Preconception Care

Supporting your family from fertility forward.

Preparing couples to conceive radiantly healthy babies by first focusing on strengthening their health in the time before conception.

"Everyone wants to promise pregnancy, but I believe that is the wrong approach."

We don't bring anything into practice that is not first in practice in our lives.

This is my (Dr. Josiah's) story, the journey that brought preconception work into our lives.

I was first introduced to the Schaefer Protocol in 2016, I was already pregnant with our first daughter, Zoe, and after the seminar didn't put much more thought into (what I saw at the time as) a fertility program.

I had a pretty uneventful, normal first pregnancy: nausea, fatigue, and thanks to great chiropractic care only one day of pelvic pain which happened because I was lazy and didn't use good ergonomics when moving a box.

I had a smooth, uncomplicated birth at home, and am truly happy with that incredible experience.

Then the postpartum period began...

We Didn't Prepare For This

Before pregnancy, there wasn't even any thought as to what we could do prior to conception to prepare ourselves physically and emotionally for growing our family. Once I was pregnant, as I see is the case for most families, all of the attention and focus was placed on the birth; postpartum is an afterthought, if that.

Our first daughter had a tongue tie and a lip tie, which made it exceedingly painful ever single time she latched to nurse, which was often because she wasn't transferring milk well.

My hormones were all over the place - I had never felt so unlike myself as in that time - and I was so ashamed I was struggling to feed my own baby; I didn't want a single soul to know.

Needless to say, postpartum was very challenging for Daniel, our baby, and myself. We did find support and came out of that time with better empathy and understanding for other families with similar circumstances. But after our experience, Zoe was almost our only child.

Different Choices, Different Outcomes

As time went on, the Schaefer Protocol kept coming back into my life. The more I learned, the more clarity I had that this protocol was not about getting pregnant. The Schaefer Protocol was about strengthening the health of the parents prior to pregnancy, which impacts the health of the baby, the pregnancy, and the entire postpartum experience.

I shared all I was learning with Daniel, and the hope that the next time could be different. I implemented the protocol into my life, and in 2018 I was pregnant with our second baby, Evie.

Despite chasing a toddler this time, I had good energy throughout the pregnancy, still had some nausea but not as bad as the first time, and once again had a smooth birth in our home.

Then the postpartum period began... and I was so relieved to know that it really could be such a delightful time! My mood and energy were much more balanced, I didn't experience any breastfeeding challenges; I was able to truly enjoy that time.

Preparing Together Made All The Difference

We had a baby in 2016 and 2018, so the next year in the pattern would have been 2020... But as that year started off, we took a look at our health and the stressors in our lives and decided to focus our efforts on strengthening our health rather than growing our family at that time.

Daniel and I both implemented the Schaefer Protocol this time - which made sense since 50% of the genes of our babies come from him, and it's his genes that build the placenta every pregnancy. That year he lost 60 pounds, gained energy, more restful sleep, and was able to show up better as a father and husband.

In 2021 I was pregnant for a third time, but with our third and fourth babies - identical twins!

The twin pregnancy was my best yet! I didn't experience any nausea, I had energy to keep up with my two girls and continue working in the clinic, I carried them 38 weeks and 4 days and gave birth to two more daughters, Hannah and Phoebe, (yes, all four of our children are girls!) in our living room surrounded by family and an exceptional birth team.

I'm not going to say I wasn't tired postpartum, because that's just silly, but I do believe the work that we did before conception built up my nutrient stores so that I wasn't incredibly depleted through pregnancy and into postpartum. We experienced healthier babies and pregnancy, and a postpartum that Daniel was better able to support us and take part in. I was able to exclusively breastfeed both babies well over a year, they didn't have any latch issues, and I felt like myself (just with a lot of children) through it all.

I didn't feel like it was my place to be in the fertility world, as we have never struggled with infertility personally, and this protocol has helped so many who fertility clinics were unable to.

But the more babies I see starting life with so much tension and stress, mothers having to recover not only physically, but mentally and emotionally from traumatic birth experiences, and fathers completely left out of the equation, I can't not share what I know.

It can be different, and the choices that make that difference happen before pregnancy even occurs.

TESTIMONIALS

Are you interested in learning more about the Schaefer Protocol and our unique approach that prepares couples for growing their families?

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