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My Wild Pregnancy and Free Birth Part 2: Managing my Prenatal Care
127 Plays3 months ago
We’re continuing with my mini series all about my recent wild pregnancy and free birth! This week’s conversation is about specific things I did to manage my prenatal care. We chat about taking radical responsibility for mine and my baby’s health using all the tools I already practice in my regular, non-pregnant life.
My trusted HTMA provider linked here :)
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Eat Like a Mother' Podcast
00:00:14
Speaker
Welcome to the eat like a mother podcast where we take complicated topics surrounding hormones and metabolism and make them simple and applicable to your daily life as a woman. I'm your host castie well fell.
00:00:25
Speaker
My hope is that you walk away feeling empowered to start taking radical responsibility for your health and lean into this body God created for you. Are you ready to eat like a mother? This podcast is meant for educational purposes only and is not meant to be taken as medical advice.
00:00:43
Speaker
Please consult your physician before making any dietary or lifestyle changes.
Overview of Wild Pregnancy Mini-Series
00:00:47
Speaker
Well, welcome back to this week's episode of the podcast. If you missed last week's episode, go ahead and go back and listen to it because this is part two of a multiple part mini series all about my wild pregnancy and free birth.
00:01:02
Speaker
And today i want to talk about how I manage my own prenatal care.
Approach to Prenatal Care: Minimal Testing
00:01:07
Speaker
So, like I said last week, I find most testing to be useless during pregnancy. With that being said, i went through this last pregnancy with open hands and resolved early on that if I ever felt like something was off or felt like a test or an ultrasound would give me more peace, I would do it.
00:01:26
Speaker
So I didn't go into pregnancy with a hard and fast rule against all testing and scans. I educated myself on the risks versus benefits of all the quote unquote standard tests done during pregnancy and based it off of my own personal risk factors and felt truly confident forgoing everything.
00:01:46
Speaker
I also knew that whatever blood work or test I'd need done, should I decide I want to get them done, I could either run them myself or work with a trusted practitioner to give me peace of mind.
00:01:58
Speaker
At the very beginning of pregnancy, however, I did do an unconventional test with a trusted practitioner and that was an HTMA or a hair tissue mineral analysis.
00:02:11
Speaker
this was honestly by chance i had already ordered the tests for myself and my daughter before i found out i was pregnant but by the time they arrived i was like four weeks pregnant and said but the heck this is great timing so i knew that seeing where my minerals were at because a hair tissue mineral analysis is a great way to see what's going on with your minerals because your hair is a detox organ.
00:02:35
Speaker
So we can see how fastly your body is burning through minerals essentially. and um So I figured and knew that seeing where my minerals were at would be probably the best thing to know at the beginning of pregnancy so I could curate my prenatal to be what I needed. Like I said last week, I had spent two years after my son was born truly deeply nourishing my body and laying a solid foundation of minerals through food, lifestyle, movement, all of the things.
00:03:05
Speaker
So when I tested, there were really only a few things that I personally needed to adjust to best meet mine and baby's mineral needs. And
Ultrasounds: Risks and Alternatives
00:03:15
Speaker
that was it. That was the only test I had run the entire pregnancy. I didn't do a single scan or ultrasounds.
00:03:22
Speaker
Ultrasounds come with a lot of risks, especially early on. So that's when I made the informed decision to pass on them. Though it would not be hard to get an ultrasound done, even if you are not currently under the care of a midwife. There are tons of standalone clinics all over the place.
00:03:38
Speaker
So if you're someone who's choosing to forego ultrasounds, but then, you know, somewhere along the way, you have a cause for concern, it's not hard to go to a standalone clinic and have a sonogram done and read by a professional sonographer.
00:03:56
Speaker
and so I just wanted to give you that little caveat.
Monitoring Key Health Biomarkers
00:03:58
Speaker
Now, what I did do during pregnancy to manage my own prenatal care was the following. First, I monitored my temperature, pulse, and blood pressure.
00:04:09
Speaker
These are simple biomarkers that I already pay regular attention to when not pregnant. And I feel confident in supporting my body should any of those markers be off.
00:04:22
Speaker
And if you want to learn more about using something like your temperature to monitor your thyroid and metabolism, You can actually access my free webinar in the show notes below. That's a great resource.
00:04:33
Speaker
40 minutes of learning your temperature and how it's one of your best friends and learning to assess your thyroid and metabolism and hormonal function. so little plug there.
00:04:46
Speaker
Now the next thing I did was I was really conscious of balancing my blood sugar. Again, this is something I already do even when I'm not pregnant.
Balancing Blood Sugar Without Standard Tests
00:04:55
Speaker
I'm very aware of my blood sugar and balancing it and have built a lifestyle around keeping it balanced on the daily.
00:05:03
Speaker
This was why i didn't feel it necessary to do the standard glucose test. Though I did decide again at the beginning of pregnancy that if I ever felt my blood sugar was off, again, based on other metabolic markers, I'd simply go buy a $30 glucose monitor from Walmart and track my glucose myself for a week.
00:05:23
Speaker
Never ended up doing that, but it is an option and it's a really simple and risk-free way to watch your blood sugar daily during pregnancy.
Importance of Movement and Sun Exposure
00:05:34
Speaker
Another thing that I did was I moved my body every day in the sun. I was walking, exercising, and in the sunshine every day as a way to maintain muscle mass, keep a steady weight gain throughout pregnancy, as well as maintain adequate vitamin D levels. Y'all know that during pregnancy, vitamin D is of huge concern because that's how we build bones and muscles and all of things.
00:05:59
Speaker
And where do you get the most vitamin d In the sun. Our body produces vitamin D, which is more accurately a hormone on its own through a complex system between our kidneys and our liver and the sunshine. So our body literally is tied to nature. We need the sun in order make and maintain adequate vitamin D levels. So being in the sun daily is of the utmost importance.
00:06:28
Speaker
whether or not you're pregnant, but especially in pregnancy.
Skills for Tracking Baby's Growth
00:06:33
Speaker
Another thing that I did to manage my prenatal care was I measured my own fundal head. This was something that I actually had to learn myself. It was a skill that I had to acquire during pregnancy. So while I was really confident going into this pregnancy, this wild pregnancy and free birth, there were still skills that I had to learn. And I think that's my encouragement to everyone to be willing to learn the skills. So I had to learn to manage my own fundal head, which was really actually super easy to learn. And I think all women should learn it.
00:07:06
Speaker
And this was just how I would keep track of baby's growth without any scans or anything. Next thing, and this is not going to shock anyone that is a regular listener of mine, or if you follow me on Instagram, this is not going to shock you, but minerals.
00:07:25
Speaker
I am the influencer that actually practices what I
Nutritional Strategy and Tissue Analysis
00:07:29
Speaker
preach. I was getting a ton of food, three to 4,000 calories a day, getting at least 7,000 milligrams of potassium a day, getting enough sodium, getting enough magnesium, eating enough real food that I felt confident I was meeting all my nutritional needs and I didn't need to get blood work done to tell me otherwise.
00:07:52
Speaker
This goes back to my HTMA, you know, on top of eating enough real food, i had selectively chosen the supplements I'd take based on my tissue analysis.
00:08:02
Speaker
And that made curating my nourishment so much easier, which I'll link in the show notes as well. The link to my preferred practitioner. She's a dear friend of mine. I've worked alongside her for years now and trust her opinion so fully. So I'll link her website below if you're someone that's looking to get more testing done and more one-on-one help in your wellness journey. She is my go-to girl. Absolutely incredible.
Tracking Baby's Position with Doppler
00:08:28
Speaker
i am not being paid to say this. I just freaking love her and recommend her to everyone. So if you need that, that will be linked below as well.
00:08:38
Speaker
Okay, and then the next thing I did was monitored baby's position. This was another skill, again, i had to learn this pregnancy and I'm so glad of it.
00:08:48
Speaker
My other pregnancies, I legit had no idea where my baby was positioned at any given time and would just trust what the midwife said on it. This pregnancy, i had to figure it out myself.
00:09:02
Speaker
Radical responsibility, right y'all? So I actually spent a lot of time at the end of pregnancy mapping my belly and figuring out where baby was and if she was in the optimal position.
00:09:13
Speaker
Once I was pretty sure I knew where she was based on feel, I actually did go ahead and get a Doppler. i was 30 weeks pregnant. um I literally just posted on a Facebook free birth group to see if anyone had one nearby that I could rent from them.
00:09:29
Speaker
And someone responded and was like, hey, I've got extras in my clinic. If you pay shipping, I'll mail it to you for free. So that was that was super awesome. Had that on hand and use that to confirm her positioning based on where I'd get the heartbeat.
00:09:44
Speaker
So these are two skills that I'm actually really proud of myself for learning the positioning, you know knowing where baby is positioned and then monitoring heart tones.
00:09:56
Speaker
I learned how to find baby's heartbeat, find where the placenta was and all of the things just on my own using a Doppler. And I did that just a handful of times, you know, using a Doppler also has its own risks.
00:10:09
Speaker
So I used it sparingly, but this was one of those things that I got to the end of pregnancy and was like, okay, I want to confirm baby's position nearing the end because you know, while I was prepared to birth in any position, having a baby in optimal position really does reduce risks.
00:10:29
Speaker
So if you're going to do it on your own, you want to reduce as many risks as possible. So, you know, I understood the risk of not knowing baby's position and also understood the risk of doing a Doppler a handful of times at the end of pregnancy. And I felt like the benefit of doing a Doppler outweighed the risk of not knowing exactly where a baby was.
00:10:54
Speaker
And i had it on hand just in case, you know, God forbid anything go wrong. i had read that it's a little bit harder to use a fetus scope, which would be my preferred way of, you know, confirming heart tones and determining where baby is.
00:11:09
Speaker
um i just had been reading that it could be a little bit more difficult to measure heart tones with a fetus scope during labor. and So I wanted to have a Doppler on hand again, God forbid, should anything go wrong, i had it to be able to just check on baby.
00:11:27
Speaker
um Didn't need it. I think I checked her heart weight rate one time during labor ah and she did great the entire time. So never a cause for concern, but that was something that was, that was great to have on hand.
Lifestyle's Role in Fertility and Hormone Health
00:11:40
Speaker
Now I tell you all of this to tell you, i didn't go into a wild pregnancy blind. If you'll notice, most of what i did were things that I was already doing before I was pregnant.
00:11:53
Speaker
So I wasn't having to do this major lifestyle overhaul to do my own prenatal care. Everything that I do right now as a woman of fertile years is is centered around having healthy pregnancies and cycle function because if you are of fertile age whether or not you're trying to get pregnant your fertility and preparing your body for pregnancy is one of the most important things that you can do to optimize your hormones during this season again whether or not you are someone that wants to conceive and get pregnant and have lots of babies
00:12:31
Speaker
Having regular cycle function, being fertile is a vital sign. And so preparing your body, improving your fertility is one of the best things that you can do to elongate or provide yourself with longevity.
00:12:46
Speaker
in your health for the rest of your life. So for me, my lifestyle is my prenatal. So it made it so simple during pregnancy because not much had to change.
Tailoring Prenatal Care with Metabolic Markers
00:12:58
Speaker
And the things I wasn't doing before in pregnancy, i took radical responsibility for myself and learned the skills. I monitored all of my biomarkers closely and used those to make any adjustments necessary during pregnancy. If you're not familiar with all the metabolic markers, I actually teach you how to utilize your metabolic markers in my course, Metabolism by Intelligent Design.
00:13:22
Speaker
I show you your metabolic markers, tell you how to read them so that you can craft your lifestyle and your diet to meet your own personal metabolic needs.
00:13:33
Speaker
This completely takes out the noise and the chaos of the wellness world of trying to do all of the different things that everybody and their mother is telling you to do. and gives you the exact roadmap to know what is right for your body because you are measuring it off of your personal metabolic markers. So I will also link that below in the show notes if that's something that you are curious about learning more about.
00:13:59
Speaker
but Like I said, i monitored all of my biomarkers closely and and was able to make adjustments based on what my personal metabolic needs were. And it was super simple and peace filled during pregnancy.
Reflecting on the Best Birth Experience
00:14:12
Speaker
And I'm convinced that this made my birth so much better. This was absolutely by far my best birth out of all of my children. And I cannot wait to tell you more about it next week. So stay tuned for next week's episode all about my free birth.
Encouraging Listener Engagement
00:14:30
Speaker
And if you're liking this mini series, ahead and screenshot it and shout it out on Instagram. Tag me at Cassidy Welfell. And let's get more people listening to stories that normalize a peace-filled physiological natural birth.
00:14:51
Speaker
If you found this podcast helpful or encouraging, would you mind leaving us a rating or review? I love hearing from you. So be sure to shout us out on Instagram and tag me at Cassidy.Weltbell.
00:15:01
Speaker
And we'll be sure to shout you right back out. Let's get this message to as many women as possible. Until next time, friend.