Marisa D. | A long induction, unplanned c-section, and the importance of community.

On today’s episode, I sat down to chat with Marisa about her birth at the Yorkton, SK hospital. She shares her long induction process that led to her c-section. In this emotional story, Marisa goes into what her feelings were about her surgery and recounts the amazing moment of meeting her baby. She shares more about her breast feeding journey and all things postpartum. 

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Transcript

And during that time, my parents and Nathan's parents got to meet uh meet Wesley and hold Wesley. And Nathan did skin to skin, um, which I was very grateful for. But it's also I I love my family and I love my partner's family, but not being the first person to hold your own child is so hard.

On today's episode, we are chatting with Marisa. She is a registered dietitian that lives just outside of Yorkton. She will tell her story today about her induction that ultimately led to a C-section. She also chats more about her feeding journey and the importance of community. Okay, so let's start by telling the listeners a little bit about yourself.

Hello. Um, my name is Marisa. I am 27 years old now, which is crazy because I still feel like I'm 22 and living the dream. Yeah. Um, I'm a registered dietitian, so I did go to university for a lot of years to get that designation. Um, I'm now a mom of one. I'm engaged finally as well. Um, we did things kind of in a reverse order there, having baby before marriage, but all good things on that front. Um yeah, I work for Cowassus First Nation full-time, which is super fun. I work on reserve.

Amazing. And so where do you live and where which hospital did you deliver at?

I live on an acreage 20 minutes in between Yorkton and Melville, so like Southern-ish Saskatchewan. Um, and I delivered at the Yorkton hospital. Tell us about your road to getting pregnant. Um, I had so my partner is eight years older than I am. And when we first started dating and talking about kids and stuff, he had said, like, if I don't have children by 35, then I'm probably not gonna have children because I want to be able to move around and hang out with my kids and chase them around and do sports and all those things. Um, so I knew that at the very start of our relationship, and then in August of not last year, but the year before, I decided to remove my IUD so that we could start trying for a family just to see if that was in the cards for us. And then we actually um we kind of like danced around it for a while, and then one day we conceived and I checked my app and I was like, oh no, this is a not oh no, but this is a 10 out of 10 ovulation day. Like, we'll see how this goes is like our first attempt, and that was the one, and then we were pregnant, and I was very much um I've I've known a lot of women who have gone through loss, and I know that that is something um that would have affected my mental health drastically. So we did tell the people in our lives before that 12 weeks, which I do kind of I know that that's like a hard deadline that a lot of people say not to, but I think that that too can be something that you change based on your own personal preference and just knowing who you are. Like for myself, I needed to tell my mom and my sister and even my partner's mom because I knew if something did happen to this baby, those people would be in my corner for that moment, even if it was before the 12 weeks. So we were kind of early with telling people. And then yeah, once we were closer to the the 12 weeks, we let the world know.

Yeah, I think the narrative is definitely changing a lot more in that people are feeling more comfortable telling people before the 12 weeks. And I I like to see that because I like that people would have that support. And it just you can share in that excitement with people when you're ready. And it doesn't need to wait until a certain time.

Yes, and I think too, like opening up the conversation to with people, like, oh, I'm I'm concerned about this, or I've gone through a loss before, and I'm having that conversation with someone, helps to like build a connection between mothers and especially those that have gone through loss before, so that they're feeling supported and acknowledged, and like every baby is valuable. And I know there was one woman who we were pregnant at the same time and she went through a loss, and I just yeah, yeah, for sure. You you hurt you hurt for those people, and you just want them to know that you're there and thinking of them often.

Absolutely. So, what what was who is your care provider? Was it Adobe or midwife or family practitioner?

Yeah, I saw my nurse practitioner up until like the late stages of pregnancy. Um, because I'm rural, are my like I don't have a family doctor, I just have a full-time like nurse practitioner as my family doctor. So that's who I've dealt with for lots of my pregnancy, and I do recommend that as well. I find the nurse practitioner as opposed to a family doctor got more like one-on-one time and was able to connect and feel supported. And then I saw an obdown for like the later stages of my pregnancy. Yeah, how did pregnancy go for you? Um, I would say it has its highs and lows. As far as pregnancy goes, though, I think it was overall pretty well. I tend to be too busy of a person though, so I found like that exhaustion and tiredness was probably the most difficult thing to adjust to. And then heartburn in later stages of pregnancy, but honestly, nothing, nothing over the moon or like super crazy, which I was very thankful for. Yeah.

Yeah, awesome. Did you work all throughout your pregnancy?

I actually my grandpa died in um June, and my son was born in August. So I ended up working up until May. And then when he was in the hospital, I just decided that I was done working. So I took off most of June and then July and August before my son was born.

Okay, for sure. Um, is there anything else you want to share from your pregnancy?

Um, from my pregnancy, not really. I would say that I'm the type of person that's very much like, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna do it myself, and I'm a strong, independent person, and I don't need things from other people. And like being pregnant and not being able to do things, it was so nice that so many people felt like were supportive and were understanding and were very much like, oh no, we've got this because you're pregnant, you can go take a seat and we'll get this covered. And I found especially like working for a First Asian community, that sense of like motherhood and connection between all the women that I was supporting in community and my role as a dietitian, and then just working with was so wonderful. And I felt so blessed to be where I was for my pregnancy.

Oh, that's amazing. And did you go into your birth with any sort of hopes or plans?

I feel like most people, I kind of expected like I'm gonna have a normal delivery, I'm gonna meet my baby, everything's gonna go super good, but I didn't have like a hard birth plan written down. I did know that I wanted my like fiance now, but then Joe's boyfriend um with me the whole time, and then probably my mom at points because motherhood is such a strong thing to go through, like with your own mom. Yeah. Yeah. So those were my only like non-negotiables. At one point, I toyed with the idea of doing like an unmedicated, um, and then ultimately I was like, whatever works to get the baby here in the healthiest way. Yeah

Did you do any sort of childbirth education or any sort of research beforehand?

Not so much research, but I did do like the one birthing class offered by the provincial health um at the sign building in Yorkton, which was good. Yeah, we ended up watching a video of a woman giving birth during that, which was super cool because you don't actually see that, like not blurred out ever in life. So that was good. Yeah.

Uh let's move into how labor started for you.

All right. So I was induced and I went in on the 20th to be induced. And then we ended up sorry. Sorry, how many weeks were you at that point? I was exactly 40.

Okay.

That was my due date, was the day that I got induced. Um, and the reason for that was because my baby, we didn't ultrasound the day before I got induced, and on the ultrasound, my baby was like nine pounds and 10 ounces or something. So they were very concerned about him being in for longer, like overbaked, I guess. So we did go with an induction, and we went in at nine in the morning, expecting to like start the process at nine in the morning, and then at like 11:30, I was like, okay, let's get something happening here because I'm excited to make my baby and I would like things to get going. And then eventually the obstetrician did come and put the stringy thing in to like start the induction process. Was that Cervadil?

Yes. Okay, Cervadil. Yes.

So we did that and started with that, and then nothing was kind of happening. So we ended up like leaving the hospital and going for a walk and going for lunch because I figured if I got up and got moving, we might like get things moving. And then ended up going back to the hospital about three hours later because I thought that I was having more aggressive contractions, and then they checked, and I was a whole centimeter dilated. And I was like, Oh, good, we're we're going. Yeah, yes, and I know lots of women will be a centimeter for like weeks before they even deliver. So that was the first kind of oh no.

Um, and then my contractions, when they did start and they were consistent, were all in my lower back. And I just remember not expecting it. Like as a woman, I feel you hear so much about how painful labor is and how horrible all of that pain is. And I went into it expecting that, and then I expected it to be more in my front midsection, and then for everything to be hitting my lower back, I just didn't understand that and felt very weak throughout that. So we ended up, um, my partner was super good. He would apply pressure for me on my lower back, like during contractions and stuff. And we actually had one of those massage guns, so he was using that um at the same time. And then we went into the evening of um labor and stuff, and I think at like 10 p.m. I was at four centimeters, so just not progressing very quickly at all. Um, I used the tub twice, which the first time I was very concerned about modesty. So I like put on a bathing suit to go use the tub because there's only one tub in the Yorkton hospital. So if you do want to be in water, but luckily I was the only one um in like having a baby at that time. So I had access to it. So I used the tub for the first time and I put my little bathing suit on and went. And then I was in there probably three times, and the next two times I'm just running to the hallway, letting it all yeah, letting it all loose because I just needed that relief. Um and then one time in the tub, they came in because they heard me responding to contractions and stuff. So then we started gas as needed for contractions, and then about oh gosh, like 12 hours, yeah, probably the next day. Um I got checked again. And I think it was like maybe six. So it just like things were things were very slow. Yeah, very slow moving. Yeah, for the progression of everything, and they ended up um sometime on the 21st. So I got induced on the 20th, and then sometime on the 21st, they moved me into like the actual birthing room from my private room. So I figured that things were gonna start moving along pretty quickly. As soon as I could, I got the epidural just because my contractions were so much in my lower back that I thought that it would help alleviate a lot of that pain. And I just remember getting that epidural. And I know a lot of women can't remember that, but I think I had a flashback like two weeks later holding my newborn, where I just remembered getting the needle, and that was that was quite the jump scare to remember. Um, but it did make a big difference for my contractions during labor. And then we went to, or I got checked again and they called in the obguin, which the one that I had seen throughout all of my pregnancy was off during that week, um, even though he started the induction. So the other gentleman took over that I hadn't met yet and hadn't heard good things about from speaking with other women who had had labors in Yorkton. So I was kind of uncomfortable with that situation, but it is what it is, and you don't get to pick and choose. So he took over and we ended up um breaking my water manually, which I thought, okay, we're breaking my water, things should start to go now. Like that's usually the moment that you see on TV and then everything's happening.

So we broke how um how did that conversation go when like how were you feeling about breaking your water?

Um, I've I at that point it had been so long, and I had been dealing with contractions for so long that I figured, okay, this is gonna be something that it's gonna happen, and my baby's gonna come, and I'm finally gonna get to meet him. Yeah. And then like seeing the hook and stuff, I was like, okay, like it's just one more thing that we have to do to meet your baby. So I I feel like I took it in stride, but it was also not something that I had envisioned for my um like birth and not something that I had probably spent enough time looking into, but it happened, and that was that. Um, and then unfortunately, even after breaking my water, my labor did not progress. Um, so I I think at hour 20 after induction, um, I was still sitting between like probably at between six and eight, I think probably closer to seven centimeters. Um, and then I had the monitors on for baby's status, and I kept looking at them because I'm an anxious person, so I wanted to make sure that baby was okay after all that time. And I noticed that baby's heartbeat was kind of not great and would be like good and then would dip for quite a long time and then come back up. Um, so I started asking my nurses about it, and then morning, so the morning of the 22nd, and he said, Your baby should have been born by C-section a week ago. We're going through C-section, yes, and that was that was that. Next thing I know, I'm being changed into like surgical stuff, taking out my jewelry, saying goodbye to my mom and um my dad, and then we were off.

Wow, so it doesn't sound like you were met with much compassion from that OB.

No, and yeah, he actually like he came in wearing like a big watch and a suit and stuff to do one of my checks, and made a comment to one of the nurses about not having the gloves in his size, and just like seemed very dismissive. And Nathan like made a comment about him seeing like a bit of a jerk, and then yeah, we went for a c-section. Yeah, and then in the c-section, but before we went, Nathan and I were both very scared, and I feel like that's kind of expected when it's not something that you were anticipating for your labor. But I just remember feeling so vulnerable and unprepared for that to be what was happening, especially with what I had wanted for birth and after it being so long, and we had been up now for like we've been in hospital for over two days. So we were both exhausted and hadn't been sleeping well between contractions. So we're both kind of crying as we go in for the C-section. And thankfully, one of the nurses is someone that I've known my entire life. Um, their kids are the same age as me and my siblings. So this is someone that I've had like farm family suppers with, and he tends to be one of the nurses like handing instruments and stuff. But for my case, he was by my head the whole time during my C-section. Sorry.

That's nice, that's so nice to have that comfort.

Yeah, it was incredible, and I don't think I could have done it without him.

It was nice to like like obviously Nathan is there, but he's just as scared as I am about what's happening both to me and to our baby. Um, but just to have him there and being strong and secure and like this is what's going on, this is what they're doing now, um, and walking me through it was so so helpful. And then yeah, I just remember I because I had had no sleep, um, epidural for so long, I was very um shaky and cold during my C-section. So they ended up like strapping my arms to the boards and then covered me with blankets. And about every three minutes I was asking for more blankets because I just could not seem to get warm, which I think is related to the adrenaline or something. Um yeah, and then baby was born and was healthy and crying, and the nurse that's the family friend told Nathan that he needed to go meet the baby. And Nathan said, No, I'm staying with her. And he said, No, you need to go meet the baby. So that was very fun, and that was one of those moments that I was like, Oh, thank God that this is the man that I've decided to have a child with, that even in these situations, he's he's mine and he's my support and my caretaker. So that was amazing, and that's one of those things that I think about often. Um, and then yeah, we met met baby. I unfortunately didn't get to hold baby because I was too shaky and cold, so still just strapped to the bed, and then baby and Nathan went um down to get checked out by the nurses and all that stuff while they closed me up. And while they were closing me up, I guess there was another surgeon in the room who was learning, which I didn't know about that beforehand. But while they were sewing me up, one of the um doctors said at one point, Oh, you can't grab it like that, you're being too aggressive, you need to sew it like this. And I was like, Oh, you guys are literally talking about sewing me back together right now, and someone is doing something incorrectly.

Yes, it's such a weird feeling that you know that they're working on you, and it's just I yeah, I can totally relate. It's just like it's such a weird feeling.

Yes, and to like hear him like giving corrections to which I have a lot of numbness in my c-section area now, and my stomach hangs over, which is not something that I anticipated after having it, because I've seen other women where everything is flush, so they'll even have her after having a c-section and stuff. So there's some work that I need to do there to deal with that. But anyway, they ended up having some complications while they were closing, so I was in there an extra hour, and that nurse, the family friend nurse, had told me like it'll be like 15 minutes to a half hour to get you closed up, and then it ended up being an hour, so then I was away from my new baby for an hour. And during that time, my parents and Nathan's parents got to meet meet Wesley and hold Wesley, and Nathan did skin to skin, um, which I was very grateful for. But it's also I I love my family and I love my partner's family, but not being the first person to hold your own child is so hard. And like I have no ill will with them about it because I would have I would have told them to anyway if I was in that position, but it's just something that's it's difficult.

Um yeah, oh Marissa, that's so hard. Yeah. Sorry. No, don't be sorry. Oh my gosh. It's yeah, that sounds like such such a hard hard moment.

Yes. And then I was moved to the like after surgery room finally, once I got everything sorted out. And then as soon as I'm in the room, I said, Can we bring my baby up? Like, I need to meet my baby. And the nurses said, No, we need to take your blood pressure first. And I was like, You just took my blood pressure the old whole time we're doing my C-section, like one of you can go down and tell them to bring my baby up. Yeah, um, and then they needed to do something else, and then they needed to do something else, and I'm getting quite angry, which I am typically not a very angry person, but I ended up getting quite angry at these nurses, like, give me my baby. Um, so they did bring up Leslie and Nathan, and I got to meet him, and I just remember trying to sit up in that bed so frantically and like ripping my gown open so I could do that skin to skin with my baby. And then um, I was having a little bit of difficulty getting him to latch, but luckily the lactation consultant came up basically the same time that Wesley and Nathan did. So the lactation consultant was able to like help me latch in that first moment of connection after Wesley latched and after birth and being there for three days. Oh my god, I don't think I will ever feel that perfect again.

That's so sweet.

Yeah, everything just turned out to be what it needed to be, and I had my healthy baby, and I had my supportive partner, and yeah, it was all worth it.

Yeah, for sure. Oh my gosh, Marissa. That's oh that's yeah, it sounds very emotional.

It was, it definitely was, yeah.

And then how uh how were the first few days uh postpartum in the hospital?

Pretty good. Um, I was pretty scared of everything, and I read online somewhere that they don't let you go home until you poop, which I have learned since is not the case. So every time a nurse came, I was like, I still haven't pooped. And I was like, I really hope that they're gonna send me home and I haven't pooped. So all of these nurses were probably like, why does this lady keep talking to me? Why is she so obsessed with her poop? Yeah. Um, so that was pretty funny. And then I ended up like because of the C-section and the complications, I ended up losing a lot of blood. So my iron was down. So I was getting transfusions in hospital. And then when Wesley was um really little, I was going to the, I think I went to the hospital three or four times for for transfusions after birth, too. And then they were worried about draundists for Wesley at one point, so they had to do a blood test. And I was breastfeeding and I was like, I collected colostrum before Wesley was born. I used my pumps before. I came to the hospital with like a two-liter freezer bag of pre-pumped colostrum just ready to go in case I couldn't feed him right away. And the ladies came in to do blood work on Wesley. And I said, Okay, sweet, can we like he's just due for a feed that works great? You guys can take his blood while I'm feeding him. And they said, No, we don't take blood while babies are nursing. And I was like, it's literally like I talked to the other nurses about it. You do things to baby while they're nursing, so that baby isn't as affected by it. Like even getting needles and vaccines and stuff, you give it while they're nursing. And they said no. And I said, Okay, then come back later. Yeah. And then I ended up talking to one of my nurses about it, which I did have lots of the nurses for my postpartum care were amazing. And I ended up talking to one of them about it, and she said, No, like it's hospital policy that if a baby is nursing, you do the blood work while they're nursing. So then these ladies came back, and then they must have both been new to the lab because they just didn't understand what was going on. So I'm nursing and they're taking a sample of blood from his foot, and they had to fill in these little circles on this piece of paper with his blood. Right. Totally fine, whatever. But now my baby's nursing, and now my baby is crying because they keep squeezing his little perfect newborn foot to get this blood out, and they're poking and squeezing and poking and squeezing, and it was probably half an hour that they're in there getting this blood. And maybe I just haven't had a baby before, and that happens for every baby, but it just seemed like it was taking so long, and he was in so much discomfort from it. Um, and then at one point, like I'm very obviously frustrated with these ladies. I went to go readjust myself from the bed, and I ended up elbowing one of them in the side of the head.

Oh no.

Yes, to which Nathan was like, You totally did that on purpose. And I was like, I would never hurt another human being on purpose. Yeah, I did not mean to. She leaned forward as I was kind of readjusting myself and holding my baby. But also, you are hurting my child, and I am a mama.

The mommy bear instinct just kicked in.

Yeah, it did unintentionally. Like I and I I am very sorry that I hurt that woman and I did apologize profusely. But also, if you would have finished your blood draw in the normal five to ten minutes, wouldn't have been there when I read just yeah, yeah, that's funny. Um, other than that, the postpartum like in hospital was good.

Good, good. And then uh how has uh the last year been crazy.

Um I had heard about colic from a lot of other mothers, and I know that my mom said that we were all colicky when we were babies, but my mom also mentioned that she switched us to soy formula right away when we were little.

Okay.

And Wesley ended up being a colicky baby, and he'd be so good during the day, and then sunset would hit, and he'd be screaming and arching and crying and have a lot of gas and be super uncomfortable and just a sad baby. And I looked more into it, and being that I'm a dietitian, I was like, there has to be something wrong. I talked to my sister who's in veterinary medicine, um, at the U of S, and she had said at one point that like colic is a symptom, colic isn't a diagnosis. And I was like, You're right, you're right. Like there has to be a reason that my baby is so uncomfortable. So I ended up looking into it and looking at what his other symptoms were, and I figured that he probably had a cow's milk protein allergy, which my older brother was allergic to cow's milk and eggs and a whole bunch of other stuff when he was little, and we were all switched to soy formula because it worked with our guts better. Yeah. So I ended up, because I was still breastfeeding, completely cutting out dairy, and that was night and day.

And at what month did you do this, or at what week?

Uh, probably close to that 12-week mark.

So yeah, that's a long time, like three, sorry, three months to be to have such an uncomfortable baby.

Yes. And it was like Nathan um wanted to take off the time closer to Christmas. So he was back at work and working overtime for Wesley's first month.

Oh, okay.

So yeah, I was alone during the day, which was totally fine because baby was fine during the day, but in the evenings I felt bad that Nathan was coming home and then we were having to deal with this screaming, crying infant. Like there were so many days that we're both just walking laps around the island, holding him on his belly, yeah, so that's like to get release from the gas. I ended up listening to all of the Accord of Thorns and Roses audiobooks because then I couldn't hear him cry. And I would like obviously be taking care of him, but just listening to it so that I'm not going insane at the same time. Yeah.

Yeah, like no noise canceling headphones or just something playing while you have a screaming baby in your arms can help.

Oh man, so such such a big difference. And you go from like, okay, I can't handle this, to I'm literally like a fairy goddess taking care of this baby because I'm part of this book that I'm listening to now. Yeah. Yes.

Well, so that I'm happy to hear things got better after you uh cut dairy out.

Yeah, like so so much better. Um, I made it seven and a half months of breastfeeding too before I couldn't not have dairy anymore. So unfortunately, then we switched to formula, but Seven and a half months was still better for me than no months, even though it wasn't like my goal was a year. And then in talking to other mums, they said, like, don't shoot for the stars, like, keep your goals reasonable. So I started with three months, and three months was good. So then I ate for six months, and then I got my six months, and then I reevaluated the toll it was taking on me and on Wesley. And then we made the switch to formula and we switched to the neutramogen, like the belly sensitive broken down one. And yeah.

Amazing. Yeah, it dairy free is so hard, and you have to take your own mental health in into account.

Yes. And I'm I'm hoping that for future babies, the allergy isn't there, but at least now I've been through it once, so I know I can do it again.

Yeah, for sure. Anything else notable about your postpartum experience? How was recovery from the C-section?

Recovery was a lot. I feel like I didn't expect it to be what it was. And like even talking to my nurse practitioner and stuff, she said, like you can't lift more than 10 pounds. And I said, Okay, but my having eight-pound baby in a car seat, it's more than 10 pounds. And we have places to go, and Nathan is working. So I ended up kind of, I would say I recovered faster than I should have. Um, and I know some women say to like stay in bed for the first five days and around bed for the next five days, but I found laying down was more pressure on my C-section than sitting up. So I was up quite a bit. Yeah. Um yeah. And then I ended up joining right at six weeks once I got approval from my um gynecologist. I joined a mom and me workout class called Dumbbells and Diapers.

Cute.

So twice a week on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Wesley and I would go and we'd work out with these other moms. And that connection changed my postpartum experience to be around other moms who had babies of similar ages, who had shared common interests of both children and of exercise as like a postpartum mom changed the game. And talking about allergies with other moms and like lack of sleep and supporting each other at those times. Like if somebody needed to run out and get something, they would often leave their baby with the other or the rest of the moms in the circle. So we would take care of one another, especially as like working husbands. So it became this community. At one point, we all got together and made Christmas ornaments, like our baby's feet prints and stuff. Um, so that that changed the game for me and turned because I live rurally and I live on an acreage, um, I wasn't seeing a lot of people, but that gave me the time to like go to town and talk to other adults and share both the joys and what our kids are doing and the downfalls, which was wonderful. And I do recommend that if any mom has an opportunity to go to that or knows of other moms in her area to reach out and make that connection because it is just not doing it alone is incredible.

Yeah, that's amazing that you had that resource in your town because here in Saskatoon we have lots of mom and baby classes, workout classes, and even just meetup groups, and it seriously changes the game to have other moms to have that connection. It will change your experience for sure.

Absolutely. And I I've said it once, and like I don't think that I would have gotten through postpartum, especially when he wasn't sleeping very well and I was starting to figure out that allergy thing. Um, I don't think I could have gotten through it without that and the uh the support of the other mems to be like, oh, I had a friend who had the allergy, or if you need, we can come over and watch him so you can have a nap. Like that just sense of community is huge. Yes, for sure.

Okay. Um, I'm gonna finish with uh two final questions. What is a piece of advice you would give to someone heading towards their birth?

Don't hold your expectations too close to home and spend some time looking up what might not necessarily go wrong, but what the other ways to deliver are. Because I feel like I had no knowledge of a c-section and recovery from a c-section, and then I had a c-section and I'm doing this thing that I know nothing about. So I would say that explore what the other options are and then take it in stride. You spent the nine months growing a human, you're going to meet this human in whatever way possible. Um, just let it happen.

Yeah, that's amazing advice. And then what surprised you the most about postpartum?

What surprised me most was probably how how many people's opinions can be different and how strong they are about their own opinions about your children. Yeah, like going to the grocery store wouldn't expect all of these comments from strangers, but they were always there

Yeah, it's it's funny how like I feel like once you have a baby, everyone just thinks like everyone wants to give you their opinion, and it's like, well, I didn't necessarily ask for it.

Yeah, didn't didn't ask for it, don't really care. Your kids are older than me now, things have changed. Yeah, and even like I'm a dietitian and my education is very recent, and having like other moms going to nurses for their vaccines and then being told something about food and nutrition for their babies was just kind of baffling to me because it wasn't necessarily what the recommendations are right now, and was outdated information, which just there's so many sources of information, and I feel like you need to find who your people are that you trust for their information and just stick with that instead of taking everyone's into consideration. Yeah.

For sure. You know best as uh as your baby's mom. Exactly. Yes, okay. Marisa, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I loved listening to your story

Thank you so much for having me and for being a safe space. I'm excited to listen to more stories.

Thank you so much for listening to another incredible birth story. If you're interested in sharing your own story on the podcast, head down to the link in the show notes to complete the form.