How to TRIPLE your energy as a postpartum Autoimmune Mama.
Mikayla- Today, we're going to talk all about tripling your energy as a postpartum autoimmune mama. So what does that mean? Honestly, when we get into postpartum, I was even messaging, a mama yesterday and she's like, "You know what, like postpartum is hard, pregnancy was great postpartum is really, really rough," and so we want to make sure that you do not have to deal with a rough, postpartum. Basically, it's what we're trying to get you to not have to do. Really just feeling good and alright that's the dream, that's the goal. We want you to enjoy your baby. Anyway, I'll get started. Here we go. So we know we see so many moms struggle with postpartum. And why is this? That is because so many moms actually really don't pay a ton of attention to their autoimmune diagnosis, while pregnant. This is of course, besides routine doctor's visits, having your doula, or whatever. A lot of mamas don't have that under-a-microscope kind of support, that's what we're talking about. Not just like, "I'm going to my endocrinologist every once in a while", that's not what we're saying. Many end up having an awful postpartum flare up and we'll talk more about that soon. But their doctors keep saying, "just give it time, it's normal, and postpartum will be okay. It's postpartum, you know, it rough for everyone". But your symptoms of exhaustion just don't go anywhere, you're like, "I want to have this energy I want to be a wonderful mom", which you are, but "I want to be a wonderful mom that has that energy to support" that what an amazing mom admits, right?
Mikayla- So the two things that these moms are doing that are leading them to epic energy crashes, at the beginning of postpartum. One, they're not taking their prenatal health seriously. Part of this is because sometimes women with an autoimmune diagnosis, don't feel any problems during their pregnancy, they maybe have some bumps in the road but after the first trimester they "feel good" again. That's great. But the issue is, is that many women do not feel any symptoms, with autoimmune diagnosis specifically, until the beginning of postpartum, and that is due to nutrient depletion, so what does that mean? It means that during your prenatal period, so while you are pregnant, you are nourishing your baby so that your baby is as healthy as possible. Your body is doing its own thing, and it's giving all the nutrients it can to support your baby, right. Well, what about mama? If you are not making sure that your nutrient needs are 100% met as well, then you are going to run into a postpartum depleated state, and this can be extremely serious. Okay, but if you want to learn more about this postpartum depletion, message us right away because this is a topic that we could do a whole presentation on in the future.
Mikayla- But that's the first reason that we struggle during our postpartum period as an autoimmune woman. That's because we're not making sure our nutrient needs are met during the prenatal period. We are talking about a microscope level of taking care of it. Two, they go into postpartum and breastfeeding without the tools to promote nutrition for healing and have a good milk supply. So, they are exhausted, have zero energy to make themselves a meal to promote health, and ultimately continue a never-ending cycle of not nourishing, or caring for the body. Which therefore leads to extended postpartum healing, autoimmune flare-ups, and low milk supply. So, what do we know about breastfeeding? We know that it requires more energy for the body to successfully breastfeed. So all moms have the ability to breastfeed. Every single one. Okay, well, I'll say every single one ever in the entire history of the world. However, the reason why we exist, because you want people, women to know that they do have the ability if they have the right support.
Mikayla- You need to be able to continuously feed yourself good food and promote self-care. It sounds so simple, if you're like me, we can do that. The thing is though, that with all of our clients really that support during the postpartum period is vital to make sure you're eating a balanced meal, drinking water, doing all these things that promote health. You're a new mom and too often, the last thing you are thinking about is yourself. But the thing is, if you're not thinking about yourself, your baby doesn't have the mother that it needs in order to be able to have that healthy foundation. You're not going to be able to successfully breastfeed if you are not also taking care of yourself first. So anyway, these are the few things that most women are doing that are leading them to a point of exhaustion. During the postpartum period as an autoimmune mama. So Cassie you take it away!
Cassie- I think you've covered everything, especially during pregnancy too, one of the things we know is that when we're pregnant, our bodies almost go into a state of remission, that is what some people call it. Our hormones are leveling out and our pregnancy hormones are taking over. And so all of your symptoms are going away, because of that you're thinking, "oh my gosh I'm doing so great" how Mikayla said is, but that's when we are at risk for that nutrient depletion. But if we are able to take our prenatal health seriously and actually, understand that our nutrition, and lifestyle play such a huge factor, specific to your diagnosis, and you go into postpartum with a plan to promote healing you will be so much better off. We need to promote energy needs for breastfeeding because we know that actually there are higher needs in some nutrients and calories during breastfeeding, there are even during your third trimester of pregnancy. You are expending a lot of energy, it's not just during pregnancy, we're using all of this, but during postpartum. But women, during pregnancy you're coming in with your nutrients, repleted, you have all of your nutrient stores in place but then coming into postpartum depleted while we have that much higher of needs. In this case, we are setting ourselves up for failure. So, having a plan and having support during this time is so important. Doing these things that we're going to talk about in just a second, your postpartum energy can triple. If you don't, you're going to feel not like yourself, you're not going to feel energized, you're not going to feel like you can do it. Breastfeeding is not rainbows and butterflies, it's not necessarily an easy thing to do especially if you are struggling to heal, struggling to take care of yourself, and struggling to take care of your baby because you have zero energy. I'm not talking about the normal depleted energy levels because you're not sleeping because now you have a baby that wakes you up five times a night. We're talking about deep seeded energy loss and deep seeded feeling of exhaustion that comes from not taking care of yourself, from not feeding yourself, or not fueling yourself the right way.
Cassie- So here are three steps that we actually use in our Signature Healthy Autoimmune Pregnancy Protocol that's going to take you from zero energy to make You feel like YOU in your postpartum. And whether you are pregnant right now or postpartum, you can do any or all of these things we actually encourage you if you're pregnant now to be starting to do these things. Just the same as we don't want to wait to get support until we have pregnancy complications, we don't want to wait to get support in the postpartum until you are no longer able to take care of yourself. Okay, so we've told you time and time again, multiple times in this life, that you really need to focus on your health at the moment that you find out you're pregnant. Your nutrient stores are ultimately what's going to energize you and you're either filling your nutrient stores during pregnancy, or you're depleting them. And what we know to be true, obviously our prenatal vitamins are super beneficial, but they're not what's going to get you to that next step or that next level. It's not going to be the only thing that's going to carry you through. Your postpartum experience is still reflected by how you take care of yourself early on, the earlier the better. When you're breastfeeding in the postpartum, make sure you have that support system in place. So if you have a team to help you get through any of the struggles of breastfeeding or being a new mom, it is going to be life-changing. We have multiple testimonials, we have multiple moms that we've helped that can attest to the support and attest that having this plan and the team to get you through is going to be so important. You have never breastfed before, you probably aren't as familiar with what it looks like, and so having people that know what to do, and know what's going on, know what's normal and what's not, is really what's going to help you get there. This is so that you can take the time to focus on your baby, but also on yourself. You need to continue all forms of self-care during this postpartum period. We're not talking about you need to go and get your hair done your nails done and all of that stuff because you may not be in a state to do that but taking that time.
Cassie- Taking a step back, being mindful journaling, meditating, starting to work up to being physically active again whatever that looks like for you. It's all going to be crucial for your mental health, your physical health, your hormone balance all of that. The saying that "if mama is happy baby is happy", "baby's going to be happy if mom is happy" is so true. If you aren't happy, if you aren't taking care of yourself, then you aren't able to take care of your baby. Even if you are changing diapers on time, feeding every x amount of hours, etc. But if you can't be happy yourself, it's going to affect your baby's moods too and then it's just a cycle.
Make sure that you're taking time to calm down to slow down, you know, Don't get worked up as much as possible, we know this postpartum period is difficult. We're not saying it's easy at all, but taking these steps is going to be that much more important, nourishing your body with good food that supports your diagnosis and replenishing these nutrients. If you do have any depletions we're not saying that doing all of these things means you're never going to have any nutrient depletion, but actively working towards getting to the point of fully nourished and fully healed is so important. Okay, so those are our three steps. We have obviously so many more ways to support you and so many more things that go into all of this, but let us know in the comments what step you might be implementing today. Where are you at in your journey? What holes do you need to fill? These are all things that we can start with today.
Cassie- If you are looking for this kind of support and you are pregnant and if this is something that resonated with you let us know. If you're looking for that actual support that's going to get you there, that's not just every couple weeks with your doctor who tells you you know maybe this is going well or not. Send us a message to get started today!
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Mamas Maternal Health, LLC
Recording through Zoom
Transcription by otter.ai