Brittany Estrada 00:00:00 We in our culture had this whole idea about how women should really bounce back from birth, and that is constantly shoved down our throats via social media, what we see from celebrities. And that's not totally realistic and it's not very healthy. And also, I think we as women really know where we feel good in our body. And so it's this dance between your body is never going to be the same in the best possible way, right? You have birthed a human and also you can still feel amazing in your body.

Erica Boland 00:01:01 Hey loves. I'm Erica.

Brittany Estrada 00:01:04 and I'm Britt. She's a chiropractor and midwife.

Erica Boland 00:01:06 And she's a Nurse practitioner and womb healer. Together, we are bridging the sacred and the scientific to help you step into deeper alignment with the incredible wisdom of your body.

Brittany Estrada 00:01:16 We are mothers, soul sisters, and women who are deeply devoted to serving the feminine collective.

Brittany Estrada 00:01:22 There is no topic we aren't open to exploring, and we are so looking forward to navigating this journey with you and our amazing guests.

Erica Boland 00:01:30 So settle in, preferably with a great cup of coffee. Put one hand on your heart and breathe as we dive in.

Brittany Estrada 00:01:37 Welcome to our community. Hey everyone!

Brittany Estrada 00:01:42 Welcome to this week's episode of the Womb Women Podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in. We are going to start, as we always do, by just taking a moment to really come into our bodies. We get so much wisdom when we actually tune in to these incredible vessels. So if you are able, I invite you to close your eyes. Or at the very least, just let the backs of your eyeballs relax and soften. Maybe let your shoulders come away from your ears. Open and close your mouth and let that jaw relax. And then I want you to bring your awareness to your sitz bones, those bones right at the base of your pelvic bowl, and just see if you can sense into them, maybe shift your weight into your seat.

Brittany Estrada 00:02:39 And now start to see if you can breathe all the way down into those bones, seeing them slightly separate as you inhale and as you exhale, letting them come back together. So often we have to actually picture these muscles moving so that we really develop that brain body connection. So can you sense into the movement now of your entire pelvic bowl. As you inhale it gets bigger and wider. And as you exhale everything just comes back to rest. There's no forcing. And just for a moment, tune in to any energy that you're holding your body that's not yours. So as energetic beans and especially as women, we tend to carry so much of other people with us, we are always so willing to carry other people's problems and other people's energy, and sometimes it's even subconscious. But I want to invite you now to really sense into whose energy you might be holding on to if you're a provider, or maybe it's a patient or several. If you're a mom, it's probably your kids. Think about your partner, your friends, your boss.

Brittany Estrada 00:04:18 And I want to invite you to just disconnect those energy cords. So maybe actually see yourself pulling the cord from your body, just letting it go. And then just really allow your energy to fill up. And just notice how that shifts things in your body in your field. And when you're ready, come back and meet me for this conversation. So today I am recording without Erica. We had some scheduling difficulties, and I had really been wanting to do an episode about postpartum weight loss because this is something that comes into my field a lot. I have lots of moms who are, you know, typically within that first year after having a baby and are concerned about their weight and want support. And, you know, in this particular space, there's a lot of judgment. So we in our culture have this whole idea about how women should really bounce back from birth, and that is constantly shoved down our throats via social media, what we see from celebrities. And that's not totally realistic. And it's not very healthy in my opinion.

Brittany Estrada 00:05:37 But then there's this counter side to that, which is more of like the even the functional medicine, more of the crunchy mom side, where there is just this idea that you shouldn't desire to lose weight because your body did this amazing thing. And that is so true. And also, I think we as women really know where we feel good in our body. And so it's this dance between your body is never going to be the same in the best possible way, right? You have birthed a human. You have literally brought a soul from heaven to earth. That is incredible. And also, you can still feel amazing in your body. So I want to share a little from my perspective, both as a woman who has given birth to three babies and navigated postpartum and postpartum weight loss and all the things. And as a clinician working with lots of women who have navigated this journey as well. And I'll share from my perspective, you know, I grew up pretty overweight, so I absolutely have a long history of just not having the best relationship with my body, kind of never feeling at home in my body.

Brittany Estrada 00:06:45 And what's so interesting is, for me, motherhood is the thing that made me fall in love with my body, because I was so blown away by the fact that I could conceive and carry and birth and nourish my babies. And so it really changed my perspective on my body. And I wouldn't say that that's necessarily the norm, because for a lot of women, when you go through the experience of pregnancy and then you come out on the other side of that, your body is so different and maybe it's bigger or it's softer than it was prior to having babies. And that can be a huge adjustment. And no matter what, I think the postpartum adjustment is so challenging because you literally go through the birth experience, which takes, you know, a number of hours and you come out of it a new person. You are not the same ever again after having your babies. And so there is certainly an adjustment period from, you know, an emotional standpoint, but then also you're just navigating all of these changes in your body and then you know, your body is going to change so significantly from the time you get pregnant until, you know, even several years postpartum, you're still navigating changes.

Brittany Estrada 00:07:58 So it's this time of so much Dynamism and fluctuation. And I think that can be really challenging because, you know, routine and structure and consistency feels very safe to our nervous system. So as we start to navigate motherhood, we're being called into more of this flow, this rhythm, this more cyclical nature, which is very feminine. But we've talked about this before in several episodes where everything in our culture is really set up to cater to the masculine, which is more of that systems and structures. And that's all well and good, but it makes us feel that as we are going through the process of becoming moms and navigating this postpartum journey, it makes us feel like there's not really a model and not really support, because we kind of expect to go back to those routines, structures and systems. So I just want to name that because I think it's really important, and we just don't have a lot of models of any other way. And so it can feel so jarring to us because nobody really prepares us for this.

Brittany Estrada 00:09:02 I actually just had a call with a woman today who is navigating some, you know, significant postpartum struggles. And she had one baby and got pregnant pretty quickly and then ended up having twins. So in the span of just a couple of years, she's had three babies. And then she, you know, has breastfed all of them. So her body has undergone so much in such a short period of time. And we were just chatting through how there is not a lot of support for postpartum healing. Eric and I talked a couple episodes ago about how to really heal from postpartum and how to be intentional about it, and unfortunately, that's just still something that doesn't get the reverence I think that it really deserves. Women are now really starting to be a little more intentional, at least in our circles, more intentional about their birth experience. But I think there's still a lot of education that needs to be had regarding what it actually looks like to truly support yourself postpartum and what is actually possible in our culture, especially with women not always having any kind of paid maternity leave or really a lot of support.

Brittany Estrada 00:10:06 Many of us live far from family. We just don't have that structure built in. So we have to be so intentional about curating our postpartum support plan. So all that is to say, what I really want to focus on today and hone in on is this healthy way of addressing postpartum weight loss. And again, I have experienced both as a clinician, as a nurse practitioner, I also worked for a large macro based nutrition company, which was such a trip for me. Never something I really thought I would do, but this company specifically sought me out because I was really doing a lot of work, specifically around nutrition for pre-conception, pregnancy and postpartum. So they hired me to really offer support to the women in their world who were navigating pregnancy. And how do we kind of monitor macronutrients in a healthy way while going through pregnancy and then transitioning into that postpartum phase, And I don't always think that macro accounting is appropriate. I think that there's a time and place for most tools, and it is a tool.

Brittany Estrada 00:11:09 It can definitely lead to, you know, some unhealthy eating issues in certain people. I personally dealt with an eating disorder when I was in college, so I have to be really mindful of the tools that I use. But I also really like data, and I like to get a good idea of what is actually happening with my body and then also tune in intuitively. So I like bringing in all of the data that I can, but then also really listening in. And I want to say this really quickly because I think it's super important. Intuitive eating is amazing. When your nervous system is dysregulated, it is really hard to tune into your intuition. So if you think about the postpartum period when you are recovering from birth, hopefully your birth was not traumatic, but unfortunately so many hours you're recovering from that experience. You are up all night with a newborn. You are trying to figure out breastfeeding or bottle feeding or whatever it is. There are just so many things that are being thrown at you.

Brittany Estrada 00:12:04 At that point, you're going to be a little dysregulated. So sometimes having something in place like macro accounting can be really, really helpful just so that, you know, moms know that they're actually getting enough food because that is actually something that I see really commonly. So that's the first thing I want to speak to, is that the vast majority of my clients, regardless of where they are on their motherhood journey, are actually under eating. Some are getting enough calories, but there's a big difference between getting enough calories in and actually getting enough nourishment. And most women are definitely under eating protein. They're missing out on a lot of the key micronutrients like B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin D, vitamin A, magnesium. These minerals are super, super important for hormonal balance and detoxification and all of these really critical processes in the body. So the undernourishment is a big thing. And when I talk to women and kind of have them list out what they eat in a day So often they're not eating in the morning because they get up and they're busy and they're juggling the baby and maybe other kids, and they're trying to kind of care for everybody else.

Brittany Estrada 00:13:11 And then it gets to be lunchtime or later and they realize, oh my goodness, I haven't actually eaten today. I have been running on coffee. That is a really common thing that I see. And so that's kind of the first step is we've got to have enough calories and enough nutrients coming in. So number one, are you still taking a prenatal vitamin. That's kind of just a low hanging fruit, because when you're recovering from birth you still have a huge need for, you know, micronutrients. So continuing to take a prenatal vitamin is recommended, in my opinion, just to kind of meet those just basic things. One of the things that we see specifically is a really big drop in omega three levels, because towards the end of pregnancy, mom stores are being eaten up by baby for that brain and eye development. And then that continues postpartum with breastfeeding. Your omega three levels and a lot of your micronutrients are actually going into your breast milk to help nourish baby so your stores get more and more depleted.

Brittany Estrada 00:14:12 So the prenatal vitamin just comes in and acts as an insurance policy. You still have to eat food. And what I'll hear too is, oh, well, I'm going to do some intermittent fasting because that will help me lose weight. That is really not appropriate for most of that first postpartum year. Now, there are caveats to everything. I never want to say you should never do that. But generally speaking, if you are in that first year of postpartum and certainly if you're breastfeeding, intermittent fasting is not appropriate. I think it's really important to remember that when we don't have enough nutrients or enough calories coming in, the body thinks that it's in danger. So it's going to hold on to everything it's got. So it seems so counterintuitive, but sometimes increasing the amount that you're eating actually stimulates your metabolism to then work better and burn more calories. Also important to remember if you're breastfeeding, do you need about 500 additional calories just to make breast milk? That is not even counting what you need for healing and what you need for your own basic bodily function.

Brittany Estrada 00:15:20 So number one, we have to make sure we're eating enough. I would say shoot for at least 0.8g of protein per pound of body weight. That is hard. And if you've never counted your protein intake and really paid attention to it, you will be blown away by how much effort it actually takes to get in enough protein in a day. But that is super important for postpartum healing. And what a lot of people don't realize is that protein is actually thermogenic, so it helps to stimulate your metabolism. It requires a lot of energy to break down and utilize protein. So that is a really great way to help support overall metabolism and support weight loss. So getting enough protein in. Another thing that I like to check in with moms is, are we noticing that there's been a stall in weight loss, or are you starting to see weight gain? There's a big difference there. And this is an important differentiation, because sometimes women are actually dealing with a postpartum thyroid issue or some kind of other hormonal imbalance.

Brittany Estrada 00:16:24 So that's something that I kind of like to check in about, you know, are you seeing an increase in your weight gain after having the baby, or is it just that nothing is coming off? What is your energy like? Obviously, when you have a newborn, you're going to be tired because they're probably not going to sleep great. But is it the kind of fatigue where you feel like you cannot get off the couch, you can't move like that kind of stuff, you know, are you experiencing constipation? Do you have any other GI issues? Are you experiencing mood issues? So a lot of times postpartum thyroid issues are actually misdiagnosed as a postpartum mood disorder. And so it is important that we understand what's happening with your thyroid. Another thing that we want to pay attention to is what's going on with blood sugar and insulin. Did you have some level of gestational diabetes? Like maybe you weren't actually diagnosed with gestational diabetes, but you were borderline. So one of the things we can actually check postpartum is what's going on with your blood sugar and what's going on with insulin.

Brittany Estrada 00:17:25 Insulin is a storage hormone. So if we're putting out a lot of insulin that can actually make us hold onto fat. So one of the things that I decided to do, because, again, I'm a data nerd, I wanted to get all the information that I could with my third baby, because I love being able to use myself as a guinea pig and then share my experience with my clients. So I actually did a continuous glucose monitor both during pregnancy at two different points, just to see what was going on. This was super helpful to me to figure out what was driving my severe nausea. I never threw it, but I had really severe nausea. My blood sugar was dipping so low, so consistently that every time I would see that I would force myself to eat and it would get better. And so it was really helpful for me to be able to understand that it was actually these hypoglycemia issues in pregnancy that were really driving my symptoms, and I was able to resolve that and feel so much better.

Brittany Estrada 00:18:19 So that's an aside, but I actually did blood glucose monitoring with a continuous glucose monitor postpartum because I wanted to try to keep my blood sugar really nice and steady and see how that supported my healing. Because when we have these big spikes in blood sugar, because we're taking in a big glucose load, that can be pretty jarring to the nervous system and kind of mess with our healing and our inflammation. So I just wanted to see what would happen when I really focused on that. Now, I didn't do that for the first like three weeks postpartum. That's something that I implemented a little bit later on, but it was really cool to see how keeping my blood sugar so nice and steady impacted my mood and my energy and my sleep, and I really feel like that was incredibly Instrumental in my healing. So that's another option to something that we can look at in general. I don't do a lot of testing on women until they're about six months postpartum, unless they're having really significant symptoms. Like I mentioned, if you're having extreme fatigue, you're gaining weight.

Brittany Estrada 00:19:19 Maybe you're holding on to fluid. You just can sense there is something not right. And especially if we've got maybe milk supply issues and mood disorder issues, like that's when I would go ahead and check thyroid hormone and all that stuff. In general, though, I don't usually test a whole lot until we're about at that six month mark, because that is when a lot of women are starting to decrease the amount they are breastfeeding, they're potentially sleeping a little bit better. And that's when a lot of women are coming to me saying, hey, I'm at that six month mark. I feel like I want to, you know, increase my activity, maybe start focusing a little more on my diet and try to really be intentional about losing this postpartum weight. So that's when I'll kind of bring in the lab piece. So one of the things that we often see is this marketing towards postpartum moms, that's all about detoxes and cleanses and flushes, which I do not think is appropriate. I don't think we should be doing any kind of a detox in that first year postpartum, especially not when you're breastfeeding.

Brittany Estrada 00:20:19 That being said, we can certainly support detox pathways, especially as we get closer to that one year mark postpartum, and I have seen that be really helpful in supporting weight loss, because when we're newly postpartum, the liver's bogged down, digestion can slow down. The body is trying to do so many things. It's trying to heal. It's trying to kind of recalibrate hormones. It's potentially trying to make breast milk. And so this has been an interesting thing that I have seen in my postpartum clients, is that we can see just this elevation in liver enzymes. We can look at labs and kind of see things that indicate that things are a little slow and sluggish. And women will report that to me as well. So again, that doesn't mean we go through this big cleanse, but it does mean that we can help support detox pathways. And so again, we really have to come in with enough protein. The liver needs protein to detox. We also have to come in with targeted nutrients. So those B vitamins are going to be really important.

Brittany Estrada 00:21:17 And then I love to work with herbs. Things like dandelion can be so helpful. Calendula. And we can do this with teas and tinctures. We're not shoving the body full of a bunch of, you know, detox supplements per se, but we can gently help to open up the detox pathways. This also might mean that we are doing, you know, some rebounding or some, you know, gentle lymphatic drainage work. We might be using castor oil packs. We might be increasing hydration, just all these things that are really helping to open up all of the detox pathways, sauna, exercise, those kinds of things. And that's a really important piece too, because again, your body is trying to recalibrate in that first year postpartum. So sometimes there are significant hormonal shifts at play that can be causing you to hold on to weight. And then all that is to say, I very commonly see that women have a hard time dropping that last like 5 to £10 while they're breastfeeding. And so what I want to say is that's likely biologically normal, that your body needs those little bits of extra reserves in order to maintain your milk supply.

Brittany Estrada 00:22:30 So I think it's really important to give yourself a lot of grace. And if you are choosing to continue your breastfeeding journey, then just understand that that's probably going to be a part of it, that you have to retain that little bit of extra fat and that is perfectly fine, perfectly healthy and just, you know, something that you're going to have to decide whether, you know, stopping breastfeeding and really starting to focus on that weight loss is more important to you. And that's completely fine. Whatever you choose. And I will say from my experiences again, I have three sons. I lost weight incredibly quickly with my first son, but my weight loss was so rapid that I ended up losing a lot of muscle, so I got a lot of praise. Unfortunately for looking so good postpartum, but I was actually feeling horrible because I lost about £10 on top of what I had gained for. So I was like £10 lighter than my pre-pregnancy weight with him, and I lost a lot of muscle. So I was what I would describe as, you know, skinny fat.

Brittany Estrada 00:23:32 I lost so much muscle. And, you know, I was injured and I was just exhausted all the time. I definitely wasn't eating enough. I definitely wasn't caring for myself. With my next postpartum experience, it took me a little bit longer to lose weight, but I was also really intentional about that period of healing. I knew so much more. I had learned a lot more, I had better support, and so it probably took me about a year to really get back to that pre-pregnancy weight. And then with my third son, I was even more intentional because I knew that was my last baby. I planned on breastfeeding for him for as long as he wanted to breastfeed, which ended up being about three and a half years. Again, that wasn't really planned, but that's where we were. And so, you know, he's only been weaned for not even a year at this point, and my body is still continuing to shift. And with this last postpartum, even with my continuous glucose monitor and all of my tools, I would say it took me a solid 18 months to really get back to my pre-pregnancy weight.

Brittany Estrada 00:24:34 And since then I've really focused on building muscle because now I am almost 39 years old and my goal is to really support my health and longevity so that I can be an active mama to these crazy little boys. So what I want you to take away from this is that, number one, it is so important for you to really focus on your nourishment. We can absolutely dig into labs checking your thyroid function, checking your liver and your nutrients. Again, things like vitamin D, B12, your omega three seconds. We have to make sure we've got solid nutrition on board so that your detox pathways can actually work correctly, so that you have the fuel to actually be able to stimulate metabolism. Very, very important. And then from there it's going to take time. It really is going to take time. And I definitely encourage you to reach out to someone who can take a more holistic lens if you're feeling stuck. But if you are, you know, making sure that you're eating enough, you are at least moving your body to some extent, even if it's just, you know, going out and walking on a consistent basis and you're still having some trouble with that postpartum weight, I think it's worth working with someone who can dig into the labs a little bit more, see what's happening with hormones, see what's happening with nutrients, and give you some further answers.

Brittany Estrada 00:25:58 So I hope this was helpful, and I look forward to seeing you with Erica in the next episode. Thank you so much for tuning in to this episode of the Womb Women podcast. We are thrilled you joined us today and hope you found the conversation as inspiring as we did to connect with us further. Follow me, Brit on Instagram at the Brit Estrada and Erica at The Movement Midwife. For more information on how to work with us, check out our websites linked in the show notes. We can't wait to have you join us for the next episode, but until then, we invite you to step into your power and embrace the wisdom of your body. Bye for now.

Brittany Estrada 00:26:52 Just as a reminder of the information shared here is for educational purposes only and not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult your health care provider for any medical questions or concerns.