Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - Before You Get Pregnant, Watch This | Taylor Dukes

Episode Date: October 9, 2026

This is the ULTIMATE preconception-to-postpartum crash course 📝My friend and SAVA Nutrition founder, Taylor Dukes, is back and she's expecting baby #3! Now that I'm in my trying-to-conceive era, I asked her everything: how to prep your body before pregnancy, which prenatal to take, the nontoxic registry must-haves and how to protect your postpartum season.Thank you to our sponsors!SAVA: Use code "ALEXCLARK" for 15% offCOWBOY COLOSTRUM: Use code “ALEX” for 25% OFFPRIMALLY PURE: Use code ALEXCLARK for 15% offVOETBERG MUSIC ACADEMY: Use code "ALEX" for 20% off each month you are enrolled JOOVV: Get an exclusive discount on your first red light therapy orderOur Guest:Taylor DukesTaylor's Links:InstagramFacebookSAVA InstagramSAVA Website Use code "ALEXCLARK" for 15% offFOLLOW ALEX:⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex's Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Culture Apothecary's Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex's YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex's Facebook⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Alex's X⁠⁠⁠⁠🌿 Culture Apothecary ⁠⁠⁠⁠WEBSITE/NEWSLETTER⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the ⁠⁠⁠⁠Cuteservatives Facebook group⁠⁠⁠⁠ to connect with like minded friends who love America and all things health and wellness! New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always talk to a qualified healthcare professional for any health-related questions or decisions.

There was actually some drama behind the scenes that I think we need to address. You canceled coming on this podcast two times in the past couple months. The reason why. What should you actually be doing before you get pregnant to give yourself the best shot at a healthy pregnancy? And how do you prepare for everything that comes after? What prenatal should you take? What do you really need on your baby registry? What happens to your baby immediately after birth and which hospital procedures can you ask questions about?

Today we're doing the preconception to postpartum crash course that I wish every woman got before having a baby with my friend Taylor Dukes. Taylor is a family nurse practitioner, functional medicine expert, founder of SAVA Nutrition, and a mom herself. We're getting into pregnancy, nutrition, supplements, birth, postpartum recovery, newborn care, and what you actually need versus what the baby industry convinces you to buy. Please leave a five-star review if you love the baby episodes. Please welcome founder of SAVA Nutrition and my dear friend Taylor Dukes to culture apothex. Carrie. So the public doesn't know this, but there was actually some drama behind the scenes that I think we need to address. And that is that you canceled coming on this podcast two times in the past couple months. The reason why? Well, I am with child and I am pregnant. And I really had to honor where I was at in that first trimester. I was sick. I was tired. And I am not someone to say no, but my body was telling me otherwise. And so I'm sorry, thank you for your grace, but we're here and we're with child. And I've gotten to know for the last few weeks, and it has just been, first of all, you did an epic surprise and how to tell me.

I wasn't expecting you to tell me. We were in an event and you were getting a picture together. Yeah, we were getting a picture together. And then right, you were like, hey, let's take a picture. And then as she's about to take the picture, she's actually videoing. And you're like, I'm pregnant. And I'm like, what? And you are the biggest prankster. We talked about this on our last interview together. You are the prankster in the friend group. So I was just like, really? You know? And your kids are a little bit older. And so I didn't know if you guys were waiting. You weren't looking to have more kids or you were done or what.

And so for you to say that, it was just the coolest surprise. And do you know my due date? What? April Fool's. Are you serious? I'm not kidding you. Like, talk about the Lord. I swear to God.

I told my husband he was born then. So are you joking or is this an April Fool's early joke? And I was like, no, it's for real. That's epic. See, that's what I mean. Isn't that hysterical though? Like, how on brand is that? It's so on brand and I'm excited because obviously I just got married and you were at the wedding, which I want to, I want you to share your thoughts on the wedding and everything with the audience because you're the only like outsider person besides Vance and I that I can have on the pod that can talk about, you know, the wedding and everything. So I thought that'd be fun. So I want to get into the wedding stuff in a second. But first, I want to talk about why you guys were kind of waiting a little bit to have this third child, what your health journey has been.

For those who don't know your story, maybe a shorter version of who Taylor Dukes is, what your testimony is, and why you are one of the biggest health and wellness influencers in the country. And it all starts with a really wild journey of finding out that you had brain cancer. Yeah. So I always say people are either sick or they're smart to get into the world of wellness, right? You're smart. You're blazing the trail. You're ahead of the curve or you're sick and you have a story. And a lot of people know my story.

so I'll try to sum it up here, but I was sick and I had a story. And part of what you were talking about with the conception is we had kind of an unexpected detour. And that is why we had to wait so long. And that was due to my health journey. So I had, well, I'll just back it up. So I went to TCU for nursing school. I was an adrenaline junkie. I love trauma. ICU, not very good for my nervous system, but I loved it. And then I also, after my graduated nursing school, I had the opportunity to do some medical mission trips. And so I was doing some third. World Country Mission Work. But anyway, I got flown back from that mission trip early because I was really, really sick. And it led to a whole slew of all sorts of health issues. My hair was falling out. I had joint pain. I couldn't get out of bed. And I was never the sick kid. I had acne. I had gut issues. So I was going to all these doctors and specialists. And here I was a nurse in our medical system. My whole job is to advocate for patients. And I couldn't advocate for myself. And I just remember being 22 and being so helpless. And my mom came to like live with me at this point. She would drive me to gastroenterologist, they couldn't find what's going out or find out what's going on. I was going to

the endocrinologist. They were putting me on medicine. I was undergoing invasive procedures. And it wasn't until I went to a functional medicine doctor that they got to the root cause of everything that was going on, changed my diet, changed my lifestyle. I'll never forget. She was asking if I was a C-section baby. And I was like, why do you care? That has nothing to do with her. I was like, I've been healthy my whole life. And that changed my life and then ultimately changed the trajectory of my career. So I left hospital nursing and I got into functional medicine and I was the nurse for Amy Myers and two times New York Times bestselling author and got to use food as medicine and do, you know, in-depth root cause testing to get to the root cause of people's medical issues. So I was all in.

Like obviously it had transformed my life. I had seen it transform patients' lives. So I went back to school to become a nurse practitioner, started my own practice. So all that to say like life was good. Life was thriving. You know, I had gone through my health issues. Now I'm able to help people And I was doing some education online. And at this point, I'd had two kids. So really no health issues, no concerns. I was gifted a full body preventative scan, an MRI. And they found a massive brain tumor, which is crazy because I had no symptoms. And I always like to remind people, when people hear my story, I think it creates a lot of fear. It's like, wait, you were healthy in doing all these things right. But it was growing eight to 10 years, they likely said. And if you

trace that back, that's when I was under immense amount of stress, undergoing major, major health issues, my immune system was suppressed. And so anyway, all that to say, once they found the brain tumor, that led me down an entire integrative oncology journey. We've gone into it on details on my previous podcast with you. Y'all should go listen to that if you haven't. But, you know, I went through a health journey. I went to Mexico. I was doing hyperbaric, vitamin C, ozone. Those are not things you can do pregnant or breastfeeding. I did undergo brain surgery here in Phoenix at Barrows. and then I got breast explant surgery. I got cavitation surgery.

I mean, I was just on a major overhaul. What's cavitation surgery? You know how you can get cavitation infections from your wisdom teeth? Do you know that? Yes. I think like where it's in the bone. Yes.

And so I basically, I had my wisdom teeth out. I had no issues. But basically, once you go through cancer and you're trying to prevent recurrence, right? You have to address the immune system dysfunction in the first place. And so I had, you know, an immune system issue. I had cancer.

And so we were trying to get. get, you know, rid of anything that could be interfering with my immune system. And so that is when I went and got the breast explant surgery because I had foreign objects in my body. I got them long before I was into health, you know. But then I also, cavitations can suppress the immune system. And so I got those resolved. And that really helped with all the Lyme disease that I had dealt with. And so all that to say, it was a detour. We wanted more kids, but then we got the curveball of the cancer diagnosis. In fact, the weekend, I don't even know if you know this, but you probably don't. But the fact that we were driving to our beach trip when I got the news of the scan, found out I had the brain tumor.

And my husband and I were like, man, we have a three-year-old and a 10-month-old. We should go for a third. And we were like both in agreement. Like now feels like a really sweet time. Let's do it. And the next day, within 24 hours, we found out I was diagnosed. And so it was so hard because it felt like, oh, my gosh, like, what the heck, Lord? Like, we have this desire.

And now I have cancer. So I feel like our lives got turned upside down. But his timing is perfect. And so it wasn't a planned gap, if you will. But that longing never went away. So when you guys were driving to the beach trip, you find out that you have a brain tumor, you go from thinking, hey, let's have another baby to, oh, my gosh, I have a brain tumor. And then were you thinking, this could be my last vacation with my children?

Oh, yeah. And it was September. So I could get emotional every time around my kids. I was like, this could be my last birthday with my son. We were celebrating that weekend. This could be my last Thanksgiving, my last Christmas. And again, I didn't stay there. but of course I had those fears. You know, I'm executing living will. I'm trying to do research,

doing all these scans. And so it really put life in perspective. You know, I was grateful for my two kids. And I didn't do chemo radiation. And I've been cancer free for three and a half years, praise God. But it was one of those things that I had to go through that journey before we could even talk about conception again. But I will say we always wanted another. And I remember packing up my youngest closet, like putting away clothes that he didn't fit into anymore. And I just started bawling. And my husband walked in. It was like a moment I thought I was by myself and I'm like, hi, I'm bawling. And he's like, what's going on? And I was like, there's all these newborn diapers that we didn't use. And I was just crying. And I was like, I'm not ready to throw them away. And he said, we don't.

Don't throw them away. We're going to have another kid. So I hung on to them in faith that we were going to have another child and I still have them. Yes. I love that. It's like not the point that they were like expensive, bougie, cotton, non-toxic diapers. It's like in faith we held onto them that God would give us another child and he has. And so it was not a planned detour, but obviously through the health journey, we had to take a pause. So that explains then why you had to cancel a few episodes. But you rallied because you made it to our wedding. I had you and Bethany from Primely Pure. The whole gang, Kelly and Allison from Branch Basics. It's just like you guys are some of my favorite girlfriends that I've made in the wellness space. And so it was just so unbelievably touching for both fans and I that you guys came all the way there, which I know for you, especially pregnant and had been sick. Like it was a far trip. But it was amazing.

Yeah. So I want to know what your thoughts are. I'm sure the audience is dying to know just your perspective as a guest, like what you experienced. I actually don't even know how to put it into words. It was the most unbelievable, non-traditional, like, non-traditional, the sense that there was no bar, there was no dancing. I mean, it just, it was so beautiful. It, like, gave me a glimpse of heaven on earth. You're like enjoying good food, enjoying drinks, mottails.

But, like, just enjoying God's creation and community. and there was fellowship and there were all ages. The kids were serving meals. And I mean, it was just everything about it was amazing. I don't think I had like a crazy expectation. I was just pumped that you were finally getting married. And I was so excited. And like that in and of itself was just like,

oh my gosh, this is amazing. We got to walk through as friends. You know, we've been friends for several years. We've got to walk through a lot of ups and downs together. And our last episode, I think I remember crying or you were crying because I was like, you're going to be an amazing wife one day. Oh, my gosh. Do you remember?

I forgot that. Yes. It was like one thing that people don't know about you. And I was like, You are preparing so well to be a wife. Stop! I'm emotional! Yes.

And obviously I had talked with Vance, like we were on a group chat and different things like that, but I hadn't actually met him and then meeting his family. Oh, gosh. So I like to bring back arranged marriage, and I would like for one of my boys to marry a Vogue so that, you know, we can all be in-laws. And, I mean, truly seeing his family was unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. It was just, and the way they do things, like, I would say is very normal. to us, but like I feel like my husband and I, we do things very differently, right? Like, as far as

schooling, parenting, health, yes, so many different ways. And I just felt like, these are my people. I feel so normal. And I feel, Allison was like, wait, maybe I should hope school. Like, she was like very inspired by the whole. Well, I remember Allison talking that weekend of just like how, you know, they're in a city and they're constantly going against the grain and how it gets really hard to do things different, especially as your kids get older and not being part of a like-minded community and constantly going against the grain. It could be hard. And like my kids are cool with it when they're, you know, you're young, but it's like the older you get, you face adversity. And that's where I feel like you have to be really strong in your convictions. And she was like, man, like, and they do a university

model, but she was like, man, like, I don't know what to do. Do we consider doing this? And that's her story. So I don't want to go into it. But they were just having a hard time school-wise. And I will say after that weekend, she was like, man, the Lord just solidified. Like, this is worth it. Keep pressing on. Keep doing it. Because you see that family and the fruit and 10 children. I know. I'm obsessed with his mom. I got to meet with her. I was like, I got to get a picture. You're like a celebrity in my ass. Dude, the audience is like just on me for a Lisa interview. So who knows? Who knows? Who knows? What I remember being like, how did you do it with 10 kids? And she just was smiling. And she was like, it was the joy of my life. Like, she wasn't like, oh, man. I mean,

I'm sure it was hard. But like, I feel like at that point, you just have built in kids and the way that you structure your life and how they live life on that little beautiful hill, not little big, beautiful hill. It just everything about it was so beautiful. I just have to say, I'm so proud of you. I cried, obviously. I feel close to your family because of your dad's brain cancer journey. And that's one thing that, you know, I'm confident. Like, I am healed. I am healed. I believe it. And it's one of those things, though, that when I was first diagnosed, I would be at weddings and I would see the first, you know, the first dance, not that you guys did that. And it would, my husband would, like, we'd walk outside because I was like, man, I hope I make it to my kids first dance. And I believe it.

I believe it. Now I'm healed, you know. But, like, that was always triggering. And seeing you walk down the aisle. Like, it was such a beautiful moment, but I just remember, like, there were so, I'm crying. It's not pregnancy. I cried in the moment because it was just like, there was so much strength. I remember you just like taking a deep breath and just like taking it in and like confidently just walking down the aisle and I wish people could have seen that moment. Like, they will. We're, we're, oh, you are going to share that. Yeah, yeah. Well, it was just such a like, that moment in general is special because it's like a moment you've prayed for as a friend and waited for and witnessed God's faithfulness, but to also see your strength of like, man, dad should be here,

but he's not, and I'm still going to walk confidently and faithfully and, like, down this aisle to my husband. Sorry, now I'm going to trigger. But I just, I know now I'm great. I just, there were so many moments of like that I just, I didn't have an expectation, right? And it was just so beautiful and the food, right? Like, I'm like, what are we going to do for four hours? Like, if there's no dancing. And it was literally like, it wasn't enough time.

No, I was like, it's ending. What are we going to do? Like, we're going to get tired of just sitting here. Like, no, like the conversation was so good. And, yeah. I mean, fans and I discussed this on our whole three. our podcast, but like just we really wanted everyone to sit near somebody that we felt like, oh, they're, they're really going to connect over XYZ. And so that was like one of the most fun

things for us was to create the seating. Yes. And like, actually we ended up, we were like, actually, I want Taylor to sit by us. So then you ended up sitting right across from us. I was literally right across from you guys. But it literally was just so special, like hearing family stories. And I mean, I'm sure you've talked about this. But every single one of Vance family members, if you have three or four kids, like, you better get busy because that's not enough. I don't. I don't say that as. like an expectation they placed, but I'm like, they're like, yeah, she's like, I'm on my seventh pregnancy. I'm like, what? Yeah, yeah. And like everyone and like all the kids are just so precious.

And not that they were like running around disturbing dinner, but they were like inside helping and, you know, preparing things. And there were all the kids that greeted us when we came, you know, at a couple houses down, like showing us the way. And it just was so beautiful to see that family come together. And everyone is so normal in that family. Like 10 kids, you just never know. And I just remember seeing all of them. The funniest thing, the funniest thing, like are the internet rumors that his family is like this fundamentalist like like dugger type family. It couldn't be further from the truth. They are the most. People like have it so wrong. They're so cool. Normal down to earth. Beautiful, handsome, fun, easy to chat with. I love talking to his younger

brother. Just fun, just normal. His sister Lillia has like the darkest, like edgiest sense of humor. I love her. And they're like all homeschool. Yeah. Like everyone I'd be like, so you homeschool. Oh, yeah, you have five kids. Okay. I'm like, yeah, I only have two. Unexpected gap. But, but it was just so beautiful and so God honoring and just everything about it. And I loved how chill you were. I feel like people that probably don't know you would think like, oh, everything's got to be perfect at Instagram worthy. And I'm like, Alex, what was the back? You were not that way. You were just so in the moment taking it in. Like didn't even have your phone, I don't think. So I'm here like, let me get all the pictures. Let me, you know, which I love that about you is like you were in the moment. And then also,

I remember being like, so what's the backup plan? And you were like, we just trusted that the Lord was going to give us good weather. And if not, I trusted someone would have it figured out. And I thought that was just like the coolest. I think that's something that people wouldn't realize about you. Like just how chill. And you're also just like, I'm just grateful to have a husband. I don't care about the fluff. Even though it was the most beautiful wedding I've ever been to ever.

Well, I'm honored. The food. The food was insane. Insane. And just beautiful also to look at it. I mean, the butter is never going to be the same. Just plain butter and sea salt just doesn't do it for me anymore. Have you somebody actually.

You shared the recipe. Yeah, sure the recipe. And somebody made it. And I recently got feedback. They were like, okay, so I had to make it and try it the best butter I ever had. I was like, I know. Yes, just all the details. And you guys were so thoughtful and your gifts to the wedding guest and the placement and the mints and the salt. It was just, it was above and beyond. But I think the biggest thing that I took away is like that family that you married into is,

I mean, there aren't words. Like slant on. God has multiplied because you have a very small family. Yep. And he is just given you an abundance, like, tenfold. That was another thing people didn't understand, like, why is everything all about his family? I'm like, it's not, it's not like on purpose. It's just I've literally had like maybe, you know, I don't know, six, eight family members there. Like, I have a very small family. And also like I always knew, this is why originally I wanted to elope is I always knew that I would have so much family that just would not be willing to travel somewhere else if it wasn't in Indiana. And I never wanted to get married in Indiana.

And so I just, I knew that was going to be the case. So yeah, it was more his family there. But that just, it is what it is. Because his family is huge. Yeah, it was a family property. And then I made you a Jasper believer. Yeah. Oh my gosh.

You converted me. would. The one thing I'm just saying about Jasper, so I've been an Austin Air Girl through and through. I still love them. I still think they're so amazing. They were the OG. Like before people were talking about air purifiers, like no influencer marketing budget. I'm talking like OG back in 2012. Like no one's really talking about air quality, right? This is what I've had. They last forever. I still love them. But the thing about the Jasper is we had it, which you guys gifted it to your wedding guest, which was insanity. And I got it. And I'm like, oh my gosh, where am I going to put it? I guess I'll put it in the kitchen living room area. But I'm obsessed with it because it cranks into high gear when there's smoke like Ryan's doing. like stuff on the griddle or, you know, doing his stakes the way he does, which I love on the cast iron, but it smokes up the room. And that thing just kicks into high gear. And I will say I'm a believer now. Yeah, it's awesome. Well, so yeah, that was the way. I wanted to recap with you because I just thought it would be fun. And now, you know, so we're post wedding, we're post honeymoon. I'm in my trying to conceive era. And so I really wanted, since you're pregnant, and then I'm trying to conceive, I thought let's do an entire episode all about how to get pregnant,

the best thing to do while you're pregnant, and then also just how to have the best postpartum era. And you've kind of had this gap between your first two and now your third. So I'm curious if there are things that you plan to do different with this pregnancy than the others, even though you were still very healthy, I'm sure, just as we all evolve as human beings, there's got to be some things that you're going to be changing up. So I want to start at the beginning, preconception. Were you planning to get pregnant? Did it just happen?

were you taking steps? What were those steps? Yeah, so we can get into really practical, like, what are my top preconception takeaways and get into all of that? Because I know that's juicy for you and probably a lot of listeners. But for us personally, Vance, take notes. Anyway, for us personally, you know, I'd gone through breast explant surgery and I'd gotten my wisdom teeth cavitations addressed, and I'd done so many infusions and targeted therapies and parasite detoxes and things and liver flushes, things that you just can't do pregnant or breastfeeding. And I also had gone through Lyme disease, you know, like that reared its head after brain surgery. And so I was going through a lot of that. I was just feeling strong and resilient. And just even like I'm a really discerning person,

I just felt like the Lord was like preparing my heart. Like, this is your year. And so me and my husband kept talking about it back and forth, like when, when's the perfect time? We were also going through the rebrand. And so in our minds, we were like, let's try after the rebrand. Let's try after the rebrand or at least shortly after because that's like a big surge, like stress. And so we had both done testing. You know, I'm such a nerd. I love to have. And so I had done nutrient testing, got us both on like an optimized nutrient specific to our deficiencies. I got him on some sperm quality supplements like Kocutin, NAC, things like that, and had him on Kintan. That's really helpful for him and her prior to conception.

Minerals. Kul-U-I-N-T-O-N. Every podcast interview somebody mentions that. And everyone was like, what, keto? They never know what we're saying. Kintan. It is cold-pressed, like seawater minerals. So that is amazing for him and for her.

So I had us on a little preconception protocol and we had said, you know, oh, one thing. My husband has shared that I told me that I could share this so I'm going to. But he liked nicotine. He liked his little pouches every now and then. You think that helps? No, I actually think you should cut it out prior to conception. So we men specifically, your sperm turns over about every 75 to 90 days. And so that's a huge blessing for men.

But it's like, hey, you have so much pressure gets put on the women, the woman trying to conceive. And so I think it's really important that men own their part. You know what I mean? Like she goes through pre-conception, health, pregnancy, and postpartum. And if you can just do one thing, men, like, focus, like, get on a protocol, support your health. Not everyone can control this, but if you know you're going to try to conceive 90 days prior to conception, that's huge. So I told him, yes, I told him. And he actually felt a conviction about it. He was like, man, I feel like I'm using it like a little more than I want to. But like, he liked it. There are some arguable health benefits. He has avoided COVID. multiple times, I will say that. And so it's one of those things that like the rest of us got it.

So I will say that he had committed to that. So he was like, I'm willing to do this. I'm willing do the prenatals, the testing. So we based, or I was doing the prenatals, but we basically were planning for it to be this fall that we were going to try. So we knew it was like in the near future and we have been blessed with fertility. We've both times we've tried for other kids. We've gotten pregnant and we've avoided for almost four years. So natural family planning does work when you do But right, I'll be happy to share that. No birth control, none of that. But it is one of those things that we were like, had to be pretty careful for a while. So it was the first months, we hadn't gone through the rebrand yet, but we were on vacation. And it was one of those things that it was like, we weren't trying, but we weren't not trying, if that makes sense. Like, we weren't being as careful about preventing. What testing or apps or whatever do you use to track fertility? So I'm a super intuitive person with a very clockwork regular cycle. I think people that have irregular cycles can do some basal body temperature testing or some urine.

strip testing for LH testing. For me specifically, I just had a nap and I just listened to my body. Like, I know when I'm ovulating by how I feel cervical mucus, energy, all the things. I know when I'm in my luteal phase by how I feel. And I really am like clockwork. And so it was one of those things like, we weren't really paying attention because we were on vacation. I wasn't preventing, but long story short, I come home 30 days later, 28 days later, however long it is. And I'm pregnant, which is such a gift. And like, it's not lost on me. I know people try for a long time. And it was just God's timing's perfect.

That's all I have to say. And it's just a reminder of his faithfulness. You could do all the right things and still struggle. And it's one of those things that the Lord had been preparing our hearts to have a baby. And we were taking the right steps to steward our body and steward our health towards that. But it was like, bam, okay. And now I understand, like, you know, we had to cancel this podcast. And I'm like looking at my next couple months of travel and commitments and speaking.

And I'm like, I couldn't have done that in my first trimester. So God's timing really is. Perfect. So tell us everything we need to be doing for preconception. How early should you start preparing your body for pregnancy? Is it when you get the positive pregnancy test? No. I would definitely say before then. You know, everyone's different. So it depends on like how does someone have a lot of sickness? Like are they having joint pain all the time? Is their hair falling out? Are they having gut issues? Like if you're having those things wait until like address those things before you're married, right? Like don't wait until you're trying to conceive for like to have perfect health.

You know what I'm saying? Because then it could take you a couple years. But if you're just like a pretty normal person and you're prioritizing your health, you're eating clean, your environment's clean, I would say like 60 to 90 days is ideal as far as supplementation goes, being mindful of what you're eating as far as females. Like there's a lot of diet culture, a lot of intermittent fasting, a lot of overexercising, stress. None of those things are good for fertility. You know, even overworking at work is a form of stress to the body. And so I always say like if you can, like if you're, if you're a healthy, generally healthy person doing a lot of the right things. I would say 90 days is the goal. Start a prenatal, eat a nutrient-dense diet, don't do a lot of fasting, don't do a lot of things that

cause your body stress. That is like the ideal window to really start preparing your body and getting on supplements to prepare and then eating, you know, warm, grounding, nourishing foods. Those are really great postpartum, but also for pregnancy too. Have you found any hacks that help with morning sickness? Okay, so a lot of people will say be sick, ginger, things like that. I'm going to say I have done so many things right. I am the cleanest I've ever been in my life. I have done liver flushes. I have done all the things. And I did struggle with morning sickness in my first two pregnancies. I still struggled. Okay. So I'm just going to be here to tell you like you can't control everything. I will say the one thing that does help is balancing blood sugar. And that is even something I've noticed in this pregnancy

now that I understand a lot more about balancing blood sugar, like for me eating enough protein. So I have a ton of aversions pregnant. Like that's what they say. Like I can't eat any like nothing sounds good. Everything makes me want to gag, but I know I need food and then I'm just throwing everything up. So what do you eat? I would say the biggest thing is making sure you're getting enough protein, which is hard to do. But when I started doing that and eating more consistently throughout the day, what would happen to me is I would have so many aversions. I wouldn't have an appetite. I'd get by throughout the day eating whatever I could. Let me just also say, my pregnancy diet in the first trimester is not perfect. And I think people need to hear that coming from someone like a health expert like me.

Do I do the best I can? Yes. Am I going through like drive-thrus? Am I drinking, sodas, no. So, like, my version of not being healthy may be different than the average American, but I also think it's so true food pizza and just, like, making hot dogs. What are you talking about? Making hot dogs at home. It's seed oil-free organics. Okay, okay, okay. Maybe that doesn't think. But do you know what I'm saying? Like, I'm like, sandwiches, things like that. The like, I don't, which, you know, people say, like, don't eat deli meat pregnant. It's not, it's not healthy. I'm not saying that deli meat is healthy for you. But I am saying, like, I, that sometimes that's all I wanted is, like, chips and a sandwich. I have to eat a lot more carbs pregnant.

I will say that. But when I was able to balance my blood sugar throughout the day, I would sleep better at night. Now I have to eat first thing in the morning when I wake up. And I really would have to like force the protein. Like even though I wasn't craving it, I was like, I got to be diligent about getting in it. And for me in the first trimester, I did a ton of yogurt. Like whole yogurt. That was like a game changer for me. Whole fat yogurt. What brand do you like? I like several. Alexander Farms is a great one that you can find everywhere. Yep. I like the painter sisters. Have you tried that? Vance loves that one. Oh, good. Yeah. He likes. that and I like the Alexander Farms and Strauss. Yes. Okay, Strauss is great too. But yeah, that was one of my things is like I can always do yogurt with honey and like frozen berries. That was like my go too. And then protein powder like I would do smoothies. Like nothing sounded good. Coffee didn't sound good. So I've been doing iced tea. And it's just one of those things like I really believe if you build up your nutrient reserve going into that first trimester, you have a little grace, you know, like you can take. And there were days where I also need to say, I didn't take my prenatal

because I was like, I'm going to throw up. And I had to revert to prenatal gummies. And I just got out of it to where I can take capsules again. And I'm so grateful. But like, just don't beat yourself up. Rest, hydrate. Hydrating is really, really important. And then balancing blood sugar, getting enough protein. That was really life-changing for me.

Even this pregnancy. Like, I knew about it in my other pregnancies. I think I just listened to my body more and, like, didn't eat as much meat because I had versions. And when I was a little more diligent, like, get the meat, have it. Even if you don't feel like it. I mean, I was making cassidias. That's just an example of like, it's not unhealthy.

It's like clean, organic, quills. horn tortillas and shredding cheese. But there are things that I don't normally eat. Like my kids joke, they're like, mommy, eat like a toddler pregnant. Just not a lot of vegetables, honestly. Like now that I've started eating more salads and cooked vegetables, my husband's like, wow, you really are feeling better. Yeah. But I just, I didn't eat like, and I wanted to eat out a lot. That was another thing. Like, I don't really want to cook at home. Like that makes sense. Yeah. So a lot of electrolytes. Yeah. So I would say preconception, the biggest thing is like hydration. People don't realize like blood volume. Circulation is so important during. Which, by the way, your new

electrolyte flavors. I can't keep our freaking CMO out of my office. She keeps coming in and stealing the elderberry ones. Oh, that you love it. Yeah. We both like love the kids flavors a lot. That is so funny. The immunity one. Yeah, she keeps coming in. I'm like, get out of here. And these are mine. But I will say, electrolytes are so helpful because sometimes people even, I'm not talking about hyperimicists, like throwing up all the time where it's like a medical condition. You have to get IVs. But a lot of people even like drinking too much water can make you feel nauseous, like on a empty stomach, like chugging water. So that's where I say like take Kintan, drink electrolytes, like get your hydration, get your minerals. It's game changing. And then eating enough protein, sleep and rest, which was

so hard for, I think it was hard for me to do with this pregnancy because I have work and I have two busy kids. And life goes on with the first. It's like you can fall asleep, you know, with your husband on the couch. Like it's no big deal. But by the time you're around to your third kid, it's like, I mean, granted, my kids aren't in the stage. Like they can do a lot themselves. They're independent. But I was just having to go to bed a lot earlier and rest and say no. to a lot more. Hence, why I had to reschedule this podcast because you just, yeah, you just got to rest and run at a different pace. You're prioritizing the baby cooking. Yes, exactly. It takes a lot of nutrient reserve to do that. There's a little orange man who lives in the forest, and I'm not

saying he's the Lorax. Legal has asked me to be extremely clear about that. This is a different tiny orange environmental extremist with a mustache, and he appeared in my bedroom at 3 a.m. screaming, what to eat your protein powder? Sir, get out of my house. But also, fair question. I use sava protein. It has 20 grams of collagen-rich protein from 100% grass-fed bone broth. It's dairy-free, gluten-free, soy-free with zero added sugar. Well, then he opened my sava electrolytes. Those are made with essential minerals from real organic fruit juice powder and organic coconut water powder, zero added sugar, no artificial flavors or colors, and now he's going frantic. Then he sees sava-sport-complete protein mix, 25 grams of complete protein from grass-fed bone broth in way, NSF certified for sport,

and he whispers, my work here is done. Your work! You broke into my house. You drink my electrolytes and you clogged my toilet. And now you're leaving on a leaf? Anyway, go to savanutrition.com and use code Alex Clark for 15% off. That's savanutrition.com, use code Alex Clark for 15% off, the cleanest protein powders and electrolytes in the biz. It's October. which means every company in America is legally required to put pumpkin in something. Pumpkin coffee, pumpkin bread, pumpkin candles. I walked into a store the other day and saw pumpkin-scented trash bags. We're sent in the garbage for fall.

The country is 38 trillion in debt, but the trash smells like Thanksgiving. We're doing great. But Cowboy Colostrum actually made pumpkin useful. So Cowboy Colostrum's Pumpkin Colostrum is rich, creamy, tastes amazing. You can froth it into anything. Water, Coffee, Smoothie, Milkshake. Cowboy only uses first milking claustrum collected within the first four to six hours from grass-fed U.S. raised dairy cows. When naturally occurring bioactives are most concentrated.

And relax. The calves eat first. Cowboy prioritizes calf welfare and only collects the surplus from the mamas. Go to cowboyclostrum.com. Use code Alex 25 for 25% off. That's cowboyclostrum.com. Code Alex 25 for 25% off. What are your favorite prenatal brands?

I think there's a lot of great ones. out there now. They're metagenics, orthomolecular has great ones. I look for methylated B vitamins, methylfolate. Collin is a really important nutrient. So a lot of prenatals don't have coline. So look for one with it or supplement with it. Weenatal needed, birthright. There are so many great brands out there now, like versus even seven to eight years ago. There were only a few. So I think there's really great brands. I would look for third party, tested, verified, methylated B vitamins. So I don't know if there's coline in birthright. I would have to check.

But if there isn't, I don't eat eggs because I have like an egg allergy. Chicken egg allergy anyway. So should I be getting a coline supplement and be taking it now? Yes. It's so good. Preconception. Okay. It's one of those things you could also take when your baby.

If you're already on a prenatal, that's fine. But when you do get pregnant, I would take coline. It's so good for a baby's brain and development. And again, not enough prenatals have them. And it's a very studied, amazing nutrient that every single pregnancy person should be taking. I think in the health world, people get so. obsessed with detox and pregnancy and breastfeeding and even preconception are not a time to aggressively detox because you can kick up and excrete toxins, do the detox before conception.

But when you're trying to conceive, like, I wouldn't be doing really aggressive detoxes because that can be a form of stress perceived by the body. What is your hot take on? Is it okay to have a baby shower after your first kid? I mean, I think everyone can do whatever they want. I know for a lot of my friends, we did sprinkles. Like, I think as, okay, here's what I'll say. I'm not like having this big baby shower.

I have friends that love to celebrate life and celebrate birth. And I have a feeling my friends are going to rally and do something to celebrate, right? Like that is worth celebrating. I agree. But I think that sometimes the baby shower thing can be overkill. You know what I mean? Like for second, third, fourth, fifth children. But I also think like children are worth celebrating.

And it's there's something, I will say for the second third children, what we've done with my girlfriends is have like pajama parties or like a breakfast together in our PJs. I love that. Pray over the mom and the baby. Well, and I love some of my friends. who are on their, you know, fourth, fifth, sixth kid, they have the friends come over. And then what they do is like a meal prepping party. And so everybody is like cooking or cleaning the home and stuff.

This is like right before the baby is due. And then everybody comes and then they fill their whole freezer with meals and all that stuff. And it's like everybody's coming in to do that, doing laundry or whatever. And then also coming, you know, postpartum to kind of help with cleaning and all that. I feel like that is such a gift. And I feel like people stiff arm the celebration. And I'm like, no, it is a gift in life worth celebrating, right? that like that should be celebrated and for mine my second one just look like a group of my girlfriends

gathering and praying over baby and that was like such a gift that I love that idea like I that is brilliant about like that is all you need and want is a prep freezer you do that we'll come clean your house Taylor we'll be like Cinderella mice okay friends y'all take that we'll come do that um okay so let's talk pregnancy um first of all you find out you're pregnant immediately you're like what do I want on my registry what you go on a baby registry now what I have done is I'm I send people the branch basics baby registry because Allison and Kelly have done an amazing job just like making this non-toxic registry of like, hey, here's what we would recommend. This is what we used.

And so I just send that out. And that's probably what I'm going to end up using, you know, give or take a few things or whatever. What do you think are the absolute must-haves non-toxic clean baby items that should go on your registry? Okay. We get carried away. And I think people get so, it is just so ridiculous. We have these $10,000, even non-toxic registries, right? And I'm saying register for non-toxic things for sure. But like, you just don't need all the fluff. So as far as what I prioritize, and this is going through two kits now and having a third, I am going to have to get some new things because, you know, we kept some of the staples, but other things like we're going to have to get. We donated. We gave away. So I would say the questions I would ask myself unfiltered is what are they sleeping in? What are they sleeping on? What are they breathing in? And I would start there. What mattress are they sleeping on? That's a really big deal. Baby spent a lot of their time sleeping, whether it's a bassinet or a crib mattress.

that's a big deal. They're breathing it in, it can off gas. So that's, that's one I would invest in is a non-toxic mattress. There are great brands out there. But there's savvy rest, avocado, pure baby and child, nature pedic. You can even get it on Amazon as a more budget-friendly option. But there's so many great clean options out there. So I would invest in a good quality mattress and then what is touching their skin. So their clothes, their diapers, the wipes, those are really big ones. And those are, again, daily exposures, right? I mean, my babies are kind of naked in the beginning, unless it's, like, super cold out, but like we're doing a lot of skin to skin, you know, so I don't have them in onesies all the time fully zipped up. Are you going to do regular diapers or cloth diaper? Oh my gosh,

girl. I'm a regular diaper kind of girl. I wish I could say I'm a crunchy cloth mom, but that just ain't the case. I just interviewed someone. I think her episode will come out in like two weeks or something. She's really big on like you don't need anything basically to have a baby. Like it's a like a real radical podcast and she clothed diapers. So we go really into cloth diaper. because I had so many questions about how that is logistically possible for so many reasons. And honestly, she kind of radicalized me. Like, I feel like I have like high hopes. Like, I want to try.

We'll see. That's one of those things. It's like, let me just see what I can do. But also, like, we might do it for a week and say, we're done. You know what I mean? Which is, which I'm open to. Look, I am the ultimate guinea pig. I can't wait to freaking be pregnant and then have a kid.

And then absolutely, I want to like throw everything at the wall that I've learned doing the show for the last several years. And like, let's see what I actually end up doing and what I don't. And I'm going to be 110% transparent about it. Like, I couldn't keep up with this. I did this. This didn't work. I was never going to do that.

You know what I mean? And it's just like, I don't know. There's like this weird, like, there are people that listen to the show and they have this strange. Like, I can't wait for her to get pregnant so she can see how hard it is. Like, yeah, I am going to see how hard it is. I'm going to try what I will and then tell you what I abandoned. And you get to filter. And that's a beautiful thing about parenthood.

It's like, no judgment, no shame. You can do what works for you and your family. And Vance. Like, I'm not a fit. They're like, I'll see if she can actually do this. I'm like, yeah, we will. And then I'll be the first to admit it. Like, it's not this big, like, I don't know.

There's like this conspiracy or whatever. Like, I don't know. Anyway, I'm excited to just see how it goes. But what diaper then do you like? So there are several diapers that are good. And again, there's so many, even out there, like, I haven't been in this game for almost four years, you know, so there's more that have come out. But I would say kudos, codery.

And you always have to find good budget-friendly options. But you want to look for ones, you know, that are cleaner as far as ingredients and quality and it is hard, I will say. In that newborn phase, when they are going through so many different diapers, you're like, this beautiful diaper. I mean, it feels so soft. I could like lay on it as a pillow and you're like, and I'm just throwing it away with pee. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, I would definitely say, you know, you have to look at what's within your budget, but there's so many great options out there. Like the honest, the kudos, the coterie, and obviously these are all throwaway diapers. They're not cloth diaper brands. And then the wipes. I will say one thing I'm going to try.

I'm with you differently this pregnancy is I did clean wipes. I did clean. I did clean. contacts of wipes with both my boys. But Allison has radicalized me. And, you know, all white brands, you know this probably, have to have preservatives. And I've never really thought about this. It's 99% water and then 1% something else. Well, that's the preservative. And the reality is- which can irritate a baby's skin. Yes. And it's the constant exposures, right? We're not worried. It's the drops in the bucket over time. And in the amount of time you're using wipes and the bioaccumulation, it does matter. So I'm going to try. I might have some, you know, clean wipes in the diaper bag for on the go and when we're traveling and out at a restaurant. But the reality is, is like,

It's a clean diaper. I mean, all you do is get like an organic cotton just cotton, like honest wipes. There are different brands that have just the dry wipes. And all you do is just spray a little water on our little branch basics. And that takes two seconds. So I'm going to attempt to do that this pregnancy. I mean, this postpartum with this baby, we'll see. My husband might be like, you take the dry wipes. I'll take the wet wipes. And I'm like, okay, great. Well, I'm reducing exposure that way. You know, so. Okay. So I like your tips. What they're sleeping in, sleeping on, breathing in. Is that what the three things are? So air quality. Oh, but what? What? What? what is on their skin. So we talked about like onesies, clothes. That's important. 100% organic cotton. Even like you see all these people register for all the shampoo and the special conditioner and the body wash and it's like you literally don't need anything. What do you think about avino products? Oh, they're terrible. Terrible. And a dermatologist, organic, clean, natural. There's so much green washing. Still says perfume or fragrance in it. Oh, it's awful. Yes. And the fragrance is like, no. And all these

baby products that are scented, I'm like, what the heck? They don't need that. So I'm big on the clothes that they wear, the mattress that they sleep in, the products that you're using, the diapers are in a diaper 24-7 pretty much, you know, unless you're trying to do elimination technique at an early age. That's not me. And then the wipes, you know, those are accumulations over time. Filtered water. Babies don't need to be bathed every single day. You know what I mean? Like, that's just ridiculous. I have a friend who waited like, I don't know, a month or something. Yeah. Not crazy. Not crazy. And honestly, probably good for the microbiome because you're keeping all the vernex and keeping that skin microbiome intact. Those are the big things that I would invest in. So I would say,

Clean mattress, clean clothes. If you can afford an air filter, you know, if they're sleeping in a nursery, if they're sleeping in your room, like clean air is everything. And then, of course, if you're using bottles, anything that they're ingesting. So like toys, pacifiers, if you choose to do that, silicone, food grade, glass bottles, things like that. Those are all really, really important. But you don't need all the fluffy stuff. And for me personally, I would rather spend money on clean, non-toxic things than a pretty nursery, like decking out a nursery with all the, you know, decorations and things like that. Did you do a home birth, hospital birth, birth center with your other two? Yes, so I did a birth center with both my boys, and that is the plan to do a birth center with this baby too.

Okay. So how do you go about making an ideal birth plan of what you're going to tell the medical providers that you want? So I will say the first thing is to build a birth team, right? So I will say if you are someone that wants to deliver in a hospital, hey, no judgment, no shame. I'm just here to say what I'm personally doing, and this is not medical advice. I have to give that disclaimer. But I would say build a birth team that's going to support your birth plan. So if you were choosing a hospital birth and you were choosing a traditional OB, it's going to be an uphill battle.

I'm not saying they won't be open to kind of your desires and your hopes, but that's why I personally choose a birth center and I choose a midwife and a doula. Because I know what I want for my birth and I know that those are going to be the people that respect it, come alongside it and usually support it. And so it doesn't feel like an uphill battle. It feels like I am partnering with people that are in alignment and in agreement with kind of what I'm choosing. and what I'm doing. But at the end of the day, I will say birth, medically speaking, is not an emergency and we treat it like one. And now I'm the first to say, you know, I'm a nurse practitioner. I've seen things go wrong in birth. I've been on emergency C sections and my OB rotation. Things can go wrong, but traditionally speaking, birth is not an emergency. And that's where you have to assess, like,

are you high risk, are you low risk, you know? And that's where you also have to just surrender to the Lord. You can't control everything as far as genetics and, you know, anatomical abnormalities go. but like if I had something wrong with my baby at the anatomy ultrasound, and yes, I do the anatomy ultrasound. I know some people are against it. I personally am for it because I want to know if my baby has a heart defect, I don't want to deliver to a birth center at home. I want to be in a place where they can get an intervention. That feels like wisdom to me to make the best informed decision to advocate for my child. And so we've chosen both center for the other two and that's the plan for this one. And I find that having midwives are just really open to what I want. I want a natural birth. I want not a ton of

interventions. I don't want all the traditional things at birth, like take the baby away and give it a bath and everyone gets so carried away of like this cutesy bath. And I'm like, no, leave the vernex on it. Leave that there. That like, God created that for a reason. Like, why are we stripping baby from mom and cutting the cords so quickly and, you know, giving shots and putting ointment and eyes right away? I'm, I'm very much like less intervention is best. How long are you supposed to leave the vernex on? I mean, I honestly don't think I bathed my child for a couple weeks. So you just wiped it off. I remember we were like in a little, it was he was in a little blanket. And honestly, mine didn't have a ton of vernics. Like some do, some don't. But it's almost like God's moisturizer for the baby. You know what I mean? It's not like you want to like go home and like get it everywhere. But at the same time, my kids didn't have a ton. So I just remember like wrapping them in a little blanket. And then my midwives, they actually do an herbal bath. So after you deliver, they draw a little bath and like put all these herbs and like have these little candles. Both my boys were burn at night. So it's candles. They had a little birthday cake. They say happy birthday to the baby. I mean, it's just so tender and precious. And it's such an amazing experience, I will say. Now, it hurts. I'm not someone that has like a pain-free

bird. So it definitely comes with like, I choose natural birth and I choose less interventions. But like, yeah, it hurts, you know. But the postpartum, I'll never forget. They draw this herbal bath. And so like the baby, I held the baby in the bath. It's more for mom, but they want you to be able to hold the baby. And the baby just relax. I remember both my boys just kind of like, it was so sweet. What does it feel like when the baby's coming out? Oh, my God. It hurts so bad. But it's a pain? It's a pain that like you first get. Like what does it feel like?

I feel like does it feel like you're being disemboweled? It's a pain that you've never experienced so you can't really compare it to something. But it's one of those things. Like I choose natural birth for a number of reasons. But one of the things is like I believe God created us to get births. And we've been doing this for generations in different countries that, you know, like it is the most spiritual high I've ever had my life. like the most empowering, like I did, the Lord, you know, empowers you to do it. So it's so intense and it's such a high. But like, even an hour after I'm like, that was awesome. Well, actually, an hour after

I'm like, so tired. I'm like, give me food. I'm so exhausted. But a couple hours after, I'm like, that was awesome. I would do it all over again. You know, and when you aren't having a lot of medications, like epidurals and things like that can, you know, mess with the oxytocin, that birth hormone and that happy hormone. And, you know, you have this like natural surge. And I can't even explain. It's like, be cool. Like, I'm pumped to do it again. But, like, like, like, It hurts so bad. Why do you choose to avoid the ointment in your baby's eyes right when they're born? So for me personally, most people don't realize, like we do so many interventions because we just do them, right? I don't have an STD or an STI, a sexually transmitted infection.

So, and we know that. Like, they have to test you that by state, like, well, in most states to make sure and confirm that you don't have that. So I don't have that. So why would I put the ointment on my baby's eyes? They don't need an antibiotic appointment. And so just because things are standard of care doesn't mean that you have to do them. You know, you get to advocate. And I will also say I'll be the first to say that not every intervention in pregnancy or at

birth is evil. You know, like there are times and places, but I would say understand the intervention, understand why they're encouraging you to do it, know the risks, know the benefits, and then make an informed decision. And for me, personally, I don't have an STI, so my baby doesn't need antibiotic in their eyes. What's your opinion on vitamin K shots? Juicy. What I will say is that it's so much more than vitamin K in that shot. There is polysorbate. There's propylene glycol. There is a black box morning. And so it's one of those things. Just understand what is in it before you make that decision. And yeah, maybe there are risks. And I know the medical community would come after me if I didn't say that. There are risks associated. Are they rare? Yes. And that's where you have

to assess each birth situation. I also want to those people that when I question things or when I like, did God really create every single baby to be born to be vitamin K deficient? Like, did he miss on that one? Like he's God. He's a creator of all things. And the author and sustainability of life. Like, did he really miss? I know we live in a fallen world. So do you do nothing or do you do do drops? I would say oral K vitamin drops are great, you know. What are you going to do? Oral K vitamin drops. Okay. And where do you like to get those? There's just different brands. You can get them online. I like the biotics one. That's the one that I've done. And I think it's great. But it's just one of those things like you have to. Okay.

Another thing is if, and I'm not going to personally say what we do because that's our business and I'm an honor and protect my children. And I'm not going to tell you what to do. But circumcision is a really juicy thing in the holistic community. And I will say if you are doing an out-of-phosth birth, you cannot have a circumcision. And if you are doing an at-home birth, you cannot do a circumcision. They will not let you for a certain period of time. Now, in the hospital, if you're like, I want to do a circumcision, they won't let you do that. You have to have vitamin K before you do a circumcision. The shot version? Yes. Well, I'm pretty sure. I'm sure every hospital has their own policy. So I don't want to speak for every hospital. But most people are like,

I really don't want to do the vitamin K shot, but I have to because I want to get my baby circumcise. and there are circumcision options available outside of the hospital. There are rabbis that travel. Like, truly, there are rabbis that travel. There are, um, that do this. There are midwives, pediatrician offices. And even, this is crazy from like a biblical perspective, people can get into like old testament arguments. I'm not here to theologically debate that. But actually circumcision happened on the eighth day. And from a physiological standpoint, that's actually when your, your clotting factors are getting higher. So it's kind of crazy that like, isn't that wild? So if you do choose, to circumcise, you know, most of the time when you're doing it out of hospital birth anyway, they're not even doing it on day one or two, but the hospital's doing it, to do it while you're there, get you out of there and get it done. And so it just, that's such a personal decision, but just know if you are doing a hospital birth and you are having a boy, that might be something. And especially

if you don't know the gender, like it might be something you might want to be prepared to have that conversation or make that decision ahead of time. I learned something recently, and this episode also comes out this month. His name is Dr. William. And he has done all of this research on acetametaphans and autism risk. And he told me something that I didn't know. He said that there are ebbs and flows of the high periods that your child is likely to be at neurological damage risk when being exposed to acetamatophins and then low points where like it's always a risk I think he said before four years old, but there are higher and lower points, which was really interesting. But he said that one of the highest risks, and most people do not know this, is while you are in labor, they put

acetamethins in your IV drip back. And it is one of the most dangerous times for your baby to be exposed. And so he said what you need to do if you are having an IV bag at a hospital or whatever is to tell the physicians, the anesthesiologist, hey, part of my birth plane is do not put acetamapin in my IV back. And because otherwise they will. But he said that was like one thing he would recommend to all parents, which that was really interesting. I didn't know that. I didn't either. So anyway, something to know. And I think that's where at a birth center, you're going to go or at home, you're going to get a lot more straightforward. There's no surprises.

There's no like, what is this that you're putting in me? Like they don't even make you have an IV. Now, if you were GBS positive, I think that is part of the protocol. Even at the birthing center, they would make you have an IV. But like, the thing I love about the birthing center is you can freely labor. You're not hooked up. You can get in all the positions to allow baby to come. You can get in the birthing tub.

You know, like at the hospital, if you're restricted to a bed or an IV, you have a lot more, a harder time getting into positions that, you know, are conducive to getting baby to come out. When you're pregnant, everybody has to take that gestational diabetes drink test, right? Okay. If you don't want to take the nasty gestational diabetes drink, what can you do instead? Such a great. Such a great question. I think it's so important.

There's so many milestones throughout pregnancy, including that glucose test, ultrasons, or another, you know, highly debated topic. Make your own informed decision and work with a provider that's going to support you in that. So my midwives, they offer jelly beans. You can also track your blood sugar, which does involve pricking your finger, which is kind of annoying for a couple weeks. But what's in the drink is disgusting. It makes people sick. It's full of chemicals.

The thing that annoys me is it's like if they really go drink a milkshake, that's one thing. But it's like they're having you drink this isolated sugar drink with no fiber, full of chemicals, full of food dyes, full of nastiness. And then they're waiting to see what your blood sugar does. Now, gestational diabetes, you can have issues. So I'm not saying don't do anything about it. But like my midwives offer die-free jelly beans, offer, you. You know, you can prick your finger. I don't know if some midwives offer like CGMs, like if you could wear a continuous glucose monitor for a couple weeks. Sometimes the accuracy of those aren't great.

And so that's probably where they prefer you to do a blood finger prick test. But there are options. You don't have to. And then there's also clean options. It's called the fresh test. It's like a test that you can take that has equal amount sugar. It just doesn't have all the chemicals and die and gross things. And that's the thing. It's like you're asking me to drink something that I would never even drink throughout my pregnancy. Even though I'm not perfect in pregnancy, I would never drink something like this. So it just, yeah, that's where I really love finding a birth team that's going to, you know, know, advocate and be okay with you pushing back on certain things or advocating for different options. What is your opinion on ultrasounds? You know I'm medical. Like I am medically trained,

functionally more natural minded. So I think there are times and places for them. I know a lot of people in the holistic community, especially they're doing homebursts, are like, I don't even want to do the anatomy scan. My take is it's not radiation. Like sure, I think excessive ultrasounds, I think you can get into the argument about how it causes fetal distress, like it's sound and heat technology or heat exposure. So that's stressful to the baby. My biggest issue with doing over ultrasounds is unnecessary incidental findings that cause so much anxiety. I can't tell you how many my mom friends, even people that I know that their doctor's been like, let's do another ultrasound just for fun, like just to help them out or hook them up. And then they like find something that's

like not normal. And then they refer to a specialist and all of a sudden they're high risk. And it ends up being nothing. And I've had like in my prayer group, there's five of us. There's one friend that was told that her kid had a different nose size shape and that likely had a trisomy issue. There's another friend that was told it has a heart issue and another that was told it has a kidney issue. Every single one of those kids is perfectly fine. But that is the perfect example of, I think, doing over ultrasound. So what I will say, the anatomy is like the halfway point where you go in and usually like my birth center does it, my midwives do it right there. But some midwives that do homebirth, they will send you to a specific imaging center.

And that's where you go to check to make sure your baby has the appropriate heart valves, two kidneys, lungs are forming, you know, no spinal cord issues, brain development. And that is something that I really am an advocate for because, again, I always say when you know better, you do better. And I feel like if you know that something is wrong with your baby, you're going to make a better decision to set them up for success at birth, right? Right. And I have had several, not several, two friends that have had heart babies and they have required immediate intervention at birth. Now, they had a lot more things that were going on genetically than just random heart condition. But, you know, I think that's important. And so I'm, I'm an advocate of the anatomy ultrasound. I think we over ultrasound. I mean, the people that are going to the 40 imaging, like, it's so cute because you can see your baby, but it's like, this is bananas.

It's like we are exposing them unnecessarily. It is probably stressful for the baby with the sound waves and the heat. And it just leads to unnecessary anxiety and incidental findings. Yeah, I'm going to do, I think, the. anatomy scan and then also I want to find out the gender. Is that too different or the same? Well, you can confirm that at the anatomy scan. So now with a gender, there's so many different things. You can do sneak peek, which is an at-home test. There is a risk of like a false gender situation. Oh, gosh. But you can do that as early as like six to seven weeks, which is wild. And then you can do genetic testing around 11 weeks at your appointment. And that's another thing. People, the genetic testing

is really controversial, especially in the Christian health space of like, well, then why would you know because some people technically are like, I don't know that I wouldn't want to go on with this pregnancy if I found something is genetically wrong. And I'll say for us personally, we still do genetic testing. It doesn't change how we treat the pregnancy or the baby. That is what we, because I just, it's one of those things, birth in and of itself is a surprise. Everything about is a surprise, especially as the first time mom. But we do do it because we're just like we would like to know if my kid had a condition. I don't love them any differently. I don't view pregnancy any differently. We will still carry this child, even if it were an unviable condition. Like truly.

Yep. I want to advocate. I want to know I want to do my research. I want to be prepared. And so we do that. So you can find out. And that's pretty accurate at like the 11 or 12 week appointment. But the sure fire way to confirm. And sometimes insurance doesn't cover genetic testing so it can be an out of pocket expense. But the sure fire way to find out is that an anatomy ultrasound. Are you going to sauna while pregnant? I'm not. But I know people in the holistic community do. Yep. Here's my thing. I know. And there are a lot of countries that do a lot of things right. I personally will say I don't one because, okay, one of the first ways I find out that I'm pregnant is I'm really hot and I'm like overheated. I just, yeah. I just is not enjoyable to me. Like I was traveling and I was like hot and overheated. I wanted to throw up. So I don't do great with heat pregnant. I do take warm baths pregnant. I do take warm baths pregnant. I do I do take warm baths pregnant. And I do you, I do you do things that like, oh, don't do this pregnant. They tell you you, you can't take a warm baths pregnant. Yeah. I take warm baths pregnant. I'm not. What do you take a cold bath? Yeah. I eat oysters pregnant. I will have deli meat meat's not healthy. But like if I want a sandwich and I need to get something down, I'll get

it down. I eat sushi. Good quality sushi. Also, they don't tell you. don't tell you, it's just ridiculous. The amount of listeria that is found in salad, right, in green, bad greens is way higher than some of these other things, but they don't tell you to avoid salad. Avoid raw milk. Right. Avoid sushi. Yeah. So I will definitely say I don't do everything. Like I kind of, and that's where I used my discernment and I made my decisions for what's best for my family. And of course, sourcing matters. Sourcing matters. Yes. And that's the thing. Everybody says, well, I'm pregnant. Can I drink raw milk? I don't know. I don't know your farmer. Do you know your farmer? How.

What are their practices? What is your cow eating? Right? How is the raw milk handled once it's in the container or whatever? Do they test it before they bottle it? It's like, I can't tell you that. This is on you. This is why you need to shake the hand that feeds you is my friend AJ Richard says

and you need to know your farmer or rancher. And then also, you know, well, they'll be like, should I eat sushi? Well, where did you get your sushi? Did you get it at 7-Eleven? I don't think I'm going to be eating that. I wouldn't even eat like whole food sushi. You know what they make? in the store. Like, I'm going to a really, really nice five-star seafood restaurant who's flying in

their fresh fish daily and, you know, all that kind of stuff. That's where I'd be eating sushi. Agreed. Or oysters. Agreed. So I do a lot of things like I filter through. I'm like, this just feels right to me, you know. The whole sauna thing, the reason I don't is one, I'm heat-sensitive during pregnancy. But then also, I have a history of lots of toxic accumulation and I don't view pregnancy or breastfeeding is a time to detox. And so one of the ways you're in stool, all the things is you can excrete toxins and breast milk. So that's just not my preferred thing to do during pregnancy. Another thing, too, is I think people should be careful about the paint they're using in the nursery. Oh my gosh. Yes, go off, Queen. No VOCs. Yes, no VOCs. And I learned

from you about Ecos paints. Yes. And they're not a sponsor. I sure wish they were, but they're not. But I've only used Ecos paints in my office here at Turning Point. I've only used them in my home. and I'll never use anything else. And every single time I've hired a painter, they've all said, like, what is this? I don't have to wear a mask when I'm using this. Like, it doesn't even affect me. This is so strange. I'm like, yeah, it's non-toxic paint.

It's just phenomenal. And yeah, you got me on that. And that goes back to the air quality, what they're breathing. Like, people don't realize that it's not just about, like, it's about detoxing and getting rid of chemicals in your home. Like the VOCs, the fragrance. That's another thing we didn't talk about. But, like, people will wait until they have a baby to get.

consider clean laundry detergents. And it's like, why didn't you think about that before? The entire house should be on non-toxic, unscented, fragrance-free, even a bunch of the natural brands that have essential oils. I'm like, I don't know that that's great for babies. So just clean up the air through the, you know, the paint that you're using. Get an air filter if you need one. Detox, you know, your air quality. Don't be using a bunch of synthetic plugins or candles or even essential oils. I think that could be overkill for these tiny little lungs, you know. Have you switched over to the branch basics, dryer balls? Oh my gosh. I'm obsessed. I've been using them for years.

Okay. The wool dryer balls? Yeah, because you said, like, I would avoid essential oils. And, you know, I put essential oils on my dryer balls. But I don't think anything's wrong with it. I just think with the baby, they don't need their, like, sheets and clothes all to have some oils and free. Why are branch basics dryer balls superior to any other dryer balls? Oh my gosh.

I wish I knew that. Do you know the girl's name? They have this special farm. Yes. Is it Helga? Holga. Helga or Holga or something. No, it's not Helga.

because Olga. Olga. Because Helga is what we named the brain tumor. Remember Helga? Oh, God. Yeah. Helga's got to go.

Olga. I think it's like Olga. She owns this farm. Like they do not treat the sheep. It's like the purest. But I'm like, they're going to outgrow. I think they already are outgrowing. But they're so particular about their sourcing.

They literally only use this one woman. Yes. They like employ. Like her sheep farm is basically funded by dryers. I'm like y'all got to buy some more land. Dude, you know what? I should freaking ask. This is a good idea.

I should ask Vance's dad if he can because they're not doing that stuff to their sheep. They have sheep. Untreated probably. Yeah, yeah. And I'm going to ask, can I have stuff to make a wool dryer ball? I wonder if they could do that for me. She's going to go really crunchy in her mom era.

She's going to be homemaking her own wool dryer balls while her freshly milled flowers baking. I know we could do it. I would have found out. Knowing that family, they'll find a way. They will. They will. Trying to clean up your life is a very dangerous game because one day you're buying organic strawberries and then three weeks later, you're standing naked in your bathroom at 11.30 at night,

reading the back of your deodorant like you're investigating the Kennedy assassination. What is this? Why are there 17 ingredients? What does my armpit require this much technology? This is why I use primally pure. They're female founded and their whole philosophy is basically calm down. Fewer thoughtfully sourced ingredients. Products that you actually use, you do not need to throw away your entire bathroom into a dumpster tonight. Their clean start bundle is perfect if you're clean curious, but you're not ready to become the woman who brings her own hand soap to other people's homes. It's under $50 and comes with three things that you already use. They're best-selling aluminum-free deodorant, a mini body butter, and a lip oil.

I have used Primely Pure personally for years, and this is what I like about them. The products are luxurious. It does not feel like I'm sacrificing actually good quality, body, and skin care products just to be clean. Use code Alex Clark to get 15% off your Primely Pure purchase. That's primallypure.com. Soed Alex Clark at checkout for 15% off, whatever you put in your order. You know those terrifying little wind-up monkeys with the symbols?

Just clang, clang, clang, clank, click. That is what every parent secretly imagines when their child says, Mom, I want to learn an instrument. Oh, wonderful. So you're going to make one sound incorrectly for six months while I slowly lose the will to live? Or you could send them to Vogueberg Music Academy, just from the comfort of your own home,

where they learn to play actual music, piano, guitar, fiddle, ukulele, mandolin all online from your house with real-life teachers. You don't even have to get in the car. No driving 35 minutes across town so Braden can play hot cross buns for a stranger while you disassociate in a Costco parking lot. VMA Voteburg Music Academy has weekly lessons, live coaching calls. I did not take singing lessons from them, although maybe they could take singing lessons from me. performance opportunities. There's an awesome community of families all over the country who do this. They actually get kids to practice without you nagging them because they send physical achievement badges for things like learning their first song, performing for someone, or practicing with a metronome.

Your child voluntarily practices and gets rewarded for it. Frankly, it sounds too good to be true, but it's not. Because this is my family and I know them. And adults can join too. Now, that's the other thing. Like, maybe you're like me, you don't have kids yet, and you're like, well, I kind of want to know how to play the fiddle. You should. Voteberg Music Academy also just opened their first brick and mortar location in Cordelaine, Idaho. So if you're visiting or you live there, you can attend in-person classes while you're there. Go to Votebergmusicacademy.com. Use code Alex for 20% off every month you're enrolled, less than $40 a month.

Hello? Hello? Don't end up like me, only licking your elbow for a talent. That's Votebergmusicacademy.com. Use code Alex for 20% off every month you're enrolled. rolled. Put down the symbols, monkey. We're becoming musicians. One of the biggest health lessons I've learned is that consistency beats complexity every single time. You do not need 100 wellness hacks. You need a few things that actually work and that

you'll actually use. So for me, one of those non-negotiables is my juve red light therapy. I love using juve at night because it's become such an easy way to wind down and support recovery. Red and your infrared light are incredible for supporting your body at the cellular level. They can impact muscle recovery, joint pain, inflammation, skin, sleep quality. and overall resilience. After a long day, even 10 minutes in front of my juve, feels like the reset for my body that I really needed. It's one of those things that helps me feel like I'm really supporting my body instead of just reacting when I feel run down. And what makes Juve different is the quality. Their devices use clinically proven wavelengths, deliver a safe and effective

dose of light, and their true medical grade panels that are independently safety tested. That piece of mind matters when it's something that you're using regularly. I also love that they have so many device options depending on your space and your needs and your budget. So it feels realistic, whether you want targeted support or full body benefits or something to travel with. If you've been curious about Red Light Therapy, Juv is the one that I have used for years, way before I was even podcasting doing culture apothecary. Go to juve.com slash Alex.

That's J-O-O-V-V-V-com slash Alex. Okay, wait, so I'm just curious, like, as your friend, I know we're on air, but like, what do you want to do for your birth? Because you've had a lot of subject matter experts. You've had a lot of friends give birth. What do you want to do? Ooh, here we go. I want to do a homebirth.

And obviously, I have high hopes, as I do for being a wife, as I do for being a mom, parenting. Like, there are so many things. And I don't think it's wrong or criminal to have aspirations knowing with an open mind, I could change my mind. Okay? So what I want to do, and also circumstances change. So I could find out it's a high-risk pregnancy and something wouldn't be the right thing to do. I don't know. anyway, that being said, if all works out the way that I hope, I would really like to do a homebirth.

I want to do it specifically with Lindsay Meles, my friend who's a midwife in Orange County. Yeah. So my plan would be for Vance and I to go to Orange County, camp out, live in a beautiful beachfront, Airbnb for like, I don't know, my due date month or whatever. And then just be there so that she's on call and available because she doesn't live in Phoenix. So that's what I would like to do. And I would like to then, you know, obviously no epidural. I've learned way too much from Lindsay and others about how that can affect breastfeeding and all sorts of things. Have you found out about that?

Yeah. And okay, so I'm someone that saw before I had kids. I was in the hospital. I had to do an OB rotation. So I've seen epidurals. And I'm like, you see a mom going in screaming pain all of a sudden. Huh. Where's my phone?

Can someone get my makeup? And I'm like, it looks amazing, right? No shame in epidurals. Most of my friends get them. Even my friends that are so crunchy, they're like, I'm crunchy. I'll do all the things. Give me the epidural. Like, no shame. You know, everyone's different in what they want. Me personally, I didn't want an epidural. I want to do experience this God-given thing that my body can do. And people will probably ask, why not a homebirth? My husband wasn't comfortable with a home birth when we were in the military. We were in Abilene, Texas, like middle of nowhere. They don't even have a pediatric hospital. So, he felt very comfortable with the birthing center. And that was what we did for our first. And he even, it's near the hospital. So that was our happy medium. Like, I would do a homebirth. He is not comfortable. there. And so I'm like, I want him to be at peace. I want to be at peace. He would probably get on board if I really wanted to. But I'm like, you know what, it's a happy medium. I love our midwives. It's great. It's peaceful. It's wonderful. And so that's why people probably be like,

why aren't you doing a home birth? But yeah, the epidural, I've had a lot of mombrins do epidurals in the new natural birth. They say the recovery's better. They're less likely to tear. You know, when you do an epidural, you can't really feel your pelvic muscles. And so one, there's tearing, but two, and you can still tear doing natural vaginal birth, you know, unmedicated. But your pelvic floor, you just can't feel it as And so that's more likely, like those babies, they're usually having, they're not always, but that is when it's more likely that they're having to use the vacuum or forceps to get baby out. And then something I actually learned recently, which, you know, this is a whole anesthesiology thing. And they have to use a numbing agent, but they also use opioids and epidurals.

And that's something that I learned in the last couple years. And I had no idea. Now, granted, it's such a small amount. It's not like you're getting IV fentanyl, but fentanyl and morphine can be in the epidurals. And obviously, it's amazing because it helps with pain control along with. a numbing agent and they're both low doses to kind of help counteract each other. Different purposes work on different. You know, it's given to the spinal cord. So it's supposed to be localized, but some of it is absorbed into mom's blood supply and then passed on to baby.

And in fact, there are studies showing that baby's urine can actually have fentanyl in it up to 29 hours after birth. Wow. And for me, I'm just like, it's the bioaccumulation of the little things. And I just, but the mom friends that I've had do epidurals first and natural births. I will say they say their bonding experience is better, their postpartum experience is better, they don't tear. And again, every person is different. And I will say personally, my mom friends that do natural births at the hospital, I'm like, you're a real boss. I don't know that I could do that because they have so many parameters on like what you can and can't do. And that is where I would do it if I had to. To me, like, having a natural, trying to have a natural birth in a hospital is like

being a Christian and choosing to send your kids to public school. Like, can't have you done? Absolutely. Are you like in for the battle of your life? Absolutely. And so to me, that doesn't sound appealing at all because I know that I'm going to be, you know, at my worst. Like, I'm literally going to be in pain and I'm not going to be focused and I'm not going to have my wits about me to defend what I want to do or not do. It's like, I don't want to be thinking about and worrying about all that. And like, you can't even like sometimes get in the bath. And I feel like the birth center allows certain, my birth center specifically allows so many different positioning and so much you can go get in the bath if you want. I want to eat. I want to give birth the way I want to give birth.

The way that like what feels instinctual to me. I'm like going up. Now there are things that my deal that made me do like go up and down the stairs and do these squatting positions. And I was so mad, but I was like, I want this baby out. And there was a time in both my births, which you will experience this one day. And so many have is that transition period where you're like, can't do it. Can't do it. I'm done. Just like, give me the epidural. I want the drugs. And then babies like right there. But That's literally you start thinking in your mind. I can't do it. And I have to share this. I've never shared this with you and not a lot of people know this. But I really believe had I had my first child at the hospital, it would have ended up in a C-section. I like have no doubt in my mind. So I had a

really long labor. I had what's called prodromal labor. So it was an on-off labor. It would come. It would stop. It would come. It would stop. And as my first, I'm like, this is it. I have the adrenaline. I didn't sleep for a day. It was really hard. I was at the birth center. And even my midwife was like, maybe we need to transfer and get mom rest. Like, we're going to. We're going to to the point where this is like, this is pretty uncomfortable for her. I worry about maternal exhaustion. And my dula was like, I really think it's a positioning issue. Well, had I been checked in the hospital, I would have never been able to leave. I left mid-labor, after laboring on and off, it was literally two minutes away. My dula got me into a chiropractor, and she adjusted me. And I kid you not,

on the way back to the birth center, I was an immediate active labor. Because it was a positioning. Yes. Cool. It was like, they had worked on my hips and positioning and baby was just stuck. And so had I been at a hospital, I guarantee you I would have had a C-section. But because I had the freedom to go That's crazy. Yes. And that's so wild. And so, and I had done all the predatal stuff leading up to that. Yeah, you would not, what you were saying was, sorry, I interrupted you. What you were saying was, you wouldn't have had freedom to do that in a hospital. No, you can't check out of the hospital mid-labor. And so it was like, I just think that it probably would have been such a prolonged thing that it probably would have resulted in a C-section. I think you're right. That was another just total gift of

being at the birth center. And I'm so grateful. You're going to do the dry wipes with water. That's going to be this pregnancy. What else are you going to change? I feel like I've learned a lot about natural fibers. Thanks to you and Hannah. You all have radicalized me. And I feel like that's something that like we all talk about the toxins in our environment and the food, but we're not talking about what we're wearing and what touches our skin every single day. But we talk about it with babies and we get them in organic cotton wensies and towels. And I feel like I'm trying to prioritize natural fibers this pregnancy. And that's something I didn't really care about before. But especially if you can build a simple pregnancy capsule of a few things. And I'm not going to stress about if I have a

podcast or speaking engagement on one time outfit personally. But I'm like, you know what? I'm going to prioritize that. And something else I feel like I'm to prioritize is that with my other two, like, I was stressed. I was just, I was. I'm not saying I'm not under any stress right now, but I had a private practice. I was building a business. I didn't take a maternity leave with either of my kids because when you own your own business, like you don't really get that. And now I feel like with my first child, I was so focused on my birth plan. Like who's my doula going to be? Where's my midwife? What interventions do I want? What do I not want? And this pregnancy, I kind of know what I want. And so I'm focusing on my postpartum. And I think, and I think,

think that is so important because I think people focus so much on their registry and their birth plan and all of a sudden postpartum gets here and you have no plan. Whether it's prepping meals, setting boundaries, I think that's so important. What are your boundaries? Who do you want in the room when you give birth? I am like, I feel like I'm pretty flexible. I feel like midwife, dula, husband. If my mom or my sister wanted to be there, I would let him, they're really kind of like, I don't know about natural birth. My mom was at the birth center and she did not have natural birth. She had C-sections with my sister and I, and she was downstairs and she was about to call 911. And my midwives were like, she got to go. She's stressing. And she ended up staying down there

and she was down there with my cousin and my aunt. And they came up when baby was born and it was so happy. So I'm like, if they want to be there, great. And I even said, I like asked my boys. I'm like, I know that's like kind of weird because they're boys, they're young. But I'm like, if they want to be there and it's during the day, then like, I'll let them be there. I got to talk about that with my husband because it might freak them out a little bit. Like, it's primal and it's pain. I'm like super flexible about that. I think what I want to do more this postpartum is like set. healthy boundaries. Like, I'm not working. We pay for our employees to do a three-month paid maternity,

and by gosh, I'm going to do the same. This is my first one. I get a true maternity. And back in the day, like, we just weren't in a place. Like, when you're building a business, I should have set better boundaries, but I didn't and I worked. I didn't have a lot of parameters. And so I think, because I think that's so important for mom's nervous system, for baby, I don't want a ton of visitors. You know, it's like so cute and fun to show off your baby. I don't want to be hosting family. I don't want a revolving door. Yeah, like I want a meal prep and have meals and just be so much more mindful of that postpartum period. And even me, I feel like, because I had a natural birth, I'm like, I feel amazing. The next day I'm like, you know, up and at them and walking and doing

stuff. And it wasn't even like getting back to working out. It was more just like getting back to normal life, you know, and I'm just like, I don't want that. I want to be like in my mama's cave, dim light, skin to skin and just like really savoring that. And I think also for us going through what I've gone through, I feel like I always thought I had more children in me after my second and then got the curveball of my life with cancer. And so this one I just want to like take it all in. Like, I don't want to rush it. I want to just appreciate it for what it is. First, child, you're kind of stressed trying to figure everything out. Second, you're like, I think I got this. And third, I'm like, I just want to like take it all in. And also something else I'm doing is crowding out the noise. I have a good motherly instinct. We all do. God gives it to us. And I think there are so many people and such a blessing, so many resources and podcasts and books, but there's so much noise. And like, you're like, am I doing it right? I didn't do it her way. And she said to do this. And it's like, get to know your baby and, like, know where your family's at and do what's best for you. Like, my goal. is not to get my kid to sleep through the night. Like I'm just not about that. I want a regulated healthy child. I want a healthy breastfeeding relationship. I want to nourish myself postpartum. I'm not,

I need sleep. Like I really do need sleep, but I'm not going to be stressed. Like people are like, you got to get your kid sleeping through the night at this age and get them on this schedule. And it's just like not my priority postpartum. So you asked about my plan of what I want to do. And that's one of the things I think. And again, I could be in the moment like, I don't want anyone in here. But I think I want to have all of Vance's sisters, whoever's available. I want to have all my best friends. I'm dying. My mom.

Yeah, like, I want a room. Because like, I just, knowing me when it comes to anything like hard, physical activity, I need a team of people coaching me because I'm going to be like, I can't do it. I need everyone in my face yelling. Like, you're doing it. You've got this. You were made for this. Plus the birth team or whatever.

But like, you don't need a doula. You have your family. That's what I would like. And so, yeah, I feel like I could just have Lindsay the midwife. and then I could just have like all the sisters and then whoever wants to like hang out. Because I want it. If I just have this big house, you know, to have an Airbnb or whatever, I'm like, well, why not? Let's just have some family stay.

And then they can just help us for the next like couple days. We're just like, you don't know when you're going to labor. And it's like, oh, they're here for this. And honestly, people that have been through it. And we're like, vacation in California. It's like, everybody would love that. I mean, that's amazing. Sign me up.

Let me know. Right. Yeah. So like, yeah, yeah, so like, yeah, you should come. So anyway. I'm like, birth party. Everyone's like, she's crazy. So, yeah, I know.

So all the people that have actually had kids, they're like, she is not going to want that. And that's true. Maybe I won't. But I don't know. Tell me, I'm like, at least for my first child, I'm like, I'm scared. Yeah. So I feel like I will want to have people.

And if you're doing a homebirth, you're not going to be tempted with that epidural. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, then you're going to have to transfer it to the hospital. It's a whole thing. And you can do it and God will equip you, but talk about surrender. Like, it is a, when I see spiritual experience, it is like, Lord, take over. Because I don't want it. I can't do it.

I can't do it. And then you're like crazy and you're like, I'll do it all over again. Yeah. I already asked Vance. I was like, you know, when we have a child, I was like. And Vance was a home birth in the house that the wedding was at. Yeah. And I was like, okay, when I have our baby, I said, will you, will you make me food after? And he said, he said, he said, I'm already planning on it. And he said, what do you want? And I said, will you make me stew? He said, I'm going to make you stew with bone broth. And we're going to have. I'm going to have your freshly milled flour, sourdough bread, lots of butter. It's all going to be waiting for you. And I was like, we love that. He knows all the right. He knows all the things. He's like actually the best. Like, I mean, Alex obviously thinks he's the best. But as a friend,

like, he is literally the best. Most perfect. God handpicked, the most amazing man. No person's perfect. But he is perfect for you. And he is, yeah, he's just the greatest. And I love that you all both have that health in common. And like he cares about preconception and pregnancy and postpartum. Yes. That's the one thing. I'm like, having everyone there for your birth, Like we had family members. We had a little birthday party that night, like cake and all the things and had food. But I will say once you're postpartum, that's when it's like kind of fun to just like hunker down. And you don't realize how overstimulated you get.

And like, then you're trying to figure out breastfeeding. You're operating on not a lot of sleep. Yeah. And I'm like, I want to be on my couch in a diaper because you will wear diapers because you'll be bleeding. And so you'll be on your couch, in your diaper. Like don't want to be covered. Maybe you'll have like a robe or something. But you're trying to figure out.

breastfeeding. The last thing you want is people coming and going. And like if you need a nap and you're waiting up for the visitors, that makes sense to me. Yeah, postpartum is like I would really protect that. And other cultures do. Like there's a whole 40 days postpartum, like, you know, the first, I don't know exactly what it is. The first seven days you stay in the bed except for go to the bathroom, then you go around the room and then you go outside the house. It's just like a, I do think our culture tries so quickly to get back. And even natural holistic because they're like, I had an amazing birth. I did that. And I'm like, no, I don't need to get back to anything. I don't owe anyone. I'm not hosting anyone.

And I'm going to protect and preserve this time for my peace and for baby and just to enjoy it. One thing is, you know, obviously I don't know when, you know, if God blesses me, God willing with a child, when that baby would come, what time of year, all that type of stuff. Now, I love also the idea. It's pretty much always going to be decent, comfortable weather in California. I know one thing is I would like when I first have a baby, yeah, a lot of bedtime, but I'd also like a comfortable setting where I can easily just sit outside and have beautiful weather. nature and fresh air and sunshine on me and the baby. And so I am really big on that. Now, if it's Phoenix summer, you know, I'm not doing that here. But like somewhere like California, it's easy to do that, you know, no matter what time of year it is pretty much. It'll be nice. And then if it's winter, Phoenix, then it's nice. But anyway, so I think about that. Lots of nature time.

I want lots of nature sitting in grass. Which is so important. Moms, I feel like it gets so hold up and don't get out in nature. And I do think it's so important to like, even for baby's circadian rhythm. Like when you're exposed to morning light, 12 hours later, that's when you naturally produce melatonin. And so getting baby outside and they might be confused. They're circadian rhythms, right? They're trying to navigate the world and life and everything was dark inside. So getting babies outside is so important. Not just for mom's health, but also baby and fresh air. Like I know people that just stay inside for weeks on end. No, I don't want to do that. This is my first spring baby. So I'm like, I can't wait to just sit at the

farm out on the porch. You don't have to go. That doesn't mean you have to go somewhere far. I mean like literally the backyard or the porch or whatever. Just being in a place where you can sit and ground and have sunshine. I agree. I think that's so important. Grounding is big. I really want to have grass to put my feet on. Yes. That's one thing. I think that's important. Okay. With postpartum, what sorts of meals are ideal as soon as that baby comes? Anything warm, grounding and nourishing. So like think of bone, think of exactly what Vance that he would make for you. So I think of like crock pot meals, like things that take a long time like stew on the oven, like a pot roast, definitely meat because you want iron rich foods. Of course, pasture raised, grass fed, things like that

important. It is not a time to do a bunch. Fruit is really hydrating, but a bunch of like just salads, you know, like more cooked. Like think like collard greens. Think like holiday food. Honestly, like warm, cooks a long time. Exactly. Yes. Mineral rich. Oh my gosh. Hydration is so important. So many moms don't have enough breast milk supply stress. There's so many other contributing things. But when you start drinking electrolytes and getting minerals, whether it's Kintan or Sava or whatever your electrolyte form is or coconut water, that can help with breast supply, milk supply so, so much. And so hydration is so important. It's so easy when you're a mom. Like you're barely have time to go to the bathroom. You're trying to figure out breastfeeding and

laying there and if you have other kids. And so just hydration is such a big thing. Mineral rich foods, like bone broth and yeah, just like warm grounding, cozy nourishing meals. Are there certain supplements that I need to take postpartum? I actually continue. I encourage people to take a prenatal postpartum, which sounds counterintuitive. There are lots of brands that offer postnatals. but pregnancy depletes you have a lot of nutrients. And especially if you're someone that has lost a lot of blood during pregnancy, you might want to consider supplementing with liver, beef liver, that can build up your iron reserves. Actually, this is really fun fact. I've worked with a lot of healthy moms in my private practice over the years that want to have an out-of-hospital birth, but their irons too low. So they disqualify from out-of-hospital births.

And so their midwives are like, hey, your hemoglobin, your hematocrat, your CBC is showing that you're super anemic and you don't, you basically disqualify from being a good candidate for an out-of-hospital birth because of blood loss, which can't be serious. And the quickest way to get it up is beef liver. And so I've seen people within weeks be able to get their numbers up. And so that's one other thing I might try during this pregnancy. I will say Allison kind of influenced me and Bethany. First trimester, I'm coming out of it. Ain't no way I get in beef liver in. I'm barely getting food in. Are you going to do Bethany's beef liver smoothie? I'm going to try. I really am. It is so good. You've had it with the honey and the min. It doesn't taste like beef liver. I know. Just first trimester, I'm just the thought of it is like

Yeah, I know. I might have to have Ryan make it for me. I want to have Van start making it. Yes, but that is so good. And it's so great during pregnancy as far as nutrients go. Like some people only do that and like hydration and quintan as their prenatal. But I would say that's another big thing is make sure your iron's good postpartum and continue your supplements postpartum, especially if you're breastfeeding. Because you take so much nutrients to build that baby. When you see the placenta, you'll be like, I made that. That's amazing. But it took a lot of reserves to do that. And then postpartum continue the nourishment. And continue eating the meals. Continue. It's so easy postpartum, especially if you're breastfeeding. You need more calories than you would think. And so making sure someone is feeding you consistently. Like constant snacks. Yes, charcutorries. Yes, charcutory.

Having, I don't like protein like balls and bars usually, but that saves me. Like lactation-wise postpartum because it was quick, easy. You can throw protein powder in it. You can throw oats in it, nut butter, honey and like chia seeds, flak seeds, whatever you want to put in it. And you could just eat those. It was like such easy food that you could literally be breastfeeding and like eat that and drink water. Not a sponsor, but my favorite. Postpartum meal service is called restorative roots. Yes, we do that for all of our employees. We all kind of go in and they have great options. Yeah, really good. I got a friend that she was like, I could not stop eating those lactation cookies. Those are the best things I've ever had like pregnant or not or baby or not. Like, I love those things. They're so good. I will also say for postpartum, so many people do meal trains. And like, if you don't want takeout, just send friends recipes or be like, here's recipes. Literally, please nobody do a meal train for me. I don't want that. But no, if you do a meal train, how?

have them do homemade cooked meals. Because people will do, there is nothing better. I will say when I was postpartum and someone would bring like a homemade spaghetti or like a homemade pot roast. It was like, I feel so loved. Yeah. That's different. I'm like I don't want panera bread. No, no, heck no. I don't want panera bread. I love to find dish. And so she has a lot of great recipes. So I would say anything to find dish because I know it's clean. A lot of people have her cookbook. And that was a great option. And I have a lot of friends that are healthy. Like I'm really fortunate. What do you know about doing your best to avoid pitfalls of postpartum depression. I will say one of the biggest contributing factors. I mean, there are so many different things, and this is a very sensitive topic. So I want to

navigate this appropriately. If people are having hallucinations and things like that, they do need to seek medical help. Like, that is true postpartum psychosis, and that is very scary. Or you'll just go famous on TikTok and everybody will celebrate you. She said it, not me. But I will say the nutrients are really important. Your gut health going into pregnancy because you make majority are neurotransmitters in your gut. But again, And so much of it, too, is that like hustle culture and getting back and doing more. And it's like, if you can, I'm not saying everyone's going to tend to you and serve to you. And that's not realistic for everybody.

But if you can protect your postpartum and preserve that, that can help with a lot of postpartum anxiety. Because a lot of anxiety is coming from an overstimulated, sympathetic, drive, driven nervous system. You know, and I'm not saying, like, getting outside and getting sunshine and fresh air is going to take care of it for everybody. But a lot of people, oh, you're constantly on your phone. That's another thing. You're constantly on your phone, constantly having people over. You're not rested. you're not nourishing yourself. You're not sleeping because it's hard to sleep anyway with a newborn.

So I would say do all the things you can to set you up for success and then also seek help when needed because it can be real and it can be hard. And I think a lot of people, even in the Christian community are like really prideful in the holistic community. They're like, I've done so many things right. But it's like sometimes you need help and support. And so don't be afraid to reach out to others for support. Get off the dang phone though. I will say that is so overstimulating to the nervous system. The EMF's near the baby's brain because all moms do is breastfeed and have that EMF near the baby. and it's just terrible. I need to ask you something. There's been some rumors online about you. And the rumors have said that you may have sold out. Is that true? No. Oh my gosh.

We're getting heat for this rebrand. Are those the rumors that you've heard? Those are the rumors I've heard. So why did we go from Taylor Duke's Wellness to SAVA? What is SAVA? Okay. So SAVA is our new company. And this has been really hard.

Like this is like, I'm like, yay, rebrand. new branding, new exciting, and we weren't prepared for some of the pushback. Like, people think that we have investors that we're reformulating, things are going to change, being bought out. And I get it. I'm skeptical of health companies being bought out too. So I understand where people are coming from. We literally are the same company, these same formulations. If anything, we're doing more. We have a kid's line. We have an athlete line. And it's just new branding and a new name. And really, we outgrew Taylor Duke's Wellness. And so I will say, like, we are family owned, family operated. My husband's the CEO. I'm still the founder. I'm still the formulator. Our

kids still taste test with us. We have brought in no one, not even someone to advise us from a business standpoint, which maybe it could be helpful at some point. But we, and most people don't realize, I never planned to have a product line. That was never my plan in life. My only goal when I healed and had experienced functional medicine was to own my own private practice and be a functional medicine nurse practitioner. And that's what I was. And I had a thriving practice, and that was my dream job. That was like the pinnacle. That's all I did it. You know what I mean? This is great. I was thriving, loving life. And then when I got diagnosed with brain cancer, that's when I had to step away from taking care of everyone else because I had to heal.

Now I had people under me in the practice, other providers that would still help people. But that's when I had to take a step back and I really had to focus on my own health. And that's when I got to a point where when I realized I wasn't going to come back because I had two young kids and I had to take care of myself that I was like, wait, people always ask me what probiotic or what multivitamin or what protein powder, what electrolytes. And I was like, why don't I create my own? So the only reason several years ago, literally in 2023, we called it Taylor-Duce Wellness was because that was my Instagram name. Okay. So like things grew and it's been such a blessing and so many people of your podcast and you've been a huge supporter of the brand and I'm so humbled and grateful. But it's one of those things that it got so much bigger than I ever planned. Like my husband has quit his job.

He's the CEO now. And it's not about me. I never wanted to build this personal empire of TDW and Taylor Duke's wellness. My name's everywhere. And I'm like people that intend to grow a platform like they want that. I never wanted that. So I'm more like my name's everywhere. And so I just felt like we got to this point where we need a refresh. We have a huge. huge team now, and it's not just Taylor Dukes, it's Taylor and Team. And so Sava, the name Saba, comes from John Tintin, so it's the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but God comes to to give life and give it abundantly. And as I was kind of like marinating on that Bible verse, I've always loved it. I did a deep dive into the meaning of abundance and all of that. And that's

when I found the Hebrew word Sava, which means to be filled, to be satisfied and like have everything you need. And I was like, wait, that is what I want our line to be. I want to nourish people and like fulfill their needs. And so that is kind of where the name came from, but like, it's still us. We're not being put out. It's phenomenal. And you guys have introduced so many new products, too. Yes. And that's where it's like, Taylor Dukes just felt so limited. But now we have all the moms, you know, that are now buying kids, kids supplements. And we have athletes. It's not even just for professional athletes, but it's also for really athletic people, you know, that need more protein throughout the

day and need complete sources of protein, like weigh instead of just bone broth. And so I really, it's so exciting. I feel like we can do more and expand more. And it's, I feel like the best is yet to come, but I do understand why people are a little skeptical because they're like, what's going on behind the scenes? But you've heard it from me first. So what are some of the new products that Sava has that you didn't have before that you're seeing the sales go crazy on? Okay, I will say one that I did not expect is our bananas and cream protein. I'm not a huge banana person. Have you tried it yet? I have it strawberry girl. I'm the strawberry girl. Okay, you got to try it. I'm not a banana person. So when we were like, at our, you know, formulator and taste testing, I was like banana. That's so weird. I'm not a banana person.

it has gone crazy like literally gone bananas because everything is banana bread latte banana bread matcha people are putting it in baked goods people are putting it in coffee so i will say that was one that was unexpected that's just like blown up that's been so good and it tastes like banana pudding like a yummy banana pudding wow um that one's really good and then we have a kids line so we have kids multivitamins you know i was seeing my kids in the kitchen and they're mixing their electrolytes and they're making their protein smoothies and it's like empowering like they're doing it themselves they call it a milkshake and then electrolytes like they call their protein milkshake and so So I'm sitting here watching my kids and I'm like, man, I wish you guys would like take ownership of your health when it comes to vitamins.

And they sometimes do, but the chewables have so much junk in it. Oh, yeah. They're terrible. There are clean brands, but like even the clean brands, the inactive ingredients. And so that's what inspired us to create the kids line because, one, it empowers these kids to build these healthy foundational habits and like take it upon themselves to mix it and have fun. But two, you can just make it so much cleaner than a traditional multivitamin. And so we have two kids, multivitamin flavors that have electrolytes, sodium, potassium, magnesium, even some probiotics. and then all their minerals and vitamins that they need. And they're food-based. So they're bio-available.

They're so clean. And then we have an elderberry drink, which you like, which is the immunity drink, which is so good for cold and flu season. So it's all food-based, so clean. It has zinc, lysine, which is antiviral. It has elderberry, which has immune benefits. It has grape juice, which is really great at preventing the stomach bug. So when stuff is going around, that's really good to take. And then we have a sleepy time drink, which that's actually been probably one of the most popular kid products. Even like adult friends, like grown men are like, I love your sleepy time tea. I'm like, man, we need to create this for adults. And then of course, like our electrolytes are two of our most, our bestsellers. And so we've formulated eight new flavors of electrolytes. What are the new flavor? Some of them.

Your favorite is fruit punch. I know. We were coming out with our own fruit punch pack because people are obsessed with it. See, I told you, I've been telling you you got to do fruit punch. And now see, the people want it. That's my all time favorite flavor. So there's like blue Hawaiian, which is a fun blue like tropical drink. There's a, a mint lime. And the blue has spirulina, I'm assuming. Yeah. No, it has blue 40. I'm just, you know, so the people know. Yeah, we don't use food dyes, we use organic, all the things. It's so clean. But, yes, we have the mint lime, which is like a mohito. It's really good on ice. Really good. Actually, you could make a little macktail with it. Yeah, I love doing mocktails with it. And even pouring in some sparkling water, like it makes it so fun.

Fresh mint. Mixed berry, passion, Yuzu. There's so many fun different flavors. I love them. So it's savinutrition.com. Use code Alex Clark for a discount. One thing Vance was like so hype over is, you know, he pays attention to sports. I do not. I everyone knows I am not into sports. But he was like, oh my gosh, do you know who Taylor has reppping her brand? And I said who. And it's this 49ers quarterback.

Is that right? Yes, Brock Purdy. He's amazing. That is so neat. And his wife listens to the show? Yes. That's so cool. His family is amazing.

And I will say everyone knows him for football. Like he is obviously a baller. They are undefeated at the time of this podcast. podcast episode. He is doing amazing. He has such a cool story. He loves Jesus. They're healthy. He's a family man. And they were using our products for a couple years. And so it naturally just made sense that that partnership. And we are friends with them. But it naturally just made sense. Like that is who we want to align values with, like someone that represents everything that we do. And it's them. And his wife is like, she is the best. They are dear friends. We actually just were in California two days ago,

cheering him on. They beat the Cardinals. Sorry, Arizona. But anyway, yeah, they're amazing. And it's just It's so cool seeing athletes and people like that care about their body and care about fueling their health. Because sometimes we feel alone in the crunchy community. It's like all these homeschool moms. And it's like, no, there are people with platforms that are wanting to steward their health for the glory of God and for the purpose of their job. And so he does that really, really well. That's so awesome. But I did get a text from fans.

He's like, yo, Brock Purdy. What's the deal? And I was like, enlighten your wife. Tell her to start watching some Sunday night football. I know, I know. We need to get that on. Taylor, where can people find you on social media? Taylor Duke's wellness is my personal. I still share, and I still have that. I still share so much

information, like just educational stuff. I'm passionate about it. Blog. We actually have a non-toxic baby registry post of all the things because I'm so obsessed and now I'm in this new era. Well, I didn't know that. I didn't know you had that. Yeah. I've loved branch basics, but I love branch basics too. But yes. And honestly, we just started updating ours because I'm like, I'm in a new era. I've been out of this world for a couple years. So like things like that we love sharing. Preconception stuff. Like that's all in the blog. So website Taylorduxwellness.com, my social media, Taylor Duke's Wellness and I love sharing stuff. And then of course, Sava Nutrition. And then we have our own business page now for Sava and that's on Instagram as well. So great. I am so proud of you.

The rebrand is incredible. It's beautiful. The products are better than ever. That fruit punch has my heart and soul. And so everybody has to try that. It's so addicting. And I love the new like the logo, the packaging. It's all beautiful. So we love you in our house. And Vance is huge fans. Well, I have to say, I was getting my hair and makeup done by your girls this morning. And they were telling me that Vance was making your smoothie. It's like a 10-step smoothie process. And that is love. And he puts that sava strawberries and cream in there. He was. He was. Yeah, because they were doing mine before you. That's funny. Yeah. Yep, it's true. I really, listen, if I talk about it, I'm really doing it. I really, I walk the walk. I don't just talk to

and I have been using you for years. So it's the best of the best. Thank you, Taylor. Before we go, maybe you have a new one. If you could offer any remedy to heal a sick culture, physical, emotional, or spiritual, what would it be? Oh gosh, Alex, you know me. I'm like, everyone probably gives these great biohacking answers and the best investment and the best new peptide. And I am such a foundation girl through and through. And I just think health now more than ever is so complicated and there's so much noise and do this and do this and don't do that. And what I always say is just crowd out the noise and get back to the basics. So I'm talking sleeping, so boring. This is the free medicine stuff that you're like, define it though. get back to sleeping, managing stress, regulating your nervous system. If you don't know what that means, go read my article online, eating real food, eating enough protein. Of course, avoiding toxins, cleaning up your air, cleaning up your water. Like those foundational things are really the habits, even for preconception. These are the foundational habits that are going to set you up for success, whether it's avoiding an autoimmune disease, whether it's fighting cancer, whether it's, you know, trying to be ready for conceiving a baby. Those are just the foundational things that

get so overlooked and missed. And if you're not doing those things, don't go by peptides, don't go by biohacking devices, get back to the basics of eating real food, drinking enough water, sleeping and managing your stress. Taylor, I love you so much. Thank you for coming on Culture Apothecary. I love you. I like give her a little hug. This is the episode Women Need to Save Before You're Pregnant, come back to it when you see those two lines and then send this also to every newly pregnant friend in your contacts. Don't forget to leave us that five-star review if you love this episode. New episodes, come out every Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern, wherever you listen to podcasts,

follow me on Instagram at Real Alex Clark and the show at Culture Apothecary. This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional regarding any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. I'm Alex Clark, and this is Culture Apothecary.