How to Navigate Postpartum Gallbladder Challenges

In this episode, guest postpartum specialist, Brittany Fox, and Olivia Haas discuss the complexities of postpartum health, particularly focusing on gallbladder issues that can arise during this period. They explore the hormonal changes that occur after childbirth, the nutritional needs of new mothers, and the importance of replenishing essential nutrients and minerals. The conversation emphasizes the impact of stress on health and provides practical dietary tips to support gallbladder function. The episode concludes with a reminder of the importance of seeking support during the postpartum journey.

You can connect with Brittany at:

Website: https://www.deeprootsnutrition.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deep.roots.nutrition

For more Gallbladder-Postpartum Support connect with me at:

Gallbladder Saver Society Membership: https://gallbladderdiet.mykajabi.com/gallbladder-saver-society-mmbership

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gallbladder.nutritionist

Website: https://www.gallbladderdiet.com

Transcript

0:01

So welcome back everyone. I'm gonna introduce Brittany. Brittany is a wonderful nutritionist, a nutritional therapy practitioner and postpartum hormone specialist who has worked with pregnant and postpartum women for over a decade, first as a birth doula and now as a nutritional therapy practitioner. Brittany and I have actually worked together for specifically pregnant and postpartum. clients that are juggling with gallbladder issues. so Brittany's been a pleasure to work with. She's a wealth of knowledge. She is so great working with postpartum mothers. So I wanted to invite her on today's podcast to discuss a little bit more about postpartum and why gallbladder issues or liver issues can come to surface or be more common during the postpartum period. So we're gonna dive into what's going on with our body postpartum. Why are possibly we struggling with more gallbladder attacks after having a baby? And what are some things that we can do to help replenish and support our body and our gallbladder on top of everything that we have to juggle with as mothers during postpartum period on today's episode. So welcome Brittany. I'm very happy to have you here. Thank you. I'm excited to be here. Thank you. Can you start with just first telling us a little bit more about you, why you have an interest in postpartum health? Now, so as you mentioned, have worked with pregnant and postpartum women for about 10 years now, first as a birth doula and midwife assistant and now as a practitioner. But as I worked as a birth doula, I had a lot of moms that would come to me postpartum with specific questions or concerns or issues that they were having where they just couldn't really find answers. A lot of times the symptoms that women experience in postpartum or really just with hormone dysregulation or issues in general are kind of dismissed as just like, that's normal, it's part of being a mom. And I didn't have the answers for them. And then I experienced some of my own health challenges, which led me on the path to becoming a nutritional therapy practitioner. And I knew that I wanted to specialize in postpartum specifically, because I believe that a lot of issues that women have with their health can stem from pregnancy and postpartum, the care that they receive, as well as different nutrient depletions and things like that. And so I kind of wanted to start there with moms so that I can support them in that really sensitive period, but also helping moms to have better health throughout the rest of their lives. Yeah, definitely. One thing from my first postpartum experience is that I really wish I had more help and knew the things I should be doing during postpartum and just slowing down even. And I think I would have had a much better postpartum experience. So I just always am like, I wish I met Brittany before because I definitely needed it postpartum. And when it comes to gallbladder liver issues or gallbladder fatty liver issues, postpartum can be a really tough period for a lot of females juggling gallbladder problems. A lot of women who are diagnosed with gallbladder issues or may have already had a pre-existing gallbladder problem going into pregnancy, they're often told that once they have the baby, the gallbladder issues go away. And unfortunately, as a gallbladder nutritionist, I actually see it be and not to scare anyone, but there's a lot you can do to prepare for the postpartum period and we're going to talk about that in today's episode. But gallbladder issues don't go away once we have baby and postpartum period because of the hormonal fluctuations, the stress, the lack of sleep, gallbladder issues can actually become more common. So it's very common that women really, really struggle the first couple weeks into three three to four months postpartum. Sometimes even when they start weaning process, it just depends what's going on in their situation. And so that is why I wanted Brittany and I to really dive into the postpartum period. And we're gonna be talking about specific strategies to help support mom during this postpartum period and specifically help mothers trying to navigate gallbladder issues during this time. So. Brittany, can you tell us a little bit more about what's going on with our body during this postpartum period? There's so much shifting and changing. So we know that during pregnancy, our hormones drastically increase to be able to help us grow a healthy baby. And that can obviously contribute to some gallbladder issues. But in postpartum, as soon as the placenta is delivered, those hormones start to drop. So estrogen, progesterone, cortisol, and thyroid hormones start to drop. Now cortisol commonly can remain elevated in postpartum just due to the increased stress, but that sharp drop in hormones, is a lot for the body to process and to handle. Then you add in the lack of sleep, your healing body, a newborn baby, and there's a lot for a mom to kind of have to focus on and navigate. And it's normal for our hormones to do this, but a lot of women can experience symptoms from these shifts and these changes. Yeah, and that's one thing that a lot of mothers aren't told about is that especially, gallbladder issues, they come to surface a lot of times during pregnancy and postpartum period of a woman's life because of these hormonal fluctuations. So it's not just related to diet. These hormones are playing a big role in a lot of the gallbladder issues during this time. And so as Brittany mentioned, these fluctuations in the hormones can they'll affect everything from your digestion to just basically everything. At the end of the day, your whole body's connected. And during the postpartum recovery, stress on top of sleep deprivation, if we don't have foods prepared, we're eating more foods out, we're eating more inflammatory foods, this can all really affect your gallbladder, liver, bile flow and digestion, basically worsening gallbladder function. when you already have a gallbladder issue going into pregnancy and then we come postpartum, we still have these hormonal fluctuations that are going to mess with your gallbladder liver. So as Brittany mentioned, cortisol, cortisol, chronic stress or high cortisol levels, this will suppress hormone CCK, which tells your hormone to contract. And this will lead to basically weaker gallbladder contractions and sluggish bile flow. So it's very common in the postpartum period that most women have a poor function gallbladder. That is, I shouldn't say normal, but it is normal because of typically the cortisol levels most women postpartum struggle with gallbladder contraction or function and bile stasis And then if you compound that with already a sludgy bile, your liver's already producing a sludgy bile, you have an increased risk of bile stasis which will contribute to more weak contractions or stronger contractions, weak contractions. gallbladder dysfunction and you have that higher risk of gallstones to develop. Progesterone, another hormone that we have to consider and I'd say like this is one that typically you see most be an issue with a lot of women postpartum because what happens is during pregnancy, especially third trimester, progesterone is very high and it's going to relax smooth muscles, including the gallbladder. This will slow down gallbladder contraction, again, lead to poor gallbladder function. when we aren't our gallbladers not functioning well, we're not optimizing gallbladder contraction, this leads to sluggish bile flow increased gallstone formation. And then after birth your progesterone levels drop dramatically which can obviously cause sudden changes in gallbladder motility and bile flow. Same issue estrogen. So estrogen dominance going into a pregnancy with already pre-existing estrogen dominance increases risk of gallstone formation during pregnancy. And then come postpartum you have drop in progesterone levels, estrogen levels, but typically when someone's already estrogen dominant, they're still gonna struggle with estrogen dominance even postpartum period. then if you're dealing with constipation, all these factors, this was a big struggle for me. I wasn't detoxing the estrogen and it started to contribute to bringing gallbladder liver issues back to surface a couple years postpartum. And then you have your thyroid. The thyroid is very sensitive to changes postpartum between stress and hormonal changes. And your thyroid also really affects your gallbladder motility. And it can also actually drive fatty liver. And this was a big eye-opener for me postpartum because I was actually diagnosed with fatty liver about two years postpartum. and I eat healthy, I don't drink alcohol, like I exercise, I do all of these things, but my thyroid was a big contributor of this problem and I wish I had known this before too. I had always known with the history of hypothyroidism that it affects my gallbladder motility, but I never really delved into the effects of the thyroid even on your liver and there's a bi-directional relationship between these two. Certainly poor liver health can cause thyroid issues. But your thyroid also regulates metabolism, including how your liver processes fats. So if you have low thyroid hormone, this will lead to a reduced fat breakdown, increase of fat accumulation in the liver. And this will cause liver fat, basically your fatty liver, over time. And then hypothyroidism is linked to insulin resistance, meaning your body struggles to use insulin efficiently. And high insulin levels will cause cholesterol supersaturation in bile. increasing risk of gallstones, you also have issues with gallbladder motility and increased fat storage in the liver. So this is a big driver of when you talk about the thyroid insulin resistance and fatty liver connection. So from a postpartum period, certainly our diet, working on stress and sleep are huge, but there is sometimes things beyond our diet and what we're doing. that are playing a role in why gallbladder attacks become more common during the postpartum period. And the first thing we wanna look at is our hormones. And we cannot ignore our hormones during the postpartum period when we're struggling with a lot of gallbladder issues and gallbladder attacks. So it's really important if we have a pregnancy with no gallbladder issues, even fatty liver or cholestasis, we go into postpartum. with continuing to do things to support our gallbladder liver and just support our overall health. So Brittany, can you talk about like why potentially some of these hormonal fluctuations, what maybe what factors could be causing some of these hormonal fluctuations and why nutrient depletion can be increasing some of these issues? Yeah, so. It is very, very common. I would say if you have had a baby, your body needs to focus on replenishment, period. And I think a lot of women don't realize that. They think, I eat healthier, I took a prenatal vitamin, but pregnancy and breastfeeding are very demanding. And so all women need to be focusing on rebuilding and replenishing in postpartum. But I commonly see women, so obviously the elevated stress. Postpartum increases stress. Some of it is unnecessary stress with not having enough support and things like that. So when women are better supported, can reduce stress levels. Another thing that I really see with moms is they're chronically under eating and that is really going to impact our hormonal fluctuations and our hormonal health. And during breastfeeding it's a little bit different if ovulation hasn't returned estrogen and progesterone aren't really there until that ovulation comes back. But we want to make sure that as those hormones come back online that they are well supported to be able to do so. So that we're eating enough to be able to fuel those sex hormones that we have the right nutrients in place. for our sex hormones and our thyroid to be able to function. I also see a lot of adrenal stress in postpartum. Because of the extra stress, the lack of sleep, lack of support, all of these new demands being placed on a mom, her adrenals really need that love and that support. so making sure that we are supporting all of these different aspects can really be life-changing for how a mom experiences her postpartum health. Yeah, totally. And when you talk about nutrient depletion, what are some of the top things that the mom can really focus in on to help start working on replenishment, work on supporting our hormones, gallbladder during this time? So. Every woman is going to be different what her body needs. common depletions are iron, zinc, B vitamins, especially B12, vitamin D, magnesium, vitamin C, choline, DHA, and then certain fat soluble vitamins. But there's also this other component coming into play where there's nutrient depletion, but sometimes there is nutrient excess like copper. And a lot of women don't realize that copper plays a really important part in postpartum health for postpartum mood disorders, especially with postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety and then I know it plays a really big role in contributing to gallbladder issues. Now copper rises during pregnancy. It's supposed to do this to help with the baby's growth and development but sometimes women struggle with that detoxification of copper or they don't have the right cofactors for the body to be able to use copper and so then it stays in the body unbound and it causes a lot of issues. And so I would encourage moms if they are having symptoms related to their mental health, to gallbladder, really extreme fatigue that they can't explain, then looking into testing to figure out what is going on because being able to know exactly what to work on is going to help moms to recover quicker. What type of testing do you typically like to do with moms? I like Functional blood work and then htma testing. I really really love htma testing for postpartum moms I do recommend waiting three to four months kind of for the dust to settle and things to adjust so we can really see where the body is at but women can actually test during pregnancy to kind of see where mineral levels are and then in postpartum I commonly see them very very depleted and so that helps moms know what they need to be focusing on You can also give us some insight into copper and then if blood work is an option then testing specific nutrients like B vitamins, doing an omega check, looking at zinc, copper, ceruleplasmin, things like that to see if some of these imbalances could be coming into play. Definitely and with htma testing can you explain to the listeners a little bit more about what it is and why? minerals and mineral replenishment is helpful for postpartum moms Yeah, so during pregnancy a mom's body will give about 10 % of her total supply of minerals to her baby. Then if she's breastfeeding there's going to be even more. And to some people that may not seem like a lot, but unfortunately a lot of women are entering pregnancy already depleted. So when you have a depleted mom entering pregnancy, giving a lot to baby, and then breastfeeding, her body is getting really really run down. And so a hair tissue mineral analysis is actually a soft tissue biopsy of the hair where it can look at the mineral status for the last few months actually. see certain patterns and correlations and things that are going on not only with minerals but also with patterns related to our blood sugar, to our adrenal health, to our nervous system, even some markers that can kind of look at digestion. And so I really like using that test for postpartum because we can get a pretty good picture of where to start with moms and then if they are having specific symptoms they can look at other testing. But I do think it is a really good comprehensive test for that postpartum period just to kind of look at some of these different levels. to get started working on things. Yeah, and the minerals are a really nice gentle way to replenish the body but also work on some of these hormones, especially during postpartum period when some of these hormones are coming into play and may be affecting some of your symptoms from your digestive health to detoxification to feeling deprived. I know that when I started to dive into doing a lot of mineral balancing, and really focusing in on replenishment using minerals. Not until it was about a year and a half postpartum. I wish I did it earlier, but I did start about a year and a half postpartum and I felt a significant improvement in my symptoms, my digestion. my gosh, I always struggled with constipation, especially postpartum. And it was a big issue with my gallbladder liver health and putting pressure on that area, but. the minerals came into a play and they're really nice gentle way to help replenish mom but also help with energy, get better sleep. So, Brittany, can you talk about some of those like maybe just the top minerals that mom can focus in on and some key foods that maybe they can incorporate? Yeah, so one of my favorite minerals to focus on in postpartum is actually potassium. Because moms just commonly are not getting enough, especially if they're breastfeeding. And that really can make a difference with their adrenal health, their thyroid health, with their sex hormones, with their energy levels. And because most moms aren't getting enough, it's commonly depleted or low levels. So potassium is a really big one. Sodium is also important. We wanna make sure that we're consuming those together. Magnesium, obviously that increased stress and postpartum is going to increase that need for magnesium. bringing in some magnesium supplementation or even like magnesium lotion or oil or spray can be really helpful because it can absorb through the skin. Things like Epsom salt baths and things like that are really gentle ways to support magnesium levels. Iodine is really important for thyroid health as is selenium. However, I do caution moms against just supplementing with iodine, like just grabbing a supplement and taking. Instead focusing on iodine rich foods like wild caught fish, pastured egg yolks. If they can tolerate it, I know a lot of of women with gallbladder issues can't. One of my favorite ways is actually something called Dulcey flakes and just doing a little sprinkle if mom can tolerate it and slowly working up but really trying to get that iodine through food. As well as selenium, different meats are gonna contain selenium as our Brazil nuts and things like that are gonna be really helpful for that postpartum period. And so, yeah. Minerals are a game changer if you're in the postpartum period and they are really really helpful for gallbladder liver issues, supporting detoxification and digestion and the stress, the higher stress levels during postpartum. So if you are listening to this episode and you also have gallbladder liver issues because they go hand in hand, so I'm always bucketing them. Working on mineral replenishment is a game changer postpartum to support your gallbladder liver health, overall hormone health and the stress. I would also suggest to anyone juggling gallbladder issues, some other key things that you can do to help support your gallbladder liver during postpartum period. The number one thing that I wish someone told me from the beginning, actually Brittany told, when we actually met up one time. I still remember this conversation. We were having coffee and she said, Olivia, I think you're doing more than what you realize. stress, stress is the biggest thing because stress can really suppress the gallbladder function. And if you deal with gallbladder issues, most of you can say, yes, I've had gallbladder pain or attacks when I've been under higher periods of stress. And that is because stress will cause issues with your gallbladder contraction and cause bile stasis. So at the top, we really do have to make postpartum period be a period of slowing down if you can, or getting more help from friends, families. If you're able to hire help, I would say the top thing that you need to do is work on stress. Doing big, deep belly breaths. So if you don't have the help, I didn't have much help during my postpartum period. And... I just, wish, like I said, someone told me these things before, but doing big deep belly breaths. Whenever you're doing anything, from laundry to cooking, before meals, taking big deep belly breaths, getting to bed early, and this can be challenging for most moms because we're like, yes, baby's got down, it's my time, I'm gonna have my time, and then we stay up way too late, and it's just making all of the issues worse. So. Do try to get to bed early, so you're at least getting seven to nine hours of sleep at night. Obviously, that's not realistic if you have a child that wakes up all the time and I can relate to that. My son just started sleeping through the night and he's almost three. So it took me a long time too, but it does get better. Sleep is important for gallbladder liver health, for your hormones during postpartum period. And then there's some other little things that you can do within our diet to help support the gallbladder liver. So small, more frequent meals. We wanna avoid overeating postpartum because what can happen is that your gallbladder functions already struggling. And so if you go to overeat a meal, this is going to signal a strong contraction of the gallbladder. So it's really important postpartum period, you eat small, more frequent meals. So typically it's about three to four meals and then maybe two to three snacks in between. This will help make sure you're getting in enough nutrients, especially if you're stuck on a low-fat diet and you need more healthy fats for milk supply. You can kind of space out those healthy fats among every meals and then you're not overdoing it on too much fats or too much food in one meal. That would signal a strong contraction of a gallbladder or potential gallbladder attack. So aim for small more frequent meals. Again, typically you're gonna eat every two to three hours. Make sure they're all balanced so they have some form of protein, fiber from vegetables, if you can handle beans, legumes, fruits, and then incorporate healthy fat to your tolerance. Again, if you're stuck on a low-fat diet, this is where probably you need to work with someone like myself or Brittany to help you get off the low-fat diet so you can eat more healthy fats for your milk supply and for your hormones. Smaller frequent meals, work on fiber intake. Fiber acts as a natural binder to detox the body. So when we're stuck in the postpartum period, our bodies can get really clogged up, especially if you're dealing with constipation. And this was a big issue for me, what drove fatty liver and gallbladder changes postpartum. I wasn't detoxing at the foundation with my bowel movements. so fiber will help with that. Fiber acts as a natural binder to detox that excess estrogen, the toxins from the body. And ideally we wanna make sure that we're having bowel movements to release out the toxins. if not what can happen during most periods for postpartum mothers is they get too much toxin accumulation and you actually start to see this with a lot of histamine issues postpartum. So ensure you eat enough fiber and you are releasing bowels. So if you're constipated, you need to look at your thyroid health, make sure you're working on minerals, potassium, sodium, magnesium that Brittany mentioned, increasing magnesium supplementation, so doing magnesium. Glycinate, you may have to do magnesium oxide temporarily to help doing Epsom salt baths, but the bowel's gotta get moving postpartum. And that's gonna help support your liver, your gallbladder, and improve that bile composition You have to keep the junk moving out of the body. If not, that's gonna go back to the liver and continue the vicious cycle of bile super- saturation and gallstones forming. Other really things that can help is around meal times. Be smart with specific habits that support gallbladder function and bile flow and fat digestion. So typically I always suggest to moms to have some bitter component before meals. So a bitter component could be like digestive bitters. I have a bile flow tincture which is a combination of like liver, gallbladder herbs and some bitters like ginger in it that naturally stimulate your digestion before meals or you can do lemon water or apple cider vinegar in water. Then during your meals, you wanna incorporate bitter foods that's gonna stimulate bile flow and help support fat digestion in a natural way and it's not gonna push a ton of gallbladder contraction. And then after meals, taking ox bile. Ox bile is really great when you're struggling with fat intolerance. You need to get fat intake back up postpartum. Ox bile can really help with that fat intolerance. And then eventually you can certainly add in Tudka. Tudka is really great to target your liver. bile flow and gallbladder function and fat digestion, but it does really push bile flow initially. some moms find that it's too sensitive for their gallbladder to start. So you might have to go in with some of these bitter strategies in ox bile first and then bringing in Tudka at a later period. And then certainly you probably are going to need some form of digestive enzyme, typically postpartum. The digestive enzymes can also help. target some of those intolerances to maybe fiber and fats and things like that. And also give mommy a little bit more digestive support. And then really work on those top minerals that Brittany talked about because they are game changer, potassium, sodium, magnesium. And then if you wanna dive more into your mineral status and look at like how can I replenish my body, support my hormones, my gallbladder, liver health, during postpartum. and help my body recover better from pregnancy to postpartum. Certainly do an HTMA, testing your thyroid, making sure you monitor that postpartum can be really great ways to help replenish your body but also support your gallbladder and liver. So these are some things that can be really supportive during postpartum period, especially if you're dealing with gallbladder liver issues, it can be very, very overwhelming. So I wouldn't recommend doing it alone, especially if you're dealing with lot of gallbladder attacks. Between Brittany and I, we've helped a lot of individuals with gallbladder issues. Whether the moms come to us and they just need help stopping the gallbladder attacks, especially the first couple of weeks postpartum. They're like, Olivia, I just need to make it a couple more months to do surgery. I need to stop these gallbladder attacks. And we'll support individuals in that way. or certainly support individuals if they want to continue to work to save their gallbladder. But certainly get the help, you know, to help with whatever you need postpartum, seek help. I wish someone had told me that from the beginning because it would have helped me with a ton of my postpartum things that came up during my period. So, Brittany, do you have any other things that you think would be super helpful for mom as we wrap up today's episode? think just remembering that postpartum is more than just a few weeks or a few months. It can actually be a couple of years that your body is still adjusting. There's the increased stress, especially if you're breastfeeding. And I think we have this misconception when people hear the word postpartum that it's just a short amount of time. But if you've had a baby in the last few years and you are struggling with gallbladder issues or hormonal imbalances, there may still be some of that postpartum component coming into play. And so just keep that in mind that even if you are a little bit past that, you know, a few months postpartum, is still an important thing to work on. Yeah, it definitely is. Well, thank you, Brittany, for sharing with us today everything about postpartum health. Can you share with the listeners where they can find you, where they can connect with you? Yes, so my website is just www.deeprootsnutrition.net or on Instagram at deep.roots.nutrition. Perfect. And I'll share where you can contact Brittany in the show notes as well. But thank you so much. I hope that you found this episode helpful. If you found it helpful, please share with a fellow gallbladder warrior that needs the support during postpartum and may be really struggling with gallbladder liver issues during this time. So thank you so much for listening and we hope that you have a wonderful day. Thank you.