The fatigue of the first trimester of pregnancy slammed into me like I had just run into a solid brick wall. Pregnant women and expecting parents deal with fatigue on a grand scale—and this often comes on top of the emotional rollercoaster comes with months or years spent trying to conceive.
Over the last five years, I’ve interviewed hundreds of women and parents on The Startup Parent Podcast about fertility, pregnancy, and the transition to becoming a parent. I went back through the archives to find episodes that speak specifically to these early years of the conception journey, including deep research on prenatal nutrition, the bogus science behind prenatal nutrition “guidelines” and “rules,” why healthcare doesn’t focus enough on understanding a female body, and how to manage the overwhelming fatigue if you do find yourself, eventually, pregnant.
The Fatigue is REAL
Pregnant women and new moms deal with fatigue on a grand scale. Our bodies are doing a lot of work, and we are sleep deprived like never before. So, how do you function? Is there anything you can do to manage the exhaustion?
Episode #085 with Cary Fortin.
So Many Rules! Caffeine, Alcohol, What’s Okay?
Conventional wisdom—and most official recommendations—tell us that we must become strict, perfect, and flawless when we’re pregnant, because otherwise every little thing could “harm the baby.” But what do the data really say? Professor Emily Oster, economist, joins us to share where we’re overblowing it, and when we need to pay attention.
Episode #080 with Emily Oster.
Prenatal Nutrition, Mindful Eating, and Common Sense
Lily Nichols is a pragmatistic—and a realist—when it comes to food. Rather than try to supplement like crazy, she says what she likes to do is “reverse-engineer a prenatal diet from the context of getting most of—if not all of—your nutrients from the food itself.” The problem with conventional policy and food guidelines is that they are outdated and don’t reflect the science. In fact, the current recommendations were designed for men and then adjusted mathematically for a smaller frame—and then modified again to account for fetal growth.
Episode #043 with Lily Nichols.
If You Work Hard Enough You Can Do Anything—Except Get Pregnant
What happens when the medical establishment ignores your concerns, complaints and symptoms? Lucy Knisley had doctors telling her everything was normal, but her experience of trying to concieve was riddled with losses. Finally, she was diagnosed with a collapsed uterus, making implantation difficult to impossible. After a surgery, she was able to conceive, but the resulting pregnancy and birth were so challenging, she and her partner ultimately decided one kid was all they wanted to have: it was too risky to try for more.
Episode #118 with Lucy Knisley.
High-Risk Pregnancy and the Mind-Body Connection
After being diagnosed with endometriosis, Parijat and her husband sought out a specialist and started fertility treatment. After an intrauterine insemination that ended with an ectopic pregnancy, they tried again with IVF. Ovarian hyperstimulation syndrome was just the first in a series of eight complications that Parijat endured during the pregnancy. She was forced to stop working at six weeks—and her water broke at only 23 weeks and two days.
Episode #049 with Parijat Deschpande.
The Three Most Important Words We Need To Use When Talking About Pregnancy
There are so many variations to pregnancy, parenting, birth, and motherhood. Yet we forget to listen and judge those that don’t fit into the straight-jacket of our current model of motherhood. Instead, we need to speak first using the words “In my experience,” telling our own stories and listening deeply to the variations that come from millions of women, each telling their own stories. These three words are critical for any conversation. We can’t strive for the “one perfect woman” archetype anymore; there are multiple stories of what it looks like to be a parent and to be an entrepreneur, and there isn’t one size that fits everyone.
Episode #013 with Sarah Peck:
How Pregnancy Can Move A Business Forward
These two co-founders were both already parents, and they’d been pregnant before. Then, they both found out they were pregnant again—at the same time. Elena Rue and Catherine Orr decided to use the double pregnancy to dig in and create systems for longevity in their business, and set up a structure that would let them be parents, entrepreneurs, and pregnant. At the same time.
Episode #109 with Elena Rue and Catherine Orr.
THE STARTUP PARENT PODCAST
The Startup Parent podcast focuses on people who are at the intersection of business building and starting a family—so if you’re running a business, starting a business, or figuring out the madness of entrepreneurship while thinking about having kids, then join us. We go in-depth with founders and entrepreneurial parents about what it really takes to have babies, grow businesses, innovate when it comes to work culture, and find product-market-founder fit all around. And get a little bit of sleep.
We’ve talked to hundreds of women and parents about the future of work, family, gender, revolutionizing paid leave, establishing new rules of work, reinventing the way we do life and family, and more. Here’s a list of a few episodes with in-depth conversations about pregnancy, prenatal nutrition, and more. You can dig into our comprehensive library of resources and listen to the in-depth conversations, all organized by topic on our website or in any of your favorite podcast players.
— Sarah Peck
CEO & Founder
Startup Parent
PODCAST CONVERSATIONS: STORIES & TRUTH ABOUT PREGNANCY, PRENATAL ADVICE & FERTILITY.
How hard it can be to get pregnant, and what to do when you’re faced with ongoing infertility (and doctors that won’t listen to you)—Episode #118.
How optimizing your fertility can be a gateway to healing your body (and why women’s bodily signals are too often overlooked)—Episode #108.
The overwhelming exhaustion of pregnancy and how to manage the fatigue— Episode #85.
The rules about what to eat and what not to eat (is caffeine okay?) and what the data says about what to worry about (less than you might think!)—Episode #80.
The big problem with conventional policy and food guidelines when it comes to prenatal nutrition, and the real science of prenatal nutrition—Episode #43.
What to know about high risk pregnancies and what Parijat Deshpande learned about the mind-body connection in her experience—Episode #49.
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Omg, it’s like you are reading my mind 🙈 9 weeks pregnant here and soooooo tired 😴
Great list! I’m looking forward to the episode with Lily Nichols. Her work has helped me sooo much with dealing good about my pregnancy diet ❤️