
Maximize Baby’s Health During Pregnancy & Nursing

Holistic Fertility Specialist | Keynote Speaker | Podcaster | Entrepreneur & Author | Health & Wellness Leader

TV Show Host, True Health: Body, Mind, Spirit
Maximize Baby’s Health During Pregnancy & Nursing
Michael Karlfeldt, ND, PhD
Full Transcript
Introduction to Fertility Nutrition 0:00
Welcome, Dr. K. It's so wonderful to have you on our summit today, and I'm very excited to dig into this topic of Nutrition For Mothers Through That Early Fertility Period, Pregnancy, And Postpartum. And just like creating the environment for a healthy human to grow, develop and flourish. So I'm very excited to talk to you about that today. Dr. Aumatma, this is going to be so awesome and this is something that I'm so passionate about because setting that foundation for a child becomes so important.
And I think a lot of mothers don't really realize the impact that they have on their the rest of the life of their child. Pre during and B I mean it's such an important time in their life. Yeah, absolutely. So given how important this is, when really should future mothers prepare and start to work on themselves before they can see so. To me, if you start when you got pregnant, you started too late. You know, so it is all this preparation if you're wanting to have a child.
Why Preconception Preparation Matters 1:29
And this is both mother and father. So it's not just a mother that's carrying the child. It is a it's a joint project. So to say that you do. And so the key is because we believe we live in such a toxic environment now. We got heavy metals, we got chemicals. We all deal with traumas. We have infectious agents. Our food is not as nutritional rich as it used to be. So we live in this environment. And when you then are pregnant with a child, you know, whatever you are carrying is going to then be impacting the child.
If you are toxic with heavy metals, if you have all of these glyphosate from plastics, from drinking plastic water bottles or, you know, you clean all your counters and you do laundry detergent with all these chemicals, all these chemicals are going to impact the child. So it is already too late that the child develops within the terrain. And your body as a mother is that terrain. So you get to start early and start to think, what do I need to do to get this out of my system? How do I prepare my environment to run myself so I don't bring toxins into my child as I'm as I'm carrying the child?
So it should start as soon as you're thinking about it. You should prepare your body. Mm hmm. So I heard you say early on that this is also about the father. And I love that because I feel like I'm one of the crazy people out there that's always talking about dad and the health of the dad. But we don't pay as much attention to the dads. There's this assumption that if the sperm are good, he's fine. There's nothing else to do. How exactly is the role of father in your mind? What do you see happening when dad has been exposed to BPA or phthalates or other toxins, or just has other things happening in the body?
Maybe he's super inflamed. Maybe he has blood sugar issues. How is that impacting the future, baby? So we have some things called genetics and then we have some things called epigenetics and how the lifestyle, what we expose ourselves to all of that changes how our genes behave and And if father is not just a sperm donor, there's a lot more to it. Yeah, absolutely. And like the number of guys that are like, I wish they would treat me
Fatheru2019s Role and Epigenetics 4:08
like the father to be the sperm donor. And that's a really common experience that men are having that isn't positive in any means. So, yeah, I absolutely agree. Not the sperm donor. Yeah. So the the genetics from the father. So we have each individual is as wired to survive. That's how we're wired. So we are then getting the programing from future generations to, to teach us how we are supposed to survive. And that comes then into epigenetics, which then changes the behavior of our genes, which genes are going to be turned on, which ones are going to be turned off?
And the child assumes that what the father is given the epigenetic instructions that the father's given is is what is needed for that child's optimum survival. So if the father's been eating a lot of garbage food, they are exposed to all these chemicals and heavy metals. Haven't cleaned that out. The child think that this is the normal set point and that is actually what they will then strive for, thinking that this is its ultimate chance for survival. So what the father needs to do, just the mother needs to then shift the body so that the genes express themselves in an optimum way.
And the best way to do that again is to you want to clear out the toxins. You want to make sure that you don't expose yourself to more toxins. The best way to clean out the body is to stop exposing yourself. And then you can use there's a lot of natural agents and we can talk about that later on. Yes. Different strategies to help clear these things out so it becomes so important both for the mother and the father to really be ready for the child to know what it should do and know who it should be and what its genes should how it should express itself.
So it's a key? Yeah, absolutely. And really, the research is suggesting that what's happening with Dad shows up in early childhood or even into early adulthood. The health of this baby is has been determined by what was happening with dad prior to conception. Yeah, because we have I was talking about set point. So let's say that the mother and the father, they have a certain toxic load of heavy metals. And so that becomes then the child's set point. And that actually even if you then after the child is born, you do all these great things and you detoxify them.
That set point is already there and that is what the child assume is normal and the body is striving towards whatever that set point is.
Preparing the Body and Environment 6:58
And that's not just heavy metals like chemicals, but it can be pathogens, it can be emotions, can be traumas, all of these things. So it's a big deal for both mother and father to get ready for for pregnancy. Yeah. So what should parents, future parents, be doing in order to prepare for the pregnancy? And how early do they need to start thinking about this? Yeah, so obviously so we know like in a in a mother so you have how many three generations in the eggs. The baby already has the eggs from two more generations.
So as the baby is developing, it's already setting the stage for future generations. So you should start as early as you even think about it. That's that's the best thing. And you want to you want to really and obviously you want to be able to enjoy life. This is not just a mechanical process at step one. Do this, step to do this, step three, do that. You're also supposed to bring spontaneity, life, enjoyment and this whole process. But while you're doing that, you still need to analyze What does my environment look like?
What is in my house? And I do that inventory, what is in my environment? What is what do I have in my house? What do I put into my mouth? What do I put on my skin? All these things you need to analyze and it probably be good prior to to do things like a parasite plans to clean out can be done fingers to fungal cleanse and and also to evaluate and see what is my emotional baggage do different from my there. There's a number of books out there looking at trauma and how that also is coming from future generation going through these and cleaning up some of these things.
Also, forgiveness and resentment and work on your relationship with your husband because he is going to set the stage around the mother as the mother is pregnant. So the mother feels safe and nurtured and taken care of and the child is going to feel that. So all of these things becomes things that comes into consideration. It's so much more than just, yep, I have a child, I'm pregnant child. The child came. There's so much more that goes into it. Yeah, absolutely. In terms of nutrition, like what are the things that parents to be should focus on in order to prepare their bodies nutritionally for a pregnancy?
So it is interesting because the child can only be as strong as the nutrients that is given. So you got to look at the here you're building a baby. So you're building a brain, you're building nervous system, you're building muscles, you're building bones, you're building all these things. And omegas become so crucial. You got to have a brain cannot function without good quality fatty acids and that and so that becomes a key. And then also you got to look at what is the gut bile. So the mother's gut biome will impact the neural development of the child.
Key Prenatal Nutrients and Folate 10:10
All the bacteria plays a huge role and that obviously a lot of people talking about the folic acid and you want to methylated form of folic acid, but it's just a spectrum of the B vitamins that you need. Can I can I interrupt there? Because the food debate is very real. So can we get into folic acid, folate, methyl, etc., hydro folate? What is the difference? How does your body utilize these things? Should you actually take folic acid, which is the recommendation of a lot of the majority of OB-GYNs in this country?
And when they're talking about folic acid, they're really talking about synthetic folic acid. Right. So any thoughts on that? Yeah. So this is fascinating, actually, because I have a good friend of mine, Dr. Jonathan, right? Yeah. He's the one that brought folic acid onto the scene in regards to pregnancy. And we know now that they're at the majority of us have snips, what's called genetic weaknesses and how to process, how to methylated. And so then to bring it in synthetic folic acid, it actually then interferes with the body's ability to to detoxify.
And also it will become more of a hinder than a benefit. So it becomes really important to then do the the folic acid in its proper form, which is in the methylated form. Or you can also do folic acid is also very useable as well. What they've seen is that too much of just that synthetic folic acid can actually drive the process more towards cancer. And so you really want to make sure that the form that you're getting is the appropriate form. So when you get a prenatal, you want to make sure that the B vitamins in it are in its active form.
And frequently the keys are if it says five amp or yeah, methyl folic acid or full intake acid, that is usually a clue that they've taken the extra step that they need it to to do a good prenatal. And you also want to have methyl cobalamin, you want to have the social mean, the metallic or the active form of vitamin B one. So you want to look at these or p5p for the vitamin B6 so that they've taken that extra step to to do that. So like B vitamin, for instance, I mean, B vitamin, it is crucial for neural development.
It's crucial for for energy production, for brain for now. So all these nutrients become so important. So to have a prenatal that are older kind of precept with these these different nutrients becomes important. But that doesn't mean you shouldn't eat a healthy diet. You can't just take it prenatal and think that I got it all and now I can go to McDonald's and eat whatever I want. Yeah. And so do. And full intake acid. What you just said earlier, like folic acid is really found in green leafy vegetables. So if you're eating green leafy vegetables, you're getting full intake acid.
If you remove or avoid the synthetic folic acid and focus on the five MTA f the five methyl tetra hydrofoil, then you have both the levels of folic acid that you need to support baby's development when the baby is in utero. Yeah, exactly. Yes. And it's so there are a number of kind of things that you can add on to on the baby develops because you have the different trimester of each month. You have certain things that develop within the child. And you can follow along that with nutrition, like for instance, I mean, obviously the brain is developing a lot
Digestive Health, Toxins, and Infections 13:55
throughout the whole process like that, that springboard in the beginning to make sure that you get good DHEA and EPA, the different omegas, you do good probiotics because again, the gut biome plays such a huge role in the development of the nervous system, but then bringing in things like procurement, lion's mane, the cope, Bilberry, CO, Q10, taurine, magnesium, three and eight, phosphatidylserine and those type of things to kind of help with that, that giving the child the optimum and nutrients that it need for promoting those the nervous system to develop these different NF that that that's out there.
What are we talked a lot about toxins are there any other things that are going to affect mom's ability to absorb nutrients and pass them to her future child in utero? Is there anything else that she should be considering or thinking about? Yes, you do want to. Again, if you can digest, you can absorb. You know, you want to make sure that you support your digestive system as quick as possible, heal your gut. And with that first step, you want to work on clearing out pathogens that are interfering with it.
So you have good working on a parasite. I would do the parasite plans ahead of time using herbs like black walnut, clove, wormwood. And these are things that you shouldn't do while you're pregnant. So it is good to do prior to. Yeah, and. So I would say probably six months prior to even trying to conceive. Exact like exactly because they and these are because the body actually believe it or not when a mother is pregnant and when I do because I do some things called muscle testing here applied kinesiology and it's really fascinating where you can muscle tested the fetus and see what's going on there and what the fetus is what's the experience. And it's just so cool.
Just apply have the mother apply pressure over the bellybutton and it's like a window into the child. And then I can use vials and see which which organs that needs, what nutrients and know if we need to do different things. But yeah, so the mother's body almost to look upon the child as a and it's a parasite in a way so you don't want to bring in them things that are anti parasitical because it's not the child is like a parasite in a way. So we don't want to do the any of that because it's there and it's sucking up your nutrients.
Yeah, absolutely. And it will take your nutrients over your own body needs of nutrients, which is why so many women end up with many like nutritional deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, and just like overall body dysfunction, postpartum, because they lost a majority of what was helping them survive if they were not overly nourished, they lost a lot and it's going to catch up eventually. Yeah, exactly. So you're feeding you're not just eating for two, you're eating for yourself. And the other one is needing a huge amount of nutrients to grow.
So it's not a status quo. A person has just the same level of existence. This is somebody that's developing all these components and you as a mother get to supply that. Yes. This is intricate stuff. Yeah, exactly. And what I hear you saying, like it's not just caloric needs, it's actually the nutritional needs. So you could eat all the potatoes in the world to get extra calories and eat for two. But that's not actually going to support the nutritional that your body needs to support the healthy baby.
Exactly. You need for the brain. You need certain nutrients for the heart. You need certain nutrients for your bones. You need certain nutrients for tissue. All of these needs, you can't build a house without building material. So if you don't have the appropriate building material of the body is going to do is that is going to use the next best thing. So put in cardboard boxes for the walls and yet it looks like a wall. It looks like it's covered, but it's not that good, strong, solid tissue or good strong nervous system.
So if so and these what's interesting, if you are then deficient and minerals, the next best thing tends to be heavy metals. So it can then use instead of the zinc that's needed for so much tissue development and for the production of so many different enzymes, then the body will then start to pull on cadmium or mercury. So now you have these heavy metals that becomes part of the child's structure and child's nervous system and the enzymes. So the child and obviously these are then going to be dysfunctional and dysfunctional systems and organ in the child's is going to then come into the world being so much weaker because the walls are patched with a bunch of cardboard boxes or plastic bags or things.
And we don't want that. We want the child to be a strong, as healthy as they can be. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And now what about underlying infections, things like Lyme or EBV? When, when or if do they play a role in pregnancy and Mom's health? Yeah. So these infections say they do pass through the placenta. And so it is important to understand that. So obviously doesn't mean and I have a lot of mothers that are infected with Lyme and they feel guilty thinking, should I even have a child?
Supporting Pregnancy with Targeted Nutrition 19:48
I don't want to give this to my baby. And so the key and it's going to pass through the placenta, but the key is then there are certain steps that you can take in order to mitigate the risk. And at the end of the day, we all have infections. There's nobody out there that does not have some kind of herpes virus, nobody out there. I think the majority of us have some spirit kit or we all got parasites, we all got fungus, we all got that. But the key is to reduce the risk and also support the immune system.
As you are pregnant for a mother, maybe they're dealing with Lyme. It is good then to do something that is and that battles the Lyme a little bit and maybe do something like sisters t drink that throughout the whole process. Or if you're dealing with a like a herpes type of virus or Epstein-Barr or or anything like that, you have some antiviral that you're on throughout the pregnancy just to kind of help the child as it's developing some like olive leaf extract or maybe a little bit of astragalus or, you know, things like that that can really be beneficial.
Making sure that your vitamin D is appropriate, that you're doing good quality. Vitamin C throughout vitamin A is one that generally you don't want to do too much of while you're pregnant, because that tends to be a disease. The child the fetus is immuno protected and the vitamin A sometimes can get rid of some of that immune protection. And the B and system start to recognize that there is a foreign body in there. So you don't want to do high levels of vitamin A while while you're pregnant, even though Vitamin A is great as an antiviral.
And if you're dealing with fungus and or Candida, you have issues with that and make sure that you are a heavy dose probiotic throughout to balance that out. And yes, so there are all these different strategies you can do if you're dealing with an infection. And it might be good just to run some labs prior to and see where you're at, if you're concerned about your tick borne disease. And there are labs that you can run for that and so forth. Do you have some favorite labs that you like to run on people prior to conception?
I think I like Cyrex, running Cyrex 11 and 12 that 11 tends to check for your immune system. Impact on heavy metals and chemicals. Cyrex 12 is really good for checking things for like mold or you know, lyme or different viruses from bacteria. And we haven't talked about mold. That's a big issue as well to really can I analyze your home and make sure that you're not dealing with mold in your home and that that's a little bit more than just doing kind of an air sample test in the middle of the room.
There's more to it than that. But yeah, just checking and see where I'm at and all these areas and then preparing. And then you can also run labs to see where I'm at nutritionally. You have things like SpectraCell to check and see nutritionally what am I missing? And so you can optimize that those different levels. And then also check for food sensitivities because see, if you are dealing with food sensitivities, that's going to trigger inflammatory responses or the baby's going to develop, so to say and of inflammatory environment.
And so you want to mitigate those as well. And the same with a child when it is born and there's so many children that come to me and they deal with acid reflux, they deal with stomach ache, they deal with skin issues. And a lot of that is what's going on in the gut then the child. And that can also be done from as the mother's nursing. What is the baby getting through the milk?
Chlorella, Silica, and Closing Resources 23:38
And so then the mother has to adjust their diet based upon the baby's needs. Are there any other tools or things that you found really helpful or supportive in that pre during and post pregnancy period? One of my favorite is chlorella. You know, I think every mother before having a child while pregnant while nursing should be on a large dose of good quality chlorella because that is the one that helps to mop up safely, mop up heavy metals and chemicals. And they've even done studies. I can remember this.
These are studies that I saw 20 some years ago where mothers that were on heavy dose chlorella, their the baby's jaw developed much more differently. The intelligence of the child autism was less prevalent. You know, to me, chlorella is such a it's like the internal vacuum cleaner of heavy metals and chemicals. To me that that is fantastic. And then, you know, all certain things like silica, you know, if we all look upon calcium as needed for strong bones, but silica creates that matrix for the bones that that calcium can then plug into doing in preparation for having a little bit of horsetail or other silica rich type of nutrients.
Love it. Well, thank you so much for being with us today. Where can people connect with you? Truly My pleasure. You're so awesome at this. It's still my pleasure. I try to reach me. It's at thekarlfeldtcenter.com. And yes, you just we have huge amount of resources. I do podcast. I have a bunch of radio shows I've done in the past, TV shows that done in the past that you can access there and you just reach out to us whenever you have any questions. Awesome, Well, thank you so much for being with us today.
This is an absolute delight. And for those of you listening in, I hope you got some amazing tools and tips to apply to your fertility journey. We will see you very soon. Take care and have a blessed day.
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