeding and so many powerful things. So hold on tight. We're going to do a review and dive right in. Review of the WeekThis review is from– I don't even know how to say it– miralamb04 on Apple Podcasts and it says, “A Must Resource During Pregnancy.” It says, “The VBAC Link was most helpful and encouraging during my TOLAC (trial of labor after Cesarean) preparation. I used all of the episodes to everyone's different expectations and outcomes to help me prepare for my VBAC. Finding out I was pregnant six months postpartum after a planned C-section due to a breech baby was frightening at first.”We have talked a lot about this close duration. It says, “I knew immediately I wanted to VBAC and started doing my research. The VBAC Link was constant during my stroller walks with my baby and helped me mentally prepare for my second pregnancy. I used the resources provided to help open up conversation during my prenatal appointments and ultimately advocate for myself and my baby for a planned, hospital TOLAC. I successfully had my second baby via VBAC a few days ago and I'm so happy that I did. Everything I could have wanted and so much more. Thank you, Julie and Meagan.” I love that so much. You guys, this is what this platform is for. It's for you to have the education, the information, and the empowerment to go on and make the best decision for you no matter how that is and what your birth outcome looks like. I love how she said, “To advocate for me and my baby.” Right? Crystal: Yes. Love it. Meagan: I love it. That is so cool.Crystal: Very, very. Meagan: Thank you so much for that review. They touch me from the bottom of my heart and if you haven't, please drop us a comment. Drop us a review. Let us know what you think about The VBAC Link. Crystal Nightingale Meagan: Okay, cute Crystal. Welcome, welcome. Crystal: Hi. Thank you for having me. Meagan: Absolutely. I'm so honored that you are here and taking the time out of your very busy day to talk more about that topic that we just don't talk about. It's not even that we don't talk about it. I think it's just that we don't think about it. Crystal: Yeah, yeah. Meagan: It's so far over there because we have such an event to get through. Birth is an event. Crystal: Yeah, it's huge. Meagan: It's such an event to get through that we can't think about what we're doing here or over here because we are right here in this moment preparing for this event. Crystal: Yeah. Yeah. Meagan: I mean, I have ridden tons of bike rides, races, long distances, and ran half marathons. I'm telling you that at mile 10, the only thing I was thinking about was where that finish line was, not where the next starting line was or that next experience. So I'm excited that you are here with us to talk more about this next journey because it is a whole other journey that leads us down a path through life in general and it can impact us for our next birth. Right? Crystal: Yes. Right. Meagan: It's a circle. It all goes together. Let's talk about it a little more. Let's talk about your professional background. What got you into this? What got you into your passion for postpartum and serving moms and babies through postpartum and through breastfeeding? Crystal: Yeah, so I always knew that I wanted to work as a nurse or in the nursing field. I was just fascinated with labor and delivery and women's health. Of course, being a woman and all of the amazing things that we can do. I had my oldest children younger so I was very naive. After I became a nurse, I really got into postpartum and mother and baby and just seeing new babies come into the world and helping the parents, the whole family, with breastfeeding and helping them take care of their newborn baby and just all of that fascinates me. It's just incredible to me. I've been working with mothers and children as a nurse for a little over 10 years now and you know, just through my time in the hospital and the clinic, I have seen a trend. A lot of parents have the best intentions. They want to breastfeed and they want to do this, but then there is not a lot of support. The WHO, World Health Organization, and CDC all recommend breastfeeding for at least six months, but what? Then parents go back to work at six to eight weeks maybe? Some even sooner. I've seen some moms who have to go back to work within two or three weeks. So just seeing that lack of support postpartum for families just triggered, “Okay.” It's very frustrating to be in a hospital or a large health organization setting and not be able to do as much as I want to because of all of the policies and regulations and things like that. So I teamed up with The Mama Coach to start my own private practice and being part of The Mama Coach has been awesome. We are a group of registered nurses and some nurse practitioners all around the world helping parents to make parenting easier through education, evidence-informed solutions, support, assessment, individualized plans, and all of the stuff to help support parents from the prenatal period to postpartum to feeding and starting solids, all the way up to five years of age with sleep and CPR and things like that. So yeah. That's a little bit of my background. I have four kids and I did not get to breastfeed my older two because again, I was young and naive. I didn't know anything. I “tried” to breastfeed not knowing that cluster feeding was normal. I just thought, “Oh no. I need to give formula because they sent me home with formula.” Then all of a sudden, my milk dried up and I was like, “Oh well. I guess I'll just formula feed.” That wasn't what I wanted to do. I just didn't know how to continue the breastfeeding journey. Meagan: Yeah. This isn't like anything that we talked about, but I kind of am wondering if you know the answer to this. We are talking about how all of these organizations– big organizations– encourage breastfeeding. We talk about how we don't necessarily have the support but not only do we not have the support, but we have the alternatives given to us so easily which I think is great. I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it makes it easier or if we don't know. Like with cluster feeding, you think you're baby is starving. You think, “I'm not giving my baby enough. They are always hungry, always hungry and I have to supplement with formula,” when that's not necessarily the case. Why do you think these companies are providing so much formula right out of the gate?Crystal: You know, I'm not sure. I can say it probably is because they are not thinking of the long-term effects of starting formula. If it's needed, how I always was taught especially working in the hospital is that really, formula should be used and treated as a medication. Use if absolutely needed. But, when some staff or doctors or whatever see that a mother is struggling maybe, they don't automatically think, “Let's support her and see how we can help her reach her goal. Let's just feed the baby and deal with it later,” not knowing that that can negatively impact the breastfeeding relationship down the road. You know, like you said, that is there for a reason, and if a baby really needs it, of course, use it. I think the organizations are getting better, but they can still be better. Meagan: Yeah. Do you know what I would like to see more? I know that this can be tricky because of all of the things that are put into our bodies and in this world, but I would love to see milk bank donations more. Crystal: Yes. Meagan: There are certain countries that are literally like Winder Dairy and they bring breastmilk to your porch for people who are struggling. It's so awesome and there are parents out there. There are moms out there who have an insane overproduction, but their baby isn't necessarily using it and it could go to a preemie baby or to a mom that may have a little bit of a rough start or have had a Cesarean under general anesthesia and isn't able to really even be present in that moment. I would love to see that happen more. I don't even know. There are all of the things out there. There are all of the apples off of the tree that I would like to grab and make happen. Crystal: That would be so amazing. Meagan: But they are out there too. So if you are struggling in your breastfeeding journey, it doesn't hurt to ask, “Hey, is there a breastmilk donation in our area or in this hospital?” because there are situations where some hospitals– it's not talked about and it's not big enough yet, but there are banks where people who donate. And because of the craziness in this world, they are really, really strict on who can donate. My cousin did one and you have to check a million boxes to be able to donate. So anyway. Crystal: It makes sense. Meagan: It could be weird to people like, “Someone else's milk, what?” Crystal: I've definitely encountered that before. Everyone has their feelings, beliefs, and opinions, so it's like, “Well, it's there.” I am seeing more hospitals in my area up in northern California have donor breastmilk available in the hospital, but the problem with that is they give the donor milk in the hospital, but when they go home, there is still not that support or continuation of care because now, mom's milk maybe is not quite sufficient yet and how do we help them when they go home? Meagan: Right. Crystal: That's another thing that we're seeing too. Meagan: Okay. So that is a question right there even. We can go home, but I'm going to go back and talk about breastfeeding with that. What do we need to not forget about the postpartum journey during the birth preparation? What are some things that people who are pregnant, preparing for birth, and preparing for their birth– they are so excited. They are figuring out if birth is right for them. What do we need to focus on and not forget about during that pregnancy journey? Crystal: Yeah, so of course, like we were saying earlier, getting ready for birth and preparing for birth is a huge event. We prepare for that and all of that, but then we don't think about like we were saying, the postpartum. Think that postpartum can last a year or two years, sometimes even longer depending on how long you breastfeed if you plan to breastfeed. It takes 9-10 months for your hormones to increase and grow this baby and things like that, then of course, it can take– to me, this is my thinking– at least nine months for it to go back down to somewhat normal levels. If you're breastfeeding, you've still got all kinds of hormones going on. So think about that. Babies have to be fed, so how are we going to feed them? Are you going to breastfeed? Do you know what to expect? Do you know what kind of bottles and what kind of formula to use? Do we know what to expect with just newborns in general and newborn care and diapers? Because babies' poops look funky. They are different from ours, so it's like, okay. All of these things, I feel like if parents are a little bit more prepared, then they will have less anxiousness for one because it's a whole new thing whether you are a first-time parent or even if it's your third or fourth baby– even with me for my fourth baby, I was like, “Wait. Is this normal?” I'm a nurse and I work in the field, but it's so different when you're on the other side. So just to be prepared for that so that way you have the expectations and you know, “Okay, what's normal? What's not normal?” Have somewhat of an idea of how to manage some things and know that there is support out there when you need the support. Meagan: Absolutely. Something that I– with my first baby, I ended up going back to work at 12 weeks postpartum. I already wasn't prepared for a Cesarean, so then I was recovering from that, but when it came to feeding my baby and even my emotional status, I really wasn't prepared for all that was happening in such a short period of time and then to shift. As soon as I started feeling like I was kind of getting the hang of it and things were in control or I had a routine, it was like my feet got swooshed underneath me and it was changing again. I was all of a sudden in a back storage room pumping every three hours. I was storing my milk in a fridge where everyone stored their lunch and then trying to figure out that and trying to get enough production for my baby while they were with the babysitter. It was so much. Crystal: It's a lot, yeah. Definitely, going back to work after having a baby, no matter how soon whether it's six weeks or six months is definitely a big change as well. That's something that a lot of parents aren't really thinking about or prepared for which is totally fine. There is so much more going on at the moment, but knowing that, “Okay. I need to prepare and be ready before I go back to work so I know what to expect.” And like I said, getting some support on how to manage that. Get a plan together. Get a schedule together. Meagan: Yeah. So as a doula, I work a lot with my clients right before pregnancy and sometimes they are a little caught off guard when I'm like, “What's your postpartum plan?” They're like, “Huh? Aren't you a birth doula?” I'm like, “Yeah. I am a birth doula, but I know a lot about postpartum and I didn't plan for it either. Let's talk about it. How are you going to eat so you can feed your baby? How are you going to get sleep?” because just like you were talking about before, a lot of moms have to go back 12 or so weeks after. Some of them two weeks after. We also have an issue with our paternity leave– Crystal: Paternity leave for the fathers or the partners. Meagan: Yeah. We have one week. Especially if you have multiple kids, we have one week a lot of the time and then they're gone and we're like, “What are we going to do?” Get your meal trains. Get your support. Rally up together. Have your birth team. Have your postpartum team. Have a plan. We know plans change no matter what– birth, postpartum, everyday life. I sometimes plan to go to Costco and then I don't go to Costco that day because something happened. Plans change, but if we can have a baseline of an idea, I will be like, “Okay.” I have a friend who gets mastitis with every baby. Crystal: Oh gosh. Meagan: With her third baby, she was like, “I'm going to do everything.” She had her IBCLC to go to the hospital on day one to get a good, established latch. She met with her as soon as she left the hospital. By day four, she was meeting with her again to make sure. You guys, she was on sunflower lecithin. I don't know how you feel about that, but that helped her personally to not be so sticky. She was like, “I have got to get this under control. I have two other kids. I cannot be sick with mastitis.” Then she would end up getting thrush after that so she took a probiotic. Crystal: Oh my gosh. Meagan: There are things we can do and it's really hard to focus on that in the pregnancy stage. Crystal: Yeah, yeah. Meagan: But there are things. We can get on those probiotics. We can contact those IBCLCs. We can have a plan in place so we are not just thrown into the fire. Especially in my case, where I did have a Cesarean and a repeat Cesarean, those were just things that were unexpected so prepare the best you can. I love that. I love your advice. This is so important and get that support. Crystal: Yeah, for sure. I just thought of something because I talked a lot about breastfeeding and feeding your baby, but you brought up a good point. As mothers, we for sure neglect ourselves all of the time so like you were talking about with eating, make sure you eat and hydrate. Moms are recovering too from birth so whether it's vaginal or a Cesarean, planned or an emergency Cesarean, your body is doing a lot postpartum. It's just crazy. Meagan: We're amazing. We are amazing human beings. We are incredible.Crystal: Yes. We are. We are. We so are, but then we have to remember to take care of ourselves as much as possible. That's where the support and village come in because you can't do it all yourself. I guess you could. I'm sure some women have, but you shouldn't have to do it by yourself. Meagan: No, and I think like you are saying, we shouldn't have to but for some reason, we do. Crystal: Yeah. I know. I know. Meagan: We don't ask for help. We struggle asking for support. We struggle spending money on ourselves. We struggle getting postpartum doulas or going to an IBCLC because it costs so much and insurance doesn't cover it. You guys, you are worth it. You are worth it. You are amazing. You grew a human. You birthed a human. You are now taking care of a human. You are feeding a human. There is so much to it. It's okay to get that support and give back to yourself. Crystal: Totally, totally. I 1000% agree. Meagan: Yes and sometimes, that is finding a coach and just getting some advice or talking to someone and just being heard. Maybe you don't physically need anything, you just need to be heard. Crystal: Yeah, yeah. Meagan: Yes. Okay, so now we've had our baby and everything. What can we look for in the first few weeks to know that maybe we need to ask for more help or get more resources or take care of ourselves? What are some things that we can look for in those first few weeks with nursing and postpartum just in general? Crystal: Yeah, yeah. So for moms, I have spoken to a lot of moms who weren't aware that there would still be bleeding afterward so there is that. Meagan: That is a thing. Crystal: Yes, that is a thing. You are still bleeding. That is normal, but obviously, from a nursing standpoint, if there is excessive blood or you are filling a pad every hour, then for sure, you want to reach out. A lot of women tend to swell postpartum. Some are like, “No, I didn't have any swelling during the pregnancy,” then all of a sudden postpartum, you just blow up. Your feet are swollen and things like that. That could be due to some IV fluids or other stuff going on, but for sure, you want to reach out to your provider with that. Contractions and cramping afterward are still a thing, especially with breastfeeding. Some women are just like, “Oh my gosh. I did not know about this.” Some women feel great after delivering. They are like, “Yeah. I don't need to take my meds. I'm feeling okay,” but once they start breastfeeding and they start feeling these contractions, it's like, “I'm in labor again.” That is normal. I know it's uncomfortable, but that is definitely normal. If you still feel that when you're not breastfeeding or it's not relieved with pain meds, then for sure, I would highly recommend reaching out to the provider. Meagan: That can also get worse with each baby, right? Crystal: Yes. Yes, it can get stronger. Meagan: It can last a little longer and be a little bit more intense, yeah. Crystal: I know which is like, “Why? We already went through this. Why do we have to make it worse?” Meagan: Our uteruses have to shrink down. Crystal: I know. It's a good thing. The cramping is a good thing. It's a normal thing. We want that. It controls bleeding. It gets the uterus back down to the normal size and all of that. Engorgement. Even if a mom is not breastfeeding, the body's natural, physiological response is to bring in milk. With the delivery of the placenta, your hormones drop and that triggers, “Oh, okay. Baby has been born. Let's make milk.” Meagan: We have to feed it. Crystal: Yes. So whether you breastfeed or not, if you don't breastfeed, you may not get as much engorgement, but there is still stuff going on there. If you are breastfeeding, you will almost 100% get engorged in the first few days anywhere from day three to five. Sometimes it is a little bit longer, but around there, your breasts will feel really full. Some women say their breast sizes double or triple. Meagan: Mhmm. Crystal: They can get really rock hard. That's pretty normal because your milk is coming in. Getting support with latching well so the baby can empty it or if you need to, maybe you have to pump a little bit, but like I said, of course. Reach out for lactation support because depending on the situation or what's going on, the lactation consultant can further guide you on how to manage that. But lumps, you may feel little lumps in the breast. That is pretty normal. Those are just basically milk ducts that are swollen or filling with milk because of the postpartum period with increased swelling and things like that. After engorgement, I'm thinking of the progression of things, a lot of parents see clogged ducts, but now we know that it's called ductile narrowing instead of clogged ducts. Meagan: Oh. Crystal: Yes. Before, we thought that the milk was getting clogged. Meagan: Getting sticky. Crystal: Yes, then we had to somehow remove this milk plug, but the new research by the Academy of Breastfeeding Medicine is saying that it's not that. It's inflammation and swelling of the milk duct itself that causes the narrowing of the channel or the passageway that milk goes through and that makes it back up. It backs up the milk. Management for that beforehand was warm compresses and massage, massage, massage, dangle feeding or something like that. Now, they are saying that we should be using cold compresses. Meagan: Oh, okay to reduce inflammation. Crystal: Exactly, to reduce inflammation. I always tell parents that if we have a swollen ankle and the breasts are swollen, we wouldn't put a hot or a warm compress on it. Meagan: No. Okay, I'm noting it. Crystal: You would do the ice or the cold compress to reduce the inflammation and when we reduce the inflammation in those milk ducts, now that passageway opens up, everything can calm down, and milk can flow a little bit easier. Meagan: Mind blown!! Crystal: I know. Meagan: That is amazing. That would have been nice to know a long time ago. Crystal: I know. When I see moms say, “Oh my gosh, I have this lump and my breasts don't feel empty even with breastfeeding or pumping. I've been doing hot showers and massaging it.” I'm like, “No. Try cold.” Almost always, it helps. Meagan: I am totally adding this to my doula toolbox. Crystal: Yes. Yes. Meagan: This is really good information. Crystal: It is. It's so amazing when parents come back and they are like, “Oh my gosh. It worked. I can't believe it.” Also, breast tissue is very delicate. It's soft tissue. Some moms are just aggressively massaging their breasts like, “Oh my god. I have to get this out.” You don't want to do that because you can further damage and cause trauma to the breast tissues. Meagan: More inflammation. Crystal: Yes, more inflammation, exactly. Light massage. If you need to, cold compresses for that. For moms, I'm going on and on right now. This episode is going to be forever. It's going to be hours long. That's kind of the basics of the immediate thing that we need to look for in mom physically. Emotionally and mentally, parents are sleep-deprived so we definitely want to make sure, like you said, have those meal trains. I even suggest adding this to the baby registry when you are pregnant like meal cards, Door Dash cards, a postpartum doula even. It's like, “Whoa. Instead of giving me all of this, this is what I'm going to need help with in the first couple of weeks.” I know for me, I guess I'm thinking of myself and my baby, but I'm also thinking of everything else in the house that I need to do like, “Oh my gosh, I need to do the laundry. Oh my gosh. The other kids need to get rides to school,” or what have you. If there is anything, you know how friends and family are always saying, “Let me know if I can do anything to help,” please ask for help because moms and parents need sleep definitely. That helps because, for one, sleep is just a human need. Two, for sanity, and three, because the more rest that we can get as mothers, as a breastfeeding and lactating parent, the better our milk supply will be too. Meagan: Yeah, 100%. Like we were talking about, we are not thinking of drinking and that helps our breast supply. That helps our healing physically and keeps us in our minds. On that topic, Be Her Village– I'm sure you've heard us talk about it. Check out Be Her Village. You guys can create a registry just like Crystal is describing where you can go and register for a doula or childbirth education or money for an IBCLC or pelvic floor health or mental health. All of these things, if this is your registry– Crystal: Pelvic floor health, oh my gosh, is another thing. We don't know about that. Most mothers are just– not that we don't care, we just don't know. There are just so many things going on down there that for sure you need some kind of pelvic floor rehabilitation afterwards even if you have a C-section. Meagan: 100%. It's aggravating. I'm not going to spiral off on this tangent. It's aggravating to me that so many insurance companies do not cover this as a standard part of postpartum. But they're not covering postpartum pelvic floor issues. They're not covering this. Crystal: Yeah. Meagan: I went and it was $250 per visit and as a new mom, especially if we invested in a doula and an IBCLC and a photographer or whatever. Crystal: All of those things, yeah. Meagan: It's like, “Oh, whatever,” and now we have a newborn that has to have diapers at $50/box. It's really hard. Crystal: Right and that's where we neglect ourselves again. Not that we want to, but I don't even know who to blame. Healthcare or insurance or whatever is preventing us from getting the proper care or support. I did the same thing. I just wanted to touch on that. I did the same thing. I was having issues holding my bladder and I asked for a referral from my doctor for pelvic floor health because doing our own research, we're like, “Okay. I think I need to see a pelvic floor therapist.” They did not. They were like, “Well, normally we don't do that.” I'm like, “Why?”I did the same thing. I tried to look into it myself to pay out of pocket and it was expensive and I just kind of gave up and was just like, “Okay. I'll just do my own research and find out some exercises on my own and just do it on my own,” which is sad. We shouldn't have to do that. Meagan: I agree. I agree. Crystal: But okay, so on to what to expect because there are still a couple of other things. There is so much, but I just want to touch on the emotional and the mood disorders because that is very, very important and huge. I always recommend that when moms take classes prenatally they have a partner or a birth partner or something that is along for the ride with them who comes to the classes and things like that. I really recommend that postpartum too. Any time of postpartum class, newborn class, or breastfeeding class, the partner or caregiver should definitely be involved as well as the birthing parent because as moms, we don't initially see that there is something more going on with us for postpartum anxiety, postpartum depression, and things like that. It's usually a close family member who notices things going on first. Definitely, I feel like the whole family should be involved in that and if parents are just struggling with coping and with new life as a parent breastfeeding and all of the things, then definitely reach out for support because that can definitely happen with all of the hormones going on and the stress. Meagan: Lack of support. Crystal: Lack of support. Meagan: Lack of sleep. Crystal: Lack of sleep, yes. That's definitely something big. Meagan: I want to talk just slightly about this. It's really hard as a new mom to and I hope this isn't triggering, pass your baby to someone so you can take care of yourself. We had a client years ago that was really struggling. She had a series of things and was really struggling. One of the things that we ended up coming up with was for her to go to her mom's for the night. We came up with a good plan and had help with dad and the kids for baby. She ended up pumping and coming up with a supply and for one night– she did wake up engorged– she slept all night. All night. She went to bed at 8:30. She pumped before and went to bed. She woke up. I think she said it was at 6:30 which is still early, but 8:30 to 6:30 is a good stretch. She was probably so engorged that she had to wake up, but you guys, she was a new person. She said that. She was like, “Whoa. It's like my funk was just sucked out of me just by getting that sleep.” That was really hard for her to do that. Crystal: Of course, I'm sure. Meagan: It was really hard for her to be like, “I'm giving up my baby who is four days old overnight.” It's not ideal. It wasn't ideal, but she spiraled quickly and she got to a place where that's ultimately what she thought was going to be best. Anyway, it was amazing. She still had trials to get through because the next night, she had lack of sleep but she was able to build up that foundation a little bit more by getting a good night's rest. Crystal: Of course. Exactly. Meagan: Her mom seriously had all of these broths and all of this high-protein food and all of these amazing things to fill her being with all of the good things. Crystal: Yeah, because as mom, we are filling everybody else's cup usually, but we aren't filling up our cup. Meagan: Yeah. You don't have to leave your baby with anyone overnight, but going back to that, have someone fill your cup. Have someone fill your cup. Food, all of those things. Crystal: Everything. I've heard of some parents when they finally get three or four hours of sleep straight, they're like, “Oh my gosh. That was amazing.” Same thing. “I feel like a new person.” Just because sleep is a human need, so we need that and if we're just constantly days upon days upon days of getting only 1-2 hours at a time of sleep, that's definitely not sustainable and not enough. Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. She started resenting her baby. Crystal: Yeah. Yeah. I've heard of that too. Meagan: She started having anxiety at nighttime. Crystal: Yeah. Yeah. I could definitely see how that can come about for sure especially if you're breastfeeding, especially with that. We all know that of course, breast is best. Breastmilk is best, but we also have to think of the whole picture. I always tell this to all of my clients and patients that I work with. Mental and sleep health is very important. Very. I know breastmilk is too, but you do the best that you can. Meagan: It's like when we're on the airplane and they talk about if we're in an emergency and the masks fall down, prepare your mask on you first before you help someone else. Crystal: Yes. Meagan: It's a similar concept to me where if we cannot fuel ourselves with the oxygen and the sleep and these things, we cannot 100% take care of this baby. Crystal: Right, yeah. Meagan: We can't make milk. Crystal: Right. Meagan: Because our body is going to protect us and sometimes we will see a milk dip with stresses and things like that. I have clients who are nursing really, really well and then a stressful event happens in their life and they're like, “I'm losing my milk. I'm losing my milk. Is my baby not eating enough?” It's crazy how just mentally our body can do that. It can stop making as much milk. Have you seen that?Crystal: Yeah. I have. I have actually. A stressful event or if mom starts a new medication, especially birth control. They don't know. They just don't know. When I talk to my doula consultation, I say, “Any new medications?” They say, “Well, I just started taking birth control but my doctor said it should be fine and won't affect my milk supply.” I'm like, anything new can. It can. Meagan: Hormones. Crystal: It's not to say that we can't get the milk supply back up, but at least being aware of it. Okay, this is why. It's not because of something else or whatever. So yeah. I've seen that. Meagan: Yeah. Crystal: Periods, too. Moms starting their period again, it can–Meagan: Throw it off. Crystal: Every month during your cycle, yeah. It throws it off. Lots of different things that could happen and will happen, so just something to have in the back of your mind like, “Okay. This is what I remember Crystal, The Mama Coach, saying or whoever saying that this can happen, but there are ways to work around it.” Meagan: This next question is a did-you-know. I feel like this is something actually that a lot of people do not know and that is that babies lose weight in the first few days. They can lose even more than the recommended loss if there was an induction, or a lot of fluids, or a surgery. Can we talk about that? Crystal: Yes. Yes. Correct. Meagan: Can we talk about what is normal? Because I feel like again, mentally, there is so much stress on feeding the baby, getting enough, cluster feeding, and all of these things, then we have this baby that weighed in at 7lb, 12 oz and is now weighing in at 6lb, 15oz, and we are like, “Whoa. This is a big loss.” We've got providers freaking out about it, suggesting supplements, and things like that. What's normal? What is the average loss just without induction and things like that? Can we talk a little bit about that so we can offer some comfort to these mamas who might have a baby that's losing weight? Crystal: Yeah, yeah. So babies can lose up to 10% of their birth weight within the first three to four days or so. Normal weight loss is about 2-3% per day. So with that being said, when babies are in the womb, they are swallowing amniotic fluid. They are swallowing, swallowing, swallowing, so technically, they are born full and their first stool is that sticky, black, tarry meconium that is just getting rid of all of that amniotic fluid that they were swallowing while they were in the womb. So that's some weight loss because they are probably pooping five or six times within the first one or two days and it's super sticky. Then, like you said, if mom was inducted or induced or got a lot of IV fluids, antibiotics, and a Cesarean, then they got extra fluids. Anything that mom gets during labor, baby gets some of it too. Really, some providers are saying that a newborn's true weight can be seen 24 hours after birth versus one or two hours right after birth. That weight loss takes into account that. Fluids, getting rid of the meconium, and things like that, and then anything more than 10%, then we get kind of concerned. Like you said, some providers are like, “Oh my gosh. Let's do all of this.” Me, as the lactation consultant, I am less freaked out because I know that especially if a mom is breastfeeding, babies'– we're getting to probably one of our next questions– bellies are really small, so in the first couple of days, they are only taking 2-10 milliliters per feeding which is less than half of a teaspoon up to two teaspoons per feeding. That is the colostrum that they are receiving from mom, that yellow, thick, first milk that is expressed from mom's breast and although it's smaller in volume, it's really packed with a lot of nutrients and antibodies and things like that. It is nutritionally–Meagan: I say dense. Crystal: Dense, yeah. Nutritionally dense. So baby is getting what they need, it's just a smaller volume because it makes up for the fact that it takes a couple of days for mom's milk to increase and increase in volume and things like that. Babies are losing all of this excess fluids, pooping out all of this meconium, and then they're just getting smaller, frequent amounts of colostrum. All of that are factors in weight loss. And then when mom's milk starts to increase around day three to seven, they start taking in more volume and then we start to see some weight gain there. Now of course, as a lactation consultant, we look at the whole picture. What happened with the mom's labor and delivery experience? Is this baby number one or two or multiple for them? Do they have any medical background that might be a factor in milk increasing or milk coming in? All things like that and when I look at that, I'm like, “Okay. Maybe we need to supplement just a little bit if we need to.”And then I will tell moms, “Let's maybe have you pump or hand express. Any extra colostrum or transitional milk that you can express, give that to baby first and we will see how that goes,” especially if they are not wanting to start formula. Every baby and family is different so I look at the whole picture, look at their goals, and see how best I can help them. But obviously, if a baby loses a significant amount of weight like 13-15%, then we are like, “Yes. We probably need to supplement.” So like I said in the beginning, formula is used when we need it if we need it, not just automatically, “Oh my gosh. Baby is at 9 or 10% weight loss. We need to give formula.” I definitely disagree with that. And it's all the parent's choice as well. I give them the options and they decide what they want to do and then I support them in whatever they decide. Meagan: Right. So as we are kind of working on getting our milk to come in and recovering and things like that, we talked about sleep, mental health, food, water, and things like that. That's all going to help our breastmilk. But are there other things that we could be doing or should be doing to help our milk to come in quicker or once it comes in, to help it be more– savory comes to my mind, but really rich for the baby? You just talked about how some babies do lose up to 13% and then I guess a side question is, do we know why some babies lose a little bit more? Is there a reason or is there something that we as parents could do or should we just be like, supply and demand? Nurse your baby. Your milk will come in. Your milk is great. Just because your baby is not gaining as much weight doesn't mean you should shame yourself or your milk is not good enough, because there is a lot of that too. Is there anything you would give us tip-wise to help milk come in? There are a lot of questions within this one question so I'm just going to turn the time over. Crystal: Okay. So yes. The best thing we can do is early hand expression. Typically, after birth, during the first 24 hours, babies are super sleepy. Super sleepy that it's hard to get them to latch or want to nurse frequently. Thinking about how breastmilk supply works, the more you demand on the breast or remove milk, the more milk you will make. So if the baby is sleeping the first 24 hours, the baby is not expressing as much milk and that is where hand expression is important. Frequently, newborns tend to eat at least 8-12 times in a 24-hour period, so if we break it down by hours, it is just so much easier. Every 2-3 hours or so, attempt to put baby to the breast. Do what you can. If the baby is too sleepy or not latching well, then hand express. Hand expression and get out that colostrum. You can spoon-feed that to baby or cup-feed or syringe-feed that to baby, and then you're still stimulating your supply. Sometimes, I hear parents say, “Oh my gosh, the first day or two, my baby was just so good and slept for four hours.” I'm like, “Did you hand express or pump at that time?” We just don't know. They were like, “No, I didn't. I slept too.” I'm like, “I'm glad you got sleep,” but to help your milk supply increase for baby, it is very, very important to express milk every few hours whether it's hand-expressed, latching, or pumping. I'm trying to think what was the other question you had. Oh, how we can make it more savory. I always recommend doing breast massage prior to any breastfeeding or pumping or expressing session. That's just because especially in the first couple of days, colostrum is very thick, so by massaging– and light massage. Not too hard, not too aggressively. You're basically unsticking or loosening up that milk so that way it can be expressed and you can collect that good, sticky, fatty, colostrum or milk. That's for even at any time. You might have heard of a foremilk and a hindmilk type of thing. That's basically when you express, you see a little fat layer in the bottle or in the milk and to increase that, some researchers say that you can't do anything to increase that, but we can help it to come out a little bit more. That's by hand-expressing or doing what we call a breastmilk shake. I've done this myself with my last baby is just doing the breast massage before breastfeeding or nursing. I have seen a thicker fat layer on the milk, so you can do that. Meagan: That's really good to know. With my son, he was kind of small to begin with, but when I would pump, I was like, “Oh my gosh. There is this much fat in this milk.” All of it separated and I had someone kind of suggest that, but it was a warm compress, not a cold compress. It was a warm compress, slight massage, and then nurse or even hand-express for just a second, and then nurse. Crystal: Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You can do that too. You can breastfeed or even hand-express a little bit too just to help that milk supply especially if baby didn't have a good feeding or wasn't quite latched very well just to ensure we stimulate the breast properly to give that signal of, “Okay, make the milk. Bring the milk in,” and things like that. I just wanted to say as a side note, all breastmilk is beneficial for baby whether you have a thin fat layer or not. Meagan: Good to know. Crystal: Your body still tailors and makes the breastmilk to your baby's needs. Meagan: Awesome. So hand-expressing during pregnancy, we were talking about postpartum, but is it suggested to do a little bit during pregnancy? Crystal: You can, but you have to be considered at least term which is about 37-38 weeks or so, and of course, check with the OB provider because it depends on what risk factors you have. Meagan: Yeah, because it can stimulate. Crystal: It can stimulate because it does with the hand expression, the same hormone is released when you are having a contraction which is oxytocin so it can cause some cramping or contractions so you definitely want to get cleared by the OB first before just starting the hand expression, but yes. Once you get cleared, you can start antenatal hand expression and start collecting. It may be nothing or you might get drops. I've actually tried it on myself before and I didn't get anything. I was kind of discouraged, but I was like, “No, knowing what I know, it's fine,” but it's good practice, too for hand expression postpartum. So practice, collect drops, and then you can freeze it and then bring it to the hospital if for some reason baby needs to be supplemented if they have low blood sugar or jaundice or whatever, so yeah. Meagan: So good to know. Okay, and then last but not least, we have different types of feeding. Bottles, paced bottle feeding, we talked a lot about breastfeeding. Can we talk about all of the different types of feeding?Crystal: Yeah, yeah. So of course, you can do exclusive breastfeeding and that's just feeding baby at the breast, or you can do breastfeeding and pumping so feeding breastmilk in some type of vessel whether it's a bottle or syringe. I typically see bottle and syringe usually especially when the milk volume increases or you could do combo feeding which is breastfeeding, pumping, and formula feeding so you can do a combination of all three. Some moms do exclusively pumping. They don't put baby to the breast at all for whatever reason. It could be their own preference or they were just struggling with latch and it just was not working out for them, or sometimes it takes a long time to breastfeed, 30-45 minutes, so some moms feel like that works better for them to just pump for 15-20 minutes and bottlefeed. Or some, whether it's their own personal preference or medical reasons, exclusively formula feed. With that, when you do any type of feeding other than breastfeeding and you bottlefeed, you want to pace bottlefeed. We do that for several reasons. For one, sometimes, newborns don't really know how to pace themselves and they will just take that whole bottle. Meagan: Chow it down. Crystal: Chow it down in one minute flat and we don't want that because I always tell parents to think about how we eat. We don't just shove food in our mouths. Meagan: Chew your food. Crystal: Yes, chew your food and things like that. One, it can help baby learn how to slow down their feeding and then learn their own hunger cues like signs of fullness which in turn can help in the longer term as they get older knowing their hunger cues and knowing when they're full and not overeat. Then three, it can help with digestive issues. Gulping too much too fast or drinking too fast, they can take in more air which means they will be more gassy and more fussy and then we are like, “What's going on? Why is my baby so fussy?” It's because they are gassy most of the time. A lot of the time, babies are just not very comfortable when they have gas and they definitely express it and communicate that they are uncomfortable, so we want to prevent that. By pace bottle-feeding, we help to remedy that. Meagan: That makes total sense. Sometimes, I feel like when they are gasping all of that air, then they spit up a lot. This is not really one of the questions we talked about, but when a baby spits up, a lot of the time we see it, and it looks like a lot and we are like, “I can't believe I just fed my baby and it's right here on this blanket or all over myself.” Is there a rule of thumb to be like, “Okay, really, that is true. Every little ounce of that just came out?” Or is it like, “Okay, your baby still got quite a bit.” Crystal: That's kind of hard to say because like you said, it does visually look more than it is which is why pace bottle-feeding is important because we want to take frequent breaks, little, quick breaks of a couple of minutes or so to burp, let that move down their belly, and get that excess air out, and then continue feeding. I always recommend that if your baby spits up and it looks like a lot, see how they're doing and go by their cues. If it seems like they are looking for food again, try and give a little but maybe a smaller amount just to see how it goes. Meagan: Mhmm. That's a good rule of thumb. Crystal: Keeping babies upright after feeding, if you can,  will help to lessen the chance of spit-up, but then again, sometimes babies spit up out of nowhere an hour after feeding. Parents are like, “I don't know what's going on. He spit up.” If that happens and you are burping your baby and keeping them upright after feedings, I would definitely talk to a provider because sometimes it can be the formula if they are drinking formula or something to that effect. Meagan: Mhmm. Yeah. Awesome. We've gone over so much. Crystal: I know. Meagan: I want to just end on The Mama Coach. How can people find you? What do you guys offer? How does The Mama Coach? I mean, I know how. It's in amazing ways and who is a good, qualifier to go and find a Mama Coach?Crystal: Yeah, like I mentioned earlier, The Mama Coach is a group of registered nurses all over the world. I am the owner here in Vacaville, California which is in Northern California. Our goal is just to help make parenting easier. Like I mentioned, we do have prenatal services. We have postpartum services and newborn services, helping with any type of feeding even if you are not breastfeeding. Meagan: Sleep?Crystal: Sleep, yes. We have sleep. We help with newborn sleep, toddler sleep, potty training, CPR and choking classes, starting solids as well as one-on-one services here. For me, locally, I do home visits and home lactation visits. I can do any of the workshops one-on-one in home or virtually. My niche is breastfeeding– prenatal breastfeeding education and consultations as well as postpartum of course, newborn care, and sleep because those are all important things. Meagan: Very, very important things. Crystal: Very important. Meagan: You guys make it really, so easy. You just go to themamacoach.com. There is a “Find a Mama Coach”. You can search what you are looking for or you can type in your zip code and you can pull up all of the Mama Coaches near you and go over all of their services. I don't think there is a single one that only does one thing. Crystal: No, we all pretty much do a lot. Yes, correct. Yep. For sure. If you are a new or expecting parent or even a parent of a three-year-old– any parent that is struggling and your baby is five years old or under, we can help you. I am on Instagram. My Instagram is crystal.night.themamacoach. We also have a website like you were saying. The main website is themamacoach.com. We each have our own individual sites as well and I'm sure we'll post that information somewhere, but yeah. Reach out to any one of us and myself if you are in Northern California in the Vacaville area. We, like I said, almost all do virtual and then also locally in person too. I do ongoing workshops and that's always posted on my website in the classes or on my Instagram. Meagan: So amazing. You guys are doing so much. You even have a blog where you can look specifically at pregnancy, newborn, sleep schedules, and parenting in general. I mean, these guys have amazing things so make sure to go follow. We'll make sure to tag you today on our Instagram and our Facebook so you can go and find it. We're going to have the website in the show notes. We'll have all of the things we have talked about and seriously, thank you so much for helping our community because like I said, we don't talk about postpartum as much. We don't focus on it as much. We don't focus on feeding and all of the things, so thank you so much for kicking off the 2024 season with a new type of topic. Crystal: Yes. Yes. Awesome. I was so happy to be on here. Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Meagan finishes out this year of podcasting by answering some of your most common questions! Topics range from the time between births, gentle induction methods, gestational diabetes, “just-in-case” epidurals, home birth, tips for having a successful VBAC, and how to cope if you don't get your VBAC. “Women of Strength, I just want to thank you so much for all of your continued support. We love your support and we are so grateful that you are here.I love you. I feel so passionate about helping you as an individual find the best path for you.I want to help you walk through this journey and feel loved, supported, and educated.” Additional LinksReal Food for Gestational Diabetes by Lily NicholsHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsFull Transcript under Episode Details Meagan: Hello, hello. Welcome to The VBAC Link. If you have been with us all year, I just want to say thank you and if you are new to joining The VBAC Link, I'd like to say welcome. Welcome to the show. This is the last episode of 2023 and it's kind of hard to believe honestly. I went through all of our episodes and we have seriously so many incredible episodes. I am so honored for those who have come and shared their expertise and given us their time. I am so excited today to share this last episode of the year with the most common 2023 questions. We have some pretty common questions, but we have so many others as well. So of course, we have a Review of the Week. I want to dive into that really quickly before I get into those questions. Review of the WeekThis is from cristab. It says, “I am a birth and postpartum doula who is always on the search for a birthy podcast to listen to in my car. I was so excited when I found The VBAC Link so I could listen to these amazing stories from women all over the world who have reached their goals through becoming educated thanks to Meagan and Julie. I've recently certified with The VBAC Link and as well, I'm so impressed with the thorough delivery in which their knowledge was shared in their training. I'm super excited to move into this next chapter of my career and I'm thrilled to do so with the amazing community and support.” Thank you so much and thank you for joining our family. Doulas, birth workers, birth photographers, if you love birth and you are wanting to learn more about VBAC and how you can support people out there who are wanting to VBAC, who are wanting to avoid Cesareans, and who are just needing support from the community, we have our VBAC Birth Worker, VBAC Doula birth course where we are going to teach you all of the things about VBAC as well as help you know what us as VBAC moms are up against. And parents, if you want to dive in and get more educated for your future birth, I highly suggest checking out our course. You can check it out at thevbaclink.com.2023 VBAC QuestionsMeagan: Okay, you guys. We have so many questions that we get all of the time. If you haven't also joined us on Instagram, we do Q&A's almost weekly. We love answering your questions even if it's a question that we've had before. We're going to get to it and we're going to answer it. Here are some of the most common questions that we get. Number one on the list is how long after my C-section do I have to wait until I get pregnant? This honestly is a question that I think is personal. Now, there are suggestions out there by providers who are saying anywhere between 18-24 months is what we commonly hear, but we even have some providers who are like, “Yeah, cool. In 15 months, you can go on and have your baby.” There can be an increased risk of uterine rupture with a really small gap or duration. So if you have had a C-section and then three months later, you get pregnant, you may have a provider who is a little bit more skeptical or even six months later, you may have a provider who is a little more skeptical and talking about the risk of uterine rupture, but that still doesn't mean that it's not possible or impossible or that you are for sure going to rupture. I think a common rule of thumb is that 18-24 months, but again, it comes down to a very personal decision. If you want closer babies or it happens or whatever, I think that's more of a personal choice, and then just finding the support out there to support you in your desires. I did a one-on-one consult with a mom back here in the fall and she had a six-month duration. She went from provider to provider to provider and they all said, “No. Absolutely not.” We got her in contact with another provider and they said, “Yeah. No problem. There is no reason.” I was so excited to get a text message from her after saying that she did it. She had her vaginal birth and she was so happy. That was a duration of six months. Okay, another question that is really common is, “Trying to go for a VBAC and really want to go into spontaneous labor, but her provider is saying they can't go past 41 weeks.” They cannot go past 41 weeks. Now, I'm just going to say that I don't like the answer to that. The follow-up question to that question was, “Should I switch my provider?” You know, we're not here to tell you that for sure you need to switch a provider or anything like that, but if you have a provider that is putting stipulations on you like you cannot have a baby past this day and if you get to that day, you have to have a C-section, you may want to look into some other providers because that's just not evidence-based.Going past 41 weeks in general is something that has become more and more controversial, especially after the ARRIVE trial. We have episodes on the ARRIVE trial. We have blogs on the ARRIVE trial, so make sure to check those out as well. It's kind of weird. They did an induction at 39 weeks for first-time moms to see if it would reduce complications like hypertension, preeclampsia, and even Cesareans. It's kind of been since 2019, I feel like, more of a hot topic, but it's actually pretty common for babies to go overdue. I am putting big quotes on this. “Overdue”, past 40 weeks. Know that if you have made it to 40 or 41 weeks, it's very common and you're okay. There are common things that a provider may do at 41 weeks. They may suggest a non-stress test just checking in on baby and making sure everything is going well, but it's still okay. In fact, ACOG suggests, I think it's 42 weeks, really. So, you know. At 41 weeks, you could still be pregnant or a week or you could have a baby in three days or even three hours. They have not really found any increased risk of uterine rupture or other complications necessarily like that after 40 weeks, however, there are things that can come into play where VBAC after 40 weeks may be lower or require interventions because there may be things like hypertension and things like that that come into play. But even if your provider is saying that you can't go past 41 weeks and you have to schedule C-section, that right there is a red flag and something that would be concerning to me because induction is, which is also another question– can I be induced and have a VBAC or can a VBAC be induced? VBAC can be induced. It's very reasonable. There are ways to do it. Some tips that I would suggest are doing as low and slow as possible. Now, we got a message back on one of the days that we did a Q&A from a mom saying that she did not believe that it was possible to do low and slow. I do disagree. I think that it is possible to do low and slow inductions. I've seen it. It happens all the time. You do have to sometimes fight for it and be educated so you can have that conversation and understand what that means. So let's talk about low and slow meaning that if we are starting Pitocin, we are not upping it to 4 mL every 30 minutes. A lot of providers out there will suggest that. 4 milliliters every 30 minutes. Boom, boom, boom, boom. It's a little overwhelming, first of all. Sometimes it takes our body a little bit longer to respond fully. Now, Pitocin, once it starts going in, it's in the body, but it may not fully be responding so if we up it every 30 minutes and then we take 45 minutes to respond, then it may be too much, right? And 4 milliliters versus 2. So maybe you say, “Okay, let's cut that in half. Instead of 4, we do 2 or even 1.” Sometimes there is a lot of pushback on that 1 because they are like, “Oh, it's pointless. It will take forever,” but it's still okay. It's still okay so decide what milliliter is best for you and go for that. Fight for that. Low and slow there. Then another thing is avoiding breaking water or too many interventions all at once meaning we are going to place a Foley, start Pitocin, and break your water all at the same time. That is unnecessary. We really, really, really do not need to do that. That is just going to overwhelm everybody a lot of the time including the baby. But breaking waters. Breaking water in that earlier stage. Maybe we have– in fact, we are sharing a story. It's coming up in 2024. I just recorded it not long ago where the mom was 2 centimeters and they broke her water. She wasn't really contracting. They broke her water, started Pit, all of the things, and not a lot of progression. If we break our water early on, it's not a guarantee that our body is going to go into labor, but a lot of the time, there is a selling factor of this breaking the water where it's, “Oh, it's the natural way.” Okay, all right. Breaking our water is natural. However, artificially breaking our water does not mean that that's natural. That means that we are intervening and doing something that our body did not do at that point. So if we do that and we do that early on and our baby is high or our baby is in a weird position and then we have these floodgates open and the baby comes down, and the baby is in a wonky position, now we've got a poor fetal position, not a lot of progression because that often happens, a harder labor, a longer labor, maybe we're introducing more interventions, so it kind of becomes a cascade. Maybe when I say slow, take it slow. Let's not intervene with every single thing that there is possible in the labor and delivery unit. Maybe we just do a Foley or maybe we do Foley with a low dose Pit of 2 and we don't up it from there. That's it. That's where we start. We wait for the Foley to come out and then we assess after that. Low and slow inductions and yes. You can be induced and no, you do not have to be induced at 41 or 40 weeks. So okay, one of the other questions– well, there are a ton, but one of the other questions I'm going to go to is about hypertension. “Can I still VBAC with hypertension?” So, yes. Absolutely, you can VBAC with hypertension. Sometimes, providers will come back and say that it can increase our blood pressure and things like that. It's kind of weird. I don't know if there actually is a study that shows this, but a lot of doula clients who have hypertension go to be induced, once they start labor, their blood pressure seems to kind of chill out. It's kind of interesting. I do not know why, but yes, you can still have a VBAC if you have hypertension. So another question is, “If you get induced, does your risk of uterine rupture truly skyrocket to an insane amount?” We've heard people give us such crazy numbers like, “I have an 80% chance of rupturing.” I don't know where providers are getting that, but no. Or, “I have a 60% chance or I have a 25% chance.” Now, if someone is telling you that you have these chances, I would like to challenge you to challenge them. Now, I never want to say to be combative and blah, blah, blah. That's not what I'm saying, but I'm saying don't be scared to ask, “Where do you get that information? Is there a link? Can you provide me with printed information on this topic or on this stat? I would like to see that. I would like to go over this so I can make the best, educated decision for myself.” If they are like, “Oh, well I don't know. I don't know if I can find that,” well, yeah. It's because there's not one. If there is one and you do receive that, will you please email me at info@thevbaclink.com? I would love to see that. I've never seen a study that says that someone has an 80% chance of rupture because they have had a previous Cesarean. So statistically, uterine rupture really happens in about 0.4 to approximately 1%, maybe 1.2% depending on some providers and some studies. But overall, that's pretty dang low. That's really, really, really low. So if someone is telling you that you have a 60, 25, or 80% chance, that's just not true.Then another common question is about ways to avoid uterine rupture. Now, we don't always know why uterine rupture happens. It's hard to say exactly what caused that uterine rupture. I don't know if you knew this and it's very, very small, but uterine rupture can even happen in people who have not had a previous Cesarean. So that's a thing too, but things that we can do are try to avoid those inductions that are absolutely unnecessary and if you do get induced, talk about those best methods like what we were talking about. We have a blog about that as well and we talk about that in our course. Really learn about those methods and avoid aggressive augmentation. Avoid Cytotec completely. That's a big no. You know, and do everything you can to make sure that your baby is in a better position so maybe Spinning Babies, the Miles Circuit, hands and knees, do pelvic floor therapy so we can help our pelvic floor be in a position where we can push a baby out that way and things like that. Educate yourself. Listen to these stories. Attend our Q&A's. All of these things can educate you so you can help reduce these things that may increase chances of uterine rupture like Cytotec or aggressive inductions. Okay, another common question is, “If I have gestational diabetes, can I have a VBAC?” Yes, yes, yes, and yes. Yes, if you have gestational diabetes, you can still go and have a VBAC. Sometimes, a provider may suggest an induction at 39 and I've even been hearing 38 weeks with gestational diabetes especially if it's not managed well. One tip that I would highly suggest is really understanding gestational diabetes. Knowing that food and exercise and things like that can impact gestational diabetes and learning how to manage those if you can. Talking with your provider, understanding what they're going to be looking for, what they're going to be doing because that's also going to help you stay more relaxed when you understand the process from them instead of just being caught off guard. I highly suggest checking out the book Real Food for Gestational Diabetes by Lily Nichols. We'll make sure to put the link in the show notes as well, but that's a really, really, really wonderful book to check out and it's going to help you understand a little bit more about how to manage those sugars and just more about gestational diabetes. But also know that you do not have to be induced if you have gestational diabetes. You just don't, but it's going to be really common to have that be offered. Okay, so a couple of other questions that we get are, “I had failure to progress. Big air quotes, ‘failure to progress' and my doctor is telling me that because my body didn't do it the first time, it won't ever do it again.” I'm sorry, but your provider is a big, fat liar. Such a big, fat liar. Just because you didn't progress with one labor doesn't mean you won't with another one. Honestly, it's more likely that you didn't progress because of an environment, because of a rushed labor, because of a rupture of membranes artificially and baby was coming down so we got a wonky position, lack of ability to move during labor, and things like that. Progressing and trying to push labor on and it's not progressing because labor wasn't ready to begin– these are things that truly are going to be more of the reason for a failure to progress other than the reason that your body doesn't know how to get to 10 centimeters. Truly, it does. Know that if your provider is putting doubt in your mind, that you can't have a baby because your body didn't do it before, you may not be with the right provider or you may have to fight hard. And again, it all comes down to, I think, finding that education and support. Another common question is, “Can I VBAC with twins? Is it safe?” Yes, you can VBAC with twins. Yes, it is safe. Sometimes, providers will have some stipulations as far as Baby A needs to be head down and Baby B is okay to be breech, or sometimes it's like they both have to be head down. They might have some restrictions on that and a lot of the time, they will have you actually give birth in the OR. They'll have you push and give birth in the OR, but yes. Research shows that a vaginal birth for twins is generally safer than a Cesarean, truly, even though some providers still discourage it. A podcast to check out is Dr. Stu and Midwife Blyss. They have an amazing, I think it's Birthing Instincts, podcast and they talk about twins and delivery and things like that as well. Okay, so a common question is, “How can I prep? How can I prep for a VBAC?” I'm going to give you a couple of tips right here. I already have said it a couple of times, but your provider. Your provider is really, really, really, really important. You need to find a good provider, a provider that's going to support you, a provider that wants this birth for you just as much, right? A provider that is not going to disregard you and pull out bait-and-switches in the end with non-evidence-based information to scare you and then make you feel like no one's going to want to take you because you are already so late in pregnancy. Ask these questions before you settle in with a provider. Ask questions like, “How do you feel about VBAC?” not, “Do you support VBAC?” How do you feel about VBAC? Open-ended questions allow a provider to give you a lot of information without you even saying a word. If they stumble and say, “Oh, yeah, yeah, you know. I feel good. It's fine. It's fine. It's fine.” Okay, know. If it's like, “I actually feel like it's a better option and this is something I would suggest and this is why. There are going to be pros and cons to it on both sides. There are going to be cons to having a VBAC for these. Here are the risks. There are going to be cons of having a C-section. Here are the risks.” Yes, there are risks to having a C-section. Also, if your provider ever tells you that there are no risks to having a C-section, that's bullshit. I'm sorry. I'm saying. It's the end of 2023. That is B.S. That is not true. So, talking to your provider with open-ended questions. How do you feel about VBAC? Another question, “How do you support your VBAC moms? What does that care look like?” If they're like, “Yeah, totally. It's just going to be like normal. We might check you if you go over 41 weeks. We might want to do an NST or we might want to do this,” or something like that and it's lining up with evidence-based. Okay, that's to be expected. If it's like, “Yeah, no totally. We love VBAC, but you have to have the baby by 41 weeks. It has to be spontaneous. You can't induce. You have to get a just-in-case epidural.” Those are all, again, the B.S. answers that are going to tell you that you're probably not in the right place. Have open-ended questions for these providers. Number two– get the education. Educate yourself so that if you do have a provider coming in and telling you things that you are unsure of, you will have that resource to go back to and be like, “Oh, I actually do remember that and that's not true,” or, “Yep, that's right in line with evidence-based care.” It can also help you have a better discussion with your provider because you want that. They come in and they ask you. They say, “Do you have any questions?” They don't really have a lot of time, honestly. These poor providers are overworked. They don't have a lot of time, but too, it will help your time be better when you do go to those prenatals. I remember going and they were ten minutes long and it took a lot of energy to get there. I'm just like, “Why? What is the point of these visits?” Make a point to these visits. Ask these questions. Learn the education so you can have those educated discussions and get a better feel for your provider. They can get a better feel for you. They can learn that they can trust you also because you are educated. They are not going to second-guess you if you are saying no to something that they are offering to you in labor because they know that you are educated. Take a class. Listen to these podcasts. Read the blogs. Get into the Facebook communities. Learn about what people are saying. Read the links that are being shared. Education is important. Another way to prep truly is finding the support even outside of your provider. I feel like if you can have the support and the sounding board, it helps so much. With my VBAC after two C-section baby, I had it, but in places– I loved it in the places that I had it, but it lacked in the places that I wanted it, from my family and friends. That was really hard. I think that's also another tip for where education comes in because you can help educate your family and friends along the way when they are like, “No. You can't VBAC. No way.” Truly, finding that support is important, and also, prepping in a way that if you don't have that support, let those people know that you love them with all of your heart, but unfortunately, you are not going to be sharing your desires and things. Nutritionally and physically, be healthy. Eat good food. Get good supplements like Needed. Drink your water. Stay hydrated. Make sure you are trying to get at least 30 minutes of walking a day and staying active. Of course, if you have certain situations, you want to always make sure with your provider that it's all in line with your birthing plan and your personal situation, but taking care of yourself is truly important. As we have learned with Needed and things like that, we know we are not getting the nutrients. We know we're not getting the hydration that we truly need every single day. If we can try and get that, it can help our pregnancy be better. It can help your birth be better. It can help in all areas and also mentally. I think if we are fueling our bodies with the right things, then we are truly going to be in a better spot. Okay, so another question that I have seen here and there and even more in the CBAC community is, “How do you deal or how do you cope with not getting a VBAC?” Now, this can be hard and this can be sensitive. Sometimes we have things in our head or we are told certain things and then it's in our op report and we were led to believe something that actually didn't happen or we were led to believe something that actually wasn't documented. I think that's a really good way to process. Really undersatnding that it's okay to be mad or sad. It's okay to feel those feelings, welcoming them in, and then working through the process step by step. I definitely think that knowing that sometimes we don't know the answer and accepting that, we talked about that this year with our radical acceptance episodes. Sometimes not knowing the answer can hang us up and really, really impact us and bring us down, but knowing that sometimes we may not know the answer. We may not know the why. We may not know what happened and trying to accept that and let that go is really, really difficult. But trying to practice that radical acceptance is really powerful. Yeah. There are so many questions along the way that we have been asked, but these are kind of some of the most common. Another one, I think probably the last one that I will share today is about an epidural. “Do I have to have an epidural if I have a VBAC?” No, you don't. No, no, no you don't. You do not have to have a “just-in-case” epidural if you are wanting to go for a VBAC. You just don't. It takes time to dose an epidural, so I think if you look at it and you think about it you're like, “It kind of makes sense. Okay. They place the epidural. It's already placed. That can take some time.” But then they have to dose it and then wait, what? Maybe it doesn't make sense, right? Okay, so I'm just going to walk you through it. It sounds like it makes sense until you walk through it. So then they have to dose the epidural which then takes anywhere between 20-30 minutes to really work and get to a point where they can perform a C-section. So a “just-in-case” epidural, although yes, it takes the time of placing it, it doesn't take the time of dosing. The “just–in-case” epidural is typically placed just in case there is an emergency. If there is a true emergency, they're not going to have the time to dose the epidural and get it to a point that it is ready for you. They're going to probably do general anesthesia at that point. The “just-in-case” epidural, I think, is just bull. I don't like it. I don't like when a provider puts a restriction on someone like that. Like, “You want to go unmedicated? Well, okay. Sorry, you can't. You can VBAC, but you can't go unmedicated or you have to have a ‘just-in-case' epidural.” Do you have to have an epidural?Another common question is, “Can I have a VBAC if I have an epidural?” Yes. Absolutely. Going unmedicated is not for everyone or if you want to go unmedicated and then you have a really long labor or something is happening and you decided to change your mind, that is okay. Women of Strength, plans change in labor. It changes all of the time. I see it time and time again through clients and through things. It doesn't always mean the plan is to change from an epidural to no epidural. Maybe it's from this to that. Maybe it's, “I didn't want IV fluids and now I need IV fluids because I can't keep anything down.” It changes. Plans change, but yes, you can have an epidural with a VBAC and still have a VBAC.Know that if you are wanting to VBAC, but you are not wanting to go unmedicated, you can still do that. If you are wanting to VBAC and you want to go unmedicated and your provider is telling you that you have to have an epidural or you have to have a “just-in-case” epidural, that is also false. Find what works best for you and it all circles back to education and finding the support in the provider and in the system. Okay, I lied. One more. Home birth. “Is home birth safe?” Yes. You can have a home birth. We have HBACs, home births after Cesareans, all of the time. We have them on the stories. We have them on the blogs. We have them on our Instagram. We see them in the community. Home birth is a reasonable option for VBAC. Now, the providers and ACOG are probably not going to suggest it. We go off of ACOG a lot, but know that these providers are probably not going to suggest and out-of-hopsital birth, but can you? Yes. Can you do it safely? Yes. Are there signs of uterine rupture typically before uterine rupture happens? Yes. Usually, do you have time to get to another location? Yes. So know that if you are desiring a home birth after Cesarean or even a home birth after multiple Cesareans like me, a VBAC after two C-sections, that is possible. It is totally, totally possible. Women of Strength, I just want to thank you so much for all of your continued support. We see it on Instagram. We see it on Facebook. We see it in our group. We get it in reviews here. We love your support and we are so grateful that you are here. We truly are here for you because we love you. I know I've said this before. It's weird for me to say I love you because I've never met you, but I do. I love you. I feel so passionate about helping you as an individual find the best path for you whether that is VBAC, whether that is CBAC, whether that is unmedicated, medicated, in-hospital, out-of-hospital, inductions, or spontaneous. I don't even care what type of birth you have. I want to help you walk through this journey and feel loved, supported, and educated. So again, if you are just with us, welcome. I'm so excited for 2024. We've got so many amazing things coming. If you have any questions about anything we offer on our podcast, our course, our blog or anything like that, always know you can email us at info@thevbaclink.com. If you've been with us and you've had your VBAC or you are still working for your VBAC or you are a birth worker or whatever it may be and you are with us and you have been with us forever, thank you from the very, very, very bottom of my heart. I truly love you and I'm so grateful that you are here. We will see you in 2024. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan's bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link. Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands

Join Liz Cruz M.D. and Tina Nunziato, Certified Holistic Nutrition Consultant, as they discuss the side of affects of eating nutritionally depleted food.  Learn what the definition of nutritionally depleted food is and what happens when you consume too much of it over long periods of time.Watch us on YouTube:  https://youtu.be/vU50uxO_gs4Dr. Cruz is a Board Certified Gastroenterologist who practices in Phoenix, AZ. Along with her wife Tina Nunziato, a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, they have helped tens of thousands of individuals get well from a more holistic standpoint. They focus on issues such as constipation, diarrhea, acid reflux, heartburn, gas, bloating, food sensitivities, IBS, Crohn's disease, and diverticulitis in addition to a person's general overall health. They do this by teaching about real food, water, digestive enzymes, probiotics, detox, greens, electrolytes, food sensitivity testing, and so much more. If you're struggling with finding the answers to your issues, tired of not feeling well, and sick of taking over the counter and prescription medicines, schedule a FREE 30 minute phone consult at www.drlizcruz.com.For more information visit www.digestthispodcast.com or www.drlizcruz.com. Enjoy the show! Dr. Liz Cruz and Tina Nunziato, CHNC

Lindsay (https://www.instagram.com/the.food.doula) talks about her journey to becoming the food doula, how key nutrients change with pregnancy, ways to incorporate specific nutrients into your diet, reframing your perspective on food cravings, how to navigate tastes throughout pregnancy, and why context is needed to determine what's best for each woman's pregnancy experience. In This Episode: * How Lindsay became known as the food doula (03:51) * How our key nutrients change when we are pregnant (08:44) * The importance of calcium and how to incorporate it in your diet (16:13) * Why context is so important when navigating the nutritional opinions for pregnant women (28:24) * How to reframe your perspective around food cravings (33:55) * Transitioning tastes throughout pregnancy (39:13) * How to connect with Lindsay (46:30) Get the full complete show notes, here: https://www.wellsome.com/podcast/ FREE LOVE YOUR CYCLE DOWNLOAD: https://www.subscribepage.com/love-your-cycle MENSTRUAL CYCLE MEMBERSHIP - WELL WOMAN ACADEMY: https://www.wellsome.com/academy/ LOVE YOUR CYCLE FB COMMUNITY: https://www.facebook.com/groups/loveyourcyclesisterhood/ INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/wellsome_jemalee/ WEBSITE: https://www.wellsome.com/ HELP US SPREAD OUR PODCAST WINGS This show is a passion project that I produce for the love of spreading menstrual cycle awareness for free. If you enjoy this show, help us reach more menstruators. The most effective way you can help is: 1. Subscribe to the show by clicking “subscribe” in iTunes 2. Write us a review in iTunes 3. Share this show with a friend, right now! 4. Screenshot and share via social media - don't forget to tag me @wellsome_jemalee Simple yes, but you'd be AMAZED at how much it helps this passion project reach more people. iTunes' algorithm uses ratings and review to know who to show our show to in their app. Review here on iTunes. In love & abundance! Jema

Joel Rubinson (President and founder of Rubinson Partners, a marketing and research consulting firm for a brave new world) joined Michael Howard (Head of Marketing at Infotools) on this episode of Now that's Significant. Joel, who also happens to be an accomplished blues harmonicist, joined us on the show to discuss how insights teams can produce 'nutritious' insights programs that sustainably deliver value for their organizations and customers alike. A key part of this, as you'll find out, is around what Joel talks about when mentioning "Finding the prediction in your insight, finding the growth strategy in your prediction". Joel also discusses two innovative projects that he's been working on that seeks to combine multiple data sets, vendors, ad-serving platforms, and so forth. We hope you enjoy the episode.  *** Infotools Harmoni is a fit-for-purpose market research analysis, visualization, and reporting platform that gives the world's leading brands the tools they need to better understand their consumers, customers, organization, and market. Established in 1990, we work with some of the world's top brands around the world, including Coca-Cola, Orange, Samsung, and Mondelēz. Our powerful cloud-based platform, Harmoni, is purpose-built for market research. From data processing to investigation, dashboards to collaboration, Harmoni is a true "data-to-decision-making" solution for in-house corporate insights teams and agencies. While we don't facilitate market research surveys, we make it easy for to find and share compelling insights that go over-and-above what stakeholders want, inspiring them to act decisively. One of the most powerful features of Harmoni is Discover is a time-tested, time-saving, and investigative approach to data analysis. Using automated analyses to reveal patterns and trends, Discover minimizes potential research bias by removing the need for requesting and manually analyzing scores of cumbersome crosstabs – often seeing what you can't. Discover helps you easily find what differentiates groups that matter to you, uncover what makes them unique, and deliver data points that are interesting, relevant, and statistically significant, plus see things others can't. Add to all this an impending GenAI feature, and you have an extremely powerful, future-proofed tool. Feel free to check out our platform and services at www.infotools.com

More than ½ of American adults either struggle with prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. As a result, many people struggle with glucose toxicity and are prescribed insulin. Let's discuss what we can do to teach the body how to burn fat and restore insulin sensitivity, ultimately to reverse metabolic illness and negate the need for endogenous insulin. [6:20]- What is the root cause of prediabetes and type 2 diabetes?  [15:07]- Type 2 diabetes and prediabetes is a lifestyle-induced illness. What can be done about this?  [22:28]- Nutritionally, how can you limit carbohydrate intake to heal? Take my CARB QUIZ to understand the right amount of carbs for you!  [24:37]- Muscle is our glucose sink! Why do you need to increase your skeletal muscle tissue?  [31:05]- Metabolic illness is reversible, here is how! Special thanks to L'BRI for sponsoring this episode. To order your free samples from this clean and purposeful skin care company, use the link here!  The next session of Low Insulin Academy LIVE will begin January, 2024! If you know you struggle with metabolic illness or are currently taking insulin and want to heal your body holistically, I highly encourage you to get on the waitlist for LIA! Doing so does not obligate you for enrollment, rather shares a discount code with you should you choose to enroll.  FOLLOW ME ON: Instagram: @shana.hussin.rdn Facebook: Fast To Heal With Shana Hussin Website: https://www.fasttoheal.info/ ADDITIONAL LINKS: ENROLL in LIA ON-DEMAND HERE! FREE Starting Guides 10-Day Low-Insulin Jumpstart  Metabolic Makeover Starter Course Low Insulin Academy On-Demand Course Low Insulin Academy Live WAITLIST BE ON THE PODCAST by emailing support@fasttoheal.info and sharing your story of how Fast to Heal Services have changed your life!  

As we march through Season 2, long-time listener and (micro)biology-trained fitness enthusiast Anthony Fleck is in the second chair! Our 10-minute topics this time are: 1.) Food Markets & Trends: Nutritionally Complete RTDs  2.) Breaking Nutrition Science: Calorie Restriction for Longevity 3.) Weight Management Tip: More than Milk in Your Cereal + Bonus Tip 4.) Recipe: A Stew that Keeps on Giving --------- NEW! Donate to the show: https://www.paypal.com/donate/?hosted_button_id=3J6ZFPPKG6E6N NEW! Subscribe to newsletter:  https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/VZMtIVF/podcastsignup Subscribe at Apple iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/nutritionradio-org/id1688282387  Podcast on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/1ECHrnjxjn33DBNWgErPtp Subscribe to our YouTube backup: https://www.youtube.com/lonman07?sub_confirmation=1 Podcast on Amazon/ Audible: https://www.audible.com/pd/NutritionRadioorg-Podcast/B0BS8LFLLX?qid=1675812257&sr=1-1&ref=a_search_c3_lProduct_1_1&pf_rd_p=83218cca-c308-412f-bfcf-90198b687a2f&pf_rd_r=YKEZ8DX192TQF0CQV8KX&pageLoadId=u3x6bJ1 Podcast web site: https://sites.libsyn.com/455769/site Sister site: https://www.ironradio.org/ 

FREE WEBINAR The Aromatic Medicine Path: Uniting Herbalism and Aromatherapy for Holistic Healing Thursday, August 24th & Friday, August 25th LEARN MORE & REGISTER FOR FREE You can watch all of The Herbalist Hour interviews on HerbRally's YouTube channel. VIEW THE PLAYLIST For Episode 56 of The Herbalist Hour, Mason and Amanda visited their friend Yaakov Levine again at the Natural Grocers in Eugene, OR.  This is our second time sitting down with Yaakov as he answers YOUR nutrition questions. WATCH THE FIRST INTERVIEW We hope you enjoy! FYI: The title of this episode is an homage to a weekly column Yaakov used to write for the newspaper called "Nutritionally Speaking".  Learn more about Yaakov and his work  

In this podcast, Dr. Berg talks about hidden nutritional deficiencies.

I get this question A LOT. I got it during a recent talk and guess what... I WAS ABLE TO ANSWER IT LIKE A CHAMP. And now you can too.  Cow's can't catch a break! First there was the nutritional attack using saturated fat and cholesterol. Now they are drinking too much water?!   What Cows Actually Do TODAY cows and bison and other ruminants do pretty much the same thing that they have ever since they've been on this planet. Even in conventional farming situations they are raised on pastures for most of their lives: They move across the pasture, eating natural vegetation, transforming the vegetation into their flesh for food for omnivores and carnivores All the while adding back water, nutrients, and microbes back to the soil, fertilizing and rebuilding the soil. Most of their water comes from the water that naturally falls on the land. most ot their water comes from the vegetation they eat - just like it always has!   False Numbers The numbers typically quoted FOR THE water consumption for cattle and beef are almost always exaggerated.  The water amounts typically quoted are the estimated total amount of water consumed by the cattle over a lifetime.   What you don't hear is that the majority of the water cows consume is water that would be there anyways, that falls on the land naturally through precipitation, absorbed by vegetation, without irrigation. Just like it always has! A small % of the water is from what we would consider to be precious water resources and IRRIGATED water. Cattle Water Consumption 95% of cow water consumption is green water! Less than 5% of water consumption by cows is blue water.    Cattle Advantages Cattle occupy land in it's pristine shape, the land does not have to be modified… In fact they occupy land that isn't fit for crops Cattle rebuild the soil. An estimated 30% of the water they consume is put back into the environment. Pound for pound, beef is one of the most nutritious foods you can consume.  Crop Disadvantages The way most crops are farmed, they are NOT rebuilding the soil… in fact they do the opposite. Through repetitive farming, most crops create hard impacted dirt, which does not hold water and contributes to runoff.  In a lot of situations, YOU HAVE TO MANIPULATE THE LAND to make it fit for crops. make it flatter. which can contribute to runoff and soil depletion.  Plants typically require massive amounts of fertilizer, glyphosophate, insecticides, and herbicides. Nutritionally, there is no comparison! Pound for pound beef beats any crop there is in protein, vitamins, minerals… except carbohydrates! NOW this isn't an argument against crops! It's an argument FOR beef! It's an argument in defense of beef! I truly believe there's a push for you to NOT eat meat because makes you strong. If you want to be strong, clear minded, vibrant, and resilient, EAT MEAT. As you're doing it know that it isn't just good for you, it's good for all those around you and it's good for the planet. Let me know what you think of this information! "Buy me a coffee ;)" https://buymeacoffee.com/paulctijerina To support yourself and your health join my 21 Steps Masterclass https://bit.ly/SHT-21-Steps Get in touch with me through my linktree at https://linktree.com/paulctijerina or just shoot me an email at paulctijerina@superhumantransformation.com

Do neural rewiring and nutritional rehabilitation go hand-in-hand? Too often, recovering from an eating disorder is focused on getting an 'adequate' amount of food, which may in and of itself be scary for someone with an eating disorder, but it just may be "not scary enough". In today's episode, Danie explains why rewiring may not happen even if you are nutritionally rehabilitating, and what extra steps you have to take to get there. Because eating disorders are not about food and physique - and so neither should recovery! The new, exclusive, offer has been launched! You can learn more and sign up here! If you would like to have more information, check out my Instagram page @Daniellevankay and feel free to send me a DM with a question. If you'd like me to cover a certain topic on this podcast, send me an email to daniellevankay@hotmail.com. Or check out my website for additional support https://www.danievankay.com.

For Episode 4 of The Herbalist Hour, Mason and Amanda went to visit their friend Yaakov Levine at the Natural Grocers in Eugene, OR.  Mason has known Yaakov for many years now. They'd frequently see each other at various herb conferences and natural foods events. Yaakov is a nutrition health coach and expert, and was gracious enough to sit down with Mason to answer YOUR questions.  We polled the HerbRally audience to see if you had any nutrition questions and you all came through! There were about 125 questions that came in.  Of course, Yaakov couldn't answer every single one in this interview, but he did manage to get to about a dozen of 'em. Perhaps we'll have a round two with him.  We hope you enjoy this interview as much as we enjoyed making it!  WATCH THE VIDEO OF THIS INTERVIEW FYI: The title of this episode is an homage to a weekly column Yaakov used to write for the newspaper called "Nutritionally Speaking".  Learn more about Yaakov and his work MORE LINKS AND RESOURCES International Herb Symposium Get 15% off with coupon code SPRING15. Valid through March 20, 2023. LEARN MORE AND REGISTER The Art of Frugal Nutrition Our sliding scale, ever-expanding course that teaches you how to eat nutritious foods on a budget.  Yaakov is going to be teaching an upcoming module! LEARN MORE AND REGISTER The Business of Clinical Herbal Practice Erika Galentin's upcoming webinar. This is happening tomorrow, March 20 from 7PM - 9PM.  That said, a recording will be made available to all HerbRally Schoolhouse members.  LEARN MORE AND REGISTER FOR THE WEBINAR LEARN MORE AND REGISTER FOR THE SCHOOLHOUSE You can get your first 30 days FREE with coupon code WEBINAR30 HerbRally on YouTube Subscribe to our YouTube channel! We come out with one to five new herbalism videos each week.  WATCH NOW Thanks for bein' a podcast listener!  You can always feel free to reach out to me and let me know your thoughts. And if you have a moment, please leave us a ranking and review in your podcast player of choice. Take care, Mason www.herbrally.com 

Ase Family, Thank you for listening to The Total Package Podcast. May these episodes help to broaden your perspective and understanding of LIFE in a positive, productive, prosperous, and purposeful way. This episode focuses on some the issues we face with regards to the Food we eat for Nutrition. What is known and understood is that this government DOES NOT care about ANYONE, particularly US. Here are some link to start your own research on how the food we eat is really DESTRUCTIVE to Our existence. We have to stop consuming things that are KILLING Us. Ase Interviews/Lectures Nutricide Lecture - Dr. Llila Afrika (Duron Chavis Channel) https://youtu.be/E_jOPiR3dts The Minister of Wellness Interview (Rock Newman Show) https://www.youtube.com/live/a4q3gWUQ2w8?feature=share Chef Babette Davis Interview The 72-Year-Old VEGAN CHEF that Looks 40! (Chef Babette Davis) Dr. Milton Mills Interview Dr. Milton Mills, MD: Dairy Is Not a Health Food - Switch4Good Podcast Episode 01 Dr. Mills Interview #2 Social Justice & Why We Should Eat Plants with Dr. Milton Mills Episode Links GMOs: Pros and Cons, Backed by Evidence (healthline.com) Preservatives - Chemical Safety Facts Pesticides (nih.gov) Beware of Hybrid and Genetically Engineered Foods! | Dherbs, Dherbs News, Full Body Detox, Full Body Cleanse, Natural Remedies, Herbal Remedies, Alternative Medicine, Hybrid Foods - Dherbs Articles Kitchen Tools: Types of Plastic Used Around the Kitchen | Richfields Blog (richfieldsplastics.com) Toxic Chemicals in Everyday Products — Cookware & Food Containers | EWG 10 Toxins Lurking in Your Cookware (& How to Make Them Safer) | Health (paleohacks.com) Your Herbs and Spices Might Contain Arsenic, Cadmium & Lead (consumerreports.org) Antibiotics in Our Food: What You Should Know - FoodPrint The TRUTH about Ceramic Cookware Antibiotics in Food: The Risks and What You Can Do About It | livestrong Science and History of GMOs and Other Food Modification Processes | FDA --- 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/ttpp33/message

On today's episode I dive deep into small changes I have made in my fitness/wellness journey over the years that CHANGED everything for me.  Small habits + consistency = IMPACT! We talk fitness, nutrition & mindset as I share the things that didn't work for me, and how I changed them & implement new habits! ENJOY!IG: brynley: https://www.instagram.com/brynley.joyner/?hl=enbrynandlu: https://www.instagram.com/brynandlu/?hl=enlukas: https://www.instagram.com/lukasjoyner/?hl=enTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@brynandluYoutube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwf1EqcZDlXCypkTovI9MjgKaizos: https://kaizos.coAmazon Storefront: https://www.amazon.com/shop/brynleyjoyner1% better challenge:Go watch a sunset / sunrise today or tomorrow!MUCH LOVE,Bryn

Andrea Donsky, Lisa's occasional co-host is joined by Stewart Brown,  the founder and CEO of Genuine Health Andrea sits down with Stewart Brown, founder of Genuine Health, to get. to know the story behind the brand and its products.2:00 The story behind Genuine Health and its Greens+ line of products6:50 The secret to why Greens+ works so well7:40 What is the microbiome and why it's so essential to our overall health9:15 The brain-gut connection11:45 The difference between prebiotics and probiotics13:30 The synergy between fatty acids and gut bacteria15:10 Why we need probiotics every day19:20 What to look for when buying a probiotic21:10 Different types of probiotics for different conditions and gender22:40 When to take your probioticsLearn more about Genuine Health by visiting GenuineHealth.com.A Note from Stewart Brown,Our Founder & CEO of Genuine HealthI love natural health. I have been in this industry since I was 16 years old and I cannot imagine anything more important that I could have dedicated my life's work to.In the mid 80s, I opened a health food store in the heart of the LGBT community in Toronto. Shortly after, the HIV crisis hit and my store, Supplements Plus, was in the heart of the epidemic. I learned a lot at that time – I was doing my best to help those affected and watched the community around me in crisis as friends were lost. It was an important time in history and it was an important time in my life, as it created the value system of what became Genuine Health.At Genuine Health, we are so fortunate that we have the opportunity to change people's lives every day, and we take that responsibility very seriously. What we do matters, what we put in the bottle matters, how we treat the planet matters, and providing you with the latest credible information matters, so that you can make the best choices for your health.We're passionate about looking at the latest research in nutritional science to drive innovation in our products. The most important thing to me is that the products that we create make a difference in your life, by giving your body the nourishment it needs to bring you more energy, vitality and overall health and wellbeing. When you have all these things, you can live your life to its fullest expression.

Mama,I hate moving the whole process is atrocious!‌It's a ton of work and a task that NOBODY loves.‌It's laborious, emotionally draining, physically exhausting and in Arizona usually HOT AS HELL!‌Yet, every mama I talk to moves multiple times a year, every year of their lives for the last 20/30/40 years! Sometimes its into a shack and other times it's into an 18-room mansion they can never keep up with.‌How you might ask?‌Well, let me paint the picture!‌Every year Mamas move into the…..‌Paleo

In this episode I walk you through my thought process when it comes to identifying nutritional needs for varying goals. Tracking is not for everyone and it is not forever - but it can provide a fantastic foundation for understanding your bodies individual needs. I go over calories as well as macro and micronutrients (briefly). This is a safe space, so if you have a question you want answered on my podcast, email samplanpod(at)gmail.com to submit. I am always here to help and support YOU - because that is what life is all about! Follow me on Instagram: @thesamplan and TikTok @thesamplan This is an Operation Podcast production For more information, please contact us at info@operationpodcast.com  Follow Operation Podcast on Instagram @operationpodcast

Hey friend! Happy Friday! Today we are talking food - fresh v frozen food. Which is best nutritionally and which is better for your packet?   ❤️⭐️ Let's Connect! ❤️⭐️ Join our global community and grab my FREE healthy snack PDF download and get my weekly recipes straight into your inbox! Join the Community I always love to hear from you so please feel free to jump into my inbox at anytime theproductivemum@gmail.com    ⭐️

Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Hello and welcome to the DTC Podcast. I'm Eric Dyck. Today we're fuelling up with Ben Bokaie, Head of Performance Marketing at Huel, the world's number 1 nutritionally complete, fully sustainable, line of meal powders, shakes, bars and more, that's soared to nine-figure revenues on the back of great product, slick branding, and hardcore performance marketing, authored in no small part by our guest today Ben Bokaie https://huel.com Listen and you'll learn: Why category creation is a cheat code for CPG brands How Ben's built an in-house creative hub in an all out commitment to finding winning ads As well as a deep dive int Huel's international expansion strategy Better huel up for this one, on with the show! Subscribe to DTC Newsletter - https://dtcnews.link/signup Advertise on DTC - https://dtcnews.link/advertise Work with Pilothouse - https://dtcnews.link/pilothouse Follow us on Instagram & Twitter - @dtcnewsletter Watch this interview on YouTube - https://dtcnews.link/video

Today I'm going to give you a really simple way of making sure you're getting an adequate supply of each of those foods. We're going to learn how to eat the rainbow, and why it's important I Know how hard it can be when you're  interested in  transitioning to  plant-based eating, or just increasing the amount of plant foods you're including in each meal, but really don't know where to start, that's where eating the rainbow comes in, it's a simple way of ensuring you're getting a balanced spread of plant foods at each meal. We're going to look at eating by colour. Or eating the rainbow.   If you would like some support or accountability in a safe space, come join us in The Good Way Community Facebook Group:  https://www.facebook.com/groups/577003364110535   If you're interested in one on one coaching  click the link below to fill out the  Coaching Interest Form:  https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhVjfZIZXk05hNNbmRKKJaqu3chInVq5IkCS18prpTLjEZhw/viewform?usp=sf_link   Or if you have questions you'd like answered  in a future episode you can Email: support_thegoodway@protonmail.com or life.thegoodway@gmail.com   If what you've heard has blessed you , and you feel led to support the work of The Good Way Ministries inc. you can do so at Patreon:  http://www.patreon.com/the_good_way  

This week I've invited Jacq and Britt of Day One Fertility onto the podcast to help us unpack pre-conception health - with some added info on pregnancy and postpartum too. With 5 children and 20+ years experience in the health industry between them, Jacq and Brit know a thing or two about nutrition, optimising fertility and parenting! But when they first started out, they too felt the overwhelm and lack of credible resources to truly feel empowered by nutrition for fertility. They value evidence based nutrition, and have combined the science with their practical experience as mothers to deliver you a series of in depth courses in nutrition for fertility at Day One. My intention in bringing the ladies onto the show was to help simplify nutrition, which I find can be overly complex when you're trying to get pregnant. In this episode we cover… + What research tells us about how we can improve our chances of conception + Why we need to start planning for conception at least 6 months prior (and so do our partners)+ The 7 things you can implement today to improve your fertility by almost 70%+ Conception supplementation, what's actually needed+ Why our diets are lacking now more than ever, and it's not just about bad food choices+ MTHFR and folic acid+ Simplified nutrition for pre-conception and most supportive food lifestyle for fertility (backed by research) + The different calorie requirements for each trimester including postpartum+ Delicious food ideas to support you to make eating for conception simple I know that this is going to be a well loved episode for its information and clarity, as well as the easy to implement tools. Once you finish listening don't forget to take a moment to leave a five star review on your favorite platform. I deeply appreciate you closing the energetic cycle of giving and gratitude. As mentioned on the episode you can find the Clean 15 here, and it looks like you will have to subscribe to download the dirty dozenNatalie Douglas Episode where we speak to thyroid health. Find Day One Fertility OnlineInstagramWebsite Brittanys InstagramJacqelines Instagram 

Weight loss will never not be talked about and debated. This study aimed to compare which type of bread was better for weight loss but really they were just proving how important fiber is.

Melissa De La Cruz is a Nutritional Therapy Practioner. Her journey began when her health started deteriorating, and conventional healthcare did not provide the healing she needed. God was in the plan and led her to alternative approaches to healing, utilizing food as medicine and a new career. Melissa is the founder and owner of Made To Be Thriving.  Episode show notes Melissa's Favorite Bible Scriptures John 15:5 Genesis 1:29-30 Genesis 9:3 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Social Media Instagram @madetobethriving Facebook @madetobethriving    

Listen now | Plus talking anti-diet with old friends and spring swimsuit recs.

Pull ups are on every top 10 exercise list out there. But does that mean they're really that great? Are they building your back or destroying your shoulders, elbows and wrists? Is there a better option? What about doing 1 set to failure versus a bunch of lower intensity sets? Are you wasting your time in the gym by doing too much and killing your gains in the process? Or is there a happy medium? Discover the shocking truth about these subjects and more in today's episode. What's the best thing you can do to improve your overhead range of motion and progress with pull ups? [1:20] The only protein source that matters. [10:50] How to avoid crushing your Central Nervous System (CNS). [11:25] Is there a key to optimizing your diet for leanness? [16:30] What's the best approach to volume and intensity to maximize muscle growth? [24:35] One of the biggest influences on my career. [35:20] Dog updates. [40:40] What are my top 5 movies? [45:30] Sponsors: Athletic Greens - Detoxifies your body, boosts your energy, and strengthens your immune system. Go to athleticgreens.com/jay to get yours today. Kreatures of Habit - Nutritionally functional and essential ingredients added to delicious gluten-free oats.  Go to kreaturesofhabit.com and use coupon code "JAY20" to save. Organifi Gold - Pain soothing herbs and phytonutrients in a delicious golden "milk" that helps you sleep like a baby.  Go to organifi.com/renegade to save 20%.   Mentioned in this episode: Angles90 - Go to jasonferruggia.com/angles90 and use coupon code "Renegade".  Bands - Go to strengthtrainingbands.com

Wisdom Wednesday: Propaganda And McDonalds The Deadly MetaNarrative Muricans Have Been Stewing In Since 1915 with Brother Andre Marie HEADLINE: Capturing the Western Eye by Frank Wright  HEADLINE: BREAKING NEWS! Francis Says He Will Consecrate Russia… to the Immaculate Heart. by David Rodriguez  HEADLINE: Resist Fear Mongering Propaganda by Brother Andre Marie The state of NEW music - mass produced entertainment just like mass produced food. McDonald's food - it is cheap, it's garbage and it isn't healthy but they spend tons in market research.  HEADLINE: Saint Abraham (360) by The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart  FROM THE FRANK WRIGHT ARTICLE:  The Mass Production of Belief Brand recognition Uniformity of product Predictable satisfaction Cheap Low effort Promotes passivity Nutritionally poor Values-observant This whole question of technocracy - China  Why does everyone love China? Justin Trudeau asked who is your favorite world leader?  AUDIO/VIDEO: Justin Trudeau's China Dictatorship Gaffe   $7/gallon for gas for us means the truckers diesel goes up, our food is shipped THOUSANDS of miles to us. So the Pope is going to consecrate Ukraine and Russia - if he just says please bless us w/ peace that isn't what Our Lady of Fatima asked for. The century that sees the conversion of Russia will see an unbelievable thing. The conversion of Russia will be the ultimate eye opener for the United States. God is going to work through Mary - you have a horrible meta narrative so here is mine. They will be a missionary force - they will impact the Muslim and Arab world. They will lead other Orthodox nations into the Church. I know Russia has SERIOUS social problems, we cannot forget about them. We cannot over look them either. Our Lady with her healing hands will heal these problems! HEADLINE: Vatican Announces Pope Francis “Will Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary” — Will He Fulfill Heaven's Specific Conditions? by Matt Gaspers  HEADLINE: Saint Botolph (680) by The Slaves of the Immaculate Heart Our Readers And Listeners Keep Us In Print & On The Air! Click here to subscribe to The CRUSADE Channel's Founders Pass Member Service & Gain 24/7 Access to Our Premium, New Talk Radio Service. www.crusadechannel.com/go What Is The Crusade Channel? The CRUSADE Channel, The Last LIVE! Radio Station Standing begins our LIVE programming day with our all original CRUSADE Channel News hosted by award winning,  25 year news veteran Janet Huxley. Followed by LIVE! From London, “The Early Show with Fiorella Nash & Friends. With the morning drive time beginning we bring out the heavy artillery The Mike Church Show! The longest running, continual, long form radio talk show in the world at the tender age of 30 years young! Our broadcast day progresses into lunch, hang out with The Barrett Brief Show hosted by Rick Barrett “giving you the news of the day and the narrative that will follow”. Then Kennedy Hall and The Kennedy Profession drives your afternoon by “applying Natural Law to an unnatural world”!    The CRUSADE Channel also features Reconquest with Brother André Marie, The Fiorella Files Book Review Show, The Frontlines With Joe & Joe and your favorite radio classics like Suspense! and CBS Radio Mystery Theater. We've interviewed hundreds of guests, seen Brother Andre Marie notch his 200th broadcast of Reconquest; The Mike Church Show over 1500 episodes; launched an original LIVE! News Service; written and produced 4 Feature Length original dramas including The Last Confession of Sherlock Holmes and set sail on the coolest radio product ever, the 5 Minute Mysteries series! Combined with our best in the business LIVE! Coverage of every major political/cultural event of the last 6 years including Brexit, Trump's Election, Administration events, shampeachment, the CoronaDoom™,

Jimmy examines an article by previous guest Nina Teicholz talking about Vegan Fridays in schools. “I have been trying for the last 18 years to get people back to eating foods in their whole form.”  - Nina Teicholz Listen to The Livin' La Vida Low-Carb Show with host Jimmy Moore wherever you get your podcasts! Visit http://www.LLVLC.com to access all the past episodes. ⁣⁣ In this episode, Jimmy reads from an incredible new column from the executive director of the Nutrition Coalition and author of the New York Times bestselling book THE BIG FAT SURPRISE named Nina Teicholz. Jimmy has previously interviewed Nina about the importance of embracing healthy fats, minimizing damaging carbohydrates, and changing the USDA Dietary Guidelines through the use of the scientific evidence supporting carbohydrate restriction and ketosis. In her op-ed entitled “Vegan Fridays are nutritional risky,” Nina does an outstanding job of articulating the concerns she has with the New York City Department of Education mandating no animal foods to be served to students on Fridays in NYC. Tune in to hear Jimmy share from Nina's article and offer up his own unique thoughts on this decision by New York City leaders and the potential impact it could have on all public schools beginning in the Fall. New York Daily News column “Vegan Fridays are nutritionally risky” by Nina Teicholz: https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-the-real-risks-of-vegan-fridays-20220211-uvx5kccnkzfwpa6vr7kilfx52m-story.html Nina Teicholz on Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/ninateicholz Nina Teicholz official website: http://www.ninateicholz.com Get Nina's THE BIG FAT SURPRISE book on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Fat-Surprise-Butter-Healthy/dp/1451624433 The Nutrition Coalition on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thenutritioncoalition/ The Nutrition Coalition official website: http://www.nutritioncoalition.com Check out LLVLC Show Episode 1576: Best Of, Nina Teicholz Shares Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet: https://livinlavidalowcarb.com/llvlc-pod/2019/11/20/1576-best-of-nina-teicholz-shares-why-butter-meat-and-cheese-belong-in-a-healthy-diet/

If you're ever going to improve your physique you need to polish up your nutritional habits. My story.

Hello my gardening friends. I hope you are having a wonderful start to the new year thus far. Right now, I am working on all kinds of new things for the second season of the Just Grow Something podcast along with some other projects all designed to help you get the most out of your garden in 2022. Because of this, I will be taking a few weeks off from recording new episodes and, instead, will be replaying a few of the most downloaded episodes from season one. Hopefully, these episodes will get you pumped up and imagining your dream garden even while we're still in the throes of winter here in the northern hemisphere. And I will be back in no time at all with all new episodes and other goodies to help you be the best gardener you can be. So, enjoy this replay episode and I'll talk to you again soon! .... Nutritionally, broccoli is a powerhouse. Just 2.8 ounces or 80 grams of broccoli counts as a full serving because it's so nutritionally dense. It's low in calories (35 calories per serving) and carbohydrates and provides good levels of protein, fiber, and essential minerals. The entire plant is edible, including the leaves (use like kale or spinach), and all the parts contain the antioxidants and anticancer compounds. The majority of broccoli cultivars are cool-weather crops that do very poorly in hot weather. This, plus its nutrient requirements and pest issues, makes broccoli one of those crops folks have a difficult time growing. So, let's dig in to everything you would ever want to know about broccoli in the garden. .... Resources: https://www.herbazest.com/herbs/broccoli http://www.stuartxchange.org/Broccoli https://www.almanac.com/plant/broccoli# https://firstsaturdaylime.com/ https://www.gardeningknowhow.com/plant-problems/disease/white-rust-disease.htm#:~:text=The%20secret%20to%20how%20to,the%20disease%20the%20following%20spring. https://www.apsnet.org/edcenter/disandpath/oomycete/introduction/Pages/IntroOomycetes.aspx#:~:text=The%20oomycetes%2C%20also%20known%20as,foliar%20blights%20and%20downy%20mildews. Just Grow Something Gardening Friends Facebook Group Check out how you can become a patron on Patreon --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/justgrowsomething/message

Today's guest is Amanda Nighbert, registered dietitian specializing in weight loss nutrition. She is passionate about motivating, supporting and educating people to meet their wellness goals. Amanda's purpose is to empower others who want to get back on track and take control of their health. With 20 years of knowledge and experience under her belt, she is able to guide others in their weight loss and wellness journeys . With her custom LEAN Program, range of coaching services, and multiple shop offerings, she has cultivated a brand that focuses on giving participants the leading tools and resources to help reach the best versions of themselves. Amanda's goal is to provide the most current, cutting edge nutritional techniques that not only provide results but are also sustainable for life. In our conversation we discuss The difference between the traditional clinical approach to nutrition and taking on a more holistic approach How Amanda guides her clients with nutritional awareness and macro management Why she doesn't believe in extreme dieting trends and what you need to know about creating sustainable change The difference between The ketogenic diet and carb cycling All about intermittent fasting and how to make it work for you and your lifestyle.