Five Reasons to See a Naturopathic Doctor for Prenatal Care

A few weeks ago, Dr Carley reached out to me to see if I would be interested in “talking shop” over Zoom. Would I? Would I ever! For a few reasons. One, a Zoom call is a great excuse to close the office doors, effectively muting the noisy children - my noisy children - behind them. Two, it meant I would get to talk to another adult. One who, like me, is mom to three young kids while simultaneously stoking (juggling?) her passion for helping women achieve their wellness goals as they relate to pregnancy, birth and postpartum. And three, I’m a big believer in naturopathic care, myself having used a naturopath during pregnancy, postpartum and for infant ailments. My experience with naturopathic care has been overwhelmingly positive - in other words, I’m a huge fan! There’s a use of creativity and a real desire to problem solve, in order to find a lasting solution to your issue, that I just haven’t experienced in the same vein with a GP. One of the things Dr Carley and I kept circling back to was our feeling that many women just didn’t know that naturopathic care could help them during this phase in their life. So, I asked her if she would be willing to put down, in writing, some of the top reasons a pregnant person might turn to a naturopath for prenatal care. I’m so thankful that, despite her extremely busy schedule, she said yes!

Dr. Carley Akehurst, Naturopathic Physician, pictured, with one of her three children

Top Five Reasons to See an ND for Pregnancy Care by Dr. Carley Akehurst, ND

So you just found out you are pregnant – congratulations! You likely want to do everything you can to make sure that you and your baby are on the right track. These days, it’s not uncommon to receive unsolicited pregnancy advice at almost every turn. But how do you find reliable and trustworthy information? Adding an ND on your pregnancy health care team can help you sort through those details and create a solid approach. Here’s how:

To Manage Early Pregnancy Symptoms

Early pregnancy can be a challenging time. You may feel nauseous or tired, have headaches, feel bloated or constipated, and have varying degrees of interest in eating. As a Naturopathic Doctor, I have multiple options to help with those early pregnancy symptoms. Acupuncture can be a nice way to address nausea and calm the nervous system. We have several options available to manage digestive symptoms such as constipation or loose stools, bloating, heartburn, or lack of appetite. A dietary plan can help ensure you get the nutrients you need without worsening your symptoms.

To Know What Health Products are Safe to Take While Pregnant

You might have heard that it’s good to take folic acid while you are pregnant, but what about other nutrient needs? What is the best form of folic acid and do I need a whole prenatal vitamin? How long do I need to take it? These are some of the most common questions I get regarding supplements in pregnancy. As well, many people want to avoid pharmaceutical medications in pregnancy and try something ‘natural’ instead. Unfortunately, ‘natural’ doesn’t always mean safe. A Naturopathic Doctor who is familiar with pregnancy can help you decipher what products are best for you.

To Get Answers To Your Questions

Feeling informed and empowered is incredibly important in pregnancy (and in parenting!) This is a time in your life where you will be faced with many different choices, and ensuring that you have solid, evidence-based answers to your questions is one of my favourite parts of being an ND. What does genetic testing look for? How do I protect my microbiome if I need antibiotics in pregnancy? What will it look like if I require a caesarean? While NDs don’t actually catch babies, an experienced ND can help you decipher common pregnancy concerns and prepare for your delivery in an educated way.

To Prepare for Post-Partum

Our culture in North America doesn’t do a great job of supporting women after having a baby. Typically, a perinatal care provider will see a patient until six weeks post-partum. Six weeks is still very early post-partum! Many patients can feel a little bit lost after this time. As an ND, I help families navigate these early weeks by providing well baby checks, helping with breast or bottle feeding concerns, providing nutritional support, checking on birth recovery and referring to other professionals when needed, running lab work to assess post-partum recovery, and more.

To Optimize Your Baseline Health

Your midwife or OB/GYN will often run screening bloodwork in pregnancy, but NDs usually interpret them differently. We want to make sure that nutrient levels are optimal – not just sufficient. This not only helps prevent pregnancy complications (such as ensuring you have enough iron to deliver vaginally), but it also protects against post-partum complications as well (optimizing vitamin d can protect against post-partum mood disorders).

Dr Carley Akehurst, ND is an evidence based Naturopathic Doctor living and practicing in Vancouver, BC. She has a primary practice focus on women’s and children’s health – including pregnancy, birth, and post-partum care. With over a decade of clinical experience as a Naturopathic Doctor and doula, Dr Akehurst brings a common-sense approach to healthcare. When not in practice, she can be found enjoying time with her husband and three young children. She practices at both Mint Integrative Health and Crossroads Naturopathic Clinic in Vancouver. You can find more information on her website here.

The Sweet Birth of Baby R

When I first met Olivia, I knew I liked her. And not just because I’m a shameless cake lover and she’s a fabulous cake maker (although ‘maker’ doesn’t do her work justice, her cakes are works of art which is made even more incredible once you learn she’s completely self taught). No, it wasn’t our shared love of buttercream that drew me to her, rather, her confidence and her knowledge gained from, obviously, extensive research about birth. This wasn’t her first rodeo - or her second. Being her third birth, she knew what she wanted from the experience - and what she didn’t. She was aware of potential shortcomings in the system that she would birth her baby in and knew that adding a doula (me!) to her birth team would provide assurance that she had someone she could trust who help with advocacy throughout the process. A girl after my own heart!

Fast forward six months later and we’re in the birthing unit. Aided by a Pitocin drip, Olivia was in early labour – a synthetic form of oxytocin, the hormone that brings on contractions during birth.  While there is no way to predict how someone will respond to Pitocin, a few hospital care providers said that it would be “quick” given that this was her third baby.  Definitely not a far-fetched suggestion but still one that made me a little nervous!  There’s a saying, among women who have had three or more babies, that the third birth is the “wild card.”  First births are usually quite long.  Second births are – again, typically - shorter, leaving one to assume that the third would subsequently follow the pattern and be even shorter than the second.  The third birth earned it’s “wild card” designation because it doesn’t always follow that pattern (something I can attest to personally!). Putting the idea out into the universe that this was going to be “quick” seemed like a direct challenge to Murphy’s Law! If you ever hear someone give a timeline or prediction about how your birth will go, knock on wood - immediately (I suppose this will only apply to those of you who are a bit superstitious).

Now, on this February night, the room is dark and quiet - much like the rest of the unit at that hour. Even with the level of Pitocin in her system, encouraging baby’s exit, Olivia is resting through the waves - sometimes hardly even moving as one comes upon her. Something to be thankful for as it’s already been a very long day and a half for Olivia and her partner and they could, both, really use the rest. When I step out to get more water or juice (ahh, the freedoms of pre-Covid days), the only sounds that can be heard on the sleepy unit are the soft cries of brand new babies.

Sometime around dawn, after an epidural bought us a small grace period, Olivia sits up, suddenly, and said: “I need to push.  I want Y to catch him.  I want you [looking at me] to record him being born.”  See what I mean about knowing what she wants?!  The midwife looked over mid push and exclaimed “Whoa!”  Baby’s head was just about to be born!  The midwife hastily got gloves on Y while giving him quick instructions about how he was going to catch his baby being born.  Olivia’s confidence in her ability to birth her baby was on clear display. She did not need guidance. She did not need directions. She did not need to be told when to push and for how long. Call it experience or call it intuition but, whatever you want to call it, Olivia knew what to do. This was Olivia’s show and the rest of us just lucky to be there. Two, gentle and controlled pushes later, baby boy was born into his daddy’s hands, in a quiet, calm, loving atmosphere. With skill of an experienced midwife or, at the very least, someone who had actually done this before, Yas softly placed their baby on Olivia’s chest before pumping both arms in the air and - very literally - jumping for joy from the excitement of the experience of catching his third child, and first son. It was so fast (really, the video I took is only three and a half minutes long!), it was like it was even over before it had started!

During Olivia’s pregnancy, the two of us regularly exchanged videos of beautiful, gentle births.  Her baby’s first glimpse of this world was exactly as calm and peaceful as those videos that had inspired her.  And his disposition in those first few hours really mirrored the environment.  He was quiet, still, peaceful – his eyes slowly gazing from his mom’s face to his dad’s.  It really was a beautiful way to end to her birth and a wonderful way for her baby to start his life. A really beautiful, powerful, peaceful birth made possible by a woman with the determination, strength and ferocity of a lioness; culminated by the moment of her partner’s sheer happiness at his role in the process. This sweet ending was really the icing on the Birth Day cake (see what I did there?).

If you want to spend some time fawning over beautiful desserts (I know that’s one of my favourite past-times), head over to Olivia’s Instagram page: @_bakedenvy. Just a warning though, be prepared to drool!