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138: Talking All Things OB/GYN With Dr. Allison Walsh
198 Plays1 year ago
In Episode 105: Ways To Be At Your Best Physically, Mentally, And Emotionally, Dr. Allison Walsh and Jill Devine spent most of the time discussing Women's Lifestyle Solutions. Listening to women's struggles with untreated or under treated chronic pain, anxiety/depression, hormonal imbalance, and weight gain inspired Dr. Walsh to seek more comprehensive solutions for her patients' problems, which is how Women’s Lifestyle Solutions came about.
Before Women’s Lifestyle Solutions, Dr. Walsh’s main focus was her work as an OB/GYN. Jill invited Dr. Walsh to come back on Two Kids and A Career to talk all things OB/GYN. Some of the topics the ladies discussed:
*Honoring all women’s delivery requests (mid-wives, doulas, natural births, etc.)
*How to take care of the body before, during, and after pregnancy
*Infertility
*FAQ of an OB/GYN
*Advanced maternal age recognition
To make an appointment with Dr. Walsh, call 314.567.5017 (for OB/GYN) or 314.279.6069 (for Women’s Lifestyle Solutions).
FB: @ObstetricsandGynecologyCareLLC
IG: @Obstetricsgynecologycare
FB: @womenslifestylesolutions
IG: @stlwomenslifestylesolutions
Website: https://www.obstetricsgynecologycare.com/
Ancillary Pregnancy Services/Pregnancy Packages: https://www.obstetricsgynecologycare.com/pregnancy-packages
Two Kids and A Career Website: https://www.jilldevine.com/
Two Kids and A Career Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jilldevine/?hl=en
Two Kids and A Career Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JillDevineMedia/
Thank you to our sponsor: Elemental Esthetics
This episode is brought to you by Elemental Esthetics. When you call or text the following number (314-279-6069) to schedule your appointment, mention my name and you’ll get a special gift with your purchase.
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Transcript
Emotional Complexity in Motherhood
00:00:00
Speaker
following podcast is a Jill Devine Media production. For many women, there is anxiety and depression mixed in with the joy and the love they feel for their baby. And I think normalizing that dichotomy, making people recognize that you're not alone. Most people have mixed emotions about this. And normalizing the idea that the process of becoming a mom doesn't
00:00:22
Speaker
and six weeks when you come for your postpartum visits, matriessence goes on much longer than that, probably closer to a year after a birth before you are physically and mentally kind of put back together. This episode of Two Kids and a Career is brought to you by Elemental Aesthetics. You can be guaranteed that your experience is going to be unique and customized to your specific needs. See how they can help you focus on natural beauty enhancements by visiting elementalaesthetics.com.
Introduction to Podcast and Dr. Allison Walsh
00:00:51
Speaker
Hi there and welcome to Two Kids and a Career. I'm Jill Devine. As an entrepreneur, wife, and mama, the daily grind of trying to build a business while taking care of kids and trying to maintain a healthy connection with my hubby, it's a lot. With this podcast, you're going to hear candid conversations with other moms.
00:01:08
Speaker
parenting experts who can share their knowledge and insight, or you'll just hear me rambling to get it all out. There's going to be tears, there's going to be laughter, but most importantly, there will be support. Take a listen and connect with me so we can grow and learn from one another. This is 2 Kids and a Cooler. Joining me for a second time on the podcast, Dr. Allison Walsh. I've asked Dr. Allison Walsh to come back
00:01:32
Speaker
because in the episode that recorded it was march sixteenth twenty twenty two we talked about how i needed you to come back to talk all things ov related to you remember that doctor wash last time we had so much fun talking about the next stage of life perry menopause and post menopausal concerns but
00:01:57
Speaker
We didn't get to cover what women go through before they get to the menopause. Right, so we are totally going the opposite direction, but first let's reintroduce you and what you're doing.
Dr. Walsh's Career and Practice
00:02:11
Speaker
You are the founder of Women's Lifestyle Solutions. You are so busy. It's so funny because when I released that episode last year, all of a sudden, all these different friends of mine were like,
00:02:30
Speaker
Oh, Dr. Walsh is amazing. She delivered my babies. Oh, Dr. Walsh is so awesome. She delivered my babies. I'm like, okay, well then definitely yes, we have to have her back on to talk about delivering all the babies. But let's first, yeah, like I said, you are the creator of women's lifestyle solutions. And let's talk a little bit about that. And the other things you do besides just delivering babies and talking all OBGYN stuff.
00:02:57
Speaker
Sure, so before women's lifestyle solutions, there was obstetrics and gynecology care.
00:03:04
Speaker
where I am still a practicing OB-GYN. I'm in practice with my mom who's been an OB in St. Louis for the last 40 years. And that's really how all of this started was normal general OB-GYN delivering babies and taking care of well-woman visits. From there, I identified a need for some more in-depth work with
00:03:29
Speaker
perimenopausal and menopausal folks with weight and hormone balance and that's how women's lifestyle solutions came into existence and that's kind of where we focused last time. But the OG was obstetrics and gynecology care. So that's where all of my obstetric work happens. Let me first mention that the episode that we recorded is episode 105. So if you want to go back and listen to that
00:03:54
Speaker
and hear that conversation.
Balancing Motherhood and OB-GYN
00:03:57
Speaker
The next thing I want to bring up though is that you have a two and a four year old and I am just like, I feel like I'm busy. Oh my gosh, you're delivering babies. You're helping women with perimenopause and menopause and you have two littles. Like what the heck? How are you doing this?
00:04:18
Speaker
As I was saying to you just when we were getting started, one day at a time, one foot in front of the other, it is definitely busy. I'm
00:04:26
Speaker
really lucky that it's very fulfilling because that makes it easier to get up the energy to keep going. But it's a rugged schedule, but I'm loving it. I think obstetrics really spoke to me as a medical student because it is so fulfilling. When OB is good, there's just nothing better, getting to hand someone their new baby. So I think that's the fun part, if you will, of OB-GYN.
00:04:56
Speaker
lucky that I have found a niche in the rest of it that I also love, helping with the weight and the perimenopause. But Obie was my original love and just getting to take care of women in that really special time of their life when they are
00:05:13
Speaker
growing another human and preparing to transform their world by bringing another person into their home. I mean, anyone who's a mother knows what I'm talking about, but especially that first pregnancy, helping people prepare for that experience is really an honor and a gift. You just made me flashback to when I was pregnant and the time spent with my doctor and
00:05:42
Speaker
I can only imagine how hard it must be for, well, I don't know, I don't know. If you don't know what you don't know, then you don't know. But what I'm trying to say is that if I didn't have the time spent with me from my doctor and her team, oh my gosh, I would have been so lost.
00:06:06
Speaker
There's one thing when it comes to going to see your doctor for your well visits and everything, I would say even before having babies. But I think when I deliver, not think, I know when it was time to deliver my first baby that even though my my gynecologist, we've been seeing each other forever.
00:06:35
Speaker
That's when we connected the most or when I felt the most safe and the most secure in her. And it's a game changer. Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think that the obstetric component of women's health really solidifies the relationship for a lot of patients and physicians.
00:06:58
Speaker
Um, it's a intense experience.
Education and Care in Obstetrics
00:07:01
Speaker
It's a almost a year long experience. And as you were starting to point out, it's really a, for us as physicians, it's an educational opportunity because you don't know what you don't know. So it's an opportunity to.
00:07:15
Speaker
help women understand their bodies, understand what their bodies are doing, growing another human, the embryologic process, helping them to stay healthy and well, an opportunity to discuss in greater detail. And I think this is getting better too, just broadly speaking, but really comprehensive obstetric care. So I think historically obstetric care was focused on just basically
00:07:42
Speaker
is the baby normal, good heartbeat, baby's moving, you know, going through the steps, the blood draws and the testing at the appropriate times for a healthy pregnancy. Um, I'm spending more and more time both because my patients are interested in and asking questions about it. And because I've personally as a mom now become much more interested having gone through it myself in, you know, the experience. So talking about pelvic floor and
00:08:11
Speaker
staying strong during pregnancy with pregnancy focused exercise to prevent your core from weakening during and after pregnancy. I'm spending more time talking about kind of the birth experience. I'm working with more doulas. I'm having more patients have an interest in low intervention birth and unmedicated birth and
00:08:37
Speaker
That's been really cool for me, just the educational component and going back and looking at, okay, so this is how I was trained as a physician in a traditional medical environment.
00:08:50
Speaker
around labor and birth and learning from my patients and educating myself on why do we do the things we do? Are there things that we do that could be done differently? Does it have to be done the way I was trained or is there another option? I mean, it's been a cool time to be an OB because I think women are so strong and so impressive and I think women are really taking back their pregnancy and birth experiences. And I've enjoyed getting to be a part of
00:09:18
Speaker
that process and also just helping people to hopefully have the birth experience they're seeking. Oh, I have so many different things I need to say. First of all, the fact that you mentioned that now that you have babies and you can understand
00:09:39
Speaker
I mean, it's one thing being a woman and having another woman doctor with the same parts as you to understand, but then to go through it. For me, that's one of the reasons why I chose my OB. I wanted someone who could identify with potentially what I was going through or had some understanding a little bit. And this is nothing against male doctors whatsoever. I just find for me personally,
00:10:08
Speaker
Having someone that can relate to me and understand made me feel more comfortable and continues to make me feel more comfortable. I love that you're saying that you see more experience with doulas and
00:10:29
Speaker
different options and that you embrace it. I absolutely love that you mentioned that because I think sometimes I'll talk to women who feel like their doctor won't support that or it doesn't really go there because they don't have a lot of experience. And I'll tell you what, I would have loved
00:10:52
Speaker
to maybe have experienced that. There's a part of me that's like, oh, all natural birth would have been amazing. And then I'm like, oh, no, it wouldn't be. But that option to be able to talk about it and to experience it and just be open to it, I think that that says a lot about your doctor and the staff that they're with. Yeah.
00:11:20
Speaker
I couldn't agree more. I think going through as a woman, women caring for women is definitely a thing. As a woman and a mom, going through the experience led me to do a lot of research for myself beyond just basic medical education.
00:11:41
Speaker
that interaction and then coming back and practicing obstetrics again after having kids, I just really felt like there was this void. So I've actually spent the last 18 months or so
00:11:53
Speaker
working with local partners to put together a comprehensive birth experience suite of packages to address this. So we actually, at Obstetrics and Gynecology Care, we are partnering with a doula, a pelvic physical therapy practice, a postpartum, and pregnancy-focused exercise class, and a birth photographer in 40 ultrasound businesses now to offer
00:12:23
Speaker
ancillary services because I felt like patients, again, they don't know what they don't know. So I want to offer them these options so they can decide, is this something they want to include in their pregnancy and give them a head start on kind of thinking through their birth experience.
Postpartum Changes and Support
00:12:44
Speaker
women's health, obstetric care should be so much more than basic prenatal care. With our partners, I feel like my patients are getting that full encircled experience, really thinking about their whole body, their mind, their emotions, that entire experience they're going to go through, and hopefully feeling supported in all aspects. When you were talking about
00:13:09
Speaker
the different packages and the different support. It didn't make me think when you go in, we're having babies. There's so many things that are happening with your body. Like that's where I think that a lot of times it just stops. It's OK, have the baby, take care of the baby.
00:13:32
Speaker
but then we're not thinking about the moms again and what's happening with their bodies. It's literally every single organ system in your body is affected by pregnancy. Yes. Your eyes, your hair, your skin, all of it. All of it. And nobody talks to you about it. And then you're confused and you're hormonal. All you really know, and I'm not saying that this is
00:13:56
Speaker
This is just a generalization is that, you know, you get pregnant, you're going to have all the hormone issues. You're going to have a healthy baby. You're going to have hormone issues. And then you just live on. And it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. There's a lot of stuff before, during and after that aren't covered. And one thing that I was talking about recently with someone is I know
00:14:26
Speaker
that this goes to you know a whole other like therapy session here Dr. Walsh but like with my core and my abdomen I have realized lately when you know I'm working out in things that my back it hurts and my core is not strong and I'm like oh my gosh. I had to have an emergency c-section with my oldest and then I had a c-section with
00:14:56
Speaker
the youngest and not one person in my family that I know of or best friends have had C-sections. I had no one to talk to about that or no one that understood that. I mean, had I put it out in the universe like, hey, can someone talk to me about this? Of course, I could have.
00:15:19
Speaker
I don't know that I properly treated my body after that, and I think that's a huge thing.
00:15:27
Speaker
This is where my doctor and I and this is classic Jill. I read all the books. I read all the articles. I skipped over the C-section part because I was like, that's not going to apply to me. So when it happened and I just focused on my doctor and she was just like, this is what needs to happen for everyone's safety. And that's all I cared about. I mean, I trusted her. But then, you know, I
00:15:57
Speaker
I felt like I was on an island in regard to being friends and family and not having that support. Sure. I think that's one of the great things about bringing up core strength and exercise in physical therapy and doula support during the pregnancy is it creates a natural avenue
00:16:22
Speaker
for people to contemplate various things that may or may not happen during their pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. It provides an avenue for discussions about belly birth and what that means for recovery in your birth experience. It provides an avenue for discussion about
00:16:45
Speaker
You know, that huge transformative process, matriessence, that happens after delivery. What we are increasingly psychologically recognizing is that women effectively go through another puberty-like event after they have a baby, where they are physically, emotionally, mentally transformed. The process of a mother being born happens after the process of a baby being born, and it's not seamless. And like birth,
00:17:14
Speaker
In general, it's beautiful, painful. It's a mixed experience for a lot of women, mourning their pre-mom life while being thrilled by and embracing their mom life. That process is a huge one and it takes many, many months. The physical component of that is only one aspect. The emotional and mental component is another huge aspect.
00:17:43
Speaker
having doula support, having good counseling support if necessary, having a really good relationship with your OB as you enter that phase of life is important because for many women, it is a mixed emotion. For many women, there is anxiety and depression mixed in with the joy and the love they feel for their baby. And I think normalizing that dichotomy for women, making people recognize that
00:18:12
Speaker
You're not alone. Most people have mixed emotions about this. And normalizing the idea that the process of becoming a mom doesn't end six weeks when you come for your postpartum visits, matriessence goes on much longer than that, probably closer to a year after a birth before you are physically and mentally kind of put back together.
00:18:37
Speaker
So I mean, what women go through at various points in their life in terms of what we're expected to endure, transform, and then, quote unquote, get back to ourselves is kind of crazy if you really think about it. Before we continue the conversation with Dr. Walsh, I want to talk to you about elemental aesthetics. One of the sponsors of the podcast also where Dr. Walsh has one of her practices. So she is an OBGYN, we know that, and then at elemental aesthetics,
00:19:06
Speaker
That's where she does her practice for women's lifestyle solutions. And she created this to help women achieve wellness through a combination of solutions from traditional medicine and plant-based solutions, all kinds of different solutions to help women. So she is inside elemental aesthetics. And when I was there last, I remember coming out from getting a facial with the boss Jennifer Warman Bloss.
00:19:36
Speaker
and Dr. Walsh coming out and meeting a woman for the first time and just seeing their connection on what was about to happen. And I had no idea what was going to happen, but you could just tell like this, this woman was so super excited to meet Dr. Walsh and Dr. Walsh was just ready to pour into her. That's what's really cool about elemental aesthetics, all these different combos that are happening within, whether it is something like seeing Dr. Walsh and
00:20:05
Speaker
working from the inside to the out to seeing Jennifer Warman Bloss for a facial because you know you have some scarring or you just want to be pampered for a day. It all takes place at Elemental Aesthetics. Check them out online elementalaesthetics.com and I encourage you when you make your appointment mention my name because then you'll get a little goodie back. It's elementalaesthetics.com. Now back to talking to Dr. Walsh. It really is. It's one of those like
00:20:37
Speaker
And when you think about to the when you said, you know, you're not alone and you put it out there and listen, I have a love hate relationship for social
Infertility and Pregnancy Loss
00:20:48
Speaker
media. We all do probably. But I think that people do get scared. And maybe you can speak to this a little bit more. But like the the woman who does lose her baby or has the miscarriage, there's this other component of
00:21:07
Speaker
You don't want to complain or talk about the hard stuff when you know that another woman is suffering. But I don't I don't know how you do that. I don't know how you not talk about the hard stuff because you don't want to be about alone. But then also be sympathetic for someone who doesn't have the baby. Sure. I mean, infertility
00:21:34
Speaker
pregnancy loss, and these are all things that coexist for all of us women in our day-to-day lives, on our social media feeds, and in our hopes and fears in our brain. I mean, and for many women, they have experienced the joys and the loss and the heartache of
00:22:02
Speaker
many of those things. They may have suffered infertility before a successful birth and then endured a miscarriage between the first and second birth. In my world, talking to women, these are common stories. The idealized version of this event, you get married, you have your two to three kids, and life looks the way it's supposed to on Insta is not what most people are experiencing. Complex obstetric histories and infertility are
00:22:30
Speaker
commonplace in my world. And so yeah, absolutely. And I think we're doing a better job as women of sharing that with one another, of normalizing it and of looking, of kind of being accepting of one another's journeys and just generally supportive of the fact that it's different for each person. And what we know is the same for all of us is that it's emotional. It's emotional, it's physical, it's exhausting, and it's wonderful and joyous all at the same time.
00:23:00
Speaker
All right. Can we do a little, I don't know if it's necessarily fun or not, but maybe some like frequently asked questions of an OB or a myth versus fact. I don't necessarily have a list for you. I thought that maybe we could just kind of laugh alongside one another with it or make it serious. One thing that came to mind and
00:23:30
Speaker
I saw this speaking of my love hate relationship for social media. I saw it on social media. Um, but it was, I think a labor and delivery nurse, she does all things regarding that. And she wrote, she made it, she tries to make, you know, these tough conversations or serious topics, a little lighthearted, but the one that she really was kind of making fun of, she said, okay,
00:23:56
Speaker
If you're worried about shaving or waxing or anything like that, if you think your doctor is worried about that, then you have the wrong doctor. And I just had to laugh out loud because I was like, oh my gosh, where in our minds have we gone where we're like, OK, this is what is normal. This is what needs to be done. If it's not this way, then I'm not supposed to be here. Any thoughts on that?
00:24:25
Speaker
Well, sure. I mean, it definitely does come up. I've definitely had patients kind of be like, I'm so sorry. I didn't know this was going to happen today. I wasn't prepared. And as the labor and delivery nurse is kind of referencing, I always reassure people, trust me, this is not what I am spending time thinking about. And I'm seeing many, many people every day. So nothing you got going on is rocking my world right now. Everything
00:24:55
Speaker
This is all standard operating procedure. So yeah, I think I can safely reassure everyone that your OB, your labor and delivery nurse does not care. They don't care. Just go. That's the most important thing. Exactly. We're focused on the health and safety of the mom and the baby.
00:25:15
Speaker
We are not focused on the color of the toenails and whether everything is properly ready to go. What else have you heard or want to squash as far as myths and whatnot when it comes to what you do? Sure.
Pregnancy Myths and Realities
00:25:38
Speaker
A few things that often come up at early visits,
00:25:44
Speaker
And I'll put a little disclaimer just that, you know, every individual and every individual pregnancy is different and everyone should talk with their own physician who knows their full medical history. But in general, if things are going normally without complication, physical exercise to the degree you were exercising prior to pregnancy,
00:26:08
Speaker
is safe and can and should continue because it's going to make you feel better and it's going to help you to manage stress and weight and kind of all the changes you're going through in pregnancy. It'll help you to maintain your core, maintain that pelvic floor, especially if you're doing exercises aimed at those two core areas of importance. Another one that I get frequently in the early visit is questions about
00:26:37
Speaker
Can we have sex? Yes. Again, as long as things are going normally and you haven't been advised otherwise by your physician or midwife, you can have sex during pregnancy. The baby is well protected way up in the uterus. Let's see here.
00:26:55
Speaker
Other things I frequently end up talking about are the dietary restrictions in pregnancy. So there's a lot of confusion or misunderstanding about why you're being instructed to avoid certain foods. So I like to help people understand that most of the food restrictions in pregnancy are
00:27:19
Speaker
aimed at preventing contraction of listeria which can be a form of food poisoning during pregnancy because it can have very serious impacts on the pregnancy. I try to reassure people if you found out you ate something that wasn't pasteurized or you found out you ate some meat that wasn't as fully cooked as you would have liked, don't stress because probably nothing is going to happen because when you've eaten unpasteurized or
00:27:46
Speaker
medium rare meat in the past, you usually didn't get food poisoned and you're probably not going to this time either. So just providing some reassurance there around diet is something I spend time talking about. I guess another one that comes up that people often forget about is your facial cleansers, lotions, and makeup.
00:28:11
Speaker
making sure they don't contain any retinoid or retin-A products. Those are a no-no in pregnancy. So make sure to read the back of the label of all of your cleansing and facial care products when you find out you're pregnant. And why is that? So the retinoid family, retin-A products, high-dose vitamin A, can actually cause congenital abnormalities in the baby.
00:28:38
Speaker
Again, as with all things, dose and frequency of exposure are paramount. So if you found out that your cleanser had something in it and you were using it for two weeks after you found out you were pregnant, it's probably going to be fine. Just discontinue using it, switch it up, notify your provider, but unlikely it'll be a problem. But best practice is to switch to something like a glycolic acid that
00:29:25
Speaker
If you haven't been doing these strenuous exercises, I remember saying, Oh, I'd like to start spinning. And they're like, No, don't start spinning now. Like don't start taking on these strenuous exercises if you haven't been doing them already. Do you agree with that?
00:29:28
Speaker
isn't going to give you any risk during the pregnancy.
00:29:42
Speaker
Yeah, so I tell people now, early pregnancy is not a great time to start training for something new. If you were exercising regularly prior to pregnancy, your cardiovascular system was in training. And so it's going to endure the transformations in your physiology
00:30:04
Speaker
Better and allow for that ongoing exercise when you're pregnant your heart is working a lot harder to pump all that extra blood volume and so if your heart wasn't previously well trained from a cardio standpoint now is not the time you want to add stress and push it so i tell folks that
Advanced Maternal Age and Genetics
00:30:25
Speaker
weren't exercising prior to pregnancy, hey, you should stay active, keep walking, you know, you know, be active in your daily life. But yeah, I wouldn't start Orange Theory if that wasn't a part of your world before pregnancy. Maybe after, but not right now. Yeah, I think it's just one of those things too. And I don't know how you do this. I know that you advise your
00:30:54
Speaker
clientele to not try to be stressed out. I think probably one of the hardest things for me when I was pregnant is especially that advanced maternal age that was given to me, that lovely title. I was an elderly multigravita as well.
00:31:14
Speaker
Okay, well I want to talk about that a little bit before we wrap up because I feel like that's changing But it was hard. I was stressed out because because of that title like oh my gosh This could be this and and I cannot control any of it. There's nothing that I can control There's only the guidelines of what I do to keep myself safe keep my baby safe but
00:31:41
Speaker
That was a major factor for me, mentally, where I feel like at times I could not enjoy the pregnancy at all. I get this question. I'm so glad you brought this up. I get this question a ton and love having the opportunity to reassure a larger group of women on this topic. So the first thing to know if you're in your early to mid 30s, about to cross that line in the sand 35, and I tell this to folks all the time,
00:32:10
Speaker
is this is a gradual process, not a cliff. You don't wake up the day you turn 35 and suddenly you are a high risk person because you are 35. The advanced maternal age designation is really in reference to and around your risk of genetic abnormalities linked to egg quality. So as we get into our mid and then eventually our late 30s,
00:32:37
Speaker
our egg quality does decline and your risk of having baby with chromosomal abnormalities like Down syndrome starts to rise and then more rapidly in your late 30s and then very rapidly in your early 40s, that risk does rise, okay? But outside of that increased risk of genetic abnormalities and miscarriage related to genetic abnormalities,
00:33:02
Speaker
you know, a healthy 35 to early 40 year old woman who doesn't have a lot of medical problems and is normal weight for height, you know, it's going to have a very good likelihood of having a normal pregnancy. Okay. So that, that designation is about genetics and egg quality more than it is about your actual pregnancy risk.
00:33:27
Speaker
Now, that being said, the prevalence of medical issues like high blood pressure and diabetes is higher as we age, okay? So more women between 35 and 40 have those sorts of problems. But if you're 35 to 40 and you're healthy, you're exercising, you're in good shape, you should have a lot of reason to feel good about your chances of having a uncomplicated healthy pregnancy.
00:33:54
Speaker
Thank you for stating it that way, because that's not always how it's stated. And I just see this difference in ages now, like between you and me and how our, what, like where we are. I don't know. Do you feel that there are definitely, you're seeing this a little bit more than you did? Oh, yeah, absolutely. I mean, there's,
00:34:23
Speaker
good data city state national that the average age at first birth is going up in this country and it's related to a lot of things. It's related to delayed childbearing because of women
00:34:40
Speaker
entering higher education, long training paths associated with higher education. It's related to later age for marriage for many folks. It's also related to, you know, people are generally having less kids and more conscientious in planned pregnancies about the expense and time and, you know, the whole experience of raising children in today's world is
00:35:07
Speaker
expensive, time consuming, and people are delaying in response to that. So this issue is coming up more and more. I'm having more conversations about freezing eggs for women in their 30 to 35 range who don't have a partner, but want to preserve the opportunity to have children at some point.
Contact Information for Dr. Walsh
00:35:27
Speaker
So absolutely, these issues aren't going anywhere. They are more and more prevalent.
00:35:33
Speaker
Well, before you give out your information for individuals who want to get ahold of you, I can tell that, I mean, as a professional of what you do, obviously you're continuing to educate yourself on all the things, but what I see and from what I've heard in this conversation and then our previous conversation, you go beyond that and you're always looking for
00:36:03
Speaker
the criteria or the knowledge to help in whatever situation someone may be in. So I'm excited that I have you as a resource because I know that there's going to be something that comes up that I'm going to be like, Dr. Walsh, do you have an answer for this? And you're going to be like, yep, I sure do. And you're going to come back on the podcast. So I appreciate what you're doing for women, not only here in the St. Louis area, but in other places because
00:36:32
Speaker
It's nice to know that there's someone in our corner that wants to find the solution, that wants to make sure that we're not just doing a Band-Aid to fix something here, but then something else comes. The thought process behind it all, I'm just very appreciative of it. Thanks, Jill. Thank you for having me back on. I really appreciate the opportunity to talk to a lot of women at once.
00:37:01
Speaker
kind of give them some additional information, hopefully help them to feel not alone as they navigate this often complicated path we're all on. It really is my pleasure. I love being a lifelong learner. And I think if we kind of keep our eye on the prize of really just taking care of women, we can't go wrong in this subspecialty. So that's always my goal.
00:37:28
Speaker
Well, how can individuals get ahold of you if they want to pick your brain or learn more, make an appointment, all the things? Absolutely. So for general obstetrics and gynecology care, you can reach us at our offices by calling 314-567-5017. And for ladies who are interested in discussions about
00:37:56
Speaker
perimenopause, menopause, and weight loss. You can call for an in-person appointment at 314-279-6069, or you can book online
00:38:11
Speaker
at STLWomen'sLifestyleSolutions.com. I will have all of this linked up at the show notes at JillDevine.com. Dr. Walsh, thank you so much for your time and thank you for being the lifelong learner that I am not, but I can come to you for. My pleasure, Jill. Thank you so much. One more shout out to Elemental Aesthetics and what they can do for you.
00:38:39
Speaker
They are a sponsor of the podcast and they have some really cool specials happening in May. One of them, the back facial. Have you ever had a back facial? So this is something that women don't realize that they need and will benefit from. So what I encourage you to do is check out elemental aesthetics to see a little bit more about that. But you can get a back facial for only a hundred dollars in the month of May. Now there's another fan favorite, the cool peel.
00:39:10
Speaker
It's $100 off this month. So check out Elemental Aesthetics, everything that they can offer you and help with, you know, your overall well-being or just a little bit of pampering. Oh, I want to mention the infrared sauna and the salt room. Two things you can tack on to the end or the beginning of your service to just enhance everything, especially with the allergies. Oh, my gosh. Either one of those is going to be a big
00:39:31
Speaker
that people are talking about
00:39:39
Speaker
big help for you. So elementalaesthetics.com. And when you make your appointment, mention my name and you'll get a little goodie back. I would also encourage you to check out JillDivine.com for every single episode of Two Kids and a Career and some other tips. You know, we have all kinds of different blogs there that some of the interns with JillDivine Media have wrote, and they're really awesome. So check that out, JillDivine.com. And as always, thank you for your support of Two Kids and a Career.