My intention is to best support YOU! During my three pregnancies and more than a decade in maternity chiropractic practice, these suggestions have emerged to help with your pregnancy, birth and postpartum optimal wellness. Along with these recommendations, emphasis on self care is always important. Proper rest, nutrition, and physical care such as chiropractic, craniosacral therapy and massage are encouraged. More on my history/training Here.

This paper is not intended to replace professional advice and it is always advised to consult with a licensed professional before taking new remedies/ supplements.

All supplements are sold at our office and online at www.heatherhuntdc.com

Support for Pregnancy

My video on How to eat! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWnexiQ1JC0

My video on LOW BACK and pelvic pain https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfDtqpO70_0

Adrenal/Stress/Fatigue: (if you feel abnormally tired, are not sleeping well or depending on sugar/caffeine to get your energy up to make it through the day)

Cytocyme AD by Biotics, 1 with breakfast, 1 with lunch, can build up to 2 in AM, 2 with lunch

Drenamin- by Standard Process 2-4 a day (feeds the adrenal glands)

Daily Fundamentals Adrenal Health- Standard Process, one package a day

Anxiety/Stress Calming Support: Adrena-Calm from Apex Energetics. A cream that literally lowers your adrenaline/cortisol levels. ½ to 2 pumps, apply onto soft skin (underarms, thighs, belly). Can use in middle of night if wake up with mind racing. Safe for kids and babies at reduced doses.

RelaxMax- by Zymogen. An easy powder to mix for a calming drink. Safe for kids at reduced doses.

Zen- Allergy Research 2 caps when feel stressed

Acid reflux/ heartburn: Gastrex by Standard Process 3 caps on empty stomach 2x a day. Can also take with food.

Zypan by Standard Process, 1-2 before each meal if it does not increase acid. Use only under direction of a health care practitioner.

Blood Sugar Support and Gestational Diabetes SP Complete protein powder mix from Standard Process (2 scoops a day, in a smoothie or milk substitute product is best)

Collagen Powder- 11g of protein in a tasteless powder that dissolves in tea/coffee/water. My fav!

Diaplex or Cataplex GTF (glucose tolerance factor)- 2-4 caps/day

Adrenal support is necessary, too, please refer to adrenal section of hand out

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome/pain in wrists/hands. B Supreme by Designs for Health. Up the Omega 3s (2,000-3,000 mg a day, but discontinue one week before the due date as it can thin blood and thus increase bleeding). Add adrenal support too.

Constipation: 400-600 mg of Magnesium Citrate mixed with 1 TBS Calcium Lactate at night before bed as needed. I digested this combo much better than Calm Cal/Mg due to better bioavailability and I am not a fan of cheap calcium forms, only whole food calcium like from Standard Process.

Gall Bladder (right shoulder blade pain, pain under right/midline ribs): pain under your right rib cage or under your right shoulder blade, especially after eating fried foods or other fatty foods. Pain can also travel from right shoulder blade to right neck and create a right sided headache. Usually due to thickened bile from increased hormone levels. Gall bladder can also manifest as upper GI pain and sharp cramp pains and nausea. Please tell your doctor/birth provider if you have this.

AF Betafood, Zypan, and Cholacol by Standard Process, 2 of each with each meal, 3x a day at least

Drink water with Lemon to start the day and any other time (through a straw to protect enamel on teeth). Eat bitters (arugula, dandelion leaves, grapefruit, drizzle lemon over food, broccoli rabe, etc) with each meal. Eat beets, drink fresh beet juice (start with small amounts and increase slowly).

Avoid/test aggravating foods: Fried foods, pork, eggs, dairy, nuts, seeds, coconut products

If try all of this and gall bladder symptoms persist: Add Standard Process Choline and Inositol (2 caps with each meal of each)

Headaches/Migraines: Riboflavin (B2), 400mg at night and B Supreme in morning. Magnesium Glycinate (up to 600mg/day, broken into 2 doses). Omega 3s (Cod Liver Oil). Hot bath with Epsom salt, cold washcloth on forehead. Avoid caffeine. Consider Adrenal support.

Iron Deficiency Anemia Fatigue (Low Iron Levels and increased tiredness): Fatigue, pale skin, foggy brain. We have a few great options at our office or retired midwife Alison Osborn’s recommendation at Briarpatch is HemePlex

Leg Cramps: Magnesium Glycinate, 400-600 mg at night before bed

Liver support: If you have swelling, nausea, itchy skin, extreme hormonal mood swings, etc. Herblore Liver Tonic for Pregnancy- can dose up to 2 droppers-full 3x/ day or Livaplex by Standard Process 2 caps, 2x/day. Do gall bladder protocol.

Prenatal vitamin: Designs for Health prenatal vitamin (3-4 capsules/day). This has methylated B vitamins. Never take vitamins with folic acid. It is a cheap synthetic B9 source and can be harmful.

Rash of Pregnancy/Itchy skin: (Itchy skin or rash especially on the trunk of the body, please tell your doctor/care-provider if you are experiencing this). Itch Relief by Herblore, work up to 2 droppers full 3x a day. Do Liver and gallbladder support (see above) as this rash manifests with liver congestion/thickened bile.

Sinus Pressure/congestion: Craniosacral Therapy, Echinacea, Vitamin D, Omega 3s. Can also do Glutathione cream on the sinuses themselves- Oxicel SE by Apex Energetics 2x/day

Sleep: Magnesium Glycinate 300-600mg. Unisom. Adrena-calm cream. Eat a protein/fat/carb snack before bed. If wake up with mind racing, try Adrena-calm and a protein/fat snack.

Uterine Cramps/Braxton Hicks: Calcium Lactate powder (1 TBSP before bed with a splash or lemon/orange in it) is like “rocket fuel for the uterus.” Crampbark by Herblore.

Support for Birth/Directly after birth

Cervical preparation for birth: 2,000mg evening primrose oil orally in the mornings. 2,000mg capsules in the evening as a vaginal suppository. Poke a hole in capsule(s) and insert vaginally before bed. Start no earlier than 37 weeks.

Postpartum Sitz Bath by Herblore or Fat and The Moon has great versions. So good for healing!

Cramps of uterus shrinking back to size after birth: After Pain Tincture by Herblore and Calcium Lactate powder from Standard Process (1 TBS)

Homeopathic Remedies: Arnica Montana 1M (for muscle injuries, musculoskeletal trauma) and Aconitum Napellus 1M (for shock). 3 pellets of each 3x/day. Rotate them for the first three days after birth. I love giving the baby a dose of each also.

Herblore has remedies for labor support and more, check on their website

Support for Postpartum

Mastitis/Clogged Milk Ducts: pain in milk duct(s) in breast, redness can result in fever and flu like symptoms. Often occurs with increased stress/doing too much, so take Poke Root when you travel to introduce the baby to family. I recommend buying a poke root and keeping it in diaper bag for the first 6 months. Works amazing!

Poke Root by Herblore, works usually in 1 day. Directions on bottle.

Stay on PreNatal and fish oil support, consider adrenal support

Increasing breast milk supply: Nursing Tea or tincture by Herblore (the tincture is much stronger than the tea). If you are having consistent problems with milk supply, please come in and we will test your thyroid levels. Low thyroid is the most common cause of decreased milk production.

Adrenals: Cytozyme AD is safe for nursing but I like to transition to an herbal support like Ashwagandha Complex by MediHerb or ADB5 Plus by Biotics Research. Adrenal Health Packs by Standard Process are also great. Ideally though, please do some testing and see how your adrenals are doing. We can do that easily at our office.

PostPartum Depression: Postpartum Support International has a free hotline with counseling help. Keep on prenatals or female multivitamins. Adrenal support. Omega 3/Fish oils. Methylated B vitamins. Check your thyroid, talk to Dr. Heather about hormones. Also, consider bio-identical progesterone.

Support for Baby

My video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paMd-Z_3m1E

Start Tummy Time at Birth: Tummy time ½ hour a day in small bits. Laying baby on your chest counts. If your baby is immediately fussy in tummy time and doesn’t like it, this is an indication that the baby may have musculoskeletal or cranial restrictions and needs to be seen for chiropractic and/or craniosacral therapy.

Teething/Fever: Teething Tincture by Herblore and Calcium Lactate tablets (break them up for the baby to swallow) from Standard Process. 1 to 3 tablets, up to 2x/day

Colic: Read BabySense Secret by Meg Faure to make sure baby is not overstimulated. Craniosacral Therapy. Block Feeding (3 hours on one breast, then 3 hours feeding on the other. Ideally ask a lactation consultant about this). Infant massage. Have mom take probiotics and Omega 3s. Have mom take Zypan (2 tabs with each meal) to help her break down her own protein so undigested protein does not go into breast milk and cause irritation to baby’s gut. Consider removing nightshades and chocolate from diet. Watch my video on my website on Baby’s Sleep and Senses.

Reflux: Dietary changes for mom if baby is breastfeeding. Craniosacral. See Colic. Have mom take Zypan (2 tabs with each meal) to help her break down her own protein so undigested protein does not go into breast milk and cause irritation to baby’s gut). Consider removing nightshades and chocolate from diet. Dairy is also a trigger.

Gut Disturbances/Gas: Follow Reflux protocol. If you add probiotics, start with mom taking them. If not enough, I recommend Klaire Infant probiotics. There will be an aggravation for the first few days as there is a “die off” of bacteria in the gut, so push through and stay on them. Don’t go on and off.

Diaper Rash: Weleda Calendula Diaper Cream with zinc. If yeast rash (you will know if it is yeast because it is “fire engine red” and does not respond to regular diaper creams) then you go to the pharmacy and buy athlete’s foot cream with clotrimazole. Apply to rash 2x/day until it clears. We have an additional handout on RASHES

Dr. Heather recommends not vaccinating on the day of birth with Hepatitis B as this is a blood-born illness and transmitted like HIV. It can wait till your child’s immune system becomes more robust.

Recommendations throughout pregnancy and postpartum

Blood Sugar Support/General Nourishment Smoothie a day with SP Complete by Standard Process or Clearvite by Apex Energetics. These help stabilize blood sugar, are a mild liver detoxer, have great vitamins and more. Also, Collagen is a great way to get 11g of protein in your morning tea or coffee.

Increase Fiber Intake Whole Food Fiber or Gastro Fiber by Standard Process (to clear out extra hormones and toxins through the digestive tract, and to increase stool transit time). Eat more foods with fiber.

Omega 3 Fatty Acids/Fish Oils. Essential for the developing nerves/brain of the baby. For mom they are a good immune, brain and mood support, anti-inflammatory, great for skin and eye health and more. Fish oils do thin your blood so refrain from taking any from two weeks before your due date to birth. 2000mg a day. Can get in vegan form from Algae. In my mind Omega 3s are a forever supplement (take them lifelong) and absolutely essential for vitality and health in the long term.

Vitamin D. Vitamin D is necessary for the immune system, hormonal health, mood stability and more. Take 1000-4000 IU a day. I recommend getting your Vitamin D level tested before supplementation so we can best dose you. We can order a test to check Vitamin D levels easily.

Probiotics: Eat them (yogurt, keifer, sauerkraut, kombucha, etc) and/or take them in supplemental form. If you are eating them, a therapeutic dose is about 1-2 Cups of yogurt/kefir a day. If you have a yeast infection, you can use probiotics vaginally as a suppository for a few weeks and up to the birth (but obviously not after your water breaks!). Get the vaginal canal ready for baby inoculation! We have a few to choose from. Strengthia by Apex Energetics includes a yeast strain so is helpful for people suffering or who have suffered with yeast infections/overgrowth. Also, Vitanica makes a good vaginal probiotic.

Consider B Vitamins—for hormone support, nausea in pregnancy, energy levels, mood, etc. Many people cannot absorb regular B vitamins, so a methylated form is recommended. We have a handful of different choices at our office. My favorite is B Supreme by Designs for Health.

Electrolyte Water- Make your own. Get a glass quart jar and fill with clean (filtered) water. Put in ¼ tsp celtic sea salt, ½ fresh lemon or dash of organic just lemon juice. If desired, put 1-2tablespoons of maple syrup. YUM!

Reading List

The Baby Sense Secret by Meg Faure. A must read for all new parents! My all time favorite baby book. It explains a baby’s sensory development and how to take care of a baby knowing where they are developmentally. www.babysense.com

Dr. Aviva Romm MD website (she was a homebirth midwife and herbalist and went to Yale to become a doctor) https://avivaromm.com/

Tummy Time Method

Anything by Ina May Gaskin and Dr. Sears

Great body care products made locally by Fat and the Moon

This Is Why I Threw Out My Multivitamin

Suzy Cohen RP

From Dr. Heather Hunt DC

I love this article written by pharmacist Suzy Cohen. I have never been a fan of multi-vitamins myself, and she articulates my feelings about it well. I am also a real stickler for quality. Personally, I try to eat organic whole foods and stay away from synthetic ingredients, GMOs, etc. This is why I only carry a few lines of supplements in our office. There truly is a quality difference and just like the food I buy, I want my vitamins to be top quality. And I do think that natural supplements can be absolutely vital in improving our health. Instead of a general multi-vitamin, I recommend doing some blood testing, system surveys and a personal intake with a qualified health care professional to access what your body truly needs, instead of throw a bunch of possible synthetic harmful substances at it. I do not recommend buying supplements from GNC, Costco, Drug stores or online retailers selling cheap supplements. In this case, often you do get what you pay for. Indeed, the New Your Times (Feb 2015) and others reported a raid on popular brands of supplements and stated this:

“The authorities said they had run tests on popular store brands of herbal supplements at the retailers — Walmart, Walgreens, Target and GNC — which showed that roughly four out of five of the products contained none of the herbs listed on their labels. In many cases, the authorities said, the supplements contained little more than cheap fillers like rice and house plants, or substances that could be hazardous to people with food allergies.”

Because the FDA does not regulate supplements, it is important that you really investigate the quality of what you are ingesting. Indeed, they may be doing more harm than good.

Yours in heath, Dr. Heather

From Suzy:

I’m just like you and have spent a lot of hard-earned money on multivitamins figuring they will work behind the scenes and improve or maintain my good health. I was never really sure if they did anything for me, so I’d just keep switching brands. It’s not like I felt anything happening, nor did I feel more energy. If I missed a day, I wouldn’t even notice. Was I just making ‘expensive’ urine?

Call me cynical but if you have to spend that much money advertising to convince me your stuff is good, how much money have you put into the formula? Is it possible that companies multi-million dollar advertising budget is just causing you to skimp on ingredients? And in order to produce massive quantities of multivitamins, cheap excipients have to be used in order to make their machines run faster. It’s a universal dilemma, one that I have faced myself. Take a multivitamin or not? So I don’t. I threw them all out recently.

I used to think multivitamins filled a nutritional gap, but today I think differently. There’s no way that 1.7 mg of any B vitamin will boost energy, or 20mg of magnesium could improve mood. I’m beginning to realize that multivitamins are an absolute joke! It’d be funny except the jokes on us, and you spent good money on them. Here’s my rationale:

Negligible amounts- There are so many nutrients in a multivitamin that the amounts of each become negligible. For example, 1 mg of pyridoxine (B6) doesn’t impact you metabolically speaking. I think it’s on the label ‘for show’ as clearly, this amount doesn’t optimize health. By the time this 1 mg gets past your digestive tract, hardly anything could have made it to your blood stream, no less your nerves where B6 is required. The same goes for cyanocobalamin, a typical form of vitamin B12. One popular multi-billion dollar producing brand has 1 mcg cyanocobalamin in it! MICROGRAM folks, that is just one-thousandth of a milligram. With hundreds of B12 dependent metabolic reactions (including methylation), what do you think that 1 microgram does for you? I’ll tell you, nothing! It’s there ‘for show.’

Allergies– Multivitamins have upwards of 68 different ingredients, some of which are synthetic, are you sure you’re not allergic to this stuff?

Inactive forms– It’s one thing to take insignificant amounts of a nutrient, but there are usually completely inactive vitamins in your multivite, and they remain inactive until converted by your liver to something that could work. After you take cyanocobalamin B12, your body breaks it into cyanide and cobalamin, and then you have to methylate it. Superior forms of B12 are methylcobalamin, hydroxycobalamin or adenosylcobalamin.

Potential toxins– Let’s revisit that cyanocobalamin B12, what I consider to be inferior to other B12 supplements. It contains minute amounts of cyanide which has low potential to do harm when bound to organic cobalamin, but still, I don’t want it in my body even in teeny-tiny amounts.

Cramps and diarrhea– Yep, you could get that due to the addition of cheap forms of magnesium such as the “oxide” form. Gentler forms of magnesium include the “chelated” forms, or threonate, or glycinate.

Artificial colors– One popular brand contains three artificial colors FD&C Red #40, Blue #2 and Yellow #6 and there is a controversy over the safety of those dyes. I’m not sure why colors matter on a multivitamin but apparently the biggest makers like to use them. If you have all the money in the world, why not choose natural colors?! There are many, including blueberry juice concentrate, carotene from carrots, paprika, beet juice, purple sweet potato, hibiscus, natural astaxanthin, CoQ10 (it’s a beautiful orange) and red cabbage extract.

The greatest deception is that the minerals from these multivitamins will get into your bones. Magnesium oxide and calcium carbonate don’t penetrate your bone cells well. They have a tough time leaving your intestines so if you’re taking these minerals to improve bone mass, make sure you take easy-on-the-tummy supplements that break apart easily and travel to your bones.

In my humble opinion, it’s not possible to take a multivitamin once daily, that contains biologically active ingredients, and has them in dosages that advance your health. This is why I threw out my multivitamins. You can get biologically active nutrients if you just eat real food, nothing from a box or can. Your diet should include the basics like salads, greens, nuts, seeds, citrus fruits, berries and of course, lean, clean protein.

http://suzycohen.com/articles/multivitamin/

Answers to problems in pregnancy, birth and postpartum- Maternity Support Protocol