013: Vanessa Merten of the Pregnancy Podcast

Are you pregnant?  Thinking about getting pregnant?  Do you love Your Parenting Mojo and wish there was a show that could help you to understand how scientific research can help you make decisions about your pregnancy?  Well, there is!   In this episode, we chat with Vanessa Merten, who hosts The Pregnancy Podcast.  She uses scientific research to examine – sometimes controversial – issues from all sides to help you decide what’s best for you.   And best of all, she goes beyond looking at individual issues to really synthesizing the outcomes of the research in a way that will make your decision-making much more powerful.  Do you know how receiving IV fluids during your delivery could lead to a pediatrician making the judgment that breastfeeding is not going well and you should supplement with formula?   If you want to understand this as well as the links between all kinds of other issues related to your pregnancy, listen in to this interview with Vanessa and then head on over to The Pregnancy Podcast at pregnancypodcast.com.   Jump to highlights 00:22 Introduction to The Pregnancy Podcast. Vanessa Merten created a podcast that does for pregnancy and birth what Your Parenting Mojo does for parenting - it examines research on pregnancy and birth topics from all sides so you can make informed decisions that match your own values. 01:45 When Vanessa was pregnant, she felt pressure to do what everybody else was doing. Instead, she dove into research and ended up making different choices, like having a birth center birth instead of a hospital birth. 08:00 How IV fluids during birth can affect breastfeeding? Here's an example of how things connect: If you get IV fluids during birth, your baby will retain some of those fluids. When your baby loses that fluid in the first 24 hours, it can look like your baby is losing weight too quickly. 09:38 We think of ultrasounds as routine pregnancy care, but there's research showing potential negative effects from too many ultrasounds. 13:20 Research is showing that babies born by Caesarean section don't get exposed to the same bacteria they would pick up going through the birth canal. 16:43 Pregnancy can feel scary because there are things out of your control. But much of that fear comes from not knowing what's happening. The more you learn and educate yourself, the more confidence you build.   Reference Dominguez-Bello, M.G., De Jesus-Laboy, K.M., Shen, N., Cox, L.M., Amir, A., Gonzalez, A., Bokulich, N.A., Song, S.J., Hoashi, M., Rivera-Vina, J.I., Mendez, K., Knight, R., & Clemente, J.C. (2016). Partial restoration of the microbiota of cesarean-born infants via vaginal microbial transfer. Nature Medicine 22(3), 250-253. Full study available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5062956/