Often when I'm talking to moms, especially a
new mom, and they're sharing about their labor
and delivery, especially if they've had a C -section,
there's a lot that they need to mourn. Often
this is a very traumatic event and something
that is not exactly what we planned. Or even
if it was a planned C -section, we still mourn
what could have been had we had a different type
of delivery. So I want to dive into this topic
a little bit today and talk about some new research
that's super exciting and hopefully can help
dissipate a little bit of that mama guilt. Welcome
to Health and Hormones. I am Rita Johnson, your
host, and here we talk about all things health,
hormones, natural living, and how to take care
of that amazing body God has given you. We've
all been there, especially those of us that are
already moms. We've gone through a situation
with our child where we just wanted it a different
way, and very often it's a very selfless desire.
We desire for more for them, for their long -term
health, and for them to have the best chance
and start at life, right? And oftentimes this
comes into play when we're talking about how
our baby was delivered. We know now that a vaginal
delivery is really when baby's getting their
first inoculation of a gut microbiome. Ideally
it's a healthy one. If we've been able to support
our own gut during pregnancy, whether that's
by taking probiotics, eating lots of fruits and
vegetables, you know really supporting things
that are going to support a healthy microbial
balance in our own gut, then we can pass that
along to our children. Well maybe you did that
hard work and then you ended up with a the STD
section or perhaps you weren't able to focus
on that at the time and afterwards you learn
all of these things about the importance of a
healthy gut microbiome to help baby in and through
the infant years and beyond. Well, there's this
really cool company that I've recently been exposed
to called Tiny Health, and Tiny Health specializes
in gut microbiome testing for little ones, ideally
zero to three years old, because this is such
a formative time for our gut microbiome's overall
health. A lot is kind of not dictated because
it's not set in stone. It doesn't mean that it's
completely inflexible, but a lot of that foundation
is laid in those formative years at zero to three
year old time. Well, what I think is so interesting
and in a lot of ways very hopeful. I am a mama
that has had two C -sections. Two of my six kids
were born cesarean and they were both emergency
C -sections. And my first one was back in 2008
and we didn't know what we know now about the
importance of the gut microbiome. And so a lot
of times what happens now, it's a little more
common for this to be standard operating procedure,
is that when a baby is born C -section, they
will actually take a swab. of the mother's vaginal
canal and swab baby's face with it because the
passing through of the vaginal canal is really
when we are given that first inoculation of our
gut microbiome, right? And so now they start
to do that, but in 2008 they did not, which was
when I had my first C -section. And as I learned
about that, I was so sad. I didn't feel guilt
because it's been a long time and there wasn't
a lot in my situation that I could have done
other than having a better advocate at my side
in the presence of my physician. But I was young,
I didn't know better, and so I've let that go.
But I talked to a lot of moms that struggle with
letting that go. You if if this is where you
are This is really what I wanted to talk about
today because this is something that is so near
and dear to our hearts our children And their
best chance at life and when I read this article
I was just so happy for the mama that has stressed
that has worried about that So what this article
is saying and I'll link it up in the show notes
if you want to read the whole thing I'm just
gonna highlight a few parts of it. But basically
what I was saying was that you know, we have
these factors that play a bigger part for our
baby's gut microbiome, things that happen during
pregnancy and beyond. delivery method, although
there is an initial six months time, that initial
six months where they see a very different subset
of types of bacteria that they're noticing in
the gut microbiome, it starts to fall off around
six months. So some studies are saying that by
six months of age, there's essentially very little
difference in the gut microbiome of a baby, whether
they were born C -section or vaginally, which
I think is super cool. But the other the rest
of the research is actually saying that, so some
studies say that by two, it's definitely no different
in terms of if the baby was born vaginally or
C -section. So if you are someone who has held
on to this after your experience with the C -section,
take a deep breath. Oh my gosh, what wonderful
news. How fabulous that even though things couldn't
work out the way that you wanted to, that the
Lord still has you in the palm of his hand as
well as your little one. Also, breastfeeding
is going to make a much bigger difference, right?
And so they dive into that, the difference in
the gut microbiome of breastfeeding versus...
formula fed babies. We know that breast milk
actually has carbohydrate sources in it that
are only broken down by the gut microbiota. It's
so beautiful that our body is continuing to tailor
make what our babies need. You know we know so
much more now about the benefits of breast milk
and the way that it changes if your baby is sick
and in so many other ways but I just thought
that that was really beautiful to see when we're
only looking in context of the gut microbiome
that we can really see a difference here and
things that do matter a lot more that I think
sometimes we forget are taking a probiotic during
pregnancy even if you didn't have to take an
antibiotic at any point taking a probiotic is
so beneficial as well as eating lots of fruits
and vegetables so if you're pregnant right now
Do what you can to increase those fruits and
vegetables. For me personally, I find this to
be a struggle in my first trimester. And so I
really try to think in my second and third, how
can I do better? How could I make up for that
time almost lost, if you will. And the other
thing too is that there are times and seasons
that we have to take antibiotics, whether we're
breastfeeding or we're pregnant or during delivery,
if you've been tested positive for strep B. And
so just taking that into account, I always think
first and foremost, just offer it back to the
Lord. You know, I had mastitis and a horrible
ear infection in my postpartum season with my
baby number six who is almost four months old
now. And it was really hard for me to have to
do that. But I also could lean on all the education
I have about gut health in the way that I've
been able to help other people when they've had
to completely remodel their guts. And we've seen
that happen with such beautiful results such
beautiful fruit of them feeling so much better
that I was able to just take a deep breath and
say Lord I place this too in your hands and I
know that it's going to be an uphill journey
from here but that's going to be okay and that's
the path that you had me on so wherever you are
friend whatever your story is and however it's
been a heavy cross to bear I just really encourage
you give that back to the Lord because if we
hold on to these mental stressors in addition
to continuing to obviously impact our mental
health, it also does impact our gut microbiome.
They find that stress, women that are chronically
stressed when their baby was born have certain
prevalences of different types of negative strains
of bacteria. So they're essentially... growing
excess ones of those strains so it's impacting
our baby in utero when our mental stress is changing
our gut microbiome and I even challenge you beyond
that once we're no longer in your fertile years
even maybe you're beyond childbearing at this
point wherever you are just know that as we experience
mental stress that's going to impact our gut
health and it's going to do so in a negative
way and tell our body that it's not safe and
there's other things that we need to do. to counteract
that. And we can do those things, but I just
challenge you don't overlook the importance of
your mindset and your mental health around your
physical and overall health. If you're curious
what this looks like to dive deep into your own
gut microbiome health or to look at that of your
child, I would love for you to schedule a discovery
call with me. It's free. I love to do these functional
lab tests, but oftentimes I will tell you there's
a lot we can do without the expense of these
functional tests to really support and move you
forward in your gut health journey.