DR. CECE BROOKS
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Welcome back friends. Today I am interviewing the discovery doc, Dr. Cece here. She is a functional medicine nurse practitioner with a doctorate, and she has an incredible account all about alternative and holistic health options, especially related to Oh, Pregnancy birth and postpartum. And so we're having her on today to really give you like a whole new perspective on options that you have, that you may not even know about that you can do to help make your pregnancy the healthiest, to protect your birth, to have a natural birth, and even how to have a healthy thriving postpartum.
And we're going to talk all about labs. What kind of nutrient levels you want to pay attention to, how to keep your immune system up, how to have a natural birth, protect that physiological birth and the postpartum, and even what kind of supplements to take and how to ensure a healthy breastfeeding journey.
So she's got a wealth of information. We'll see how far, how deep we can get into these subjects, but welcome Dr. Cece. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited to talk about this and just to be on with you and have an awesome conversation. Nice. So tell us what are some of the when you meet with a client or a woman who's pregnant in your practice, what are some of the things that you may coach her on or options you may give her that conventional medicine doesn't necessarily cover?
So for me, it starts even before that woman is pregnant. I love to get women before, while They're just deciding, hey, I might want to be actively trying to conceive. What can I do to just get my body ready? And I don't think that is an area that preconception is an area that's not really focused upon in conventional medicine whatsoever.
So how can we prep the body for your greatest, just ability to conceive and then have a wonderful pregnancy? And that starts well before you even start trying. So I think that's So when women come to me in that situation, I like to dive into their history. It, part of it is unique. You know, it's, there's not one blanket in terms of I run labs X, Y, and Z for every single woman in that situation.
I really have to listen to the history to see where there's unique kind of differences from woman to woman. But in general, I really love to One look at immune function. I like to dissect even a CBC, CD57, looking at immunoglobulins, looking at how is your immune system operating? Do I see any little flags within those breakdowns?
I like to look at a basic That's pathophysiological function in terms of thyroid, iron, ferritin most importantly, I would say are the micronutrients, B12, folate, vitamin D, both in the cells and outside the cells. So intercellular and in the serum, because it is, and hormones are also a very big one.
Hormones are very big. I get women in the situation where they're only coming to me preconception because they've had a previous miscarriage and it is so common that those we see large nutrient deficiencies that can cause miscarriages that are unfortunately so easy to fix. So I like that's kind of my baseline.
If there's other things within their history that I feel I need to dive deeper in than I will, sometimes I like to look at viral loads or bacterial loads just to make sure we're housing certain viruses or bacteria and that we should have come across and kind of should remember, but they should be in these nice little gift wrap packages at the back of your immune system.
Sometimes those wake up and cause a problem. So I like to also make sure that those are at bay. So that even starts. Before trying to conceive is just optimizing that woman's health. And then sometimes it also takes bringing the spouse in because it's not always, you know, it's not just up to the woman in terms of a healthy, healthy baby.
We have to make sure that the spouse is healthy too. Yes, for sure. Yeah. The sperm cow and healthy sperm are really important in that conception journey. And I love the way you approach this and really just giving You know, couples that the best chance, the best possible, like healthy outcome of setting yourself up for success in making sure you're healthy before going into pregnancy, because pregnancy does tax the body and really that baby can deplete the body of a lot of key nutrients and minerals.
Can you talk about that a bit? And what, like, what are some of the most important markers or nutrients to make sure. Are in a healthy place in pregnancy. Yeah, there is one thing about that you mentioned is men's testosterone. And that is, it's so important because I feel like there's so much pressure put on women to conceive and to get pregnant.
And when we're not able to get pregnant, it's our fault. And oftentimes it's the man as well. So looking into the male's health is equally as important, but in terms of looking at some of the specific micronutrients, I would say The most important folate, B12, vitamin D would be my top three into, I mean, there's, there's so much more to that, but if we're just answering it straight, very straight and narrow those three but I definitely have, once women tell me that they are actively trying to conceive, I have a regimen that I like to put them on that covers my basis because I also feel that it's very important.
To continue to really gently detox. We don't want to overly detox while we're pregnant, but we want to keep those methylation panels nice and open or our methylation cycles, nice and open and our liver function optimized. So it's not just about three micronutrient levels. It's making sure we're keeping our body at the best equilibrium because you're right, that little nugget.
It's going to steal all of your nutrients to thrive and survive. I've heard it described as like a tiny alien sucking the life out of you. And I'm like, I don't like that picture, but exactly. They do suck nutrients. And you know, a really like drastic way to look at it is women who unfortunately puke their entire pregnancy.
They and don't gain any weight that baby is still growing and thriving because that baby is taking every ounce It is like a parasite if you think about it a little bit Yeah and I've heard it, you know, it's interesting because I I remember in my first pregnancy being so paranoid that my baby wasn't getting enough nutrients and also feeling kind of baffled that then the doctors and nurses and midwives didn't really run many tests or check on the Like baby, like, is it growing healthy?
Like other than the two kind of standard ultrasounds, I'm like, how do you know they're getting enough vitamin D or vitamin C or B, or all these, my brain was just like in hyper anxiety mode. I think this is the first overdrive. This is the first time I'm like, but there's so many things they need to grow.
What, how do I know they're getting them all? Then I later I learned, Oh, well they just, if, even if you don't have Even if you're not like well nourished or eating enough, like for women who are puking every day, they're going to take it from your bones, which is not a good thing, ladies, because they don't want to get osteoporosis, but the body ensures that the baby gets what it needs, even to the detriment of mom.
later on and so that's why it's so important to make sure you are well nourished and have an adequate mineral supply even going into pregnancy just to affirm what you're saying because otherwise you could be setting yourself up for problems much later down later and you'll rebound postpartum you know we wonder why So depleted in the postpartum era.
And it's, yes, it's because that baby's kind of taken all our nutrients and moms, I feel aren't supported adequately. Yes. Our prenatal care, right. And okay. You're taking a prenatal vitamin and that's it. That's wonderful. But it needs to be more unique than that. It needs to be more, you know, tailored to what your body is telling us that it needs.
And one other thing that I forgot to mention earlier with kind of that preconception labs and goes into like, right when women become pregnant, There are very specific labs that I'm running that as well. Thyroid function is very important. Progesterone is very important. I can't tell you, unfortunately, how many patients I have that did suffer a miscarriage because of low progesterone within the first couple weeks gestation.
And then I will, and I don't act as an OB, but I do like to work alongside OBs. And so I'll run my own labs and I always say, Hey, refer to your, your OB, but I'm here to kind of think outside the box to look at things outside the box and protect you and protect this baby. So I'm very specific about progesterone and unfortunately, women have had low progesterone and historically, and I know that.
So I'm like, okay, as soon as you get pregnant, we're going to, you know, call in some bioidentical progesterone and get on progesterone, go see your OB. And that OB will pull them off the progesterone and then they miscarry. And so that is something that is so darn important is making sure that those progesterone levels are adequate to sustain that pregnancy and then continuing with it for a, an appropriate amount of time you know, to, to protect that little nugget that's growing.
Sometimes the solution is, is very, it's right in front of us. Now, do you test women after the first miscarriage or do you wait for like three, which is typical? If I follow them, so there is, I have like many different parts to our practice. So again, we're not an OB office. If it is a current patient of mine who I see for functional medicine and they get pregnant and then the situation like that happens and they're already an established patient, then I absolutely will run their labs.
Kind of right away to see where the hiccup was that we can change it moving forward If where where I typically get patients is when they've had miscarriages in the past And then they come to my office and they're like, okay, I want to try to conceive again I've had miscarriages in the past What can we do?
So sometimes I don't get that opportunity, but if I do, yes, I take it and run with it. Yeah. Progesterone is one of those things that hormones that are so important. It's the pro pregnancy hormone. And so if you don't have high supplies of that, your body is going to more likely miscarry or not be able to carry it a term.
And so that's so important, especially, and I think more critical in those early weeks, as you said, so, and I'm always shocked how many women. Don't, they're doctors, they're obese midwives, don't tell them this, they don't check that, they don't test for it, even after several miscarriages, or even the first or the second, why go through three, right?
Like these are health markers that we can check on ourselves to make sure that We're at healthy levels before suffering through more of that. What's also wild on the, on the progesterone front is that, and I've had to follow certain patients with their progesterone alongside their OB throughout the entire pregnancy.
And in the third trimester, there is no standard for when it comes to true obese or midwives or anyone who practices in that field. There's no true guideline for if progesterone dips in the third trimester. They just don't do anything about it. That mom will most likely go into preterm labor, but we don't, I mean, for a woman who started off the pregnancy as low progesterone, that should be standard practice because that progesterone It goes through the placenta and nourishes the baby in a certain way.
It also helps support our breastfeeding journey. So if your progesterone dips in the third trimester, then it's most likely going to be a little bit harder for you to breastfeed once baby's born. But that's not even tested. It's not even studied at all, which is wild to me. We know that. So when you're saying women have a dip in progesterone in the third trimester, they're more likely to go into preterm labor and struggle to breastfeed.
Yeah. Yeah, that's not talked about enough. That's at all. And you won't find any literature. And that's actually something that I learned more recently in in this patient that I follow. And I was searching and searching and searching for answers as to why it would happen. And it's just It's not even out there.
And I consulted with so many midwives and obese locally. And one gave me a little bit of insight, but it's just not, she's like, honestly, I've never tested progesterone past even 12 weeks. So I don't know. And that it's, yeah. Yeah. And I know women who, who have suffered, you know, multiple early or preterm labors or have struggled with breastfeeding, even though they had a healthy pregnancy, you know, and everything else was quote unquote, like healthy.
So that's really fascinating. And yeah, that information is not out there to my knowledge either. So thank you for sharing that. And so can women ask their doctors or their OBs to check If they're nervous or, or, you know, have concerns about that or have experienced that in the past. If you have history of low progesterone, yes, I would say ask my concern is that the OB is not going to be receptive.
You know, I'm, I, I love when patients ask me those questions because you know, your body better than I do. Right. If you feel like something's off, you know, your history better than I do. So I don't feel challenged if a patient is like, Hey, can I look at this? Can we look at this? I'm like, yes, let's do that.
Like, is there anything else that you that's been laid on your heart to look at? Please let me know. A lot of providers aren't like that. So a lot will be met with, Oh, that's not necessary. Or if you do run it, what do we do about it? So that's my only hesitation, hesitation there, but I, I would, if you have history of low progesterone or with trouble breastfeeding in terms of milk supply, I would.
That's very interesting and important information. And it brings up kind of the larger topic, which you didn't really ask about, but how, you know, you mentioned functional medicine. Can you, for those listeners who don't necessarily know what that means, or this might be a new concept, can you kind of explain what is functional medicine?
That's what you. primarily focus on or holistic medicine would be, you know, kind of a similar term. There's lots of terms in the alternative health. Yeah. Well, what is functional medicine? How's that different from traditional medicine? Yes. So ultimately people love to say, Oh, it's root cause medicine. And it is the, the patient outside of my mama's, which are like my bread and butter.
I love pregnancy. I love postpartum. I love newborns outside of that. My functional medicine patients tend to be patients who are chronically ill. who have had no resolution in conventional medicine. They've been to every specialist, they've, they've done every test, they have done every sort of imaging, and it's my job then to fix, kind of pick up the puzzle pieces and put them together.
What hasn't been looked at? What is the true cause for this patient having this symptom? So a good example of what functional medicine is, is say a patient has lupus. And lupus is a result of these things called autoantibodies. ANA is anti nuclear antibodies. They're these autoantibodies that turn on and start to attack our tissue.
In conventional medicine, the answer is, okay, here's a steroid for the rest of your life to suppress that immune function. In functional medicine, I look at that same lab result and I say, okay, you might have the symptoms of lupus, but what is turning that ANA on? What is activating that autoimmune response?
Because our antibodies don't just turn on and start attacking ourselves for no reason. There's a reason behind it. So I'm looking for that while conventional medicine tries to just fix the symptoms. Bye. masking whatever immune response is going on. I'm truly trying to figure out what the trigger is. Yes.
And that, and that can, that can be many different things. I imagine this is so fascinating topic for another topic. Yeah. Let's talk about some of the common ailments that women may face in pregnancy, preeclampsia, GBS, like I'm sure you have a bunch of them that you, that you treat or have. You know, insight on, I'd love to hear from you.
'cause in many cases, the medical community says, oh, we don't know what causes it. Like with preeclampsia, oh, oh no, you can't change your GBS status. It just is what it is. Like what's your perspective on some of these things? Yes. So GBS especially tends to be pretty easy. So group B strep is tested, you know, in the third trimester.
Often there's a couple weeks left before you're gonna have the baby. So there's time to change that Group B strep, if you use lactose. just a probiotic vaginally as well as a good spore based probiotic orally. And then you ask for that to be retested. I like to have at least 10 days under the belt of using that probiotic vaginally, but then if you ask to be retested, chances are that GBS will become negative.
Lactobacillus rhamnosus is highly effective at eradicating GBS in the vaginal canal. You have to, in order to prove that though, and for your OB to, you know, be on board with it, you do have to request to be retested. Otherwise, they'll just go based off of your positive and give you antibiotics during labor.
Right, and typically a positive GBS result will lead to them recommending antibiotics in labor, which is given intravenously, and they typically want You know, for those of you who might not know, typically two rounds. And usually that means you're hooked up to the IV for a few hours, you know, for two rounds of labor.
And the reason this is an issue, which I'll just give some background on that, because women ask me all the time, Oh, I I'm tested positive for GBS. What should I do? And everything is a cost benefit analysis, right? There's a risk benefit analysis. So GBS is one of those things we test for in this country.
And it's one of the. It's a bacteria in the mother's vagina that if the baby contracts it on their journey through the vagina, they could potentially develop an infection, a group strep B infection. Now the thing is there's hundreds, millions of bacteria in there. We only test for one because it happens to be the most common one that babies can contract.
And just because you have that presence of GBS group strep A in your vagina, if you tested positive for it doesn't necessarily mean your baby will get an infection. And even if they do get an infection we, there are the prevalence of GBS. infants with infections with antibiotics is very standard. And so we don't see the, the tip, the old, it's not as high risk as it used to be say 50 years ago, a hundred years ago.
So so there's lots of things you can to weigh in this, but that's just the background. If you're, if you're OB or midwife has said, okay, it's time to do the GBS test, you know, and then it's kind of like an automatic antibiotics and labor. Now there are, you have lots of options there too. You can choose to decline them because.
You may find that protecting your microbiome is, is important for you and baby. So wiping out all the bacteria might not be the best scenario. And so that's also an option, but I love what you're saying is that there's actually a really good way to, to treat it, which I didn't know because I've heard, Oh, you really can't change it that much in such a short period of time.
But that's the thing. Most OBs are taking this around 35 weeks. What if we have a mom who's not going into labor until 41 weeks? That's you know, that's six weeks worth of time to get this infection. Why aren't we retesting it late? If we retest it first at 35 weeks and then moms that are 38 week appointment and hasn't gone into labor Why are we not rechecking it instead?
We're just taking that 35 week positive And carry it out a month later or five weeks later or potentially six weeks later into, you know, and just taking that for what it is and giving that prophylactic antibiotic. So either way, I'm a big proponent of asking to be retested. If you're 38, 39, 40 weeks, 41 weeks, I would ask to be retested.
Obviously it depends on the turnaround time. If the turn, if the test isn't back and you go into labor, then they are going to push that antibiotic. But at least it gives you a chance to avoid it, and which is no also to rate, which is even better because also to your point, if the vaginal canal is meant to go through and it's kind of like our poop our poop slides through our intestines and deposits, you know, good bacteria throughout our intestinal lining.
And that transit is needed for to deposit that good bacteria. It's kind of similar to baby coming through the vaginal canal. You know, the baby is accumulating that good bacteria. The skin is a microbiome in itself. And we don't want to disrupt that. And we do disrupt that process by giving moms antibiotics who don't need them.
Yeah. And so you're kind of wiping out any Good bacteria in your microbiome and in your baby's microbiome, because they're when they're born, their gut is sterile, but they're it's seeded when they make that passage through your vagina. And so that's one of the benefits. One of the huge benefits of vaginal birth is that baby is seeded with their own microbiome, which impacts their immunity for years into the future.
And they've done studies. I don't know if you've seen this, of comparing babies who were born by cesarean versus vaginal. And now what they're doing is actually intentionally seeding babies that are born by cesarean, using a cotton swab to like swipe some of the bacteria from mother's vagina, and then putting that in, in baby's mouth or hands, you know, in their orifices, which sounds gross, but they've seen massive Improvements in baby's microbiome over years of time when they studied this, that it really impacts their, their immune system when they get this seeding.
And obviously the best option is the vaginal birth, then they have, but they do see really good increase in that microbiome when they do the seeding and then the lowest rate. performing was just the cesarean without any seating. And then of course, breastfeeding was tested too. And they found you can have obviously a much, you can see that baby and improve their microbiome with, with breastfeeding. But it's such a fascinating topic and one we could probably talk about for hours.
It is, it is fascinating. And it does, you know, if antibiotics are warranted during pregnancy or during delivery for a reason, But if we're just using it based on a test that was done six weeks ago, not fine, because now we're putting that baby at an increased risk for not being able to develop their microbiome as well as they should be.
And within the first three years of life, that is the most crucial time to developing a child's microbiome in terms of their gut health, which then sets up for life. So it's just, they just start coming at a little bit of a disadvantage if we truly don't need it. Absolutely. So should all women be taking A probiotics in pregnancy.
So yes, I have kind of a regimen that I like as a baseline for women to take. Obviously a good prenatal, not all prenatals are created equally. I also don't believe you need to take a quote prenatal if you're getting nutrients elsewhere, like a comprehensive multivitamin, something like intramax is wonderful as well.
But we do want to make sure it's really comprehensive and the right forms the right forms. I cannot harp on enough because so many people in general, not just women, we can't absorb certain vitamins in their non active forms. So taking tetrahydrofolate instead of folic acid. Taking things like methylcobalamin or hydroxycobalamin instead of cyanocobalamin forms of B12 and folate.
That those are really important decisions because now I know no matter what you have going on genetically you are absorbing those nutrients. So I always like a great conference of multi or multi and or prenatal always extra vitamin D. I'm most of us are deficient. But especially in pregnancy, that tends to dip a little bit.
Yes, a great probiotic. If we want to be preventative of something like group B strep, then always having a probiotic with lactobacillus rhamnosus in it is very important. I kind of like to alternate between that and a spore based probiotic. For those who don't know, a spore based probiotic It's just kind of a stronger probiotic and it's it withstands the acidity of the stomach so it gets into the small intestine and is able to release endotoxins there like it's shown instead of being gobbled up by the acidity of the stomach.
So something like Saccharomyces boulardii is important there. And then I like to do, Two other things one is some form of immunoglobulin So a lot of people like to call this colostrum colostrum and immunoglobulins are a little bit different Colostrum contains dairy components immunoglobulins don't So I like personally mega igg by microbiome labs these like when women are breastfeeding and the reason why babies have that increase in just protection of the immune function.
It's because we're giving them immunoglobulins. So you can actually take that as a supplement, very safe for kids, for pregnant women, nursing women, whoever. And it comes from bovine serum for soap from cow blood, but it does not have any trace that it comes from a cow. So they, it's so concentrated.
It's just the immunoglobulin. It's just like these good fighter pilots that help to boost up different areas of our immune system. It's also really really great for gut health. So that's another one I like and then I like to kind of rotate through very gentle Liver support and detox support this can be milk thistle This can be an acetyl cysteine, which is an amino acid that helps to detox through the liver it can be glutathione Which is another one that helps to detox through the liver.
Liposomal curcumin is a good one that helps reduce any inflammation, but also helps kind of with our detox pathways. So I like to kind of cycle through those. But I went so far in depth to answer your question. Yes, it's probiotic. All of this is great information. I imagine I'm just picturing the women out there like, Frantically writing down notes.
Great. How do you spell glutathione? Do you have these written out somewhere to spare them this heartache? I do actually. Yeah, I have, and I'm working on more. I have some guides through the discovery doc platform. That is like my comprehensive. Every mama needs this for pregnancy for postpartum that lists all the supplements that I like and Where you can get them Amazing.
So we will put that link in the show notes for you ladies. You don't have to worry about Frantically writing down notes of all of these very long words For the record. Do you have a prenatal you recommend and a probiotic you recommend? So for a prenatal That yes, I like orthomoleculars prenatal it's called prenatal plus dha by orthomolecular It comes in a box and these little strips.
It has four cap or three capsules and then a dha like a a fish oil gel Capsule and I love that. It's super comprehensive. That is my favorite and then in terms of a probiotic, I like Women's Biotic by Orthomolecular Formula as well, just because it is the lactobacillus rhamnosus, and if mom does get group B strep, that specific one can actually be inserted vaginally.
So I like to have that one on board just in case. And then in terms of the skin, For based, I like restore flora by microbiome labs. That's a good kind of that stronger one that can get down to the small intestines where it needs. That's a good one as well. Perfect. We'll make sure we get all of these links from you for the ladies.
So they can just click and buy. That makes it so nice. Cause I remember doing all that research in pregnancy and make sure it's, you know, the different kinds of folate that you gotta make sure you get the right type and has enough of this and that and iron and, and it's like, it'll drive you crazy, like hours of research.
And To have an expert like yourself, just simply say like, here's what I recommend. Here's what you, it's really important. You know, if you only could buy a few supplements, focus on these ones for those that need more support, like liver support, you know, that kind of thing. There's other options. There's always options.
There's so much Sometimes when you know, the more you know, it can really, really serve you and prevent complications, not only complications and pregnancy and labor, but even how you feel and how well you recover in the postpartum as you mentioned. And something so important in there that you hit on is iron.
And so there are certain forms of iron, especially during pregnancy, we are prone to constipation. So kind of traditional iron tends to make us more constipated or contribute to constipation. And so I really like iron biglycinate. That's a certain form of iron. There's, and, and I'm not married to any supplement company.
You can ask. We just had a rep in our office today who was trying to get us to use them more. I'm like, no, I'm not about one company. I am about the quality and the product and what my patients need. And so I cherry pick. So the form I'm like, that's, it's really important. Reacted iron is one by ortho molecular that I can just think off on the top of my head.
But you can also use beef liver. I love beef liver. There's a good one by EnviroMedica, which is quality source from New Zealand. We want to make sure our ferritin stores stay up. That's also something that is not checked enough in pregnancy that can really make mom feel depleted and then go into her pregnancy.
Delivery, if we're out, it's always going to cut in half, but if we're on the lower end going into delivery, we can have increased risk of complications like more bleeding. And then postpartum we can feel even more depleted because our iron stores and our red blood cells already kind of tank. So I love beef liver during pregnancy as well as an awesome alternative to iron to keep stores, iron stores up and ferritin up.
And I've heard beef liver is also something that can really help you get pregnant for anyone struggling with infertility. And it goes down to just, it's nutrient dense. Yes. Oh, it's, it's, that's a whole lot of superfood for like nature's superfood. Absolutely. Yes. 100%. Absolutely. I I've, I've talked, I've heard of many women who got pregnant after taking beef liver and So I'm a believer.
I take it too. And I'm not pregnant. I do too. For postpartum, it's really important. And that's something also that is so important is just knowing how to like, when women go through their pregnancy, I also kind of serve to say, okay, this After pregnancy, what do we need to do? What do I want you to have like in your pantry so that you can feel good?
You know, we're in that newborn phase. We have our midwife or a doctor checking on us twice, maybe three times, but what supplements can I have on board to really help my body heal and feel good and support, you know, my mental health also is really important, like gut health, my breastfeeding journey, et cetera.
That's also something super important. Yeah, so there's so much being taxed on mom during this time. This is probably one of the most taxing, physically, you know, challenging seasons of being a woman is pregnancy, birth and postpartum. And I remember being like ravenously hungry in postpartum, more so than when I was pregnant, because you're just burning calories, nursing and breastfeeding, like, and I just had to keep eating.
If I didn't eat, I'd get like, lightheaded and supporting water. It's like you're just never satisfied. I know. I'm literally in that right now.
Tell us a little bit. What about preeclampsia? Can you prevent that? So, preeclampsia is, yes. My answer, short answer is yes. Preeclampsia, if you are starting to feel like your blood pressure is increasing in pregnancy, right away you need to get magnesium on board. right away. I mean, even if you trend higher pre pregnancy, then you should be starting your pregnancy with a little bit more magnesium.
The worst that's going to happen is your stools can get a little looser. Okay. Then you're taking too much back off a little bit, but magnesium is a wonderful way to in pregnancy, reduce your blood pressure and or prevent it. Even just on its own. Amazing. Okay. So, and that's something you'd recommend if they're starting to see those numbers creep up.
Does protein intake have any effect on preeclampsia or preventing it? Yeah, I absolutely believe that women who Protein as a nutrient obviously is so important and it's a building block to so many other mechanisms in our body. So I do think that women who eat a, a higher protein and higher good fat diet, we tend to forget about the good fats are equally as important here, can prevent preeclampsia more so than someone who is, trending more just towards empty calories.
Yeah, it's very important. Yeah. And hydration, I think I've heard is also good. So, and it used to be called toxemia, like where the body's just not releasing those toxins. Like if we're not feeding it, it's not able to absorb and it's not Releasing the toxins so super important there. There's one other thing that's really good is Outside of magnesium is there is a good blend of kind of natural agents lemon verbana hibiscus flower And green coffee bean extract And there's some supplements I think it's called like high phenolic or something by ortho, but that's a great combination that has been studied in terms of literature at reducing both diastolic and systolic blood pressure.
So that's another really great supplement to get on board with some extra magnesium. If we see those numbers increasing. Beautiful. I love that you're incorporating the herbal. Yes, I cherish the guy who told me off with the herbs, vitamins, minerals. Yeah. I mean, God gave them all to us. So why not use what benefits and helps?
And I love that. It's the women who are just like brilliant at herbs. I just like, my mind is always blown. Like it's such a fascinating science. Yes. And there's so many. Too many, yeah, many. It's just amazing. Yeah. Tell us about postpartum and what, what we can do to support our bodies in the postpartum. Yes.
So we have to keep in mind that physiologically we change so much in pregnancy so much, and so my number one is I always tell women like there's this wild ex like expectation that we just. Bounce back and within six weeks, we're cognitively there. We're feeling great, feeling energized, and that's just fake.
That is so false. It can take years for our bodies to recover and to be back where we were pre pregnancy. Like physically, we might look like it, you know, you might lose weight and that's fine and great, but you go down to a cellular level. Those cells are still healing. So I like to. Empower women with what we can do postpartum to feel like they are supported right from the get go.
And in terms of, there's so much there. Number one is it's not just about supplements. It's about putting the correct place or team in place for you. Having a good support system ready. If you plan on breastfeeding, have a good lactation consultant ready who can come to your home. Have a postpartum doula who can come to your home and nourish you and take care of you Cook you warm foods.
We want warmth postpartum. We want to increase circulation, have womb massages, you know, belly massages, postpartum. That is so crucial to our mental health, to how we heal. Belly binding, but like traditional Ayurvedic belly binding is so awesome at preventing kind of, or helping our muscles kind of get back together.
And pelvic floor therapy is so important postpartum, like these are things that should just be in, they should be standard, right? And it's not like you have to pay thousands of dollars and to seek it out. And I wish all women could experience all of that. And we would all have such a better postpartum time.
So all of that's very, very important in terms of supplements, it's science wars. You know, continuing either with beef liver or iron by glycinate something diff continuing with your prenatal, continuing with your vitamin D and a little bit of whatever else you're mixing in. But two other things that are really important, something called lithium orotate and then NAD.
Lithium orotate is a, is a mineral. It's naturally occurring, it's in the soil. When it becomes depleted, and so often we as humans just are depleted, We can have more mood liability. So our mood can decrease really easily or increase really easily. So we can get this mineral on board after delivery and it helps to just stabilize our mood when we have all these crazy hormones fluctuating.
We don't really want to touch hormones in that postpartum period. but it can really help us just maintain our cool and to feel more cool, calm, collected, and prevent things like postpartum depression. NAD is very similar. NAD is nicotinamide. There's like this huge anti aging population right now that loves it, but we've been using it in functional medicine for years.
Nicotinamide is needed in the Krebs cycle to kick out ATP. So if we go back to like high school biology and we think about the Krebs cycle that happens in the mitochondria, ATP is needed to fuel every cell of the body. NAD is part of that process. As we age, we lose NAD and if we have anything that oxidizes or breaks apart ourselves too quickly, we lose NAD.
So in that immediate postpartum period, By giving our body NAD, it is like cell fuel. It helps to recoup ourselves, to rebuild ourselves, it helps with a little bit of mental clarity as well, and it's safe while breast everything that I've said is safe while breastfeeding. So those are two I think lesser known that I love women to implement along with a continuation of what we're taking in pregnancy to help our body recover in conjunction with.
Have your tribe and be taken care of. And you deserve to be taken care of. You deserve to sit in your room and be brought every meal and be brought warm teas and bone broth and, you know, be loved on and just nourished and cherished, do not feel guilty or bad for that. Even at three months, postpartum four months, postpartum, however long it takes you to get back to feeling like you is what you deserve to take.
Yeah. And especially those first 40 days, you know, there's that book, the, I think it's Lily Nichols. The first 40 days, a whole nutrition guide to that you like, and traditionally in Chinese medicine, they, They set aside that time, that 40 days and just serve the mother. They bring her those meals. If everything's warm, like you said, warm baths, warm soups, they're nourishing her, you know, and I tell women two weeks minimum, like just.
Stay in your bed in your room. Like, don't like, not like you can't go for a walk if you want, but don't, don't have any demands on yourself. You should not be doing the dishes. You should not be folding laundry. You are only there to rest and recover and, and feed that baby, like, and really bond with baby.
And if you, if women have the mental load, Of carrying other burdens or having stress on them. If they're having to host people, if they know they have to go back to work very quickly, all of that impacts how your body recovers and your ability to actually rest and recover. And so knowing your capacity and making sure you have that village, like Dr.
Sisi says, it's so true. And you know, we all say like it takes a village, but today you have to pay for your village. Yes. And it's, it's so, you know, It is it's so frustrating because it really, if you look up postpartum doulas, seven, 8, 000, you know, it is wildly expensive and they're very rare, but women who are able to experience that they heal so much better.
And, you know, another thing I forgot to mention is vaginal steaming. That's not something that's known or, you know, just out there as, as information to do postpartum. But vaginal steaming with herbs, like very low, you know, we're not trying to set on fire here, but don't burn your coochie.
Up your booty hole, it feels like it's on fire.
No, back off, put it down if that's happening. Okay, but it is, it's So good for circulation. Even women who have a PZ atomies and you know, have torn really badly. It can help heal so much. It increases the circulation vaginally. You will stop bleeding sooner than you would if you don't vaginal steam or don't do vaginal steaming.
But these are things that aren't. Like traditional OBs aren't like, yeah, okay, here's your game. No, you'll never hear about this from an OB. You know, go get a massage and do a vaginal exam. You'll never hear about this from an OB. You'll get one visit at six weeks where they'll ask you about birth control and what you're doing to prevent your next pregnancy.
And a questionnaire. A questionnaire about postpartum. Yep, that's right. Postpartum depression. That's it. That's all you'll get. Midwives? The midwives are better. I got some vaginal, like, not vaginal like, state herbal. Herbal sits bath. Yeah, herbal sits bath. I did those and that was fun. I held, I remember sitting in one.
I think I have a picture. I'm like in it. It's like brown water because it's all herbal. You know, you pour it, you boil it in the pot and then you pour it in the tub and it's got all these amazing healing herbs in it. And I think I had my baby in the tub with me and then she pooped on my arm and I didn't know how to get out.
I was like. What do I do? Help! That was, I don't know why I said that, but that was just, it's a memory invasion. Right, we need the, we need the visual. So maybe do it without the baby, like have that time for you mama, like learn from my mistake. But I highly, highly recommend that too. It's such a good idea.
And you're so right, like. Even on that questionnaire. Like I remember I had a C section with my first baby. This was years ago. She's eight now. And I remember filling out that postpartum questionnaire and I'm like, bro, I lied, like I was fully in postpartum depression. And I lied on that thing because I was, I don't know, I was 25.
And I was just like, I'm just going to answer these questions and pretend it's okay. Like they don't want you to call, like the, the report you to who knows what they do, but I'm like, Dude, there should be like a closer interaction. There should be someone that that woman feels connected with, trusting, safe, supported.
And I think, you know, as women who can feel forgotten about postpartum, and especially the more kids you have, like I just had my fourth and it's, you know, it, it just changes where friends don't check in like they did with your first, or even grandparents don't kind of chip in like they did with your first.
Cause they're like, Oh, you got it. You got it under control. But. That postpartum period is still fresh and new and different, no matter how many babies you have. And so yes, protect those first 40 days at least, please. But that sometimes requires you to set that up pre delivery. Yeah. And, and I think especially if you have a hard labor or traumatic labor, or you tore, or you were pushing for an extended period of time, your, your perineal floor is going to need more time to rest.
Your body is going to need more time to recover, you know, dependent on like a lot of factors or just how you, how, how much nutrient storage you had. You know, prenatally and in your pregnancy, going into postpartum, how depleted are you? You know, a lot of, there's a lot of factors that can impact postpartum and listening to your body can be really important in that phase to just know, like, I think a lot of women, there's so much pressure to bounce back.
It's like that bounce back culture or go that societal pressure. You got to get back to work in six weeks. And not everyone has the, the, the. The blessing or financial means to stay at home or to hire, like you said, the tribe. But there are certain things you can do to be strategic and to be intuitive to trust your body and what it needs.
If breastfeeding is a struggle, have a lactation consultant lined up in advance that you have a relationship with. Calling me. Wait. Call Dr. Cece . Thank you. Thank you. I'm here. I would like to answer this question. Yes, go . One thing about ation your head, you can't tell like she's in school. like, wait, wait, wait.
I gonna say so like this is also something that should, has so missed and should be on your radar when choosing a lactation consultant. So we have baby, our goal is to breastfeed and you're having trouble latching in the first couple days. We don't want you to be in a panic. We don't want you to be.
Searching for somebody to help you. Then we want you to be like, no, I had a lactation consultant come yesterday. So have that person lined up. And my standard for lactation consultants is very high. Not all are created equally. We want someone who can assess baby. Head to toe, who can look at the tethered oral ties, who can evaluate the movement of the tongue, who can evaluate the suck reflex, who can evaluate how that baby is functioning in terms of oral motor coordination, because those ties relate to other areas of the body.
Are we tight on one side in terms of the neck, the shoulder, the back, the hips, you know, it all ties together. So Do your due diligence and research. Don't just go with the first person you see takes your insurance because it can really truly save your breastfeeding journey. Having that comprehensive evaluation done and 99.
9 percent of the time pediatricians miss it. So a hundred percent agree. Dude, I was just going to say that. Do not go to the pediatrician. Do not go to the nurse that works at the pediatrician office just because they have an LC. After their name that there's a vast difference between LCs and IBCLCs. Yes.
I hit on this a lot in my postpartum course. And I'm telling you ladies, like I've had so many women tell me, Oh, well, they got evaluated by lactation consultant. They don't have a tongue tie. No, I don't. I want you to go. I want you to go to 10 of them or go to the IBCLC in your city that is known as like the best and have them evaluate you or an oral health doctor like a tongue nose throat.
Sometimes you need to go to an even higher specialist because it's so many of them are missed and it https: otter. ai Impact, impact your breastfeeding journey and, and take away so much pain in breastfeeding? It's so, it, it's so frustrating on like, part of my practice we just, we do holistic well 'cause I'm a family, I can see everybody.
So we do more holistic well visits for kiddos. I can't tell you how many babies I get at like six months and I always ask, Hey, are we bottle breast? Both like, what are we drinking these days? And the mom's like, no, I had to stop breastfeeding because he wouldn't latch. And you know, I saw lactation and everything was fine, so I just kind of gave up.
And I stick one finger in there. And I'm like, you can get it tied up. Like, I told you, you know, dismissed if it is fine. You know, found. And then it's like, yeah, it's okay, though. It'll get better. Yeah, it'll, they'll just grow out of it. It won't cause an issue. Well, if mom is having issues, it's causing an issue.
So deal with it. Like, it doesn't, it is not hard to get. The tongue tie is corrected and we see a lot of them now. Why? Tell me why is it? I've asked a few people. Why do we see so many of these oral health tie issues now? You know what's so interesting is in my, because I see well visits too, I see it going in phases.
So I'll see babies, I, I mean, a couple of years ago, I would say in the last Two years, there has been a huge uptick in tethered oral tissues. Yeah. Previously, maybe every once in a while, but it kind of goes in waves where I see all these babies. And right now there's also a wave of laryngomalacia, which is a little floppy airway.
I'm seeing babies and I've never seen a wave like that before. So I can't answer that question in terms of scientifically what it is, but I 110 percent think there's some sort of environmental component because it's clearly not genetic. I don't just have, I mean, not only genetic, I don't have all these patients just coincidentally having all these ties around the same time or having laryngomalacia at the same time.
I do think it's some sort of environmental exposure where the baby is during that developmental stage in utero. It's impacting them. Yeah. There's something going on. I agree. It's like, you did not see this kind of these men, this many breastfeeding issues, you know, years ago, a hundred years ago. It's just not, it's just at a level that I don't think is normal.
No, and you can't tell me it's because like where it's just being evaluated more, you know, that's what conventional medicine likes to say. Well, our testing for it is just, but we're not even testing for it. Like it's missed like 80 percent of the time. Like most, like you said, women are like, Oh, I had to give up and, you know, It's like, keep asking questions.
My second had no, my third, it was really painful breastfeeding her. She had such a strong suck. And she didn't have a tongue or lip tie, but she did have lots of tension in her jaw and even in down her arm and into her fist. It was like she came out like, Super tense. And I had to, yeah, very tight. I had to have her palate adjusted and lots of chiropractic adjustments with her, her neck and her spine in order to loosen that up.
But, and had I been, not been, had I not already nursed two babies and known it's not supposed to be painful like that, I would have thought that's how, that was normal. And that's how breastfeeding is. Oh, absolutely. I mean, with, with my first, I, I remember texting friends and being, who had, who had babies previously, being like, are your, are your nipples supposed to bleed and like be blistered and, and they're like, yeah, I'll callous over, like, it's fine.
No, it's not fine. My hair was all tied up. Yeah, it's not, it's not normal. I did a post. And I said, it is not normal to have pain during breastfeeding. And Dr. Cece, you would not believe the pushback I got. The women that were like defending their painful breastfeeding, bleeding nipples, I was like, no, I'm telling you it like maybe at the very beginning of the latch for like a second or like the first few times you breastfeed, yeah, it's a little uncomfortable.
But no, it is not supposed to hurt or be painful. It should be completely comfortable. And the amount of women in the comments, like, no, that's not, that's, it's supposed to hurt. You got to toughen it up. You got to, I'm like, that's a myth. You don't toughen your nipples up. That means your latch is not great.
I'm sorry. Thank you for saying that as an expert. A hundred percent. It should not. And I've been there like where that tinge where it's like, Oh, they latch and you're like, Oh, Oh, that hurts. And then it kind of like lessens. I'm even going to. I'm going to challenge you on that and say, no, even when they first latch like that, it shouldn't be unbearable.
It shouldn't be this painful thing. The baby should come onto the breast, nice and scoop and then suck. And yeah, you feel the sucking, but it's not pinchy. It's not never be painful. You're not explaining it as painful. That is 110 percent not normal. I back you on that. Yes. Perfect. Sounds good. So glad for all the mamas get checked out, get it checked out.
Set up your tribe. Well, this is good. I think we have about hit time, but we have covered some awesome, lots of scenarios, lots of nutrition, postpartum, you know, prenatal law, all the things. We'll put all the details in the show notes of all these things. Is there anything else you wanted to hit on that we didn't cover?
Maybe mastitis going on breastfeeding journey. Yeah, that's a good one. We'll make some time for that just very quickly. I want to honor your time as well. But mastitis I think is such a big hindrance to women who want to breastfeed. And for me personally, with my second child is the reason that I stopped because I got recurrent mastitis.
I didn't know why at that point in time, I didn't want to take antibiotics orally, you know, and have that go into the breast milk, which my baby was getting. And so ultimately I stopped trying to latch him and exclusively pumped. And so I think that especially the first couple weeks postpartum, if you're getting mastitis, one, what we talked about previously, like it's the latch.
It's usually always the latch as to why you're getting it recurrently. There are so many things that you can do. To help prevent it, but also to treat it naturally where you don't need to go right to an antibiotic. So kind of preventing it, choline is the most important nutrient, 400 to 600 milligrams a day.
The right probiotic also it's really great and preventative. And then when symptoms begin, there's a whole slew of things that we can do naturally. To treat it, even if you have fever, even if you're starting to get the chills, we can still treat it naturally. So there's ways to, to avoid it. And a lot of comfort measures that you can take naturally before jumping right to an antibiotic.
Oh, that's so good to know. I didn't know about the choline. I would, I was getting Mast, not mastitis, but clogged ducts, I would catch it before it led to mastitis, but I was getting it recurringly in one of my postpartum periods. And I remember trying to figure out like, what is going on? And then I realized it's always on the same breast in the same place.
And I realized if I stopped sleeping on that side. Then just switch like switch what side I was sleeping on it actually prevent it actually went away because I was putting pressure on that breast and it was like the breast milk was pooling and and was being compressed. It was for whatever reason causing more clogged ducts in that area like the painful clogged ducts you have to work out.
And so sometimes it's even just like a mechanical physical thing like just switch the side of. The bed you're sleeping on, right? Or, or similarly switch the breast of feeding. Yeah. Switching up the feeding. Absolutely. Yeah. Which one we're feeding first, but there's good probiotics out there. There's certain strains that I like lactobacillus salvarius is really important.
And lactobacillus fermentum is very important. And then shickory root. So there's good probiotics that combine all those together with choline, those two strains and and shikori root. That is an awesome preventative for mastitis and for clogged ducts as well. That's great. And making sure you get that, the baby checked out for latch issues.
Oh my gosh, a hundred percent. So important. Well, thank you, Dr. Sisi. These, this has been just invaluable information. I, I know you guys probably got so much out of this. Where can women find you to learn more or to work with you? Yeah, absolutely. So my online, my kind of educational online platform is the discovery docs.
You can follow me on Tik at the discovery doc. I do have a website, thediscoverydoc. com. It is informational only, so you can find guides for all these things. I have like a natural mastitis guide and a ultimate kind of pre pregnancy pregnancy labor and delivery guide, home birth essentials checklist. So many things are on my website and also on Etsy.
In terms of actually seeing patients, I have my own practice in Georgia. It's called Discovery Wellness Group. So I don't do any kind of coaching or anything through the Discovery Doc, just because of my license. I do it through my medical practice. And we see patients of all kinds. We do newborn home visits.
We do holistic well visits, holistic acute care for kiddos, and then functional medicine for adults and kids. So, I mean, we have everyone ranging from Crohn's to Lyme disease to autoimmune conditions to anxiety, everything in between we see. And we do see patients in state out of state, we can do everything via telemedicine.
So that's discovery wellness group. com is my practice for people who want to work with me as a patient. That is amazing. You are doing such An incredible work in with families, not just pregnancy for the mamas, but the whole family can come to see you. And some of those conditions, I know if you're treating those conditions, this lady knows what she's talking about, because those are not typically healed with conventional medicine.
Functional medicine is the best at those. And so I just love what you do. I love the services you have, the wisdom and the knowledge you have, and how you break it down in such a practical way for, for women and families to take back the power and the control of their health. And I know that there's hope and you and healing for them.
So thank you for this, how you support women and families in this area. And it was just a pleasure to talk with you today. Of course. Thank you so much for having me on. I really, really appreciate you. See you next week, guys.
