Food First, Supplements Second: How to Holistically Nourish Yourself During Pregnancy + Postpartum with Shelby Guptill, RD Artwork

The Postpartum Revolution

Welcome to The Postpartum Revolution! This podcast was born because, as a pelvic health physical therapist, I’ve heard and seen the ways our system has failed postpartum people in America. Newly postpartum people have repeated the same questions to me, with fear in their eyes and fatigue written all over their bodies, and I’ve grown tired of soothing them with the reassurance that it’s “all a part of the process, it’s normal to feel like this”. I began to wonder - what the hell kind of “normal process” is this, that produces tired and scared mothers? While not everyone has a negative experience with childbirth and postpartum, many people do. A lot of factors influence our postpartum experience: understanding how your body recovers, how much community and financial support you have, and how well our society helps to support a new family. My goal is to provide education about the postpartum recovery process, so you can set yourself up for a successful return to the things that bring you joy. I also want to bring awareness to the larger, systemic challenges that pregnant and postpartum people face, so that collectively we can start to turn the tide of our culture, and our children won't be trapped in an unhealthy and unsupported birth and postpartum culture. We have lost our power in the birth and postpartum world, and our loss is directly linked to other people's gain. It's time to take back the power over our bodies, our births, and our postpartum health. We are the change we have been waiting for. Let's go.

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The Postpartum Revolution

Food First, Supplements Second: How to Holistically Nourish Yourself During Pregnancy + Postpartum with Shelby Guptill, RD

October 23, 2020 • Annie Hopkins, Shelby Guptill • Season 1 • Episode 23

First trimester: nausea

Second trimester: eat all the things! (but don’t gain “too much” weight)

Third trimester: heartburn, still eating all the things and watching the scale

Fourth trimester: time to go on a diet to lose the baby weight!

This old familiar pattern is so engrained in our lives.. it’s in movies, diet culture, blogs, memes... so this all must be normal right? Nothing we can do about it, it’s all just part of the sacrifice birthing people sign up for when they decide to become parents.

Right?

Wrong.

I talked with registered dietitian and perinatal nutrition specialist Shelby Guptill about how we can nourish ourselves throughout our pregnancy and postpartum journeys. And guess what? Nausea, cravings, heartburn, bloating... they’re common, but not normal! AND there’s a way to combat these ailments through food.

No fad diets. No miracle products. Just a food first, supplements second approach to nourishing the birthing person along their journey. And the best part? Shelby is here to teach you how to do it! (aka no more google rabbit holes, judgey mom blogs, and wasted money on supplements your neighbor “heard were helpful”). Our postpartum bodies need to be nourished with whole foods, not deprived of calories. In fact, Shelby argues that we need MORE nutrients, food variety, and calories so that we can heal our bodies and feed our infants.

We also talk about weight gain and weight loss, the BS that is BMI, and how to start listening for that deep inner wisdom that we all possess (it's still there, despite all the doubts that we have been taught to fear!). Nourishing ourselves is a lifelong pursuit, and pregnancy is the perfect time to start.

Connect with Shelby:

shelbyRD@thelunacenter.com

603-609-7502

IG @shelbyguptillRD

FB @ShelbyGuptillNutritionCounseling

Are you a member of The Postpartum Revolution's facebook group? You can find Shelby's free Prenatal Nutrition Handout there!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Want to be a guest on the show? Email me at thepostpartumrevolutionpodcast@gmail.com

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