The Bossticks - The Pregnancy Whisperer, Dr. Elliot Berlin - Fertility, Labor, & Everything Else You Need To Know About Pregnancy

Episode Date: January 10, 2020

#240: On this episode we sit down with Dr. Elliot Berlin. Dr. Berlin is an award winning prenatal chiropractor, childbirth educator, doula, and labor support bodyworker. This was a well rounded conversation focused on pregnancy, fertility issues, the birthing process, and more.  To connect with Dr. Elliot Berlin click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by Joovv. Experience the benefits of red light therapy by one of the best in the business; JOOVV! To experience the Joovv and receive a free gift with purchase go to joovv.com/skinny This episode is brought to you by Skillshare. Skillshare is an online learning space offering more than 25,000 courses. Join the millions of students already learning on Skillshare today with a special offer just for our listeners: Get two months of Skillshare for free. That's right, Skillshare is offering The Skinny Confidential listeners two months of unlimited access to over 25,000 classes for free. To sign up, go to www.skillshare.com/TSC.  This episode is brought to you by BETABRAND and their Betabrand dress pant yoga pants. To try these pants go to betabrand.com/skinny and receive 20% off your order. Millions of women agree these are the most comfortable pants you'll ever wear to work.  Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a dear media production. This episode is brought to by Skillshare. So, for those of you that do not know what Skillshare is, Skillshare is an online learning community that offers membership with meaning with thousands of classes online for people like you and me. Skillshare is a proud sponsor of the Skinny Confidential. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com slash TSC and get two free months of premium membership. That's two whole months of unlimited access to thousands of classes for free.

Get started and joined today by heading to Skillshare.com slash. TSC. That's skillshare.com slash TSC. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness.

Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her. Aha. So my area that I work on is this concept that the nervous system is either going to try to help you with fertility. be neutral about it or get in the way. So if you feel like your body's operating in emergency mode, like you're running from a tiger in danger, your body really is when you get pregnant at that point. So it can try to sabotage you. If you feel really good and you're just in a good physical place, an emotional place, and systems are all go, then the body generally tries to help you.

Happy Friday. Michael has a huge announcement today. He needs to let everyone know. I'm 38 weeks pregnant, but what do you need to let everyone know, Michael? I knew this was going to bite me in the ass. Well, first, we should introduce ourselves back and, you know, welcome back, everybody. It's going to be a half-ass picture because I'm already in the hot seat. My name is Michael Bostic. I'm in trouble. I'm also an entrepreneur. I'm also the CEO of the Dear Media Podcast Network. Wife across from me, Lauren. I'm Lauren. I'm the creator of the skinny confidential. And Michael's hair hurts. Well, guys, okay, here's what happened. I woke up in the middle of the night the other day. And it was one of those things where for whatever reason I didn't shower my head for three days. Listen, we've all been there. There's a lot going on. You kind of get lost in time between Christmas and New Year. You don't really, you've kind of given up. You know, there's not going on.

Okay, get to the point. Okay, Lauren, here's what happened. I didn't get my hair wet for three days and it hurt. Has anybody ever experienced that where like your hair hurts because, but it's actually your scalp that hurts? Michael, I just washed my hair after two weeks. Because your hair gets stuck in one position. I was wearing hats.

Frankly, I don't give a fuck if your hair hurts. Do you know what's happening to my body right now? He woke me up to tell me that his fucking hair hurts. I didn't wake you up to tell you that. You did. I just said it right when I woke up. and I knew it was mistaken. Here's how crazy my wife is, everybody.

I just want everyone to know the type of pain that I go through. She, in order to remember that it was something that she was mad about and irritated about, pulled out her notes out on her phone and wrote, Michael said his hair hurt so that she would remember to yell at me for it later and also remember to bring it up on this podcast. You better bite your ass that I'm going to write an Instagram caption about how you told me at 38 weeks pregnant that your hair hurt. I don't care about your hair.

I don't know what happened to me as a child that I got so. attracted to crazy, but something happened is you're fucking nuts. Thank you. I love you. Thank you. But Jesus Christ, you are nuts. You belong in a tree. You would be bored if I wasn't nuts. No, I like them a little nutty, apparently. Hence the woman across to me. So yeah, I'm sorry I said that. I realized that you're going through a little bit more than me. My hair did kind of hurt. It feels better now if anyone's wondering. Your paper cuts, your hair hurting, your eyebrow hurting, your eye twitching, call a friend because it ain't me. I also stubbed my toe the other day real bad. And that's one of the Everyone can relate to that.

That's pain. Let's talk about real things like my esophagus, my heartburn, my lower back pain, and talk about how this episode relates to that. So I was recommended by so many amazing women on Instagram to go to Dr. Berlin. Supposedly, he's the pregnancy whisper. Okay. Now, before you're like, oh, this episode's about pregnancy, I'm going to tune out. You don't want to tune out because Taylor, our producer, told me on the elevator that this was one of of his favorite episodes. He said it was so informative and he learned so much. And think about that. He's

He's heard close to like 250 of these things. I mean, yeah. And Taylor's like, you know, stripping at my wedding with piss hanging down his leg, like dancing with every girl in the world. So you know that this is like actually a very informative, valuable episode of Taylor's saying it. We talk about all different kinds of things. And Dr. Berlin is super, super smart when it comes to pregnancy in general and chiropractic care. I knew I had to invite him on. I recently. recently just finished his podcast. And hopefully that's up at the same time. And you guys can go check it out. He also did a podcast with Hillary Duff before and after birth that I just listened to that was super informative for me as an expectant mother. So Dr. Berlin's shit. We go all over the place in this interview. He's fucking hysterical.

He's a doula and you just wouldn't picture. If you go see his Instagram, it's at Dr. Rillin. You wouldn't picture him being a doula. once you kind of wrap your head around it, he's like amazing. Whenever I go to see him, he does some deep tissue massage on my feet, which I'm very much about. Michael knows that. And then he adjusts my esophagus. So he actually opens up space and creates space in between my esophagus and my lower ribs. So I experience less heartburn, which has been amazing. And then he does my neck and the whole thing. And I just walk out like I'm floating. You could really learn a tip or two from Dr. Berlin. Listen, you need that esophagus adjusted?

I got some other ways to do that. Maybe that's not so appropriate. But anyways, guys, you know, we're going to get into this one before we get myself into any more trouble. With that, Dr. Berlin, welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her show. This is the skinny confidential, him and her. Okay, just to hop right into this, can you please tell my husband why it is so bad to have his wallet in his back pocket?

Oh, I think it's great for you to have your wallet in your back pocket. It's one of the greatest things for chiropractors that ever have. And I also recommend sleeping on a futon working on a laptop. Because then I have to come back and see you over and over and over. Yes. I actually give out back pocket wallets to all of our new clients. I actually like his wallet in his pocket, so it's like handy for me to grab. Oh.

But other than that, when he sits on it and then complains about his ass and his lower back, I'm not too into that. Well, you know, I got to find a better solution because this thing, listen, I got like that George Costanza wallet. Remember the thing that's? Remember the sign-called wallet exploded on him? And I got all this junk in here. I got to figure it up. But I don't know where to put it. I don't like the front pocket.

You know, I don't always have a shirt pocket. But I have a jacket or a vest. I'll put it in there. I don't even understand. Like, you have a phone. Yeah.

Doesn't your phone replace 90% of what's in your wallet? Yeah. I don't even, I have to kind of, I have to do a wallet audit. Yeah. Yeah. You need an audit.

There should be a specialty. Maybe just some guitar lessons in here. Yeah. Well, it's not just you. There's a lot in here. No, your blockbuster card like it's over. You know what? People hand me all these things And then I got this stupid key

What is the fax machine doing that? Yeah, you got a rice cup part That is wrong Kinkos, like what the fuck is in there? I think I got my old high school ID Starbucks car, you can get that all on your phone. No, but in all seriousness, you know what? I actually, I know you're telling the truth onus.

I have issues on this side of my back, like my hips and I'm trying to solve it now. So I've been putting it in the front pockets. Lauren told me you're beating me up a little bit about it. And then I put in the vest. I put in the jacket, but I got to find a better. You haven't found the spot yet.

Yeah, I'm found a spot. You keep working on it. Yeah, you keep working on it. And I go to a panic now because I'm so conditioned to have it there for so long that the other day I was going through the airport. I had in my bag. And then I was like, shit, did I leave it in the. Does everyone do this to you at dinner parties?

They start telling you their whole life story about their back and their neck. I do get a lot. And sometimes it goes beyond that. Things that are way outside the scope of chiropractor. What's this green thing on my toe? People will say. I'm like, I don't know. I did have some freckles in my mouth yesterday.

You see? I'm not sure. And Lauren was giving me shit about it, but today I went to look for them and they were gone. And she said they might have been a black pepper from this pasta that she made, but it wasn't. Self-awareness is not happening with you today. Well, listen, you get an expert in the room and you want to know what's going on. And I got you in the hot seat for like an hour. So, Dr. Berlin, give us a little backstory how you got into what you do because you're very, it's very niche what you do.

I like how you said backstory. Yeah, give us. You're loaded with the puns. That is a pun. That is a pun. Don't mind if I do. Okay. I always thought I'd be a surgeon, actually.

and from the time I was seven, that's why I really fell in love with health care. I saw CPR happening in a class. And I was like, what are they doing to that woman with no arms and no legs? And they said, you know, this teaches you of somebody, if their heart stops and they don't breathe, that you can use your body to be their heart and their lungs for a little while and keep them alive. And that blew my mind that I could use my body to help somebody else like that. So a couple years later, I did my own CPR class for the first time. and then I just snowballed from their first aid,

responding to emergencies, lifeguarding kind of stuff. But at the time I was a teenager, 16, 15, I was teaching for the American Red Cross. And then when I was 17, I took the EMT training. And then as soon as I was 18, started working ambulances in emergency rooms.

And just I was going to go all the way up the medical chain. And then when I was 19, my father suddenly died from a medical mix-up. I'm sorry to hear that. Thank you. Partially from medical mix-up. So I just took a big sense.

step back. I still love medicine. I really appreciate medicine and all the innovations that we have today. I just sort of wanted to be on the other side where we kind of use natural things to help the body heal itself when possible and then go up the chain to, let's say, drugs and surgery when we need to. And so I took a year. We got engaged and everybody thought, oh, he's going to medical school. It'll be great. And then I was like making pizza for a year trying to explore the options, the holistic modalities. And I fell in love with chiropractic and massage. And I fell in love with chiropractic and massage together. They make so much sense to me together, like the peanut butter and chocolate of holistic health care. So I went to school for both, separately, two different

schools for both. And my wife is a psychologist, and we were in grad school in the same town. And when we finished, we thought, let's have a baby, you know, it's time. And we followed the instructions, and no baby came out. And it led us to a three-year kind of intense battle with fertility that ended with us being like 29 and 27 years old and doctors saying there's no way you're ever going to have a baby between the two of you. So look into other forms of parenthood like adoption or egg donation. And at the end of that, we were pretty broke. We had no money. We had no relationship. We had nothing. We're just like exhausted physically and emotionally. And we couldn't even begin to think about next step. So we just took some time to take care of ourselves to go on dates and really

lung bike rides and start doing a little meditation and Chinese medicine and eating better. And lo and behold, 10 months later, we felt a lot better, healed stronger. And we actually started to have the conversation, like what kind of path do we want to take to parenthood since we can never have kids? And lo and behold, we found out we were pregnant. Wow. So, and then every two years another kid popped out. We couldn't shut it off.

It was like. So what? How many kids? Four. Four now. Jesus Christ. Okay. This freaks me out a little bit because doctors were literally telling you.

It was impossible. Yeah, they said they didn't know why, but they didn't think we would ever be able to have babies. So we exhausted all the medical options. I don't love when someone tells me they don't know why. I need substantial things. Right. You either want to know exactly what's going on and how to fix it or why it's not going to work or but this big amorphous question mark.

But that's what happens to, I think the majority of people who are stuck in a fertility journey. Hold up. I got to talk about something really important here. If there is one single product that I discovered in 2019. that has completely altered and changed the course of my life, it would be the Juv. A few weeks back, we had the founders of the Juv team, which is the team behind this amazing product is Red Light Therapy on the podcast to talk all about the benefits of red light therapy.

Some of those benefits include better skin, better sleep, more energy, balanced hormones, increased vitality, increased sex drive, more testosterone. I could go on and on. I mean, this product has been an incredible change. We use it daily now. I have it set up in my man cave so that I can get in there and use it whenever I want. Lorne is now got a pass to come in whenever she wants. Yeah, but I don't want to come in while you're using it because when you're in there, you have a whole routine. You're like meditating. You've got a podcast going.

Who knows what's going on? I feel like you're your butt naked. It's a lot. Guys, we've talked about this on this show now for the past couple weeks. I really, really cannot recommend this product enough. Like I said, skin rejuvenation, enhanced sleep, reduce pain and inflammation, increased libido. It really doesn't get much better than that. Here's the one that I like. I like the desktop model. It's the Juve Mini. And what I do is when I wake up and I do my morning pages or stoicism or write my to-do list, I just turn the light on, put it on the table, drink my matcha, and get my shit ready for the day. It's so efficient. And I feel like it does this thing where it just wakes you up. There's something that does your retinas or something. Well, there's never been a time in human history that

we've had more artificial light shining into our eyes, shining under our skin. We need some other options, and juve happens to be that option. Guys, you got to check it out. For anyone that's skeptical, go check our episode out with the Jew founders a couple weeks back. And for those of you that are interested in just jumping into it right away, go to juve.com slash skinny and use the code skinny to receive a free gift with your purchase. That's j-o-o-ov-v-com slash skinny and use code skinny to receive a free gift with your purchase. Guys, enjoy the juve and reap those benefits. So how did you get into being a doula? Because I want to know how these two intertwined because you work on a lot of pregnant women.

I mean, you're known when I went on my Instagram story and I said, my back fucking hurts. What do I do? 90% of them were saying go to Dr. Berlin. There's a lot of women in this office. Some of them may be your patients. Yeah, I've seen a bunch of number here and I see a lot of brands. Raina and Paige recommended him. Oh, well, yes.

I mean, there's a bunch of people. Yeah. You're famous in here. Yeah. Well, thanks. I tend to be famous among achy pregnant women in law. Angeles. Those are my people. How do you become a doula? Because when we came to Los Angeles, we opened a mind-body wellness center, focused on general health, but also keeping an eye on how

to boost your natural fertility, whatever you got. How do we make the most out of it? And in the first year, we had a few pregnancies. And every year from there, just snowballed more and more pregnancies. And then we were surrounded by pregnant people who said, we want to keep seeing you during our pregnancy. But I didn't really know anything about pregnancy. Very little is taught. And both chiropractic and massage school on the base level. And so I thought there would be a place to send them that just kind of did pregnancy as a specialty, but I couldn't find that either. So I was like, hey, look, I'll work with you, but I'm not 100% sure I know what I'm doing. I could not hurt you, but I don't know if I can really help you that well. And over the years, I did a lot of study on

people in other states that were doing prenatal care and people that had come before me to do prenatal care. And I learned a lot. And working hands-on with people, I learned a lot. Then the The journey kind of took this turn to where it became painfully obvious that people don't have enough information as a general rule, going into pregnancy, childbirth, postpartum, and parenting and all the choices that you have to make. And they would just kind of be swept down different avenues of choice without really knowing what the options were and then regretting them later. So I would get asked questions all the time and I would start to do research, compile

the information in the most non-biased way I could and just find ways to deliver it. We had a magazine for a while, then we had a blog, then we had a podcast and some documentaries. And now a stand-up comedy show. Let me ask you this. So, and I might stumble here a little bit, because it's not my field of expertise, but for people that are looking for natural remedies to increase their chances of fertility, what are some things that they can do? What are some practical steps they can take to kind of, you know, up their chances for

fertility? So my area that I work on is this concept that the nervous system is either going to try to help you with fertility, be neutral about it, or get in the way. So if you feel like your body's operating in emergency mode, like you're running from a tiger in danger, your body really is when you get pregnant at that point. So it can try to sabotage you. If you feel really good and you're just in a good physical place, an emotional place, and systems are all go, then the body generally tries to help you.

There are certain things that you can't overcome. If you're born without a uterus or the ovaries aren't working or something like that, That's not going to, you know, you can do eat all the, drink all the green juice you want to. That's not going to change. But within the structure, if you have all the parts and they're just for some reason not adding up the way they should, then you can boost your body by using nutrition and acupuncture and meditation, getting your mind into a much better place where your body's in more fertile space. You know, the nervous system, the part of it that's automatic, the part of it that works for you without you thinking about it, the autonomic nervous system has two kind of equal but opposite. modes of operation. There's the fight or flight emergency and there's the feed and breed relaxation. And, you know, whatever you do, if you're being chased by a tiger, your blood flow changes,

where it goes to and come from, how much sugar you're breaking down and putting into the bloodstream changes, your pupil dilation changes, your breathing rate changes, your blood pressure changes. Everything changes without you thinking about it. So if you can picture as like an extreme that you're just sitting relaxed by the pool, reading a bug, drinking a drink, and a drink, all of a sudden you hear rustling in the bushes and you look and there's a mountain lion chasing you, you don't have to think about it. Those changes all take place in a very big, dramatic way. And if that's happening to you, even on a smaller scale on a regular basis,

then your body's kind of like, no, not a good time, not a good time, not a good time. If you can shift that thermostat to that more relaxed place, then your body says this is a good time. Talk to us about how you adjust babies out of the womb because when you were working on me, you told me about it, and I found it so interesting. Babies, you know, sometimes they don't need adjustments at all, same with adults, but babies in particular, they're really soft and there's nothing, don't built up stress and tension for them. And so you can very easily feel the little vertebra and see if they're moving or not. And when they're not moving, it's such a just a gentle adjustment, sustained contact where you just literally hold that vertebra where it's a little stuck and shouldn't be.

And over time, over 30, 60, 90, sometimes two minutes, 60 or 90 seconds or two minutes, it just slides right back. into place. And you said the reason that they have to be adjusted is because when they get pulled out? Sometimes. I mean, if you look at birth videos, if you're, if you have a baby and you would have a birth video and you look at it and see when the baby's head came out, oftentimes anxious providers will just take that head and work hard to pull the body out really quick. And I know this because we, we looked when we had babies coming into the office with certain things at a very young age, just sometimes days or weeks old. Like, where is this, trauma from.

They do, they're just yanking them out, oh? They sometimes just yank them out. You know, meaning well, just wanting to move things along. But when you look at the videos, sometimes they're pretty far-looking. What is your opinion C-section versus vaginal birth? Because we were talking about this too. I picked your brain before you came in here while you were adjusting me. Yeah.

So I think that they're both great modes of delivery. Some people will want one. Some people want the other. I think that both options should be made available to everyone. Sometimes there are conditions that come up that make one or the other a more favorable medical choice. But outside of that, and even within that, you know, the way you deliver risk to somebody, if you just made a little chiropractic sound effect. Yeah, I can crack myself.

I love that. I'm hypermobile. I'm going to give myself my own beauty and wellness advice. Thank you. You're welcome. I interrupted you with my crack. It's not going to get me very far. Yeah.

So sometimes things come up and the way, you know, if there's a risk involved, everything, there's no 100% safe way to do anything, especially have a baby. But each option has different pros and cons, different risks and benefits. And I think it's our job to talk to a person who's going to have a baby and their partner and say, hey, these are the options. These are the pros and cons of each option. Which one would you like to do? Unless something's insanely risky, right? then it should be like a co-decision between the person who's having the baby and the person who are supporting the person that's having the baby. So we just found out today.

So our baby was on its head. Head down. Head down. Yeah. I'm not going to use the right verbiage, Dr. Berlin. No worries. I'm just making sure and get you right. I'm a little rusty on the pregnancy burbage.

You've got to help me out. So walk me through this. I'm with you. Okay. So the babies, what did you say head down? Was head down. Oh, I thought it was break dancing. Oh, yeah.

That's fine. I did not see that term in Williams' obstetrics text, but it works. Okay. It was on its head, and then the other night, I woke up in the middle of the night, and I looked at Michael, and I said, the baby flipped. And I didn't feel it flipped. I just, like, could feel its energy that it flipped. I know that sounds crazy.

Not to me. Okay. And so Michael's like, you're psychic. I think you're crazy in a lot of other ways, but that's... No, no, no. Let me tell you. She's definitely crazy. Yeah, I'm fucking bat shit.

Don't talk to me. I'm the wrong person to fuck with, especially pregnant. No, we don't need, that has been established a long time ago. So we went to the doctor today and they said everything looks good, that my placenta has moved out of the way so I can have a vaginal birth as of now. Okay. If I want. And they said that the baby is now upright. Is that right?

The thing's in there flipping and flopping. It flipped. Bridge. How many weeks are you now? I'm 32 weeks. Okay. So here's my question. If the baby does not flip, back down.

Okay. What are they doing? They said the chances are pretty strong that it will slip back down. I heard it hurts really bad from Kim Kardashian. What hurts? Oh, the maneuver to try to turn the baby? Yeah. Okay. Well, let's talk about breach for a minute.

Normally, between up until 28 weeks, babies are all over the place. Their head up, head down sideways. There's a lot of room in the womb and they take advantage of it. And it doesn't matter. At around 28 weeks, there's roughly 50% of babies that are still not head down yet, okay, going into the third trimester. But somewhere around now, 32, 33, there's a big migration downward, presumably because they run out of space and they can't keep moving everywhere.

They have to pick a position. And a typical shape baby and a typical shape uterus will end up head down. Sometimes they don't go head down. And we'll get to some of the reasons why that in just a second. But at 32 weeks, even if there's about 90% of babies head down, so 10% breach or other positions that are not head down, at birth it's only 3% to 4% that are not head down. So you go from 10 to about 3. So the odds are still very much in your favor, especially since your baby 1,000.

was head down recently. So we know your baby can get head down. It's a little different if the baby's breach, breach the entire time and is still breach at the end. There are some factors. So let's say the placenta's in the baby's face that sometimes could be an issue for them not being able to get into head down. If that's the ideal position, then we'll call it that. It could be the cord is short or wrapped around the baby funny. It could be your fluid levels are on either the higher side or the lower side. Both of them can cause breach. You got a lot of fluids in there. A lot of fluid. Yeah, just just went through that. I'm learning a lot.

Did they tell you how much fluid? They said that it's like a perfect amount. Like a good pool. Yeah. Nice. The normal range is a big range. I never knew I would want so much fluid in me. I know.

Look at that. I'm getting fluid from all ends, Michael. If that baby thinks anything like its mom, it's just in there playing games, they'll figure it out. He's going to hold out to the last minute. You're not going to know what's going to be on time or not on time. You know, you're going to think you're going to make it easy, not easy. I made him wait 10 years to date me.

So the baby is probably like maybe like his mom. She's just in there messing around. This makes a lot of sense to me. Just looking across, actually, at both parents, this makes a lot of sense to me. I would be surprised if it was just a straight shooter. Yeah, me too. So if the baby doesn't flip and they have to manually... So the baby doesn't flip, there's some natural things that you can do to try to encourage the environment to be more conducive or head down.

Like if your low back hips and pelvis are stiff and tight and rigid, then there may be more room underneath your rib cage, and that's where they want to go. So we can try to loosen that up with things like massage and adjustments and bodywork. Chinese medicine has a remedy acupuncture and something called moxibus. that is thought to naturally stimulate more movement in the womb. So those two combined, if you can make more space at the bottom where you want the head to go and naturally stimulate more movement with Chinese medicine. Those are helpful. There's a website called Spinningbabies.com that has all these exercises,

positional exercises that you can get into. There are a whole lot of fun to try to, you know, move gravity in your favor. Again, at 32 weeks, you don't really have an alarming problem, but it's just sort of like a finger on the pulse like, will this baby move in the next couple weeks or not? And if not, then you kind of have to do things. Medically, what they do is called the external cephalic version. It's done it typically 37 weeks, and you go into the hospital for it, generally speaking,

and they give you usually a drug to relax your uterus, and then they physically try to through your belly move the baby around. Little pause for a little hot tip. Do you want your ass to feel lifted and your legs to feel long in your pair of dress pants? I know I do. I know Michael does. Who doesn't? Yes, especially right now. Like, I could use a lift. You know what I mean?

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They're the skinny ones. But I've heard really good things about the boot cut and the straight legs. So definitely check out all their different cuts. If you're wanting to know what they feel like, it's sort of the style of a dress pant, but it has the stretch and fit and feel of yoga pants. You could wear these to the office, the home, and then it could just maybe take you to happy hour. You never know what can happen in these pants. Right now, all skinny confidential him and her listeners get 20% off their first order when you go

Betabrand.com slash skinny. That's 20% off your first order at beta brand.com slash skinny. I would say get the black skinnies. You'll love them. Millions of women agree that these are the most comfortable pants you'll ever wear to work. And I know a lot of the audience agrees as well, because I have read the DMs. Go to Betabrand.com slash skinny for 20% off. And with that, let's get back to Dr. Berlin. If I have to do this, I am going to stick my fist up your penis asshole or something crazy. I'm just something. I need something that's like really dramatic if I have to do this.

Please tell me you're talking to Michael. Michael Ann Taylor. Listen, she's great. None of us are saving here. If that happens, we all need to clear the area. Yeah, I'm self-defense. So, you know, you don't ever have to do it. You always have the option to just stay breach.

And if you do, in this town in Los Angeles, you still have some options. The typical is to schedule as this area at 39 weeks. That's what they like to do. They don't want you to go into labor. Who is they? Celebrities? What does that mean? No, medical, the medical establishment.

Is that called the princess package? That is not called the princess package. You don't I'm talking about? I think I know what you're talking about. Our friend got a princess package where you just show up and get everything done. So you get like your caesarian birth and also nip and tuck at the same time? She didn't get a nip and tuck, but I mean. You know what?

Maybe I'm not using the right term, but I thought that's what it was called. Again, not a Williams obstetric term, but I can certainly look at up. I mean, I heard a lot of people. in this town, they like to get stitched up by a plastic surgeon. And I'm not going to lie. I'm like very intrigued by that. I will tell you that OBs that do this every single day, every week, they do so many of them. Some of these guys, I see sometimes the scar after a cesarean around here and you don't even, unless you know what you're looking for, you don't even can't tell us there. Okay, so I want to talk about infertility for a second because this is a subject that we haven't talked a lot about on this platform

and I know that there's a lot of people that are struggling with it. Is there anything that you can recommend that women can do to boost fertility? Sure. Just to finish that last conversation, there are doctors here who deliver breached babies vaginally in this town. Oh. But most doctors don't. If you go that route, you have to kind of meet certain criteria. They don't do it for all babies. They do it for babies that they deem in a safe position. And otherwise, there's like nine criteria for safety. But rounding this out, I mean, in this breach conversation, there's still, like, with where she's at now, you're saying two to three percent. I hear that, that's not correct.

Three to four. Three to four. That end up in breach. You love percentages. Well, because no, I think of everything as a, you know, one out of ten scale. Right. Well, there's about four million babies' births in the United States every year. So four percent would be 160,000.

You know, that's one every few minutes, if you think about it in the U.S. Sure, but if you look at it, but four percent's low. Four percent is low, but high enough to be a variation, not like a weird complication. If she's like me, she'll flip it. the second before she comes. Right when they go do the C-section. Yeah, she'll just sweat. Sucker.

Yeah. So talk to me about infertility. Fertility, infertility. Whatever. Yeah. It sounds like you were saying before that, you know, the state of mind you're in can obviously alter, can alter your fertility state. So you believe.

Right. So the mind body work that we do in our clinic has to do with shifting the autonomic nervous system to a more fertile space. We also do manual body work to try to increase blood flow to the womb and to, try to remove restriction around the fallopian tube, so there's like less of a blockage between the egg and the sperm. There's also what I think often gets underlooked until the last minute is male fertility. So it's very easy to do a semen analysis and to kind of see the quantity and the quality of the sperm. Taylor, give us your semen right now. Right now. Here's a cut.

Taylor here. That's why I put that wall back there. He can get that sample. Go ahead. I just want to make sure Taylor gives his semen before you goes. Mm-hmm. Well done. Yeah, so male fertility also needs to be looked at. In my mind, sooner than later, like the things that we do to female fertility testing and treatment are much more invasive and difficult than what's required to test male semen. And then in general, there's, you know, it depends on so many things how long someone's been trying. I think people sometimes freak out early. They only try for two or three months, and if it doesn't happen, they start to get really anxious.

about it, which again makes your nervous system kind of more like you're being chased by a tiger than relaxed and uncomfortable. And then it interferes with a relationship. All of a sudden, you're like testing everything and the second you see that peek on that stick, it's like, come home now. It's, this is our window. And then it takes away, you know, intimacy from the relationship. It can really spiral downhill very quickly. And sometimes it doesn't need to. But on the flip side, age is a factor. So the older, especially the female partner is then the window is, you know, is more intense, it closes faster. And sometimes you don't want to mess around with base level things.

You kind of want to jump in faster. So there's a lot of factors. But I think medically there are definitely things we can do. And holistically, just improving nutrition and meditation to drain out built-up tension that's inside you, working on the relationship so that you're in a really good place. I think there's truth to, you know, a couple loves each other so much that they make a baby that love spills over into a baby. I think when couples feel really closely bonded to each other, then it's more likely to happen.

Those are just some of the factors. You work with a lot of big celebrities, like some big ones. What's a common trend that you're seeing among celebrities, if any? In terms of pregnancy and birth? Yeah. My common trend that I see is the opposite of the stereotype. I see celebrity moms who are working really hard to be present in their birth and in a sense where they feel everything. And I think the stereotype is like too push to push, but I think they're like anybody else.

They're all over the map, but just an interesting number of notable moms who have come through the office lately. And they're either doing like childbirth education classes that are hypnosis based or meditation based. And they really are looking at birth intentions or birth plans where they want to go as long as possible without medicating or numbing themselves. and if possible all the way. And even homebirth, a bunch of them are doing homebirth. Not because it's cool. They just want to, that's the environment that feels right to them. Who's someone you've had on your podcast that's a celebrity or an influencer that you think has just done a really good job of the whole process?

I was really impressed with Hillary Duff. I knew you were going to say that. So you told me the other day. Can you speak on that? Well, we have a two-part episode with her. In the first one, she was 21, very young. None of her friends were having babies. She was terrified.

I think what she said to me either on or off air was that she was terrified of the thought of a baby crawling through her vagina and coming out the other side. And when she put it that way, I was terrified too. And so with her first baby, she didn't have any friends to talk to you about it. And she just decided to schedule cesarean birth, which again, I think is fine. As long as you know the pros and cons and you're given all the options, you pick which one's best for you and we support your choice. But she went to see her psychic, which she sees a couple of times a year. And her psychic was like, hey, how's your birth going? And she said, I'm just going to have a cesarean birth.

And her psychic said, why don't you let the baby choose how they want to come out, how he wants to come out? And so she kind of really took it to heart, thought about it, changed her plan and went for what I think is most typical in the U.S., which is a hospital birth with epidural sort of early on, and, you know, waiting until you're ready to push and being coached and how to push the baby out. And she had a really good experience with that. It was the five years between there and having her second baby where she realized that the moments in life that she loved most about being alive and being a mother are where she's most present with her son. And she just had this thought, like what if the most incredible, big present thing I can do with my baby is birth? And I'm terrified of the intensity, so I'm going to run away from it. And so in her mind she sort of got this idea that I want to try it this time without medication.

And then she watched the business of being born documentary, and she realized that if she's in the hospital, she'll probably fold and get the drugs. So she sought out to kind of toury with the idea of homebirth, like meet some midwives and see what it would be like if she would feel comfortable with them. And it was sort of like Goldilocks. There was one set of midwives that were much too medical for her, another set that was much too crunchy granola. And then she found midwives she really liked. And so I interviewed her 10 days before and 10 days after she had the baby, the homebirth. And beforehand, she was quite nervous about the intensity, mostly. She medically felt safe with the people who were going to be around her.

But she said, I'm not good with pain. I'm really, you know, I don't think I'm nervous about how I'm going to do it when things get really intense. But she really prepared her mind, her body, and her home with things that she thought would help her. And afterwards, she comes back and she did it. And she talks about all the things that she thought would help her that didn't, and things that she didn't realize would be helpful. but we're and I think it's it's a powerful podcast and I just see a lot of people kind of along that path. Skillshare guys. I get so fired up when I see people DMing me that they're using

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is a class called Productivity Masterclass, Create a Customs System that works with Thomas Frank. He's a YouTube, or author and entrepreneur. This is a really, really timely class to offer on Skillshare, especially at the beginning of the year. The reason that it's so timely is because it offers so many amazing things and things that your team can take away. There's tangible takeaways. So they have things like manage your task, set up your calendar, take your notes, organize your digital files, organize your physical files, and get better at email, which we all need to do, don't we, Michael Bostic? Yep. And if productivity is not for you and you want to get into something else like Photoshop, After Effects, you want to learn out to start a podcast, Skillshare has a course for you. They literally have something on everything. They also have something on Instagram stories. You can.

You can learn how to do the videos and the effects on stories that you guys see that we use for our podcast. So definitely check that out as well. Like I said, we've been talking about this platform for a long time. They're one of our favorite partners. One of our favorite platforms to recommend, especially because of this incredible offer that they have just for our listener. Skillshare is a proud sponsor of the skinny confidential. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com slash TSC and get two free months of premium membership. That's two whole months of unlimited access to thousands of classes for free. Get started and joined today by head to Skillshare.com slash TSC. That's skillshare.com slash TSC. What are some pros and cons of

C-section and pros and cons of vaginal? Well, so I think that a vaginal birth that goes well, uncomplicated, and a cesarean birth that goes well uncomplicated, you could predictably say the vaginal birth is going to be a better recovery. In terms of if you're planning to have more than one kid, once you cut into the uterus, then you're raising the risk by some amount for subsequent pregnancies and birth that something's going to go wrong there with the uterus. And maybe the way the baby implants will be more challenging or that scar, sometimes when the uterus expands again, and especially if you try to go into labor, there's a chance that that scar will separate.

So some of the risks go up there. The recovery generally from a vaginal birth that goes well is night and day. People just get up, walk to the bathroom, go pee, you know. I was talking to a friend of mine there day. She said she was back up and running in like a week. She had a natural birth. Yeah. I don't know how accurate that is.

Yeah. I mean, with this, her, and you're typically in the hospital for about four days afterwards still, and you have to recover from surgery. But also, like, if you're going to breastfeed, for example, any way you take care of your child. But if you're going to breastfeed and you're recovering from abdominal surgery, you can't even really lift very much and you're just more dependent. So now imagine you have a toddler and you're about to have a baby and then you have abdominal surgery. It's sort of like if you have to or if you really want to, fine.

But the recovery from that versus a vaginal birth that goes well is going to be more intense. Now, if I could predict, then I would say that seems like a better way to go. But you don't always know. A vaginal birth that gets complicated or doesn't go well can really be harder to recover from. So if it's a long 40-hour labor with sometimes a lot of pushing, two or three hours of pushing, for some reason that kid doesn't come down, then you go have a cesarean birth. That's a much more intense recovery than it would have been if you just set a dinner date and went for your scheduled C. I could be wrong, but I'm predicting that it'll be that you'll be able to push and that she'll want to shoot out of there pretty quick. Because if anything like me, like I want to get moving quick, you know?

Or she could just sit and wait and fuck with me like me. Yeah. But yeah. Yeah. So. Oh, send in your predictions, guys. But I would say this. My prediction is on the first baby, especially you're strong.

You have strong musculature, Lauren, and you're also a little tight. So the combination of strong and tight creates kind of a rigid environment. And your womb has to, like, work. It has to contract and push this baby down through your pelvis. On a first birth, that predictably takes a long time. And from my experience, when you have all that strength together with tightness, And hopefully we're going to get rid of a lot of that tightness before you get there. But that combination of strong and tight just creates a lot of rigidity.

So a little extra work. It could be, Michael's right. Your baby just shoots out very good. Now you got me question to me because you're the expert here. I'm just shooting from the hip. But you're actually basing this on fact. Yeah. Strong and tight.

I was also trying to like basically. I was thinking if I put it out there and said there's going to be like a quick and easy birth that you would, you know. First one, I mean, it would be a little, I wouldn't bet that way on a first birth. especially on a first birth and so strong and tight as you've got onto. I see you writing a bumper sticker now. I'm strong and tight. I should get that on a bumper sticker. Why did you get yourself so strong and tight?

What about epidurals, walking epidural versus an epidural? So most places don't have the option for walking epidural. The epidural could be amazing. I think a lot of people that get one would say they are amazing. I just had somebody on the podcast who talked about sort of making out with her female little Indian doctor because she was so happy that she came and gave her the epidural. I think that it's like any other choice. There are some pros and cons.

Some people want them for sure. Some people want to avoid them for sure. And there's everything in between. And from some people who want to avoid them, they end up getting it. And from some people who want to have it, they end up not getting it. And some of the pros and cons are like this. If the intensity is more than you're wanting or able to handle, then it's a great way to make it go away. The downside is, I think if you look at other animals in nature, they're usually not, you know, sitting on their back watch and keeping up with the Kardashians while they're in labor.

They're up moving around and doing this like little dance that helps wiggle the baby down. Ambulation, a combination of movement and gravity tends to be really helpful for that. And sometimes when you're stuck on your back or not really able to be very mobile, A, your brain doesn't like it, like active people. Sometimes you really don't like it, just being not feeling their bodies. But B, you don't have that benefit of being able to move around the same way to bring the baby down. So it sometimes seems to lead to the need for other interventions, maybe a drug. Also, before they give you the epidural, one of the possible downsides is that it makes your blood pressure crash really low. So they have to give you a bag of fluid first, an IV fluid first.

So not great for, you know, swelling. But also, it kind of seems to dilute the hormones. So somebody, we see this all the time, someone has a great productive labor pattern. It's going great. It's going great. And then all of a sudden they get that bag of fluid. And there are contractions that were every like three or four minutes and lasting a minute apiece and really helping to dilate the cervix. All of a sudden they peter out and they're four or five, six minutes apart and they're only 30 to 40 seconds.

And they're not making any progress. Normally what you would do is get up and walk around to make that better. But you can't. So sometimes they end up having to give you drugs that will make. your uterus contract kind of artificially. I am such an asshole. I went into your office when I first got pregnant and I was like, I'm doing a C-section. And you looked at me and you're like, we got to unpack this.

Because there is so much information. Like that makes total sense. Your endorphins and your serotonin that you get from giving birth naturally that are helping you get through the labor go away when you can't walk. And when you get a bag of fluid, that makes. total sense. And when you don't feel the intensity. So then you stop making your own walls. I wish it was just like black and way. See, Lauren, this one I'm always saying is like, like let's put it all on the table. Let's get it all out there and then make the decision. Lauren sometimes goes in pretty hedge. Taylor also pulled that clip of her saying that she's an asshole over and over and send it to me and save it. Save that for me, please. Because I'm going to use that to my benefit for for a long time. I am a big fan of Doolas. I definitely think that if you can have one, you should look into it. Can you speak on why you think Dulas are a vital part of giving birth? I think. I think. I think. I Dula's are the bomb. I think if you Wikipedia Dula, my picture doesn't even come up on page 35 of

Google. But yeah, I'm not the typical. I know a good SEO guy. My sister too. If you can make me be the number one guy that pops up when someone searches Dula, that is a top notch. My sister has a business that can help you out. Jordan help Dr. Berlin out. Jordan, we need you. I think the doulas can be really helpful. Look, not everybody will like a Dula. Not everybody wants somebody in the room that is not, sometimes more people in the room make people uncomfortable. And that makes a lot of sense. Generally speaking, I think there's a parallel between conceiving and giving birth. It's the same anatomy and physiology. The baby goes in and comes out the same anatomy and the physiology that drives labor is oxytocin, which is also the love and bonding and orgasm hormone. So

if you're just an animal looking for the environment that animals would look to give birth in, it would be someplace quiet, dark, intimate, just like conception. I think it would be hard for most people to conceive wearing an oversized unisex hospital, Moomu, in a hospital with bright lights, funny is the smell of germicide and random people coming and going. And for that reason, I think in terms of the nervous system, it's hard for a lot of people to give birth in that environment too. So whereas some people don't want anybody else around them, and that's cool also. A lot of people want the safety blanket of the hospital, the medical safety blanket, but need a little buffer around them to help the nervous system feel relaxed. That's me. The hospital grosses me out so much,

but I want to be in the hospital, but I need like, I need like vibes and energy. DoLiservibes.com. That's our thing. I mean, we really, we really try to help you, we sit with you during pregnancy and really learn what makes you tick to the extent that we can. What makes you feel safe? What makes you feel relaxed? Comfortable, confident. Is it certain types of sounds or music, smells, or sense? Is it certain types of touch like massage and bodywork? And what also makes you not feel safe and relaxed? What kind of things that you would like? At the end of pregnancy, the idea, is hopefully you have a healthy woman with a healthy baby inside. And that's the starting point. And the end point is you have a healthy woman with a healthy baby on the outside. There's a million

ways to get from point A to point B. And they're all good ways, different ways better for other people. Sometimes you have a root that you would prefer. Maybe you like the more scenic root. Maybe you like the shortest route. If it's me, I always insist on passing by a crispy cream donut on the route. Everybody has different preferences, right? And it's okay to aim for a route. If you know the different pros and cons, you'll say, I would like to do that if all things are equal. And you start down that path and you try to steer down that path. And it's okay if you come to a roadblock. If there's a detour, you can just take another route. It's still headed in that same direction you wanted to go. As long as you're comfortable with that detour,

you take that detour. Once the day comes, it's kind of like trying to steer a hot air balloon. It's not the mechanics of today's modern car where you can precisionly steer wherever you want to. You're going to hate that. You're not going to like that. Well, I don't know if I have much of a saying under this. You know, I'm just there to. You're not going to like that you can't steer the car where you wanted to go. Precisionally. I made up a word precisionally, I think, just now.

That's okay. Before you go, I want to talk about sex and then depression and anxiety. So first, let's talk about sex. What's going on here? Well, they don't go together. It's two separate questions. The first question is sex when you're pregnant. It's weird.

I don't know why no one talks about it. Like, it's a weird thing. You go from, you know, for me, you know, you have this body for a long time and you're, you know, with your husband or your boyfriend and the body completely changes. For me, I feel like I've exploded. And it's not the hottest thing in the world. But I know it's important to have sex because it's good for the baby, right? I mean, it could be if you're comfortable and you're happy with it. It could be good for the baby.

It could be great for the relationship. It could be bad for the relationship. I think during pregnancy, the changes that take place in your body, some women report feeling more into sex than ever before. They're more sensitive in a positive way. They feel things that they didn't feel before. They like, some people like the changes of the body, the fullness of the body that maybe they didn't have before.

I think for both partners, for the pregnant partner and the non-pregnant partner, that could be the case. Other people don't like how they feel when they're pregnant and don't feel sexy and don't feel in the mood to have sex, and sometimes the partner doesn't love it. Or they're nervous. male partners are sometimes talk about being afraid to hurt the baby, you know?

That was me in the beginning. Yeah, Michael thought his dick was going to touch the baby said. No, it's not that you never, you don't go. You don't grow up thinking about doing that, you know? Okay, well, here you are. And it's in the beginning, it's not that big of a deal because the woman doesn't have the bump and small. You don't like you tell.

Everything's changing. So it's just a lot of mechanics. I went through the waves. I was like, okay, whatever didn't matter. Then I was a little scared. Then I'm now back to whatever. Okay. Dr. Gover likes to say,

men wish they could hurt the baby. you know, like to think that they can hurt the maybe. But it's really not that it's safe, you know. It's just the mechanics, I think, are what you're talking about, especially the further you get down into the pregnancy. Yeah. Now, towards the end, the midwives that I work with often say, you know, to prepare the body a little bit for the birth,

it's good to have regular in a course to keep things stretched and loose and open. Are you talking like every day? Like, what do you mean regular? What's regular when, what's regular? I mean, depends what's regular for you. We're going and get to prepare you. I've got to prepare the birth canal. Oh, my God.

You have to do so much work during this pregnancy. It's wild. I've never seen someone do so much work. You've got a freckle in your mouth. This has been a trying time for me, everybody. I feel bad. You might need a doula also. You guys should get separate doulas.

Oh, my God. He's a type that's like going to complain that he's hungry while I'm pushing. No, I really like this dula because she was saying, the one we were talking to the beginning, she said, listen, if he's tired or hungry, then he wants him to get a nap and food. I'm like, well, this is, because before, Lauren's like, you're not going to be going anywhere. Beat up. This. Okay.

So last question. Yeah. I really want to speak on this because we had Gabby Bernstein on and she spoke on this and it's, it resonated with a lot of people. Depression and anxiety. Postpartum. Not just postpartum, though, during pregnancy. Because I'm experiencing not, I'm not having any kind of depression, but I'm having anxiety and feeling anxious. And then afterwards, what does it look like?

Like Michael said, postpartum. Well, for just a second, what are you feeling anxious about? It's a generalized anxiety or are there things in particular that are on your mind? I'm anxious. I think the weight gain makes me anxious. I think how much, how I'm always hungry makes me anxious. So far you sound like me in second grade. Yeah.

The weight grain and the hunger. That's when it all kicked in for me. I think that I have a little bit of anxiety because my mom passed away. So there's maybe like that's bringing up things for me that weren't there. How old were you? When you're, what was that recent? 18. So I think that when you be, when you're becoming a mom that brings up all this stuff that you thought you had packed away. And then I'm also anxious. I'm not really anxious for birth. I actually have no expectation. I'm anxious for afterwards. Okay. Well, that's pretty smart. I mean, birth is a finite period of time somewhere around 24 hours. Let's say give or take a little bit. And again, you have this, the starting point and the end point. And generally in today's day and age, if you have access to medical care or health care, some kind of care you get from point A to Point B safely, you know, just like driving a car.

You get in there. You expect to get from point A to point B safely and sometimes things come up, but you're not driving the whole time with the airbag deployed. What if I, you know, get into an accident? In terms of what you were talking about, it's very powerful. I think that when you, when you, when I'm blessed to oftentimes be with somebody on the journey through pregnancy and oftentimes during delivery. And it's at the end of it, I usually am in like, teary-eyed when that baby comes out no matter how they did it. I'm teary-eyed. It's a triumphant moment for her. And you really witness a birth, but really two births. The birth of the baby and the birth of the mother. It's a big moment. It's this big metamorphosis. Like that automatically puts you in the next

chapter. Whatever happened up until that was a chapter and now you're in the next chapter. You go from being someone's daughter to being someone's mother. It's a very big change. That gives me anxiety. I don't know why. Well, it's a big, it's a big, I mean, what, what bigger job is there in the world. That's giving anxiety. Yeah, when you say that. What about afterwards when there's postpartum? Does it usually go into postpartum? I mean, I wouldn't say usually. I think that there's a humongous hormone flux that takes place after the baby comes. It's almost as if seems like it takes nine months for these pregnancy hormones to slowly build up and then all of a sudden go off the cliff as soon as that baby comes out. And there's a big learning curve. There's a lot of stuff. How are we

going to feed the baby? What does it mean when the baby cries? Are we going to change the baby? you know, it's just a lot of responsibility all at once, and it makes a lot of sense that that would come with some anxiousness, just normal, healthy anxiousness. Afterwards, it's a rocky period. I think postpartum, if I could describe it best, I think it's a rocky period. So sometimes you're driving on a smooth terrain and your little sedan does great on that smooth terrain, and then all of a sudden you end up offroading. If you're still driving that sedan, it's going to be a very bumpy ride.

Your wheels are going to get pulled off. but if you get yourself into an off-road vehicle, it could actually be a great time. You can enjoy it. You could want to do it again. It's very hard for you to put your shoes right now, to put yourself in the shoes of someone who's giving birth or someone who's a mother, because you've never been there. There's so much unknown. Of course it creates anxiety for everybody, really, pretty much everybody.

And I love that you're anxious about what happens after the baby's here because a lot of people don't even think about that. Oh, I'm thinking about that. Okay, good. I love it. to sleep. Oh yeah. So I can see why you're extra anxious. Yeah. That's not happening. You have to learn how, you know, you have to find yourself. But, but. Poor Michael. Yeah, poor Michael. Poor, poor, poor Michael. So far I've heard. Everybody's feeling bad for me on this part.

They're all thinking about me. In this hour, I've heard some things that make me feel like, poor Michael. Yeah. I go home. I get my tears out. Are there any tools that someone can do if they're feeling postpartum? I think that postpartum care starts at least during pregnancy, if not before pregnancy. I think that if you're in a relationship, it's important to work on the relationship. My sense is that once a baby comes, all that love and affection that goes between partners, you know, it decreases necessarily. All your energy goes down to begin with and what you have left tends to go down to the baby. And that can leave each partner feeling a little bit lonely and sometimes put distance in the relationship. So my wife, who is a pre-imperienced,

postnatal psychologist. This is her whole life is preparing individuals and couples during pregnancy for how to have a smoother, more enjoyable transition, healthier transition, physical and emotional transition after the baby comes. And she compares having a baby in terms of the relationship. She compares it to like trying to run up a down escalator. Relationships in general between two people. It's the kind of thing where if you put in a little bit of energy, you can kind of go someplace. If you put on a lot of energy, you can go further. And if you put on a ton of energy, you get to the top, you can really master that relationship. But if you just stay there, if you stop putting an energy, you don't stay where you are.

You go down. And having a baby tends to really speed up that escalator. So during pregnancy, it's really nice, I think, to boost yourself your relationship as high as you can. And so that if you slip a little bit once the baby comes, then you're not in a bad place. We used to have a village around us. You used to give birth. You used to live in your village on your family property. You used to be surrounded by relatives who were having babies.

feeding babies. It wasn't foreign to you at all. Today's day and age, most people get their information about childbirth from TV movies and newspaper headlines, and that's scary shit. And Instagram. And Instagram. So, I mean, imagine you've never been on an airplane before and you're going to fly in an airplane for the first time. And all you know about airplanes is what you learned in TV movies and newspaper headlines. Yeah, I wouldn't do it even with an epidural. You'd have to knock me out like B.A. Barrackas from the A. Next thing, you know, you think there's all these snakes on the plane. Exactly. Over that movie? Snakes on the plane.

You would think that airplanes almost always have engine failure and fall out of the sky or are hijacked by terrorists or have snakes on them. The idea that an airplane can just take off have a smooth flight and land would be foreign to you. But that's actually what happens. I mean, generally speaking, if we leave birth alone, that's what usually happens. Have you read that book, Factfulness? No. It's a good book. It's all about how we think the world is actually worse than it is, but it's actually getting better than it's ever been every year.

and they break it down by actually using like statistics basically, like stillbirth, childbirths, they break it down by plane crashes, like all sorts of education, all sorts of things, and they actually use statistics. And I believe, and I could be wrong,

I could be completely misquidness, but I think you have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than getting on a plane that crashes, statistically. Thank you for that fact. I could be wrong. I could be wrong, but the stat was astound.

Like, if you actually go in there and read with the statistics of potentially getting in a plane crash, it's so extremely low. It's just all you hear about. So whenever one happens in the news, of course, every channel is going to report on it and blow it up. But that's why we all think it's much more problematic. This is too much semen, vagina, sex, butthole and birth for my husband.

So he changed his subject. Anyways, you guys want to talk about the water in the world is there's actually much better drinking water that we have. I'm just kidding. But anyways, that's a great book. Check it out. Well, that's true. There's never going to be a headline that says all planes landed safely today. That just doesn't sell.

Sure. I'm pretty sure I might have got that style wrong, but it's astoundingly low the chances of getting in a plane crash. Yeah. And because of my juie anxiety, I always assume I'm going to get hit by lightning during a plane car. That's my answer. This is for my selfish self. What is a book, a podcast, or a resource that you would recommend to the man? Oh.

I want to know what the man needs to read because I think that my husband needs to understand a little bit more of what I'm going from. I tried a few of the books. And honestly, I swear to God, I did. You can try harder. There's always room to try harder. Dr. Brillen. Yeah, he wants to go back to statistics. Yeah, he loves statistics.

And Lauren's like thinking about bloody apples. It's like somewhere in between. I think that the birth partner is a great book. The birth, okay, I haven't read that one. It's a really good book. And in terms of supporting for birth, but bigger than that also. By the way of self-promotion, I really do feel like my wife's program called the afterbirth plan, which is now available to anybody online, is a very powerful tool for both partners.

as individuals and as a couple, really strengthening yourself in finding this relationship and making as strong as you can be because that's the greatest gift you can give your baby. And you're going to do fine. That's powerful. Your body took a sperm and egg and what a beer or some bubbly and made a human child out of it? It's going to figure out. It was margaritas and a doggy style and queen. Okay, that's what I expected.

It was tequila. That's how I pictured it. There might even a beer too, though. I might have had a beer and a tequila. I don't know if the baby is going to come out. Maybe not in that order. Anyway, so like to deliver a baby usually is is similarly as natural and also the instincts that you have the hardwiring. I would love for you to watch this video on YouTube called Risky Business, R-I-S-K-I business.

It's an elephant giving birth on an elephant reserve in Bali. And she kind of goes off by herself. There's nobody around her, no doctor, no midwife, no dula, no monitors and beepy things. She didn't take a class. She didn't read a book. She had no podcast, no documentaries. And she just figures out how to labor this baby. down and she does this dance, this very graceful elephant dance.

She does not make a lot of noise. There's not a lot of noise involved. There's not a lot of, you look at her face. You can tell when an animal's scared. There's no fear on her face. She just does this thing. And then she squats down and gives birth to this must be 275-pound baby. I mean, don't worry.

Yours will be lighter than that. I see the look in your face right now. Oh, my God. How bigs her vagina to do that? I don't know. It's an elephant, Lauren. Yeah. She had an elephant vagina.

So, and then this is a, Taylor, pull that clip as well. And then this is the most incredible thing. Okay, I think when you watch it, you're going to feel less anxious. She gracefully steps over her baby when she comes out to turn around and take a look. She uses her little trunk to, like do an assessment, like a prenatal assessment. This is not going to lower your anxiety. The baby's not breathing at all.

Okay. And she gets anxious. Now you see her face for the first time feel anxious, look anxious. And then she does all these things. She kind of like kicks the baby a little bit. bit what, you know, kind of what you see on TV where they slept the baby's bump. She kicks the baby a little bit. She's doing all these different things. And eventually she wraps her trunk around the baby's little tiny, sweet little baby trunk, lifts the head up and

gives a yank. She just pulls on it, almost like a carapractic adjustment. That's what it looks like to me. And the baby starts breathing. Wow. On a regular normal breath. And then she like coaches the baby to stand up and walk around. How does she know how to do that? Without any of the resources that we have, it's hardwired inside you guys. You know how to do it. It's really sometimes about shutting out the outside world, closing your eyes, and listening to that little voice from within, and it'll guide you. It'll tell you exactly how to do it, how to grow baby, how to deliver baby, how to feed a baby, how to raise a baby. It's in there. You got it. That settled my anxiety. I'm sure Taylor, our producer, has never heard and learned so much about birth.

And I feel like, if I'm right, that he wants to experiment with having sex with a pregnant woman after this podcast. You think so? Yeah, I do. And his mics off so he can't punch up. myself, which is perfect. An elephant, whatever. Whatever. He'll go for anything. Where can everyone find you, pimp yourself out?

Pimp myself out. We have two websites. Dr.berlin.com. D-O-C-T-O-R-B-L-L-N is where we do all of our wellness services in Los Angeles and Informedpregncy. But all of our resources are neatly gathered on Instagram at Dr. Berlin, D-O-C-T-O-R-B-E-R-L-I-N. And he has an amazing podcast.

What's a podcast? It's the Informed Pregncy podcast. Check that out, too. And that's all our podcast. And our documentaries, three years. And all of our classes and workshops, everything's on Instagram and that link tree. You interview a lot of celebrities and influencers. And I am actually going on your podcast right now.

I know. The biggest influencer. So hopefully we can hop over there and you guys can listen to part two where it's just you and I. No, Michael. Amazing. Okay. Thank you for coming on.

Dr. Berlin. Thank you so much for coming in. Learned a lot. I'm going to go watch risky business, not the one with Tom Cruise. Yeah, I'll come home. He'll be watching Tom Cruise. risky business.

Wrong one. When I say, Dr. Rillin told me to watch Tom Cruise. I hope you're Amazoning the birthing partner. Thanks for coming on. The birth partner. My pleasure. I hope you guys love this episode and you took as many notes as Taylor took. With that, we're going to do a giveaway like always to win a brand new TSC pop socket.

We just got these heart pop sockets in that are major. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at the Skinny Confidential. And we'll see you next Tuesday. This episode is brought to by Skillshare. those of you that do not know what Skillshare is. Skillshare is an online learning community that offers membership with meaning with thousands of classes online for people like you and me. Skillshare is a proud sponsor of the Skinny Confidential. Explore your creativity at Skillshare.com slash TSC and get two free months of premium membership. That's two whole months of unlimited

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