Dr. Courtney: who's helping these women?

You know, like most doctors are like, oh, you're fine.

It's just a part of being a mom.

It's normal.

It's normal.

Some of these women I've talked to, I've been doing Kegels for 10 years, and I'm like, well, how's that been helping you?

Oh, well, I still have leakage.

I'm like, okay, well, they're not the solution.

When you stop accepting that this is your normal, you actually have a chance to heal.

Hello, beautiful mamas and welcome back to the Birth Experience with Labor Nurse Mama, where we strip away all the noise, the extras, and talk about what really matters.

We're gonna be talking about your body and your mind and healing it after birth today, and we're diving into a topic that gets tossed around way too casually, pelvic floor health, you've heard it before.

Just do your key goals, but.

What if that advice is actually keeping you from healing?

Joining me today is Dr. Courtney Johnson.

She's a pelvic floor physical therapist and host of the Female Blueprint Podcast.

She's known online also as the female Athlete Doc on Instagram, and she is very knowledgeable.

When it comes to what people think heals their pelvic floor versus what actually does.

So today we're gonna flip the script on how you view recovery, and we're gonna talk about why tight doesn't equal strong, and how stress and sleep and even sunshine affect your pelvic floor.

So join me as I chat with Dr. Courtney.

Good

Dr. Courtney: morning, Courtney.

I'm so

happy that you're here.

I would love for you to take a moment and share with everyone why you do what you do and what you do, obviously.

But that's one of the things I love when I have other female business owners who are in this space.

I feel like we all have a very strong why.

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

Well, thank you so much for having me here.

I'm so excited to be here and just like yap about the pelvic floor.

It's what I do best.

So how I got here is I always wanted to treat female athletes in general, and so my Instagram handle, you know, the female athlete doc is like, it came from wanting to just treat the female body as a whole because the athlete population and just like women who are active in general always get the short end of the stick because they're healthy, right?

They're so healthy, they work out all the time.

So they shouldn't have issues.

Right.

But a lot of women actually do.

The women who are the healthiest and the most active like actually come up with a lot more things like leakage or prolapse and they pelvic floor symptoms.

They don't just pick who they wanna like

Yeah.

Dr. Courtney: Be with, right?

Like everybody can have the same or you know, a symptom or whatever.

And so when I was like going through PT school and I was like big in my CrossFit era and like workout classes and stuff, all of these women around me were.

Always mentioning and struggling, like they're struggling with leakage or their prolapse.

Mm-hmm.

Or they're running to the restroom before they work out.

And I'm like, who's helping these women?

You know, like most doctors are like, oh, you're fine.

It's just a part of being a mom.

It's normal.

It's normal.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Just for black leggings, it's fine.

Like, and it was just like always these running like, kind of like annoying symptom coverup, bandaid fixes.

And I'm like, screw this.

Mm-hmm.

Like there's gotta be another way around this.

And so I took a lot of like continued education courses and as I was diving into my courses.

I realized like this population is so underserved and so I just dive dove right in and I kind of like pride myself on being that like gap.

Mm-hmm.

I'm like, if you have acute symptoms, sure.

Maybe like traditional physical therapy will work for you.

Go get an internal assessment, like go do what you need to do to kind of check the boxes to make you feel like you're kind of doing the, the things that you need to do to make sure that you're not, you know, you don't have a diagnosis of like cancer or something.

Of course.

When people start showing symptoms, sometimes they're like, oh my God, you know, something's wrong with my bladder, something's wrong with my bowels.

Like, and they go to the ends of the world to try to figure it out.

So I'm like, okay, if you have acute symptoms, go to a doctor, go get these diagnoses, whatever, to kind of just like ease your mind.

Then you have to bridge the gap between, actually, okay, I leak when I cough and sneeze, but what about when I run sprints on a treadmill?

Mm-hmm.

Nobody's helping those women in the clinic.

Most of the time they don't even have fricking treadmills or they don't have the weights, they don't have the barbells, they don't have the equipment necessary to treat these athletes.

So that's kind of where I went into like, you know, long story short, and I started treating these women who are struggling with all of these like complex issues that like maybe even traditional PT can't, can't treat.

They don't have the capacity.

Mm-hmm.

Or the time to do so.

And so as I started treating them, I also realized that pelvic floor dysfunction is wider and deeper than just.

Weak pelvic floor.

Everybody's like, oh, your pelvic floor is weak.

Just do Kegels.

And it's like, no, these women are actually really, really strong.

They probably have tight pelvic floors.

And so then I started diving deep into like nervous system healing, pelvic floor relaxation, lifestyle habits, behavior change.

And then I kind of took it with that route because like.

I'm like, I can heal a pelvic floor for somebody by addressing their lifestyle and like changing kind of their behaviors and stuff, and then maybe working on pelvic floor relaxation and a lot of their symptoms just kind of get cleaned up and it's like, why are we still giving Kegels as the only prescription when there's so many other layers to pelvic floor dysfunction?

So

well, well, it's the same as in birth, I would assume, is that the doctors that are the frontline that are seeing these women.

They've done nothing to educate themselves or to go above and beyond the Well, this is just part of it.

Dr. Courtney: Yeah.

It's just normal.

It's normal to have,

yeah,

Dr. Courtney: three kids and just pee your pants afterwards because you had three vaginal births and it's like, okay, it's a muscle group that can help control those issues.

It's like saying, okay, you're a pitcher your whole life throwing baseballs.

Yeah, you just deserve, like, you just, it's a normal part of, you know, having a rotator cuff tear, like

mm-hmm.

Dr. Courtney: Why do we not normalize things like that?

Yeah.

But we normalize because you had a birth and a vaginal birth that you can just pee yourself.

And that's, it's akay wild.

Yeah, it's like alien land.

Like they don't want to learn anything around it.

Like it's, yeah, it's really mattering, I mean.

And it's everything that surrounds women's health, in my opinion.

So I love, like some of the things you were saying, I, I love, like I, I was like, oh, this and that, and then I think of something else.

But I wanna talk about the key goals because I feel like that is so important, is such a hot topic.

And I know, you know, most of my children are adults and then I, I had one late in life, but mm-hmm.

That was what we were told that Kegels were the default prescription for all problems.

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

And so I'd love to hear your take on that and why you feel that became the thing and why it's not actually the thing.

Dr. Courtney: Right.

And so, so Kegels, what Kegels are the, the basic knowledge of Kegels is a, it's a voluntary muscle contraction.

It's like you picking up a cup of coffee and you bend your elbow and you contract your biceps to lift your, your hand up to your, your face to drink your cup.

Cup of coffee.

Your pelvic floor muscles are voluntary.

You're picking up the muscles to contract them, a concentric contraction, and then you're releasing them.

So when you think of the pelvic floor and all of the different functions that it has, okay, it has five to like seven functions that are very, very important and other things that it kind of corresponds with around the pelvis, right?

Your hips, your low back, your deep core muscles, there's so many layers.

The other layer to Kegels that are not the best option for treatment, especially long-term, like there are a good short-term option where if there's a new postpartum mom and I'm like, okay, you have.

Coordination after this vaginal birth, you were pushing for long periods of time, maybe you have a tight pelvic floor.

And so I'm like, okay, well maybe we need to wake the pelvic floor up, for lack of better terms, right?

We need to restore that mind to muscle connection, like the, the, the brain's connection to that area of the body, especially after like a vaginal birth.

That would be an appropriate time where I'm like, yes, good.

Let's just try to do some Kegels to wake things up, maybe get some blood flowing down there, kind of work on inflammation, get things going, but you have to bridge past that pretty quickly.

You can't stay there and do them for months and years on end.

Some of these women I've talked to, I've been doing Kegels for 10 years, and I'm like, well, how's that been helping you?

Oh, well, I still have leakage.

I'm like, okay, well, they're not the solution.

Right?

Yeah.

Dr. Courtney: We wanna bridge past that because.

The pelvic floor is a part of a bigger system, our deep core system, right?

We have the diaphragm, we have your deep cores, your your transverse abdominis muscle group, your multifidi, which are your low back stabilizers.

Then you have the pelvic floor.

If you're, if there's one muscle group in a four muscle group system and you're only addressing one part of that system, what's the other systems doing?

What's the other parts of the system doing?

So a lot of PTs and providers are like, yeah, just do those Kegels.

And it's like, well, how are you breathing?

How are you active in your deep core?

How is your low back being stabilized?

Right?

And that's just one layer to a system that works altogether.

And so why we don't wanna do Kegels long term is because you can create dysfunction at the pelvic floor level.

If your breathing and your pelvic, if your diaphragm, your, your breathing muscle and your pelvic floor aren't coordinated together, or if you're deep core, you're having, you know, diastasis recti from mm-hmm.

Or rib flaring from pregnancy.

That is also, another layer where if you're contracting your core all the time, your pelvic floor is not involved.

Like there's dysfunction created there and it can actually create layers of dysfunction.

So I tell people, I'm like, doing Kegels can create, tension on dysfunction, which is not what we want.

Mm-hmm.

So sometimes I'm like, stop the Kegels altogether.

Get an assessment, figure out what's going on in the system.

Maybe it's a rib flare issue and that's why your pelvic floor has leakage.

Right.

Maybe it's, which

I would never have thought of that.

Dr. Courtney: Literally, and it's because people are like, I just hear it on the internet, or my doctor just,

yeah,

Dr. Courtney: looked me in the eyes and was like, do Kegels, they never even assessed my breathing.

They don't as assess, and it's not their fault.

It's not their ballgame.

They are trained to deliver babies and trained for medical red flags.

They're not trained in a muscle group that is a pelvic floor physical therapist job, and so it's only appropriate for somebody to go to a pelvic floor PT and get an assessment.

And actually figure out what's wrong in the entire body to address the issues.

Most of the time it's never just the pelvic floor.

So that's why I'm like, well, no, kegels.

Yeah.

And what's so frustrating?

'cause I've had, I mean, since 2020, I've had over 15,000 students and a lot of them hang out with me on a weekly basis.

Mm-hmm.

I can't even tell you how many, their doctors will not give them a referral.

Dr. Courtney: Wild.

I don't even understand why it's such a big deal to these doctors.

Dr. Courtney: I know

it's give them the dang referral.

It doesn't hurt you.

It

Dr. Courtney: doesn't hurt them.

Yeah.

Yeah.

It doesn't hurt them.

It's, and here's the thing, it can go both ways where it's like, okay, say I'm the doctor.

And it's like, well, I've had patients come back to me and say, pelvic floor PT doesn't work.

And I'm like, okay, that's an issue at the pelvic floor level.

If their patients are coming back to their doctor and be like, I went and it didn't work.

Now the doctor's like, well, that sucks.

I'm not gonna refer 'em to that.

You know that thing anymore.

It doesn't work.

The research also isn't staying updated in the pelvic floor world and given to providers.

So now the providers are their lack of education of, okay, can this actually help?

Right?

They don't get a lot of training on it, so they're like, okay, well it doesn't matter.

I don't know.

I don't know what the research says.

And also too, I always tell people, I'm like, your provider is as old as the last research article that they've read.

So again, if they're not referring out, it's because they're uneducated.

Yeah.

They're willing.

They're unwilling to be educated in the aspect.

Mm-hmm.

Or they're getting told that it doesn't work, and that's a layer of pelvic four pt where I get mad about too sometimes, and I'm like, we have to do better as a profession too, because we are still the profession.

That's like, okay, yeah, I'll do Kegels.

It's like,

yeah.

Dr. Courtney: Oh my God.

Like you, we all have been trained to know that the pelvic floor is a part of a bigger system.

We can't just train one part of a system, it doesn't work

well.

The business coach in me is like, this is a business opportunity.

Like to start educating and bridging that gap with the providers.

Right?

Because imagine, I mean, I do see even in the birth world since I started, there's definitely been a more of a movement that.

Younger providers, newer providers are realizing they have to update what they know.

They have to listen to these moms because these moms are getting more and more educated.

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

It's just, it's frustrating 'cause it's not just the public floor, it's all aspects.

It's the mental health after birth.

Mm-hmm.

It's the physical recovery, all of it.

There's such a huge void.

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

And, and that's the problem too, is like.

When there is the void, it's, it's the concern of now moms have, like, nobody's listening to me, nobody's helping me.

I have, I've lost hope and I've lost faith in the system.

So why try system?

So why try?

Yeah.

And now they're like, well, yeah, it's normal.

And my mom says it's normal.

My mom struggled with it.

My grandma, my, my girlfriend over here who just had a baby also has the same issues.

And then it becomes this normalcy where common is normal.

It's like.

Well, yeah, because it's like, you're right.

I, my mom, my whole childhood couldn't jump on the trampoline or like sneeze without peeing a little.

Yeah.

And I've never thanked God had that issue, but I grew up thinking that was just a part of birth.

Yeah.

Like that's what happens after you have a baby, like

Dr. Courtney: mm-hmm.

And it makes no logical sense.

If you really think through, why would that be?

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

But when you're told that by the women in your life who you respect.

And then a provider says the same thing, you just accept it.

Dr. Courtney: Yep.

It's awful.

It's really, it's really a shame.

So like, one of the things that I was wondering, are there any, like if it, okay, are there any like something you could tell someone to know if she, you know, 'cause we know there's the people out there that do Kegel religiously, right?

How can she know if she's.

Huh?

Dr. Courtney: The stoplight.

Kegels.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Dr. Courtney: Every time you're at a stoplight, you like 20 Kegels, and it's like, oh my gosh.

Yeah.

Like, so how does someone know this is helping me or harming me?

Is there anything like the average person could know?

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

Absolutely.

So usually when I say I am, like if you do Kegels for like a couple times a day, a couple times a week, and you're still having the same exact symptoms within one week, it's not helping.

Generally like,

yeah,

Dr. Courtney: if you do a muscle contraction, you will see a change.

Like typically if I, let's for example, let's compare to a muscle group that's more, you know, widely normalized.

Hips, your hip flexors.

When your hips are really tight, say you have a dust job, you're working all day at the dust job, and by the end of the day you're like, oh my gosh, my hip is just so tight, I just need to stretch it, right?

Mm-hmm.

Over and over and over again.

You're just gonna keep stretching it.

So.

Why you don't wanna just stretch a tight muscle that is so uncomfortable all the time is because muscles don't want to be stretched all the time.

They need to be activated.

'cause when you're sitting down in a desk all day long, the muscles become passive insufficiency.

They're in a, a really, really shortened position, right?

So they can't activate.

So they're just getting tighter and tighter all day long.

So what that tight muscle wants is activation.

So for example, like if you're sitting here and you're like.

My muscles get tight.

I'm like, okay, my hip flexor is really tight, so I'm gonna activate, I'm gonna do a bunch of like hip marches and hip raises and just kind of activate it and like do some isometrics and then it goes away.

So for example, if we relate it back to the Kegels, let's say you do a bunch of Kegels because you're leaking, or because it feels tighter, it feels uncomfortable, or you're having pelvic pain, you would see a difference.

You would be like, okay, my muscle's tight, it wants to be activated, or it feels like it, there's pain or something, there's some discomfort.

Mm-hmm.

And you're like, okay, I'm gonna go activate it.

Does that solve the issue?

Yes or no?

Within a week?

Right?

Or sometimes it's immediate, like, oh, my hip feels better when I activate it.

Like I don't have the same discomfort anymore.

It was just crying for help.

Mm-hmm.

But your pelvic floor is the same way.

If you don't see a difference in your symptoms within like a couple days to a week, even a slight little bit of difference, kes are not the issues for the solution for you.

Okay?

Okay.

Dr. Courtney: Conversely, if you also do them a lot and then you start seeing other layers of symptoms.

More pain, pelvic four muscle spasms, pain with intercourse, more leakage, more heaviness.

Right.

I had a woman that I treated just not too long ago, and she's still on my team.

We're about two months in.

She had pelvic organ prolapse, postpartum.

She's four months postpartum and have been, or sorry, six months postpartum, been going to PT for six months, been doing Kegels, like her job, like doing so many layers, kegels.

I started seeing her and within three weeks we took out Kegels, completely worked on pelvic floor relaxation and.

Contracting her deep core and getting her to breathe.

No pelvic organ prolapse symptoms.

She still has it.

Of course.

Yeah.

But there's no heaviness, there's no leakage, there's no symptoms that come with it.

And it's like those are the types of same things that you can see a difference in right away if you start or stop something that does not work for you.

Okay.

So one of the things that I saw on I, I told you, like when I was kind of peeping your profile, I saw like pressure management.

Can you explain what that is?

Dr. Courtney: So when we went back to, or when we talked a little bit about the system, the core system.

Yeah.

How the four muscle groups are all together.

So inside that muscle system is a pressure management system, right?

Okay.

It's your abdominal wall and every time you take a big inhale into

okay,

Dr. Courtney: the, you know, a deep inhale breath, like your diaphragm contracts, your pelvic floor goes down as well.

Okay.

They kind of mirror each other in the way that they move.

And so you create this negative intraabdominal pressure to stabilize the system.

Okay,

Dr. Courtney: so this pressure, this is why

the diaphragmatic breathing is so important.

Dr. Courtney: Yes.

Because it helps coordinate that.

Pressure management, right?

And so

yeah,

Dr. Courtney: when you take that big inhale, you generate a lot of pressure inside to stabilize the core.

Okay?

That pressure goes nowhere but downward.

Yeah.

Goes into the pelvis, pelvic floor.

Pelvic organs, or into the abdominal wall.

So sometimes when you see women like doing exercises and they have diastasis recti, they have the big conning and the domine in the abdomen.

Yeah.

That's mismanagement of pressure.

Or symptoms like prolapse, heaviness, pressure downwards pain, leakage.

Right.

Constipation issues like you'll see all this pressure go down or the lower mommy pooch that people kind of talk about.

Yeah.

The lower belly pooch.

Yeah, that's mismanagement of pressure.

Okay, so managing it meaning, okay, I know that I'm going to generate pressure.

That's just biomechanics, that's physiology of the body.

How do I manage that?

Is I need to make sure my breath is fluidly moving all of the time, because holding my breath or bearing down unintentionally is what's creating the pressure, creating the symptoms.

Okay?

So if I stop doing that, then the pressure can come back out or it becomes stabilized.

I'm still breathing.

Like for example, if I'm gen, like activating my core, I'm breathing at the same time while I'm activating my core, so I'm not bearing down into my pelvic floor and causing damage over time.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

That makes more sense.

Some of the other things I saw that was a little shocking was loose clothing.

Dr. Courtney: Mm, yes, yes, yes, yes.

So the reason is, is because it's not that.

Loose clothing is, I mean, loose clothing is better for women in general because when you wear tight restrictive clothing, what happens is, is your body starts to clench.

Because think about it, if you're wearing something tight, are you just like fully relaxing?

Like you're like if you're wearing tight spandex.

You can't relax and take a big deep breath, like you're gonna like roll over, like your skin will roll over or your, you know, adipose tissue rolls over, like it's not comfortable.

And we're talking to women who live in those.

Dr. Courtney: Yes, yes, yes.

Especially like the spandexy clothes.

Like, there's nothing wrong with wearing like.

Uh, like leggings that like are like cotton and like, you know, stretchier material, but when you wear the super restrictive clothing like workout sets all day long, you are generating tension in your abs because you're probably gripping all day long.

Because let's be honest, like we are stressful human beings as women and like as moms, there's a lot going on.

Like you're probably gripping your glutes, you're gripping your abs, and.

Honestly for women with prolapse too, wearing tight restrictive clothing on the perineum can irritate your prolapse and make you clench your pelvic floor all day too.

So I tell women, I'm like, if you have pelvic floor dysfunction, or honestly if you're wanting to prevent it, like wear loose clothing, like there's no reason we need to be living in these workout sets all day long.

Yeah, because it's healthy and not a lot of people

do.

Dr. Courtney: Yeah,

a lot of people live in them all day 24 7.

Mm-hmm.

So the other thing that I saw that I thought I would love to kind of chat about, I feel like you just dipped into some of that is healing past trauma.

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

And I, I do believe, like we do create a lot of tension in our bodies when yes, we are anxious and

Dr. Courtney: Absolutely.

You know, so I would love for you to kind of talk about that.

'cause I don't know that a lot of pelvic floor specialists talk about that.

Dr. Courtney: Oh no.

Nervous system.

Healing is such a huge layer of pelvic floor issues because yes, it's a muscular issue, but your pelvic floor is a group of muscles in the pelvis where women historically store trauma, women store trauma in the hips and pelvis like no other.

We constantly gripping the pelvic floor down there.

Were constantly gripping the glutes, the abs just kind of like I mentioned, it's a lifestyle, like it's these habits that we do over and over again.

Subconsciously.

Mm-hmm.

Um, because it's a protective mechanism, it's also a way for the body to prevent or to create stability.

So if you have any layer of past injuries, maybe a injury to the pelvis and injury to the hips, knees, whatever, like anything that can be attached to the pelvis.

Like women, if there's any instability present, which women tend to be more mobile in their pelvis and hips than than men obviously.

There's a layer of instability where women now, okay.

I don't feel, you know, like stable.

And so a lot of women like hip shift back and forth all the time.

They stand on one hip all the time.

Yeah,

Dr. Courtney: yeah.

Well, we're also holding babies on a hip,

Dr. Courtney: right?

Holding babies on the hip, crossing our legs a lot.

We do a lot of things that like try to just create stability because there's instability present.

Women are weaker in the hips.

Right.

So a lot of these clenching mechanisms over time create tension down there.

Okay.

And then aside from trauma?

Yes.

Like sexual trauma, physical trauma, like any type of trauma, we just kind of score it down there.

Yeah.

That's so interesting.

Have you ever read the book?

The Body Keeps the Score?

Dr. Courtney: Yes, I have it right next to me.

That's

such a, such a good book.

My family went through a lot of trauma and I sent it to all of my kids.

Someone sent it to me and I was like, oh my goodness, this, it was such a good book.

Dr. Courtney: Yeah.

Anyway, that made me think of that.

So for, for, I know you said you talk a lot to female athletes, but I'm assuming you see a lot of moms around across the board, whether or not they're athletes.

Dr. Courtney: Mm-hmm.

Well, athletes is such a, like a general term, right?

Yeah.

It's anyone who's and, and genuinely

Yeah.

Dr. Courtney: Enjoys and loves it, right?

Yeah.

So I love, I love that it's so holistic because I've talked to a lot of physical therapists and I don't think anyone's ever talked to me about the, the trauma and the holding that tension because of that.

I think that's such an important part.

And even when you were talking about just the trauma we hold in our bodies after birth.

Especially if we were dishonored or you know, which is my whole platform is, was started because of seeing women's voices taken from them and coercion and willingness and thinking about all of that.

And the pressure, all of it just is, instead of saying it's normal, this happens after birth.

Why don't we look at all the different aspects of birth and pregnancy?

Make this not in quotes, normal.

Right.

You know, and a lot of it, there's

Dr. Courtney: layers.

Yeah.

There's just like, yeah.

My, my mind is just spinning and I feel like I could just talk about this on and on and on.

If you had to sum it up, if you were giving one of these moms who are listening who are, who have stuck with us to this point, what would be some, like just, here's what I want you to do right now.

Here are the steps to take right now.

Like stop just accepting it,

Dr. Courtney: you know?

Yeah,

Dr. Courtney: absolutely.

So yes, first and foremost, stop accepting it because when you stop accepting that this is your normal, you actually have a chance to heal.

Like, it's literally like you're spinning your wheels just being like, well, this is normal.

And it's like, it's just mm-hmm.

That acceptance of like your body, physiologically doing something against.

Your actual normal, because there's a good chance, like you probably didn't grow up with leakage, right?

You didn't grow up with pelvic pain, and all of this started during pregnancy.

Maybe it started postpartum, like, you know, deep down inside, it's not normal.

So you are self-sabotaging yourself.

You're literally telling yourself this is normal because it's your current reality.

Mm-hmm.

So my biggest tips for this is to realize what's.

Actually holding you back.

And sometimes it's your mind more than it's actually your body because when you actually believe you have a chance to heal, and you're right, I'm very holistic, I'm very root cause issue.

I'm just somebody who's like an anatomy and physiology nerd and I'm like, listen, this is the way God made us.

God didn't make us to have leakage.

Mm-hmm.

He doesn't want that for us.

And so when we stop defying what is truly what we are made in God's image is like.

We can have a chance to heal, stop the self-sabotage and get out there and just research.

And if you don't like the answers that you're getting, and deep down inside, you're like, Hmm, that I don't believe that, or I didn't like the way that they explained that.

Yes.

Find a new freaking provider.

Yes.

Find a new doctor.

Find somebody who's going to listen to you.

Mm-hmm.

Because these five minute doctor visits are asinine.

Like that is mm-hmm.

Like, it's so bad.

Like it's so bad.

Yeah.

And it sucks because it's, it's just the traditional system and you know, healthcare limitations and insurance and blah, blah blah.

Yeah.

Dr. Courtney: That's why we have social media.

That's why we have YouTube.

That's why I'm yapping my face off on over there.

Like

I have to, I have to tell you something so funny.

Crazy.

So I have a 10-year-old and I was saying something about yapping the other day and he goes, mom, how do you know that word?

And I was like, yapping?

He's like, yeah.

And I was like.

It's not a new word, Grayson.

He's like, yeah.

Like he literally was defending the fact that his generation came up with the word I said, Grayson, my grandma said yapping.

She used to tell us, quit your yapping.

Dr. Courtney: Literally

my grandma too.

Dr. Courtney: I'm like,

and you said the word at the beginning of the podcast and it, I just kind of giggled to myself.

Yeah, because it's so funny and, and even like you saying like.

One of the things I love to say is the Bible says nothing new under the sun.

I, I'll say that to him.

Like Grace said, there's nothing new under the sun,

Dr. Courtney: literally.

Anyway, back to this.

I just had to, to say that, but I love that you say that because that, that's the whole foundation of labor.

Nurse Mama is, I don't tell them what to do.

I equip them mm-hmm.

With all the things that I know, and then let them choose what, mm-hmm.

And I say this all the time, knowledge is power, but only if you take action.

Only if you use it.

So you guys can be listening to us right now and be like, oh my gosh.

But if you're not like, listen to us, be bold.

Speak up.

You're hiring these doctors.

They won't have a job if people keep believing them for basic advice like.

It's normal.

They will be forced to do something different.

Yeah.

But everyone just stays with them and let, accepts that.

It will never change for our daughters, for our granddaughters, and we just can't have that anymore.

It's not acceptable anymore.

Dr. Courtney: Well, it just, it, it's the wrong narrative.

It's the wrong narrative and it keeps getting spread.

Yeah.

And more people are misinformed.

More people are just stuck in the dust.

And it's like,

yeah,

Dr. Courtney: women's healthcare deserves better.

We're not small men.

A lot of research in the women's, health space has been on men, right?

And they're like, yep, well, we'll just compare it to the man over there and we'll treat her as a woman, right?

Like,

yeah,

Dr. Courtney: it's insane.

And this is where we, and also too, like there's a layer of like patho, anatomical.

Issues.

Like, okay, yes, there's trauma.

Yes, there's a broken bone.

Yes, there's something physically wrong with the body, but why haven't we been tying bio-psychosocial, which is emotional psychologically?

Yeah.

Like where are all of the things that make us up a human being and why aren't we treating the whole person?

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Courtney: Women's health is so complex.

We have hormones, we have mood issues, like there's, yeah, we're menstruating.

There's so many layers.

We're on a 28 day cycle, like there's so many layers and it's like.

Why are we just treated like we are?

Literally meant like it's insane.

Yeah, no, it is insane.

And it's also insane, like not to start a big topic as we end this, but we all know that if we were talking about men's penises and they aren't working right or they're broken, oh gosh.

Like there would be freaking so much funding and studying.

Hundred percent like, oh, it's so frustrating.

Anyway, I am so happy that I had you on, and I know that I'm gonna be a guest on your podcast as well, but Courtney, can you tell everyone where they can find you?

Dr. Courtney: Absolutely.

So my Instagram handle is the Female Athlete doc, and then my YouTube channel is Dr.

Courtney Johnson.

Okay.

And your podcast?

Dr. Courtney: Yes.

My podcast is The Female Blueprint Podcast.

There is a lot of women's health topics on the podcast, but it's more so about rewriting your blueprint.

Somebody else gave you a way to live, someone else gave you advice, someone else gave you all these things.

But you don't have to take it as surface level, right?

You get to choose how to write your life, your story, your advocacy of healthcare, right?

So I'm giving you options all on that podcast to just rewrite your blueprint, and I obsessed with it.

I am totally obsessed with that too.

Like I was like, damn, I should have named the birth course.

The birth blueprint.

Dr. Courtney: Yes.

Because that's what I, I tell them even about their birth plan, that it's not a plan, it's a map.

And you get to ride it, and you also get to make the twists and turns.

Just like, you know, I say this all the time.

Your birth is like this exotic vacation and you don't just have one pathway to get there.

If you woke up in the morning and you're so excited, like Uber's coming to get you, and then they can cancel, you can't get to the airport.

You're not gonna be like, well, shit, I'm not going on that vacation now.

You know, like you do the twists and turns and that.

I think that's what women need to.

Embrace in all aspects of our lives is that we get to twist and turn and we get to take different paths and we get to create new pathways, and we get to define what they mean for us as well.

Yeah, that's, that's what I love as well.

Well, thank you so much for coming today.

I really enjoyed having you.

Dr. Courtney: Thank you so much for having me.

Wow.

I know you're probably taking a deep breath after this episode because same like I am so tired of being told things are normal, and I love how Dr. Courtney reminds us that our bodies are not broken.

They just need the right support, the right education, and the right kind of rest to heal.

As always, if this episode resonated with you, share it with a mom.

We need to pass the word.

That we can't keep accepting things are normal and we need to take charge, take control of our journeys.

Don't forget to check out Dr. Courtney's Female Blueprint podcast.

We will link it in the show notes along with her Instagram so you can dive deeper into her world.

And as always, mama, you are so amazing.

We love you so much.

Your body is wise.

Your healing is important.

I am so happy that you are here with us.

Make sure you hit subscribe, leave a review, leave a comment, and I'll see you again next week.

Bye for now.