My Second Pregnancy, This Time As A Plant Based Medical Medium Lifestyle Mom, Compared To My First Pregnancy On A Standard Balanced Diet
If you are plant based, following MM lifestyle, or on a low fat diet, and planning a baby or already pregnant and not sure how your eating habits will affect your pregnancy and your baby or just need a little guidance in navigating through the pregnancy and wanted to hear other people's stories, this blog post is for you! I hope you'll find the inspiration and answers you have been looking for.
When I Started Living Medical Medium Lifestyle
I started this lifestyle in February 2019, I wasn’t in my best health back then, and in order to heal, I changed so much in my diet and in my life. Although we have never tried for a baby before, I'm pretty much sure, judging on the state of my health, it wouldn't have been possible or without a challenge.
For the past 5 years, before I got pregnant, I witnessed my health getting better and better, my symptoms going away and my reproductive system becoming healthier. And just before conceiving, I did a few months of intense antiviral protocol, that was consisted of antiviral foods, herbs and supplements, to lower my EBV load just a bit more, as I knew that I still had some work to do for my health, possibly years of work, to be honest.
All years doing MM (Medical Medium) lifestyle I was also focusing on cleansing and healing my liver, as it was already sluggish before I even turned 30. When I was 21, after the birth of my first baby, my liver started to show signs of sluggishness, and then my thyroid problems started.
Thyroid medication and multiple rounds of antibiotics in the childhood and even adulthood, and other pharmaceuticals and inherited toxic heavy metals and other poisons hit my liver hard. So I was committed to heal my liver and was regularly doing 3:6:9 liver cleanses from "Cleanse To Heal" book from Anthony William, often repeating many rounds back to back. With this cleanses I feel I achieved a lot in my liver's healing, however still I wasn't there where I wanted to be. I feel this will take me another few more years. And even though my liver wasn't fully cleaned as I wish it was, we decide to have a baby, and here how it was :)
How I Prepared For The Pregnancy?
Cleansing my body
The most important thing I did to prepare for the pregnancy was cleansing! I was cleansing my body for 4 years prior with different MM cleanses, mostly 3:6:9 cleanse. It wasn't done specifically in preparation for the pregnancy, but it was something I was doing anyway and would highly recommend to do for anyone who want to conceive a baby, to cleanse their body as much as they can, even if it will be just one round of 3:6:9 or 28 day cleanse, for both mom and dad.
Why cleansing is so important? It's because your baby will not only inherit your eyes and your nose, but also all poisons, toxins and pathogens that are present in your body! Even toxins and poisons that was passed to you through your family line at the time of your conception from many generations before you! Unless you are cleansing your body.
Why these toxins and pathogens are so bad? They can affect your baby at conception and in utero, and lead to different birth defects and diseases, like Down syndrome, ASD, ADHD, cleft lips, lip and tongue ties, eczema, myocarditis, cerebral palsy and more. Also the condition of mom's liver will affect baby's liver, and baby's liver can be working only at 70% of its capacity at birth at best, because it's already burdened with toxins and poisons.
This happens because mom's liver is sluggish and full of toxins and cannot filter the blood properly, so a lot of toxins will end up in the baby's liver. So if you can do some cleansing before conception, you will give your baby a better healthier start in life! You can find all information about cleansing your body in Anthony William's book "Cleanse to Heal".
Books that I read in preparation for the pregnancy.
Educating myself
Another important part of my preparation was educating myself! I was reading books and articles, listening to podcasts, and was taking part in educational programs about pregnancy and birth. The main topics I was focused on is antenatal care, what kinds of tests, screenings and procedures are offered, what each of them means, their risks, benefits and alternatives; what kind of birth interventions can be offered and what risks, benefits and alternatives to them; and everything about home birth, because I was planning to birth my baby at home. Where I live, in the United Kingdom, home birth is one of the options that is offered by the NHS (National Health Service), midwifes will attend your birth at home and it's absolutely free.
Why education on pregnancy and birth is so important? Were you ever felt scared or helpless, whether it's about your health or you child's health? Fear is usually coming from the place of unknowing, when you have the information, there is no fear anymore, you feel in control of the sitiuation. It will not only give you a confidence, but also will help you make better decisions for you and your baby.
Eating right & taking supplements
During my first pregnancy, 12 years ago, I was eating what is considered a healthy balanced diet, no junk food, no processed food, and it was a good diet in my personal opinion. But this time I was eating MM lifestyle.
Prior to pregnancy I was eating low to no radical fats, but starting few months before conception I started including a little bit of radical fats, like avocado and continued eating it during my pregnancy, because it's important to have a little fat in your diet for conception, pregnancy and breastfeeding.
Frankly, avocado wasn't something I was enjoying during my pregnancy (what a disappointment!) so I was mainly eating pumpkin seeds and a little bit of cashew sauce as my fat sources with ocasdional avocado (I could only eat it as a guacamole).
I still kept my mornings fat free to allow my liver to cleanse, and had some fat in the afternoon or evening. Some days or weeks I had no radical fat at all. In general I was following MM guidance on conception and pregnancy food before and during my pregnancy.
"Eat fruit to produce fruit".
- Anthony William, Medical Medium.
When you are preparing to concieve or you already pregnant, you want to focus on quality glucose. Our reproductive system runs on glucose, and the best, most bioavailable form of glucose is fruit (and coconut water and honey). In addition to glucose it runs on minerals, trace minerals, electrolytes, micronutrients, phytochemicals, and other critical compounds found in fruits, vegetabless, herbs & spices, and wild foods.
If you think about breast milk, the first baby's food, it's high in sugar, with a lower amount of fat and comparatively small amount of protein - this is how you want to build your diet when pregnant or trying to concieve.
Fertility foods to focus on: wild berries, oranges, bananas, avocados, grapes, mangoes, melons, raspberries, cucumbers, cherries and limes. And if you have a history of pelvic inflammatory infections, endometriosis, fibroids, PCOS, or ovarian cysts - also bring asparagus, spinach, artichokes, kale, celery, butter leaf lettuce, potatoes, garlic, nettle leaf, raspbery leaf, coconut, sprouts, microgreens, red clover and raw honey. - from "Life Changing Foods", Anthony William.
The best prenatal supplement is a good quality spirulina, it's nutritionally complete of all foods, it's better than any prenatals on the market, it has all vitamins you need and can also be given to kids as a multivitamin. it contains a plentiful supply of many important nutrients and antioxidants, including protein, complex carbohydrates, iron, and vitamins A and K, as well as B complex. It’s also rich in chlorophyll, fatty and nucleic acids, and lipids. Spirulina is rich in gamma-linolenic acid, or GLA, a compound found in breast milk that helps develop healthier babies. Spirulina is rich in iron, magnesium and trace minerals and is easier to absorb than iron supplements.
Another great one that you can take is barley grass juice powder, it is one of the most nutrient rich foods in nature. Barley grass juice powder is rich in vitamins A, C, B and minerals, iron, calcium, potassium, magnesium, and phosphorus. It is also very high in absorbable protein and contains 20 amino acids, including 8 of the essential amino acids that body can’t produce itself.
Other important supplements for pregnancy that I was taking are 5-MTHF, nascent iodine, B12, liquid zinc sulfate, lemon balm, red raspberry and nettle leaf teas.
How my pregnancy went.
Nerve Inflammation
We got pregnant on the first try, as I knew everything about my cycle and had perfectly healthy reproductive system. My whole
pregnancy was healthy and there were never any concerns about the baby's health or my pregnancy in general.
However, I did experience some difficulties during my pregnancy. As I already mentioned, there was still some healing to do on my own body, and pregnancy revealed what exactly I still need to heal.
During pregnancy 80% of our immune system is used by the reproductive system almost all of the time, so the rest of the body is left with only 20% of what it had before. And this opens a great opportunity to any low grade viral or bacterial infections to become more proactive. Add to the equation a high amount of pregnancy hormones that will feed the pathogens and you’ll get a possible viral or bacterial flare, if you had it already brewing in your body.
This was exactly what happened to me. Before I started MM I had my vagus nerve inflamed in my neck area, but after years of doing protocols it brought the inflammation down, and I had no symptoms for 3 years. It wasn’t completely healed yet, as nerves take years to fully heal, but it was at that point where I no longer was experiencing any symptoms, as my body was able to keep it under control. And I even forgot that I ever had it. But at the beginning of week 6 in my pregnancy, with hCG growing, my nerve became severely inflamed again.
The location of the inflammation was right next to the nausea triggering point in my throat, so not only was it inflamed it was also causing me extreme nausea, and made it hard for me to eat, drink or even walk. I spent 4-5 weeks in bed mostly and lost 6 kg, as I was only able to eat some food, like berries, some fruits and a little potato. It was very frustrating and ruined my dream of a perfect healthy pregnancy, where I wanted to do as many good things for my baby as I could, like eating all kinds of healing foods, doing yoga, walking in nature. But I couldn’t do any of that and I only spent weeks in bed and my husband had to take care of me.
But finally after week 14 of my pregnancy my nerve inflammation began to subside and became bearable by week 20. It still bothered me until the day I gave birth to our sweet baby boy and even a couple days after, but it was very mild.
Even More Challenges
There were also a couple of other things that happened to me during pregnancy, Somehow I was unlucky to have a kidney infection, UTI, and a flu couple of times, which I treated successfully with MM tools and required no medication at all. I also had a food poisoning once, I guess it just wasn’t meant for me to have a perfectly calm pregnancy after all 😅
Despite all of the challenges that I had with my own body, everything related to the pregnancy itself and the baby was just perfect, and for that I am thankful to Medical Medium information that I followed before and during my pregnancy.
During my whole pregnancy I had perfect blood pressure, perfect iron and platelets levels that never dropped and was great even for non-pregnant, the baby's heartbeat was always healthy and the growth of the belly and position of the baby was perfect too. My pregnancy was healthy and never raised any concerns about the health of our baby.
What About Swelling And The Weight Gain?
When I was pregnant with my first son and was on what was considered a healthy and balanced diet, I had a lot of swelling by the end of my pregnancy, so I had to buy bigger size shoes. This time I only had a tiny bit of swelling in my feet during the hottest day of the summer, and the rest of the pregnancy I had no swelling at all.
After I lost 6 kg in the beginning of my pregnancy I gained a healthy amount of pregnancy weight. Last time I checked my weight three weeks before I gave birth and it was plus 13,5 kg at that point. I assume some of this weight was also just my body restoring after losing weight in the beginning, so it’s a little bit hard to tell how much exactly pregnancy weight I gained. But compared to my first pregnancy, where I gained 19 kg, you can tell that I didn’t gained extra weight this time.
Blood Tests, Ultrasounds, Screenings And More.
Ultrasounds
I was very cautious about everything what was offered by the antenatal care program from NHS. As I mentioned before I learned everything there to know about all that is offered, so I can make a better decision.
I opted out of all ultrasounds, as it didn't felt right to me to scan a developing baby, with something that was never prooved to be safe for unborn babies, without a no good reason. I would definately had an ultrasound if there were any concerns, but there were none. I had one ultrasound planned at 36 weeks, that was delayed and scheduled for 38 weeks, to confirm the position of placenta and make sure it's not praevia (of course it wasn't, I never had any symptoms of it, but my midwifes and husband wanted to know for sure, and sometimes yes it can present no symptoms too). But my baby didn't wanted to be scanned neither, so he decided to be born 3 days before the scan 😂
When making a decision like this it's important to know everything about the procedure itself (pros and cons), alternatives, conditions it's screening for and what are the options for possible treatment in case any condition was found, and if you are going to take it. If not, maybe there is no need in the procedure, espescially if it can cause harm or not studied well enough yet.
Blood tests
I had two times my blood drawn during my whole pregnancy (which is actually what is offered here in the UK, but I chose only two tests that I was interested in, and declined the rest). Each time I gave less than two milliliters of blood. The reason for that was that contrary to a popular belief that a blood can be restored very fast, literally overnight, - it's not, it can actually take weeks, sometimes months, depending on the amount taken. And espescially during pregnancy, if you give big amounts of blood regularly it can depleete the baby in vital nutrients and lower your immune system, so you'll be less protected against pathogens.
I tested my iron levels in the second trimester, as I was concerned that I wasn't eating well while I had my nerve inflamed. The test came back perfect! And then it was tested again in the third trimester, when, again, my midwifes and my husband were concerned that they didn't know my blood group in case I'll need a transfusion, if I'll have a severe bleeding after birth of placenta. Again it was great, it didn't changed since last time checked. In my first pregnancy I had a low iron, while I was eating meat and everything. Low iron is actually a viral problem, and not so much a diet problem. Viruses feeding up on iron so that you have low levels of it.
Of course, I didn’t want a situation to arise in which I would need a blood transfusion. Because I knew that it will be difficult for my body to recover from this and it will set me back a lot in my healing. Therefore, I quite actively prepared my body for pregnancy and childbirth in advance in order to minimize the likelihood that something would go wrong. To prevent bleeding, I focused on my adrenal glands! Why? Because strong contractions require strong adrenal glands. I supported my adrenal glands with glucose, mineral salts and potassium. And I ate a lot of leafy greens. I did not eat any adrenaline-pumping foods such as animal protein (although you can eat it if it is part of your diet but you may want to cut back), or chocolate, or adrenaline-pumping drinks such as coffee, black or green tea. matcha and cocoa. These foods and drinks deplete your adrenal glands because you have to release adrenaline every time you consume them.
I also had plan B, plan C and plan D in case I would have a bleeding anyway. This included using homeopathy, herbal tinctures and pitocin as a last resort (I considered getting a pitocin shot to stop a bleeding, a better option for my own case, then getting a blood transfusion). There is nothing that critically wrong with blood transfusion and it can save lives, but I think if you can prevent one, then try to do it. The blood you can get is not screened for everything, so you don't know what you are getting and what health problems it may cause in the future. But if you had one, consider cleansing your body and doing antiviral protocols from Medical Medium books. But anyway I had my blood tested for a blood group in the end.
Handheld Doppler Device
Another routine procedure that I declined was a doppler for listening to a baby's heartbeat. Handheld dopplers are even stronger than an ultrosounds, so I didn't wanted that. So I waited until 28 weeks and asked for pinard or fetoscope to be used.
Why I Was So Calm Without These Procedures?
How was I so calm during my whole pregnancy without any reassurance or confirmation of the good state of the health and wellbeing of my baby from tests and screenings? I just listened to my baby, to my body and to my intuition. This is how I wanted my pregnancy to be and this is how it was, undisturbed for my baby. And also this is how it was years before all this became accessible."
And bless my midwifes Sam, Polly and Jane for their patience with me! They are brilliant midwifes and I'm glad I had their support, they are all I could wish about for my pregnancy! 🤍
It's important to understand that there is no one right way of going through a pregnancy, except listening to your intuition. And if your intuition is telling you to have all tests and ultrasounds, then this is a right way for you to do it. There might be a reason for that, even if it just gives you the comfort of knowing that everything is fine with your baby. There is no good in skipping all scans and being anxious about your baby's health all your pregnancy. The goal is not to have the least interventions, but to do what feels right exactly for YOU and not what is written in some article, including this one, or what somebody else were doing. This is your body, your baby and YOUR choice! And always consult your midwife or your doctor :)
A few hours before we met our baby. And a few days before the date we had planned our pregnancy photoshoot, but again baby had other plans 🤣
I hope that this blog post was helpful. If you are reading this post and you are pregnant right now, I want you to know that you are amazing and you are doing the hardest and the most important job in this world - growing a life! I wish you calm and healthy pregnancy and an easy birth!
It doesn’t matter what exactly you did during your pregnancy, what tests and examinations you accepted and which ones you rejected, how you ate and what vitamins you took - the most important thing is that you created a new life!
In my next blog post I'll write about my homebirth and postpartum recovery. Please share in comments if you liked this article and please share your experience or ask me any questions.