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Get Your Shit Together

Postpartum Recovery: Don’t be a Hero

April 18, 2023 Adina Rubin Season 3 Episode 82
Postpartum Recovery: Don’t be a Hero
Get Your Shit Together
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Get Your Shit Together
Postpartum Recovery: Don’t be a Hero
Apr 18, 2023 Season 3 Episode 82
Adina Rubin

In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about:

🧡 Postpartum care after miscarriage or abortion

🧡 What to expect from your 6 week appointment (not much)

🧡 Tips for your first days home: food, community, movement

🧡 What are hormones doing postpartum?

🧡 Considerations and fave functional tests for later

🧡 Belly binding, realistic recovery timeline, & other listener Q’s


Episode Show Notes: www.getyourshittogetherpod.com/podcast/episode82  


Follow us on Instagram @getyourshittogetherpod 


Connect with Diane:

Instagram: @dianeteall

Website: www.diteawellness.com

Enroll in Root Cause Reset (self-study): www.rcrprogram.com 


Connect with Adina:

Instagram: @adinarubin_ 

Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com 

Postpartum Program Waitlist Sign up Here

Apple Podcasts Spotify Overcast Stitcher Castro Castbox +
Show Notes Transcript

In this episode of Get Your Shit Together we chat about:

🧡 Postpartum care after miscarriage or abortion

🧡 What to expect from your 6 week appointment (not much)

🧡 Tips for your first days home: food, community, movement

🧡 What are hormones doing postpartum?

🧡 Considerations and fave functional tests for later

🧡 Belly binding, realistic recovery timeline, & other listener Q’s


Episode Show Notes: www.getyourshittogetherpod.com/podcast/episode82  


Follow us on Instagram @getyourshittogetherpod 


Connect with Diane:

Instagram: @dianeteall

Website: www.diteawellness.com

Enroll in Root Cause Reset (self-study): www.rcrprogram.com 


Connect with Adina:

Instagram: @adinarubin_ 

Website: www.adinarubincoaching.com 

Postpartum Program Waitlist Sign up Here

Diane:

Hey friends. Hello. We had a little spring break, but we're back. We're back, baby.

Adina:

Oh, we are back. And better than ever. Well, not quite. We're not doing great, but we're okay.

Diane:

Yeah, we're not quite bright-eyed and bushy tail, but ooh, we'll catch up. We'll, we'll catch up on that sleep. Dad and such aina is still in the US survey. Celebr celebrating Passover. Today's the last day, isn't it?

Adina:

Today is the last day for Americans. This is confusing, but if you live in Israel, you have only one day of the holiday, and if you live in America, you have two.

Diane:

Okay,

Adina:

So Diana and myself are recording today, even though like my whole family can't use electricity or do any of the stuff,

Diane:

you said that and I was like, oh, you get a pass. You get a pass today for the.

Adina:

It's weird. Um, so it's been weird. It's our first time in America for a holiday since we moved to Israel, so it is definitely weird. I think it's a little confusing for my kids, but they're doing okay. They're troopers.

Diane:

and they get to be by the beach, but I understand it wasn't the beach weather that you were hoping for, unfortunately.

Adina:

Yeah, the, the ho We're actually, we're in a hotel in Florida and it's a great place for kids because there's like a really fun water park on the premises and a like kitty water park, like mini's had so much independence and just been like, frolicking free in this water and going down these slides, however, it rained cats and dogs for the three out of four days that we're here. So today was beautiful sunny weather. Now the storm's rolling in again, I think.

Diane:

know someone who actually canceled her trip to Miami last minute to instead go to Vegas after she saw the forecast was abysmal.

Adina:

Yeah, this was actually like crazy. Like, I don't know what happened here, but Fort Lauderdale airport is like underwater right now. Like they canceled every, all my family is supposed to fly out tomorrow morning. They've already, it's at like 11:00 AM today. They already canceled flights for tomorrow morning, cuz they need to get the airport out from

Diane:

Team. We had some similar situation here. There's my, one of my favorite parks where I like to walk the dogs is underwater. And I was going to go to a community hot girl walk. If you're in Grand Rapids, hot girls Walk, grand Rapids, I think it's hot. Girls walk gr if you wanna look them up on Instagram. And they had to cancel one because it is underwater. So I escaped instead to another scenic, beautiful part of the Midwest Chicago, one of my favorite cities. It's like a few hours away and it was 80 degrees there. I packed light cash mirror thinking, okay, it's middle of April, we're gonna be warm. No, I had, I had to buy tank tops feel bad for me. I was sweaty. So that was, that was real fun. So I guess we both had a little bit of a spring break of sorts. I was there because my childhood bestie, who I see literally once a year, if we're lucky, Was there for work and she told me like the week before and I said, okay, I'm crashing your hotel room because while you're working I'll work during the day and then we'll bop around Chicago and eat all the yummy things.

Adina:

So cute.

Diane:

Yes. So fun. So, okay, what are you consuming there? Is it nice to not have to cook?

Adina:

It is nice. It is nice to not have to cook. And if you listen to our pass, our episode around Passover time last year, I talked a little bit about the Passover programs. And so we're on another Passover program this year, which basically, it's similar to like a cruise, like it's kind of like all you can eat, all you can drink, lots of activities for the kids, that type of thing. And so it's been really fun. We're with my whole family. The food has been amazing. Like the food is really good and people always ask, oh, like how do you eat the food on these things? And we've definitely done episodes before about traveling and making decisions in restaurants and things like that. And so I always, as always, Prioritize proteins, prioritize carbs. And I look for things that are like, you have to know that you're outsourcing your health when you outsource food like this. And most things are gonna be cooked in really shitty oils, but you can avoid really saucy things. You can avoid deep fried things

Diane:

that part. The deep

Adina:

decisions for your health. Um,

Diane:

steamed and grilled. I know we have some more tips and some of our travel episodes, but there are ways to hack it. Like don't think that because you can't be perfect that you can't travel. No, no.

Adina:

Yeah. And we've been feeling pretty good. I mean, the protein is abundant, which is lovely. And me and my brother have been joking that this is like a chicken program because like they are excellent at cooking chicken. Like there's been these like s

Diane:

that's like what I don't order when I go to, we went to this lovely French restaurant in Chicago that just opened up that people are so psyched about called Less Select and it's sexy inside. Right. But there was something like a half chicken. I was like, skip. I went straight to looking at like the meat, the duck. They had a duck with orange scallops. Like that's what I'm about. But chicken, they have a chicken program.

Adina:

The chicken has been so good. They've been like smoky whole chickens and like really yummy, really yummy chicken. Um, but yeah, the meats have been good and the fruit is abundant. And I don't know if anyone's seen that meme that was like when, like when you're having kids and everyone tells you the diapers are gonna be expensive, but nobody tells you about the fruit budget cuz

Diane:

Yeah.

Adina:

kids can put away fruit and if Yeah. But like, it's obviously because their metabolisms are so high and their need for carbs is

Diane:

They're running around at the water park.

Adina:

through the roof. But yeah, my kids have been tearing through the fruit and it's been so nice to have someone else just. Cutting up fruit all the time for them.

Diane:

Mm-hmm.

Adina:

So I'm gonna have to like, they're gonna have a big come down from the abundance of just like, you know, more, please. It's just like ev the fruit is just available for them.

Diane:

More please. I've been really into my travel snacks, which if you follow me on Instagram, you saw on, on the train. I had my book. I finished a good book there. I brought my soft, juicy mango and beef sticks. Like that's my thing. And a little like photo shoot thing. Freelance

Adina:

I ask you a question about soft mango and beef stick?

Diane:

Yes. Like is it weird? I don't put them both in my mouth together.

Adina:

Love it. Love those both as travel options, but at a point. Don't you feel like I need something crunchy?

Diane:

Oh yeah. And so I usually have something like plantain chips, which I also

Adina:

Okay. Okay. Okay. You didn't mention that.

Diane:

Yeah, I mean, they're all kind of snacks in my backpack, but

Adina:

Yeah. Like I can't do dried fruit and dried meat.

Diane:

like it's chewy.

Adina:

like, yeah, I need like a rice cake or like something else that crunches along with that.

Diane:

Yeah, something that crumbles. So I had, I brought some with me to a photo shoot this morning. I did a little bridal look and it was for a spa, and they also had me model a neck massage in a back massage. So literally just facing the hole while they directed this actual masseuse through massaging my back, I'm like, oh my gosh, this is the best. Like photo shoot, gig modeling, gig. Um, but as far as notable foods, cause we haven't recorded since before we recorded, before Easter, uh, I don't really observe. Like I grew up Catholic and did that whole thing, but now it's more of a, an excuse for me and my friends to just, um, grill things. Lamb, like eat Cadbury eggs, the occasional Cadbury egg. So we went to another friend's house and they did lamb chops, really? Herby, like on the like grill, smoke them. Incredible. And like I, I knew what she was going to make, but the way everything came together was perfection. So lamb chops, that was what our host did. And then I did thiso with lemon and a yogurt dressing in mint. It's from Allison Roman. I think it's called Unfussy Food Cookbook. I'll link it in the show notes because I'm really liking it. It's great for weeknights, great for casual entertaining, but I also brought over this green goddess butter, like really Herby butter roasted radishes. And it's just, it's very, very simple, but the taste is so sexy. We were all just raving about radishes and butter. Classic French little dishy.

Adina:

I think roasting radishes is one of the most underrated roasted vegetables

Diane:

I mean, normally I like it raw. Yeah. But I love'em roasted. I like a lot of raw apps, but that one, I, I really prefer the roasted with the butter. It's just so, so you literally just smeared all over the plate. That's also in Allison Roman's book, but pretty simple to do. And then she did like roasted potatoes, chimi, chewy, and she had some other sauce. But anyway, everything went together so well down to the bitter of the ridicule with a yogurt dressing, like obsessed. So we couldn't stop talking about, this is so yummy.

Adina:

I love that. That was like us in, when we were tra, when we were, you were in Tel Aviv, we were just like, this is so yummy.

Diane:

Speaking of, I still have my salt from when we had that big, beautiful ribeye and prime rib together. I had it in my supplement container in Chicago. So I whip out my container to take my supplements. And we talked about this on our Tel Aviv recap by the way. And I still had the flaky salt from when Adina and I went out to eat. Because one thing that Tel Aviv does very right, is lots of flaky salt for you to finish your dish.

Adina:

They get it. And I have been needing that. Last, last time we did this trip, I forgot that I brought sea salt with me and I forgot this time. And we are in Florida, so the orange juice has been abundant, but I am really feeling the lack of salt.

Diane:

Yeah, you need some minerals, no Gatorade, but minerals to keep up with those kids. And did the trip travel stress of it all

Adina:

Traveling is no joke.

Diane:

with little kids? I mean, I'm like, I'm not pressed, but I also don't have three. I don't have three kids.

Adina:

Oh my god, guys. All right. So,

Diane:

anything like media wise or has there been no time?

Adina:

one thing.

Diane:

Well, I need you to

Adina:

I'm anticipating things. Can I say what I'm anticipating?

Diane:

please. Cause I wanna know if our list align,

Adina:

Okay. Well, you know, Matt, David and Ben Affleck, like the best ever have made another movie together and it is called Air and it is about like

Diane:

like H E I R

Adina:

no, a i r, like Michael Air Jordan. Like Nike, yeah.

Diane:

I wasn't aware.

Adina:

So yeah, if you are a Goodwill Hunting fan, this is like the first time they've worked together since, and Donnie and I are clamoring to get to the theater,

Diane:

Damon or Ben Affleck. Which one?

Adina:

probably Ben Affleck.

Diane:

Really? Oh, I picked Matt Damon Harp. It's the back tattoo on Ben Affleck and the fact that he's married to Jennifer Lopez and I just,

Adina:

Oh, when I was saying Ben Affleck, it was like in the nineties. I wasn't like thinking like re, you know, now.

Diane:

I dunno. I think I'd still choose Matt Damon any era. Let us know. Y'all, Ben Affleck or Matt Damon have to pick one. His back. Ben Affleck's back piece is Ooh is something. Um, well, okay. Also out to your list beef starring Ali Wong and Steve Yu. And you have to, it's on Netflix.

Adina:

Okay. Will do. I mean, our list is ever growing right now and we haven't even had a moment. I mean, I don't think Donnie and I have like spoken to each other all week, let alone like sat down and watched a film together.

Diane:

Let alone have time to poop. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Okay.

Adina:

something,

Diane:

Well I hope you get some downtime soon. If you have to run

Adina:

for me.

Diane:

well, shall we get into it? We got a lot to get into this next installment, if we'll call it that, of our, of our pregnancy series. Does a postpartum episode still fit into our pregnancy series?

Adina:

Oh, absolutely.

Diane:

Yes. It's been a minute.

Adina:

I love talking about the postpartum season and I think specifically because not enough people are talking about it and it's crazy. It's so crazy. So first thing I wanna say is if you have gone through the postpartum season in any capacity on your own and felt like, whoa, I'm drowning. This is impossible and no one's talking about it, I am so sorry that you had that experience. We are here to talk about it and know that you are not alone. And if it felt really, really freaking hard, it's cuz it is. And hopefully we will provide you some tactical

Diane:

Tactical, practical stuff.

Adina:

tactical, practicals, um, ways to approach the season support. So if you've already been through this season, if you plan to go through this season again, if you have a friend who is anticipating pregnancy is pregnant, even if you are, none of those things, if you. Can listen to this episode and share it with someone who might be, or just get this conversation going more because, man, we got words and we need people to hear them.

Diane:

Yes. Yes, completely. And as I mentioned, this is part of our pregnancy series, so we'll li we'll link all of those for you in the show notes. We started in season two at like episode 47, but we have everything from how to get off of the pill, how to catch a baby, or tips for a preconception through every trimester. And now we get to talk about the fourth trimester. And like Adina was saying, this is for you if you are planning ahead, or if you're recently postpartum, or if you're not so recently postpartum, like three years, three years out, because you are still postpartum. But I

Adina:

if you're three years out and did not actively take care of yourself in the postpartum season, you still need to do this work.

Diane:

because pregnancy is a very expensive time, nutritionally and mentally, emotionally, and so we need to bring some attention to how to restore that balance afterwards. I've seen it many times where clients maybe had their first three years ago, now they're preparing for their next pregnancy, or they're just feeling so depleted because they didn't have the opportunity to really spend time on that postpartum nourishment. But I also wanna say that this episode is for you too, if you are postpartum because of miscarriage or if you are postpartum after abortion. Some I think, I mean, it's already not talked about enough postpartum, but especially in those scenarios, if pregnancy has ended in one way or another, you are still postpartum.

Adina:

Yeah. Whether or not pregnancy results in a baby, we still need to be thinking about all of this. Replenishment for mom.

Diane:

Yeah. And too often, I mean, we've heard it from clients, like maybe they experience some kind of a, a loss and then the doctor's like, okay, you should be good to go try again, like in a

Adina:

Yeah. Try again.

Diane:

yeah, they love to say that, Ugh, it enrages me. But either way, we wanna talk about how to love on your body in this season of life. And, um, even if you're very out of this season, listen and share. Once again, we always appreciate that and love hearing from you in the dms when you're like, I share this with friends and family. We just got a, a review from someone. Did you see?

Adina:

No, you wanna read

Diane:

Yes. Oh, I already, I have it queued up here. So thank you. Her name was Jody. Jody left us a review. We love you. Jodi says so much great info, shares in an entertaining, and it got cut off. But she says, I really think there's something for everyone. I've learned a ton and taken away so many practices to implement in my daily life. And I love the What are you consuming segment? Oh, yay. She said, I've shared many episodes with friends and family. This podcast never disappoints

Adina:

Oh, Jody,

Diane:

you the best. You're the best. Jodi, w n.

Adina:

We love you Jody.

Diane:

yes, yes,

Adina:

We have so many clients who come to us after. number one, baby number two, even baby number three. And we realize that they have not taken care of themselves properly at any point since before pregnancy, the first one. And we look at their H T M A and it's like all their minerals are just bottomed out.

Diane:

That's their hair and tissue mineral analysis. If you're, if you're new, I haven't heard it

Adina:

yeah, and maybe you've had this experience where you had one baby and everything went smoothly and you had no trouble getting pregnant. And then you try to get pregnant with baby number two, and all of a sudden, like all these things are arising, like secondary infertility. Or maybe you have your second baby and then all of a sudden you get diagnosed with something like Hashimotos or another autoimmune disease and you think to yourself, well, I've never had this issue before, like, what's going on? And we need to be very honest about the toll that pregnancy and birth have on our body. And especially if you had no support in the postpartum season. And that was extremely stressful too. So, It, it really does a number on your mineral balance, your metabolism. Like we need to actively be replenishing and restoring all of these things in order to feel really good and you can feel really good if you're a per. We had a question, um, in our question box before a previous episode about like how, if you're a mom, people just assume you're supposed to be exhausted and feel like garbage all the time and you can thrive in the postpartum season. You just really need to actively take care of yourself.

Diane:

Yes. And when we talk about how pregnancy, birth, postpartum are nutritionally, minerally very expensive. Yes. And how you need to take, put attention into feeling good to replenish yourself. Yes. But that doesn't mean that you need to be getting into the nitty gritty. This really complicated, all out Gotta be perfect plan. That's why we're here to distill that for you and, and break it down, because we don't want you throwing all those minerals out the window for, for nothing. We're trying to put those back in their place. Yeah.

Adina:

I also just wanted to mention this meme, which maybe we can find it, but, um, you know what, I can't like think of the wording of it now, but the point is when you are pre, if you go the conventional route for prenatal care and postpartum care, you are pregnant and you go to a doctor once a month for nine months, and then in the last month or so you go like every week.

Diane:

That's what I hear.

Adina:

Yes, you have been to the doctor upwards of 13, 14 times throughout your pregnancy, and then you have a baby and you go one time at six weeks postpartum and then never again. Maybe like,

Diane:

That's it. Goodbye.

Adina:

yeah. It's just sending this message loud and cleared in our society that when you are pregnant we care about you. And then when you are postpartum, you're on your own, sweetie.

Diane:

That's the business of birth.

Adina:

Yeah.

Diane:

Isn't that a documentary?

Adina:

Yes. So well, there's the business of birth control and then there's the business of being born is the other one. I

Diane:

Mm

Adina:

the point is they're all businesses.

Diane:

They're like, how could we squeeze every last set out of you in this delivery? Ooh, I think I just saw a bunny rabbit. Is that the Easter Bunny coming to lay an egg in my.

Adina:

All right. Onward.

Diane:

Onward. Can you tell that my office is via a window onward? So things that you might have been told for your postpartum recovery, most of which we

Adina:

Can't wait to hear this

Diane:

Yeah. You go into that six week check and they say, kk, you can, uh, have sex and go work out now. And

Adina:

back to CrossFit.

Diane:

Yeah. Go back to CrossFit and having sex. He, he, and then they run out of the room dramatization. But basically, basically, did they say that to you too?

Adina:

Yeah. That's pretty much it. And then they say, what form of birth control are you gonna.

Diane:

That Yes.

Adina:

and they say, here's our pamphlet on the pill. I'd love to get you back on the pill. And then

Diane:

Or they really want that

Adina:

get back on the pill. And they say, oh yeah, if you're not gonna get pregnant for a while again, then they say, should we do the I U D? And then you say, I'd really rather not. And then they say, well, then you're probably gonna get pregnant and die. Just letting you know.

Diane:

And if that sounds unfamiliar to you or you don't know how to deal with that one, we just did a how to talk to your Dumb Doctor episode. They're not all dumb, but you can definitely employ some of the phrases that we give to you in that episode for that six week check. So those are probably the most common is you're good to go six weeks, you can go back to working out whatever that is, even though you're still very much healing and a very freshly postpartum and yeah, you can have sex and get on birth control. Are there any other things that are like commonly that come to mind?

Adina:

no, because that's all they have time to say to

Diane:

That's all that.

Adina:

minutes they come in. So that's what they do. And if you're new here, All that is there's a few things I wanna say right off the bat about postpartum recovery. Okay? Number one, you don't have to wait till you're six weeks to do any movement. But that being said, don't be a hero. And that's gonna be a big theme of this episode because

Diane:

And movement by exercise, right? Like you should probably wait at least six weeks to have sex. And then I, I know from clients, many of them do not want to, wouldn't even think to do that before then

Adina:

yes. And again, you are prerogative, but let's talk about why we are having sex and let's focus on healing. And mom getting what she needs. Feeling comfortable in her body. Like this season is, should be very focused on the mother of this baby recovering. Yeah. Um, and another thing I wanna mention here too is I've had many clients say to me, Oh, you know, I know you always recommend pelvic floor physical therapy, but I'm fine. Like I haven't had any issues and my OB told me everything looks good down there. So I wanna say very loud and clear. For those of you who go to that six week checkup and your OB says Everything looks good down there. It looks like it's healing down there. Your OB G Y N is not a pelvic floor physical therapist and does not know very much about the pelvic floor, if

Diane:

And they're seeing you on your back, like not seeing you move about your day and hearing all of the intricacies of that.

Adina:

Yes. So just because the stitches that they gave you look like they're healing well does not mean that. Stitching those tissues didn't impact the function of your pelvic floor. How your bladder interacts with that, how your anal sphincters interact with that. Even just the movement of that scar. Like she's not looking to see if that scar is like really stuck and just like impacting the function of the opposite side of your pelvic floor and that's what's causing your back pain or that's what's causing your neck pain. Or you know, like there's a lot more to this picture than your OB is seeing. So do not take their advice to mean that you should not see a pelvic floor

Diane:

I mean,

Adina:

please see a pelvic floor physical therapist always in forever.

Diane:

We actually had a couple of questions. Someone asked. Is PE is pelvic? Physical therapy like a good thing or is this like more of a trend or a hype thing? If it's trending, I am happy about it. Because this sounds like a non-negotiable that, that all y'all need. If you, if you are taking human from out inside your body to the outside of your body,

Adina:

Yeah, whether that's vaginal or not, even if you had a C-section, you need to see a pelvic floor, physical therapy. It should be a standard of care. Like you need to go to pelvic floor physical therapy. It absolutely should be a standard of care. It's ridiculous that it's not, and it's ridiculous that it's like hard to get referrals in some cases. Even just, I didn't know I was gonna go on this pelvic floor PT rant so early in the

Diane:

You did it. I could have seen it

Adina:

Yeah, I know, right?

Diane:

Go for

Adina:

I mentioned postpartum health, I'm like, let's go. Okay. I'm just gonna give you a little glimpse. We are gonna do an entire episode on like movement and approach to training in the postpartum season

Diane:

It's a little prime.

Adina:

you guys know I have way too much to say and I am putting out an entire program around this. Like, yes, just important to know off the bat when you have a baby in your. Your body changes quite a bit to shift to compensate for that shifting load in front of your body. So one of the major things that happens, especially later in pregnancy, is that your ribs they spread out to the side. And your diaphragm flattens the breathing muscle that's inside your ribcage. At the bottom of your ribcage, it flattens. And so that entire function shifts and your diaphragm and your pelvic floor mirror each other and they send pressure to one another. And so even if the baby did not come out of your vag, your diaphragm has been impacted by the space

Diane:

I was just laughing. It's out of your badge. Like sometimes you're so clinical and you're like, but baby didn't come out of your snatch,

Adina:

You know, that's what makes this

Diane:

your front

Adina:

fun. You never know what you're going to get.

Diane:

I actually threw my baby up outta my mouth.

Adina:

Could you imagine? Oh my God. Anyways, no matter how, yes, no matter how this baby emerged from inside of you, your diaphragm has been impacted, like as simple as that. We need to see a pelvic floor physical therapist. We need to get things just moving and groove in the right way again.

Diane:

Mm-hmm. Yes. When you said that, um, Your OB can say everything looks good down here. As a remind of this TikTok, where this resident, a male resident, they pulled him aside and they're like, you know, when you do the breast exam, don't tell them Looks good. Just say this looks okay. All clear or something not like, Hmm. Looks good. You all got their breasts.

Adina:

Oh.

Diane:

Looks good. Okay, so first on your list, if you're making a mental list or you're taking notes, pelvic floor physical therapy, we like it, we love it. Let's talk about how we would approach postpartum recovery from the first days or first week home through food, lifestyle, all that jazz. And like Adina said, we're going to be doing other episodes on this. This is a bit of a, an appetizer, a little, a moose bouch on the postpartum front. So

Adina:

Yeah. Wait, I'm gonna answer your question, but also I need to say one more thing about pelvic floor physical therapy. Um, I

Diane:

won't let you finish. You're like, Kanye, me with your pelvic floor physical therapy.

Adina:

should I come back to this later in the episode? No, I have to

Diane:

Oh, is it a joke?

Adina:

it. No, no, no. Someone's thinking it. Um. Someone is wondering when they should go see their pelvic floor pt. And I think it's important to say that, and this has to do with the first days and weeks too, so it's not completely off topic. Um, one thing you wanna be careful about, especially when you're seeing a pelvic floor physical therapies therapist that you don't like for sure know the deal about them yet, you don't wanna go too, too early because things still shift and change while you're healing. And if you like run to go to PEs, pelvic floor

Diane:

Don't go running. Don't

Adina:

yeah. Don't run. If you go to pelvic floor physical therapy too early, that therapist, if they're not like really well versed in the whole deal, they may look at you and be like, oh, you got prolapse. And then you're gonna start spiraling and be like, oh my God, I have prolapse. But like, Your organs sit lower in the beginning and there's a healing phase and things like will kind of sort themselves out for a lot of people. Granted that you approach these early days of healing really well, so we're gonna get into that now, but I don't wanna give you an exact timeline cause it's gonna be different for everyone. But like don't see a pelvic PT the first two weeks that you're with your

Diane:

Right, because you should be laying down and someone asked, do we really need to stay two weeks laying in bed?

Adina:

Yes. I love lying down. I think people are not, yeah, people are not doing enough lying down in the postpartum season. Like I kind of like the tutu two approach where like the first two weeks you are in your bed. the second two weeks. The second two weeks you are on your bed. And the next two weeks you are near your bed. So in this approach, the first two weeks, like you really just wanna get up to use the bathroom. You want someone bringing you your food, you want passing you the baby. And I know this sounds really unrealistic

Diane:

I'm postpartum.

Adina:

Right, I know this sounds really unrealistic if you like don't have this kind of support normally, or if you don't have family nearby or you don't feel like you have the money to pay someone to help with your baby. But this is such a huge priority and will make such a big difference in your healing. If you can be off your feet for those first two weeks, let us not be heroes. Let us hear this a million times over because our society loves to. Like see a mom who had a baby three days ago be at her toddler's soccer game and then everyone comes over to you and is like, oh my God, didn't you have a baby three days ago? Like, you are super Mom, look at

Diane:

and about.

Adina:

You look amazing. Oh my God, I cannot believe you were

Diane:

like clenching her organs like to stay inside of her body, like

Adina:

she's still bleeding and like we're all just like, you're amazing. So like, hear this loud and clear. Get back in your damn bed. Okay.

Diane:

bitch, go

Adina:

not need to be a hero. You're still an amazing mom. Even if you're not zipper mom, like at the soccer game three days later, you know, just like get in your damn bed.

Diane:

Go to bed. Yes. I love that advice. And um, I know a friend was talking about how one of their best investments, and this is an investment and definitely one that you could do if you have the means, is to, she had an a night doula during the first like week or even just a couple of nights just to help so she could lay down. Um, but I know everyone's budget varies and that's, that's not as approachable for many

Adina:

But I wanna say about that, that like people through, okay, you are gonna hear my opinions about the postpartum season right now, so if you did anything that I'm about to list, like don't feel like I think you're stupid. I just think these things are stupid and like I'm just coming from a place of like, I just want us to take care of moms. And I think it's so stupid that we do these things and not that, so like we all have these like dumb baby showers where people get us a million presents and like we play these stupid games and have like catering and like whatever.

Diane:

lots of nursery

Adina:

Yeah, like if that's what you're about. Don't think I hate you. I just like, I'm so mad that that is so common to see on pictures of that on social media and like, we're not actually taking care of moms. So maybe. Pass on the baby shower or tell all your friends, don't get me dumb presents and make like a GoFundMe for a night doula or a night nurse or meal delivery or, you know, like whatever it looks like where you can allocate that budget for something else besides for like dumb baby industry stuff that you're never gonna use. Like you guys want my registry list? It's get yourself some kind

Diane:

it's at Chase Bank.

Adina:

yeah, get yourself some kind of baby carrier. Get yourself some kind of like DACA tot or like organic lounger for your baby. And that's it. That's all you need. You don't need any swings, you don't need any toys, you don't need like spend all that other money on supporting you in your healing season.

Diane:

Yes. Yeah. Taper community, which I know we're going to talk about here shortly. So first day's, first week home. What are some tips for new mamas newly postpartum listeners who want to figure out how to get some kind of sleep while they're also breastfeeding or feeding their baby?

Adina:

Okay. So this one, um, I don't think it's controversial, but sometimes when you talk about it on the internet, people are like, this is controversial. So if you've never

Diane:

You're in your bubble.

Adina:

Yeah. Uh, listen up, bed sharing is like life-changing. And by that, even just co-sleeping in general, I think the sleep training industry is so aggressive where people are like, from day one, you need to put your baby in their own crib, in their own room, and you have to give them the skills to put themselves to sleep. And I don't wanna talk about the

Diane:

give that baby its own alarm clock,

Adina:

Yeah, I don't wanna talk about the whole thing here like right now, but I do wanna say, especially in the early days, I think so many people are so scared to bring their baby into bed cuz like their pediatrician scares them and everything scares them and

Diane:

so the danger is that the baby will roll over or you'll roll over, Anna?

Adina:

right, that's what people think. Yes. However, all throughout human history, we have been sharing beds with our babies. And if this is the first time you're hearing this and you're like gasping and thinking that I'm gonna kill my babies, like just check yourself for a second. And what we really need more of is safe bed sharing education. And there are some amazing educators around co-sleeping. We can link some in the show notes. But there are ways to bed, share with your baby and feel totally safe doing it. And if you can combine that with the skill of sidelining nursing. You don't even have to open your eyes in the first few weeks when you're feeding your baby. Like you are still horizontal. You just like pop'em on the boob and everyone gets a whole bunch of sleep and it's amazing.

Diane:

Right on. Okay. So maybe you have some resources or something that you can share with them in the, in the share notes. Okay.

Adina:

And then another option also is like, personally I hate pumping. If you are breastfeeding, I think something really helpful. If you're really feeling desperate and like you're not getting the sleep you need, maybe you can try pumping one bottle and having a partner or a doula or someone else do one feeding so you can get like a little more sleep. Um, that could be really helpful. That's what I did with my other kids. I definitely did that with Mini because Donnie went back to work right away and he was outta the house for like 13 hour days and I was home alone with her and I did not have the kind of support I needed in that season. I would pump right before I went to sleep and he would do the next feeding cuz he was up late anyway. And then I was able to get like a good stretch even in those early days. So that can be really helpful.

Diane:

Yeah. Yeah. All the hacks.

Adina:

Mm-hmm.

Diane:

worth it. So we have to talk about community support if we're going to talk about postpartum recovery, whether that is enlisting family and friends, a combination of, or perhaps making that plan for some kind of doula support, night doula support. If you are someone who is like a hero, getting shit done all by yourself before you went into this, ooh, it's going to be a practice in letting people help you, but you deserve that help. And there are no trophies. Or like Adino was saying earlier, you don't need to be a hero now. This is the time to let people help you and to ask for it to

Adina:

Yeah, and I think along those lines, I just, this came into my head and I. Wanted to mention it is if the idea of lying in bed to you sound for two weeks sounds like terrifying. Um, it can be, you know, like it, you can feel kind of crazy. Like there's, there was definitely moments I was really, yeah, I was really strict about it. This go around, it also depends like what climate you live in and what season you gave birth in. But I was really strict with my two weeks in bed, this, this go around and I think it made a large impact on my physical healing. But there was definitely a point where I was feeling a little cabin fevery

Diane:

Donny wheeled me outside,

Adina:

I have, I have like a window at my bedroom and thankfully it was really sunny when it, when Ori was born. So like I was able to look out the window and there were some crows who came to visit me, you know,

Diane:

they would've brought you presents if you're nicer to them,

Adina:

no, they were

Diane:

they could have watched your babies cuz they know that you don't want any gifts for orry. So they would, they could have brought, like, they could have, you know, been your little crow

Adina:

while I went to the bathroom. That's so nice. My crow doulas love that. Um, yeah, so like you definitely can go a little cuckoo and you should tell people that you're feeling that way and you know, maybe you can FaceTime with a friend or maybe you're a partner can hang out with you or whatever it is. Um, maybe you have like a show you really wanted to binge that, like, this is a great time to do that. But

Diane:

a friend who has seen several close friends, including you, like I remember I was eagerly anticipating like, when are we getting into the text or see more babies fam, like, what is a. Great way that we could like check in or help you feel loved on from afar, because obviously like going and helping if you're near a friend, but what is something that you would've liked or that you appreciate from friends and, and people close to you.

Adina:

yeah, so I think that's a great question. I think, like I said, checking in, like texting someone like. Do you want to talk? Do you wanna FaceTime? Do you need a friend? Because sometimes that might feel really overwhelming or like, I can't find time to do that. And

Diane:

Yeah. We're like, oh, I don't wanna get on the phone.

Adina:

yeah, but sometimes it might feel really nice if you're like lonely. Especially something fun has been because of the time zone difference. Like my assistant coach Veronica just had a baby also, and I was like, you can text me at 3:00 AM if you're feeding your baby. Cause I'll be up, you know, like, so that's kind of fun.

Diane:

Like, maybe your other parent friends are up anyway.

Adina:

yeah. Uh, so that can be, that can be nice. And then we're gonna talk more about this too, but food, you know, food is the most important thing after you have a baby. So maybe it's like, you know, a gift card to the meal delivery service. Like

Diane:

A meal

Adina:

to them. Yeah. If you are local to them, hopping on like their meal train and cooking nourishing foods for them, if that's something you can do. But if, again, if you're not local, don't think you can't help with food like, You can send a gift card to their local delivery service.

Diane:

restaurant,

Adina:

Yeah,

Diane:

for takeout for their partner to pick up takeout. Like those are always to feed from afar. I love that. Or, um, maybe packing, like I'm our, I'm thinking of some postpartum gifts for a couple friends that are expecting right now, like maybe putting together like a postpartum snacky basket.

Adina:

Mm.

Diane:

Ooh. That could be.

Adina:

Yeah. If any of our listeners know of great delivery services that like use nourishing ingredients and, you know, package up any kind of foods, goodies, that type of thing, let us know, because we're always looking for resources.

Diane:

And there's so many out there. Uh, balanced bites is pretty good. They are heavy on the protein.

Adina:

You don't think they're low carb

Diane:

They are kind of, so when I have had clients order theirs, I always tell them to add, add their carb of choice. Yes. At at least because some of them are like cauliflower rice and I'm like, maybe we skip that one in that box if you're able to build a box. Yeah. There are always, there are all kinds of different deliveries. I know there are some that are regional, uh, that some of my clients like, but we'd love to hear what you have tried, if you have one that you like. Daily harvest is also great for smoothies, if you like smoothies. But I'm also one of those like, that's not enough and that's one where you have to add something to it. But for getting in like fruit and something drinkable like lovely, especially for those who are giving birth in the summer, like something to cool you off. Mm-hmm.

Adina:

It's funny cuz like a lot of people eat only warm foods like an Ayurvedic thing. Like they only eat warm foods after birth. But like, sometimes you're just sweating and you don't want any more super stew and like, it's fine to have cold foods, you

Diane:

Yeah. Warm nourishing foods. I know that's in Yeah, a couple of, um, yeah, like Ave approach

Adina:

If you didn't listen to our, like prepping for postpartum episodes, you definitely wanna do that. We'll link them in the show notes, but like also fill up your freezer even if you don't have friends local, like when you are throughout pregnancy, cuz things can freeze for a long time. So

Diane:

squirrel it away.

Adina:

when you're in that second trimester, you feel like you have all the energy in the world, like fill that freezer up, you know? Um, but

Diane:

And then say off limits, if there's anyone in your household is like, Ooh,

Adina:

get some post-its and label them postpartum. Um, another thing I wanted to say about that is that if, like, I live in a community now where the meal trains are really amazing and people are wonderful at volunteering to cook for people even though they're not close with or don't really know.

Diane:

was gonna ask that because surely there are people who are not nec, like their family doesn't live close, or maybe they're not close with their family. Like what are they to do? Can they, like, can people set up meal trains if they don't have many loved ones or people close to them to bring them food? Is that a weird question? I don't know.

Adina:

Yeah, our community happens to be really great at it. But one thing I wanna say is if you live in a community where they are wonderful with the meal trains and like people sign up for a month of bringing you food, a lot of those meal trains are only for one meal. Like it's for dinner and like I eat five meals a day when I'm postpartum. So like

Diane:

I eat a dozen eggs by lunch.

Adina:

Yeah. What I like to do when I sign up for someone's meal train, if like I'm signing up and it's just like, would you rather me bring you dinner two months from now? Or can I come over and bring you breakfast or lunch tomorrow? You know, like sometimes don't feel limited by the structure of the meal train. You can still text someone and ask them like, do you want breakfast or lunch or something for the freezer the day after you gave birth instead of four weeks from now? You

Diane:

right? Yeah. Like if it's all booked up, there's still options. Obviously we have to talk about movement and exercise postpartum. I mean, we touched on what you're not going to do and we've touched on pelvic floor physical therapy, but you mentioned earlier like you're not about strict no movement under six weeks. So what are some basics that they can, they should think about?

Adina:

Yeah, I, I did a real, like right after RI was born that maybe we'll repost on our feed on the G Y S T feed, but about how like six weeks everyone says like, oh, just like six weeks. And then you just, you're cleared for exercise, but like in my mind, six weeks is too late to get started and you sh if you haven't started doing any movement before six weeks, like don't feel guilty. It's fine. You can still get back to it and support your body really well. But those first six weeks, we can do so much for our central nervous system for getting our body to learn to communicate as a unit again, because in that postpartum season, if you follow me on Instagram, you've heard me say it before, like you just feel like a disconnected sack of potatoes walking around and we can slowly start to put the pieces back together. There's a lot that we can do. Before we are stressing our pelvic floor and a thing that I think a lot of people do not just in the postpartum season, in kind of like all walks of fitness, we see walks as this like low barrier to entry thing where we're like, oh, I'll just go for a walk. Like that's great movement, it's great exercise and it is great. But when your organs are like falling out of your front hole

Diane:

Maybe your

Adina:

hole and your back hole,

Diane:

What's the middle hole? Your belly button.

Adina:

no, the front hole is peepee and the middle is like your vagina.

Diane:

Oh, I've been calling my vagina in my front hole. My front pocket, if you

Adina:

You know, there's another hole. Diane,

Diane:

Yes, yes. I'm not one of those boys who are like, oh, well, how do you pee if you have a tamp on it?

Adina:

what is, um, Alana? I think Alana has a really

Diane:

she had a piece and she had some weed in her front pocket. She called her front

Adina:

That is right. That's what she

Diane:

And they're like, did she just pull out it? She's like, yeah, my front pocket.

Adina:

That's what she says also, which is

Diane:

Yeah.

Adina:

Um, anyways,

Diane:

So how do you get your pelvic floor in your Virginia to respond?

Adina:

Um, yeah, so if you just start going for walks, especially if it's way too soon, if you're going to your kid's soccer game at four days postpartum and, and especially if you are Jewish and are walking to a briss, cuz that's happened to me. I had two, my, both my boys had their briss on either like Shabbat or Yom Tov. And so I had to walk to them and it's too soon to be going for a walk set, eight days postpartum. You gotta be really conscious of the support. Like don't wear heels if you like. Don't do that. Um,

Diane:

now.

Adina:

yeah, it's like really crazy, but. The thing is that we see these walks as like, oh, the walk is for my mental health. It's such a low barrier to entry to start getting movement.

Diane:

Now, could someone put you in a carriage

Adina:

Yeah, sure. Let's do

Diane:

wheel you around?

Adina:

me around. Um, it's a lot of pressure on your pelvic floor to have your whole body weight be standing, especially if you're baby wearing. Like, don't do that. And sometimes it's a necessity. I get it. If you have no help, if you're alone, again, try to budget for help. Please try to budget for some support. But if it's really, really not possible, Let's just make sure that we are sitting down in between and we are not pushing it and we are not on our feet for too long. We gotta sit, we gotta do our breath work. But again, to answer the original question of just like what do we do between zero to six weeks postpartum? We wanna focus on a few things, okay? We want a basic approach to regaining some mobility in certain places that we have locked up. So for example, the upper back, if you're hunched over nursing and you were hunched over because your boobs started growing like crazy and your belly was growing in front of you and you had no idea how to like adjust your body to that load and to the lack of core structure, we wanna be thinking about some mobility in the upper. We wanna be thinking about some mobility at the hips, mobility at the pelvic floor because a lot of us give birth to a baby and then all of a sudden we start clenching and tucking our butt hole for dear life cuz we're trying to like hold our organs in and we think that's protecting our low back, especially while we're baby wearing. Cuz we're not. We really shouldn't be doing that. So early on our pelvic floor can't handle that load. So anyways, we make a lot of these compensations in those early days. Here's what I want you to be thinking about. I want you to be thinking about breathing. Okay? Just breathing. Some of us are holding our breath when after that baby's born, we wanna be getting in these deep diaphragmatic breasts where we start to move our ribcage and get expansion in our upper back and expansion in our pelvic floor. And then on our exhales, we wanna be thinking about gently starting to reconnect to our core. And so that looks like we don't wanna be doing these like forced hard exhales that we were used to doing beforehand. If you had that training, if you were in something like S C H H, we want these to be more gentle in those early days and just try to find our abs. Yeah, just like slow, try to reconnect, try to feel some lift in our pelvic floor. You shouldn't be trying to like lift your pelvic floor through your throat in the beginning. We're not like, it's not like, oh, my pelvic floor was impacted. Now I'm gonna just like keel my way to health. Like

Diane:

No. And we don't love key goals. Key goals alone? No.

Adina:

no. So again, breath work, gentle reconnection to the. Gentle mobility in the first few weeks that can happen in your bed. Like you're lying on your back, you're feeding your baby breathe. Use your baby as feedback. Use your pillow as feedback like, are, am I feeling my breath expand into the back of my pillow? Am I feeling my pelvic floor relax a little bit

Diane:

Well, that's a good cue. Instead of, am I taking that deep breath and my shoulders are coming up and taking these shallow breaths versus into where you were just describing that it needs to go.

Adina:

yeah, even side lying and just doing some gentle T-spine rotations, like opening up your arm. But again, you wanna be careful with that cause you also don't wanna be like tugging on your core if you're not used to, um, now how things feel. So.

Diane:

Mm-hmm.

Adina:

I will cover all of this in my upcoming postpartum program and we will put the link to the wait list in the show notes if that's something you're interested in. But we can do so much for reconnecting our body, reconnecting our core, reconnecting our diaphragm and our pelvic floor in those early days. Like it doesn't have to be just wait around and hope your organs don't fall out, you know?

Diane:

Just cross your fingers and clench your butt hole and just hope for the best. It's a question for you. So I know that timelines and what this gentle movement looks like varies ba based on, you know, body to body. Um, but might this return to movement and that progression that you described be different for someone who, uh, is postpartum as a result of having a baby or, uh, or compared to someone who had miscarriage, had an abortion

Adina:

Great question. And it can be really different because in those other, in those latter two cases of pregnancy loss, And again, I'm using the term pregnancy loss to cover pregnancy ending for any reason. Um, in those cases you have the ability to get more sleep because you are not taking care of a baby after all of it. And so we can accelerate that timeline a little bit. It also depends how late in the pregnancy was their loss. So yeah, so

Diane:

not be six weeks, or it can be mu, it can be much earlier than maybe those other scenarios.

Adina:

yeah, we still wanna be conscious of all those things because in both those cases, like there was still change in the hormones, there was still change in the physiology, there was still shifting in the anatomy. And so we still wanna be really cognizant of reconnecting properly. Especially, it depends how the pregnancy ended, you know, was there DNC was like, it can be really different in different cases and. In those cases, we still want to seek out pelvic floor physical therapy, especially because we've talked about this before in other pelvic floor episodes. But so much of what happens in our pelvic floor has to do with our nervous system. And in the case of abortion or the case of miscarriage, the nervous system can be really largely impacted. Like that can be a huge trauma. Yeah, so we really wanna consider that and consider the impact on the pelvic floor. And again, you wanna see a pelvic floor PT who is sensitive to these issues and is going to support your choices no matter what your choices were. So

Diane:

Yeah.

Adina:

can be a big piece of the puzzle.

Diane:

but those populations totally need to consider postpartum training, postpartum movement, or programs that specialize in postpartum, so would also be good candidates for your postpartum training program.

Adina:

Yes. I wanna say one thing about that, though it does depend on the culture and the environment of the group. And so I have had someone who went through pregnancy loss and reached out to me about my postpartum membership that's currently going on, and I was very honest with them and said like, yes, you need all of these things, but I just want you to know, I want you to note the head space that you are in, because currently all of the women in that group are sharing photos of their babies are talking about, you know, their sleepless nights. And so if that environment is not gonna be supportive to your healing, then I would encourage you to seek out a program that is more supportive. So that was just kind of like the reality of the current group that's in there. And so, you know, not that they're not sensitive to it. It's not top of mind for them. They're celebrating this thing that happened to all of them. So you just need to be cognizant of the culture that you're getting yourself into.

Diane:

totally. So someone asked, when do you know if you've done too much physically?

Adina:

Yes, so definitely bleeding can be a really good indicator, like if you are still bleeding, you wanna be conscious of what you are doing. And if bleeding slows down and then you start implementing some movement or some training and then bleeding picks back up again, that is a clear sign that you have done too much and your body's not ready to tolerate that. So yeah, look at that. And then things like pain, exhaustion, those are places to investigate as well. If you are doing too much too soon.

Diane:

Yeah. How are you recovering? Are you laid out afterwards? It's not a good sign. And you know, if we've listened to other movement episodes here that we don't see exhaustion or I'm so sore as a successful workout, especially if you are someone who's postpartum.

Adina:

I love that you mentioned that because soreness is definitely something you wanna consider. Certainly if you haven't moved in a while, you can be really sore from revisiting full range of motion patterns like that can totally happen as we start to build in our progressions. However, something I really consider in my training and with my postpartum athletes is we wanna make sure that our soreness from a workout isn't going to impact our ability to use our core and pelvic floor properly the next day when we're not training, but we're just going for a walk with our baby. Or you know, like they're, you want to make sure that your workouts don't make your life harder. They make your life easier.

Diane:

Yes, exactly. That's the money there. Now this is a little further than the timeline that we've just discussed. Now we're talking kind of like in the first couple of months after postpartum. But, um, I'll have people reach out and ask about functional lab testing that they can do because they've heard us talk about htma, the hair tissue mineral analysis, functional blood work, and maybe they heard about that early on in pregnancy and they had it on their mind. Now, I love that you are thinking of it and how you can replenish yourself, but this isn't something that I would have someone do right after, right after they have a baby. It could be too stressful. So certainly, I mean, in rare cases would I pursue a gi map, a stool test with someone one-on-one kind of recently postpartum. Um, but I would sooner see something like the hair and tissue men mineral analysis HT m a few months out because I really just want her to prioritize eating and sleeping when, where, how she can not getting after a protocol.

Adina:

Yeah, I, I wanna, actually, we had a question that I put later on in the outline, but I think it really fits here too. Someone asked me if I used any herbs in my healing phase here, and it's not that herbs aren't great and can't be really helpful for me, especially in the postpartum season. I am just such a minimalist with my health because there's so many, like, it's so hard to do things that I want the biggest bang for my buck things and I wanna make sure that I'm meeting my basic needs first.

Diane:

don't skip over breakfast to herbs, if

Adina:

Exactly. Like for me it's like meat, potatoes, minerals, like those are the things I'm focusing

Diane:

And the herbs might be parsley on top of that.

Adina:

Right. And like there are some wonderful herbalist. I know you had a great recommendation that we can pop in the show notes. Um, if it's something you guys are interested in, maybe we can have an herbalist come on as a guest on the show, but. Don't skip over calories for herbs. Like again, in the postpartum season. It's all about that minimalism. So like an H T M A can be really helpful. But do I need to see an H T M A to know that you're not getting nearly enough protein, you're not

Diane:

or that I know we need to work on our macro minerals. Like I know that by going through pregnancy there are gonna be certain thing patterns that I would expect to see generally on her, on her, um, labs afterwards. And also with herbs too. It's worth noting that there are. Many that are contraindicated if you plan on breastfeeding too, so that you wouldn't be able to use. There are some lovely adapts and some other things that an herbalist can walk you through. But I see those more of like a little further out in postpartum and it's a nice like adjunct to what I do with my one-on-one clients. I have an herbalist, I've referred several postpartum one-on-one clients too, and love how our approaches really compliment one another. Like I'm not saying one thing and then she's giving like, oh, you're gonna go vegetarian and take these herbs. Like, no, no, no. Um, so yeah, the basics are always gonna be important first, no, someone asked What are our thoughts on placenta encapsulations

Adina:

Yeah, I think that fits really well here too. Um, yeah, so you've never heard of this concept. You can eat your placenta, you can put it in pill form and just kind of pop those. Some people find like we've heard really wonderful anecdotal evidence of mood support, and that can be such a hinging point for people postpartum. Again, do I have a caddy? Take that most people are just not eating enough postpartum and like we can focus on calories and protein and carbs and some, you know, minerals that are really important to replenish postpartum. Yes. However, When it comes to the placenta, this thing is literally an organ that grew inside of you to nourish baby. So there's definitely tons of nutrients in those tissues, and if that's something you wanna do like you do, you can be really helpful. Again, there's tons of an anecdotal evidence

Diane:

A doula or midwife might do it for you. A doula friend of mine, she used to, um, encapsulate her client's placenta, but her, she was living with her dad at the time and he was like, yo, you, you gotta get your own pots and pans. You can't be doing, you can't be doing this, this

Adina:

Your witchcraft here.

Diane:

you, you're witchcraft in here in the pots. We're cooking our food.

Adina:

Yeah. So, um, personally, I did not encapsulate my placenta and I felt great in the postpartum season

Diane:

But could you sell it?

Adina:

well, it's actually

Diane:

I'm just being a troll. I'm

Adina:

Yeah, there's a lot of controversy. What I personally think is really beautiful is using your placenta. Like I love the idea that the placenta kind of like gave life to this baby. And I think it's really cool for like full circle, circle of life type thing, like using those nutrients to give back to the earth. Yeah. Like I know a lot of people who will plant a tree with their placenta and have that be like, what nourishes the soil? And then that tree is kind of like symbolic of that pregnancy. I think that's really beautiful. I don't currently have a forever home, so I don't have like a yard that I would do that in, but um, I think that could be really lovely. It's not that I think you shouldn't encapsulate your placenta, it's just like I didn't and I felt good.

Diane:

I am having deja vu. Did we talk about this? Sorry to interrupt you. I think we maybe did, but not on an episode. Cuz I was like, did you like pl plan it in the park or, or you're like, maybe I would fling it in the ocean.

Adina:

Yeah, maybe we did. Maybe we talked about it on our postpartum episode, which like I was blurry for that one. So Yeah.

Diane:

Sorry. I st came

Adina:

Maybe my birth story. I think we may have talked about it on my birth story.

Diane:

and I'm just like, can you sell it? Because I thought I heard that like

Adina:

Yeah.

Diane:

no. Maybe it's, maybe it's a hospital conspiracy theory that they take it and they sell it for like$30,000 but they won't let you have it.

Adina:

Yeah, man. Hospitals though. Um, yeah. So

Diane:

on

Adina:

have your babies at home and eat your placenta. You heard it here, folks.

Diane:

You don't have to do that.

Adina:

Yeah. Do you again, like can be supportive. Do you need it? No. Eat meat and potatoes.

Diane:

Meat and potatoes. One more placenta point here though. I had a client who dmd me and she said that her midwife told her that she had a quote, beautiful placenta

Adina:

They are quite beautiful. It's a really

Diane:

she had been nourishing herself like we had worked together I think, um, preconception during pregnancy and they're like, it's beautiful. What did you do? Nice job.

Adina:

Yeah. Good for you.

Diane:

Yeah. Yeah. So shall we get into some other miscellaneous listener q and a?

Adina:

Yeah, let's wrap him out.

Diane:

Yeah. We always say we're gonna do rapid fire, but let's see if Adina can get through this without going on a ramp. About pelvic floor physical therapy.

Adina:

I don't think I can, let's see if Adina can get through this before Ori wakes up screaming that he needs food

Diane:

Yes. Yes. So how to prepare for this. And I think they meant postpartum before conception. Well definitely see our how to catch a baby, our preconception episode because we go over all that there. Food stuffs. But um, I also put a note here, strength training. Strength strength training. I can't say it three times fast. That's another tongue twister for many.

Adina:

Strength training. Strength training. Strength training.

Diane:

Yes,

Adina:

yeah. Get your as strong. That's important.

Diane:

Make mineral deposits. I have, um, a lot of my one-on-one intensive clients. That's where we do h TMAs, functional blood work. They're doing both of those. Maybe we work together through root cause reset, because then we want to see how we wanna customize, customize their mineral plan so they can replenish minerals that they lost through stress, illness, whatever, and go into pregnancy super strong, strong as they can, um, for an even smoother postpartum. So those are some things we'd recommend. What hormones are doing, what I always hear, quote, it's just your hormones, but what is happening postpartum? In a nutshell, let's

Adina:

In a nutshell, I think the most important thing to note is that your progesterone like falls off a cliff when you give birth and progesterone. We love her just wonderful life giving hor hormone, pro gestation.

Diane:

makes you feel good.

Adina:

it makes you feel good. It makes you glowy. It makes those pregnancy nails so thick and that hair so thick, and

Diane:

Your curls were popping

Adina:

My curls were poppin. Every time I post a video from pregnancy, Diana's just like look at those curls.

Diane:

you're like, yeah, I was pregnant. I think you weren't. Yeah. You hadn't announced or weren't showing then, but they were popping. So progesterone falls up, cliff off a cliff, and it takes like a few days. Like it's not like an immediate thing.

Adina:

Yeah. And it slowly happens over time. And then prolactin increases, which is like the breastfeeding hormone, but that can shut down ovulation cuz your body is like, wait a minute, we gotta feed a baby and this is hard work. We need to make sure that this woman doesn't try to catch another baby right now. So we gotta protect her and make her feel very unsexy. Um, so if you just like go into the postpartum season and feel like, why do I feel so disgusting? Um, that's your body at work, sweetie.

Diane:

Just hormones are a shift.

Adina:

yeah, we did actually in our recent Love Day episode, we talked a lot about loving your. Or showing up for your body in different seasons. I think that can be really helpful in conjunction with a postpartum conversation. So I would go ahead and listen to that. And yeah, so basically progesterone falls off a cliff. Prolactins at work. Estrogen. If you had already had some estrogen issues prior, that may have kind of been covered up cuz you didn't really realize and maybe you were popping the pill and that was making the estrogen thing worse. once your progesterone falls off a cliff after pregnancy, like a lot of those estrogen issues can really come to light, especially if you are stressed out. You are not sleeping, you are mineral depleted. So we really wanna be mindful, um, we wanna be mindful of keeping estrogen in check and doing things to support the body to start producing progesterone again. And. Just trying to minimize stress on that body. So doing what you can do to get some sleep to love

Diane:

Regularly eating. That's why that's a huge thing because when you are getting feeling that those blood sugar crashes on top of not already sleeping well, that's going to affect mood, uh, postpartum or not if you're going long periods, but certainly in this season. So if we can lower that stress response by making sure that you are eating regularly, you're snacking, that's going to make a huge impact

Adina:

you know what would lower my stress response in the mornings postpartum. I needed Donnie to deliver me a hot chocolate to my mouth, like the moment I open my eyes. So like beautiful raw milk, maple syrup, cacao powder, collagen, immediately upon waking, um, sometimes eating throughout the night if you're nursing, so like dates and butter with some seasaw on top. That was

Diane:

know we have some of those snacks in our, um, birth or labor day episode for

Adina:

Yes. And then I was really into croissants early postpartum as

Diane:

Yeah. As you get all that, like flaky, buttery croissant in your bed,

Adina:

all over my bed, all over Ari's hair, like it was so good. Um, there's a bakery near us that makes a wonderful croissant. I ate a lot of those. I ate a lot of those. And we got one question about like breastfeeding and postpartum weight loss. Um, I don't wanna spend too much time on this and maybe we'll do an episode about it later on, but Donnie and I would joke, like I spent the first few weeks eating a croissant, like every day, and he was eating them also. And then I was like, I think I'm good. I don't think I need the croissants anymore. And then we were like, wow, we're gonna lose so much weight because we're no longer on the croissant diet. Um, but it is funny that like your calorie needs certainly. Increase. And I know there's fitness influencers who love to talk about how like your calorie needs don't necessarily increase, it's blah blah. But like stress is a huge reason to support your body with more calories too. Like yes, you are making milk for another human, so your calorie needs are very high. Um, but

Diane:

Yeah, and this is all, this is also not the time to lose weight. Like if you're freshly up,

Adina:

yeah. If you are supporting your stress response, like there are calories and nutrients that we do need in abundance to support that. So to sum up, like we've done episodes about like when to start thinking about structuring your macros a certain way or you know, if that's something that you want to do if you're looking towards physique goals, but early postpartum, not the season. You can be mindful of certain things. Like I think a lot of people gain a ton of weight because they're just like ravenous when they're nursing and they're stressed and they're not sleeping and they're not mindful of. What those calories are made out of. Like we need to be getting enough protein throughout the day. That's like a huge piece of it. If you are stressed and not sleeping and you are just craving butter and sugar, there's nothing wrong with that. But if that's all you're eating, you are going to store fat. It could be related to the estrogen thing and we aren't necessarily supporting the mood, the mental health, the blood sugar, the sleep, like the stuff that we need. Protein to support

Diane:

Yes, that's right. So we talked about blood sugar, we talked about stress. Talk about hormone health and now we're gonna talk about digestion a little bit. So if someone asks, could hormone changes cause colitis. Now I have a couple questions for you. Was this something that you experienced before pregnancy? And maybe it chilled out in the background for a little bit, maybe you felt good during pregnancy and now it's coming back. And I know at the top of this episode, Adina mentioned things like sometimes we so see postpartum people are dealing with new or returning autoimmune stuff or other symptom flares that they didn't have for a while. And colitis specifically can, it can start after encountering a virus or a pathogen. Uh, so. If you've heard our digestive health or our, uh, what is it? Friends with the monster inside of my gut, our parasite episode whenever we are dealing with foreign invaders, uninvited guests, autoimmunity. The root opportunity here is foundational digestive support. And I think the person who submitted this question, we worked together in the past to, so maybe digestion was going well before pregnancy and maybe even through pregnancy. And now this is a, a. Seeing some issues return. So that's where I would focus on that functional support again, and especially postpartum or for anyone who's freshly postpartum and having a flare up like that would be those really grounding foods. So like Adina was saying earlier too, people emphasize things like bra soups, stews in especially that first 40 days postpartum for a reason, because those are very mineral rich, very soothing, and they're especially soothing for your small intestine, for your lower gut, which is what has been assaulted or inflamed when we're dealing with something like autoimmunity and or other colitis and colitis and other lower bowel tings, so,

Adina:

the, the, I mean, this is a whole other conversation, but the immune system functions in a really interesting way in pregnancy because like your body's trying to protect the baby. So like a lot of times people have had autoimmune issues in the past, their body stops attacking itself because it's trying to protect the baby. And so

Diane:

because that baby could otherwise be a parasite cuz it's a

Adina:

had so many clients who like can tolerate gluten and dairy when they're pregnant but couldn't prior because they're autoimmune issues and then they give birth and the autoimmune symptoms come back with a vengeance.

Diane:

lactose intolerance and sensitivity comes back. I think we talked about that in a recent episode, or maybe it was like in our first or second trimester where people are like, whoa, I couldn't have dairy before and now that's all I want and I'm doing great.

Adina:

yeah. So we need to support the immune system. We need to support those minerals, the body as a whole, um, to really keep those things up bay for sure. When now stress and sleep are big factors, which really play a role in many autoimmune issues.

Diane:

Yeah. So for this person, definitely up that functional support that we talked about or you know, DM me, email me, um, and also get yourself some grounding foods for. Next up, a couple people asked this question, so I didn't realize how common it, um, it was so belly binding question mark or any benefits to wrapping that belly band thing.

Adina:

Yeah. Um, another question that was related that I got in my box was, are postpartum compression garments helpful or harmful? And the answer here with many answers is it really depends. It depends on the garment and it depends on the birth and the person. So like,

Diane:

What is this like skims

Adina:

not, I wouldn't go for skims. There are special brands that do this well for the postpartum season. I can link some in the show notes. Yeah. But I mean, don't joke. Some people are like, yeah, we gotta go for those belly binders. And you need to be really conscious of how much support we are providing. So if these garments are too compressive, Pressure goes to the weakest length. So like we have pressure in our system, if we start compressing the torso area, then all the pressure's gonna go down on that pelvic floor. So if you're at risk of prolapse, which many of us are early postpartum, cuz things are just like hanging lower and Lucy goosey down there, we don't wanna be binding too tight and sending all that pressure down onto the pelvic floor. Also, if something is too compressive, your own abs, don't feel the need to wake back up and do the work for you. So I look to compressive garments and support garments in the postpartum season, gentle support only again, in certain cases. So if it. For example, in the case of you are a Jewish woman and you had a baby boy and you need to walk to a Briss eight days postpartum, maybe we need a compression garment that provides some gentle perennial support or provide some gentle abdomen support because you're holding the baby and we want to make sure that it's not too much on your system. But I still want to make sure that you're not wearing something like that when you're doing your breath work and trying to reconnect your own abs. So even like your leggings, I know people love like really compressive leggings cuz they make them feel like they're put back together postpartum.

Diane:

I mean, I used to think I liked him just after like a big meal, but I can't, I can't have that pressure.

Adina:

If we're wearing leggings to do our gentle return to fitness and then our own abs aren't doing the support work because the leggings are doing the work for us. It may sound silly if you're not in the postpartum season and your abs are strong and your leggings don't feel like they're holding your body together. But in that season, compressive garments like leggings can be too much and not allow you to reconnect to your own body. So again, gentle support can be nice, especially if you had a c-section, maybe some gentle belly support, especially while you're like sneezing or laughing or coughing in those early seasons. Um, some gentle perennial support can be nice, but

Diane:

is this perennial, like between your middle hole and your butt?

Adina:

Yes. The perineum.

Diane:

Put, because I thought perennial and I was thinking like flowers, but

Adina:

yeah. Like annuals or perennials. No. Yeah, peroneal probably is how you would pronounce that. Um, I say perennial, but um, Yeah. So yeah, something like that could be helpful. But again, be mindful of what your whole birth situation was, what your corn pelvic floor do, and how compressive that garment is and how often you're using it.

Diane:

hmm. I'm learning so many things when you're like gentle, perennial support, like is it a, is it a special underwear? Is it a finger? Like, what is it?

Adina:

yes. So you could definitely use a finger to provide some support if it's like you feel like you're gonna pee in your pants when you sneeze in those early days. But there's some companies, again, I can link in the show notes who make like a nice, like underwear that has a little bit a feeling of a little more support for those early days.

Diane:

Gentle. Gentle is

Adina:

gentle is key.

Diane:

Heard it here. Gentle. Ooh, this is a good question. And what's a realistic timeline for hormone recovery? When nursing, I feel the effects of the sweats and other symptoms from all them hormones, all doctors say is, quote, six weeks, you're good to go. Ugh. Yeah. For what? It's hard to get answers as to what's normal and how long should it actually take for hormones to feel normal, both postpartum and post weening.

Adina:

Yeah. That's a whole other world, right?

Diane:

That's a whole episode here too. Oh my goodness.

Adina:

Yeah. I think, yeah, we're not gonna spend too much time here cuz we are running a little late and we can make an entire episode outta this question, but like we always say, the timeline is gonna be different for everyone, but you should start to feel like yourself. I would say like two months, three months, start to feel like I can do this. I can get some sleep, I can function, I can feed myself. I can get out and go for walks and not be like, my organs are falling out.

Diane:

Your mood feels pretty stable.

Adina:

yeah. That's kind of where I would say, and if that, if you heard that and you're like, what? I didn't feel any of those things until I was two years postpartum. I think we should talk about how you are supporting yourself in this postpartum season. Do you have any support? Were you eating enough food? Were you introducing movement? Were you getting sunlight? You know, like I

Diane:

Yeah. If it's taking you 3, 2, 3 years to feel normal, oh, I feel for you. And I wish that we could have connected sooner because that is entirely too long to start to feel like, all right, I'm back to me. So yeah, another, another case for, wow, we really don't talk about this enough in our society. So women are underserved in postpartum, but it should not take a couple of years to feel better.

Adina:

Yeah, I think that's like a, a big eye-opening moment for me was like people who reached out to me two years postpartum and they're like, I have all of X, Y, Z issues and I haven't been getting sleep. Like, am I safe to do S T H H or your postpartum program? And I'm like, you waited two years to start introducing strength back into your body when you've been lugging around a toddler and you've been dealing with diastasis and you've been dealing with leaking. Like, don't deal with these things. Don't put up with any of that shit. Like, let's take care of you and figure out what is a sustainable and approachable way to support your body with movement, with food, with help from people around you so that you don't feel like you're drowning and two years later wake up and say like, uhoh, I should probably do something to take care of my body. So I feel like myself again,

Diane:

All right. And if that's you, that's not to shame you at all either. It's just that we hate that you went that long feeling so terribly, and maybe that's not even the worst of it. Just feeling underserved, undersupported. And it doesn't have to be so complicated, we promise you. And nor does it have to look like what you hear, like, oh, I'm supermom back to it like

Adina:

Well,

Diane:

eight weeks post-birth. Like what you see in pop culture in Celebr News is just not at all accurate depiction of what it should realistically look like for someone to recover postpartum. And those, many of those people also have like a whole ass team, like not just a night doula. They've got like, they got the day doula, they got the nannies, they got all of that.

Adina:

And you know what? Many of those people hit a wall and are struggling in si silence. Like they're like, I'm amazing. Look at me back in my jeans. And then we find out like they have five autoimmune diseases and

Diane:

Mm-hmm. All the

Adina:

day to day. Because yeah, like we need to talk about, I think the most thing, the most important thing to take away from this episode is don't be a hero. And with postpartum recovery, slow and steady wins the race. But you have to be doing something in that slow and steady. It's not just like wait around slow and steady for three years. Like don't be a hero. Slow and steady, but

Diane:

and lay down.

Adina:

Yeah. Lay down slowly and steadily implementing the things that support your body.

Diane:

Yes.

Adina:

Yes. Yes.

Diane:

That's it. Well, oh my gosh, that's an overview of postpartum recovery. We've scratched the surface on some of these topics, and I know that we're going to talk about them in future episodes. So let us know what you learned, what resonated with you, what, and um, what you'd like to hear more about in the future. We'd love to hear it.

Adina:

Yes. And woof if we've said it before, if you are in the postpartum season, oh sweetie, take a deep breath. Unc unclench that, behold, and take a glass of water.

Diane:

That's right. Stay hydrated. We like you. We love you. We'll see you next week. Bye bye.