Emily Mason 0:00
Today, we are discussing different pregnancy complications and diagnoses that can come up while you're growing your bundle of joy, whether you have been suffering from non stop nausea and wondering if it could be, HG, just diagnosed with gestational diabetes or suffering from high blood pressure. We will be chatting about all this and more coming up. Thank you for joining us. This is preggie pals.
Emily Mason 0:53
Welcome to preggie pals. My name is Emily Mason, and I am your host for today's episode. Before we dive in, make sure to check out our website, at New mommy media.com and subscribe to our weekly newsletter to stay updated on all our latest episodes. Don't forget to hit the subscribe button in your podcast app, and you'll never miss an episode. If you're looking for even more ways to connect with us, join our online community, mighty moms, it's a great place to continue these conversations from the show, share your insights and even find out how to join us live for future recordings. Let's get started. Our expert today is Jeanne Reilly. Jeanne Reilly is a registered dietitian, mom, wife and owner of I am nurtured a prenatal and postnatal nutrition supplement company. She believes being a mom has been the most rewarding and by far the most humbling experience of her life. For most of her first year of motherhood, while trying to run a business and raise a baby, making it through each day felt like a struggle for her mind and her body. After spending lots of money on all the supplements and trying every solution under the sun with hopes of improving her mood, her milk production and her energy levels, she knew there had to be a better way born out of her experiences as a parent, and with her training as a registered dietitian, she set out to create the perfect nutritional and herbal support for hopeful soon to be and new parents. Thank you so much for joining us today. Jeannie, can you tell us about where you're located and a little bit more about your family? Yes,
Jeanne Reilly 2:37
thank you for having me. Emily. I'm happy to be here. I am calling in from Austin, Texas. We're just out there in Dripping Springs, and I am a mom to an almost eight year old now and a five year old and yeah, these these motherhood years have definitely shaped my career trajectory. I I started specializing in prenatal and postnatal nutrition after my own experiences, and it has been the most rewarding field to be in because so many moms are in so much need of good support.
Emily Mason 3:13
Absolutely, absolutely. Well, I am so excited to dive in. We've got a lot of really great questions lined up, but first we're going to take a quick break. So stay tuned.
Welcome back today, we are diving into the different pregnancy diagnoses that can come up while you are pregnant. So let's first chat about the different stages of pregnancy and the different complications that can happen. For example, when does high blood pressure become an issue in pregnancy? Sure,
Jeanne Reilly 3:52
yeah, high blood pressure can first. I'll start off and say it's super common. It occurs in over 10% of pregnancies. High blood pressure, but when it becomes a real concern is usually in the second or third trimesters, when elevated blood pressure early on becomes more elevated. So preeclampsia is the term for this chronic hypertension that develops after about 20 weeks, and it's diagnosed when blood pressure is above about 140 over 90, and there, the doctors will test you, and they can detect protein in your urine. And from a nutrition standpoint, I always emphasize the importance of prevention right. There are a lot of things that we can do before we get to the point of preeclampsia, but there are also so many things we can do once we are diagnosed. So you know, if you've been recently diagnosed, don't feel guilt or freak out. You know, there's lots we can do. And if you are early in pregnancy or pre conception, even, you know, let's talk about prevention. So prevention wise, that looks like adequate protein. I know protein is very on trend right now, but there really are a lot of indications for why Protein Protein is so important, especially elevated levels during pregnancy. So thinking about 20 to 30 grams per meal, that's because specific amino acids, especially glycine, really support blood vessel health, which is very important. When it comes to high blood pressure, there's also mineral balance as a very important factor, especially, and this might be contrary to what many of us hear. You know, there's a lot of science saying when you have high blood pressure, you should cut salt out. And that's actually proving to be false. In preeclampsia, in pregnancy related hypertension, because the sources of pregnancy hypertension are not diet related. Typically, they tend to have to deal with placental implantation issues. And actually, what the new research is indicating is that higher levels of salt can reduce the severity of hypertension in pregnancy. We just have to be careful there. If you're adding more salt, you want to make sure you're getting enough potassium as well. So that's why we say mineral balance, right? Sodium, magnesium, calcium and potassium are the big ones. And you know, calcium most women and even pregnant women in the United States get adequate levels of calcium just from their diet alone, but that if you're having food aversions, or you know, you're a person that doesn't eat much dairy or or other calcium rich foods, you might want to get your calcium levels checked or add a calcium supplement that is one that you want to take separate from your other vitamins, especially prenatal vitamin, because it competes for absorption with other vitamins and minerals. So if you're taking a calcium supplement, just do that separately. Magnesium is strongly correlated with a significantly lower risk of preeclampsia and choline is another one that is so supportive of the placenta, especially if you've been diagnosed with preeclampsia, it can help prevent it and also reduce the severity of preeclampsia. So choline is you've probably heard a lot of people taking organ supplements or eating meats or lots, they're like, you can get ground meat at the Super supermarket now that it's that incorporates liver, so it's kind of hidden in there. Egg yolks are super high in choline. Meats and seafoods. Choline helps enhance the transfer of nutrients to baby, which preeclampsia interferes with. So choline is a big one, and a lot of prenatal vitamins don't include choline or include very little, because it's a big, bulky nutrient and it would require more pills. That's one, that's one to look out for. Stop me if I'm going to No, no,
Emily Mason 7:57
this is perfect, good.
Jeanne Reilly 8:00
So we said minerals are important that mineral balance with sodium, magnesium, calcium, potassium and the another, another big one is blood sugar balance to prevent preeclampsia. It's so important because high blood sugar and high blood pressure go hand in hand. High intake of refined carbs in pregnancy is a risk factor for preeclampsia, usually, because that leads to high intake of refined carbs also leads to high blood sugar. This is, you know, something you're probably going to hear me Repeat a few times today, is eat balanced meals. So that's protein, high fiber, colorful fruits and vegetables, whole food carbohydrates. So thinking like you know, if you're choosing carbohydrates, choose fruits, vegetables, things that have fiber in them. Yeah,
Emily Mason 8:53
absolutely. Okay. Well, so I have a question, a follow up question that I think will lead into our next question as well, when it comes to nausea and pregnancy and severe nausea, taking the pills that has always been a struggle for me, taking pills in general, because they just make me nauseous. And then I had gastric sleeve surgery on top of that. So I have to space my pills out. And I kind of do the two hour rule. I just do two hours between pills. Will that help? Does that help with nausea, to space them out? Is there tips and tricks to prevent nausea? And then, when does it become more than just morning sickness and something that you should see somebody about?
Jeanne Reilly 9:48
Great question. Um, yes, so some people are very sensitive to to vitamins and minerals and in pregnancy and outside of pregnancy, and. And a lot of times that can be due to hormonal shifts that are happening, especially in that first trimester. That's kind of why, like, the nausea kind of stabilizes for a lot of people in the second trimester, and we start to feel relief. But yes, if you're a person that is sensitive to or gets nauseous from taking vitamins, I would say absolutely. Spread it out. You know, space it out. Take it with food. Make sure you have a little food in your stomach, so you're not just getting this bolus of concentrated nutrients and then the the or, you know, some people also are successful, just taking them all at night, before going to bed. So like after dinner, going to bed, where your your body's at rest and just focused on digestion. And then the other thing to think about is the form of the nutrients in your vitamins, so magnesium and iron in particular, a lot of supplements that are out there will use the cheapest form of these nutrients, which are really hard on our digestive system, they cause a lot of distress for many people. You know, the people that don't have an Iron Stomach are pretty sensitive to magnesium and iron in particular, and so that's one thing that we were very specific about choosing the form of the nutrients that we used for the purpose of making them better digested and better absorbed. So we use iron bis glycan eight. It's a chelated iron, form of iron that's very easy and on the digestive system. And magnesium. This glyconate which is also the active form and very absorbable does not cause gastric distress. Gotcha. Yes, so pay attention to the form of those two nutrients in particular, because those are the two that tend to cause stomach upset. And you know, our formula also includes ginger as and oat straw as these lovely nervines, and they are pro kinetic, meaning, like they ginger is pro kinetic. It keeps your gastric, your your GI system moving, and so you're not getting this sort of this, oh my gosh. What is the word I'm looking for this stagnation of of your GI system, which tends to cause the upset. So you we know ginger is great for, you know, GI upset. And so we included that. We've had moms that say this is ours, is the only prenatal or vitamin they've ever been able to take without stomach upset. So ginger and the other, another addition that could really help with nausea is vitamin b6 most moms are entering into pregnancy depleted and not even knowing it most. And I should, I should say, most Americans are depleted on a on a daily basis. We our food system is just not what it used to be. Our soil is not what it used to be. So the food that is produced by it is not as nutrient dense as it used to be, and our diets are not typically as varied as they need to be to be really replete in all of these nutrients. And so pregnancy is this time where, you know, we kind of hyper focus on being the healthiest we can be. So we give our babies the best shot at being the healthiest they can be so you know, getting getting replete on all these nutrients, especially B vitamins and b6 in particular, can really help with stabilizing nausea. And you asked about, when is it more than just morning sickness, right? Yeah, yeah. So hyperemesis is a really serious condition, and I would say it's important to realize when it goes from nausea to something more serious, and that is, you know, when you can't keep fluids or food down for more than 24 or 48 hours, that's the time to pick up the phone and call. It's debilitating. You're losing weight, you're dehydrated, you know, you can't keep anything down. Yeah, that's the time to bring in, to bring in support and hyperemesis. Unfortunately, there's, there's not always a lot you can do, from a nutrition standpoint, to prevent or resolve it. It may take, you know, sometimes people have to be hospitalized or get IV fluids or medication to help stabilize them, but you know, from what you can do, from a management standpoint, is ensure you're getting as much hydration as possible, add some electrolytes to keep that mineral balance going, and electrolytes. And when you are eating, you know, try, try, especially, to focus on those protein rich snacks. I know, like a lot of us have heard, you know, just have a sleeve of saltines next to you and eat those every, you know, 2030, minutes, so you don't have an empty stomach. But we really do want the protein for blood sugar. Stabilization, because, again, that can be another thing that can lead to the nausea. Okay, so just my messages, speak up when you feel like it is more than just morning sickness and it's affecting your ability to function. Gotcha,
Emily Mason 15:13
I and I always kept milk, like a thermos of milk with like ice in it next to my bed, and before my feet hit the ground, like I had to take a couple drinks of milk just so I could function during the first trimester. Yeah, but that was and my mom was one that was like, you should try that. And I hate milk, but it was one that I was like, Okay, we'll give her a shot, because I've got to do something here to keep my body functioning. And it worked for you. Yes, that that did work. So yeah, it did work. But I did. I had the saltines and the milk, and I grew up with a lot of diabetics in my family, so the carbs and proteins and getting those, all those things calibrated, was something that I always watched all of them do. So, yeah, I I learned some tips and tricks along the way. But, and so when, when you talk about taking the calcium pill, and I know I like I have pills with, like my gastric sleeve that I have to take every so often, along with a prenatal and along with vitamin D and calcium, is two hours an appropriate window for the absorption factor. Or are there? What would you recommend for the Windows between taking pills, yeah, two hours
Jeanne Reilly 16:44
is fine. And you know it's it's going to be a self experimentation thing. You have to figure out what your body tolerates. But as far as like not wanting your calcium supplement to interfere with the absorption of the other nutrients, two hours is
Emily Mason 16:58
fine. Okay, okay, yeah, cool. All right, so that brings us into gestational diabetes, something that I had in late third term of my last pregnancy. But can you tell us a little bit about what gestational diabetes is when it becomes a problem, and how or can women avoid that? Yeah,
Jeanne Reilly 17:22
so, you know, when we're diagnosed with gestational diabetes in, you know, our second or third trimester, it usually shows up at 24 to 28 weeks, because that's when the providers do the screenings, you know, the gluco test, the glucose tolerance, but the metabolic shifts that lead up to it start much earlier, even before conception, often. So you can keep an eye on it earlier in pre conception and pregnancy, and especially if you have a history of insulin resistance or PCOS or other blood sugar issues, or, like you said, you know you have family history of it, it is a good thing to be aware of, and just ask your doctor for these tests for a 1c specifically, that's a three month average of your blood sugar levels and continuous glucose monitors are so inexpensive and so common now that's a great way to just track your blood sugar for a couple of weeks and see how things are trending. See how different types of meals affect your blood sugar. What happens when you go for a walk after a meal? What happens when you eat a meal with very low carb versus very high carb? So it's, you know, there's an educational component, as you mentioned. You got to witness it with some of your family members. How different meal balance, like food, food combinations in their meal affects them. So that's a real that's a very great tool. The continuous glucose monitor is a great tool for you to educate yourself on your own body. So an elevated first trimester, A, 1c, is 98.4% specific for detecting gestational diabetes. So that means you can test earlier than that second third trimester, and you can have a really good glimpse into what is likely going to happen down the line. We just our medical system, since tends to test later. So I would just encourage moms ask for that test earlier, especially if you know your your you have a predisposition for blood sugar, imbalance, another, another, closely related statistic is that an early pregnancy, a 1c so that's high a 1c of higher than 5.9% is linked to a three fold increase, three fold higher rate of of macrosomia, which is a large baby. You know, that's a common thing with pre sorry, gestational diabetes is they tend to have larger babies. And preeclampsia. So we have these indications, if you're if you're a 1c is above 5% that's, I'm sorry, 5.7% that's considered pre diabetic, and that's a pre diabetic range, and it's considered gestational diabetes. So you know, the good news is that blood sugar is highly responsive to both diet and lifestyle. And you know, it's very important, as we've talked about, to focus on diet wise, having balanced meals, and that means protein, fiber, healthy fats, focusing on not over consuming because excess calories, excess of weight gain, do increase blood sugar stabilization issues and they they can make gestational diabetes more serious. So, you know, focusing on those balanced meals, as we mentioned, limiting the ultra processed carbohydrates and skipping added sugars wherever we can, avoiding like higher glycemic foods, like even too much fruit. A lot of people will lean on things like fruit smoothies when they're having food aversions or just want something quick. And often those can be so high in carbohydrates, but you can add, you know, do a little less fruit, or do berries, which are high antioxidant, high fiber, low glycemic, and then add, you know, a scoop of protein powder and, you know, and some nuts or seeds, and that's a much more glycemic, low glycemic smoothie. And then staying active, just gentle movement, like walking, can make a huge difference. There are so many, so much great education out there now, about like where you can look at the graphs from these glucose continuous glucose monitors and see what happens when you go on a 15 minute walk, or even a 10 minute walk after a meal, and you can see the difference between eating a meal and sitting down versus eating a meal and walking when you sit down afterwards, your blood sugar just keeps going up, and you have this extreme spike and extreme drop, versus when you eat a meal and go for a little stroll. It doesn't have to be strenuous or quick, but you can get this gentle Hill, a little rolling hill, because when you're watching, when you're when you're walking and moving and using your your muscles, they act like the straw. Your muscles just slurp the blood glucose up out of your bloodstream so your body doesn't have to pump out all this insulin. So, you know, staying active can make a huge difference. And then finally, managing stress, because cortisol also plays a huge role in blood sugar stabilization, I mean. And finally, if you look at micronutrients that support insulin sensitivity, things like magnesium, chromium, Myo, inositol and even vitamin D are really supportive to insulin sensitivity. So those are, you know, high level things to look at, not all women who are gestational who are diagnosed with gestational diabetes will need insulin. So you know, if you've been diagnosed recently and you don't have all the information, do not think you're going to need insulin. It's not a predetermined thing. But if you are diagnosed with gestational diabetes, just you know you will need to pay attention to blood sugar balance. So you know, partner up with a registered dietitian or naturopath or someone who can give you guidance in that arena, because it does take a little it's a little bit of a learning curve. What
Emily Mason 23:30
is the range of a 1c to be diagnosed with gestational diabetes?
Jeanne Reilly 23:36
Yeah. So anything about 5.7% is that a 1c number that's considered gestational diabetes. The good news is that blood sugar is highly responsive to diet and lifestyle. So if you're diagnosed with gestational diabetes, or even if you're on the cusp, so 5.6 5.5 and you know that you're kind of nearing that level of being diagnosed, there's a lot that you can do to bring that number down and keep it keep your blood sugar more balanced. So as we talked about before, balanced meals, protein, fiber, healthy fats, whole food carbohydrates. So avoiding, you know, over consumption of those ultra processed carbohydrates, skipping added sugars, avoiding high glycemic foods, even too much fruit, and avoiding over consumption of calories in general, because excessive weight gain also plays into basically exacerbating gestational Diabetes. Staying active is another really important thing that can help control the level of your blood sugar. Even gentle movement, like walking, going for a walk after after your meals, can make a huge difference to having this big blood sugar spike versus this little gentle rolling hill your muscles when they're in motion, it doesn't have to be intense. It can be a really. Gentle walk, slow walk, your muscles act like a straw and just slurp the glucose out of your blood sugar after a meal. So your your blood your body doesn't have to pump out all this insulin to do the work for you. So staying active is important, and managing stress, because cortisol also has plays a huge part in blood sugar balance, okay,
Emily Mason 25:22
and, and so you talked a little bit about, um, like, continuous glucose monitoring, and I just jumped on Amazon, really quick, um, fairly reasonably priced, like, 50 ish dollars. Does that seem reasonable for one of like, a sensor that would last a couple of weeks.
Jeanne Reilly 25:42
Yes, you know, there are also you. I mean, especially for women that are seeing their doctors regularly in pregnancy, you can ask for a prescription. There's not a doctor out there who will probably push back against it. Just say, Hey, I'm looking to monitor this. Because either, you know, I have these conditions that I'm predisposed to gestational diabetes, or I'm worried about it, and I'd like to be on top of it and just monitor my blood glucose. And if you get a prescription with most insurances, they can be 10 bucks, you know? Oh, wow. And yeah. The the FreeStyle Libre is a brand that that is very easy to use. They have an app, and you just you attach the monitor to like the back of your arm, usually, and you can scan it with your phone, and it'll populate your glucose immediately. And you can check and see it'll show you the graphs of what happens after you eat your eat certain meals, and you know when you exercise. It's a really neat, good piece of personalized data. Awesome,
Emily Mason 26:42
awesome, awesome. All right, well, you talked a little bit about exercise. What about lifestyle before conception? So what can people do now? Not just monitoring, you know, their their glucose now, but what can we for any of these above, things like the nausea that we talked about, high blood pressure, what can we do beforehand to try to alleviate or avoid any of these complications? This is
Jeanne Reilly 27:16
where we can make the biggest difference, right before pregnancy starts. And like I said, if you're already pregnant or dealing with any of these complications, please don't feel the guilt here. Use this information as a way to maybe prepare for your next pregnancy or share share the information with other moms. You know, we can't go back in time, but what I will say is that pregnancy is not the time to start thinking about your health for the first time. Ideally, it's the time to lean on the work that you've already done. So a few key things that I like to focus on with people who are preparing for pregnancy are nutrient repletion, like we talked about many people in especially in our modern American diet culture, we're already starting out depleted. All of the research shows that pregnant women in this country are typically already low in iron. Anemia is a big common issue for women in the US. We tend to be low in B, 12, vitamin D and omega threes. So I like to see women on a high quality prenatal and especially a DHA EPA supplement at least three months and ideally six months before trying to conceive, to help get those nutrients up to a status quo. Blood sugar balance is another huge one. Stable blood sugar before pregnancy helps reduce the risk of gestational diabetes, supports healthy hormone environment for conception. You know, especially if you've got something like PCOS, paying attention to blood sugar balance can make a great difference in our fertility outcomes. So like we said this earlier, that looks like protein at every meal, skipping those highly processed foods and added sugars, simple carbs, lots of fiber in the form of colorful vegetables, and then paying attention to foods that are anti inflammatory. So reducing overall inflammation in your body is just creating a more friendly, friendly environment for fertility and for all of these hormonal processes to function normally supports it supports better gut health, immune health. So when we think of anti inflammatory foods, think of like, again, those colorful fruits and veggies, the deeper and brighter the colors, the more rich they are in these anti inflammatory compounds fermented foods are also really great there and then, just the basics, sleep, stress, movement. These are sort of these, like lifestyle pillars that it's easy for us to kind of like, you know, brush off as not being so important to having a healthy pregnancy. But they. Really are just as important as what's on your plate. So it's not a time to double down on the intense exercise or try to lose weight or do like those hit workouts and that are stressors on your body. It's it's a time to kind of take it easy and send your body the signal that you're in rest mode, non stress mode, not this fight or flight, and just in general, you know, tune into your body. Pregnancy is such a demanding season, and the more nourished and supported you are going in, the better you'll be able to handle whatever comes your way down the road. So, you know, just taking care of your body, listening in and and calling in support when you feel something's off, all
Emily Mason 30:43
right? Well, this has been super helpful. We're going to be back. We're going to hear more from Jeannie, but we are going to take a quick break.
Welcome back to pregie pals. We are wrapping up here with Jeannie. So Jeannie, where can listeners find you? Slash, work with you. Yeah, we are.
Jeanne Reilly 31:10
I'm located in Austin. My co founder, Skylar, is in San Diego, so we're in some local, small retailers, if you're in any of those areas. And we work with practitioners locally, birth birth workers, primarily lactation consultants, midwives, pelvic floor physical therapists. So if you're in San Diego or the Austin area, you know, ask your local practitioner or or or go into your local retailers. But primarily we are online. At, I am nurtured.com also at I am nurtured on Instagram and YouTube. Skylar and I have started an educational series on YouTube where we're asking questions that we get from our customers and our clients all the time. Skyler is answering questions for dads. You know, how can the dads participate in supporting the moms nutritionally and during birth, during pregnancy, in the fertility realm. So there's a lot of great information on there, so commonly, commonly asked questions. We're trying to tackle a lot of those. We also have a blog on our website for great information. And really what we do is just try to try to put some clarity around all of the information out there, because there's so much, it's really hard to sift through and find find what's right. So, yeah, awesome,
Emily Mason 32:32
awesome. So can you tell us, I know where we can get our hands on your supplements, either online or as some retailers. But what can you tell us more about your collection of supplements? Yes,
Jeanne Reilly 32:47
so right now, we have a prenatal and a postnatal supplement. We have visions for many more, for both moms and dads. But right now, you know, we're a small company, so we're limited to what we can what we can do, inventory wise, but our does. Our formulas are so robust and comprehensive. The prenatal is meant as this sort of baseline, foundational support from pre conception through postpartum and beyond. I I'm, like I said, five years postpartum, and I'm still taking both because they make me feel so great. The post the postnatal supplement is more geared towards a nutritional boost in the postpartum period. So from birth through, you know, ideally, whenever you stop breastfeeding, if you're not breastfeeding, at least six months beyond birth, because our bodies will not come out of pregnancy the same way that they went in and we need, we need extra especially for some of those nutrients we talked about, like choline and vitamin D, and then we partnered with a registered herbalist to come up with these really beautiful, supportive botanical blends that support many of the most common symptoms in pregnancy and postpartum. So all of our nutrients are bio available, methylated active forms of those nutrients, we talked about how they absorb so well because they are the active forms. They don't have to go through all these conversion steps in our body, like folic acid. For example, you full if you if your prenatal has folic acid, you should throw it out. Look for one with methylated folate. They're over 60% of this population has that the MTHFR genetic mutation that does not allow them to metabolize folic acid. And it's something that you know where the old science is not catching up to the new science soon enough. So folic acid is still applauded and recommended from most OBS, but it is not the recommended science nutritionally. So look for methylated folate. Our you know, our product, we are very specific about the forms and the amounts that we include our. You look at some of our RDA amounts, the recommend or the recommend daily allowance, and they're up in the 1000s, because the current research, again, is supporting so much more than what the old research has not caught up with, like choline, for example, recent studies are showing upwards of 900 milligrams are are supportive and beneficial for mom and baby, and the current recommended amount is 300 milligrams in pregnancy. Okay, so you know, this is just, you know, as a small company, we're able to be very agile and look at the current research and make changes to our formulations to support this new data, so we look at real, up to date research and real women's needs, not just what's cheapest to manufacture. It's not like anything else you're going to find on the store shelves these days. It's like I said, therapeutic doses of all these nutrients that modern day moms are in need of, and when you add them to your routine, especially if you're depleted, you do feel the difference. It's it's pretty cool, awesome.
Emily Mason 36:05
So before we leave today, do you have any last tips or advice that you want to share for women deep in the trenches and navigating these diagnoses right now?
Jeanne Reilly 36:18
Yes, if you're dealing with any of these diagnoses, you're probably exhausted and overwhelmed and facing a lot of conflicting advice and probably an information overall overload and and I just want to be you know, give it to you straight. It's not the time to wait and see or hope things improve. These are conditions that require action, and there are things you can do right now to take back some control. And you know, when you are feeling exhausted and overwhelmed, that can also feel like maybe confrontational or really hard. But there are small things, and I think sometimes all it requires is asking for help, you know, and if you don't even have the energy yourself to make the phone calls to your doctor, call your mom, call your best friend, call somebody who can say, Hey, my friend is pregnant and struggling. She needs an appointment. I need something earlier. She needs help now, You know, so be your own advocate. If you're in the early stages and you're just trying to, you know, figure out what's what and how what's happening in your body and how you can support yourself through these things. I would say, always start tracking your your food and your symptoms. What are you eating? How are you feeling, even just two days of a food and symptom tracker can give you this data and show you patterns you might not have noticed, like meals that spike your blood sugar or foods that trigger nausea, and that's information you can take back to your doctor, right? So I think we have such a short window when we see our doctor that sometimes, if we're not armed with questions and data, we can come out feeling like nothing was accomplished. Okay, yeah, so another one prioritize protein at every meal and snack, like it's just we need more during pregnancy. And I know that's, like I said, such a trendy thing right now, but it's important aim for 20 to 30 grams per meal, at least 10 grams at each at each of your snack, it supports stable blood sugar, blood pressure and even nausea, yeah, so get help early. Don't, don't wait, don't, don't hesitate. You know you, if you feel off, ask for help. Ask for a referral to a registered dietitian. If you feel like your your doctor is not you know the one that can help you with these things, any type of maternal nutrition expert, you know, don't settle for the vague advice. And you know, you really deserve a plan that actually works for your body. There's, there is help out there. Insurance covers dietitians, and it's, it's available, so yeah, and I would also say, you know, really eliminate the guesswork with your supplements. If you're if you're struggling to get in full meals, if you have nausea or food aversions, or whatever it might be, you you very likely need a high quality nutrient supplement. So especially something with vitamin B, B, all the B vitamins, magnesium, the electrolytes, iron, just make sure you're taking a prenatal that's designed for for real, your true needs, not just the bare minimum, right? So don't wait for your provider to take the lead. Bring those questions, bring your data. Ask for the blood work, ask for referrals. You're the one that's living in your body, 24/7 and you know your voice matters. You don't have to do it perfectly, but you do have to take ownership, because your health impacts both you and your baby, and the sooner you take one little actionable step, just make that appointment or make that phone call, the better you'll feel
Emily Mason 39:49
awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on the show today, and to our listeners, be sure to check out New Mommy Media, where this podcast and all. Of other podcast episodes, videos and more will be there. Jeannie. All of the information will also be on the this episode. So if you are interested in the blog and any of jeannie's resources, that will all be there so you can connect with her, connect with her company, and learn more.
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Disclaimer 41:11
a New Mommy Media production. The information and material contained in this episode are presented for educational purposes only. Statements and opinions expressed in this episode are not necessarily those of New Mommy Media and should not be considered facts. While such information and materials are believed to be accurate, it is not intended to replace or substitute for professional medical advice or care and should not be used for diagnosing or treating healthcare problem or disease or prescribing any medication. If you have questions or concerns regarding your physical or mental health or the health of your baby, please seek assistance from a qualified healthcare provider you.