Dr. Erica L. Robinson (2025)

13/05/2024

I was surprised how many people were so concerned about my placenta when I did a free birth.

Delivering one’s own placenta is something every mammal is capable of and has done for hundreds of thousands of years.

Again this highlights where we’ve been collectively duped to believe that this task is somehow difficult, and that only a trained medical professional can do it.

I grew up with too many mammals giving birth to believe this is somehow a medical procedure.

Also, apparently only 3% of women experience retained placenta, and I’d hazard a guess that number is inflated due to medicalized births and ‘management of the third stage of labour’ aka they pull your placenta out prematurely instead of letting your body expel it naturally on its own time.

Which is in the neighborhood of 45-60 minutes after giving birth, btw.

Something also feels gross and weird to me about someone else wanting to take credit for ‘delivering a placenta.’ Something about others wanting to come between me and my body’s own capabilities is strange.

For instance T jokingly said he felt useless about the birth so he’d tell people he at least delivered the placenta. But language and stories are so important so I said Hellll no. Do I look like a person who needs help expelling - not delivering - a placenta? Do I occur as that feeble? Is a placenta on par with a pizza that needs to be delivered?

And then he even said something like, “I cut the cord, separating mom and baby,” but again I corrected that: as you can see in the picture, his cord is still attached after the placenta is out of my body.

There was no third person detaching myself from my son. There was Nature expelling a placenta and then us cutting the cord between placenta and baby.

These stories can all serve to paint a picture of
Women as weak, women as livestock, women as farm animals, women as objects to own, control, and medicalize.

T’S intentions are good and he is not the issue but it speaks to the larger world of language around women and birth. And birth is where they come for us.

Birth is the beginning and birth will be the end of these injustices.

It’s not hard to birth or expel your own placenta.

11/05/2024

My favourite thing about my wild pregnancy (unmonitored, no licensed health care provider) was how CALM and relaxing it all was.

My three previous births with midwives were all marked by some weird experiences with false positives and totally unnecessary theatrics.

I even remember in my third pregnancy, not the midwife but the ultrasound tech writing up a highly concerning report,

And my MD of all people being the one to say it was ridiculous and probably unnecessary for me to go to an advanced hospital for further diagnostics.

Guess what…. All of these turned out FINE.

I also asked additional questions.

For starters if my first pregnancy was a Down syndrome risk, would it change anything I was doing? No. So why investigate further especially if the investigations themselves increased risk of miscarriage?

If my second really had a clubbed foot, did I NEED to birth in hospital? The midwife said no, they just recommend it, but it can’t actually be treated until later anyways (?!?!?). So what was the point of all that? Nothing. Worrying for nothing.

Making women make decisions for nothing.

Pushing women toward increasingly medicalized births and from home to hospital, for nothing.

I really like these resources if you’d like to learn more about the risks of these technologies, and the amount and risk of false positives:

- Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering book by Sarah J Buckley MD

- Freebirth Society course - 27 hours of video content plus numerous handouts

10/05/2024

It’s very common in the wholistic world that people say you can’t do a yeast / fungal / candida detox until you stop breastfeeding.

This can’t be further from the truth.

I think the practitioners perpetuating this don’t work with a lot of perinatal women. I spent time on a pediatrics shift at school; at a private clinic focused on women and babies; and at a perinatal centre with over 30 practitioners focused on women and babies.

In all these places, fungal infections were a common concern for both mothers and their babies, including thrush and skin infections, (as well as internal candida in the GI tract), and it was regularly treated.

Yes it’s true we can’t use heavy hitters like goldenseal / Oregon grape / berberine because they aren’t safe for baby. And we can’t use peppermint, thyme, or oregano because they decrease milk production. But this list of supplements above is considered safe in breastfeeding (always check with your practitioner first).

Nystatin (a medication available by prescription only) is an anti-fungal known for staying locally in the GI tract and not crossing into breastmilk.

Garlic, echinacea, and grapefruit seed extract demonstrate anti-fungal and immune-supportive properties while being considered safe in breastfeeding.

Chinese Skullcap (not regular skullcap) has also been shown to have a variety of effects against candida.

Ginger has weaker anti-fungal properties but might play a supportive role in a well-rounded plan.

I’ve always found MCT oil / caprylic acid to be weakly effective but can help as part of the diet.

Activated charcoal can serve to bind biotoxins given off by the yeast to reduce symptoms.

And certain probiotic strains can help boost beneficial bacteria and yeast in the GI tract to keep candida in check, namely S. Boulardi, L. Rhamnosus and L. rheuteri.

If you need biofilm busters (because candida will hide under a biofilm), NAC is typically safe while breastfeeding.

It helps to rotate your herbs / supplements so that candida can’t adapt.

Have you tried any of these approaches? Have you dealt with candida while breastfeeding? How did it go?

09/05/2024

Getting ninja-kicked in the newly lactating breast by a violent 3-year-old is not my idea of fun.

07/05/2024

My first birth was arduous AF and I made so many ‘mistakes’ in comparison to the three that came after.

I discovered these things through trial and error in my second birth, during which I didn’t show enough signs of ‘pain’ so my midwife almost didn’t come in time for the actual birth.

I managed to shorten my experience of a one minute contraction down to only 30 seconds, (it still lasted a minute - I just didn’t feel it), and the climax of the contraction was really only 4-5 intense but bearable seconds.

If you step into a hospital setting or any unfamiliar / uncomfortable environment, it can release stress hormones which can cause uterine muscles to do more of a shearing action than an effective contraction. So this is # 1. You want effective contractions so this is over with more quickly. Shearing also causes pain.

The second thing is feeling unobserved again so that birth hormones can flow fully and give you a quicker less painful labour.

Staying upright allows for the constant gravitation effect of the baby pressing on the back of the cervix, making labour go faster. When you need the intensity to slow down, you can always go on all fours.

Hot shower water is also helpful.

But by far the top most effective element for not experiencing contraction pain in my experience has been Movement. Squatting, lunging, dancing, hip circles / figure 8s, or whatever else you feel intuitively moved to do.

I only really move during the contraction and rest and conserve energy in between. The
Number one reason home births transfer to hospital is fatigue, so you’re trying to balance 1) making your labour quick and effective enough that you aren’t in it long enough to fatigue with 2) having enough energy to *move* through contractions.

When your body is moving, it blocks incoming pain signals.

Bonus, these movements more effectively move the baby down and into the proper positioning, again hastening labour.

Women in the wild are typically upright and moving through their entire labour.

I don’t find vocalizing to be necessary when you don’t feel pain. I did hum through contractions but was otherwise pretty quiet.

Have you tried any of these? Did they work?

07/05/2024

Sweet Baby had his first visit to an Osteopath today!

I was super impressed by the experience.

His jaws were not aligned properly causing him to chomp down quite a bit. It could have been due to his positioning during birth or the fast labour.

Last week we got his tongue tie released at the Pediatric dentist, it was only a posterior tie, so the ‘least bad’ of all four of my children - all of whom have tongue ties. She suggested however that he see an osteopath for all the tension in his jaws!

The release helped quite a bit, I was no longer experiencing bleeding bruised ni***es, but there was still a fair amount of pain and his latch was quite bad.

I am crazy impressed to say his latch completely shifted after seeing the osteopath!

She worked on his jaws, cheeks, and face. She is also a lactation consultant! She showed me some things with respect to feeding him, and a completely new way of burping him which *actually*’works.

I’m so happy we had this experience and also sad my other children didn’t get to have this when I feel it would have helped them so much.

The post partum dream team for me for a new baby would have to be tongue tie dentist + osteopath + lactation consultant, because my kids are all born with lip ties and I’m committed to keeping my breastfeeding relationship with them. I also try not to bottle feed even if it’s breast milk, because it takes BREAST feeding to develop the face and jaw. I am committed to helping them develop as best possible and I understand my ability to do this is a privilege.

And honestly. The pain of BFing Jordan was so bad I kept praying to God every day, praying to show us who and what we needed for him to be able to feed. And I feel like God delivered through multiple Earth angels.

And I would say that is the difference now, I surrender more and more to God’s will, fight it less, try to do it all on my own LESS; I try to let it be easier. There is a whole world of resources out there and I chose to invite them in. I trusted I would know when someone was delivering the right advice or referral to me.

And here we are, watching it all work out. Fourth time’s a charm I guess?

Xo ER

05/05/2024

Sometimes it’s about what you’re NOT getting as much as what you are getting.

The simplest way to avoid a bunch of interventions I hated and that aren’t even evidence based is to avoid this system altogether.

People often don’t believe that many of these things aren’t evidence based, assuming the system knows best and how can that possibly be true? But it is. It’s well known that adoption of best practices in the hospital system is approximately ten years behind the current research.

For instance we KNOW episiotomies aren’t evidence based. Tears heal much more effectively and yet, episodes are performed all over North America every single day.

Once you go down the rabbit hole of actually researching the things I’ve listed, it’s quite scary what you will learn. And so most women don’t. It is a sovereign act to reclaim your authority over your own body instead of blindly trusting medical professionals.

Even if we DO choose to engage the system because we have a high risk situation, have we done our research to know about the things on this list? Usually no. It’s rare to get truly informed consent from someone working within the system itself. Including medwives.

My favourite starting place with my first pregnancy was reading Dr. Sarah J Buckley’s (MD) book on Gentle Birth, Gentle Mothering which walks you through all of these items and the evidence (or lack thereof) supporting them. I was able to make a lot of choices that way and form my birth plan.

But by far going free birth was the most powerful and supportive for me personally. The fear we have surrounding birth has been instilled in us very purposefully, and permeates popular media terribly so. It’s all a lie, an extreme exaggeration of a very very small number of cases which should indeed seek advanced care and would likely know to do so either prior to conception or during pregnancy.

Go down the birth rabbit hole and you’ll never be the same. You’ll stare misogyny right in the face. It will transform you.

05/05/2024

Happy Star Wars Day & Baby Due Date!

Baby Jordan was born 9 days ‘early’ but his due date was today! Actually knowing this made him feel all the more fated to me because I’m a Star Wars fan and sci fi nerd.

I also took the at-home blood test (postcard pictured above) through SneakPeek at 8 weeks to find out he was a boy! I love that test and have used it with 3 of my 4 pregnancies (it didn’t exist 12 years ago with my first!)

It was a super interesting pregnancy with a lot of depth and self discovery. My pregnancies are always spiritual journeys but this one was by far the most intense.

I had to reconcile my issues with how I’ve felt about interacting with the majority of men in society and in my lifetime, with the fact that I’d now be raising one whom I didn’t want to turn out that way. I think I have my work cut out for me. And I think he is a sweet sweet soul that I probably don’t have to worry about. But I’ll do my best regardless.

On the physical level with this pregnancy like all of them I was insulin resistant but not gestational diabetes. It never gets that far but it Does mean I can’t tap into fat for fuel, I eat like crazy, I crave carbs like no tomorrow, and I drink 4 litres of water a day. Holy.

Some say that girls take love from the mother, and that boys GIVE love to the mother, starting in utero. On that aspect I felt it to be true. Something physical shifted deeply in me and I feel myself really healing from some lifelong afflictions in my physical body. I don’t really know how to comment on it other than that. I Do feel something was given to me and less was taken from me than in my other pregnancies is all I can say.

In some regards it was my easiest pregnancy, in others, my hardest. I’ve taken more Gaviscon than I ever thought possible. My physical body felt ‘done’ with the pregnancy a lot earlier, and I think he knew and decided to come a bit earlier. Who knows. My first was 12 days over, my second a day early, my third 7 days over. This one… 9 days early but right on time.

Welcome to the world sweet Baby Jordan 🩵 one day we will watch Star Wars together 💙

04/05/2024

Again I would like to highlight that it’s possible physiological births are maybe less messy than ones with all these interventions?

There are a lot of free births still involving blood etc but in my case with my free birth it didn’t. Versus my midwife-attended births seemed to be a blood fest especially when they decided to ‘manage the third stage of labour’ aka yank my placenta out for me; only minutes after giving birth, because they told me they were afraid I would ‘bleed out’ otherwise.

They also gave me pitocin shots each time which I declined because they’ve been linked to postpartum depression and yet they gave them to me anyways. For a problem I almost definitely would not have had if they weren’t present.

The act of making something a medical problem is what actually makes it a medical problem.

Also people who think birth is dirty and disgusting might actually be dumb. As per the final picture, that is the only damage I have to show for this birth: a few drops of blood.

Again, probably not everyone’s story, but I willed it to be mine. My water broke a day and a half prior so I guess that saves me from having that fluid on the scene. But there was no blood bath or poo. But also I take a lot of magnesium 😂

Anyways, the midwives are just as medical now as OBs. It’s a joke to think you’re getting holistic care with them. I’ve barely scraped the surface on the ways in which they disrespected my birth plan three times continuously on the same issues. But I’ll leave it at that for today. I appreciated their care at the time and for what they do, but we have to be honest, they do not allow for physiological births whatsoever. Their very presence and how they medicalize so many aspects of birth disrupts it.

This sovereign birth is allowing me to heal from my prior experiences but anger is definitely part of that process.

Did you have your this stage of labour ‘managed?’ How did it go for you?

02/05/2024

What do you think? Have you experienced your labour stalling or slowing down when you left home? Or did you feel like your care providers presence (or inviting too many people to your birth) slowed things down?

Curious to hear your thoughts!

01/05/2024

This week I will be posting about Wild Pregnancy and Free Birth. As much as I love ADHD support for women and their families, I love women’s wellness as a WHOLE, and pregnancy and birth are such a major part of that.

I recently had my own wild pregnancy and free birth on April 25th. And I’ll share more of the personal story of it soon but in short YES I was scared. I was unshackling myself from almost 40 years of conditioning about pregnancy, birth, and women’s bodies. It ain’t easy.

And then after it happened it was this whole feeling of, Wait what? I was scared about THAT? It’s such a natural process and it flows way more effectively, easily, and I would argue SAFELY when it’s allowed to be its natural process.

I don’t call my doctor to come help me deliver every p**p I take 😂 why this? PS T hates that example and I get it, it’s not a perfect example but…. If you’re a low risk pregnancy, it kind of is?

And it just harnesses the sensation I had once the experience was complete. The sensation of, “I was scared about THAT?”

I’m just saying. I’ve had worse occurrences with Mexican food than giving birth.

And it’s not just me. I’ll speak to why this is. I don’t have a superhuman pain tolerance. I will post exactly what I did to not experience traditional contractions. As well as why I think women free birthing don’t experience the same as in hospital or with midwives.

More to come!

🤍 ER

30/04/2024

I'm not kidding when I say gut / microbiome dysbiosis is a major source of low dopamine and therefore exacerbated ADHD symptoms.

If you've heard of C. Difficile, you might associate it with older people who catch it in hospital and subsequently pass away - this exact scenario happened to my great uncle.

And a lot of people catch it each year - an estimated half a million Americans.

But these tend to be the cases we know about.

Many of us will get C. Difficile and never know - unless we do something like an OAT test (Organic Acids Test) or GI Map test (Gastro-intestinal Microbial Assay Plus test). I have spoken about these advanced lab tests in my posts in the past.

For instance, my middle daughter at only 2 years old had C. Diff. And I might have it right now too!

C. Diff makes toxins that interfere with the production of dopamine. And so do molds like candida! And worst of all, most times these infections will co-exist. So you've got multiple microbes - both bacteria and fungi / mold - interfering with your ability to make dopamine and be functional.

But hey. Why not just pop a Ritalin / Vyvanse / Aderall / Concerta instead and never deal with the problem of a messed up gut? Big Pharma is very happy with this decision. (But WE are Especially sad when we push a child down this path).

I, on the other hand, believe in the war of good over evil. And I say you should know about this. And that luckily, the herbs that kill fungi / mold, often ALSO kill C. Diff, so you could knock this all out in one fell swoop.

A good gut re-establishing protocol will rely on nutrition & lifestyle factors, some herbal antimicrobials, and some good probiotics to replace the bad guys like Saccromyces boullardi, lactobacillus & bifidus strains. Check my programs (link in bio) to learn more.

Dr. Erica L. Robinson

13/05/2024

11/05/2024

10/05/2024

09/05/2024

07/05/2024

07/05/2024

05/05/2024

05/05/2024

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30/04/2024

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