- Welcome to "Inspire."

We're very happy to have you here and on tonight's show, we're talking about motherhood.

A woman's body goes through many changes during and after, the miraculous time of expecting a baby.

Today we'll talk with a pediatrician about the physical and emotional changes new mothers can experience and how they can prepare for the arrival of their newborn.

And we'll talk to a childcare expert who will explain how to find quality childcare options, that's all coming up next on "Inspire."

- [Announcer] "Inspire" is sponsored by: Kansas Furniture Mart, using furniture to inspire conversation; and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation (upbeat music) - Hello, welcome to "Inspire."

I'm excited to be here with my co-hosts, Daniel Norwood and Leslie Fleuranges, we are so glad to be here with you as well.

Today's show is all about new and expecting mothers.

- Few events in life are as rewarding as giving birth.

It's an exciting yet challenging period for a woman.

- On today's show, we'll dispel some of the myths of pregnancy, talk about how new and expecting mothers can plan for their births and what they can do to take care of themselves both physically and emotionally.

Our first guest is Dr. Kelsey Zubiaur, a pediatrician with Topeka Pediatrics, who also happens to be an expecting mother, welcome to the show Dr. Z.

- Thanks so much for having me, and thank you.

(clapping) I'm very excited.

- So, you know firsthand about some of the changes that a woman's body will go through as they're expecting a baby.

- At least the first half.

(laughing) - Talk to us about those changes.

- Well, I think that every mom is gonna have a different experience.

We know what the most common things are, but everybody has different symptoms and to different degrees.

So probably the one you hear the most is morning sickness and of course in medicine we call that nausea and vomiting of pregnancy.

And morning sickness is a bit of a misnomer (laughing) - 'Cause it's probably all day long.

- 'Cause it can happen anytime.

- Yeah.

- For some women it happens at a particular time of day, but it's not necessarily the morning, and for some women it can happen all day long, any day, and it can be of varying degrees as well.

There's lots of aches and pains, we know that, and some healthy weight gain, hopefully, if everything goes according to plan, and a lot of those ache and pains start out early on because the body is getting ready to stretch and there's a lot of hormones that cause the ligaments to be a little more stretchy and loosey.

(laughing) - How can your husband, partner, whomever, how can they help?

I know a great deal of understanding would be appreciated.

- My husband has been extremely understanding, which has been very helpful to me so I feel for any woman who has to go through pregnancy without a supportive partner.

He has made some meals, he has put up with me saying, "Oh, we're not having this after all, because it doesn't smell good anymore."

(laughing) "We're gonna have something else."

He's done some ice cream runs, whether that's the most nutritious snack or not.

He does a lot of the heavy lifting and he has done a lot of creating time and space for me to rest, be the excuse maker if I really can't go to that event tonight because I just need to nap instead.

(laughing) - Right, right.

- So yes, napping, and then I remember when my cousin was giving birth, she all of a sudden had to stop eating certain foods, or she was potentially became diabetic at that time, so can we talk about some of the things that happened that are not necessarily something that happens to every woman that we should be aware of?

- Sure, and I, of course am a pediatrician, so I take care of the babies after they're born, not the mothers when they're pregnant.

So I know more, my expertise is how those changes affect the baby, but a lot of them do.

Things that can happen during pregnancy that might be health problems that a mom experiences during pregnancy, but not when she's not pregnant, are things like you said, diabetes, gestational diabetes carries risks for both mom and baby after birth, as does gestational hypertension, which is high blood pressure of pregnancy, and then sometimes it might start as gestational hypertension, just isolated high blood pressure and progress to preeclampsia or eclampsia, which also carry risks for mom and for baby.

- And what are those risks for the baby since that's the heart of your business?

- So for gestational diabetes specifically, when the blood sugar levels are high the babies are exposed to that blood sugar as well and their production of insulin, or the hormone that controls your blood sugar, is changed because they're exposed to high blood sugars in the pregnancy.

Well, when they're born, they're not exposed to all those high blood sugars anymore so their body is used to making insulin to manage those high blood sugars and now it has more normal blood sugars and this can lead to them having very low blood sugars and needing a lot of supplementation, or treatment for that.

They can also be a lot bigger than babies who are born to moms without diabetes and that carries its own risks, especially during the birth itself, and so those are probably the biggest things, there are other risks as well.

- So there's some dietary considerations, like if the mom's like I'm craving like this big old cheeseburger in the middle of the night and I need two of them, should the husband, or the partner, go along with that or say, you know, baby maybe, but we're gonna crave a salad and we're going to make sure that the baby is okay.

I mean, are there certain guidelines?

- Well, a cheeseburger might not be so horrible if you take the bun off of it.

- That's true, there you go, low carb.

- You need lots of proteins with iron, calcium from dairy products is really important.

A lot of the processed sugars are what they might suggest you avoid.

You should be eating plenty of salads, plenty of fruits and vegetables, all those sorts of things as well.

If you do just develop gestational diabetes, your OB/GYN is gonna be the one to give you careful recommendations and some women can manage it just with dietary changes alone and some women needs a medical management as well.

- As a pediatrician you get to see wonderful, cute little babies- - I know.

- Kids of all ages- - Yes.

- You have the perfect personality for it.

- Oh thanks (laughing).

- Which I love about it, what do you love about it?

- Oh my gosh, I love a lot of things about it, but I think the thing that I love most about pediatrics, and the reason I chose primary care, as opposed to a specialty, is those relationships with families as children grow, being a part of that family's life from the moment that they bring that baby home.

I'm usually the first provider that they see after the baby is born and many mothers will have a prenatal visit with their pediatrician to meet and greet and talk about their priorities for their kids and medical management for their kids.

So starting that early and being a part of that kid's life until they go to and finish college, or start whatever other career they wanna be is just really cool.

And obviously I haven't been there yet, but there's pediatricians that can talk about their patients bringing their kids back after they've graduated from the practice and I think that's really cool.

- Awesome.

- That's beautiful.

So we're in a difficult time now with the pandemic and COVID-19- - Yes.

- And have there been differences in your practice and the way- - Oh yes.

- That you've had to practice and can you tell us a little bit about that?

- Sure, I was in residency during the COVID-19 pandemic, I just recently graduated residency over the summer and came here to practice.

- Congratulations.

- Thank you, so a lot of the decisions were made by the organization at large, as far as how we were gonna practice, but every medical organization had to made changes from where we were gonna get our personal protective equipment, who got it when there were shortages of it, screening patients, changing where patients were waiting to try to keep people separate, encouraging patients to mask, learning to have conversations with families about what's safest, what precautions should we take.

Should my family take extra precautions because of some special scenario, talking about vaccination.

Pediatricians are probably the most used to talking about vaccinations since a lot of our general vaccinations are in childhood, but the COVID-19 vaccine has been a brand new conversation for a lot of families.

- Right.

And are newborns more susceptible to things than older children?

- In general, yes.

Newborns are susceptible to infection, they have brand-new immune systems that are just learning, they also put their hands in their mouths, and everything else in their mouths, so environmentally, and behaviorally, they're just a lot more susceptible.

Brand new newborns who haven't had their vaccines yet are more gonna be more susceptible to vaccine-preventable illnesses as well, which can be unfortunately much more serious for those babies who can't be vaccinated than they might be for an older child.

- Thank you, Dr.Zubiaur, and you know what we're calling her Dr. Z, so we're very glad she's on the show with us.

Thank you for sharing this great information for new mothers as well as your own pregnancy, congratulations.

- Thank you.

- That's so awesome.

Coming up next we'll talk with an early childhood care expert about how to find quality daycare options right here on "Inspire."

(upbeat music with driving beat) - And we're back.

For many new mothers just starting families a childcare provider becomes a necessity, especially for mothers choosing to go back to work at their careers.

With us today to help us explain the various childcare options available is Tammy Schrickel.

She's the director of Little Learners at Washburn Tech, as well as an instructor for Early Childhood Professional Program at Washburn University Institute of Technology, Tammy, welcome to "Inspire."

- Thank you, it's a pleasure to be here.

- Well, it's wonderful to have you, my goodness, what a title you have.

(laughing) I love it.

What all is encompassed in the work that you do?

- Well, I wear two hats, like I said, two hats.

I am the Director for Little Learners at Washburn Tech, which is our onsite childcare program at Washburn Tech, we serve Washburn Tech and the main campus as well as children in the community.

And then I also am the Instructor for the Early Childhood Professional Program, which is a training program for junior/seniors, and post-secondary students at Washburn Tech in order to train them to work with young children.

When they leave my program they can be certified, or qualified as a lead teacher in toddler and preschool.

They can go on to become a family childcare home providers, they often go and start working in as paras at public schools, and private schools, and things of that nature.

- These programs are essential as parents and all of us have really learned- - Right.

- Over the past year how essential childcare providers are.

- It's a different type of essential worker, it truly is that we have discovered during COVID and I think people realize now just how important this profession is.

- Affordable childcare.

- Yes.

- It's one of the biggest issues across the board.

- Right.

- Statewide, countrywide, can you talk about that and some of the things that parents need to be mindful for, or mindful of, as they try to get a proper childcare provider for their children.

- Right, well, there are lots of different options out there.

I think the first thing that they need to kinda decide is whether they want to go with a preschool type of model, a center model, or if they wanna go with a family childcare home.

In a family childcare home you're gonna be in a home environment and you're gonna be cared for by one provider, probably just one caregiver.

In a childcare center it's going to be more of a classroom experience.

It might be more structured in ways as far as the learning opportunities, and things of that nature.

Often people will start, maybe with an infant they may want to start with a family childcare home provider to have that home type of care and then as their children grow and they want to provide a little bit more preschool type of experiences, then they often will go on to a center, but some people choose a center right from the very beginning.

- Educationally, is there an advantage or a disadvantage?

- There's really not, there's pros and cons to both approach and it just depends on what your needs are as a parent and what you're looking for for your child.

- So when folks just have someone come into the home, to take care of their child, what are they expecting from the folks that come through your organization?

- That would be more of like a nanny type of a situation and my students can become nannies as well.

That would be, if they're going into your personal home to care for your children, it would be more of a nanny.

If you're doing a family childcare home, your bringing your children into somebody else's home for them to care.

A nanny situation you're taking care of just that family.

If you choose a family childcare home provider, then your children are gonna be involved with children from other families as well.

Just like it would, just like they would be at a center, it's just in a home environment instead.

- I think the process can seem overwhelming, especially like your first child, you don't, you know, you're just like worried about the trust issues, safety issues, so many things, I suppose any child, but particularly the first child.

How do you help parents go through a checklist of sorts, or?

- Well, it's really important that they kinda trust their gut instinct when they're going out looking for childcare.

Once they've decided, you know, that they want a family childcare home, or they want a center-type of environment, they often will ask friends and family, you know, who would you recommend, who did you take your children to that type of a thing.

A lot of people are more comfortable if they know somebody that has been to that facility before, and it just gives them a degree of comfort.

That's not always possible and we do have a wonderful referral service here in town, it's called, Child Care Aware of Eastern Kansas, and that's a resource and referral service that parents can call and they can ask for names of providers, whether it be a family childcare home provider, or centers, and they're wonderful about helping you find something within your area.

Whether you're looking for somebody within your home area, or where you work, or somewhere in-between.

There's a lot of providers that may live between, or centers that may be between your home and work and just because it's not right by your home, or right by your work, doesn't mean that it's off the beaten path, it may be very close by and on your way to work, and so they can help you determine who you might want to go talk to.

And then check with them, call them, see if they do have an opening and get a feel for either the provider, if it's a family childcare home, or the director, and see if you have that connection.

You'll start to feel comfortable, or uncomfortable, just even over the phone.

Ask some of those questions regarding what their policies are with regard to any education if your wanting preschool types of activities, and structured activities, go ahead and ask those questions when you're on the phone with them.

If you feel very comfortable with them and think it may be a good fit, then you can go and do a more formal interview with the provider and take a tour of their facility so that you can really feel comfortable and feel at home with your child being there.

And again, trust your gut instinct and never be afraid to ask for referrals, there's no reason, or recommendations, there's no reason why you can't ask somebody that's been in that care facility before their opinion and ask the tough questions of them as well just to get a little bit more comfortable with where you're gonna be sending your most precious children.

- Well, as you say that, have you ever had parents like be there on the first day, the entire day, just to kinda get a feel for the environment and to kinda get the kid, you know, transitioned into childcare?

- We don't really recommend that because that's very difficult on the child, okay, it's hard on the parents and it's hard on the child.

If you want to go and visit for a while before your child completely starts, you know, maybe for an hour, or something like that, that's something that you can work out with the provider, but to stay there for the first day, the child is not going to be integrated as well, because they're going to be hanging on to mom, or hanging on to dad, and so it's always better to go in and assure your child that they're gonna have a wonderful day and they're gonna have so much fun, they're gonna meet all sorts of new friends and have all sorts of fun and then tell them you love them and then go ahead and go.

And a good provider will make sure and follow up with you throughout the day, providing you pictures, or phone calls, your child is doing great, this is what they're doing right now, just to reassure you because it's hard to leave your child when they're crying, but it is so much quicker for the child to adjust if the parent is not there.

It might take a while, but every day it's gonna get easier and easier for that child and they're not gonna have nearly as long of a period of adjustment, but if you stick around, they're not gonna want you to leave and so the longer you stick around the harder it is for both parties, the parent and the child to finally make that, make that, you know that division, and go ahead and have the parent go to work.

- Well, thank you for all this great information that you gave us today, Tammy.

Certainly is something that I hope all of our listeners will connect with and of course find a great reputable childcare provider for their kids and grandkids because we certainly do need that.

Coming up next, Janet Thompson Jackson, provides us with some easy ways to stay physically active, stay with us.

- Hi, I'm Janet Thompson-Jackson, and I'm so excited to be a part of "Inspire" today.

Are you one of those people who feels like I just don't have time to work out, I want to, I would if I could, but I just don't have the time.

Well, today I am going to show you some yoga moves and just some general movement that you can do while you're sitting in your chair.

You can do this in a small space.

If you don't have access to a yoga studio, or if you just don't feel comfortable going to a studio, let's sit down and get started.

I wanna talk about something briefly that's really important.

I don't know if you know this, but a lot of people who have to go into assisted living, or need help as they get older, it's not necessarily because they have an illness that is taking them to that place, it's because they have problems getting out of a chair, they simply cannot get up and down without help.

There's something that we can do as we age starting at a young age, we can start this at any age, something that we can do to help avoid that.

I want you to sit on the edge of your chair and this is gonna be really important to engage that core.

So I want you to imagine that string, pull that string back from your belly button to your back, so I've engaged my core, and I'm simply going to stand up, but not all the way, and sit back down.

What I'm doing is I'm engaging with my core and I'm using these muscles that we use to get out of a chair.

If you have to help yourself a little bit at first, by pushing yourself up like this, again, you don't wanna stand all the way up because then you'll lose your core engagement, and then back down.

See if you can work up to doing it without using your hands.

If you don't do anything else, this is really one of the most important exercises, because it really can help you stay independent.

So up, and then back down, and before you go down, engage that core again, pull that string, and now back down.

And up, you can do this every time you get up out of a chair, you can decide I'm going to get up by engaging my core, stay just for a moment and then go on your way.

If you want to do these without a chair, you might graduate to the point where you feel very comfortable doing it without a chair, then an important thing is to, as you do these, we call these squats, you wanna make sure that you're not, a lot of people do a squat and they do this, they're bending and you can see that my lower legs are moving.

You really want that part of your body to stay stable and you want to, as though you're sitting in a chair.

So what I'm doing is below my knee down, that's not moving.

what's moving is my bottom going back, going back, and I'm sitting in that chair.

So, and you can, as you gain core strength, and gain muscles in your legs, you can go lower and lower, but do it at your own pace.

I'm Janet Thompson-Jackson and I hope I've inspired you to replenish and restore.

- Thank you, Janet Thompson-Jackson, for those helpful tips to keep us moving and ladies pregnancy seems to be something none of us know about- (laughing) - But through our guests we're learning about it and my goodness, the changes.

I mean what I've always heard is like getting the body back in shape after the pregnancy and that's where those moves that Janet just showed us and the importance of staying physically fit, but what were your thoughts about all this?

- I'm just thinking about the gremlin inside that's causing the body to do all these metamorphosis's, it's like, oh my goodness, but just knowing that you're trying your best to have the best experience and a healthy baby, and so maybe you don't have the urge to be eating for two, like I would eat for two, maybe you do good things to make sure that the baby is healthy and so making sure that you don't have as much caffeine, and you know- - You don't smoke.

- No alcohol.

- No alcohol.

- I mean all these things are consideration in order to have the best experience for the baby.

- I'd be eating for three or four.

(laughing) - I think, one of the things that we didn't get a chance to talk about during the show, but we'll talk about afterwards is this whole idea about infant safety and the fact of making sure that the baby is sleeping on a hard mattress, swaddled even, but having all these blankets and stuffed toys that everybody thinks are so cute, not a good idea to have in the crib, because that can cause severe damage to the babies and we might have some mortality issue.

So, I don't think people really think about that kinda thing, they think that these things are cute and adorable and they wanna have them in the crib, not a good idea, so that was a lesson to me.

So the next baby gift I give is gonna be a silver cup, or a silver spoon.

- Yeah.

- Something commemorative.

- Something commemorative, I'm not going with the stuffed animals.

- Well it's so scary, the whole thing about your child, you want the best for that child, whether you're waking up at 2:00 in the morning and calling the pediatrician, or, whatever it might be, you want that child to be the best it can be, to be healthy, happy, and that's scary.

- It is scary.

- I mean there's no guide book that tells you what to do- - Exactly.

- When, and at what age, and I mean I know there's a lot of groups that kinda get together, but it's a frightening time, but yet what an overwhelming and joyous time.

- So many decisions though, that would be- - True.

- Overwhelming to me, to breastfeed, to not breastfeed.

- Right.

- You know, I mean just all of these decisions- - Right.

- That you have to make and if you've never had a baby before, on the fly, I would just be stressed out and you're supposed to keep the stress levels low, but I'd be stressed out with all the things to consider because you want to do it right.

- Right.

- Right.

- And I wonder if that's also one of the reasons that brings up postpartum depression.

I mean, obviously we don't know, but you know, I have to agree with you that it's stressful times and it's really all on the mom.

- Yes.

- You know, dad is there as a support, or your partner is there as a support.

- You hope they are.

(laughing) - Right.

- But it's really on the woman who has delivered this child and what all she has to do to make sure that she stays healthy, the baby stays healthy, it's a lot, it's very stressful.

- And then including going back into the workforce, because it's not like- - And then there's that.

- She has a lot of time to just kind of rest and integrate being with baby in the home, and now you gotta go back to work and find childcare- - Right.

- Just like we was talking about.

- Just like we was talking about.

- With Tammy.

- Right.

- You gotta find a proper provider who has good education- - Right.

- And you feel safe leaving your baby with and it would be hard for me to walk away from my baby.

- Right, trust somebody with it, oh.

- Exactly.

- I'm sure there's a lot of you out there going, oh, those women have no idea.

(laughing) And we don't.

But let's just say we salute you.

- We do.

- Those of you who are bringing wonderful, fresh lives into the world and thank you so much, but that is all the time we have for today.

And we hope you'll join us in celebrating the hard work and accomplishments made by all the mothers in our communities and around the world.

And as a reminder you can watch this program again at watch.ktwu.org.

- And if you are so inspired to learn more about our guests, and get access to additional content, be sure to visit our website at www.ktwu.org/inspire.

- Inspiring women, inspiring you on KTWU.

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) - [Announcer] "Inspire" is sponsored by: Kansas Furniture Mart using furniture to inspire conversation; and by the Blanche Bryden Foundation.