The C-Section Epidemic: What Women Aren’t Being Told About Birth | Dr. Cynthia Dickter

Dr. Dickter: [00:00:00] Having the baby skin to skin to their mother, the minute the baby eats out, it's important for both of them. Babies start smelling the microbiome of the mother, so it's starting to make his own immunological health. When you're pregnant, please don't fast. You have to come out from from cytogenic diets.

Mm-hmm. And do carbs and fruits. Fruits and vegetables. Obviously many colors. 'cause these ketons can damage the brain of a baby. 

Dr. Brighten: How to take care of yourself in pregnancy because that's going to influence outcomes when it comes to mom's health, babies health, and the delivery. 

Narrator 1: Dr. Cynthia Dicker 

Narrator 2: is the OB GYN, transforming women's health with a powerful blend of science, soul, and compassion.

Narrator 1: She's one of Mexico's most sought after doctors known for championing, humanized birth, mastering hormone balance, 

Narrator 2: and approaching medicine with deep respect for the mind body connection with a massive following and a reputation for making women feel truly seen, heard, and empowered. 

Narrator 1: Dr. Dicker is the kind of doctor you wish you [00:01:00] had.

Dr. Dickter: Having good amount of vitamin D that we know. It's like a pro-hormone and in pregnancy's so important you have less risk of gestational diabetes. Okay. We know that if you develop gestational diabetes, you have 50% chance to get 

Dr. Brighten: what makes a high risk pregnancy. What are some of those factors? 

Dr. Dickter: Oof. Here, it's tricky and I'm gonna tell you why.

I mean, the first thing is 

Dr. Brighten: welcome back to the Dr. Brighten Show. I'm your host, Dr. Jolene Brighten. I'm board certified in naturopathic endocrinology, a nutrition scientist, a certified sex counselor, and a certified menopause specialist. As always, I'm bringing you the latest, most UpToDate information to help you take charge of your health and take back your hormones.

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Don't forget to subscribe, leave a comment, or share this with a friend because it helps this podcast Get out to everyone who needs it. Alright, let's dive in. Dr. Cynthia Dicker, welcome to the show. I'm so excited for today's episode. Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here. Yes. We're gonna be getting, this is really like the pregnancy episode.

The birth episode. We're gonna be getting into a lot of things that people have been asking, um, who watched the show, and I think you're the perfect person to be talking to [00:03:00] us about the topic of a humanized birth. So there's a whole movement around this. Can you share what that is? 

Dr. Dickter: Definitely. It's my passion, so I'm happy to be here and I'm glad that I can, uh, talk about that.

I did my residency in a, in a hospital that is like a pretty. Technical. Mm-hmm. Like pretty, uh, typical. I didn't know about these humanized uh, labors or anything about that, but just at that time, my sister was having her child, her children, and she was talking about that, and she, she was finding out about this skin to skin.

What, what's, what's that about? Yeah. Why, why the baby with a mother? What about, eh, the late clamping of the cord and everything. So I started to look around and I saw having her, eh, three wonderful daughters in a humanized eh, possibilities with humanized birds. And it was awesome [00:04:00] for me. So when I finished my studies, my residency, my OBGYN residency, is that how you say it?

In English residency, we 

Dr. Brighten: say 

Dr. Dickter: OB 

Dr. Brighten: gyn, but some people say ob gyn people know 

Dr. Dickter: what you're talking about, but yeah. Perfect. When I finished studying obgyn, then I, I looked for a, for, um. For a doctor that, that does humanized labor and I want to, to be, to work with him to learn everything about it. Mm-hmm. And then I started practicing all about humanized labor and I went to the US with another doctor to, to, to see what they were doing there, because they don't do it everywhere.

They just do it in, in some places. And I learned everything about it. Like I, I know it's not something that, it's new, it's something that it started like in 86 or something like that, or maybe when we started having babies, like when our species began actually. Yeah. It's, it's, it's taking [00:05:00] us back to what it has to be.

Right, right. But, 

Dr. Brighten: but we had to have this, remembering this movement in the eighties. Yeah. To come back to this, which like, I actually wanna, since you brought that up, ask that question. So like, what was going on pre eighties? Uh, that made it to where we had to shift things, we had to change things. What 'cause.

Births were very different then. 

Dr. Dickter: There were so many C-sections. Mm-hmm. And, and I wanna really be clear here that nobody did them to harm anyone. You know, they thought it was the best. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: They thought doing a nap, episiotomy is the best. They thought, eh, taking the baby from her mother and taking it to the NICU was the best.

They was doing what they knew best. Mm-hmm. You know? So the time, I mean the birth started to medicalize so much. Yeah. And the human part of it just went out. And we came so much doctors and we were treating, uh, healthy women as a sick woman. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. We 

Dr. Dickter: [00:06:00] weren't treating a, a pregnancy, like a part of life.

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: They were treating pregnancy like a scary thing. Yeah. So that, that's what in my mind happened. So they had to do this movement and, and. Many countries just reunited in Brazil, and, and they said, we have to stop this. Yeah. Something has to be, has something has to change. And all these, um, obstetric violent violence started and that's why they, they started this humanized, eh, birds.

Mm-hmm. And the way they had to, to, to change, they, they started seeing how many, how many vaginal birds and how many six C-sections there were in, in, in every country, in every hospital. And too many things that we're gonna talk about. So that's, that's how it started. I feel really grateful and, and humble that I, that I can be part of this movement and that I can have this flag about it.

Mm-hmm. Because I definitely [00:07:00] think it's what I, it's what I did with me. I have two vaginal birds that I fought really hard about. And, and I'm happy to, to share my story. Uh, and, and that's what I believe in. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, so, well, I, I love the humanized birth movement because it puts so much power in the patient and so much trust in their own body.

Whereas I feel like when things got over medicalized it and, and pathologized, right? Yeah, you're pregnant. It's like you have a disease. Women really lost their power. They became afraid of birth. And I think that is also what started to breed the mistrust between patients and doctors and women being fearful.

Uh, because we see things swing the opposite way, where women are like, I'm not even going to have a doctor during pregnancy. I'm not going to go to a hospital. I'm going to do an unassisted birth. Which, you know, there's gonna be people out there, even as I say that, say. It worked for me. It was great for me, but there are people who have died, infants who have died.

We [00:08:00] don't want that. But I think that's something we also have to recognize is that when we start to see this distrust in your own body, really women start to be like, wait, wait. Maybe it's you, I shouldn't trust, and that's where things can become more dangerous. I do wanna say, we're gonna talk about c-sections today.

Yeah. We're gonna be critical about some of the aspects about it, but anyone who's listening, if they've had a c-section, we're not judging you. The, the end of the story. We want to be a happy ending of however you got to Healthy mama, healthy baby. That is fantastic. So I don't want anyone to feel judged.

And I know I brought you on because I know that you're not going to No. And so, but I just wanna start there in case anybody's listening to this and they're like, maybe I just wanna turn this off because I, I don't know if I wanna hear anything bad, 

Dr. Dickter: so, no, actually I can, I can, I can say about myself that I'm gray.

You know, I'm not extreme in anything in my life. I think that extremes are not good in anything. So actually, I do work in a hospital. I think it's one of the best hospitals in Mexico [00:09:00] City. For me, it is important mm-hmm. To work in a hospital. And we have changed so much. No, I, it has changed. 

Dr. Brighten: Heard much.

You've been the leader in changing a lot of that. 

Dr. Dickter: Me and more people, not not just me. Well, I'm sure it's not just you, but they, the di the director is the, it's a woman director. She's done so much. My partner that it's 10 years older than me has done so much, but when I, when I, when I started my residency there, or, or what we have now, like looking at time, it's, it's so different.

And I, and I wanna tell you like it was a hospital when we didn't have LDR rooms and we're gonna, we're gonna talk about what it is and what's the importance of it. And in the same hospital, we have the doctors that doesn't like that and won't ever work in an LDR room. Yeah. And that's totally respectful.

And I do wanna say here that I know it's, this is public. This is public. And, and many people are listening. We're not judging anybody and we're not judging any kind of, of, [00:10:00] of medicine or, or any kind of. A practice. They they do, but this is what I do. Mm-hmm. This is what I love. This isn't what I believe.

And we've, and it's changed so much, and it's just me. The pediatricians now, there are earlier rooms. Baby goes skin to skin to the mama. We do like clamping of the cord and we start the breastfeeding immediately. There's a breastfeeding consultant in the hospital that, that, that's, that's, everything's pretty new for us.

Yeah. So it's been, it's amazing to see. How long we have accomplished. Mm-hmm. You know, something that, how much, sorry, how much? Yeah. 

Dr. Brighten: No, I, I, I got, I'm picking, I am sure we're all picking up what you're putting down. Uh, the thing I thought is interesting, I actually had to have, um, two imaging procedures here.

I met with two different doctors and each time when they asked me about my obstetric history and when they were like, how are your babies delivered? And I said, vaginal. They were like, oh, good for you. And I just thought that was like, such an interesting [00:11:00] comment to say like, good for you. And I'm just like, well, this is how babies come out.

Like, and that's the way it all worked out. But that attitude. It makes me just wonder, you know, does, is that kind of part of the undercurrent of why there's had to be this movement and, and why things, you know, have really needed to change? Because it's this idea of like, wow, vaginal, that's like a miracle that this could happen 

Dr. Dickter: there.

I think there are many, many things why this happened. One of the, one of the things here in Mexico City, it's private practice. Mm-hmm. Or it is like social, um, it's the public hospitals. Yeah, the public, yeah. Public hospitals. So the, I I do pri I do the private practice and I think I am, um, like I have the, the privilege.

Yeah. Have the privilege of, of doing private practice and being, and can be managed by a private doctor. But we're, we're talking about this small subset in the population. Yeah. This small population. I will. What, [00:12:00] what the most that I would love is, is talk to you about that. This is Mexico City and it's not the humanized part.

It's, we are doing it in a private practice. In a small mm-hmm. In a small group. Yeah. Okay. So what, what we're doing, it's because they can, and in a private practice, what, what I wanna say, it's, it's really hard for a doctor because in Mexico there are no shifts. Mm-hmm. Right? Like. You're, let's say you're my patient and you have your birth 3:00 AM any days, then I have to be there because people don't believe in shifts or don't believe in groups.

That's something really bad about mm-hmm. About Mexico City that we have to change, that I wanna change. So people just married with a doctor and they want that doctor to be there so I can, I can have a little bit of compassion of these doctors that have been there for 30 years and they are tired, you know what I mean?

And they cannot do the best they can. So, so they are starting to do this like, let's induce or let's do a c-section, or let's, because, [00:13:00] because it's easy. Mm-hmm. Because, because it's for them in their mind, there's no complication. They can do a schedule, you know, so there are many things that have to change starting for the, 

Dr. Brighten: for the whole system.

Yeah. And you know, everything you're talking about as you speak about Mexico, the, the same exact issues that the United States. Faces as well. So for anyone listening, well, anyone who's had a baby already knows about, you know, about all of these issues they, they face. I'm going to, we're gonna get into c-sections, we're gonna talk more about all of that, but you've mentioned skin to skin.

Yeah. Why Skin to skin important. What's the timing of that that matters? What should women know? Skin to 

Dr. Dickter: skin 

Dr. Brighten: is, I 

Dr. Dickter: think one of my favorite parts of birth. And it, and I'm not talking about a, a vaginal or a C-section delivery. I think skin to skin, if there's a possibility, it's. So important. Mm-hmm. We have scientific reviews and research that [00:14:00] having the baby skin to skin to their mother, the minute the baby, it's out.

It's important for both of them. Mm-hmm. And I'm gonna explain. Yeah. I wanna hear it. Yeah. Okay. The baby adapts better. Yeah. Okay. The temperature with the skin of the mother gets perfectly, like, it doesn't get cold or hot. It regulates its temperature with the skin of the mother. Mm-hmm. It regulates it heartbeat, because it's hearing the heartbeat of the mother that, that he knows.

He knows it from the nine months being inside of her. Yeah. Okay. He's listen, listening and of what he's used to listen. Babies, um, babies are start, uh, leaking and smelling the micro microbiome Yeah. Of the mother that every family has a different one. So it's starting to, to to make her his own. Um, immuno in.

Yeah. The immunological health. Yeah. Immunological health and system. That is such tricky word in English. I know. No, I'm sorry. I'm immunological [00:15:00] health. Yeah. So babies, it's impressive because I've seen so many birds and they don't cry because they're calm, they're with their mothers, they're with good temperature.

They're, they're start, they're, they're breastfeeding the first hour. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: So that's definitely, uh, a good way to get to an excellent breasted. Lactation, like, yeah. Yeah. Um, in the Mex, in, in Spanish, we say lact, how do you say? Like, uh, establishing lactation. Yeah. Like establishing lactation and for the mother.

So many things. Having your baby with you when, when baby's born, your, your hormones are perfectly balanced. Yeah. So the prolactin goes up. Mm-hmm. So you start breastfeeding and, and you know, when the placenta goes out, estrogen and progesterone, they go. Down. Yes. You have like a, like a little menopause that's glimpse 

Dr. Brighten: and 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah.

In the menopause. That is exactly gonna say small menopause. Yeah. So having your baby, it's, it leads to, to less, um, postpartum depression, you bleed [00:16:00] less because you have your baby. So you start producing more oxytocin. And this oxytocin naturally will just contract the uterus. Mm-hmm. So they will bleed less, they will have less dep, uh, depression.

They will, uh, they will feel safer. And that's the way it has to be. Mm-hmm. I mean, think about how the baby comes out to this new world in a cold or, or wherever. Yeah. And with, with these people they don't know And, and taking the baby in with a leg like that. Yeah. Like, that's, that, that's not natural. Yeah.

And, and think about how these women of the s did it, the ones that did the birth were their husbands. Mm-hmm. And then. It was something from that, from women to women. There were the midwives that we don't have here in Mexico City, and it was a woman job doing by women, somebody that knew what happened.

That knew how it felt. Yeah. And, and that believed [00:17:00] that in the power in, in your woman power. Mm-hmm. You know, like, like you said, you go to a doctor, you trust the doctor, and you give the doctor all your power. Yeah. And you believe everything they say. Even though me being like a doctor when I'm pregnant, it's, I, I get really scared because I have high risk pregnancy.

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. I 

Dr. Dickter: put like, all my faith in what they say. So I believe that they say, they say, I can, I, I can. Yeah. If they say I can't, then I'm gonna believe that. Yeah. So a word it's so meaningful for, for women. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. I, that's so powerful. Can you talk more about the mindset and the, and your physician believing in your ability to birth?

To have this, you know, I'm careful to say natural birth. I feel like that kind of triggers people because, you know, they feel like, I think that a lot of times when we talk about birth, when we talk about pregnancy, really, when we talk about a lot of things about being a woman, it's always like, there's this hierarchy and there's the who [00:18:00] gets the badge of honor and who wins the trophy and, and who, you know.

And it, and it is something that we all come to birth and we have to do it in our own way. There's this own purpose, uh, you know, our, our own purpose and, and there's a learning and experience in our own body. But I just wonder, you know, in terms of the physician's mindset, the physician's belief, how does that impact the patient?

Dr. Dickter: Actually, before I was coming from coming here, I, I didn't know how to say humanized birth. I, I, I thought that wasn't, uh, I think you can say in English. Mm-hmm. So I just went to JA Chi PT and it said. Eh, patient-centered. Yes. We say patient centered. Patient centered, yeah. Practice. Right. So that's what it is.

You have to center in the patient. What does the patient want? What does the patient need? Mm-hmm. How can you give, give the, the tools and the information to get there. Do, do [00:19:00] you know what I mean? Yeah. If you believe she can. I mean, for me it's, I I say, I tell them. I mean, I definitely believe in vaginal birds.

Mm-hmm. If I didn't, I wouldn't go through that. Yeah. With my body. Right. So, so I mean, there are many things, but I think giving the right information, eh, doing a, a Right. Prenatal, um, prenatal care. Mm-hmm. So you can be really, so, so you can be safe and you can be calm when, when the baby comes and, and just.

Just trusting, you know, and, and what I wanna say here, it that respected birds or, um, a patient centered or humanized, or whatever you wanna say. It doesn't, it doesn't just talk about vaginal. Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Brighten: It talk 

Dr. Dickter: about listening to what the patient needs. Yeah. You know, I do C-sections, of course I do them and thank God they exist.

Yes. 'cause some women, they just need a C-section. Mm-hmm. [00:20:00] Obstetrician has emergencies and has a previous myomectomy or placenta previous, or bridge babies, whatever. Many things. Yeah. We have to do C-sections. But how do you do it the way you do it? It's gonna change everything. Mm-hmm. Like. For that woman having the ba, having her babies is once in a lifetime.

Mm-hmm. It's just that family experience, so how you deliver that and how the baby comes to the world, I think it's really important. 

Dr. Brighten: Absolutely. You know, you had mentioned the partner before how like it used to be like your partner attended the birth. I'm just wondering for people who are listening, maybe partners are listening and listening Yeah.

How can they be a helpful part of the pregnancy of the birth process? Because I think sometimes partners don't know what their role is, where they fit, how they can help. 

Dr. Dickter: They don't have an idea how important they [00:21:00] are supporting what we go through. Mm-hmm. I mean, you've been through it. Hormones go crazy when we are pregnant.

So having this support and, and this like knowledge and. I wanna say like, like yeah. The knowledge of what you're going through. Mm-hmm. It is so important because you have somebody to, to lay, to lay on. Right? 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: And they can do so much going with you to the doctor, massaging your food, uh, giving you, eh, giving you the right nutrition.

Mm-hmm. Helping you with your toddler, eh, talking to you about what you're feeling, being with you about how you want to your child to come to the world. It's not just woman, the woman child. It's his child too. Yeah. Right? So how do you want your children to come? How do you want your children to, to grow too, right?

Mm-hmm. So, you know [00:22:00] that the. The first voice that they recognize is the father's voice. 

Dr. Brighten: Oh, I didn't know that. You didn't 

Dr. Dickter: know that Because your boys like the mother's voice. Oh, it doesn't, it doesn't, they cannot hear it. Well, because it goes, yeah, it doesn't echo with the alytic fluid. So when babies come out and the fathers starts talking to them, they just get calm.

They, 'cause they recognize that. Oh yeah. So, yeah. I mean, partners or fathers, wherever they are, it, they're so important. So do you encourage talking, talking to the belly? I do. Yeah. Of course, of course. I encourage talking to the belly. Definitely. Yeah. Yeah. Eh, and being there when babies are born in my, uh, in, when, in my birth, well, not my, my, my patient birth, the father cuts the cord.

Mm-hmm. So they are part of the experience and they feel part of it. And they can, they can be encouraging women. If they have a birth plan mm-hmm. Basically, you, you do a birth plan Right. With, with your, with your partner. [00:23:00] So he knows what you want. Yeah. Right. So when you are there and you are, there's, there's.

There's, um, a brief, uh, time that it's called a before you get to 10 centimeters. Mm-hmm. That, that you just go crazy. You think you cannot do it anymore. And I, I don't, I don't remember the, the word it's in, it's trans in, in Spanish. The transition. Yeah. It's the 

Dr. Brighten: transitional phase. 

Dr. Dickter: Yes. Institutional 

Dr. Brighten: face.

And it's always like right before the baby's gonna come that you're like, I can't do this. I can't do it. I'm gonna give up. And then the baby meet the epidural, right? I am here. 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. She meet the epidural. So that's when the partner has to come and say, you can do it. You are doing it. You are. There. Yeah.

Come on. You know, it's like respecting your wishes. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: So there are so many ways that they can, they can be supporting. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Well, and I think that's important for them to hear. 'cause I think, you know, sometimes it can fill, especially when it's the first birth, like, what am I supposed to be doing? Yeah.

And I [00:24:00] love the idea of the birth plan ahead of time with the partner, because once you are like, you make all your plans, right? And birth is like the most humbling. Like it does not go the way you plan a lot of the times. And so to have that conversation ahead of time really opens up and bridges the gap maybe in the communication so that when you are in that moment, you can communicate the things that you need as well.

You mentioned nutrition, you were like, feed her. Well, what do you recommend in terms of, so what I wanna talk about is. How to take care of yourself in pregnancy, because that's going to influence outcomes when it comes to mom's health, baby's health and the delivery. I think sometimes, um, people get so focused on like, how, like what can I control in the delivery room?

Not realizing there's a lot that might, you might not be able to do, but there's so much that in that nine months and even in, you know, the preconception phase that you can be doing to ensure you have the healthiest pregnancy. 

Dr. Dickter: Okay. I am gonna quote you because you took, you can quote me. Yeah. Okay. I can quote you because you talk about [00:25:00] this a lot, but you know, like preparing your, your body for pregnancy is really important.

These three months before you, your, the before you, eh, the, the ovulate. Yeah. Before you ovulate, you have 

Dr. Brighten: three months. Lemme just say, I like your Spanish words so much though. Every time I'm like, oh, just ovulation never sounded so pretty 

Dr. Dickter: great. So when you rec recruit these lum, you have three months.

Mm-hmm. So it's really important. With what you're feeding your body, right? Yeah. For you and for the sperms too. No. While you're eating and where you're thinking if you are, how is your stretch stress being managed? How are you sleeping? Mm-hmm. For a good ovulation. And then after that, eh. Having a, a, a healthy pregnancy, like not a, not getting so much weight doing exercise.

Mm-hmm. Sleeping good, meditating everything. It's gonna, it's gonna turn in, how are you gonna get to the delivery? [00:26:00] Yeah. Right. So supplementing yourself with, with, with supplements, it's really important. Like here in Mexico there's no folate. Mm-hmm. There's osteo foco and we know, let's talk 

Dr. Brighten: about that. Yeah.

Yeah. Folic acid versus folate, because my prenatal that I make is methylfolate, please. Um, and our B vitamins even have like fmic acid and different forms to try to make sure that, like, every body can utilize these. But you'll see a lot of people who say, like, folic acid, only 

Dr. Dickter: because I think they don't know they're more than 40% of, of women.

They just want metabolize, metabolize the, the folic acid. Yeah. So you wanna give the, the, the easiest. Form. Mm-hmm. So they can absorb it. Yeah. And we know it's really important for the sperms. For the lum, and we know it's really important for the baby to the, to develop. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: And for the spine, you know, so, 

Dr. Brighten: yeah.

Dr. Dickter: And for many things. So having a nice. A vitamins B that are in a, how do you say, [00:27:00] metalized? Um, methyl meth. Methylated, yeah, methylated. So they can be absorbed and Yeah. Eating a lot of eggs, having choline. Mm-hmm. You know, for the brain, for the eyes of the baby having good amount of vitamin D that we know, it's like a prem.

And in pregnancy it's so important. We have been in seeing, in, in researches that if you have a good amount of vitamin D, then you have less risk of, of gestational diabetes. Yeah. That's, we knows huge, that if you develop gestational diabetes, your baby, you can impact on the genes of your baby. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. So it's 

Dr. Dickter: not just you, it's what do you want for your baby when he, it's an adult when he grows up.

If you develop gestational diabetes, you have 50% chance to get a. Diabetes in the, the rest of your life. Yeah. So, so yeah, basically where you eat in pregnancy, it is important. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. And as you were talking about with the weight gain as well, that is such a big component [00:28:00] because that can increase the risk of gestational diabetes, depending on where you gain weight, that can increase inflammation in the body.

And so, you know, sometimes I think, you know, I've seen people who are part of the body positivity movement who are like, you know, they're, they're being too aggressive about weight when it's in pregnancy. But to recognize that it's because it impacts the genes of the developing organism, which the future of our species.

Like, we need to be keeping not just baby healthy, but mom healthy. Yeah. Like, so what are the risks when it comes to delivery and gestational diabetes? 

Dr. Dickter: The, the, the risk is that you, you do a pretty big baby, like a Yeah. Above four kilos baby, than definitely a ba a vaginal delivery. It's gonna be harder.

Mm-hmm. And if we know. What are the, the, the qualities or the, the, like, the good things about having a vaginal birth, then if you wanna try that, then it will be difficult for you. Yeah. Eh, the baby when it comes out, it could break the heart. Say [00:29:00] the collarbone. Yeah. Yeah. The color bone, eh, for me, the most important thing is that you can impact on his, on his genes forever.

Yeah. I mean, okay, you have c-section fine that you can manage that, but you like knowing that, that you're gonna give the baby that risk. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: It's, it's, it's pretty cultural because many years ago they, they still, I mean, here, like the grandmas, they say like, you have to eat for two, right? Yeah. Yeah. You have to eat two plates of food, and that's, that's not true.

Mm-hmm. Actually, you just need 400 more calories in the second part or the second trimester. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: The first part you just have to eat regularly if you can't eat. Yeah, exactly. If you can't eat. Yeah. So there's no need to gain. So much weight. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: And I, I do understand this movement about, uh, not being so harsh on the, on the, on the, on the, on the weight and everything.

Mm-hmm. But not in an, not in an extreme weight too. Yeah. Because [00:30:00] then you gain, like, I don't, I don't even pounds, but 20 kilos. Yeah. And it's not good for you and it's not good for baby. Yeah. Babies when they get born. They have hypoglycemias if you have a, a gestational diabetes. Mm-hmm. Because of pregnancy, their glucose levels are so high.

Yeah. So are the many things that you wanna avoid? 

Dr. Brighten: So what tips do you have for people who are super nauseous in the first trimester, the best tip is ginger. 

Dr. Dickter: Oh, okay. Yeah. And it's. It's based like scientific based research. Mm-hmm. The ginger is great. So you take the whole ginger and you put it in warm water and you do a concentrate.

Right? Yeah. And then you, you just, um, deal with it with, with water. Mm-hmm. And put it in the freezer so you have this. This cold ginger tea. Yeah, it is really good. Definitely. We have some medications that we can give, but I think just, eh, like natural waste. I love ginger. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Eh, eating like every two, three hours, not having your stomach empty.

Mm-hmm. [00:31:00] Eating dry things? No, like, like dry cookies or healthy cookies. Yeah. This is rice cakes. Rice, like your best friend rice cakes. Exactly. Not eating warm things like a soup. It just, it, it will just like, uh, distant the stomach. Mm-hmm. So eating like cold things, like ice pops or, or a gelatin or something like that.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. No, I definitely was like, it wasn't until I was pregnant, I realized how bad water could taste and how bad, like, romaine lettuce could smell. And I'm like, these things don't even, like water doesn't even really have a taste. And romaine lettuce like. What, it doesn't have a smell, but when you're pregnant, you're like, everything.

It's everything. But ice water was just the thing that I had to sip on all the time to, and you know what, 

Dr. Dickter: I, I am not that, um, strict the first trimester. Mm-hmm. Because I know it's really hard. So I say, if you feel like having a Doritos nachos, do it. Yeah. You know, like, like, go for your chips. It's okay.[00:32:00] 

You'll enter your second trimester and you'll be, you'll, you will make better decisions. Yeah. And you were three months before that you were doing good. And the baby, the first trimester, it's gonna. It's gonna really use your hormones more than what you're eating. Mm-hmm. And then after week 10, when your placenta is there, then it, it's gonna matter more.

Yeah. So having a, after that, after the first trimester, having good quality of proteins, good quality of, of like a oils. Mm-hmm. Eh, what kind of oils? Yeah. What kind of fats would you recommend? Avocado. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Um, the, the, the egg. The whole egg. Yeah. The yolks. The yolks are great because of the choline.

Mm-hmm. So like the best breakfast is two or three whole eggs. Mm-hmm. It's great. The olivo. Olive oil. Olive oil. Sorry. Olive oil. Yeah. Avocado. It took me a minute. I'm like, yes. Nuts and seeds. Mm-hmm. Eh, the salmon has great. Yeah. It's protein. Has great fats. [00:33:00] So all of that I love, eh, what else? So you were talking 

Dr. Brighten: about proteins, fats, what else do you recommend?

Good carbs. Mm-hmm. What are good carbs? Carbs 

Dr. Dickter: that don't, don't, don't spike. Okay. Your glucose, right? Like, like more. Um. In the like whole grains. Whole grains, yeah, exactly. And oats. Mm-hmm. You can do a, I love ma madre bread that it's, how do you say it's sour bread? Mm-hmm. It's sour, sour dough 

Dr. Brighten: bread. 

Dr. Dickter: It's really, really 

Dr. Brighten: good.

Um, and it can actually, as toast can be like it's savior for nausea in the first trimester too. Definitely. 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. Having a, having nice quality of, of fish too. Mm-hmm. And not like wild fish because of the mercury that can have Yeah. Just two or three times a week. It's really good. Mm-hmm. What else I can say?

Oh, tons of water being really hydrated. It's really important. Mm-hmm. Not, not fasting, you know that right now there's like this. [00:34:00] Huge thing about fasting and fasting. Yeah. And I know it's really good for many people and hormones and whatever, but when you're pregnant, please don't fast. It's really important that you have your glucose levels, um, consist consistence and balance.

And actually when you are in cytosis, like you ketosis Yeah, ketosis. When you, when you're fasting, then these ketones can, can damage the brain of a baby, so, oh, 

Dr. Brighten: interesting. Yeah, it's interesting. That is good to know because there are women who will not only fast, but also there's those who do a ketogenic diet trying to keep their ketones 

Dr. Dickter: up.

I will 

Dr. Brighten: never 

Dr. Dickter: suggest that when you're pregnant you have to, uh, come out from, from cytogenic diets mm-hmm. And do carbs and fruits. Fruits and vegetables, obviously. Yeah. Many colors, you know, like having a, a lot of, um, Brussels sprouts and broccoli and all of these that you can like, digest the hormones, so.

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. Yeah, [00:35:00] so I'm glad that you brought that up. I wasn't aware that the ketones could cause harm to baby's brain, and I think that a lot of women listening, I mean, they certainly, that's not their goal, um, to, you know, if they're pregnant, it's to have a healthy baby. So I think that's a really important tip to share.

Yeah. For women who are wanting, so they're going to have a hospital birth. Some of us have to because of being high risk. And, um, you know what, maybe we should define that because you've been high risk. I've been high risk, but maybe some people don't know what that is. So what makes a high risk pregnancy?

What are some of those factors? Oof. Here's streaky. I wanna, I'm, I'm gonna, 

Dr. Dickter: and I'm gonna tell you why. I mean, the first thing is I was high risk because I do have thrombophilias. I lost two babies. Mm-hmm. I was anticoagulated and my baby, the first one was restricted, so I had an induction. 

Dr. Brighten: Okay. 

Dr. Dickter: But. You cannot say obstetrics, that there's like a high risk and a non-risk pregnancy.

Yeah. That's why you can have this perfect [00:36:00] pregnancy, this perfect, like, like delivery, whatever. Well, the, how do you say, when you're doing the delivery, how, how do you When you're laboring. Yeah. When you're laboring and then the, the placenta can, can detach or something can happen and it could be like an emergency in that minute.

Mm-hmm. So if you decide to have a, uh, a home birth, if you have like all the, the low risks and I'm quoting with my fingers, like a low risk pregnancy, to do that, just be aware that you are in good hands. Yeah. And that you have a hospital near you. I think right now what I, what I love about my, my practice is that I'm between everything.

I'm not doing. Like I totally gray. I'm not doing, uh, home births because I don't think in Mexico City we are safe enough. Mm-hmm. The traffic, I mean, they do it in Europe and I think it's okay because they, they are, they do that all the time. [00:37:00] So they, I they know how to, how to do, how to do it, and they have the ambulance, eh, at, at the house there and they have a plan.

If they had ho they have to go to the hospital. We don't have here in Mexico City. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: But I don't think that if everything is going perfect with your, with your livering, I don't think you have to have a C-section or an induction or even an IV if you don't need it. Yeah. I think you can have your baby in the position that you like.

I love babies being born in Azi Maya. I dunno if you know Azi Maya? No. What is that? But did you have another baby? You can try it. It's awesome. Azi Maya. It's like a, like a. Is it a 

Dr. Brighten: seat? Is it the U seat? It's a seat. Yeah. It's, I tried that with my first, my first was I, I had this dream for a water birth and I ended up on all fours and that was the only way he was going to come out.

And then my second one, I was like, oh, I'm gonna like labor in the tub and then we'll just see what happens. And then it was in the tub that I was like, this is where it has to happen. This is the way it's going to be. Yeah. Anyway. And it's so funny, [00:38:00] this is why I say like, you make your plans, you have your ideas, and then your body, if you listen, it will guide you.

It will tell you. But yes, they tried the seats, they tried a lot of things with me. And um, I love the Yama in the shower. Yeah. For example, I mean, I don't, not a lot of people like to deliver to a woman on all fours. It's a very awkward position. But I was like, uh, you know, my husband knew that. I was like, I came out and I was like, this is how the baby's coming out.

This is the way it is. Like, I'm, and they're like, you know, it's not the best position. I was like, I'm telling you, this is where my strength is. This is where my power is. And then he was out in 10 minutes and I was like, wow. After 24 hours of labor. And I'm like, ah, but the seat, like, I thought, oh, this'll be the thing.

Yeah. But te tell us more about it. I interrupted with like a little No, I love, I love hearing 

Dr. Dickter: you. I love, I love, I love that you had these trends on you and, and that you believed in, in your body space. 

Dr. Brighten: Oh, I didn't for a long time. That's why I think I got 24 hours of labor. And it wasn't until it was like, remember who you are and like, just remember.

And I was like, huh. This is the, I don't care what you have to say. Like, this is the way I [00:39:00] will birth. And then he came. I'm kind of a pain, uh, when it comes to labor. 'cause I'm like, don't look at me, me too. Don't touch at me, me, me too. Don't turn on lights. Don't breathe near me. Like if you're looking at me, I'm like, don't look at me, I'm laboring.

Like, leave. I feel like you know how you're being a mammal. Oh, that's, it's, I was just gonna say, you know how like cats dogs, they'll like go somewhere really private. That's me. I just want, I just wish no one could be there. Um, but then, but then there's monitoring that has to happen and then, you know, but it's okay.

Monitoring. It's okay. We can, you can 

Dr. Dickter: make that, you can, you, you can do both. Yeah. Right. So, yeah. What did you ask me out about this? About, about the, what were we talking about? Yeah. The, I, I. My, my experience is that in the first babies are, it's, it's harder. Mm-hmm. But when it comes to a second baby or a third baby, a second or third birth, yeah.

It's really, really nice. I like to tear in the shower so they have all the water running through their body and then they sit there and baby comes out really nicely. They take the baby and I love it. Yeah. It's, it's, it's [00:40:00] really nice. Um. It's something that we like to experience. We have this bed that it can, changes the position, so mm-hmm.

You can, you can try the position that you, that you like. And it really depends on the epidural too. Yeah. Because, eh, in Mexico we don't have so many different eh, things to try for the pain. Like there you have this gas and you have this IV medications. Yeah. Here we don't, here we just do the epidural or No.

And my anesthesiologist that it's a crack he's doing walking epidurals from, from, from now. Yeah. He's been doing it like for, we've been trying I think three or four hours and it's a lovely thing to do for the women that do wanna have an epidural. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: So being respectful, it's hearing what they want too.

I had my first baby, she was. An induction, she was restricted 37 weeks, so I was there, we started 10:00 PM she was born the day [00:41:00] after 3:00 PM mm-hmm. So 12 hours later, I, I begged for an epidural. Yeah. Eh, and I was fine with it, and it was an awesome birth. My, my second baby, she wasn't restricted at 38 weeks.

She, she came and I didn't do the epidural. I was, I was, I really like, prepared myself not to have it and I didn't, but she stopped. So it's, it was really, really painful. Yeah. And actually I am, I'm still recovering from, from, from what happened, but for me, at the end, it was something that I really, really wanted it to happen.

Mm-hmm. So, so there are many, many things that they can experience. I think hearing what they need and what they want. You can do a shot and then don't do and, and then like. Like, breathe the pain for a little bit and then don't, yeah. Working with a doula, it's, it's really good. Mm-hmm. We here, we don't have midwives, but, but doulas can accompany you really nicely.

Yeah. They are [00:42:00] women that have had babies before and they do this like physical therapy and like encourage women to have their babies and 

Dr. Brighten: yeah. I didn't have a doula with my first, I had a doula with my second and it was really beautiful because the doctors just stood to the side and let her just really be there with me.

And it was only when it was absolutely necessary for them to come in, then they would be like, okay, we're gonna check fetal heart rate. Like, it was just a very, um, great dynamic the team had and I was really, yeah. That's good. Grateful to have her. Good. Um, I wanna go back. So, but with the high risk, so your point was.

Like all pregnancy has risk. Yeah. There is no neutral state at all. Has risk. There is risk with labor, correct. But what are the certain, how do doctors categorize, uh, high risk? So for example, my second, I was 40, so that's high risk. I have Hashimoto's, hypothyroidism. That was considered high [00:43:00] risk in terms of the monitoring because I needed to make sure that, you know, there weren't antibodies that potentially crossed the placenta.

We had to screen for baby's thyroid and make sure everything was okay there. But in terms of like what women should know going into labor, that would, that would make them a candidate for being categorized as high risk that they just need to be aware of high risk. Yeah. H It's high 

Dr. Dickter: risk. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, it is. It's not fun.

Dr. Dickter: But just actually in the US 35, above 35 is, it's, it's considered a, how do you say it? They say geriatric. Yeah, geriatric. I had my daughter when I was 35, and I didn't feel geriatrics, but whatever. 

Dr. Brighten: I know. Well, I'm like early forties. I don't feel geriatric. But what is it, when is it considered, like, you know, you're, you've got an old uterus in Mexico.

I really hate that. But I mean, that's medicine's classification. It's changing 

Dr. Dickter: because lately women are having children older and older. Mm-hmm. Because we are, we're being doctors and lawyers and we're [00:44:00] studying and we're doing things. Yeah. So, so this is changing every day. But, uh, like, yeah, 38, 39. Mm-hmm.

Having gestational diabetes. Okay. Having hypertension. Mm-hmm. Having, which is high blood pressure. Yeah. Hyper pressure having a previous C-section. Okay. Having twins. Mm-hmm. Having, um, placenta privia, of course. And what is that? It's when the placenta, it's attached a above the cervix. Okay. Okay. The cervix.

It's the, how do you say, so the opening 

Dr. Brighten: of the uterus? Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: There's the 

Dr. Brighten: little 

Dr. Dickter: os and then the place placenta sitting right here. So you cannot have the placenta coming before the baby. Yeah. 'cause you won't oxygen oxygenate the baby. So this is, uh, this is a true, eh, a true, I don't wanna say thing. This is a true high risk.

Like No, this is a, this is a I. A reason, a true reason to make a C-section. Okay. Yeah. You cannot have a vaginal birth [00:45:00] obviously. Right? Yeah. So I think those are the most, the most common. Mm-hmm. Yeah. 

Dr. Brighten: I think it's important for women to know as well, because when they get on the internet and they start to Google things, they can find like all kinds of things out there.

And it might be, you know, different given different conditions. Someone might have that. 'cause you know, we say like these are the one things, but you could have. Several things that then are like, now this is something where we need to monitor you, that you should, you know, it should be a situation where you are having a hospital birth rather than a home birth.

Yeah. I think, um, you know, as we're gonna talk about some of the things today, there has been, there has always been I think a movement more back to, um, home birth. I had home births, but they were attended by doctors and I was very meticulous about us outlining the algorithm of when do I go to the hospital?

Yeah. 'cause I didn't want anyone to say like, oh, we transferred too late. I'm like, the second anything looks like a red flag, I don't even wanna hear anything [00:46:00] else except the ambulance is here. That's it. Like, I just want to go. And I think that, um, sometimes when I share that people are like, oh, like this is a natural thing that women's bodies do.

But sometimes there's just complications that are Oh, definitely. 

Dr. Dickter: And I think it's really like smart of you to, and, and sharing these because. You don't have to fight it. I mean, if, if it's gonna be fluently and it's, and it's going well, perfect. But if it's not, it's your baby's life. Yeah. Or if it's your baby's like, like brain, you know?

Mm-hmm. The oxygen that goes to his brain, you got 90 

Dr. Brighten: seconds if they're not breathing. Yeah. To 

Dr. Dickter: get them oxygenated again, it's serious. So what I love about what I do, it's, oh, the way that I do it, I'm sorry, Jolene. No, you're, it's that we have the LDR rooms there. Yeah. And, and next. And, okay. So what's the LDR room?

You brought that before We wanna talk about, sorry. It's the labor delivery and recovery rooms. Mm-hmm. They rock. So that's the way it is. I'm gonna show you, so you're in labor. The, if it's a, if it's a la low [00:47:00] risk pregnancy, then the, the best thing that it could happen, it's not to get induced so your body will, will be ready when it's ready.

Mm-hmm. It could be between 37, 41 weeks. Okay. So you start your labor at home. Okay. You start your labor. It could be with your husband or either doula, whatever. And you Yeah. And when you, you think you really are gonna, are gonna deliver, then you go to the hospital. So the time in the hospital, it's shortens.

Right. Have your partner check the app for traffic. Uh, definitely You have to, you have to have, wait, that's one thing they can do. They can definitely, they can be checking the 

Dr. Brighten: apps and be like, what's our time to the hospital can be your top 

Dr. Dickter: and, and what this helps is you are in your environment. Yeah.

Right. So your hormones are, are doing, are doing their job. You're not scared, you're not seeing the, uh, people that you don't know. Like strangers. Yeah. No, that's like a hormone disruptor. So when you're, when you think you're gonna deliver, you get to the hospital. Some of them, them, they get nine, 10 centimeters, but some of them are one.

Yeah. That's a thing. And you get [00:48:00] to a room and where, when you're almost, uh, getting to a delivery, this is how it works in my hospital, because there are no many LDR rooms. Not yet. So if you get. I mean, if you're two centimeters and you get to the LDR rooms, then you're gonna take away the opportunity for another woman to use it.

Yeah. If someone's 10 centimeters. Exactly. We gotta get that baby out. Yeah. So you go to the LDR when you're 10 centimeters, you finish your labor there, uhhuh, you deliver there and you recover there. Mm-hmm. So everything, it's in one room. So what's important about this, that your baby and your partner, it's with you all the time.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: So we, you are together, you don't transfer. It's a healthy baby, it's a healthy mama. You don't have to go to recovery room and separate from your baby. And baby doesn't have to go to the nicu. Right. So that give us the opportunity to do skin to skin the first hour. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: And, and all the time because you don't, you decide to stay with your baby the whole time.

So you, you will never get away from him Yeah. Or her. [00:49:00] So, uh, you start your, your start breastfeeding, uh, the nurses will check your bleeding and the doctors will check your bleeding. There. You don't have to be separated and Well, and everything that we already talked about being with your baby, it's gonna, it's gonna make you less anxious, less, less risk of, of, of postpartum depression, less risk of bleeding, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Yeah. This, and I wanna be really clear, it's, we are talking about healthy mamas healthy babies. Okay. If there's any complication, then that's why we're there. Yes. And we have the, the, the or. Mm-hmm. If we have to do a C-section and we have the nicu, if baby needs something, so we, we are. You are prepared.

Yeah. If, if something goes wrong, 

Dr. Brighten: right? Yes. And you know, I think to help people understand. 'cause they might be like, you're a doctor, why'd you do a home birth? I did a home birth because for me as a child, I was really sick. I had to go [00:50:00] to a lot of hospitals. Hospitals are very stressful place for me and, and my mind, my like child self that went through that trauma is like, hospitals go when you're really sick, when you, you're gonna die.

Like this is a scary place. And so of course for me, I'm like, I know the state I'm gonna be in. I also don't like bright lights. I don't like noises. Like, well, I, well my husband will tell you, she doesn't like obnoxious noises all the time, but especially like in labor and a lot of the way, so, you know, my son's almost 12 hospitals, the way they were is, you're gonna come in, we're gonna hook you up to an iv, we're gonna put in a fetal monitor, there's gonna be the bright lights, suck it up, you're gonna deal with it.

You lay on your back. Like, and I was like, I can't, I just, I am like having panic attacks thinking about that. But things have changed so much and they've changed a lot in your hospital. Can you talk more about like the atmosphere Yeah. Of the delivery room? I, 

Dr. Dickter: I definitely can connect with what you're, where we are talking about.

You're, you're being, you're in labor and then you get to this bride hospital and everybody just [00:51:00] wants to talk to you and, and ask you questions when you're in. That's the biggest problem. Why? Why are you 

Dr. Brighten: talking to me? Tell why I'm having a baby. I'm having a contraction. 

Dr. Dickter: Stop talking to me. Yeah, I know, because I've been there.

Yeah, of course. But we are being really respectful here. Mm-hmm. So you get to the hospital, eh? The best case scenario, like pretty advanced, like when you are dilated. Yeah. So you get to this room and the husband will give the information, or the partner will give the information to the residents. You'll have.

No lights and you can, oh, 

Dr. Brighten: this is my dream. Yeah. Lights. No, 

Dr. Dickter: we hate, like we do C-sections. No lights. What? Yeah. I'm gonna show you a video. Yeah, we do. No lights. 

Dr. Brighten: Oh my gosh. We'll have to like, share that somehow so everyone can see it. 

Dr. Dickter: I, I have my Instagram and I, I always share some, some videos, but I'll give you one.

So, but we're not talking about C-sections yet. We're talking about the delivery, the vaginal delivery. So the atmosphere. Yeah, that's right. I always tell my patients. Get to the hospital, will you feel what, what you feel that it's like, [00:52:00] make the atmosphere, the atmosphere, what you need? Yeah. If you like a birth, uh, like a, your snacks, your bowl, your mat, your music, your meditations, like Right.

So you make the atmosphere like, like it's home. Mm-hmm. The most you can, and then when you get to the LDR, we still have no lights. A baby can come in the AYA or, or in the traditional position, whatever you feel you want. You can be with epidural or no epidural, whatever. Some, some of them are with IB or no ib.

That's my call. Mm-hmm. That depends because every delivery, it's another story. Yeah. So I don't have like a rule. It's a, it's a feeling thing like, 

Dr. Brighten: uh, I don't know. Yeah. Well, and it's also, so with my first, um, I was throwing up like the entire time and they would say to me, the doctors were like, if you cannot get fluids in and hold 'em down, you have to have an iv.

So I'd get fluids down, I'd [00:53:00] hold it down. They're like, okay, you don't need the IV vomit. And they're like, no, iv. And they kept doing, and I was like, I will do whatever it takes not to have an iv. Like just please don't have me hooked up to anything. 'cause I'm like, I just have to move. Yes. 

Dr. Dickter: You monitor the baby.

You see how the heart rate it's doing. Uh, you do like a, a intermittent monitoring of the baby. Mm-hmm. Eh, and I think I have been really respectful on what women want because I love music. So for me, every delivery, every delivery delivery has had to have music. Yeah. But no, there's people that want silent.

So I have learned that. Yeah. Silent. It's okay now. So whatever patient. Whatever the patient wants. Mm-hmm. We don't talk between us, like me, the pediatrician or the Daniel, the anesthesiologist. Just to give space Oh yeah. To, to what's happening. Mm-hmm. We try, uh, the less people we need in the room. We definitely have people, we have the nurse, we have the pediatrician, we have me have my partner [00:54:00] or somebody that's helping me, but we try to be like really low key.

Right. Yeah. 

Dr. Brighten: So, yeah. So I love what you're describing here. I love this for everyone. Women who are neurodivergent, so autistic, they have a DHD, they have a past history of trauma. This is like exactly the birth setup that they need. And I hear from women. All the time who are like, it's one, it's hard to be pregnant.

But the, the delivery felt so traumatic for me that I couldn't do it again. And they didn't have like birth trauma in the way that most people think of it. It was the beep, beep beep of the monitor that didn't stop the bright lights on them, the people touching them over and over without their consent, without asking if they touch them.

So that, I just want to bring that piece up because this the next question I'm gonna ask you. I think this is gonna be helpful for a lot of women and is that, how can women advocate for themselves to ask for this kind of scenario, this kind of situation? Because not everyone can go to your hospital Yeah.

And work with you. But [00:55:00] how can they find providers, communicate with 

Dr. Dickter: providers? I think that that, um, I can happily say that that's something that I can provide and definitely there I am not for everyone or no. Or wherever, but I can see that. Now more and more there are people doing this kind of of birth mm-hmm.

In more hospitals in Mexico City. It's a really sad thing that I cannot say this about public, um, health in Mexico. Mm-hmm. It's really, really sad. Uh, and I hope things start to change a little bit. And, and doctors, I know they're tired there and they, they get paid like really bad. And, and, and, and we have to humanize and give the information to the public health so women can advocate.

But if you are, you're, if you're in a private practice and if you trust your doctor, I think it's really nice that you, you give your birth plan, you say what you want. Yeah. What, what, what are your wishes? And then just [00:56:00] back down, you know, like back off. Just give the wishes and, and trust You're saying doctor, 

Dr. Brighten: back off?

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. Like trust. No, as a patient. Like not back off. Like what I wanna say is. You give your doctor your wishes then, and then you trust Ah, so when you get in the room, you, you, you trust what's Yeah. When, when you, 

Dr. Brighten: what's being recommended? 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. If, if, if something, it's not going like exactly what you, what you thought you have to like being fluent mm-hmm.

About what's happening. But I think you have to advocate before that moment. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? Mm-hmm. Like being sure that you are with a doctor, that it's gonna respect your wishes. Yeah. And if it's gonna do a c-section or it's gonna decide something, it's because it's the best for you. And it's not because he doesn't wanna do it.

Mm-hmm. Do you know what I mean? 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Well, I wanna, I do wanna talk about C-sections. Yeah. So depending on where you look in the United States, the c-section rate can be as high as 38%. I was reading [00:57:00] the c-section rates in Mexico doubled from 23% in the nineties to 46% by 2016, which is well beyond the World Health organization's recommendation of 10 to 15%.

Mm-hmm. So what's going on there? 

Dr. Dickter: Oh yeah. This is, and, and it's awful. Like in, in private hospitals and in public hospitals, it's 40 on almost 60%. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: So it's part of the system, it's part of what we talk about, people like doctors being tired, or this misinformation that just doing c-sections to everyone.

It's safer. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: Or doing a pc o is to everyone, it's better. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: No, I, I, like I told you, I don't think anyone does it like. Um, nobody like it's a doctor to harm someone. Yeah. Do you know what I mean? So, yeah. You're 

Dr. Brighten: saying they don't wanna cause harm. They're doing what they think is best. Yeah. It's, 

Dr. Dickter: it's, it's, it's what I was taught to do.

Mm-hmm. Know. So you have to, to inform yourself from, from another way. But now there are comedies and [00:58:00] there are movements Yeah. That are changing this in the, in my hospital there's a C-section committee and, and they say like, why are you doing so many C-sections? Yeah. You know, so they're starting to regulate it too.

Mm-hmm. So it's starting to change. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. That's good to hear because it is something that, you know, it's so often like we hear the United States gets called out for it, but there are many countries that are still having high C-section rates. And I do think it needs to change. I think there's absolutely indications for C-sections.

You've highlighted some of those, but when the patient doesn't have a choice, I think that's when it becomes a problem. It was interesting because I was reading that, you know. The, uh, that obstetric, so we were talking about obstetric violence before, but that even the use of c-sections when it is without the patient's consent, it's violence, it's obstetric violence.

Can you define obstetric violence or just tell us a little about what it is? 

Dr. Dickter: There are many descriptions. Depends on when you read it, [00:59:00] but, eh, obstetric violence, it's when you don't hear what women want. Yeah. Like when you do, you don't inform the woman what you're doing. Eh, not, not letting the woman being with somebody, like being accompanied.

That's violence. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Like shaving her and not telling her why that's violence. Shaving her. Yeah. So shaving, 

Dr. Brighten: yes. Doing 

Dr. Dickter: an epitomy and not explaining why it's violence. Uh, doing a c-section with no, uh, absolute or relative indication. It's violence. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Um, like screaming to women this in, in public health, they just scream like, like push, push.

Like screaming to them. Yeah. It's violence, uh, inducing into induce a woman if that there's no need, it's violence. Um, not giving her the time that she needs or the time the body needs before deciding it's a C-section, it's violence. [01:00:00] Um, not letting her eat during labor. That that's really common. That now we know that you need the calories.

Mm-hmm. And you need the energy. Like, like leaving a woman fasting for 24 hours. It's violence. Yeah. Not giving her something to drink, not letting her listen to her music or, or, or move it's violence. Mm-hmm. Right. So yeah. So a lot of things are, 

Dr. Brighten: yeah. And you know, what I'm hearing is the overmedicalization of birth, the loss of autonomy for the patient.

So their inability to. State what they want for their body and need what they want, uh, state their needs. And, you know, all of this. I think, you know, as you say, like hand the birth plan and trust. I think this is what makes women feel like they can't trust. I've had a patient say that every time they go to their ob gyn they feel like they're going into battle.

Like they feel like they're going to war. And, uh, they've, uh, you know, I think a lot of this came outta the [01:01:00] pandemic as well. There was a lot of obstetric violence in the United States. The birth, the fetal and maternal outcomes, especially those of black, indigenous and Hispanic women. I mean, it's, it just became so jaw dropping.

Awful. And so I think that's what a lot of women get afraid of, of like, even, so I'll give you this example. There was a group of moms that I was talking with here in Mexico City. I. And when I, uh, they were talking about how they found a doctor and one thing they were passing around is that, ask your doctor, am I allowed to eat during birth?

And they said, because if they say no, they're lying to you about the C-section. Because they said so often doctors will say, no, no, no. Like you can have a natural birth, you can have a vaginal birth. Like, I won't do any intervention. And they're like, but they're dishonest with their patients. And once you get there, they'll say like, you can't eat because you're probably gonna need a C-section.

And that, when they were saying that, they're like, oh, this in Mexico. I'm [01:02:00] like, I hear the same stories in the us. I hear, so I just wanna be clear with people. 'cause I think sometimes it's really easy to be like, you know, we glorify some countries and villainize others. I think everybody does some things good and everybody has some learning to do.

It's, 

Dr. Dickter: it's, it depends where, but I can, I can definitely understand this. I'm, I'm gonna share a little bit. I had my first baby in San Diego, California. Mm-hmm. I was with a, with a Greek doctor. I love him so much. Uh, he was. So respectful. Yeah. About what I wanted and how I wanted it to be treated. He wasn't there because it was his birthday, so I was a, I had my baby with a midwife.

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: It was, I had this such a great experience, you know, who did the, the, the best experience for me, the nurse? Yeah. In Mexico, we don't have the, the role of their nurse is not that much. She checked me, she was with me, she checked my baby. She, and, and I trust her, like, yeah, like fully nurses are amazing.

And my friends that I all begins, they were like, [01:03:00] how you work with a midwife and you didn't even ask if there was an somebody in the hospital. I was, no, I trusted, I trusted that everything was gonna be fine. Yeah. And it was fine. And yeah, my baby was small, but she was with me all the time and it was such a nice experience.

Okay. My second baby was born in Florida. In California? In, in Miami. Yeah. Just because I wanted to be in the summer there with my daughter and then it, I had. Such a bad experience. Mm-hmm. I chose a, a, a bad group of doctors. They wanted to induce me like every day. Like, no, let's induce. Yeah. If you were my daughter, I'll induce you.

And I'm like, why? I understand the ultrasound. Why do you wanna induce me? Yeah. I don't understand. Right. So it was such a different, um, experience and I, and I had the, the, the vaginal birth. It was really painful. The things weren't, didn't go as I planned. I, I wanted the shower, the, the water was cold. Uh, they told me I needed the, the IV right away.

Uh, many things they weren't like I expected. [01:04:00] So 

Dr. Brighten: it depends. It's, yeah. But I just wanna point out that you are a doctor and this was your experience because I've shared with my followers and listeners some of my experiences with doctors, and it is always something where it's like, if we struggle to navigate.

These situations in healthcare, how much worse is it? Is it you knew? You knew, I know how this should go. How much worse is it for the average? But sometimes you what I think that ignorance is, please. So 

Dr. Dickter: sometimes I, I, I didn't wanna know anything because that make me stressed, but yeah, I know, I know what I mean.

Of course. And I know how, how, how is a patient not being a doctor can know if the doctor is saying the truth. The thing is, we, we didn't have, we shouldn't even think that they were, they, that they could lie, you know? Yeah. That shouldn't happen. 

Dr. Brighten: No, 

Dr. Dickter: we just, 

Dr. Brighten: yeah. It's, it's hard. It, it's the world. It's interesting you brought up Florida though, because I have, uh, during the pandemic, I had two friends who birthed in Florida.

Their husbands were pushed out. They had, uh, they were, they had a [01:05:00] episiotomies without consent. There was major obstetric violence. And I told them that. And, um, I was, you know, pregnant later and being in Puerto Rico, I was going to go to Florida. And after I was like, no. No, and that's actually why I ended up finding the group I did in Mexico that, uh, you know, the, everything they were about.

Uh, and I think that can be so challenging because based on your location, it can be so limited. Especially right now in the United States with, there's so much happening in terms of laws in reproductive health where gynecologists are leaving states. And so it becomes even trickier. And I just wanna honor that because, you know, you are honoring how some women have access to only public health here, and that's not the best system.

And I think it's, it's very true. A lot of women in the United States can resonate with that access as well. 

Dr. Dickter: But I think that these, these places when we can speak out and people can hear, we're starting to change something because it can permeate to, to more people that can, that can make [01:06:00] a, like a bigger Yeah.

Change, you know, than more than me, more than what I do, more than my little private practice, more than. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Well, I, I, you know, you've, you've known me for a bit, so, you know, I've always said like, share your story because I think sharing your story is healing, but I also think it's how you create change.

And when enough women start to recognize they're not alone. This is not their only experience and they start speaking up, it's when doctors medicine, the, the entire system starts to be like, we have to do things differently. I think that when you're 

Dr. Dickter: passionate about what you do, and you do it with your heart, and you do it like, and you, and you, you do it with love, then you do it right.

Mm-hmm. And, and I, and I wanna be like, and I wanna say this, and it doesn't, it doesn't matter if it's a vaginal birth or if it's a C-section. And I have had patient that say, I would rather have 30 C-sections being this way mm-hmm. Than many other [01:07:00] vaginal births this way. Do you know what? Yeah. Like, like the love that you put in the intention that you put.

What, how do you take care of the babies and the mothers? I, I love what I do. I, my father is an OB guy, ob, GN, whatever, so I was, I was raised with this. Mm-hmm. I went to the hospital. As for you, the hospital is a bad, it's a bad place. I love the hospital. Yeah. For me, it was always fun. They gave me candies. I Oh, yeah.

Well, I mean, if you're getting candy, I got like barium swallow, so like, they gave me candy. So for me growing up, it, it was part of my life. Mm-hmm. Then my, my friends got, uh, divorced and I, I just messed, like, I didn't know what I wanna do. I went, I, I never grew up as a, as a, as a child that had, that knew he was gonna be a doctor actually.

So, I studied marketing for one year and a half and, and then I, it didn't feel, it didn't feel good. Mm-hmm. So I switched to medicine. My parents didn't want me to. Then my mother, [01:08:00] she supported me and I'm here and loving 

Dr. Brighten: what I do and. Yeah. Well, we are so glad that you are. I wanna ask about justifications for C-sections.

Yeah. We talked about, you know, when the placenta is covering over the opening of the cervix, we cannot deliver the placenta first because baby would lose oxygen. Mm-hmm. What are other justifications for c-sections? And, and I'm bringing this up too, because I think sometimes women feel like if they had to have a C-section that they failed in some way.

And I don't think that's true, and I don't think women should have that mindset. But as a mom myself, I'm like, I, I've done plenty of my negative thought process about many things about motherhood as well. But one of the reasons that it's like, yes, this is going to be a C-section because this is the best thing.

Dr. Dickter: I think it's really good for you to honor that feeling because they all feel they failed. Yeah. Now there's, there's this social movement that we all love vaginal birds, and so if they can have it, [01:09:00] they feel they're failing. Mm-hmm. To their babies. You're not failing never. But yeah. Let's say, eh, sometimes we get to Tencent tenders, you know, because there's no way to know if baby's gonna come out, just if you don't try.

Yeah. You know, this thing that they used to do before, they used to take some, eh, pelvic metric measures mm-hmm. With a, like, like with an x-ray. Yeah. And they said, no, your pelvis is too small or the baby's too big. That, that we don't do that anymore because we know relaxing. And when you get in labor, things change and keeps open 

Dr. Brighten: and radiating babies is bad.

Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: It's not do that too. Yeah. But, uh, there's no way to know. So sometimes we do get to 10 centimeters and babies are asking in clinics, so they they are, yeah. Their head shifted to the side. Yeah. So that's the thing that you don't know until you're there. Eh, when the placenta rips it, eh, how do you [01:10:00] say ruptures?

No, no, that's a, that's a, the uterus. Yeah. If you have a, a uterus rupture when you have a previous C-section mm-hmm. You can have the wrist. So you have to do a C-section immediately. Yeah. Eh, no placenta, uh, when it starts to separate, uh, detached. Yeah. Yeah. Place when the, when it's a placenta detached, that's, uh, an emergency C-section.

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Uh, what else? When you have a preeclampsia that you cannot control, yeah, you can induce definitely. But if. If you cannot, like, um, if you're not able to control everything, then you can then actually you can induce, you can do a vaginal birth with the preeclampsia. 

Dr. Brighten: With preeclampsia though, there are sometimes emergency situations.

Yeah. What does that look like for people who are not familiar with 

Dr. Dickter: health syndrome? Do you know what it is? Yes. It helps you with the plaque. Lets go, go really low. Mm-hmm. And the, the, the liver gets inflammated. Yeah. The enzyme shoot up and you have Yeah. The enzyme shoot up. So you have a high, high risk of, [01:11:00] of having a, a liver rupture.

Mm-hmm. And that's po. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Yeah, we don't wanna lose any vital organs and with the, no, we don't. Yeah. And that's why, you know, there is, there's VBAC having a vaginal birth after C-section. Um, and I think sometimes, you know, women, they get really upset because they go for that as well, but you know, they're unable to, they end up having a c-section, but understanding that a uterine rupture can be their, it can cost mom and baby their life.

Of course. It is something that, it's like, I think a VBAC is always like, wonderful if you can achieve it. And at the same time, if it's just not the path you're meant to walk, then, you know, I think that's sometimes how I, I look at things that didn't go the way I wanted them to in birth of like, well that wa that was the path that I thought was for me, but the path I actually walked, it taught me a lot and it got me my healthy baby.

Of course. Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: And the viba is awesome. You have to be just, just having the, the things that are, are secure for you. Mm-hmm. Doing it in [01:12:00] hospitals. For, yeah. Eh, the time between one baby and another, it's really important. Mm-hmm. So you can be safe. Yeah. Eh, having a more monitoring course. Mm-hmm. I do put the epidural when it's a vbac, I don't put the anesthesia, but I do put the catheter.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: So what I say is, if you want, if you don't wanna have anesthesia that I have had bba, uh, with no anesthesia, just having the catheter. So if I have to do an emergency C-section, I don't have to put you down. Yeah. So you can see how your baby gets burned. Yeah. And I think that's really important.

Mm-hmm. So if you have the, the, the secure measurements, yeah. You can do 

Dr. Brighten: it. Yeah. That is, that is beautiful. I love that healing After a C-section, what are the things that you recommend for patients? And again, from, you have just a very patient centered perspective of things, and so that's why really I'm interested to hear about after c-section.

What, what should people expect from recovery and what can they do to help their body recover? [01:13:00] 

Dr. Dickter: I think general postpartum, like be like vaginal birth or c-section, like it's being really patient with your body. Mm-hmm. Right now there's a whole, there's a whole movement of getting out from the hospital and having this wonderful body and start doing these breathings and these exercises.

Please don't, no, please give yourself six weeks. Yeah. For, for your body to. To do his own feed yourself. Well do a I think that, um, bone broth is great for postpartum. Mm-hmm. Warm, warm food is great. Ask for help, eh, ask for more hands. Your mothers, your, your mother-in-law, your husbands sleep. My best spice is sleep when you can.

Mm-hmm. If baby's sleeping, sleep. Yeah. Eh, be aware that your hormones are a mess. So these few weeks, you're gonna feel so vulnerable. Vulnerable about anything because you're gonna cry [01:14:00] because your baby's beautiful. You're gonna cry. Oh yeah. 'cause, because you heard a song and you're gonna cry because you had a C-section or because you had a vaginal birth and you're swallowed.

Mm-hmm. So be patient of like, put a step back and look like, look at you. Like if you were out of you, you know what I mean? Yeah. Eh. Hydrate yourself for a nice, for a nice, um, breast, uh, lactation. Yeah. Milk production. Milk production. Yeah. I think that a, a really good advice is have, uh, a, a breast, uh, lactation consultant.

Hmm. Yeah. Think that it's really important having a, a lactation consultant, checking your, your, the latch of your baby. Mm-hmm. It can, it can be really far, really important for you. Yeah. So stay calm for these six weeks. Don't start exercise or any, anything. Just eat and drink water [01:15:00] and sleep and wait for your body to recover.

How important is breastfeeding in your opinion? For me, it's, I try to encourage breastfeeding because I think it's really good for babies, but peace of mind for the mom, it's the most that I encourage. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: So I do, I love breastfeeding for the many, um, not qualities, but for the many benefits that it has for the baby and for the mother.

But in these, in these years, I've seen mothers struggle so much too. So now I say whatever, it gives you peace. That's why I like to work with a lactation consultants. Yeah. So it gets easier. So you are informative and you know, this first six weeks is gonna be so, so difficult. Mm-hmm. For everyone. My husband says that it's like a nuclear science of breastfeeding.

So, [01:16:00] but I, 

Dr. Brighten: yeah, and I think the lactation consultant is important I think, for any birth. So no matter how many children you've had, it's so interesting because, you know, before I had my second, there were so many patients who would tell me like, you know, first three births. Cakewalk, breastfeeding, easy.

Fourth birth, so difficult, couldn't get a latch, had all kinds of issues. You know, next person's like, oh, you know, first baby, everything was easy. Second baby, difficult third baby. It was just the breastfeeding and every birth was so different with my son. My first, I was like, breastfeeding is the only thing I felt confident about is I had seen it so much.

Everybody breastfed around me. So I was like, I saw it, I know I can do it because I saw my family do it. Um, and that was it. Like birth, I was like, I have no idea what I'm doing. And then with my second, so my first was easy. My second, I am so glad that I got a lactation consultant. Like my doula was a lactation consultant and I just called her up and I'm like, can you come over?

'cause this hurts so much, so [01:17:00] bad. And I know it shouldn't. And she came over and she was like, oh, just the way his mouth is. And there was just like a few little things. So easy. But to think like, you know, so many women out there, they struggle and or they stop breastfeeding because they don't know 

Dr. Dickter: that it's something that you can fix so easily.

Yes. Right. Or, or having the, the nice latch or the positions or the timing or avoiding mastitis. Mm-hmm. Many things. Yeah. Oh, what are your tips for avoiding mastitis? Breastfeeding the baby, not, not passing so much at the, at the beginning. Mm-hmm. Like not doing this whole night as of sleep. Yeah. Because then you can, because engorgement is real.

Dr. Brighten: Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely feeding. More often when somebody does get mastitis, like what are your tips for, I love them to get to the shower mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: And get 

Dr. Brighten: these 

Dr. Dickter: hard soap Yeah. Like this and, and mustache their breast from the outside to the, to the nipple. Mm-hmm. And just like [01:18:00] dissolve the. Yeah.

Like the, basically the blockage. Yeah, the blockage. I'm like, I wanna 

Dr. Brighten: say clot, that's not the right word, but it feels like clotted milk in there. It is. Yeah. So, yeah. A lot of massage and warm in your, in your, mm-hmm. And then what about like, when should they definitely call their doctor? 'cause there is a time and a place for antibiotics when they have fever.

Yes, definitely 

Dr. Dickter: call the doctor if you have fever and if your breast is red and if it feels really warm or hot. Mm-hmm. I don't know how it was the word, then call the doctor. Sometimes you do need the antibiotic and it's okay. Yeah. Take probiotics in your, in your, when you're breastfeeding, it's, it's good for you and for your 

Dr. Brighten: baby.

Mm-hmm. Okay. I love that. And what about nutrition? Now you're postpartum, you're feeding a baby. What should women know about their nutrition? There's something that, it's magic. The 

Dr. Dickter: milk is magic because it doesn't matter what you eat, the milk is perfect. Mm-hmm. That's something we know from years. So it's, it's not that I'm saying that you don't have to eat well, but you have to eat well for you, not for your baby.

Yeah. Because if you, it's a [01:19:00] lot to 

Dr. Brighten: recover 

Dr. Dickter: too. Yeah, definitely. If you eat, I mean, if you eat badly, if you eat just like, like garbage, then your milk is gonna be perfect because we're the like, like the human body's awesome, right? Yeah. But you have to feed wealth because you have to recover, you need iron, you need, um, vitamin D, you need vitamin E, you need Amiga, you need calcium.

You need so many things for, for your recovery. You did so much these nine months. Mm-hmm. And giving birth, it re, re replenished yourself. It, 

Dr. Brighten: yeah. It's. Did I say it fine? You did. Replenish yourself is right. I think it's the, um, it's something that's really troubling is that, you know, there's been research showing that women go into pregnancy, nutrient depleted as it is.

They don't have enough nutrient stores and then, you know, when they come out postpartum, it's just this race to try to recover. And so that's why like, it'll be recommended to stay on your prenatal, especially if you're lactating [01:20:00] still, of course. And being really mindful of your diet because we know that, you know, 20, 30 years, 40 years, maybe you could have higher risk for osteoporosis.

Like there can be, uh, other issues going on. Your diet, your 

Dr. Dickter: supplements eventually your exercise, your sleep, and your mental health. Yeah, your community. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. And I wanna say I just love that you're like, whatever is best for your piece when it comes to breastfeeding, because I, uh, there's a movement called Breast is Best, it's irrefutable, breast is Best.

It is. And people said, but no, for everybody. Yeah. But people have now said like, fed is best. Um, and it's, and it's. It's very interesting to watch how formula companies have now infiltrated that to be like, yes, fed is best. And I'm like, you guys are, why we had to do the breast is best movement. And so it's just so tricky for I think, people to navigate because there's, there can be so much judgment.

So even though people say that online still, if you're breastfeeding in public, people might be judging you. So you feel, [01:21:00] you feel that judgment. And you know, for anyone listening, I don't think there's any aspect of being a mom that you don't get judged for. Exactly. And we all feel that. But I, I just really think it's so important because sometimes breastfeeding is so easy and sometimes it's.

So hard, and sometimes it was never possible to begin with. And I think you just have to honor where you're at. I've certainly seen patients who are, like, for my mental health, I cannot continue to breastfeed because I am not a good mother. And I appall 

Dr. Dickter: that too. Yes. To 

Dr. Brighten: recognize it. It's so brave. Yeah.

Dr. Dickter: Because, because you have this social pressure and you said it perfectly. Yeah, definitely. Breast is best. Of course it is. But everybody's different, so you have to acknowledge what everybody's leaving. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Yesterday, uh, a patient that I love, she called me. She, she had a first baby. She gave that baby a year.

Okay. And now it. Uh, she had a, she, she has a four month [01:22:00] baby and she's struggling with mental health. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: So she needs her hormones, she needs to ovulate to feel better. And she was struggling of, what do I do? But I feel bad, but I'm not a good mother, but how can I give him a year and I'm, and I'm gonna give her four months?

And I said, she needs a healthy mother. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Um, you know. Yeah. So stop. 

Dr. Brighten: And it's 

Dr. Dickter: okay. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. It's absolutely, I think that there are so many times in motherhood we have to pause and give ourselves permission to recognize that I'm actually a better mother if it's this way. Like, so I'm somebody that let my house be a mess.

I have, I'm getting in bed at eight 30. I have to go to bed at nine o'clock. I'm not always so great about this. Right. It's like sleep is best, but sometimes I don't always do it the best. So I have to get quality sleep though, and I have to exercise, otherwise I'm irritable. I'm short. I have less patience with my children.

I don't like who I am. Mm-hmm. And how I show up in the [01:23:00] world. And so I have to recognize that. And I think, you know, and that's just like one example of like how I have to like forego some things and, and I rearrange my life for it, but I will let my house be a mess and, and people might have to go without underwear if it means I sleep.

Like that's the way it has to be. That's the priority. Yeah. And it's fine. 

Dr. Dickter: Everybody has their priorities. Yeah. For me, exercise, it's a priority. And being with my children and trying to balance my work with, with being a mother, you know, everybody has their priorities. 

Dr. Brighten: I'm talking about sleep 

Dr. Dickter: to like an obgyn and you're like, what?

Sleep. It's really like I was, um, no, it is important for me. I try to hack my sleep as much as I can. Yeah. Because some, you know, I don't sleep that much. So, so what I sleep is a great, I'm a great sleeper. 

Dr. Brighten: That's fantastic. And that's, um, I think always the troubling thing when you have a baby and you know you need to sleep and you're so tired, but you get into this cycle of having difficulty sleeping.

Nah, that's the worst. Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: Well, how can you help moms with that? That's the worst. It, [01:24:00] the worst you can do. It's not sleeping and sometimes you get so anxious. Yeah. Even it, it could be during pregnancy or it could be postpartum. It, it's something that you're anxious. So you, you have, you can't sleep, but you.

I mean, you have the time because baby's sleeping and you can't. Yeah. So talk to your doctor. There's some natural things that I give my patient, like passive flo. Mm-hmm. And a Valeria nerve. Something that are like, like, um, passion flower and vale passion. That's passion. Do you use those in 

Dr. Brighten: pregnancy or just postpartum?

Postpartum, 

Dr. Dickter: no, I do use them in, in pregnancy actually. Yeah. I do. When they're anxious. I, I, I, I do, I 

Dr. Brighten: love 

Dr. Dickter: passion flower. I do. I do. I do. 

Dr. Brighten: Uh, and so re say Passion flower is, and sometimes 

Dr. Dickter: I give them, it's the the last thing I do, the last thing I do. But sometimes I do give them me lain when they are like really having a bad time.

Mm-hmm. And sometimes we have to. Go with, I mean, you have to check your thyroid. Yeah. That's really important. If you're not sleeping after the baby's born, you have to check that there's not a thyroid storm. Mm-hmm. Okay. That you [01:25:00] can get some, some like hhy. Hyperthyroid. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Hyperthyroidism.

Hyperthyroidism. Yes. Would you gimme, so with postpartum thyroiditis, it's the th the, you know, the classic picture is hyperthyroidism. Mm-hmm. So you're anxious, you can't sleep, then it drops to hypothyroid. Exactly. And you usually, we see breast milk supply drops. Mm-hmm. And then sometimes, and then that's it.

It tends to correlate too around postpartum depression. So I love that you bring. The uh, uh, the thyroid. What I was gonna say about the passion flower is it stimulates GABA receptors in the brain, which is exactly what the metabolites of progesterone does. So when you don't have your progesterone, 'cause often people will say, well, why don't you just give progesterone as some, as soon as someone has a baby?

And I'm like, because they have to establish their milk and like, trust. You don't wanna mess with that in the beginning. But passion flower can be really great for that. And because GABA helps you stay asleep. I love magnesium too. You know, I love magnesium. And you know, the other thing I really like too [01:26:00] is collagen.

Because it's high in glycine. So, uh, I find that, you know, sometimes with patients, this especially happens in like perimenopause, I swear, perimenopause and menopause and then postpartum. It's like these things, the things that work, yeah, they're similar, but like having like collagen with like a, in a turmeric tea with like a little bit of honey before you go to bed can help with sleep, but help with your hunger so that you stay asleep.

You don't get the cortisol spikes at night. Um, that, you know, I love magnesium as well. I love 

Dr. Dickter: magnesium too. In pregnancy, in postpartum, like. In every part of your life actually. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Well, magnesium, I mean, it can help with prevention of preeclampsia. Mm-hmm. It's not to say I want people to understand supplements.

They are not a treatment for medical conditions and they can't prevent everything. But we know that low magnesium can be associated with like headaches, with blood pressure issues. So, um, and then it definitely can help with sleep, with anxiety. Cortisol management. Yeah. Stress 

Dr. Dickter: management, eh, having a night's, uh, a good night's sleep.

Mm-hmm. [01:27:00] Eh, going to the, depends which magnesium. And you talk about that a lot. Yeah. But it's important you know, which magnesium are you taking, eh, it helps to regulate your bowels. Your bowels too, because when you're pregnant, progesterone will just make all your. Or your bowels 

Dr. Brighten: ring like slower. Mm-hmm.

So that's where magnesium citrate is your friend. And then you can switch to the glycinate, which, and, and some people will take like, you know, a little bit of magnesium in the morning, citrate helps with their bowel movements and then glycinate at night and that helps them sleep. But yeah, I mean, and it's also great for brain health.

So if it's great for an adult's brain health, it's gotta be great for baby's brain health. I actually haven't seen studies on that, and now I'm like, I'm very curious. I need to go look at that. Me neither. Just check that. Yeah. I'm like, have they studied this? Check that. Yeah. It's always tricky though. Uh, so often people will say like, we don't have great human studies on this.

I'm like, because it's unethical to be like, let's not give mom's magnesium their entire pregnancy and just see what happens to baby. Like Exactly. [01:28:00] No. Like let's just, and we always start like, that's the thing that happens with alcohol, right? Yeah. That there's no, we don't know where's like the. Yeah. Okay.

So let's talk about that. Yes. Because fetal alcohol syndrome is a very scary thing. Uh, oftentimes women, you know, they might not even know they're pregnant. They've been drinking alcohol. So should, if somebody is like, Hey, I had a glass of wine. I tested like a couple days later, I'm pregnant. Should I freak out?

Dr. Dickter: No, you shouldn't. Okay. There's a thing called the rule of, of, in Spanish, we say it's nothing or everything. Mm-hmm. Okay. This, this rule, so if you had drugs and alcohol, like bench drinking and, and you didn't know you were pregnant, if it's gonna affect the baby, you're gonna lose the baby. Mm. If it, if it didn't, was, if it wasn't enough to affect the baby, then the baby's gonna come fine.

Yeah. Right. It's not gonna, and this is 

Dr. Brighten: early, this isn't like third trimester, right? No, no, no. Really early. Yeah. But 

Dr. Dickter: you don't have, you're gonna have like a, like a damaged [01:29:00] baby. Yeah. Either you're gonna, it's gonna be there or it's not. That's the way it is. So if you, if you drink or you, if you, you drugged, then if the baby's there, just stop.

Okay. What I can say about alcohol, it's like the responsible thing. It's not alcohol in pregnancy. Yeah. Because of the, of the fatal alcohol 

Dr. Brighten: syndrome. I'm curious, what were you taught about postpartum care for moms when you were in school? Not much. Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: Not much. Maybe six weeks and 

Dr. Brighten: they're done. Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: Like, yeah.

I did have a class or two about postpartum and especially not a physiological postpartum, like a path pathological one. Ah, okay. Like what if she has a mastitis or our, or our IUDI, sorry. U-T-I-U-T-I. Yeah. The other acronym 

Dr. Brighten: down there. 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. But, but there's so much to, to know and to do about postpartum.

Mm-hmm. It's, it's such a special time on, on, on [01:30:00] women's face. Yeah. I wanna, I wanna say something that I think it's important for, for, for women to hear. For me it's really important that the mental health in postpartum, and I don't want to acknowledge that, um, postpartum depression, it doesn't have to be right when baby, when babies are born, yeah.

You can have postpartum depression the whole first year of your baby. You can have, you can have an eight month baby and start your postpartum depression. Mm-hmm. So that there, I think that that's something that nobody talks about. There's more and more information. Now we know that everybody has a baby blues for two weeks.

Yeah. It could be a, I mean, it could feel like more for more, uh, one woman to another, but the, the hormonal things, it's the same for everyone. Mm-hmm. You just have no hormones. Yeah. So this brief menopause, it's gonna make you feel. Like, you don't even know where are you. Mm-hmm. So, passing that if, if you're [01:31:00] feeling sad or you're feeling, um, like you don't wanna be with your baby or sometimes that you wanna harm your baby or yourself.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: You have to ask, you have to 

Dr. Brighten: ask for 

Dr. Dickter: help 

Dr. Brighten: and intrusive thoughts. Having thoughts that really impose on you that are not your own, that are scary as well. Yeah. I think sometimes women don't recognize that and sometimes, uh, as you were saying, the what looks like hyperthyroidism can actually be the way your depression's manifesting.

Mm-hmm. So I always think it's best that if you can find somebody to work with while you're pregnant, find a mental health provider and then if you don't need them postpartum, you don't need them. But if you do, it's so much better when you are feeling that in that dark place, that place of panic, that place of loneliness, that you already have somebody instead of having to scramble and then also find somebody.

I appreciate you speaking to that. How common is postpartum depression? I think it's more common that, that, 

Dr. Dickter: I wanna say that, [01:32:00] that we 

Dr. Brighten: recognize or know how much we 

Dr. Dickter: recognize or diagnose. Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah, no, I definitely agree with that. I 

Dr. Dickter: don't know. It's six to 10% I think. Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Brighten: Maybe somewhere, somewhere around that.

I think it's also not that, it's not only just that we're missing diagnosis, I think it's also very shameful. Mm-hmm. I know in the US the culture is that you're a mom, you can do it all. You should be able to do it all. You're a super mom. Like you can, you know, go back to work at six weeks and be separated from your baby.

You can manage the entire household. You can keep doing all these things. And in the rally, like I was saying, like, you know, my kids don't go like without clean clothes or, or things like that. But like I was saying, like if I have to let some stuff go, I let some stuff go because mentally I know that's what's going to be the best for me.

But I don't think we have these conversations enough. It's, again, we feel like we're a failure. We feel, and I definitely, I felt that a lot more with my first, but honestly, I think having the privilege of listening to so many patient stories, that's how I knew [01:33:00] I wasn't alone, that I wasn't a failure. It wasn't the only one, because I was like, my God, when my office door closes and the stories come out, it's like we're all having these struggles, but we're not talking about it because we think everybody else has it together.

Especially thinking the social media age, there's the highlight reels on there, and everybody's that, that follows me. 

Dr. Dickter: They, they say, wow, she has two, two daughters and she's doing this, she's being in the hospital, 3:00 AM and then she goes to the gym, and then she's with her daughters, and then, you know, yeah.

Like, like, like if I'm a rockstar, I'm not, I'm not. I'm, I'm just a human being. I had postpartum depression. Mm-hmm. This is the first time that I'm saying that. Thank you. I had to, with my second baby. It was really hard for me to recognize, and it was really hard for me to get help because I felt like, like, no, this is not happening to me.

I'm an, I'm an informative woman. Mm-hmm. I, I have a team. My baby's healthy. Everything is fine. Yeah. [01:34:00] Why am I feeling like this? And it wasn't the first month. I, it took me 10 months to recognize that I wasn't okay. Mm-hmm. It took my husband to push me to say, something's wrong here. Yeah. And it was really hard for me to ask help, to ask for help.

I asked and I'm, I'm getting out of it. I'm feeling pretty good right now. My baby's one year and two months. Mm-hmm. But it was a traumatic part, um, delivery so that, that took away the. The joy and, and, and physically it was a challenge. Yeah. I had to go around the world to look for a doctor to fix my, my, what I was feeling in my, in my perineum Yeah.

Area. Eh, I had a nerve that it was damaged. It's, it's really, um, what happened to me. It's not something that, it's common obviously had happened to me. It was really weird. So I had damaged the, a nerve that it's called pum nerve. [01:35:00] Mm-hmm. So I couldn't sit Yeah. For months. And I, and I'm an OB GYN and I didn't know, and I haven't seen any of my patients going through that.

Yeah. So I have, I was having this physical. Physical like, um, struggle. That went to my, my mental health obviously. And I was in pain and I was working because I had my patient waiting for me. And I love to work, but I have a, a baby that needed me and I was breastfeeding and I had my toddler and life.

Mm-hmm. So, so sometimes it's a lot and, and what I do in social media and, and sometimes it's a lot. So, so I had to, to close my agenda, to take a step back to lower the patients that I, that I saw for this year and to take care of me. Yeah. 'cause if, if you as a mom, you're not, you're not, you're not well then you cannot be 

Dr. Brighten: well or fine for anybody else.

Absolutely. Well, thank you so much for sharing [01:36:00] that. I mean, I really touched that you would share that here. I think that's, it's gonna help a lot of women to hear that and that nerve pain, anybody who has chronic pain is at risk. For depression. Yeah. We know this, and this is even an area of medicine, really neglects people in chronic pain.

And so adding that on top of the demands of being a mom and then the hormonal changes and how they affect your body, I mean, that's so much for any one person. It is. 

Dr. Dickter: It is. 

Dr. Brighten: But thanks God, 

Dr. Dickter: everything, what my mantra is, everything passed. So right now I'm, I'm feeling much better. I can see it as you see, I'm not in pain anymore.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. I, so I can relate, not to the same extreme, but after I had my second, I ended up having a psoriatic arthritis flare and it was mostly in my sacral iliac joint. Okay. So sitting for breastfeeding, I couldn't lay down. And there was this big conference that's like, it's a [01:37:00] really big conference in the United States and it's so prestigious if you can speak at it.

And I was supposed to go speak and I was like, I can't sit on a plane. I cannot walk on an airport. I can't walk on a stage. I can't even get comfortable in bed. And that was something that was like, I went through that for, for probably a good six months of, of that pain. But that's, you know, it was the same thing of like, I have to, I, and I had to say no to that conference.

I don't care how prestigious it is, you are first have to take care of myself. And I don't think my 20 something year old self would have the wisdom to do that. Yeah. I'll just say that like, I think. There's a, uh, I will say I had one son at 31 and I had the second at 40. And I am just love who I am as a mom, as a person at 40, my boundaries, all of it.

Um, but I think it is really, it is really hard for all moms. And there, uh, it's also just something to that, like, I want to emphasize your message of like taking care of yourself, examining where you need to dial back so that you can care for [01:38:00] yourself. I 

Dr. Dickter: think that in the US you have more, um, you have more information about postpartum depression and there are more red flags.

You go to the pediatrician and there's like this, um, question. They do screening. Yeah, they do screening and here we don't. 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. In 

Dr. Dickter: Mexico we don't, so, so I think it's important we start doing something about it. 

Dr. Brighten: Absolutely. That's really unfortunate that that's not taking place, and especially because sometimes interventions as simple as getting community, getting support, getting outside in the sun, getting exercise, those can benefit women.

But for those who definitely need the higher level interventions, like needing pharmaceutical support, needing, you know, to have therapy, it's just really unfortunate for what I think most about is that it's unfortunate for their health, but it's so unfortunate because they had a dream of motherhood and they're not able to, to have [01:39:00] that dream and to experience that and live that in the way they desired.

Dr. Dickter: And, and this is not my case, but I do know that are many womens, that they cannot connect with their babies right away. Mm-hmm. So they feel awful about that. And I wanna say that's normal too. Yeah. For some it takes time to connect with your newborn. Mm-hmm. So give yourself the time. You don't have to love him with all your heart when he's there.

Just at the first side. Yeah. For, for some of us it is, but for some it's not. And that's normal too. It will develop with time. 

Dr. Brighten: And it's also normal for dads too. And we hold, it's much more right. And we hold space for that and we say like, oh, it'll take them time to develop it for moms where they like, it should be instant, you grew them in their body, therefore it just should be instant.

And so I appreciate you normalizing that. Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah, definitely. For, for, for dads are, it's another world because they, there are so many studies that you can see an MRI know mm-hmm. How you, you [01:40:00] change your, your brain being pregnant and they, they just don't, yeah. So for them, they need for the baby to. To start doing some to connect with them and start smiling.

Mm-hmm. Or start, uh, doing something so they can connect. And for us it's different. Yeah. But 

Dr. Brighten: can you talk a little more more about how the brain changes in pregnancy? Yeah. I'm actually, 

Dr. Dickter: I exactly like what grows, like the, like if the, how do you say the P two, the. Pitu gland? No. Pituitary gland. Gland, yeah, exactly.

The, the, the, the changes. I know, I know it changes. There are many, like many studies that they can show you in the MRI, how it, it grows. Mm-hmm. And, and how the connections are different. Are different. Mm-hmm. Because your hormones are different. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. And the pituitary being the master gland, that's really signaling, I mean, it's the general right that sends out, I don't [01:41:00] like war analogies, uh, but it feels like, you know, um, the military system is so well organized, like our body, that's where it always comes out.

But it's like, you know, the person, it's the CEO, we can use that, that gives all of the signals to the hormone so that they can operate. And I've seen recent research, you know, forever women have said. I have mom brain and this feeling that your brain changes in pregnancy and into about six months postpartum and forever science medicine.

They were like, no, you silly ladies. Like you're just being scatterbrained women. And now there's, there was actually a doctor who did MRI studies on herself. It said 10 years. Right. And it showed, yeah, significant changes and. You know, I will say I have noticed for myself, but also my friends and I have talked about it, how much better we are at multitasking.

Like how, how much better our brain got after pregnancy. I always wonder, like, did my son send some little stem cells up to my brain and they're like, little patchwork. [01:42:00] Make it stronger. 

Dr. Dickter: Mom, I, we can talk about that. The late clamping of the cord and the stem cells. Yeah. Tell, tell us about it. I wanna tell about you.

That I wanna talk about it. Okay. So when baby's born, if you do late clamping of the cordon, then you have the stem cells going through from you to your baby. So this. Stem cells can go anywhere your baby needs them. Mm-hmm. So I think it's, it's great. There are, um, some researches that says that baby has, they have more blood.

The 30 30% of the blood, of the baby placenta Kips sets. Yes. Okay. So if baby's born and you cut it immediately, then you don't give the 30%. Mm-hmm. Then it belongs to your baby. If you do the late, the late clamping, then. You pass this 30% that it belongs to the baby. So you have more blood, you have less risk of transfusions, of anemia, of um, it's, I'm gonna say in Spanish, it's called a enteritis.

[01:43:00] Necro. It's something in the intestines in, in Indian? Yeah. Anti 

Dr. Brighten: colitis. 

Dr. Dickter: Anti colitis. Yeah. Yeah. And they say that you have more blood, you have more oxygen. Mm-hmm. So then you have more iq. Yeah. The IQ is higher and the stem cells, that for me are so important. Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. I love that you bringing that up because they have done studies showing that iron deficiency anemia.

Infants children is associated with lower iq. Mm-hmm. And breast milk is not gonna give you iron. It's not, which is by design, because it could feed harmful organisms in baby's gut, which would be bad. So this is the brilliance of the body, as you were saying, breast milk will be made perfect. Um, and that's, you know, where it becomes so important that solids do come in around that six months.

Um, there's some people who are apprehensive about vitamin K shots about giving baby vitamin K. Mm-hmm. Can we talk about that? Yeah. Because there's the drops, there's shots. What's your opinion? Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: There's more that, that's more like a pediatrician. Mm-hmm. Um, thing to do. They decide. But we do, in my hospital [01:44:00] and my patients, we do give them the vitamin K shot.

Yeah. It's because we lower the risk of, um, brain hemorrhages when they are born. Yes. They go through vaginal canal, so, so they can have an hemorrhage. So if you're giving the vitamin K, you are, you are. 

Dr. Brighten: Lowering their risk. Yes. And a hemorrhage is a brain bleed for people who are like, I'm sorry. No, no, no, no, it's fine.

Um, and that I do think, you know, there's some people and you know, people are going to make in their decisions based on the best information they have. Of course, I definitely am like vitamin K, you are not going to get enough of that in the breast milk. You're not gonna get enough of that immediately And any kind of bleed, any kind of hemorrhage.

So brain hemorrhage. Yes. 'cause you just came through the canal. But even in those early days, like you just, you would be so heartbreaking to skip such a simple intervention and then to experience loss. I do think because of it, it's, it's 

Dr. Dickter: really important too. Mm-hmm. I think that there are some, um, interventions that, that, that we, that they're, [01:45:00] they have, they have to be done.

Mm-hmm. And it's okay. And it's not to harm your baby. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Vaginal recovery. We talked about c-section recovery. You talked a little bit about postpartum, but then you did bring up the swollen vagina and, uh, we've all had, if you've had a vaginal delivery, then you know, when you're like, has my vulva always been so big?

What is happening? And then for people who are like, wait, vagina, vulva, vagina's, the inside vulva is the outside. 

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. The bull bug gets really, really, really swollen in the vagina too. And that's normal. It will go away. Don't worry. The first 24, 4 hours, if you can do ice pack, it's really good. Like, don't do the cape at that go that they are cold and they stop being cold 10 minutes after.

Yeah. Like use really the ice pack. You know when the ice can burn. Ah, oh yeah. Don't 

Dr. Brighten: burn your skin. Oh yeah. Have a barrier between the 

Dr. Dickter: ice and that. 

Dr. Brighten: So you burn 

Dr. Dickter: the skin, but you do use the first 24 hours. Mm-hmm. Ice pack. That will help a lot. Eh, [01:46:00] depends if you have any episiotomy. If you didn't. But if you, if, if they.

Got stitches on you. Just be really, really careful with your hygiene par bottles. Everybody. Bottles 

Dr. Brighten: I love. I'm like, you're the best. I think even after you have a baby, you're like, okay, still you use them. Perry bottles are amazing. You know, I don't know. I'm, I'm team bidet. Um, so when I travel I'm like, Berry bottles, they're so green.

In Mexico we don't 

Dr. Dickter: use so much. Yeah, we don't use so many pet barrels, but they are. Great. So I'm gonna explain if people don't know what they are, so when you just had a baby, eh, when you go to pee, it really hurts, right? Mm-hmm. It, it feels like it burns. Yes. So you use the pet bur the pet bur with, um, warm water, and it helps you not to feel that, that pain Yeah.

Or that burn. And sometimes it helps you to, to just to go to pee. Mm-hmm. Because for some women it's hard. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. For the 

Dr. Dickter: first time to go to pee after you had a baby 

Dr. Brighten: [01:47:00] mm-hmm. Your, 

Dr. Dickter: your bladder ate. Uh, it gets like inflammated. Yeah. And it's not responding this way. And you're also scared. 

Dr. Brighten: And you're scared.

Yeah. Peeing and, and pooping. The first times you're like, oh my gosh, is it gonna be okay? 

Dr. Dickter: It's gonna be, I promise. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. So the Perry bottles stool 

Dr. Dickter: softener. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Stool 

Dr. Dickter: softeners. Great advice. C-section or, or vaginal birds stool softeners. Always on your, on our side. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Yeah. And that's also have the magnesium citrate, uh, by your side for like, because I think stool softener is great in the, um, beginning magnesium citrate can be a great a little later on.

Um, the other thing I love is that I make a tea with like, uh, calendula and different, like healing herbs. Oh, that's great. I poured on the pads and I would stick them in the freezer. And so I'd freeze the pads. And then as they were defrosting, it was like this herbal infusion. Do you know what I love? Yeah.

Tell me. The witch hazel. Oh yeah, the witch hazel pads. Those are great. Especially if you have hemorrhoids as well. Yeah. Which, um, everybody, almost everybody gets [01:48:00] hemorrhoids. I think. It's another thing we don't talk about, but when they're, and people are like, oh, it's because you strained. And it's like, well, maybe, but there's so much blood and so much pressure in your pelvis as it can, it can happen.

Dr. Dickter: Yeah. Which case? Oh, it's awesome. Yeah. After giving birth. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. And then, uh, in terms of, are you familiar with like vaginal steaming or yoni steaming? Some people talk. I do. Yeah. What do you think about that? I haven't done it 

Dr. Dickter: Really? 

Dr. Brighten: Mm-hmm. 

Dr. Dickter: I know I have heard of it. Yeah. Do you have any experience? So this is a thing I have heard for, for, 

Dr. Brighten: sorry, sorry.

To, for endometriosis. So we actually had an episode with Dr. Ram Carrera, um, and we were talking about the yoni egg because people were saying like, oh, you can cure endometriosis if you use this yoni egg. No you can't. Um, but then we talked about vaginal steaming, and I was saying that, you know, I had patients who had used it, people would ask about it, and I'm like, you know, culturally, I'm very much like, don't disrespect people's culture and then just talk them through safe [01:49:00] ways.

Mm-hmm. Like, you know, steam burns are real, but people are, they have common sense, right. They're not gonna worry. We don't worry about that too much. But it was after the birth of my second that I had a granuloma and it just hurt. Even Perry bottle wasn't getting by. I was like, I have to do something to get some relief here.

And I was like, I'm just gonna try this vaginal steaming. So I just got this like little tray that goes over your toilet. You put like hot water in there. The best thing really. It was so helpful and so soothing and so relaxing. And so I think that's part of why people say it helps with endometriosis is because it is just so relaxing.

Um, but it is something now that I'm like, you know, sit sits, baths have always been a thing like, you know, to do postpartum, like sitting and alternating hot and cold. They the thing, it's just you have be cautious about infections. Yes. 

Dr. Dickter: That's the thing 

Dr. Brighten: that, yeah, yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: Not like full bathing. Exactly. Yeah, exactly.

Because everything, I mean, the uterus [01:50:00] opened, so you have high risk of a, of a bacteria just to get inside. Mm-hmm. So that what's, that's why it recommends when, after having a baby not to do, uh, bathtubs or jacuzzi or pools or anything, like for six weeks. 

Dr. Brighten: So a six bath is. Is for the vulva only. Exactly.

Yeah. Just really shallow, just for people listening. Mm-hmm. I'm like, I should clarify that it's not a bath. It's like you're just sitting in very shallow water to get it on the vulva. That's so good. Um, but this vaginal steaming, I was just really surprised at how much it helped and how good that felt in 

Dr. Dickter: Mexico City.

I don't know if you know, there's something called Sierra de Deera. Mm-hmm. It's the closure of the hips. Yes. It's uh, it's like, it's a spiritual, uh, ritual, but I do recommend it always to my patients. And I did it too. So it, there's, uh, like a dual or postpartum, it goes to your house and she does a, a really nice [01:51:00] massage and they close your, your hips and your body with a rebozo and they do a steam, um, like.

It's like a little sauna. Mm-hmm. Like they do like a, like a, like a little teepee. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That like your just 

Dr. Brighten: head is out 

Dr. Dickter: with so many, um, herbal Yeah. Remedies. And you just breathe it out and you take a tea and it's a, it's a really nice thing to do and to try, I think it's a nice closure for your body and for your soul.

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: That's beautiful. There's also, 

Dr. Brighten: um, you know, the, the practice of 40 days being off your feet, like you're, you've taken at least a month off postpartum. Mm-hmm. You, we were talking off camera and you brought up that you had tried the yoni egg. I did. I did not experimented with yoni egg. Um, so I'd love to hear it.

What was your experience? It was hard for me to 

Dr. Dickter: get pregnant. I mean, to have my, my, my daughters. Mm-hmm. Because at first I had the infertility issues. It's not that I couldn't get pregnant, but I, I was losing them. Yeah. I, I had two, two miscarriages. Mm-hmm. [01:52:00] So, you know, when you're, when when you're living that you do.

Anything, you know, just to, to be a mother. So one of the trust I'm in that I'm in that journey right now, and literally anything. So two of the things that I, that I did was I tried the uni just to, just to like, to, to be in contact with my fertility, with my woman's side. It's, it's more, I did it more on a spiritual side than a, than a physical way to heal.

Yeah. And I don't know if it helped, but I have two daughters. Yeah. And actually what I did, it's, uh, a ritual that when I, after the second miscarriage, I just, uh, the first, the next menstrual cycle, I just kept my blood and I diluted with water. And I, I spread it in the, in the garden and I put some flowers.

Mm-hmm. And I just, I was there sitting and listening to some mantra and I just cried out, like to the pama, how, how. How hard that, how, how bad did I wanted to [01:53:00] be a mother, and after that I just got pregnant from my daughter. So I think it's, it's important, I mean, if it's something that you believe in, and many of us have different beliefs.

Mm-hmm. I, I have, I'm, I'm Jewish, so I, I did pray as a, as a Jewish woman, that I wanted a to have a baby. So, uh, but I have my spiritual side and I think that when you can combine this medical part, this scientific things that we do with this, like, uh, with this like spiritual side, that it's intangible. Yeah.

Intangible. Yeah. Yeah. Things get better. That's what I like about the magic of the birds and the, the pregnancy and, and being in touch with so many women all the time. 

Dr. Brighten: So we've had a lot of guests echo the same thing. I'm right there with you. I think the, the best approach is to marry the science with the spirituality and whatever that looks like for you.

On the spiritual side, I, we are [01:54:00] absolutely spiritual beings and it is a part of us that needs to be honored in some way. There's so many people that are, you know, criticized the yoni egg. I've had patients say that like after being sexually assaulted, it reconnected them to their pelvis. To their, to their root chakra.

Like there's been so many, there's so many other reasons outside of like, you know, people will say like, it does nothing and there's no scientific evidence. But it's like when a patient tells me that she used this and she healed her trauma, or she used this and, you know, she became pregnant later, like it was part of her journey.

Who am I to say that I know better than this spiritual realm than a God, than anyone else? And who am I to tell her like, well, there's no science, therefore no. And if it's not real and if, 

Dr. Dickter: if it doesn't harm her mm-hmm, why not? If it help her, great. Whatever you think is good for you. And that's the same with, with being a mother and with [01:55:00] being pregnant and you know, so 

Dr. Brighten: you said the spiritual aspect of birth.

What does that mean to you? You said I love being a part of it. 'cause of the spiritual aspect. Say more about that. 

Dr. Dickter: I think that just somebody that has delivered a baby of being around the delivery has, can understand what I mean. Mm-hmm. There's this magical feeling and, and like the whole, the whole ambience is, it's so, so strong.

Yeah. Don't you, didn't you fail when you, when you paper? Yeah. It's, yeah. It's, it's, it's, it's so strong. Sometimes I have to just go running or, or do things because you can like have this, all this energy. Yeah. The 

Dr. Brighten: energy of life. Mm-hmm. And that's, I think. Such a great way to really wrap this conversation.

I just think about how we started out talking about this patient centered this, the humanity [01:56:00] of birth, and recognizing that it's not just a medical event, but it is the welcoming of a new spirit, a new being, and entirely new person to this planet, and that that is happening through the gate. Of the mother and however that looks like in the birth room.

It is such a magical and beautiful thing. Yeah. 

Dr. Dickter: And I do wanna say how much I admire you because Oh, thanks. Everything that I do in the birth starts with connecting with your female side and with your hormones and with your cycles, and with not doing the pill and with everything that you have been talking about so many years.

So I do, um, I'm grateful for, for what, what you 

Dr. Brighten: have 

Dr. Dickter: spread. 

Dr. Brighten: Yeah. Well, we're gonna have to talk again because you were, you know, off camera, you were talking about like not going to the pill first and the, and your, your thoughts about the way birth control pill is used. But I was like, this is the pregnancy episode and we gotta make sure that we like, cover these topics for everybody who's listening, who's [01:57:00] thinking about being, becoming pregnant, who's already pregnant, or who's getting ready to deliver.

 

So I appreciate all of the information you shared just so much. I really appreciate it. I'm glad to be here and, and thank you so much. I hope you enjoyed this episode. If this is the kind of content you're into, then I highly recommend checking out this.