#176 | August Q&A: Multiple Miscarriages; Evening Primrose Oil; Safe Bed-Sharing; Breastmilk Stashes; Failure to Descend; Pushing; High Blood Pressure

I'm Cynthia Overgard, owner of HypnoBirthing of Connecticut, childbirth advocate and postpartum support specialist. And I'm Trisha Ludwig, certified nurse midwife and international board certified lactation consultant. And this is the Down To Birth Podcast. Childbirth is something we're made to do. But how do we have our safest and most satisfying experience in today's medical culture? Let's dispel the myths and get down to birth.

Hello, from Ontario, I'm not stuck up here in Canada.

You're at your camp, and you have a baseball cap turned around backwards on your head. And it has been the theme of the whole summer that I've been overdressed for you. And when we had dinner a month ago?

Well, I'm in camp attire now. You know, it's a whole new set of is a whole new wardrobe. That's all right.

So we got a lot of first of all, we got great feedback on our new format of audio questions. So we want to thank everyone for calling in with your questions. And remember to do that our number is 802-438-3696. That's 802 Get down.

I love it. You know when we first when we when we first got that phone number, it was like, Do people really still use the phone number ever do people even make phone calls anymore and we didn't use it for the longest time. And now all of a sudden it's blowing up.

I remember procuring get down and I was so excited to tell you the news and I shared it with you and like in our little team and you were just looking at me and I was like, come on, Trisha, don't tell me you don't love that. And you were like, Okay, perfect. So there are some new contacts. It does totally work and it represents us and it's who we are. So put us in your contacts, call us anytime. 24/7 our voicemail will pick up and we're gonna get started right away with this month's questions.

Hi, Cynthia. And Trisha, I am calling in because I had a question about gaining and or maintaining weight while breastfeeding. I just had my first baby at home last week, actually on the seventh. And it was an amazing home birth. Prior to getting pregnant, I was trying to gain weight. I've always been super petite. I'm five one. I was 102 pounds when I got pregnant. And 131 When I gave birth. I'm quickly losing weight. I don't want to lose too much weight. So I was just curious as to how I can maintain my weight worth that I'm about 110 111 At this moment. So just curious what tips you had. And any advice. Thanks. Bye bye. Right? What do you say?

Well, no doubt breastfeeding takes a tremendous amount of energy from the body. If you're exclusively breastfeeding, it's actually more than pregnancy. So you have to continue to focus on eating sufficient amounts in breastfeeding just like you do in pregnancy, but it's even more calories. So 100 to 350 extra calories per day are required throughout pregnancy and four to 600 extra calories per day are required during breastfeeding. So I usually recommend the same strategies that we talked about in pregnancy small frequent meals and emphasis on protein and higher calories at each meal.

Okay, that sounds good. I mean, here's my question. Does she have a legitimate concern? Like should she actually be a little concerned about her weight falling back to her pre pregnancy weight so quickly? What's the what's the issue?

Well, I think she's just worried about getting too thin, which can happen and then how would that impact milk supply or something employ, it just takes up all your reserves, you know, if you get too thin, and your body's working with a lot less nutritional reserve. So I think it's more about just protecting her nutritional reserves, and she probably doesn't want to be too thin. So I don't think it's about calorie counting at all, I would never suggest counting calories, but just being aware that those are the additional needs. And I think when people are breastfeeding, a lot of times, they're very worried about getting their pre pregnancy, they're worried about getting back to their pre pregnancy weight, they're worried about shutting the pregnancy pounds, so they often eat less when they're breastfeeding. And that would be deplete very few. Yeah, it's depleting. I mean, breastfeeding takes a lot from your body, and so does pregnancy. So you have to continue to replenish sufficiently so that you don't get postnatal depletion, which is a real thing.

Hello, Cynthia. And Trisha, thank you for your show. I'm wondering if you have any advice for women who have had multiple miscarriages who are wanting to get pregnant, I have a fertility specialist appointment set up in the next couple of months to try to figure out what's going on with my own pregnancy losses. I've had a couple of losses before the seven week mark. And we've tested progesterone levels. I'm just not quite sure what's going on. And we'll be visiting a specialist to do some additional testing in the next few months. But just wanted to know if you had any thoughts on multiple miscarriages, and how a person could further investigate those losses?

Thank you. My first thought is my interpretation of her question is she has had a couple of losses. So in my mind, that's too. So that's one assumption I'm making that could be false, and that she lost them before seven weeks. I mean, my my honest feelings are. Everyone takes and handles miscarriage so differently, and I've experienced miscarriage myself. And my honest feelings are it's so much more common than I think anyone recognizes. And I think experiencing a loss around the time of the heartbeat starting at five and a half or so weeks is really, really common. And so she said a couple before seven weeks, I personally don't view that as necessarily a problem. It's obviously very difficult to deal with. But my concern is any woman developing negative beliefs like I have trouble conceiving or I experienced miscarriage. It is so common. I mean, I once remember sitting at a moms night out with like nine or 10 women and every single one of us that evening had at least one miscarriage story to share. So I always feel for women when it happens before they've ever had their first child because they form these beliefs. And that's always my concern. So she now she's having her hormones checked. And you know, that can be such a rabbit hole of doubting the body. And my guess is she probably doesn't have a hormone problem at all. And she did conceive. And I don't really have any advice or thoughts other than in my own personal life. If I would want to make sure my hormones are imbalanced, my first thought is, is food, like just going to clean, whole foods diet is probably the very best thing you can do for your hormones, or for your body at large in addition to getting good quality sleep. And those are my only thoughts. I don't have anything. I don't think we're more valuable than those. What do you think, Trisha?

I think those are great thoughts. I would agree with you that miscarriage is extremely common. It happens in probably one out of three pregnancies. Often on often unknown. Sometimes you just have a period, and you didn't know that you actually could have been pregnant or you have a late period and it turns out to have been an early miscarriage. One out of five known pregnancies miscarry I believe that's the accurate statistics. So that's 20% of pregnancies, but probably unknown. It's higher than that. But the good news is that the vast majority who have multiple miscarriages still go on to have a healthy pregnancy. So as you said, we don't want to form that belief. There are certainly some underlying conditions that can predispose a woman to multiple miscarriages such as thyroid imbalances, diabetes and blood sugar issues, autoimmune conditions, the genetic variant of the MTHFR gene is a common reason. So I believe in practice, it's usually standard standard, that if you've had three or more miscarriages, we start digging a little bit deeper into the Gen genetics and underlying conditions.

Just to do a tiny bit of math because I you know, I can't I gotta Mi Mi Trisha. And if it is one in three pregnancies, that means there is an 11% chance that a woman will experience two miscarriages and her first two pregnancies so there's a one in three chance for her first, but there's an 11% chance that she'll have two miscarriages before her third pregnancy. So that's not out of the realm of normal. It's quite common. 11% of women can have two miscarriages, if that if those initial statistics are correct about one in three, and I believe they are especially when you include early losses like this. Well, if you include that number includes pregnancies that are not known about so that's the assumption if you are if it's a known pregnancy, it's one in five, right? Right. So like the women who maybe had a heavy period or they got a late period and it was heavy, yeah. But I, I tend to trust those statistics because I do believe miscarriages are extremely common at the very very beginning of pregnancy.

There So just really quickly a very simple thing that a woman can do if she is worried about this or has had two miscarriages or even one and doesn't want to jump on to further testing is just some herbs to support progesterone levels. That's one of the most common reasons people miscarry is low progesterone. So vytex is a great herb. Maca is another one. You can even do a natural progesterone cream. If you're a little bit older and your pre menopausal years and progesterone might be an issue. You can work with a functional medicine practitioner or an herbalist to help with these things.

Do you mean maca like that powder you can buy and put in smoothies. That has a nice taste to it. I've put that in like chocolate banana peanut butter smoothies and quite enjoyed it. So it's an excellent supplement for women's hormonal issues.

Hi, this is Meg from Southeastern Pennsylvania. And I have a question about evening primrose oil. I have read mixed information about taking evening primrose oil in late pregnancy and 30 weeks now, I'll definitely be eating a date. I'm already drinking raspberry leaf tea. However, evening primrose oil seems to have mixed information out there. Some studies show that it can help ripen the cervix. And other studies show that women who take evening primrose oil ends up with more interventions. What are your thoughts on this? I would love to know, I've been listening to the podcast for about six months every time I go on a drive. And I've learned so much I was planning a home birth before this, but I just feel so much more informed. And I've been episodes to my boyfriend, my family members, so many people. So thanks for all the work that you do.

Well, thank you for that question, Meg. And it's interesting when the when women look up things and they say there's mixed information, because when you look into the mix information, what you usually find is very little research on something and then you find a whole lot of rhetoric that says, well, it's never been proved to help. And they say that about everything. I mean, I remember growing up and they were still saying that about vitamin C. Well, it's never it's just a myth. It's never been proved to help but we know conclusively that vitamin C. It definitely fights viruses in the body, like zinc says, but the fact of the matter is there just isn't ever going to be a lot of money poured into such research because who's really behind it and who would care to fund it. But there was a small study, I believe there were 86 participants, where they studied primrose oil, and I found this to be really interesting. primrose oil can be administered vaginally or orally. So that's an important first distinction to understand. And in a study where it was taken vaginally, so it's like basically a pill Trisha that they dissolve near the cervix, right?

Well, it's an oil and you break open the capsule can apply the oil directly to the cervix or inserted vaginally and it dissolves in the oil gets onto the cervix. So they did a randomized control trial that looked at the effects of administering evening primrose oil orally and that didn't really show particularly strong results. There was like a little leaning toward some positive effects. But let me get into that with the one where they tested the inserts that are done vaginally, and it was a double blind study. So that means that neither the participants nor the researchers knew who had the actual primrose oil and who just had a random placebo that looked exactly like the primrose oil capsule. All the participants were 38 weeks pregnant when they did this, and the evening primrose oil group received 1000 milligrams in a capsule daily, that they took vaginally and everyone in this study was told to lie down for two hours following the nightly capsule that really surprised me and then I realized they're just doing it before bed right because who has the time? Which they have to pay people to say take this on for two hours after words, they probably that's a good nap, right? Yeah, seriously. Like the luxury, then they evaluated the bishop score for each woman. Trisha, why don't you first jump in and explain what the bishop score is.

That's just an evaluation of the ripeness. Don't love that word. But that's how they define it of your cervix. So as far as its degree of openness, softness, and effacement. So they're looking at all the factors that play a role in whether an induction is likely to be successful when they do inductions.

It's a specific scoring system that takes into account those three factors. How open the cervix is, how effaced it is, and where the baby station is. That's it based on that bishop score, your likelihood for a successful induction goes up or down.

And I think that's something a lot of women don't understand. They think induction just happens. But the truth is, sometimes women are sent to the hospital for an induction for a good reason, or a bad reason or no reason. And sometimes she's there all day long, and they are cranking it up, and it isn't really working and they have to keep adding interventions. And you know, she has to understand that they really began that induction when her body was just nowhere near ready. And sometimes induction works very easily. They just do the slightest thing and it triggers labor. So that's what the bishop score does. Trisha, do you think? Um, it's a little off topic, but do you think they typically care to look at the bishop score when they're doing all these unnecessary inductions for women based on due dates? I mean, I've never heard of a woman being sent back home because her bishop score wasn't high enough. Well, what they'll do is they'll give you a cervical ripening agent as the first part of the induction so the right that's the awfully catheter, you get the or you get the cervical and that's why evening primrose oil is good because it acts like cervical, it acts like the prostaglandin in semen. That's why we always talk about having sex to try to help ripen your cervix and prepare your cervix. And midwives have been using evening primrose oil for ages. Yeah, midwife, midwives have been using this forever, and they have been onto something. So in this, in this study, the control group that had the placebo, their bishop score was just 4.46. But in the evening primrose oil group, it was 7.83. It was 4.46 versus 7.83. So the evening primrose group had significantly in addition to being having a higher Bishop score. When they all went into labor, naturally, they went in with their bodies much more primed and ready to go right into active labor. The Evening Primrose group also had this is where it really got interesting, significantly shorter labor hours of just four to five hours compared to eight to nine hours. And the C section rate in the evening primrose group was 21% versus 47% In the other group, and it Towson use, which I always have to take this part with a grain of salt because this is provider intervention here, but getting impatient and pushing labor long. So this is no surprise but Pitocin use was 29% in the evening primrose group. You wonder why they used it at all, quite frankly, versus 62%. In the control group, there was no difference in the length of active labor, postpartum hemorrhage or Apgar scores. And there were no side effects reported. So Meg, whatever information you're seeing out there. I think this is pretty compelling and the fact that there are no side effects reported my gosh, no brainer, Trisha.

I can tell you that I personally use it and all three of my pregnancies and always recommended women started around 37 weeks pregnancy. Kidding. I have they wanted if they wanted to.

Yeah, I had no idea. I used it. I never used it. And I never I never, I never used it. Do note these were all low risk women. And definitely check with your doctor if you're already on some kind of medication in your pregnancy. That was the only caveat.

Hi there Christian. Cynthia, I have a boundaries question. I'm hoping maybe you can guide me through. I have a wonderful mother in law, who happens to have kept every single little thing from my husband's upbringing that she is now passing down to me. We have the first grandson and so we are getting inundated with cribs and blankets and I mean everything down to the socks that my husband wore in his six month baby pictures. So she's just so excited for us to recreate my husband's upbringing, and I'm not sure what to do with it all. And I'm so grateful that she's wanting to help us out. Some of the things I can't wait to use, but I have a basement full of furniture and boxes and consumer stuff that I Feel bad donating because it's all sentimental to her. Obviously, she's kept it the last 40 years. Some of the things I've talked her into keeping it her house for when we visit, but a lot of it has already been delivered to me. So I'm hoping you can give me some insight or maybe some tips on how to handle this situation. Like I said, she's a wonderful woman, and I love and cherish our relationship. So not wanting to step on any toes. I'm just also not wanting to have a basement full of 40 year old baby. Thanks. Thank you for everything you do do love the show.

Well, first of all, let's have perspective here. You love your mother in law, I think we can assume she loves you. None of this is just stuff and stuff doesn't matter. What matters is you have a relationship that you are both enjoying and you love each other. Don't worry about this stuff. I have a mother in law who does the exact same thing. Whereas my mother throws everything out without a trace of guilt and has assured me I can always do the same. And not to get sentimental over over stuff no matter what it is. My mother in law saved everything. And when we had a baby, I was really shocked. I mean, they moved my my husband grew up living internationally. And like she carried this stuff for years and waited till she had a grandchild. And some of it I'm not kidding you. It was like stuffed animals. I mean, that stuff can have mites and it after years. Some of it was little hard covered books published in the 60s. And we just what can you do, you just have to get rid of it. And when you don't want it, it has nothing to do with your love for her. Hopefully she's not prepared to give you a guilt trip. But there's nothing to feel bad about. And if you need a really good Stark perspective in the other direction. There are two books I recommend. Highly recommend. Kim John Paine's simplicity parenting, it is phenomenal. I think every parent should read it. It's just it's such a great mindset. I don't think you're gonna really get anywhere else. And if you want to go further read Rita Marie Kondo is the life changing magic of tidying up because she does have a segment on not getting rid of stuff in order to give it to someone else. No matter what, when you're getting rid of your stuff. Don't give it to someone, right? That's a big, that's a big no, no, that's actually like really putting a lot of burden on another person, to give them your other to give them. The bottom line is be attached to people not to stuff.

Hey, girls, my name is Mariah. I'm 22 years old, and I'm from Los Angeles, California. I'm 20 weeks pregnant with my first child and your podcast has been such a lifesaver, especially since I'm planning on having an out of hospital birth. I've been doing a lot of research on bed sharing to help inform myself about the ways to do it safely. However, I can't seem to find the exact answer I'm looking for. I want to co sleep in a way that it's easiest for me while breastfeeding, and also love my baby to bond with Me. Is bed sharing an option for a newborn? And how can I do that safely with my husband sharing the bed as well, or is getting a bassinet or bed attachment the best alternative? I want to do the least amount of moving around as possible at night, and the idea of having an extra attachment next to the bed just seems like an unnecessary extra step. Thank you so much for your amazing informative podcast. And please keep up the good work. Okay, bye.

We haven't talked very much about co sleeping on the podcast. We've touched on it. But I look forward to answering this. So you go ahead start well, I mean, my I like her question. She sounds already like she's experienced in this because she's thinking about how to do this. Without moving as much with minimal movement and disturbance herself. I just have a couple of things to say one, what I found was in the early, I don't remember anything now like weeks months. In the early days of having a newborn, I definitely found it easier to lie with my baby. Usually tucked in my arm I believe the baby was often on. I don't remember their back or their side of the baby was definitely safe because I'm a very light sleeper, and that's normal. But there's a point where the baby starts to move and become very active and they do disturb your sleep. And at one point I had a co sleeper. And the plus side is you can sprawl out freely and you're not nervous about anyone bumping the baby or anything. But yeah, it is a real pain when the baby wakes up and you do have to basically sit up, lean yourself up, lift the baby and bring the baby into the bed. So my feelings are it's easiest to co sleep in the early weeks or months and then easier to have the baby just nearby when they get active. I think Kelly mom is one of the best resources for this. There are ways to responsibly post sleep if anyone tells you it's unsafe. It's linked to people who do it irresponsibly. They're drinking they're doing drugs. They're falling asleep on couches. As there are very important measures to take, and then it is very safe when you take those measures.

And the fact of the matter is that even with parents who say they're not going to co sleep more than half of them, if not three quarters of them end up co sleeping at some point, even if it's just a night here and there. So you might as well learn how to do it and understand how to do it safely. So the concern about the husband and the bed is simple. You simply can put the baby on the outside of the bed and put yourself in between the baby and your husband. Therefore, you don't have to be worried at all about your husband being less attentive and attuned to the baby as you are. Sometimes people will say, Well, what about the baby falling off the edge of the bed? Or what about rolling, rolling onto the baby? And I always remind mothers that, you know, they generally do not roll off the edge of their own bed, because we're really actually a lot more aware, when we're asleep than we realize. I mean, if we weren't, we would constantly be falling out of bed. If we did not know where the borders were. I never thought about that. It doesn't right. No one falls off their own bed. I mean, now someone's gonna write it and say I fell off the bed. No, but we'll okay. Yeah, occasionally, probably. We also don't roll over onto our husbands or partners in bed without intention, right, it doesn't typically happen. We are much more aware of our surroundings while we're sleeping. So as you mentioned, a few things that are really critical for safe cosleeping is that you are a nonsmoker, that you are not drinking, what you're avoiding couches, or reclining chairs, especially like big Lazy Boy type recliners, that is not a safe place to sleep with your baby. So a lot of people do do that. And that is considered unsafe co sleeping, the baby should be dressed lightly so that they don't overheat. They should be technically on their back or their side, preferably the back according to the guidelines, you should limit how many blankets and excess excess pillows and things are in the bed so that you can reduce any possible chance of suffocation. Exclusive formula feeding increases the risk of SIDS and exclusive breastfeeding dramatically reduces it. So that's another really important point.

And having the baby on the edge of the bed, by the way, there's a really good technique for safely doing that there's a technique with like, a square baby blanket, where you fold it, you have it open like a diamond, and you put your own body under one corner, you put the baby in it, and then you wrap it around the baby, so the baby can't roll because you end up tucking two sides under your own body. And that was that really gave me the peace of mind to allow me to sleep while the baby was on the edge. Not the very edge. But the baby was on the end of the bed while my eye was idle, because I was worried about my husband moving around and not having the same awareness. Of course, I mean, that just the worry would have kept me awake.

Oh, yeah. One other thing I'll add is, if you are worried about that, you can do what's called the cuddle curl where you sleep on your side, and you kind of wrap your arm around the baby on the top and tuck your knees up, almost like you're spooning your baby. And that creates a little safe haven for your baby to be protected in and your baby can't roll, they're not going to roll off the bed. So it's as long as they're not too close to the edge that you're not going to, you know accidentally inadvertently push them off. But do read about it because you wouldn't want the baby on the edge of a bed if the wall is there, because that actually is unsafe and the baby could potentially get between the space of the bed and the wall. So do read up on it. We're just giving you some sense of what you'll discover when you read about it.

Hi, this is Megan from Downingtown, Pennsylvania. And my question is about how to create a small breast milk stash without creating an oversupply issue. So I'll be taking four months off after I have my baby. And I teach piano lessons. So I only work about an hour or two per day, maybe three hours. I want to have a small stash available for my husband to feed the baby. While I'm gone at piano lessons. My studio is also pretty close by so he could probably bring the baby to me during my little break. So I don't need a huge breast milk stash because I'm not going back to work full time in any capacity. But I am wondering how I can do this without creating oversupply. Thank you so much.

So easy question. I first of all, she's correct that she does not want to create an oversupply because oversupply can be equally or more problematic than low milk supply. In many cases, it's actually a lot harder to fix. So what she wants to do really is in my experience, if you want to save and store a little bit of milk without creating oversupply, you can pump one time a day. Generally first thing in the morning because we have a little bit of extra milk in the morning if your baby didn't nurse as much Overnight, we also tend to produce a little bit more milk between midnight and noon. So I recommend taking your your first morning feeding that you do where you're sort of up and out of bed, feed the baby, then pump just up to two ounces. So you may only get half an ounce, three quarters of an ounce, a quarter of an ounce. But over time, that will increase a little bit, and you can store up to two ounces per day. If you go over two ounces, if you start over producing 3456 ounces a day, then we're in oversupply territory.

Hi, I saw your post on Instagram about questions about pushing. And I did actually have a question about it. And it has to do with when nurses are telling their patients not to push. I just wanted to know what your thoughts were on this. I've heard that a lot of nurses have said that, as you know, regarding if they're waiting on the doctor, or, you know, I just wanted to get a little bit more information on this and just kind of wanted to get an idea of why they say that and what can happen if if someone doesn't push or tried holding back. So yes, just wanted to get your thoughts on that. Thank you so much.

So my thoughts on that are that if nurses are trained to say that to women whose babies are about to emerge, then they're trained to abuse women, because you cannot tell a woman whose baby is on its way out, through with no through no force of her own doing the natural expulsive reflex or the fetal ejection reflex. She can't stop that. And to tell her to stop it is it's something you don't need to listen to or obey. I've said to my own clients, if I were on the way to a facility, and I felt that moment happening, the baby's coming out, my first thought would be well, we're going to need a new car. There is no stopping this. And the thought of it is heartbreaking to me. I can't I hate that any woman has ever been told close your legs. Wait, why? So a doctor can be there and take credit later for delivering the baby that your birthing. Sorry, this gets me really, really upset. Because it sounds like human torture to me. And it's very upsetting. There's my opinion and all my professionalism. Go ahead, I'm with you, the best thing you can do when that's happening is let that baby come, let it happen. Just be there, you know, to hope somebody's there to help you receive the baby. And if they're not, you're just going to receive the baby yourself. And that will be perfectly fine. More women through the history of the world have received their own babies into their own hands than not. Since the beginning of time, I'm pretty sure our instincts will kick in just fine. And we'll reach down and grab that baby instinctively bring baby up to our chest and do all the right things to help them transition. And then when the doctor walks in a few minutes later, you can go it turns out I didn't need you, Doc, but I was really glad you were nearby. Just in case I did.

Okay, first one. Here we go. You ready? I've got him. I'm always ready. The sleeping on your back actually double your risk for stillbirth. So interesting, interesting that people think this. So I did actually look this up because I didn't really realize that people actually thought that because I've always talked about sleeping on your back is really not being that problematic. So there was one study that showed that women who went to sleep on their backs had a higher rate of stillbirth and those babies. However, it was only for women who went to sleep on their back. If you wake up on your back in the morning. That is not a risk only if you actually fall asleep on your back. So women who choose to sleep on their backs are by greater risk than women who actually do women who start out the night on their backs.

Oh my gosh, that is such a it doesn't make any sense. Okay, so what I always tell people is the reason Isn't that this is a risk is because when you're on your back the weight of your this is not getting quick, the weight of your uterus reduces blood flow to the baby, right but it also reduces blood flow to your brain. So you will generally feel it before your baby is going to be compromised, and you will instinctively intuitively get off your back. If you're on your back, you can always prop up your one of your butt cheeks. And if you just get a little bit off your back, just a tiny little something on your butt. It doesn't have the same effect. It doesn't reduce the blood flow. So that's it go to sleep on your side. You wake up on your back, don't stress. If I hire midwife do I still need an OB?

Oh my goodness people I forget that our audience doesn't necessarily know the answer to this last Trisha said no. Okay, why? Let's just be quick about it. Your midwife is a medical caregiver. Unlike a doula, unlike a childbirth educator, they are medical caregiver. They don't do major surgery. So any midwife has a plan B, where there can be an OB to step in should a C section be required. But midwives can suture most tears they can administer, they can oversee the administration of Pitocin and all the rest. So no, one of the best benefits is you don't need an OP ever again, even for your annual exams or anything, right? You only need a OB if you risk at a midwifery care, that would be the only reason otherwise your midwife is fully capable of managing every step of your pregnancy and birth. How do I combat early pregnancy headaches?

Combating headaches, I would say hydration and for many people, it's cutting out gluten, whether you want to hear that or not. It's very effective and linked to cutting out gluten.

Well, the other thing is in early pregnancy, we are very, we are very prone to low blood sugar. So eating frequently, eating frequently four to six small meals per day. So low blood sugar can trigger headaches. What is the best time to introduce solid foods for my baby? Is it four months or six months?

It's neither it's when they're reaching for your food.

So Are you cool with people giving baby's food at four months after reaching for it?

No, I don't think a four month old does reach for it. Do you think they do my son didn't reach for food till he was a year and a week old and my daughter didn't until she was eight months old. So maybe my sample set is too small to four month olds reach for food? If so I'd be very careful about what I have within reach. Yeah, usually say the same thing that you just said. Except not before six months. I think it's generally too early. They should still be exclusively breast milk at that point.

I agree. I never imagined any baby in the world reached before that point. But uh, yeah, I guess it does happen. So I'm with you.

Yep. Okay. Does a lot of vernix mean the baby came too early? No, certainly not. If there's a lot of vernix it does indicate your baby might have been born on the earlier side of your guest date. And if your baby is born without vernix it would indicate your baby was born on the later side of your guest day because the verdicts already absorbed but no, absolutely not too early by any means. My daughter was born at 39 weeks to the day and it was absolutely caked on her. This is a tons and tons of rinex. It's it's all good no matter what, no matter when

I agree. Do you support the use of vytex to encourage ovulation? We were already talking about it twice in this episode. That vytex is a great herb or adaptogen for trying to support progesterone and particularly through supporting ovulation. So yes, 100% I support it. It supports the LH surge which supports ovulation and when you ovulate, you're more likely to have progesterone production. It's a It's probably one of the most common herbs for women who are struggling with hormonal issues in their 30s and 40s. Here's a good one. Is it possible to orgasm differently during and after pregnancy?

Nope, it's always going to be the same orgasm. StarQuest it never gets better really? Aren't they all really unique ultimately, like can we just say yes to that without really without wondering if there's any other potential answer? What we want details explain exactly what you mean by orgasm differently. Different how I mean, here's what I find now. better, bigger, longer, more, more frequent multiples. Louder. Louder. Yes, it's definitely possible to have it be different and pregnancy. The high high levels of estrogen in pregnancy make us more prone to more powerful orgasm. So I would say Pregnancy is a great Time to have your best orgasm of your life.

Over and out everyone. See you next time.

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