The Expecting and Empowered Podcast

If you’ve ever thought to yourself that feeling sluggish is just how it is now, then this episode is for you. Dr. Corina Dunlap, licensed naturopathic doctor and medicinal researcher, talks with us today about how regulating your hormonal health can pay off in dividends. Dr. Corina is a mom of two and she is on a mission to help women live their healthiest, most abundant life by working to underst...

I have the pleasure of talking with Katy Joy Wells on the podcast today. She is a declutter expert and is all about giving sustainable tips to live clutter free, even with kids. Katy explains how she got coined with the nickname “Your Declutter Bestie”, whether or not her clients tend to say the clutter gets worse once they become moms, and what the difference between clutter and the expected mess...

If you’re heading into labor for the first time, you are heading into the unknown. With this experience we can feel a wide range of emotions including everything from fear to excitement. As a mom of three, nurse, doula, and co-founder of Expecting and Empowered, it is my goal to help you move toward acceptance and preparation versus avoidance when it comes to labor and delivery. We know that our m...

Liz Sandoz, a practicing doula, is on the podcast this week! She is a mom of two with a third on the way and has her own podcast; Morning Chava. Liz talks with us about why she loves births so much and why she is passionate about being a part of the birthing experience. The role of a doula can be confusing to some. Liz explains what a doula does in the delivery room and what the difference between...

Exercise in pregnancy - let’s talk about it! It can be confusing. What is okay to do and what shouldn’t I do? This is the whole reason why we started Expecting and Empowered in the first place. The goal of today’s episode is to take the guesswork out of pregnancy exercise. I’m here with my sister, and co-founder, Krystle. She’s a physical therapist who also has a pregnancy and postpartum correctiv...

We have Sammie Gollup of @anti.diet.mama on the podcast today. She is a mom of two, a registered dietitian, and her mission is to help people have a better quality of life by improving their nutrition and their relationship with food. A lot of women are actually undereating and might not even know it. Sammie explains why this is hard on our bodies and shares the first step we can take if our body...

Krystle is back on the podcast today and we are covering her experience with her second and third C-sections. Krystle shares how her goal with her second birth was to have a VBAC and gets honest about how she felt pressured into having a C-section instead. She shares what tools have helped her the most in dealing with this birth trauma. We ask Krystle questions around how you can set your house up...

This week’s guest is Kate Eskuri; a mom, fellow Midwesterner, and registered nurse with her doctorate in integrative and holistic health. Kate has a really approachable way of talking about health and wellness including inside motherhood. She speaks on how to slow down and how we can implement a more clean lifestyle into our homes. You might be wondering what the term integrative health even means...

We are bringing you the non-birth partner’s perspective today. Eli Weinstein is a licensed clinical social worker therapist of The Dude Therapist podcast. He works with couples and specializes in anxiety, relationships and parenting. He’s a husband and a father of two and is really open on Instagram about the mental struggles that Dad faces. Eli covers topics including how bringing their first chi...

It’s Amy here and I am really excited for today’s episode because I will be telling the story of our third son’s birth. If you are looking for other birth stories, be sure to check out episodes #3 and #15. This birth has such a special place in my heart. It was challenging but doable, hard but beautiful all at the same time. I share how my husband Drew played such an important role in Cole’s birth...

Today we are talking to Dr. Morgan Cutlip who is a wife, mom of two, has a PhD in psychology, and is passionate about helping moms understand their relationships with themselves and their partners. We all know that once we become moms our identities shift both personally and professionally. Dr. Morgan shares what that transition has been like for her and discusses the importance of eventually gett...

It’s Amy here this week and I’m educating you on one of my favorite topics which is the difference between lifting weights and cardio. They both have their place but today we are diving into what the science says is best for us. The reason we are really passionate about this subject is that there are a lot of misconceptions about lifting weights. Today I'm hoping to put people's fears at...

With so many skin and hair products on the market it is hard to determine which ones are best, and safest, during pregnancy and postpartum. Today we have the lovely Dr. Fatima Fahs who is a board certified dermatologist and a fellow of the American Academy of Dermatology on the show to help us demystify all of the misinformation out there on all things skin and hair. She is also the face behind th...

This is part two of our series with Postpartum and Labor + Delivery nurse, Mackenzie from @mackenzie.on.motherhood. If you haven’t listened to episode 27 yet, we highly recommend you go back and listen to that episode as well. Today we are talking all about your hospital day after birth - what you can expect, things people don’t always talk about and things that might surprise you. As a labor &amp...

This week we are featuring part one of a two part series with Mackenzie from @mackenzie.on.motherhood on Instagram and TikTok. She is a labor and delivery nurse as well as a postpartum nurse. She is in our home state of Wisconsin and we absolutely love supporting fellow Midwesterners. Today we are talking all about labor and delivery. Mackenzie answers our questions on what the role of a labor and...

One thing that we are really passionate about here at Expecting and Empowered are daily habits. We just finished our first accountability challenge of 2023 and we got so much positive feedback from our community that we had to make this idea of healthy, sustainable habits into a podcast episode. Krystle and I both love the book Atomic Habits by James Clear. If you haven’t read it, he gives so much...

Today we sit down with Dr. Alice Pickering who is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified clinical trauma specialist. She owns her own private practice and has an incredible Instagram account where she shares resources for women and mothers that are going through different phases of their lives.  Dr. Alice explains how she got started in psychology and how her own mothering experiences have...

Today we are talking to you about how you can prepare for your upcoming labor and delivery. We cover everything from the different stages of labor and what to expect in each one, to optimal laboring positions whether you choose to get an epidural or not. We touch on the emotional side of things including who is going to provide you with support during the duration of your labor and delivery and ho...

Today, we are so lucky to sit down with Larissa Geleris from @steadyparents. She is an occupational therapist who specializes in helping parents to regulate their senses and emotions to nourish their relationships with their children. Larissa shares how she focuses on getting parents what they need so that they can show up in a way that they are proud of for their kids. She also shares why she is...

It’s Amy here and this week we’ve got a mini episode for you. We put together our tangible, best tips for getting your workouts in because we know it’s incredibly hard to do when you have a bunch of little people that depend on you. We've been in the trenches of motherhood where you don’t feel like you have a spare moment let alone 45 minutes for a workout. But we do know that prioritizing wo...

This week’s guest might sound familiar to you if you’ve taken any of our runs inside our app. We have Abby Green with us today to talk about her experience with prolapse. Abby is an amazing member of the Expecting and Empowered team and community. She's a mom to three kids. And she's Amy’s co-host on the HERself and Pursuing HER Purpose podcasts.  We wanted to talk about prolapse, becaus...

It’s Amy here and today I am honored to have my friend, Dr. Angel Monfort on as a guest. She is a licensed clinical psychologist and certified in perinatal mental health. Dr. Angel helps women navigate the challenging years of motherhood through The Center of Maternal Mental Health and she is a mom of four. Dr. Angel shares the things she had anxiety about when she first became a mama and how bein...

It’s Amy here today with a really fun episode for you, because you’ll get to hear the birth story of one of our employees at Expecting and Empowered, Lacey Yasick who shares how her third child recently came into the world!  I had the absolute honor of being there as Lacey’s doula for that magical moment where she met her third baby for the very first time, and I can’t wait for you to hear all abo...

It’s Amy here, and I’m so excited to sit down in person with Amber Latsch, who is a member of the American College of Nurse-Midwives and certified by the American Midwifery Certification Board. Amber works right here in Madison, Wisconsin and we got to know her as a part of the midwife team for one of our employees, Lacey.  In this episode, Amber shares how she got interested in becoming a midwife...

In this episode, we’re diving into a topic that we know more women need to hear about, and that is urinary incontinence. Even today, we hear a lot of different comments, thoughts, and experiences on this topic. No matter what you’ve heard, you may be surprised at how quickly urinary incontinence can improve!  We know that this can be frustrating, but we hope the tips we share here can help turn th...