Birthday Musings by Dr. Jenna
It’s natural for a doctor’s practice to ebb and flow over the years with different concentrations and specialties. While I sit and contemplate the past five years of my practice on it’s fifth birthday, I realize that there has been a constant top five health concerns over the past five years. These are the health concerns that I see ALL the time and make up a good portion of my practice, chances are high that if you’re experiencing any of these, we’ll be able to work together to get you feeling better efficiently. They are:
Stress and fatigue
Poor thyroid function
Digestive concerns
Female hormone imbalances
Anxiety
I’m always delighted to work with these health concerns, and I’m looking forward to new specialties in the future. After recently experiencing the birth process, postpartum, and the first few months with my sweet little one, I’m looking forward to helping others navigate that time frame with a new understanding. Anyone who has experienced pregnancy and/or postpartum, knows what a rollercoaster those times are in a woman’s life. Now after experiencing it myself, I’ve added lots of new tips and tools to my old repertoire.
Here are the top five things I wish all women had access to during pregnancy and postpartum, all of which I would be delighted to help and collaborate with in my practice moving forward.
Personalized dietary recommendations and avoidance of food intolerances. If I had to pick the one singular thing that helped me the most on this journey it would have to be avoiding my food intolerances to the best of my ability. Throughout my pregnancy, I was able to link eating my food intolerances to many of the common symptoms of pregnancy: heartburn, ankle swelling, anxiety, insomnia, constipation, and even energy levels. When I found myself eating those foods that my body does not process well, all of these symptoms worsened. More importantly, the symptoms practically went away when I was practicing stricter avoidance. I also got helpful dietary recommendations from my acupuncturist which just added to the benefits of my diet.
Acupuncture. I was lucky enough to have access to a couple of wonderful acupuncturists (Cally and Maria at Lotus Leaf Acupuncture here in Bellingham) who specialize in fertility, pregnancy, postpartum and female health. These women helped alleviate symptoms, calm nerves, and were key in stimulating the onset of labor when we were almost two weeks overdue.
Neurofeedback. There are many ways to support one’s nervous system, I found this treatment to be key for keeping my nerves calm and reducing stress hormones throughout the pregnancy and it snapped me out of a bout of postpartum anxiety a few weeks after birth.
At least one nap per day. Pregnant and postpartum bodies are frankly doing miraculous things that take an incredible amount of work, so they need rest! I literally put a 15-30 minute nap on my work schedule every day when I was pregnant and I’m pretty sure that’s the only way I was able to function throughout the entire day. In my humble opinion, there should be a law requiring access to this at a person’s work.
A support system to help mom and baby (and family) get off on a calm and secure start, get sleeping through the night as soon as possible, and that can provide assurance that things are normal (especially for new moms!) I am a happily independent person, but I learned just how wonderful it feels to be able to lean on those around you when you need it. Family, colleagues, friends, and birth team practitioners all played critical roles in helping me navigate this exciting time, it would have been far less enjoyable without them. I also had incredible guidance in scheduling my baby early on that led to us sleeping through the night before she was 2 months old. I cannot emphasize enough how much I wish every new family and baby had access to this. In fact, I believe this is so important that I’m starting down the road of research and planning to bring this information to more families in the form of education and programing so keep your eyes peeled if you’d like to learn more!
If you are (or know anyone who is) starting the pregnancy and parenting journey, I am here for you, please reach out if you’d like some guidance in navigating this exciting time!
Cheers,
