Becoming a parent can be a very exciting time, but also comes with lots of questions. Naturopathy and nutritional medicine can provide support and safe guidance through this dynamic time. Best of all, it will be tailored to your individual needs, symptoms, pregnancy and postpartum goals.
Finding out you’re pregnant is a life changing moment for any parent-to-be, along with all the excitement, many people find their mind racing with a range of questions they never knew they needed answers for. Often times, that initial trip to the GP or Obstetrician can be quite brief, and bring up more questions than it answers. This is where our Living Holistic Health pregnancy care program has benefitted so many soon-to-be parents.
We provide ongoing advice covering multiple aspects of your pregnancy, including:
The issue of safety is incredibly important during pregnancy and lactation. Generally, nutritional and herbal supplements are widely regarded as being safer than pharmaceutical drugs, however all medicines are ultimately transferred to the baby via the placenta and have the potential to be harmful. This is where practitioner prescribing is a must. We ensure all our supplements are of the highest possible quality and only prescribed under the guidance of a fully qualified naturopath or nutritionist.
Your practitioner bases your prescription on a combination of factors:
This ensures that any prescribing is done with respect to your safety, balancing the need for or benefit of a particular medicine versus the potential risk for harm. We are also well trained to assess what the safest dose of any herb or nutrient will be for you, our patient.
In this video below, our Geelong Naturopath Madeline Sheppard explain more about our holistic approach to your pregnancy care.
Our pregnancy care program includes at least 4 appointments, for new patients, we will need an initial consultation, followed by follow-up visits around the end of your first, second and third trimesters. We also like to offer ongoing support to our pregnant patients, meaning you will have access to your practitioner via email all throughout your pregnancy and after the birth of your baby.
Sometimes things come up and we like to see you for a little check-up inbetween these milestone visits. This is to get a better assessment of the situation and to provide you with peace of mind and clarity of any ongoing questions you might have.
We also commence seeing patients at any time of their pregnancy, we believe it’s never to late to build up your pregnancy support team, and set yourself up for a healthy and balanced postnatal period.
As we approach the end of the pregnancy, and the exciting time that birth is, our support continues to cater to your individual needs. We support women through all birth choices and circumstances with the goal always being to ensure the health and wellbeing of the whole family.
We use a combination of well-timed nutritional and herbal supplements that support birth and recovery in both the mother and baby (and even partner if needed!).
As practitioners of western herbal medicine, we are trained in developing what is known as a partus preparator.
The partus preparator is a combination of herbs traditionally used in the last weeks of pregnancy to help the woman’s body prepare for the birth of the child in the following ways:
Our treatment plans can be altered based on what type of birth you experience, and where your recovery needs to focus.
Because we treat holistically, we also support new patients with the emotional, mental and energetic aspects of becoming parents.
If you ‘re looking for a way to include holistic support into your pregnancy book in with one of our fantastic naturopaths to get started. Guidance from a professional can offer you peace of mind, symptom relief and also teach you how to look after yourself in ways that ensure you and your baby have the best start in this new exciting chapter.
