Birth, Baby!

Welcome, this is Birth, Baby! Your hosts are Ciarra Morgan and Samantha Kelly. Ciarra is a birth doula, hypnobirthing educator, and pediatric sleep consultant. Samantha is a birth doula, childbirth educator, and lactation counselor. Join us as we guide you through your options for your pregnancy, birth, and postpartum journey.

It's common for people to ask what they can do to prepare themselves for labor and birth. On today's episode, we'll talk about it all, exercises to do, foods to eat, things to drink, and practitioners to see. So what do you have for us today, Samantha? I have so much today, Ciarra. We're going to get into a whole bunch of stuff. We're going to get into some tips and tricks on things you can be doing. Common things that we hear about. And we're also gonna talk a lot about some evidence and research, which I'm always excited for. So I always brag about you to our clients that I'm like, we're all good at different things. And Samantha's like superpower is being able to like sift through all the crap and find what is actually true. And I'm like, and that's why I text her during births, because if I'm struggling with something, cause I'm too tired, I know that she's just going to pop up with something.

Amazing. I don't know. There's just something about it. There's something about the research and knowing the why behind things that just really helps it stick better in my brain. And I also maybe just have a little bit of type A slash self -doubt stuff going on. If I don't know the research or the reasons and the statistics behind something, I'm really hesitant to talk a whole lot about it.

Well, I think maybe I don't learn as much because I just am like, someone's going to know. That's OK. We share the load. We're two doulas with basically one brain. So yeah, I love it. So we're going to talk about education first. So I guess that's kind of leading right into that. That's exactly right. So the first thing is education. So when we're talking about what can you do to prepare for delivery, we talked previously about different classes and things that you can do to prepare and all of those are really important. But when we're talking about specifically the actual delivery portion, I think something that I see being really helpful is making sure that the classes that you're taking are talking about that. And I think that's where a lot of the maybe the hospital -based classes are going to struggle a little bit more is because they talk a lot about like the labor and the stuff you can do and the options and all that but they don't actually talk about what is Pushing the baby out look like what do you need to do to prepare your body all those different things? And so you just don't know as many of the options and so that's where taking a really well rounded class, you know, maybe taught by a doula or midwife or a childbirth educator can come in really handy because you can you can learn about what options like what are other people in the world doing what other cultures do. Everybody has very different you know very very different ways that they do stuff and learning about some of those I think is really important and powerful for people so making sure you're taking a well -rounded class making sure that.

You know, you're listening to podcasts, listening to birth stories, you know, positive birth stories, not just what you're seeing on friends or whatever. Being exposed to all of the different options. What are other people doing when they're, you know, when they're delivering? And so that's the first part of it. Know what's possible. Know what is possible in the whole wide world. And yeah. And, you know, if you have a, let's say, like you said, a hospital -based class and they talk about what they have available there, that still isn't gonna be all of the options. And it could be that you really wanna use, let's say, nitrous oxide. And our hospitals here, most of them do have it, but not everywhere in the world has it. And so maybe that's something that you wanted, or would have wanted if you had known about it, but they don't even offer it at your hospital. Well, if you had known that, I learned this in a birth class that nitrous oxide is an option that you talk to your doctor about it. And you're like, I want to use that. And they're like, well, we don't have that at this hospital. That may make you want to change hospitals, even if it's not going to out of hospital work. Maybe you just want to switch to a different hospital in this area. There is one specifically that doesn't have it. And if you want it, you might want to switch where you're going. So again, I totally agree making sure you know, all of the options, are you allowed to push on your hands and knees, even in the hospital?

Sometimes that's provider specific, but you won't know about all of those options if you just take a niche class with a small group. Exactly. Exactly. And you just touched on the next part of it, which is talking to your provider to find out both what they recommend. They do a lot of deliveries. They see a lot of stuff. So right now what they see has been helpful for people. And then also find out what they're comfortable with.

We have lots of providers who say that they are only comfortable with catching a baby that is on their back, catching a baby when mom is pushing on her back. Or you can't deliver on hands and knees because of this, that, or the other, or different things. So make sure you're talking with your provider to find out what they're comfortable with. And then with that, being aware that just like,

Ciarra said a minute ago, just because maybe your provider isn't comfortable with it doesn't mean that you still can't do it. It just means that there's probably going to need to be some more conversations and learning a little bit more advocacy skills for handling that and maybe making the decision to switch providers. So that's another, another idea in there is tens, you know, not everyone knows that tens is possibility. we'll have an episode on that coming up if you don't know what that is, but it's like little that you put on your back and they send wavelengths through your back to help with pain management. And, you know, the only reason you may know that if they take it or not, if they're, if they allow it or not, as you go, because when you rent it, they ask you to get a provider consent form. And then you go and your doctor's like, no, I can't sign off on this because the hospital that you're going to birth at doesn't allow it to be used in the hospital. Like what I'm bringing it in myself. I'm not even plugging it into their walls and I'm not allowed to use it. So that is just another small example of why you want to learn all of the options and then again, talk to your provider to exactly what you said. Yeah, exactly. And in addition to talking to your provider, find out, like she said, what options are available at the birthing place and what things do they not allow? If you have things that you know are your non -negotiables for your delivery, that's what I always tell people, come up with your list of your top, whatever five or 10 non -negotiable things that you need to happen at your birth and find out, you know, does your birthing place allow quote unquote, allow those things and does your provider quote unquote allow those things as well? So find out what else you think. I have such a hard time saying that word. I hate saying. I hate it. They allow you to like, how long will they let you stay pregnant? That is ridiculous. Anyway, I will not go off on that tangent, but it makes me laugh.

That's a podcast for another time. Allowing is a construct. It's fine. It's fine. Okay, so next what we're going to talk about is exercise. So when we're talking about getting ready for delivery, if you've taken any sort of childbirth class or listened to Ciarra and I talk about birth for any amount of time, you know that birth is a physical support. It does not matter what your intentions are for pain management in your delivery. Birth is gonna be a physical support. So, the physical sport. So, exercise is going to be really important. It's gonna help you build stamina. It's gonna help you build strength, help with, help your body to handle stress and to handle pain better as well.

There's just so many different things that you wouldn't expect that you're needing to do in delivery. And even just the simplest act of rolling from side to side when you have an epidural, that can take a lot of strength when you are contracting and you're 41 weeks pregnant and you have this giant bowling ball of a belly happening. It's a lot and it gets harder when you're actually in labor.

Having that strength and that stamina and having the ability to handle that stress is really, really valuable in those moments and also for postpartum too. So some of the things that we really, some of the exercises that we really like for pregnancy to start getting ready for delivery is walking, just really simple going for a daily walk, walk a mile a day outside on the treadmill at the mall. That's where I did all my walking when I was pregnant with my son in the heat of the summer. I would just go to the mall and I would walk around and around and around. And that was how I got my exercise and helped my body move. It's funny because we barely have malls anymore. It feels like in the Austin area, we have two malls that are indoor malls, but it's almost like they're being phased out.

People go from walking groups in the mall. But my daughter actually said the other day about her friends going to the mall and she didn't say the ones that are the outdoor ones that are the more popular ones. She said the indoor mall and I was like, wow, okay, you guys are 13 and you're going to those. I'm kind of excited about it. It is exciting. All of my early childhood memories are walking around at the mall.

Yeah, going on escalators and all of that, which I mean, I guess if you're pregnant, you don't really need an escalator stairs are probably better, but yeah, a lot of benefits to inside because when you are pregnant, you really don't want to be walking around in the super duper heat. So if you are in the South like us, make sure you're doing those walks in the morning or late in the evening and even still making sure you're bringing lots of water because dehydration is huge.

And vice versa, if you're in the north and it's the winter and there's ice all over the ground, then you maybe also want to be inside. So you're a doesn't even consider that because that sounds awful. We don't know what I says. We live in Austin, Texas, except in February for about one week. Then we know what I said. We try to forget about it before the next February. That's right. And the whole city shuts down. It's fine. It's fine. So walking really great start to exercise if you're not going to do anything else, do some walking, that's gonna be maybe one of the best things that you can do. Next we have on there is prenatal yoga or even like Pilates can be very similar. I think that, so the reason that I say prenatal yoga versus like any sort of regular yoga is because there are some stretches and exercises that you really don't wanna be doing, you know, often or holding quite as long when you're pregnant.

I'm thinking of like downward dog and some of those things. You may not need to be doing those when you're pregnant at different phases in your pregnancy. So doing a prenatal yoga class where they know what's good for your body. The instructors of prenatal yoga classes have done a whole training program on pregnancy yoga. That can be really beneficial. That's not to say that a regular yoga class couldn't work for you. You can always do some, you know, change things up a little bit to make it easy for you. But I think that the prenatal yoga programs are really helpful and seem for Pilates as well. But they can just help you, you know, absolutely connect with your body, practice some of those mindfulness techniques that we find just massively beneficial for pregnancy and labor and really work on that strength building and that flexibility and all those different things that can come in really handy when you're in labor. Yeah, and then we also have strength exercises. So there's a midwife, a really famous midwife named Ina May Gaskin, and she likes to say that doing 300 squats a day is gonna make for a faster delivery.

I don't know about y 'all. I don't think that I could do 300 squats a day if I tried. I was trying to think about this the other day. I think it's possible I could do 300 squats in one day, but there's absolutely no way I could do it the next day or even maybe walk the next day. I could do 20 quite a few times maybe.

I just feel like this would be a really funny thing to go live on and have you and I sit there and try to do 300 squats in one sitting and see how far we get. I think that needs to be our first like Patreon thing someday when we launch our Patreon. People could bet on us. People could bet on us to see who's gonna, there's so many betting opportunities here. Who is gonna get the most squats in? Who is going to, like quit first or who could do it the fastest. Lots of things here. So many number you think we'll get to. Who's going to fall on their butt trying to do a squat because their legs give out and it'll be me a hundred percent. What's funny is that I think there are some of our pregnant clients that for sure would be us. Like I bet they could do it with us and they would win. When we're talking about exercise during pregnancy, it's also really important to just be in tune with your body. Know what your limits are, know what is going to be beneficial for you and what's maybe going to be harmful for you, and listening to your body and what it's trying to tell you. So if you're talking about starting a new exercise regime when you're pregnant, it's always good to, one, talk to your provider about it. Make sure it's something that they are comfortable with you doing, maybe coming in and you deciding that you want to do some weight lifting and kettle bell swings and dead lifting and all of that when you're 20 weeks pregnant and you've never done that before, maybe that's not your best bet. But so there's some other things that you could be doing. But just chatting with your provider. And if there are exercise routines that you are regularly doing, you know, in your pre pregnancy life, most providers are going to be okay with you continuing your regular exercise as long as your body is feeling good and you're just kind of in tune with what's happening there. Except for horseback riding. Yes, we don't do horseback riding. There are certain things, if you are going to be jostled around a lot, even if you're like, I'm just going on a walk, like the amount of bouncing on the horse is quite a bit for your body. Another, you know, if you do ice skating or something, like anything that has high risk of falling in that activity is probably not going to be something that you should continue to do, but it's not that you can't do the motions. It's usually the possible harm that could come to you, maybe that's out of your hands. So even if you wouldn't hurt yourself doing it because of you, if there's a risk there. So other than that though, they usually say, if you did it pre -pregnancy, you can do it while you're pregnant for the most part, but just check with your provider for sure. Yeah. And if you're unsure, there are also pregnancy physical therapists and like exercise. I can't even think of the word right now. Exercise professionals who can help you figure out how, what exercise. Personal trainer. There you go. That's the one. Personal trainers. And they really, there are so many of them that really do have specializations just like with anything, you know, chiropractic care, specialization in pregnancy. Personal trainers, I almost forgot the word now. Thanks Sam.

Personal trainers also can get specialties in specialty certifications in prenatal and postpartum exercise. So for example, my sister -in -law was in California and she owns PushFit Mom, I think is what it's called. And she does exercises with families where either while you're pregnant or postpartum and she works with you based on your body type and like all of these different things. So there's so much more that goes into it than just a blanket recommendation. And you can absolutely find personal trainer that can work with you like that. Yeah, absolutely. There's some, there's some really great options out there, especially if you're just unsure where to start. but really the benefits of it. Isn't that a good one? Mama stay fit is a, we can link her in the show notes as well. That's a great, I guess I say her, but I think it's two ladies. It's sisters. they have some great exercise tips and things like that on Instagram too. So we'll link that. Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt you that just to my head.

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I mean, there's so many great options, you know, both, you know, internationally, I guess, but also across the US and more localized here in Austin for those of our clients that are around town as well. But again, the benefits of exercise can't be overstated. It's so helpful. Just for your all around health, your serotonin levels and your, your energy levels and all these different things. Endorphins.

The biggest complaint that I get in labor is not the quote unquote pain of labor. It's often that people's legs are too tired. Like most of the birthing positions you get into or laboring positions you get into, almost all of them use your legs. So eventually your legs are going to feel like they're giving out and they kind of give up before you do. And I kind of joke that I feel like one of those UFC trainers or coaches where when they come off, when the bell rings and they're in between rounds and someone's kind of meshing their legs all together and they're kind of needing out those muscles and trying to get the blood flowing back in there. That's me between contractions or waves because people's legs are tired or they're getting a charley horse. So the more toned you are pre birth, the easier your birth will be for that portion of your body, but also practicing those positions during pregnancy so that it's not some brand new position you're getting into in labor. So if you think you might want to squat off the side of the bed, maybe hold on to the side of the bed and squat down for a little while. So to see kind of your stamina for that, or if you're going to want to be, you know, sitting backwards on the toilet, as silly as that sounds, go sit backward on the toilet, just see what that feels like. So go through some of those labor and birth positions, practice them because the bigger your belly gets, the more awkward, I guess, I'm not going to say uncomfortable, the more awkward it will feel. And if you've never done it before, it's going to feel real awkward doing it for the first time at Lake. Absolutely. Absolutely. And knowing what's like, what's comfortable for you and what brings more intensity, where do you feel, you know, more like pressure in your pelvic floor and different things like that. Cause there are times in labor that we want to be in positions that are going to bring comfort. And there are times in labor that we're going to want to be in positions that bring intensity. So starting to recognize early what those positions are is never a bad idea. So next thing we're going to talk about is food and drink. So nutrition overall, what can you be doing? What things are going to be helpful for preparing your body for labor? A lot of it is going back to what we were talking about in exercise. We want to build strength. We want to build stamina. We want your body to be strong and healthy so that it is able to handle with grace, I should say, you know, the rigor of league of labor, because it's called labor for a reason. It's you're not just sitting there hanging out. It's a, it's, it's a whole thing. again, no matter what your, what your plans are for pain management, your body's going to go through a whole lot. so things that are really important to pay attention to when we're talking about nutrition and pregnancy, you know, making sure you're getting lots of protein, this can be a little bit more difficult for people who are vegan or vegetarian. So if you have one of those special diets, just make sure that you are being really mindful about the amount of protein that you're getting and you're adding it in as much as possible wherever you can because your body needs so much protein in order to build those muscles and have that strength and stamina for labor. Yeah, we've had families, we've had families that are vegan and continue to be vegan throughout their pregnancy and do just fine. But I will say that we've had vegetarian and vegan families that actually go into eating meat during pregnancy because they find it really difficult to get enough protein in. They do have easier things with like, you know, the legumes and things like that, that you're going to eat. That's easier for them to get in the spinach and all of those things, but not, you know, that good old iron and meat is going to give you, you know? So no one's gonna, you know, you don't have to tell anyone if it's like a thing like, you can't tell people, people can't know. I mean, I'm such a vegetarian. Like I'm so passionate about this. We've had people that are like that and then they make a different choice for their pregnancy just for the health of themselves and their babies. But again, totally up to you. Yeah, absolutely. Just being in tune, I think it'll always come back to that. Being in tune with your body and knowing what is going to work best for you and knowing that that is likely to change throughout the course of your pregnancy and your postpartum experience. So high protein foods, very helpful, very important. High fiber foods, also very helpful, especially towards the end of pregnancy as your body maybe starts getting a little bit more backed up and you might have some of that really lovely pregnancy constipation that is just so common. High fiber foods, very important for those issues. And lots of vitamins. So things like magnesium, calcium, potassium, and then folate and folic acid, which I think we hear a lot about folate and folic acid when you are pregnant. You always talk about the prenatal vitamins that we need to be taking that have high levels of those things. And that's because the folic acid is what is going to help your baby's brain and heart and all these things actually grow. So it's really important to be getting the right levels of that, enough of that. So it's always recommended to take supplements with folic acid or folate. There is a difference. Someday maybe we'll go more in depth on that. But basically, if you have a certain gene mutation, your body's going to process.

Yeah, that one MTHFR. I always think of it as a bad word. Mother something is what I always think of MTHFR. I know. But yeah, that's definitely, and if you have that, you know what it is. And we don't have to go into it, but that would be a situation where you don't want to take folic acid. You want to take the micro folate or whatever it is. And you can also get magnesium through some salt baths. I don't think you said that. Yeah, no, I didn't.

It's so nice to be able to, first of all, a bath in general is just so nice to just relax in and you can get that magnesium from taking an Axiom salt bath too. So especially if you're getting like swelling and things like that, that can be helpful. So not even just for labor and birth, but also for pregnancy comfort. Yeah, I've, I've heard, I don't actually know the science behind this one. So here's a, here's an area that I don't normally say, but I've heard that your body actually processes magnesium better externally than it does if you're taking it internally. So things like the Epsom salt baths and like the special magnesium lotions and sprays and different things like that. I've heard that too. My chiropractor told me that actually. Yeah, I think that might be where I've heard it too. So maybe they're onto something. I'll have to do the research on it someday. So anyways, magnesium, calcium, folate, folic acid, potassium. So where are you going to find those things in your fruits and veggies? So we like to say eat the rainbow when you're pregnant, you want to be eating eight to 10 servings of vegetables a day. So just being mindful that you're getting lots of, lots of those things being, you know, if you're like me and my family don't necessarily enjoy vegetables a little that much. So I sneak them in when I can do a lot of smoothies, do a lot of different things like that, you know, zucchini, muffins and different things. So, just figuring out how you can make that happen and being gentle on your body as well.

Whole grains are another really important thing to be getting. Even if you are gluten -free, you can still do some whole grains that are going to be friendly to that as well. When you're pregnant, it is recommended that you eat about 300 extra calories a day. So some of you are probably hearing that and be like, my gosh, that's so many extra calories. And some of you are like, wait a minute. I was always told that I'm eating for two. And so I thought I should be eating double the calories. There you go. 300 extra calories a day. It's not as much as what it sounds like. It's really not. It's really not. I bet you'll see like, you know, a handful of your favorite crackers are probably close to it. So you don't have to eat that much more. And also if you gain a lot of weight, it is going to be harder to get into those positions we were talking about. So I don't care what you look like. I'm just talking about functionality of, especially if you're trying to plan an unmedicated birth, you want to be able to move around and get into those positions and not feel like you're being limited by size. That's why a lot of times birth centers and home births and things like that, those midwives will be really on you about nutrition. And it's not because they're body shaming or because they're you know, wanting you to look a certain way, a lot of it is how your body is processing that thing and the health of it so that you're able to complete an out of hospital birth. So making sure that you are getting 300 extra calories, those of you that limit calories, please don't to that extent, but you know, making sure that by the way, when you end up breastfeeding, you're gonna need like a lot more than you did when you were pregnant. I was the most ravenous ever when I was breastfeeding. What number did you just say? 500. About 500 more calories per baby. So if you have multiple babies, then you need more than that. All of that to say, I know, because you're doing so much more. And that's not taking into account exercise as well. Of course, if you're exercising, then you eat more calories, cut your calories off at whatever it is, 2 ,400. If you exercise, you get more and you need to eat more. So all of this is not, I don't want it to ever sound like we're saying that you shouldn't gain weight and that we're body shaming anybody because that's absolutely not where we're coming from. If you are exercising and you are eating the way that you, you know, properly, you're getting all that protein and fiber and vitamins and fruits and veggies, and you're gaining weight, then that's just how your body does it. And that is 1000 % okay. We just want you to also - We all have different body types too. Yeah, exactly. We all gain it in different places. Everyone has their spot that they gain more. Exactly. Absolutely. You could gain 20 pounds in your pregnancy and be unable to do all of the things, have a tougher time doing all of the things in labor that you need to, or then somebody who gained 90 pounds during their pregnancy. When I had my son, I gained, I think I gained 75 pounds with my son. It was a pretty significant amount, but I was also staying active and eating what I needed to. So that was just how my body decided to do it that time, and that was fine.

And then talking about fluid during pregnancy. So drinking water is so, so, so important when you're pregnant. So it's recommended to drink about 68 to 99 ounces of water a day, depending on your body weight. I've also heard like half your body weight plus, I think it's half your body weight plus like 40 or something like that. So drinking a pretty significant amount of water. I always tell people if you are having a hard time drinking water, get yourself one of those big old Yeti tumblers or hydro flasks or whatever is your jam and figure out how many times a day you need to refill that and just keep at it. So water is going to be your best way to get fluid intake, but you can also do a little bit of drinking teas and drinking some juices that also might have some drinking coconut water, different things like that. That can also be part of your fluid intake, but the majority of it does need to be water. Coffee and Dr. Pepper do not count as your fluid intake. Those are just little bonuses on top. Yeah, a bummer, but it's true. It is. It is a bummer. They actually dehydrate you. So really probably if you're drinking a lot of coffee and Dr. Pepper, you should drink even more water.

We're not gonna know if you again live somewhere where it's extra hot, you're gonna need to increase these amounts for sure. Like we have had quite a few families who work with us where they think that they are going into preterm labor even if you know before 37 weeks and they're contracting and then we ask them to drink a liquid IV which sponsor us, just kidding. I have to do that sometimes. It's just fun. Liquid IV is a great way to get your, and it's not colored, which I really like, great way to get the electrolytes and all of that and help balance your body back. Some people prefer Gatorade, not myself, but some people do. Anything with electrolytes in it, because we tell them to drink that. And then all of a sudden, magically, they're not in labor anymore.

So especially in Texas, and if you're gonna be doing that walking thing, we had one mom who was like, well, I was paddle boarding all day. And like, just cause you were on the water doesn't mean you didn't need to drink water. You've got to be drinking more water when you're outside. So pay attention to that for sure. Austin problems, paddle boarding all day. She's like, well, I hiked down to the lake from my house and then I paddle boarded. And then we hiked home, like a shocker. That'll do it. That'll do it.

Again, this just goes back to being in tune with your body. Listen to your body. If it's telling you that you're doing too much, then you need to sit down, you need to take a nap, and you need to drink so much water. And if your body is still hurting, then call your doctor. So next we're going to get into some of the evidence on some different things that people might use at the end of pregnancy to help prepare their bodies for labor. So the three things that we're gonna talk about today are perineal massage, dates, and red raspberry leaf tea. So all of these things are, so I should say red raspberry leaf tea and dates are thought to help prepare your body for labor physically. And perineal massage is typically recommended to help increase elasticity of the skin in your perineum, the tissue in your perineum to decrease the risk of tearing during the actual delivery. So like we talked about earlier, I love research. It's kind of, I like knowing though, what, why, and how behind all of the things. So I was really curious to do some more research, especially because there's new things that have come out about these things since I originally did my training. So first we're going to talk about red raspberry leaf tea.

So this is a tea that is made from the leaf of raspberries. And typically, you know, a dried tea might be loose leaf or it might be in a bag. You can get it pretty much anywhere. Most of, I tell most of my family is just to go pick it up from Target. Like let's not make our lives super difficult by, you know, going to some special store across town or something, whatever's easy for you. So it's pretty easily accessible. So. I was pretty interested by this one, by what I found with this one. There have not been a lot of studies done on it, which is not surprising because there's typically not a lot of studies that are done on more holistic medicines like this. And there's really no quality studies that have been done. There are some smaller studies, some kind of observational studies where they're just kind of seeing what people are doing, but there's not a lot of really in depth, high quality clinical trials. So a 2021 systemic review showed that there is an effect on the smooth muscles, including the uterus when drinking red raspberry leaf tea. So it's theorized. The reason that it's often recommended is that the idea is that when you're drinking it, it's going to help tone your uterus. We call it a uterine tonic to basically when you go into labor to help those contractions to be more beneficial, to help them be stronger and help things move along better. So this review showed that it did have an effect on the smooth muscles, including the uterus, and that there was no significant risk or harm. However, the effect that it was having on the muscles was kind of, it wasn't consistent. It seemed like sometimes it was helping those muscles to relax. And sometimes it was helping those muscles to contract. And so, you know, for some people, it might help, you know, kind of get things moving along. And for other people, it may not do a whole lot. So I thought that was really interesting. Doesn't that just feel like everything else in pregnancy? We're like, and if you are in labor, early, early labor signs, you may be constipated, you may experience diarrhea and you're like, cool, all the things, but this kind of blows my mind because you know, I trained four years ago, I guess maybe it's longer ago than now, but still, and we were absolutely told that this helps tone the uterus. And I was, I always say in class, it's kind of like doing bicep curls, but for your uterus helps your uterus to be stronger. And therefore you have more effective contractions during your labor, but it's kind of that I now feel like I've just been saying things that aren't true. However, I can still see a benefit in that if it gives you practice contractions or practice waves, as I like to call them, that's an opportunity to connect with your mind and body and do some breathing techniques or relaxation techniques. So I can see how that would still be a benefit to have the experience of feeling what a couple of waves might feel like, at least on a lighter scale. but that is pretty crazy that it's like, it might help you. It might not. And you won't know while you're drinking it, if it's really helping you or not. Yeah. May the odds be ever in your favor. but the bottom line is that there was no risk or harm associated with it. So it's not going to hurt you to drink it. And it is a really good source of magnesium and calcium and potassium, which as we just talked about, are all things that are really beneficial when you are pregnant. So With all of that being said, basically, if you want to drink it and you want to give it a try, absolutely go for it. Typically, it's recommended to drink it in your third trimester, is what most birth workers would recommend, is to start drinking it in your third trimester. We normally recommend that you start small and then kind of work your way up.

And again, being mindful of one when you're drinking it. If you are drinking your red raspberry leaf tea and you are getting a lot of those practice waves, then maybe that means you should drink it in the morning and not right before you go to bed so that you're having a hard time sleeping and different things like that. And then, yeah, just, again, being in tune with your body. This is the theme of today's podcast, listening to your body and knowing what's, you know, recognizing what feels good to you and what doesn't feel good to you. so yeah, that's, that's red raspberry leaf tea. Mind blown. Number one. All right. What's mind blown. Number two. I feel like all of these things you're just going to poo poo on. I just feel like it. Well, good news. We're going to talk about dates next. So this one, so dates are, you know, those little like fruit things that, to me, they look like cockroaches. I think they're the grossest looking thing in the entire world, and I just cannot wrap my mind around it. Good job just giving that visual to everyone. Now no one's going to like them. You're so welcome, you guys. But there's some really great ways you can eat them, and maybe we'll link some recipes in the show notes. Because studies have shown dates to be beneficial during pregnancy. So dates are really nutritious.

And they are theorized to help labor by helping the uterine oxytocin receptors. So we all have oxytocin receptors in our uterus, those of us that have uteruses. We all have your oxytocin receptors in the uterus and oxytocin is what causes contractions. So the dates are going to, are theorized to help build those uterine oxytocin receptors to respond better to your own oxytocin, which would help you to have more effective contractions. Studies have repeatedly shown that it reduces the length of pregnancy and the length of the first stage of labor. And people who consume dates are shown to have more cervical dilation when they are admitted at the hospital than those who didn't. So it also helps with dilation.

It's typically advised to start eating three to four large dates, so kind of like the bigger ones, or six to 10 of the small ones by at least 36 weeks of pregnancy. So after 36 or 37 weeks of pregnancy, there has not been shown to be as much benefit if you hadn't been eating them previously. But if you start eating dates before that 36 week mark, it has been shown to you know, help with all of these things, reduce the amount of time you're going to spend pregnant, reduce the amount of time you're going to spend in labor and help with that cervical dilation as well. When we have people, you know, doing an appointment with us or one of our prenatal meetings, we usually say, six dates a day for the last six weeks of the pregnancy, which would be like 34 weeks and on. And I have had people go, I'm not going to start until later because I don't want to risk that I'm like getting my body ready too early. However, this is not going to set you over into labor if your body's not already ready. What this is helping do is to soften your cervix so that when your body is ready to thin and open, it's able to do that more easily than it would be if your body wasn't already softened. So it's kind of mimicking prostaglandins in the body. And that's one of the hormones that your body makes and helps soften your cervix.

And prostaglandins are also present in semen. So that's another reason that semen applied to the cervix can be helpful, but our bodies also make prostaglandins on their own. So if you're someone that has, let's say gestational diabetes, and you're not able to eat all of the sugar that's associated with all of these dates, don't worry about it. It's okay. It's not going to be the be all end all, but if you can have them, great. If not, your body's still creating prostaglandins. And if you want, if you have a partner that creates semen and you want to ask them for a little help applying that to your cervix system that you can have a more prepared cervix, go for it. But don't worry about this putting you over into labor if you're not ready. Yeah, this is just, it's going to help prepare your body. And it adds, like I said, it's been shown to be most beneficial if you are starting early. So start early with this one. We'll link some of our favorite recipes for dates in the show notes page. But I can say my absolute favorite way to eat dates slash really one of the only ways that I will eat dates is if you can stuff them with goat cheese and wrap them in bacon and cook them. They are wonderful. Just one of the very best things in the world. So that's how I like them. This is one of those but you're not supposed to have goat cheese when you're pregnant.

A lot of people do that anyway. I know. I mean, if you're worried about it, you can find pasteurized cheese, but this is not medical advice. Talk to your provider about what they're okay with, but go, you know, that's kind of here or there. You can make your own Lara bars too. I don't know if you guys have ever had Lara bars. Those have dates in them. You can get on Pinterest and look for their little recipe. It's well, I'm sure there's a lot of them, but I've made those before and they're really good. I've seen people make like date balls with coconut and cocoa powder and all sorts of things. So you can use them as sweeteners and smoothies. You can also go buy the Lara bars or RX bars. Most of the RX bars have two dates in them each. So if you're like, I don't have the time or the desire for this, go pick it up yourself. That's fine. I'm so weird. I just can eat them plain. I like them. You are weird. You are weird.

Anyways. All right. So next we have Perineal massage, which I almost always say wrong. So bear with me here See if you recognize me saying it wrong and then you can call me out in the in the comments later so perineal massage is Where so basically what you do with perineal massage is you insert two fingers into your vagina and you apply? Firm downwards pressure and you would also do some kind of stretching back and forth. You can't see what I'm doing, but I'm doing the movements here with my hands. So it's theorized. The reason that so many people recommend this is because the idea behind it is that it's going to increase elasticity and blood flow to those areas and it would reduce tearing in childbirth. So again, I really like to know the what, why, and how behind things. So I was curious to read more about the research on this. So according to evidence -based birth, perineal massage has not been shown by multiple studies and reviews to be the most beneficial way to protect from severe vaginal tears. Evidence shows that it's not going to do anything for first or second degree tears, which is the most common type of tear.

It's not going to reduce your risk of either of those things happening. And there has been some limited benefits to protecting from the most severe tears, meaning third or fourth degree tears, and from episiotomies. First time birthing people have the most significant benefit here. Really, there's not been shown to be any benefit for second or third time birthing people. And the reason why is because it's mostly working by helping you pay more attention to your perineum and be more likely to try to protect it during delivery, if that makes sense. So I thought this was really interesting. Basically it's saying that it's not really doing anything to increase blood flow or increase the last elasticity in those areas. What it is doing is it's calling your attention to it and it's making you want to be more careful and protected, which if you've had a baby before, you are already trying to do that because you are more aware of that area anyways. So I thought that was, yeah, I thought that was really interesting. What do you think, Ciarra?

I definitely am still going to recommend it because I think that there is huge benefit to again, connecting with your body. Just like I said, with the red raspberry leaf tea, still taking it so that you could potentially have some practice waves and get to breathe through them and relax through them. If someone is doing perineal massage to you and in hip number thing, we teach something called progressive relaxation, where like you try to literally let your body go completely limp and loose. If you go completely limp and loose while someone is doing perineal massage and it should be pressure, but not pain. And you're able to relax through that pressure. Then that's a sensation that doesn't have to be brand new when you're in labor. No, it's not going to cause the exact same pressure babies heads going to cause. However, it's similar enough that it's, you know, there's so much newness in labor. So, even if this isn't going to create elasticity and all of those things, which again, mind blown, I told you, you were going to bum me out about all of these things. I'm just kidding. I have a new class series starting in two days with another hypnobirthing round. And I'm like, I've got to go through my slides and change some things after all this research. But I do think that just the connection with the body and if you do it yourself, you know, that's fine. Or have a partner do it. That's also fine.

So yeah, I'm a little bummed that it doesn't super duper help, but I do think that the mental physical connection that you can still get through the practice is good. I agree. Yeah, I 100 % agree there. We're transparent about that when recommending it. And some people are not gonna wanna do this. Some people have trauma that makes it so this is really no bueno. And we've had people that that has happened before and we're like, don't even worry about it.

Just straight don't do it then. If any of the things we recommend don't sound good to you, don't do it. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. And I think that's a huge part of it is, is it going to be the thing that separates you from a positive birth experience? Probably not. But can it help you have a more positive birth experience? Probably. Especially when you're delivering in a hospital and you are just a little bit more disconnected from your body, doing something like perennial massage to help you connect more with your body, that might be the thing that really sets you apart. So I think that, especially for first time breathing people, this is not something to check off your list, but with this research, I also think it's fair to say that if it's something that you're just not feeling like is right for you, then I think it's completely appropriate to, to, you know, leave this one off. So, I will say there's one other thing that I wanted to touch on here. for people who have had, a previous pregnancy and it had any sort of tearing with that pregnancy massage for scar tissue in that area is beneficial, has been shown to be beneficial, but it is kind of a little bit of a separate thing. It's not quite the same as doing it, you know, like to prepare your body for delivery. Basically what it's doing is it's helping to break down the scar tissue and make it so that you're less likely to have those same tears happen again in your next pregnancy.

This is something that pelvic floor therapists can work with you on. And most pelvic floor therapists, if you've had a previous delivery, this is something that they're already going to be working with you on. But if you have financial restrictions or you're just not able to find or see a pelvic floor therapist for some reason, and you know you have had previous tearing, then doing some massage on that scar tissue wouldn't hurt.

So that brings us into the next thing. That's exactly right. So the next and the last thing that we're going to talk about today is practitioners disease. So again, we had another episode that talked all about all the practitioners to see during pregnancy. So we'll just kind of touch on these for a minute here. Chiropractic care. So chiropractic care is, we call it professional balancing, right? So it's going to help your body to be more balanced, help everything to be in alignment, help your ligaments to be loose, and kind of everything to be all ready to go for delivery so that when you do go into labor, we're not going to be held up by tightness over here or a pelvis that's misaligned over there or a baby that's in some sort of funky position. Because if your body is well balanced, then things are more likely to progress at a, I guess, just a more natural pace. So chiropractic care, super beneficial. Pelvic floor therapy, always helpful. So there's a few things that I think pelvic floor therapy is really beneficial for, especially when we're talking about delivery. One is, like I said, if you have a previous delivery and you had any sort of things that went on with that scar tissue, different things, that can be really helpful.

But then also pelvic floor therapists can help you start learning what muscles to activate to effectively push. My clients that I've had that have seen a pelvic floor therapist during their pregnancy are typically a lot more efficient at pushing than those who are just first time, never done it before. So I see it to be really beneficial.

You have any feelings on that? No, I've just been really surprised at, I will say I was a little bit, a long time ago, I was a little bit of a skeptic of this whole pelvic floor therapy during pregnancy. And the more I've learned, just the more I've been so impressed by it. And we've had a couple of families who have done kind of push prep classes and I've seen the fruits of their labor. That's kind of a funny word, labor.

I've just seen it be so helpful and they really have been very effective pushers and really in tune with what's going on down there. It's been pretty impressive. we do have a pelvic floor therapist coming on in a few episodes, but, I guess that's probably all we can say without having her on here, but yeah, I really think that it's a great, a great thing. Absolutely. So stay tuned for that.

The last one on there is acupuncture. So acupuncture can work in a few ways at the end of pregnancy. One, it can help to activate different hormones that might help labor to be triggered. So it can raise your oxytocin levels, it can raise your serotonin and endorphin levels and all these different things. There's also acupressure points that acupuncturists are able to hit that can sometimes be a trigger for labor.

And then the other thing that I think acupuncture is really good at for some people is relaxation. And relaxation is a huge trigger for labor. I was just talking to a mom yesterday who is trying to convince her body to go into labor and she's been doing a million different things to try to get things going. And she said, what else can I do? What can I do? And I was like, you need to stop doing everything. You need to take a nap.

You need to get your partner to give you a massage. You need to go get your nails done. You need to just chill because nine times out of 10, that is what's going to send you into labor, not curb walking and the mile circuit and all the thousands of other things that you can do to get labor going. It's going to be relaxation. And so acupuncture, I think, is really helpful for that.

And massage therapy as well. That's another really great relaxation tool and can also hit some of those acupressure points that can also trigger for labor. It's really funny because I, you know, people that use, Acupuncture for IVF and things like that. They really find it very helpful. I have friends that get acupuncture, not pregnant. I personally used acupuncture to try to go into labor and I had never had acupuncture before. I was so uncomfortable with it. It was, it grossed me out. Like I felt those zingers when they would put the needles in. I was super uncomfortable the whole time. I think I did it twice and it didn't work for me because I was so tense about getting it. So this is another one of those, if you don't like it, don't do it. However, I think that my view is just a fear and silly. I don't think that many people probably feel that way, but I have seen acupuncture be really great for some people. So. Yeah. Another example of just listening to your body. What's right for somebody may not be right for you. And that's okay. I personally loved acupuncture and I swear, I think it's the thing that sent me into labor with Briley, but I don't know if I would have felt the same with Micah. So I don't, you know, it's good to know yourself and listen to what makes sense for you. And also I think it is good to try new things.

If you are having a hard time, I don't think it hurts to go give it a try. If it doesn't work, cool, you don't need to go back and do it again. But if you really enjoy it, then maybe that's a new tool that you can have kind of in your toolkit. I also think it's really important when we're talking about all of these things to acknowledge that not everyone has the means for all of this. I fully recognize how expensive, this whole package of all the different things that we've talked about today, the classes, the nutritionist and a personal trainer and pelvic floor and chiropractor and acupuncture, all those things add up and it can be a lot. And it definitely there's some financial restrictions and different, you know, cost prohibitive things when you're also looking at, you know, getting ready to have a new human in your household and paying all of your medical bills. So I don't think that if you are not doing these things that you are going to have this awful pregnancy experience, awful labor experience. I think that there are things that you can do on your own to imitate these things. So for example, just a couple of things that I was thinking about was spinning babies is another balancing activity that you can do for your body. So when we're talking about chiropractic being professional balancing, spinning babies are exercises, stretches, tools that you can use at home to help with balancing. And we personally recommend that everybody do spinning babies from the very beginning of your pregnancy. There's different things that you can be doing throughout your pregnancy to help with keeping your body balanced and moving well. So spinning babies is, I think, really beneficial. And that's something that you can do for free.

we talked about the perineal massage for previous scar tissue. That's something that you can also do on your own. If you know that that's an issue for you and a pelvic floor therapist is not an option. So, you know, being a little bit creative, doing some outside research and, you know, figuring out how can I make these things work and not go broke while doing it? That's, you know, we gotta do what we gotta do.

I struggle with even doing episodes like this because I'm a big believer that the body knows what to do and that we don't need to put so much pressure on ourselves. And I talk about it in hypnobirthing too, like it's about connecting with your body and internal work. And I also hear so often that people want to hear these things. So even if I don't think we necessarily need them, people want, and some of this is free, you know, calling around to the providers and finding out what, you know, what does the birth center do and what do home birth midwives do? Like you can do all of that on your own. But, I struggle with talking about all of these things because of that. But if you look back and we could have a whole episode on the history of childbirth, but if you look back, you know, women who were pregnant back in the day, weren't just sitting at computer desks. A lot of us sit at a computer desk. You guys, we were crawling around on the floor with hands and knees cleaning the floors. We were getting water from the river and putting baskets on our head with things in them and rubbing our own laundry outside and squatting and squatting all the time. And so we're not doing any of those things anymore. Sometimes I think that second births are so much easier because you've been running around after the first birth, first baby. Your body has had to get into way strange positions to fix the paw patroller on the floor. You know, to get with the baby on the ground to pick up their blocks and things like that. So I find that if we were to live how we used to live and eat how we used to eat, we would probably have need almost none of this because we would naturally have these things. But so that's just me saying, yes, I agree. Like take it for what it is, take what you want from it. But we do get these questions often. So we wanted to put it all here for you guys.

Yeah, absolutely. That's really what this is all about. Take what you want, leave the rest. You're not going to bother us at all by doing that. Everybody's different. You know yourself best. So yeah, that's everything that I have. Yeah, that's all for this week. And a tiny teaser, we do have a local to Austin midwife joining us for our conversation next week. I'm really excited about it and it's gonna be all about out of hospital birth. And so even though it is going to be someone local that's talking to us, a lot of these things will completely translate to anywhere. And we're really excited to share that with you guys next week. So we'll talk to you. Yeah, see you all soon.

Thank you for joining us on Birth, Baby! Be sure to tune in next week as we chat with Leonora from Home Birth Honey about out of hospital birth. Thanks again to Longing for Orpheus for our music. You can check him out on Spotify. Remember to leave a review, share, and follow wherever you get your podcasts. See you next week.