Healing Amy: A 5 Year Long Postpartum Battle; Podcast Ep 11

We have a very special guest, ‘Amy’, on the podcast for this episode!

Amy shares the very personal story of her own postpartum battle.

She works in the finance industry and was in a very dark place before she met me and began the journey of healing.

She went through a very long postpartum battle and has a powerful story that I believe will save others from going through the same thing from listening to her bravely share it.

I am so excited to have her share her journey with all of you, the journey to healing isn’t something you have to do alone. In fact, you need support more than ever when it comes to your postpartum healing. My one-on-one program is so much more than just a list of do’s and don’ts, and Amy tells us just how profoundly it has affected her life and that it is much more powerful than you realize and you learn so much about yourself through the journey. Come listen to Amy’s postpartum story in this episode, and be sure to share it with all your friends and family.

 

 

In this episode, we share with you:

 

• Introducing Amy
• The weight of postpartum issues prior to working with Maranda
• Guilt and shame
• Learning to peel back the layers
• Trying to get help from doctors, but getting nowhere
• End results after working with Maranda
• Gaining a playbook that can be pulled out and used whenever something comes up
• Becoming more in tune with your body
• Layers that tend to be created in and after postpartum and the need to shed them
• Enjoying my life again
• It’s much more than a To-Do, or Don’t-Do list
• Healing is not linear
• Start the postpartum healing journey earlier

We all get it: postpartum and the years after having a baby is no walk in the park. But you know what? It isn’t just about depression or anxiety either. Hey, my friend, I’m Maranda Bower, a homesteading mama with four wild kids. My life passion and education is all about supporting mothers and providers in understanding the science, the art, and the sacredness of healing after birth. What we know as common sense in the postpartum years has many women feeling just plain awful. It’s time to bring back the truth, get you the tools you need to heal, and thrive in motherhood and beyond.

Today, we have a very special guest, and this special guest is someone we’re gonna call Amy. Amy is not her real name, and the reason she asked to not have her real name used is because of what she shares with us about her own postpartum journey. Well, it’s pretty intense. She’s not only sharing about the depths of her struggles, though. She’s also sharing with us her journey with me through healing, and that to me makes this story incredibly powerful. Before we dive into her story, however, I want you to know that most of my private one-on-one clients, like Amy, recognize the power of their story and how it can help other people. They want to share it with the world, but they are either in a high-level position within the corporate world or their own business. Or they are those in the health and wellness industry, especially Instagram accounts where you see the perfect body on the outside, but they are miserable on the inside and cannot tell you that. Or they’re a celebrity or big name that just isn’t comfortable coming out with what’s happened to them because of how it may affect their career.

Although I support regular old mamas like you and me too, this needs to be said because I think it speaks greatly to the misinformation, the stigma, and the lack of support we give to mothers. We currently live in a world where postpartum issues cannot be spoken of openly. And with this episode, Amy and I are going to be breaking those stigmas.

Amy, if you hear this, know that you may be saving lives by sharing this. And I am ever so proud to have been called your coach.

Thank you. So without further ado, let’s hear Amy’s incredible story.

I had the utmost privilege of working through her healing journey, and I’m so, so excited for her to share her journey with everyone today. So, welcome. Thank you for being here.

“Of course, thank you for having me, Maranda.”

Yes, in your closet, right?

“In my closet, where we did some of our sessions because I have my son outside doing his learning and playing, and so I am relegated to the closet. This is where I get quiet time. So, closet, closet.”

I absolutely love it. Yes, we did do a lot of sessions in there and you have an automatic light in there too.

“Yes.”

If that was ever correctly. So, it might go dark, right?

“Right, so I’ll have to wave and like it up and do a little dance and we’ll return.”

Gorgeous. Okay, so tell us a little bit about who you are, what you do, and where you are in your postpartum journey.

“I am five years postpartum this month. My son just turned five, and my profession is in finance. Where I was in my postpartum journey before meeting Maranda was in a very, very dark place. I was having issues with bloating, fatigue. Emotionally, I was a wreck. I had a lot of guilt about not being there enough for my son, about the quality of love that I was giving him. I just felt it wasn’t right. There was a lot of things that weren’t going right. And beyond the bloating, beyond the fatigue, I was getting monthly infections that were painful. And I never told Maranda this, but I’m saying it now. When those infections came, there were times I was suicidal. I didn’t want to go on. There were tears the first time. Every month of that, the infection would appear. I would be in tears, and I’d go to my husband and be like, ‘I can’t be a mother. I can’t be a wife with this going on.’ I had no answers. I went to doctors. They would just treat it with a pill or a cream or whatever, and it would just come back the next month. And so something wasn’t right. Something wasn’t working. It took me some time to find Maranda. I just happened to be following her because I was interested in all things postpartum. And I had a rough initial journey postpartum because my tailbone had moved, and I was actually saving Maranda for my next baby. And when the professionals didn’t work out, it was actually Maranda that came to me. And I know somehow she has the sixth sense of who needs help. And I told her my story, and she told me, ‘Well, hey, I can help you.’ And I didn’t expect that. I was like, ‘I thought I was too far past postpartum to need that help.’ And so for her to come and tell me, like, ‘Hey, I can pull you out of this,’ was just a godsend. It was a blessing. So thank you for that.”

Thank you. Thank you so much for sharing that with everyone. This is a really big deal, and you brought me to tears. I mean, obviously, I didn’t know that bit. I knew about the, you know, guilt and the shame and the recurring infections, and you also had migraines that you were experiencing. Yeah, and we were able to go through this process and really kind of unwind and uncover all of the things that were really causing all of your symptoms, right?

“Yes. And I will say this, there’s no doctor, there’s no health professional that I could have gone to to get the depth of help that I needed. I didn’t know what I was allergic to. We needed to find that. We needed to, as Maranda says, peel back the layers of the onion. And there’s nobody out there that does this. And I don’t think I would be in the place that I am now without this help. I would still be pill-popping or trying to figure out what’s going on, and I’m not, and I’m so grateful for that.”

Thank you. When you came to me, you had a long list of medical records that you sent over to me. So many different medical records, blood tests, and all of these different things that you had done previously before we had even met. Like you had done all the things and were at a complete loss. Yeah, I remember getting all of those emails.

“I was fighting this for a year under different physician care. Yeah, I’d go to, I went to a GI doctor. I went to an OB doctor. I went to my primary care physician. They ran every blood test. They did all the tests they could. And there were no answers. And, you know, eventually I wanted someone who would address this through nutrition, through food, because I know it has healing properties. And I knew that in my heart that this was what I wanted. I wanted to stop using pharmaceutical medicine to cure something that they couldn’t even figure out what I had. They cure what they’re just addressing the symptoms and not the underlying cause.”

Yeah. Okay, so I have to ask you, what were your end results after working together with me? 

“I have a playbook now, like I have this toolbox that I can go to and if something does go wrong, I go back and I find the tools that I need. I go back to the recipes that you gave me in the beginning to promote healing, to get back to that place where I know like, okay, something went wrong. Let’s figure out what went wrong. And I mean, I have all the tools, I have the confidence to know like, okay, I know what works. I know what doesn’t. It’s an amazing feeling to know that your body can come out of this. I didn’t think I could. I honestly thought like one day I’m just going to be like, all right, I’m calling it quits.

It’s hard for me to say that. Like I said, I never shared that with you. I tend not to share really hard things and Maranda pulls them out of you. Like you pulled them out of me. I’m not a person that likes to, it’s hard for me to show emotion sometimes. Like I’m very like, I need to be that person, that strong person that keeps it in and keeps that face and pulls it together. And I learned that that’s not always the best way to do things. Like on the outside, I might look fine, but I wasn’t.”

Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much for sharing that. And so today, as we speak and share this testimony, you have no more migraines. 

“No.” 

You have no more infections. 

“No.” 

Like that’s, it’s amazing what has happened. 

“My body tells me right away if I eat something, and it doesn’t like it, it tells me and I’m able to be in with that and be recognized like, ‘Hey, this food made me bloated.’ I should back off.” 

Yeah. Yeah. I love that so much. I mean, when we have so many different layers of gunk, right? Like as you said in the beginning, I teach a lot about the layers and I should write more about this. But you know, after postpartum, we create these layers on our being and really we have to shed a lot of those that don’t serve us. And so that’s exactly what you did in this program. You were shedding layers that no longer served you so that you could be more in tune with your body and understand where you are and how things affect you and make those changes, right? That’s the hard part making those changes so that you can experience that ultimate healing.

And so you’re not experiencing any more infections, bloating or anything like that unless you eat something that doesn’t serve you well. And you’re eating things like pizza, right? And like dairy. So I mean, we’re not talking about like so limited that you’re not enjoying, you know, anything amazing and enjoying life again. 

“It was hard the first three months, I will say that. I had to eliminate all that stuff so that I could listen so I could get more in tune with my body so I could figure out what was bothering me. Turns out cheese doesn’t bother me but milk does. So it’s very useful to know these things and then to add it like Maranda taught me, one thing back at a time and see how my body reacts.

“I do want to say, you know, you’re not, I want to add something to this. When I first started, I thought the plan would be like, okay, do this, these are like, let’s do ABC and D and then you’ll be good. And it wasn’t that and it’s not that I was disappointed in that. It was so much more powerful that we did address different things.

“Like we addressed the emotional, we addressed the physical, we addressed the spiritual. It all came together, and that’s not something you see out there in the world of the doctors and other health care providers. So, in the beginning, I was that person that just expected, like, ‘Okay, this is something that’s going on in my body. We’re just gonna address the body; it’s a mechanical thing.’ And it wasn’t, and that was powerful. To go through that process and learn that it’s not mechanical, that there are other things that you address to make the person whole again.

“Yeah, and as you learn through this process, healing is not linear, right? And it’s not mechanical in any way, shape, form, or fashion. It is so… you know, it’s not just about getting your body new nutrients and helping your body absorb. There’s also that mental and spiritual side of things as well.”

Yeah, beautiful. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so I have to ask, would you recommend this 101 program with me to other people?

“I wish I started it years ago. Yes, definitely. I mean, I would have started day one after having my son if I would have known what was coming down the road. But like you’ve said, people don’t talk about postpartum and support and what is needed. And I feel so much more prepared for the next time, looking forward to it, not just dreading like, ‘Oh, this horrible thing is gonna happen to me.’ No, it’s like, ‘Okay, I know how to support myself. It’s gonna be beautiful, it’s gonna be amazing.’ And I know that because I’ve gone through this with you.”

Beautiful. Thank you so much for being here and sharing your story. It takes so much to do that. And I just want to take a minute to recognize it because postpartum is kind of a taboo topic. Talking about our bodies and how they’re functioning or not functioning is not something that we do. So, I just want to tell you that I appreciate this from the bottom of my heart, you sharing your story with the world so that other women can hear your voice and hear your story and understand that there is a way out if they reach out and take that first step, which is always the hardest, right?”

“Yes.”

Yeah, so thank you, thank you so much. Is there anything else that you want to share today?

“I think I covered it all. I know I interrupted you a lot. Sorry for that. But when the thoughts flow, they flow.”

No, you’re beautiful; it’s perfect. 

“But yeah, I would just say, like, I was in a very dark place, and if there are other women that are in that dark place and are feeling just lost and pressed and feel like there’s no hope… Like, I really felt that there was no hope. My body was telling me to do something. I didn’t know what. And the doctors didn’t know what. And so when you’re in that kind of position, it’s really difficult. How do you come out of that? I didn’t know how. And it’s… I can’t say this enough. It’s a blessing that I met you, that you reached out to me. I don’t know how you knew that I needed, desperately needed this help. But I did, and I’m glad that I did it. And it is worth every penny. ‘Cause I mean, I was wasting money everywhere else (laughing). And this wasn’t a waste. It was something that was fully utilized. Every dollar was fully investing back into myself.”

Beautiful. Thank you so, so much. I appreciate your time. Thank you.

“Of course, anytime.”

Thanks for tuning in and taking the time to learn about how to support your body in deep healing. We don’t do this work just for us or for you. Your healing impacts your children, your relationships, and your community. We do this work because the health and vibrancy of our world begin with its mothers. 

I hope you have taken some valuable information today and applied it to your own life. If you aren’t sure where to begin, reach out about working together one-on-one, or at minimum learning about my postpartum nutrition plan, which is where I start every single one of my clients. And you can do that by going to MarandaBower.com. Hope you enjoyed this episode. Let us know by leaving a review, and we will see you next time.