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#4 - Preparing for My Postpartum GP Appointment
55 Plays3 months ago
In this solo episode, Riannon shares how she prepares for her six-week postpartum GP appointment.
With baby Rome by her side, she discusses the essential blood tests and health checks that every new mum should consider asking for at her postpartum appointment.
Whether you're a new mum, expecting, or know someone who is, this episode is packed with practical advice to ensure you're fully supported in your postpartum journey.
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New episodes drop every second Monday.
If you want to book an appointment with one of our incredible naturopaths, visit our website https://mungbeanhealth.com/.
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Transcript
Introduction of Hosts
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome to The Bean Talk with me, Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother, joined by my trusted partner in life and in the mission of Mung Bean Health, Jeremy. Here at Mung Bean Health, we're on a mission to unlock the secrets of fertility and natural well-being one episode at a time.
Postpartum Experience of Rhiannon
00:00:19
Speaker
Hi guys, it is me. Welcome back. Rhiannon, he's solo. Well, I do have little Rhone with me. I am three and a half weeks postpartum now and loving every second of it with my fourth baby third earth side. It's so beautiful having him here. He's really healing my heart every day, which is so special.
Importance of Postpartum GP Appointment
00:00:43
Speaker
um Because I am so early stages of the postpartum at the moment I wanted to jump on and let you know how I'm prepping for my six weekly appointment with the GP. Now it is well known in Australia that you do book an appointment that six weeks after which they do a little check on Bob and they also check mum.
00:01:04
Speaker
So I thought I'd go through that with you and for any of the other mums out there, I think it will be super helpful if you're in your early postpartum or pregnant and ready to have a baby, if you know any other mums out there that are pregnant or planning on it soon.
00:01:20
Speaker
This will be great for them. So definitely send it to them. So I'll be asking my GP for a number of different blood tests. And when I say asking, I really mean it because you have to ask for the blood tests. So if you haven't had a baby yet, that six-weekly GP appointment is as I just said. It'll normally look like you going in for a very quick visit. You'll be met with your choice of contraceptive. They'll talk to you about, they'll say, hey, um how are you? You say, yeah, I'm feeling good.
00:01:49
Speaker
and they'll say, okay, let's get you on a contraceptive. Personally, I'll be declining that. I know a lot of my clients choose to decline that as well for many different reasons, but they won't actually offer you any blood testing. This is really important to know because when you go in, you wanna know what you're asking for in there. ah What I'll definitely be asking for from the GP will be a number of different basic blood tests.
00:02:18
Speaker
When I say basic, it's basic in a naturopathic perspective, but also should be for GPs. Nothing is crazy that we're asking for here. They're all just very standard testing that you need for your body to function well. So I'll go through my list of exactly what I'll be asking for. You can sort of do it one of two ways, I guess, going in there, telling them, you know, this is what I've done my own research, this is what I want to see.
00:02:48
Speaker
Or you can go in and say that someone has suggested it for you to go and ask for. Unfortunately, if you say the word naturopath, they don't always like it.
Crucial Postpartum Health Tests
00:03:01
Speaker
Some GPs are wonderful where they will actually be all on board and think it's wonderful that you're sorting extra help for yourself, especially postpartum, because they don't often know what to do. They don't really have many options for replenishment, obviously.
00:03:16
Speaker
It can be an interesting one when you say that. So I would just go in, either have these written down or tell them any symptoms and things you're having. If you are to see if we can get more testing completed because they like to come up with what they want you to get. Anyway, I'll be going in asking for iron studies, not just ferritin. This is pretty obvious, but you lose a lot of blood after you deliver your baby. And often many moms in pregnancy are already.
00:03:45
Speaker
iron deficient or low at least so really important one to see and especially if you want to keep thriving and have that energy postpartum so a really nice time while you're breastfeeding if you're breastfeeding if you've chosen to are able to to get those levels up really important postpartum. Vitamin D obviously important for our general health and our hormone health but also really important for our thyroid which in pregnancy, our thyroid is really overworked. It's busy little bee growing your baby and then postpartum often it doesn't know what to do and it just freaks out a little bit and that's why sometimes we have some crazy thyroid results. So I like to make sure that my clients and myself have the nutrients required for that healthy thyroid to function beautifully.
00:04:29
Speaker
Vitamin B12 and folate, again, energy and postpartum. Thyroid studies, obviously, as I just said, really important to ask for a actual and panel, like a thyroid panel, rather than just standard thyroid or standard TSH. I am going to ask for, but I probably won't get all of them, TSH, T4 and T3.
00:04:58
Speaker
Reverse T3 is very unlikely I'll get, but I will ask for thyroid antibodies to see if there's any autoimmune component present. As I said, sometimes postpartum of the thyroid acts a little bit funny, so an important one to check. When our thyroid is out of range or not working effectively, we can feel really, really poorly, really fatigued, hair falling out, dry skin, start putting on weight, just to name a few of the symptoms.
Blood Sugar Levels and Fatigue
00:05:26
Speaker
I'll also be checking liver function, asking them for a full blood count, zinc and also blood sugar because when you have a baby you are often tired, not eating as well as you should. We try our best but sometimes you ah chasing around your kids all day and you're only getting in smaller amounts of protein or skipping a meal here and there so that is an important reason as to why I like to check that blood sugar so yes making sure we're fasted for these tests as well just as a general rule
00:06:00
Speaker
what I would absolutely love to get but I won't and I'll end up ordering this myself privately which if you are one of our clients we can actually help you with this and we can order it for you which we do for a lot of our clients anyway but you can ask us if it's a test that you'd like to see yourself our cortisol which is our stress hormone is way too early for me to look at my hormones now um but I'll do that in the future and the timing is often different for everyone can depend on a ah number of different factors. I also like to get my hubby to do some testing around this time. Now, I think it's important to check in on their health as well, because not only has mama gone through a lot, but dad has as well. I get Jeremy up in the night with me. or He gets up himself, but you know, once I fed baby, I get him to burp him often.
00:06:51
Speaker
So then I can just feed and go back to sleep and then he can burp and go back to sleep. So yes, he's waking up a lot more than he normally would as well. And it helps us to sort of essentially share that load. There's so many new norms once you have a baby, you know.
00:07:08
Speaker
waking up a lot in the night is a big one so checking in on that stress hormone is great. An important note, so they're the blood tests and that I'll be asking for essentially. There's a couple of others that I'll check along the way like I said hormones but these are the main ones that I like to see for now being this early postpartum and this is what I request for my clients as well.
GP vs Naturopathy: Health Interpretations
00:07:27
Speaker
A really important thing that I wanted to note though before I let you go is how different the reference ranges are between GP testing and naturopathy interpretation. We use the same testing, we use the same reference ranges. However, the way we interpret it is very different because us as naturopaths are looking for optimal levels, whereas GPs just want you to be within range.
00:07:56
Speaker
So I recommend don't just go and get the testing done and then go back to your GP and then be told everything looks fine. And then you walk out of there being like, I'm really tired. My hair's falling out. Like my skin's breaking out and I just don't feel good. I don't feel like myself for them to just tell you everything's fine. Actually get them properly looked over with a fine tooth comb.
00:08:21
Speaker
from a ah fertility or postpartum naturopath, someone who works in the area of all things babies. We can definitely help you with this. We do it every day in clinic with our beautiful clients and making sure that your levels are optimal can make you feel so much better, especially not only for you, but especially if we are going into another pregnancy at some point and really wanting that another baby we want to make sure that our levels are optimal because not only is it a lot of work our body going through one pregnancy in postpartum if we haven't done the right replenishment after that and then we go into another one I see so many women struggle and this is second third fourth fifth baby so really important if you can
00:09:04
Speaker
You know, get in there. It doesn't matter which postpartum you're in, but make sure that you get your levels too optimal with those reference ranges. So you've got a bit of a better understanding as well. Essentially an example of this with iron would be GPs for our ferriton, our storage iron. GPs are happy for you to be anywhere between 15 to 150.
00:09:28
Speaker
Or now a lot of them have actually put us in with men, which is the reference range goes up to like 300. So like 15 to 300 say, um a lot of different labs have slightly different ranges. Some start at 30, but a lot of them start at 15. So 15 to 300, they're happy for you to be anywhere between, you know, you could be 16 or you could be 299. And for them, they classify you as normal. You're fine.
00:09:55
Speaker
You're within range, you're okay, but I promise you that you will be feeling crappy and have terrible symptoms whether you are on the lower end of the scale, you know, up to 30.
Session Conclusion and GP Requests
00:10:09
Speaker
or the higher end of the scale you know closer to that 300 mark you want to be in a lot more of an optimal range drives me crazy that they can just say you're all good and you're all fine and just dismiss your symptoms when your levels are like that so yes in that optimal range your body will be happy it will be so happy because your body won't be struggling with all the processes to get these certain vitamins and nutrients. So yes, that's a wrap. That is ah what I will be asking for from my GP in my upcoming postpartum appointment.
00:10:46
Speaker
And that's a wrap on today's dose of wellness. I'm Rhiannon, your fertility fairy godmother. Thank you for joining us. Stay connected with us on Instagram at mungbin underscore health.