How I Healed From Postpartum Depletion
I do my best to be open about my health journey and the struggles I’ve faced- especially as a mom- because I know it can help other women to know they’re not alone and find hope in what’s possible.
But I’ll be honest: as someone who works in the field of holistic wellness and practices nutrition for a living, it was hard not to feel ashamed of how depleted and out of balance I was postpartum. I was surprised by how terrible I felt, especially because I’d been so intentional about nourishing myself through pregnancy, preparing for postpartum, and honoring my body as I recovered from birth.
However, I think it’s even more important to share because it shows that we can all be susceptible to postpartum depletion. And that even when we’re doing everything “right” on paper, we can still be missing some major foundational puzzle pieces.
To make a long story short, about a year postpartum, I crashed. I had very little energy physically, but especially mentally and emotionally. I felt tapped out and always on edge. I had a feeling of overall heaviness, like I was stuck. My body felt broken.
And my exhaustion went far beyond the effects of sleep deprivation. (In fact, by this point I was fortunately getting plenty of sleep.)
So I tried some new supplements. I weaned from pumping. I started therapy. But I didn’t really feel much better after months, so I knew something deeper must be going on.
Of course, the doctors I saw told me my labs look fine and everything I was experiencing was “normal” now that I was a mom. (Both which I knew were wrong).
I was understandably frustrated and kept thinking... “Why do I feel like this when I’m doing all of the things!?”
I was eating nourishing foods, moving my body daily, and taking my supplements consistently. I was working with a pelvic floor physical therapist, was going to therapy, had taken an extended maternity leave, and had great help at home.
What else could it be?!
So I did what I know how to do best- research. I went down a rabbit hole to find the deeper root causes. I began with a continuing education program on functional testing with a focus on gut health. That led me to exploring more about metabolic health which then inspired a deep dive into minerals, so I decided to pursue another program that focused on this area.
And then I ran an HTMA (Hair Tissue Mineral Analysis) and wow, there it was right on paper: my minerals were way out of balance.
My nervous system was in a forced state of shutdown (totally explaining why I felt so tired and immobilized). My adrenals were nutritionally depleted, unable to keep up. My thyroid was sluggish and clearly in need of support. My stress resilience was extremely low because I was so burnt out.
From that one test and the work it inspired, I learned more about myself and made deeper connections not only to my current symptoms but also my overall health history than any other assessment I’d ever done before.
It all sent me on a new path. I started prioritizing foods rich in the minerals my body needed and made eating enough a top priority. I got rid of the supplements I falsely believed were helping but truly weren’t. I changed my exercise approach. I gave my nervous system a lot more love, focusing on somatic healing.
I met myself where I was at, respecting what my body had gone through in the process of becoming a mom, understanding that I needed to address my health differently in this season.
And while I did change my views on many things, I wouldn’t say that what I had been doing before becoming a mom was “wrong.” It just turned out that the demands of pregnancy and postpartum and the physical and emotional depletion I experienced as a new mom required a very different strategy.
My journey made me realize that so many other moms out there are desperately in need of the same- not an approach that just scratches the surface, a bunch of influencers piling more on our plates for the sake of “wellness,” and definitely not the infuriating “well, welcome to motherhood, this is just how it is now” lazy answer we’re too-often given.
Moms need an approach to nourishment and health as a mom that digs deep. That actually discovers the underlying root causes, replenishes and rebuilds the metabolism and nervous system, honors the season we’re in, and restores our vitality and resilience so we can fully show up and enjoy the gift of motherhood- joys, challenges, and all.
So this is basically also the story of how my program Nourished Postpartum- my signature 3-month holistic nutritional therapy program for moms of little ones- came to be.
I realized there wasn’t a program out there that is tailored to moms in this way. So I took the highlights of all I’ve learned from my functional nutrition training, my then 7+ years in practice working 1:1 with women, and of course, my own healing journey to build the one I wish I’d had when I was struggling at my lowest point- minus all the trial and error so you don’t need to waste your precious time and energy on DIYing your healing.
So trust me when I say: I know what you’re going through. But I also know how to help you move forward.
And it’s all available within Nourished Postpartum.
Nourished Postpartum is hosted twice per year with the next session beginning October 2nd, 2023. Spots are limited due to the hybrid group + 1:1 nature of the program so contact me with any questions you may have!