69. If you’ve ever felt frustrated by confusing ovulation tests or wondered if your diet is truly supporting your fertility, this episode is a must-listen. Functional nutritionist Carmen reveals the exact strategies she used to conceive on the first try at age 40—even without a clear ovulation window.
On episode 69, functional nutritionist Carmen shares her incredible story of how she successfully conceived on the first try at age 40, despite the challenge of having an unclear ovulation window. Carmen breaks down the exact nutritional strategies and lifestyle shifts she used to optimize her fertility, offering a masterclass for women navigating the complexities of conception later in life. From debunking common myths about “perfect” cycles to the specific foods that support egg health, her expertise provides a clear roadmap for anyone feeling overwhelmed by confusing data and biological clocks.
Beyond the science of nutrition, Carmen opens up about the personal and advocacy-driven side of her journey, including her decision to plan a textbook home birth and how the documentary The Business of Being Born shaped her perspective. As a career-driven mom who navigated this path while becoming newly single, her story is one of profound empowerment and bodily autonomy. Whether you’re struggling to track your cycle or looking to fine-tune your prenatal health, Carmen’s insights will leave you feeling confident and equipped to take charge of your fertility journey.
About the Guest
Carmen Dunn is a Vancouver-based functional nutritionist and health coach specializing in helping exhausted, career-driven moms reclaim their energy and lose weight. With a deep background in nutritional science, Carmen became her own best client at age 40, using targeted protocols to conceive her second child on the very first attempt. She is a passionate advocate for bodily autonomy and informed birth choices, bringing a unique blend of clinical expertise and personal experience to the conversation about motherhood later in life.
Connect with Carmen:
- Instagram: @carmendunnnutrition
Key Topics
- Fertility Nutrition: Specific dietary shifts to optimize egg health and prepare your body for a 40+ pregnancy.
- The Ovulation Myth: How to successfully conceive when your tracking data is unclear or inconsistent.
- Functional Health Habits: Bridging the gap between career-driven stress and reproductive wellness.
- Empowered Birth Choices: Why Carmen chose a textbook home birth and how The Business of Being Born shaped her journey.
- Conceiving as a Single Mom: Navigating the emotional and practical transition of a planned pregnancy while newly single.
Resources & Links
Note: Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you if you make a purchase. I only recommend products our guests truly love!
Instagram: Follow Over 40 Fabulous and Pregnant
YouTube: Watch Episodes HERE
Recommended Products: Prenatal Multivitamin & Molybdenum & Donut Pillow
Referenced Documentary: The Business of Being Born
Shop More: See ALL products recommended by our guests!
Support the Podcast: Donate to the Podcast
Community: Join the Over 40 Fabulous Facebook Group
Transcript
Jamie: Carmen, welcome to the show.
Carmen: Thank you. It’s great to be here.
Jamie: So you were first pregnant in your thirties and after that you wanted to have another child, correct?
Carmen: Yes. So I was nine months postpartum when I was pregnant again. It’s pretty fast. But I always knew I wanted three kids, but yeah, I knew I wanted the second one for sure.
Jamie: These were planned. Can you help us understand how you prepared for this pregnancy?
Carmen: So the second one, I didn’t have to do as much ’cause I had done all the research prior. I would say the thing that really put me on a different trajectory for how I wanted to. Birth was, I watched a documentary by Ricky Lake when I was like 27, and that completely changed my world.
I wasn’t even in a position to be pregnant. I had a partner at the time, but we weren’t looking at having babies. But it just opened my mind to natural birth and the medicalization of birth and just stuff that I’m against. So I think that kind of seeded me. And then when I was first pregnant, I went down the rabbit hole and I was researching everything.
I became obsessed. I was reading every book by every midwife. I was reading books on home birth. And professionally, every time I’d be at conferences, I’d be pulling doctors aside and asking them like a million questions. I really enjoyed the research part at that point. And then for my second pregnancy, I knew all of that, but I hired a doula who was like a pit bull. She had been operating longer than the midwives had even been licensed in my province. She knew everything from, every hospital, every C-section rate. She knew all the ob, she knew what we were up against at every, hospital or where I lived.
I just grilled her on data and she knew everything. And I got ahold of statistics for my midwives on studies that had been done. So I really enjoyed the research aspect of it because for me, being a health practitioner, the most important thing for me was to have a natural birth because I wanted to share my microbiome to the child.
’cause that’s how the baby’s immune system is born, is through the bacteria that get exposed through the vaginal canal and that colonizes their intestines and starts their immune system. So for me, it wasn’t like to prove I can or to be better than someone else, it was really health focused. So I was trying to do everything I could to be able to have a natural birth regardless of where that happened.
Jamie: When you were trying to conceive, did you do anything special during that time?
Carmen: No. No. I did. When we decided we were gonna try, I did go out and get ovulation sticks. And it never worked. I could never find my ovulation time. And so I into my head went, oh God, maybe I have issues. But then when we finally tried I conceived on the first shot.
Jamie: What do you mean you couldn’t find your ovulation? What were the sticks showing?
Carmen: I guess I would’ve peed on them. And Uhhuh, it was either a happy face or an unhappy face, and it never told me when I was ovulating, so I didn’t know when to try. And then finally I was like, fuck it, I’m just gonna go have sex. And then we did, and then it worked. I don’t know what to say about that.
Jamie: Wow. So you only tried one time?
Carmen: Yeah.
Jamie: What prompted you to take a pregnancy test? Were you just late on your cycle?
Carmen: It was really interesting because we were actually in France at the time. My partner or my ex was from France. And I just remember we were on the flight going to Paris and it was the evening time. They offered me a glass of wine. I’m like, okay. I thought it would make me sleepy and then I would sleep. ’cause it was a night flight because it wired me. And I’m like, this is weird. Red wine doesn’t wire me. And then the next thing I intuitively knew is we were walking through this little seaside village and in France the pharmacies have these green crosses.
That’s the symbol. And these green crosses were just like coming out at me like, like it’s like they were like screaming at me. And everywhere I would look, I’d see this green and I’m like, what? Why? Why are the pharmacy signs coming out at me? Something intuitively was like, maybe you should check ’cause something felt off.
But I’ve heard women say, oh, I just knew when I was pregnant. I didn’t know. I never felt anything different, but it was just the way, I don’t know, it was weird. And so I went in and I bought two tests. ’cause I know you’re supposed to test with the first morning’s pee, but of course you can’t wait. It’s the afternoon, I’m dying to know.
We went back to our hotel and I went to pee on it. And I remember telling myself, don’t get too excited, it’s not gonna work. But deep down I knew what was gonna happen. And so it came back pregnant and I think I was in shock for two hours, just shaking. I couldn’t believe it was finally happening for me.
Jamie: That’s amazing. One time.
Carmen: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: How was your first trimester?
Carmen: I’m just remember being really tired. I think the nausea hit me at about six weeks and I was depressed a bit. I just remember even opening up my laptop was too much for me.
I was like, I don’t have the energy to read work emails. And I think I just binged Netflix and watched documentaries. And then the nausea went away. Everyone said around as soon as you go into the second trimester it goes, and mine did around 12, 13 weeks. But I would say it was very humbling. It was very humbling. I was fortunate that I didn’t work in the corporate world, but I just remember thinking like, fuck, I can’t begin to imagine what a woman who was first pregnant, but of course you hide it in the beginning would be going through if I was still working in an office like how would you hold that back from everyone? You’re extremely tired. Maybe you’re nauseous or vomiting, how do you hide it? Because I couldn’t even read an email.
Jamie: Yeah. You’re just that exhausted.
Carmen: Yeah. I was very, yeah. It took it outta me and I think I had a lot of resentment too, and it. Around what’s the point of going out to a restaurant if I can’t enjoy a nice glass of wine? So I had a lot of anger about that, and I don’t know why, because it’s obvious. You all know you can’t drink alcohol when you’re pregnant. But it bothered me more than I thought it would. I was like what’s the point of even going out?
And I, you know what? To be honest with you, Jamie I did have a lot of depression in the beginning pregnancy, depression,
Jamie: huh.
Carmen: And then I had guilt from that because I’m like I’m a health practitioner. Like I help women overcome depression. Why am I depressed? And so I went down the rabbit hole trying to understand why. And I think I came across the book stating that there’s a certain hormone that downregulates production of serotonin or something. And then that made me feel a little bit better.
But but I think once I got into the second trimester, that’s where it gets fun because now you’ve got the belly, now you get to go maternity clothes shopping, and it’s that’s the fun trimester, right? Because now everybody knows it’s visible and you take all your belly shots and the nausea was gone. I remember it was just like, there was like a laundry list of things you can’t do. You can’t use essential oils. And I’m like I like to put eucalyptus in my, I had a steam shower back then, or you can’t, you shouldn’t drink coffee and you can’t have cheese and you can’t have deli meats, which I don’t eat anyways.
But it was just like, they put the fear of God into you. I can’t have sushi. Like we live off sushi here. And it was just, I think there was a lot of anger around all the things I can’t do that were previously, fun in my life. So that surprised me quite a bit.
Jamie: I get that for sure.
Carmen: Yeah.
Jamie: And what about, did you find out the sex during this time?
Carmen: No. Oh, none of them. I did pay extra for the NIP test.
Jamie: Uhhuh.
Carmen: Because I was, older. But we both I wanted a surprise. My thinking was just like, there’s so much technology in everything we do in life. I think it’s nice just to have an old school surprise. And really all I cared about was a healthy baby. I really didn’t care what the sex was. And that was the same for my second. We didn’t check either.
Jamie: That’s great. I kinda want that, but I’m also having a hard time believing this is a real pregnancy, so I’m like, maybe if I find out the sex that will help me.
Carmen: There’s definitely an argument for both sides. Yeah, I can definitely the whole being able to buy stuff in prep it really is a thing. Like you do wanna decorate in a certain way. You wanna get those clothes, like it does help. I didn’t have a baby shower purposely because I didn’t know what the sex was gonna be, and I knew people wouldn’t know what to buy, so I did a sip see after he was born.
And then that way people could genderize clothing or whatever. But yeah, I can definitely see an argument in both ways in terms of the validity of it. I question whether you can bond more if you know what the baby is.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: I do believe that.
Jamie: Yeah. I agree. It is possible.
Carmen: Yeah.
Jamie: Now, what about products?
Was there anything that helped you during pregnancy that you can recommend?
Carmen: Being a nutritionist for me there’s certain key nutrients you need and getting the right prenatal was really important because, folic acid is what we’re told to take. Folic acid is the synthetic form of folate.
Folate would be the natural form you would get in food. And so we know that people who have a gene mutation on what’s called the M-T-H-F-R gene cannot use folic acid. So it’s actually toxic for them. So what happens is it builds up in the mother’s body, but it can’t be transported into the fetus. And then you’ve got a whole host of medical issues that can affect the offspring.
So the one thing I made sure of was that I took the right form of folate in the prenatal which is called methyl folate. It should always have the word methyl in front of it. If it just says folic acid, throw it out it’s not gonna work. And it’s, I won’t go into the methylation cycle. It’s too much for this. But you wanna make sure you’re getting the right form of folate for sure. Another thing that I learned at a conference was modiin. So M-O-L-Y-B-D-E-N-U-M is one that they believe can help with nausea, and if women don’t get enough of it, they are more predisposed to having worse nausea or what is it called?
Hyperemesis? Like the, when the nausea lasts the entire pregnancy.
Jamie: Or hyper amis or something. Yes, I think that’s close.
Carmen: Yeah. I always mix up, there’s one for high blood pressure throughout the pregnancy and then the one for the nausea. And so malyin is not readily added to a lot of prenatals.
So I did have one friend who was pregnant at the same time as me, and she was puking the entire length of her pregnancy. And I kept saying, I was like trying to gently say, okay, make sure you get this mineral, make sure you’re getting the right form of folate. And I don’t remember. What she said. That has come up at conferences when we’re talking about, specific nutrients for pregnancies. That is one that we’re not getting enough of in our diet and it’s not always added to prenatal. So I would definitely make sure that is in yours.
Jamie: Do you have a brand you can recommend?
Carmen: There’s lots of good brands out there. The main thing is I would look for what’s called a professional grade. I would never buy anything off the shelf at your generic pharmacy ’cause they’re always gonna be the lowest quality, not very bioavailable. So if you go through a recal practitioner like a nutritionist or a naturopath, they will have the right ones.
I used one, I used a multi by Pure Genomics, so Pure Encapsulations, I think they’re outta Massachusetts. So I took that one throughout my pregnancy and. I was good. But there’s other professional brands out there that are equally good.
Jamie: And what about exercise and diet during this time?
Carmen: From what I’ve heard at the time, I wasn’t going to a gym, so I think I’ve heard that you just wanted, continue doing what you were doing previously. Don’t make pregnancy be the time to start at a gym and start doing HIIT workouts or something.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: All I was doing prior was walking. I walked a lot and I biked a lot ’cause I lived downtown at the time, so I could bike everywhere or I’d be walking a lot. But I would say it probably dropped off my activity level probably dropped because I wasn’t going to my office, I was not taking on clients, so I was trying to decrease my client load.
In terms of diet, I’ve always been meticulous of diet, so I didn’t really make any changes, but I for sure had the meat aversions in the beginning. I could not be around it. It smelled like wet dog and all I was craving was fruit, which is rare ’cause I normally don’t eat a lot of fruit.
So I would go out to a farm here and I would get like these cases of blackberries and I would just eat blackberries. And then I was craving bread. I normally don’t eat bread. I’m gluten free, but, so I think it’s just like your body wants carbs.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: And it’s asking for the quickest source of carbs. But I remember having like guilt oh my God, my baby’s not getting protein. All I’m eating is carbs. I need protein. All the midwives are just shaking their head laughing. They’re like, Carmen, whatever you don’t get in your diet, the baby’s gonna take from your body.
You’re gonna take it from the muscles. It’s very efficient that way. But I will say I muscle wasted a lot, especially after the pregnancy. And I’m still working at getting my muscle back now.
Jamie: You said muscle wasted,
Carmen: wasting. So my muscles were being broken down to feed the baby.
Jamie: Oh, I’ve never heard of that before.
Carmen: Like any, anything you don’t get in your diet, your body will take from your body. So if you’re not getting enough calcium, it’ll take it from your bones. That’s why like postpartum, most mothers are very depleted in nutrients and some of them never make back those stores. It’s really important in the postpartum period to focus on like nutrient density to rebuild those nutrients that were lost.
Jamie: Fascinating.
Carmen: Yeah.
Jamie: And should we just be doing this by supplements?
Carmen: Food is always, where you wanna go to. But yeah, there could be some argument for some targeted supplements depending on what, adding things like bone broth in right where you are getting those key minerals will help. Meat is extremely nutrient dense. You’re getting everything there and lots of vegetables. But I would definitely continue with a prenatal postpartum as a backup for sure.
Jamie: Yeah, that’s a good advice.
Carmen: Yeah. And I think with regards to calcium is one of the nutrients like supplements we recommend against, it’s better to get it from food, but I think pregnancy is one of the times where you can take the supplement just ’cause you do need so much.
Jamie: Now what about classes? Did you want to take classes for this second one?
Carmen: I didn’t for the second, but I did for the first. I did one of those classic Lamaze type courses. And it was pretty mainstream. They weren’t going into anything, hippie dippy or holistic. But I wanted to do everything right for the first one. And of course my partner’s in the back snoring away with another dad.
I wanted to be exposed to everything, so I did do those prenatal classes. And then my midwives were an amazing source of info. And then I also had the doula, so I felt very prepared from all different angles.
Jamie: Can you tell us a little bit about more of a home birth with your perspective? Because we’re at that turning point because we just graduated from our fertility clinic, and I am with your mindset that I wanna do everything natural home birth, and then I have my medical providers who are scaring me. You’re high risk, all of this nonsense. So we are trying to decide between the two, if you will share how you came across that.
Carmen: So when they say you’re high risk, is that solely based on a number, which is your age?
Jamie: No, it’s actually there’s data that says that IVF pregnancies are at a higher risk.
Carmen: Oh, interesting. Okay. So I’m not aware of that. So what I will say is, and this is something I really, I tried to be very I don’t know that neutral is the right word, but humble, I remember my doula would say, you can hedge your bets in the right direction, but there’s still no guarantees of how it’s gonna go. So like my first one was a planned home water birth. I wanted to do it in the pool. I ended up in the hospital for that one, but not for the reasons you may be thinking.
The second one was a perfect textbook home birth. In terms of coming to the decision I would say I would read absolutely everything you can be mindful of where you’re getting your information because it’s really easy to get feared out of stuff. I followed a woman on Instagram, home birth, something, and all she does is show positive images of home birth happening.
And then there was a famous midwife who wrote a book on home birth. I could find it for you. And I just read her bur book and all it was positive story after positive story about home birth. But they all went differently, right? There’s no one way that it’s gonna go.
And so I just tried to flood my mind with positivity, positive images of how this is gonna go. My now ex wasn’t for the home birth. He’s very, standard, mainstream fear-based. But, through the dialogue we had with his midwives, he was comfortable enough. And I also lived five minutes from the hospital and my midwives kept reassuring me that if something’s gonna go wrong, we’re gonna know way in advance.
And the ambulance has got two traffic lights to go through. So the risk was minimal. Where I live, I don’t know what it’s like where you are in Texas, but a, you have to be approved for a home birth, so not anyone can do it. So they obviously have to look at the risks versus the non-risk. And then you register your birth with the nearest hospital, and then the hospital provides a birthing kit.
Jamie: Oh.
Carmen: So you would have all the supplies that you would have in the birthing room, you would have at home. And then they, the midwives give you the medication. So you have access to the same medications that they would have at the hospital. Basically medications to stop bleeding, like a hemorrhage. So it’s oxytocin they basically give you, so I was given those a month in advance and they were all in my fridge.
We had all the same supplies, we had all the medication on hand. We’re close to a hospital, and then by law, if you’re doing a home birth, you have two midwives, so one for you, one for the baby. And then I had two doulas. At the time I had a nanny who was also a trained midwife from the Philippines and my mom was there and she’s a nurse, so I felt very comfortable.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: So it’s not like some witchcraft, they’re just willy-nilly throwing it out there. There’s a lot of precautions that are taken into consideration, and if every centimeter of dilation that you go through, they’re tracking you against OB standards. And so they would’ve known well in advance if something was trending in the wrong direction, they would make a call at that point.
In terms of the water birth, the first one, we never even got the tub up. The second one, the doulas were preparing the tub and they were starting to put water in it, but what I realized is being in a sitting position. Hurt my stomach more. I needed to stand up and stretch my belly during the contraction.
It turned out the shower was better for me. And just having that water on my back or the water on the belly was amazing. But it was almost too good because I think it slowed down the contractions. So you want those contractions and a bit of pain ’cause it keeps things going. So I had to weigh it back and forth.
There was a time where I think I was like six centimeters dilated and they said I wasn’t progressing fast enough. So I turned to my doula who’s legally allowed to say what she thinks. Whereas the midwives are in I don’t wanna say a gag order, but they’re prevented from saying some things which I don’t agree with. And they’re like, we recommend at this point that we break your water. My water never broke during labor. In my first birth it only broke when I was pushing the baby out.
So for the second one, they’re like, we recommend that we break your waters to accelerate the contractions. I just tuned into myself and I said is there a risk right now? And they said no. And I said, okay. My gut is telling me I wanna keep trying naturally on my own. An hour goes by, I haven’t progressed. And so I said, okay, I’m comfortable now for this intervention. And then Jamie, so they literally put a hook up. You thank God I’m not looking at this. They have to wait till you’re having a contraction. They put the hookup in you. And literally in that second, I progressed from six centimeters to 10 centimeters.
Jamie: Wow.
Carmen: The water came out, it was excruciatingly painful, and I was just begging. I was lying down on the bed and I begged them get me up on my feet. And the second I was up on my feet, boom, the head dropped and he was out five to 10 minutes later.
Jamie: Oh my gosh.
Carmen: They definitely made the right call. I’m happy I had that hour to be okay with it. Because what happens to a lot of women in birth is that decisions are pushed on them and they’re not being made with them.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: And so I was happy that I was a part of the decision at the time. I’m like, no, I’m not ready for this. Then an hour later. ’cause you start to get really tired too. You start to get to the point where it’s just get the baby outta me. I don’t care what’s happening at this point.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: But it was brutal, but it got the job done. I’ll say that
Jamie: now, if we can back up a little bit. Did they want to induce you and how did labor start?
Carmen: For the second one, it was a dream. It was textbook. I woke up at 5:00 AM I felt pressure. I started tracking on my app and I contacted my doulas and everything was progressing according to schedule.
Jamie: How far along were you?
Carmen: I would’ve been 41 in four days, I think.
Jamie: And the midwives weren’t concerned about you being late.
Carmen: So for my first one, I remember getting a random call from our hospital saying yes, this is in with, blah, blah, blah, hospital.
If you do not have your baby by tomorrow, you’re gonna need to schedule an appointment and come in for an induction. And I was just like, what the fuck? Who are you? How did you know I haven’t had a baby? And I completely flipped out and just went into panic mode, had a an hour long talk with my doula, and she calmed me down and explained, you’re literally just a person on a list.
They want you to do the stress test. Or, I can’t remember what it’s called, but I did not like her bedside manner. Because she immediately put me into the mindset that something was wrong. So I was like, okay, I’ll appease you. I’ll go in for the stress test. Everything was fine. And then they did, would they have done an ultrasound on me?
And then they said that the water was too low in my uterus or in the plus the sack. I’m forgetting the words. And that they would wait two days and I asked my midwife like is there anything I can do? Can I drink water? And she’s no, that’s not gonna work. I talked to my doula. She’s oh, yes, it will.
So for the next two days, I drank like a motherfucker, sorry, tons of water. Went back two days later for the ultrasound, and they’re like, oh, congratulations. It’s increased. So that bought me a few extra days, and then I got to 41 and six days. And by that point, one of the midwives was like, yeah, if this baby doesn’t come out in two days, by law, you’re gonna have to have a consult with an ob.
And I’m like what’s the OB gonna say? And they’re gonna be like she’s gonna recommend induction because they will automatically push it on you because of my age. And I was like, no, the baby’s fine. I have no medical issues. There’s enough water in the uterus like this is coming outta nowhere.
And I did not want to, but I felt like the pressure of the world was on me. So at 41 and six or 41 and seven, I said, okay, I’m gonna do the labor cocktail. Have you heard of this? Uhuh? Okay. So this is something that’s administered by midwives and it may or may not work, but it’s a shot in the right direction.
I told my midwife, okay, let’s try the labor cocktail. ’cause if it works, great, I get a natural birth. But the second I’m induced with an ob, I’m having a hospital birth. It’s not gonna be natural. If they induce you because you’re not getting the natural endorphins from oxytocin. The pain is worse and then it increases your risk of an epidural, and then your epidural increases the risk of ending up with an emergency C-section.
So I knew the chain of events and I was trying to mitigate as much as I could. So the labor cocktail is, I think it’s castor oil, it’s some kind of nut butter and a nectar juice, like an apricot nectar. And the medicinal ingredient is, I think it’s RB oil, which the midwives get from Germany. And you blend it and it sounds gross.
It’s actually okay and the whole point is it irritates the uterus and if the body is ready, it will induce labor on its own. So it works for some women, it doesn’t work for others, it won’t work unless the baby’s gonna come out. But I’m like, let’s try it.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: So I did that. Felt nothing. I’m trying to think if I did it twice in one day or subsequently the next day.
Jamie: Like, how much volume are you drinking?
Carmen: Just
Jamie: okay. Nothing too big.
Carmen: No it, it tastes like apricot nectar. And the reason you put the nut butter is it stays more in the stomach, otherwise it can cause nausea. So I think I did it in the morning and then I was outside doing curb walking. All the things they tell you to irritate the uterus, nothing works. So I did another one at 6:00 PM The doula came over, she checked me, and then boom, it went fast. It was fast and furious, but my contractions were not normal.
Normally in between contractions you get a break of a minute and a half where you just feel normal. I didn’t get the break. The contraction came and it was just pain. It didn’t go away. And I think I was using the TENS machine like those little electrodes you put on the tummy and it sends a different message to the brain.
So it focuses on that versus the pain. But I think at 3:00 AM we call the midwife and she’s okay why don’t we meet at the hospital? Just ’cause there’s more tests that we can run to figure out why the contractions are weird. I’m going back to my first birth, but I’m bouncing back and forth.
But anyways so we went to the hospital and I was not tolerating it. And I remember thinking, if this is fucking one centimeter, there’s no way, there’s no way I’m giving birth naturally. That was just the most excruciating drive, five minute drive to the hospital. And we got in and I remember they checked me and they’re like, oh, Carmen, we know what the issue is.
And I’m like, what? They’re like, you’re eight centimeters. Oh, so I was like, holy shit. I went from one to eight in a very short period of time and by that point I’m like, just get the baby outta me. And they’re like, are you sure you don’t wanna go home? I’m like, I don’t give a fuck. Just get the baby out.
And you know what, it’s wild, Jamie, because I’m someone who’s naturally very shy. If I go to a yoga class, I don’t go ’cause I don’t like people listening to me. But in that moment I was literally like a lion. I did not give a fuck what anybody thought of me. I remember standing up and I just peed on the floor and I didn’t care.
And I think they’re like, okay, let’s get her to the delivery room. And I’m like walking down. And then a contraction came and I fell on some random guy in the hallway and he was just kinda okay. And put his arms around me. But it was just wild how you turn into this person you don’t know. ’cause you’re in survival mode.
Yeah. And then the baby was like, I think half an hour later was born. Wow. It went fast. So I do believe the labor cocktail worked. It did save me, but I did a postmortem on this birth for at least six months, every single day. I think it probably caused the contractions to be too intense.
But that can happen with Pitocin too, if they induce you, right? Yeah. It’s more extreme, so who knows? But it saved me and I got what I wanted and at the end of the day, I don’t really care where I birth. I just cared that it was a natural birth. And with people that I felt comfortable with.
Jamie: Yeah. You had a army of women.
Carmen: Yes.
Jamie: Women. I love it.
Carmen: Yes. I was surrounded, I, your birth team is really important. So it was really important. I had people around me that had the same philosophy, different energies. Because I think the energy of my first birth was I was like, fuck you to the medical system.
You’re treating me like I’m just an age. I’m also very healthy. So it was like this fight against the man type of thing. So the doula I chose for that was like a pit bull. ’cause she would go up against obs doctors, nurses, get them out of the room for the second birth. I wanted a different energy. I wanted more of a motherly soft thing.
Jamie: So what do you think is your secret to an easy pregnancy in birth?
Carmen: I’ve been living a very holistic lifestyle for a very long time, at least 25 years. Health has always been my number one priority in terms of what I’m eating, in terms of what I’m consuming with my head, the supplements, things I avoid, I avoid a lot of medical stuff. I think that has definitely kept me in the state that I’m in. And I’ve also been a big believer in sleep. And sleep is like one of the best magic pills we have for optimal health.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: So I think I’ve been living that lifestyle for a long time. But I do think that one of the things that has helped me is I’ve, I am someone that is very prone to stress and burnout.
By me quitting my former career where I was used to be in the corporate world, and now I run, a small little practice working with women, I think the fact that I didn’t have the pressure of the corporate world on me save me because doing the work I’m doing now when I’m like testing women’s hormones, like your progesterone levels are everything for conceiving, but holding onto that pregnancy.
I think going into the pregnancies, my progesterone levels were really good. And that’s because of not just my diet, but being stress resilient because I know I am more prone to burnout. I’ve done a lot more work to become stress resilient, and I think removing myself from that corporate world probably played a huge role.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: But I’m also not an extremist, like I like my wine. There is a balance to what I do. Can you, so I dont restrict myself from that,
Jamie: can you give us examples of your lifestyle of what you restrict in what you are, strict about doing?
Carmen: Yeah, so that’s a good question. Pretty much every food that I buy is organic within reason. But all my produce, all my meat, even my spices, avoiding all those pesticides, herbicides, glyphosate, I am gluten-free. Here in Canada, the same in the States is they spray like crazy with glyphosate and that just destroys our gut and our immune system.
So I’ve avoided a lot of like common environmental toxins, which is important. In terms of lifestyle, I walk and I cycle, not anymore, but at the time I was living downtown and I would take bike route everywhere. So I was getting really good low impact movement in on a daily basis, focusing on a good solid eight to nine hours of sleep every night.
So one of the things I’m strict on is a 10:00 PM bedtime. That is really the optimal bedtime for women to get that deep sleep so that you can wake up refreshed in the morning. But I like my red wine. I married a Frenchman for God’s sakes.
Jamie: So you had to drink red wine at that point.
Carmen: The irony is he didn’t know wine. I was more of a wine connoisseur than him. And I’m not an alcoholic or anything, but I enjoy it, but, I don’t eat a lot of sugar. I’m not gonna say eat no sugar. I’ll have desserts now and then, but it’s not a part of my daily diet. I don’t have sugar cravings. I don’t eat grains which break down into sugars.
So I think not having sugar has kept me younger, ’cause sugar does age us. So those would be like the main dietary things. I run tests on myself all the time. ’cause as a functional nutritionist, that’s what we do is run tests. So I’m always looking at lab work. I’m always looking at my hormones, my gut function, food sensitivity, stuff like that.
And then stress. I’m mindful, I just don’t engage in things that I know are gonna cause anxiety in me or stress. Like I won’t comment on things on Facebook anymore. ’cause that’ll cause anxiety for 24 hours. What are they gonna respond? The notifications. Not working around toxic people anymore.
So trying to reduce toxic people out of my life. Trying to be mindful about a workload. Like I only take on, six clients a month. I’m not trying to burn myself out. My progesterone levels were good, so I didn’t need to take anything for that. I try to find the good in life and laugh a lot ’cause laughing lowers cortisol, lowers our stress hormones.
So I like a lot of comedy. I just refuse to watch stuff that’s negative. I just, I don’t, there’s enough external stimuli that brings us down. I try to mitigate it. I’m not by any means shape or form. Perfect. And I’m also not trying to be perfect. ’cause I think in our industry we call that orthorexia. That’s just another stressor, right?
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: But, so I do try to have balance. But yeah, there were some non-negotiables, sleep time, quality of food in the house. I stopped eating fried food.
Jamie: So were seed oils, were you trying to restrict seed oils?
Carmen: Yeah. Yeah. I don’t really consume too many seed oils. Just understanding what it does at a molecular level to our body. It’s aging you from the inside out, right? That’s not to say I haven’t had some tempura on some sushi. But I don’t go outta my weight. I don’t order it, let’s say, but if it something tiny shows up on my meal, I’ll eat it. But yeah, so I think the lack of gluten, the sugar, the fried stuff, getting sunlight.
Jamie: Yeah, it’s a good one.
Carmen: Making sure I get my hit of sunlight every morning. ’cause that starts a cascade of neurotransmitters to give you energy, wake you up. Oh, vitamin D critical for pregnancy. And I will say that the six months prior to conception is the most important period for a woman, for a healthy baby.
What you do in those six months will depict the health of the offspring. You can actually change the genes of the offspring
Jamie: No way.
Carmen: Based on what you do. Oh, yeah. I was training in nutrigenomics and Nutrigene genetics, but like the doctors were saying, you could have two obese parents. But if they lose weight in that six, six months before conception, the baby will not inherit the obesity genes.
Wow. It’s fascinating. So when I’m doing like preconception coaching with clients, we’re really working on that six months to clear out any gut infections they have, get the nutrients help them become more stress resilient, optimize their hormones, get their diet under control, because this is all going to influence the genes. How they’re gonna express themselves in the offspring. It’s fascinating.
Jamie: I read something the other day and it said something like, how much time we prepare for marriage in the wedding, six months to a year, and how much time do we give ourselves to prepare for pregnancy?
Carmen: 100%. You nailed it. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a really good point we’re putting. Yeah. People put more effort into researching a car than they do prepping for a baby.
Jamie: Let’s jump back to your birth. So you said he was out in what, 10 minutes or something?
Carmen: So the second one?
Jamie: Yes.
Carmen: Yeah, it was yeah, so he was out in about 10 minutes. I don’t know if you want this level of graphics.
Jamie: Definitely. Let’s do it. Give it to us.
Carmen: So I think when they, when I begged them to get me up onto my feet, like stool just started coming out of me, right? It’s like a diarrhea explosion.
And so the doula was right there with it looks like a weeby pad that used for dog training, but she just grabbed it all. You don’t care in the moment.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: When you’re not, like when you’re thinking about your birth, you’re like freaking out. Oh my god, people are gonna see me.
You don’t care. So they knew it was coming fast because that always precedes the baby. And then I think they laid me back down and it was like three pushes or something. It was pretty intense. And then I remember they put the baby on me. And I was just so relieved that it was over. I never even questioned what he was.
I never asked what he was. I was just happy it was over. Actually, I was happy ’cause he came out a redhead and I was like, like I did what I made of redhead. Yeah, it’s funny. And same with my first they put him on me and they’re like, don’t you wanna know what it is? I’m like, huh? What are you talking about? They’re like, the gender. And I’m like, huh. Like it was not even. I was just happy it was over.
Jamie: So what was important to you in those moments? Delay cord clamping.
Carmen: Yeah.
Jamie: What was important?
Carmen: I think that was one of them. I can’t remember how long we waited but it was delayed.
I think the thing that was on my head and we can talk about this after if you want, was getting him to latch on. ’cause I had issues breastfeeding with my first. And I think he latched on right away. And you cannot imagine Jamie how much anxiety that took away.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: ’cause it was such an ordeal with the first.
So I think he was latching. There was definitely pain and I was concerned about that, but it was fine. And I did tear. So I remember the midwives were like sewing me up. I don’t know how I didn’t feel it. ‘Cause they’re not allowed to use any topical pain killers or anything. They’re just going at it with a needle.
Jamie: Wow.
Carmen: But you kind you don’t feel it. And I guess you’re just so like focused on the baby and you’re just so happy it’s over. ’cause you’re exhausted at that point.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: Yeah, so I was just cuddling with him on the bed and just relieved it was over. They were sewing me up. I can’t remember how long we waited, but we did wait. And then one of the doulas did take my placenta to do a print.
Jamie: Oh, okay.
Carmen: Yeah. And I never got it. Long story.
Jamie: Oh.
Carmen: She lost it or something, but yeah, so I think we were just laying there for a bit and then they’re like, okay, Carmen, it’s time to get up. You have to have your first pee. And that’s a very scary thing.
‘Cause everything’s just wobbling. And I had trouble peeing and they’re like, we’re not gonna leave until you have the first pee. Yeah it’s hard like trying to control all the muscles from your brain. But eventually I did get it. And then everyone just transferred me to my bed in the master bedroom and then I just got to cuddle away with my baby.
Jamie: Yeah. And from a nutritional point, what is your viewpoint on the placenta and eating it?
Carmen: That’s a good question. Consuming it. I did encapsulate it for my first, and I was taking it, but I had issues producing enough breast milk, and I remember my doula saying, stop, because in some cases taking the placenta, it raises some hormone, I can’t remember which one, which can decrease breast milk production. So she’s let’s err on the side of caution. Stop. So I only took ’em for maybe a week at most, if that.
And there’s no real research on it. So the midwives were like, we don’t really know. Some people will say, don’t do it ’cause that’s where all the toxins accumulate. And then others are like animals do it in the wild, but that’s just to protect them from being, attacked by prey.
I don’t really know either way, but I didn’t do it for my second.
Jamie: Okay.
Carmen: ‘Cause I was paranoid of not making enough milk. Yeah.
Jamie: Yeah. I would be too.
Carmen: Yeah.
Jamie: That’s an experience you don’t want to do again.
Carmen: Yeah, but I hemorrhaged with my first birth, so I believe that’s why I was never able to make enough milk. I guess all the signals didn’t happen with the pituitary that was pretty traumatic for me.
Jamie: And what about your recovery? How was that?
Carmen: Great question because we don’t talk enough about this. So you’re definitely sore. If you want a graphic detail, if you can imagine a hot dog looking at a hot dog from a bird’s eye view, that’s what the vagina is gonna look like, right? It’s the lips are swollen on the outside. The inside looks like a hot dog. And I remember having to go to the hospital two days later just to get my baby checked ’cause they were concerned about jaundice or whatever.
And I remember walking was excruciating ’cause I had the stitches right? So every time you move your legs it was like rubbing. So it’s brutal. And the hard part was ’cause I would have to get up every hour and a half to pump milk in the night. And so I would have to drag myself up from the bed, get myself up onto a donut pillow to take the pressure off and then sit there like sitting up after the birth is like excruciating.
So I had to sit on a donut pillow. So I do recommend picking up one of those. And I can’t remember how long it takes for the swelling to go away, but you are living on those pee pads or whatever they’re called for first few days ’cause you are leaking stuff.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: But I know they tell you to take pads and freeze ’em with water. It never worked for me. But I think I only wore that diaper thing they give you for a day or two, and then, I don’t know, you just wearing normal pads. But it’s painful. And I think they, you’re supposed to use the sits bath. It was just a really weird feeling of sitting in warm water, which makes you wanna pee, but you’re trying not to pee in it.
So I think I was just like, fuck it, I’m just gonna have a normal bath. So I think it was like a week or two, I can’t remember. It does eventually go away. But it’s brutal. And the thing is like the day after you’re expected to be taking care of this baby, but there’s no one there really taking care of you.
Like you’re almost. Should be taken care of for two weeks. Someone should be feeding you so you can just focus on breastfeeding. ’cause that’s all you can really do.
Jamie: Yeah. Do you wanna get into that more breastfeeding?
Carmen: This baby he was able to latch, which was huge, but their mouths are so tiny and your nipple is so large. So when they do latch, they can’t take enough of the nipple in, so it’s excruciatingly painful. And I was just like, does this mean it’s not gonna work again? ’cause I obviously had trauma from the first one about not being able to breastfeed.
And they’re like no, it’s just normal. His mouth is tiny. As he grows, it’ll get bigger and then he can take more of the nipple in and then it won’t hurt. We have a breastfeeding clinic here. There’s like these two British doctors and everybody in Vancouver goes to them. So she would help me with the position and they have all these different positions like baseball hold or this way or that way.
And I was just like, it didn’t work. There was only one position that kind of worked. So I did need help training him ’cause they’re so tiny and it’s hard to manipulate them, but hold your boob. And I don’t like the idea of people squeezing my boob around and it just creeps me out. So I probably went two or three times to the clinic and then they would measure the baby pre breastfeeding and then after, and they would see how many ounces of milk that he took in.
But what I will say is like I obsessively tracked all my feedings, can’t remember how many months because of the past trauma of not being able to feed my baby. But I never had an issue with milk production with him.
Jamie: Oh, that’s great.
Carmen: It was perfect and I can’t tell you how much easier and better the experience was. ‘Cause with the first we had to do some combo feeding and use bottles and just cleaning and sterilizing the bottles. It’s so much work. And with him just whip the boob out. I can be anywhere, I can be in a car, I can be downtown. So it’s so much more convenient. There’s nothing to clean up. So it was such a better experience. And I always made enough.
I never had an oversupply, like a lot of my friends in the prenatal group had over supplies and I was always jealous that they could fill up their freezer with extra milk. That wasn’t my case. But he gained weight at the right, weight at the right stage. At the right
Jamie: intervals, maybe
Carmen: intervals, whatever.
Yeah. Yeah. So he always continued to gain weight. He was happy. So I can’t remember if it was like three months or six months, but at one point I just stopped tracking and I let all that anxiety go. ’cause I realized it’s working. It’s fine.
Jamie: Yeah.
Carmen: But it was such a better experience.
Jamie: And mentally, how were you
Carmen: much better with this one? Yeah, I was in a much better place this one. And at three months postpartum, I was ready to get back to the gym because
Jamie: Wow.
Carmen: I had already gone through the learning curve, so I knew everything. This time we had a nanny who helped with my other son, so I had more support. She would arrive at 7:00 AM take my baby, then I could go back to sleep because I was up all night with him.
At three months I was ready to go back to the gym. So yeah, I was definitely in a much better place. I think I went back to work at 13 months postpartum and every time I went back to work it was like my mental health just shot up. ’cause now I can do intellectual things again and talk to people.
But I didn’t have postpartum depression the second time. Yeah. ’cause everything was so much better.
Jamie: Yeah. If you could compare the pregnancies. Was the second one also easier too?
Carmen: They were both fairly identical. I think the only difference was in the nausea. And I’m trying to remember if my nausea was shorter or longer with the second.
I think it was shorter in weeks, but maybe a bit more worse. I was actually on a road trip to Texas at the time. I found out in Lake Tahoe I was pregnant. And then by the time we got to Texas, we were with family in Austin. I was like, oh, get me away from me. They’re like, we wanna do a big Texas barbecue.
And I’m like, no. So the nausea was next level, but I don’t know if that was accelerated because we were on a road trip and every time we drive into a new city, I never knew if I was gonna be able to eat or not until the food arrived in front of me. So I had a lot of anxiety there. So I would say I think the nausea was a bit more intense.
But in terms of everything else, they were pretty identical. No medical issues. Blood pressure was fine. Like I did all the tests, like the gross when they make you drink the sugar, my blood sugars were fine. So they were, yeah. But they’re humbling. Even if you have no medical issues, they’re still humbling. ‘Cause you’re tired, you huff and puff as you’re going upstairs. You don’t wanna do a lot, you just wanna lay around like a whale on the couch.
Jamie: Yes.
Carmen: Yeah. Yeah.
Jamie: Is there anything else you want to share from your pregnancy or birth?
Carmen: So I would just say even with your best intentions and doing everything right, you still have no control over the outcome. You just don’t know. So I would say try not to get too pigeonholed into exactly the kind of birth you want. Exactly the kind of breastfeeding experience. ’cause you just don’t know.
And sometimes bad things happen to good people, right? Like I, I got my natural birth, but, I was not expecting to have so much trauma out of why it went the way it did. Why did I end up in the hospital? How come I couldn’t breastfeed? How come I hemorrhaged? So I, I remember thinking, it’s not so much where your birth, it’s your birth team.
Because at the end of the day, I just wanted a natural birth. Breastfeeding is very humbling. Like for some women, baby latches, there’s no pain, there’s no issue. She has an oversupply. She can fill her freezer and she can go out for nights and leave the husband to take care of the baby. And other women like me, we struggle to make enough milk and then there’s guilt around giving formula.
You just don’t know how it’s gonna go. So I would say try not to get too attached to an outcome because you just don’t know. But as my doula would say, you can always hedge your bets in the right direction by doing as much to bring on a good outcome. But just don’t get attached because you don’t know how it’s gonna go.
Jamie: Yeah. So do you plan to have more kids in your forties?
Carmen: That’s funny you bring that up. I’m recently single, as we mentioned but I have started dating someone and this has come up in a joke. I do feel that if I wanted to conceive another baby, I could. I don’t have empirical data that I could, but based on how my hormones are seeing my ovulation each month, I believe I could, whether or not I wanna take that risk in my forties, I don’t know.
But from a physical standpoint, I think I could do it. And I would not be opposed to it, even though it’s just gonna add a lot more stress to my day to day. But I feel positive enough that I could do it.
Jamie: Awesome. And what has been your biggest challenge being pregnant at 40?
Carmen: Physically nothing. It, for me, the biggest challenge was the fight back against my age, because I feel like there’s incredible bias. As soon as I think here they have this thing automatic induction, 40 at 40. So as soon as you hit 40 weeks, if you’re 40 years of age, it’s automatic induction at 40 weeks. I don’t agree with that.
A person’s health is not defined solely by their age. There’s so many other factors. And I hate how there’s this reductionistic approach to all women at 40 are gonna be exactly the same. I get risks increase, but when you look at the data, it was like going from like 0.5 to one. Like it was such a small increase, but they presented oh, there’s a 50% increase in blah, blah, blah.
But it’s really going from 0.5 to one. I don’t like the medical approach in terms of how they just put the fear of God into us and it’s like our bodies were designed to do this. Leave the interventions for when they’re actually necessary, but not because there’s hospital politics that, a woman’s got X amount of hours from the second she enters the hospital.
That’s where a lot of the inductions are coming from, is oh, she’s got two hours left. We need to empty that bed. Let’s get her on Pitocin. I don’t agree with that. So I guess the biggest challenge to me was just the fight back against the age. But to be honest, a lot of it was in my head, not much of it was brought up.
I think having gone through midwives is a lot different than if you’re going with a medical practitioner or ob for sure. They’re gonna push more of that onto you. But midwives, they never brought up my age. I brought it up because I had a. It was an issue for me, but they would laugh at me and they’re like, Carmen, we have women in our twenties we’re more concerned about, you’re fine. But I needed that reassurance. So I think it was more the fight in my head because physically I felt fine.
Jamie: That’s awesome. Is there anything you’d recommend that would help prepare someone for pregnancy and birth over 40?
Carmen: Support. I think when, yeah, like when I look back at why I had postpartum, obviously a lot of it was due to issues within my relationship and why it’s over now. But it comes down to support and I’ve talked about that with various, practitioners, I have to see, they’re like, the biggest determining factor in whether a woman gets postpartum depression or not is the amount of support she has.
So I am a huge believer in getting as much support as you can. And yeah, you may have to pay for that, nighttime doulas, just so you can sleep a nanny if you can afford it, trying to enlist your parents. But I’ve noticed that a lot of grandparents don’t really wanna spend a lot of time with the kids.
They wanna have, they wanna enjoy their retirement. I know my daycare was part of my village. It was funny because some of my mom friends were like, oh my God, I feel so much guilt. And me and my ex were like, high five. Like we just felt oh, there’s someone helping us.
So it’s a hard thing because most of us are struggling financially to be able to afford some of these supports. But I know here some families will put together what’s called a meal train and everyone will produce a certain meals and it constantly gets delivered. So if the mom doesn’t have to worry about meals and her freezer is stocked, that’s great for the first week or two, right?
Yeah. That’s a great support. Someone to help cover you because you’re probably gonna be up every night from one and a half to every three hours feeding the baby. So if someone can take over in the morning so you can actually sleep, that’s huge.
I would say support, trying to get support systems in place.
But from a nutritional point of view, I would say vitamin D, get your vitamin D levels optimized. Test them in the blood. ’cause the amount of diseases you can prevent. Like we know that mothers who conceive in winter have offspring with higher rates of multiple sclerosis due to the fact that the mother was vitamin D deficient. So like getting on the vitamin D, getting on the right form of folate, methylfolate.
And if you’re coming off the birth control pill, give yourself a minimum of six months to get those nutrients back because the birth control depletes.
Jamie: That’s a good one. And what advice would you give yourself when you were pregnant, if you could go back?
Carmen: I don’t know that I would’ve done something differently. I think I did the best I could at the time. I’m proud of all the research I did. The only thing I could really do is change the partner, but, here we go.
Jamie: I love that. That’s fine because I, sometimes you have a good pregnancy and there’s no advice to give.
Carmen: Yeah. Thank you for that. I think I, I’m proud of what I did. I don’t think I could change anything ’cause, adversity just makes you better. Not that I dealt with it well. The breastfeeding thing was pretty traumatic to me, but that’s how we grow and become stronger mothers.
Remember that we were meant to do this, our bodies can do this, and if you conceived, you will be able to birth. And just to have to, instead of focusing on the fear around birth, which is just propagated through media and movies to switch that to this is your moment to show how strong you are. Like you are a mother lion. This is going to prove how strong you are and how strong women are and how incredible we are.
Like it’s really a coming of age experience. It’s such a beautiful experience as raw and painful. It is. It’s a fucking wild ride. I look back on it as just the most incredible experience I’ve been through. So try to see the positive in it. And, with every contraction, just remember each contraction is bringing you closer to the baby and to just let go and just trust the process. Your body’s got this.
Jamie: That’s perfect.
Carmen: I, yeah.
Jamie: And Carmen, would you like to share how you help women?
Carmen: So today I help mothers who are struggling with constant exhaustion and sleep issues, they can’t get through the day without naps, living off of coffee. So I help them recover their energy so they can wake up, refresh, get through the day with ease and feel great in their clothes. So my sweet spot is that 10 to 25 pounds that moms are struggling to lose, especially after the second baby, that seems to be a thing.
I’ve developed a plan where you can lose weight 50% faster by focusing on the exhaustion piece first. My passion is working with other moms or aspiring moms. ‘Cause I do a lot of like preconception coaching for couples that wanna get pregnant.
I’ve developed a program called the Optimal Energy Program, which is designed around. How you can be the best mother possible. We get your energy back, you feel great. You’re more in control of your emotions. We take care of all the sleep issues, ’cause sleep is a big thing. We regulate hormones and we help you lose 10 to 25 pounds. So if anybody’s interested in learning more, I do have a free Facebook group, a community that you can join. I’m constantly giving resources there. Lots of information on all areas of exhaustion, weight loss mom challenges, I hate meal planning. I don’t have motivation. So like I cover all of that. So I would welcome people there, or they can follow me on Instagram at Carmen Done Nutrition.
Jamie: With your program, is it a one-on-one or is it group coaching? How is that structured?
Carmen: Great question. So it’s a hybrid, so it absolutely includes private coaching. So that’s where we go over your lab work. ’cause I always test to find out what the root cause of the exhaustion and sleep issues and weight gain is.
And then you also get weekly group coaching calls. So you can come every Monday for support, start your week off ask questions you have or discuss challenges you’re having or sharing the wins that you have. And then we also have a free private Facebook group. So that’s where you can post your questions and get daily support.
I designed this program so that women are constantly supported over the course of the program, which is four months that you can’t possibly fail. The accountability is built in, you’re getting the private one-on-one calls, but you also get the support of working with other mothers, going through the exact same issues. And I feel like a lot of therapy comes from that. But if you’re like me or you’re impatient and you got lots of questions and you don’t wanna wait until your next private call, we’ve got the Facebook group where you can constantly post questions. What’s the best brand of collagen? What’s the breast brand of protein, powder, whatever. I answer within working days. So it’s great for people that need a lot of attention, closeness. They like to ask a lot of questions.
Jamie: Awesome. Carmen, thank you so much for all of your tips and your wealth of knowledge and your amazing stories.
Carmen: Aw, thank you so much for having me, Jamie.