Episode 243 Dr. Kimberly Spair's VBACs + Postpartum Depletion

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Dr. Kimberly Spair does it all! She holds a Ph.D. in Holistic Natural Health and Nutrition along with lots of additional certifications and degrees, all of which have helped her create an amazing career around helping others find holistic healing. Dr. Spair specifically helps postpartum women find ways to naturally combat symptoms like anxiety, exhaustion, and overall depletion. She is a VBAC mama herself and knows personally what kind of support birthing women deserve. Dr. Spair is so lovely and gracious. We know you will love this episode like we do!Additional LinksDr. Kimberly Spair's WebsiteFree Postpartum RecipesNeeded WebsiteHow to VBAC: The Ultimate Prep Course for ParentsThe VBAC Link Facebook CommunityFull Transcript under Episode DetailsMeagan: Hello, hello Women of Strength. We have a special episode for you today. We have our friend, Dr. Kimberly Spair. Is that correct? Did I say it correctly? Dr. Spair: That’s correct. Yep. Meagan: Okay. That’s how I say it in my head. Sometimes I say it and it’s totally wrong. Dr. Spair: Yep. You’ve got it. Nope. Meagan: I said your name wrong like three times. Kimberly. Let me start sounding it out.Dr. Spair: You’ve got it. Meagan: You guys, she’s amazing. I was really drawn to her page a while ago because of something I had seen. I think it was a post about nutrition. Nutrition is something that is huge for me. I saw such a change when I dialed in on my nutrition, especially for my VBAC. I really dialed deeply into nutrition for my VBAC. I do believe that it helped me so much. So as I started digging into her and following her posts more, I was like, “I love her. She’s amazing.” So it is so awesome to have you today on the podcast. Dr. Spair: I am so excited and I love looking at your pages because you’ve got all of the statistics to give moms that home. The moms, and the resources like, “Oh, I had a C-section? Guess what, I can still have a vaginal birth.” I love it. I’ve been quoting you left and right in my posts so I’m glad we’re here today. Meagan: Well, thank you. We actually just shared one of your posts which was amazing. So you guys, definitely want to check her out. We’re going to have all of her links in the show notes today. Review of the WeekWe do have a Review of the Week today and then we are going to dive into this yummy episode. This is from wallabygirl and the subject is “We Got Our VBAC”. It says, “Meagan and Julie, after my first birth turned into a C-section, I knew that I wanted to try for a VBAC with my next baby. When we found out that we were pregnant in January 2022, my husband and I started doing a ton of research. I found The VBAC Link Podcast and was so inspired and encouraged. I love the mix of data, birth stories, and interviews with experts in the field of your podcast shares.”Well, guess what? That is exactly what today’s episode is. A podcast with a VBAC story and data and amazing information from a professional. It says, “I listened to your podcast on my commute to and from work and learned so much. My husband and I took Spinning Babies and I started seeing an amazing chiropractor who specializes in pregnancy and bodywork. Our midwives and OB team were so supportive and awesome and the podcast helped us know the right questions to ask. Finally, after a long labor and an unmedicated delivery, we welcomed our baby girl postdates at 41 weeks + 1 day.” That was in September of 2022. It says, “I feel amazing and I cried when I got home and was able to pick up my two-year-old son. Thank you, thank you for this awesome podcast. I will be continuing to listen and highly recommend this valuable information for friends and family.” I love reviews like that, wallabygirl. Thank you so much for leaving that review. And if you haven’t had a chance to leave a review, push pause right now. Head over to Google, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you are listening, and leave us a review. Dr. Kimberly SpairMeagan: Okay, Dr. Kimberly. Dr. Spair: I have to say you know you’re in the right field. That review just gave me goosebumps and tears not just because I’ve seen so many VBACs now but it took me back to the first time that I VBAC’d. It’s just a full body, tears, chills, emotion, and all of it. It’s the best. It’s the best. I love that. Meagan: I know that. Anytime we get these reviews or when we’re doing consults because we have one-on-one consults as well. We work with people and they tell us the update. It just makes me so happy seriously down to the core to hear these amazing people being inspired. Even if it doesn’t end in a VBAC, right? Dr. Spair: I love that. They’re still empowered. Meagan: They are empowered and educated along the way so we are making the choices and sometimes we know. We are going to talk about how sometimes emergency Cesareans happen and sometimes they’re out of our control but if we can feel empowered along the way, it truly does help our outcome in the postpartum stage which again, we’re going to talk about today. You guys, we have such a great episode for you. So, Dr. Kimberly, I would love to turn the time over to you and just let you share your story and how you got going. Dr. Spair: All right. So why I’m here is because I’ve had two VBACs myself. My first birth, I was planning for a natural birth. I had the Webster Chiropractic. I did the Hypnobabies. I was doing prenatal yoga. All the things. Massage. I just wanted this beautiful water birth. That’s what I was planning. For my first birth, I decided to birth in a birth center. Thank God it was attached to a hospital at the time. My pregnancy was beautiful. I had no issues. When I was 37 weeks, I stepped out of the shower one day and my water broke all over the bathroom floor. I called my midwife and I said, “My water broke.” She said, “You probably peed.” I’m like, “Nope, I’m pretty sure I didn’t pee. It literally was a burst all over the floor.” I went into the midwife’s office. She was like, “Yeah, I don’t really think your water broke. I don’t think you’re in labor.” Okay, I went home. I was having all of these contractions. Again, I was a first-time mom. I didn’t really know what was going on. I also was doing Hypnobabies so my threshold was in a good place with it.Long story short, the day progressed and I’m still thinking, “Man. These are a lot of Braxton Hicks. Something’s going on.” I called the midwife again. This was 8-9 hours later. She was like, “All right. Head over to the birth center.” I go to the birth center. They’re like, “You’re not in labor. You’re dilated but your water didn’t break.” They used those little strips. They’re like, “You know, you’re water didn’t break.” Okay. I go home. Now, it’s 3:00 in the morning and I wake my husband up. I’m like, “We’ve got to go now. We’ve got to go now.” So we get in the car and had a 45-minute drive. I didn’t know until after but I went through transition in the car. Meagan: Okay. Dr. Spair: I got out of the birth center and I stood up and my son’s leg was out. Literally out. I waddled into the hospital. I should have started with this. I don’t like to share war birth stories with moms that are about to give birth so I should have said before I started if you are about to give birth, listen to this later. I don’t like to scare moms. It’s such a rare occurrence that these kind of situations happen. Emergencies do happen and when emergencies happen, we are so grateful for modern medicine and we’re glad that we were okay. My son, I’ll go back to the story in a minute, but I just wanted to say that if you’re a mom that’s ready to give birth, don’t listen to any negative stories. So anyway, I got out of the car. My son’s leg was out. I waddled into the birth center. The midwife on call came in and she’s like, “Yeah. You’re 10 centimeters.” Then all of a sudden, everyone was like, “Don’t push!” They’re screaming at me. She was like, “Can I just wiggle him out? What do we think is going to happen here?” And he was stuck. So leg out and his body was basically–Meagan: Doing the splits. Dr. Spair: He was in a split. If they would have tried to let him come out vaginally, he would have broken his hip, his leg, his shoulder, and maybe his neck. Meagan: Complications. Dr. Spair: It was a very, very complicated situation. So of course, it was the coldest day of the year and there’s no doctor in this birth center even though it’s attached to a hospital. So they were like, “All right. We’ve got to get to the OR now.” They’re prepping me. They’re screaming at me not to push. I’m traumatized completely because here I’m thinking that I’m having this beautiful water birth. It’s going to be peaceful and nice. Here I am strapped down to the table which I never knew was a thing until I went through it myself. They’re saying to me, “If the doctor doesn’t get here soon, we’re going to have to knock you out.” I’m like, “Knock me out? What is happening?” Long story short, my son came. Thank God he was fine and I was fine but it was one of the most traumatic things that I have ever been through in my life. The healing was really hard. I remember trying to change my newborn son’s diaper and being in excruciating pain. All around, I just had this postpartum, we were just talking about this how people say postpartum depression, but to me, it was postpartum depletion.Especially after a C-section, we’re so depleted because we’ve had all of these medications and all of these interventions. We’re not getting that natural oxytocin that we get with a vaginal birth because your baby’s right on your chest and you can nurse right away. There are gentle C-sections, but in my case, they took the baby. I had some complications. He had a fever. There was a lot going on because my water did break. It was broken for all of those hours that they kept saying, “Your water didn’t break. Your water didn’t break.” My water did break and my son had an infection. So the bottom line is that I ended up with a C-section even though I was planning for this beautiful, natural birth. Again, I do believe that God gives us these situations because it makes us who we are and just like you shared, we go through– that’s why I share my other birth stories. I have experienced a lot of different birth scenarios and I think it helps us relate to other women who are going through similar things. Meagan: Absolutely. Absolutely. I think that’s a really unique thing about us here at The VBAC Link. Me and my team have all of these unique situations where we can really personally relate. Dr. Spair: Yes. You personally relate. But then I like to bring women back to say that if you are someone that is planning a natural birth, a home birth, or whatever, these situations are really rare. Like yes, I went through it. Yes, she went through it, but it’s not that we shouldn’t be trusting our bodies and knowing that they know what to do. Just that emergencies can happen just like with anything. Things can happen and we’re grateful for lifesaving measures when necessary. Now, are C-sections overdone and are they done just because it’s Christmas morning and the doctor wants to get home? I mean, that’s a whole other conversation about how C-sections are definitely performed way too often. Moms who have had one C-section are basically put into this box of, “Okay, you’ve had a C-section. Now you should have another C-section. Now you’ve had two C-sections. You definitely should have another C-section. Why would you even try to have a natural birth after that?” Meagan: Yeah. Dr. Spair: I love that you share that you had two and then you had a vaginal birth. That’s just incredible and I think that provides a lot of hope even for my community. It’s never too late to trust your body and give it a shot. Meagan: Absolutely, yeah. Dr. Spair: So then two and a half years later, I got pregnant again and I’m like, “I’m going to have a VBAC. I want to have this natural, beautiful birth.” And I did. I had my daughter right next to the hospital. It was a home birth but it was not in my own home. Because of the state that I live in, I actually had to cross state lines. And that’s another thing. People say to me all of the time, my women will say, “Oh, well near my house, there’s not this resource or there’s not that resource.” Sometimes we have to go get the resources. The state that I live in does not allow VBACs to happen outside of the hospital, so I went to another state. These are things that we can make happen if it’s that important that we don’t go through another C-section. For me, I knew that if I went through another C-section, I never would have had a third child. It was that traumatic for me. It was that hard to heal from. It was something that I never wanted to experience again and I knew if it happened a second time that I was done. I knew that I wanted more babies. So my second one was a home birth VBAC literally a mile, two miles from a hospital at a location with midwives and it was a beautiful, healing birth. He was 42.3 weeks and that’s the other thing I would love to talk about. People who get induced at 38-39 weeks depending on what’s going on, 41– oh my gosh. We have to give medication. When you wait until your body is ready and your baby is ready, your chances of having a natural birth, especially a VBAC, go way up. Way up. My third birth was a VBAC at home right here, right over there in a pool right in my own bedroom. I went from a very traumatic, horrendous birth to a second birth where I was hanging onto hope but I was still a little nervous about this whole situation, to a third birth where my midwives literally got here at 11:00 at night and I stepped into my pool and at 1:08, my baby was here. I was in labor all day long. I was at the park with the kids. They were scootering around. I was walking. I was doing squats on all of the play equipment. I cooked dinner. I was just holding the counter going through my pressure waves. I took a shower and was oiling up my belly and the whole thing. I went down and had a snack. I’m on the ball. The kids are with me and then I was like, “It’s time to go upstairs.” They got here. I went through a couple of birthing waves. I got in the birthing pool and there she was. There she was. It was beautiful. With the third one, I truly visualized my birth and this is part of what I’m going to be helping women do in the future. It’s a whole visualization process because it’s so true when you can take your fears which, with that first VBAC, I had fears of all of the things because they brainwash you into thinking you’re crazy and that you actually want to go ahead and do that. But I love seeing your statistics because it’s like, wait. You actually have a better chance of a VBAC. But what I was going to say is the process of visualizing what you want your birth to be like is so powerful. That’s what I want women to hang onto. Even if you come into a situation where interventions have to happen or the birth plan changes because they do, coming from an empowered and relaxed state is completely different than showing up at the hospital in this raging fear, terrified mode. There’s so much to be said about the education and the empowerment piece when it comes to successful VBAC. Meagan: Absolutely. Yeah. I think, like you were saying, there are so many people out there, not just providers. Providers are sharing things and sometimes they share things that may sound fluffed a little bit because of maybe one of their experiences so they have trauma. Dr. Spair: Yeah. Always. Meagan: They see these things and sometimes the way they say them is like, “Oh, whoa. That’s really scary. Maybe I am scary.” Then they twist our thinking. But it’s not just providers. Many people out there– friends or family. Dr. Spair: Family. All the time. Yep. Yes. Meagan: Everybody, right? I mean, I was in a VBAC-supportive group on Facebook and I was still being told, “How would you even?” It’s so hard so that’s why it’s so important for us to really learn those stats and then figure out what’s acceptable to us. Dr. Spair: Yes. Meagan: What’s acceptable to us?Dr. Spair: What risk is acceptable and then how can I make myself feel comfortable? My second birth was a VBAC. I didn’t want to be in the hospital, but I live very far from a hospital, so what can I do to make myself feel comfortable? If I’m a mile away from the hospital and something goes wrong, am I okay with that? I’m right there. For some moms, it’s a VBAC in a hospital situation. What would make me feel comfortable? Meet that with your risk. That way, you’re not in a situation where you’re feeling fear and trying to birth because that doesn’t work either. We have to be comfortable and confident with the decisions that we’re making. I think that women out there are swayed in all of these different directions. They’re either in the category of a C-section camp over here, repeat C-section, or in the natural birth community which I will say that the natural birth community, after you have a C-section, is extremely unsupportive. Even if you are a mom, like I was my first time, I was planning for this beautiful, natural birth and after, it’s like, “What did you do wrong?” It’s like, “Wait. I didn’t do anything wrong. An emergency happened and I had a C-section because it saved my son’s life.” There’s a time and a place for that but you feel this guilt from this community that’s looking at you like, “Oh, you didn’t have this rainbow and butterfly birth?”Meagan: Oh yeah. I will never forget the feeling that I had when my second birth, I was going for a VBAC and I didn’t obviously end up in a VBAC. I ended up in a repeat Cesarean. I will never forget the feeling inside of my head of, “Great. Now, I have to tell people and they’re all going to think I failed.” Especially those people who didn’t support me in this in the beginning. They’re going to be like, “Yeah, I could have told you that five months ago.” I just remember that feeling and then when I talked about it, I did get some comments like that. Dr. Spair: Yes. Yep. Meagan: I encourage our community to never be that person. Dr. Spair: Whichever way you end up in your birth, birth outcomes are birth outcomes. Women need to be supported no matter what they decide. No matter what they decide. Even if they are in a fear-filled state and they choose a C-section again, we have to support those women too. Meagan: Yes. Dr. Spair: Even if we don’t agree with that choice because a woman who is giving birth whether it’s vaginally or Cesarean, they’re a mom and they have to feel loved and supported so they can love and support that infant. Tearing women down in this very, very vulnerable state that we are in after we give birth is setting them up for postpartum depletion, depression, anxiety, fear, and all of these crazy things that again, women don’t talk about. We put people in this camp of, “Oh, well you’re just anxious. You’re just depressed.” Meagan: This is normal. You just had a baby and this is what you’re supposed to experience because you’re tired. No. Dr. Spair: No. You’re depleted. You’re depleted. It’s depleted in nutrition, depleted in sleep, depleted in resources, depleted in support. Sometimes it’s just someone to say to you, “You did a great job. You brought this baby into this world. You went through Hell. You can’t even laugh or sit up but you did a great job.”It is hard when you have people surrounding you and say, “Well, see? You ended up with a C-section.” It’s almost like they’re proud to tell you that you failed at what you were going for. I had that experience too. Meagan: Exactly. Yes. That is how I felt from a lot of people and then when I chose to VBAC after two Cesareans, oh boy. Dr. Spair: Oh gosh, now you’re really in trouble. Meagan: Now I’m a nutso, right? It’s so hard. I just encourage our community to build one another up. I’ve made posts on this. I challenge every single one of you to love everyone for who they are and what they decide even if it’s not what you would decide, right? Dr. Spair: Yes, exactly. Meagan: Let’s dive more into what you do and talk about that postpartum and how we don’t talk about it enough. We don’t share. Dr. Spair: We don’t share. We don’t talk about it. I have a practice primarily, well, almost all women. I do say that I get the husbands and the sons when women heal and they go through something. I work a lot with women with chronic illness, postpartum, and those kinds of things. When they heal, they do send me their husbands and their sons, but it’s mostly women and a large majority of pregnant and postpartum moms. What I can say is 90% of postpartum women go through some type of depletion period. It’s part of becoming a mom. When we go through a birth whether it’s a C-section or a natural birth, there is a load of adrenaline that happens. Massive adrenaline. Massive cortisol as we are birthing a baby either way. It doesn’t matter if it’s a vaginal or surgical birth. What happens is that women become completely depleted especially if they don’t have support. They don’t have someone there cooking meals and making sure their toddler is taken care of. They’re running around the house trying to do all of these things instead of resting. That whole thing “sleep when the baby is sleeping” is the silliest thing you’ve heard in your whole life because your kitchen would be covered in dishes and all of that. We all know that. Meagan: And then we feel anxious when we look at those kitchens. Dr. Spair: And then we’re anxious when we look at that or we’re anxious because our toddler is not being taken care of correctly or eating things that we don’t want– those kinds of things. I think it comes down to women sharing and talking. Women postpartum have really crazy, irrational fears. We all, most of us, have had those feelings. When women talk about it, they think, “Oh my god. Someone’s going to think I’m crazy because I’m sitting here watching my baby sleep all night long. People are going to diagnose me with PPA or all of the things because I’m going through this.” If women would just share so that other women could say, “Oh my gosh. I definitely went through that too. I felt that way too. I was terrified. I had those crazy thoughts where I was just afraid something bad would happen,” they would say, “Okay. This is part of postpartum. I’m just depleted. I need to nourish myself with nutrition. I need to make sure that I’m hydrated and I need to prioritize sleep someway, somehow, when I can.” I think a lot of our anxiety would go from here to down because we hold ourselves and compare ourselves to other women out there who may have a lot of other support or they may have someone that’s taking care of their every need and not every woman has that, then we are afraid to talk about our experience when we’re trying to hold up all of these different things. I remember with my first birth, my husband went back to work right away so it was just me and this newborn. I had a C-section. I had a straight staircase up and down and they’re saying, “Don’t go up the staircase.” I’m like, “Well, I’ve got a newborn.” I did set myself up downstairs so I could mostly be downstairs, but things happen. You run out of diapers, all the things. I had an enlarged uterus because I was going up and down those damn stairs even though I wasn’t supposed to be. The dog is up there. So it’s just a matter of really looking at support and then talking with other women, women that are honest though. Women that are in a place where they’re comfortable sharing what they have gone through because a lot of women will just tell you, “Oh yeah, my birth was beautiful. It was la, la, la, la, la,” and they’re not really going to share that peace about, “Oh, no.” Meagan: The vulnerable part. The vulnerable part. Dr. Spair: Yes, yes. Meagan: The stats show about 1 in 7 which I think is about 15% or so will actually be diagnosed. I think we sometimes hear that– you just said it again– they get scared to be diagnosed or labeled. Dr. Spair: Some women go through more than others, but for most women, it’s just that TLC piece. If we had someone to really nourish us with the food we need to recover, I’m really big on infusions and herbs and teas, and those kinds of things. If we had that and we could set ourselves up, which is what I do. I help women to prepare for the postpartum period so that they can– I can’t say that I’ll eliminate it completely, but mitigate that and have those things on hand so that when they start to feel a little anxious, they know what to do. That’s where it comes into play. Instead of going into this thing that women don’t talk about postpartum, women don’t really talk about the birth so much, they just talk about this beautiful baby and that’s the great part. That’s the amazing part but nobody really talks about walking around in a diaper for 3 weeks. Meagan: Right? Dr. Spair: But that scar and feeling that scar and peeing your pants and all of the things that women don’t want to talk about. So that’s my mission is when I have a mom who is newly pregnant, it’s not a fear thing. It’s just like, “Hey. You’re a woman. I’m a woman. These are some of the things that a lot of women go through postpartum and it’s normal. It’s normal.” You go through it and you come out the other side. You really nourish your body. You’ll feel like yourself again, but there is a period where we don’t really quite feel like ourselves and that’s okay too because you just birthed a human.” Meagan: Yeah. And it is okay. It’s also okay to talk about when we don’t feel normal or don’t dismiss something because you think, “Oh, this is normal,” if you’re having those scary thoughts. I had an adorable client that called me and she was really struggling. She said, “I’m not having scary thoughts about hurting my baby. I have this irrational fear of me dying.” Dr. Spair: Yep. A lot of women go through that. Meagan: Right? She was like, “I just need to talk about it.” We just talked and I just listened. After, she was like, “Oh, thank you.” It’s like, if we’re sitting there inside of our mind thinking such scary things like we’re going to die– Dr. Spair: Yes. A lot of women go through that and then think that something will happen to their child. That happened to me after my first child. I was so afraid that something was going to happen to him that I was hyper-vigilant. That put me in a very anxious state. It wasn’t depression. I wasn’t sad. I had to be with him every second because I was afraid that something would happen. I think a lot of women go through that and they don’t talk about it. Then you think something’s wrong with you. You think something’s wrong with your brain. Meagan: Yeah, a lot of times we are scared to talk about it because we’re scared of being labeled or diagnosed with things. Dr. Spair: You don’t want to be labeled or diagnosed or have someone trying to shove things down your throat, right?Meagan: Yeah. Let’s talk about that. What are the steps to talking about it? You talked about herbs and teas and feeding. I love the analogy of depletion. Depression and depletion, right? Dr. Spair: We’re just depleted. We’re depleted. We don’t have to stick a label on it. There’s a huge thing around nursing moms and that depletion piece where they usually get this information of, “Okay, well you should just wean your baby and stop breastfeeding and focus on yourself,” where there are hormones involved for moms that choose to breastfeed. We have a lot of oxytocin just from being skin-to-skin when we are nursing our babies. So instead of saying, “I’m not going to do this now,” a lot of times, if moms get the right support and they choose to do the skin-to-skin and they nurse, they do start to feel better mentally because they are getting that oxytocin. It does bring the cortisol down when we nurse a baby. For me, it’s always been an instinct. When I’m nursing a baby even now, if I go through something stressful and I nurse my kid, it’s like, “Ahh.” You feel calmer. Now in the beginning, it’s not always like that because it can be a struggle for women– the latch, the this, the tongue ties, the lip ties, this, that. We’ve got to get those things right and those are other things that I help to identify in women because that part can be challenging but once we get over that hump, those hormones are really important to our bodies, to our immune system, and to our recovery. If you’re not a mom that’s nursing, that skin-to-skin is still very important for that feel-good hormone production to help your brain feel better. Holding your baby tightly, skin-to-skin and all of that is just very, very, very important to how we feel. Yeah. It’s definitely part of that. And then in terms of herbs and nutrition, a lot of us and I’ll say us because I went through it myself the first time, we are so into this “Everything is about the baby. Everything is about the baby,” and I put myself aside. Meagan: We forget. We forget to take care of ourselves. Dr. Spair: We forget to take care of ourselves and we will go hours without eating or we aren’t drinking and then we’re nursing and we’re using up all of this hydration and we’re not replenishing. So we’re dehydrated. We’re having skyrocketing blood sugars and plummeting blood sugars because we’re going so long without eating then we are eating a huge meal and then we’re not eating again. When our blood sugar is down, or cortisol is up so we can have anxiety and jittering and things like that. What I always tell my moms is every two hours, make sure you’re having something. Small bites, small sips. Make sure that something is going in. Even if it’s, “Oh, I don’t have time for myself,” make a big smoothie on your counter and every couple of hours, fill it up. Sip on it. Keep your blood sugar steady throughout the day. And then the things post-birth that I love– nettle infusions. People talk about nettle a lot, but they’re using a tea bag. I’m talking about an infusion in a mason jar. A couple of tablespoons of herbs that you soak for a good hour or two and you’re sipping on it. That’s like an infusion. That’s a vitamin and mineral infusion. When we say that we are depleted post-birth, we lose blood when we give birth. Even if it’s a natural birth, we are still losing blood so we are depleted in minerals. We are depleted in vitamins. So nettle infusions and I like the raspberry too because it helps to tone the uterus which means those post-birth contractions. So infusions with red raspberry leaf and nettle is a wonderful tonic for all women, not just to balance the hormones and to help with breastmilk, but to also help to give us back some of– we’ve really done a job of growing a baby and we’re depleted. The other thing that I love post-birth and some women will argue, “Oh, it decreases breastmilk supply,” but I’ve never seen that in my practice, is a little bit of lemon balm in that infusion because it, again, helps to bring down those feelings of anxiety. It’s really good for the nervous system. The total nervous system calms everything down because again, post-birth, we’re in an adrenaline surge. The body went through all of that adrenaline. Some women feel that for days, weeks, or months before they start to calm down again. Those are some things that I find really helpful. Meagan: You said that a lot of people think about a tea bag, but you’re saying herbs. Where would one something where they make this? Dr. Spair: Mountainherbreserves.com is my favorite. You just take a mason jar. You can get these at the grocery store, Tractor Supply, Amazon, or anywhere. They make a little infuser that goes at the top. It’s about this high. It sits at the top. You put the loose herbs in there. Fill it with hot water and steep that for an hour or two hours. The longer you steep it, it will be stronger. So if you’re just starting out, do a little bit of herb. Let it steep for 20 minutes and see how you do with it. I like to let it sit for a while and sip on it. Meagan: This would be good for anyone, Cesarean or vaginal. Dr. Spair: Yes, to help us recover. We need to recover either way. Either way, we need to recover. Meagan: Is it stinging nettle? Dr. Spair: Yes. Yes. Stinging nettle and then red raspberry leaf. Meagan: And then some lemon balm. Dr. Spair: Some lemon balm if you’re not afraid. It’s in the peppermint family so some women say, “Oh,” but in my practice, I’ve had postpartum moms on lemon balm for the last 8 years and I’ve never had one that has had issues with milk production. I wouldn’t say a ton of it off the bat, but a little bit will help to take the edge off. I always say that there is this risk/benefit thing. If a mom is really struggling, she's probably not going to make it with breastfeeding anyway, so if we can help her central nervous system, we can deal with other things.I love Ashwaganda post-birth. I think that’s another one that’s really beautiful for the adrenal glands. Magnesium is so good. It helps, again, with post-uterine contractions. Women are feeling that. They’re feeling uncomfortable. Magnesium is great for that. It helps with fluid retention in the body. With C-sections, you know what happens with that. I didn’t have an ounce of swelling during my entire pregnancy. I had that C-section and my feet, I was like, “Oh my gosh,” and I had zero swelling. Meagan: I sweat. I had severe night sweats. Dr. Spair: Yes, because you know what those night sweats are? It’s all of the drugs that have to come out of the spinal. Meagan: It’s everything coming out of my body. Dr. Spair: It has to come out and that’s a problem too. What I love for that postpartum is milk thistle. A milk thistle tincture for moms that have C-sections to get rid of the drugs that we have to have when we have a C-section. Even if you’re a mom that has a VBAC and you have a spinal, and you’re feeling like your system is a little gunked up, milk thistle is amazing. We can do a lot with nutrition. If you don’t want to use herbs, there are a lot of other things you can use. Green juices, cucumber juices, those kinds of things are wonderful too, but if you want a tincture, milk thistle is a beautiful way to gently cleanse the body. Meagan: Cleanse the body. Awesome. Well, let’s talk a little bit about nutrition. So many times, we have a baby, and then any extra support that we have, they want to bring meals and they bring things like lasagna. Dr. Spair: I know. Meagan: And bread, and pizza. Dr. Spair: I know. It’s not something that you’d be like, “Okay, this is good.” It’s easy. Meagan: You’ll take anything. Dr. Spair: You’ll take anything. Meagan: I don’t want to ever shame anyone who has ever made lasagna for someone who has had a baby. Dr. Spair: No, exactly. Meagan: I’m guilty of that. But at the same time, there are so many nutrients that we are lacking that we need for our brain functioning, our body functioning–Dr. Spair: There are some key things that we really need. Raw, leafy greens are one of them and it’s like, “Who the hell wants to eat a salad after they birth?” I get it but there are easy ways to bring greens in. I’m going to go back to the smoothie again. My favorite way is frozen mangos, spinach, and coconut water. You can throw bananas in there if you want. You get those greens in your body, you are a different woman. Again, we’re depleted so those raw, leafy greens are just– again, it’s like an infusion. Moms feel better mentally, physically, all of it pretty much immediately because of the leafy greens. Again, when we lose blood, our iron reserves go down. So low iron, fatigue, and all of that, raw, leafy greens help to bring that up. So does the nettle. The nettle helps with raising the iron. Raw, leafy greens are so important. Again, you can do them in the smoothies if you don’t want to eat a salad. The other thing I do if I have a warmed soup or even if you had something like a lasagna, chop them up really small. Put them on like a garnish. At least you’re getting something in. You can fold raw, leafy greens right into a warm soup or a stirfry so you’re still getting warm food, but you’re bringing some greens in. Some women postpartum have a hard time with that, so we have to find alternative ways. It’s not always just black and white. Go eat all salads. Sometimes we have to meet women where they are and say, “Okay, you’re going to eat that warm meal. Let’s doctor it up a little bit.” Meagan: You can still have your comfort meal. Dr. Spair: Yes. There’s a way to do it. There’s a way to do it. Meagan: With empowering, enriched nutrients. Dr. Spair: Yes. Yes. There’s a way to do that. And you know, things like selenium and iodine, there are simple ways. A little bit of seaweed for iodine protects the thyroid. It really helps moms recover and then selenium, one to two brail nuts a couple of times a week really helps again with that thyroid function for moms postpartum as things start to fluctuate. There are really easy little tricks that are like, “If I just did these few little things, I’d be in a different place.” Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. Dr. Spair: I’m really big on freezer meals. I have a free thing on my website. It says preparedness, be prepared and it’s a bunch of meals that moms can make ahead of time. Meagan: That’s huge. Dr. Spair: They can freeze them. I’m guilty of it though. With the third baby, I was like, “Oh, I’m going to make all of these things,” and whatever. She didn’t come until 41.5 weeks and I still didn’t have too many things in my freezer but if you’re a planner and you want to do things ahead of time, we have a resource there that’s free. Meagan: I love that. We’re going to be sure to drop that in the show notes right now because there are a lot of people who are saying, “You’re coming up on your due date. What can I do to help?” You can send them that link and say, “Can you make this meal for me?” Dr. Spair: Yes. “I would love for you to make some of these things,” if there are people that would be open to that. That would be great. Meagan: Yeah. Yeah. That would be so awesome. So cool. Is there anything else that you feel is important to share? There’s just so much. As a specialist in health and nutrition and seeing the postpartum and knowing your own journey, is there anything that you’re like, “This is the biggest takeaway for you as a listener”? What is your biggest takeaway?Dr. Spair: For me, it’s that moms have to take care of themselves. I understand because I’m a giver. People still tell me. I’m guilty of it. “Kimberly, you have to take care of yourself.” But it’s my baby, my middle kid, my big kid. We’re giving, giving, giving, But when we don’t take care of ourselves, those babies need me. Our babies need us so if we don’t take care of ourselves with the same love, compassion, and consideration that we take care of them, then they have half of us or a shell of us. We have to take care of ourselves. We need to prepare with the nutrition. If herbs are something that you are into, I highly recommend that for that depletion stage and just really take care of yourself. Even if it’s just, “Okay, I need to get outside for 10 minutes. Fresh air. Put my feet in the yard.” Those kinds of things make us feel alive.With my second, I remember my midwife saying to me, “No matter what, take a shower every day. Once a week, put on make-up.” It’s like, make-up? I never thought of, “Put on make-up? Why would I put on make-up?” But let me tell you something, you do it and you’re like, “Oh. I know that woman in the mirror. There she is.” There’s a feeling to that. There’s a feeling that comes with feeling like yourself. So if you can get in a shower and once in a while, put on some make-up and put on some clothes that make you feel like a human even if you’re dealing with diapers and poopy hineys and all of those things, every once in a while, take care of yourself. That’s the most important thing. Meagan: Yes. Yes. So Women of Strength, as you’re listening, I can’t agree more. Use this as a takeaway. Take care of yourself. Make sure you are knowing that you are important too because I think naturally, it’s weird but naturally as moms, sometimes we get in that, “Well, this baby and this baby and this and that,” and we just think about all of the things. Then like you said in the beginning, we get to the end of the day and we’re like, “What have we eaten today?” Dr. Spair: And sometimes we get to, “Who am I? Who is this person in the mirror?” Meagan: Yes. Yes and at the end of the day, we’re like, “I don’t know, but I’m too tired to think about it so I’m just going to go to bed.” So it’s so important for us to remember that we exist and we’re important. You have classes that help people along this journey. I know you’re creating more classes too. Do you want to tell everybody before we go a little bit about your classes? Dr. Spair: I have a course called Empowered Moms. It’s coming up in May. It’s a month-long course and it covers everything and anything that you want to know as a mom. Literally, I learned all of these things on my journey about holistic health and nutrition. Moms come to me that have kids with chronic ear infections or chronic symptoms or illness or they just want to do things a better way. They feel like they’re always in the pediatrician's office and they want to take their power back. They want to learn how to use herbs and homeopathy and use things medicinally so that it’s not that you’ll never need your pediatrician again, but maybe you can break free from the cycle of things that you’re– if you can catch my drift– having to give over and over again for chronic symptoms. My course helps to help moms. Again, it’s called Empowered Moms. It’s empowering moms to take their power back and giving them the tools necessary to help their families nutritionally and herbally. Again, I get into homeopathics. I also get into self-care and things for moms and what they can do for nervous system healing because that’s all of us. And then I have a birth course that’s going to be launching by the end of the summer. I’m super excited about that. It’s going to be all about preparing for birth, birthing itself, and then the postpartum part which I think is so important. And then I have one other course called Empowered Women. That one is only for women for all women’s health issues, so moms who struggle with anything from hormonal issues to thyroid issues. All the things are covered in that course. Meagan: Adrenal fatigue. Yes, when I was looking through, I was like, “Dang. I think I might need to take this course myself.” Seriously because I know that there are so many things hormonally that I haven’t figured out yet. I am in that routine of, “Okay, I’ll go get my blood drawn again. Let’s go and do this. Let’s go and do that.” I’m not figuring out what’s really going on at the root. Dr. Spair: Because a lot of the time, they say it’s hormones but we all have this viral and toxic load. I’ll just briefly explain. When we keep the viral and toxic load here under the bucket where we all have, there are no symptoms. When it starts to bubble over and now we’ve got lots of toxic load and lots of viruses and pathogens in our body, we see symptoms. My job is to help people get all that back down. We are cleansing. We are taking care of viruses, pathogens, and latent infections in the body, and then symptoms disappear. That’s what it is. It’s not always that people think, “I need a diagnosis. I need a diagnosis.” I think everyone should go to their doctor. I think that people should definitely go but a lot of those people are searching and they’re getting all of the bloodwork and they’re going through all of these things, but I recovered from Hashimoto’s, a neurological disease, myself. Meagan: Yes. There’s a whole story. Dr. Spair: Yes. I went through all of that. I had a $15,000 book of labs and notebooks and all of that. We lost our first home because of my chronic illness and it wasn’t until I took my own power back and said, “All right. There are things that I need to learn about my own body and I can cleanse my way out of this.” Again, it’s not telling people not to go get the labs and figure it out, but if you’re in a situation where you’ve done all of those things and you’re like, “Well, shit. I’m not feeling better,” sometimes, there’s something else going on. Meagan: Yes. Your story is just amazing. It’s so empowering. I encourage everyone to go to drkimberlyspair.com and spend hours on this website because seriously, you have so much. You have product guides. You have testimonials. You have the fertility and pregnancy and your amazing blog. I know you offer not only these courses but one-on-ones and more about you and your history and your journey and why you are here today empowering these women to again, take things back and have the power in their pocket. “To reclaim your health, empower your family’s future” is what you say. I think it’s amazing and what you’re doing is so amazing and I just am so grateful for you today. Dr. Spair: I’m grateful for you. We’re going to be sharing this too and I’m going to be sending all of the people to your page too because moms need the information. They need the statistics. They need the support and they need to feel seen and heard. Thank you so much. Meagan: Thank you. ClosingWould you like to be a guest on the podcast? Tell us about your experience at thevbaclink.com/share. For more information on all things VBAC including online and in-person VBAC classes, The VBAC Link blog, and Meagan’s bio, head over to thevbaclink.com. Congratulations on starting your journey of learning and discovery with The VBAC Link.Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/the-vbac-link/donationsAdvertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brands