How to give circadian pregnancy support 🤰

Circadian rhythmicity makes every aspect of childbearing easier.

Hi,

This is a post for parents-to-be:

If you and your partner are trying to conceive or are pregnant, now is a great time to start living in a more circadian way. Without strong circadian rhythms, the body goes into an oxidative state, which can hurt your efforts at starting (or growing) your family. How? Oxidation hurts both sperm and eggs, and reduces fertility in other ways, too¹.

This post is about circadian lifestyle. Lifestyle is not medicine. This is not medical advice.

Circadian wellness

The first thing for circadian fertility awareness to do is learn about reducing oxidative stress.

“Oxidative stress is unquestionably linked to abnormalities in both the pregnant mother and fetal development.”

~ Toboła-Wróbel, K., Pietryga, M., Dydowicz, P., et al. (2020)

Here's the cool thing: melatonin, an endogenous, circadian hormone that also has a powerful antioxidant cascade, is more powerful than dietary antioxidants like Vitamins C and E. And since it is endogenous, that means our bodies can make it on its own!

Here's a quick rundown of melatonin in the body

Melatonin is made from tryptophan. To help your partner get enough, feed them plenty of protein. Once pregnant, your partner will need as much as a bodybuilder! Nutritionists recommend 25-30 grams per meal if you eat 3x per day. For more about this, study "The Brewer Pregnancy Diet."

Next, avoid all Fluoride (F) in your toothcare and drinks. Offer nothing from a can unless you can be sure it doesn’t have natural or added F.

The reason to quit is F blocks the production of melatonin². It is also implicated in the development of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), possibly because of its suppression of melatonin. The ASD connection—and a dementia³ connection—is even stronger for F-Aluminum compounds.

“At present, there is a divergence between public health practice of water fluoridation, which is regarded as valuable and safe for reducing dental caries, and current scientific evidence, which indicates that F[luoride] is a neurotoxin disturbing prenatal as well as postnatal brain development, eroding intelligence, and behavior.”

~ Strunecka, A. and Strunecky, O. (2019)

Light at night also blocks melatonin⁴. If either of you work night shift⁵, get out of it. It takes about two to three hours without brightness to start making melatonin. For 8 hours of "sleep", it takes about 10-11 hours of darkness.

A good way improve sleep and melatonin abundance is to retrofit your home with sleep lights. This will become even more important in pregnancy when your lady will be getting up to pee all night! For good rest, the night environment should be 1-3 lux, and no brighter than 10 lux⁶. Nightlights should be below eye level, too, rather than overhead like daytime lights. Lamps or plug-in sleep lights are great as long as you can remember to use them instead of the daytime lights after sunset. As a rule of thumb, nightlights should be no brighter than the full moon, or a single candle flame.

Recap of melatonin and fertility

At this point you:

• eat lots of protein together every day

• ditched the can/fluoride habits

• outfitted your home with sleep lights

• and neither of you work night shift

This should raise melatonin levels and: reduce oxidation, keep sperm and ova healthy, help implantation, support a healthy placenta, protect the fetus, and work with oxytocin to make labor less painful⁷. The flipside of nighttime melatonin, is daytime sunshine. Once you and your partner have nights set up, start improving your days, too.

Overview of sunshine and pregnancy

One overlooked aspect of pregnancy is liver health. Estimates of non-alchoholic-fatty-liver-disease (NAFLD) in pregnancy is 10%⁸! But in pregnancy lit, it is rarely stated that the liver needs sunlight⁹! Sure, they may say to boost Vitamin D, but they probably won't tell you it is processed in the liver.

Check it out (turn on graphics if you haven't already):

When you have plenty of Vitamin D in there, the whole body works better. Yes, diet is part of the picture, but cardiologists favor endogenous Vitamin D from overhead sunlight.

To zoom out, the goal with any pregnancy counseling should be to foster the conditions that encourage a healthy, full-term pregnancy and an ecstatic physiological birth. This circadian work is about setting the stage, hormonally, to make that possible.

What gets in the way of natural pregnancy and birth?

Here are some of the most common reasons maternity care providers start interfering:

• problems with liver function

• problems with metabolism and blood pressure

It's normal for liver, blood sugar, and blood pressure to vary from non-pregnant status. Super abnormal function can mean problems. Guess what, besides darkness and sleep, helps keep the liver, blood sugar, AND blood pressure in check? Yup. You got it. Sunshine.

Sunshine feels good, because it IS good¹⁰! Most of us could use to get a lot more of it.

“…increased sun exposure around the time of delivery was associated with a reduced risk of gestational hypertension.”

~ Naomi Fleury, Sian Geldenhuys and Shelley Gorman (2016)

Eating outdoors is a way get enough more outside. Eating the majority of food during the day also improves glucose tolerance¹¹. Eating and fasting are a pair, just as brightness and darkness.

Putting the circadian pieces together to strengthen fertility

We are begining to understand the connections between wellbeing and our ambient environment¹².

Understanding the circadian networks and how they adjust to environmental changes will better understand human physiology.

~ Qingqing, L., and Jin, Y. (2021)

Start the nighttime changes first. I have found only benefits associated with nighttime darkness. The daytime part can be dangerous if either of you: have fair skin, take medications, or have a diagnosed mental disorder. Before increasing sunshine, please read about building a solar callus to be safe.

Skin protects itself.

I also recommend my post about circadian rhythmicity as a whole. I wrote it in a more list-like way that may be helpful.

👉Start Here

And I welcome your questions! Login to start a discussion:

TLDR: Boost fertility outcomes through circadian rhythmicity!

Do:

1. Feed 25-30 grams of protein per MEAL (especially tryptophan-rich choices)

2. Spend least 1-2 hours outdoors per DAY, rain or shine

3. Spend at least 10 hours in darkness per NIGHT, being cuddly (melatonin and oxytocin are synergistic!)

Don't:

1. Fluoridate

2. Work night shift

These steps will entrain and strengthen both of your circadian rhythms so you have the best possible chance for staying happy and healthy through conception, pregnancy, birth, and postpartum.

For even more support, learn about the important folate cycle and how you need much more than a folic acid supplement to have a healthy folate cycle. Hint: it also depends on nighttime darkness.

Folate Part I: Folate and Methylation

Folate Part II: Folate Cofactors

1. Toboła-Wróbel, K., Pietryga, M., Dydowicz, P., et al. (2020). Association of Oxidative Stress on Pregnancy.

2. Strunecka, A and Strunecky, O. (2019). Chronic Fluoride Exposure and the Risk of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

3. Russ, T., Killin, L., Hannah, J., et al. (2019). Aluminium and fluoride in drinking water in relation to later dementia risk.

4. Hatori, M., Gronfier, C., Van Gelder, R., Bernstein, P., et al. (2017). Global rise of potential health hazards caused by blue light-induced circadian disruption in modern aging societies.

5. Lunn, R., Schwingl, P., Atwood, S., etal. (2021). Night Shift Work and Light at Night and Cancer.

6. Alkhatatbeh, B., Asadi, S. (2021). Role of Architectural Design in Creating Circadian-Effective Interior Settings.

7. Reiter, R., Tan, D., Korkmaz, A., et al. (2013). Melatonin and stable circadian rhythms optimize maternal, placental, and fetal physiology.

8. Brady, C. (2020). Liver Disease in Pregnancy: What’s New.

9. Gorman, S., Black, L., Feelisch, M., et al. (2015). Can Skin Exposure to Sunlight Prevent Liver Inflammation?

10. Fleury, N., Geldenhuys, S., and Gorman, S. (2016). Sun Exposure and Its Effects on Human Health: Mechanisms through Which Sun Exposure Could Reduce the Risk of Developing Obesity and Cardiometabolic Dysfunction.

11. Chellappa, S., Quian, J., Vujovic, N., et al. (2021). Daytime eating prevents internal circadian misalignment and glucose intolerance in night work.

12. Qingqing, L., and Jin, Y. (2021). Mammalian circadian networks mediated by the suprachiasmatic nucleus: The SCN bridges the body with the environment.