Holistic Pregnancy

This month we’re answering your questions with guest cohost Sarah Marie Bilger. We cover everything from protein needs and prolapse to placenta encapsulation, BV options, and what we’d tell our first-time-pregnant selves.

In this episode, we cover:

• How much protein you need during pregnancy, and whether that changes postpartum
• When the umbilical cord around baby’s neck is a concern, and why so many doulas say it’s usually normal
• Whether a fast birth or a fast pushing stage can contribute to prolapse
• Whether placenta encapsulation is worth it
• Your options for treating BV during pregnancy: antibiotics, herbs, or other protocols
• Our thoughts on breastfeeding in public
• What to do when you and your partner disagree about keeping baby’s name a secret until birth
• When to start going back to church postpartum, and whether to stay home in the early weeks
• What we would tell our first-time-pregnant selves

Listen to Sarah on the Entering Motherhood podcast!

Want your question answered in next month’s Q&A? DM us on Instagram at @holisticpregnancy.co or email [email protected].

🎉 Birthday special: Take 50% off all courses with code BIRTHDAY at holisticpregnancyco.com/courses! Valid thru Thanksgiving (11/26/26!)

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

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*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

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NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Informed consent isn't a form you sign at intake, it's an ongoing conversation that should happen before every intervention. This episode is a framework, not a fear tactic, walking through what informed consent actually means and the questions worth asking before you agree to anything in labor.

In this episode:

• What informed consent actually is, beyond signing a form
• The four components: risks, benefits, alternatives, and your right to refuse
• What a real informed consent conversation should sound like from a provider
• A simple framework of questions to use in the moment
• Why true emergencies work differently, and why that doesn't undo the rest of the framework
• Your right to change your mind, even after you've already said yes

Ready to get informed for your own birth? Check out Unshakeable Birth!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

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*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

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NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Gina Mundy has spent over 23 years as a birth injury attorney, analyzing labor and delivery cases to understand why things go wrong, and how families can prepare before they ever step into a delivery room. She's the author of A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth and host of The Childbirth Attorney Podcast.

In this episode, we talk about the patterns Gina sees over and over in birth injury cases, starting with Pitocin and artificial rupture of membranes. Gina walks through what "slow and steady" actually means with an induction, what the drug manufacturer's own guidelines say about dosing, and why breaking the water is rarely the risk-free intervention it's presented as. She also shares what a Cochrane review of 15,000 deliveries found about doulas and outcomes, and why she recommends one to every family she talks to.

In this episode, we cover:

• The pattern behind most birth injury cases, and why spontaneous vaginal births are rarely involved
• What "slow and steady" means with a Pitocin induction, and what the manufacturer's own guidelines recommend
• Why breaking the water is treated as routine, and what it's actually correlated with in her cases
• How to tell when you're being pressured into an intervention versus given a real medical indication
• What the research says about doulas and C-section, operative delivery, and intervention rates

Connect with Gina at https://GinaMundy.com or on Instagram at @ginamundy.

• Get the book: A Parent's Guide to a Safer Childbirth
• Listen to The Childbirth Attorney Podcast

Ready to get informed for your own birth? Check out Unshakeable Birth!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Supplement aisles are overwhelming, and "just take a prenatal" only gets you so far. This episode breaks down what matters when building your prenatal supplement stack, from methylated folate and choline to iron, magnesium, and the difference between a quality label and marketing noise.

In this episode, we cover:

• Why food comes first, and supplements are there to fill the gaps, not replace real food
• What to actually look for in a prenatal multivitamin, including why Needed is the brand I trust and use myself
• Choline, the most under-discussed prenatal nutrient
• Vitamin D, omega-3, iron, magnesium, and probiotics, and how to know what you actually need
• Electrolytes and hydration, including the Just Ingredients electrolytes mentioned in the episode
• How to read a label and spot red flags like proprietary blends and fillers

Brands mentioned:

• Needed (20% off with code HOLISTICPREGNANCY)
• Just Ingredients (10% off with code TAYLORSHAFFER)

And don't forget to grab the free nutrition guide!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Dr. Laura Brayton is a holistic chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner with more than 20 years of experience helping women optimize fertility, pregnancy, and maternal health through root-cause medicine and holistic lifestyle practices. She's the host of the Well-Adjusted Mama podcast and creator of the documentary Conscious Conception: An Empowered Pregnancy + Birthing Story.

In this episode, we talk about what conscious conception actually means and why it starts well before a positive pregnancy test. Dr. Brayton breaks down how the nervous system affects fertility, why stress can signal the body that it isn't safe to conceive, and how epigenetics means both partners' health, not just the mother's, shapes the pregnancy to come. She also gets into the toxin load hiding in everyday products, the gut-fertility connection, and why she has couples do a preconception cleanse together.

In this episode, we cover:

• What conscious conception means, and why it's relevant even if you're years away from trying
• How a stressed, sympathetic nervous system can work against fertility and conception
• Why 50 percent of baby's genetics and toxin exposure come from the partner, and what that means for preconception prep
• The environmental toxins worth addressing first, and where to find better product alternatives
• How gut health and food sensitivities tie into hormone balance and fertility
• Practical ways to get a reluctant partner on board with preconception changes

Connect with Dr. Brayton at https://www.drlaurabrayton.com or on Instagram at @drlaurabrayton. You can also listen to Well-Adjusted Mama!

Ready to prep for pregnancy? Check out Real Food Prenatal!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Third trimester comes with a lot of decisions, all at once. This episode is a full, evidence-based rundown of everything worth doing before baby arrives — GBS testing, pelvic floor prep beyond kegels, finalizing your birth preferences, choosing a pediatrician, and lining up your support team, so nothing gets missed.

In this episode:

• The 12 things to focus on this trimester, and the "why" behind each one
• Pelvic floor prep that goes beyond kegels
• The questions to ask your pediatrician and birth provider
• Building your birth preferences as a decision framework
• Setting up your support team and preparing emotionally, not just physically

Resources mentioned:

• GBS testing handout: https://evidencebasedbirth.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/GBS-Handout.pdf
• The Miles Circuit: https://www.milescircuit.com/

Download the third trimester checklist!

Want more holistic postpartum prep resources? Check out Blood Bone + Broth! 

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

The 5-5-5 rule — 5 days in bed, 5 days on the bed, 5 days around the bed — is one of the better postpartum recovery frameworks out there. This episode walks through what's physiologically happening in your body and mind during each phase, what's normal, and what's not.

In this episode:

• What the 5-5-5 rule is and where it comes from
• What's physically happening in each phase — bleeding, healing, hormones, feeding
• Normal vs. concerning signs at each stage
• Why protecting this time matters more than anything else

💡 Want more holistic postpartum prep resources? Check out our postpartum prep course!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Most hospital bag lists are overpacked with things you'll never open. This episode breaks down what's truly worth bringing and organized in helpful categories!

In this episode, we cover:

• What you need for labor (and what hospitals already provide)
• Creating a physiologic birth environment: lighting, sound, scent, and comfort
• Coping tools that support labor, and why a doula is worth considering
• What you need for postpartum recovery, baby, and your support person in the first day or two after birth
• Paperwork and documents to have ready
• What to leave at home (aka things you do not actually need)

📚 Download the free hospital bag checklist
💡 Check out Unshakeable Birth for holistic resources and birth prep!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

After a summer away, I'm back and using this episode to catch you up on where I've been, what's changing about the show, and where it's headed this season!

In this episode:

• Recap of my summer (I left Instagram!)
• The shifts I'm making for the show
• NEW! Topic suggestion form 
• NEW! Guest application form
• A few sneak peeks at what's coming this season

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)

Hey, welcome! We're talking about my top 3 pregnancy MUST DO's today.. but first, we've got a few announcements!

FIRST..... We're taking a little break! We'll be back in August with fresh content, new guests and plenty of education to go around! In the meantime, this is a great opportunity to binge previous episodes AND/OR join the course community and get to work! Use code PODCAST for an extra 10% off.

Holistic Doula School: If you've been feeling a pull to support mothers through pregnancy, birth and postpartum but aren't sure how or where to start.. send me an email at [email protected] or join the waitlist here.

Needed: Get high quality prenatal supplements and vitamins using code HOLISTICPREGNANCY for 20% off!

Got a topic you want covered? Fill out this form
Want to be a guest? Apply here

____________________________________________________________________________

*As always, this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for medical advice.

____________________________________________________________________________

NEXT STEPS:
>> Courses
>> Email list
>> FREE nutrition guide
>> Postpartum cookbooks

 
Please consider leaving a rating and review to share the love! :)