E02: Pregnancy Loss & Listening to Your Instincts

Connect with Amy:
Website: www.amylongard.com
Instagram: @amylongard

In episode 2, as a new mom, Amy Longard shares her stories of planning a vegan pregnancy at 38 years old, experiencing pregnancy loss, and navigating her prenatal nutrition goals. Don’t miss her insider tips for staying confident, getting in protein, listening to your body, and most of all, enjoying your vegan pregnancy!

Amy is a registered holistic nutritionist, plant-based chef, & wellness consultant based in Ottawa, Canada. She stays busy as a full-time vegan mom and offers corporate wellness workshops on healthy eating and virtual group cooking lessons.

Transcribed:

Maya Bach:

Welcome to today's episode. Today, I have plant-based chef and vegan mom, Amy Longard. Amy and I connected over Instagram when she was currently pregnant, and she and I have been supporting one another here through social media. Following her journey has been really inspiring for myself and other vegan and plant-based moms. So I invited Amy today to share a little bit more about her journey with you to inspire, empower, and educate you, the listener, during your vegan pregnancy so you can feel confident. Amy, welcome.

Amy Longard:

Thanks for having me.

Maya Bach:

Yeah, of course! Is there anything else that you would like to add to that introduction?

Amy Longard:

I think that was pretty good. That's kind of, nowadays I'm vegan momming mostly full-time, doing a little bit of part-time work. I do a lot of corporate wellness workshops on healthy eating, and I also do with different groups cooking lessons virtually. That's what's keeping me busy, baby, and a few little things on the side.

Maya Bach:

Wonderful. I wanted to ask you, I think this is an important part, we each come to veganism in a different way. What prompted you to go vegan?

Amy Longard:

So my story is, it's a little different. I was actually in Costa Rica on a yoga retreat. It was a beautiful retreat in the mountains. We were staying in these huts and they were growing all of their food on site. I had kind of gone because I just needed an escape. Prior to jumping on this actually recording, Maya and I were talking, I was telling her how cold and vicious the weather is here in Ottawa in the winter. So that was my escape, and it was such a great trip, but it was all plant-based. And I had never eaten entirely vegan, plant-based. Everything we served there was either vegan or raw vegan. Everything was almost picked off the land there. And the food was so amazing. I just loved what I was eating, and it was all so fresh, so tasty. I felt really good.

Amy Longard:

And at one point I was talking with one of the owners and he was telling me, we wanted to do it vegan for various reasons, environmental, health, animals, all sorts of stuff. But then I said to him, "Humans, we're omnivores, we eat meat, we eat cheese, we eat all this stuff. We're not meant to be vegan. That's not how it is." And he said, "Well, how do you know? Have you done research?" And of course I hadn't researched it at all. That was just something I said off the top of my head, because that's sort of this collective common thinking. And he challenged me a bit and he said, "You know what? You're feeling great here. So that must tell you something. Why don't you go home and try to be vegetarian for one month, and just see how you feel. See if you can do it. That's my dare. I'm daring you to do that."

Amy Longard:

And because I'm kind of competitive, I said, "I'm going to one up you and I'm going to go vegan," because I have a hunch that I'm lactose intolerant. I knew something was up with me and dairy and I had always had this hunch, but I never let it go. So I went home and went vegan for a month and felt so good. My skin was amazing. I had a chronic and persistent cold that happened every single winter, the entire winter of my life, even as a child, to the point when I was a kid, my parents used to take me to the children's hospital because I'd be hacking coughing all night long. I think dairy was the big culprit there.

Amy Longard:

But when I went the full plant-based route, that cough never came back. And I was so used to it. I just thought it was part of life and normal, to be coughing like a seal. That's the only sound I can liken it to is that I sounded like a seal. So that happened to me every winter of my life. And it just never came back and it never has since. And I've been vegan almost 10 years now.

Maya Bach:

Wow.

Amy Longard:

That was a big one. That, and then of course I learned about the food industry. I learned about what happens to animals. I learned about what was going on in the environment. And as a person who loves nature, loves animals, I have a really strong spot for social injustices, and hearing about what's happening, say, to the workers in these factories, and learning about all that stuff, it really, it further compounded my why. Yeah, I'm feeling good and a lot healthier, but there's also these other elements that help me stick with this diet other than just health.

Maya Bach:

First of all, amazing story. Incredible. And I really appreciate you sharing that. Sometimes what I hear from other people and in society, it's, oh, vegan, it's a diet. It's what you put in to your body, or what you don't put into your body. And really speaking to your why, why are we choosing this? It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle. So I think it's important to share with one another and share to the world that you can be vegan and be pregnant and have a baby as a vegan woman. And it's not just a diet.

Amy Longard:

I totally agree.

Maya Bach:

Speaking about pregnancy, what was your biggest struggle planning for your vegan pregnancy?

Amy Longard:

For me, there was a few little things going on. Number one is I waited until I was 38. So now I'm 39, and my baby, she is just six months now. I waited until I was 38. So of course there's that rumbling out there, again, this other common misconception. I don't know if it's even a misconception or what, but that I was having a geriatric pregnancy, that I was older, that things weren't going to work out well. As I was starting, really my hold back in going for children is that I just wasn't emotionally ready. I was busy with my career. I just didn't see how a baby would fit into my life.

Amy Longard:

And that's what led me to be 38 when I first started trying. So I had a bit of fear around even starting because I heard, oh, well, you're more likely to have a miscarriage. You're more likely to have things go wrong, or your baby might have different health issues because of your age. This is things I kind of heard peripherally. I wasn't really focusing on that, but I knew that was something that was out there in the world. But interestingly enough, when I did first decide, we just said, okay, let's go for this. We're not getting any younger. Let's try. And actually the first time, within the first month or so, we ended up getting pregnant.

Amy Longard:

However, that first pregnancy did result in a pregnancy loss at about 12 weeks. And I did know at about seven weeks with the ultrasound. We knew that there wasn't a baby in there. It was called a blighted ovum. So it means that just the sac formed, but no baby. So that happened. And honestly, we were sadder about that than we thought we would, you know, like that made us realize, both me and my husband, because we were on the fence with kids for so long, and having that loss actually reinforced that we actually want to have a kid because we were crushed by that. That really took us back. When we were sitting there getting the ultrasound and seeing nothing on the screen, that was like, ugh, what do you mean? We just expected to see something.

Amy Longard:

So that reinforced, you know what, we're going to keep trying. What was really interesting is that I literally had one period after the miscarriage, and then we're pregnant again. So immediately got pregnant, and that's my current baby. So coming into this next pregnancy, of course, not only the age was kind of in the back of my mind, but that pregnancy loss is very real and can happen. I am super healthy, even with the age factor, but I have to say, none of my healthcare providers, not a single one commented on my age, because if you're having a healthy pregnancy, they don't worry about that. My midwives, my doctor, the ultrasound techs, nobody said a thing about my age.

Amy Longard:

Really, it was the pregnancy loss, and also I'm very much into whole foods, plant-based eating. And my first trimester, literally I was all about the carbs and ice cream. So I was like, am I getting enough for my baby? It would have been good for me to be talking to you back then. But I just went with what my body's cravings were. All that to say is that my age was a slight factor, which didn't really come into play. And then also the pregnancy loss, which is a very real thing and I think it's important for people to talk about, and that's why I'm bringing it up here, because I think most women don't say anything.

Amy Longard:

And when I actually posted about it on my Instagram, I had so many women write to me and say, "I had that happen, too, and I didn't know anyone else had that same thing happen. I didn't know it was so common." So that's why I just bring that up, because it does really affect you psychologically as you go on to be pregnant again. And it's just something worth talking about, and knowing that that stress you feel, it's a natural feeling, and everything's out of your control once you're pregnant. You can eat as healthy as you can, but your body's going to do what it's going to do. So that's just kind of what I had to keep telling myself. So that's how I got over that hump.

Maya Bach:

I really appreciate you bringing that up. And I agree, it is important to talk about, because it's not talked about very often, and especially for vegan women, sometimes you can feel like your diet is to blame or what you're not eating is to blame. Right?

Amy Longard:

Well, yes, that's so true. And that's something that I was honestly thinking in my head, and the fact is I got pregnant right away both times, which shows that obviously my health is pretty good, I think based on my diet, I'm guessing. But there is that thought, but the thing is whether you're vegan or not, this can happen to anybody. And I was talking with my mom and sister, both of whom experienced pregnancy losses, as well. My mom had four pregnancies and only two children. She wasn't vegan. She was way younger. She was in her twenties. She was actually 24 or 25 when she had me. So she experienced a few pregnancy losses in between my sister and I, and she was young, healthy, eating meat, eating cheese, eating all those things.

Amy Longard:

And my sister, who is mostly leaning towards plant-based, not fully, she experienced a pregnancy loss on her first pregnancy, as well, but then had two healthy kids after. So I think diet, it's only one aspect of a healthy pregnancy, and focusing too much on vegan and whether or not it's going to, I think it's probably leading to a healthier pregnancy, honestly, because I felt amazing my entire pregnancy, the second one, it was great.

Maya Bach:

That's wonderful. And yeah, regardless of what we're eating, not eating, your body has so many different factors that go into that.

Amy Longard:

Your body will determine, it has its own agenda, and sometimes the baby or whatever's happening is just not the right combination that's going together, and that's what leads to that. And I don't think people should put any blame on themselves for their diet, if they're vegan and going into that. It has nothing to do with that. Hopefully that helps people think about it that way.

Maya Bach:

Yeah, to raise awareness and to talk about it in and of itself is impactful. Speaking about getting support or feeling like, oh my gosh, am I getting the right nutrients, what helped you feel confident in your decision or knowing, okay, I'm doing the right thing by eating a vegan diet for pregnancy, despite what society says or what other people say? What helped you build that confidence?

Amy Longard:

I did a little bit of research, but honestly, not much. I just knew that the main things we need in our diet, especially when you're pregnant, is you need protein. You want to make sure you're getting in protein. And we know plants have a lot of that. And also diversity of nutrients. If you're eating a whole food plant-based diet, you're getting diversity anyways. There might be periods of your pregnancy where all you can eat is a piece of toast and peanut butter. But when you're feeling better, then focus on getting in healthy plant-based proteins, like your beans, chickpeas, tofu, tempeh. Get your nuts and seeds, as well, even whole grains. And I tended to go to more whole grain type of noodles when I was doing that stuff, like rice noodles, like we talked about on our Instagram live, bean noodles, those are an option, just looking at ways to incorporate protein into every meal.

Amy Longard:

And if you miss one meal, that's okay. Just get some in the next meal. But thinking about really the fundamentals of nutrition, that's what I was sticking to. So getting in the protein, and I also did know that it was important to take a prenatal. So that's something that I did, and I just knew, vegan or not, you can find great vegan prenatals. So that's not an issue. And I also had heard that for the baby's brain and development, it was important to get an omega. So I did take an omega supplement, a plant-based, and there's tons of great options for that now, as well. You're not missing out on omegas. And I also ate things like walnuts, chia, flax, hemp, just to reinforce that, whether it was putting it on oatmeal, in smoothies, and making pesto with hemp.

Maya Bach:

Yum.

Amy Longard:

Walnuts. I was eating a lot of nuts and seeds, and that made me feel good, too. I just felt good in my body. So I knew I was doing it right. I was eating. I was listening to my cravings. If I was hungry, I was eating. I was eating more. I actually did eat a lot more and you can get away with, I found for my pregnancy, I could eat a lot more than I could before. And even still now, because I'm breastfeeding, I can eat so much. I'm eating more than my husband. So just listen to that and go with it. You're building a baby or you're feeding a baby. Follow your instincts, too. Don't disregard your instincts. They tell you a lot.

Amy Longard:

The media is going to scare the hell out of you with anything to do with vegan pregnancy, children. You hear the craziest stories that most of them are based on one crazy outlier that has nothing to do with vegan, or I don't know, you hear terrible stories. So just follow your instincts, work with somebody like Maya, who can help guide you if you are unsure. I do have a lot of experience with food and nutrition, so for me, I was a little bit more well-versed than the average person, but yeah, protein, getting in omegas, my prenatal, and just eating a variety of foods.

Amy Longard:

I craved fruit. I ate a lot of fruit. I did not fear eating fruit. I ate a lot of it, probably for the vitamin C, even the water. I don't know. I craved it so much. So I just went with it. I ate a lot of fruit. And then I was pregnant in the summer. So here in Canada, we had the farmer's markets and I had my farmer delivering me veggies. I was eating the most healthy local veggies. I was eating so well. All that to say, get in the main nutrients and follow your instinct. And if you're not sure, talk to a professional who knows what they're doing.

Maya Bach:

Yeah. Those are great tips and takeaways for women who maybe don't have support, whether it's a community, healthcare professionals supportive of a vegan diet. Well, first of all, did you experience any of that from healthcare providers who questioned vegan diet for pregnancy, or from others?

Amy Longard:

No. You know what? I did not.

Maya Bach:

That's amazing.

Amy Longard:

I'm really lucky. We have midwives here, so they had no qualms about that. They're like, your pregnancy is healthy. Every time you come in, you're doing great. Your body weight is perfect for everything. Your baby's doing ... The fundal measurements, mine were actually on the lower side, and that's because, so fundal is where they measure your belly and see how the growth, but mine was always on the smaller side. And my baby was actually, she was six something, six pounds and 12 ounces when she came out, which is a little bit smaller, but I had her at 38 weeks.

Amy Longard:

But I'm also tall, too. So when you're tall, your fundal measurements tend to be lower because there's more room for the baby to stretch out. But stuff like that, everything was going really well. I remained active. So I think you kind of, you are living that example. You prove how healthy you are just by being healthy. And when you walk in there and they see, oh, your iron's good, just those tests that they do, you can still be just as healthy when you're vegan. And I did. And no one questioned it. My family doctor didn't question it. Everything just went really well.

Maya Bach:

That's wonderful. For women listening, it's important to hear that what you're doing can support you as a mom-to-be, and also your baby. I don't know a better way to say this, but the proof is in the pudding.

Amy Longard:

That's what I was trying to say. And I was trying to give that exact expression, but I could not remember it. So yes, proof is in the pudding.

Maya Bach:

There you go. Yeah. Definitely there is value in getting a blood test, checking your levels consistently, especially for women who have a history of low iron or anemia. It's important to keep an eye on that. And there is no reason why as a vegan woman, that you can't have normal levels of these key nutrients, as long as you're paying attention to that. I love what you said. Variety, diversity of plants.

Maya Bach:

For women listening who may be feeling anxious about their vegan pregnancy or second guessing their decision, or who feel isolated, what would your number one piece of advice, what would you share with them?

Amy Longard:

For me, one of the things that I did that I found super helpful is I tracked down on Facebook, a group, I'm in Ottawa, Canada, and there is a group of Ottawa vegan mamas. And I would just pitch questions at them, like, hey, what supplement did you get? Just anything that I didn't know, these ladies had all the answers. They were great, because a lot of them had a few kids who were vegan or at least one kid. There was other women who were pregnant, like me, but a lot of them, they were kind of like my mama.

Amy Longard:

So it's really helpful having a group of people who are like-minded, and you don't feel judged by that, surrounding yourself with people that support what you do. Because if you're around people that you feel judged, it's not going to help you. There's potential other stressors around being pregnant. Be around people that you enjoy being around, that lift you up, that support you in what you're doing, because you're going to do what's the best for your baby as a vegan. And you can have a completely healthy and happy, everything can go very well with a vegan pregnancy. Just be around people, whether that's online right now, because of COVID, sometimes that's where you're meeting people is online, in Facebook groups, or being around people that support you and don't question what you're doing.

Amy Longard:

Because it doesn't make you feel good when people are ... You're already, especially as a first time mom, I think the second time moms don't worry about this as much, but the first time moms, I think this hits you a bit harder, when people say, oh, what about this? And then you're like, I didn't think to worry about that. Am I supposed to worry about that? So it's a little bit more tricky as a first time mom.

Maya Bach:

Everything just kind of ramps up, especially what you were saying before, the media and turning to Google and these sources, anything related to a vegan pregnancy. I will say I do feel healthcare providers in general are moving toward being more accepting and supportive of vegan and plant-based pregnancies. But the women that I talk to, and I know the media can be extra fear inducing, anxiety inducing, so it's important to find not only like-minded women, but professionals who do support you in your direction.

Amy Longard:

That's a really good point. I found the midwives just so supportive of me, and even one of my midwives was a vegetarian, and actually my doula, I had a doula, as well, she was also a vegetarian. So I specifically chose my doula for that reason. And I did not know that, because you get given your midwives, you don't really pick who your midwife is here in Ontario, they just assign somebody to you. And it just so happened that one of them was actually already vegetarian anyways, and she had raised her kids that way, and she is one of Canada's actually most well-known midwives, from what I've been told. So she knows her stuff, and she's vegetarian.

Maya Bach:

That's wonderful. That's really, really good to hear. Is there anything else that as a now vegan mom, you wish you would have known before planning for pregnancy, during your pregnancy, that you could share with other women?

Amy Longard:

I think one of the main things as a mom, as a pregnant woman, is try not to listen to all the noise out there. Because as a mom, as a pregnant woman, you are going to get a lot of people saying a lot of things. You're going to see a lot of things in the media, as you were saying. You can go down a crazy wormhole if you start Googling. Really just trust your instincts. Sometimes there will be periods of time you're going to maybe want to Google things, but it really compounds the stress if you listen to everything that's going on out there.

We know intuitively, and we hear so often now, there's just more and more information that eating a plant-based diet is healthy for all stages of life. That is the statement by I think it's the American Dietetics Association. Is that the body who says that?

Maya Bach:

Yes.

Amy Longard:

So we know this is a healthy diet. We don't question this. Just stick with the basics, follow your instinct, let your body lead you. And don't look too much outside of yourself, because you will feel stressed. I think anything in life, you're always going to feel worse when you look out and see what everyone else is doing, compare yourself. It's going to take away your joy. It really does. So enjoy your pregnancy. It's a precious time. I really, I miss my little belly, and I have my baby now, but I miss that stage of like, you feel so special and it's a great time. So enjoy it. Be with yourself, go with your instincts, and don't let other people bring you down.

Maya Bach:

I love that. Such words of wisdom, to find ways that lift you up, and ending on a positive note. Thank you so much, Amy. I really appreciate you sharing your time.

Amy Longard:

You're really welcome. Thank you for having me.

Maya Bach:

Yeah, absolutely. I will link to Amy's profile in the show notes, for those of you interested in reaching out to her, connecting with her, as we build this community of like-minded vegan women. Thanks so much for your time.

Maya Bach:

Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you're ready to go from feeling concerned to competent as a vegan mom-to-be, send me a DM. I'm on Instagram at @vegan.prenatal.nutrition. I'd love to hear from you, and we can chat more and see if the Vegan Pregnancy Collective is for you. Remember, you're not in this alone.

Maya Bach:

If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with a friend and subscribe to the Vegan Pregnancy Podcast to get notified when new episodes are released.