Evidence Based Birth®

July 26, 2023 - For today's episode, we are highlighting one of our favorite podcast episodes with the replay of an interview with Lily Nichols, RDN, all about nutrition and real food in pregnancy.

Content warning: gestational diabetes, high-risk pregnancies, food insecurities, "failed diet therapy", NICU, and interventions

On today’s podcast, we’re going to talk with Lily Nichols, RDN, about nutrition and real food in pregnancy.

Lily Nichols (she/her) is a Registered Dietitian Nutritionist, Certified Diabetes Educator, researcher, and author with a passion for evidence-based prenatal nutrition. Her work is known for being research-focused, thorough, and critical of outdated dietary guidelines. She is co-founder of the Women’s Health Nutrition Academy and the author of two books, Real Food for Pregnancy and Real Food for Gestational Diabetes. Lily’s bestselling books have helped tens of thousands of families, are used in university-level maternal nutrition and midwifery courses, and have even influenced prenatal nutrition policy internationally.

In this episode, we talk about the difference between eating real food and processed food in pregnancy, and the best ways to use nutrition to “stack the deck in your favor” for a lower-risk, healthier pregnancy. Lily talks candidly about the gap between evidence and nutritional practice, the importance of protein and choline in pregnancy, and why blood sugar management is so important in pregnancy.

Resources:

For more information and news about Evidence Based Birth®, visit www.ebbirth.com.

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On this episode of the EBB podcast, we are talking with Avital Norman Nathman, author and freelance writer about trends in birth and parenthood in the US.
 
Avital is a freelance writer and editor who focuses her work on motherhood, maternal health, gender and reproductive rights and justice. Her writing, which places a feminist lens on a variety of topics, including motherhood, maternal health, gender, reproductive rights, and cannabis, can be found in a variety of print and online articles for outlets like The New York Times, Teen Vogue, Rolling Stone, Cosmopolitan, VICE, and more. 
 
Her first book, The Good Mother Myth: Redefining Motherhood to Fit Reality, provides a platform for diverse voices that often get left out of the conversations surrounding parenting. Avital is currently working on two new books. She is a co-editor for an anthology on abortion, and her upcoming book, The Perfect Birth Myth, combines research, expert analysis, and narrative experiences to look at the intersection of the birth industry and the health care system to understand how this ideal of the perfect birth came about, why it’s a red herring, and how we can do better to ensure that all folks who are pregnant can have access to quality care and the chance at a birth that is safe and that they are comfortable with.
 
Avital discusses the evolution of “motherhood” from the early aughts and “Mommy blogging” to internet activism, connection, and the ongoing “mommy wars” of the internet. Additionally, Avital discusses her upcoming and ongoing projects related to writing about the current state of having a baby in the US healthcare system and political climate, while calling out the experiences of marginalized populations and bringing forth the less obvious but very important consequences of the Dobbs decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
 
Trigger Warning: abortion, miscarriage, hemorrhage, Dobbs decision, Roe v. Wade, maternal healthcare deserts, birth trauma
 

In today's episode, we talk with Emily Helgerson, an EBB Childbirth Class Graduate about how taking the EBB Childbirth class helped her navigate transferring from a birth center to the hospital after experiencing premature rupture of membranes while being positive for Group B Strep.
 
Emily Helgerson holds a Bachelor of Arts in elementary education in Spanish, with a minor in Italian, from the University of Minnesota and a master's in second language teaching with a focus on immersion from McGill University. Emily taught Spanish immersion elementary school before deciding to stay home with baby Teddy, after he was born. Her and her partner, Brad, live in Minneapolis with their toddler and two cats. In 2023, it was announced that Emily will be the new Dean of Skovsøen, the Danish language village in Northern Minnesota.
 
Emily shares how the Evidence Based Birth®️ Childbirth Class provided tools, resources and preparation that her and her partner were able to practice throughout pregnancy and remain empowered when they faced a hospital transfer. Emily talks about her Golden Ticket team, with her partner, doula (who is also her mom!) and the team of midwives between the birth center and the hospital.  
 
We will also introduce a newer research topic regarding placenta size, placental measurement and its correlation to newborn health outcomes.
 
Content Warning: Group B Strep, Antibiotics for group B Strep, Heart decelerations, birth center transfer to hospital
 
 
Resources:
 
Check out EBB's Signature Articles:
 
Follow Emily Helgerson’s Parenting Group on IG @Common Ground Parenting 
 
Listen to the following podcasts: 
 
Check out these pregnancy books
 
·      The Birth Partner
 
Learn more about Spinning Babies here
Subscribe to Jen McLellans pregnancy week by week here
Learn more about Sharon Quinn's EBB Childbirth Class here
Direct download: EBB_275_Emily_Helgerson_-_revised.mp3
Category:general -- posted at: 2:00am EDT

On this episode of the EBB podcast, we talk with Michelle Browder, artist, activist, and the creator of the Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsy Monument in Montgomery, Alabama, established to honor the three Mothers of Gynecology.
 
Michelle Browder is a nationally recognized artist, activist, and amplifier, bridging the racial divide through art, history, and conversation. Michelle's artwork has been exhibited in art galleries around the world, most notably, the Rosa Parks Museum located in Montgomery, Alabama. In September 2021, she created a monument to honor three enslaved women, Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsey, in Montgomery, Alabama. This monument is a reminder of the inhumane treatment and experimentation on enslaved Black bodies. The medical procedures that we have access to today in gynecology have been perfected because of them. The monument honors these Black women and all those that came after to correct the historical narrative around the beginnings of gynecology.
 
Michelle shares with us how she originally learned about the dark history of Anarcha, Lucy and Betsy and the inspiration to create a monument about the true founders of the field of gynecology. Not only is Michelle working to correct the history of gynecology, she discusses her progress and future plans to bring access, care, and healing to families and practitioners in the 21st Century, at the same site of the torture of Anarcha, Lucy, and Betsy, the Mothers of Gynecology. In the words of Michelle, y'all ain't ready!

Trigger Warning: anti black racism, the use of the N-word, experimentation on enslaved women, sexual trafficking and sexual abuse, postpartum suicidal ideation.

Resources:
Follow Michelle’s Work
Instagram: @anarchalucybetsey
Twitter @mothersofgyno and on Facebook  
 
Sign up for Michelle’s newsletter and learn more about the 2024 conference here https://www.anarchalucybetsey.org
 
Read the following books:
Learn about Africatown 
 
Learn about what Evidence Based Birth®️ is doing to fight racism and download free handouts here
 
Read more reproductive justice research on EBB's Birth Justice page

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