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Fertility 101 - Interview With Fertility Expert Grace

• Ash Cam • Season 1 • Episode 10

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Babies... So many women in my life (including myself) have spent majority of their younger lives trying to avoid falling pregnant. 

We've chosen to have an exciting career, to travel the world and pack in a million different life experiences before even considering if having a baby is right for us. 

However, despite what we were taught in school - having a baby doesn't always  happen instantly. 

In fact, as this episode points out - there are a number of things we really should be considering, adjusting and implementing months before trying to conceive. 

Whether you are on the fence about kids, planning to freeze your eggs, want kids in 10 years or next month, this episode is packed with actionable insights around fertility. 

And no - it’s not just for women. 

As the cliche suggests, it takes two to tango so we are diving deep into all the things that both males and females should consider if they want to create healthy happy babies. 

  • How far in advance do you need to start preparing your body to have a baby?
  • Fertility rates declining - what you can do about it? 
  • How to prepare your body for IVF? 
  • Simple lifestyle changes you can make to improve your fertility. 
  • What to consider if you’re planning to freeze your eggs?
  • What males need to do consider? Hint: You should start eating walnuts… 

With a food first approach to fertility, Grace has helped hundreds of clients from around the world to bring healthy babies into the world. In fact, she is loved by her clients so much that one of them even named their child after her. 

If you’re listening to this podcast I know you’re a high achiever. You want to excel in all areas of your life and fertility is no exception. 

I have learned SO much from Grace and know you will too. 


Follow Grace on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/the_fertilitynutritionist/ 

Free Download From Grace: https://east-to-west-nutrition.mykajabi.com/pl/2148201505 

Follow Ash on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ashcam____/

See latest Reset Retreats, Workshops & Events: www.resetworkplace.com.au

Watch this episode on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/@Reset.Workplace

SPEAKER_01:

Grace, welcome to Reset. Hi, thank you for having me. It is so good to have you here. I feel like so many women in my life are going through this transition point where they were taught in school that if you have sex, you will fall pregnant. And so they've spent potentially their whole 20s and maybe their early 30s like with that mindset. And then they've prioritized their career and travel and all these really exciting things. And then they're like, okay, I'm going to try and become a mom now. And it just doesn't quite happen like we were told in school. Having you here, we're going to talk about fertility. We're going to talk about the role that men play in fertility, which is often missed. We're going to talk about nutrition, IVF, freezing eggs, all the things like this conversation is going to help so many people. But before we get started, can you introduce yourself to anyone that isn't familiar with you just yet?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, thank you. So I am Grace. I work as a fertility nutritionist. I run a fertility nutrition clinic and we support people who are trying to optimize their health to speed up the process or just have a more successful and peaceful journey along that way.

SPEAKER_01:

And at what stage of the kind of pregnancy journey do couples start working with you?

SPEAKER_00:

I would like it that they start before trying to actively conceive, but most people are coming in when they have been trying to conceive for a particular amount of time and things aren't moving along the way that they want to, or potentially they're having more complications. So always pre-pregnancy. Would be ideal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And most people that I see is pre-pregnancy as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. For fertility.

SPEAKER_01:

That's awesome. I know you've said that you have had some couples come to you though, that have been maybe trying for years before working with you. How long does it typically take after signing up as a new client with you to fall pregnant?

SPEAKER_00:

It's really hard to say because everyone's journey is really unique and different and whatever barriers that is preventing them from conceiving in the way that they want to is going to be different for different people. And so then obviously the approach is different, but the timeline looks different as well. It's a hard one to gauge. You can't really give an exact time, I guess. Typically, though, having said that, we see people conceive within a six-month period. And how many babies have you helped

SPEAKER_01:

bring into the world? Yeah, over a hundred. Amazing. And is it true that one of the couples gave their child the middle name Grace after you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, which is so beautiful. Yeah, it was this couple that I helped. They had been trying to conceive for two and a half years. They suddenly went through a couple of miscarriages and failed round of IVF and we started working together. And four months later, they fell pregnant naturally. So that was a beautiful, beautiful story. I

SPEAKER_01:

feel like every time I'm on your Insta stories, there's just another photo of a positive pregnancy test. It must feel really special to receive those kinds of messages.

SPEAKER_00:

It does. It feels really, really special. Like you're obviously on this journey with people who it's otherwise can be really, really challenging. And you work with them in such a close relationship as well. So you really build that trust with them and then to see them go through this huge transformation in their health, but then also fall pregnant at the end of it is just like, I mean, it gives me goosebumps. Like it's literally, it's magical. It's the best feeling.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my gosh. I feel like different roles have different KPIs and measures of success, but for you, it's literally create life. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's it. That's it. We actually... I mean, with obviously clients who are trying to fall pregnant, you know, getting pregnant is the absolute goal, but I do see it as a much longer process. you're getting so much more than just falling pregnant, which I know I say just, which is everything when you're trying to conceive, but it's also setting you up for optimal health the rest of your life. It's that dream that you have of running around with your grandchildren, throwing them up in the air. That's also what we're creating by reaching this level of optimal health where obviously fertility does come as a consequence of that, but you get so much more from it as well.

SPEAKER_01:

And jumping back to what we were saying at the start around what we're taught in school is if you have sex, you will fall pregnant. What's the truth? Like how many days of the month can you actually fall pregnant? What does it look like?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so your fertile window is essentially the day of ovulation and the five days before. So it's a maximum of around six days a month or a cycle that you're going to fall pregnant. So, yeah, very different to what we were taught in school where basically my school was like if you– Even look at a penis, you're going to fall pregnant. And that is just very far from most people's reality, unfortunately.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. How long does it take the average couple to fall pregnant once they start trying?

SPEAKER_00:

So the guidelines are that if you're under 35, you want to try for around 12 months before you start looking into other things. And we can get into that in a little bit. But if you're over 35, it's under six months. Having said that, I do feel like trying to optimize your health for fertility is all about really being proactive and not letting yourself get to that 12-month period, but actually taking steps prior to that to better support it happening and obviously your mental health along the way. So we can definitely speak more around that, but that is if you go to a doctor, that's the guidelines that they're going to tell you.

SPEAKER_01:

Is it harder these days because of, I don't know, our lifestyle to actually fall pregnant than it was maybe 50 years ago?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think there's a lot of contributing factors. Typically, people are growing their family later on in life. Obviously, as you kind of mentioned, people are prioritizing careers and travel and everything else. So you are seeing people growing their family much later on compared to even 20 years ago. Lifestyle does play a big role. Toxin exposure does play a big role as well. And I think that there is, at the same time of an increased level of infertility or subfertility, whether it's that delayed time to conceiving, there's also increased knowledge around it. People are having more of a conversation. IVF is a bigger thing than what it used to be.

SPEAKER_01:

Is there anything that's kind of top of mind that you can see so many couples or women doing that you're like, oh my God, if you want to fall pregnant, stop? Like, is there anything that's jumping out at you?

SPEAKER_00:

Hormone health is a really big one. You know, especially the way that women are taught that, you know, to be successful or to do this, they have to do a lot of the things that really go against hormone health. And you see often people who are coming from that position, they often have hormonal imbalances and then the journey to conceiving can look a little bit more difficult for them or there can be more hurdles along the way.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, interesting. How do you measure that?

SPEAKER_00:

In terms of looking at hormone balance... I mean, say I was to work with someone, we would run blood tests and we would look at cycle health. But in your day to day, you can just be really in touch with your body, especially in touch with your cycle, looking at things like energy levels and brain fog to really understand, you know, am I feeling good?

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like there's a million different apps and programs and things out there now to help with tracking cycles. Do you have a favorite way that you would recommend to clients?

SPEAKER_00:

I suggest to my clients to use a base of body temperature tracking because it's more reliable than using ovulation predicates, especially for particular people. And it just gives you that bit of insight. Do you know much about the basal body temperature tracking? No,

SPEAKER_01:

that was going to be my next question. I was like, what is that?

SPEAKER_00:

Essentially, you record your temperature, usually orally. but you can do it in a number of different ways. So you can get bands and stuff that are recorded as well. And essentially your pre-ovulation temperature, so the temperature before you ovulate is lower than when you ovulate and it's higher. So taking your temperature every day allows you at the same time, allows you to understand when you have ovulated. So this tracking method is used to confirm ovulation has happened, not predict it. If you are to track your cycles for a couple of cycles in a row, there are ways that you can better understand before you're about to ovulate that you're coming into your ovulation point. But it does kind of take a couple of months to see what's consistent across both cycles to get that insight. But it is used to confirm ovulation where other methods are used to predict ovulation, but you can predict it and not ovulate. So there's a lot of bit of a crossover in the reliability aspect. cervical mucus is a really good way as well, which is that and potentially using your basal body temperature. It would be my preferred ways.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, so much data. And it definitely sounds like if we're thinking of having a baby at a certain point in the future, it's really important to start, what, like six months in advance or something of starting to measure our own hormones and our temperature and things like that, get blood tests. I would

SPEAKER_00:

say that if you are thinking that you want to have or try to have babies in the next three to six months, then that would be a good time to start being proactive. Go to your doctor, get a standard blood work, preconception blood work, and that basically is running through your hormone health, things like iron, your vitamin levels, everything like that, just to get that baseline health. get started on a really good prenatal supplement or a supplement regime, start looking at nutrition factors and really laying that foundation. I do find that people who take that early approach, not only is their journey more successful in terms of they're able to conceive sooner, but the peace that they get along the way is usually much different because they feel in control, they understand their body, they know what they're doing. The fertility world, unfortunately, can be a really confusing one for people and there's so much mixed messaging online. So if you're in the depths of trying to conceive and you're getting all of this information, it's really hard to disincern between what's real and what's not, where when you take that approach where you're really going into it in a guided way, I do find that people's mental health as well is often a lot better.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, it's so important to remember that our mental and physical health are one in the same and really intertwined. You're a nutritionist. What kind of an impact can our diet and our nutrition have on fertility? An

SPEAKER_00:

incredible, an incredible difference. Yeah. So they've looked at studies where they've done, you know, big nutrition studies run through Harvard and they've just five specific dietary changes can increase fertility by 69%. We know that you can support ovulation health. We know that you can reduce the risk of miscarriage. Look at hormone health, support egg quality all through nutrition factors. It's also the biggest thing that you have control over yourself. So when you're looking at other factors of fertility, like age, like genetics, like medical history, they're all things that you don't have control over. So if you go in there really looking to support the areas that you do have control over that have a really big impact, I also find that the journey is so much more empowering through that. What are those five things? If someone's at home

SPEAKER_01:

taking notes, what are those five

SPEAKER_00:

things? So the five things, number one would be leaning into lower GI carbohydrates. So things like your whole grains over your more simple carbs. So obviously like brown pastas, spelt, quinoa, buckwheat, oats over things like white breads, white pastas. Optimize your fat index. So looking at more poly and mono and saturated fat. So things like your nuts, your seeds, your olive oils, avocados, obviously compared to like lowering down saturated fat intake or even trans fat intake. The next one is taking a prenatal supplement, which kind of Not necessarily a nutrition strategy, but we'll lump it in there. The study did full fat versus low fat. So they've done studies where they've looked at fertility and dairy. Female fertility benefit from full fat, whereas male fertility benefit from low fat. And the last one is increased plant proteins. So by switching over around a serve of plant proteins instead of animal proteins, you can support ovulatory infertility. It's actually supporting your ability to ovulate.

SPEAKER_01:

I wish I had a pen with me right now. I'd be writing all these things down and texting them to all my friends afterwards. I feel like I saw on your Instagram, do you have a guide? that we could chuck in the show notes around this.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, I'll check in the guide. There's actually a mini course that breaks down the kind of five main steps that I go through with my one-on-one clients to better support their fertility. And it takes you right through. blood work and nutrition and supplements

SPEAKER_01:

and

SPEAKER_00:

male factor as well. Okay, excellent.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's talk about the guys for a second. Because I think any friend that I know that's gone through a tricky fertility journey, it seems like the guys are looked at almost last. But it takes... Two, to make a baby. So what should men be doing to be proactive, to be the best kind of baby daddy they can? Oh

SPEAKER_00:

my God. Well, firstly, I totally agree. It can be really, really frustrating as well. Like if so much focus is put on the woman, but as you said, it's 50% genetic material each and just 30% of infertility factors are down to male factor. 30% is down to female and the rest is combined. So they do play an equal role in delay time to conceiving. But often, as you said, it is looked at much later. My approach is always early testing. So if you've been trying to conceive even for over three, six months, then I would be running a semen analysis and I'd also be getting their baseline blood checks done as well. So like we spoke about for female fertility, you've run a similar one for male fertility, just obviously different hormone health. And then when you're looking at their what they can do. It's really looking at supporting testosterone health is going to be a big one. So making sure they are active, weightlifting, weight-bearing exercise is really good for testosterone health. Making sure their diet is good quality, making sure they're getting enough protein and fats in to obviously sustain that testosterone level. Making sure that they've got lots of fruits and vegetables to support the antioxidant pathways to better support male fertility. Getting a good male quality prenatal supplement. in amongst potentially some others, but getting a really good quality male prenatal, having things even like more nuts and seeds as well. They actually did this one study where they looked at male fertility and a man eating 60 grams of walnuts, which is quite a lot, it's kind of like two handfuls, was able to improve every sperm parameter irrespective of any change made, meaning that change alone increased every sperm parameter. So I always say to my clients who are trying to conceive, just one handful of walnuts a day is a really good way, super simple, to be able to support male fertility. Walnuts? Walnuts, yeah. They're really high in omega-3, so they're really anti-inflammatory. When you're looking at male fertility, a large factor of it is actually to reduce inflammation and oxidative stress.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh my goodness. And then how, like we said that women should start planning and maybe taking prenatal supplements three months in advance. Should guys be doing the same?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so women, it's really like three to four months. And that's because your egg goes through its final maturation phase three months before you ovulate. So in that three months, it's really susceptible to its environment. So if you fill your body full of those essential nutrients, you're actually supporting how the egg is being matured, ready to ovulate three months later. Now with male fertility, timeline is a little bit different. Essentially, Sperm regenerates every 72 to 80 days. So that window is a really beautiful opportunity to make changes to better support it. So with male fertility, you're still looking at that three-month window, but there is that slight difference in the way essentially that it's being matured and the processing of it. So I would say three to four months for women and three to minimum

SPEAKER_01:

for men. And then you were talking about blood tests for both males and females. If someone goes to their GP, gets a blood test, they're told everything is normal, but they're still struggling. Are there some extra things that you would look at as a nutritionist?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, a hundred percent. So it can be really challenging with blood tests because one, I am yet to meet someone who actually has the blood tests that I would be requesting because And that's because a lot of things are generally overlooked. Then the tests are only as good as the testing conditions. And I often see that even if someone does have a lot of the bulk of the testing done, it's been done at the wrong time of the cycle. They haven't been given the right guidance on how to really optimize the blood test so they can get the most information from it. Then the next step is the interpretation of the tests. So typically, when you go to get your blood check done, you have these really large reference ranges. And the large reference ranges are really designed to fit the population in it. They're not designed for fertility. They're not designed for people who are actively trying to conceive. They're just saying most of the population can fit in here. So they're really, really large. And this then creates this gap where people are constantly falling through. They're normal, but they're not at optimal health. And this is the difference between when someone's struggling to conceive, is that just on these outside barriers where there's something going on, but they're not quite optimal, but they're sitting inside the normal. So from a blood test perspective, things are being missed and overlooked. They're coming back as normal. But when we look at it from an optimal lens, this is the difference there. So there is the tests that are being done, when they're being done, and then how they're being interpreted. They're all kind of... create little gaps for people to fall through when they're trying to conceive. Obviously when I'm working with someone we really make sure that this is all done properly so that we know that the information that we're getting it's actually directing us to something in particular that we can then support.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like no one listening to this podcast is ever going to strive to be average or normal. Everyone's like, if you said, oh, go and build a career and just have an average or normal career, they're not listening to the Reset podcast. They're not coming to the Reset retreats. So that's really important to be aware of that these ranges are for normal or average population, but we're wanting to be optimal, right? Okay.

UNKNOWN:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's talk about IVF for a bit. I think it's becoming more and more common. You were mentioning some kind of windows of time before. Is there anyone that would come to you and you would see their blood test results and regardless of how long they've been trying, would you recommend jumping straight to IVF or is it something that you would always give a window of time first?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I would almost never recommend jumping straight into IVF. I would always give a window. And that's because if you're going to go down that path that path, which is such an individual decision to make. Really, there is no guidelines of when you should absolutely do it. It's really down to if you feel right and if that's really the right next step for you. That being said, giving yourself a window to better support egg quality, to better support male fertility, to better support your hormone health and the uterine environment to support implantation is really going to come out in your favor because then you can ultimately go in there with the best of what you've got and hopefully reduce the amount of rounds that you need to do. Typically, it's three rounds of IVF that Now that's a lot of time. That's a lot of money. That's a lot of mental and emotional burden. If we can get you in the best health going in there possible, try and reduce those round down and get the better outcome sooner. Egg

SPEAKER_01:

freezing. Another interesting topic that I feel like a lot of women in my world are starting to explore either because they haven't found their ideal partner yet, or they're wanting to delay pregnancy because like we talked about their prioritizing careers and other things. Are there certain things from a nutrition perspective that people should be doing to prep their body before going down the path of freezing eggs?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, a hundred percent. And that's definitely something that you want to actively do as well. If you're going, I mean, obviously you're actively egg freezing, so then you want to actively prepare for it as well. So you're looking at that three to four month window. It's going to be the similar process where you are going to your provider, getting a good blood run done. You're looking at things like your vitamin D levels, your micronutrient levels, your iron panel, your hormone health as well. And then you're going to start to build those fertility foundations with nutrition, making sure that you're getting lots of whole foods, that you're increasing fruits and vegetables, that you're having fatty fish and the nuts and the seeds and really everything to build up the quality of those eggs that you're going to collect. Obviously getting a good prenatal supplement, potentially using other supplements like a CoQ10 or a DHA or whatever's really relevant to your blood work or your personal history, but something that's going to make sure that when you go through this process that you're not just getting the number of eggs that you want, but that they're good quality as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Let's fast forward to the, do you call it defrosting the egg? What about that period of life? Is there things that people should be doing if they're thinking like, okay, I froze my eggs a few years ago, I'm ready to use these eggs now. What should they be doing to prep their body? Is it similar?

SPEAKER_00:

It's somewhat similar, yeah. So essentially if you're looking to support transfer, to support implantation, you're really looking to build up that uterine lining to obviously support implantation, but then to support embryo development as well. So hopefully reduce the risk of miscarriage down. So some things are going to be similar to the first step, but there are going to be some differences. When we're looking at really supporting implantation, we're looking at, again, reducing inflammation, supporting the blood flow to the uterus, making sure that there is all of those essential nutrient loads to actually support that development as well. So somewhat similar, but tailored slightly differently. You might also be looking at different supplements compared to when you did the actual freezing.

SPEAKER_01:

And if someone has opted to have an abortion at some point in their life, and then they're looking to fall pregnant again, is there anything they need to be aware of?

SPEAKER_00:

No, there shouldn't be any reason that that would impact their fertility journey.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. And what about miscarriages during a chosen fertility journey? Is there any extra support women might need from a nutrition perspective to better the chances of it actually being a successful pregnancy?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. So miscarriages are really nuanced and It depends really on how long someone's been trying to conceive for, if they have a known barrier that could be impacting their journey, and even how many miscarriages they've been through. So it does depend on where you are, what country you are. In Australia, two losses in a row is recurrent miscarriage, and therefore that invites different levels of testing to be done or considered, just to make sure that there's nothing underlying that could... increase the risk of another one. I often find when someone is going through this process where they've experienced two or even more miscarriages, again, they feel lost with what direction do they take and who do they talk to about this. Unfortunately, most GPs won't have that level of understanding of what is done next. They're often just told that it's normal, just try again, which if you're in that position, That's not the answer that you want to be hearing. So then obviously there's options of going through a fertility specialist or speaking to someone like myself who can at least advise them on what next level testing is available and what might be relevant to them so that when they do speak to their fertility specialist, they're also fully in the knowledge of what is available and they can have that open conversation with them. If something's not relevant, well, why is it not relevant? Yeah. Thank you so much. then we can put a plan in place to better support their body. And if there's nothing really coming through, then we're looking at supporting all of the levels that we spoke about. So making sure that their hormone health is on point, making sure that progesterone is optimal, making sure that we're really focused on egg quality and reducing the oxidative damage, that we're really looking at male factor as well.

SPEAKER_01:

We talked about school before. If you could wave a magic wand and in every school curriculum, there were two or three things that men and women were taught about fertility, what would they be?

SPEAKER_00:

Basic hormone health. Understanding what your cycle is. Having men understand what the cycle is. Reframing this, we're all the same body and we operate the same because we don't. Men work on a 24-hour time schedule. We're a 28 or around a 28 day, depending on what the person cycle length is. But it means that we operate really differently. And I think that, I mean, outside of the fertility world, I think that's where a lot of problems can kind of come into it because there's just not that baseline understanding of hormone health and what things mean, especially when it is, you know, when you're looking at a woman, it's really only when they are trying to conceive that they really start to connect with that side of their body and But there's such a big advantage from connecting with that part of your body much earlier on. It gives so much reason to why we do things and you just think sometimes you're crazy or sometimes it's just you're up and down and you're erratic when actually there's a really viable reason why things are happening. So my thing would be just baseline understanding of hormone health and then how to better support your hormones. And when it comes to fertility specifically... I would just say more of an open conversation that more people struggle than what we're led to believe. And I guess just direction of, you know, who there potentially is within the healthcare world to better support someone going through that.

SPEAKER_01:

If you could design the ideal fertility support team. Who would be part of it? Obviously, a fertility nutritionist, right? But who else? Who else would we be bringing in? That is a really

SPEAKER_00:

good question. So obviously, a fertility nutritionist. I would say exercise physiologist or a really good PT. who is specialized also in like pelvic floor, a hormone health specialist.

SPEAKER_01:

Sounds like a pretty good team. All the things. Okay. But that also sounds quite expensive. So are there any good resources that you would recommend to someone listening of if they're wanting to start this fertility journey, where should they go to start learning DIY style?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, yeah, definitely. My mini course that I will link up is a really good place to start. And then going to see more reputable people or following their social media or checking out their website is a good place to start as well, depending on where someone is in the process, if they want to connect with others or if they've been through losses, they can connect with Pink Elephant, which is a really good support network in Australia. But I would say be cautious about of who you're collecting information from. Make sure that they do have credentials behind them. Make sure that what they are saying, they're able to say it with confidence because unfortunately there's a lot of people who don't fall into that category and they give a people who have gone down that path and then we've got to do a lot of correcting. So just be really cautious of who you get your information from. And I would also say there is a Goldilocks level of inflammation that's good. You do want to be knowledgeable. You want to have a good understanding around the process and everything else. But you also don't want to overconsume because it can be just a big mental load that can really, really impact your peace along the way.

SPEAKER_01:

A missing part of the journey, I think, that I've observed anyway with fertility is there's a lot of work done in the lead up to falling pregnant, during pregnancy, but then once the baby arrives, often the mum is forgotten about. What should a new mum be doing to just really nourish her body and replenish herself after giving birth? Get a good support

SPEAKER_00:

network. Really, the mum should be the one with the baby and or if she wants to, or if she wants to have the break, then that's also okay. But it should be the other people providing for her. So it is really a time where, you know, actually the mother is really at the center of it. Their recovery, their mental health, their peace along that way, is really the only thing that the baby needs, not anything else. So supporting the mother does support the baby. It supports the family. So it does actually need to be a wider conversation around what the mother needs. What does the family need to do to support the mother through this? Having said that, really warm and kind of nourishing foods. You know, if people can do like food trains and bring over things for the family, it's such a big help. From more of like a health kind of medical standpoint, it's making sure that you're getting that really good six-week postpartum checkup and that everything is being looked at to its full extent. Getting a good doctor that can actually guide you through that as well. I often see that And this is a big thing when it comes to then someone trying to conceive that second time around. But if you look at maybe they fell pregnant the first time really easily and maybe the postpartum they struggled, you know, and they didn't have that support network or they had a tough postpartum and then you see that it impacts their hormone health, it gets put down to tiredness, gets put down to being a new mum, and then they go to trying to conceive again. It's really difficult. So getting that six-week checkup, having that support around you can help that moment. And if you do want to grow your family again, it's going to help that later on as well.

SPEAKER_01:

This may be a silly question, but how long is postpartum? Like how many months is that?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, so it takes around two years for the mother's body to mostly recover. So build up those nutrient levels, you know, get that– I mean, your whole brain chemistry changes postpartum and it only starts to go back to pre-pregnancy around two years later. So

SPEAKER_01:

if someone's listening and they've already got one child and they're thinking about having a second child, is there biologically an ideal age gap between the two? I

SPEAKER_00:

mean, I would say that two years is probably more ideal. Obviously, you know, I don't think that that compares with... people's desires and how they want to grow their family and what feels right for them. Obviously, some people choose a shorter age gap and people choose a longer age gap. But I would say, if say if I'm working with someone who's going through secondary subfertility, I'm really looking at what has that last two years been like for you postpartum wise, because we've got to rebuild up everything there. Obviously, The pre-pregnancy was taxing, the pregnancy is taxing, the postpartum is taxing. So that's a big lot of things that you've got to rebuild up. You've got to get to a good place where you feel good yourself. And obviously your self-care at that moment looks a lot different than it did before pregnancy the first time around. So sometimes it takes a little bit longer as well.

SPEAKER_01:

I feel like there's a lot of women listening out there that are thinking, yes, please support me more. Are there any supplements or key foods that people should be consuming postpartum or is it really dependent on their blood test results?

SPEAKER_00:

Postpartum, I mean, yeah, ideally everything would depend on blood results, but really making sure that you're building up iron levels. If you're breastfeeding, making sure that you're getting enough choline, that you're getting enough DHA, which is one of the essential fatty acids from fatty fish, getting enough iodine, getting all of these things because if you are breastfeeding, your baby's also, they're also being transferred through breast milk. So depleting your stores potentially has an ongoing effect to the baby where they're not getting enough of their needs, but really it does strip everything from the mother. Baby's obviously prioritized in all of the biology needs, but it means that the maternal stores are being depleted. So making sure that your diet somewhat looks similar to that preconception diet where there's lots of good healthy fats in there, lots of good proteins, lots of good eggs and plant proteins and obviously fruits and vegetables and good fiber. So what in that gut health as well. These are the things that are going to be beneficial to the recovery, beneficial to bub, beneficial to breast milk supply, and then beneficial if you do ever want to try to conceive again.

SPEAKER_01:

You give a lot to your clients and I'm sure you are feeling the emotions and the rollercoaster that they're going on when they come to you of trying to conceive and eventually celebrating the success. But what do you do personally to reset when life feels stressful and busy?

SPEAKER_00:

I do a lot of breathing techniques I really try to actively catch where my thoughts are going as well because I think your subconscious mind is really really strong and if you're not in control of it it does take control over you so I try to really actively understand where my thoughts are coming from and why they're coming from it. I would say that that's what people do through journaling. I just do it more through like thought process. But yeah, they're probably the two main ways. And just carving out time for myself. I try to carve out five or 10 minutes in the morning and five or 10 minutes before I go to bed, which doesn't sound like much. But when you're looking at supporting your nervous system and if you're busy, which like so many, obviously your listeners are just busy people doing millions of things, that five or 10 minutes is Firstly, you absolutely can fit it in. And secondly, it is absolutely going to do you wonders.

SPEAKER_01:

I love that. So easy. Well, not easy, but I believe that everyone can find those five minutes if they actively choose to. A

SPEAKER_00:

hundred percent. I completely agree.

SPEAKER_01:

If people only take one thing away from this conversation today, what would you like it to be? Be proactive.

SPEAKER_00:

Be proactive. Go into it as best as you can, consciously conceiving. And let that guide you with every other proactive step that you need to do, but be proactive.

SPEAKER_01:

Grace, it's been so lovely having you on the Reset Podcast. If people want to learn more about you, how can they

SPEAKER_00:

find you online? So I'm most active over on Instagram, the underscore fertility and nutritionist. Flick me a message, say hi.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, beautiful. We will put the link to that in the show notes as well. But Grace, thank you again. I have learned a lot. I feel like everyone listening has learned a lot. And yes, proactive conception is the way to go moving forward. Thank you again. Thank you so much. It's been really nice to chat.