Key quotes

“And I so appreciated that because I was going into labor with a lot of fear. But watching that kind of helped me know that, you know, the body intuitively knows what to do and it just does it. And you can't control it. It's just going to do its thing.”

“And it was it was the most magical and emotional and special experience of my life. And I'll never forget it.”

“I never knew I could love something so much.”

“And now it's one of my favorite things that I do with her.”

“And then all I have to say is that when you are pregnant and you are in labor, all dignity gone. Like your booty is going to be out. You're going to poop on the table.”

Related episodes

• Ep. 456 Liberté Chan: Before Birth
• Ep. 455 In Conversation with Jaime Lipsky Garcia
• Ep. 452 Obstetric Care: Behind the Curtain with Dr. Melissa Drake, MD
• Ep. 454 How to Have an Empowered Hospital Birth with Hehe Stewart

Transcript

AI-generated transcript with speaker labels — may contain errors, especially names and medical terms. Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC appears in blue; Liberté Chan in orange.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [0:00] Well, my guest today is a successful on-air reporter and meteorologist, as well as a digital creator focused on wellness, fashion, and travel. Last time we saw her, she was about to pop, and the forecast was predicting a wonderful birth experience. Today, we're going to find out how it actually went down. I'm Pregnancy Focus Chiropractor Dr. Elliott Berlin, and you're listening to the Informed Pregnancy Podcast. Leverte Chan, welcome back to the podcast.

Liberté Chan [0:42] New job, mommy. This is the hardest job I've ever done. This is real.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [0:48] That's saying a lot, because you've done a lot of jobs.

Liberté Chan [0:51] Yeah, yeah. This is no joke. I worked the morning show for, you know, over a decade here in LA, and it kind of trains you to have a newborn. Waking up at that ungodly hour. Exactly. And again and again, you have to be on. The good news is I don't have to put makeup on. There's no hair and makeup at 2 a.m. and 3 a.m. That's nice. Yeah. Really, really nice. But a very good friend of mine who also worked on the morning show and had a newborn 10 years ago, she said, you're going to be fine. We're trained for this. Guess what? You get to wake up and feed your baby, who you love and adore, and then you get to go back to sleep. How easy is that? And I thought to myself, my gosh, she's so right.

[1:39] So every time I wake up, I'm like, oh, no hair and makeup. I get to feed my baby. And it was such a good way to like reframe those like early hours that, you know, no one should be awake at.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [1:53] Yet somehow Los Angeles still always has traffic at that time. OK, I want to find out about your labor, your birth, postpartum, motherhood. How did it start?

Liberté Chan [2:02] Oh, my gosh. OK, so did I text you that night? Because I almost texted you. You were on my list of people because I wasn't sure if I was actually having real labor pains and contractions or if they were Braxton Hicks. But I don't know if I did. I don't think so. OK, so Friday night, it was like the lunar eclipse, March 14th. And I started to have what I thought was Braxton Hicks again. And it was eight o'clock at night. And I had gone to sleep at seven because I was working the morning show And I was excited to just like do like my last morning show before popping out the baby. And so I was trying to sleep. And these consistent contractions kept happening.

[2:45] And I'm like, what is going on? Like, I just want to get a little bit of sleep because I want to work tomorrow. Whatever. So then it started to get more consistent and a little bit stronger. And then I did text one of my doctors and I was like, I don't know if this is just uncomfortable or this is painful, but it's happening like every five minutes. Is this real? And she's like, well, if it's painful, you need to go to the doctor. And then she said, do the what's the five one one rule or four one one rule? What's that thing? If you have contractions.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [3:21] So if the contractions are X number of minutes apart, sometimes they say five, four, three minutes apart, lasting a minute apiece. That's the first one. And then for more than an hour is the second one.

Liberté Chan [3:33] OK, so that started happening. And I was so upset because I really wanted to work the next day. And I look at Luis and I said, I don't think I can go to work. If this is continuing, what am I going to do? And by this time, it started at eight, then it was nine o'clock, then it was ten o'clock. And if you ever work the morning show, you don't want to cancel at the last moment. Like, that's not a good move because who are they going to call to fill

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [3:57] in for you? But I don't say liberty. Most of us have not worked the morning show. I know, I know. I'm just you have. Yeah, OK. So you get it. You don't want to call in at the last minute.

Liberté Chan [4:09] Yeah. Yeah. So finally, I just got out of bed because I couldn't just sit there. I couldn't sleep. And I was like, well, I'm going to take a shower because just in case this is the real thing, I at least want to have clean hair. So I hopped in the shower and then the contractions really got bad. And I found myself on all fours and then in child's pose. And I was just trying to breathe. And I thought, oh, this is the real thing. So then I go back in the bedroom. I tell Luis and I said, we have to go to the hospital. I'm in a lot of pain. And then it started coming stronger. And I couldn't even talk when I started to have the contractions. And we grabbed everything.

[4:47] We have this little dog at home and she's not used to being by herself. So we had to call someone in to babysit her. So I was worried about her. And then I got in the car and then I went to Cedars and it was probably midnight. And I have a very tall car and it doesn't fit in the parking garage.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [5:06] Oh, really?

Liberté Chan [5:08] And so Luis is like, oh, let me find, let me go to another parking garage. And I'm looking at him. I'm like, I can't wait. I was like, I need to get inside. I need help. I need like something to like stop this immense pain. And he's like, well, I can't drive in there. I'm like, I'm going to get out. I'm going to walk up where it says no pedestrian walkway. And I'm going to go and walk into the hospital myself. And he's like, well, I don't want you to do that. And I'm like, please, let me just get out of the car. So I walk up at midnight of the non-pedestrian walkway. And if you go to Cedars, like they have like a little like, what is it called?

[5:41] You have to go in. What am I trying to say? They have them at airports to see if you're carrying a weapon. You know, like security scanner. There's some sort of security scan. And so it was on the left side. And I look at the guy and he's like, oh no, he's like third floor. He didn't even worry about that because I was very pregnant. And you know me, like I just have the belly out. Like I don't cover it up. I'm all belly at that point. And so I'm in pain and I walk up to the front and I had my ID because I knew they were going to ask me and I give them my ID and the contraction starts again. And I'm like, hold on. And I literally like down on all fours in the lobby trying to check in.

[6:22] And that's they're like, it's OK, take your time. And I'm like, this isn't your first time that you've seen this. So they're like, it's OK, breathe through it, breathe through.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [6:32] Well, where were you feeling that was it in your belly and your back?

Liberté Chan [6:36] Darn it in my back. And then it kind of just spread to my entire torso.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [6:44] Because you're describing it as pretty intense was the intensity worse in the back or in the front or just the whole thing worse than that.

Liberté Chan [6:51] And the back pain started earlier in the day, like it almost felt like a period pain and I kind of ignored it, but there was no ignoring it at that point. So finally they put me in this room and apparently they had an influx of people there that night. And I think it's the lunar eclipse. I don't know what was happening, but they didn't have a room for me. So they put me in like the postpartum area. And I was thinking to myself, OK, I don't think I can handle this pain because at that point it was coming probably every four minutes and very strong. And they hooked me up to a machine. And so Luis was tracking the contractions and he's like, OK, here's another one

[7:29] coming, here's another one coming, just breathe through it, breathe through it. This one's a big one. And I was like, oh, my gosh. And at that point I had my hospital gown on and I don't know why they don't close in the back. But my booty was out. I was on again, of course, on the bed. And I'm like thinking to myself, there's zero dignity. Like zero. You know, people are walking in. The nurse is walking in. She's like, do you need the epidural? You requested this. And I said, yes, I really need some help because I don't think I can deal with this like teeth chattering pain. It was literally my body was shaking and my teeth went cold. Like my entire mouth was cold.

[8:13] It was the weirdest thing.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [8:15] Was there a cervical check at any point? Because usually before they'll do the epidural, they want you to have a bag of fluid and oftentimes they check your

Liberté Chan [8:23] service. Yes, yes. So they came in and I'm still healing from the IV. So, yeah, the IV, I'm sorry, my mind is not working properly. And during that time, it was probably not working properly. It was like an outer body experience. Totally. But they had an IV. They did check my cervix. It was at five centimeters.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [8:43] OK, five down, five to go.

Liberté Chan [8:46] Yes, yeah. And I was like, OK, I need the epidural. Like I just need some help. And so they're like, well, we don't have a room for you. And the anesthesiologist is with some other patients. Someone came in at 10 centimeters dilated, screaming. And then it was like they kept delaying the epidural. And by three thirty in the morning, I got there at midnight and I'd been having contractions since 8 p.m. By three thirty. Finally, I had a room. The anesthesiologist came in. He gave me the epidural and it was like all the pain subsided. But then I was worried that I wouldn't dilate. You know, I thought that it would slow everything down. But at least I wasn't in pain and I could at least kind of relax.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [9:32] At that point, you could have just done the morning show.

Liberté Chan [9:35] Exactly.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [9:37] It's getting almost time. All right, let's take a little break. This is getting exciting. And I want to see how the rest of it unfolds. And also, nobody can see you, but you don't look like you had a baby anytime recently. How old is the baby?

Liberté Chan [9:53] She is 17 days.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [9:55] That's crazy. Yeah, you look like 17 days before you got pregnant. Not after you had the baby. All right, let's take a little break. When we come back, we'll find out how the story continues.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [10:18] Welcome back with Liberty. In the commercial break, she got even younger looking somehow. I mean, I'm not even just talking about like the belly, which is totally gone. I'm just talking about like your energy. You're glowing in a way that looks like you've just been relaxing in Maui for the past 17 days. OK, no, no, no. We'll get to that part of the story. But for now, you go into labor, you get to the 4-1-1, you head to the hospital. I still have no idea where Luis put the big car and you walked up the ramp, skirted security on all fours for everyone to walk into.

Liberté Chan [10:53] Yeah, my belly, everything was out like you just don't care.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [10:58] And then finally, your five centimeters and you get your epidural. But concerned, what if that slows down your labor? How did things go after that?

Liberté Chan [11:05] I don't know. It slowed it down. I think it slowed it down. And then I was thinking to myself, I was kind of kicking myself like, oh, I should have just gone through some more of the contractions, but it was so painful. And I had, I don't know, like seven hours of contractions. And I was like breathing through it. So I feel like I felt it. You know, I was in it. I was in it. They told me they're like, oh, it's weird because they give you the epidural and then they're like, well, now you have to wait like six hours and we have to see if you dilate. And I'm like, what? This is weird. I thought you just go into the hospital and out pops the baby.

[11:42] There's a lot of like, let me lay down. And Luis took a nap. And I was sitting there. I just kept watching the machine showing me the contractions. And I mean, at that point, when you get the epidural, you don't feel the pain, but you feel a little bit of the pressure. But it was so sweet because I just have to give my husband a shout out and you because you had inspired me and encouraged me to create these inspo boards, which I had done at these like probably like six, maybe eight inspo boards that I had made a few days prior. And Luis went in the bag when I was having the contractions and I was in a lot of pain. And he's like, oh, let me put these up.

[12:22] And, you know, I had my tape and he started to put them on the walls. And the nurse who was there, she's like, oh, that's so nice. And at the end of the whole thing, once the baby popped out, they actually kept the inspo boards up because I was like, well, someone else wants the inspo boards, keep them up. And so the nurse was like, oh, that's a great idea. So, you know, I don't know who was in there after me, but maybe they had a little dose of inspiration from Liberté. OK. So he was putting that up and that was really nice. And during the contractions, he's like, OK, just just look at the board. Just look at the field, you know, just read the board.

[12:58] Just think about that. And it was like every contraction brings you closer to your baby. And it was just like, relax and stay open and visualize. And so I'm really into that. But that pain was no joke. So anyways, back to the epidural. So I'm waiting six hours, Luis is asleep. I'm just trying to listen to my meditation music and visualize this baby dropping and putting pressure on my, I don't know, is it cervix, cervix, pelvis? Yes. So I was hoping that that would happen because then I knew that I was getting closer and closer. So that was kind of how I spent my six hours listening to like meditation, you know, visualization. Elephant? You know, I didn't think about the elephant.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [13:41] Oh, bummer. OK.

Liberté Chan [13:43] Next, baby.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [13:45] You should probably explain the elephant. Oh, well, yeah. You know, I think sometimes when you watch Animals Good Birth in Nature, it is kind of eye opening how much they know and how much they do without having, you know, listened to a great podcast or read a book or taken a class. And they don't really have anybody around them. They don't have the partner, the doula, the midwife, midwife assistant, nurse, doctor, and they just do it. And there's a great elephant birth video on YouTube called Risky Business. And the baby's name is Risky and the mama's name is Nikki. And Nikki just really just knows what to do. You watch her kind of shifting around

[14:24] from leg to leg and bearing down and not really looking fearful and not making a lot of noise and baby just comes out. And she just does all the neonatal care. She turns around and she does an assessment. The baby does not appear to be breathing. And she comes up with all these remedies to fix it. It's something worth watching. But sometimes I recommend putting it on the inspo board if you've seen that, if you've seen that film, because it's like, you know, we actually have this hardwired in us too. Yeah.

Liberté Chan [14:53] And you had me watch that during one of our sessions. And I so appreciated that because I was going into labor with a lot of fear. But watching that kind of helped me know that, you know, the body intuitively knows what to do and it just does it. And you can't control it. It's just going to do its thing.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [15:10] Now, they predicted it would be six hours until you were ready to push.

Liberté Chan [15:14] He did. They did. So I have little notes because, you know, I am a journalist. So I'm going to look at it. I was rapidly taking that day. So, yeah, so they gave me the epidural, which brought some relief. The water broke. So they insert a catheter and the water broke around 430, which was weird. I thought I peed on myself, but I didn't.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [15:36] They inserted a urinary catheter.

Liberté Chan [15:38] Yes.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [15:39] But then your water broke spontaneously later.

Liberté Chan [15:41] Yeah, yes. Like probably five minutes after they inserted the catheter. So my body was working. You know, it was having these contractions. My water broke. I didn't have to be induced. So everything kind of just was working. You know, the body is designed to do give birth. And thankfully, my body did all of that stuff naturally by 11 a.m. That was six hours after the epidural. They checked and I was dilated to nine point five centimeters. So close, so close. And then they're like, OK, let's wait another two hours. I'm like, what is this? Like two hours, six hours. You know, I just wanted to push, you know, LA traffic, two hours for a half a centimeter.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [16:22] Exactly, exactly.

Liberté Chan [16:24] So it was Saturday and then around one p.m. The midwife checked me and she did three test pushes. And then she checked my cervix and she said there was like a little bit of the cervix still left. And so she said, OK, you have to wait another hour. So finally, by two o'clock, my doctor came in and it wasn't my OB who I had been seeing because she was out of town, but a lovely doctor, Dr. Chang, and she came in and she did the cervix test and she goes, oh, it's time, it's time to push. And I didn't understand how difficult it was to push. I didn't understand how much energy it took to push until I pushed for an hour and a half. I was coached like they would watch the contractions on the monitor and I had to

[17:13] do three pushes each time to kind of work with the contractions. And I feel like I'm in pretty good shape, but that pushing, I mean, that floored me literally pelvic for you.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [17:25] Oh, exactly.

Liberté Chan [17:27] I've never felt anything so difficult.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [17:30] But there are a couple of things. Number one, how much could you feel at this point with the level of epidural that you had?

Liberté Chan [17:36] I was not in pain. I was definitely not in pain, but the push could feel the pushing like when you would engage your muscles, can you feel the pressure in the birth now? More felt like I was pushing from my abs.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [17:50] Right. So you feel your muscles contracting. But I guess what I'm saying is there's a couple of things that can make the pushing a little bit more strenuous, I think, than if these two things weren't the case. Number one, with the epidural, I don't think you can feel as much. So it's a little hard to you're disconnected from the messages that you're getting from that musculature. And number two is I think that my observation from my time as a doula going to births is that when you just wait until you have the urge to push is a little bit different than when you're coached into pushing. So when you have the urge, it's sort of a sign that your body is ready for your body's ready, your baby's ready,

[18:32] and you're pushing with your body's sort of will to push. Whereas sometimes when you don't have the urge to push and you're being coached into pushing anyway, you have to overcome the fact that your body is not ready to push.

Liberté Chan [18:45] That makes sense.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [18:46] You know, and kind of push against its will. And sometimes if you can't feel anything, you may not feel the urge to push, so they sort of go together if you're numb. The pushing part may be, at least the early pushing especially, may be a bit more challenging in effort required than if the other two things were different. But still, when I do massage on you and I hit my trigger points, I always fear for my life because if you accidentally just hit me in that, you are so strong and you have a lot of strength in all of your muscles. So if it was hard for you, then it would be hard for anybody.

Liberté Chan [19:21] Yeah, thank you. Yeah, I do take working out very seriously, but I was humbled by that experience. I was thinking to myself, my gosh, if people are not in shape while they're pregnant or prior to pregnancy, they're going to have a very tough time pushing because it was the most challenging workout of my life, but eventually. So an hour and a half of pushing and the last two pushes. Again, I got to give Luis a shout out. I had a picture of my mom and my dad in the hospital room with like battery operated candles because obviously no flame in the hospital and I just wanted to feel them close to me because we talked about it on the last podcast that I lost them in my 30s.

[20:09] So I wanted my parents there and the last two pushes. Luis looks at me and he's like, I know you can do this. He's like, call on your strength from your mom. And that just got me. And it was two pushes after that and she was out and it was like so beautiful because, yes, I had the epidural, but I could feel her head coming out through the birth canal and then her shoulders. And then there was like her booty. So it was like three little expansions. And then all of a sudden I look down and I see this beautiful, like beautiful, tiny, tiny human. And she wasn't covered in her neck. She wasn't gray. She didn't look like a little man because, you know,

[20:56] most babies look like aliens or like little old men and I feared myself for. And it was like this beautiful, perfect pink, you know, baby with perfect skin and like a lot of hair, like a lot of jet black hair. She's only a quarter Chinese because I'm half Chinese. And so, you know, I'm hop up and she's quapa, as they call it, but she looks a hopper. Like she looks half Asian and it's so cute. She actually looks like my mom and like has these little almond eyes and like this jet black hair. And I just looked at Luis and we both started crying. And it was it was the most magical and emotional and special experience of my life. And I'll never forget it.

[21:44] Oh, my gosh, getting all the warm fuzzies. Like the skin to skin, like Cedars gave me probably an hour and a half of skin to skin after the birth, and she was so perfect. She was just under six pounds. So she was five pounds, five point one five ounces. And now she's gaining weight. So now she's almost seven pounds. Like she's doing so good. I never knew I could love something so much.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [22:11] You're making my heart melt. But when it came to the birth, though, you were kind of nervous about it and like rocked it.

Liberté Chan [22:17] They said that my body did what it needed to do. And they said, usually for first time moms, it takes about three hours of pushing. And I did it in an hour and a half. So I felt good about that. It was like gold star.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [22:29] Yeah, absolutely.

Liberté Chan [22:31] They said, you know, usually first time moms, it takes about 24 hours from first contraction to, you know, when you're holding your baby. So mine was less than 24 hours. So, you know, I think, yes, it was painful, but it was so worth it. I mean, she's everything. And I don't even know what my life was like before I had her. And that was 18 days ago.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [22:53] Exactly. Maybe that there's a lack of sleep, but yeah. No, I often have a hard time imagining life before kids. You know, it's just a different world.

Liberté Chan [23:04] A hundred percent.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [23:06] Oh, that's crazy. Well, first comes labor, then comes delivery, then comes postpartum. Let's take a little break when we come back. I want to find out how the early days of motherhood are going for you. Welcome back. We're talking to Liberty, who has two babies. One is one we just talked about and one is the one she's holding right now. Little Bala. What kind of doggy is Bala?

Liberté Chan [23:38] She's a rescue, but she looks like a designer dog, I have to say. She is a Maltese Shih Tzu poodle.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [23:47] Wow.

Liberté Chan [23:49] Mostly I mean, Malti Poo with a little bit of Shih Tzu. Malti Shih Poo. Yeah, it's OK.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [23:56] You just came up with a new designer name. There must be an emoji for that. She hears us talking about her now. She's running away. Hi, Bala.

Liberté Chan [24:06] Remember Dr.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [24:07] Berlin? He actually worked on you. OK, so first, let's talk about the time in the hospital. Hopefully just a short time and then coming home.

Liberté Chan [24:16] Yeah, my friends had all warned me and they said, get ready for adult diapers. So I thought I would be in adult diapers for a month or two. I mean, it was painful. I had a small tear, but it wasn't that painful after giving birth. It was manageable. You know, I did the little spray, whatever the witch hazel pads. And then I wore, you know, a maxi pad because he bleed. Now I just have to wear like a liner and because I'm eating a little. But I thought the pain would be a lot worse after birth. And I know that every pregnancy is unique. And, you know, many people have major surgery if they have a C-section or, you know, they experience pain a little bit differently.

[25:04] But it wasn't too bad. It wasn't too bad. It was manageable.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [25:07] OK, how about the breastfeeding?

Liberté Chan [25:09] That was a challenge. You know, I had colostrum initially, and then I was concerned that the milk wouldn't come in. And now it's really flowing. But I would highly recommend and I reached out to you for this hiring a lactation expert. I spoke with Linda from Mommy, again, your recommendation, and she helped me out so much. So I think, you know, it's like you come home and you want to feed your baby and you don't know how to do that, like no one taught you how to do that. And you think, OK, the baby is just going to suck on your boob and get what it needs, and it doesn't really work like that. At least it didn't work like that for me. So it was all about the angle.

[25:50] And I found that my shoulders were really high and I was like really sore because I was like trying to muscle her into the nipple. And that's really just not what you should do. But Linda helped me with the latch, the angle. And now it's one of my favorite things that I do with her. I'm there for every feeding, except one of them I take off at 2 a.m. Just to get a little bit more sleep, I pump at that time because if you don't, your boobs just start to hurt. But I do have a night nurse right now. So thankfully I have a little bit of help. But I'm there for every single feeding and cluster feeding. So that's a lot. Yeah, many times a day.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [26:30] Oh, yeah. Well, what about the fact that you're not really, quote unquote, allowed to work out right now? This must be the longest you've gone since you started walking.

Liberté Chan [26:42] OK, I'll be honest. I did not really listen to doctor's orders.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [26:47] OK.

Liberté Chan [26:49] I mean, for the first three days, I didn't work out. When I came home from the hospital by day four, I walked down the hill I walked up the hill, I walked slowly and I didn't do the whole hill. So I was dialing it back and I listened to my body like it felt a little bit heavy in my middle, so I was wearing like a support band. And now I feel great. And now I do kind of work out, but I can't really do an hour long session of working out, I can maybe do half an hour of yoga. I can walk the dog for half an hour down the hill and up the hill. So I'm not doing what I used to do. I think those things are helpful, like sort of easing back in and are things not like you're, you know, deadlifting.

[27:37] Exactly. And for me, it's about mental health as well. Like, if I don't go outside and walk, nobody wants to talk to me.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [27:44] Well, that's what I was saying. That's what I was asking, because it's such a huge part of you, of your organism is working out and six weeks seems like an enormous time to not get a workout in. Yeah.

Liberté Chan [27:55] So I haven't followed doctor's orders, but I haven't followed doctor's orders 100 percent. But I am dialing it back and I'm listening to my body.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [28:05] But so you're listening to the doctor within.

Liberté Chan [28:08] Exactly. Exactly.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [28:10] Kind of are following doctor's orders.

Liberté Chan [28:12] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I did try to do some abs on the app machine downstairs because we have a gym because of COVID, you know, so we still have that gym. And that was not a good idea. And that was my body saying it's too soon. So no abs. I can do yoga. I can do arms and I can do lunges and body weight. But I'm not, you know, dead lifting, like you say. Yeah, neither of us. I'm listening to your doctor.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [28:43] What are you looking forward to?

Liberté Chan [28:46] Oh, like with the baby or?

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [28:48] Yeah, with the baby. I saw your baby was on TV. She's already a little star. Where's my heart?

Liberté Chan [28:56] Because I feel like, you know, we talked about this, how my parents aren't here and I don't really have like a lot of family that's Earth side. But those that are have really stepped up to the plate. Like my cousin, who's a sister to me, she was in the hospital the next day. She's like, I have to come see. She's like, I feel like a grandparent. She's like, I just have to come see the baby and you. And she brought me like green strings, better food than the hospital food. So I was really, really thankful. But like everyone's just come out of the woodwork. And I just feel like I've created such a strong circle of girlfriends who want to be this little baby's auntie and, you know, a few men as well who want to be

[29:37] her uncles and, you know, like it's just so sweet. So many of them work in news and they kind of gifted me this announcement, this birth announcement, which, you know, I'll show Mila one day and hopefully she'll think it's cool and not like cheesy. But, you know, it just warmed my heart that she's so loved and she's 18 days old.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [29:57] Yeah, you know, she really is sweet. I mean, just a sweet, beautiful face. Well, that's a great story. Interesting and entertaining. It's all the above. I mean, if I get pregnant, I'm going to listen to the story for inspo and hope that when I get to my labor and delivery room, your inspo pictures are still over the walls.

Liberté Chan [30:18] They should make wallpaper out of them and just put them up in hospital rooms. Yeah.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [30:24] Liberty, in the pre-interview before you had the baby, there was one thing that you were a little bit extra nervous about and we had to talk about it. But now it's time to sort of get down to business. Poop on the table. Did you poop during labor?

Liberté Chan [30:39] I did. And I'm so upset with myself.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [30:42] Really?

Liberté Chan [30:43] I'm so upset. And my doctor was like, everyone does. Like, they literally tell you, push like you're having a big bowel movement. Like, they literally tell you to push like that. And it's like, how do you poop like that and get your baby out, but not poop on the table? So unfortunately, I pooped on the table. And I'm very upset about that.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [31:03] You were aware of it while you were…

Liberté Chan [31:05] No, I had no idea. And so the next day I looked at Luis and I'm like, and I'm so happy I didn't poop on the table, holding the baby. He goes, you did. And he goes, I asked him to clean it up. But I was like, oh, my gosh, you saw, like I share a bathroom with him at home, like I have a separate bathroom. And then all I have to say is that when you are pregnant and you are in labor, all dignity gone. Like your booty is going to be out. You're going to poop on the table.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [31:38] Scream and cry.

Liberté Chan [31:39] I didn't scream, but like your dignity goes out the window.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [31:42] OK, maybe that's why you have a shit poo, Maltese, whatever it is, a dog. But here's what I'm saying. I think this is what I said in the episode when you were nervous about it. To begin with, I said, probably you won't even know what happened. And you didn't. And that there's a reason for it, which is that I think the baby needs to be exposed to your microbiome, your bacteria, so healthy for Mila. You did something good for Mila. And that's why you have to kind of push towards the rectum. And whatever is in there is going to come out with the baby. And also, I'm not sure if we kind of went into detail, but it's not like big logs of poop, it's a smear of poop, almost always.

Liberté Chan [32:23] It's still poop. Yeah, it's poop, but it's poop with a purpose.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [32:26] Oh, poop with a purpose. There you go.

Liberté Chan [32:30] That's my new T-shirt.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [32:31] Welcome, Mila.

Liberté Chan [32:34] What a mom won't do for her baby.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [32:36] Exactly. Liberty, thank you so much for sharing your beautiful story and open, honest and real and raw. Where can we find you online?

Liberté Chan [32:48] I have a website, LifeOfLiberté.com. And then I'm pretty much on Instagram. That's my go to. It's just at Liberté Chan, L-I-B-E-R-T-E-C-H-A-N.

Dr. Elliot Berlin, DC [33:02] Well, I will go visit you there and thank you again for joining me at home. Thanks for listening to the Informed Pregnancy podcast for more pregnancy and parenting information just like this. Visit us online at InformedPregnancy.com.

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