Ep 199: Pregnancy Myths Busted: Part 2

In this episode, we're back busting common pregnancy myths.  We're also exploring how pregnancy shapes and symptoms are misunderstood, and we discuss the realities of labor and birth options. Be sure to check out part 1.

Key Topics

Pregnancy shape and gender myths

Labor signs and water breaking misconceptions

Cesarean vs vaginal birth safety

Pregnancy nausea and morning sickness

Birth recovery and myths

Transcript

Aligned Birth Podcast (00:01.372)

Welcome back to the Align Birth podcast. You have both hosts here today. I'm Dr. Shannon and you've got Dula Rachel as well. And today's birth topic is, I guess maybe part two of a series. And this is gonna be more pregnancy myth busting. And these are kind of fun because it's not necessarily, it's like light and fun. It's not like.

serious, you know, deep topics. It's like, have you heard this? This is kind of fun. And is it really true or is it just kind of like a little old wives tale type of thing? welcome to part two of Mythbusting and hi, Rachel.

Aligned Birth Podcast (00:45.294)

Hi Shannon, love this conversation. I was like excited to come up with some fun new myths to chat about, some that you hear, some maybe you've never heard of before. And yeah, let's, let's do it.

Aligned Birth Podcast (00:56.856)

dive right in. One that's really fun is kind of like how you carry or like belly positioning relating it to if you're gonna have a boy or a girl. Like I do too. Yeah, yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (01:11.702)

I hear it all the time from people who know nothing.

Aligned Birth Podcast (01:17.792)

Yeah. And it'll be like, you're carrying really low. It'll be a boy, you know, must be a boy. And I'm like, well, the I mean, they start off kind of high and then they drop, you know, it's like, and everybody there's so many anatomical variations to everyone's pelvis and uterine shape, but also like your abdominal area. Because sometimes if you're on the shorter side, you don't got as much room for belly to be.

Aligned Birth Podcast (01:46.05)

Hi, me. Hi, me, Shorty. No, that baby was, they were everywhere. I do wanted to look into the, what is, why do people feel like they need to like guess or analyze like various things, how you're digesting food, do you have heartburn?

Aligned Birth Podcast (01:46.594)

High and low.

They were everywhere.

Aligned Birth Podcast (02:01.633)

Hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (02:10.27)

where where's the position of your belly when you started showing like there's all these things that people think indicate gender of the baby and our sex with the baby and it doesn't. It doesn't.

Aligned Birth Podcast (02:19.596)

Mm-hmm.

I know. And I know we, so we did not find out our genders when we were pregnant. So that was always fun. So everybody had comments on that. And so that was just another little, a little layer. But, and there were so many things where like you take, I can't remember if we talked about them, the last myth-besting one, but you take like a necklace and if you hold it over the belly and if it swings like one way versus the other, I'm like.

Aligned Birth Podcast (02:49.646)

That feels so wild.

Aligned Birth Podcast (02:51.344)

What is this voodoo? There was the one about if you pee in, it mixes with Drano and it changes like a specific color. I'm not even lying. That it means it's a boy or girl. I don't think I made that up, but I'm pretty sure that's... I just added two other myths.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:04.81)

No.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:10.542)

No, I think there's all kinds of like, and I think there's all kinds of myths out there about ways to figure out what you have in. And then people who even like TTC trying to conceive will do it. There's all kinds of combination of things to try and dictate the sex of the baby. And the reality is.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:15.64)

yeah. I know. It's fun.

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:28.475)

huh. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:33.398)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:36.584)

We don't have any control over it. All we know is that it comes from the sperm. That is the determining factor for the sex of the baby. And really belly shape is really more about like the person carrying it, like how they carry pregnancies. And that could vary from pregnancy. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:39.478)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:43.861)

huh.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:48.077)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (03:54.924)

Mm-hmm.

Where the placenta is, where the baby is, you know, and how the baby wants to... Yeah, there's so many...

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:03.276)

Yeah, sometimes they're really low. Sometimes they're high. Sometimes they're like torpedoes. Sometimes they're really wide. and yeah, how the baby's, the baby's actual position inside of the womb can, can change the shape of the belly and it can change throughout the course of your pregnancy and from pregnancy to pregnancy. So, you know, it's fun. It's borderline harmless. If it bothers you and people try to guess the sex of your baby, you could always set a healthy boundary, but you know, just know that there's,

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:05.665)

He

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:19.767)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:24.266)

It is fine.

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:29.888)

Yeah. Just know that that's yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:33.73)

There's nothing you can do. Did you know what you were having since you waited? Did you like suspect?

Aligned Birth Podcast (04:36.12)

Yeah, it is.

Mm-mm.

Mm-mm. I don't remember. I don't think we did. I know we had more boy names picked out than girl names. I don't remember that. And I think I've shared before when I had my first. He came out, my husband goes, it's an Ethan. He didn't say it's a boy because we knew we were going to do that name. yeah, I don't think he even remembers that he said that. He's like, it's an Ethan.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:03.734)

That's how you knew it was a boy, because it was Ethan. That's hilarious.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:11.64)

That was fun. Yeah. But I really thought it was I enjoyed not finding out the gender, but I think I've shared this, but people were deeply offended. My friends were so angry. I was like, buy me white onesies. don't know. I know. I don't care. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:12.014)

Aww, that is fun.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:18.516)

I love that. I envy that.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:24.398)

That's also another wild thing for people to be upset that you are finding out the gender of your baby. Oh my gosh. Yeah, we found out early with Everett, like real early, like through the blood work. And then Marshall, I tried.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:42.167)

The blood work, yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:47.35)

I gave it my best effort and I made it to like 25 or 26 weeks and it was a snow storm. So they wrote it down on a little note and Jay put it like in his phone between his phone and the case and it was like, you know, off limits unless.

Aligned Birth Podcast (05:54.196)

Okay.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:08.278)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:09.314)

We decided, of course, agreed that we wanted to see it and there was a snowstorm and we were locked inside for a couple days and I was literally just like, I gotta know, I gotta know.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:16.171)

And you were like, I can't do it anymore.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:23.681)

It's just sitting there. It's like, what's that? The Telltale Heart from Edgar Allan Poe and he just hears like the heartbeat. You're just like, I know that it's in there. That's amazing.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:34.814)

I maybe it would have been better just to have never even had them give it to us. Then obviously none of that could have done anything. That's the ticket right there. Don't write it down and bring it home with you.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:38.093)

huh. huh.

Yeah. I don't have it accessible. gosh. But speaking of like there being belly shapes or those type of things, and I've got a couple moms in the office now with twins, but just because I know, just because you're having twins doesn't mean you're going to show earlier or show in a certain way as well.

Aligned Birth Podcast (06:59.615)

Woo!

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:11.958)

I mean I don't think until like much much later does it is it evident like because eventually the bellies do usually get bigger

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:14.7)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:21.002)

Yeah, like you do have, you know, you've got double the real estate in there. So there's that aspect, but it's not so much of showing early. That's yeah. And it's like. No.

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:31.758)

Like if you're showing early that maybe it's twins, I think that's the myth. If someone's commenting on themselves or someone else is commenting like, look, you're only right. 10 weeks pregnant. You're showing early. Maybe it's twins. Like especially at that point. Yeah. The second one is typically pops. You pop quicker cause your body is like, I've done this before.

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:40.364)

which they shouldn't be, yeah.

I showed real early on my second time around and that was really frustrating. I was really frustrated with that.

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:54.89)

Yeah, exactly. So that's the thing too.

Aligned Birth Podcast (07:56.238)

But the, I mean, the uterus stays inside the pelvis really for the first 15 to 16 weeks. Um, so, but again, some people do pop early. Some people take months. I remember dying. I wanted with my first, I could not wait to be showing and it felt like it took forever to it not for it to not look like I had too many burritos the night before. I'm just pudgy. My, this is so mean. Um,

Aligned Birth Podcast (08:02.658)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (08:13.036)

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. I just ate a lot. Mm-hmm. That was so frustrating.

Aligned Birth Podcast (08:25.344)

And then with my second, I was like popped out there like really quickly and I was like, I'm not ready for this.

Aligned Birth Podcast (08:29.779)

Mm-hmm. I know. And I always wanted that like, like that basketball belly, you know? And I feel like I had more of like, you remember those watermelons from Dirty Dancing where they're like, they're like, I mean, I've never seen watermelons like that, but there's really, really like oblong. I felt like that was my shape and it was just more of like.

felt like I was turning into like Penguin from Danny DeVito's Penguin, you know? And I was just like, well, that's not what I had thought was gonna happen. But you know, you gotta embrace it. That is what it is. But yeah, shape does not indicate gender or if you're carrying twins.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:03.286)

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yep.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:14.784)

Yeah, don't let anyone tell you they think you're carrying twins when they don't know. That's so insulting.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:19.168)

Yeah, yeah, I remember having people saying that. was like, that's not, that's rude. That's rude.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:25.486)

You should just counter it by saying, actually it's triplets when you don't even know.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:29.01)

There you go. And another one is, and it's termed, the nausea during pregnancy has like, I guess, maybe even a misnomer, I don't know, but the aspect of morning sickness. But it doesn't mean that the nausea or anything is going to only happen in the morning.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:54.51)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (09:56.256)

And so I don't sometimes that's like a misconception. I remember way back when we first, I first joined Facebook. this was like, and then was pregnant with Ethan and I remember, or maybe it was with Dylan. I can't remember what it was, but I remember it titled an album, like a little photo album on there and calling it morning sickness, actually all day sickness. I remember, I remember that and being like,

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:20.684)

You

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:23.266)

Well, that's what they said it was gonna be and this is not what it is. But I think I've blocked out like the nausea that I had, because I was like, I don't remember being that nauseous, but anywho, it's not necessarily a morning. I don't remember it.

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:33.87)

of the mind is powerful and I had I saw I had extreme nausea with both of mine never actually sick and it ended after the first trimester so like

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:46.295)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:51.246)

all the praises, right? Everyone has. So that's the other thing about morning sickness is I think it has like such a range of what it can be and everyone experiences it differently and we just all lump it into morning sickness unless you have like the the the yes where it's like

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:52.726)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:56.373)

huh.

Aligned Birth Podcast (10:59.704)

Huh?

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:06.58)

hyperemesis. type of thing. That's different.

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:10.07)

all day every day getting sick and beyond the first trimester. But yeah, I kind of equated mine to like low grade like motion sickness or kind of like that queasy stomach after maybe drinking too much. Like I would be just so tired and so nauseous, but all day.

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:20.181)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:24.716)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:30.104)

Mmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:31.278)

All day and people morning sickness i'm like, no, you know It's not fair because a lot of people experience morning sickness do experience those symptoms off and on throughout the day they tend to be the worst in the morning and that's typically because Like you haven't eaten or drinking all night and so you're waking up and like nothing's on your stomach because a lot of morning sickness can be like coiled by a little bit of food and Hydration and like lots of small meals throughout the day so it's can be managed like once you're up and going like I would like put saltines on my side

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:35.628)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (11:46.488)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:01.232)

table and eat them before I set up. It would be literally like I'd be laying down because like as soon as I started go as soon as I started going though like the nausea would just be like a wave and so I could get a few bites of saltines in and then be able to get up and not feel so sick. But yeah it's really we need a different name for it. Pregnancy sickness I don't know.

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:08.012)

You're like, must be fed while laying down.

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:14.989)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:26.476)

Yeah.

Just nausea, just pregnancy nausea, so yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:29.738)

It's not cool. It's so hard and it's due to so many factors but mostly hormonal.

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:36.908)

heard and I don't know but I've heard too that it's how the like intensity of the sickness is also related to sperm and so I need to look into that I don't know if that's another myth but that I or if it's just a way that we can just blame the man I will take it

Aligned Birth Podcast (12:53.742)

Well, I don't know how it would play in. know, you know, the sperm is responsible for the development of the placenta. And the placenta is like implanting and then it's beginning its journey. Yeah, I'm not sure about that one. I haven't heard that Shannon. But what I know is it's the increase in all the hormones and you have increased in blood volume.

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:05.976)

See, that may be another myth that I am throwing in there.

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:16.938)

and hormones. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:22.798)

And just all of that can just make you feel really, really lethargic, really nauseous. And some people breeze by and don't have anything, but yay for those folks. They shouldn't feel guilty that they had a pregnancy where they weren't sick, but it is not just morning sickness.

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:26.028)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:31.842)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:42.232)

Yeah, mine was mostly triggered by food smells. I feel like that was the main, that's what I remember the most, especially like at work during lunch and having some people at it. And I could identify specifically what someone was eating. And I was like, you can't eat that anymore. At least for 12 weeks. But

Aligned Birth Podcast (13:59.852)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (14:07.468)

That's the most horrendous smell. And it was Amy's lentil soup. It's like a good organic brand of soup, but I was like, I know what that is. I don't, yeah, I don't know. So that was me. So sometimes it smells, but it didn't happen just during the day.

Aligned Birth Podcast (14:13.866)

Right, but it's like a no.

Aligned Birth Podcast (14:24.366)

Yeah, at work, I would only eat saltines and drink ginger ale. And I was trying to hide my pregnancy for the first trimester. And my coworker, who had had three kids, mind you, this is my first she's like, Are you pregnant? And I was like, No. No, beet red.

Aligned Birth Podcast (14:36.568)

I just really like salt. I just drank that last night.

Aligned Birth Podcast (14:53.762)

ginger ale and saltines. lived on them.

Aligned Birth Podcast (14:55.352)

The saltines, you never look at them the same. Yeah. I don't think I've ever had that Amy soup again though. I will tell you that. I think that stuck with me. sorry. Sorry. I really liked that brand, but no. Okay. Another fun myth is that labor starts when your water breaks. And it can be like...

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:00.974)

you

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:23.768)

Sorry, I hear my dog dreaming. don't know if you can hear it. Okay. He likes that one. Okay. But that labor starts when your water breaks. It's like it does, it's not, maybe it's more of, it's not like the water breaks and then immediately contraction start. And this is

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:23.83)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:28.577)

I could barely.

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:52.812)

This is moving. This is going, right? Like, I don't know if that's...

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:54.786)

Well, I think the misnomer is that all labor starts with the water breaking. I think the misnomer because of...

Aligned Birth Podcast (15:59.448)

okay, I get what you're saying. Cause mine, it starts with that, but like I had the water broke and it was like, it took a minute.

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:08.982)

So I can give you the spectrum with water breaking because we teach this in our childbirth education class, but we get it all the time, especially dads. they're like, so water breaks and labor starts. That's like for everyone. We can anticipate the water to break. And I'm like, no, no. So the water can break.

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:12.277)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:15.863)

but it didn't break with my first.

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:25.335)

Yeah

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:34.318)

And that'd the beginning of labor, yes, but we only see that in 10 to 15 % of laborers actually like labor starts when the water breaks, meaning contractions, right? Like you have the water break and then contractions are coming with it. That's a really small percentage. Most people's water breaks deeper into labor. So seven, eight, nine centimeters in labor. That's when like most people's water will break. So that's well after labor has started.

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:46.464)

Right.

Aligned Birth Podcast (16:57.717)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:03.165)

It's those contractions have started. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:04.272)

So it's important for people to know that the water breaking isn't the only isn't the sign you have to be looking out for Yeah

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:08.695)

Isn't the only thing to look for so yeah, it's like the start of it but even with mine with Dylan my water broke but he Descended and stopped the rest of it from coming out. Yeah, so like water broke but then it was also It wasn't like a rush rush rush, you know

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:21.23)

kind of sealed it up.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:29.91)

Yeah, no, and the water breaking isn't like an immediate like, let's go to like rush to the birth location or that the baby's coming right away for most people. You really have the thing you're looking out for is those contractions coming consistently getting longer, stronger, closer together over time. So the water, the other end of the spectrum is the water can break and then labor not start right away.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:35.659)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:42.411)

The contractions. The regularity.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:53.941)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:55.062)

For people who for that they call that premature rupture of membranes and for most people labor will start on its own within 24 hours like the vast number of folks so between 12 and 24 hours so you definitely want with the water breaking the thing that it does tell us is that you need to be moving towards labor.

Aligned Birth Podcast (17:58.732)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:04.556)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:15.307)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:16.458)

and if not, might need some additional help, but there's not a timeframe for that so long as mom and baby are doing good. Like can still be several days, but it's not like the water breaks and then you just carry on in perpetuity. So it is kind of like a definitive sign of labor, but it doesn't always mean, that doesn't have to happen for labor to start.

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:33.056)

right.

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:37.879)

for labor to start. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:39.328)

So and that's what like a lot of movies portray like lay out the water breaking being the start of labor versus like having contrast. Yeah. Yeah. No, no, not at all. Yes, it's not always a big pop and a gush. I think more times than not, what we see anecdotally is like the trickle of

Aligned Birth Podcast (18:44.489)

It's this massive gush of water and it always looks a certain way and it's like, it doesn't. Yeah. Because I thought I just peed on myself. I didn't realize too until yeah, we'd gotten to the hospital. Yeah. But then the contractions did start.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:00.78)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:01.864)

And then it's and if it keeps like if you think you've wet your feet, excuse me I'm stumbling over my words if you think you peed yourself, right? But then you let go the bathroom Maybe you lay down for a little bit and you get up and it keeps coming out even in little bits or like with every contraction a little bit comes out It's more than likely your water not you just peed yourself and it pee urine is acidic too So you can usually smell if it's urine whereas amniotic fluid

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:10.391)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:15.297)

Yeah.

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:22.561)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:31.69)

it is not acidic it's more sweet so there's also that but the other end of the spectrum for the water breaking is that the baby could actually be born in call so if you can go your whole so when I tell people that like you can go your whole labor and birth and deliver your baby without your water breaking now that's super rare but it doesn't even have to happen for you to have your baby so yeah

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:41.367)

without the water breaking.

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:51.233)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:55.105)

Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (19:59.584)

Yeah. There's so many variations. Exactly. Exactly. Because that's always the, I will not always, but it's a big, how do I know when labor starts and how do I know when I go to the hospital? Like that's always so much of the unknown and how long is it going to take? You know, like that tends to be that gray area that,

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:03.031)

Yeah.

We always say it's clear as, it's clear as mud.

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:23.746)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:28.236)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:29.559)

I don't know, you just have to accept.

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:31.98)

Well, we like to say with contractions, the most definitive way is contractions are coming. They're getting longer, stronger and closer together over time, and they're not stopping. And you've been doing that for several hours. Like, then that's most likely labor. Everything else you can just say, maybe.

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:42.773)

Right.

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:50.879)

Yeah. Yeah, clear as mud. Thanks. No, I know, right?

Aligned Birth Podcast (20:56.418)

Well, music is one sign to look out for one thing. And that means all those other things, you're just going to be like, cool. That's my body doing what it's going to do. It's not stop Googling is this labor.

Aligned Birth Podcast (21:01.367)

you

That was fun. Yeah. Yes. gosh. Call your doula. No. Let's see.

This can be, this is another myth. Caesareans are always safer than a vaginal birth. Yeah, this one might be a little touchy. Intensive abdominal surgery is also a cesarean.

When you look at it like that Because isn't there something like seven layers? That need to be cut through to get to the baby and so it's not necessarily safer Per se and I guess it's maybe how you're defining safe because in a normal physiological birth a vaginal birth Should be a very safe non

risky option. So it's not saying that vaginal births aren't safe or that cesareans are that safer option, but it is intensive abdominal surgery. And I think sometimes we forget that when we look at birth. And so I don't know if you guys ever are in your childbirth education, if you ever talk about like what the specifics of like of a cesarean and

Aligned Birth Podcast (22:47.192)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (22:48.935)

what that looks like and addressing some of the risks involved with it.

Aligned Birth Podcast (22:57.334)

Yeah, I mean, I think the reality is birth is inherently risky. And it's important to evaluate the individual need both clinically and emotionally. Because we can't say like one is safer over the other if doing the opposite is going to.

create trauma or something like that. So this is definitely not a black and white situation. It is nuanced. But I think the idea of like assuming that like if we can plan it and go go take the baby out and like this medicalized nature would be safer because it's more managed. I think that's a little bit where the myth. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (23:16.203)

Protect.

Aligned Birth Podcast (23:27.593)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (23:34.114)

So to say that's the word safer comes in. It's the whole, this can be controlled a bit better. And there's a timeline to it that's a bit more manageable. And so in a hospital OB mindset that can be portrayed as, to the woman that can be portrayed as this could be a safer option. However, again, like you had said, every case, every person is different. Every birth is different.

Aligned Birth Podcast (23:40.683)

Mm-hmm.

So how could that not be safer?

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:01.186)

Yeah, yeah. The physiological birth when it's makes sense and it's safe for both mom and baby is, I think has lower risk.

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:13.783)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:14.19)

than surgical birth, because surgery is invasive and comes with risk. But that's not to say all vaginal birth is free of trauma or risk either. So incredibly nuanced, but I think there could be people who feel like vaginal birth is the safest and best way and that all babies should be born vaginally and not leaving much room for the need for a cesarean. And then the flip side of that is people feeling like cesarean is safer for the reasons we just said and that we should

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:19.18)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:23.756)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:36.556)

Mm-hmm.

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:44.144)

lean more that way or choose that more quickly. Neither of those are ideal ways of looking at it.

Aligned Birth Podcast (24:51.158)

Yeah, yeah, I know and they both there's that healing aspect that can take place too in both of those birth options that lend to the complexities. Yeah.

Aligned Birth Podcast (25:02.56)

I mean, cesarean births can be longer recovery. However, I feel like I've seen it where people have had really smooth, easy cesarean recoveries and really hard, long vaginal recoveries. But again, those are the outliers statistically speaking, especially if we have a normal physiological birth. Those folks tend to have a much quicker bounce back.

Aligned Birth Podcast (25:15.902)

recovery.

Aligned Birth Podcast (25:28.992)

much quicker recovery, feel better faster, where cesarean birth can, you know, because you, like you said, you have the surgical wound into the layers of the abdomen that make it really hard to walk and get out of bed and carry things and, and so that can, you know, looking at like, you know, usually a minimum of six to eight weeks. So that's very different than what we see for most people who give birth vaginally.

Aligned Birth Podcast (25:44.34)

and engage. Yeah, lower.

Aligned Birth Podcast (25:58.466)

So recovery time is absolutely, should be weighed into that.

Aligned Birth Podcast (26:02.452)

Yeah, so those are some fun little myths. Maybe you've heard them. Maybe you haven't. Maybe this is the first time you're hearing them. I don't know. But we thought these were fun little things to chat about or little conversation starters as well too. So hope you enjoyed this episode today and then stay tuned for another new episode in a couple weeks.