In today's episode I interview a woman who was in graduate school studying nutrition during her first sustained pregnancy; she experiences a lot of lapses in care, both for the miscarriage that precedes her first pregnancy, for the first trimester, and more during her first labor; but she learns a great deal about herself and the process.

She shares:
* What she thinks first trimester care should look like
*The concept of "Trimester Zero" and the panatal period
* What she wishes she'd done differently

You Can find Brandy's company, Pivotal Origins, here
Evidence Based Reasons for Never Ending Symptoms

Today I finish my conversation with Charlotte. We talk about her next two births, one which involved an issue with the placenta, the second of which was a precipitous labor--contractions and birth within an hour--and how those experiences taught her to accept the help on offer from her community.

In this episode my guest talks about a host of challenges she managed during her pregnancy including PCOS, miscarriage, an unexpected appendicitis that leads to a preterm birth.

Through it all, she perseveres, learning something from each challenge:
* the benefits of preparation
* the benefits of hospital care
* the limits of her own control over pregnancy

and takes these ideas into her reproductive future.
I also include the insights of a fantastic OB. What follows is the first part of our conversation.

Today's guest is a well known author who wrote a book called Eleven Hours which follows the labor experience of a pregnant woman and her nurse.

It's beautifully written and we discuss the author's own experience and how that did and did not impact her approach to the beautiful novel she wrote.

One thing to note: we reference the old name of the podcast, War Stories from the Womb a few times..if you didn't know the show by that name, that's what we are talking about.

Find Pamela Erens here: https://www.pamelaerens.com/
Eleven Hours

Last week Jennifer talked about the different emotions she experienced when she unexpectedly got pregnant.

That crowd of differing emotions follows her through the birth and into postpartum.

Her experience is one that many of us can relate to and giving voice to all the different aspects of the sometimes wonderful/sometimes painful or boring aspects of the transition from being an individual to someone's mother is powerful.

We pick up where we left off last week, Jennifer has given birth after 5 hours of pushing and is on her way to a surgical suite for a post delivery surgery.

Perineal Tears

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/21212-vaginal-tears-during-childbirth

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/labor-and-delivery/in-depth/vaginal-tears/art-20546855

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK559068/

You can Find Jennifer here: https://jennifererwincoaching.com/

Today's guest shares her experience of an unintended pregnancy.

With almost every pregnancy women are expected to narrow range of reactions, from excited to ecstatic.

But stepping into pregnancy is such an enormous change that the limits to what we are expected to feel doesn't make sense.

In the first part of our conversation we talk how today's guest managed the mass of feelings that probably many of us feel in making this transition.

Living Compassion
https://centerformsc.org/
https://www.cnvc.org/

Unintended Pregnancy/JAMA
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jama/fullarticle/2797874

You can find more about Jennifer and her work here: https://jennifererwincoaching.com/

This week I finish my conversation with Becky.

She's a fertility mindset coach using hypnosis to help women who are struggling with their fertility, a technique she was drawn to learn after it helped her get pregnant after six years of infertility.

At first blush, this may sound woo woo (Becky's term), but when you dig into some of the details, it's understandable how mindset could affect physiology.

We pick up where we left off last week. Becky has decided to pursue an alternative route to fertility after trying all the conventional methods available to her for the previous six years.

Mind body connection
Enhancing Healing through guided Imagery

Stress & repoduction
Stress puts Doubly Whammy on Reproductive System, Fertility

Blocking Hormone Could Eliminate Stress Induced Infertility

Stress increases putative gonadotropin inhibitory hormone and decreases luteinizing hormone in in male rats

Find Becky at https://www.lilyandbeefertility.com/

In today's episode I talk with a woman about her very intentional trek through infertility--not intentional in that she was looking for it, but in the ways she managed all the OB, fertility and surgical issues that arose for her. She talks about the importance of educating yourself and advocating for yourself. These are both lessons learned when the absence of both education and advocacy had real consequences for her. She shares both what didn't work and what ultimately did work (spoiler: it was hypnosis), and how it has changed her life. What follows is the first part of our conversation.

Chances of Getting pregnant in a cycle
https://www.fertstert.org/article/S0015-0282(16)62849-2/fulltext

https://www.acog.org/womens-health/experts-and-stories/the-latest/trying-to-get-pregnant-heres-when-to-have-sex

What's Endometriosis?
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/endometriosis/symptoms-causes/syc-20354656

Hydrosalpinx
https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24437-hydrosalpinx

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320677#infertility

Hypnosis for Health
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/2515690X17748744

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0156911

https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/1567722/1/Barry%20et%20al%202017%20Relaxation%20%2526%20androgens%20in%20PCOS%20published%20in%20CH%2526IT.pdf

Podcast with Dr. David Spiegel (hypnosis)