Ep 176: Preconception Health with Crystal Bailey: CNM, Naturopath, Embodiment Coach

In this episode of the Aligned Birth Podcast, Dr. Shannon interviews Crystal Bailey, a naturopath, nurse midwife, and embodiment coach.  She is the founder and owner of Moonlight Midwifery and Wild Herb Women's Wellness.  They talk about Crystal's journey into midwifery and how that branched into becoming a naturopath and embodiment coach.  Some key topics discussed include:

• The integration of naturopathy with women's health is essential for holistic care.
• Feminine embodiment is crucial for understanding hormonal health.
• The nervous system state significantly influences hormonal balance.
• Softness and fierceness coexist in women's experiences, especially in birth.
• Personalized care is vital for preconception and fertility support.
• Intuition plays a key role in health assessments and care plans.
• Creating a receptive state for pregnancy involves emotional and physical readiness.
• Couples should be involved in the preconception process for better outcomes.
• Supporting male partners in fertility is equally important. Men's health plays a crucial role in conception.
• Good quality sperm is essential for successful conception.
• Trust between midwives and clients is vital for a safe birth experience.
• Feminine embodiment can help women reconnect with their bodies.
• Emotional balance is important for women's health and fertility.
• Preconception support can lead to healthier pregnancies.
• Women often seek community and support during their health journeys.
• Personal growth is a significant aspect of midwifery practice.
• Training and mentorship are essential for future midwives.
• Holistic approaches can enhance women's wellness and fertility.

Transcript

Dr. Shannon (00:01.657)
Hello, hello, this is the Aligned Birth Podcast. You have one of your hosts here today. I am Dr. Shannon, I'm a prenatal chiropractor. And today is an interview day and we have the lovely Crystal Bailey on with us. And she is a naturopath, a nurse midwife and an embodiment coach. And so we're gonna dive into what those things mean, how...

She uses all of those to support the clients that she works with. She is the owner of Midwifery and so home birth midwife there, but then also Wild Herb Women's Wellness. And so we're gonna come into that a bit and see how she works with women, works with patients, works with couples, works in that fertility and birth space with the hope and the focus of the show being preparing for conception. But we know.

us birth workers get to talk about all the birthy things. So we'll try to stick to that topic, but I'm so excited to have you on today, Crystal.

Crystal Bailey (01:00.032)
Thank

Crystal Bailey (01:04.983)
Thank you! Excited to be here!

Dr. Shannon (01:07.289)
Yay. We were chatting for the show and we were like, have we met in real life? I don't think we've met in real life. We've only met in the internet on this platform now. So, but that's okay. I, a fan girl of hers. And so I'm so excited to have you on today. I've been watching you, been stalking you for a bit on Instagram and I love it. So I want to get started into.

Crystal Bailey (01:17.687)
Yes.

Crystal Bailey (01:24.93)
Thank you. Thank you.

Dr. Shannon (01:31.629)
because I usually do like maybe a little bit longer intro for people, but I kind of wanted you to come in and say, okay, this is who I am. This is what I do. This is how I got into this space of midwifery and into becoming a naturopath. So take us on that journey a little bit.

Crystal Bailey (01:49.07)
Sure, would love to share and you know when you end up in these unique journeys often people that are interested in the natural realm or the pregnancy realm are also trying to figure out their journey too and of course it is a journey I never intended to be all of these little things combined together but

The path for me first began with this knowing that I would do health care and go to medical school and then having this total block about proceeding with that because inside me I knew I needed this natural health piece to be there and I didn't know why and I didn't know how to have

Dr. Shannon (02:39.704)
Hmm.

Crystal Bailey (02:43.726)
both a license to practice something and also to end up in something more natural. And I knew that if I went to like the West Coast, you can go to like naturopathic school and practice under, know, kind of have this legitimate thing. But I was raised in the Midwest and I was interested in being in the South. And so, and these, this part of the country, we have

Dr. Shannon (03:11.63)
you

Crystal Bailey (03:13.142)
to kind of take, you know, either not be on license pass or be part way. So part of my journey was ending up in nursing school and the nurse practitioner route. And then surprisingly, I ended up in the midwifery route, not really understanding why, except that I knew within me that

Dr. Shannon (03:29.101)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (03:33.729)
Ha ha ha.

Crystal Bailey (03:41.378)
that one birth I saw in the hospital was not okay. And that a baby should not be born in that like no big deal sterile light. Just, was just so nothing. You know, the birth of that baby. And I just, I remember going to an advisor and saying, I think I'm supposed to be a midwife. I had no idea about this profession. Literally nothing. I knew nothing.

Dr. Shannon (03:45.814)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (03:57.88)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (04:09.29)
Wow, that's so neat. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (04:11.65)
And just more of this intuitive thing, which is kind of my way of doing things. And this from for me, it was like from the beginning, even in the nurse midwifery program, which is more about making sure you can cut it in the medical world, you know, can you manage all of these cases in these medical settings? And so I was always

Dr. Shannon (04:33.069)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (04:40.374)
interested in birth being undisturbed and baby's births being sacred. so I wanted to, you know, do the out of hospital birth thing. And you, you're kind of catapulted from the, the more medical, mean, even nurse practitioner nurse midwifery is a more medicalized setting. You have to be able to

Dr. Shannon (04:47.331)
sacred.

Crystal Bailey (05:10.956)
do what's required in those settings. And so as I started to practice as a nurse midwife and I worked at an OB practice and then also a birth center and did some international work, I also started to do my naturopathy training and I did a traditional naturopathy training much more into the energetic medicines of

Dr. Shannon (05:37.443)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (05:37.56)
homeopathy, Bach-Frau remedies, pH balancing, muscle testing, just knowing that all the innate information is in the body. We don't need anything high tech to access it. And that this stuff goes back to the 1800s and plants will tell you by their shape and location what they're meant to do for us. So this traditional, like we don't need high tech.

Dr. Shannon (06:02.861)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (06:07.062)
it's available to us and the body can heal. so, you know, I've been doing, this will be 18 years that I have been practicing professionally. And I have basically the opposite of some people who start in the natural and then end up with some sort of form and licensure. I felt like I went into hiding.

Dr. Shannon (06:21.977)
that's so exciting.

Crystal Bailey (06:36.118)
in order to truly integrate things. You know, like during COVID, I'm like opening my little office, you know, like I'm just going to go over here where I'm not doing anything medical and none of you are allowed to ask for prescriptions, you know, and you know, that's not what I'm doing. And I want to do a holistic approach to all women's health to see women outside of pregnancy also.

Dr. Shannon (06:49.817)
huh.

Dr. Shannon (06:58.605)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (07:05.357)
Hmm.

Crystal Bailey (07:05.602)
and to integrate naturopathic approaches into all of it. And so that's where the Wilder Women's Wellness came, was me trying to figure out how to practice in this natural way to help women and...

Dr. Shannon (07:18.765)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (07:30.182)
I had the home birthing going on that's my moonlight midwifery, but I wanted this safe space where women also who are not pregnant, who don't intend to get pregnant or who are struggling to get pregnant, I just needed a separate practice that is not also because I am not a mother. And so I really am sensitive to the fact that not everything needs to be pregnancy related.

Dr. Shannon (07:56.621)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (07:58.958)
you know, women need a space that's not just about pregnancy and midwives. Yeah, and midwives, we care for women outside of just the pregnancy. And we have a lot to offer in the philosophy of how we approach things. And so as I was telling you in our chit chat before this, we started

Dr. Shannon (08:04.597)
It's not just about babies. Mm-hmm. Yeah, there's more to it. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (08:22.081)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (08:25.786)
I had two populations that I was seeing the pre the fertility preconception and the postpartum kind of cases of like, I just feel totally disintegrated and often not in my body and my hormones are off. this is how I then got that training in the feminine embodiment coaching because I was like, wow, so many of us.

Dr. Shannon (08:31.906)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (08:50.745)
Hmm.

Crystal Bailey (08:54.318)
have no idea what's going on in our feeling states and how to tell, how to be in the state of our feminine body where the hormones do produce to be fertile, to be soft, to be ready to reproduce, to be able to softly land with a baby postpartum and

Dr. Shannon (09:18.615)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (09:20.69)
not have a total identity crisis where the career woman and the postpartum new mother are cannot figure out how to integrate. So that's this past year and also for my own journey of becoming more embodied and and and being able to just get out of that stress mode and more of this the

Dr. Shannon (09:30.807)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (09:50.798)
the feeling this flow in what I meant to do, how I feel, bringing more softness into my life and in my journey. So it was it was very much a personal journey myself too.

Dr. Shannon (09:53.389)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (10:01.625)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (10:07.929)
Yeah, self-discovery. And that's what so many birth workers have. Whether they've given birth or not, there's some sort of experience or something I have found in doing interviews and just even in my own journey of like, there's something different. There's got to be something more. Why am I feeling this way? I know I'm not the only one or just something along those lines of using that to help yourself, but then spreading that knowledge as well too.

Crystal Bailey (10:31.202)
Yeah!

Crystal Bailey (10:37.282)
Yeah, it's just simply hard to be in the feminine state in this world. It's hard. We have been told since little girls to do science and math and do careers and be our value has to do with how hard we work and we're too much and not enough and

Dr. Shannon (10:45.257)
in this world. It's very.

Crystal Bailey (11:07.658)
and then you try to do these things in the midst of that like get pregnant or figure out whether you're supposed to be a mother or not or how to be a mother while also being what you thought you're supposed to be your career. It's the reality is that everyone walking into my office that's saying they may come in and say it's my hormones.

Dr. Shannon (11:23.445)
Uh-huh. Yeah, all of that.

Dr. Shannon (11:34.605)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (11:35.326)
But beyond that is mostly just a lot of really disintegrated, disintegrated women that really are very confused in their state of being in their body and their hormones. You know, as you know, yeah, the nervous system state dictates so much about the hormone state.

Dr. Shannon (11:48.057)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (11:52.087)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (11:55.725)
Those are pieces parts, yeah.

Dr. Shannon (12:04.343)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (12:04.544)
and about what your ability to reproduce to. So trying to support someone's hormones without figuring out how to help them be in less of that driven nervous state is a lot.

Dr. Shannon (12:11.82)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (12:29.473)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Okay. My brain's like going a million miles a minute too because I'm like, there's so many things. I'm also like, me, me, me. Hi. Are you talking about me? Because thanks. Yeah. No. Okay. So when... I love that you had the word soft. Did you use soft? And I was like, gosh, I just, I love that word because...

Crystal Bailey (12:36.14)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (12:39.566)
you

Dr. Shannon (12:58.317)
I've done a lot and I followed Kate Northrup a lot and her Do Less and really looking at honoring your hormones and honoring your cycle and your flow, which is not what we're typically in this patriarchal society of just a 24-hour cycle and it's go, go, go, go, go and it's the same stuff every day, you know. So that softness that you said I think is key because it is hard to tap into that when society makes it a little bit difficult to do that or

Crystal Bailey (13:04.718)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (13:13.55)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (13:25.186)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (13:26.073)
we just thought it was gonna look a certain way or motherhood throws us for a journey, conception throws us for a journey, postpartum throws us for a loop as well too. So I love that you said soft, that really like spoke to me. So hopefully someone hears that and is like, okay, how can I learn to like embrace that softness and figure out me and figure out how to still, you know, contribute to society and be here, but honoring your softness like.

Crystal Bailey (13:39.864)
He

Crystal Bailey (13:53.548)
Yeah, and that softness is both a emotional state, but it's a physical state. like you've been at birth, you know the women who surrender into it and their body moves naturally and the breath follows the movement. Like it's a, it's a, they are with it and they're flowing and there's this softness that is a part of the wildness.

Dr. Shannon (14:04.633)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (14:09.678)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (14:20.236)
Like you have both as women, like this soft and wild thing, which is what really gets me is like, how when a, when we are that, when we're able to be all of that essence of both soft and wild and in tune with instincts and, you know, we're fierce, but in a way that's like almost like that.

Dr. Shannon (14:22.265)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (14:49.068)
that animal fears, you know? And so you see this in the women who have amazing births and successful births. You see this thing there, but that has to be there in their body and mind and spirit.

Dr. Shannon (14:50.829)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (15:05.208)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (15:06.638)
As an essence, you can't just like take a class and be like, I'm ready for birth and I'm going to do that. And so finding this ability for us to be that in whatever state, whether we're on the journey of conception or whether we're on the journey of pregnancy or on the journey of postpartum or just life.

Dr. Shannon (15:13.59)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (15:36.984)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (15:37.358)
is that's what fascinates me.

Dr. Shannon (15:39.711)
being able and I know and I love we did a whole episode on like holding two truths then you were talking it's like the softness and the fierceness like you can it's it's when you can do both when you realize it's both it's you know it's happy and sad at the same time like it's all of those things and it's just existing at the same time instead of like an either or so it sounds a bit too of like helping women process that and kind of live in that world is part of your work as well too

Crystal Bailey (15:54.592)
It is.

Dr. Shannon (16:08.695)
You had mentioned, of course, I went to a chiropractic place when you were talking about the plants and the herbs and removing interference. That's kind of a premise with chiropractic care too is the body needs no interference. We just need that's what... And that's kind of the same thing. It's like, can we remove things instead of keep adding, adding, adding, adding, adding? It's like, can you remove some of the toxins? Can you remove the interference? Can you remove those things to allow the body to heal?

Crystal Bailey (16:08.984)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (16:23.946)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (16:37.998)
Exactly. And for some people, it's even supplements. Sometimes we do. There's definitely this energy of understanding like, is this a person who needs to add things or they need to take away the element of control? Some women have way too many supplements and things they control about food, environmental toxins, and they need to

Dr. Shannon (16:38.361)
cause that's a huge part.

Dr. Shannon (16:49.273)
huh.

Dr. Shannon (16:52.886)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (17:04.75)
come back to the flow of being able to trust and be in this world and know there's some innate resilience there and So that's one thing I love about being able to work personalized with people is because you have to recognize what their What's going on in them? Like what is their nervous system state? What is their constitutional type and

Dr. Shannon (17:13.997)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (17:22.553)
Crystal Bailey (17:33.774)
because that type needs to be balanced in its balanced state. And that's very different for each person.

Dr. Shannon (17:39.501)
Hmm. So, and I love this. This is, and it's speaking a bit of the, it's not just someone coming in, you're running some labs, you get these values and we're gonna do this as in a traditional medical space. This, what you do offers a bit, a lot more in that integrative thing. So kind of walk us through.

Crystal Bailey (18:03.179)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (18:04.429)
Like if someone were coming in for kind of a preconception, whether they struggled with infertility or just want to, I just want to be optimal before becoming pregnant, what would that look like in your office space?

Crystal Bailey (18:19.278)
Yeah, what I love is being able to have at least several visits to start with someone because I love and what I see that she loves is learning about herself. And so I'm putting on my little detective, you know, glasses on, we're doing the kind of the functional medicine approach, you know, because I did the functional medicine course and I was like,

Dr. Shannon (18:33.655)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (18:47.008)
Okay, I see. We need to do like all this intake and just look at all these different categories and figure this stuff out. You know, what could be influencing historically exposures based even back to the womb state, childhood stressors. So I want the ability when I work with a woman to look at all of those things. So there's a really intensive like intake form and then we start with a virtual visit to go through history.

Dr. Shannon (18:53.717)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (19:00.437)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (19:16.29)
And I'm starting to get this impression of these things that have influenced her throughout her life. And then we meet shortly thereafter for an in-person visit to do a naturopathic assessment. So, and that allows me to then be using my intuitive sense and the ability to use her body. So,

I'm looking at her iris to see what is the, what are the, the iris can tell you quite a bit about things in the body. And it also tells you the state of the nervous system by the, like the natural adrenal and nervous system stuff by the fibers, by the pupil, the way it constricts. And then you muscle testing different points, a little bit of Chinese medicine reading, you know, looking at the tongue and nails.

Dr. Shannon (19:44.953)
you

Dr. Shannon (20:08.365)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (20:13.1)
And of course, all my own intuition that's coming into this because we don't know what the body is saying is the priority for now. Right. So that's what we're trying to figure out whether she's here because she's working on her cycle or she's and wants to get pregnant or she's working on PMS or postpartum, but particularly preconception where

Dr. Shannon (20:24.845)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (20:42.894)
We might need to do a detox to optimize the environment that a pregnancy is in. We might need to support the nervous system more or the hormones or picking up on whether this is someone who's the first part of the cycle, the ovulation and the estrogenic state being supported versus the

Dr. Shannon (20:51.597)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (21:09.708)
you know, the second part of the cycle where we would need to make sure that the progesterone is supported. And, and so by having this longer, doing, this virtual intake and then the in-person and developing a personalized plan, she gets to learn a lot about herself as I'm showing her things and I'm describing things and my clinical background and having worked in women's health.

Dr. Shannon (21:14.787)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (21:32.04)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (21:39.682)
helps me to also be able to explain the hormone state as opposed to a lab showing you that a hormones in a normal range.

Dr. Shannon (21:45.527)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (21:52.878)
I if she comes in and she wants labs, like, okay, but let me explain to you why your labs are probably not going to give you any information. Because the labs are not that useful for hormones unless you get a lab that's crazy off. The body tells you, and the cycle tells you so much more.

Dr. Shannon (22:03.031)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (22:11.16)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (22:18.072)
What are the shape of her breast tissue? What is the shape of her body? What is, you know, is she an estrogenic type? Is she more androgenic? You know, everything from her hair, her skin, her acne, her body shape, her breast shape, what are her cycles like? That is way more information about hormones than blood levels.

Dr. Shannon (22:38.668)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (22:44.227)
than just a moment in time.

Crystal Bailey (22:45.678)
Yeah, blood levels are going to be, I mean, even your chemistry, right? Your body, if it's in a healthy state, should be balancing out. If you had not enough calcium, you still should have a normal blood level of calcium unless you're really sick. You know, it's, it's, um, so I always give labs as an option, but it's not a part for me. It's not a part of the necessary what I need to help someone. And, um,

Dr. Shannon (23:00.976)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (23:11.203)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (23:14.956)
And then sometimes I might suggest a certain functional lab test. But as you know, the body is really able to tell a lot of stuff without lab work.

Dr. Shannon (23:18.669)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (23:30.369)
Yeah, it gives you a lot of information.

Crystal Bailey (23:32.352)
Yeah, and sometimes, you know, running like the Dutch hormone test is really helpful if you are really trying to figure out the pathways of the hormones or what to optimize. I like that one. And so after I've met with her with kind of like intense first start, she's going to

Dr. Shannon (23:46.477)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (24:00.386)
be taking these supplements and doing these energetic things that we believe is going to bring balance to her type. So if we've seen a lot in her lifestyle and body that she is a revved up adrenal nervous system, go get her. She's going to work. She's going to her hit classes. Most likely.

Dr. Shannon (24:09.057)
Hmm... Mm-hmm...

Dr. Shannon (24:17.335)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (24:24.985)
yeah.

Crystal Bailey (24:28.024)
Her body is saying that it wants a little more adrenal recovery and it wants to be to learn how to be at rest or to do something less intense. And that's what she's going to work on. And sometimes things like even colors. What colors are you wearing? Why are you that color? Why are you drawn to that?

Dr. Shannon (24:32.217)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (24:42.987)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (24:52.941)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (24:55.83)
and maybe what colors need to come into your life because that's a different energy. So someone that's always wearing black and tan and trying to conceive really needs an energetic shift into a warming state usually. And so you'll see and she gets it usually when you're like, I feel like you need this sort of energy in your life more.

Dr. Shannon (25:00.769)
Hmm... Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (25:11.587)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (25:19.437)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (25:25.356)
you pink or reds or peaches, even how you eat, you dress, colors, the energy of what you're doing.

Dr. Shannon (25:29.155)
Uh-huh. Yeah. And all of this makes sense too, because we hear too, like if you've got a cluttered house, you've got a cluttered mind. To me, it's in that same realm of, yeah, what are you putting out into the world too? What's your energy state saying and how are you communicating? My goal, I need to declutter this year. So that's where my brain went. was like, It's, uh-huh.

Crystal Bailey (25:52.014)
That's your, yeah, so it's, what do you need now? And what does, what is your balance? And it is. And when you allow these things to shift into a more balanced state, my belief is that that will be the fertile state that will be where

Dr. Shannon (25:59.509)
Mm-hmm. And it's so individualized. It's so individualized. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (26:15.275)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (26:17.13)
baby is able to be received in a receptive state and grown in a state with attachment grown in a the pregnancy being able to have space for this new soul the birth going easy because we know I'm sure you've talked about this on podcasts what goes down in the birth has a lot to do with what needs to go down for her transition to

Dr. Shannon (26:19.819)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (26:32.651)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (26:44.139)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (26:45.826)
becoming the mother and letting go.

Dr. Shannon (26:47.917)
You know, that's a yes, yes, yes, yes. The letting go, the surrender, the fear that encompasses the birth space. That is probably one of the biggest reasons why I follow you, I love you, and I wanted you on the show. I don't want to harbor too much on the fear space in birth, but I know I speak from my own, just seeing my two births, seeing my...

my two selves in those two different spaces and knowing one from a fear space to one of a more surrender and just knowing the difference that I felt in those spaces. But I think that starts with conception too. I think that it goes back to...

Crystal Bailey (27:17.997)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (27:38.113)
all of your childhood trauma, everything that you mentioned before already, just the energy of your space, the colors that you're wearing, the muscle testing, like all of that. But I don't want to give so much, I don't want to stress people out either by saying like, if you don't have this together, you're gonna fear birth. Like it's not that. But it allows you to surrender if you are that controlling type or whatever your energetic embodiment is.

Crystal Bailey (27:39.243)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (27:46.52)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (27:50.658)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (28:05.465)
It can allow, understanding that can allow you to be in that birth space and allow you to be vulnerable, allow you to feel safe, know, allow you to really surrender to birth.

Crystal Bailey (28:17.376)
Yeah, yeah. it's, and I love being able to open up questions before pregnancy, like what are you wanting? What are you envisioning? Who are you going to work with? Who's going to guide you in this pregnancy and, and, and who would you be birthing your baby with? And often they've not thought about it at all. And

Dr. Shannon (28:19.181)
I know.

Dr. Shannon (28:28.174)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (28:40.024)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (28:44.878)
So we might intentionally be like, okay, well, why don't we work on your cycle and these other things? And then let's have some chats and get you the information that you need. And maybe you want to bring your partner. And so we can talk about because usually the partners, particularly with the first, they got their heels in the sand about hospital.

They don't understand safety in any other environment. When you explain to them why it's safe to consider different things and it makes sense, if you just explain the nature of things to them, they get it. So that's really special when you can work with someone

Dr. Shannon (29:18.861)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (29:35.437)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (29:43.81)
before or in the very beginning of pregnancy and give them the information about what they need. Obviously I'm in Atlanta and so I know the resources here very well. So to anyone, anyone else, always say go talk to a doula. Chiropractors also know a lot. Midwives, chiropractors, doulas, usually the keepers.

Dr. Shannon (29:48.643)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (29:57.037)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (30:03.053)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (30:11.277)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (30:11.692)
the keepers of the knowledge of the community and who can offer what and what are the different styles of everything in different places.

Dr. Shannon (30:17.016)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (30:24.471)
Well, then too, when you have this, when you get to know someone, then you can actually refer them to someone that's going to fit for them, you know, because there's lots of different duelers, there's lots of different chiropractors, and so not everybody's going to fit with the same one. So I do think it's part of that relationship that you have.

Crystal Bailey (30:40.61)
Yeah, and if she wants a hospital birth, that's fine. That's great. Let's talk about which hospitals and why, because that is a huge thing, right? You know, you can have fantastic birth in any setting. But you know, you go to one setting, your chances of getting past 39 weeks.

Dr. Shannon (30:48.279)
Yeah, because that's a big, that's a huge thing.

Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (31:07.16)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (31:07.67)
you know, and not being induced are going to be really low. yeah, having that knowledge is important.

Dr. Shannon (31:11.691)
Right. Having that knowledge and knowing it. Mm-hmm. Do, now you mentioned, I'm glad you mentioned the spouse because it's not always, you know, it takes, it takes two to tango, you know, to bring about this new life. So do you work with couples and how do you prefer that or what does that look like for you in that preconception space?

Crystal Bailey (31:24.791)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (31:36.642)
Yeah, I don't have a preference. think there's obviously something to be said about the woman to woman thing. There's a depth and a level of connection when there's not an observer. And then there was also something really great when he's present and you can validate her truth in front of him about why her body

Dr. Shannon (31:50.829)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (32:01.335)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (32:04.75)
does this or why she does this or what she needs and what her nature is and how she needs support if in order to be in this you know this if we're saying that fertility is a state of being able to relax be soft nurture yourself receive then and he's hearing that he understands his role and that can be really helpful if there is not a good

Dr. Shannon (32:27.257)
you

Crystal Bailey (32:33.848)
healthy masculine feminine balance happening in life for her.

Dr. Shannon (32:37.355)
Hmm.

Crystal Bailey (32:41.654)
And so I guess I would just suggest it just everyone should just use their intuition about what what they need and what they're coming for. You know, whether it's something they're coming, they should come personally or he should come if if she's I mean some preconception they just want one visit and they just want to know like a list of supplements.

to help with egg quality, support their cycle. And so when I do, I offer a free call so that they can give me a few minutes of background on what their case is and what they're looking for. And I can explain like, well that doesn't, you you don't sound too super complicated. You sound like you might just need a little support, you know, whether you want to come for an annual exam or you want to come for a one-time visit for just some.

Dr. Shannon (33:28.365)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (33:37.09)
you know, support on supplements to take. Then I will do some of those like focused visits. I you don't you can only go so far, right? But if that's what the level of what they want is just some support and figuring out optimizing egg quality supplements. There's just some great herbal stuff that's going to support hormones and cycles that you could.

Dr. Shannon (33:50.112)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (34:04.418)
You could put most people on and it's going to give them a really good support. You know, why would we use one prenatal versus another and whether she seems like someone who needs, you know, one of the, does she really need an eight prenatal capsule deal or, or not. So helping them navigate even, you know, what to take. so some people aren't, don't need these really in depth things and they want to just.

Dr. Shannon (34:07.735)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (34:19.225)
Right.

Crystal Bailey (34:34.072)
kind of have a visit and then he might come and we talk about if he you know a supplement for him to take he also needs to be on high quality vitamins he might need to take some L-Carnitine or CoQ10 or things that energize his cellular energy you know how old is he what's his health because that cellular health I mean these little

Dr. Shannon (34:44.633)
Okay.

Dr. Shannon (34:48.173)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (34:56.428)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (35:01.624)
these little sperm and these little eggs have like a lot of job to do in those first few weeks. And so they have to have all the energy there to do all that division replication. There's even the potential of a healthy of them to like repair themselves to, you know, this is why you don't see miscarriages in younger people, right? Cause there's so much cellular energy and you know, self repair and

Dr. Shannon (35:06.221)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (35:19.938)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (35:29.601)
And that ability to repair.

Crystal Bailey (35:31.214)
Yeah, so when we are over 35, we really should be adding quite a bit of support to ensure that the process of all this division and energy that's needed and is there for egg and sperm. And so he is a big part of that too. We don't give

as much credit to their health as they somehow guys always get off the hook for a lot of stuff. they do matter. at least if we can get them on maybe two supplements, we can. Hey, yes.

Dr. Shannon (36:04.919)
They do, right? That's...

Dr. Shannon (36:13.847)
That's, I know, that's why I wanted you to mention it. Like, this is the one time where it can be like, hey, you know, you got to take care of yourself because you're part of this. so...

Crystal Bailey (36:23.31)
And it's not just her, know, lot of it does fall on the woman, but good quality sperm is important. It is important. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (36:26.391)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (36:33.057)
It's half of the baby, you know? It comes out to be half. That's why I'm so glad you mentioned that. And as well too, the individualized care that you can provide too as far as what does he need as well. Obviously, it's gonna be a different energy level and different energy than female as well too, but.

Crystal Bailey (36:54.944)
Yeah. So I think all that says there is a huge role that men can, I mean, they're, they have these huge roles about how we as women feel in our bodies, how our hormones are, how that, how they're going to contribute to conception, and how they're going to influence what happens in pregnancy, you know,

Are we as the women navigating everything on our own and he's just going to be like the I'm not sure that safe. I'm not sure you should do that. Or is he a part of it and going to be present? You know, I will easily decline a home birth client if he gives me any vibes about him not being on board.

Dr. Shannon (37:32.665)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (37:48.055)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (37:52.396)
If hasn't prepared, if he's asking questions that were clearly on my website, you know, and in the videos, if he I there's certain things I expect him to ask being a responsible like he should ask certain questions, but you can always tell when they're just not on board.

Dr. Shannon (37:58.359)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (38:07.533)
Mm-hmm.

The pushback is different. Mm-hmm. Yeah. And you're like, I'm willing to educate, but also to a point.

Crystal Bailey (38:15.726)
I'm not going to be vulnerable in your house midwifing a situation where you don't trust the process because we, you know.

Dr. Shannon (38:23.968)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (38:28.014)
I feel safe as a midwife with birth because of the nature of it all is meant to work. But I only feel safe as a midwife with birth out of hospital. If what I have to midwife is something that is healthy, well taken care of emotionally, physically, the environment is trusting is lets me lead.

Dr. Shannon (38:35.224)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (38:47.703)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (38:56.192)
as a midwife, I mean, we're in a very vulnerable setting. so the whole model of what we offer as home birth midwives in prenatal care sets that up. And then what this preconception does is it gives the opportunity for establishing trust, establishing knowledge, establishing better health,

Dr. Shannon (38:59.693)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (39:26.103)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (39:27.014)
and in that innate, that sense of like, they can pick up the vibe from me that I believe the body works, that I believe birth works, that I believe a baby deserves, you know, certain emotional things from its parents in the whole process. And, so they, they received that from me because it's, it's all very important to me as a midwife.

And so that, I think it's something you don't get in lot of places. You don't get to like show up and get this preconception support.

Dr. Shannon (40:09.457)
Mm-hmm. Mm-mm. No, and that's why I wanted you to talk about it because I'm like, oh, this is so unique and it's so individualized and so tailored for each person. Do you notice?

Crystal Bailey (40:20.302)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (40:24.633)
Do you notice themes or do you have, because you mentioned someone who's very driven and productive and doing the HIIT workouts and all those types of things. So do you tend to see themes or commonality in people and women that do come to you for help and it's kind of like, yes, I see this category or it's this category here.

Crystal Bailey (40:48.866)
Yeah, so one of the, one of those categories like we were talking about and women will identify with this, you know, like they could have even just been a firstborn. They could have been a firstborn of an immigrant family and they, they're starting life with all these expectations. Certain cultures have such like a expectation of women and their achievements. So there's a lot of reasons that we become

Dr. Shannon (41:06.521)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (41:15.328)
We want to get our value in this world based on what we're achieving and work often. And then we're also supposed to be fit and going to like these intense things. For someone whose body type is, and so then this is layered on what your innate physical body type, right? So let's talk about that being

Dr. Shannon (41:30.681)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (41:41.238)
on the innate physical body type of someone who has a strong adrenal. They produce a lot of adrenaline and they're usually a type A very focused driven person who gets a lot done. They wake up in the morning with a lot of energy because they have this adrenal drive. Their cortisol wakes them up.

Dr. Shannon (41:52.227)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (42:08.438)
And they hit it, you know, their focus are getting a lot done after work. They go work out because they need to burn the adrenaline off. That's really high. And so they're just pushing a lot in their body and that drive towards things is a masculine energy. So you're trying to achieve, accomplish and drive towards it.

Dr. Shannon (42:08.451)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (42:16.761)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (42:25.461)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (42:36.118)
And you may not even understand why. It may not align with your depth, your essence. You're just driving towards something. And so a woman that's in that drive state, so she's not, she's not flowing out of her depths towards something she believes in. She's driving towards something because she feels a reason that she needs to achieve these things. And that woman,

Dr. Shannon (42:39.885)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (42:54.499)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:01.729)
Hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (43:06.094)
often is not she often will present more fertility issues, right? Cycle issues, breach babies for sure. Um, you know, it goes down. I mean, even their breathing patterns, their chest breathing, their fascia is pulling that baby up straight up into the diaphragm. You know, everything in the pelvic floor. Everything's locked up, right? So we see the physical patterns in the body preconception.

Dr. Shannon (43:17.801)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:23.565)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (43:31.064)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (43:36.138)
Her uterus and ovaries are not juicy flowing. She's not moving these hips. You know, like she's very locked. Would you agree? You know what I'm talking about? So as a chiropractor, do you see it in their hips? Yeah, I see it in the hips as a midwife. And so I'm sure you see these patterns. So you know what I'm talking about. Yeah. It's.

Dr. Shannon (43:42.189)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

definitely. Or tightness in the pelvic floor. Yeah. Yeah. There's, I like that you said locked because it does, it can feel locked.

Crystal Bailey (44:04.846)
It's very locked and so even preconception, what amount of blood flow are the uterus and ovaries and vagina getting? They're getting less. And if she had some reason in her life to be dissociated from her sexuality, even ashamed of her period, even ashamed of herself,

Dr. Shannon (44:15.523)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (44:31.202)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (44:34.018)
you know, sensually she's even more locked up, right? Or trauma. and so you have this kind of abandoned area of the body. Everything's tight muscle, pelvic floor, and your, your hormones, like we said, in this masculine state or more driven towards, you know, you've got more adrenaline, which lowers your progesterone because it's stealing the progesterone.

Dr. Shannon (44:38.016)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (45:02.166)
The pregnant alone then becomes cortisol instead of progesterone, right? So she's not having this great stabilizing peaceful progesterone state. She might have shorter periods, more PMS and irritability. And so she has you see a lot of stuff happening, right? And this in this body and something as simple as shifting

Dr. Shannon (45:02.327)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (45:14.115)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (45:27.437)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (45:32.354)
her energy or her state of being can shift hormones, something like womb massage, yoni steaming, know, just vaginal steaming, for some, somehow that just works for people sometimes because they just need to be in tune with that. Red light heating pads, know, over the, over the lower belly, the uterus area, massaging or doing

Dr. Shannon (45:37.23)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (45:47.36)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (46:02.294)
and embodied flow movement. These are ways that she can start to reconnect without even.. it's not like she needs this comp.. she may not even need all these supplements or anything else. She just needs like awakening of this state of being. So in the embodiment coaching, which.. so people are like, what is feminine embodiment?

Dr. Shannon (46:04.846)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (46:15.48)
That's why I'm glad you mentioned. Yeah, what are some other things you can do?

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (46:31.38)
Feminine embodiment came out of, it has somatic roots. So somatic therapy where we believe that, and we know that the body will trap things, know, fear gets trapped, the body just stops and it holds things. And unless you access what the body has locked up, you can't use talk therapy to get through all this stuff, right? Because the body is holding things.

Dr. Shannon (46:37.144)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (46:45.401)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (46:54.359)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (46:58.681)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (47:01.098)
And so we know through that, that physical movement is a way the body expresses and unlocks emotions. We know that as animals, we have this instinct in this reptilian brain to move the way our body wants to move instead of the way our brain would tell it. Right? So when we go to yoga class, someone's telling our body to do certain things.

Dr. Shannon (47:09.293)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (47:22.499)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (47:29.602)
But in embodied movement, there's you try not to invite the brain to the party. You try to quiet the brain. So you first create a safe space that can be closing the door, getting your closet. You want to put the body in a position where this more primal you have access more to the primal instinct. So being on hands, knees with your head down.

Dr. Shannon (47:37.561)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (47:42.872)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (47:58.094)
puts the brain below the heart and the pelvic bowl. So now in this safe space, you've now accessing a little more and we know women labor like this, right? And in that hands knees, you've now opened up the ability for air to come into the back, the ability for the air to come in the side of the lungs, the neutral position of the pelvic floor softens it.

Dr. Shannon (48:02.209)
Hmm... Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (48:10.221)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (48:20.729)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (48:26.316)
So you're physically unlocking things and then you are perhaps just being quiet and just making space for the body to lead a movement and it'll zone in on one spot where the tension is most evident. That's always going to be like the brain always goes somewhere, right? And so it's going to say my shoulder is tight.

Dr. Shannon (48:50.989)
Mm-hmm

Crystal Bailey (48:55.244)
And then you would allow say, okay, well shoulder, how would you like to move? And then you allow this movement to start to happen. so rather than trying to do a certain breath practice, right? Rather than trying to do a certain thing to your body, you're making the brain get out of the way and allowing the body to choose a movement. And in this process of giving the body permission

Dr. Shannon (49:10.745)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (49:21.143)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (49:25.39)
flow through what it needs to flow through. Emotions get unlocked. The breathing, the rhythm of the breathing and the body movement and eventually it will go to the hips. You know often we start off you'll first notice shoulders the neck or shoulders or upper back but the body will always want to unravel the hips and then you start to get this

Dr. Shannon (49:32.237)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (49:39.768)
Hmm.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (49:50.327)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (49:54.19)
a lot of movement in the hips. And this is how, I'm working with a woman who's a baby's breech, have found instead of me working on her body, I guide her into this embodied movement because I see this whole rhythm unlock in her body and she is flowing and you see their spine waving and you see the hips moving and you see it's way more powerful than me hands on.

Dr. Shannon (50:08.31)
Hmm.

Dr. Shannon (50:12.384)
huh.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (50:22.157)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (50:22.766)
massaging something. And I don't know what's holding that baby up necessarily. Today I worked on someone and she first recognized there was, you and I asked her, where are you feeling attention? And she recognized in this left hip. Well, when I was massaging her belly down in that left groin, there was like a rock hard

Dr. Shannon (50:28.589)
Mm-hmm

Dr. Shannon (50:41.07)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (50:49.55)
rubber band. She does not get chiropractic. she's going for an appointment this afternoon. I was like this thing. was like this whole baby can't even go over here because there's like this really tight thing. so this ability to open the hips, alive in that part of our body, not only is going to bring blood flow, it gets

Dr. Shannon (50:51.993)
Yay, okay, good.

Dr. Shannon (51:00.717)
huh.

Dr. Shannon (51:05.517)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (51:19.182)
permission for the womb to be alive. When we give permission for our womb to be alive and recognized and loved, then it can then be a receptive place for a new life. And so if she's trying to conceive,

Dr. Shannon (51:25.622)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (51:46.754)
but that's not the environment of what's happening in her body. I mean, a lot of women can conceive no problem, right? But if you're trying to figure out why you're not conceiving or how to even reduce your risk of miscarriage, right? Because miscarriage may be also because your progesterone is really low and maybe your progesterone is really low because you're stressed.

Dr. Shannon (51:51.641)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (52:05.058)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (52:12.121)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (52:15.566)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (52:16.814)
You know, this is something we could maybe support before the conception.

Dr. Shannon (52:23.225)
And it seems like something that you can carry with you into pregnancy, into labor and birth, into postpartum and into motherhood like this that connection to your body and then honoring it at all of those stages and finding that healing flow, know?

Crystal Bailey (52:30.942)
Yeah!

Crystal Bailey (52:44.238)
Yeah, not you may never have known what your body had available to you. And when you learn it, and you learn how to access it, or you learn what your balances for your type of what states you tend to go into, I will even use Bach flower remedies often for finding people's emotional types and balancing but

Dr. Shannon (53:02.701)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (53:13.004)
Hmm.

Crystal Bailey (53:13.07)
I always do those for my pregnant patients too because I want them to be emotionally balanced. A lot of women go on these journeys in their 40s to figure out their true essence and their true type. Suddenly in your 40s, because you're not blinded by all these hormones and you're like, wait a minute, who am I?

Dr. Shannon (53:15.725)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (53:27.481)
Is that talking about me? But yeah.

Crystal Bailey (53:41.24)
So if we had had this opportunity even younger when we were very much confused about our bodies or very insecure about things in our bodies, then how beautiful would it be to have gone through these journeys even younger and been able to be supported and

Dr. Shannon (53:45.111)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (53:54.52)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (54:04.621)
I know.

Crystal Bailey (54:10.744)
So my health and my work is...

is that I just love women knowing about themselves and their type and how to balance it, just validating it and feeling.

Dr. Shannon (54:22.989)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (54:27.885)
feeling.

less how I felt where your body's foreign and you're just insecure about it. yeah.

Dr. Shannon (54:36.053)
Yeah, things are happening to you instead of you being an active participant in this or understanding those things.

Crystal Bailey (54:43.308)
Yeah, and it's an investment. know, like I, you I am usually asking people to do a couple of visits with me and I, I do have like packages, they, you they might, it's like $150. My packages to start, it's like $150 for like three months. It's nothing crazy. I try to make it so people can get in the door and

Dr. Shannon (54:49.624)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (54:54.339)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (55:04.77)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (55:07.414)
I want to do a group program because I'm finding, we all need a little support in our embodiment and figuring out what phase. I'm really into journeys and phases of journeys. Like I mentioned to you, you asked me what I'm doing in my career right now.

Dr. Shannon (55:12.494)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (55:20.343)
Mm-hmm.

Yes. Are you doing midwifery? What are we doing here, Crystal?

Crystal Bailey (55:28.622)
And I said, you know, I'm finishing a phase, an era for me, and I know I'm entering the next era, and there is a gap there where I have to close down the version of my midwifery that's just me, solo midwifery my whole life. I'm on call. can never leave town when I'm on call as a midwife, and I cannot expand my...

Dr. Shannon (55:51.992)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (55:56.078)
practice doing more of the natural private women's health, which I'm really excited about. And so, yeah, I'm taking a break from basically now. I have someone in early labor, she's my last client, until September I'll take home birth. And I'm just doing some, I'm doing midwife shifts at the Atlanta Birth Center, which was my...

Dr. Shannon (56:00.589)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (56:10.957)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (56:21.783)
Very nice. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (56:22.7)
baby when I moved back to Atlanta to help open the birth center. So I love the birth center and I yeah, I'm figuring out my next era. I'm figuring out how to make my personal life more make myself more available to my own personal life and to make myself more available to like I'd really love to do some group.

Dr. Shannon (56:28.076)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (56:35.043)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (56:41.976)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (56:49.324)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (56:49.486)
programs and stuff with the embodiment with groups of women. Because women usually want to be in the group. Like if you are struggling with PCOS, you want to be in a group with women struggling with PCOS. And if you're trying to become more embodied in your 40s and work on your hormone, you kind of want to be with other women in that phase. So I would love to be able to have some of that.

Dr. Shannon (56:53.218)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (57:02.477)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (57:16.121)
I see it for you. Speak it into existence. I love it. Yeah. Yes. Really tuning in on that. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (57:18.318)
So that's what my little sabbatical is of being on call for birth. I bought an Airstream because adventure, I love adventure and being in the wilderness. I bring that into my way I work with people is, know, because nature is important.

Dr. Shannon (57:30.499)
Yeah.

good.

Dr. Shannon (57:39.433)
But you know, you've done your work on you and you know your embodiment and you know what you need to heal and where to give and where to take and where to push and where to pull. So I think it's neat for you to kind of tell people, hey, these are the things that I'm doing to, you know, care for myself. It's not just push, push, push, drive, drive, drive. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (57:51.512)
Yeah.

It is. Yeah, you know, I, it's not push, push, push. It's not just me supporting pregnant women, you know, because I've had to go through my own personal journey of, you know, my own life, my own lack of motherhood, my own, you know, becoming older, my own wanting to just move into my next phase and how I was mid, what is midwifing mean to me. And, you know, I need some of

Dr. Shannon (58:02.061)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (58:17.997)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (58:24.704)
some of you younger ladies become midwives because we need to we need to mentor you and I believe I believe strongly I didn't get to be mentored and I you know I think I'm ready for the next another person the next midwife to mentor and to understanding how to do mid midwifing in a way that's

Dr. Shannon (58:27.821)
That's, this is a call to action. Uh-huh.

Dr. Shannon (58:35.714)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (58:45.825)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (58:51.888)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (58:53.262)
that's holistic, but also safe. exactly. Like I, um, people think nurse midwives are like super medical. I'm like, I mean, just because like we could, you know, manage hypertension in the hospital doesn't mean we, it doesn't mean like, I don't want to, um,

Dr. Shannon (58:56.109)
that honors the birth space.

Dr. Shannon (59:11.211)
You go around like, yeah, everybody needs a statin, yeah.

Crystal Bailey (59:16.814)
That's not what we want to be doing. We would much rather be midwifing healthy pregnancies and have the opportunity to be at healthy births and not just putting out fires. so, but I'm a big fan of CPM traditional midwives, all the routes except for non-trained midwifing.

Dr. Shannon (59:18.531)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (59:21.996)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (59:26.785)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (59:38.68)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (59:44.845)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (59:46.766)
which is seems to be increasing. we're often in situations where we need to we need to midwife and we need to support babies and everything from preconception to the birth. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (59:49.643)
Yeah, we don't want that. We don't need that. We need the training. We need the experience, the expertise, the knowledge. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (01:00:03.095)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (01:00:08.311)
You need the skill set with that. Yeah. So where can people find you and connect with you and that sort of thing?

Crystal Bailey (01:00:18.938)
Yeah, so wilderbwomenswellness.com is my website. If you just looked up probably wild herb crystal or women's wellness or also listed on like the Institute for functional medicine. When you look at the fair or moonlight midwifery, well, my homebrew page also links over and

I, yeah, like I said, I'm going to be doing a little bit of adventure. I'm going to Vermont next week. So I'll do some tele-visits from there and then pick up and do in-person. And there is, but I, I really welcome people to just click on that discovery call link and we just chat for a little bit. I can explain, you know, how I would be able to help them with their situation and send them some links for options for booking.

Dr. Shannon (01:00:52.684)
Yay!

Dr. Shannon (01:01:05.069)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (01:01:17.486)
There's online booking but they're welcome to reach out. I also do it if you are pregnant but not my birth client I will still love to support in the more naturopathic way or even this coaching and midwife kind of vibe that I can pull in regardless of where someone's birthing.

Dr. Shannon (01:01:36.268)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (01:01:47.191)
And so there's lots of options. I feel like I have a lot of options, but it's sometimes easy just to reach out and book a call so we can chat. Yeah. And see what.

Dr. Shannon (01:01:49.561)
I was going say you got lots of options to help. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (01:01:57.709)
do the call and say like, what do you think I need? What do you think I need? I'm so thankful to have you in the Atlanta area, to have you in this birth space and to have you doing what you're doing. I think it's really crucial and it's really cool. I bet you've seen so many people that you've worked with to just help in that birth space. Yes, know, birthing babies and helping with midwifery care, but-

Crystal Bailey (01:02:02.464)
Yeah, exactly.

Crystal Bailey (01:02:12.78)
Thank you.

Crystal Bailey (01:02:23.484)
huh.

Dr. Shannon (01:02:25.645)
the other aspect of really connecting, helping women kind of find that feminine embodiment and find themselves a bit. So I'm so thankful for you. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (01:02:28.536)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (01:02:34.262)
Yeah, I love it. mean, what I think is so fun is like the shifts you see when you're doing something so personalized and these little things that I don't feel like we're doing a lot. And then then they're like, they're like, I've shifted this and this and I took these few supplements and I just feel so much more alive. And I'm like, wow.

Dr. Shannon (01:02:48.119)
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Shannon (01:02:57.421)
That's great, I know. Wasn't that much. Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (01:02:58.882)
Wow, we didn't even, you know, like, they just need the support to make some shifts. And so it's really fun for me. I love it. And so, I'm sharing. Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (01:03:05.366)
Yeah.

Dr. Shannon (01:03:12.279)
Yay. Well, again, thank you so much and for taking the time to be, to come and be on the show today. I greatly, appreciate it. tell them all the listeners, stay tuned. We have episodes that come out kind of every other week. And so again, thank you so much for being on the show, Crystal.

Crystal Bailey (01:03:17.631)
Yeah.

Crystal Bailey (01:03:24.707)
Mm-hmm.

Crystal Bailey (01:03:30.274)
You're welcome. Thank you.