What You Didn't Expect in Fertility, Pregnancy & Birth: Real Stories & Expert Insights

Many people enter the long road to parenthood stuffed with different stories about what the process will be like: how long it will take to get pregnant, what growing another human inside your body will feel like, how the birth will unfold. And these stories come from everywhere: your childhood, family experiences, books, and media...today's guest originally thought she wouldn't have children, which may have shaped what stories she took in and which she avoided...and then she had a change of heart. and with this change came some next level planning--not so much for the pregnancy or birth, chock full of their own surprises, but for what came after: the fourth trimester and the new role of mother. She wisely borrowed traditions from a variety of sources that offered the kinds of support she anticipated needing, and made for a lovely transition to parenthood.

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

Pregnancy can invite a million different kinds of challenges. For some women, it's a physical trial. There are real limits on what our bodies can do. It certainly was for me for some all the massive changes that happen internally and externally can cause distress. And for some women, like today's guest, part of the challenge is how pregnancy can affect relationships. She had lots of challenges with the baby's father at the time, which forced her to navigate the very real question of whether or not to bring a baby into a relationship that wasn't fully settled. Adding to this already tough situation, she had to figure this all out amidst the gnarly set of restrictions required of women having babies during the pandemic. Ultimately, through her own perseverance, she manages to birth both a baby and a whole new family context for herself. 

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

If there’s one thing I can relate to directly, it’s the story of a high risk pregnancy. 

But the pregnancy that my guest encountered was something I have no first hand knowledge of: she ran into an issue that threatened a premature birth, which caused her doctor to prescribe bedrest–for five months, 150 days for anyone who is counting–of being horizontal, she was more or less plucked out of normal circulation and forced into bed.  

We talk about what that dramatic transition was like and how she managed it, while also juggling way too many signficant life changes: a move from Brooklyn to a farm, from apartment to farmhouse, the start of a new business and more.

And get the insights of a fantastic OB who studies the effectiveness of bedrest.

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

Today's guest stepped into pregnancy relatively easily, and while she had some pretty common early challenges--extreme fatigue, congestion, and sensitivity to smell (her husband called her a blood hound--which feels like high praise in the right context... ).  The challenges really picked up at the birth, which was visited by a hemorrhage after a vaginal delivery and a bad reaction to morphine.  And by the way, all of this went down during Covid before vaccines.  After taking some time to settle after the physical and emotional turmoil, she is now enjoying chasing after her nearly two year old.

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

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Today’s guest approached pregnancy, and the motherhood that would follow, like a competition--one that she could excel at and ultimately win. And her first pregnancy, while not seamless, was relatively straight forward, giving credence to her early ideas about the process. But these beliefs lost steam when she had trouble getting pregnant the second time, and were fully deflated when ten weeks after a positive pregnancy test, a scan revealed that she was carrying triplets.  A pregnancy with triplets is not for the faint of heart. Despite the challenges, she did everything she could to bring these babies safely into the world, and ultimately prevailed. Listen to her inspiring story. 

For extended show notes and useful links, see:
https://warstoriesfromthewomb.com/

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

In this episode we feature the story of a young woman who pursued pregnancy in a country different from her own, where language barriers and a different approach to care contributed to what became her life threatening condition. Originally told that she was not pregnant, she learns, many weeks later she has an ectopic pregnancy–but not your garden variety ectopic pregnancy.  Thanks to her organized effort and perseverance, she saved her own life. In a second pregnancy, she goes on to deliver a beautiful daughter, who is a mirror of her mother’s driven spirit.

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

Here we are at the end of 2021 and you may be feeling nostalgic for easier times, pre pandemic life…we visit these times in today’s story. my guest gave birth for the first time more than two decades ago and had a wide breadth of experiences in pregnancy and delivery in the course of her four pregnancies. She has hyper emesis for all of the pregnancies and learns to manage it despite her busy OB practice. A whole host of surprises visit her in the five years of pregnancy, including what I’ll call an enthusiastic cervix (you’ll see what that means as you listen to her story), postpartum challenges, milk supply issues, and once the kids are older, health surprises of her own. Whether it’s her medical training or her intuition, she makes a number of critical decisions that keep her from what could have been complete catastrophes and She manages the various ups and downs with grace and wisdom.

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

Every person has their superpower. Yours could be patience or wit or strength. I am guessing that among the things that today’s guest could list as her super power, toughness and or stamina are probably near the top of the list. She contends with a fair amount of uncertainty about elemental issues, like the timing of both pregnancies, and then manages a stack of challenges beginning with birthing a baby who is not situated in the birth canal in a friendly way, tending to said baby, who is getting fed too often to make restorative sleep a viable goal in the early postpartum, and then carefully dissecting her own diet to manage a food allergy …and she does it all with a certain grace and good humor.

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

Having spoken with a lot of women about their experiences with reproduction, many of them report having one or possibly two issues that visit their pregnancy or birth that alert them to the fact that they have very little control over the momentous task of creating another person in the confines of their body. Today’s guest was visited by many, many issues, including miscarriage, hyperemesis, gestational diabetes and the coup de gras, issues with breastfeeding, all of which happened (drumroll please) during Covid….so yeah, it was a lot. But now that she and her partner are on the other side of that experience, and getting to enjoy their beautiful six month old, she can appreciate how many of these challenges taught her valuable things about herself. 

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.

Since it's Thanksgiving weekend, I decided to make this episode about family. And in that spirit, I interviewed my mother about her experiences of pregnancy and childbirth. My mother, who is in her late 70s,  had four kids starting in 1966, and ending in 1978. You’ll hear her reference my two older brothers: Josh who is the first born, and Teddy who is the second. I was the third in line, and there is an 8 year gap between me and my sister Samara. It's surprising to hear about how much she changed and how much the medical apparatus around pregnancy in general changed in that 12 year period. Of course, this is just one woman's story, and my father was a doctor, so she had very good access to different medical technologies, which you’ll hear about, but I found it really interesting to hear about how her experiences were so different from how pregnancies and births are managed today. And I hope you do too. 

This is a weekly show that highlights real pregnancy, birth & postpartum stories.