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.

Today, we are going to be talking about some of the first steps to take once you find out you're expecting, and some tips and tricks for making the rest of your pregnancy smoother.

Awesome, I'm excited to start talking about this today.

So, we get this question a lot when we, you know, when we have clients who are brand new pregnant, or people who are trying to get pregnant, and they're like, okay, well, what am I supposed to do now?

Like, what, is there like a list somewhere of things I can do?

And really, there's lists all over the internet of like, when you should do different things and what that should look like.

But I found that a lot of them have just some interesting timelines that I wouldn't necessarily agree with.

And so, we're gonna talk a little bit today about what we think is the best kind of order to do things, and when to do things and what those things are.

I think it's such a bummer when people come to us and they're maybe 25 weeks pregnant or something.

And first of all, we're pretty much booked probably for their due date.

And even if not, sometimes you have people come to us and they're 35 weeks pregnant and they want a childbirth education class.

Well, one, there only go so every so often, or we don't have time to do a full series before they are gonna be due.

So I think it's gonna be so important for people to get an idea of when to do things, to make things go a little bit more seamlessly.

Yeah, exactly.

Like, I think a lot of those, that's one of the biggest things on there.

A lot of those lists tell people to go look for their doulas at 25 to 30 weeks pregnant.

And at least in the Austin area, most of us are already booked by then.

I mean, at this point, we're recording this episode at the end of April.

We're booking, we have clients already booked for December.

We're booking well into the fall at this point.

So, we book up fast and that's just the unfortunate part of it.

You gotta kind of plan ahead, but that's also so that we can serve you throughout your whole pregnancy too.

So-

Yeah, I had somebody the other day go, what do you mean you're booked?

Did they just pee on a stick and email you?

And I'm like, actually, I do get pictures of pregnancy tests texted to me saying, hey, we're pregnant, we need to set up an interview.

So kinda, and I know that that's a little intimidating for people to go, well, I just found out I'm pregnant.

How can I even, you know, some people are worried about loss and things like that too.

So they're a little nervous to do that work ahead of time.

And not all doulas book up forever in advance, you know, we still do have some spots for the months before that, but we do have a December due date already.

So at least starting that process, right?

Yeah, absolutely.

Especially if you, you know, know who you wanna work with, you know, kind of what the options already are.

There's really no reason to wait.

So that's really the first thing on my list is research the options for your area.

Figure out what options are available to you during your pregnancy for providers, for doulas, for childbirth classes, for all of these different things so that you know what's available in your area.

Really, no matter what you're planning, you should know all of the options.

You can do that by, you know, talking to other parents.

That's a huge part of it.

Talk to your friends, talk to your family.

You know, look on mom groups, all those different things.

Get an idea of who's done what where.

Might, you know, help give you some ideas that you didn't necessarily know were out there.

Yeah, and asking them what kind of birth they had too.

Because what is the question we see so often is, you know, for provider or doula, especially for provider is, oh, who's your favorite provider?

And then, you know, Samantha and I are reading through the comments and our eyes are rolling in the back of our heads because there are certain providers that are very popular, but do not really have evidence-based care.

And then we interview with them and they're looking for an evidence-based provider and we're like, that's not them.

And we have to do a lot of undoing.

So what kind of birth did that person have that is suggesting that provider?

Yes, exactly, exactly.

And, you know, that's part of it too.

Don't just talk to other parents because they've had a very specific birth experience.

Also talk to local birth workers in your area.

Talk to the doulas, talk to the childbirth educators, the midwives, you know, even chiropractors and different professionals in your area.

Almost everybody is going to be willing to have a conversation with you about, you know, what you're looking for and what the options are.

We're always happy to share our knowledge in some capacity or another.

So have those conversations, take advantage of those resources that are available to you.

And then additionally, look at the Google reviews, y'all.

Look at the Google reviews.

If you are looking at, you know, at midwives, at OBs, at, you know, even doulas to some extent, check and see what their reviews are on Google, on Yelp, on their Facebook pages.

You know, do kind of a deep dive, obviously with a grain of salt, right?

Because the only people posting those reviews, they've either had the best of the best experience or the worst of the worst experience, but it'll at least give you an idea of what's out there, what those options look like, and kind of help you get just a little bit more of a well-rounded perspective on that specific provider.

And then, you know, start looking at kind of your, forming your top goals for yourself.

You may not know what kind of Birth you're wanting yet, and that's okay, but checking out the options, having an idea of kind of what are my top three goals for my Birth, and then knowing, you know, when you start talking to doulas, when you start talking to providers, when you're doing all these different things, are they going to be able to support those top three goals for you in your Birth?

So that's number one on my list.

Number two is choose doula.

Do this early in your pregnancy so that you can take advantage of having that doula with you.

We can help you pick a provider that's the best option for you.

We can help you know all of the options and maybe find options that you didn't know were out there.

Ideally for doulas, we really like to be hired before the 20 week mark, but really it's kind of better if you're looking closer to like the 12 to 14 week mark, I think would be about the sweet spot.

You're even earlier than that's fine, but we're at 12 to 14 weeks, you're feeling pretty good.

You have an idea of what's going on and then we're able to really help support you through the vast majority of your pregnancy.

Yeah, anything to add to that?

Well, it's funny because I know some people are gonna listen to this, especially if their birth workers are gonna say, choose a doula first before you choose a provider.

And while that would be great if you could do that, the thing is, you're going to wanna get that first scan, right?

You're gonna wanna get that little confirmation of heartbeat.

So there's going to be a provider that you're going to choose probably before you're going to choose a doula, unless you've been following us on social media and are just like, I already knew I wanted to hire you, or your best friend used that doula and you already know that you probably wanna use them.

But once you find a doula, it's okay to change providers too, once you learn a little bit more.

So in the beginning, those first things that you don't have to be completely in alignment with whatever provider you're going to, they might not be who you end up wanting to have your baby with at the very end, but not a whole lot of change in how the beginning of the pregnancy is going to be handled.

We just had somebody hire us with an October due date, and she's with a very intervention-heavy provider, but really likes him and has decided she's actually, she hired us, she's gonna take hip and over thing classes with me, and they're gonna decide after classes, their class series, so they're gonna do an early series, and at the end of May, they'll be finished with hip and over thing classes, and they'll decide then what they want to do about a provider.

And I think that's fine.

As long as you're doing these things early enough, you're able to have that space to make a decision and change your mind.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And I think too, it can be a little bit of a sticky subject, but I'll say, at least for Ciarra and I, people who are hiring us before that first scan that don't get the news that they want, we're not keeping your money.

You're not gonna be out, at least with us.

And I would say that's probably true for the majority of birth workers.

And that's something you can always ask about in interview processes with doulas as well.

Yeah, I've had people email us after receiving our contract and go, wait, before we sign, it doesn't say anything about here, if we have a loss.

Like, yeah, well, I don't like to put that in there because you don't want people to, everyone's gonna read the contract.

Well, I hope you guys are reading your contracts, but everyone's gonna read a contract and go, oh, I hadn't even, you know, if you hadn't thought about that, that's a crappy thing to read.

So I don't put that in there.

But, you know, if a lot of doulas, if you have a loss, if it is something you don't need assistance with, like, you know, God forbid you're 38 weeks or something, you still may need a heck of a lot of doula care at that point.

You have to go through a birth and all of that.

But if you're like, you know, under 20 weeks or something, and even after that, it may just be a pro rated amount for the services already rendered, but they're not just gonna hopefully keep the full amount of your money.

So yeah, that's not a problem.

Yeah.

And that's something that you, you know, can be asking questions about.

I think when hiring doulas, there's a few things to think about when you are starting that process.

One, it is pretty important to interview more than one doula so that you can have an idea of the different perspectives, different, just different kind of roles.

Cause we all do this a little bit differently.

Like there's no one way to doula.

And so every doula is gonna have their own unique perspective on Birth and on doula care.

They're gonna have different options for prenatal and postpartum support and different things like that.

So talking to different doulas, asking the practical questions, do you have availability?

What does your support look like?

What does the prenatal and postpartum look like?

All those questions.

But then also really getting that vibe check, that gut feeling.

Do I think that I am going to enjoy having this person in my space for an extended period of time while I'm in a very vulnerable state?

Or is there something in me that's saying that this isn't the right fit?

That's okay.

You know, we want, all of us want you to have the best support possible during your birth.

And if you are not 100% comfortable with the doulas that you are interviewing, then we're not the right doula for you, and that's okay.

There are other options out there, and we are happy to point you in that direction.

So I think it's really important to interview more than one doula and then listen to your gut.

I think that's, if you do nothing else in your pregnancy, listen to your gut, yeah.

Yeah, sometimes even as doulas, we have people interview with us and we're like, oh, this isn't a great fit, you know?

And that's kind of a uncomfortable situation, but we can tell if the, you know, and it has to be for everyone.

So if you have a partner, put them in on those, make sure they're on those interviews, whether it's a midwife or a doula or doctor, whatever, make sure they're there because y'all are all gonna be in such an intimate space together.

And, you know, there have been times where we've met with the mom and everything seems great.

And then we meet with the partner and we're like, oh, this is a little odd.

Like this just doesn't feel right.

And he is kind of intimidated by us and what position we're going to have.

And he's not necessarily super supportive of a doula.

And then we're kind of navigating all of that.

So really, if you can just get your partner in on the first meeting, I think that would be really helpful for everyone.

Yeah, absolutely.

That's a huge part of it.

Yeah, so number three that I have on the list is choosing your provider.

So choosing a provider, I mean, we could do a whole podcast episode on this and someday we probably will, but kind of cliff notes version of it, I guess.

So choosing a provider is a really personal thing.

Just because your best friend chose this provider and absolutely loved them doesn't mean that that provider is going to be the best for you.

Just because you have been with the same gynecologist since you were 14 years old, it does not mean that they are the right person to deliver your baby.

So it's really important to be open during the process and to look at all of the options.

I told this story on our second episode with my birth story, but when I chose my OB for my first pregnancy, I literally went on Google and I picked the first doctor there and I picked the doctor in that office that they assigned me.

I didn't do any research.

I knew absolutely nothing and it was not the right fit for me.

And I wish that I had done a little bit more research on that because it really did affect the way that my pregnancy went and my birth as well.

So when you're choosing a provider, look at all of the options, do the research, like we said, talk to people, talk to birth workers, check Google reviews, and then ask some questions when you're starting to talk with them.

Know where do they deliver?

If it's an OB, what hospital system are they in?

Does that place have the things that you want?

If you are really wanting a water birth, is that an option at that hospital?

If you are looking at a birth center and you want nitrous, does that birth center have nitrous?

So checking those different options and kind of looking at the specific places.

And then again, knowing what things are important to you in your birth and will your provider support that?

If an unmedicated birth is your goal, is your provider going to be supportive of that and all of the things that might come with that?

Meaning, are they gonna be happy to let you push in the positions that you wanna push in?

Are they gonna be happy to do different things with the monitoring instead of having you strapped on the monitors all the time so you can move a little bit more freely?

Are they going to, I don't know.

I mean, are they gonna let you-

Induce you at 39 weeks.

Yeah, they're gonna induce you at 39 weeks.

Yeah, absolutely.

All of those things.

So talking to your provider about stuff like that, ask their induction rates, ask their C-section rates, y'all.

There are some providers in the Austin area that have astronomically high C-section rates.

Talk to your providers about what their rates are, what the rates of their office are, so that you can know, oh, well, my provider has a 13% C-section rate, which is pretty dang good for the United States.

But their office overall has a 22%, which means that somebody else has a much higher percentage that's dragging that rate up.

So you need to know that information because who knows what provider you're going to get on the day.

I think that's something people don't realize.

People who are first time pregnant, a lot of times don't realize that even though, let's say you've been with your doctor since you were 14, like Samantha said, and you love them, and maybe they are totally in alignment with everything you're wanting in Birth.

You have these conversations with them and they are like all in.

If they have anybody besides themselves in a practice, which all of them do, any of the people in that practice could be the ones that are on call when you're in labor.

And so unless you get induced, you're not going to have your doctor or well, not for sure.

And even if you are induced on a day that your doctor's there, you may have a longer labor, and the one who's actually there when you're giving birth isn't your doctor.

So it's really important that all of the people in that practice, and there's only two practices in Austin that we know of where pretty much everyone in that practice has a similar evidence-based mindset and others where it's like, you love this one doctor, and then you're like, how are they in a practice with all these other providers?

Even midwives, there are some midwives we absolutely love, and then we find out that they use a backup midwife or an assistant midwife that is completely opposite where we joke medwife.

And that is, they're gonna listen to this and hate us.

But that's important to know, even if you're, it's not just obese, it's midwives too.

It's at a birth center.

People think it's just doctors and that doulas are against doctors for some reason, which we're totally not.

We're just against non-evidence based care where it's provider preference over medical necessity.

And there are midwives that go that way as well.

So no matter who you are hiring to help you through your journey, everyone needs to be somebody who's gonna be in your corner for sure.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And thinking through the conversations with your provider too, are you getting informed consent even from the beginning of your pregnancy?

You could have a provider who is giving all of the evidence-based care, but they are not giving you informed consent.

And that is still going to leave you in an uncomfortable place when you come to the end of the journey and you are looking back and wondering why certain things happen.

Maybe they were the things that needed to happen, but you didn't have those conversations along the way with your provider that made you feel comfortable in what was happening.

And it's so, it's so important to have those conversations throughout the whole time, even from the beginning.

You know, there are tests, procedures, different things that are being done at the beginning.

You should know why those are happening, what the options are, and, you know, like why your provider is suggesting that course of action.

That needs to be a conversation that you're having.

And really, I think it never hurts to look at the options that are outside of your initial comfort zone.

You know, a lot of people say, well, I only want to have a baby in the hospital, but also I really want an unmedicated birth, and I want to be able to do all these different things.

We're like, and you know, they're choosing to go the hospital route because of what they've heard, what they've experienced, whatever.

It does not hurt to go talk to a couple of midwives, go on a tour of a birth center, and just have an idea of what that would look like.

And maybe at the end of that, you'll still come to the same, you know, the same solution of you would like to have your baby in the hospital, but at least now you kind of know all of the options and why you're choosing that.

And vice versa, too.

You know, we had this situation happen recently.

We had someone who was really wanting an out-of-hospital birth and kind of looking at the options for them.

We just really wanted this person to look at the other options of a hospital delivery because of different things that were going on in their pregnancy.

So, and you know, we suggested that they do go ahead and talk to some different OBs and see if they felt comfortable in that situation.

So it goes both ways, really.

But really just look at all your options.

Y'all do the research, ask the questions, be open.

Yeah, and if you're okay with the things that happen in a hospital, go for it.

If you feel safer in a hospital, go for it.

You do have to remember that, you know, and I've heard very sweet and evidence-based nurses before say, I would love to give people a home birth experience here, but I have boxes.

I have to check, like they are in a hospital, even though they're wanting all of this, like very low-intervention stuff.

I can't legally do that.

And, you know, I risk my job if I'm not doing, you know, X, Y, Z and monitoring at this interval and making sure that I take blood pressures every so often and whatever.

And they feel very torn sometimes because they want to leave you alone and they want to be able to let you have, you know, your autonomy and quiet and all the things you want, but at the end of the day, you are in a hospital.

And so you can't really go in there expecting that they're just gonna throw all of their rules out the window because of what we want, because they do have rules.

They have insurance that they have to abide by, you know?

They have policies and all of that.

Exactly.

And you cannot expect to go into a home birth and not experience any discomfort, not have to kind of do the work if that's what you're, you know, hoping for, if you're wanting that pain-free birth, which some people, that's what they want.

And that's fine.

That is 1000% fine.

You're not gonna get that at home or in a birth center.

So making sure you know the options and what those look like.

Yeah, that's true.

Because real quick, sorry.

I did, I remember that we did have a client who was planning a birth center birth because she wanted a birth center birth.

She saw her friend had a birth, she saw the pictures.

Everything was beautiful.

But then realized you couldn't get an epidural in a birth center.

Yep.

And I was like, I didn't know she didn't know.

And then when she found that out, she goes, well, I'm just going to go to the birth center and I'll just transfer when I want an epidural because I want to like labor at the beginning in the birth center.

And I was like, hold on a second.

You're going to be paying for a full birth center birth and a full hospital birth.

She's like, I don't care.

That's what I want to do.

I was like, all right.

I mean, you should probably communicate this with all providers because that wouldn't really be fair to go into it, not communicating that.

But yes, know what the options are available to you at those places for sure.

Yeah, 100%, 100%.

So we've done these things.

You've researched the option.

You've chosen a doula.

You've chosen a provider.

What's next?

The next thing would be to start establishing care with the complimentary care professionals, people like chiropractors, acupuncturists, pelvic floor therapy, any of those things that you're knowing that you want or that we know would be beneficial for you.

So specifically, I would say with both of those things, chiropractic, acupuncture and pelvic floor therapy, it's not a bad idea to start establishing care with those providers at the kind of end of your first trimester, beginning of your second, somewhere in that range.

Before you were really starting to experience a lot of pregnancy discomfort, but maybe doing some of the things with those providers that are helping to prepare your body for the rest of your pregnancy with your growing belly and then for labor as well.

They can give you a lot of tips and tricks and different things to do to make things more comfortable so that maybe you don't need them quite as much later on as well.

So establishing that care is really important as well.

And lucky for y'all, we're going to have guests on future episodes that will explain all the services at those places so you can know when to do that and why to do that and how to know if you even need it.

So hopefully you'll find those helpful too.

That's right.

Stay tuned for future episodes.

Spoiler alert.

So then we can start talking a little bit about those first trimester symptoms and what that can look like.

It can be so varied for everybody and so varied from pregnancy to pregnancy too.

So some of the really common things that we hear about in the first trimester is obviously nausea, morning sickness, or I cannot for the life of me figure out why they ever decided to call it morning sickness.

That's just rude.

It's not morning.

It's all day sickness.

Or whenever you smell something sickness.

It's sickness, yeah.

It's just sickness.

It's pregnancy sickness.

That is, I mean, probably the number one complaint that people have at the beginning of pregnancy for good reason, because it's not a good time.

It can be very varied from person to person.

It could be, you know, nausea, like you're just, you throw up every day, once a day.

There's your morning sickness, or maybe it's just you're nauseous all the time.

Or maybe if it's more of like a food aversion type thing where you smell certain foods and that just kind of sends you down that hill.

Or you're not able to eat certain foods, whatever it is.

There's lots of different variations of it.

It's very common in most cases around 12 to 14 weeks.

It starts kind of tapering off, but there are some people, some lucky people like me, who get to have that stick around for longer, sometimes 20, 30 weeks.

I think we've had people that have had it all the way up to, you know, 35 or 40 weeks.

Yeah, we have families that have hyperemesis, where literally until that baby comes out, they're sick.

I had one mom who actually induced on her due date, cause she was like, I cannot take one more hour of one more day sick.

And she induced, and literally the moment, and she knew this because she had already done this once before and had hyperemesis.

The moment her baby came out, she looked at me and she was, I want pizza.

Yeah, she's like, I can eat now.

And she said, it's here, it's instant, which is so incredible.

Our bodies are just unbelievable.

It's wild.

It's so wild.

Some of the tips and tricks that we've seen that can be helpful with that nausea, morning sickness, all day sickness, whatever it is.

So acupuncture is actually one of my favorite tricks for nausea.

It tends to work pretty well.

So you can go see a licensed acupuncturist and they can do some sessions with you that can help with that nausea that's super beneficial.

There's also like acupressure points that you can hit.

They sell like the C-bands.

Those can be, I would say, relatively helpful, kind of varies from person to person, of course.

But that can be a really helpful trick.

Essential oils, there's certain essential oils that are really helpful for nausea.

Some of those we use during labor when we start experiencing some nausea symptoms during labor, things like lemon oil is really helpful for keeping yourself from throwing up.

Things like peppermint oil, ginger for some people, for other people, ginger seems to be a trigger.

It's definitely a trigger for me.

Those can be good things to kind of have on hand to help in those moments.

And then snacking throughout the day, keeping a little bit of something on your stomach is super important.

I always tell my clients who are having a lot of nausea, keep some snacks in your bedside table so that before you ever get out of bed in the morning, you have a couple of crackers or handful of almonds or something, just something to put on your stomach.

And a lot of times that in itself can be enough to ward off that beginning of the day sickness.

Just first thing, you wake up, you play on your phone and you eat a couple of crackers.

And that's how you start your day when you're pregnant.

And then the last one, if you are experiencing nausea that is just messing with you, it's messing with your life and nothing seems to be helping, don't be afraid to look at medication.

Your doctor can help you with medication.

There are some over the counter medications that can be really helpful.

Talk to your midwife, your doctor, whoever, and they can give you some medications that can be really beneficial.

And if that's what's going to help you have a positive pregnancy, then don't be afraid of that.

It's okay to have medication during pregnancy.

I think a lot of people avoid it because they're wanting this unmedicated, natural, and all of its glory pregnancy experience.

But pregnancy and all of its glory sometimes sucks and that's okay.

And I'll add in there, hypnosis is an option.

So, I am a hypnobirthing educator and I've actually done morning sickness hypnosis or all-day sickness hypnosis before for people.

I had one girl, she was actually a postpartum doula on my team and she had severe hyperemesis with her fourth.

She had it with all of them, but it got worse with every child.

And she and I did a hypnosis together, actually on Zoom.

We weren't even together, it was great.

It was about 30 minutes, and in it, I have people think of a certain food at a certain point.

I asked them to think of a certain food that they would like to eat.

And she thought of sushi and she sneezed.

And I thought she was starting to throw up and I was like, Oh gosh, because she was lying down.

I couldn't see her on the zoom.

And at the very end of the hypnosis, I said, How are you?

I'm so sorry, because I thought she had thrown up during it and she goes, Oh no, I sneezed because I smelled the wasabi on the sushi and it made me sneeze because she pictured sushi.

And then she texts me two days later, she was like, Ciarra, my husband wants to kill you because the only thing I can eat now is sushi.

She goes, maybe we need to do the hypnosis again and add something else.

It really, really helped her.

I mean, it didn't, of course, sure her completely, but she was actually able to eat certain things.

So if that is something that you want to explore, reach out to your local hypnotherapist and they can maybe work on that with you as well.

Yeah, absolutely.

Do you think you can hypnotize me into liking salads more?

Because that would be beneficial for my life.

And sorry, I'm only authorized to do it for things around pregnancy and labor and birth.

You're out of luck.

Good golly gosh.

All right.

All right.

Well then, in the absence of hypnotherapy to help me eat healthier, let's talk about round ligament pain.

This is another one that we start hearing about.

And I typically hear about this a little bit later in the first trimester to second trimester.

And sometimes you hear about like lightning crotch as well.

Those are really, really common.

It's just your ligaments and your body is expanding and making room for your baby and the placenta and the uterus and all of these different things are happening.

And it can be kind of uncomfortable sometimes.

So different things that you can do to help with those is chiropractic care.

It's really, really helpful for that as well as pelvic floor therapy.

And then just also be mindful of the movements that you're making with your body.

Don't just like jolt out of bed in the morning.

Don't launch yourself out of the car.

Don't be sitting.

I mean, we all do it all the time, but don't be sitting like crisscross on your office chair while you're working.

Try to be mindful of your own posture during pregnancy as well.

And then think through what is your posture when you're sleeping as well.

A lot of times those things can be happening and be made worse by your sleeping posture.

So if you're sleeping and you don't have a pillow between your knees, it might be a good idea to go ahead and do that and make sure that the pillow is between your knees and your ankles so that you're not creating kind of that opening of your pelvis.

And yeah, start thinking through that earlier rather than later.

Pregnancy pillows are not just for supporting your belly bump, but they can just be for supporting your body and your lumens and all these different things that are going on during pregnancy.

And that can help a lot with the next thing on my list, which is exhaustion, super common in early pregnancy.

Your body is doing so much work.

You have this massive influx of hormones, of just so many things are going on in your body and you're tired.

Some of it is just going to be just going to have to, you're going to have to ride that wave out for a little bit.

But also making sure you're getting enough sleep at night.

Maybe, you know, in the beginning of pregnancy, instead of your usual 11 p.m.

bedtime, you're looking at a 9 p.m.

bedtime.

That's okay, friends.

It's really okay.

Maybe you'll be like me and you'll start going to bed at 9 p.m.

when you're pregnant.

And then it'll be five and a half years later and you're still going to bed at 9 p.m.

That's okay.

And take naps.

It's okay to take naps.

And partners, if you're listening to this, I hope you're listening to this, but if you're listening to this, please don't like make them feel bad for taking a nap.

They are growing another little human being in their body and it is exhausting.

I find that so many people put so much pressure on themselves to just keep going at their natural pace that they were supposed to pre-pregnancy, and that's just not reasonable.

It is really exhausting to grow a human life within your body.

And if you keep pushing yourself, you're going, it's just gonna be a spiral downfall of not feeling well.

So please take that time.

Sometimes its partners are encouraging them to lie down and they're like, no, I have so much to do.

But take that time because you're gonna, just remember once that baby is born, you're gonna wish you could take a nap.

So maybe just get lots of extra ones in during pregnancy.

Yeah, front load it.

It won't really work, but it'll help you feel better in that moment.

Wouldn't that be nice if you could bank sleep?

Oh my gosh.

I would do that before and after births for sure.

Oh, a thousand percent.

I wish that was a thing, but it will help you feel better.

And truly, you're not gonna be pregnant and your life is not gonna go along how it did before you were pregnant.

Your body's gonna change, your life is gonna change a little bit.

You need to give yourself grace.

You need to give yourself some forgiveness and extra rest.

And also prenatal vitamins.

If you are not taking prenatal vitamins and you're having exhaustion, you're having some of these other symptoms, make sure you're taking some good prenatal vitamins.

Look at the ingredients, talk to your provider.

About which ones you're taking.

A lot of people take whatever they can find at AGB, and they're not really looking at what's in there.

And maybe you're taking a vitamin, like a gummy vitamin that doesn't have any iron in it, and now your iron is really low.

Or maybe it's the opposite.

You're taking something that has a lot of iron in it, and you have too much iron in your system.

All of those things happen.

So just looking at what you're taking.

Is it folic acid?

Is it folate acid?

Whatever, there's so many variations, and you cannot be expected to know all of it.

So talk to your providers about it.

Yeah, and make sure you're eating enough protein and drinking enough water.

Those are two things that most people are not doing, is eating enough protein and drinking enough water.

So look at those numbers that you're supposed to be taking and follow those guides for sure.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely.

And then the last thing we have on our little list for beginning of pregnancy is scheduling your birth classes.

And we're gonna get more into this in our next episode.

So a little bit of a sneak peek here.

But at the beginning of your pregnancy, you should already start researching classes, know what options are available to you and have an idea of what you're wanting.

Some classes encourage early attendance, like attendance at the beginning of your second trimester or even in your first trimester, like hypnobirthing is going to be one of those classes that really recommends that you do it earlier on rather than later.

And then other classes want you to attend it closer to your third trimester or in your third trimester.

So know the options that are available to you.

Know what you're looking for.

If you're looking for an unmedicated birth, you really should be taking a class that is very, has a lot of information on that and is going to give you the tools for that.

And we will get more into this later, but some classes are not going to give you that information.

They're going to teach you how to be a good patient rather than how to manage an unmedicated labor.

And then some classes, again, are going to be teaching you all of these things about an unmedicated home birth.

And that's not what you're planning.

You're planning in a hospital birth.

So maybe you need to be looking at a different kind of class, but knowing the options and again, talking to your doula, talking to other people who took classes and finding out what worked for them.

And then starting to look at booking those classes when they become available.

You know, classes can book up pretty early, especially in Austin, where we're having the biggest baby boom ever.

So go ahead and start looking at those classes early.

So at least you know what you're wanting to do before the time comes and then you're rushing around trying to get a class at 35 weeks pregnant.

Yeah, I think you said that perfectly, and I can't wait to give more information about that in our next episode.

That's right.

So we're going to leave you with that today, friends.

So tune in next week to hear us talk about birth classes and what that can look like.

Bye, y'all.

Thank you for joining us on Birth, Baby.

Be sure to tune in next week as we explore childbirth education.

Thanks again to Longing for Orpheus for our music.

You can look him up on Spotify.

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See you next week.