Misconceptions Surrounding Pregnancy, Birth, & Postpartum With Well & Worthy Co. Founder, Skyler Jacobs
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Ever felt confused or overwhelmed by the numerous misconceptions surrounding pregnancy, birth, and postpartum? Well, you're not alone. Join Victoria as she unravels the truths with Skyler Jacobs, a certified nurse midwife, and founder of Well and Worthy Co. Skyler passionately shares her journey into midwifery, and how her personal mission is to make a positive impact on women's experiences during childbearing. Learn about her course, Movement Through Labor and Delivery, aimed at educating women on childbirth and preparing their pelvic floor.
Their conversation takes them through various misconceptions about pregnancy, from the idea that pregnant women shouldn't be active, to misconceptions about the foods they should avoid. Skyler also demystifies beliefs about labor, including the use of epidurals, and the notion that once the water breaks, the delivery clock starts ticking. She offers a fresh perspective on postpartum care, focusing on the importance of postpartum rehabilitation and understanding the difference between postpartum blues and postpartum depression.
Listen in as Skyler also discusses the significance of preparing for labor and delivery. Discover how intentional movements can open up the pelvic inlet, mid-pelvis, and outlet during delivery, and how this can ease the labor and delivery process. So, join them on this eye-opening episode as they empower and educate women on the journey of childbearing. You’re going to walk away with a wealth of knowledge that will empower you through your journey of motherhood.
What is a Midwife and how do they differ from a Labor and Delivery nurse? [06:00]
Skyler Jacobs is a Certified Nurse Midwife, which is a master’s or doctorate prepared nurse (commonly known as a nurse practitioner), but specializes in pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and women’s health. This care can be performed in both the hospital setting, and in the office setting for both pregnant and non-pregnant people. A Labor and Delivery nurse is someone who received their nursing degree and works in the labor and delivery unit in a hospital setting alone. An Obstetrician Gynecologist (OB-GYN) is a doctor that also specializes in obstetrics and women’s health, but they have the ability to perform surgeries like C-sections and other procedures that midwives don’t have the ability to perform.
Midwives’ approach pregnancy with the idea that it’s a normal change in the body and a normal life event, until proven otherwise. It’s not really thought to be an illness or something that needs intervention, where in medicine we often see pregnancy as something that has to or requires treatment from a medical doctor.
Debunking Pregnancy Misconceptions [11:03]
There is a large misconception that women shouldn’t or can’t stay active while pregnant. Skyler shares that this isn’t true and being active while pregnant is actually encouraged. If a woman’s health history allows for it, midwives like to see them have 30 minutes of activity every day, or at least five days a week. This will help decrease risk of complications and prepare their body and their cardiovascular system for labor.
Other misconceptions regarding pregnancy revolve around a “do’s and don’ts” list and having blanket statements of “I’m pregnant so I can no longer be the person that I was before I was pregnant”. Skyler continues to share that even though women should steer clear from a safety perspective when it comes to food or activity, it really isn’t black and white. There is room for conversations around what’s “allowed” and she encourages women to have this conversation and share decision making with their providers.
When it comes to eating deli meats, unpasteurized cheeses, and shellfish, Skyler does recommend women to stay away from these foods while pregnant. There are real risks when consuming these foods, but the risk doesn’t mean that it is going to happen. However, if they were to occur, they are very detrimental to the baby potentially. So that’s why they do not recommend these foods.
Bath lovers, this one’s for you. The myth that you cannot take baths while pregnant, is just that! A myth! Skyler shares that this is a huge misconception, and you can definitely take a bath as long as you aren’t sitting in scalding hot water or raising your own body temperature to a fever level.
When it comes to getting your hair dyed, Skyler talks about how the hair follicles are affected but it’s not really something that gets into the bloodstream so there hasn’t been evidence of a risk of the dye affecting the baby. If you are still uncomfortable with this, that’s okay! You can absolutely wait until after the first trimester, when all of the baby’s organs have been developed.
Ever heard of “morning sickness” but felt sick at other times of the day? That is because the term “morning sickness” is actually a misconception itself. Skyler shares that women can have sickness in the morning, afternoon, night, or in most unfortunate situations, all day sickness. Often women feel sick in the morning and between that and food aversions, they don’t want to eat. However, eating is one of the first things that will help morning sickness at any point of the day. Skyler says that eating small, frequent meals, and making sure you’re getting an adequate amount of protein and carbs, is really helpful in combating morning sickness.
Debunking Labor and Delivery Misconceptions [22:38]
Often labor is seen as something that just happens rather than something that we can be an active participant in and potentially help influence. There’s so much from a movement and position standpoint that can be done to help influence the position of the baby and intentionally open up different levels of the pelvis to make for quicker and easier labor.
If you want an epidural, you can absolutely still participate in movement to help with your labor. It’s a misconception that once you get the epidural, you are completely immobile. Additionally, epidurals can also be given as a continuous pump. When this happens, there is a catheter in your spine to allow for control of the rate of medication being administered. When that rate is turned down, women start to feel some of the sensation but the pain is being adequately addressed. This allows for a much better mind and body connection and in Skyler’s experience, is often helpful when women are trying to push. There is also a misconception around the epidural running out and that’s not necessarily true anymore.
Another common misconception surrounding labor and delivery is that once a woman’s water breaks, they are put on a time clock. While there is a risk of infection once the water breaks, as long as mom and baby both look great and there is effort to minimize infection, then it’s really not true that the woman is on a time clock. As long as labor is progressing and both mom and baby are healthy, her body may take longer than 24 hours to deliver.
Debunking Postpartum Misconceptions [30:05 ]
Syler first debunks the misconception that postpartum is six weeks long. Realistically, despite the delivery that someone has, the fourth trimester exists, which is 12 weeks after birth. The postpartum period is technically defined as the entire first year postpartum. Skyler says that it's definitely an entire body experience. From a hormonal perspective, mineral perspective and mental, physical, emotional, everything, you're still really recovering from that birth up to 12 months after the delivery.
Victoria dives into the stigma surrounding the 6 week postpartum appointment. Skyler shares her differing opinions and the way that she goes about these appointments which differs from most traditional experiences. Although she cannot speak for all midwives this is what she does. At the appointment, Skyler gives the physical, mental and emotional assessment like traditional appointments, but she also gives the patient a “road map” to what the next six to twelve weeks are going to look like. She often refers her patients to a pelvic floor physical therapist as well as other tools to rehabilitate their bodies back to a more normal baseline. Typically, each patient is also brought back every month until both of them feel like the patient is at her healthiest place postpartum.
The biggest differentiator between postpartum blues and postpartum depression [38:36]
The biggest difference is the length of time women are experiencing certain symptoms. The first two weeks postpartum is very common for women to experience postpartum blues which is due to the huge hormonal shift that you experience once the baby and placenta has been delivered. The persistence of those symptoms past the two week mark and the severity of those symptoms is what can lead to postpartum depression or postpartum mood disorder.
It’s very difficult to see yourself when going through postpartum so having accountability from your spouse, partner, or another family member is important. You’re not always able to identify it in yourself, but if others can help in that, once it’s acknowledged then getting into a provider is important because that is the first step in allowing them to better assess what’s going on and then giving you the resource to help you get back to your healthier self.
A midwife’s opinion on breastfeeding [42:55]
Breastfeeding is very individualized and it depends on each woman. If breastfeeding is something that is causing more harm than good, Skyler is actually a proponent of not breastfeeding. Skyler believes that the mental health of the mom and the woman that she’s caring for is way more important to her than the way she chooses to feed her baby. Now, if breastfeeding is something that is a non-negotiable, and it’s important to her to do so, then Skyler is all about building up her team to help her feel like she can successfully breastfeed. Breastfeeding is incredibly hard on its own, much less when you add it to postpartum. Sometimes it’s the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and there’s an opportunity to do a better job of preparing women and expectations around breastfeeding when they’re still pregnant.
Prepping for Labor [46:31]
Skyler has found that women who have prepared physically, mentally, and even emotionally have a much easier time with labor. Women who’ve learned about labor and delivery through means of childbirth education, have a much clearer expectation of how labor will go and what they can do if it doesn’t go “as planned” and so they aren’t as fearful of it. Additionally, those who have kept really active but done intentional movements to lengthen and prepare their pelvic floors specifically for labor, have a much easier time pushing the baby out, but they also have a different postpartum experience. They usually have an easier time healing.
Skyler continues to share about some pelvic floor exercises to work on opening up and doing movements to open up each of the three levels of the pelvis. So when we think about the inlet, that's, the top of the pelvis, we're thinking about deep squats, anything that's really going to externally rotate the knees and open up that mid or that pelvic inlet. When we're thinking about the mid-level, when the baby's halfway through our pelvis, it's going to be best open when we do unilateral movements like side to side, lunges or even kind of like split. The pelvic outlet is best opened when we have any sort of movement where our knees are coming together and the ankles are kind of moving away from one another. It's not an intuitive movement but it's the best movement we can do for when our babies are actually being born, when they're coming out of the birth canal. These are just a few that are described in much more detail inside Skyler’s course, Movement Through Labor & Delivery.
Well & Worthy Co.’s Differentiator [58:18]
Skyler values and implements evidence-based resources along with collaboration and community within Well & Worthy Co. Skyler has a lot of varying experience which includes unmedicated deliveries, epidural deliveries, and cesareans, which has given her the experience to help prepare women for whatever birth outcome they desire. Her course also includes pelvic floor preparation by a doctor of physical therapy. Together, they created a course to comprehensively prepare women physically, mentally and emotionally for labor.
Key Quotes
“Women who've learned about labor and delivery through means of childbirth education, have a much clearer expectation of how labor will go and what they can do if it doesn't go “as planned or expected”, and so they often aren't fearful of it.”
Skyler Jacobs
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