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BIRTHFIT Podcast Episode 82 Featuring the Modern Mamas

BIRTHFIT Podcast Episode 82 Featuring the Modern Mamas

BIRTHFIT Podcast Episode 82: Modern Mamas

[0:00:00]


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[0:04:57]


Hello, BIRTHFIT. This is Dr. Lindsey Mathews, your BIRTHFIT founder. This week, I wanted to share an episode with you in which I was the guest on the Modern Mamas podcast. The Modern Mamas podcast is co-hosted by the lovely ladies and mommas Jess Gaertner and Laura Bruner.


So check them out if you have not listened to their podcast yet. But in this episode, I will share with you in which I was a guest on their show, just to confuse you a little bit. Enjoy.


Laura: Before we dive in, let’s do a quick question, ice-breaker question.


Jess: This is my favorite part of the interview.


Laura: What is your favorite place on earth and why? I have a guess, but I want to see.


Lindsey: Well, oh, mam, favorite place on earth. It’s like a no brainer if I say Fiji like Toberua. That’s like a special, special place I think. I could get away, shut down from everybody and just not be connected to social media, the computer and just be connected with Logan and the earth and the people there. That’s been my place lately.


Before that, I took a super special trip to Africa. I went to Tanzania. And this place was part of my journey, changed my life. And I felt very similar there like being connected to the people and to the earth without all the filth of just the world, society that builds up on you. And then I would say Austin because even if I can’t get away, anytime I go back to Austin I feel at home there. So it feels pretty special.


Laura: That’s awesome.


Lindsey: I picked three.


Jess: I love it. I think — where’s Laura?


Laura: I’m back. I’m back.


Jess: We lost you. Okay. I was like, “Oh, my gosh. Where did she go?” I feel lost without my partner.


Laura: I was like listening in and so in tune and all of a sudden everything went black. I tried to press mute and I hung up. I’m sorry, everybody. Momma brain. Anyways, proceed.


Jess: So she told us about three of her favorite spots.


Laura: Oh, I know. I have Fiji, Tanzania and the third is Austin. Okay, that’s right.


Jess: Yeah.


Laura: For those of you who don’t know, Logan proposed to Lindsey in Fiji and just the pictures and the story. And you don’t share that much when you’re there because like you said it’s so special. But I get goosebumps when I think about that whole experience and like what I’ve heard from you about that place meeting too. I think it’s cool that there’s like the trifecta of like the place that kind of helped to get you to where you are now.


And then Fiji is like your special disconnect place and then Austin is where I don’t know. But I know that’s where the summit is next year, and I think it’s…


Lindsey: Yes. It’s where I feel at home. Like your bones and your everything feels settled there. It’s funny like we started going to Fiji I think four years ago. And I have a patient. His name is Kelly Slater. He’s a surfer. And at the time, he was telling me like, “You have to take time for yourself even if you can’t afford it right now.” Because at the time there’s no way. I was like, “We can’t spend this on a trip around the world.”


And he was like, “Just do it. Trust me.” And we went and we’ve been making it happen ever since. Like we’ll put away money and not buy a new bed or whatever, new towels, this like that. Because it’s much more important for us to have that experience and to detach and put energy back into us.


Laura: That’s so awesome. Well, the amount of energy you put out into the world I think that everyone benefits from you going to Fiji.


Jess: Yeah, totally. You have to take care of yourself.


Lindsey: If I can take all you with me, yeah.


Laura: I love it.


Jess: That’s awesome.


Laura: That’s awesome. Cool. Well, you mentioned Tanzania a little bit. So why don’t you give like a brief — this is always hard because your story is so magical — but a brief [0:09:23] [Indiscernible]. You don’t have to. Brief-ish. I’m going to cut you off if you keep —


Lindsey: Yeah. You’re like, “You’ve got 40 minutes.” No.


Laura: Yeah. Tell us about yourself and how you got where you are.


Lindsey: Well, yeah. You can interject and ask questions, whatever. Yeah, born and raised in Texas, spent a little time in Atlanta which I barely remember. Then moved back to Texas. I share a little bit about my kind of outer body experience and that was in fourth grade. And I honestly just started talking about that probably within the last two years.


[0:10:04]


And it was pretty trippy. I had a gnarly asthma attack since I was born or probably since age of like two. I was diagnosed with asthma and just loaded up with medication. And so having that label, you’re kind of freaked out. And anytime something happens you go straight to the doctor. So that was part of my programming then.


And when I was in fourth grade, I had a gnarly asthma attack. I couldn’t breathe, ended up in the hospital, ended up in ICU for a whole week, six, seven days. And at that time obviously I was having this gnarly experience. But then I told my mom was that I wouldn’t live. Like it was very doubtful. And then I kept hanging on to the next day and the next day and then I came back.


But what I remember about that experience was all these hands and the bright lights and my brother and sister. And it was just really trippy. And ever since, which I was really young I didn’t share that a lot with people. When I got older and started seeing a therapist and stuff I was like, “By the way, I had this experience.”


Yeah, so I just kept that at the back of my mind. And I was like I know I’m here for a reason. Like why the hell else would God or whoever is ruling this place, why would they bring me back here? So I was like, “I’m on a mission.”


And fast forward to high school, I had a typical high school experience in Texas. I played soccer. I was a cheerleader. Friday night football was everything and drink all the beers, all the Dr. Peppers and all the bare food, yeah.


Jess: All of it.


Lindsey: Yeah, all of it.


Laura: You two understand that. Anyway, I never will.


Jess: I do. Because you’re from New Braunfels, right?


Laura: Yeah.


Lindsey: Yeah.


Jess: Yeah, I’m from Bandera.


Lindsey: Yeah, yeah. Exactly.


Jess: Yeah, yeah. I’m from Bandera and I lived in New Braunfels for a while. So I totally get it.


Lindsey: That’s so great.


Jess: Yeah. Sorry. I didn’t mean to interrupt your story. Continue.


Lindsey: I was just going to say where did you live, what did you do. But I was like, “We’ll save that for another time.”


Laura: Save it for this weekend. Yeah.


Lindsey: But yeah. New Braunfels is a great experience and I wouldn’t have changed the high school experience for anything on earth, definitely had a great time. And tore my ACL my junior high school. So this was like another pivotal point. And I went around to three different surgeons for consults.


And there was one surgeon, Dr. Jesse Delee who might actually still be practicing in San Antonio or turned it over to another associate of his. But he wore scrubs. He wore cowboy boots. And he, at the time, was the only doc that said, “You’ll be 100%, but you have to put the work back into it before surgery, after surgery.”


And everybody else at that time was, “Hey, you can only be 80% with an ACL.” I was like, “Wait. This crushes all [0:13:26][Indiscernible] I’ve ever had.” So I was thinking I was going to go to play soccer in college, be the next Mia Hamm, that sort of thing.


I believe things like injuries, like divine intervention comes in and just does — here’s the path you go to on now. So when I had that injury, I was exposed to training before surgery, training after surgery. And now that I look back, it’s totally how we prepare the body for birth whether it’s a vaginal birth of cesarean birth.


When I was exposed to that type of mindset way back in the year 2000, whenever this orthopedic surgeon who was ahead of time said, “Hey, I need you to go to this chiropractor. I need you to go to this Rolfer. I need you to go into PT.” Like he made this holistic team for me.


And I mean surgeons still don’t do that today. But he was like, “You need to be doing this, this and this five days a week prior to surgery, like six weeks leading up to surgery.” Then when we came out, we had a plan. And looking back on that and then what women have now for let’s say a cesarean birth, they don’t have any sort of direction.


And I was given the keys to the city at least with direction for an ACL knee surgery in 2000 which is wild. But yeah, that was a huge pivotal —


Jess: Yeah. [0:14:56] [Indiscernible].


[0:14:57]


Lindsey: Yeah, which is crazy. So I took that experience and I thought I wanted to be an orthopedic surgeon so I went the premed route at Texas A&M. And in my last — junior year, sorry, junior year semester I went to Tanzania, Africa. And that was just random trip. Like I was in my adviser’s office and all my friends were studying abroad.


And they were going to like Italy or Spain or wherever. I was like, “Man, I need to go to somewhere.” And I was in my adviser’s office waiting to talk to her about this. I was like, “Pick anywhere. I’m ready to go.”


And she was like, “Have you taken a look at the medical mission trip out there?” And it was like a flyer and the flyer had elephants and lions and everything on it. And I was like, “No, but that looks dope. Let’s go there.”


She’s, “Well, it’s Tanzania, Africa.” And I was like, “What?” I was like, “Okay. Sign me up.” So I left on a plane right after Christmas for that spring semester my junior year. It was almost two months. So you had to take off that semester, but it was actually perfect.


So I stayed in Africa, came back. Continue — like I had two jobs at A&M, worked through college and that was the semester I studied and took the MCAT. And then I finished my next year. But while I was in Africa I realized that, “Oh, I don’t think med school is for me.” This is it. I’m prescribing medication even when we were there. I would just do basic triage and this mom brought her son to me who’s about six or seven, paralyzed on the left side of his body, had seizures.


And all they wanted me to do was prescribe a sedative to him. And something just stopped me in my tracks, divine intervention again. And I was like, “Hey, this probably isn’t the answer that you deep down like in your inner compass you probably didn’t want to do.”


So I talked to the mom, had my translator and I was like, “Yeah, your son he’s the same spirit like he’s awesome. But occasionally as he seizures it might be due to a few things that happen within the first year of life, maybe second year of life for him. I don’t know because I wasn’t there.”


I told her, “I just don’t feel comfortable prescribing medication that’s going to run out in 30 days. And we’re not going to be here to help you out.” She cried, I cried. I found the only payphone in town. And I was like, “I can’t go to med school. Take me out of the running.”


But I knew I was coming home — I think this is the next year. And my stepdad was like, “If you come home, you got to have a job because you’re an adult and you’re paying bills.” And I’ve had a job since I was 16 and slowly took on more and more responsibility. Like when you drive, you pay for your car, your cellphone, that sort of thing, any extras.


And then I was hoping to get a free place to stay when I came home, but the deal was I had to have a job so I can save money. So yeah, I made that deal. Finally, I came home and I reconnected with the chiro that I saw back with my knee. And I shout at him and I was like, “Oh, you actually put your hands-on people. You heal through your hands. I amend to that.”


And the more I saw, the more I really appreciated that connection and that healing modality. So then I applied for chiropractic school and got accepted and I took the invite to California because it was the furthest one away and never looked back. So that was what brought me out to California.


And then just different experiences led to BIRTHFIT. I don’t know if you all want to go into this far, but BIRTHFIT started basically as a blog in 2011.


Laura: [0:19:00] [Indiscernible]. It’s like a perfect segue, right. Let’s talk about BIRTHFIT.


Lindsey: Yeah. And at the time, I was working with three male doctors, three male chiros. And we would get contracted out for movie sets or for professional sports games or either by the actor or the athlete directly or by the company. And so it was nice whenever we would — one would be on the road, maybe two would be on the road and then the other two or three would cover patients.


So it was like a nice synergy what we had going on. But at the time, I started getting more and more females that had female type of issues like postpartum or pubic bone pain or, “I’m pregnant. Now what?” At the time like I’m 28 years old Lindsey and I’m like, “I have no idea. Like I’ve never been pregnant.”


My exposure to kiddos was my mom. She owned a daycare while we were growing up and that was it.


Jess: Birth control right there.


[0:20:03]


Lindsey: Yeah. Best birth control. I was like, “I’m pretty good at babysitting.” So one woman came in and she was like, “Hey, I was wanting to get pregnant in the next year.” And I was like, “What? So that’s kind of a new way to look at it. I haven’t been exposed to that.”


Usually it’s, “Oops, we’re pregnant.” But she was like, “But I want to be back on my TV show. I want to have the baby around this time.” I was like, “Oh, well, I don’t know if you can plan nature, but we’ll figure out.”


So I started taking more and more courses. Like I started the ICPA diplomat program. I did doula training, did doula training twice because I enjoyed so much. I did hypnobirthing. I did sacred pregnancy, ICEA childbirth educator training.


Laura: He’s like, “What’s going on over here?”


Lindsey: Yeah.


Laura: Sorry.


Lindsey: I just became so fascinated by birth world in our country and I just started writing blogs. And the more I read, the more I was like. “Oh, you can have a baby in the hospital or at home. You have a choice.” But the choices are kind of underground or, “Oh, you can eat healthy and you don’t have to eat for two and eat shitty donuts and things like that.”


Like that’s the generation that we grew up with. It’s like we grew up where the womb was a completely separate environment from the mom. But so much research has been done to show, “Oh, you’re actually teaching your kiddo stuff. You’re actually sharing energy. You’re sharing nutrients and even movement patterns.” Like it’s crazy.


So yeah. I was like, “This is where I need to be. This is where my heart is.” And one thing led to another and I slowly, slowly taken more and more steps into being like full time BIRTHFIT and now here we are. It’s crazy.


Laura: Yeah. It’s so incredible. And for those of you guys who don’t know, I’m BIRTHFIT Regional Director for Santa Cruz. And the more I learned from Lindsey the more I realized this was also a calling for me. And so it’s a powerful, powerful thing and BIRTHFIT is so much more like a movement like we kind of mentioned in the intro. And it’s based on four pillars. So do you want to dive in a little bit into what those pillars are?


Lindsey: Sure. Yeah. So our four pillars are fitness, nutrition, chiropractic and mindset. And I dabbled so much with like, “Oh, should it just be fitness, nutrition, chiropractic or fitness, nutrition, mindset or mindset, chiropractic, fit? Like three looks good, four is like I don’t know.”


But what really solidified me in the four pillars was my doula experience with actual people in the birth scenario. And the more I got to witness and share the birth experience with these women, the more I realized how important dabbling and having a practice within each of the four pillars, how important that was going into birth or even going into the postpartum period and transitioning into becoming a mother.


So yeah, there’s one in particular that solidified my mind with chiropractic is if you think about it not everybody’s been to a chiropractor. Sometimes they hear horror stories, or they get freaked out. But think about it. Your pelvis is your vehicle for birth. And even just on the musculoskeletal sense, if one side is restricted, then that baby is hanging out in the uterus inside the pelvis and the space on that side is going to be decreased, not as much surface area for baby to move around in.


And you want like the grand scheme of things. The baby is like a parasite or a college student, that’s a little more appropriate. Like a college student that’s renting this house that’s going to do whatever they want to this house within this house. And they’re going to get in the most comfortable positions ever.


So yeah, I would want my hips and my pelvis and my lumbar spine functioning as dynamically and stable as possible. Because that’s the vehicle for this growth, this health stage and for labor and delivery.


Yeah. And then nutrition, I mean I’m kind of balancing around, but if you think about it nutrition. Like eat real food. What kills me is I have people that come in and they’re like, “Oh, my diet is great.” Like, “Oh, what’s your diet.” They’re like, “I order these premade meals and you look at them and they’re like tofu or vegan or all the sodium.”


[0:25:05]


And I’m like, “Holy shit. This is a nightmare.” Or all the shakes in the world and I’m like, “Oh, my god.” But yeah, we love diet that’s real food. And if you think without even being pregnant, what you put into your body is like medicine. So you have to take care of your body and give it the nutrients, give your tissues the nutrients that it needs.


And the birth process whether it’s vaginal or cesarean is an inflammatory state. So if you’re already inflamed, if you’re tissues are already inflamed through the crap you put into your body then that immune response or that inflammation response is already going to be heightened. And it may decrease the amount of time that mom can labor before she feels exhausted or blood pressure rises or things like that. So yeah, you’re feeling poor performance basically.


And then yeah, fitness. Fitness.


Jesse: Oh, fitness.


Lindsey: Yeah. Coach’s BIRTHFIT coach seminar.


Laura: Seriously. Seriously though. No, no, we mean it.


Lindsey: Like I love and I get emails all the time and I say this like I love these emails because I can share so much. I get emails like, “Oh, my nutrition is good, but what moves can I do during my pregnancy?” Or, “I know movements so what can I do for nutrition?”


And like, “Well, do you really know movement and programming? Are you really that in tune with your body?” And for us, like the movements are the most tangible way to start to connect with your body. And we don’t know if labor and delivery is going to be three hours or three days. It’s going to require at least the three main metabolic pathways, the energy pathways.


And the number one reason for, let’s say, home birth transfers from home birth to the hospital is that of exhaustion. So either the mom hasn’t stayed fueled or she isn’t in physical shape to have those energy stores for labor and delivery. So yeah, functional fitness through all ranges of motion, strength, endurance, stamina, balance range of motion.


I say range of motion instead of flexibility because I want the person to be strong throughout the whole range of motion rather than just let’s say the concentric portion of the lift. So yeah.


Laura: I know for myself I’m like hypermobile. And I had chronic back pain and stuff. And working on this more like focusing on stability versus flexibility. And like you get mobility in the right ways when you work on stability. And I think that’s one thing especially when women are pregnant. That’s so huge because all of the relaxin or we get extra mobile.


Though stability is important in ensuring that things kind of like stay where they’re supposed to and expand where they’re supposed to, but not the other way around I guess. It’s really powerful.


Lindsey: Right. Yeah, it’s so true. You can’t have flexibility or the range of motion without the stability first.


Jess: Absolutely. As you’re talking, it’s just I’m so excited about this weekend. But I think my birth story will have gone live before this episode airs. But my first birth was like a marathon birth. It was over 24 hours, like three hours pushing. It was a birth center birth and I almost had to transfer at the end because the baby was posterior. So it was just like the perfect storm of all these things happening.


But just hearing you say like — throughout my pregnancy, I continued to work out. I continued to eat well and all of that good stuff that really if I hadn’t have done that I can almost — I mean because at the end I was just like, “Please. Oh, my gosh. Let this be over.” I was so tired.


But knowing like if I hadn’t done all that stuff in preparation and I didn’t even know I was doing it in preparation at that time. Because I didn’t know about BIRTHFIT or anything, but it could have been way different. It could have been a way different outcome.


Lindsey: For sure. Yeah.


Laura: And I had the nurses and midwives at my birth were like — once they found out the preparation I had done, now they’re asking me for a card and they want to start to share what I did with other women. Because it was very obvious I think when a woman is prepared mentally and physically for that experience and how they go into it. I had been up for 28 hours at that point, no sleep at all. But because you prepared, you can be okay and you can get through it. It’s pretty powerful stuff.


[0:30:11]


Jess: It’s powerful.


Lindsey: Yeah. Through the physical training, you’re training the mindset, but you’re also learning to surrender to movement. Okay, what is my body telling me right now? And like all of labor, all 24 hours I’m sure wasn’t just charging up the mountain. There are probably a little rest time.


The midwife or whoever is probably saying, “Hey, I need you to lay down right now or eat something right now.” And so then okay that’s your rest in between intervals. It may not feel like rest, but you’re trying to gather your breath. You’re resetting. Okay, conserving energy. Okay, here we go again. There it is.


But yeah, it’s so powerful. So fitness, nutrition, chiropractic and mindset, yeah. And I don’t know what the majority of the audiences that’s listening, but a lot of what attracts women to fitness is their super, I don’t want to say type A, but just get shit done type of personality, which is what attracted me to the training world in the beginning.


And especially the CrossFit world. I was like, “How efficient is CrossFit?” Somebody else decides the workout for you, you come in and you don’t even have to think and there you go. Sixty minutes, boom, we’re good.


So I love that, but part of the biggest challenge with that type of personality is the mindset. Like learning to surrender to the whole motherhood transition period, the phase, this chapter of your life. And birth is one of those things that yes you need to be in shape for, but you can’t out work it or work out, out do it, you know.


Jess: Yes.


Laura: We had a lot of discussions about this, Lindsey, while I was pregnant about the word surrender resonates so well because that’s me to a T. I want to control everything, and I want to have my workouts and I want to, you know. And so learning to listen to my body and to take breaks when I needed to and push a little harder when I needed to. And all that really helps with the actual birth process and that learning to surrender at the right times.


And Evie is sitting here just smiling at me as I say this. It’s really funny. She’s like, “Yeah, mom.”


Lindsey: Yeah. I already taught you so much, mom.


Laura: You have.


Jess: I love hearing all this coming from you two because it’s like I — even and again my postpartum experience after the first go-round, suffering from probably undiagnosed postpartum depression, postpartum anxiety. I had worked so hard on the physical aspects like what I was putting in my body and how I was working out and even chiropractic care.


I think I was missing that pillar. I think that’s why it’s so essential you have to have everything. I didn’t have the mindset pillar. I had such a hard time transitioning into motherhood and letting go of control. It was so tough for me.


And then the second go-round is completely different. But I love that that is a key part of what you’re doing is that mindset piece because it’s so huge, so huge.


Lindsey: Yeah. I used to think they were all equal pillars, but I think for sure mindset is the foundation. And then you got the other three.


Jess: Yeah, right, right.


Laura: I think mindset allows you to fully experience the other three. Once you get your mind right done, you can understand fully like what chiropractic will do for your body. You can understand fully what then this is doing and nutrition and all those things. And then you’re doing it more for like the benefit of your baby and your body and the whole journey versus aesthetics or whatever it is. And that’s why I think it does kind of reign supreme.


Lindsey: Yeah. I know I’ve shared these books with you, but for anybody listening like Mindset by Carol Dweck and The Obstacle Is The Way. They’re not birth books, but they are totally relevant. Because as both of you experienced I’m sure like you can have this dream birth and this birth plan.



But we do a birth preference worksheet in our Prenatal Series. And then we come up with our birth preferences. But at the top, we have this birth mission statement of how we want this birth to feel. Because you can’t say, “Hey, I want this and I want the lights dim and I want this smell.”


Because when labor starts, you may want no talking, you may want rap music and that all of a sudden everything is out the window. Or like for instance like you said you thought about transferring. Like okay, you have to have a plan for when you want to transfer, and you have to be okay with that.


So knowing what the overall intention is and knowing that okay, the obstacle is not here to slap us in the face. It’s here to teach us. And if we go straight through the obstacle, we evolve as human beings. We learn something. We embrace something. And we actually come out more antifragile on the other side.


[0:35:16]


Jess: Oh, my gosh. You said that — have you read that book, Antifragile?


Lindsey: I have not read the whole thing. Logan’s read it like five times. So I hear the close notes from him.


Jess: I know. My husband — I literally have it right on my coffee table. He’s like, “You have to read this.” I’m like, “Ugh.”


Lindsey: Yeah, it’s good, it’s good. Yeah.


Jess: Okay.


Laura: And we’ll link to all these books and the show notes too.


Jess: Awesome. I know. We have a couple listener questions. Do you want to dive into that?


Lindsey: It’s okay. Yeah, yeah.


Laura: Sweet.


Jess: Awesome. So I will go with the first one. So —


Laura: Can you hear her snorting?


Jess: Yes. It’s hilarious. So our first listener ask, “If using midwives,” and her husband will be her support person. “Do you still recommend a doula? What about a postpartum doula?” And this is for a home birth specifically. Because you’re a doula, correct?


Lindsey: Yeah.


Jess: Okay. What are your thoughts on all that?


Lindsey: Is it a first birth?


Jess: It doesn’t say. I’m assuming yes.


Laura: Yeah, first birth.


Jess: Okay.


Lindsey: I usually 100% recommend a doula in a hospital. First birth I would at least 80% recommend a doula for a home birth. Because some states honestly if you need to transfer, some states have rules against midwives entering the hospital or who can be your companion when you enter a hospital.


But midwives they’re in the same category as doctor as in receiving the baby or some people may say catch the baby. But that’s their responsibility. Their responsibility for bringing baby earth side, helping you do that.


They won’t show up to help you labor which a doula will show up maybe 20 hours before and help you labor. Give dad some rest time. Maybe go get you some food if you don’t have any food. They’re basically your assistant and they’re going to keep your birth desires at the top, number one priority.


So it’s always good to have somebody that’s been around the block, seen this a time or two. You definitely agree with their energy. Like your energies connect. And somebody that is not non-judgment. They’re there to support you and your partner and help you through that motherhood transition of that laboring phase. So yes.


Second time I would say this is home birth second time. You got a midwife, you got your husband, maybe not. You’ve done this before. You kind of know what to expect. But first time, definitely.


Postpartum doula, I would definitely say if you’re having twins. Like set aside money for a postpartum doula at least just to help you get your sanity back. And with the feeding because once you fed one you got to feed the other. Once you change the other, you got to go back to the other one.


It’s like juggling and you’re juggling probably your partner too, everybody’s feelings. So definitely, definitely, definitely with multiples.


Laura: Right on. I’ve responded. She messaged me and I was like, “We’re going to pick Lindsey’s brain about this.” But I will say having a doula was a game changer for me. But I did, I had a hospital birth.


So for me, having her come to the house allowed me to stay there as long as humanly possible. And that was so huge for my mind and the whole experience. But with a home birth — and it also depends on her midwife I’d say like depending on what kind of relationship they have there. If it’s more just like a medical kind of relationship or you know.


Lindsey: Yeah, go ahead.


Jess: I was just going to say I had a doula my first birth too. But I think where I went wrong just like you said, I was just like, “Yeah, I’ll just get a doula. I’ll get any doula.” And so I had one. I don’t know if we necessarily connected as well as we probably should have. But I don’t even remember her being there. But I don’t know if that’s just because I was so like inward.


Lindsey: You’re so out of it. Yeah.


Jess: Yeah. Like I was just like in it and my husband was the only person that I wanted to see. But I also didn’t have a hospital birth. And so I would definitely — I could see like if I had transferred, he and I being so focused on each other in trying to get this baby out and not having to navigate the politics of the hospital and not having to voice what I want to happen.


[0:40:14]


Like having someone there to hold this base for me basically to let my needs be known. That would have been invaluable I know for sure 100%. So yeah.


Lindsey: Absolutely.


Jess: Do you want to ask the next one, Laura?


Laura: Yeah. The next question is from a soon to be mama. And she is curious as to your thoughts on having a new baby in for adjustments. How soon? Anything to know around that? And I’ll just say that on our end that Evie’s nine weeks and she’s been in for four. She’s seen the chiropractor four times at this point.


And I noticed like an immediate response. And her eyes seem brighter and she tends to sleep better. And it’s pretty authentic. And she doesn’t have a lot going on. So I imagine even with that difference, if the baby is colicky or has sleep issues or whatever, I could see it being huge. But I’m super curious to hear your thoughts.


Lindsey: Yeah. I mean I think you said it very well. When you take a baby in for their first chiropractic check or adjustment, they’re basically looking to see if there’s any tension throughout the spinal cord. So the birth process, let’s say, if baby is vaginal birth, they go through the canal. That’s part of the head molding process. It’s part of being a human and that has to happen.


If baby was born via cesarean, then definitely some cranial work I recommend all the time just to help with that head molding, skull molding process. If there are anything like latch issues right away, I would say get a chiropractor.


There are tons and tons of chiropractors now around the United States that are no an associate with BIRTHFIT and or ICPA. So they have some pediatric experience. And they either go to people’s houses or they’ll be like, “Okay, bring your baby in after hours.” That way you’re not exposed to everybody and it’s a lot more of a calm environment.


Latch issues, colicky, gassy, anything like that. I haven’t been part of, but I’ve heard some amazing stories where baby just wasn’t thriving maybe. I don’t know if thriving is the right word. But not feeding, not doing anything. And within two or three adjustments, like Laura said baby is fine totally doing baby things.


Laura: Like snorting.


Lindsey: Like snorting. I usually tell people if birth and everything went okay, baby can latch then try to see me within the first two weeks. I don’t want them to stress out like getting to me or me getting to them. Adding more stress is not part of the deal here. So within the first two weeks, but if something’s going on like that try to make time to a) get to mom or I have a great, great referral in my neck of the woods for a cranial pediatric chiro. And if I know it’s going to require her, I’ll send her right over.


Jess: I don’t want to take up too much time either too. But I saw Dr. Stamps for my second one. Dr. Stamps was your guy, right?


Lindsey: Yeah.


Jess: So I used to work there. I had my second one and she had to get a bunch of tie revision because our nursing relationship was not starting out too good. So after the revision, he was like, “Come in.” He let me come to his house.


But I mean I have worked with him for a long time. And just so to let people know, like he basically held her, was looking at her, talking to her and he’s doing his thing. And she doesn’t even know what’s going. She’s just like, “Aah.”


Lindsey: It’s so gentle.


Jess: It is. It’s not your typical you’d expect of like if adult walked in. You’re not going to hear cracks. It’s very different. It’s very gentle, but it’s very effective.


Lindsey: Yeah. And they’re so responsive. Like if you think about adults, we’ve had years and years of just grime and stuff build up in our joints, in our systems. So we may take six visits before we see change. Where a baby, it may be like, “Oh, she slept great tonight after that adjustment.”


[0:45:05]


Laura: She would always have like a giant poop after the adjustment. It was like things are free again. So it was amazing.


Lindsey: Yeah. That’s it, mom, and that felt great. But yeah, within the first two weeks I would say come in, get baby checked, get mom checked.


Laura: Awesome.


Jess: Right on. We have some questions. I know we’ve got like six minutes.


Lindsey: Cool. Yeah, we can do some.


Laura: At least one more, yeah.


Jess: So this one asked, she’s six months postpartum. She’s returned to work already. She’s found that her energy level has really tanked. She is really asking what she should be focusing on and prioritizing to not get overwhelmed by everything. She really strives to focus on the positive. Her nutrition is solid. She wakes up at 5:00 a.m. to exercise for 20 minutes and then walks 30 minutes on her lunch every day.


Laura: And I didn’t add that the 5:00 a.m. she only does that two or three times per week. So she’s not doing that every day.


Jess: Overkill, okay. So she wants your take on really how to kind of get the energy level more stabilized and what to really focus on at this point in her postpartum journey.


Lindsey: So she’s six months postpartum?


Jess: Uh-hmm.


Lindsey: So here’s what I would say first is your bodies can’t see everything that’s healing on the inside. It takes ligamentous tissue somewhere on average I think of like 270 days to heal. So at the six month mark, that is still not near 270 days. So your energy stores, the nutrients that you’re consuming, all of that is still going to heal your body.


You might need more sleep and I’m glad Laura interrupted and said she only does that two or three times a week. Because if you’re doing that every day, I’d definitely be like, “Okay, how much sleep are we getting?” If sleep isn’t happening, I would pay attention to how you’re recovering like sleep, what you’re doing on your off days, are you still mentally engaged on your off days? Because that’s pretty draining as well.


And then fats like eat tons of fat. Make sure you’re eating enough. And if you haven’t had a blood panel recently, I would go the blood panel route. Because now would be a great time to get a glimpse, a window of what’s going on inside your body right now.


And if you can do that with a functional medicine doctor or a naturopath or whoever in your area then I would definitely do that. Because they can help find the right supplements that are suitable for you and what’s going on within your body. But usually, sleep and recovery is a big issue and the not eating enough. Does that help?


Laura: Yeah, that’s awesome.


Jess: That’s great. And she doesn’t say if she’s breastfeeding too, but I know that like you said not eating enough that can play into it especially if you’re breastfeeding. I know I still eat tons more than I ever did.


Lindsey: Eat tons, yeah, yeah.


Laura: I met with a friend of ours who had a baby at the same time yesterday. And now, we do earlier dinners like 5:00 because she wants to nurse a lot in the evenings. And by 8:00, I could eat like a full another dinner. It’s so great. I’m starving, but I love it. It’s my body telling me what it needs.


Especially now that I’m exercising a lot more. Adding that back in. Just paying attention to what your body needs. And there might be a week where 5:00 a.m. sounds atrocious, then don’t wake up. Don’t do those 20-minute workouts. It’s kind of like there could be an ebb and flow I feel like week-by-week in terms of what she needs.


Maybe one week, she needs more sleep. Maybe one week, she needs to move more. And then also nutrient needs are going to change. Maybe more fat one week, maybe she craves more glucose, carbs the next. It’s interesting. Paying attention is huge.


Lindsey: Yeah. Pay attention to your cycles. Mel just did a little webinar on rhythm, like finding the rhythm, eating with your rhythm. And especially with women, we operate in cycles. Like even when I’m on my period or maybe this woman has started her period again, I don’t know.


But maybe don’t exercise right now especially during the first nine months, 12 months postpartum if you have your period back and you start to see cycles starting to happen. Use that period as a rest and recovery type of space. Like okay, my body is going through a lot. We’re getting back in our rhythm connecting with earth.


So I’m going to recover during this time. This five or six days, I’m going to get chiropractic care, massage, acupuncture. Whatever makes me feel nourished inside my body.


[0:50:04]


Jess: Yeah, love it.


Laura: This last one I feel like is an awesome way to wrap up because I think I know your answer and I know my answer. And I think Jess has an answer for this too. But this woman asked, she’s in Canada and cares about maybe becoming — like started to become a BIRTHFIT coach and maybe a regional director someday. And she says, “Do you ever lose your passion for working with this population with a kid or without? And as you age, do you see yourself doing this for a while?”


And I think I know the answer, but I feel like this is a good one. I know for myself, having diven and dove, dive into this a little bit.


Jess: Diven, I like that one.


Laura: I truly feel like this is what I’m going to do for the rest of my life. And Lindsey and I and Jess, we’ve talked about this, this concept of like there’s a lot of junk, crap going on in the world that is very unnerving and can be depressing and scary. But I feel like one of the best avenues I have to make a change is to empower moms and support moms who are then having children, who are then going to raise these children to be citizens of this world.


And so by empowering them and having babies in a place of self-love, I think that’s one of the most impactful things we can do. And we’re supporting moms who are in a — we’re supporting a population who’s so under supported. So I feel like there’s such a need for this and I don’t see it ever getting old. That’s my thoughts. Lindsey, what about you?


Lindsey: Yes, you nailed it, huh?


Laura: I learn from the best.


Lindsey: Oh, yeah. The biggest thing for me is service, like service to others. And like Laura said, this population is so underserved. And I don’t see the fire going out anytime soon. In fact, I think it will evolve. And maybe after I have kids, if I have kids, when we have kids, whatever that looks like. Maybe 20 years, BIRTHFIT has menopause stuff going on, more women’s health.


Jess: Look at that. I love it.


Lindsey: Yeah. But I think there’s so much fluff out there. And just in the last week, there’s a super terrible NPR article about breathing and sucking in. And the media is just bought out and it just makes me so frustrated.


And women are fed junk during the most vulnerable time of their lives. Like this motherhood transition where there — it’s so much exploration and it requires so much soul searching. But then they’re marketed towards, they’re scared into all these decisions, these purchases.


And I view BIRTHFIT as the truth. I view BIRTHFIT as, “Hey, we’re no bullshit. This is going to be here. This isn’t going anywhere.” So after you entertain the idea of a $1,000 stroller, we’ll still be here. And if you have questions we’ll still be here. We’re not the people that are, “Hey, let’s get the body back after baby.”


Because no, that body, it’s not there. It’s a different chapter in your life. We’ve evolved we are in the queen in training phase. We are embracing the queen in training phase. We are transitioning into higher beings. And if we try to go back to who we once were, it’s just we’re going to be met with resistance and that’s not part of the journey.


Each of our journeys are meant to be lived and part of that is us as women. Maybe that’s embracing the birth process or the motherhood transition and getting all we can out of that. And then transitioning into parenthood and embracing that with a big open heart.


And then aging. And the aging process is so — people may view this as like the downhill. But I’ve been reading a lot lately about it. And to me, it’s like the plower and you’re just blooming. There is me blooming at 26 or 25 or even 18. I thought I was blooming, but no.


I didn’t know my head from my butt at that time. So I’m blooming as I age. And I think women are just to graceful and such beautiful creatures. And when we begin to accept our soul power and what’s deep down inside. And like Laura said, when we pass that self-love onto the next generation, we’re not only setting that next generation up in a much — like starting off on a better foot.


[0:55:03]


But we’re also healing years of — I don’t want to say trauma, but trauma in maybe our maternal side, lineage or even grandparents and so on. Like there’s a lot of trauma that’s happened within the past —


Laura: Genetic kind of, like what gets passed on, yeah.


Lindsey: Totally, totally, that gets passed down to the next generation and the next generation. So yeah. Once we embrace that soul power as women and we charge for, then we’re going to make shifts in this world. And I think that’s super powerful.


Jess: I’m going to cry.


Laura: I know. I’m getting goosebumps.


Jess: I can’t help it.


Lindsey: There’s a quote I just posted on Instagram and it was about embracing. Like just imagine if a woman whether she has a cesarean birth or a vaginal birth. But imagine that she leaves that experience and she feels empowered and ready to freaking rock motherhood.


Yeah, she’s got some recovery to do. But imagine that. Like that’s way more powerful than being scared into decisions, into trauma. Just shit that shouldn’t happen, you know. So I think that’s pretty powerful.


And when we can sit back and observe the birth process and watch it unfold and watch these women unfold into these beautiful beings. That they have to go on this journey. Like as doula, I’m just there to support them throughout this journey and to watch them turn into this awesome rose or flower that they become. It’s magic. There’s not another word for it.


Jess: Oh, my gosh.


Laura: I love it.


Jess: If this is even like a snippet of what this weekend’s going to be like, I’m going to be a boring mess. Oh, my god.


Lindsey: People cry. It’s okay.


Laura: I cry a lot.


Jess: Okay. I don’t want to be the only one.


Laura: I just wanted to think back because I was 22 weeks pregnant when I did the coach’s seminar. It was so fun.


Lindsey: Yeah, yeah.


Jess: Well, Lindsey, where can people find you?


Lindsey: Oh, yeah. Well, they can find me in Venice, California usually.


Laura: Yeah. Go to DEUCE. It’s magic there too. That’s one of the coolest gyms out there.


Lindsey: Yeah. Or they can find us at BIRTHFIT, on Instagram or Facebook. Yeah, my personal Instagram is gigemlindsey. Yeah. And then if you’re looking for a regional director, you can look on our website. There’s a map there. Or if you just type in BIRTHFIT, you’ll see on Instagram all the other names will pop up whether it’s Santa Cruz, Dallas, Austin, things like that. But yeah.


Laura: Sweet. And as always, you can find me at laura.radicalroots, jess.holdthespace on Instagram. And then feel free to directly message us. Also, you can email us at modernmamasposcast@gmail.com. And this has been awesome, Lindsey. Thank you so much. We’ll let you go because we know you got to catch a flight and do amazing things. I’ll see you soon.


Lindsey: Thanks. [0:58:16] [Indiscernible].


Laura: Yeah. Thank you for coming.


Lindsey: Yeah. It’s great to see your faces.


Laura: Awesome. All right.


Jess: Well, bye, guys.


Laura: I’ll see you soon and thank you so much and thanks for listening guys.


Lindsey: Okay, bye.


Laura: Bye. Have fun.


Lindsey: Hello, lovelies. I hope you enjoyed that chat in which I was on the Modern Mamas Podcast with Jess Gaertner and Laura Bruner. So if there’s one thing you can get from this whole episode, I hope you get what BIRTHFIT is. BIRTHFIT is a movement. It’s a complete mindset shift. It’s a choice. It’s a style in which we approach the motherhood transition.

But in all seriousness, I hope you gained a little bit more insight into the big picture of BIRTHFIT. And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out. info@birthfit.com and we will get back to you. Bye.


[0:59:38] End of Audio

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