MyMaine Birth

79. Amanda's Two Maine Birth Stories and her Evolution into Holistic Women's Health

• Angela Laferriere • Season 2 • Episode 79

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When Amanda DeLorme of Pearl Holistic Health joined me, she didn't just bring her expertise in holistic women's health; she brought the raw and transformative story of her journey into motherhood and self-care.  As our conversation unfolds, Amanda's powerful narrative shines a light on the often-unspoken pressures that mothers endure and the vital lesson that taking care of oneself is not just important—it's essential.

Embarking on a path from occupational therapy to a more integrative practice, Amanda's personal experiences with childbirth catalyzed her professional pivot. Through her story, we gain insights into her holistic approach to healing, incorporating craniosacral therapy, breathwork, and somatic techniques.  Amanda's professional metamorphosis is poignant, reflecting a deep commitment to supporting women's health not just physically, but emotionally and spiritually as well. Her journey is a testament to the profound impact that personal experiences can have on our career choices and the ways in which we seek to heal others.

Throughout our discussion Amanda delves into her own birth experiences, hormone imbalances, and the longing for support she navigated as a new mother. Her reflections on natural childbirth, the emotional roller coaster of postpartum life, and the reshaping of her identity beyond motherhood offer a touching perspective on the intersection of personal growth and professional evolution. We explore Amanda's practice, Pearl Holistic Health, and how it continues to embody her vision of expansive wellness as it grows, reaching beyond pelvic health to encompass the full spectrum of holistic care.

Connect with Amanda on instagram @pearlholistichealth visit her website Pearl Holistic Health  and you can email her pearlholistichealth@gmail.com

MyMaine Birth is a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine.  From our state’s biggest hospitals to Birth Center Births, and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated.  Whether you are a soon to be mom, a seasoned mother, or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you.

If you are interested in birth photography or doula support for your upcoming Maine birth, head over to my website MyMaine Birth and send me a message to inquire about your due date.  

Thank you again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories.  Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review! And I’ll See you back here again, next week.  

Amanda:

Yeah. So then after that it was rocky. I considered myself or the thoughts I have about myself before becoming a mom, where you know I traveled, studied abroad, I did undergrad in Boston. I mean, I felt like a very adventurous, kind of easygoing person. And then I think as soon as motherhood hit, paired with maybe the fastness of the birth and then the diagnosis and I just graduated from college I started to find my roots in Brunswick, but then we got jobs in Southern Maine my husband did Then we moved south so kind of uprooted my foundation.

Amanda:

So I started to experience some pretty significant anxiety postpartum and it was new to me. So I think I felt really shameful about it because I didn't have anything experienced like that before. So it was a while before I even like thought it was a thing or tried to ask for help, kind of accumulated to a big trip out West where again we thought we were 20 again and can trek our you know 18 month old up and down the you know West coast and I had some anxiety attacks and things like that. But in sharing this story I've shared it multiple times Really that was just my peak and I know that's kind of the story for all of us right, like when we hit a bottom, you know we start to climb out. So for me that was sort of my bottom and I think, paired with all the things that I'm sharing, one of my lessons was unwinding that, that martyr storyline and it's still unwinding for me, but really taking care of myself and not trying to do it all and be it all, and that really helped.

Angela:

I'm Angela and you're listening to my Maine Birth, a space where we share the real life stories of families and their unique birth experiences in the beautiful state of Maine. From our state's biggest hospitals to birth center births and home births, every birth story deserves to be heard and celebrated. Whether you're a soon-to-be mom, a seasoned mother or simply interested in the world of birth, these episodes are for you. Welcome to episode 79 of my Maine Birth. Today's birth story guest is Amanda DeLorme of Pearl Holistic Health. She is located in Biddeford, Maine, and offers a mind-body-spirit approach to women's health care through embodiment and nervous system practices, craniosacral therapy, breathwork, creativity and yoga, and I'm so excited to have her here today to share about her two main birth stories and more about the support that she offers to families here in Maine. All right, let's get right to it. Hi Amanda, Welcome to my Maine Birth. Good morning, Good morning. So to get started, will you share a little bit about you and your family?

Amanda:

Yes, well, I'm a Mainer, born and raised and right now I have two children. My husband and I live in Saco and, yeah, I've got a five year old and an eight year old, one boy, one girl. And yeah, we're doing the thing right now the parenting, the working Amazing.

Angela:

Now, before we get into your birth stories, or as they intertwine, I'm not really sure. I'm curious what led you to your profession? What sort of to your profession? What sort of what?

Amanda:

you know, called you to that? Yeah, definitely. So the story, I guess, like any, I have two children, like I shared, and the birth of my children, particularly my first right, like probably most of us, catapulted me into a new space, basically like just, I think, in a nutshell, opening me to my, you know, soul's work, if you will. First a rocky start, but I really saw how I wanted to be of service and support women. So I already had my degree in occupational therapy and was working in skilled nursing with the geriatric population. Wasn't quite fulfilled and so I got the nudge to get further education on women's health pelvic health. Get further education on women's health, pelvic health.

Amanda:

So I did some coursework and started doing some pelvic floor work, working for another provider outpatient facility in Portland. Had a great experience there but knew I wanted to do a little bit more of a holistic lens to treating women's health, and so I then went to open up my own practice, pearl Pelvic Health, about a year ago. And then that's been a journey too, and I've shifted from I'm calling myself a pelvic floor therapist to more of just a holistic women's health practitioner and primarily focusing on healing trauma through craniosacral therapy and, soon, breath work. I'm still under the. You know all the things still come up for pelvic floor work, but I don't treat in the way that maybe most women are familiar with.

Angela:

So Wow, that's really interesting and, yeah, I'm excited to hear your story on how it all came about. So, to get into your birth stories, will you start by sharing when you found out you were pregnant for the first time and your thoughts in choosing your care?

Amanda:

Yeah, so my daughter is eight now, so that's about eight years ago, and my husband and I were, you know, actually trying. We were ready to have a family. I was in grad school, so I was receiving my master's in OT at that time, so it was a good journey. So we were trying and I remember finding out and being really excited. We were living up in the Brunswick area at the time mid coast and we decided to go with the midwives through the hospital. We had a really great experience. I have family who works within the midwives there, or did, and so that was sort of my one of my choices in the care. I knew I wanted more of a natural birth, but nothing in my field was already like no one. I didn't have any, I don't have any sisters, or my mom didn't birth home, birth naturally or anything like that. So I think it was my like okay, I can be natural, but maybe as most natural that I could know at the time was was a midwife in a hospital, if that makes sense.

Angela:

Yeah, so how was that pregnancy looking for you, and did you do any testing?

Amanda:

so we, we went sort of the, let's say, like midwife route where we had minimal testing, but, you know, still still kind of. You know I'm even blanking now but like the you know, was it 20 week ultrasound? We did do that and my daughter came naturally vaginally. She was a fast birth so we didn't have any. I didn't receive any medical you know care in the hospital, no inductions or anything like that. So thankfully that's. I'm really blessed I had a birth. That was was what I wanted. It was really intense and fast. She came in about five hours start to finish and I was probably at the hospital maybe two hours. Yeah, yeah.

Angela:

Wow so. So how were you feeling throughout that pregnancy and just kind of overall, was it?

Amanda:

Yeah, I mean it was, it was my first. I was really, I was really excited to be pregnant, but at the same time there was a lot of symptoms of like nausea and reflux and things like that. And I think I had in my mind this picture of pregnancies all butterflies and rainbows, and that kind of ties into some of my unwinding in becoming a mom. It's like unwinding that, that martyr thinking I had to do it all and be it all and and so yeah, there were times in my pregnancy that I was not comfortable. I mean I was in grad school studying for my boards, but I mean overall big picture, healthy, good. But the inside was also that you know, it wasn't super comfortable and I was ready for maybe to come out.

Amanda:

Yeah, so will you walk me through, kind of those last few days or weeks leading up to when your labor started and about your birth? She was due before she came out and so I remember being pretty active in that sense. I did a centering program through midwives, so it's sort of birth prep, if you will. That was weeks before and then leading right up to, I mean I just remember having a few sensations like some mild contractions, probably leading up to Braxton Hicks. But then the night before she was born I just had like one strong contraction, went to bed and then around midnight woke up and then it was just kind of like hit the ground and the contractions came fast and quick.

Amanda:

And, you know, I called my midwife and, like typical first birth, they say you know, stay home, you'll be laboring for a long time. And my mom heard my voice over the phone because we called her too and she was going to be at the hospital and she's like no, no, this really sounds like you're. You're going to give birth very soon. So I remember riding in the car on my knees facing backwards because I just couldn't sit down. You know, perhaps it was back labor, I'm not certain. But so yeah, you know, got to the hospital and I barely made it up into the room and she came out very shortly after.

Angela:

Wow, you said five hours for your first birth. That's pretty quick.

Amanda:

I think so. Yeah, nothing to compare it to. But I say to myself I'm like, oh my gosh, how do women do this for hours? I mean, I don't know. I think mine just came fast and there was like no break between each contraction. But my daughter was then born diagnosed with pneumonia. So some of the speculation was that she, you know, wasn't squeezed through the birth canal quickly enough, I mean, didn't linger in there long enough. So she picked up a little bacteria perhaps from the hospital and diagnosed with pneumonia. So we stayed at the hospital for about seven days while she received an antibiotic. That was a little stressful, you know. Again first time, mom deciding do I do these interventions? What do I do? You know I'm scared because I'm super open. I just gave birth, but all in all, I mean she received the care. We did not have to do NICU. She could stay with me, yeah.

Angela:

So how was your postpartum time then after that?

Amanda:

Yeah. So then after that it was, it was rocky. I considered myself or the thoughts I have about myself before becoming a mom where you know I traveled, studied abroad. I considered myself or the thoughts I have about myself before becoming a mom, where you know I traveled, studied abroad, I did undergrad in Boston. I mean, I felt like a very adventurous, kind of easygoing person. And then I think, as soon as motherhood hit, paired with maybe the fastness of the birth and then the diagnosis and I just graduated from college I started to find my roots in Brunswick, but then we got jobs in Southern Maine my husband did Then we moved south, so I kind of uprooted my foundation.

Amanda:

So I started to experience some pretty significant anxiety postpartum and it was new to me. So I think I felt really shameful about it because I didn't have anything experienced like that before. So it was a while before I even like thought it was a thing or tried to ask for help. Kind of accumulated to a big trip out West where again we thought we were 20 again and can trek our you know, 18 month old up and down the West coast and I had some anxiety attacks and things like that.

Amanda:

But in sharing this story. I've shared it multiple times. Really that was just my peak and I know that's kind of the story for all of us right, like when we hit a bottom you know we start to climb out. So for me that was sort of my bottom and I think, paired with all the things that I'm sharing, one of my lessons was unwinding for me, but really taking care of myself and not trying to do it all and be at all, and that really helped. And then, you know, shortly after that I got pregnant with my son, our second child. So the anxiety was there but then kind of subsided throughout the second pregnancy.

Angela:

So at which point did you decide to shift into learning more about pelvic health and women's health? Was it in that postpartum period after your first birth, or was it more after your second?

Amanda:

birth I didn't actually start. I still stayed part-time at the nursing home because it could allow me like three hours a week or six hours a week and I could pump and breastfeed and still do all that. So I worked very minimally as an OT occupational therapist postpartum. It wasn't until after I had my son and he was, you know, we kept him home for the first two years. Again, I'm working very minimally. And then, well, working a lot but paid minimally to do the pelvic health stuff when I was like, okay, we're kind of done breastfeeding and now we're going to, at least when I started my additional coursework in pelvic health. So yeah, my son was probably two, daughter was four that time.

Angela:

So to backtrack just a little bit, will you share now, when you found out you were pregnant with your son, and your thoughts in choosing your care that time around?

Amanda:

Yeah, so at that point we had moved to Southern Maine. So again, I had a really great experience with my first born with the midwives at the hospital. So, like I said, I had family at the midwives, which was really helpful. So I was a little sad to leave that kind of comfort. My aunt is one of the medical assistants there and so, knowing that I had a great experience there, we decided to go with the Portland midwives to the hospital at Mercy and we had a great experience there as well.

Amanda:

Yeah, when I was pregnant with my son we tried for a few months but looking back, I think there was high levels of depletion and still some hormone imbalances with cortisol and anxiety. You know, in a perfect world if I could have done it all over again I would have hired multiple doulas and you know I would have had a lot more of that kind of 40 days in time. But again, it's not really fed to you until you start to learn it. So I mean considering, I mean I'm educated and I have resources and I recognize my ability to access all that. So even with that, you know it was still. It was still a little bit hard to be, to be home postpartum or to be in the postpartum period. Yeah, so my second. We chose the midwives in Portland and again similar kind of standard practice through there. We minimized anything that we didn't feel was totally necessary for interventions. He came naturally again as well. He was a faster birth, probably about three hours.

Angela:

Oh my goodness, three hours Wow.

Amanda:

Yeah, my water had broke about 8.30 at night. We were reading my daughter a book in bed and it's like about five days before he was due and my water broke and so we called and we're like, okay, we'll come on in. And contractions didn't start until about midnight. So water broke and so we called and we're like, okay, we'll come on in and um, contractions didn't start till about midnight, so water broke at eight. Nothing really started till midnight and he came about 3 am. So, yeah, we, I tried the tub. Didn't love it. You know, in my mind again I thought I'd be a tub birther in the hospital but ended up being, you know, some hot water on my back of the shower and then side lying holding my mom and my husband's hands when he came out. So again, no, no interventions with that. Um, maybe a heart rate monitor, I think, around my, my belly at one point, but no cervical checks to my my memory do you remember the birth of your placenta?

Amanda:

yeah, I mean this is a birth podcast, but I remember being extremely comfortable actually and feeling really good because it was like this warm. I don't know it felt like a, a balm if that makes sense and if anyone resonates with that but for both births I just remember being like you just were like ripped open in the most beautiful way, but then the placenta comes through and it's just this like soothing balm. So you know, we delayed cord and we did chest right away. We didn't do any of the other kind of placenta encapsulations or anything like that, but yeah, yeah, amazing.

Angela:

So now, how was your postpartum the second time around still being kind of close together with your first birth, still too yeah, they're about two years, two years years, nine months apart.

Amanda:

Yeah, I think I started to get more of my footing and, to be honest, it's it's a journey and you know, I started working with, with, with some healers and that really helped mental health and shamans and you know, spiritual teachers, and that's just sort of my journey and what I found helpful. But I think I said this in other areas and and and really the birth was just a portal for me and I think it is for everyone. You know, I see it in my clients, I see it myself, but it's like it. It kind of magnifies what's there or what's to be looked at or what hasn't been healed through the maternal lineage or just all that stuff. And that really just started to shake loose for me in birthing my children and, to be honest, it's been a few year journey of a few years of really like looking at my stuff, my family stuff, not like me taking on my family stuff, but like what's came through to me to look at in my role to the parenting, to motherhood, to womanhood.

Angela:

Yeah, that's really interesting in my role to the parenting, to motherhood, to womanhood yeah, that's really interesting. So now you said it was about two years after your son was born that you started to shift your career path. Do you want to share more about that?

Amanda:

Yeah, like I said, I think it was paired with the. You know, I was trying to be a stay-at-home mom who just loved being home and it was like, you know, I love that, but I also have a purpose outside of the home and so I think that started to unlock and feeling the angst of being like, okay, this doesn't quite feel settled for me to be home all the time, the nursing homework you know I was writing about COVID time and it was just, you know, there's a lot of PPE donning and dopping all the gowns and just a lot of stuff. That just wasn't resonating with me anymore. It really just meant that I was ready for my next step and so, you know, with an OT license you can practice pelvic health with the background of a, you know, master's and just have additional training. So I did a couple of coursework on that and then I was hired with a outpatient facility here in Maine and that was really a great experience, working one-on-one with women and while it was under the insurance umbrella it was. It was really a beautiful job. I loved it.

Amanda:

But with that I just kept seeing and I think I've always been this way like just seeing the other aspects to health, and for me that is, you know, the emotional trauma that we hold on to, or or the spiritual side of health and healing, and that can always, in my opinion, get addressed under the insurance umbrella. And so again I felt more of a nudge of like, ok, I really want to get out there and do it from this way. And so I started to take another course in, you know, opening your own practice, and so I opened up my business here in Biddeford, maine, pearl Pelvic Health. Yeah, I was doing kind of just you know, cash practice or private pay I'm not under the insurance umbrella feeding women's health, pelvic health. And one thing that I really started to see, both from working at the outpatient and in my practice, was again I think it just kept showing up for me was individuals with pelvic pain and underlying trauma and how it kind of influences our tissue tissue being our kind of bodily functions, right and so I realized I didn't want to do any more internal work and I really wanted to do some external.

Amanda:

Like I started to look at how can I support that underlying stuff I'll call it kind of the hot word these days is trauma, but can get misused, but the stuff that's underneath. I wanted to start to kind of support individuals in integrating that. So craniosacral therapy has been the modality that I found is the most applicable in doing that and then fitting for my own unique gifts, my intuitive gifts or what I bring to, the most applicable in doing that and then fitting for my, my own unique gifts, right, my intuitive gifts, or or what I bring to the table with with sessions. So I've kind of shifted from doing like okay, you come in and get an assessment and and we're going to go through some exercises, to more body work, right. So somatic kind of healing, if you will, or or addressing stored stuff in the body through the gentle hands-on and up craniosacral.

Angela:

Yeah, I think that's really so needed and especially, like you said, outside of the insurance model, so that you can really customize your services to what you're seeing people are needing and wanting and that's helping and it's like a whole person instead of just you know. We're going to treat this one thing and hope that that gets better.

Amanda:

Yeah, absolutely, and kind of my own journey, personal journey, it's like you know you keep trying to fit into a box and it's like this doesn't quite fit, and so I think the you know, tying it to the motherhood journey for me is like how and my which ties into my career is just, you know, more unfolding of my, my medicine, right, I think we all carry our own kind of unique medicine and you know it comes under a label, just the way it does in our modern day, right, like pelvic floor therapist, doula, et cetera. But yeah, the modality of craniosacral really supports me in letting me be with, I mean hold deep presence for women as they're, you know, unwinding or walk in their own journey.

Angela:

Now your business is located in an office with other businesses that focus a lot on women's health also, is that right?

Amanda:

So currently, for this month, may, I'm at North Sky Chiropractic, which is where I started. However, I'm moving next month to a new location. North Sky has been an amazing fit right. It's definitely a space for women, families, pediatrics, all of that.

Amanda:

When I started to shift my practice from pelvic health right sort of the umbrella that maybe most people are familiar with and started to address more of what I'm speaking to, right, which can be a little vague, but the underlying stuff that gets stored in the body or emotional kind of trauma, I started to see the benefit. Of you know, sometimes I consider myself I'm trying to find a better way to describe this, but right now like a therapist for the body in some ways right. And so there's an opportunity in Bedford that came to my door basically just opened up, to move alongside the counseling collective of Maine. So I will be still with perinatal practitioners, but in a just a different building, basically still within the Bedford community, and both great resources, the counseling collective of Maine and North Sky Chiropractic. I still continue to hold my own LLC, so Pearl Holistic Health is now what I'm called, as I'm again kind of broadening to a not hyper-focused on pelvic health, if you will.

Angela:

I think that's really cool how you talk about focusing on the whole body in your work and not just staying hyper-focused on the one thing. Would you share a little bit more about what it looks like to work with you?

Amanda:

Yeah, definitely, and I yeah, that's just like the best term I have Like I mean, I'm not a therapist of course, within the occupational therapy licensure and schooling, yes, we address kind of a holistic health like spirituality, mental health, physical health and, again, just to name that, my journey and my interests and I think my unique medicine is just that I have a bit of a I'll call it a sight or a special uniqueness to seeing how emotional trauma or, like you know, even just like stressors that live in the body, how they influence us.

Amanda:

And I don't, in my opinion, again, I don't think we often recognize how they're influenced. Right, we're often going to a provider and they're looking just at the symptom or just at the physicality and my interest really is in tying them together. So, working with me, what it looks like right now and how my offerings are currently are craniosacral sessions. So I have women coming in you know it's not necessarily labeled as pregnant, postpartum et cetera, but I still work with women's health book a 60 minute, 75 minute session and you come in and similar to like a you know a massage place, you've got a massage table and we'll just communicate at start here of anything that might be coming up, I'll of course read your intake form, give you a picture of what the session will look like, and then you know you're invited to lay on the table, clothed, and then just gentle, light, touch over different parts of the body that help facilitate kind of physical, emotional, spiritual, the mind, body, spirit, health.

Angela:

I love that. So are you also doing women's circles?

Amanda:

Yeah, I've done a lot of community circles in the past and, interestingly enough, my undergrad's in art therapy, and so for a little bit this past year I was working with an art studio in town and doing a women or women's or adult mostly women came but men could come to like an embodiment art class.

Amanda:

So we'd start with some gentle movement, yoga, and then move into some alcohol ink expression, really just kind of paired with or the intention there is to, you know, get into our creative side right, which to me is like the root, the pelvis, the you know sacral chakra. So I was doing that. However, you know, I'm a mom and I've decided, wow, I'm pretty busy, and so my intention as I move into my new space is to kind of simplify. So right now I was like, okay, we're going to focus on craniosacral services. I am in a training right now for breath work, which is, you know, a conscious circular breath practice which really helps to stimulate the sympathetic nervous system and opens us to, you know, altered states of consciousness, and so bringing in breath as a tool again to be with what is, I guess, if that makes any sense. So that will become a service that I'll offer come fall, late, early winter.

Angela:

Oh my gosh, that's so exciting. So what's the best way for people to get ahold of you?

Amanda:

Yeah, so you can find me on Instagram at Pearl Holistic Health. You can find all the links there to get my website, phone number et cetera. Email pearlholistichealth at gmailcom.

Angela:

Awesome. I will link all of that in the show notes. Now, as a final question if you were to give advice to someone who's expecting, or even new parents, what's the biggest thing that you would say to them?

Amanda:

I think there's so much advice out there. So I mean, I'm a I'm a fan for really tuning into your own own inner wisdom. I know that can feel really murky at times, especially when you're growing a little one or about to conceive, et cetera. So yeah, always kind of just ground your feet and find your breath and tune into your own body.

Angela:

Yeah, yeah, that's great advice. Well, thank you so much, amanda, for taking the time to chat with me this morning and sharing about your story.

Amanda:

Yeah, thank you so much for having me. It's a pleasure.

Angela:

And that's the end of another episode of the my Main Birth podcast. Thank you for joining me and listening. If you're looking to document your birth story or if you're interested in doula support for your upcoming birth, head over to my website, mymainbirthcom and check out my packages. I am a certified professional birth photographer and an experienced doula, and I offer in-person services to families throughout the state of Maine, as well as virtual birth coaching worldwide. I want to invite you to grab my top free resource for newly pregnant moms.

Angela:

It's called 37 Questions to Ask your Care Provider Whether you've already established care or if you're in the process of interviewing new providers. This is for you. Or if you're in the process of interviewing new providers, this is for you. Not only are you going to get the questions to ask, but I also share how to assess their answers and the major red flags that you should be looking for. So go grab that. It's at mymainbirthcom slash download. Thank you again for tuning in and I look forward to bringing you more amazing birth stories. Don't forget to subscribe and leave me a review, and I'll see you back here again next week.