Happy Homebirth

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Show Notes:

• “Holistic Hilda” is a health coach and podcast coach in the D.C. area.
• She has 4 young adult children, and a husband who is an athletic director
• Hilda’s own birth story: Hilda was born with a birth defect- a hole in her heart (because her mother was exposed to German Measles while pregnant). At 9, she had surgery to repair her heart. 
• As a child, she had to be very careful. After her surgery, she was ready to live life to the fullest!  This, she believes is what spurred her on to living such an active, healthy lifestyle.
• When Hilda became pregnant, although there were not as many resources regarding natural childbirth at the time (late 80’s-early 90’s), she did find The Bradley Method, which was everything she hoped it would be. She learned about avoiding the cascade of interventions
• Hilda self-describes her body type as being small in stature. She found out later that when she walked into the hospital, her doctor thought, “She’s definitely going to have a cesarean.”  Hilda proved her wrong!
• Hilda had a friend who was working as her doula. She was there to support Hilda and her husband, and remind them of their plans of how they wanted to give birth.
• Baby #1 weighed 9 pounds, 15 ounces!
• Although Hilda has learned a great deal more about nutrition and holistic health since her childbearing years, she was still eating a relatively healthy diet and was certainly keeping active.
• “For all the moms out there, don’t ‘should’ on yourself. All we can do is move forward from this point in time.”
• I mention that the Weston A. Price Foundation focuses a great deal on eating a diet for growing healthy babies and nursing, but they also focus a great deal on pre-conception. I ask Hilda to explain what this looks like, and what we can be doing to encourage health, no matter what stage we are in:
• Hilda reminds mothers that if they have been on birth control for preventing pregnancies, we cannot immediately expect our bodies to become pregnant once we go off. There’s a time of rebalancing and releasing the hormones that have been given.
• “Detox”- shed little by little the things you can that you know aren’t favorable.
• “Your body needs to have the signal that you’re in abundance, and you’re able to bear.” Don’t have a scarcity mentality, which means avoid “dieting”. 
• “Let your body know, ‘we’ve got what we need to produce a healthy baby’”.
• Detox your environment- get rid of air fresheners, perfumes, perhaps over-the-counter creams, and chemicals you can’t pronounce—these things are getting into your body through your skin, and they’re being absorbed by all of your cells.
• Take on and embrace: healthy foods. Nutrient-dense foods—a great example of which is liver.  
• Take on and embrace: your intuition. Trust that your body knows what it needs, and don’t live in a place of fear.  Consider, what is your emotional and spiritual state to have a baby?  Hilda emphasizes the importance of giving your baby a peaceful environment to grow in—so work on the anger and anxiety beforehand!
• “I just feel like I was burning the candle at all ends- not just both ends! And it was to my detriment.” So go ahead and make those peaceful changes before conception.  Take self-care seriously!
• Hilda discusses the work of Dr. Weston A. Price (whom the foundation is named after), and how his travels showed that all of these strong, healthy cultures had very specific pre-conception protocols and rituals. The mother and father would eat special diets of highly nutrient dense foods, like fish eggs.
• Finding good sources for these types of food is critical. The Weston A. Price foundation actually has an incredible resource for this through local chapter leaders.  Find your local chapter leader and learn where to source the best food in your area! https://www.westonaprice.org/category/get-involved/local-chapters/
• Hilda’s births:
• With her first, she focused on relaxing her jaw. She had her husband quote scripture- 1 verse- over and over.   The nurses even commented afterward that it was like her husband was giving her drugs whenever he would do that for her!
• Hilda did struggle with some amount of preterm labor. In fact, with her 3^rd birth, her doctor informed her that she needed to go on bedrest.  For a fitness person like Hilda, this was rough news.
• Hilda talks about the benefits of not being so dogmatic in our beliefs about exactly how everything is supposed to go.  She gives an example of a friend who planned a homebirth, but then ended up having to go into the hospital.  Of course, this woman was disappointed not to have the homebirth she was expecting, but was grateful for the necessary care she received. 
• On a lighter note of this- Hilda and I talk about routines with small children: She mentions that she used to give her kids baths at night, then put them to bed in the clothes they would wear for the next day.  Her mother-in-law tended to raise an eyebrow at that!  I mention how on the opposite end, I don’t bathe my daughter every day, which stresses my mother out!
• Hilda goes on to discuss the benefits of children not being raised in too-sterile environments. She mentions how health-giving it is for children to be exposed to the ambient temperatures of their surroundings, no matter what climate they live in.  This is even helpful during the newborn phase, where expose to the outdoors helps set baby’s circadian rhythm correctly—meaning more sleep for everyone at night!
• Hilda’s last recommendations (3 factors): What we’re putting on our body in terms of light, especially at night. Red light is great for night, and maybe even use it in the baby’s room, and making sure that kids are getting out in the sunlight, and inform yourself about vaccinations, as it’s something that goes directly into your child’s bodies. 
• Stay in touch with Hilda!: holistichilda.com  and Instagram.com/holistichilda

Episode Roundup:

1. Don’t should on yourself
2. Take out that which isn’t serving you, bring in that which does
3. Let your kids be kids- get them outside, expose them to their climate, and let them PLAY
4. Whatever decisions you make for your child- surrounding food, surrounding screens, even vaccinations- give yourself the empowerment of looking into these topics. There are so many touchy topics—whatever decisions you decide to make, feel confident in them by being informed.