[Mini] Preconception Panels & Your Pregnancy Dream Team | Ep. 80

This episode explores the significance of optimizing health before conception, featuring insights from midwife Morgan Miller on essential nutrients and creating a supportive pregnancy team. The conversation highlights the importance of establishing healthy habits early and encourages proactive care for future parents.

• Exploring the role of midwives in preconception care
• Key nutrients for pregnancy preparation: magnesium, vitamin D, iron
• Importance of nourishing the body for reproductive health
• Assembling a supportive pregnancy team, including doulas and lactation consultants
• The relevance of pelvic floor care during and after pregnancy
• Questioning why health measures are often delayed until pregnancy

BUY THE CYCLE BOOK & CONNECT WITH THE AUTHORS
www.thecyclebook.com
Instagram - @thecyclebook
Laura Federico's website - laurafedericotherapy.com
Morgan's website - morganmillermidwifery.com

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:06

Hey team , welcome to episode number 80 of I'm Hormonal . I feel like we got to 80 quick . I'm your host , bridget Walton , and in this mini episode I'm going to be talking about the conversation that I had earlier this week with Morgan Miller , who is a midwife , lactation consultant . She's an activist , she's an author and the owner of a birth center out in Maine . I loved talking to her and we really focused on preconception and pregnancy . Of course , midwives work closely with their clients during that time , and one thing that I learned myself is that even if you're not pregnant or maybe you're not like imminently pregnant , on the cusp of conception you can still work with a midwife to optimize what's going on with your reproductive system and make sure that your hormones are all in balance . So I really learned a lot , because midwives aren't as common as they were 100 years ago , and I don't know about you , but I wasn't around 100 years ago , so I didn't have that context . Anyway , let me tell you about a couple of nutrients that Morgan mentioned that are really important to make sure they are repleted as you go into pregnancy . She mentioned magnesium , vitamin D and iron . Now , of course , there are many other nutrients and vitamins and minerals that we need to be feeling our best . But those are three that she called out . And if you are thinking about conceiving , or if you maybe kind of want to sort of do that sometime soon-ish , then it's totally worth a trip to your doctor or your provider or whatever practitioner that is right for you , or midwife , to do a preconception appointment where you can just say , hey , let's run through and do the panels , let's check my thyroid , let's check my CBC Some panels that your doctor you know , of course , depending on your insurance here in the US , will probably automatically do when you have your annual checkup with them . But just to make sure that everything is in good shape , right , you also want to think about , you know , if you're having , if you have pregnancies that are really close back to back , you know it'll take your body some time to replete those nutrients , vitamins and minerals that were lost in the first pregnancy . So , keeping that in mind as you're preparing to conceive and of course for a lot of those things , a prenatal will do you some good but you can also focus on getting those nutrients through your food .

Speaker 1 2:57

If you've listened to the podcast before , then that is certainly not a new concept to you and that's something else we talked about was really nourishing your body . Nourishing your body for yourself , but also because , of course , you don't need me to tell you that it's going to take more nutrients to grow , you know , to 3D print a human inside of your body . So making sure that you are nourishing your body appropriately is going to be key . Now that brings me to talk about assembling your team , assembling your support system as you are going through your pregnancy journey , to make sure that you have all of the resources that you need . And yes , before anybody has any other thoughts about it , of course you can have a totally lovely pregnancy and birth experience without having this full kind of complement of a team .

Speaker 1 3:51

But when I asked Morgan what was her dream team Like , if she could , you know , wave her magic wand , what would she say that all pregnant people should have as a part of their support system ? This is what she said . She mentioned having a doula , so a doula who can help , really advocate for you , educate you , help you with emotional support , among many other things , and also having , you know , working with a midwife , too , who can do a lot of those same things that a doula does , but she clarified that they're also there for the kind of clinical aspect of things , so they have a slightly different . Well , of course , the midwife has an expanded scope in the way that they support . You can order panels . You know it's like delivering , catching the baby . But coming back to the team composition a doula , a midwife you also want to see where can you get support when it comes to nutrition . What do you want to do when it comes to lactating or having a lactation consultant that can support you , and then also having a pelvic floor specialist or pelvic floor physical therapist who can support you postpartum through that healing , because this is something too .

Speaker 1 5:14

Maybe you feel the same way , but in my circles , with my friends who I'm 31 , so a lot of my friends are pregnant or have had kids recently that talk about pelvic floor care and seeing somebody who can help you , help support your pelvic health , is really important because there's so much connected down there . I was going to try to say some fancy words . Yeah , I don't know the fancy pelvic bowl words and how they connect to your hips and all of those things but I've even noticed myself right of course , separate from being pregnant or giving birth that if I hurt my hip , maybe it's actually my pelvic floor , okay , anyway , little tangent there . But the last thing I want to leave you with kind of a question for you , and this is where Morgan and I where we closed out our conversation too . But we were just talking about this concept or practice of holding off until pregnancy to be optimally healthy , right , why is it that ?

Speaker 1 6:26

During pregnancy I mean for good reason , during pregnancy , yes , don't smoke , don't drink , don't eat fish that could have high levels of mercury . That makes sense . Of course . That's good , that's good practice , but why do we wait until we're pregnant to do those things , when we could just avoid the stuff that's bad for us on a more regular basis things , and we could just avoid the stuff that's bad for us on a more regular basis ? I don't know , is that something that you've thought about ? Or I guess , now that you've had the question posed to you , does that inspire you to make any changes to your health , just for your long-term well , for longevity , but also for feeling good .

Speaker 1 7:06

Now Let me know what you think about that by connecting with me on Instagram at Bridget Walton . I would love to hear your thoughts and if anything that I just said was interesting to you then check out the longer form episode for sure with Morgan . She had so much good information to share . Her book is out this week the Cycle Book . You can check it out at wwwthecyclebookcom . You can check them out on Instagram at the Cycle Book . I've also linked up Morgan's website and Laura , her co-author's website , if you want to get to know them more . So check those out in the show notes . Thank you guys , so much for listening . I hope that you enjoyed this one and I will look forward to seeing you on the next long form one on Tuesday . Okay , thanks guys .