Welcome to the first episode in this new chapter of the podcast, Mother Wisdom. In this intimate and nourishing conversation, I’m joined by Dr. Suuzi Hazen - mother, doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, farmer, and founder of Mother’s Best Liver Pills - for a deeply embodied exploration of what it really means to nourish ourselves through pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond. Based on her knowledge of TCM and our own real life experiences (both in nourishment and true self care, and the mistakes and missteps we made) together, we un-peel the onions of maternal depletion, body image, nutritional wisdom, traditional weaning (this may not be what you want to hear!), morning sickness through the lens of TCM (turns out, there are actually things you can do to support yourself through it), and the very real tension between self-sacrifice and self-honoring as mothers. Dr. Suuzi shares her two wildly different pregnancy and birth stories, from a morning sickness fraught pregnancy ending in a near death experience and emergency cesarean to a pregnancy of eating well and truly supporting her body, and a fully natural VBAC. These threads continue to play out in how she learned to support her body in motherhood through food, boundaries, and traditional practices. In this conversation, we explore: * What does white label actually mean? * Suuzi’s two radically different pregnancy & birth experiences: * Her first, shaped by severe morning sickness and undernourishment, a castor oil induction, and a near-death emergency cesarean birth * Her second, guided by nourishment and a deeply supporting her female body, ending in a straightforward VBAC * How intermittent fasting to lose the ‘stubborn baby weight’ and long term depletion led to a total metabolic crash, and how Suuzi slowly nourished her way back to life * Why these “crashes,” as brutal as they are, can be thresholds into the Wise Woman tradition — into slow, into simple, into nourishment, into the spiral of healing. * The tension between intuition vs. intellect in motherhood: Do I follow what my body knows, what my spirit knows... or what I think I know? * TCM insights on morning sickness, tandem nursing, and child spacing — and why many traditional cultures built in space for maternal recovery * The facades of health (and motherhood, and life) we see on social media, and the dangers of trying to recreate someone else’s life without tending to our own foundations * What our current breakfasts look like and why sustainable, gradual nourishment is a much better route than drastic change. * My own shift from vegetarianism rooted in community acceptance over my bodies messages to an ‘ancestral diet’ that supports my body, family, and values This episode reminded me of the gentle wise woman nourishment as the path of motherhood and womanhood - not getting overwhelmed by information and comparison, but focusing on our nourishment and the soup in front of us. Can we let it be simple? Giveaway + Subscriber Bonus To celebrate this first episode, we’re giving away a bottle of Mother’s Best Liver Pills!Here’s how to enter: * Become a paid subscriber here on Substack (either $5/mo or $40/year) * Leave a comment on this post That’s it. (Yes, this is still a very small Substack, so your chances are pretty dang good.) Even if you don’t win, paid subscribers get access to a discount code for all of Dr. Suuzi’s products including her Lucky Duck Electrolytes and liver pills. 🧡 You can upgrade your subscription right here. Resources & Links Dr. Suuzi Hazen * Website: mothersbestliverpills.com * Instagram: @drsuuzihazen * Her podcast here on Substack, or wherever you listen to podcasts, Women's Bodies * TCM Morning Sickness Reel Series (It’s a 4 part thing) * Pregnancy and Breastfeeding Reel Mentioned in this Episode * Armstrong Sisters’ discussion of the Minnesota Starvation Experiment If this resonated… * Leave a review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify * Share this episode with a mother or friend who needs to hear it * Tag us on Instagram with your takeaways: @maible.arden and @drsuuzihazen This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit motherwisdom.substack.com/subscribe
