Ep. 52 How the Vagus Nerve affects period pain, postpartum depletion, pregnancy & your babies with Dr. Carrie Rigoni

The vagus nerve may be the key to your success with your health. It is responsible for getting us out of a stress response, communicating with your whole body whether you are safe or not by scanning the internal and external.It is the largest nerve in the body, traveling throughout the body, connecting to everything. It affects our hormones because we need to be in a regenerative state to have good hormone production, it also is anti-inflammatory and when it is working well it inhibits pain, which can impact our pain with cycles.In pregnancy, our high stress (cortisol) can transfer to babies, and our postpartum depletion can trigger fight, flight or freeze. The vagus nerve controls the trauma response in the body so if the pregnancy didn’t go as planned it can trigger the trauma in the body and we can stay stuck there unless we strengthen the vagal tone.There are simple ways to support the Vagus Nerve and increase Vagal tone such as eye exercises, breath work and cold exposure.Low vagal tone can be seen in babies and kids through certain actions like trouble with latching during breastfeeding, gagging and choking on milk, needing more contact and cuddles, sleeping less, non-specific digestive issues and a preference for one caregiver (usually the mom).Dr Carrie Rigoni has several online courses for adults, babies and kids which you can access here https://www.drcarrierigoni.com.au/