Ep 286: Preparing for the Marathon Of Pregnancy with Amy Keifer from Expecting and Empowered

Dr. Nicole (00:00): I know you want to exercise during pregnancy, but what are you supposed to do and how do you do it safely? We're going to get into that in today's episode with Amy Kiefer from Expecting and Empowered. Welcome to the All about pregnancy and birth podcast. If you're having a baby in the hospital, you are giving birth in a system that too often takes away power from women over what happens in their own bodies. I'm Dr. Nicole Calloway Rankins, a practicing board certified OBGYN, who's had the privilege of helping well over a thousand babies into this world. I've been a doctor for over 20 years, and I'm here to help you take back your power, advocate for yourself, and have the beautiful pregnancy and birth that you deserve. This podcast is for educational purposes only, and it's not a substitute for medical advice. Check out the full disclaimer at drnicolerankins.com / disclaimer.

(00:58): Now let's get to it. Hello there. Welcome to another episode of the podcast. This is episode number 286. Whether it is your first time listening or you've been here before, thank you. Thank you for spending some time with me today. In today's episode, we have Amy Kiefer. After starting her personal training career working with pregnant clients, Amy realized that there were far too many misconceptions still floating around. Expecting and empowered was created by Amy and her sister who are on a mission to bring clarity to all things pregnancy, birth, and postpartum as a mom to three little ones born via unmedicated birth. Amy's got the personal experience to help empower the expecting and empowered community. Also, through her combined expertise as a registered nurse, doula and personal trainer, she's been able to help thousands of women to avoid common aches and pains associated with pregnancy and teach women across the globe how to heal safely postpartum.

(02:02): She's been able to marry her personal passion for motherhood and fitness with education to serve women through expecting and empowered on Instagram where they have over 330,000 followers, the Expecting and Empowered podcast, as well as the expecting and empowered home workout app. Amy loves helping women to be the best version of themselves through every step of motherhood. Yes, to that, we have a great conversation about whether or not someone should start strength training during pregnancy. Spoiler alert, yes, it's okay. Also, what are some ways to start exercising during pregnancy? What are the benefits of exercise during pregnancy? She gives her tips as someone who's had an unmedicated birth on things to prepare for labor. In addition to exercise, she gives some tips for coping strategy. We also clear up some misconceptions that she's encountered of great information in this episode, and as always, I know you're going to love it.

(03:05): Now, are you on my email list? I definitely want you to hop on my email list because it's a great place for us to connect outside of the podcast. I have some exciting changes coming to my email newsletters that you are definitely going to want to get one. I'll still continue to do my weekly newsletter where I share tips and information. You'll get the information about the latest podcast episode, but I'm adding a monthly email for birth professionals that's going to be doulas meal, wi nurses, physicians about a topic to help us be better. And I think even if you're not a book professional, that's something that you should be reading too, to know the things that we should be working on. And then I'm also adding a monthly topic email where I will just go into a little bit more detail about a specific topic. Nothing overwhelming, but always, of course, great information to help you have your very best pregnancy and birth experience or help you be your very best birth provider. So hop onto my email list at drnicolerankins.com/email and I will see you there. Okay, let's get into the conversation with Amy.

(04:22): Thank you so much, Amy, for agreeing to come onto the podcast. I know we had some issues with getting us together, but finally we are together. So thank you for being here.

Amy Kiefer (04:31): Absolutely. It's my pleasure.

Dr. Nicole (04:33): Yeah, so why don't you start off a bit by telling us about yourself and your work and even your family if you'd like.

Amy Kiefer (04:39): Yeah, absolutely. So I own expecting and empowered with my sister. We were chatting right before we got started, but we're just 18 months apart. So she's my older sister. And one day really after we had both been through pregnancy ourselves, I was actually driving to the gym and I saw a Facebook post. This was back in the days where Facebook was bigger. It was one of my friends and she said, does anyone know what to do for pregnancy workouts? And I read the comments below, and to give you a bit of a background, my sister and I both were at the time prenatal certified, postpartum certified Crystals, a physical therapist. I was a personal trainer exercise science degree. We had the training and so to see what other women that were very well-meaning commented, I was like, oh my gosh, we have so much to do when it comes to getting good education out

(05:37): There

(05:38): When it comes to exercising during pregnancy. I called my sister on the way back from the gym, and we always joke about she said yes to my, I said, I think we could put together a program

(05:50): And

(05:51): Make this so much easier for women. And she said yes immediately because either of us understood how hard that would be, how much stress it would bring into our lives, the whole process. So we look back and laugh at how easy it was for us to sign up for this, but at the end of the day, we're so thankful because we've now been able to help thousands of women on their path of pregnancy. We started with pregnancy and then our customers were like, you have to do postpartum. Postpartum is actually very confusing for women as well.

(06:26): They're

(06:27): Very well-meaning, but they don't know exactly what they can do and when they can do it and what is safe, and they're recovering from this major, major thing that our bodies go through, whether they had a vaginal delivery or a C-section. So then we went down that road because we're always just trying to help women recover and go through this process. So it's kind of funny how easy we kept saying these yeses, but now it's eight years later and we can't even believe how thankful we are to be in this space alongside women like you who are also trying our best to get good information out to the masses is really at the heart of our business. Absolutely. So yeah, now I can't even believe I have three kids. My sister Crystal has three kids as well, and so we were building our business while we were having our family so we could really go through understanding pregnancy, postpartum things being much harder than we thought they were going to be. We had all the training, so we were like, we thought we understood it. And then until your body goes through that process, I would say you just can't understand it at the level we are working mothers. So going through that and not understanding the demand of what, yeah, of course. How does this woman fit in her workouts? She's just trying to survive the day.

(07:56): So making sure our messaging is really inviting and it's not like get up at 5:00 AM We've never been that type of business and we never will be. We are not focused on the way a person looks, and our messaging has never been a before and after picture. We're very focused on her health and mental health and physical health. So yeah, that's kind of the story of how expecting Empowered got started.

Dr. Nicole (08:22): Yeah, I love that. I love that. It's always admirable to me how people take their own life experiences and then turn it into something serving others. And it's obvious that you come from a place of really caring deeply about helping people, helping people, helping women be their best selves. So that's really great.

(08:39): Yeah,

(08:40): Yeah. Now, you touched upon your training a little bit, but just expand a little bit. What training have you gone through to do the work that you do? I say this and I ask people this question whenever I have guests on the podcast experts because in these days of social media, everybody and their mom or their cousin and their sisters and everybody on social media giving information and advice, and not that there's anything wrong with personal experience, of course, personal experience brings a lot to what we do. However, people need to know what are you bringing to the table when you say the things that are coming out of your mouth? So what is the information? And I say that for myself too. What training have you gone through in order to do the things that you do?

Amy Kiefer (09:20): Absolutely. So I'm sure that you'll appreciate this. My sister and I are both what I would call a forever learner. So I started with a exercise science degree and I started my career as a personal trainer in Chicago at this big beautiful gym while I was one of the only female personal trainers. And so then there were pregnant women that needed to be trained. And even though I was younger, I did take an interest. I'm like, okay, so they wanted to pay for me to go get certified. I was like, absolutely. So that was my first

(09:54): Certification,

(09:56): And I did that and I really enjoyed, I was going through the whole process with them. I got to see them from when they're barely showing

(10:03): Until

(10:04): I'm basically sending them off to go have their baby, and I thought it was just so beautiful, and then they would come back afterwards. So that was my start and my interest. And then I actually did go back to school to be a nurse. So I'm also a registered nurse

(10:20): Where

(10:21): I got to do a rotation in labor and delivery. And so that's where I really fell in love with that process and being in on births. So then I would go on to become a doula as well.

Dr. Nicole (10:34): Okay. You're not joking that you're a forever learner.

Amy Kiefer (10:37): So when you go into labor and delivery, you see that the support people really matter and that woman getting someone on her side to be there with her, what studies show is that really helps her to have a positive birth experience. And we know that obs, midwives, nurses, they have to be in and out of the room. They have a lot of jobs and they cannot just be right there next to the patient the whole time. I mean, that is just the truth. So the doula, she can be in there the entire time, and that's her main job is actually to support the mom. She doesn't have to worry about what the baby's doing, that's someone else's job. So I really liked that. And then when we were starting expecting and empowered, my sister is a physical therapist, like I mentioned, she specializes in women's health and

(11:30): Orthopedics.

(11:31): So I'm like, listen, we've got you covered. We have all of this education. What I was seeing online is either people were personal trainers or they were physical therapists. So our business combines the two in this really cool way where we could really balance each other out and even be like, I see why you want to teach that way, but what about this? And then I always tell people when I come on a podcast, I'm like, now, I think we've gotten people to a level where we're all saying vagina, we're all teaching in this very open. My sister eight years ago had a vagina costume on before people were really doing that. So we were on the forefront of making this a much more open

(12:21): Conversation

(12:22): Because women need this information and we had to package it in a way where she's actually going to listen. So that was really important to us. So yeah, lots of different experiences that we bring to the table,

Dr. Nicole (12:36): And I love that. I think it's so important that people bring a level of seriousness to this. This isn't just throwing up a camera and talking to a camera. Yes, maybe you're putting on a vagina costume and making it fun, but there's a method to it and you're doing

Amy Kiefer (12:57): And a training behind it.

Dr. Nicole (12:58): Yes, yes, yes. You're very intentional about it and I appreciate it, especially in these days of information, and unfortunately a lot of not great information that can be out there. So I love that. So let's get into some tips and strategies and things to help folks. First off, let's start off with if someone is new to strength training during pregnancy, what are your thoughts on people beginning strength training while pregnant?

Amy Kiefer (13:26): Yeah, so this is one where I think a lot of times there's this misconception that they can't do it. Now, obviously we understand talk to your provider, and at the end of the day, maybe there is something going on with the pregnancy or the mom that maybe my advice isn't going to be what you're going to take. But at the end of the day, what we have found is that it's going to be much harder on the mom to have a very sedentary pregnancy than to start strength training in a very well-intentioned, well thought out program. So it is going to be safe for you to start a program that is safe and effective like ours, where it is going to be progressive in a different way while you and your body grow and develop. There are certain things where we start to take them out of the program so that it stays really healthy. But yeah, like I said, as the woman develops, we see all of these aches and pains that can come up. And a lot of times it really is a muscular imbalance.

(14:37): It's

(14:38): This fact that we have so much weight coming onto the front of our bodies. Our breasts are getting bigger, our stomach's obviously getting bigger. There's a lot of weight coming on. So if we don't counteract that with some muscle, you're going to see things like sciatica and round ligament pain and all of these other back pain and all of these things. Whereas one thing I always say is a lot of times people find expecting an empowered in their second pregnancy, and the reason that happens is because they had so many aches and pains the first time around, they were like, I cannot do that again. I have to try something differently. And then they're blown away by how much of a difference that made. And so we try to find you during your first pregnancy, we try to be a really non-intimidating resource that's like, listen, we are not going to be asking you to jump around

(15:41): And do

(15:42): Anything crazy. All of this is very safe. It's made to be done at home, and if you do this, you will have enough strength to have a more comfortable pregnancy.

Dr. Nicole (15:55): What are two or three tips that you recommend for people if they want to start strength training during pregnancy?

Amy Kiefer (16:01): So I would really recommend finding a program that you could follow. Obviously, I would recommend expecting and Empowered, but make sure you have a plan because that way what you're doing is safe. The worst thing that you could do is go in there and do something that's not safe for your phase of pregnancy or postpartum and then suffering an injury. And then you're going to be like, I'm never working out again. That was so dumb. I'm not doing it. The second thing is I really think that what happens a lot of the time is we kind of get in our heads and we compare to maybe when we were younger or to other women in the gym. And it's really the type of thing where if you are just starting, you have to stay in your own lane. Now when say you're starting and in our program we have squats, maybe on the first time you're doing them, just do body weight and see how that goes. Because I think a lot of the time, women or whoever, they're embarrassed to do a light amount of weight, but the truth of the matter is you might get really sore and that's going to prevent you from being able to do the next workout. So I would rather you started with body weight or low weight and see how that goes. And then if you're not sore, great, perfect. Then

(17:28): On Wednesday you can show up again rather than you being, I can't even get out of bed, what did you guys do to me? So I would start with less weight than you're thinking, just so that you can really get yourself well adjusted to it. And then I feel like my third tip would be I just feel like for new exercises starting is the hardest part. And so I really recommend that even if you have in your mind like, this sucks, I don't want to do this. This is really hard. Listen, I still have that in my mind sometimes, and I will tell myself, Amy, just show up for 10 minutes. Just go down to the basement. 10 minutes, I'll turn on the Trashiest reality TV show because I like to watch that. And so that'll help me get through. And then before it, you're warmed up, 10 minutes has passed and you're going to stick with it. So

(18:26): I think there's this myth that people that exercise really love it and they can't wait to do it, and they're just obsessed. And it's like, no, for a lot of us, we still don't want to do it sometimes, but if you train yourself to show up, even when it's hard, you're just going to start to have that be the habit that even if you don't feel like it, you're still going to do it. So I think people, they want to rely on motivation and motivation is very fraught. You just got to, if you're planning to do it, you just got to show up.

Dr. Nicole (19:02): Gotcha, gotcha. Okay. That makes sense. That makes sense. So we think we know the benefits of exercise during pregnancy. What are a couple of benefits that you want to specifically say, here's what you're going to get as a result if you put in the

Amy Kiefer (19:17): Work? Yeah, so the one I always lead with when I'm on a podcast is actually the mental health and self-esteem benefit. I don't think enough people talk about how hard it is to be pregnant for a lot of women, especially from our generation, and I hope that this does change, but a lot of women are really used to thinking about their weight, thinking about what size they are thinking about. And what pregnancy does is it puts us in this position where we're about to go on this journey. We have some control of that, but we are going to grow. We are going to expand. That is what we are made to do during this season.

(19:59): So

(19:59): That can be really hard for some women, and we're not going to lie to you, but if you exercise, it is proven that you have more confidence, your mental health, it lowers anxiety, it decreases your chances of depression. It is one of the best things you can do for your mental health. So I think that's one thing that gets left off when people are talking about exercise. That should be almost the leading. I lead with that. Having three close in age children, I don't know where I would've been if I couldn't have exercised because it helped me that much.

(20:44): I'm like, you guys, I am telling you if you have three little kids, it saved my sanity and I still went to therapy for a year because that's really good too. And you need to address your mental health from many different angles. And this is one thing that we know helps. But also another thing I would say is pregnancy is a marathon. It is long. It is hard. It is a lot for our body to go through. So I like to tell women it's like you need strength, motherhood, you need strength. As soon as that baby comes out, you are carrying a car seat basically every single place you go, you have to carry these strollers. You're putting on a stroller, groceries, you're breastfeeding or bottle feeding. Motherhood is so physical. And after my first, I did have upper back pain because you're in this hunched over position and I hadn't strengthened my back quite enough, and that pain really put me on edge. So I tell people, you have to strengthen so that hopefully you don't have those pains because pain really does a number on your mental health.

(22:04): Definitely.

(22:05): So pregnancy is a marathon. Motherhood takes strength. We are asking you, you should train for it. You should absolutely train for it. Cardiovascularly. I remember talking to my dad when I was pregnant with one of my sons and I was just walking up a hill and I was just really huffing and puffing. He goes, what are you doing? I'm like, I'm walking. I'm just walking. I mean, I was heavily pregnant, but it's a lot on you. And so to train I think is just so, so important.

Dr. Nicole (22:42): Yeah, for sure. For sure, for sure. Now, let's bring all of your hats together and your experiences. So your personal training experience, being a doula, having some experience in nursing, all of the things. And you've had three unmedicated births. So taking all of those things together because I see more and more folks are interested in unmedicated birth. What are your recommendations for people to prepare for labor, taking all those hats together?

Amy Kiefer (23:12): Absolutely. So at expecting empowered, we always want people to birth any way that they want to birth. I wanted the unmedicated route, but I respect all types of birth. I think no matter what you are going to do, knowledge is power. I think a lot of people go in knowing just way too little about the process. So I think that education is just so smart. So whether you're going to take a course, I know now the hospitals have birth courses back up and running after the pandemic and everything like that. So if it's online, you want that. If you want to go to your hospital, whatever it is, taking a course

(23:55): Or reading a book so that you understand the birth process. So a lot of what women will go through during labor and delivery, there's these very normal things. So for example, I'll just give a quick example. When a woman is going through transition, which is what we consider seven centimeters, eight centimeters, nine centimeters, unmedicated, you're going to say some things you feel out of control. And for most people, you are going to start making these noises. My husband always is like, your telltale is you start swearing. I don't swear very often, and I will be like, you would have to bleep out so many words if you were in that room. So he is like you start swearing and when you learn about the process and like, oh my gosh, I read about this. I am probably in transition and I am so close to meeting my baby, and I am okay, this is so normal. So I think when people go in and they don't know what is normal, it's more scary. But if you know what's normal, then you're like, oh, Amy told me I was going to be swearing up a storm and here I am now.

(25:10): So I just think if whoever's going to be in the birth room with you, if you let them know your intentions, if you kind of get them a little bit educated so that they can be assure and steady presence, hopefully they know what's normal. They're not freaking out. We don't want anyone in that room freaking out. We want people to know what is coming so that they just feel really prepared and so that everyone can enjoy that as much as possible. So my best tip is getting educated. I think the coolest thing about the time we're living in is there's so many ways to do it.

Dr. Nicole (25:52): Definitely

Amy Kiefer (25:53): Listen to a podcast,

(25:54): Read a book. I watched documentaries. Honestly, I got on this little run where I was watching YouTube videos of women having babies in their cars, and I don't know why. That was my path. That was my path. That was my path. I was a little addicted to car births, so whatever it is, it was a reminder that so many other women have done this. This is how we all got here. So if they could do it, it just reassured me that whether it be in the car or at the hospital, I could do it as

Dr. Nicole (26:32): Well. Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha. So during labor, what types of tips do you recommend to help people cope with contractions? Any movement strategies or what kind of coping mechanisms?

Amy Kiefer (26:44): Yeah, I think the coolest thing that a lot of people don't know is that you really start to do things just naturally. So it's called these labor rituals. So in my first birth, I started half squatting at a counter, and that is just how I was getting through the contractions. I was timing 'em because that really helped. But then I was breathing in, breathing out, and I knew if I did that 10 times, I was through my contractions. That's how long it was lasting. So I just think if you can tell yourself, okay, this is about 50 seconds. If I just breathe in and breathe out 10 times, I'm going to be there. And then when that first birth, because I do think the first time that's the most unknown. So that could be the one where you're like, okay, I need a little more support. I remember I told my nurse who was amazing, I told her, I was like, I'm scared. And she goes, Amy, you are doing everything you need to do. You're okay. This is going exactly how it's supposed to. She actually recommended that I get in the tub for some pain relief,

(27:56): And I was like, Anne, I don't like to be hot. I don't like to be wet. I don't know. I don't know if I should do it. And she's like, honey, just try it. Just try it. And if you don't like it, the good news is you could hop right out. And so thank God she told me to go in because I really found the tub very, very pain relieving. And so I worked through my hardest contractions in transition in the tub.

(28:25): So

(28:25): I think trying the things that the people are recommending to you because they've helped so many other people through the process, just being open. I honestly don't like being hot, but I tried the water and the water helped me so much. I always recommend water to people. I gave birth in the hospital all three times, and I really liked being in the bathroom and having the lights low and music on. It's like I think hospital births get knocked sometimes, but I'm like, you can actually make that environment feel more like home than I think a lot of people think turn the lights off. That helps so much. Those lights are really bright if you're in a moment where you can do that. So try to make it your own as much as you can and as much as you want to. Definitely.

Dr. Nicole (29:20): So part of it then is it sounds like you had also a supportive hospital environment where they're like, yeah, get in the tub. Yes, we can do monitoring in the water, those kinds of things.

Amy Kiefer (29:33): I gave birth in Madison, Wisconsin, and when I tell these stories, people are like, okay, it sounds like your city is really progressive. I would say. Yes, absolutely. And because I am a nurse,

(29:47): I also know how to be an advocate. That's half my job is to stand up. So I just think you work with your medical team. I am not the type of person that ever is trashing doctors or anything like that. Everyone's trying to do their job the best that they can do it. Everyone's trying to keep you and your baby safe. But if you're in a position where the lights can turn down in the bathroom, no one usually cares. So just know you can ask for things. I asked for the string lights to come into the bathroom. I put my own music on. You just have to know what you can and can't do. And usually if you go on the hospital tour or take the course at the hospital, you can ask those questions and then, I dunno, all it takes is a question usually. And the nurse is more than happy to accommodate whatever they can accommodate.

Dr. Nicole (30:45): Yeah, this is so important. There's a lot of what I teach inside my course and my free birth plan classes. You're not going to know unless you ask the questions. You can't guarantee that things are going to be a certain way, but you're never going to know if you don't ask. So the more questions you ask and you're able to advocate for yourself and prepare in advance. So things aren't a surprise when you get to the hospital, then it just makes it so much better because the energy surrounding birth is so important. I will tell people, I could bathe you in Pitocin and infuse it through your veins forever, but if your body is and you have shut down, it's not going to do anything. So it's just so important to create that environment that's supportive of helping birth happen.

Amy Kiefer (31:32): Well, yeah, and I just think online as we know, things can get a little bit crazy and it just starts to pin specialties or people against each other. And I'm like, honestly, I don't like that. The reframe is that everyone is on the same team and you just have to work with your providers

Dr. Nicole (31:52): Definitely.

Amy Kiefer (31:53): And they usually want to work with you,

(31:55): So

(31:56): Ask for what you want. And I think if you do it ahead of time too at those courses, you'll know, do you have a peanut ball? Do you have string lights? Do you have you allow music? And

(32:07): Then do

(32:08): You know, versus if you get there and you're getting a bunch of nos, that probably doesn't feel good.

Dr. Nicole (32:14): Not at all. Not at all. Is there anything you would say specifically for a first time mom who is trying to have an unmedicated birth?

Amy Kiefer (32:24): I think the thing I learned, so at the time I was a nurse and I worked on a floor with about 50 other women. And so when I would mention that I wanted to do an unmedicated birth, basically, they were like, oh, just wait until you feel your first contraction. And it's like there's this very negative connotation around other women's experiences a lot of the time. And even if you don't ask them, do you think I can do this? They kind of want to tell you that you can't. So I just think when we're going through these phases of life, be careful who you let into your thoughts. I learned, I just stopped telling people like, okay, all of these people are really negative. That's not the energy I want. So I could seek out, there's plenty of accountants that teach really positively about unmedicated birth, so seek out people that you want to learn from, seek out people that are positive about birth. And then also I just think we are able to politely exit conversations. Moms will start telling you the scariest birth story, and you could be like, I'm just in a place where I'm not ready to hear that right now, or it doesn't feel good to me to hear this story right now.

(33:51): I am so sorry you went through that. I just think there's a way where we can protect ourselves and our energy so that you can start to really believe that you can do it. And all of those people don't need to be on board. You have to believe in yourself. You have to be on board bonus points if whoever is coming into the birth room with you is on board, and then you are all set.

Dr. Nicole (34:18): Yeah, definitely, definitely. That's such an important point about people. I think people mean well when they're telling you stories, but it can really be damaging to your psyche and your mental health. Definitely for all pregnant women. But I say this especially for folks for black birthing women and people about a lot of the stories about maternal mortality and how bad it is. And some people get internalized so much that they get terrified. And you have to be reminded that actually most people are going to be okay, even though there are terrible disparities, actually, most likely everybody's going to make it out alive. So just that reframe of you can close off that negative information. You don't have to keep yourself open to that.

Amy Kiefer (35:06): Constantly hearing that arguably would be really, really scary and make it worse. So there's a season to be an advocate and to help fight that. And then there's a season where if you're pregnant yourself, it's probably important that you kind of protect yourself.

Dr. Nicole (35:25): Yeah, because hearing about it constantly not helpful in that moment. So as we get towards the end, are there any misconceptions that you're like, I have got to clear up this misconception about pregnancy, about birth, or about postpartum?

Amy Kiefer (35:41): I mean, this is what we do for a living. I feel like we're still working against so many misconceptions, which it just takes a long time to get some of these things out of people's heads. So one big one that still gets passed a lot is the 140 beats per minute for heart rate during

(36:01): Exercise.

(36:02): And that one has been debunked for a long time, but it's just really hard because providers still might not have that in their practice. So that one thing that's recommended now is using a talk test. So when you are exercising, making sure that you're able to get two sentences out without it being very choppy and you can't talk. So I would do that out loud when I was pregnant to make sure I was staying in a range that felt safe and good. So that I would say,

Dr. Nicole (36:36): I'm sorry, just to be sure people understand, the myth is that you're not supposed to go above 140.

Amy Kiefer (36:44): Yes, exactly. There's also a bunch about how much weight you should or shouldn't lift, and there's not real, some of these things, it's like your baby would weigh more than that, you're going to have to lift your baby very shortly. So that type of thing. Yeah, I mean, there's just so many out there. And like I said, it's like pregnancy is so physical, motherhood is so physical. We have to understand that is what we're training for. And if you don't have the strength to do it, that's where we run into things like pelvic organ prolapse. Because what happens is if you don't have enough strength, your body compensates in other ways and you can run into some really not ideal things on the backend. So we want women to have strength, so, so important.

Dr. Nicole (37:41): Yeah, definitely. Definitely. So then as we wrap up, and I ask this of all my guests, what is the most frustrating part of your work?

Amy Kiefer (37:49): I would say it's kind of what we've been talking about. It's like there's a lot of myths out there. There is a lot of people that maybe aren't trained enough to say what they say.

(38:02): There's

(38:02): A lot of women that if you train extreme during pregnancy, jumping up onto things and throwing around all of this weight, for some reason, people really think of that as like, oh my gosh, look at her. She's running a marathon, seven months pregnant. She must know. And it's like, actually that's, that's probably not ideal to do. But then she gets credit. She looks like she extremely fit. So I would say probably that I want everyone to have success and be well. And we know some people can handle more things, but I don't know if for the general population, it's the right message. Yeah,

Dr. Nicole (38:53): Yeah, definitely. And then on the flip side, what's the most rewarding part of your work?

Amy Kiefer (38:58): Just the messages that we get from moms being like, you completely changed my pregnancy. You changed my postpartum. I can't tell you what you did for my mental health. Just they will send us the nicest messages. And owning a small business is not easy, but the reward is the people that you get to help and you always have to pull yourself back and read those messages to know why you do it.

Dr. Nicole (39:23): Yeah, yeah, definitely. I keep a little bored in my office of messages from people that I can look at from time to time. Sometimes it is challenging. And then what is your favorite piece of advice that you would give to an expectant mom?

Amy Kiefer (39:38): My favorite piece of advice? That's such a good question. I would really say, at the end of the day, I believe that you are the best person for that baby. And I think we live in a day and age where you're going to be flooded with so much advice and so much information. But I think I gave away a little bit too much of my own knowing, because I wanted to do it in the way that everyone was telling me to do it, rather than in the way that felt the best to me. And so we say we love knowledge. We think you should get very educated, all of that, but at the end of the day, you know who you are, and that baby was born to you for a reason.

Dr. Nicole (40:33): Yep. Yep. Absolutely. I agree with that 1000%. I will always say I have a lot of knowledge, I have a lot of expertise, but each individual woman is the most important expert on herself. And please bring your own knowledge and expertise to your life because it's crucial. That's how you meld everything together. So where can people find you? What do you offer? Tell us about all that.

Amy Kiefer (40:59): Yeah, absolutely. So the good thing about being an eight-year-old company is we are expecting and empowered everywhere. Our biggest platform is Instagram. We have a podcast too, expecting an empowered.com, and our product is an app. So it's a pregnancy and postpartum workout app. It takes you exactly where you are. You'll answer a couple questions. It'll drop you exactly where you need to be, whether you're pregnant or postpartum. Everything will be safe and ready for you. And we would love if you would give us a try, because you can have your first seven days absolutely free.

Dr. Nicole (41:37): All righty. Yeah. Yes, yes. Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Amy, for agreeing to come onto the podcast. This is such helpful information, and you all go check out the resources that they offer. They are really awesome. Thank you so much for having me.

(41:57): All right. Love that conversation with Amy. Love the community and things that they have built to help moms during pregnancy, birth, and postpartum. Tons of great stuff there. Now, after every episode when I have a guest on, I do something called Dr. Nicole's notes, which are my thoughts about the conversation. Here are my Dr. Nicole's notes from my conversation with Amy. Number one, I've said this a lot and I'll continue to say it, pregnancy discomfort is common, but it does not have to be normal. Too often in our specialty, we just normalize pregnancy discomfort without actually addressing it, and we should give it some attempts to fix it, to try to address it. So even though it's common, it doesn't have to be normal. So that may be things like exercises, that may be things like going to see a physical therapist, maybe see a chiropractor.

(42:47): It's going to take some effort. It's not necessarily something that's like a quick fix or a pill, but you don't have to be in pain during your pregnancy. There are things that we can at least try and that are often very successful in helping to reduce that pain. So pregnancy discomfort is common, doesn't have to be normal. Number two, I just want you to focus on moving your body. Don't focus on getting your heart rate up to a certain level, certainly not in pregnancy, but just in general. We all just need to focus on moving our bodies. Let's not make it something that's difficult. Let's not make it something that's overwhelming. Some days may be better than others, but just focus on moving your body on a regular basis. Something as simple as a walk. Maybe it's one day, it's just stretching. Okay? Just do something and just make that focus.

(43:37): Moving your body, moving your body, whether during pregnancy or outside of pregnancy, is just going to be a great thing for your overall health. Okay, next is give yourself some grace. All right? Sometimes you'll misstep. Sometimes you won't move your body on a day that you were intending to. That's okay. You can always restart. Life is about restarting over and over and over again, and as you continue to restart, restart, restart. Then those missteps get less and less, or they're less impactful to your life. So give yourself grace. We all make missteps. Failure is a part of being a human. There's not a human being on this planet who hasn't failed at something. You can always, always restart. So give yourself some grace in that movement space or exercise space for your body. And then the last thing I'll say is education is so important, and you have to get it from reliable sources.

(44:36): Just be careful about going down the TikTok rabbit hole or the Instagram rabbit hole, and constantly looking at all of these sources of information that aren't necessarily accurate. Confine your time, confine your brain to things that are worthy of your time and your brain and your space. So make sure they are reliable sources of information. Reliable is going to be people who had some knowledge, some training, some experience one, or all of those three. They're comfortable admitting that they're wrong. They're comfortable learning new things. They're not dogmatic about things. They're really presenting you information to help you make a decision for yourself as opposed to telling you what to do. So make sure you get education. Make sure you get it from reliable sources. That's really, really important. Alright, so there you have it. Share this podcast with a friend. Also subscribe to the podcast. Leave me a review on Apple Podcast. I was so, so appreciated. Also, come join me on my email list, drnicolerankins.com/email. I have some exciting changes coming that you will want to be a part of. That's it for this episode to come on back next week and remember that you deserve a beautiful pregnancy and birth.