Did eating a TF diet help you have an easy pregnancy and labor?

[MyLilPwny]

Do you think that eating a Traditional Foods diet helped you have an easy pregnancy and labor? How long did your labor last? Did you birth at full-term or premature? Did you have post partum depression? How did you feel after the birth? How long did it take for you to stop bleeding?

I think that a TF diet helped my pregnancy and labor go smoothly. My blood pressure remained at about 120/70 throughout my pregnancy, I think that is a good sign? I birthed at home, full-term, and my labor lasted a little over 5 hours, but my baby's head was crowning at the 4 hour mark--I had to do a lot of pushing to pop that whole head out, lol. I didn't have post-partum depression. I felt energized immediately after the birth, It took me approximately 3 weeks to stop bleeding. I used Krill oil, which I ordered from mercola.com throughout my pregnancy, and I think that the omega 3s helped ensure that the baby was full-term and helped me not develop PPD. I take cod liver oil instead, nowadays though.

[spartz]

Easy labour and birth here too. Though I don't know how much of that is due to diet, how much was due to attitude and how much to luck! I had five hours of painless (but uncomfortable) contractions and three hours of pushing (I was really hopeless at pushing!).

My midwife did comment at one stage during the contractions that I was so strong. Dear Hubby replied that no, I was just stubborn. Talk about deflating the ego.

One traditional thing which I am sure helped me heaps was raspberry leaf tea. My midwife told me that they see it again and again, that the women who drink RLT during their pregnancies have the faster, easier labours.

I recovered quickly, but bled for about two months and then again on and off every two weeks for three months. Then I got my period back 5 months after the birth despite exclusive, round the clock breastfeeding. Raw deal there. I'm wondering if they gave me something in the hospital that caused me to keep bleeding - like a side effect from the shot they give you to make sure the placenta comes out?

Anyway, I'm sure that TF eating helped me conceive in the first place and probably helped me have an easy pregnancy and labour - and a very healthy child with a lovely round face and well-spaced teeth (not at all like her dad and me).

I'd love to have had a home-birth. Maybe next time....

[quietserena]

I started more TF in pregnancy though my diet before hand wasn't horrible. I added a lot more fat in pregnancy.

My labor was about 9 hours from water break to babe in arms. Things went smoothly. I was sick to my stomach and didn't want RRL tea but at one point I realized that I was getting dehydrated and that my blood sugar levels were seriously dropping off so I accepted the watered down Gatorade. Yee, still can't drink the stuff without thinking about that...

I did drink RRL tea in pregnancy and last trimester I had about a quart of it a day most days. Actually... it's probably time to start that again...

From a TF perspective, I think it helped keep my iron levels normal (hemoglobin was always on the low side of normal, so I took a prenatal to help bump that up), had very few cramps, my blood pressure was pretty good. Only problem then was swelling and I've had no signs of it this time around and I've eaten mostly TF for three years now though I fall off the wagon every now and then.

This time around I've had a few more cramps and my blood pressure has been super low (80/45 at my chiros the other day). I think that's really connected to nursing and my apparent inability to keep myself hydrated. Other than that, things have been smooth. All the problems I have go away when I take a mineral supplement and drink the gallon of water a day my MW wants me to drink. Most days though, I rather have a bone broth than a mineral supplement.

[rstump]

This is probably my only real TF pregnancy because the others I had hyperemesis so eating was almost impossible.

My bloodsugar has been awesome...normally I test borderline...like 130-145. This time I got a 79! And my iron was on the high side...woo hoo.

My deliveries are usually pretty good and my PPD has been better the more TF my pregnancies and postpartum period...so I am expected it to be GREAT this time.

[newcastlemama]

I had a pretty good pregnancy and birth with my dd (she is my 2nd child). I had morning sickness (like my past 2 pregnancies, one was an m/c) but after that it went well. My blood pressure stayed low (100/68 ish) and I had almost zero swelling. She was born 5 days late at a whopping 9 lbs 12 oz!I had a fast labor but I also did excercises for that. I wanted to make sure the baby got into a good position since ds was posterior and that was a very difficult labor.

The major difference is that I did not get PPD like I did with my first baby. I did bleed along time though (Like the experience that Spartz described). I am not sure why.

It is funny that my midwives each started transitioing to TF during my pregnancy. One started eating homemade broth and the other started eating red meat and said that I convinced her to! An apprentice working with them (who I loved!) was very into TF so that was great.

[gardenmommy]

I can't say that eating TF made my labor any easier, but my pregnancy was super easy. I had no edema (a problem with my previous two pregnancies), no depression (a problem with all of my pregnancies), and good blood pressure. I do think, however, that this one would have been much shorter, except that babe was asyclitic in presentation (the side of his head crowned, instead of his crown). Still, it was only about 8 hours from start to finish, which isn't long, it was just really hard, and I pushed for about 5 hours. I didn't have much bleeding, though, which surprised the midwife, who thought that after such a hard labor, extended pushing, etc., I would have lost more blood. I recovered very quickly, and only had PP bleeding for about 3 weeks. No PP depression, either.

Oh, and babe was 9 lb. even, fat and roly-poly, and very even-tempered (a huge thing, since I have 3 older children who are much higher-needs).