Dr. Shirin Towfigh is a hernia specialist and one of very few women in her field. She joins Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp to talk about what actually happens to the abdominal wall after pregnancy -- what gets missed, what gets misread on imaging, and what patients are told to just live with that they absolutely don't have to. From diastasis to hidden hernias to mesh, this is the conversation most postpartum women never get to have with a surgeon who actually specializes in this.
Resources mentioned: HerniaTalk.com and Beverly Hills Hernia Center.
Disclaimer:
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

Audra Zastrow is a pelvic floor PT who spent the better part of a decade navigating pregnancy loss, a major birth injury, prolapse, and four very different deliveries. All while working in the field she was simultaneously failing to benefit from herself. She joins Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp for a candid conversation about what it looks like to have the clinical knowledge and still not have the right information, the right team, or the right support when it matters most.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

Stacey Gayer is a holistic pelvic health physical therapist, and her own postpartum story is one she is only now putting fully into words. After an emergency C-section and a psychiatric crisis six months postpartum, Stacey spent years in recovery before eventually finding her footing and building a practice around the very work that helped heal her. She and Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp dig into birth trauma, somatic healing, the long tail of postpartum recovery, and what it means to still be working through a 25-year-old birth on the treatment table.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

Pamela Newman is a therapist who spent her first postpartum experience deep in anxiety, envisioning worst-case scenarios, refusing help, convinced she had to manage everything alone. All without recognizing what was happening until it lifted over a year later. In this episode, she and Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp walk through three very different pregnancies and postpartum periods, the breastfeeding journey nobody warned her about, and what she wishes she had known about asking for help. A conversation with someone who had all the clinical knowledge and still had to learn these lessons firsthand.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

After nearly 50 hours of failed induction and a C-section, Kate Harris came into the postpartum period with two dreams: holding her baby right away and breastfeeding. Neither went as planned. In this episode, Kate shares the honest, sometimes messy reality of those first weeks -- the feeding challenges, the delayed bonding, the grief of letting go of expectations -- and what support actually looked like for her family. A refreshingly candid conversation about giving yourself grace when nothing goes according to plan.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

In Part 2, Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp picks up the postpartum story with her daughter Elena. She walks through a recovery that was far harder than anyone around her acknowledged -- physically, cognitively, and emotionally -- and the complications that kept compounding in the weeks and years that followed. She and Elena also discuss the nervous system disruption they both experienced after the abrupt emergency C-section, and what all of it ultimately shaped in Dr. Kramp's approach to pelvic health practice.
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp's youngest daughter Elena -- an occupational therapist -- turns the tables and interviews her own mother about the birth that almost went catastrophically wrong. Part 1 covers the full birth story. Part 2 takes on the postpartum recovery.

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

At 29 weeks pregnant, Rachel Kaufman noticed her baby had stopped kicking. Trusting her gut, she called her doctor and headed to the hospital, where fetal monitoring revealed her son was in serious distress. With amniotic fluid nearly gone and the placenta failing to deliver nutrients, he was delivered via emergency C-section weighing just 2 pounds, 1 ounce. In this episode, Rachel joins Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp to share that story and the long, often invisible aftermath that followed, including C-section scar tissue and adhesions, pelvic floor tightness, the brutal reality of pumping for a NICU baby, and why she didn't start working with a pelvic PT until her son was nearly 14 years old. Her message is simple: count the kicks, trust your body, and know it is never too late to heal.

Rachel Kaufman, MPH, ACC, is a professional life coach, Usui Reiki Master, reflexologist, Insight Acupressure practitioner, teacher, and author.
Rachel received the Rite of the Womb Munay-Ki initiation and is a Womb Keeper, and has also studied the use of essential oils, crystals, and shamanic techniques, all of which she incorporates into healing sessions when needed. She has supported hundreds of clients over the past 20-plus years to find more resilience, calmness, and balance in their daily lives.

www.integratedhealingvibes.com

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

In this episode, Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp is joined by her niece Gabriela, who opens up about her unexpectedly intense postpartum journey. Gabriela shares what it was like to experience postpartum anxiety and OCD, conditions she didn't even know existed until her therapist named them, and how years of therapy and a strong support system helped her find her way through. She also speaks candidly about her endometriosis diagnosis, the long road to getting answers, a partial hysterectomy during the early days of COVID, and the ongoing challenges of living with chronic pelvic pain.
If you or someone you know is navigating endometriosis, check out the Endometriosis Summit as a resource: https://theendometriosissummit.com/
Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.

Dr. Mary Ellen Kramp sits down with Swathi Raman, a pediatrician who learned firsthand just how broken postpartum care can be, even for those who work inside the medical system. Swathi shares the story of her difficult delivery, a soft tissue infection that went unaddressed until day five postpartum, and the ongoing pelvic floor dysfunction she is still working through ten months later. She reflects on the gap between what new mothers are told to expect and the reality of recovery, why self-advocacy is so exhausting, and what she believes needs to change in medical education and postpartum follow-up care. Her perspective as both a patient and a provider makes for a conversation that is equal parts personal and eye-opening.

Disclaimer: The thoughts and opinions expressed in this podcast belong solely to those saying them. This podcast is intended for educational and entertainment purposes only. Nothing in this podcast establishes a patient care relationship with you, the listener. The host(s) and guests of this show are NOT your healthcare provider and if you need medical attention, seek an appropriate and qualified professional.