Healing Beyond Postpartum with Dominika Buck

Natalie: 0:49

On today's podcast. We're talking with Dominika buck, a birth worker and postpartum nutrition and wellness coach about optimizing postpartum healing, and really learning how to live from abundance in the early years of. I'm Natalie and you're listening to the resource doula podcast. Hello and welcome. I'm Natalie. And I'm excited to have Dominika buck on with us today. Dominika is a mom of four kids, a birth worker, and a postpartum nutrition and wellness coach. She has been supporting women in various capacities for. She is especially passionate about helping moms recover well in the postpartum season and reclaim wellness and abundance in the early years of motherhood. So welcome.

Dominka: 1:45

Dominika. Hey, thank you so nice to be here.

Natalie: 1:51

So I wanted to start with talking about, you know, kind of your journey towards working in women's health and working in the birth world. Especially what led you to decide to pursue the postpartum aspect of things?

Dominka: 2:09

I think it's primarily my own journey. You know, I first became a doula and I've always been passionate about supporting moms. And then, you know, I got all the training and I have been a doula for a while now. Uh, and I truly deeply believe that women are supposed to support each other and we are not supposed to do all of these things on our own. Right now. I had already been a doula for a while, and then I got introduced to all of this. No later in education about postpartum health and wellness and being a mom of four kids, I've gone through number of postpartums obviously. And, uh, I think that just as every single mom, I've been also experiencing some health issues and mental issues and you know, all kinds of stuff. Um, and so when I learned that. That is not normal. And then, you know, there is healing and I can feel better. I definitely like immediately jumped to an aid. Um, so I, myself went through this healing process. Uh, I had a person supporting me one on one, and that's kind of what, you know, made me super passionate. I want to auto moms to be able to experience healing. I don't believe we should feel we have this little kid who needs us to be energetic and happy and joyful, and we should enjoy the first years of their life. And instead we struggle with lots of health issues and we literally survive. We make jokes about barely surviving and it just doesn't make sense. It shouldn't be like then. And so knowing that area is a better way, there is healing that can happen. That's it. I just want everyone to know. I want everyone to be well, and I want moms to, you know, live abundantly, not just barely surviving.

Natalie: 4:17

I love that. I think that's a really common thread. When we talk about early motherhood or postpartum, like how are you surviving postpartum? That's a common, a common question, right? And the whole idea that motherhood takes a village and motherhood takes a community. And a lot of, a lot of other people, I talked to echo those things, but in our society, we are so isolated. We are so isolated from everybody in, even if we have friends close by, they may not know how to support someone in their endeavor to breastfeed or support someone in the early days postpartum because they haven't experienced that themselves or are not seeing it in action

Dominka: 5:02

as well. Well, and a lot of the experience that women have is bad, so they don't have much to offer other than, yeah, good luck. This is going to be hard, you know, you're not going to sleep for 18 years or whatever, you know, it's just, it's not helpful. And on top of that, everybody's so busy. We'll live in such a busy society that we don't have to village.

Natalie: 5:25

Yeah. Yeah. And we prioritize. Really encourage productivity. So if you haven't been productive by the standards of American society, right. You haven't done all of the chores and, and cooked all of the meals and taken care of all of the children kept them alive all day long, then we automatically feel failure, right? Yeah,

Dominka: 5:48

totally.

Natalie: 5:50

Yeah. Yeah. So what are some of the struggles that you see most commonly. New moms, um, people who are going through those part of many, what are the, what are kind of the responses you would say to, to those things?

Dominka: 6:06

Well, there's few things that are common, uh, that I believe are lies that we believe, you know, uh, one, I would say we are made to believe that postpartum with. Okay. That's number one. Number two is that we should get back to some kind of normal within couple of weeks or no more than six weeks. And then number three, is that feeling terrible after childbirth is normal because Hey, you just had a baby. So those are, um, things that I hear said all the time. Those are things that women that are preparing to have their baby belief about postpartum. So my response number one, postpartum is hard. That is true. Both spiral is hard, but it doesn't have to be any absolutely should not be we've proper education, proper preparation, and proper support. It can be beautiful. It can be fulfilling. You can thrive in your postpartum. It doesn't have to be the image of darkness and, uh, tears and freaking hot mess. As you know, we kind of imagine postpartum to be in our society. Um, so number two, uh, you know, getting back to normal. Well, my response to that one is there is no normal anymore. Things are not going to be the way they used to be, because you are not the same way you used to be. You just had a baby and you are changed. Yes, you are still you in a sense, but there's also a whole new level of you physically. You're different emotionally. You are different. Your brain literally changes with postpartum, with childbirth. So you are a different person and there is no going back to. What are you used to be before? Because you're new. So there is a whole new of discovering of who you are now. What does this new event in your life, that child breakfast, or bringing a new baby to your family? Who that, who does it make you, who you, who are you now? Um, and, and, you know, when we talk about physical recovery for some ridiculous reason. And I know the reason, you know, six weeks is the magic number. Right. But the only thing that six weeks is that your, your terrorist comes back to its original size. It doesn't mean you are completely okay. And ready to jump into full blown lie. That is so incorrect, like hormonal balancing, you know, bonding with the baby, a lot of aspects of physical recovery, your emotional state, that all, I there's just no normal to it. It's all new and it all needs support and time and patient. Um, yeah. And number three. Every time we hear a mom share that how bad she's feeling, uh, all kinds of struggles, physical or emotional. We are told that it's normal, honey, you just had a baby. It's just a hormones. And that is just ridiculous, you know, and so dementia. You'll have a little baby you'll possibly have multiple young children who need you to feel well. You want to enjoy this season of your life yet. We struggle terribly in so many different ways. And then we're told that it's normal. The truth is that if, uh, males were experiencing the exact same symptoms, all of the science. People and everything would be upside down to figure out what is going on. We need to fix this. Right. But when moms that just had babies are not feeling well, they're just still up. It's normal. So this is super far from the truth. It's not normal to feel bad. It's not normal to constantly struggle with sickness or digestive issues to develop new food allergies or thyroid issues or adamant issues. It's not normal to have your body literally breaking down so, yeah, that's my response to that.

Natalie: 10:47

And you echo a lot of what I tell my clients. Like going into the physical aspect, right? When they talk about return to exercise and everybody thinks that that six week point they get the go ahead at the green light from their provider to, to exercise or have sex or jump back into regular life. And we know that that is maybe, maybe if you tore your tissues might have healed and come back together. Right. And your paraniem, and that's what they're checking, but we're a. True evaluation. You need to see a pelvic floor, physical therapist to figure out what muscles are working and how are they working. We know that it takes about a year or longer to physically recover from childbirth, regardless if it's vaginal or safari. And if you think about like a knee surgery, right? Everybody knows someone who's had knee surgery, they get told like automatically your recovery is going to be six months, six to eight. And that's if the surgery goes really, really well, right. But if there's any complications or an unexpected changes, then we add time to that recovery. And there's a certain protocol that physical therapist follow to get that person towards a healing place where they can walk. Normally again, right now with vaginal and sincerity and birth, we may have complications. We may have a third degree tear. We may have. And unexpected major abdominal surgery. Right. We may have all of these things and that six week mark doesn't change and we're still told, okay, you're good to go at six weeks. And that's a gross underestimation of, of the healing. Yeah.

Dominka: 13:39

Well, and the common, uh, miss, uh, understanding or misinformation is that postpartum is only six weeks or maybe couple of months. But the problem is literally easily up to six years after you had a baby, you are, it takes a long time for your body to, you know, be in some aspects what it used to be before you ever had a baby. But you know, childbirth is such a huge change on, so, uh, just on you in general, um, yeah.

Natalie: 14:18

I think we're, we are saying the same thing too. So I, I appreciate your enthusiasm to educate women on this. And, um, I think that's where we'll make the most change. Right? We're not going to change the pharmaceutical companies. We're not going to change the medical system and how providers are telling people they're good to go at six weeks work, and then we're going to change the knowledge and the advocacy of, of clients.

Dominka: 14:41

Right? Right. I always say. You know, I'm changing the world one healed, moderate at the time, because all it takes is one mother who will then pass the knowledge down and positive passion down. And if she is thriving and if she's healthy, that makes the whole next generation that comes after her, hopefully educated, diving and healthy.

Natalie: 15:04

I want to talk about some common questions that women ask you about the postpartum period. Um, and some of the ways that you encourage them to take care of , their body, their mind, and their spirit during that

Dominka: 15:18

time. Okay. Um, some of the common questions are, you know, people ask me about breastfeeding and you know, maybe what products do they need to help heal in the postpartum, which really most of what people think about when it comes to healing is really just a perennial, right? So that's all the common products you can get in target and, uh, you know, the herbs and whatever people know to get, but there is. A whole different thing that nobody knows about. And so nobody asks about right. And so we can think of number of common questions that are asked, but what my worry is that what people do not ask. And that is a lot. Okay. How can I support myself nutritionally the postpartum? What can I do to help balance my hormones? Uh, you know, what type of systems do I need to have in place or support get so that I have the best chance at best a recovery in the postpartum. And so I don't get asked this questions most of the time, because nobody knows to ask. When you ask your provider, Hey, how should I eat in the postpartum? After I have a baby, they tell you, well, whatever, just go back to whatever you were eating before you were pregnant. Right? There's a lot of education on pregnancy diet, but not so much. Well, not, not so much, literally non on postpartum nutrition. Right. Um, and just understanding the physiology on what's going on and then how you can support your hormones. Again, there's just. Are told, oh, your hormones are messed up because you had the baby and that's it. The end of conversation, there is no help in, okay. Yes, this is true. Your hormones are fluctuating regulated. How can we support it? Right. Um, so my advice would be for moms to get this education. You know, if you're pregnant or even planning to be pregnant, start learning about postpartum. It's so common for people to take childbirth classes and read all of the books, you know, and one to prepare for childbirth. And I love it. Like it's amazing. And as a birth doula, I obviously strongly encourage people to educate themselves and prepare for childbirth, but childbirth is not the end of it. It's the very beginning of a whole new journey and postpartum. Literally influences your years of motherhood that are about to come. And so how you recover in the postpartum that, you know, you will see the results even in your menopause. And it's crazy. And it's not something we ever think about. You know, most new moms tell themselves I'm just going to wing it. Most second moms. They were like, oh my gosh, the first one was hard. So I'm just prepared to survive it again. I survive with the ones, you know, like there's just not enough push for people to educate, but there is a knowledge, there is a way we can support, uh, our sales in the postpartum. And so I've already mentioned nutrition and that's a huge one after childbirth, no matter how well you eat during pregnancy. No matter what type of supplements you take. Once you give birth, your body is completely depleted of so many important nutrition. So it is very crucial that the nutrients you're desperately need for health and wellness in a form that your body can actually process it and absorb it. Then, you know, that's just one part of supporting your body and helping regulate your hormones. Nutrition is a huge part of hormone regulation there. We also did not hear about ever, right. But how you eat that literally controls, uh, lots of processes of your body. We know that. Also hormones control almost all of the processes of your body. All of that depends both, uh, how your digestive system works and how your hormones are regulated. Both, uh, definitely need enough sleep and rest and, you know, decrease stress nutrition, um, sleep, uh, Minimizing the stress in your life. All of these are necessary things for you to account, for, to plan for, to, do whatever you need to do so that you can be supported in your postpartum and you can heal and recover. Um, and that is a lot, um, You know, imagine you're pregnant and you're playing planning for a new baby, and then you have a new baby and it is a lot to go through and to support yourself. And that's why, you know, I always encourage people to get her support system, you know, have a village at what I do. Exactly these, I provide education to moms so that they know what they're going to need. And then I provide step-by-step guidance either during pregnancy or already in the postpartum or both so that they can enter the season empowered with the tools that they need to really recover and be healthy and thriving.

Natalie: 21:00

You're doing such important work. And I think that a lot of. Those things, you mentioned good nutrition, right? Nourishing your body well, resting and sleeping. Those are the things that we don't value as, you know, as women, especially because we consider ourselves the ones that have to do everything and we don't accept, help very easily as well. Um, so you know, doing yourself a favor and putting. A postpartum doula fund on your baby registry is probably one of, one of the biggest gifts. I think you could give yourself. And I tell clients that all the time.

Dominka: 21:44

Yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, a baby only need so many ones is right, but. Really like if you have a baby shower, just ask people for, you know, either postpartum doula hours or, uh, finances that you can then choose how you're going to spend it on house, cleaning on somebody to come and help you make meals or, um, you know, even, I mean, coaching, right. Somebody who will take you step-by-step through this process of recovery and thriving.

Natalie: 22:19

Yeah or make your baby shower, a meal prep party with your family members and friends for you. You make nourishing foods. And I know you've said this. Um, what types of foods typically, like you don't have to go into, into detail, but what kind of foods and guidelines should someone follow if they're preparing meals in advance for postpartum?

Dominka: 22:43

Right. Well, You need to understand it in the postpartum, after you give birth, your body's not functioning the way it was before. Right? At this point, your body is so overwhelmed with a lot of healing, that it has a really hard time processing foods that are hard to process. So you really want to have cooked warm meals. You want to have high, uh, protein and high fat diet, because those are really necessary for. Um, you know, your hormone creation regulation, and then you really want to avoid stuff. That's really hard for your body to process such as artificial foods and, um, you know, gluten and dairy are really inflammatory and really difficult for your body to digest ravages and fruits as well. So, You know, I just imagine something really comforting that your grandma would make you when you're sick and, you know, assume good hearty home cooked meal comes to your mind. So that's just a really quick, like then, so cook

Natalie: 23:53

grandma food. Yep. Good rule to live by. As you talked to lots of moms and, and new parents, what do you think is like the most common myth about postpartum that you encounter and how do you, how would you respond to that myth?

Dominka: 24:17

I think the biggest one is the. For one, we need to get back to normal really quickly. And we are expected to manage going back to work, to managing household, all of the kids, uh, you know, all the while having a newborn heavy and, uh, you know, whole new body to support in recovery. And, um, yeah, and then honored a big myth is, um, the, the, the fact that when we feel bad that it's not. So, I mean, I did already talk about those, but it's really, I think the things that are most hurtful to our moms

Natalie: 25:01

agreed. So when we were talking about the ideal postpartum, you're talking about having a low stress environment to promote healing. Let's talk a little bit more about how to lower our stress and what effect that a high stress environment can have on postpartum

Dominka: 25:19

here. Yeah. Perfect. That's a great question because it's so important. Um, after childbirth, our body enters the sympathetic state of the nervous system, right. And, uh, if you don't know what it is, it's the response. Th the fight and flight freeze and fond response. That's when our body is literally in a survival mode, really stressed out, you know, um, now when we are. This a nervous day. Our body cannot process how it's supposed to. So a lot of the, and that's really why. And I already mentioned that our digestive systems, our digestive processes don't really work the way they're supposed to. They normally would is because our body's just not working properly. And what, what it's doing is, you know, spending a lot of energy and strength on. Uh, the healing aspects because there is a lot to heal in your body now, um, when it comes to, you know, going further into the postpartum and just balancing hormones, our nervous system is directly connected with the creation and balancing of your hormones. So when you are experiencing stress, Your body is just not functioning properly in the sense that it's not creating the hormones and your hormones are not being regulated. Um, and also, you know, your body is not processing the foods well, so you might experience like. Way more bloating and just feeling kind of icky and not good and you know, not a good sleep. So it all is, it honestly is all very connected, you know, the, all the parts, nutrition, the sleep and the stress. So we really. And I know, I mean, it is silly, right? Because we just have a newborn that cries a lot and wakes a million times at night. And how are you supposed to get enough sleep and not have any stress in life? And then, you know, add to it. If you have any breastfeeding issues that's stressful, you know, or you have like kids that are just jealous of the new baby or whatever might be going on can be stressful. The circumstances in our life, sometimes hard and stressful stuff is going on. And so we do need to try to minimize the stress. So if you have a person, like, let's say your mother-in-law or a mom comes in, wants to support in the postpartum, that's a great idea. But if you know that this person is going to cause you stress. You need to have this healthy boundary and to say actually no, because while the physical health would be nice, but it's also important that you are not getting stressed out and frustrated and all of this things. Um, so removing as much stress as possible, you know, and then finding support like a good professional support can really help. You know, there are people who can help with, um, Kind of helping your baby sleep, or if there are any issues with your baby for if your baby's crying a lot or not sleeping well, there, there is a lots of resources out there. Lots of things that can be done to hopefully help the situation. You know, there is if your messy house stresses you out, You know, businesses out there that can really help you help organize. And I am this way. That's why I mentioned it like mess and chaos gives me anxiety. Right. And I know that our house is our here and it's, it's so hard. We have little kids and of course it is messy, but I also know that it really affects me. My mental state, you know, minimize the staffing, your house. If this is your case, if too much chaos, too much clutter, it gives you anxiety, just be ruthless and just get rid of stuff so that you have less to manage, you know, um, got a friends and family who can come and help you and it's okay to ask for help. Right. We have so often people in our life who will offer, Hey, you know, let me know if you need any help. And of course we will not because it's hard. We'll make it make you make it a thing. You can write down a list of stuff that needs to be done that you need help with and just, oh yeah, sure. Here's a list. Pick something it's so easy. It's so much asking, Hey, well, could you like go and sweep my floors? You know, if they offer then immediately take them up on it and give them, Hey, this is what our. Whatever, you know, do something. Uh, cause I, I do honestly believe want to help you. They just don't know what specific help to offer. And then of course it's hard for moms to ask for help. So getting support, minimizing stress, decluttering your life, your space, um, and also slowing down in the postpartum, which is a big. And not very common, right? They expect we have a baby. Okay. I'm going to take a couple of weeks to slow down and I'm going to jump back to life, to work, to homeschool. They're dropping kids off 2 million activities, just, you know, whatever your life is. Well, you know what, it's okay to completely quit life and slow down for more than just two weeks. Uh, there, you know, think about, is this really important? Let's say that you homeschool. Right? I homeschool my. With homeschool. We have the flexibility to do, to go whatever tempo we need and just do or not to do , if I had the baby, I would just complete liquid whole-school for at least two months, because it's not necessarily, we can always catch up, you know, uh, some activities, you know, you don't have to say yes to everything. Some things just out an important, you know, and just making, being able to prioritize, to choose what is really important and what is not. And then Kuwait and say no to the stuff that's not necessary that really will help you to slow down, uh, in the postpartum because it's necessary. Um, and then my favorite practice that I would recommend to people. Every single day, find some time where you can kind of reconnect with yourself, find a little bit of space and time, nice and ground yourself. So in the middle of the day, when everything is chaotic and stressful and a noisy. Your body gets to the sympathetic state, right. And again, it's not able to function properly. You are feeling need nothing is okay. You're feeling like you're just barely surviving. So drop what you're doing. Don't drop your baby, but you know, um, just, just take a little break. It's closer to seven to bathroom, or just do whatever you need to do and take a couple deep breaths, three or more. And I just think on the good thing, something that gives you joy, you know, think about, okay, who am I and who I want to be? How is today going? And what do I need to do to make it better? Um, you know, and everyone is different. So for some people, uh, music might help bring them back to the calm state, right. It might help them or call their own nervous system. For some people, it might be prayer or meditation or just whatever it is, you know, yourself. And if you don't discover postpartum is a beautiful time to discover who you are because you are you're new. And so just take the time to find who you are, find who you want to be. I could happen, you know, take the time to ground yourself and, and space in the midst of chaos.

Natalie: 33:32

Love that. I love that. Just checking in with yourself and, and revisiting why you're doing what you're doing. So you can come out of that moment as more calm and more like the person who you're becoming or want to be.

Dominka: 33:48

Yeah. What

Natalie: 33:49

are some tips? That you have for people who may find it difficult to set healthy boundaries with family, with friends, whoever it may be, what are some simple ways to start practicing that maybe even during pregnancy so they can be prepared for the postpartum time?

Dominka: 34:11

Hmm. That's a good question. Uh, and it's funny because I'm still learning then, you know, I feel like setting boundaries and saying no is a lifelong journey and it's never going to be easy because it just depends. It's easier with some people than with others. But I think what's really important is believing what you believe, like believe in strong. So let's say that you have an ideal about a childbirth, right? Let's say you want an unmedicated childbirth and you set your mind on it, or do you want a home birth, you know, or whatever your dream is. And then you have some people coming and telling you, Hey. You know, you should totally get an epidural. I had an epidural and it was amazing. And, you know, it's like, why would you go through this pain? Right. Or your grandma comes and says, Hey, I had C-section with all of my kids. Why would you even want to go through the pain of childbirth? You know, just all these crazy things. And then that starts affecting you. And it's kind of hard to oh, okay. Yeah. But I want something different, you know? And so pregnancy is a good, good time to kind. Okay, this is what I want. These are my reasons why I want it. And this is my body. This is my journey and my mom's story. My sister's story, my friend's story is not my story. And so being really confident, uh, in your birth plan. Is, or, you know, blood plants or we should say preferences or dreams, right. Because childbirth never really goes as planned, but, um, being confident in that will then help you. Oh, later on. So let's say you have your baby and then, you know, again, people come around and they will tell you how to burp the baby or how to do this or this, or let them cry or don't let them cry, or you're picking up the baby too much, or you're feeding it or feed it, or, you know, all kinds of crazy advice that we get. And again, it's just hard to tell no, or hard to say, Hey, I want to do things differently. Figuring out what you believe in, why you believe it and having your reasons, uh, will really help you. You know? Um, I always tell my clients, my doula client is just blaming under doula. You can set it. And my delight told me I'm like, I don't mind being the bad guy. Um, You know, notorious for that. Right. And, uh, you know, if you want to have, if you have like people wanting to come over and see you, when you don't feel up on it, you can just, you know, it doesn't have to be mean. You don't have to say no, don't come, but you can find different ways how to say, Hey, they would love to see you when we start, you know, having visitors over or when we are ready for people to meet the baby, you know, it just, um, it's really hard to go through all kinds of examples now, but I think that in order to start setting your boundaries, you need to believe that your knowledge and your belief is yours and you get to heavy. And then simply just stated and standby it. And it would be really helpful if you had people believe in you as well. Right? If your partner was on your side and could believe you, you know, often that's really why people hire doulas is they simply need someone else in their corner to support them in what their choices. And that might seem like a little thing, but having someone in your corner can give you all the encouragement, say yes or no, or this is what I want. And that's it.

Natalie: 37:54

And having people who are telling you maybe those negative stories, it oftentimes I feel comes from a place of care because okay. To you, they want you to have a positive birth experience and their positive birth experience came from an epidural. So they're going to tell you, you need that because they want you to have a similar one in that way. But if you stand for them in those, those decisions in those boundaries and they truly care about you and they truly love you, they're going to respect what you choose. Um, I think oftentimes people are just not staying. Maybe for what they, what they want or stating it. Um, and so combating those, those negative birth stories takes practice and time and can see for

Dominka: 38:47

sure. I do believe that lots of the advice or the scary stories are really from a place. And so the simple thing for you is to look at, okay, where is she coming from? How does she feel really about, because she says, oh, I had three C-section. I was totally okay. That kind of speaks for itself now. You're obviously not. Okay. I feel like there's bitterness going on and you know, it just goes so much deeper. And so seeing where people are coming from, whether it is a place of care or a place of trauma, we can see. Okay. But this is your story. This is your opinion. But my, you know, that's not my story and I get to write my own play because it's my movie. It's my, it's my story.

Natalie: 39:41

I like that illustration alive. For our listeners who really want to get started on preparing for their postpartum while they're still pregnant, or they're maybe already in that, that new postpartum stage, what resources would you give someone who wants to do more research and get as prepared as possible prior to this?

Dominka: 40:10

Um, myself, uh, I mean all did I write, right? Uh, a lot of stuff that was stuff that I talk about is not a common knowledge. That's why I don't feel there is really much, you know, like on childbirth, there is million books that you can go and read. But as I said, there is just really not much out there on postpartum. So there are resources for breastfeeding there, resources for, um, even, you know, um, pelvic floor health or, uh, parent nuMe hailing, or, you know, the, the, the things that are slowly becoming more and more out spoken about, I guess. Uh, but not a lot of. The hormonal balancing the nutrition part and really the deep healing. Um, and so I don't have really that much to recommend. So I definitely all that I have learned, and I have been also guided by, uh, Miranda Bauer. She's kind of my mentor I could say is a wonderful resource. Um, There is, you know, postpartum, international, uh, our postpartum support international that I could recommend for, um, mental support. Right. Um, that's, you know, it's something to research and maybe get connected with, even during pregnancy so that you have the support in place. Uh, if you know, you happen to need it in the postpartum, but really. I would be really happy to talk with people. If they reached out to me, you know, I offer a class, just simply learn, uh, about the postpartum nutrition. I offer a whole postpartum preparation class that includes to nutrition and also other of things to prepare for postpartum. And then, like I already mentioned, uh, I offer just general education and guidance. Uh step-by-step and that's for people who are either pregnant and wanting to start preparing. Uh, wonderful time to start preparing for postpartum, or even if you are months or even years in the postpartum, you are still in the postpartum and you can still heal. And that's what I find is even harder when moms are already couple of years in the postpartum and they are. In the midst of busy-ness and, you know, have years of feeling unwell and not okay. And struggling in all kinds of ways. And especially mentally, it's really hard than to take the steps to feeling better. And so having a guide, someone to encourage you and give you tips on how to, and helping you, we know we've taken every step can be really helpful. So. Yeah. And it's really all for resources. I mean, pass down knowledge from person to person. And that's really what I, if there were bunch of books on this, I wouldn't be doing what I'm doing. Right. But there is not. So,

Natalie: 43:18

yeah. So I will link all of the ones you mentioned in the description of the podcast. So people can find. Um, but where can people find you online and how would someone,

Dominka: 43:33

can I have a Facebook page and Instagram page at above and beyond doula care or just a handle would be, um, at beyond dot doula. Um, my website is above and beyond the luckier.com. Uh, and so that's really a way to just reach out to me. Uh, and if anybody is interested in any of my services or has questions or is interested in the classes, um, it's just simple email. So going on any of my social media accounts or on my website, we'll get you to, uh, how to contact me. And we'll just go from there. Cause there's like, I offer a variety of services, so, yeah.

Natalie: 44:21

Yeah. So are the classes that you're offering, are those available in a virtual format as well as in person?

Dominka: 44:30

Yeah, it would be either over zoom or in person. And it's a like interactive class. It's not pretty clear date. Uh, so that's just, it's more personal and people get to ask questions and stuff. I love it.

Natalie: 44:45

I love it. All right. So I want to close out with one of my favorite questions to ask everybody, um, what is your number one piece of advice for listeners? What do you want everyone to know?

Dominka: 45:00

Oh, a lot. It's hard to just pick one. Um, but I think that, you know, if I were to. Stand on the top of a mountain and scream every, you know, something for everyone to hear. It would be that motherhood shouldn't be hard. Women shouldn't be suffering just because they had babies. There is education, there is healing and there is support. So no matter where you are in your journey, please reach out and let's get you taken care of. Yeah. We need to change the society. We need to change ourselves. We need to heal ourselves and our generation for the next generation. I have two daughters and just thinking about them and when they have their babies, I don't, I don't want, I want a different world for them. I want different support. I want a different education for them. We need to, and it's up to all of us. We need to change the world. Well, Roger at the time I mean, it's a common saying if mom is happy, everybody's happy. How, how we feel. Yes. How we feel. We are like, literally the, the, the building block of society, like, you know, without moms there wouldn't be humanity. Right. We measure how moms feel and it does. You deserve to be happy. You deserve to feel good because you're not. I mean you do, but also your family. Does you taking the steps and investing into your health and wellness is not selfish because it serves your whole family and your whole community.

Natalie: 47:06

Yeah. What a way to encourage moms. I love it. You're doing super good work and I'm, I'm proud of that. You're encouraging everybody and empowering women. Take care of themselves. So yeah. I'm sure we could talk about postpartum for hours.

Dominka: 47:25

Yes.

Natalie: 47:31

Uh, but thank you. Dominika for having this conversation with me and I'm looking forward to having more conversations in the future.

Dominka: 47:40

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. I always love having an opportunity to just pick this truth to others.

Natalie: 47:49

I really enjoyed talking with Dominika today about postpartum and how we as women can help shift the narrative of postpartum recovery from a negative and unwell outlook to a really positive and abundant perspective. One of my top takeaways from this episode was to practice setting healthy boundaries during pregnancy. That will set you up for success in the postpartum time practice saying no to things, practice, protecting your space, practice, responding to people's negative birth stories and see how that morphs you into someone who can set firm boundaries for their postpartum healing. Another one of my takeaways was to educate yourself and surround yourself with resources and people who will support you for the postpartum period. Learn what you need to know ahead of time so that you don't go into the newborn stage blind, hire a postpartum doula, put that on your register. And expect things to be slow for the first little bit. As always thank you so much for listening. Just a reminder that what you hear in this podcast is not medical advice. Remember to always do your own research and talk to your provider before making important decisions about your healthcare. If you found this podcast helpful, please consider leaving a five star review in your favorite podcast app. Thank you so much for listening.