In this episode of The Pulling Curls Podcast: Pregnancy & Parenting Untangled, Hilary Erickson sits down with Dr. Tori O’Daniel, an experienced OB GYN, to discuss critical considerations for plus size pregnancies and births. Sponsored by Laborie Medical, the episode delves into the challenges and solutions related to monitoring, C-sections, and postpartum care for moms living in larger bodies. Tune in to learn about innovative products like traxi® and ABBy™ that enhance safety and comfort during and after childbirth.
Find it here on Apple or Spotify Podcasts
Big thanks to our sponsor Laborie Medical their ABBy™ Postoperative Panniculus Retractor:
- Preserves the patient’s dignity during the 4th trimester
- Allows easier skin-to-skin contact
- Does not interfere with breast feeding
- Can be adjusted and/or reapplied
- Can be worn while showering
- Gentle to the skin and hypoallergenic
Today’s guest is Dr. Tori O’Daniel. She is a Board-Certified OB/GYN whom has been practicing for 14 years. For the past 11 years she has been an OB/GYN Hospitalist in OKC, Oklahoma. Dr. O’Daniel is the Medical Director for the OB Hospitalist and women’s services. She also is the Medical Director for Women’s Health Services at Mercy Hospital. She instructs educational classes and facilitates the OB Emergency Simulations for the nurses and physicians within her department. As an Adjunct Faculty at Oklahoma State University, she is the Director of the Medical Student Clinical rotations at her institution.
She has been actively involved in the Society of OB/GYN Hospitalists (SOGH) for the past several years. She co-chaired the Simulation committee in 2020 & 2021 and Co-Chaired the ACM 2022 & 2023. She currently serves on the Board of Directors.
Dr. O’Daniel is passionate about education and advocating for women’s safety in health care. Thus, she actively teaches across the country about vacuum assisted deliveries, treating post partum hemorrhage and other OBGYN Emergencies.
Links for you:
My full post on plus-size pregnancy.
My episode on aspirin in pregnancy.
Timestamps:
00:00 Discussing reactions to “obese” in medical documentation.
03:53 Avoid judging health solely by BMI.
08:03 Importance of acknowledging weight in medical care.
10:08 Monitoring adjustments are common in labor delivery.
13:12 Post-C-section care advocacy and practical advice.
16:23 ABBYY is a reusable, hypoallergenic medical binder.
21:03 Allow air, reduce moisture for optimal healing.
22:42 Communication is crucial for effective postpartum care.
Keypoints:
- Hilary Erickson and Dr. Tori O’Daniel discuss the unique considerations of plus size pregnancy and birth.
- They introduce traxi®, a product by Laborie Medical, designed to aid in plus size c-sections.
- Plus size pregnancies come with higher risks for diabetes, hypertension, and preeclampsia.
- Importance of understanding and dealing with “redundant tissue” (or panis) during pregnancy and c-sections is emphasized.
- Dr. O’Daniel explains the benefits of the Abbey, a device designed to promote healing by allowing air to reach the incision site.
- Discussion on the psychological impact of terminology and how to approach weight-related documentation sensitively.
- Emphasis on the importance of continuous weight monitoring throughout pregnancy to detect any significant changes.
- Challenges in fetal monitoring for plus size patients and potential solutions, including internal monitoring.
- Encouragement for plus size moms to ask questions and advocate for their needs with healthcare providers.
- Hilary and Dr. O’Daniel highlight the advancements in medical technologies that improve the care and dignity of plus size mothers during and after pregnancy.
Producer: Drew Erickson
Transcript
[00:00:00.620] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, guys. Welcome back to the Pulling Curls Podcast. Today on episode 246, we are talking about plus-sized pregnancy, considerations in pregnancy and birth, so let’s untangle it.
[00:00:13.500] – Hilary Erickson
Hi, I’m Hilary, a serial overcomplicator. I’m also a nurse, mom to three, and the curly head behind Pulling Curls and the Pregnancy Nurse. This podcast aims to help us stop overcomplicating things and remember how much easier it is to keep things simple. Let’s smooth out those snarls with Pregnancy and Parenting Untangled: The Pulling Curls Podcast.
[00:00:41.570] – Hilary Erickson
Big thanks to today’s sponsor, Laborie Medical. For 30 years, Laborie Medical Technologies has been dedicated to one mission, ensuring every mother and newborn goes home healthy. As one of the world’s largest manufacturers of labor, delivery, neonatal, and gynecology devices, Laborie has supported moms and babies with over 75 million devices sold globally. Their commitment to innovation and education drives them to keep advancing. Here’s to 30 years of care and to many more for moms and babies everywhere. To learn more about their solutions, visit laborie.com/obstetrics.
[00:01:14.970] – Hilary Erickson
Okay, I am super excited for today’s guest. She has been a board-certified OB/GYN for 14 years. She currently practices in Oklahoma. She is passionate about education and advancing women’s safety in health care and teaches around the country about these types of scenarios. I want to introduce today’s guest, Dr. Tori O’Daniel.
[00:01:34.030] – Hilary Erickson
Hey, Tori. Welcome to the Pulling Curls Podcast.
[00:01:36.520] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Hi there. How are you, Hilary?
[00:01:37.920] – Hilary Erickson
Good. So Dr. O’Daniel, but we’re going to call you Tori because Dr. O’Daniel is just too hard this early in the morning.
[00:01:43.940] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
That sounds fine.
[00:01:44.680] – Hilary Erickson
So today we are talking about plus-size pregnancy. And I got to tell you, so I had my appendix out three weeks ago, and I was reading the surgical report, and it starts out with 48-year-old obese female. And I was like, my feelings were so hurt.
[00:01:59.720] – Hilary Erickson
And then I was like, it’s just documentation, Hilary. He wasn’t in there saying, God, this girl is fat. It took more to probably get through me to get to my appendix. It’s just documentation. But I got to tell you, my feelings were hurt when I read it, which is so dumb, right?
[00:02:18.640] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yes, I totally understand that. I think that we all come to the physician indexes in our life, and your history is going to come with that, right? So you’re allowed to come with your feelings and feel all the feel.
[00:02:29.880] – Hilary Erickson
And this is not meant to offend. There’s so many ways that we can say it. Tori was saying that in her work, they call it a person of size, which I hope every person is a person of size, even those tiny little people, the newborns.
[00:02:42.490] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Right. Yeah. I mean, I think we’re all just trying to make sure we’re being inclusive and not exclusive and make people feel bad about their bodies. I think one terminology that I’ve heard that I really, really like is living in larger bodies. Those of us living in larger bodies. I think that that’s really appropriate and allows allows you to identify what’s happening, but doesn’t make you associate with that as your entire identity.
[00:03:04.950] – Hilary Erickson
Still hurts my feelings, though.
[00:03:08.420] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Fair enough.
[00:03:10.150] – Hilary Erickson
We don’t want to be offensive however we refer to it on this podcast. It’s just people in larger bodies like she was talking about, and some of the things you can experience, and how to work around those different things. That’s what we’re talking about today. And let me be really clear. I am plus-size. I have a whole post on being plus-size at Disneyland because there’s different things that you have to approach, like rides because you’re plus size. So same idea here. We’re just approaching it with our bodies that we have, right?
[00:03:36.390] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Sure. Of course. Yeah.
[00:03:37.690] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And I want to say it’s not always about weight, right? Because some people are very skinny, but then have a really big tummy. Or as we go into breastfeed, they have giant bosoms, right? And that can affect how we deal with them in all those different kinds of ways, too.
[00:03:52.940] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
100%. I mean, you really cannot associate somebody’s difficulties or even their obstacles based on their body mass index or their weight, because it really just depends on how it’s distributed throughout your body. And just like you said, you might be very thin and have large breasts, and then you’re going to have to figure out how to appropriately breastfeed your baby.
[00:04:11.600] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
It’s the same thing with your belly or your abdomen. I mean, you may lay back and it might distribute differently than somebody of the same size. It’s really important to take the patient as a holistic approach and not just based on their BMI.
[00:04:23.790] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. I don’t think… We didn’t weigh people at my hospital when they got to the hospital. I think we just took whatever their last visit was because… Who wants to be in labor and you’re like, just jump up here on the scale, right? No, no, thanks.
[00:04:36.170] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yeah, yes. We routinely weigh people on admission on hours, but not always necessarily in labor. But if they’re getting admitted to our antepartum service, if there’s some a complication where their weight gain may really be impressionable for us. If they’re pre-eclamptic and we’re watching to make sure they’re not gaining a lot of water weight, we’ll do their weight when they get there.
[00:04:55.630] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And I got to say, so I started labor and delivery in 2001. Tori, I think I was a little bit before you, but you were probably maybe in residency.
[00:05:03.310] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I was. Yeah, I was in residency from 2010.
[00:05:05.880] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. And I got to say, we had zero things to deal with this. We made up things, right? We used all of our foam tape. Oh, my goodness. We used all of the things at our disposal. Straps, many straps were used.
[00:05:18.120] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yes.
[00:05:18.920] – Hilary Erickson
But I’m so grateful. Probably 10 years into my journey, we started to come up with things like this. So Laborie, the sponsor of this podcast, has a thing called traxi®.
[00:05:27.620] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
That’s correct.
[00:05:27.950] – Hilary Erickson
That really makes plus-size C-sections so much better than what we were Jerry rigging together, like MacGyvering.
[00:05:34.780] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Oh, my gosh, MacGyver.
[00:05:35.550] – Hilary Erickson
Back in the day.
[00:05:36.310] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yes, everybody was MacGyvering, and all well-intended, right? We were just trying to make sure that the patient’s abdomen was out of the way so we could actually appropriately and safely make that incision. But in doing so, I think we really just fell short on people’s feelings and having dignity maintained in those situations. I’m so grateful that there are more devices and products there to allow us to do both because that’s really what we’re after.
[00:06:00.190] – Hilary Erickson
Yes. And there’s another product called ABBy™ that we’re going to talk about later that they’ve developed that’s even for after you have the C-section. So you guys might not have noticed a difference with how we dealt with things in the OR, although I would guess, considering how much foam tape I would put on your belly back in the day.
[00:06:14.720] – Hilary Erickson
But there’s even stuff that you can help to deal with your plus-size body after you have your baby. And I think it’s so awesome. I’m glad that we’re coming up with innovations that make sense for things like this. Yes.And okay, so we were talking about in the OR, and your lower part of your belly, there’s lots of words that we use for it. Muffintop, right? Fupa is one of my patients’ favorites. Apron. A lot of people call it an apron belly, like when we’re talking about what your body shape is or a pouch. But in the hospital, we call it your panis. Not my favorite word. We have so many
[00:06:45.680] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yes. Panis or paniculus. Yeah.
[00:06:48.770] – Hilary Erickson
So we have to get that up and out of the way in order to do a C-section. And it also can cause issues with your pregnancy and things like that as well. So that’s what we’re referring to.
[00:07:01.680] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yeah. So that area right where it hangs over is right where your underwear line typically hits, so right above your pubic bone, where your hips, if you were to come from your hips into the center, is typically where we make that incision. And so if you’ve got what you refer to as muffin top or your fupa hanging or your apron hanging over, then it impedes me being able to make that incision where I would normally make it.
[00:07:22.940] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
And it also can impede when I’m delivering your baby. So getting it up and out of the way so that I can do this safely for you is really what our goal is.
[00:07:32.110] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. Okay, so plus-size pregnancies in general, what are some things that those moms need to be on the look out for during their pregnancy? Obviously, everybody needs to talk with your provider.
[00:07:40.950] – Hilary Erickson
Just to shout out, so many people are like, They don’t need to weigh me at my appointments. Guys, It’s important information, especially as you get going into your pregnancy. If you had a significant weight loss or significant weight gain, that makes us think about different things. You don’t have to look at it, turn around. I don’t care. But weight, weight is important during your pregnancy to be weighed and all that stuff. But what do those moms need to look out for?
[00:08:03.670] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Well, just to backtrack for one second, I really think that it’s important that what you just said, why it’s important. There’s so much in society that’s brought upon people living in larger bodies that really do feel such a sense of shame that comes with weight.
[00:08:17.480] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
It’s really important that your physician, your midwife, whoever’s talking with you, your nursing staff, when you’re in labor and delivery at the clinic, talk about the fact that your weight is not all of us, what we’re dealing with, but it is a part of how we’re going to take care of you well. If you don’t want to look at it, then it’s perfectly fine, but it is going to affect the way that I care for you. Some of those things that we think about as we go through that labor and delivery process is that I am going to be monitoring your baby while you’re in labor.
[00:08:42.510] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
We use these external monitors to get that monitoring to watch your baby while you’re in labor. If you have redundant or excess tissue on your abdomen, it’s harder for me to do that. I don’t think we talk about that enough and what that means for me to be able to monitor your baby to make sure your baby’s safe.
[00:08:59.150] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
You’re more It’s likely to have your membranes ruptured as soon as we can rupture them so that we can place internal monitoring in there to monitor your baby safely, and I don’t have to use that external monitoring.
[00:09:09.760] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
You do have a higher risk for diabetes and hypertension throughout your prenatal care. We’re going to be watching that pretty closely. We check your blood pressure every time that you come into the clinic. Then based on your history and also your size, we might do an early screening for gestational diabetes. That means you’ll have that sugary, lovely orange cherry bull gripe whenever we offer you to do that screening earlier than that typical 28 weeks.
[00:09:37.050] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Then you can also have something called labor dystocia, which slows down that process of labor as we’re watching that labor curve and we’re making sure that your cervix is dilating in labor. Yeah.
[00:09:47.430] – Hilary Erickson
I mean, there’s a lot of things that we’re watching for. Side note, if you’re plus size and you’re early in pregnancy, please be sure to talk with your provider about aspirin in pregnancy because I’m still surprised by how many people are not being offered aspirin in pregnancy. You can look at that podcast episode I referenced earlier.
[00:10:01.980] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Preach it. I love it. Can we reference it and put a little asterisk so they can click on that for here? Because yes, aspirin, for sure.
[00:10:08.300] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. So preeclampsia, GDM, all of that leads to, and I got to give a shout out for monitoring because Baby has a little bit more room to, not more room to move per se, but more room to get out of my monitor as I’m trying to put it on. And so we’re just in there adjusting.
[00:10:26.530] – Hilary Erickson
That is our job as a labor and delivery nurse. I’m constantly in the room adjusting, so don’t feel bad. You can always offer to hold it, though. You can offer to find it on your own. I’ve had a lot of patients who are like, No, I’d much rather get it on my own. It is not a licensed professional skill. A lot of it is just tilting it. So great steps.
[00:10:45.000] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yeah. And your position, just like you said, holding it, but also the patient’s position really can help. We have wireless monitoring that sometimes works really well as well. And so I encourage you to be an advocate and be a part of that because, like you said, delivery nurses are in there adjusting all the time. And so we want help from the patient for sure.
[00:11:02.730] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah. I should also say, sometimes on super skinny ladies, it’s also a problem because their blood vessels get in the way. Everybody has their own… Everyone’s a problem in labor and delivery. Except they’re not. We love all of them.
[00:11:14.500] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yeah, we love laboring patients, but there are obstacles, and the obstacle is not always somebody’s weight. I always encourage. I feel like I just try to be as open-minded as I can and talk to somebody like I would expect them to talk to me about whatever it is that clinical presentation is being brought to them.
[00:11:32.590] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I talk about the things that we’re going to change or do differently based on what they’re presenting me with. That doesn’t always mean weight, but weight is certainly a part of that. I don’t shy away from talking about it because I want to make sure we’re all on the same page. Yes.
[00:11:45.730] – Hilary Erickson
And because we were talking about preeclampsia, diabetes, it can lead to an earlier induction, those people are at a higher risk of C-section, right, Tori?
[00:11:53.830] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
That’s correct. Yes, 100 %. Because if your cervix is not favorable or if you’re a little bit more preterm, It takes us longer to get you into that induction process into active labor. So you are at higher risk for having a primary C-section because of that early induction. Yeah.
[00:12:09.550] – Hilary Erickson
So also get on aspirin. Just a second plug for aspirin.
[00:12:13.600] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
We’ll just… Every few minutes we’ll just plug an aspirin and say…
[00:12:17.180] – Hilary Erickson
The thing is, we would do these C-sections on these plus-size mamas, and I would be like, Oh, I hope that girl does okay, because if you are a plus-size gal, think of the C-section being where that panis folds. And so a lot of times these moms would go home and I’d be like, It’s going to end up so moist.
[00:12:36.950] – Hilary Erickson
We all know that those areas that fold get more moist. That’s a breeding ground for bacteria. There were all these different things. And of course, when Hilary had her baby in 2000. They were like, Baby will be born. It will be sunshine and rainbows, and you’ll live happily ever after.
[00:12:51.430] – Hilary Erickson
And we’ve learned that’s a lie.
[00:12:53.260] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
A lie. Always.
[00:12:54.080] – Hilary Erickson
But I think we were doing that to these poor plus-size moms, right? You’ll be fine. It won’t be any problem. But there is a new thing called the ABBy™ that can help you take care of your postpartum body plus size, or even if you just have that belly that hangs over because skinny girls can still have a muffin top. It could be problematic. Yeah.
[00:13:12.470] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I mean, the other thing that people call it, too, is that shelf, right? I mean, the shelf commentary or discussion about after having a C-section is all over the mommy blogs and podcasts and things like that talking about the frustration with that shelf.
[00:13:26.000] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
But you use traxi®. So as a physician, I use traxi® in the midst of the operating room to make sure that I had easy access and I’m performing this procedure safely. But I want to give you the tools as the patient to maintain advocacy for yourself and help me help you in your postpartum care.
[00:13:42.750] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
So many women ask me about how can I participate in this care. Before having something where I could really lift this redundant tissue off of that incision site, I was also MacGyvering it. I would tell them to use a pad to put the absorbent side of the pad against the incision and let their belly hang so they could wick away that moisture, or a sock, or a piece of fabric, or a cloth. I mean, you know. There’s things like that that we just try to help our patients. The ABBy™ really is so helpful for me post-op, and it’s helpful for the patient because we get to work in tandem to take care of the patient at hand.
[00:14:18.370] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
The ABBy™ is this sticky-like material, almost what I describe as a window cling that can lay on their belly right above their incision, and it lifts that redundant tissue off of that incision and allows air to get to it.
[00:14:32.510] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Often my patients find that when I’m placing the ABBy™ on and give them that compression, they also get comfort from that because it causes that compression that you’re feeling, and it really allows the air to get to it. I can see the incision. I can make sure that it’s healing like it needs to you, and they are allowed to adjust it. They can pull it up and adjust it however they wanted for two weeks after their delivery.
[00:14:52.240] – Hilary Erickson
Yeah, which is awesome. A lot of you might be thinking, I’ve heard about binders. We’ve used binders as long as I’ve done labor and delivery, which is like… I mean, it looks like a tummy trainer, although it is not going to make you skinny. I’ve had so many patients that are like, Oh, I want that binder because I want my… I don’t know what it thinks it’s going to do to your uterus, but I want my waist back.
[00:15:11.870] – Hilary Erickson
And I’m like, Girl, that is not going to get you your waist back. And they have been really helpful. I love a binder. Usually what it does is just keep your uterus in place, especially when you’re standing up. It’s not wiggly wobbling around that incision, but it has some cons as far as it doesn’t really hold up the belly like the ABBy™. And it’s hot. Yes. Being in Scottsdale, it’s hot. People don’t love that part.
[00:15:33.760] – Hilary Erickson
Actually, a binder and ABBy™ can be used in tandem. If you like that really tucked in feeling of your uterus in place, because people who have had a C-section or a V delivery will find that their uterus just feels big.
[00:15:46.980] – Hilary Erickson
It feels bigger than it should be because it’s still, what, five months pregnant after you have the baby?
[00:15:52.490] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yeah. Everything feels out of place after you’ve had a baby. It does not matter if you’ve had a vaginal delivery or a C-section. Everything feels exhausted and tired, and they do a marathon, and we don’t give patients enough credit dealing with this.
[00:16:05.770] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
But the beauty is that you want to have as many tools in your tubule as you can to help your specific situation. What you said is just spot on. It’s just how I counsel patients.
[00:16:16.420] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
If I place the ABBy™ and I lift and I can see and they still want a little bit more compression, then I can put a binder on top of that. The beauty of the ABBy™ for me as a physician helping the patient is that the binder typically used alone, it compresses and it gives that great compression that you’re describing, but it compresses that redundant tissue down onto the incision, which then can also cause pain. If it shimmies while they’re in bed, then the bottom part of that abdominal binder, the edge of that, then fold into the incision, and then it compresses right on that incision itself, and it hurts a lot. Then the other problem is that it’s hot, but it can also get really dirty.
[00:16:53.040] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
You sometimes can have some fluid that leaks around your incision or you’re sweating right on your back. If it’s around there and it gets dirty, people don’t love using that time and time again.
[00:17:03.050] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
The ABBy™, that material is hydrophobic, and it’s also really super sensitive, so it’s hypoallergenic, and it can be used again and washed. So you can actually use soap and water, wash it off, and then pat it dry. So that it retains its stickiness to do both. So they can use it throughout the change in their body as their uterus compresses down, and then they can keep using it and just adjusting it.
[00:17:25.480] – Hilary Erickson
Now, the tricky part of these is you can buy a binder on Amazon, and most hospitals offer a binder, although not all of them. In fact, the hospital I most recently worked at wanted cash at the bedside. Oh my gosh. If a patient requested the binder, it was 20 bucks. I guess we took credit card. I’m guessing we didn’t take cash. I never had a patient who was like, That’s an excellent idea. I was like, Or you could get it on Amazon for maybe cheaper.
[00:17:48.600] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I’ve never heard of that.
[00:17:49.740] – Hilary Erickson
But the ABBy™… I know. I didn’t work at a super trashy hospital, too. Let me just verify. I previously worked at a much scarier hospital that gave away binders.
[00:18:01.610] – Hilary Erickson
The problem with the ABBy™, though, is it is a medical device. So this is something that your hospital orders and the hospital has it. It’s not something you can get on Amazon yet. Hopefully someday soon. Fingers crossed. But what’s the best thing? Tori, if people are hearing this podcast, they’re like, This is an excellent idea, what should they do?
[00:18:19.480] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I think they should ask their physicians about it or their midwives. So you can start asking and talking, and I really encourage patients to start asking and talking about their labor and delivery and postpartum process in their clinic, which a lot of providers are doing nowadays, they’re really focusing on what the expectation is when you talk about your birth plan.
[00:18:37.630] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
There’s lots of jokes about birth plans, about, Oh, my gosh, this evil birth plan. But I really love a good birth plan so that we can talk about what your expectations are, and I can clarify what things are possible. In that conversation, you can say, If I end up having a C-section or I know I’m having a repeat C-section, I’ve heard about this device that I really think can help me as far as improving in my… postpartum advocacy for myself. Do you have access to this? Can you offer this to me? I really encourage patients to ask about it.
[00:19:07.840] – Hilary Erickson
I was just thinking, sometimes a company getting into the hospital is the hardest thing, right?
[00:19:13.070] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
For sure.
[00:19:13.560] – Hilary Erickson
Because we’re full of Baxter. Baxter gives us everything at the hospital. But I think the vast majority of hospitals will have this traxi® unit. So Laborie is already in with the traxi® unit. So you could tell your provider if they’re like, I’ve never heard of this, ABBy™, you could say, Oh, it’s by the same people that the traxi®. And then they’ll be like, Oh, great. Let me talk with the manager the next time I see her. And they can see if that’s something they can order in for your surgery or for somebody down the line, because they might not get it in for your surgery, but by asking about it, it helps hospitals know that this is something people would like. Shocking. And they can order it for…
[00:19:50.540] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Yeah, and I actually really like the combination of using the two. I like having the traxi®® in the OR for me to be able to use. And then we really clean off and wash patient’s belly off afterwards. So I love taking it off and letting the abdomen lie when we clean it off.
[00:20:07.220] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
And then when I get to use the ABBy™, then I teach the patient how to use that. So I highly encourage the patient to ask, and I think you’re 100% correct, that most of the time when they have one product from a company in there, it’s a little bit softer to get it into the hospital. So ask. You can’t hurt it to ask for sure.
[00:20:24.670] – Hilary Erickson
Yes. And one thing I forgot, I was thinking about this, is the general population doesn’t understand how good air is for wounds. I think we all think, Oh, it should be covered up, right? Put a bandaid on it immediately. Leave that bandaid on until you can see the bandaid forever on your finger, like my kids do, right? But air can be really healing for wounds. And so that’s one of my favorite things. When I saw the ABBy™ at the AWONN conference, I was like, Oh, that is genius, because when it’s in that moist, closed-in environment, that’s just bacteria opening up the incision. Sad news, they can reopen, which is not…
[00:20:58.130] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
We’re not looking for that. Never fun.
[00:21:00.820] – Hilary Erickson
Right. Yeah. So air is important.
[00:21:04.490] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I just cannot stress that enough. You’re trying to give your incision the best environment to heal. The way to do that is to decrease your moisture and allow air to heal on its own.
[00:21:16.300] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Allowing that redundant tissue, that fupa, that muffin tough, whatever we want to call it, to get out of its way, it decreases that. You don’t have that friction from your belly hanging over that. It really just gives it the environment that I’m trying to get anyway. It’s what we were MacGyvering. When we were just trying to get rid of all that moisture, it’s giving it that environment to do that.
[00:21:38.230] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Then when I’m coming to look at it in the hospital, and also when you come into a clinic and review or evaluate the incision, I can see it a lot better. I mean, a lot of patients have discomfort when you go to lift their belly initially to get it off of the incision. You know, as a nurse, you have a binder on and somebody has a binder, you walk in, you’re like, I need to pick at your incision, and you go to release it. They hold on to their belly because it hurts so bad.
[00:22:02.670] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
And this takes that away for them, which is really nice. Yeah.
[00:22:06.930] – Hilary Erickson
So obviously, what we always take away from the Pulling Curls Podcast is do not be afraid to ask questions. Don’t be afraid to ask your provider if this is something they offer or could offer at your hospital. And don’t be afraid to ask questions about postpartum or your birth plan throughout all of pregnancy. And don’t be afraid to say, Hey, I know I’m a plus-size gal. What things do you foresee? What things could I be doing? Are there exercises that I could be doing that could help my body get into labor more? Talk with your provider. We don’t want to fire hydrant you with information because we don’t actually know what you’re interested in knowing. But when you ask questions, most providers really want to give you all the answers that they can.
[00:22:42.270] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Also talking to your provider, your physician, your midwives, about maybe some of your issues that you might have shame around is really eye-opening for us, too, to be sensitive to the things that are really important to you. I just think we underplay communication so much. We’re all a time constraint, and I feel like this podcast is re-energizing that. You have to talk, you have to advocate, you have to ask questions, tell me where you’re coming so I can meet you in the middle. I would love to do that with really anything, and especially your postpartum care.
[00:23:15.990] – Hilary Erickson
Yes. Okay, Tori, thank you for coming on.
[00:23:18.790] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
You’re welcome.
[00:23:18.870] – Hilary Erickson
Thank you, Laborie, for sponsoring such an important episode to talk about these important things, because healing postpartum is just as important as what happened throughout that whole pregnancy and labor. So let’s not forget it anymore.
[00:23:30.960] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
I agree. And aspirin. Aspirin.
[00:23:35.170] – Hilary Erickson
Aspirin to reduce your chances… Don’t forget to talk with your provider. Yes. All right, Tori, have a great day. Thanks for coming on.
[00:23:42.660] – Dr Tori O’Daniel
Thank you so much. Take care.
[00:23:44.230] – Hilary Erickson
Okay, I hope you guys enjoyed that episode. I know that this can be difficult to think about, just like Hilary reading her OR notes. But it’s really important that it’s a consideration that you have throughout your pregnancy and postpartum. So I’m so grateful that there are companies like Laborie who’ve created the ABBy™ that can help you heal better after you have a C-section. And big thanks to Dr. O’Daniel for coming on the podcast. That was a fun conversation.
[00:24:08.740] – Hilary Erickson
Stay tuned because next week we’re actually talking about my appendicitis, so you won’t want to miss that episode. And then the week after that, we are talking about exercise in pregnancy, which is important for everyone. So stay tuned.
[00:24:21.170] – Hilary Erickson
Thanks for joining us on the Pulling Curls Podcast today. If you like today’s episode, please consider reviewing, sharing, subscribing. It really helps our podcast grow. Thank you.
Keywords:
plus size pregnancy, pregnancy considerations, birth considerations, Pulling Curls podcast, plus size birth, maternal health, OB-GYN, women’s healthcare, pregnancy nurse, labor and delivery, newborn health, maternity devices, neonatal devices, obstetrics, Labory Medical, traxi device, ABBy postpartum product, C-section recovery, maternal safety, birth plan, gestational diabetes, preeclampsia, prenatal care, postpartum care, labor induction, surgical incision, redundant tissue, body mass index (BMI), breastfeed challenges, pregnancy and exercise.
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