Welcome to the Postpartum University podcast where we support you and your provider in understanding the science, the art, and the sacredness of healing after birth. I’m Maranda Bower, your host, your postpartum nutrition specialist, and homesteading mom with four wild kids. It’s time to get you the holistic, whole-body healing that works.
Hello, my friend. Welcome to the Postpartum University podcast. I’m Maranda Bower, your postpartum nutrition specialist and creator of Postpartum University. And I will tell you, I am literally shaking right now. Tomorrow is something absolutely amazing, something that I’ve been waiting for over a year, well over a year, almost two years now actually. And it’s finally coming to fruition. And if you’ve been following me for a little bit, you know, that I am releasing my book, reclaiming postpartum wellness, it goes live tomorrow across all platforms, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, all the major bookstores. And it has me in tears. And again, literally shaking. I was sharing this earlier, and somebody had asked me, “Why are you so shaky over this? What’s the big deal? Shouldn’t you be so familiar with this?” And it’s like, “No, this is new for me. Yes, I have had books in the past, but nothing to this magic magnitude and nothing that pulls together everything and all of my work and all of the years that I have put into this. Never ever have I done it in this way and never ever have I launched it to the entire public. So this is a really big deal and I hope all of you who are listening understand like, yeah, I mean, it’s kind of like creating a baby, right? Like this precious little thing, and you’re showing the world, you only want the best. And I want to say that I created this book for a very specific reason. And I, I was sharing this during our reveal party that so much of what we are seeing in the postpartum nutrition industry is failing us. We look at a lot of the statistics and you all know how much I love statistics. We have suicide as the second leading cause of death in postpartum. We have over 30% of women being diagnosed with postpartum depression and that’s depression alone. That’s not accounting for anxiety or OCD or postpartum bipolar or psychosis or any other mental health disorder or challenge out there. And those rates are rising. And they’re not rising just a little bit. They are at epidemic proportions worldwide. We also have women who are at an 28% increased risk of developing an autoimmune disease in the first year after giving birth.
Why is no one talking about the epidemic of autoimmune disease? And I’m going to be adventurous here. And I am going to say that the word autoimmune disease is a label that we tend to slap on something that we don’t know how to fix. And so the healthcare industry has been notorious towards giving us this false idea that we cannot heal our bodies, that once we have an autoimmune condition, we are subject to it for life. And there’s literally no control that we have over it. And this is so far from the truth. If we address the root cause of the problem itself, it would not be a part of our life. So if you are suffering from autoimmune disease, know that you are not a lost cause, that there are ways to support your body and healing deeply. And oftentimes, we’re not going to find that through the traditional routes of medicine. This is a fact, a scientific fact, right? And we have to also look at science itself and say what’s going on here because there is simply not a lot of information out there when it pertains to postpartum care. And we have to ask why is that the case? And what we are finding is that what now exists in terms of postpartum revolve around two areas of study mainly that is of breastfeeding and formula feeding and around postpartum depression and mental health disorders. There was a new study that was recently done that talked about the biochemical changes that occur within the body for someone who has postpartum depression. And this is super exciting. Again, I love science. And then looking at the study, I was kind of disheartened to see that really the only reason why that study was being created was not necessarily to understand the biochemical reactions that happen in the body, but to understand it to block it with a pill. There was no “let’s get to the root, let’s solve this problem, let’s understand why this is happening within the body.” It was “let’s look at the reaction that happens,” which again very important information to know, but there was no depth to it outside of, we’re here and we exist and we’re doing this scientific study solely for the purpose of benefiting from it financially. If you’re a birth and postpartum professional who wants to give the families you serve some solid holistic evidence-based information regarding repletion, and nourishing your body after baby…
This is for you. I have 18 beautiful pages in a handout form that is completely free. Free full guide to nutrition completion, common misconceptions, supplement support, favorite recipes, 30 healthy and quick snacks, and so many more. You can download your free collection with handouts at postpartumU, that’s the letter u.com/handouts. And this is the world we live in. This is the healthcare industry. This is how our science is. And we have to come to realize that the only way that we’re going to get the support that we need in postpartum and early motherhood and the years beyond early motherhood is if we are advocating for our own self, if we are taking in consideration our own health and being our own advocates and working toward healing the root of our discomfort or our dysfunction. We’ve come to normalize pain and suffering in motherhood. And I’m going to tell you right now, it’s not okay, you are not okay. And how many of us have heard the saying, it’s okay, you’re okay. And I get the purpose behind this statement, right? We want to make sure that moms know that they are normal, that they are not alone in this. But what we’re doing is we’re normalizing that it’s really not okay, that you’re not okay. Instead of saying, you’re okay. are normal and you deserve to feel better.
So when I went through my own stories of depression and anxiety and rage, postpartum bipolar with my third, I had been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in my second, I had significant problems, right? I became a single mother, I lost my job all the time. of my depression and anxiety. So I can attest to the significance and the seriousness of what this means to have mental and physical health challenges while having a baby. So my goal in writing “Reclaiming Postpartum Wellness” was really to give back women and mothers the their power, their autonomy, and support them in understanding their bodies and advocating for their needs and healing their mind and body and spirit and really letting them know that they do indeed have control over this process, that they are not a lost cause, you are not a lost cause, and there is so much you can do. My book actually walks you through this process and I love this so much. If you’ve seen this book already and if you haven’t you can go to PostpartumU, the letter u.com/book. I’ll show you a couple of pages on the inside. You can actually get 20 free pages and download those yourself but what you’ll see is that each individual page is a story in itself. And it’s not just here’s why we want to support ourselves in healing, right? We know the why behind this. It’s not just for us. It’s for our families. It’s for our communities. But also, it’s actual tools that you can use that you can put into action. This is an actionable guide. These are things that I use to heal my clients. These are the things that I did to get out of my dark hole of depression and anxiety. And I’m literally giving it all away in a book. And so I’m so thrilled and excited to share with you. And I hope I’m actually what I’m going to do now, I think is I’m just going to read a section for you here. Getting healthy isn’t a quick fix. It’s a lifestyle shift. In today’s modern world, we’ve placed value in fast results and constant forward motion that involves everything but rest and reflection and supportive health practices. Only when life feels unbearable do we stop for a single second to improve a quick fix just to return afterward to the busyness and chaos of life that created the need for critical care and support in the first place. This lifestyle is the source of much dysfunction, disease and dysregulation. We’ve become so lost in a sea of societal expectations and pressures that many have forgotten the rhythms and cycles of life, our own bodies. As a matter of fact, many have cursed, accused, and felt disgusted by their own natural innate cycles as women, from our menstrual cycles to our very own seasons, rhythms of rest and reflection, and even the natural flow of motherhood itself. Health practices are interwoven into our lives. It is only when we return to the roots of our body and these innate rhythms that we will be able to restore all instinctual, intuitive, balanced states of health, well-being, and ease. And I share that reading specifically because immediately following is the actual steps to do that reset, to show you how to do it. Like literally the tools we have. We have so many tools that I couldn’t even actually put them all in the book. There’s a link that you get in the book that will lead you to a website of resources and downloads. Like that’s how much I am putting emphasis and value into creating tools and offering you a huge toolbox list of things that you can do. Because it is simple. We have this tendency to very much over-complicate our health and well-being. And we have the healthcare industry to blame for that. Again, making us feel like we don’t have control, making us feel like, especially as women, we’re too much. We have too much going on. We’re very complicated, right? We’re told that all the time.
Your hormones are complicated. Oh, it’s complicated. complicated. You just had a baby. And the truth is, it’s not. It’s not complicated at all. It’s pretty self-evident. It’s a very easy process. It’s just that we don’t have the tools. We’re not talking about the tools and the knowledge. Nobody’s giving you that information. And it has been very difficult to apply them in our business. crazy life. We live a lifestyle that does not support health and well-being.
So that is why I wrote this book, because I want to give the world the tools. I want you to have the tools. I don’t want it to be available exclusively for my one-on-one clients, right? I want this to be available to the world. I want everyone to understand what it truly means to heal their body that postpartum is not supposed to be dark and deep, and that we don’t have to live in mediocre motherhood, that there is a better way. I am so, so grateful to be able to share this book with you. And I hope, hope, hope that you absolutely love it. And if you’re listening and know that it releases January 4, tomorrow, from the date that this releases, and you can be able to find this everywhere on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, all the things.
So get your copy, and leave us a review, reach out, let us know what you loved, what worked for you, enjoy the extra resources that I’m providing you. It’s all here. You just have to make the move to get it for yourself and get those tools working for you.
Love this episode. Let us know by leaving an amazing review. Your support is everything. Want more? Head over to postpartumu.com. That’s postpartum, the letter u.com, and explore how we support moms like you in holistic, full-time body healing that’s specific for the unique needs of mamas in the years postpartum. See you there.
