0:29

Hello , Today I have with me

0:31

Maya Miller . Maya

0:33

is a metabolic health coach and

0:35

functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner

0:38

that's a fancy way of saying that

0:40

. She uses clinical labs to analyze

0:42

blood , urine , stool , hair

0:44

, etc . To find out why her clients

0:47

feel burned out , exhausted and sick

0:49

. She then uses those results

0:51

to create tailored bio-individual

0:54

protocols to reverse their symptoms

0:56

. As the owner of Maya

0:58

Miller Wellness , a six-figure business

1:00

, she helps highly productive individuals

1:03

and ambitious professionals transform

1:05

their bodies from the inside out through

1:08

her signature programs like the Adrenal

1:10

Detox , the Inside Out Protocol

1:13

and Next Level . Over

1:15

the course of her career in wellness , she's

1:17

worked with over 10,000 women , 1,500

1:20

of which have been within her online

1:22

programs . She's been a podcast

1:25

guest on many shows , including Low

1:27

Ticket , High Impact , Ideas

1:29

and Impact , the Mind Fuel

1:31

, Entrepreneur and Ideas

1:34

and Impact with Jeremy Jones . She's

1:36

also been featured in print in Forbes

1:39

, Austin Fit Magazine

1:41

and the Austin Business Journal

1:43

. She lives in Austin , Texas

1:45

, with her husband , son and pops . Maya

1:48

, welcome and thank you for joining me . Hello

1:51

, so happy to be here . I am really excited

1:54

to hear your birth journey and

1:56

how your career in functional

1:58

medicine has impacted your

2:01

fertility journey .

2:02

Ma'an . Well , I'm an old , first-time mom

2:04

, so I just had my son five months

2:06

ago . His name's Noah . He's an

2:08

absolute dream , but I

2:11

am also 45 years old Not

2:14

a young mom . I would say Not

2:16

old , but not a young mom . I

2:19

married my husband later on in life

2:21

. We didn't want to have kids right away . We

2:23

decided just to do IVF as an

2:26

insurance policy . I'm

2:28

so glad that we ended up doing that

2:30

, because what ended up happening

2:32

was my entire life exploded . I

2:34

lost my dad . I almost lost my mom

2:36

. I had to shut down my business

2:38

because I was dealing with so many family things . It was an

2:41

incredible amount of stress . I

2:43

knew that with my functional nutrition

2:46

background , I knew that that

2:48

level of stress was not going to make for a

2:51

great pregnancy and could

2:53

definitely impact the

2:55

baby negatively in my postpartum

2:58

time . We decided

3:00

to wait . Then we had a global

3:02

pandemic where I wasn't going to have a

3:04

kid in the middle of COVID . Really

3:06

, I ended up gosh

3:09

postponing my birth by

3:11

five years or so . I was very

3:13

happy to have had those genetically

3:16

tested embryos on ice

3:18

ready to go . I think one of the most important

3:20

things about my birth journey is

3:23

the amount of work that I put into

3:25

making sure that my body was

3:27

healthy , that my nervous

3:29

system was calm . I

3:32

probably waited

3:34

a year and a half almost

3:36

two years , after all of the craziness

3:39

, to even consider implanting those

3:41

embryos . I really wanted to make sure

3:43

that my microbiome was

3:45

nice and healthy , that my hormones

3:47

were balanced , that I had

3:49

eliminated almost all stress

3:52

out of my life . That

3:54

took a significant amount of time but

3:56

it really paid off because

3:58

I had probably the easiest

4:00

pregnancy in the world . I

4:02

had no morning sickness . I

4:04

had no emotional ups

4:06

and downs . My pregnancy was just

4:08

an absolute joy . While

4:11

my birth was not what I expected

4:13

, it was also pretty easy . We

4:15

implanted an embryo last summer

4:18

and it took after

4:20

just one implantation , which is pretty

4:22

rare . Only about 4%

4:24

of women over 40 have successful

4:27

IVF outcomes . The first

4:29

time that we implanted our embryo it took

4:31

. I worked with an amazing

4:34

midwife here in Austin

4:36

, texas , at the birthing center

4:38

. I was going to have a granola

4:41

, no epidural , all

4:43

the things birth

4:46

. Noah had just a different

4:48

plan in mind . Right around

4:50

41 weeks I started getting

4:52

just an intuitive hit that I was going

4:54

to have to have a C-section . I

4:57

remember being in the shower and

4:59

having a conversation with Noah , saying

5:01

, hey , this is what a hospital C-section is

5:03

going to look like . This is what a midwife birthing

5:06

center at birth is going to look like . I told her

5:08

I trust your wisdom that you're going

5:10

to choose your delivery exactly

5:12

how you need to be delivered . I still really

5:14

thought that he was going to pull it together and

5:17

we were going to have a regular

5:19

vaginal delivery at

5:21

the end of 41

5:23

weeks . Well , at the beginning of 41 weeks we

5:26

started doing all the things the mild circuit . I

5:28

do two rounds of castor oil , sex

5:30

in order to get things going , and just

5:32

nothing was happening . I did

5:34

two membrane sweeps . I

5:37

mean really unheard of . My midwife said that

5:39

she like one round of castor oil

5:41

works for about 80% of people . That

5:44

Wednesday , before I inevitably

5:47

check into the hospital , I completely

5:49

lose it . I'm in the middle of the night and

5:51

sobbing . My husband is like you just

5:53

need to let this all go . I think that was the moment where

5:55

I really realized I was going to have a C-section

5:57

, something I really did not want to do . It

6:00

was Saturday night . I

6:02

told my doula , I said it in

6:04

my husband . I said hey , because at 42

6:06

weeks in the state of Texas . My midwife

6:08

can't see you anymore . You have to transition . I'm

6:10

going to a hospital . It was either give

6:12

birth for the first time at home on my own

6:14

, with no medical support , or go to the

6:16

hospital . I chose the latter . The

6:19

night before we went to the hospital , I told my doula

6:21

and my husband . I said hey , we're going to get to

6:23

the hospital , the induction isn't going to work

6:25

and I'm going to end up having a C-section . Sure

6:28

enough , it's Sunday . I'm

6:30

now 42 weeks . In one day I've

6:32

officially turned into a pumpkin with my midwife

6:34

. All of us head to the hospital

6:36

. I check in and first

6:39

induction . They give you a round of cytotech

6:41

I think it's called to open up your , dilate , your

6:43

cervix . That didn't work . Six hours

6:45

later , that didn't work

6:47

. I'm really proud of myself , actually , for

6:50

how I was able to handle this

6:52

decision . I had planned on

6:54

no interventions , natural

6:56

childbirth , no epidural , because

6:58

epidurals impact breastfeeding and

7:00

a lot of other things . I lost it

7:03

. When I got to the hospital

7:05

I started crying and there's a wonderful

7:08

midwifery program in the hospital

7:10

. The midwife was like okay , explain the tears , talk

7:12

to me about what's going on . I just

7:14

said I don't want to be here . In

7:16

general , I have a general distrust

7:18

of allopathic medicine

7:20

and especially obstetrics

7:23

in this country . I believe that many women

7:25

have traumatic births because OBGYNs

7:28

are involved . This was the perspective

7:30

that I came from , where a lot of my clients

7:33

have had very traumatic , awful births . They

7:35

aren't listened to . The doctors do what they

7:37

want . They're coerced into interventions

7:39

. Those interventions are part of an

7:41

intervention cascade . They

7:44

end up getting C-sections . I didn't want that to

7:46

be me . There are definite implications

7:48

for baby microbiome

7:50

from C-sections . Your baby gets

7:53

about 16 to 20% of

7:55

his or her microbiome from vaginal

7:57

delivery . I knew that there

7:59

were just implications . By

8:01

the way , just getting sliced open is also

8:03

a major thing . The midwife was really amazing . She

8:05

just said I've been a midwife here , but I've been a

8:07

midwife at home and in birthing center environments

8:10

. Tell me what's important to you in your birth . I

8:13

got to say what's important to

8:15

me is optimal cord cutting . We

8:18

had a negotiation around that and we ended up with delayed

8:20

cord cutting and there's a difference between the two . I said

8:22

I want immediate skin to skin unless

8:24

there's a medical emergency . My

8:26

husband in the room . I want him to be able to cut the

8:28

umbilical cord . She just said

8:31

we're going to do all of that for you . I

8:34

really appreciated that Because

8:36

I was a 45-year-old mom

8:38

that had gone 42 weeks and one day I'd had

8:41

two biophysical profiles . So BPPs

8:43

in the prior week to make sure that everything's okay with

8:45

Noah . She came in and said

8:47

hey , by the way , the second round of cytotech

8:50

isn't working . I just read your last

8:52

BPP . This child is going to be anywhere

8:54

between 10 to 12 pounds . At

8:56

this point we have to recommend

8:59

a C-section . He said , hey

9:01

, walk me through both options . She said , okay

9:03

, option one we continue the induction . It's

9:05

not going so well right now . You will probably

9:08

need lots of pitocin

9:10

. That's going to stress you out . It's going to be more painful

9:12

. It's going to stress baby out . He

9:14

is gigantic , so there's a significantly

9:16

higher likelihood that his shoulders

9:19

get stuck . In that situation

9:21

, two things will happen we will either break

9:23

his clavicle in order to get

9:25

him through your birth canal or we

9:27

will shove him back up through you . Now

9:30

you are in an emergency C-section . All

9:32

of those things that you just outlined

9:35

as very important to you are off the table because

9:37

now you're going general anesthesia

9:39

, your husband can't be there , all the things

9:42

Right away . I just said , okay

9:44

, let's go . I think she was really surprised

9:47

that this crunchy granola mom

9:50

who was going to have a natural

9:52

birth just so quickly said yes

9:55

. I just explained to her that I had

9:57

had a knowing for the last two weeks that this

9:59

was going to happen . I'm very in tune

10:01

with my intuition and I listened to it

10:03

always . She even

10:05

said wait , are you sure you want to do this ? I was like

10:07

yes For me if I had a 100%

10:10

chance of having all the things

10:12

that were important to me versus a

10:14

30% chance of not having that

10:16

to me . That was one of the earliest

10:19

parenting decisions that I could make . I decided

10:21

that at this point in my life I wasn't going

10:23

to choose suffering just to make a point

10:25

that I had a natural childbirth

10:27

with no epidural and I went through all

10:30

the pains and all of that . I

10:32

just listened to my gut and my intuition

10:34

. It's never , not once

10:36

ever in my life , made me go

10:38

astray . Within a couple

10:40

of hours I had noa

10:45

in my arms . The C-section was wild

10:47

. It's a pretty aggressive surgery

10:50

. My husband after the fact said

10:52

you were trying to be so calm and there's just

10:54

a tear streaming down your eyes because

10:56

I was very surprised at how

10:59

violent but definitely aggressive that surgery

11:01

is and your body is being yanked all over the place

11:05

. I had very little pain and we

11:07

really practiced , once we brought noa

11:09

home , some of the birthing postpartum

11:12

traditions of sitting in . I

11:14

only left the house , I think , maybe once or twice , I think

11:17

, for pediatric appointments . After that

11:19

it was all about recovery and

11:21

getting more my minerals and my

11:23

macronutrients and the micronutrients and making

11:26

sure that I was very well taken care

11:28

of , because taking care of mom is taking

11:30

care of baby . I've had an

11:32

amazing postpartum as well . No

11:34

hair loss . Noa was sleeping through

11:36

the night as of , I think , about one or two

11:39

weeks in . He was 10 pounds when he was

11:41

born . In fact , he was a big baby

11:43

. He's the happiest little boy ever . Gosh

11:46

, I can't believe , even from the first second

11:48

, that I used to think that being a mother wasn't going to be enough

11:50

for me , because it's literally the

11:52

best thing I've ever done in my life and I can't wait to do

11:55

it again . I emailed my doctor

11:57

six weeks in and I said , hey , when can I do

11:59

number two ? She thought I was crazy . I've

12:01

really had . Everything from implantation

12:04

to postpartum

12:06

has just been really easy

12:08

, breezy and very flowy for me .

12:10

That's amazing . I really love how you

12:13

described that you transitioned

12:15

through your birth decisions . I

12:17

think it really highlights how

12:19

we can do right by women by

12:22

helping them understand the choices , versus

12:25

throwing it out there as this is the only

12:27

option . You still came to

12:29

the same conclusion

12:31

that your OB was recommending

12:34

. This is a huge reason why I'm doing

12:36

this podcast , because I think it's all

12:38

in the presentation and in our duty

12:41

to educate versus this

12:44

culture that we've had for

12:46

centuries , where women

12:48

don't know their bodies and we

12:50

need to tell them how to do things

12:52

. Well . First of all , I want to

12:54

go into a little bit more detail about a couple

12:56

of things in your C-section how that went

12:59

for cutting the cord

13:01

and what they actually allowed you to

13:03

do within the operating room . Did

13:05

he cut the umbilical cord

13:07

or was it a situation where they let

13:09

him trim the umbilical cord later

13:11

? Did you do immediate skin to skin ? How did

13:14

that go for you ?

13:15

Yeah , we did everything , except

13:17

for my husband didn't cut the umbilical

13:19

cord . I don't recall if it wasn't

13:21

an option or if things just got

13:23

intense and he didn't want to . I think . Just

13:26

nobody offered . I think he

13:28

, kind of like this , is just hanging out close

13:30

to me . I got the baby right

13:32

away . The baby was on me while

13:34

they were sewing me out . All

13:36

of the things that were very important to

13:38

me happened .

13:39

I'm curious . First of all , I'll comment

13:42

on the umbilical cord . Just because there's a sterile

13:44

field , Usually it's not an

13:46

option in most facilities . I've heard

13:48

what maybe urban legends

13:50

about people being allowed to cut

13:52

the umbilical cord that are not trained

13:54

surgeons or what have you . I'm not sure what

13:56

that would look like . I think whoever is going

13:58

to cut the umbilical cord would probably need to be scrubbed

14:01

in and standing right next to the

14:03

surgeon , which is obviously we would

14:05

have liability issues in that regard

14:07

. However , what we've done

14:09

in the past and possibly this is what

14:11

wasn't offered to you sometimes dad

14:14

can trim the umbilical cord . That's in

14:17

some of the facilities that I work at , not all

14:19

, depending on the layout of the OR Dad

14:21

has that .

14:22

Dad did not touch the umbilical cord

14:25

and I think he was fine with it . Okay

14:27

, yeah , whatever .

14:29

It's kind of disconcerting once you do see the

14:31

umbilical cord . It's a little , it's

14:33

gooey and weird . A little gooey . Yes

14:36

, Most dads are like

14:38

, oh , I wanted to do this . So I'm impressed

14:40

that you were able to do skin to skin

14:42

and I know that I don't work at a facility

14:44

where immediately the baby goes

14:47

on mom . I work at one facility

14:49

where we do skin to skin with dad

14:51

as an option after the pediatrician has

14:54

evaluated the baby . So I'm

14:56

just curious because I'm not entirely

14:58

sure how that process works at some other

15:00

facility . I would imagine it's different , it's

15:02

so many different . But was there a nurse there that

15:04

was helping you do the skin to

15:06

skin ? Because I know that things get a little

15:09

. There's just not a lot of space for that .

15:12

You know , I don't remember . I

15:14

know that I was still on the operating

15:17

table when and baby was on my

15:19

chest . But we made it . I made it

15:21

a point to say we passed

15:23

on HEPB , we passed on the

15:25

eye ointment . I essentially said nothing

15:27

is to be done to the child unless

15:29

there is a medical emergency , and that was

15:31

very important to me . And

15:34

so you know . I think that

15:37

if you aren't educated

15:39

on what your rights

15:42

are as a mother , I think oftentimes

15:44

options are not presented

15:46

. What is presented is what's most convenient

15:49

for the medical team and what it has the least

15:51

amount of liability for the medical

15:53

team . But that isn't necessarily

15:55

what's good for baby and what's good for mom . And

15:58

what's good for baby and what's good for mom short

16:00

of a medical emergency is that that baby is

16:02

on you right away . I'm constantly

16:05

hearing stories of mothers who struggle

16:07

with breastfeeding . They're not producing

16:09

enough milk . That is a direct correlation

16:12

to how quickly you get the baby

16:14

, how long the baby stays on you . I

16:17

know we talked about the golden hour , but it's really a couple of

16:19

hours Whether or not you

16:21

had an epidural . Epidurals

16:23

absolutely impact breastfeeding

16:25

and so . But nobody

16:27

is really telling moms this . We're

16:30

telling moms that the epidural doesn't matter

16:32

, and so

16:34

a lot of moms choose that . But I think if they were told

16:36

that like , by the way , this may impact your

16:39

breastfeeding journey a lot of moms would forego the

16:41

epidural , like I wanted

16:43

to . And so I think that

16:45

for me , because of what I do

16:47

for a living and I work primarily

16:49

with women who , and most of them

16:52

, are moms I would say 80% of my clients

16:54

, 90% of my clients , are also mothers , in

16:56

addition to whatever they do outside of the home

16:58

. For me , knowledge is power

17:00

, and it helps me feel less anxious

17:02

about something that I was very anxious

17:04

about . I was very nervous to deliver

17:07

a baby , and so for me , I

17:09

read I think it's gosh the Thinking Woman's

17:11

Guide to a Natural Birth , I think is

17:13

one of the books where it literally

17:15

walks you through every single intervention

17:17

and will pros and the cons

17:20

. So I did a lot of work

17:22

on the front end so that I was

17:24

able to push back where I needed to

17:26

push back , because I think oftentimes

17:28

we're in this vulnerable position we're scared

17:30

, we've never been there , we may be

17:32

in pain and we maybe don't

17:34

have a doula , we don't have somebody

17:37

that has

17:39

earned their stripes and knows

17:41

the system and knows where you can push back and not

17:43

. And I think , as women , we often give away

17:45

our power , and so , for me , I

17:48

was able to do that because of the work that I

17:50

had done ahead of time and

17:52

also being an older mom , right .

17:55

I think there's an importance of informed

17:57

decisions and so

17:59

maybe not that there's

18:01

one right way that every mom gets to

18:03

understand the pros and cons and choose what

18:06

works for them , just like you chose to with

18:08

all the information that you're given . Ultimately

18:10

, that it was better for you to have that

18:12

C-section because you got 100%

18:14

of the things that were important to you in that

18:16

delivery , and I think that everybody should have

18:18

that opportunity , and it's important

18:20

that everybody educates themselves and

18:22

then chooses for themselves what's important

18:25

and then is able to be flexible with the plan

18:27

when some of those options that were

18:29

preferable slowly sometimes

18:31

they get taken off the table just because it's not

18:33

safe or just because what

18:36

you were saying the option for the vaginal

18:38

delivery was taking the

18:40

things off the table that were important to you

18:42

. So it's like you're weighing all

18:44

of these different options and deciding what

18:47

combination works best for you as a

18:49

person .

18:50

Yeah , and had I not had this

18:52

intuitive hunch

18:54

, I knew

18:56

that I was going to have a C-section two weeks

18:58

before it happened , and

19:01

so had I not had that

19:03

kind of intuitive hit , then I probably would

19:05

have continued with the induction

19:07

and we would have just waited it out . But

19:09

I knew that this was going

19:11

to happen , and I decided

19:14

that I could have suffered

19:16

and still had

19:18

the same outcome more than likely , and

19:21

I chose something different , which is a really big deal for

19:23

me , because in the past I probably would

19:25

have been like grin and bear it , no pain , no

19:27

gain , pull yourself up by your bootstraps , and

19:30

that just I don't think it would have served

19:32

me in this situation . And

19:34

so I think that , going into

19:37

any sort of medical decisions

19:39

as a woman , it's very important

19:41

that you understand what your options

19:44

are and where you can and cannot push

19:46

back , and at the end of the day , you

19:48

have to give consent to anything that's

19:51

had that happens to your body . And

19:53

so I would say there was one situation

19:56

that I didn't love in the hospital

19:58

, and I think this is a I'll bring it up because it's a good example

20:00

of this . So for some reason

20:02

, they do three blood sugar tests

20:05

on newborns and at

20:07

this particular hospital they were fasting

20:09

. It was standard at that hospital , standard

20:12

at this hospital . Not because he's a C-section

20:14

baby , not because I was an older mom .

20:16

Not because he was large how big was he ?

20:19

So he was 10 pounds , 14 ounces , so essentially

20:21

10 pounds . That's large for gestational

20:24

age .

20:24

So that puts him at risk for not

20:26

being able to maintain his blood sugars after delivery

20:28

.

20:29

So my understanding is

20:31

that they do this with all babies at

20:33

this particular hospital , and

20:35

what they do at this particular hospital , which

20:37

they don't do at other hospitals in Austin and

20:39

this is coming from one of the nurses I'll kind of tell you

20:41

the whole story but is that they actually

20:44

do fasting ? So

20:46

I would feed him and then they would wait three

20:48

hours and then they would check his blood sugar

20:50

. Well , the first one was fine

20:52

. The second one was one point

20:55

below where it was supposed to be . I don't remember the

20:57

number . But then , all of a sudden , so

20:59

they used the glucometer in my room

21:01

but they also did serum blood sugar

21:03

and somehow there was like a 13 , 14

21:05

point difference between what they got with the glucometer

21:08

and serum . And so the

21:10

nurse practitioner came in and

21:12

like we need to give the baby formula and

21:14

I said well , what , what ? talk to me , what's going

21:17

on . She said his blood sugar is really low and I said

21:19

really , it's only one point low . And

21:21

I'm looking at like whole baby here

21:23

and he's waking to

21:25

feed , he is not lethargic

21:28

, he's acting exactly how he's

21:30

supposed to . And I said you know well , can

21:32

you tell me what is what the ingredients are

21:34

in your formula ? Well , the

21:36

first one is high fructose corn syrup

21:38

, and then the second ingredient is

21:40

canola oil . And

21:42

so I looked at her and I said , okay

21:44

, well , that's a hard no for me , because

21:47

canola oil is literally toxic

21:49

and it's poison , and high

21:51

fructose corn syrup is also poison

21:54

. And so , like , what

21:56

are the options here ? And she goes well

21:58

, I could take your child and I can check him

22:00

into the NICU and give him sugar water . And

22:02

at this point , like that's a very to

22:05

me , I took that as a threat and

22:07

my midwife happened to be visiting , because this

22:09

is , I think , like the second day in the hospital

22:11

, and the nurse practitioner said you know

22:13

, at this point your child actually needs

22:15

those things . And so I looked at her and I'm

22:17

crying at this point , right , because I'm upset

22:20

, and this has been a conversation and it seemed

22:22

very threatening at this point and I

22:24

said you know , if my son needed high fructose

22:26

corn syrup and canola oil , my breasts

22:28

would be producing that . And so I just said I

22:30

need you to leave my room . I need five minutes to

22:32

talk this decision over with my midwife , and

22:34

my husband and

22:37

my son is like , totally fine , not

22:39

in distress Because my midwife

22:41

is there and she goes . You know , the

22:43

birthing center is 15 minutes away . I'll go get you some

22:46

breast milk . That's a great . So

22:48

the nurse practitioner comes back in and says which of

22:50

the two options did you decide NICU or

22:52

formula ? I said neither . My midwife is already

22:54

left . She's going to be here in 15 minutes with

22:56

donor breast milk . And at that point she said

22:58

well , you know that this is dangerous . It's a bodily fluid

23:01

and I kind of like lose it at this point

23:03

. And I'm like you know , are you looking for a solution

23:05

here or not ? Because

23:07

this gets his blood sugar up right

23:10

. And it was interesting because

23:12

when she left the room

23:14

the nurse looked at

23:16

me and said there's another nurse

23:18

and said you keep

23:20

fighting for what you believe in , mama . And

23:24

I at that point decided I was going to feed my

23:26

baby right before I was going to

23:28

fast him and I had this conversation with the

23:30

nurse practitioner . I said look , I'm a nutritionist

23:33

and when my clients have low

23:35

blood sugar , this

23:37

is a volume issue . He just needs

23:39

to eat more often . And why are you fasting

23:41

him ? Like what's going to happen this

23:44

is normal mechanism is he's going

23:46

to have low blood sugar three hours after

23:48

he eats and that blood sugar is going to get

23:51

him up and have him cry

23:53

or whatever , and that's going to be a sign

23:55

that he needs to eat again . And so she was

23:57

like well , it's different with babies . And I said oh

23:59

really , you know , here's

24:01

how the cortisol blood sugar reaction

24:04

kind of works in adults . I'm

24:06

always looking to learn more . Can

24:09

you explain to me how it's different in a baby

24:11

? It's not , it's the exact same autonomic

24:13

nervous system , right ? And she literally

24:16

looked at me , turned around , walked away , and

24:18

she , because she knew that it wasn't

24:20

different , and one of these other nurses was like

24:22

I don't know why they're fasting your kid

24:24

. And I had already decided we

24:27

were going to do because at this point I said we're

24:29

done with you get one

24:31

more blood sugar test , stop pricking his feet

24:33

. And

26:19

so the nurse was like I'm

26:21

going to be back in here at 11 o'clock and 1

26:23

o'clock and feed him right before

26:25

. So I haven't had nurses

26:27

kind of telling me like hey , this nurse

26:29

practitioner is being crazy and they

26:32

don't do fasting blood sugar at any

26:34

of the other hospitals I work at in Austin . So

26:36

it's just one of those things where it's like , ok

26:39

, I'm obviously . This

26:41

is a traumatic situation . I don't want to feed

26:43

my child formula With

26:45

that particular formulation . There are

26:47

other formulas that don't have canola

26:50

oil and literal garbage

26:52

in them . I understand

26:54

the importance of baby microbiome

26:57

and he's already a C-section baby . That's

26:59

just an incredibly stressful way to

27:02

start life In

27:04

that situation . I even asked

27:06

. I said hey , they've never

27:08

presented breast milk as an antiviral

27:10

, which they happen to have in the NICU . They

27:12

could have easily given me breast milk . Instead

27:15

, I had to have my midwife go to the birthing

27:17

center and bring breast milk back . It's

27:23

just there's same

27:25

thing . We said no to the vitamin

27:27

K shot because it has polysorbate

27:30

80 in it , which crosses

27:32

over the blood brain barrier . There's

27:34

other things in it that I think it's like

27:36

20,000 times the amount of

27:38

vitamin K where baby actually needs . It's

27:42

oftentimes more than the liver can process

27:44

. What typically then also happens

27:46

after that vitamin K shot is the baby has jaundice

27:49

. Shocking , we

27:52

were going to do vitamin K drops Again

27:57

. They had a problem with that . They said oh well , by the

27:59

way , we have a preservative-free

28:02

vitamin K shot . I'm like why

28:04

is there a secret in and out menu here

28:06

?

28:07

Yeah , exactly .

28:08

Which , by the way , still has polysorbate 80

28:11

in it , which I didn't know . I

28:13

took them at face value . I trusted

28:15

what they said , that it didn't have the

28:17

things that I had a problem with , and it did . Why

28:20

do I have to be highly educated

28:22

and have a personality

28:25

type that I

28:27

don't mind swinging my weight around in

28:29

order to get what I want , which is not very typical

28:32

for many women ? If

28:35

two things happen and it's like okay , had

28:37

I not been educated on this , had

28:39

I not had a midwife standing

28:41

next to me , then that could have gone

28:43

very differently . The reality

28:45

is is I work with a lot of women that were C-section

28:47

babies . Guess what ? They have a problem

28:50

with Gut microbiome , which

28:52

means that they have a problem with their immune

28:54

system , because 80% of your immune system

28:56

is in your gut , which

28:58

also means that they often have anxiety

29:00

and depression , because about 70 , 80%

29:02

of your serotonin is created

29:04

in your gut . These decisions

29:06

that we make very early in life

29:08

for our children have lasting

29:10

implications for generations to

29:12

come , and they are being stolen and

29:15

taken away from us .

29:17

Yeah , Wow , I'm just shocked

29:19

that they were doing the three hour fasting

29:22

. It's not evidence-based . As

29:25

you were talking , I was like , well , why did you

29:27

have to go through the birth center to get

29:29

the breast milk ? One of the hospitals that I

29:31

work at does have the donor breast milk for babies

29:33

that need it . We also have

29:35

the backdoor vitamin K because

29:37

in the NICU the NICU babies get the preservative

29:40

free vitamin K

29:43

. Then the drops we don't offer just because

29:45

the American Academy of Pediatrics , the

29:47

studies have shown that there's less of a absorption

29:49

of the vitamin K with the drops . But

29:52

regardless , you're giving your baby vitamin K . We

29:56

should be able to educate ourselves on the options and

29:58

have the options presented to us .

30:00

What does that mean ? Why am I

30:02

having to practice defensive parenting

30:05

right away ? It's defensive

30:07

nutrition where it's like okay , now

30:09

something is grass-fed but not grass-finished

30:12

, which is just as gross . Now

30:14

you have to say 100% grass-fed and grass-finished

30:16

Free range is

30:19

different . Now you have to just got to be pasture

30:21

raised . It's like the second that a consumer

30:23

says I am not okay with

30:25

food this way . Then they say

30:28

okay , they use new term and

30:30

we're constantly having to

30:32

one up and fool . I

30:36

had a really big problem with this one

30:39

particular nurse practitioner . Everybody

30:42

else , the nurses were amazing , that

30:44

midwife was amazing . It was

30:46

just this one particular nurse practitioner

30:48

that really I felt like was

30:51

stepping outside of her bounds . This

30:54

is why I believe we have

30:56

to empower ourselves with information as

30:58

mothers , so that we understand the

31:00

implications of these decisions . One

31:03

of the other things that I did which all

31:06

credit to my midwife I did vaginal seating

31:08

with my son . As soon as we knew that he was

31:10

going to be a C-section baby , I asked

31:12

the midwife for sterile gauze

31:14

and sterile swab . You

31:17

put it up into

31:19

your vagina and get the bacteria

31:22

that's in your vagina . When

31:25

the baby's born , you put it on his

31:27

hands and on his nose and his mouth

31:29

and around his eyes , so that

31:31

you seed the gut microbiome

31:33

that he would have naturally had

31:36

exposure to had he been vaginally

31:38

delivered . I appreciate there

31:41

was another nurse in the room and

31:43

the midwife looks at the nurse and she goes earmuffs

31:46

. The nurse

31:48

goes like this this isn't something

31:50

that we normally do but yeah , go ahead , here's

31:53

a sterile plastic bag , here's your sterile gauze

31:55

, and let's go for it . It also

31:57

highlighted to me that maybe

31:59

, oh , I've got these negative perceptions

32:01

of allopathic medicine . There

32:04

was a really great midwife and some

32:06

really great nurses and that maybe

32:08

I had gotten it a little wrong

32:10

in this particular situation . But

32:13

had I not been as educated

32:15

as I was , I wouldn't have known the difference Exactly

32:18

. Again , why is there a secret

32:20

in and out menu at the hospital ? Why

32:23

aren't all babies being given the

32:25

quote , unquote , preservative-free

32:27

vitamin K shot ? The reality

32:29

is you have to either

32:32

have a lot of time or money in

32:34

order to know this stuff . That means that

32:36

there's a whole subsection of the population

32:38

that these choices

32:40

aren't even available for .

32:42

Yeah , it's maddening , especially working

32:44

at the hospital , because I

32:47

can only do so much as a nurse . Sometimes

32:50

it is just empowering moms to make that choice

32:52

and letting them do what they need to do . First

32:54

of all , I just want to clarify

32:57

your group beta strep status , I

32:59

would imagine was not positive , it's

33:01

negative . Okay , yeah , correct . As

33:05

far as vaginal seeding , if your baby is coming through your vagina

33:07

, your baby is going to be exposed , regardless of your group

33:10

beta strep Positive or negative , positive or negative

33:12

. Right , they would have given antibiotics

33:14

had you been positive if you had

33:16

had a vaginal delivery . There

33:19

is evidence that , yes , that

33:21

is an option to do vaginal seeding . Whether it's a policy

33:23

at the hospital , that's a different story . That's

33:27

something that it's like , just like if you want to keep your

33:29

placenta , that's on you . That's

33:31

not something that the hospital will just provide as

33:34

a standard . There's other options

33:36

of what to do with your placenta too . I've

33:38

noticed that hospital

33:40

policy does not necessarily keep up

33:42

with the latest evidence

33:44

.

33:45

Just because the hospital has a policy does not

33:47

mean that I am forced to adhere to that

33:49

policy , and I think that that's another

33:52

misconception , that

33:54

some nurse or a doctor or

33:56

some administrative person said that's not our policy

33:58

and I have to cower to that and

34:00

say , okay , well , then do

34:02

what you need to do . The hospital policy

34:04

is not put there for the best outcome

34:07

for mothers . The hospital policy is

34:09

there to mitigate risk and liability

34:11

for the hospital .

34:12

There's some things that hospital policy we can't

34:15

waver on . Your

34:19

husband can't do your c-section , that's a hospital

34:21

policy , right . But If

34:24

it's a hospital policy to , I

34:27

don't even want to pretend that that formula thing was a hospital

34:29

policy , I

34:32

can't wrap my head around that . But

34:34

there has to be an alternative

34:36

, right , there has to be . If you're just

34:38

one point below your blood sugar , it seems

34:40

like there should be some other options you know what

34:42

I mean .

34:44

Also , when blood serum sits around

34:46

in the lab , there's degradation to

34:48

the blood and oftentimes that's

34:50

the . There was , I think , a 13 , 14

34:52

point difference between the glucometer

34:55

in the room and the blood serum

34:57

glucose test , cause they would do

34:59

it in the room and they would send it off to the lab

35:01

as well . And again I

35:03

brought that up to the nurse practitioner . I said , well

35:05

, typically , cause I run blood chemistry

35:08

on people , right , like I am trained

35:10

in blood chem , and so it's kind of like

35:12

this lady's like worst nightmare and

35:14

I'm like you're essentially like tell me I'm being a bad

35:16

mom , that my kid is gonna go into shock , cause blood

35:18

sugar regulation is very important . You

35:20

can die from low blood sugar . But again

35:23

, I'm looking at the whole baby , right , I'm looking

35:25

at the whole baby . The baby is like feeding the

35:27

baby , like everything was really fine , and

35:29

so it's just unfortunate

35:33

that a lot of this

35:36

is kind of how things happen oftentimes

35:38

. But I think that we can prevent

35:40

a lot of this from happening by having

35:42

a really good team . So I had a midwife

35:45

that was in my corner , I had a doula

35:47

during the actual birth and leading

35:49

up to it , and then I had my husband , who

35:52

was also kind of supporting

35:54

me through all this . He was awesome and

35:56

so really having a team to support you

35:58

because you're you know , you are emotionally

36:00

, physically drained at this point after

36:02

either a vaginal delivery or a C-section

36:05

. And what a lot of these doctors . These

36:07

doctors are not trained in gut microbiome

36:09

. They're not trained in nutrition and

36:12

, for example , breastfed

36:14

babies and babies that get exposed

36:16

to gut microbiome have a lower

36:19

chance of contracting RSV

36:21

and rotavirus . Right Like

36:23

this is evidence-based , and so

36:25

I really think that nature got it right

36:28

, and I

36:30

am so grateful for modern medicine

36:32

when there's an acute issue , but

36:35

when it comes to childbirth

36:37

is not a medical event . No

36:39

, it's just not . It

36:41

may be done in a medical setting

36:44

, but childbirth is not a medical

36:46

event , and the best thing that

36:48

most doctors and nurses and

36:50

nurse practitioners can do is get

36:52

out of the way and let the

36:54

body do things naturally Instead

36:57

. We have a C-section rate of 40%

37:00

in this country , one of the highest

37:02

maternal mortality rates in industrial

37:04

nations . It's just , it's wild what's

37:07

happening to women here , and

37:09

I think it's important that we are educated

37:12

on these things and that we stand in our power

37:14

.

37:14

Yeah , yeah , and I do . I think

37:17

that's important . I think with it it's important , we start talking

37:19

about it , and unfortunately , with allopathic medicine

37:21

, there's this expectation

37:23

that , in order to have convincing

37:25

evidence , you have to have a randomized controlled

37:28

trial . But that's unethical with mothers

37:30

and babies , and so then what we have

37:32

is this slow , anecdotal evidence .

37:34

They don't have randomized controlled trials for any of the vaccines

37:36

they're giving our kids . They , yeah , they do Not

37:39

for most . Yeah , they're armed . They have babies

37:41

, yeah .

37:42

No , no , with vaccines they do . They'll

37:44

have a group that's a control group and a group that's

37:47

not a control group , and some one group will get

37:49

the vaccine and the other one will not

37:51

. But you can't do that with babies

37:53

and mothers . You can't say , okay , I'm gonna give formula

37:55

to this baby and then I'm not gonna

37:57

treat the blood sugar in this baby , and so

37:59

it's a total evidence . So

38:02

yeah , that's what I mean by randomized controlled trials

38:04

. So when you sign up a child

38:06

for a vaccine randomized controlled trial

38:08

like when they had the COVID vaccine that

38:10

was coming out they signed up children to get

38:12

smaller doses of the COVID vaccine and

38:15

some children didn't get it and you didn't know

38:17

if you were getting it . So that was , that's

38:19

randomized controlled . But with delivery

38:21

, for instance , they don't have a randomized

38:23

controlled trial where you can

38:26

give your mom Potosin or

38:28

just let her go . You

38:30

have to make choice . You have to deliver the baby

38:32

and you have to deliver the baby in the safest way

38:34

possible . You just don't wait it out and see if the baby just comes

38:36

out on its own , if there's a

38:38

need for intervention , if there's a need for C-section

38:41

, or if the baby is not doing well or if the mom's

38:43

not doing well . You can't , you can't just like , not

38:45

intervene .

38:46

Yeah , I think that there is

38:48

. In some of those cases you can't intervene

38:50

, but then we have preventative

38:53

measures that you know . Often

38:55

it's this kind of intervention

38:57

cascade .

38:59

Of course , yeah .

39:00

For example , you know , when it comes to

39:02

, you know , getting an IV , okay

39:04

. So you'd think like , okay , that's pretty

39:07

benign , right , I'm just getting saline

39:09

water . Okay , so I

39:11

get an IV . I now

39:13

am , you know , bloated

39:15

. The baby is bloated . Their

39:18

weight is artificially inflated

39:20

. Now , all of a sudden , the

39:22

right that artificial water weight

39:24

goes away . Now it looks like

39:27

the baby has lost way too much weight

39:29

. Now they have to be . You know , now

39:31

they're in the NICU , now they don't

39:33

have as much skin to skin contact

39:35

with mom . I mean , there's all of these

39:37

interventions that lead to other interventions

39:40

, and I think the difficulty is

39:42

how do you know what

39:44

is what Like , what is an emergency and

39:46

what isn't an emergency ? And I think that's where

39:48

you know the devil is

39:51

definitely in the details . Yeah

39:53

, I think that there is

39:55

a philosophy with obstetrics

39:57

that the doctor is delivering the baby

39:59

and I believe that

40:02

the mother is delivering the baby Absolutely

40:04

, and I think that is

40:06

a very big difference .

40:08

Right and , like you said , with the IV , I mean even and

40:10

I don't know how it is where you were at , but

40:12

it's not standard for a cervical

40:14

ripening induction to have any fluids

40:16

going in their IV for any of the

40:18

facilities where I work Because , like you

40:20

said , you can get fluid overload . We have to monitor

40:23

intake and output and make sure that we're not giving

40:25

too much fluid to this patient

40:27

. That's getting these interventions that we are providing

40:30

right Because you

40:32

can get fluid overload . However

40:35

, then if your baby starts to react

40:37

in a way that looks as if

40:39

they need some interventions , one

40:42

of the interventions that we know can

40:44

help is to give a fluid

40:47

bolus . So then

40:49

it's like the risks and the benefits have

40:51

to be weighed . We try things

40:53

first , like turning you and

40:55

putting you in a different position that might help the

40:57

baby get oxygen perfusion through the

40:59

placenta and the umbilical cord . If

41:01

that doesn't , we might recommend the fluid bolus . But

41:04

we have the IV in place , the saline

41:06

lock in place , so that we can have access to that

41:08

intervention as needed . And just like , on

41:10

the same lines , it used to be standard to

41:12

give oxygen when the baby was having what we call

41:14

decels right , so the baby's heart rate's going

41:17

down . Well , now evidence

41:19

has shown that . Not only I mean , we've learned

41:21

in nursing school that oxygen is a drug and

41:24

we don't just standard across the board , give it to

41:26

people , but we are giving 10 liters of oxygen by

41:28

face mask to mothers in labor whose

41:30

oxygen levels on the monitor

41:32

were 100% , just because the baby was having

41:34

decels , because practitioners thought , oh

41:36

well , the baby looks better after we give oxygen . Well , maybe

41:38

the baby looks better because we're turning and giving

41:41

fluid and managing

41:43

this labor appropriately versus

41:45

giving oxygen . So we are learning and as

41:47

we learn , the evidence needs to be made available

41:50

to mothers because , like

41:52

you said , birth is not a medical

41:54

process . It is a natural process . However

41:57

, medicine has evolved

41:59

somewhat to be able to intervene

42:02

when it becomes an emergency in

42:04

order to continue that birthing

42:06

process in a safe manner . But then

42:08

, once we find out that maybe some

42:10

of those interventions don't work as well as

42:13

we thought , like the oxygen , it's no longer

42:15

the ACOG has come out saying that we no

42:17

longer need to be standardized , giving people

42:19

oxygen when they're having a deceleration

42:21

. Then we need to do better and we all need to do

42:23

better and we need to take that information and

42:26

use it so that we can do better

42:28

for people and so that we're not causing harm . And

42:31

it's frustrating how slow allopathic

42:33

medicine can be in implementing

42:36

these policies because and

42:38

, like you said , the nurses I mean

42:40

we stay up to date on these evidence-based

42:42

practices and we know and then we try to encourage

42:45

hospitals to change and it's just such a slow

42:47

process for that to happen and it's

42:50

so frustrating . And it's frustrating that the consumer

42:52

, patient , the client , the mom

42:54

, the family , that the mother , baby

42:56

, dyad doesn't necessarily have access to that

42:58

information as readily as we do and then

43:01

they trust the hospital to do what

43:03

is evidence-based and it's not

43:05

always the case .

43:06

Yeah , and , like I said , the policies

43:08

are often there to protect from

43:10

litigation and liability , and if

43:12

the system was great right

43:15

, we would have great outcomes , and

43:17

we just do not have great outcomes in this

43:19

country , and so I think

43:21

that it's really important to

43:23

look at the system and say I

43:26

either wanna opt out of this system , which

43:28

is what I tried to do . I

43:30

didn't have one cervical check

43:32

in during any of my prenatal

43:35

visits . That was something that I have a lot

43:37

of trauma around that . My midwife is

43:39

like that's fine , I don't need to check your cervix . My

43:41

friends that go to OB-GYNs they're constantly

43:44

getting cervical checks and my

43:46

trauma is around a sexual assault

43:48

and multiple IVS

43:50

procedures and it's just . There's a lot going

43:53

on down there for me . And

43:55

so I think that we think that we just

43:58

give up control and power

44:00

over our bodies , and I think that's something

44:02

that we need to take back as women .

44:03

I think that's interesting , that people are still

44:05

being told that a cervical check is necessary

44:08

. It could be presented as an option , if

44:10

you're curious to know .

44:12

I need to see how far dilated you

44:14

are , as if dilation is the only

44:16

thing that impacts your

44:18

ability to deliver a baby , and

44:20

things are often presented not

44:23

as options , or they're presented in a way

44:25

. I had a friend whose OB

44:27

literally told her that if she doesn't get the flu shot

44:29

, that if she got the flu , it'll kill

44:31

her baby . I mean , it's recommended

44:33

to get the flu shot , but we definitely have people that decline

44:36

, that's so interesting and you can

44:38

recommend all you want , but

44:40

to tell a mother that if she got the flu

44:42

her baby's gonna die , it's like , come on

44:45

, we've gotta do better in this

44:47

country . And again , if the

44:49

system was good and

44:51

if the system was helpful , we would

44:53

have better , kind of normal outcomes

44:55

. I'm grateful

44:57

for the modern medical

44:59

system in acute issues , like

45:01

if I have a broken leg or a heart attack or a stroke

45:04

, right like I think it's great . But when

45:06

it comes to like preventative medicine

45:08

and it comes to getting and keeping people

45:10

healthy , it's not the right system and

45:12

I think that's where folks that are practitioners

45:14

, that are functional medicine practitioners or

45:16

functional nutrition practitioners like myself , can

45:18

kind of step in and help in that regard

45:21

.

45:21

Yeah , well , and I think that there's reasons for

45:23

and there's reasons against everything and it needs to

45:25

be tailored and individualized . Like , if you are

45:27

high risk because you have some sort

45:29

of underlying medical condition and it's

45:32

more recommended for you to get the flu shot

45:34

, then maybe there needs to be more education

45:37

there . But if you're low risk and just decline

45:39

the flu shot because you've looked at the evidence

45:41

, it's not right for you . Now it's not something that I personally

45:43

recommend . I always get my flu shot , but

45:47

if somebody comes in and says , no , I declined

45:49

the flu shot , I just move on , yeah .

45:51

And the interesting thing is is I've

45:53

never had a flu shot in my life and I'm not gonna

45:55

start something new during pregnancy , and

45:57

so you know again , like , how we present things

45:59

, I think is really important . You

46:01

can present something as an option

46:03

, but if you pressure

46:06

somebody and make them feel

46:08

like they're being a bad mom or they're gonna

46:10

hurt their child , that's

46:13

not really ethical in

46:15

my perspective either .

46:16

So no , not at all , and

46:18

I mean I can hold Evans in my brain

46:21

right . That makes me feel like I

46:23

want to further educate

46:25

a person on why I strongly

46:27

feel like this option would be best

46:30

for them , and I can do it in a way

46:32

that isn't bullying Correct , and

46:35

I think that saying that your baby is going to die

46:37

it sounds like we're intentionally

46:40

trying to be shocking and

46:42

there's ways to say it , to take the time to

46:44

say it and educate and try

46:47

to strongly impress on

46:49

this patient why you think that

46:51

this is the best option for them . But they still have

46:53

the right to decline Because and you

46:55

know , people don't necessarily make what

46:57

you consider to be the right decision all the time , and

46:59

that's just that's part of life . My

47:01

biggest beef with medicine

47:03

right now and mostly it's

47:05

because of insurance companies is that they don't give practitioners

47:08

the time to explain these things

47:10

. Visits are supposed to be 15

47:12

minutes . You can build for like

47:14

15 minutes and what . That is insane

47:17

.

47:17

Yeah , no on . On average , I see

47:19

my clients have seen 12 doctors

47:21

that have told them everything's fine

47:23

, labs are normal and In

47:26

the meantime they have insomnia , anxiety

47:28

, depression , ibs , eczema

47:31

, psoriasis in many markers for autoimmune

47:33

disease and , on average , my

47:36

clients have seen 12 doctors

47:38

and they either refuse

47:40

to run labs or they run

47:42

basic labs that don't do much

47:44

and they say , oh , everything's

47:46

normal , everything's in range , right

47:49

. And I don't even know if the doctors know that

47:51

the range is just telling you what's

47:53

common . It's not telling you what's optimal for

47:56

like a hundred sixty pound man , even

48:00

the pregnancy lab so that , yeah

48:03

, so so you know , like again

48:05

, you know I'm dealing with a population

48:07

of women who Looked to their doctors

48:09

and their medical community for help , and

48:12

they are ignored Oftentimes

48:15

, are told that they're lying specifically around

48:17

like weight gain . You know where they say this is what

48:19

I'm eating , and the doctor says you must be lying

48:21

, or you must not be telling me everything

48:23

, or you must be sneaking some Oreos here

48:25

and there , I mean , and the reality is

48:28

, is there they've like no estrogen

48:30

, no progesterone , no testosterone , some

48:32

Major weight gain and things

48:34

that you know the doctors never even was

48:36

able to to identify , and so so

48:39

I think that this is it's really

48:41

important to to have

48:43

access to a medical

48:45

team that has other tools

48:47

in there in their toolbox .

48:49

Yeah , and unfortunately , with allopathic medicine

48:51

you specialize and that's your

48:53

only wheelhouse and so if somebody

48:55

falls outside of those very specific

48:58

lines , not every

49:00

practitioner has the ability or the access

49:03

to to get the information . I think

49:05

that's where functional medicine comes in , because

49:07

it's not necessarily a

49:09

condition that fits into a box that

49:11

you're treating .

49:12

Yeah and you know , I think , a lot of

49:14

the the benefits of functional nutrition

49:16

or functional medicine is that we look at the body as a whole

49:18

and we don't chop up the body into

49:21

systems , and so , for me

49:23

, I am looking at the body as a whole

49:25

. I am running labs

49:27

that paint a picture of what is happening in the entire

49:29

system , because every single

49:31

system impacts the other

49:34

systems and . There

49:36

, there isn't like a nice me

49:38

border around certain things in the

49:40

body , like everything impacts everything , and

49:42

so I think that's that's really important to

49:44

work with a practitioner that if I see something

49:47

that going on with the skin , I at 100%

49:49

know something's going on with liver and gut and

49:51

. I'm not . I'm not sending my client to a

49:53

dermatologist because that eczema has

49:56

nothing to do With

49:58

with your skin . It has everything to

50:00

do with your immune system in

50:02

and the liver . So I think that that having

50:04

that type of training which I

50:07

don't think that's how it's done unless

50:09

you're being functionally trained .

50:11

Mm-hmm , I have a couple questions for you and I think it's

50:13

gonna kind of go off on a tangent either

50:15

either way . Okay , both

50:18

questions . The first question I kind of want to

50:20

go back to what you're talking about with the epidural because

50:22

, like we were talking about , you have to weigh the pros and cons

50:24

. There's no right way to do it right

50:27

. And you had us , I would imagine you had

50:29

a spinal Anaesthetic or you could

50:31

have had a combined spinal epidural and

50:33

so then you weighed those risks and benefits

50:35

with your Anaesthesia . Obviously

50:37

you didn't want to be completely Unanesthetized

50:41

for your C-section and you just and you didn't

50:43

want to go under general anesthesia so that

50:45

you didn't get to meet your baby after

50:47

he was born . But

50:50

then you talked about the effects of

50:52

the Spinal or

50:54

epidural anesthesia on breastfeeding

50:56

. So I'm curious what

50:58

? First of all , I don't know a whole lot about

51:00

how the spinal or

51:02

the epidural , what it does to affect

51:05

breastfeeding . So I have some questions surrounding that

51:07

and my mind's kind of going in a lot of different

51:09

ways about how that could that would affect

51:11

it . But when you were weighing the pros and the cons , what

51:13

information did you have that you were weighing

51:16

that you might be able to share with

51:18

some of my listeners who so

51:20

may be deciding this too at some point

51:22

.

51:22

So for me , immediate skin to

51:25

skin , not just for

51:27

the gold , I know we call it the golden hour , but

51:29

it's really a golden couple of hours

51:31

oh , of course , and To

51:33

me , I know that that

51:36

immediate skin to skin , immediate

51:38

on the boob , feeding , that

51:40

connection , the smelling , the looking into

51:43

the eyes , all of that it helps

51:45

map your nervous system

51:47

and your child's nervous system together

51:50

and that

51:52

was my number one priority . So

51:54

anything that risk

51:56

that for me and my child was

51:58

off off the table . I would

52:00

have undergone 24

52:02

c-sections . I would have sacrificed

52:05

anything in order to preserve

52:08

that Sacred time

52:10

with my child . Sacred emotionally

52:13

, sacred biologically

52:15

. That was like my number one . If I had like

52:17

a single thing that I was really working towards

52:19

, if I didn't have that Intuitive

52:21

hit that I was that I was gonna have to have a c-section

52:24

anyway , I probably would have said , okay , let's continue

52:26

with induction . But that's not , you

52:29

know , and this isn't evidence-based right

52:31

. A lot of this is . I'm a highly intuitive

52:33

person , I know my body right

52:35

and that is what felt right for me and

52:37

I think that , at the end of the day , is

52:39

what I think we need to listen to

52:41

is you know , Just this . Does this feel

52:44

right ? That is why I didn't want to have an

52:46

epidural to begin with . It's why

52:48

I didn't want to have a hospital birth

52:50

to begin with . I wanted

52:52

to Because this is not

52:55

a medical Procedure

52:57

, this is a natural

52:59

process . I Wanted

53:01

my body . I wanted to give

53:03

my body the best

53:06

chance to Let the

53:08

body do what the body does , and

53:10

so that is why I chose

53:12

. I also know people that

53:14

have had ecstatic births . Right , we can also

53:16

kind of get into . I know women that

53:19

have felt no pain during birth , and

53:21

so then we can kind of get into a conversation

53:23

around like pain . Do we as a society

53:26

tell women that childbirth is awful and

53:28

incredibly painful with every single

53:30

book and movie ? And then is the

53:33

environment essentially ripe

53:35

for a traumatic birth , so that all

53:37

of these women have traumatic births ? And

53:39

then we turn around and talk to our friends about

53:41

how traumatic the birth was or the

53:43

outcomes , a direct result of the environment

53:46

. I would venture to say yes , which

53:48

is why I wanted to opt out of that environment

53:50

. So , yes , so you know that was my , that was my

53:52

decision . I knew that that

53:55

breastfeeding babies is

53:57

incredibly important and I

54:00

always look at good , better , best in

54:02

my practice with my clients and

54:04

I believe that , given

54:08

normal circumstances , right

54:10

, it is best to breastfeed your

54:12

baby . But if you are having

54:14

a mental breakdown because

54:16

of the breastfeeding , then it

54:19

is best to feed your tits and formula

54:21

, and so you have to . I

54:24

think so many times we detach the

54:26

mother from the breasts where it's like yes

54:28

, the breast milk is Technically the

54:31

best thing for the baby . Colostrum

54:33

and breast milk is the best thing for the baby . However

54:35

, that's only if the breasts are not

54:37

attached to a whole human being who

54:41

, you know , has a lot of things , you know

54:43

work or maybe access to postpartum

54:46

care . Maybe they have a supportive partner , maybe

54:48

they don't . Maybe you know my husband had four

54:50

months paid paternity time . I am lucky

54:52

enough that I can choose when and how

54:55

I work . You know , not everybody has these privileges

54:57

and I'm very aware of that . So

54:59

, you know , in isolation is

55:02

breast milk the best ? Yes , it is , but

55:04

when you all of a sudden look at like the whole picture

55:06

which is like there's a human here , we need to have

55:08

broader conversations around around

55:11

that . But for me , preserving breastfeeding

55:13

was very important for me .

55:15

Oh yeah , and I think I think most of the moms that I

55:17

work with that is their goal . But then I do

55:19

see those other things crop up and I think

55:22

it's really important to , like you said , to get

55:24

that good , better , best and Attach the human

55:27

to the equation . And

55:29

so then I guess where I'm curious is so

55:31

, personally , for me , my first delivery , I

55:33

wanted to have a natural birth and I labored

55:35

at home for as long as I could and when

55:38

I started feeling pushy I went to the hospital

55:40

. I got there , they told me I was six centimeters

55:42

and After several hours

55:44

of laboring on my back and the most unoptimal

55:47

I wasn't quite as educated as I am now . I

55:50

did ask for an epidural because I got to the

55:52

point when I felt

55:54

like my stress levels

55:56

were so high that I was not

55:58

going to be able to emotionally

56:00

Yep , contribute to birthing

56:03

that child . Yeah , my tension

56:05

level was so high I couldn't use

56:07

my brain to relax my body anymore .

56:09

Yeah , and cortisol will halt

56:12

the birthing process , exactly

56:14

. I mean , the cortisol is just regulate

56:17

.

56:17

It was Disregulating my birthing process and

56:19

I think that also my dehydration was

56:21

not helping , you know . And so

56:23

that's where I wish personally that some of those

56:26

interventions that I didn't know

56:28

that I had access for . So this is kind of the flip side

56:30

, because I want everybody to know what the

56:32

tools are and we can't go into all of them

56:34

today , obviously but know what the tools are and what

56:36

they're there for . I wish that I had had someone say

56:38

oh , would you like an IV bolus ? Because then in my blood

56:40

pressure dropped and this isn't standard

56:43

the way that they did it when my daughter was still

56:45

delivered . I've since learned that you're supposed to

56:47

have that IV bolus before the epidural and I

56:49

wasn't given that . And you know , laboring

56:51

on my back wasn't optimal on

56:53

a stretcher also .

56:57

Isn't optimal anywhere . It's

56:59

right . I mean , I'm a classically

57:01

trained , all apparatus trained Pilates instructor

57:04

. I understand , like the pelvis , the pelvic

57:06

Hacker Turning your knees out

57:08

right there . Yeah , we're constantly

57:11

turning knees out for for moms

57:13

. I don't it ? Literally is making

57:15

your pelvis clamp down around the baby smaller

57:18

. Yeah you can go knees in

57:20

feet out .

57:21

Right and still gives room .

57:23

So yeah , I mean , it's just it's wild

57:26

. It's wild that all

57:28

this stuff happens . I wish it , I wish it didn't right

57:30

.

57:30

I really want moms to know what their options are and why

57:33

. That it's across the board . So what I see is

57:35

both sides right . I see across the board somebody

57:38

will come and they will just say

57:40

no to everything , and I

57:43

see that as them shutting down and trying to protect

57:45

themselves . But did they necessarily

57:47

know the reasons that

57:49

they have access to these interventions ? But

57:52

I also get why we're shutting everything down , because

57:54

the culture is so clooked

57:57

in this power struggle , in

57:59

this environment where we take Autonomy

58:01

away from moms , that I get why they

58:03

come in defensive .

58:05

We no longer trust the modern medical model

58:07

. Right , Just don't . And it's not perfect .

58:09

I'll give you that . But there are interventions that are sometimes

58:11

helpful and I guess my goal and when I'm treating

58:13

my patients is to try to kind

58:16

of do what your nurses did and say you know , I

58:18

get that you're fighting for what you believe in and

58:20

I I want to give you that power

58:22

and maybe the thing , the way that we're suggesting Isn't

58:25

the best way , it's just hospital

58:27

policy or this nursing nurse practitioners

58:29

preference , and it Infuriates

58:31

me that there are people that don't have Resources

58:34

, that are in this environment and aren't

58:36

given the best options , absolutely . That just

58:39

hurts my soul . Same . And

58:41

then the other question that I had for

58:43

you . So I know you said that you

58:45

have online programs and

58:47

we're talking about people that maybe have limited

58:49

resources . I would imagine that someone

58:51

with limited resources might not be able to work

58:53

privately one-on-one with you , but if someone

58:55

wanted to Improve

58:58

their health through functional medicine

59:00

, are there options that you provide

59:02

that are a little bit more

59:05

self-driven but also could help them

59:07

kind of get on the right path if they didn't

59:09

have the means ?

59:11

Yeah , I mean I'll tell you three

59:13

things that you could do

59:15

right now . Then and all

59:18

of this is covered and I have a program called

59:20

the adrenal detox and the adrenals

59:22

are part of your autonomic nervous system

59:24

and kind of that fight-or-flight or rest or

59:26

digest mechanism in your body . We

59:28

want to obviously spend the majority of our time in

59:31

rest and digest . We do not want to be in fight-or-flight

59:33

, but our modern world

59:35

puts us in constant

59:38

acute stress , prolonged

59:40

acute stress , and cortisol is a

59:42

catabolic hormone which means that

59:44

it breaks you down at a cellular level

59:47

. So it's great in small quantities when

59:49

you're trying to run away from the saber-toothed tiger . But

59:51

now , in our modern worlds , you

59:53

know whether a stressor is physical

59:55

, biochemical or emotional

59:57

. The body doesn't know the difference and

1:00:00

the response is the same . You know surge

1:00:02

, cortisol and what ends up happening

1:00:04

when you're in this constant state of fight-or-flight

1:00:07

. Your autonomic nervous system essentially

1:00:10

prioritizes everything that it perceives

1:00:12

as necessary for short-term survival . So

1:00:14

getting more blood to your big muscle movers so

1:00:16

that you can run away from the saber-toothed tiger , getting

1:00:19

more oxygen , dilating pupils . But

1:00:21

things are prioritized and

1:00:23

the things that are de-prioritized because

1:00:25

the body is always trying to find balance are

1:00:28

things like your immune system , because it doesn't

1:00:30

matter if you could fight cancer if the saber-toothed

1:00:32

tiger eats you . Right , right , things

1:00:34

like digestion . It's why when , oftentimes

1:00:37

, when we're scared , we empty our bowels or

1:00:39

our bladder Reproduction , I mean , there's so

1:00:41

many women that can't get pregnant , can't stay pregnant

1:00:43

it's because they're in a constant state of stress . Cortisol

1:00:46

literally turns things off that are

1:00:48

necessary for long-term survival , like

1:00:50

DNA repair , reproduction

1:00:52

, all of those things , and it prioritizes

1:00:54

short-term survival , and so getting out

1:00:56

of a state of fight-or-flight is incredibly

1:00:59

important , and there are a couple of very

1:01:01

simple things that you can do . The first thing

1:01:03

that you can do is get warning

1:01:05

light . So and these are free , right

1:01:07

, like it costs a lot

1:01:09

of money to work with me , but these are things that are free

1:01:12

. I'm just telling you about right . Yeah , and

1:01:14

these are things that I do with my clients right away

1:01:16

, which is are you getting 15 , 20

1:01:18

, 30 minutes of light in the morning , optimally

1:01:20

within an hour or so of sunrise and

1:01:22

then also a sunset ? Are

1:01:25

you eating a high protein , low carb

1:01:27

breakfast within 30 to 45 minutes of

1:01:29

waking up ? Very , very important . And

1:01:31

then sleep hygiene is so incredibly

1:01:33

important . Minimizing red light don't

1:01:36

, have you know , follow patterns of the sun , so

1:01:38

when the sun goes down you shouldn't have every single

1:01:40

canister light in your light on right . Not

1:01:42

having access to blue light , your phones , your screens

1:01:45

, having your room nice and cold when you go to sleep

1:01:47

. It's basic . I mean , look up sleep hygiene

1:01:49

on the end of the internet , and I cover all of this stuff

1:01:51

in a really , really inexpensive

1:01:54

workshop called the Adrenal Detox , and

1:01:56

those are just three things that you can do

1:01:58

. You know in a matter of minutes a week

1:02:00

that I think are really important . Yeah

1:02:03

, that's awesome .

1:02:04

Normally , at the end of the episode

1:02:06

, I will ask a mom if you could go back

1:02:08

and talk to yourself before this

1:02:10

journey . What would you want to tell yourself

1:02:12

? It seems like you came into this journey

1:02:14

very in tuned to your

1:02:17

own body and your own desires

1:02:19

and very educated . So I'm not sure if there's

1:02:21

anything that you would want to go back and tell yourself , but

1:02:23

I'm wondering if , maybe , if you went a

1:02:25

little bit further back to like

1:02:28

before starting this journey , if there is

1:02:30

something that you would want to tell yourself , just

1:02:32

because it's helpful for new moms

1:02:34

that are starting their journey to hear

1:02:36

what people wish they'd known .

1:02:37

Yeah , I mean for me . I

1:02:40

didn't have anybody in

1:02:42

my life that had a positive birth

1:02:44

story . So with

1:02:46

every movie that I

1:02:48

watched knocked up , where

1:02:51

there's screaming in pain

1:02:53

, purple , pushing , sweating

1:02:55

, swearing at your partner you did this

1:02:57

to me , you know . And then all of the

1:02:59

traumatic births that my friends

1:03:01

have had and also how awful

1:03:04

their postpartum was because they didn't

1:03:06

do the work that they needed to ahead

1:03:08

of time in order to have a healthy pregnancy

1:03:10

, like balancing minerals , like

1:03:12

a spore based probiotic

1:03:15

, prebiotics , like all of these things

1:03:17

. Reducing stress really didn't touch

1:03:19

on some of that stuff , but it's like so , so

1:03:21

, so important . So I had this negative

1:03:23

perception of the childbirth and

1:03:26

that was probably one of the reasons I prolonged

1:03:28

it so long , because I was terrified

1:03:30

. I had this very logical fear

1:03:33

of birth because of my

1:03:35

experience in the medical system , the stories

1:03:37

that were ceded by my friends and

1:03:40

family , and I wish

1:03:43

that I had access

1:03:45

to some of this information earlier

1:03:47

because then I would understand

1:03:50

that , like , my body was born to do

1:03:52

this and it's the most rewarding thing I've

1:03:54

ever done in my entire life and

1:03:56

maybe I wouldn't be 45 dang years

1:03:58

old , you know , trying to keep up with the five

1:04:01

month old and wanting to have additional children

1:04:03

with my husband , and so you know , I think that

1:04:05

would be something that I would tell myself

1:04:07

. And then also the importance

1:04:09

of minerals . I wish I

1:04:12

would have , even I even

1:04:14

knew this , but like I just didn't start early

1:04:16

enough , I do a hair tissue mineral analysis

1:04:18

on all my clients . My prenatal

1:04:20

was a custom mineral blend that

1:04:22

was tailored specifically to me , and

1:04:25

then I did another custom mineral

1:04:27

blend when I was breastfeeding , you

1:04:29

know . So I kind of had three custom mineral

1:04:31

brands before I got pregnant , when

1:04:33

I got pregnant and then when I was breastfeeding , and

1:04:36

I think that is so , so important . Minerals

1:04:39

are like the spark plugs to your body . Literally

1:04:41

, every single metabolic process in your

1:04:43

body means minerals . Magnesium

1:04:46

, which is one of our primary minerals , is

1:04:48

responsible for over 600 metabolic

1:04:51

processes in the body , like DNA

1:04:53

and RNA production . Literally

1:04:55

, as you are growing a human , you need

1:04:57

massive loads of magnesium . And

1:05:00

then also understanding that you also need

1:05:02

to have a balance between minerals . I

1:05:05

think it is a tragedy that doctors

1:05:07

do not understand about the importance of minerals

1:05:10

and micrometrines in general . So

1:05:12

your vitamins , your minerals , your amino acids and

1:05:14

your essential fatty acids and I wish I

1:05:16

would have started balancing my minerals more

1:05:18

quickly , because I kind of like I maybe

1:05:21

did it started doing it six months in advance and

1:05:23

I should have done it probably a year or

1:05:25

two in advance .

1:05:27

Yeah , that's so important . Yeah , I

1:05:29

feel like your typical prenatal vitamin

1:05:31

doesn't . It's kind of a joke .

1:05:32

Well , your typical prenatal , for example

1:05:34

, has folic acid in it . There's estimates

1:05:37

that 40% of women have

1:05:39

the MTHFR gene mutation

1:05:41

, which does not allow you to

1:05:43

methylate , and so you can't methylate

1:05:45

it . So essentially , folic

1:05:48

acid is toxic , it's poison

1:05:50

for you and it oftentimes

1:05:52

leads to the same symptoms as postpartum

1:05:54

depression . So you've

1:05:56

got all of these women who are taking this garbage

1:05:59

prenatal and they are

1:06:02

loading up toxic folic

1:06:04

acid that their body cannot use . It's not

1:06:06

bioavailable for them because they do not methylate

1:06:08

and , sure

1:06:10

enough , as soon as they stop taking that prenatal , their

1:06:13

postpartum depression miraculously goes away . And

1:06:16

so , understanding the importance

1:06:19

of a good quality prenatal

1:06:21

using a methylated folate it's

1:06:23

already in a bioavailable form . I think all of

1:06:26

these things are really , really important . But

1:06:29

again , doctors don't know and they're like

1:06:31

, yeah , just take a centrum

1:06:33

one a day or whatever that some garbage

1:06:36

. Or take magnesium , but they're taking

1:06:38

magnesium oxide , which only 4%

1:06:40

is bioavailable , right ? So

1:06:43

it's like really understanding about minerals

1:06:45

and micronutrients and really preparing

1:06:47

the body for birth , because your

1:06:49

body depletes you of about 20 to 30% of

1:06:51

all of your minerals with every single pregnancy . So

1:06:55

now imagine you're a mom on your second or your third

1:06:57

pregnancy and you're like so depleted and

1:07:00

that's where we have a lot of issues with the postpartum

1:07:02

depression , anxiety and all

1:07:04

of those things , the hair loss , just complete

1:07:06

dysregulation in that fourth trimester and beyond . I

1:07:10

think those are the things that I

1:07:13

would tell myself . Which is

1:07:15

? Your body was built to do this and

1:07:17

don't be afraid of it . Lean into

1:07:19

it , enjoy it . Childbirth can be awesome

1:07:21

. Nobody ever told me that .

1:07:23

Yeah , what form of

1:07:25

magnesium is better than magnesium oxide . There's

1:07:27

a couple .

1:07:30

So magnesium glycinate is great . There's

1:07:33

nine , or there's like nine plus , different

1:07:35

types of magnesium . Oftentimes

1:07:38

it's also magnesium citrate , which is

1:07:40

great if you are having a hard time going to the bathroom . Number two

1:07:42

you've got to take the right form and

1:07:46

I think so often people are just kind of

1:07:48

like piece , kneeling things together from like

1:07:50

a podcast or an article or a TV show , and

1:07:54

I think you know preparing yourself for birth

1:07:56

is important and find somebody that can support you in that . I'm

1:08:00

working with a client right now who

1:08:02

just had her fourth IVF retrieval , has

1:08:06

had really low quality eggs and embryos and

1:08:10

you know she made the decision to not

1:08:12

implant the embryos that she does have based off of some of the labs

1:08:14

that we just ran no

1:08:16

calcium , no magnesium , off the

1:08:19

charts sodium and potassium , which means she's in a hyper stressed out state . She

1:08:22

has off the charts mercury levels Wow , off the charts

1:08:24

mercury levels .

1:08:26

Why ?

1:08:26

Because mercury is in our our makeup , our contact solution oh my God

1:08:28

, it's in the blood , it's

1:08:30

in our makeup , our contact solution

1:08:32

. It's in vaccines

1:08:35

that you know forms of

1:08:37

it has been in , definitely

1:08:39

, vaccines that I took as a kid . You know

1:08:41

. It's in our water , it's in

1:08:43

everything and if you , you

1:08:45

know , if you don't methylate , it means that you don't detox

1:08:47

appropriately .

1:08:48

Yeah .

1:08:49

Now that toxin barrel is already filled

1:08:51

and you can't empty the barrel right . And

1:08:53

so you know , and a lot of these , these

1:08:55

IVF doctors , they're not incented

1:08:58

for a healthy outcome . They're

1:09:00

in , they get paid by how many retrievals

1:09:02

they do and how many implantations that they do

1:09:04

. So they're not really incented

1:09:06

to make sure that you can stay

1:09:08

pregnant and carry a and they're not

1:09:10

incented to see whether or not you're . You absolutely

1:09:13

lose your mind after in

1:09:15

your in your postpartum . So working with

1:09:17

somebody that is kind of incented to

1:09:20

you know , make sure that you are happy , healthy

1:09:22

and whole and living a big life I think is is

1:09:24

really important , just getting a team around you

1:09:26

that can help you with that . And so , yeah

1:09:29

, she's decided to hold off on implanting

1:09:31

these embryos until we can work on

1:09:33

on reducing the stress and inflammation

1:09:35

in her body , which I think is really really important

1:09:38

. Yeah .

1:09:38

Well , Maya , is there anything that we didn't cover that you wanted

1:09:41

to talk about ?

1:09:41

You know , I think that there are two

1:09:43

really important things that I

1:09:46

would leave with with all of your listeners

1:09:48

, from a kind of preparation

1:09:50

perspective , is healing

1:09:53

the gut microbiome , and if

1:09:55

we have the autoimmune rates

1:09:57

that we do in this country , we

1:09:59

know that that's related to gut microbiome

1:10:01

. Like , in order for an autoimmune condition

1:10:04

to pop off , a couple of things have to happen . The

1:10:06

first thing is that you have to have a genetic predisposition

1:10:08

. The second thing is that you need to have gut permeability

1:10:10

, which is essentially low-grade sepsis , and

1:10:13

then the third is you need to have a stressor

1:10:15

, and oftentimes that

1:10:18

stressor is physical and it's childbirth . So

1:10:20

oftentimes after childbirth , when

1:10:22

you have those three things that are kind of happening

1:10:24

is when a lot of women get Hashimoto's

1:10:27

or mature arthritis

1:10:29

or one of the other autoimmune conditions

1:10:32

that are out there , and a lot of that can

1:10:34

be prevented just because you have a

1:10:36

genetic predisposition right . Your genetics load

1:10:38

the gun , but your environment pulls the trigger . And

1:10:40

so healing gut microbiome

1:10:43

, running a couple of labs to see

1:10:45

what's going on with your gut ? Do you have gut

1:10:47

dysbiosis ? Do you have an

1:10:49

overgrowth of bad bacteria and not enough

1:10:51

of the good bacteria ? Do you have

1:10:53

loose , tight cell junctions

1:10:55

in your gut where all the

1:10:57

bad stuff is literally escaping the lumen

1:11:00

of the gut and through the bloodstream and

1:11:02

kind of implanting into extra intestinal

1:11:05

sites like the joints or the brain ? Really

1:11:07

understanding that before pregnancy and

1:11:10

also balancing minerals are two

1:11:12

of the most important things that you can do , not

1:11:15

only to have a healthy pregnancy but

1:11:17

a healthy baby , but also a healthy

1:11:19

postpartum where you aren't

1:11:21

struggling with anxiety and depression and

1:11:24

those kinds of things that seems to

1:11:26

be rampant today .

1:11:28

Yeah , that's so important . Well , Maya

1:11:30

, thank you so much . I feel like

1:11:32

I've been overloaded with information , but it's

1:11:34

great information and I can't wait for

1:11:36

my listeners to hear this and get

1:11:39

started on finding

1:11:41

their way to health through nutrition

1:11:44

and functional medicine .

1:11:46

Thanks so much for your time . I appreciate it .