There was an old woman who lived in a shoe.

She had so many children, she didn’t know what to do.

She gave them some broth without any bread

And whipped them all soundly and put them to bed.

~Traditional nursery rhyme

As a birth professional, I was taught to parrot the statistic that outcomes are best with a minimum of 18 months from birth to the subsequent conception1.

Many now take it further to say that 3-4 years between is the gold standard.

A question I have always had: how much better are outcomes.

Because I’ve seen both:

The super closely spaced family where the children are born premature, sickly, need glasses and frequent medical interventions, whine incessantly and mother and children alike generally seem shortchanged.

ie, what Weston A Price described in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration.

(for what it’s worth, I’ve also seen families with long child spacing also have this pattern)

And, I’ve seen families with close child spacing where the children are robust, well mannered, and the fa…

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Lamenting the inability to sleep 8 hours straight in the mothering season of life is like wishing you could get all the nutrition you need for breastfeeding from just one meal.

Instead of running pumps and bottles so that other people can feed mom’s baby, hiring night doulas (I used to be one), and seeking new sleep training methods, mom culture could just lean in to this:

all humans have built-in circadian polyphasic sleep options

Once forgotten, but now rediscovered by scientists who study mood and sleep architecture, we can deliberately flip the cues so that sleep naturally arranges itself around the clock.

Then, instead of trying to put 8 hours of gas in a 2 hour tank, moms can sleep lightly around their babies’ schedules, waking rested every time whether it was 20 minutes…

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For the past year, or maybe even more like 18 months, I’ve been hearing from women who want more community style support from me.

Not just one-to-one work, and not the cadence of classes and group chat here in the Substack, but a way to form intentional relationships with other circadian-savvy women and mothers.

A way to connect through similar stages of preparing for conception, being pregnant, planning for birth, and supporting our newborns… circadian-style.

I’ve loved this idea of a circadian sisterhood, or mother’s circle, and have played around with different ideas for how it could work; but nothing felt quite right… until Now!

So, for those ready for creating real connection with other women on this journey, here’s where you can learn more and join our new Women’s Circle.

Women’s Circle

Fourteen years ago, I was the only mama I knew doing elimination communication (EC).

I learned about EC by serendipity… the friend who had originally introduced my husband and I was coming through town and stopped by while I was at the end of the third trimester with our first child.

Our friend had just attended a rebirthing workshop, and mentioned that one of the parents in attendance had been doing elimination communication (EC).

We watched the Birth as we know it documentary (highly recommend) after dinner, and I woke up the next morning in labor.

My daughter was born into my husband’s hands that evening, and it was a natural flow that we started EC with our daughter right away.

Reactions to our decision to do EC in 2012 ranged from WTF to “this little girl is going to rule the world.”

Nowadays, I am finding that the majority of moms I chat with are either practicing some form of EC, or are at least aware of it.

I think this growing interest in going back to EC is great for babies an…

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Women have long associated menstrual and birth cycles with the moon, a pattern that may be breaking down under widespread circadian disruption.

We have evidence from historical writings about this, and can also compare datasets from before and after the widespread adoption of fluorescent and LED lights to validate these claims.

What I always say is healthy babies can be born anytime of the year, month, or day!

But are there trends with the moon and birth?

Yes, and I do hypothesize that women coming back into circadian alignment with their local environments will see stronger patterns.

For example, looking at nearly every birth in New York City for 1961–1963 showed a 10% increase in births during the brighter half of the lunar cycle1.

But if you search modern literature, they always say there’s no scientific consensus.

The other question or end of this spectrum is if there is a lunar correlation to fertility, as conception time will obviously influence birth date.

Although current consensus …

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There are at least two major issues with the current state of hospital check in for women in labor.

Those who know my work, know my first issue well: the lights.

We’ve long since established that too bright of light, or light in the wrong wavelength slows contractions and makes them more painful.

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Sleep is the daily rhythm it seems most people are most concerned about in regard to a new baby.

Just how many times as a new mom do you get asked about baby’s sleep?

But how little do we actually understand the development of sleep patterns, especially in the context of the greater bucket of circadian health?

Sleep is the most well-known output of the circadian rhythm, but it’s not the only one!

Babies are born with immature circadian rhythms, and it takes about 2-3 years for their rhythm to fully mature.

Here are the most important stages of circadian development in a baby:

1. Body temperature rhythm (warmer in the day, cooler at night)

2. Melatonin rhythm (higher in the day, lower at night)

3. Sleep rhythm (consolidating toward the natural darkness)

4. Digestion rhythm (consolidating toward the natural daylight)

In my own understanding, early childhood circadian health can much more easily be assessed by understanding digestive rhythms, because they a…

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Are modern manufactured lights contributing to the rising c-section rates?

I never would have jumped to this conclusion myself, but when I was putting together my most recent class… the story just put itself together.

Here’s the gist of how changes in lighting and increases in c-section rates correlated:

Pre 1800’s, all the light we had to illuminate childbirth was rich in infrared—sunlight or firelight.

Then we got incandescent.

Then fluorescent—think of the 50’s institutional vibe and how different that was. This was the height of the twilight birth era.

Then fluorescents got compact and entered our homes, too.

(Cue widespread circadian disruption among pregnant women, and the concurrent fact that women who go postdates and get prescribed induction tend to have lower circulating melatonin)

Then we got LEDs.

Then the LED’s became more efficient and even more widely adopted.

Each level of efficiency stripped away more of the energy intensive frequencies.

But, the cost was that it turns out, ou…

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Social cues are circadian cues.

We were never meant to spend our days alone with our babies.

This is one of many things that has gotten easier as my family has grown.

Reading or hearing first time moms sharing their experiences brings me back to those long, painful days.

Thirteen hours alone at home with a new baby in a new town… gosh those were the loneliest days of my life just waiting for my husband to get home.

Three things that changed:

1. We moved back to my hometown

2. We decided to homeschool and networked with amazing women ahead of me

3. We had more children—with a teenager and four younger ones now, there’s hardly a dull or quiet moment and I am surrounded be hilarious social chatter all day, everyday

My energy and sleep have never been better; I feel strong and amazing.

When I have low moments, as we all do, I have the mental ease to just sink into them …

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Enjoy!

Babies are born equipped to absorb UV light much more rapidly than adults through two mechanisms:

1. Lower melanin levels, so they have less shielding

2. Higher vellus hair content (the super soft, uncolored hair or “peach fuzz”), which may absorb UV light approximately 250x as fast as normal hair

These physiological conditions seem to allow babies to meet their UV light requirements in a very short amount of time without experiencing dehydration, heat fatigue or sunburn

In un-supplemented individuals, solar-derived Vitamin D is thought to make up approximately 90% of serum levels1.

And yet it is common to find even highly educated researchers making claims such as “low compliance…

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“lucky” “privileged” “elitist”

Yes, I have had all these names thrown at me for shring my reasons for avoiding daycare.

Online anyways, and especially on mom-Substack.

In real life, people don’t tend to be so quick to call names and throw labels.

But what does daycare have to do with my mission here?

Daycare, even high quality daycare, seems to disrupt the circadian flow of cortisol for the majority of youngsters1.

And unnatural cortisol patterns and circadian disruption in early life are correlated with lifelong outcomes, especially mental health outcomes.

Inside my circadian pregnancy & babyhood workshops I teach how the first 2-3 years of life are foundational for circadian rhythmicity across the lifespan.

The patterns set at this time tend to be carried forward for the rest of life.

I wouldn’t ever take daycare away from those who want to use it.

But to say daycare is always a good and necessary thing is absolutely a slap in the face to the intelligence and resourcefulness of mothers.

Mother…

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Here’s an easy strategy to help your baby understand the difference between waking up from a nap and waking up in the middle of the night:

• if it is daytime, bring them outside right away for a minute (or more) of natural light

• if it is nighttime, keep the lights dim (under 1 lux, and definitely no more than 5 lux)

Fine tune or amplify the strategy:

You can reinforce the daytime signal in many ways.

You can speak up joyfully when they wake.

Tell your baby how happy you are to see them awake, and even sing them a bouncy wake up song.

If you are brave enough to do elimination communication (EC) and have a private yard, this is an opportune “pottytunity.”

This is because for most of humanity we voided outside and babies are still primed that way.

When they wake up, if you take their diaper off outside, the light and air will very likely help cue them to void in their potty.

When they wake up in the dark, there are also multiple ways to amplify the signal to go back to sleep.

Keep your voice low …

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Children don’t think in clock time.

This is a big cause of bedtime battles.

They are fully in tune with their body clock.

So instead of speaking to their mind, speak to their body in the language that controls their sleepiness: darkness.

Clock time doesn’t dictate bedtime—the light outside does.

The sun is going behind the horizon… time to light the candles and turn off the lights.

Bye bye, sun!

If the light is low, it’s so much easier to guide children to bedtime than if the overhead white light is on telling their bodies it is still noon!

How can your voice chanting a random number convince them their body is lying!? It can’t.

Speak to their body with dimness instead and you will have a much easier time.

This bedtime ease is all the more likely if you have brought them outside first thing this morning already to replenish their melatonin stores after the p…

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Mamas, please don’t watch the clock postpartum.

The clock helps us meet other humans.

It’s a communication tool.

When it comes to sleep and motherhood—especially in the early days (like the first 6 weeks)—the clock doesn’t really have a strong place imo.

The manmade clock is definitely not going to help you communicate more effectively with your baby in this stage.

Many women instantly understand this when I talk about circadian polyphasic sleep through the early postpartum.

You are naturally going to drift in and out of “clock time”, and if you are intuitive and have a natural light environment, your body clock will naturally take over and give you all the rest you need when caring for your baby around the clock.

However, if you resist your body clock and try to keep your sleep consolidated to the manmade clock, sure—your sleep may look more “perfect” and consolidated like you are used to.

But.

If you continue to live by clock time instead of body clock …

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Circadian health research is validating the old-fashioned advice to “sleep when your baby sleeps.”

But it feels impossible to so many of us.

Why?

because our bodies no longer feel the need to sleep.

The modern environment full of artificial lights and isolated from natural light with newfangled thermal & UV-blocking windows has made that advice feel nearly impossible to follow.

We just get ever-more wired-but-tired, even to the point that many new mothers (as well as the population at large) have diagnosable sleep disorders.

And when I bring this up, there are also many who just dismiss this because they “can’t.”

What would it look like to re-integrate napping in today’s world?

In non-industrialized areas, people sleep less, sleep less efficiently, and nap more.

Yet they show more robust circadian health!

I wrote about this earlier this year:

And what I know to be true is that even if we are living in …

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Period not returning after two years of breastfeeding?

While the common advice for bringing your cycle back is to wean, I’d like to use this space we have together here to give you some reasons to reconsider this option.

Not only do I know many women who have conceived while breastfeeding and gone on to tandem nurse(for tandem nursing support, I started a conversation here), but there are biological processes at play here with prolactin outside of the breastfeeding relationship.

The circadian rhythm of metabolic prolactin is operating independently of your breastfeeding1.

The body doesn’t need the excess prolactin to maintain your milk supply—it’s doing something else via the circadian rhythm and your metabolism to keep you and your family alive. This functionality is NOT directly tied to your breastfeeding relationship. This means you can lower your prolactin levels without stopping breastfeeding.

When I see this presentation:

1. Mama is breastfeeding a 2 year old

2. Mama is glowing with radiant skin

3. Mama is lean and her boobies look “skinny”

4. Her cycle hasn’t returned, but she has baby fever

5. Her toddler acts clingy and demanding in public, and wants to touch the boobies even when not nursing

6. Often (not always), this Mama also has low libido in spite of wanting a baby

7. Often (not always), this Mama also is very idealistic about her diet and very likely has been through a lot of trial and error to land on a “perfect system” and she may even have feelings of actual fear around even the idea of changes to diet

8. Often (not always), this Mama is facing some kind of additional stress at home—seems to often be either financial/business or security like an impending move

What I observe more than half of these in a fertility consultation, my instict usually says I am working NOT with a mother who needs to wean, but a mother who needs to nourish in a different gear than the (usually very good) gear she is currently pedaling in.

In this situation I just described, weaning for the sake of restoring fertility wouln’t get at the metabolic root of her issues.

What does high prolactin in breastfeeding really mean?

To the body, high prolactin is the body’s way of saying it is spring/summer now but I’m afraid we don’t have what we will need to make it through the upcoming winter. It’s saying, I’m afraid we are going to starve. In the animal kingdom, these seasonal prolactin cycles (dependent on circadian melatonin levels) are thought to regulate fertility and ensure babies are born in the correct season2.

So, instead of weaning, here are the specific things I recommend to restore the body’s sense of safety and to lower the circadian threshold of prolactin to reboot fertility, all while maintaining the level of prolactin needed to maintain breastfeeding (if you choose to).

You can do this in addition to weaning if you feel it is naturally the time you want to wean anyways.

How to reduce prolactin while breastfeeding (or for a metabolic crisis, such as obesity):

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We covered a lot of territory, from home birth to home school to how our attitudes and perspectives have grown and evolved over time through parenting large families to how integral working Nature into our lives has been so transformational.

Jay and Jaydee founded an outdoor school during the lockdowns in North Carolina a few years ago, only to have it be forced to close in the aftermath of last year’s hurricane! They shared that story and how they are cultivating long-term, intergenerational resilience in their family and community during this interview.

I hope you enjoy it! You can connect with Jay and Jaydee through their Substack below:

Subscribe to Rising Sovereign Podcast

Thank you also to , , and many others for tuning into this live video with ! Join me for my next live video in the app. It will be with talking all about circadian rhythms and how we can improve lactation support on September 15th at 2 PM Pacific / 5 PM Eastern.

Get more from Nikko Kennedy in the Substack app

Available for iOS and Android

Get the app

New podcast with Nikko Kennedy and Dr. Tara Hogan

Listen to our light and motherhood conversation on Apple Podcasts (we are both mothers of 5–learn from the experience we have each gained as mothers and how we have addressed different health and wellness issues across our years):

Or you can listen or watch on Spotify—this was the finale of Tara’s first season, so there are some fascinating other guest interview to explore while you are there, (including Dr. Tamara Hussain, Dr. Lauren Kolowski, and Leah Barto from BirthFit):

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Sunlight supports infant development—here are ten evidence-based reasons to bring babies outside

1. Mothers who spend more time outdoors with their babies have lower rates of postpartum depression1

2. Sunlight supports healthy bilirubin metabolism in babies with jaundice2

3. Sunlight supports infant retinal development, and the first 6 mos of light exposure is especially important3

4. Sunlight supports infant motor development, which is especially relevant for infants of mothers with perinatal depression who have a higher tendency toward delayed motor development4

5. Sunlight exposure in babies reduces their risk of developing eczema and atopic dermatitis5

6. Sunlight exposure likely supports the second minipuberty, the process of sexual differentiation in babies where their hormones are significantly higher than they will be in childhood before teen puberty 6 (via sunlight’s modulation of the endocrine system7)

7. Sunlight-exposed babies can have better Vitamin D status than their mothers (especially after 3 months of age), possibly due to higher synthesis with less exposure and/or the prioritization in the mother’s body to increase Vitamin D levels in her milk faster than in her own blood8

8. My own speculation on fuzzy vellus hair, which some babies are born absolutely covered in, and the fact it actually absorbs UV light at a faster rate than normal hair9, suggests to me they are optimized to get the benefits more quickly

9. May reduce the risk of SIDS by facilitating more daytime wakefulness10 and age-appropriate sleep consolidation11

10. If you can’t bring your baby outside, brighter indoor daylighting and darker night lighting may still help entrain baby’s circadian rhythms12

Please avoid sunscreen use on your baby because they are not equipped to detox it and it does permeate their skin13 . Just stay in the shade when it is uncomfortably intense.

How much sunlight is safe for babies?

It’s hard to find a professional recommendation for how much sun anyone, but especially a baby, *should* get.

Here’s one recommendation I was able to find from a study done in Australia (cited in footnotes).

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Having recently been through the birthing portal, it feels especially poignant to now be preparing to teach in-depth on quantum health for labor and birth in the Circadian and Quantum Childbearing Year lessons for practitioners in the ⚛️ Quantum Practitioner annual tier here at Brighter Days, Darker Nights.

The ⚛️ Quantum Practitioner annual tier is where I teach at the level for professionals who want to learn this and implement it in their client practices—and we also have a few mothers and aspiring mothers and fathers doing intense wellness work with us (bravo to them!).

As I’ve been working on the latest lessons in the program, one of the things on my mind is the conceptual framework of quarters.

A woman’s menstrual cycle is often described in 4 parts:

Follicular

Ovulatory

Luteal

Menstrual

Which are also likened to seasons:

Spring

Summer

Fall 

Winter

The birthing year can also be described with this…

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