Ep 170. Holistic Tips to Avoid Pregnancy and Birth Complications

In this episode, Kelly and Tiffany emphasize the importance of a holistic approach during pregnancy to avoid birth complications. They share tips on supplement hacks, and discuss how to maintain a low-risk pregnancy and labor. 

00:00 Introduction and Welcome

00:47 Listener Review

03:15 We Heart Nutrition Supplement Hacks

08:40 The Importance of Preventing Birth Complications

05:17 Tips for Maintaining Low-Risk Pregnancy and Labor

22:01 Childbirth Education Course Announcement

Links to all the extra good stuff:

We Heart Nutrition- code BEAUTIFULONE for 20% off: HERE

Childbirth Education Wait List: HERE

Water Breaking Blog: HERE

Natural Treatment for GBS: HERE

GBS Protocol: HERE

Join our email community: HERE

Submit your answer-on-the-show questions: HERE

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to At Home with Kelly and Tiffany, where naturally minded women gather together as we pursue simplicity and confidence in health alternatives, so we can show up better in our busy lives and feel more at home in our bodies. Join your favorite home birth midwife duo for conversation, candor, and community. Welcome back to at home with Kelly and Tiffany I'm, Tiffany I'm Kelly. We are two midwives in sunny, San Diego. We haven't really introduced ourselves as, as such in a while. Yeah. And it is sunny. Here is we're in a bit of like a heat wave. It seems silly to be saying that because like our listeners who live in the south or something, or like, yeah, be quiet. You guys it's like 78 and a half degrees here. And let me tell you, the air condition is working hard. We are spoiled, but it is. It is it's warmer than usual. I'm excited to share on this topic in particular, because it is the foundation of midwifery care in general. As we get going on that I have a really sweet review to read, but this is by courageous cool Catholic. And it's a five star review. The title says best pregnancy podcast. I'd like to put that. On a plaque. We probably should put it somewhere. It's the best. Yeah. Rev reader or listener. Listener. Approved listener. Voted. Voted. The listeners have decided this is the best one. It's the best. Okay. So she says I've been dying to find a holistic perspective on pregnancy. And this podcast is it. Too much of the pregnancy information out there is basic Western medicine philosophy and women need more Kelly and Tiffany not only provide high quality information and details, but also do it in a fun light manner, sort of similar to the vibe that stuff you should know carries. Thank you so much for doing this podcast. Keep it up. I'm 20 weeks pregnant with my first and find so much comfort, courage, and solitude and listening. I love that is wonderful. Do you know, the very first podcast I ever started listening to, I would binge listen to it while I had like a, like, Like a admin job in college was stuff you should know. Oh, really? That's sweet for her to reference that. Yeah. I wonder if we could get that many listeners. Be helpful stuff you should know. Birth edition. We can, we can petition or whatever, ask them, Hey. Oh, you should have a birth addition. Can we share stuff you should know about birth in a lighthearted manner? We've already been voted the best. See podcasts. Just so, you know, you would be. Only enhancing. Your show by having this on it. We are the best. It's all just for you. Oh, my gosh. Well, I just appreciate the reviews you guys, because that is how we are able to get to more people. And. The way that podcasts, the algorithm of podcast is based on reviews. Downloads. And so every time you listen, every time you review, every time you subscribe, every time you share it, all really helps. And I know we've like really. Unashamedly admitted that it helps us. Yep. Really keeps us going and makes us feel like we're doing something. So, I mean, we get stuff on Instagram, too similar where I'm like, oh yeah, yeah. Okay. This. This gives me the courage for another day. I feel like I can continue fighting the good fight. Yes. Absolutely. If you leave a review, we also will buy you a drink. When you tell us that you heard us read your review. So it has to be a good review in order for us to read it. And when we do, we buy him a drink. It's a good, that's a good exchange. Absolutely. We create the podcast. You listen to it. You love it. You write review. We bought you drink. It's a good it's good. Then you start all over again. You listen. That's good. Okay. I have a hack. I wanted to share with people because I'm so excited about this. So I, it seems like about every other episode now we're sharing about we heart nutrition. And we, we just love them because they're friends of ours and we love their product. We're not sponsored by them. Nope. But because we're recommending it so often I end up getting in these conversations with people all the time. So I had another midwife texts me, and she was like, Hey, one of my clients. Is looking at we heart nutrition for their supplements, but I've never recommended them before. Can you just tell me like what. What the deal is. And so I was telling her. And she is like, oh, but you know, there it's, it's a, it's a high quality, high quality product. It looks a little pricey. Do you think it's worth the quality? And I'm like, absolutely. Or I wouldn't recommend it. I think supplements are one of the things that are absolutely we're spending money on, but you have to know what you're getting out of it. And I think that's really hard for women sometimes to, to be able to discern, what am I paying for here? Is this worth it? We did an entire episode all about. Supplementing and like, keep, I think it's called like affordable and. Quality. Something supplements. Yeah. So you guys can find that in our, in our history, you can find that based off that really great title search for you. I think if you just look up supplements, I think if you just search supplements in our podcast, you'll be able to find it. But anyway, I found this awesome hack for we heart nutrition, and it basically reduces your order in like half or like almost 50% to get it cheaper. So I will tell you exactly what to do. First you get on we heart nutrition.com. Then you click one of the bundles because the bundles are, I think like 10% off or something like that. When you bundle things together, then you use our coupon on top of that, that gets you 20% off your order. Then you choose auto ship. And that subscription, which is just helpful. That's just a life hack in general, right? Like just subscribed to things that you are definitely going to need every single month. And that gets you like another 10% off too. So like for example, their prenatal bundle, they have their prenatal, multi, they have their omega, they have the magnesium and they have their iron. It's like such a fantastic little quadruple set there. It starts out at$134. That's pretty comparable. That is, I mean, for supplements for$134 is pretty standard. Like upper level high quality supplements. But if you choose the bundle option, it goes down to 107. Then you subscribe an auto-ship, it goes down to$97 and you don't have to do it every single month. They have options for 30 days, 60 days, 90 days. Okay. Then you use our coupon. And it goes down to$77. Plus you get free shipping. So you save almost$60. That's a wild stacking, all those things. And that's incredible. That's like such a. That's such a sweet way to just like take advantage of. Jumping in and just in trying these out, I think everybody should do it. Yeah, absolutely. And anything that takes something off your mental load? Like, I don't know why every single month when I'm like, oh, I'm out of this thing, then I'm like, oh, I got to order it to get it. Like, why do I do this to myself? Because I know this is something that's a part of my rhythm. I've just got to click the button. Yeah. I'm afraid of. The amount of money that I'm spending on supplements. And so it's like, I almost want to see exactly what it is, but it's preventing me from actually being able to take them because I don't have them in stock all the time. It's like a vicious cycle that I have to like psychologically work through. But it's not just pregnancy supplements. They have just well-woman multis. They have postpartum multi-res they have pre-menopausal and menopausal multi-res. They have. A great little B six combo for morning sickness. There's just like multiple things on there that you could love and enjoy. And they probably told us this at some point, because they're very good at keeping us informed on their promotions. But you can actually build your own bundle. Yes. So you can say like, well, I know I'm going to use a lot of the magnesium. I'm gonna get a couple of those and I'm also working on my iron or something. Right. And you get to build your own, whatever it is you need and get the discount off of the bundle that you built. I don't know. It's just genius. It was just so, so good. They know what's up. Okay, so jumping into preventing birth complications. The biggest complication that everyone is trying to avoid is basically like surgical birth. Right? I mean, women at the end of the day who were trying to. Avoid interventions and avoid medications. And I mean, there's definitely a piece of it. That's like, well, I just want to experience what this is meant to be. But I think if you got to the heart of it, most women are like, yeah, I just don't want a C-section. That's just, oh, that's just everything that comes along with it and everything that would lead up to it would just be the opposite of what I want this experience to be. Yeah. And I think some people are like, well, that's like the end goal. So anything I can do, I'm just going to avoid that thing. Not realizing that like, that's the end of a whole host of other things that probably has come before that. Yup. I mean, the cascade of interventions in general is basically just like. One thing that leads to another leads to another and it, the F the. Statistics around birth interventions in general is super fascinating. For example, you're six times more likely to have a C-section if you have Pitocin and an epidural involved in your labor, six times, six times. So like a first-time mom who avoids Pitocin, she almost doubles her chance of avoiding an epidural. For example, like these two things go hand in hand it gives her a 5% risk of having a C-section. Versus our national average is like 33%. If she avoids Pitocin, but uses an epidural, she has a 20% chance of a C-section. So you take that down by like 13% just by avoiding Pitocin. And the first time mom who receives Pitocin and an epidural of course has a C-section risk of like 30 to 35% Pitocin with no epidural produces a 19% seminarian risk. So similar to. Having an epidural, but no Pitocin. So those two pieces together and whoever did the research on. Connecting those pieces. Was so smart because Pitocin is usually needed in an induction or an augmentation. That means that there's some part of the labor or some part of the process that. Someone says is not going fast enough or strong enough, or, and so now we're going to intervene in this way. And the intervention of the epidural is, you know, everyone gets to choose what kind of. Pain relief and support that they want. But the women who are, who are working on having a natural birth, want to avoid the epidural because they know that it kind of like leads down into this cascade. So what is going to set women up to. Keep them out of those categories is basically understanding. Why does the Pitocin end up coming into the picture? For births. And why does, why do epidurals end up coming into the picture for birth and how can you work backwards from those pieces in order to avoid some of those interventions? Yeah, and I think what's just fascinating is right. The majority, the vast majority of women are starting their prenatal care and their labor itself in a very highly interventive situation. So if you're wanting to avoid those things and you're walking into a hospital experience, you. You, you just automatically are at higher risk for those things because they are right there. Right? Our assessment of encouraging labor to start, or, you know, kind of helping moms establish a good labor rhythm or help them cope with the intensity of labor looks very different than it does in the hospital. Right. And so allowing and kind of leaning into physiology wherever we absolutely can matter. So. So much. And so we see what ends up. Making women more likely to have all of those other interventions. One is where they're choosing and with whom they're choosing to birth with. But we see these things so often in our massively high induction rates, those things together almost are like hand in hand and women are walking into these exp or care. Providers are walking women into these experiences as if they're just like. Well, don't you want to meet your baby? Sometimes there are medical reasons for doing so, but Mo a lot of the time we see this being orchestrated in a way that is For timing or for just care provider, personal preference. I've had multiple. I mean, I remember when I was doing more hospital births as a doula, how many clients were persuaded or talked into a, an induction because of the care providers vacation plans. Right? Like, I won't be here. I won't be on call. How about, you know, that you have me and we'll just choose this day. So that impacts so, so much right. Yeah, it absolutely does. And like, ah, you know, as a home birth midwife, We're we're only taking care of low risk clients. So it's really uncommon for there to be a need for a medical induction. But most women in the hospital setting are potentially candidates for low risk birth. Right. But unfortunately, You're being cared for by a provider who deals with and has the grid for high risk situations and potentially in an environment that is set up for and potentially has you on the conveyor belt for dealing with high risk. Situation. So it's possible that your, that your idea of what you would like to happen in your birth and the choices that you're making with your provider and your birth environment are mismatched. Just because of that, you're going to a facility in your paint, your you're hiring your provider. That their specialty and their expertise is in, is in high risk pregnancies in bursts. And so if that's what they're comfortable with and that's what they're used to, and that's how their. Going to potentially funnel women through. That just increases your risk for those pieces just alone all by itself. Yeah. You'll, you'll be walking into a situation in which you're just simply higher risk for these interventions because of the situation you're walking into. And that's not to say, Hey, you're making the wrong choice that may make you feel better. And that is okay and acceptable, but everyone has to have their eyes wide open as they make these decisions of which risk status am I most comfortable with. Right. There's risk in any. Where nothing is risk-free in any space. But again, I was wide open. Yeah. And so no, what the, no, what the rates are, know what your provider rates are for induction. Like how, what percentage of women in your practice ended up being induced? Know what the C-section rates are of your provider and the facility that you're giving birth in. Something else that kind of sets you up for some of these complications can be just being the first time mom in general. It tends to be like the pregnancy that lasts the longest and the mom that is the most nervous and the labor that takes the most time and in an impatient society with in-patient care providers who are trying to push the process along, or at least trying desiring to control it. You just have some things marked against you automatically. So when we talk to women who are like, I'll have the home birth the second time after I. Can see that I can do burrs then will then, then I'll feel more confident and she is into home birth the best possible. Outcome for your first birth in order to avoid creating of high risk obstetrical history for yourself that would potentially keep you from being able to have candidacy for home birth in your second is to put yourself in a low risk environment with. With the provider who is. Is an expert in dealing with low risk birth that is going to protect your experience the most as a first time, mom. Yeah. And I mean, not to mention like birth trauma and the things like that, that we deal with in terms of people stepping out of the medical model of care. There are a few things too, just to kind of consider about risk status of kind of being involved in these sorts of complications. So you mentioned being a first time mom going past your due date is one as well. And that is somewhat common for a first-time mom. I would say more common than not, but even in subsequent pregnancies, it's not a bad thing or not an abnormal thing. But depending on your care provider and their stance on that, I was actually sharing a care provider that somebody else had recommended with me to somebody else. And I clicked on the link that was sent. And somewhere on that very first page set at 40 weeks, you will be scheduled for an induction. And I was like, well, I can't, I can't refer you there because I don't think you're going to get true informed consent and all of the things right. But dealing with due dates and that kind of thing absolutely can be a piece of it. And then other things that are going on in the actual labor or pregnancy itself as well. Like if your water breaks is the first sign of your labor, you will. Potentially step into this higher risk status. We actually have a blog that goes into a ton of information about that in particular and kind of managing those pieces, which can be. Really helpful your GBS status as well can be a huge impact on how your. Pregnancy and labor is managed and can impact the type of interventions that are offered or strongly encouraged and all of those things. And again, we also have lots of information about GBS on our website as a, well, including an entire protocol on how to deal with GBS, how to prevent it, all of the options and things like that to help decrease your risk for entering into these types of statistics. Right. Yep. And you know, a part of that too, is like participating in a ton of extra testing and ultrasounds at the end of your pregnancy. Knowing if your provider has like a low tolerance for how normal long labors can be. If your baby isn't in a great position, that's causing all kinds of, you know, stalls in your labor. So understanding the importance of optimal, fetal positioning in pregnancy and how that translates into labor. And the type of support that you want to have in your labor in order to maximize that. There's so much that you can do in pregnancy in order to set yourself up well, for avoiding some of these interventions and complications and a huge part of that is just participating in a model of care. That's preventative. That's been one of my favorite things actually about creating this Trump birth education class that we are finishing up is that we have been able to share this information about our model of care and the importance of prevention and looking ahead rather than being reactive to stuff or dealing with it in the moment of course we can show up and deal with something that comes. You know, go sideways or something in the moment, but the more that you can do beforehand, the more that you're like, let me nourish my body. Well, let me move it. Well, let me. Be armed with the information that I need. Gosh, that matters so much. Yep. So I would venture to say avoiding. Complications in birth. You take a step. You know, backwards from there, it means staying low risk in your labor, which means potentially staying low risk in your pregnancy. And how can you stay as low risk as possible in your pregnancy, potentially having a preventative model of care. Even even the beautiful, beautiful piece of preconception counseling and doing some labs before you even get pregnant and trying to get some of. Those foundational health pieces, all surrounding having a low risk pregnancy that translates into having a low risk, labor and birth that translates into avoiding some of those complications. And, you know, essentially just building your confidence. For the types of situations that might come up that you understand, this is what the normal process looks like. This is the way that I can best support my body in doing that. I feel really confident saying, no, thank you to that. In fact, we, we created a whole real ones that was like all on the premise of if you want to avoid interventions. You need to get really comfortable and practice declining things. And start doing that in your pregnancy started doing that before you even got pregnant, just get comfortable with really looking at the options and saying, no, thank you to the things that you actually do not want because it leads to the ultimate. No. Thank you. Right. It leads to the ultimate. Like I'm not, I'm not going to utilize that tool unless I absolutely need it. So we want women to just be equipped with those pieces. A huge part of that has really just been the extension of that to our own clients and them getting to participate in that model of care with us. And now we finally have a way that we can get all of those details and many, many layers of preventative care and. Informed consent and really good education from a physiological perspective through our childbirth education course. So that's a really exciting thing you guys know that has been in the works all. Spring and summer, and we are so close to the point of being able to launch it into the world. And it's very, very, very exciting for us. So. We are going to get you guys on the wait list for the childbirth education course, you can just go to beautiful one midwifery.com or you can jump into the show notes. We have had that link there for months now. And you being on that wait list gives you first access to the course. It gives you potential discounts, all that. We haven't figured out exactly what those are yet. It gives you early access and there's some other perks involved in being on the wait list too. And so, as we are preparing those final pieces, we have all of the content already loaded into our beta group and we're finishing some of those last little testing pieces and getting it ready. This podcast is going to be on break for a few weeks while we concentrate all of our energy on that. So when we come back in a few weeks from now, the course will be launched. And if you want to have all the updates on that, the best way to do that as on the wait list, you're going to be the first ones to find out. You can also follow us on Instagram and. Beyond our newsletter list. Like eventually. Those announcements will trickle into those places too. But if you are just really ready, To have your hands on it as soon as possible. Maybe your do In the fall or later in the, in the winter. And you're trying to sort out your childbirth education options, then you gotta be on that wait list. We are, I mean, we can't even say how excited we are to get this out to you because I feel like the podcast is like a little snippet right? Of like how we can really get information out to people. This course is so organized and so rich and full of great stuff for y'all. We're just excited to be able to share no matter what kind of birth you have. Planned, what kind of care provider you have? What, where you're planning on birthing? There is. A ton of information and nuggets for you to store. Okay. So we won't be around here in this space for the next few weeks, but when we come back, we have podcasts to plan for, if you can't have a home birth. What is the best way to hold on to a physiological experience? We're also going to do an episode on things that you should be avoiding when you're trying to conceive. We have a really sweet burst story to share after that, too. So, so much good stuff planned so much to anticipate as we kind of like roll into the next. Thing here. And we're so grateful that we get to share that with you guys. So, be on the lookout for all that good stuff. And we will catch you back here in a few weeks from now.