PLEASE NOTE: The information in this blog is for educational purposes only. It is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Consult your healthcare provider for medical advice, diagnoses, or treatment.
There’s a growing movement of women who are taking a more traditional approach to pregnancy.
Instead of fearing and avoiding animal foods like organ meats and raw dairy, they’re embracing these foods as a rich source of nutrients to support themselves and their babies throughout this crucial time.
One of these women is Melanie, a founding member of Heart & Soil, who recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Autumn. After switching to the animal-based diet in 2020, Melanie continued these habits throughout her pregnancy.
In this article, we’ll take a closer look at her diet, supplement routine, the decision to use a homebirth with a midwife, and lessons learned from her pregnancy journey!
How did you discover the animal-based diet?
“I like to say this was a happy accident. I was eating a standard American diet for years and I really did not think anything of it until I met my now husband, Dillon.
He was going keto, so I joined him, and pretty much as soon as I started cutting out seed oils, I lost 20 pounds in almost a month. I felt so much better and so I realized in that moment like, oh, a standard American diet isn’t the best thing for me.
So I did keto for a little while and then I really got into animal-based when I met Paul Saladino once we started Heart and soil.
I went full blown animal based in 2020 and haven’t looked back since then. I love it. It’s so satisfying and I’m never craving any of the bad foods that I used to crave.”
What did your diet and lifestyle look like before being animal-based?
“My diet and lifestyle before animal-based was not great.
I ate a standard American diet. I worked a job that was really chaotic and I never had time to eat real meals, so I would just eat a lot of Cheetos and muffins and take out. I ate way more seed oils each day than I could have ever imagined today.
I was really fortunate though because I had a good metabolism and I was super active, so I was never extremely overweight, but I definitely was inflamed.
Reflecting back on it, I realized how often I got headaches, how often I got sick. I used to get strep throat once a year, every year, no matter what, and I have not gotten strep throat since I’ve started an animal-based diet. I also had horrible acne and tons of problems I didn’t even realize were correlated with the food I was eating at the time. “
What was your main motivation for choosing animal-based during pregnancy?
“Having already been on an animal-based diet for about 4 years, I already felt amazing.
And then when I got pregnant, I knew without even second guessing it that I was going to continue the animal-based diet all throughout my pregnancy, because it makes me feel so energized and nourished.
Another huge reason I stuck to this diet was because it made me feel so satiated. And when you’re pregnant, you get so famished really easily, so eating good quality meat really helped me. I was so thankful that I loved meat so much because it made me feel so much better and not weak or sick all the time.
I did, however, have a little bit of a meat aversion my first trimester, which is super common for a lot of pregnant women, but I was still able to work around it and find cuts of steak that I was able to tolerate.”
Did you meet any resistance from medical professionals regarding your diet?
“Going into pregnancy, I knew that I wanted to work with a midwife.
I actually met somebody who has the same diet and lifestyle as I do, and she recommended her midwife. The midwife team completely aligned with my values and they suggested eating organ meats at the get-go.
I did, however, have to go to the hospital unexpectedly during labor. Luckily, it was a midwife-run labor and delivery unit, so they weren’t pushy at all. They were super respectful. So I was lucky enough not to experience any resistance.
For those of you that do experience resistance, definitely stay confident, trust your gut, and if a medical professional is telling you to do something that you know isn’t right, I think it’s worth finding a new medical professional to work with.”
What did a typical day of eating look like for you?
“So for the first trimester, I was extremely nauseous, and it was really hard to eat and keep things down.
A typical day, my first trimester, I would eat sourdough toast with butter because it was the one food I could really tolerate. For lunch I would do a smoothie with organ capsules sprinkled in. For dinner, I would have rice with skirt steak.
The first trimester was tough, so sometimes I would just eat toast and apples because that was the only thing I could stomach. If you are struggling in your first trimester, give yourself grace and just know it’s only temporary.
The rest of the pregnancy, I would wake up every day and have eggs because I know they’re really good for fetal development.
I would also always take my prenatal stack and I noticed that taking it with orange juice made it so much easier to get it down when I was feeling nauseous.
I would always have smoothies, definitely with supplements mixed in when I could. Something about my pregnancy made me crave apples, so I would cut crispy apples and eat those all day for a quick snack. I would also have apple sauce in the fridge at all times because when you’re pregnant, you just never know when you’re going to be so famished.
And then for dinners my go to was definitely steak and white rice. I tried to eat lots of fat, so I’d always put butter on my steak and rice.
My 3rd trimester was somewhat similar to my 2nd, except for I was obsessed with ice cream. So I made my own animal-based ice cream with raw milk and maple syrup, and sometimes I would even sprinkle supplements into it. So that was a huge one for me and I’d make it almost every night.”
What supplements did you take during pregnancy?
“I took the full prenatal stack during pregnancy: Pure American Liver, Lifeblood, Firestarter, and Mood, Memory, & Brain.
I’ve still been continuing the prenatal stack after pregnancy, but I’ve added in bone matrix and skin hair and nails to see if it will help with my postpartum hair loss. I also added in joint strength repair, especially during the first couple of weeks postpartum for recovery.”
Will you be feeding Autumn an animal-based diet?
“I will definitely be feeding Autumn an animal-based diet, and we can’t wait to do it because we’re so excited to see how she does.
She’s 4 months old right now, so we have a couple of months before we start feeding her solid food, but we’re definitely gonna give her steak, fruit, and pretty much anything we’re eating.
A goal of mine is to give her fresh liver as one of her first foods because she might love it as many kids her age seem to.”
Did you run into any complications?
“As far as conception goes, I took Her Package before and we conceived right away.
Then my pregnancy was wonderful. I had healthy lab results, the babies heartbeat was always strong, and I passed the glucose test with flying colors.
The only time I got any kind of inflammation or swelling was when I ate a slice of pizza with seed oils in it, and it’s crazy how much my feet swelled and then the next day it was gone.
Then for birth, it wasn’t necessarily a complication, but we were doing a home birth and everything was going great, but she just wasn’t descending like she should. After 4 days of labor, we knew we needed to seek further medical attention.
Luckily it was nothing serious. After much needed rest at the hospital, I was able to deliver Autumn and she was a happy and healthy baby.
For postpartum, I recovered very easily and I’ve had a great milk supply. Autumn gained her birthweight back in two days! I do believe that eating such a nutrient-rich diet can really help with the milk supply, and mine has been consistently good.”
What (if anything) would you do differently next time around?
“I wouldn’t do anything differently in regards to my diet. I’m super thankful that I started an animal-based diet so many years before conceiving because I felt so healthy, so nourished, and it made my pregnancy feel so easy, and I am just so thankful for that.
If I had to choose one thing to do differently, it would be to build more strength in the gym before pregnancy. Once I was pregnant, it is very difficult to keep up with a gym routine.
During the first trimester, I was so nauseous and then by the 3rd trimester, I was so big that it was really difficult to keep up with a solid routine.
So for baby number 2, I’m going to try to really get a good foundation going in the gym. Now that I’m postpartum, I’m dealing with some back pain and I just wish I had a little bit more strength there.
Otherwise, I felt super nourished, super healthy, qnd super happy. So I would do an animal-based diet again, and I would suggest it to all the pregnant mamas out there.”
Animal Foods Can Be A Valuable Asset For Pregnancy
Melanie’s pregnancy journey started long before the birth of her daughter, Autumn. As she made the switch from a Western diet to keto to animal-based, her health improved in many ways.
Using the knowledge she gained along the way, Melanie used animal foods to power through the challenges of pregnancy and give birth to a beautiful, healthy baby.
If you’re interested in learning more, here are eight resources to consider:
- Nourished – Nutritional Wisdom For A Healthy Pregnancy | Mini Documentary
- Animal-Based Pregnancy: What I Ate, Took & Did to Fuel Me and My Baby
- Pregnancy Diet: Why Animal Foods Are Crucial
- The Best Diet for Fertility and Pregnancy ft. Lily Nichols | Ep. 80
- Real Food For Pregnancy by Lily Nichols
- How I Got Fit After Giving Birth ft. Action Jacquelyn | Ep. 54
- Using an Animal Based diet to optimize fertility and pregnancy with Lindsey Meehleis
- What are the BEST foods for PREGNANCY?
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