Episode #85: How Meditation and Holistic Healthcare Can Empower Your Pregnancy Journey, with Nath...

Hi, I'm Dr. Tabitha, the functional gynecologist. I'm a board certified, OB, GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey. And I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi ladies. I'm so excited for this episode. I just had a great conversation with my guest today. Her name is Natalie Walton and we are going to talk about about the app that she is CEO of. It's called Expectful. So it's for women on the fertility journey, pregnant women, postpartum breastfeeding moms, the whole bit. And what I'm realizing is, even if that might not be you today, you know, somebody who's going through this and who needs this episode in this app. So we also have a great conversation about the, you know, abysmal maternal medical healthcare outcomes for African American women in this country and what is going on and what we need to do about it. So I love that Natalie is tackling all of these issues and she's creating access to more holistic, evidence based, you know, functional type medicine for everybody because we all need this and we need to support our black sisters in getting the health care that they deserve. And one of the ways is to use this app, Expectful, because a lot of our medical problems come from our environment and our lifestyle. A lot of it comes from the stress of our jobs and our lives that we're facing. And so this app gives you amazing tools to be able to kind of take control of a lot of that and get a handle on your life and hopefully change the outcomes of your pregnancy or fertility journey or breastfeeding journey or any of it so that you have a more positive experience and outcome. So I love everything Natalie's doing and her whole team at Expectful. And so I hope you listen to this episode in its entirety. She's going to offer you an awesome promo to check it out. So share this with every lady you know, because I guarantee there's somebody you know in your friend group, in your family, at work, wherever, that needs some guidance and support during these times. So share this with everybody and shoot me your questions and comments. I want to hear what you thought of the episode and what else you want to hear about for next Time. So let's get into it. I just want to, you know, sing out Natalie's praises really quickly because she's pretty friggin awesome. She's the CEO of Expectable, the number one meditation and sleep app for fertility, pregnancy and motherhood. Natalie is also on the Fast Company executive board. So as the CEO, Natalie is aiming to tackle the well being crisis facing the 21 million women in the United States on their motherhood journeys by increasing access to holistic evidence based wellness solutions. Over the span of eight years, Natalie rose to the ranks of Google, ebay, Airbnb, building her entrepreneurial confidence. But however, it wasn't until Natalie had her own traumatic high risk pregnancy in 2019 that she realized there needed to be more accessible pregnancy resources. So she became a late stage co founder in the CEO of Expectful in September 2020. Way to pivot during COVID Girl. That's awesome. So within just 90 days she closed her first seed investment round whilst racing her infant and adding hundreds of thousands of users to this new expectable platform. So she's a rock star of a woman like that alone is reason to listen to her and be inspired and know that you can get through anything and you can, you know, flip a challenge on its head and turn it to something amazing. But you can also listen for all of the awesome tidbits that she's going to share today and get your promo to try out Expectful. So here we go. Well, welcome Natalie to the Functional Gynecologist podcast.

Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here today.

This conversation is so important. So I'm really glad that you guys reached out to me because more women need access to the resource that you've created and they need to hear this conversation that we're about to have today. Right?

Absolutely. Access is key and I think that understanding stories and understanding different people's paths to where they, how they become parents is so important. And so I couldn't be more excited for our conversation today.

Yeah, I mean you come from like the non healthcare space, right? Complete opposite. And you went through something that completely shifted you and you took your pain and created this purpose. And I just, I love those kind of stories. So I would love for you to share with my listeners like what happened. I know you had this high risk pregnancy journey.

Yeah. So my story is that I've always been this like wellness junkie. I mean I'm a type a person that over prepares for everything and I went into pregnancy and I was like, oh you know what this is easy, like working out all of the time, eating all of the right things. And what happened was my 20 week skin, I went in, my bags were packed to go on my baby moon. Like, I thought I was going right out after the appointment to my baby moon. And the doctor looked at me and was like, where do you think you're going? And I'm like, I'm going to my baby moon. And they were like, not so fast. Like, do you, you don't understand, like these results. You're at high risk for preterm labor and this is at 20 weeks.

Wow.

And basically they said, you know, you're really at risk for giving birth at any time. And I was like, how is this possible? I've planned everything, I've done everything correct, I'm healthy. Like this can't be possible. And you know, it turns out it was like I did, I was at high risk for preterm labor and had several other complications. And that created a lot of stress in my life because I didn't have control. And you know, giving a child, carrying a child, that's such a precious thing that you want to control and you want the very best. But unfortunately that's just not always the reality is you can't control the outcomes. And so my life became a situation where I started to live it in weeks and days. So like, I started counting the days every, every time that I got that email from like bump or what to expect, saying, like, your baby is the size of a pineapple, I made it seven more days. Like I'm seven days closer to making it to term. And what happened was somewhere in my third trimester, I came across this app called Expectful. And so I've been meditating for a very long time, probably close to 20 years, I'm embarrassed to say that, but for a very long time. And I've always had a meditation practice. But something about Expectful was really life changing. And so when I downloaded the app in my third trimester, I started doing the weekly pregnancy meditations and I got really into hypnobirthing. And what happened was within a couple of days after cultivating this new practice on Expectful and getting into hypnobirthing, I actually stabilized. So like, I was at the point where I was going to the doctor daily for the non stress test and the dopplers and like, I noticed that it seemed like things weren't getting worse, they were just, they were continuing. And amazingly, like, I got to term and that was something that I didn't think was necessarily possible at week 20, but I made it to 38 weeks and one day. And I really credit that to my experience with using Expectful. Getting into the meditation hypnobirthing. There's a ton of scientific evidence around the power of meditation in pregnancy, particularly high risk pregnancies. And so that's actually how I came to Expectful was first as a user. Later on in my postpartum period, I began consulting and I became an advisor to Expectful, which then led me to becoming a CEO and a late stage co founder. But it was really that first and foremost experience as a user that led me to this place where I am now.

Oh my gosh, that's such a beautiful story. I just absolutely love it. And the fact that you were able to find some control in an uncontrollable situation. Right. Like the outcome is not necessarily in your control, but your experience and how you go through it. And it seems like maybe the outcome did. Was under your control a little bit. So I would love for you to talk about the research a little because I want women to feel like there are tools they can use. I want them to feel empowered during their pregnancy when so many things are out of their control.

Yeah. So I mean, it's a great question because there actually is now an increasing amount of research that shows that using meditation apps really as little as five minutes a day can reduce stress. It can reduce anxiety in pregnancy and in postpartum, where we see rates of anxiety just skyrocketing, particularly as a result of the pandemic. I mean, there was a study that came out last year that showed that 72% of pregnant and new women experience anxiety as a result of the circumstances that we've been in as a pandemic. But yes, there's a lot of scientific research that shows that it reduces stress and anxiety. I think one of my favorite studies is a study that actually shows that cultivating a meditation practice reduces pain in labor. And I can attest that, I mean, I think on a personal level, I ended up having an emergency C section, but at the very end. And so I medicated, I labored unmedicated until the very end. And I don't want to say that it was not painful. It was, it's certainly, you know, it's an experience, but it was, I was so into hypnobirthing that I was like, I've got this. And it was, it was really actually like, I don't want to say it was cool, but it was very. It was such a surreal experience. To be able to experience the pain and the surges. And I really credit that to hypnobirthing and meditation practice. And I think that's why the studies show show that it can reduce the perception of pain in labor.

Yeah, I think that is so important. Like if women can really find non invasive, non medical ways to manage their pain, manage their stress response during pregnancy, during labor, the outcomes, they're better. Like the research just shows it. And I have 15 plus years of experience showing it anecdotally over and over and over a million times. You know, just works. And you made so many important points. One about stress and how much it can affect pregnancy. You know, I see all the time women who get diagnosed with gestational diabetes and they have elevated blood sugars. And I just spoke with a patient this morning who's on insulin during her pregnancy and she said, I don't know why, but my blood sugars have been out of control and my insulin usage is up. And it's because she's so stressed out, because she's being forced to get the COVID vaccine. And I said, every time you pump out cortisol to handle that stress and feel that stress response, it elevates your blood sugar. Your liver actually produces glucose put in your bloodstream because your body thinks you're going to fight or run. And so we know the negative impacts of stress, but I think we downplay it because we're all feeling it. Right. So if everybody's doing it, whatever, it must not be that big a deal. But I love that you guys are tackling this head on because I do think you can make some major headway with getting that stress response under control.

You can, and it's not even necessarily. I mean, it's important in pregnancy, it's important in postpartum. It's also important in fertility. I've done a lot of work with doctors and researchers and I've spoken with these doctors that have studied the impact of stress on fertility. And I think it's. You nailed it. It's like people don't want to hear that, like, I'm stressed, calm down. Because that's stressful in and of itself. And so, I mean, sometimes pointing out the obvious isn't so helpful, but I think what is helpful is knowing that there are tools out there that can reduce your stress. Like meditation. In particular, I like to think that our app expectful reduces that stress. Like, we have infertility, we have daily, like cycle meditations, we have IVF meditations. Like something that you can do for five minutes a day to calm your stress down. Same with breastfeeding. Like, for me, breastfeeding was so stressful. I was a nicu mom and 92% of mothers struggle with breastfeeding. And we've done some research, which I can't really talk about, but I'm excited for it to come out. But I've seen the data that shows that using our app has impact. It really does impact breast milk production. And so it's getting back to that. Stress is like, if you can find an easy way, like even five minutes a day to reduce your stress, you can just have such powerful impacts.

So, oh my gosh, I love it. That is so important. I mean, I don't know how many patients I've had over the years who gave up on breastfeeding because, you know, they're exhausted, they're crying because their kids crying. They won't latch on this and that, and it feels overwhelming. It's like you don't know what else to do but give up. So you're saying these apps are like, you know, these meditations are five minutes, they're just quick pull you out of that state, right?

They do, yeah. So it's not only the meditations, but that is a key component. So, like we have breastfeeding, we have pumping meditations, walking in your stroller, meditations, which you could do at any time. But also it's access to services. So I think what was interesting for me was just in my journey was seeing how difficult it is to get access to certain types of services. I think, I mean, I would have loved to have met you when I was pregnant, but I mean, I only had like 5 minutes with my OB every couple of weeks. And as a high risk person, I had so many questions. I wanted to connect with a nutritionist to see is there something I can do for my nutrition to improve my condition. I mean, I saw many lactation consultants. It was difficult to find. And one thing I'm particularly proud of at Expectful is we recently launched services. So we have the ability to connect with a nutritionist, an infant sleep consultant, a lactation lactation consultant, and we also have the ability to do that at a pretty accessible price point. So we have the ability, let's say you just have a quick question and it's like, you know, you're struggling with your latch and you're suffering, like your nipples are hurting and you're like, do I just suffer or can I, can I get help? And so we've launched this ability to have these quick 15 minute sessions, they're only $20, where you can just like talk to an expert and get help you need so that you don't have to suffer. And I think one of the unfortunate realities of being a mom and in pregnancy is you're like, is this normal? Is this just really hard? Should I just suffer? And oftentimes there is a solution, but it's like you don't know where to go. And so I'm so proud that we've offered this ability to connect with these experts really, in as little as 12 hours to our users.

Oh, gosh, that is so awesome. I'm so glad you guys are doing that because this is what I see all the time is patients are already overwhelmed and then they're going on Google and they're trying to read pages and pages and decipher through like, which direction do I go? Because everybody's got differing opinions and they just need someone to talk to. So I absolutely love this. So they just go on the website of Expectful, they pick the service they want and they can talk to an expert and just get it taken care of. That's genius. I love it.

Yeah, it's like on our website, on our app, it's a mobile app, whatever, I mean, whatever form you want on the website or app. But yeah, you can get that help right away. And on our app we also have support groups and we have office hours too, where you can just, let's say you don't want to pay for an appointment or you just want to also hear like, hey, I'm struggling with breastfeeding. Are other women struggling with breastfeeding? And you can drop into an office hour. And I've just seen some of our users, they're like, oh, wow, like, I didn't realize that I wasn't alone. And I think that's one of the most important things that I hope more women can realize is that they're never alone. Everyone else is going through it, it's just people aren't talking about it. So that's almost like one of my favorite features is that office hours, just because weird stuff happens, you know, especially if it's your first time, you're like, is this normal? But hearing stories from other people, you realize that like, okay, not only am I not alone, this is fairly common, but there's a solution to this. And so that's really what brings me joy.

Oh my gosh, I love that so much. So awesome. And it's not only for pregnancy and breastfeeding and postpartum but it's also for fertility, right?

Fertility and loss. I mean, the sad reality is one in six pregnancies end in loss. And I mean, that's one stat. I think it's probably underreported. Many more end in loss. And so I think it's a really sad reality just because there aren't a lot of tools for miscarriage. And that is just such a devastating. It's such a devastating experience. And I don't think that there's not enough space that's being held for that community.

I couldn't agree more. Like, as you know, as soon as a woman is pregnant, as soon as we become pregnant, we just create all of these dreams and these future scenarios. And we, like, see this life as a human being that's going to experience things. And so it is a death. It's not just the loss of a pregnancy. And I think it's just so. It's not underscored, it's ignored. Women, you know, especially if they're going to the gynecologist and they have a first trimester loss, I see a lot of physicians, unfortunately, act like, here's the medical procedure that needs to happen. And they never address that emotional death. And it's. I think it's just so important to actually process that before you try and move forward. And, oh, my gosh, the fact that you guys are addressing that, I just. I love it. Thank you so much.

Yes. I am happy that we are addressing it. And I mean, to be a resource. Our app I mentioned is, you know, that part of our app, our healing library, is actually available to anyone. It's not behind a paywall. My belief is that anyone that experiences that kind of pain needs help. So, yeah, it's a tough.

Okay, so you don't even have to pay for the services. That one's free. That is so awesome. You guys rock over at expectable. I love this. Okay, so you're definitely trying to create more access to holistic health care. Right. And give women more options for their pregnancy and their birthing experience. I would love for you to talk about some of the obstacles that women seem to be facing these days in healthcare, you know, especially African Americans, American women. And I just see such a discrepancy. So I really appreciate that you're trying to make the price point reasonable and trying to make the access for everybody. Because it's such an issue.

Yeah, I mean, it really is. It really is an issue. So I'm African American, and when I was pregnant, I knew that I would have a challenge with my birth. And I knew that because I looked at people, I looked at Beyonce, I looked at Serena Williams, I looked at Allison Felix, and these are very brilliant women that have all of the access in the world, and they really struggled. I mean, they had life or death situations with their births. And it's like, you know, if Beyonce, like, you know, we always look up to her. Like, I had as many hours a day as Beyonce. If Beyonce is struggling with this, you know, I think the rest of the population is going to struggle with it as well. And I had all of the access that anyone could wish for. I live in a great city. I had fantastic healthcare and generous benefits from my company, but I still really struggled. And the reality is that black women die at a rate of three to four times that of white women. And my experience really shed a lot of light onto it. I think a lot of people think that it's about education or they think that it's about income. And the reality is it's actually not. It's very deep and complex issue that I don't think. I think it would take a lot longer than what our podcast to explain. But a lot of it is systemic racism and people not taking black women as seriously when they share feedback or they share complaints. And so that's a real problem. It's something that personally I experienced. It's something that I've addressed, actually expectable and in a very small way, and that I created a meditation collection called Black Mamas Meditate. And these are meditations that are specifically geared for black women who might be experiencing being dismissed and, you know, the extra pain of advocating for yourself. And so, I mean, it's a very. It's a very complex issue, but the reality is that black women, women of color, are dying at rates that are unacceptable. And so it's my hope that our digital solution is one step in improving outcomes. And there's so many pioneers in this space that are creating solutions. One of my favorite is called Earth App, and it's an app for birthing without bias. So for black women to find care providers that don't have that bias. So there's a lot of solutions out there, but today, it's currently a pretty sad situation for women of color giving birth.

Yeah. Oh, my gosh. I mean, I get goosebumps when you talk because I have flashbacks to my training. You know, I trained in predominantly black community, and so I took care of a lot of African American women and the area we lived in, it was very common for Them to be stoic and not complain and not talk about their symptoms. You know, that was a sign of their strength. And so with them not complaining, it was mistrud in our minds as they were fine. And I remember one of my attendings saying, black women are so strong, they don't feel anything. And, like, just that lie and that bias that gets fed into your brain. So then you stop ignoring the signs.

Right.

That they're ignoring. And you do give subpar care. And it's heartbreaking because I've had some traumatic experiences trying to save black women's lives over that situation. And I just. We just need to keep putting the word out there, like, it's not okay that the risks and the morbidities and mortality is so much higher. We have to keep digging and searching and stuff like that needs to come out, like it's okay. And we need to encourage women to tell us how they're feeling and to listen to their bodies and share when, you know, they don't have to be stoic and strong, but we don't also want to blow them off because that's them and that. That's how they handle things, you know? And so it just. I. We just need to keep talking about it more. So I really appreciate everything that you're doing because we need to do this on a more regular basis, you know, not just once a year when we riot and whatever. So thank you.

Yeah. No, and I love what you shared, too. I mean, your personal experience and how that, you know, how that unfold. And I think that that's probably a very common thing that happens in training. And so I think you're absolutely right. Just having more convers around it. I mean, we're all humans. We're all making beautiful babies. And I think that just having that empathy for each other is just. It's critical. But you don't. It's hard to have unless you have that conversation, unless you have that awareness. Otherwise, people don't really understand what's happening.

Yeah, exactly. So I love that you're sharing your story and you're creating resources for women so that they hopefully feel like they can speak up and say, oh, it's not an normal to have all these complaints. You know, like, we need to know when you're having calf pain or chest pain or contractions, all these things. Like, this stuff matters. So I just love everything you're doing. So tell me how my listeners can connect with your resources and, like, what's the best way to utilize your ad?

Yes. So I recommend that everyone downloads Expectful. You can find it on the App Store, the Android Store. But we've created a special promotion for your listeners. I would love for your listeners to experience Expectful. The promotion is that it's dollar for the first month to try Expectful. And we've created a special link in the show notes, but you can find us@expectful.com follow us on Instagram Expectful. And we're really here to support you, whether you're looking for, like, helpful meditation or our sleep content, or you're looking for a support group or to connect with a variety of experts like infant sleep, nutrition, we have office hours. Or if you need a little bit more help, you can connect with our experts one on one. And so really, it's whatever you need on your fingertips, at your fingertips. You can check us out at expectations.

Oh, my gosh, that's awesome. We didn't even talk about the sleep. So tell me about the sleep meditation.

Oh, my God. Sleep.

We all need some of that.

We need some of that. So, I mean, my son is 20 months old and I feel I now sleep through the night. And he's been sleeping through the night for a while. But, like, even for me, starting in pregnancy, because I had all these ailments, I had acid reflux. I was like, like sitting, sleeping up. I had carpal tunnel. Like, I mean, your body is changing and it is uncomfortable, like going to the bathroom all throughout the night. So I think my sleep started to go downhill personally in my third trimester. And then it doesn't recover for a while as a new mom. And so one of our most popular offerings is our sleep library. And so we have meditations to guide you to sleep. And oftentimes that's really critical because as moms, we have so many thoughts. Like, our thoughts are racing. Like, is my child still. Is he? Is he or she still breathing? Like, did I take the diapers out? You know, is the milk warm? Like, do I need to pump? There's so many things. And so I find, particularly in postpartum, like, your mind is racing nonstop and you need a way to just calm down to enable that sleep to happen. And so we have like hundreds of meditations for sleep. Some people are like, I don't like meditating or it doesn't work for me. And, you know, I'm pretty sure there is some type of meditation that works for you, whether it's like a sleep story, which is just listening to a calm story to help you drift off. We have like, breathing exercises, yoga Nidra, I'm a huge fan of sound baths, where I just, like listen to the vibrations of sound singing bowls and like, that puts me to sleep. And I think one of my favorite hacks in motherhood is, particularly when my son started sleeping, taking more predictable naps was when he would go down for a nap, I would just pop in like a five or ten minute meditation. And what I would realize is that would calm me down so much so that I would often just fall asleep and I would nap until he would wake up. And it was so relaxing and it would just help me get through the day. I mean, you spend so much of your first year sleep deprived. Many more years if you have multiples. So finding those hacks of calming down so that you can get that little bit of rest when you can is so key.

Oh, my gosh. I couldn't agree more. As an obstetrician, I lived with sleep deprivation for way too long and I know how critical it is. I got to the point where I could not remember things I had done the day before. I could. Couldn't remember anything. And you just, you can't heal. You need that time to restore and heal all the damage that you've done during the day. So if nothing else, like, get it for the sleep. Oh, my goodness. Yeah, that's awesome. Oh, my gosh. Okay, well, thank you so much for giving my listeners this, like, $1 for the whole month promo. That's amazing. Like, who wouldn't check that out? We all need that. That's awesome. And let me know how I can support you and your company because you guys are doing awesome things and it's just so important and I stand behind you 100%. I love it.

Well, thank you and thank you for all of the work that you do. I mean, I think that it's so important, the conversations that you're having. So thank you so much for this lovely conversation.

Yes, take care.

You too. Take care.

Wow, I really loved that episode. So check out Expectful. Seriously, even if you're not pregnant or needing their services right now, it's worth trying for the sleep meditation part of it. And I just really want to support such a beautiful, amazing company with such a strong, strong, purposeful mission. Because if we can get their numbers up, they're going to be able to continue to reach the masses and be heard and create change. So we need to support our fellow sisters who are doing amazing things like Natalie are doing. And so you do that by checking out what they're doing, sharing it, signing up you know, it's just a dollar for the month. So I would encourage, encourage you sign up for the month, see if you can help your other fellow sisters out and share it with them, because that is how we create change. You know, little tiny things can blossom into big, amazing, beautiful situations. So thank you so much for sharing your time with me. Like, I'm super grateful and honored that you sit and listen to me while you're going for a walk or driving in the car, do it, you know, making dinner, whatever you're doing. Like, that means the world to me because honestly, I put in all of this time for you. The only thing I get out of it is feeling like I'm accomplishing what I'm put on this earth to do. So that makes me really happy. But I love hearing from you guys, like, wow, when I heard, heard this on episode, blah, blah, blah, it really triggered something and shifted me and now I'm feeling amazing. Or I figured something out that's been, you know, a struggle for years. Like, I get so many cool messages from you guys and it just fills my soul and it keeps me going. So don't hesitate to reach out and tell me what you're thinking because I do this for you and you fill up my cup so that I can keep going. And hopefully I'm giving you something in return. So go out, have a kick ass week. Support each other as women. How can I help? That's what you keep saying to every woman you know. How can I help you? So let's help Natalie. Let's help. Expect full, you know, continue to skyrocket and go out, have a kick ass week, ladies.