We've all been there before: You laugh a little too hard, and you pee yourself. A hard run leaves you damp in more areas than your armpits. The lingering cough from the cold you had last week has you dribbling. Or maybe you went to a trampoline park with your kids, only to find yourself peeing a little with every jump. That's all normal, right? Wrong.

While all the above scenarios are incredibly common, they're not normal—and they're certainly not optimal! So what's the solution for women who want to live their lives without fear of constantly peeing themselves? Is the best way to treat incontinence—as a recent article from The Guardian suggested—really to get an injection of a plastic-based goo into your urethra every few months for the rest of your life?

Pelvic health expert Dr. Kayla Borchers doesn't think so, and she's back on The Natural Womanhood Podcast to talk with Grace about the healthy, holistic ways women can truly treat incontinence, stop peeing themselves, and get their lives back (and no, it's not about doing your kegels).

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Some pregnant women run marathons, and some barely have the energy to get off the couch.

Some women can hardly wait to return to their normal physical activities after having a baby, and others like to take their time getting back into the swing of things.

Who's got it right? How much should we be exercising while pregnant? Are there any kinds of exercise pregnant women absolutely shouldn't be doing? And just how important is postpartum exercise, and how much should women be aiming to get in the year after having a baby?

In this episode, Natural Womanhood's Editor in Chief, Grace Emily Stark, interviews pelvic floor physical therapist Dr. Kayla Borchers on all these questions and more. In this episode, you'll learn about:

• Trimester-specific exercises and focus
• What kinds of exercises to do when you just don't want to do / don't have the energy to do anything while pregnant
• What to do /where to go when dealing with pregnancy aches and pains
• Any exercises you should absolutely avoid while pregnant
• The importance of exercise postpartum: How to do it safely!
• When and how to begin exercising again postpartum (and how to fit it in!), and how much is too much?
• What problems can postpartum exercise help mitigate (back pain? PPD? Diastasis recti?)
• When to know you need more help healing postpartum, and where to go
• How to play "catch up" if you didn't have / weren't able to have a very physically active pregnancy
• Preparing better for your next pregnancy

Want to watch this episode on YouTube? Click here!

Want to work with Dr. Kayla? Click here.

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The "hot girls have stomach problems" social media trope is grimly funny, probably because so many of us can relate to the phenomenon of "oh, I can't eat that, or I'll be in the bathroom the rest of the night," (and even if you're lucky enough to not be personally familiar with that feeling, you've undoubtedly heard similar sentiments from your sisters or girlfriends).

But Ginny Noce, AKA The Women's Health RN, is here to tell us that your "tummy troubles" are actually your gut trying to tell you something about your health, your hormones—even (and perhaps especially) your menstrual cycle. And the most interesting part of it? It's a two-way street. That is, your cycle may actually be able to tell you a thing or two about your gut.

In today's episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, Grace and Ginny take a deep dive into all things gut health, and the way it impacts our overall health—including our cycles and fertility.

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How on earth does a clinic surrounded by universities—and with a large student patient population—win the "best women's health clinic" award from the Seattle Times ... without ever prescribing birth control?

Helen Nguyen, CEO of 3W Medical for Women, thought it sounded too good to be true when she was told 3W had won the "Best Women's Clinic in the Pacific Northwest" award in 2023, and she almost couldn't believe it when they won again in 2024. But it's a testament to the fact that 3W is shifting the paradigm when it comes to women's health—and that birth control doesn't have to be part of the definition of women's health (as we've been made to believe for decades).

In today's episode, Grace interviews Helen about 3W's origins, what they do differently from your "standard" university campus- or women's health clinic, and—the best part—the incredible patient testimonials indicating that this is what truly empowering women's healthcare is supposed to look like.

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Back in Season 2, we asked the question "Can Catholics use NFP?" to tackle some of the perceived controversies that surround the use of fertility awareness methods (FAMs) when used for family planning (often referred to in this context as "natural family planning" — hence, "NFP"). Because Natural Womanhood is dedicated to the belief that fertility awareness is for everyone, we decided that it was high-time to revisit that question, but with a twist.

In today's episode, Grace sits down with Emma Waters to answer the question, "Can Protestants use NFP?" As the wife of a man currently studying for the Anglican priesthood, Emma's a great person to make the case for why Protestants of all stripes should reconsider how they plan their families—and what they use to do it.

NB: Although we're focusing on the Protestant perspective(s) surrounding NFP in this episode of the NW podcast, we encourage all our listeners to check it out for a concrete understanding of what sets FAMs apart from the Pill or any other form of contraceptive.

Do you want to make the case for why people of your faith background should use FAM/NFP (or why faith isn't required for using FAM/NFP), I'd love to hear from you! Please shoot me a message at grace@naturalwomanhood.org.

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Functional medicine-trained nurse and nutritionist Ginny Noce (aka "The Women's Health RN," as she's known to her thousands of Instagram followers) wants you to know that using the nonstick cookware at your AirBnB during your long weekend away isn't going to make or break your fertility health. She also wants you to know that "calories in, calories out" is absolutely the critical key to weight loss—but that where your calories are coming from and how your body is using them is just as essential for achieving your health- and fertility-conscious weight loss goals. Perhaps most importantly, she wants you to know that a maniacal obsession with "clean eating" might be doing more harm than good when it comes to your health, fertility, and fitness goals.

In today's episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, Grace interviews Ginny to help listeners get past the black and white thinking that pervades social media "wellness culture," to pursue their health, fertility, and weight loss goals, and more. In this episode, you'll hear from Ginny:

- What sets apart the functional medicine approach to nutrition

- Why unbalanced hormones are not a root cause in and of themselves for fertility issues like PCOS, recurrent miscarriage, and more

- What "the plate method" is, and why it's a critical tool in her nutrition practice

- Why insulin balance is one of the most critical components to good health and fertility

- How to achieve healthy, sustainable weight loss in a way that promotes—not harms—your female fertility

- And more!

Want to connect with Ginny? Check out her Instagram, her website, or fill out a client form to work directly with her or a member of her team.

Interested in more fertility-focused health & wellness and fitness & nutrition content from a balanced perspective that separates truth from the Instagram hype? Check out those topics at Natural Womanhood.org

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"There is no informed consent without body literacy," says Katie Vidmar, Natural Womanhood's Director of Programs, in this fascinating episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast. "If you don't know how your body works in a state of health, you can't wrap your mind around what's at stake with any given healthcare decision."

In this episode, Katie sits down with Grace to lay out exactly what's at stake when women are kept ignorant of their bodies, their menstrual cycles, and their health. She also discusses what body literacy is, why it's especially critical for women's health, and what she and Natural Womanhood are doing to empower women to know, understand, and (ultimately) love their bodies. (Oh, and she drops this bombshell: Every woman who's ever been prescribed and taken birth control to "regulate her cycles" did not have informed consent—which is a lot of women.)

Learn more about Natural Womanhood’s Cycle Mindfulness Clubs: https://naturalwomanhood.org/cycle-mindfulness-clubs/

For more about Katie Vidmar and her Elevate program: https://katievidmar.com/

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By historical standards, the dating landscape for Millenials and GenZ is... strange, to say the least. The ubiquity of dating apps, social media, and smart phones has changed the game not only for romantic relationships, but for friendships as well. And friendship, says Jason Evert, is the critical foundation for forming a lasting, loving, intimate relationship with another person:

"You can have passion without friendship, but you can't have intimacy without friendship. In the end, if you don't have that authentic friendship—that real tenderness, not just of affection, but the tenderness of perceiving the needs of the other and putting those first—if you lack that, good luck making this go the distance. That's why we need to pivot away from, 'okay, are we gonna be compatible in the bedroom?' to 'are we compatible outside the bedroom?' I think if you are, you will make love as you love."

In this latest episode of The Natural Womanhood Podcast, Editor in Chief Grace Emily Stark sits down with Jason Evert to discuss friendship, the role of body literacy in understanding libido, and more, to answer the question: How can I get the relationship I want? We can promise that both male and female listeners will have a lot of positive, actionable advice to take away from this episode.

For more about Jason and the Chastity Project, see: https://chastity.org/ and https://chastity.com/

Learn more about Natural Womanhood's Cycle Mindfulness Clubs: https://naturalwomanhood.org/cycle-mindfulness-clubs/

For more sex and relationship content from Natural Womanhood, see:

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