In Today's Issue:
- Why profitable research gets funded and life-saving research doesn't
- The male bias that's been shaping women's healthcare since forever
- Why your grandmother's wisdom is dismissed as worthless
BLACK FRIDAY!
I've been getting lots of questions about this in my inbox... yes, we are going to have something incredibly valuable for you. And yes, it's something you've been asking for that hasn't been available. But it will be for just a few days next week. So stay tuned!
After my first baby 16 years ago, I was a mess. Crying constantly, severe anxiety, couldn't sleep, losing hair in clumps, heart palpitations, shaking hands.
I was too terrified to tell anyone. Too afraid they'd think I was a bad mother. Too scared they'd take my baby away.
So I suffered alone until I finally dug into the research myself and found a provider willing to investigate what was actually happening: severe nutritional deficiencies, gut infection, thyroid barely functioning, adrenals shot, blood sugar chaos.
When we addressed the ROOT causes, the "depression" disappeared.
But here's what makes me angry: Science should have caught this. The system should have prevented this. Instead, science's massive blind spots left me—and millions of mothers—suffering unnecessarily.
Listen: All Six Limitations and What We Do About Them →
Limitation 1: Money Drives Everything
What gets studied in postpartum care? What's profitable.
Medications that can be patented. Interventions that generate revenue. Things pharmaceutical companies can sell.
What doesn't get studied? Traditional foods. Herbs you can grow in your backyard. Community support structures. Extended rest periods. Things that actually work but can't be monetized.
Most large pharmaceutical companies spend MORE on advertising than research and development. Think about that.
The gaps in our scientific knowledge about postpartum care don't exist because these approaches don't work. They exist because no one can make money researching them.
Your clients are suffering not because we don't know what helps them, but because what helps them isn't profitable to study.
Limitation 2: Male Bias Built the System
Until 1993, it was ILLEGAL to include women in clinical trials.
Decades of medical knowledge is based primarily on male physiology.
Women metabolize medications differently. Different cardiovascular responses. Different pain thresholds. Different immune responses.
But our medical knowledge largely doesn't account for this.
And it's not just the research... it's who makes the decisions. Healthcare leadership? Predominantly male. Research funding decisions? Made predominantly by men. Medical school curricula? Designed predominantly by men.
I'm not saying men can't contribute to women's healthcare. But when the vast majority of decision-makers don't have personal experience with menstruation, pregnancy, birth, breastfeeding, or menopause, there are going to be blind spots.
Why is there only one postpartum visit covered by insurance at six weeks when many complications don't appear until later?
Why do we tell mothers to "sleep when baby sleeps" instead of providing actual support?
Because the people making these decisions don't understand postpartum recovery reality. They're trying to fit it into a system that was never designed for women in the first place.
Limitation 3: Traditional Wisdom Doesn't Count
In the scientific community, women's experiences are labeled "anecdotal evidence." Translation: worthless.
Thousands of years of traditional postpartum care across cultures? Anecdotal. Worthless.
Millions of women saying "this intervention helped me"? Anecdotal.
Your grandmother's wisdom about postpartum recovery? Anecdotal.
Traditional cultures across the world—Chinese, Indian, Latin American, African—have emphasized warm, cooked, easily digestible foods for postpartum recovery for THOUSANDS of years.
But where's the randomized controlled trial comparing warm cooked foods to raw foods in postpartum? Doesn't exist.
So according to strict evidence-based medicine, we can't officially recommend this practice.
Except we KNOW it works. Mothers tell us it works. Generations of successful recovery tell us it works.
But science dismisses it as "just anecdotal."
Meanwhile, we have plenty of "evidence-based" interventions making things worse: telling mothers to sleep train at two months, recommending intense exercise before bodies have healed, pushing mothers back to work at six weeks.
(Did you see the latest article on why fetal monitoring in labor is "the worst test in medicine"?)
These recommendations are based on incomplete evidence that doesn't account for the full complexity of postpartum.
Why This Matters in Your Practice
I had a client recently diagnosed with postpartum depression and anxiety. TWO YEARS on medication with minimal improvement. Multiple adjustments. Therapy. Everything by the book.
Finally got comprehensive labs: Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Ferritin virtually undetectable. Severe B12 deficiency. Cortisol completely dysregulated.
Was she depressed? Yes. But medication wasn't working because the root cause wasn't what everyone assumed.
Science gave us the label. But failed to investigate underlying physiological causes.
Why? Because research protocols say: screen for depression, prescribe medication, refer to therapy.
Not: do comprehensive metabolic and nutritional testing on every postpartum mom with mood symptoms.
That research doesn't exist. Too expensive. Too complex. Doesn't fit pharmaceutical company business models.
When we rely on science alone, we miss critical information that could save mothers from years of suffering.
Get All Six Limitations (Plus What to Do About Them) →
The episode covers the other three limitations plus the practical steps you can take in your practice right now.
Science is brilliant. Science is essential. Science saves lives.
But science alone is not enough.
Stay fierce, stay rooted,
Maranda Bower
CEO & Founder of Postpartum University®
www.PostpartumU.com
