I’m joined by board-certified OB-GYN and mom of three, Dr. Franziska Haydanek. We chat about balancing clinical practice with social media, fighting online medical misinformation, and navigating the unique pressures on physician creators.

We also dive deep into the gaps of U.S. pregnancy and postpartum care. Dr. Fran shares essential advice on self-advocacy in the hospital, the warning signs every new parent should watch for postpartum, and why recovery extends far past the standard six-week mark.

We discuss:

• How doctors balance social media algorithms with nuanced medical advice.

• Actionable phrases patients can use to advocate for themselves when feeling dismissed.

• The systemic flaws of insurance-driven U.S. postpartum care.

• Key postpartum red flags: preeclampsia, mastitis, wound infections, and intrusive thoughts.

• Why body recovery extends far beyond the arbitrary 6-week checkup.

• The game-changing benefits of pelvic floor physical therapy.

• How to safely bring social media health trends to your own doctor.

Connect with Dr. Franziska Haydanek on Instagram @pagingdrfran and check out all her resources at ⁠https://www.pagingdrfran.com⁠ 

Our podcasts are also now on YouTube. If you prefer a video podcast with closed captioning, check us out there and⁠ ⁠subscribe to PedsDocTalk⁠⁠.

Get trusted pediatric advice, relatable parenting insights, and evidence-based tips delivered straight to your inbox—join thousands of parents who rely on the PDT newsletter to stay informed, supported, and confident.⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Join the newsletter⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠!

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00:00:00:03 – 00:00:24:21

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I think that’s the phrasing. I’m very concerned. I don’t feel right. Is enough of a trigger for like any clinician to be like okay there is real concern. Something is wrong and I’m not leaving until we like figure it out. It’s like it feels pushy but like that’s okay. Like you can be pushy about your health.

 

00:00:24:24 – 00:00:51:01

Dr. Mona

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the show. It’s Doctor Mona, your online pediatrician, maybe your online friend, and probably someone you wish you could text at 2 a.m. with health and parenting questions. I’m here for you all, but just not at 2 a.m. before we get into it. Thank you so much for being here, for listening, for sharing these episodes, and for trusting me with your questions week after week, not only on the podcast, but on YouTube and all the social media channels that I’m on.

 

00:00:51:03 – 00:01:10:22

Dr. Mona

But if you’ve not already hit that subscribe button, now’s a great time because this fall, I have a new series coming that you are going to be obsessed with. You’re going to say, what took so long? Why is this the best series ever? So make sure you subscribe so you don’t miss it. Have you ever felt something was wrong in your body and had a doctor brush you off?

 

00:01:10:24 – 00:01:31:28

Dr. Mona

I’m raising my hand. Have you ever left an appointment wondering if you should have pushed harder for an answer? Me? It happened to me. Postpartum with Ryan. And if you’ve been with me for a while, you probably already know a piece of that story. We get into more of that in this episode. Today’s guest is Doctor Fran, known to over 1.5 million followers as Paging Doctor Fran.

 

00:01:32:01 – 00:02:09:24

Dr. Mona

She’s a board certified ob gyn who practices full scope obstetrics and gynecology in Western New York. And she has built one of the most trusted platforms online for medical education, patient advocacy and cutting through reproductive health misinformation. She’s also a mother of three, which she calls the greatest role of her life. And I can really. We are talking about the gap between the exam room and social media, what real advocacy looks like when you are scared and unsure in a labor and delivery room, why so many patients feel dismissed during pregnancy and postpartum, and what to actually say in the moment when something feels wrong.

 

00:02:09:27 – 00:02:31:07

Dr. Mona

Doctor, friend and I also get into what it’s like to educate online as physicians. Something we both relate to and love deeply. And I will say, we recorded this before we had even met in person. But by the time this is airing, we finally did meet at a conference. And I love getting to share that update with you because it was such a fun, full circle moment.

 

00:02:31:07 – 00:02:54:04

Dr. Mona

I love you doctor friend. If you have ever felt unheard by a doctor or unsure how to speak up for yourself or your baby, you’re not alone. And this conversation is going to hand you more words and confidence. And remember to go download the full episode wherever you get your podcast and share it on social media. Make sure you’re subscribed to our YouTube channel and watch our conversation there.

 

00:02:54:04 – 00:03:11:04

Dr. Mona

If you like the video aspect and make sure to tag the PedsDocTalk podcast, PedsDocTalk and Paging Doctor Friend when you share on social media. Let’s get into this amazing conversation.

 

00:03:11:06 – 00:03:13:19

Dr. Mona

Thank you so much for joining me today, Doctor Fran.

 

00:03:13:22 – 00:03:18:18

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Thank you so much for having me. I have followed you for years, and I’m just so thrilled to be here with you today.

 

00:03:18:20 – 00:03:37:06

Dr. Mona

I am so excited. You know, I like telling people origin stories of how I met fellow creators, and we have not physically met at the time of this recording, but by the time it airs, we will meet because it’s airing. This is airing in the fall, but we are going we’re going to meet at the mom 2.0 conference, and I’m sorry, we’re going to meet at the Pinnacle Conference.

 

00:03:37:13 – 00:03:54:23

Dr. Mona

And I’m just going to say it, even though we haven’t met yet, that I’m sure it’s going to be beautiful, right? Like it’s going to be. And, you know, I am so in love with your transparency, not only in the way you educate people about your field and make it more tangible, but also as your for your transparency and transparency as a creator.

 

00:03:54:23 – 00:04:06:23

Dr. Mona

You know you’re very open about where you are. Facebook, Instagram, you know how to advocate for yourself online as a creator. And so thank you for that. I’ve learned so much from you as a fellow creator as well.

 

00:04:06:26 – 00:04:21:12

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, I just think it’s, you know, I really feel so strongly that physicians and other health care professionals who have the training should be on social media. That’s where our patients are at. Anything I can do to like, kind of like open eyes to this whole crazy world online. I’m like, happy to do.

 

00:04:21:15 – 00:04:41:29

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And you know, I I’ll tell my followers. So I did not know that you can monetize your content on Facebook. And so for everyone listening, we don’t always make money on social media just by posting. Like for example, on Instagram, the only way I’m making, money on Instagram is if there’s a brand partnership. Otherwise, Instagram doesn’t pay for you just posting content and you know, you’re like, well, okay.

 

00:04:41:29 – 00:04:59:04

Dr. Mona

But obviously this is important for my, my employees that I has is important for my business. And you were the one who told me about Facebook how just from posting you can monetize. And since then it’s just been such a delight to be able to know that my content has value just from posting that I don’t need to partner with brands.

 

00:04:59:10 – 00:05:06:18

Dr. Mona

I can do that as well, but that this is a way that I get rewarded for my content. That is helping a lot of people like your content does.

 

00:05:06:25 – 00:05:28:24

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, I mean, I think for creators, you know, we don’t work for free. Yeah. For the most part, the time that we have is valuable. And so, like you said, being able to take a step outside of any brand partnerships and really just be rewarded for providing free education online, really without any strings attached, I think because it’s been so freeing, because like you said, many other platforms either don’t pay or they pay very poorly.

 

00:05:28:24 – 00:05:40:01

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And so so when someone else share that they made money on Facebook, I it was like an untapped market to me. And I think it’s only fair to be able to say, like, I do deserve to be paid for the work that went into that content.

 

00:05:40:04 – 00:05:59:00

Dr. Mona

Yeah, I really appreciate that. And like I said, I love learning from fellow creators. And, you know, I talked about our origin story about how I found you from a post that you did, talking about, you know, how you monetize and things like that. Your transparency was so refreshing as a creator. And I want to hear your origin story on why you started going online as paging doctor friend.

 

00:05:59:00 – 00:06:04:11

Dr. Mona

Like what? Was there a single event? Was there something that you were like, I got to be on? People need to hear my voice.

 

00:06:04:14 – 00:06:19:27

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

So I actually was online before I was paging Doctor Fan back in the early 20 tens. I used to have a style blog. So I had a style blog when I was between, undergrad and medical school. For two years, I worked for a pharmaceutical development company, and this was the early 20 tens. Pinterest was taking off.

 

00:06:19:27 – 00:06:36:01

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I was bored at home. I was like, I have my own blog. So I started taking pictures of myself on the side of the road before I was going to work. Then I got into medical school and I documented my way through medical school in a way, through like what I was wearing and what I was learning in the process of being in medical school and all of that.

 

00:06:36:03 – 00:06:48:13

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

When I graduated in 2017 from med school and started my ob gyn residency. As you can imagine, not a lot of time left to like, chat about what? Like jeans? I was buying and I was wearing hospital scrubs all the time. So I really stopped posting online for for.

 

00:06:48:14 – 00:06:49:11

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00:06:49:14 – 00:07:15:10

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

When I graduated from my residency in 2021, I took six months off. I had just had my second child. I really wanted to be home with them for a little while, and this was still like pretty like pre-COVID. You know, we were home a lot. I was bored, I was scrolling on TikTok and I would see these videos and, you know, the TikTok algorithm learns who you are and, show me a lot of things about pregnancy and breastfeeding and birth control and labor and delivery.

 

00:07:15:10 – 00:07:34:28

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And some of those videos were like, incorrect, not always like intentionally. Some of it was just like people sharing their experiences. I remember I was on the couch breastfeeding my second child and this video came across my FYP. That was this mom who’s at a bachelorette party, and she was sad that she had to pump and dump. And I was like, you don’t have to pump and dump like everyone thinks.

 

00:07:34:28 – 00:07:46:20

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

If you have one sip of alcohol, you have to pump and dump. And that’s not true. And I was like, well, I’m just gonna make a video about it, you know, like I’m used to making. I was used to making content. Now I have the training and the ability to talk about medicine in a way that I didn’t before.

 

00:07:46:20 – 00:08:00:03

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

So I just, I made a video being like, hey, girl, you, like, have the best time at your bachelorette party. Here’s the information about that. You don’t have to pump and dump, and I just like doing that. So I just did more of it. And then, you know, very long story short, five years later, here we are.

 

00:08:00:05 – 00:08:21:19

Dr. Mona

Here we are. And again, I love that that story, because you were literally in the moment of doing what you saw someone else trying to do for their baby, which was feed their baby breast milk and really go save your sanity, save your, save your milk. Don’t do it. Yeah. And you know, I, I love that I love that you took it a moment that you were like, I want to make this social media world a better place.

 

00:08:21:21 – 00:08:26:12

Dr. Mona

And what do you think people don’t realize about being a doctor on social media?

 

00:08:26:14 – 00:08:45:26

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Gosh, you know, there’s a lot of pressure to be, I think internal pressure that we really be a very professional, face to medicine, as we should be. But it’s very hard to balance fighting the algorithm and like catching people’s attention while remaining nuanced. And yeah, we’re talking about evidence based medicine. So I think it’s really hard.

 

00:08:45:26 – 00:09:11:07

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And I think we don’t we can’t be as like provocative, as many other social media creators and people who are, you know, maybe don’t have the professional training that we do, but are talking about similar topics as us. Right? We can’t be as provocative because it’s not the correct information. And so I think it’s really hard for us to try to balance that, like growing, you know, there’s all these things that they talk about when you make content like you have to have a good hook and you have to have this and that and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

 

00:09:11:07 – 00:09:33:04

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And like, good hooks are usually something that’s a little bit more, like I said, provocative or like fear inducing in some ways. And so it’s hard to not go down that path, because when you look at your own analytics and see what did well, a lot of times what does well is the video that is more controversial. And you can’t always be like, my goal was never to be controversial, right?

 

00:09:33:07 – 00:09:42:27

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I’m not there to be controversial, but you have to balance keeping people’s attention while providing like true evidence based medicine and the nuance that comes with that.

 

00:09:42:29 – 00:10:00:09

Dr. Mona

I feel like there should be like a subspecialty in like being a clinician and also giving social media education like this, you know, like I, you know, we have some specialties within all of our, our, you know, pediatrics and stuff because it’s such a thing that you learn as you go. And I kind of equate it to parenting, you know, like you obviously there’s certain things that you’re going to do as a parent.

 

00:10:00:09 – 00:10:17:16

Dr. Mona

There’s certain things that you learn, there’s certain things that you have to learn as you go. Same thing with being an educator online, right? Like, I know the basics. I know the value system I hold. I want to give this kind of good content that feels relatable, but with the other things that come, you’re just kind of putting things together and saying, is this working?

 

00:10:17:21 – 00:10:29:18

Dr. Mona

Is this not if it doesn’t hit the same thing like we do with children. Like, is this style working for me? Is this discipline method working? Let’s figure out what’s best, that we keep those values in line but can find little nuances within that.

 

00:10:29:21 – 00:10:50:28

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, I think, you know, the more we get into the world of social media and I’ve been creating content for like 15 years and it’s. Yeah, and social media, like, you know, every couple years a new one pops up. But I think as people really realize that social media is not going away. This is a part of our day to day lives now, and it’s never going to go away that it becomes more accepted and people will see the value and teaching people how to be creators.

 

00:10:50:28 – 00:11:10:01

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And there’s people who are doing that. You know, Doctor Betsy Grange has her Meta Academy where she’s talking about like and guiding newer doctors, creating social media because there’s so many people who want to do it and just don’t know how, and like having other people guide them through it. Just like the way that we were guided through our training, I think it’s only going to continue to grow, and I think there really is a need for it.

 

00:11:10:06 – 00:11:33:03

Dr. Mona

And, you know, I want to go into the other things that you educate on. Obviously, you are a practicing ob gyn, practicing both ob gyn one. What I say by that is for anyone listening sometimes some doctors in the specialty may choose to lean towards OB only, may lean towards gyne, but you are doing both of that and you know, kudos to you for doing that, for bringing all this content into life.

 

00:11:33:03 – 00:11:50:29

Dr. Mona

The podcast you started your set up is beautiful my darling, I love it. I know you had just, set that up before, the recording, which is phenomenal. You were that was a project for you, in your opinion, what gaps in pregnancy and postpartum education do you think that you want to fill on social media and you feel like are happening?

 

00:11:50:29 – 00:11:53:26

Dr. Mona

That would better serve people to have that education?

 

00:11:54:02 – 00:12:16:11

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I think there are so many people doing an amazing job educating online. We have midwives, labor nurses, doulas who really do a lot of the education that we as obstetricians wish we had the time to do in our offices. But the reality is, is that we have not enough obstetricians and too many patients, and we’re trying to, like, take care of all the medical things that unfortunately for us, a lot of times that education falls aside.

 

00:12:16:14 – 00:12:35:12

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I think my I feel my role is to really educate because there’s so many people who are doing such an amazing job in like standards of prenatal care, standards of labor and delivery. I kind of see my role as an obstetrician and as a physician to kind of take it like one step further and share, like, current new studies coming out.

 

00:12:35:16 – 00:12:56:06

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

What major medical organizations are saying for certain things that maybe people in practice do differently than like what is recommended. So, for example, one big topic is what we call laboring down. So say that you’re ten centimeters dilated. Do you start pushing right away yes or no? A lot of people believe in laboring down, when the reality is currently that the evidence and Acog stance is you should not.

 

00:12:56:06 – 00:13:26:02

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And that’s like less of a popular stance. But I see my role as the one who has to say, listen, this is what the study showed. And I’m not saying you have to, but I’m saying you deserve to know this information. And so getting a little bit more in the weeds at times when it comes to those discussions, I feel because there are so many other amazing creators already doing kind of that standard discussion that I, as a physician, feel like I can take this one more step further for the people who really want to, like, maybe hear about those studies.

 

00:13:26:04 – 00:13:46:19

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And then a lot of it is providing the nuance, right? Like, I mean, I’m doing that same work of like, you’ll hear someone say something and it’s not like it’s wrong or it’s right, but sometimes it’s like you’re lacking the context of where this could obviously go a little bit different or stray without understanding nuance. And like you said, the algorithm doesn’t help because extremes get the clickbait right.

 

00:13:46:19 – 00:13:56:28

Dr. Mona

Like if you say that epidurals are harmful, if you say you know that if you get pitocin, you’re you’re going to end up in a C-section. There’s a lot of lack of nuance in that.

 

00:13:56:28 – 00:14:18:03

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

There’s usually that’s usually accompanied by videos that make you feel a certain way. There’s yeah, that or angry music and like it just it plays more on emotions and then on like the facts and the studies and the guidelines. And so I am there to just like provide that. And I felt like, help someone then. Great. And if it doesn’t like isn’t the thing that they needed, then that’s good too.

 

00:14:18:03 – 00:14:32:14

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And like that’s, that’s how I see I think the role for most physicians. Right in your field, there’s a lot of people who are giving like parenting advice or talk. I’m sure, actually, I know how much people are talking about vaccines. And, you know, that’s that’s probably the big one for you guys.

 

00:14:32:14 – 00:14:33:05

Dr. Mona

But yeah.

 

00:14:33:08 – 00:14:53:10

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

The training to understand like it’s not just reading the insert like you think, I didn’t read an insert like I went to like four years of medical school and three years of training plus like, yeah, but reading an insert does not trump that. Yeah, right. Our roles as physicians is to kind of get in the weeds a little bit and talk about like, yeah, there is aluminum in here.

 

00:14:53:10 – 00:15:06:14

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Here’s why. Here’s your daily exposure to these things and why it does it does not matter. So like I think there’s a role for all of us in that space that is currently being filled by people who, don’t have as much training as the doctor does. Yeah.

 

00:15:06:14 – 00:15:24:28

Dr. Mona

And I think there’s such a honor in being able to be a clinician that is balanced in their approach. What I mean by that is that we take recommendations, and I think you do the same thing. Like you say, a car comes out with something or the AP comes out with something. My brain is always like reading the information because I do respect them as an entity and then saying, okay, how is this applicable to my patients?

 

00:15:24:28 – 00:15:43:23

Dr. Mona

Is there nuance that I have to create as a doctor? And so I think there’s a lot of misconception that a lot of the times we’re just taking what we hear and just regurgitating it, when in actuality, there is so much that we’ve learned from just practicing medicine. Right? They say practicing medicine for a reason, like it’s not just about medical school.

 

00:15:43:23 – 00:15:58:14

Dr. Mona

It’s not just about residency. It’s the years that I’ve also put in and you have as well of like learning about, oh my gosh, this patient came in with this thing. I wow, we need to make sure we have a solution or a preventative way or oh, this person had the side effect and that is what this is all about.

 

00:15:58:14 – 00:16:10:26

Dr. Mona

And I think that’s where I get frustrated with creators who just say, you know, you know, vaccines are bad and you know, they do this. And I’m like, but do you understand what the alternative is doing? And have we looked at that nuanced, balanced discussion.

 

00:16:10:28 – 00:16:12:24

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. And the answer typically is no.

 

00:16:12:27 – 00:16:29:12

Dr. Mona

No they haven’t. They just and they want to just keep. And that’s where it gets frustrating. It’s not that I think we don’t want the questions being asked. We just want people to understand that our intent and our place of where we’re giving that information is from a place of looking at clinical evidence, but also clinical experience.

 

00:16:29:14 – 00:16:38:24

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. And in fact, I encourage you to ask those questions. Absolutely. Like I didn’t go into this to have a one sided this is supposed to be a relationship. So the goal is to work through those things together.

 

00:16:38:29 – 00:16:58:06

Dr. Mona

And so, you know, moving towards now like pregnancy of I could talk to you about everything, but like we’ll do pregnancy in a little bit postpartum and then back to social because I love it. Many women still feel like they’re being dismissed during pregnancy, labor or postpartum recovery. Yeah, I think you know my story. I had it postpartum issue.

 

00:16:58:06 – 00:17:17:27

Dr. Mona

I’m not going to go into much detail, but my symptoms were dismissed for anxiety, and I ended up being very sick in the ICU after my husband yelled and all of that. Even with all that happened, I still love my obs. I still love my gynecology. I know that it was a situation that was very rare and advocacy was really important.

 

00:17:18:00 – 00:17:30:00

Dr. Mona

Yeah. What does advocacy actually look like for you being on your side in a labor and delivery setting, especially when someone feels intimidated or unsure of the medical experience and jargon that we may use?

 

00:17:30:02 – 00:17:51:14

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, it’s so hard because we are trying to balance so many things, right? We’re trying to and we are as clinicians are not perfect. Right. And like that was like such an extremely rare situation that like how you as a person want to be like how did you not know this? But as a clinician, you know, like that’s the wildest thing I’ve ever I know, I’ve never even heard of this thing.

 

00:17:51:14 – 00:18:08:03

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Right. You shared it recently and I was like, I also have never heard of this thing. And I too would not have known how to like, address this and like that feels very vulnerable. And I think it’s really important that clinicians are able to say that to themselves. That’s like, you could have been practicing for 40 years and you may not have seen everything at this point.

 

00:18:08:03 – 00:18:27:23

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And so I think being open with patients about that is kind of important at times. I see that I say to my patients all the time, like, I don’t currently know what’s going on, but we’re turning and we’re going to try to figure it out. And so pretending that I know everything from like the patient side of you when I say like, my most important thing is that my patients feel seen and heard.

 

00:18:27:23 – 00:18:41:05

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And so I try to like touch base with my patients a lot, you know, again, during a C-section, what I’m doing it, I will ask like every 5 to 10 minutes, how are you doing? Do you feel anything? If you feel anything, let me know. Like this is what you should expect. If you feel this, let me know.

 

00:18:41:07 – 00:19:09:02

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

You know, trying to really make sure that they’re continuously given those opportunities. But for patients, when they ask me like or when they talk about being dismissed or like that, their symptoms aren’t being heard because we as doctors aren’t always good about saying, like, here, the things that I’m seeing. Yeah, I’m not concerned. One thing that I’ve learned from social media and other people saying is if you are a patient and you aren’t sure what’s going on, that you ask, what are you most concerned about and why do you think it’s not that?

 

00:19:09:09 – 00:19:33:08

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Because that really opens up that conversation in a way that doctors might have like kind of breezed past because they’re so used to these conversations that, it’s a way to open up the conversation in a way that makes sense in a clinician’s mind, too, because it makes me work through the differential and say like, well, I don’t think that you’re abrupt ING right now because this, this and this, but it is my most scary thing that I’m looking out for.

 

00:19:33:08 – 00:19:54:02

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

So we’re going to continue to monitor you. And so I mean, you know, advocacy comes from all different sides of that. And I continue to learn how to be a better clinician and have those conversations with my patients go through, like day to day practice, but also through hearing patients stories online. Right. You sharing your own very personal scary story in the end made me a better doctor, right?

 

00:19:54:04 – 00:20:07:08

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

So I ever see that in real life? Probably not. But what I learned from that is like how you have those conversations and how you remain open to finding those things. And so I think there’s so many aspects to that that you could like, you know, spend hours talking about.

 

00:20:07:15 – 00:20:32:06

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I think, from the patient lens, if they’re in that moment, like where they’re feeling like something’s wrong in their body, like let’s say it’s in the pregnancy experience or postpartum if they feel something’s wrong as an OB, you know, on the other side, what do you think is effective advocacy from that, that patient like, does it look like, you know, I think this all comes down to communication, but what does that look like for you to get that point like, oh, okay.

 

00:20:32:06 – 00:20:34:20

Dr. Mona

Like you need to kind of dive deeper into this.

 

00:20:34:20 – 00:20:54:17

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, I think that’s the phrasing. I’m very concerned. I don’t feel right. Is enough of a trigger for like any clinician to be like, okay, there is real concern here. And I talk to my residents about this a lot, especially in the hospital system, you know, in the hospital setting. Right? I have like the lowest threshold to just admit someone to the hospital.

 

00:20:54:17 – 00:21:17:07

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And mom, if someone tells me I don’t feel right or something is wrong or I don’t feel my baby move, even though the NST looks good. Amazing. You’re going to sit here with me until we either figure it out or yeah, better. And so I think it’s got that phrase like something is wrong and I’m not leaving until we, like, figure it out is like it feels pushy but like that’s okay.

 

00:21:17:07 – 00:21:21:12

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Like you can be pushy about your health.

 

00:21:21:15 – 00:21:40:26

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show. Oh yeah, I think you know the difference that came to mind with my experience, which. So for anyone who missed the memo, my tattoo is an homage to it. But I had a really rare condition called burn excuse a peritonitis.

 

00:21:40:26 – 00:21:59:24

Dr. Mona

It’s basically when your body creates an inflammatory response, like a rejection response to the amniotic fluid and burn of the baby that gets spilled into the abdominal cavity when you have a C-section. Oh my God, why does that happen? Some people’s body just don’t like it. And so how they found out was after my second delivery, because it happened with the first.

 

00:21:59:27 – 00:22:26:03

Dr. Mona

And we thought that, oh, okay. Like maybe it’s because it was a traumatic delivery also that something happened and they couldn’t explain why I was responding to this fluid collection and having a almost like a sepsis response to the fluid collection. And then I had my, my daughter, same thing started to happen. And the difference between both experiences from a patient lens was in the first example, the OB that was covering because my OB had to leave was very dismissive.

 

00:22:26:05 – 00:22:44:07

Dr. Mona

You are just anxious because your son’s in the NICU. You need to calm down. You know? And they just stopped coming into my room when I was screaming for help. And that was the huge difference, right? There was a lack of feeling seen and heard and feeling like your voice and your screaming into the void. The second difference is what you do beautifully.

 

00:22:44:07 – 00:23:04:11

Dr. Mona

And you said that was my OB was like, this can’t be happening again. Like there’s just no way, like what is going on. And I’m like, I don’t know. But I’m feeling the exact same symptoms I had with my, my, my son postpartum and I don’t know why. And we sat I literally as we were trying to figure it all out, I was online trying to look at cases.

 

00:23:04:11 – 00:23:27:10

Dr. Mona

I’m like, okay, peritonitis after a C-section and then started seeing some articles come up. But the thing that she did that was different is she’s like, hey, I believe you. I believe something’s not right. And I don’t know the answer right now, but we’re going to figure it out. What do you want from me? And I think when someone listens to this and if they’re maybe a patient that doesn’t understand medicine, you may not be able to answer that.

 

00:23:27:10 – 00:23:46:29

Dr. Mona

And that situation, you may be like, I just don’t feel good. I just want to know if there’s any labs or imaging that can be done or something, or getting a medical advocate. Some hospitals have that, you know, to help translate the language, but the difference from the clinician response was one was dismissive and I was very irate because I could have almost died.

 

00:23:47:03 – 00:24:11:07

Dr. Mona

And but the second one held my hand in a very supportive way of like, I don’t know the answer, like you said, but I’m not going to stop until we figure it out. And even if she could or couldn’t write like I didn’t know at that point what was going on because it’s happening a second time, I felt like I could trust her and saying she believes me and that we’re going to figure this out and whether I survive this or not, because we didn’t know why I was getting sepsis again.

 

00:24:11:07 – 00:24:24:29

Dr. Mona

And what if I die? It was we felt secure in that. I have someone on my side that is going to try the most that she could and learn the most that she could. And I think that’s the biggest difference is like like you said, the humility from the clinician is huge.

 

00:24:25:01 – 00:24:44:26

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. I mean, your story like brings me to tears like I and not just like the medical side but your experience side. Right. You as a physician still went through that and felt that way. And it could have been different. Right. The medical trauma side of it would have still been there. You were still ill. You were still sick.

 

00:24:44:26 – 00:25:02:18

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

You didn’t know if you were going to survive that. And that’s terrifying. But that plus, like the dismissal, I think makes that traumatic response like that much worse. Like there was always any medical trauma, but right. Emotional dismissal, trauma that like, like elevates that like a thousand times. So I’m.

 

00:25:02:24 – 00:25:22:29

Dr. Mona

It. No, I mean I think and I think as a, you know, person on both sides now. Right. Like obviously as a pediatrician, I think maybe you have been in these shoes where I have been more dismissive than I should have been and, you know, or I’m like, oh, it’s fine. And then it hadn’t been like there was a case that I can remember now, one case, which I’m sure there may have been more that I’m not remembering, that I was like, oh my God, like I made a mistake.

 

00:25:22:29 – 00:25:37:08

Dr. Mona

But it’s these experiences when you hear about it, when you learn about it, that you’re like, how can I be a better listener and a better communicator? And I think every problem in this world would be better if everyone had better communication and listening skills. Yeah, that’s just medicine. Yeah. No, I.

 

00:25:37:08 – 00:25:54:07

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Know, but you’re true. Like you’re right in that with, like, especially in medicine, I think because of many of the outside demands of our jobs, our ability to communicate as clearly as we have wanted to or had in the past is gone because of all the external factors. Right? We have to see more patients. There’s not enough doctors.

 

00:25:54:07 – 00:26:17:03

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Insurance company dictates everything that we do. All those things have come down to the line of now. Clinicians don’t have the time to educate and communicate that they the way they once could. And that leaves the patient at like the center of not getting what they need. And that is and like, you know, for me, that’s why I talk about like, the medical misinformation online and but also need to it’s not just people trying to make money online.

 

00:26:17:03 – 00:26:32:05

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

It’s also that we as a medical system have. Then we allowed this to happen because we aren’t communicating with our patients the way that they want or deserve. And now people who are doing it have stepped in and are saying incorrect things, but they’re communicating. And yeah, I mean.

 

00:26:32:07 – 00:26:37:18

Dr. Mona

You’re not when you’re not feeling seeing, you’re going to go to the voice and people that make you feel seen, even if they’re giving you wrong information.

 

00:26:37:25 – 00:26:56:06

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

It’s 100%. They’re telling patients exactly what they’re getting and the validation that we are not giving them. And then they sometimes give them the solutions that they’re hoping for, even though we know, like, well, that solution’s actually not like based on anything, but they feel better because now they were heard and they were given up solution that we didn’t give them.

 

00:26:56:09 – 00:27:16:14

Dr. Mona

Yeah, I think I’ve said this on another show, but I feel like the whole pseudoscience movement and the popularity of it is a victim of our own doing as a medical system. As it stands right, the lack of time right and the lack of time, the fact that we’re burnt out, like many of us are burnt out. That when you add burnout to lack of time, you are not going to be as compassionate.

 

00:27:16:14 – 00:27:33:12

Dr. Mona

You’re not going to communicate as effectively. You’re going to dismiss more. And then where do people go? They either get angry, something bad happens, like a, a medical issue, or they go to someone else that is going to give them the feelings that they need. And everyone wants to be seen and heard. Yeah. Like that’s so that’s so true.

 

00:27:33:15 – 00:27:34:07

Dr. Mona

And, you know.

 

00:27:34:09 – 00:27:50:25

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I guess we can’t fix it, to be honest. Yeah. It’s hard to, for us to say like, I’m trying my hardest. I’m seeing as many patients as I can. I’m trying to do good medicine. But if you can’t acknowledge the way that our patients experience the system, then we also can’t change the system. And some things you can’t fix, some things you can’t change.

 

00:27:51:01 – 00:27:57:13

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

But there are little ways that you can change that. The patient experiences better health care in a better way that they could have.

 

00:27:57:19 – 00:28:22:05

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And one of the things that was really hard in my experience was, you know, I had a C-section followed by another surgery a week after GP drains, which were like draining fluid. And so in my head I’m like, I need to see my OB regularly when I get discharged from the hospital. Right. And that OB that was covering for the one who delivered me was like, okay, well, we’ll see you for the stitches removal or like the staples stitches removal, which was that like one week and I was like, okay.

 

00:28:22:12 – 00:28:38:25

Dr. Mona

And then after that she’s like, okay, we’ll see you in six weeks. And I’m like, wait, what? I felt like I needed more, like I was not ready to be alone in this postpartum journey. I don’t know what I needed, but I knew I didn’t need to be at home. I felt like I needed her to just check my wounds and check things because I was anxious.

 

00:28:38:25 – 00:28:57:24

Dr. Mona

I had just gone through something really bad, and I know a lot of people listening, even if they didn’t have any traumatic experience that six week follow up. Right. People feel like it’s not enough that you go through your OB visits so regularly when the baby’s in you, but then when it’s when the baby’s out, it’s like, okay, six weeks, you want to have sex, do you want to start working out?

 

00:28:57:24 – 00:29:11:15

Dr. Mona

Like it can feel like that for so many people? What do you wish that you can change in that postpartum experience from your side as well? B or what are some issues that you’re like, wow, I’m sorry this is happening and maybe explain to people why it’s this way.

 

00:29:11:18 – 00:29:32:07

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, well, it’s this way because of insurance. Yeah. Insurance covers one postpartum visit and the six weeks is an arbitrary made up time. I will say, like in my actual job, we see all of our patients within two weeks. And I am very grateful that my organization has really, like, truly prioritized, I’m the medical director for obstetrics at my hospital, so I’m very intimately involved in these conversations.

 

00:29:32:07 – 00:30:00:08

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And we have made it like our number one priority this year is to really get patients and to be seen within two weeks before all of those reasons that you said, yeah, the problem is, of course, insurance doesn’t always cover these things. The much larger systemic problems with all of this is that people are going through such a big change in the first that year of life, that of their baby, and a little bit of pressure is put on the OB to fill spaces that normally, like in other countries, are filled by other people somewhere.

 

00:30:00:10 – 00:30:24:06

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

As an example, my sister gave birth in Germany for her second child, and she received at home visits from midwives who came and check on her and her baby. She was put automatically into like pelvic floor rehab, rehabilitation covered. They had services that were completely covered to help her like transition in this like postpartum period here in the United States.

 

00:30:24:06 – 00:30:32:27

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

They’re basically like, well too bad right? Yeah. Not going to cover her pelvic floor physical therapy. And I know this because I went to pelvic floor physical therapy and it cost me several thousand dollars. Oh my.

 

00:30:32:27 – 00:30:35:04

Dr. Mona

Gosh. And how amazing is it. Like it’s so near.

 

00:30:35:06 – 00:30:37:12

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Like shout out to every single pelvic floor office I.

 

00:30:37:12 – 00:30:37:20

Dr. Mona

Know.

 

00:30:37:25 – 00:30:59:02

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

There I am like sing. I sing the praises. And I am so thankful I have such a large group of them where I practice because thank God for them. But like, it’s expensive and it takes time and it takes, you know, the ability to even go, you’re going through these things with your baby, who probably has to go see the pediatricians every couple of days now for weight checks and Billy checks and all those things, feeding checks.

 

00:30:59:04 – 00:31:19:26

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

But like, no one’s coming to your house to help you with that one in many other countries. And so it’s really unfortunate because what a for profit health care system does is it does and prioritize you as a person. They try to prioritize you medically and for the most part, medically removing all emotional, psychological parts of this.

 

00:31:19:28 – 00:31:38:10

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Medically, you don’t really need a lot postpartum, right? Like if you got one blood pressure check, you’re good. And you’re like, vagina’s probably healing or your C-section incision, unless there’s a problem, is healing. So medically, you don’t need me. But like all the other components of that, you do. And so it’s a balance. And there are some things that are changing with that.

 

00:31:38:10 – 00:31:59:03

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Like to get a little in the weeds. Billing for obstetrics is changing in the next couple of years, which is going to be a big difference for us because our billing practices currently in 2026 are based off of the 1990s. And the well is, is that the patient population and the patient needs have very much changed. It’s not just like young healthy patients having babies easily.

 

00:31:59:03 – 00:32:19:28

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

There’s a lot of like changes and complexities that we are now managing as obstetricians. And really to be able to provide more comprehensive care, to be paid for it, the billing structure has to change. And so that has been a big push by my organizations and is finally happening in the next couple of years. And I’m hopeful that that will continue to change our availability.

 

00:32:19:28 – 00:32:41:22

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

The amount of doctors who can see you more often from a patient’s perspective, though, if you feel that you need something more, then like, what is our current standard? I really hope that you feel empowered to ask for it. Can I promise that your OB will listen? No I can’t yeah. I want you to say, listen, I think I need to be seen again in like two weeks.

 

00:32:41:22 – 00:33:02:25

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I don’t know if I’m going to be doing that. Well, I just would feel better if I could see you for a wound check and a check in. And I hope that, like your OB says, whatever you need, we’ll see you, right? I can’t promise that. But part of that is, if we don’t know that you feel that way, we’re kind of going to go to what the current standard is.

 

00:33:02:25 – 00:33:20:14

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And so if you feel you fall out of the standard and need more than that, I hope you feel empowered to verbalize it. I think it’s hard it’s hard to advocate for yourself in that way. It’s hard to say I need something from you, but that’s the way that we can hear you, hopefully, and get you what you need.

 

00:33:20:21 – 00:33:37:01

Dr. Mona

Yeah, the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And I mean, it’s it’s it is. And I can say that as someone who’s had to advocate, you got to if it’s something that’s really important, you got to get a little bit difficult. Does that mean that you have to like curse and say names? No. Like, hey, this is really important.

 

00:33:37:01 – 00:33:53:15

Dr. Mona

Like, I need this to be done. Who can I speak to? Like I mean, escalate it in a healthy, communicate communicative way because you you do know your body like I knew that something was wrong and my husband to to. And it just takes a it takes a firm stance sometimes and that’s hard I understand.

 

00:33:53:18 – 00:34:12:17

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. I mean, don’t be afraid to escalate. If the front desk scheduling girl who has to follow the rules that are given to her. Yeah, I’m sorry, I can’t. It is okay to say, can I please talk to your office manager? I really feel like more than this. Like that’s okay. Like, please do that. Please know that, like, especially our frontline staff, they just have to follow the rules that were given to them.

 

00:34:12:17 – 00:34:23:26

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Right. But it’s okay to say like that. Not to be like. Can I talk to your manager? But can I talk to her in a in a polite way? You know, we don’t have to yell at anyone, but it’s okay to say that you need more.

 

00:34:24:02 – 00:34:39:07

Dr. Mona

Like, in the end of the day, this is not Starbucks. We’re not like, this is a life. This is your life and this is your body, right? Like, you know, people are like, you know, I’m putting in quotes because I understand, like being a Karen, like putting in quotes like, you know, you’re going to be that person that’s always like, you know, I this isn’t right.

 

00:34:39:07 – 00:34:58:19

Dr. Mona

My, my coffee order isn’t right. This isn’t a coffee order. Like, this is your body. And if you know, we need to know like, and I can’t be in your body like, you know, it’s hard in pediatrics too, because no one, no one can be in their body, but also they can’t speak all the time. So you’re just trying to play this detective game of like, I think, you know, I’m, I looks great.

 

00:34:58:26 – 00:35:04:18

Dr. Mona

Here’s what you’re going to look out for. But if you’re if you’re able to communicate it, communicate it I appreciate that.

 

00:35:04:21 – 00:35:07:16

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

It’s like that. So you guys are kind of like read minds here.

 

00:35:07:24 – 00:35:26:12

Dr. Mona

Yeah. You know I obviously we talked about the the insurance gap. And I know that that’s a reality. If you could put like five things or whatever, however much on like a piece of paper and like drop it from like fliers from the sky about the biggest postpartum health issues that you wish parents would look out for, whether it’s mental health or physical health.

 

00:35:26:15 – 00:35:30:06

Dr. Mona

What were those things be like? You’re like, please just watch out for these things. Postpartum.

 

00:35:30:06 – 00:35:47:08

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, postpartum pre-eclampsia is a big one. I think a lot of people, as soon as the baby comes out, your body is like free of the risks of preeclampsia. But postpartum preeclampsia is definitely a big one. So if you’re ever feeling off nausea, vomiting, all of a sudden you have new swelling, a headache that you didn’t have before.

 

00:35:47:08 – 00:36:11:03

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Floaters in your eyes. Please go to your doctor’s office or triage to be seen for a blood pressure check. If there is a difference between having some like like a little like anger or like not anger, but just like some emotions in that first week. Right? But when it gets to the point of you having like, intrusive thoughts and like, I had a little bit of this where all of a sudden I was like, well, what if I drop my baby down the stairs?

 

00:36:11:03 – 00:36:31:24

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. The first time I left my firstborn to go to target, I was like, well, what if I crash my car and die? And now I died going to target like those intrusive thoughts. Like, that is what postpartum anxiety is a part of. And so I don’t want you to ignore that part either. I think, you know, the very simple things of like, if your wound is red and angry looking, please be checked out because that can cause infection.

 

00:36:32:00 – 00:36:47:13

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

If you have breast pain, like don’t just say this is part of like breastfeeding. This is could be mastitis and that can be very dangerous to your health. So have that checked out. And I would say the biggest one is that, you know, the six week like you mentioned like oh six weeks, you’re going to have sex.

 

00:36:47:13 – 00:37:06:00

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

You’re good to like move on with your life. The reality is, is that your body is postpartum for the rest of your life from that moment on. It’s not like six weeks is a magic time where all of a sudden your pelvic muscles are back to how they were, that your breasts feel like the way they always had before, and that your stomach, like diet places is like normal again, like postpartum is for the rest of your life.

 

00:37:06:00 – 00:37:26:18

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And so that, you know, ebbs and flows through your life. So don’t be afraid to like, acknowledge that your body went through something traumatic. It’s traumatic to grow a human and have that human exit your body in one way or another, like and like there are consequences to that. And it’s okay to say, you know, like my youngest is almost three, but there are still consequences to my pelvic floor from that.

 

00:37:26:21 – 00:37:38:05

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And I should be like, just like writing it off as this is like forever my life. Like we have experts to help you. This is a change. But like, let’s work on it. And six weeks isn’t some like magical number.

 

00:37:38:07 – 00:38:00:00

Dr. Mona

I mean, alluding back again to the pelvic floor therapist because God bless them. Like had it not been for my pelvic floor therapist after my daughter’s delivery, I don’t think I would have been in the shape I am now in my life. Like she she helped me so much get my body back to just being functional. You know, again, I think we focus so much on like getting your body back esthetically, and I never was about that.

 

00:38:00:00 – 00:38:15:28

Dr. Mona

My, my mission was always to be able to be functional. Like, I don’t want to pee when I laugh. I don’t want to have to, like, not be able to use my core to get up from the ground, you know, like I want to. And so like, God bless them. And I agree, I think it’s like all of those things are so important.

 

00:38:16:00 – 00:38:24:01

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00:38:24:03 – 00:38:36:13

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, I think that one of the biggest things that any postpartum patient can ask is their doctor is about, pelvic floor physical therapy. And I ask my patients, like, how’s your pelvic floor? How are you for the public for physical therapy? A lot of my patients can’t.

 

00:38:36:19 – 00:38:37:09

Dr. Mona

I know.

 

00:38:37:11 – 00:38:52:24

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Right. You know, even if you don’t have any major things, like, for me, my thing was, every time I bent down, I felt this, like, heaviness in my vagina. And I was like, this sucks. I like to bend down to put my children’s shoes on because I’m so angry about how I feel. So sad that I was even having things like peeing on myself.

 

00:38:52:24 – 00:39:02:21

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

But like something that was like, really disruptive to my life. And so and what have continued to be disruptive to my life for the rest of my postpartum years. Right until I’m 95 years old with pelvic organ prolapse.

 

00:39:02:21 – 00:39:04:02

Dr. Mona

So yeah.

 

00:39:04:05 – 00:39:20:29

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Thank God for a pelvic floor physical therapist. If you have any sort of concern, please ask your doctor for a referral. In fact, a lot of times you don’t even need a referral. You can call them yourself. Yeah. So just know that that is very likely out there for you and that you shouldn’t be scared to like, address something that’s bothering you.

 

00:39:20:29 – 00:39:22:27

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

You don’t have to live with that forever.

 

00:39:22:29 – 00:39:43:08

Dr. Mona

Now, with all the work that you do in real life, seeing patients, you know, I say real life because in-person and then online. I would love the answer to each of these questions. So have you noticed parents coming into pregnancy or postpartum visits more confident from something they read on social? And I’m curious, like you mean example? Or have they come more anxious from what they’ve read online?

 

00:39:43:10 – 00:40:06:19

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, I think, you know, I see both net positive for my patients where they love it. Yeah, they come in educated. They have good questions to ask. They will say, I saw this. Like that’s my biggest thing was social media. I love social media because I know there’s so many good people educating on it. What I want the viewers to take from that is I want you to hear what other people are saying, and then go to your own doctor and say, does this apply to me?

 

00:40:06:19 – 00:40:34:10

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

So I love when my patients come to me like, hey, I heard about whatever Group B strep testing like, can does that apply to me? Like, yes, it does, you know, but all those things, I think net positive when it comes to like the work that’s being done on social media. Still, you know, I can’t think of like, I can’t think of, you know, but I can share them, like, experiences where social media has been a negative, where people have come in with a preconceived notion of like, what applies to them?

 

00:40:34:10 – 00:40:52:27

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I am my own podcast. I talked to a labor, labor and delivery nurse where a lot of patients come into like, say, labor delivery with what they’ve seen online when, which is a lot of the time revolving around low risk patients who want low intervention. And then we have patients who come in to us, and they’re actually high risk patients who don’t qualify for some of those things.

 

00:40:53:03 – 00:41:10:17

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And it’s hard to balance that conversation and be like, I know someone told you online these these things. But like the reality is that your situation is different than what they told you. And that’s hard because and us, as in real life, clinicians have to be like, I understand. And yes, that is true, but it’s not true for you.

 

00:41:10:19 – 00:41:30:01

Dr. Mona

Exactly. Going back to like how do you take what you read, provide the nuance and that’s when you have to go back to your clinician. I love that you brought up the it learn learn everything you want. But also think about how can it apply. And that may be having to go back to the person who knows you has worked with you on your body, on, you know, your pregnancy, postpartum, or for anyone listening for your child, you know.

 

00:41:30:01 – 00:41:33:26

Dr. Mona

And that’s why this relationship is so important, the relationship with your doctor.

 

00:41:33:28 – 00:41:48:09

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. It’s the the people on line are not your doctors. I mean, maybe I’m like, probably not. Right. But you those are their educators. And so take what they’re educating and then go to the person who knows you and see if that still applies to you as an individual patient.

 

00:41:48:13 – 00:41:57:01

Dr. Mona

If you could change one thing, or you can give me more than one thing about how pregnancy and postpartum care is delivered in the US, what would it be?

 

00:41:57:03 – 00:42:17:06

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

I would love to see more in-home visits postpartum. I, instead of taking people out of like I birthing in a hospital, I feel very strongly for. I think you can have a very lovely low intervention birth in a hospital. But in the United States, especially how like geographically spread out we are, birthing in the hospital is very much my preference.

 

00:42:17:13 – 00:42:38:21

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

But many of the postpartum things are can be so wonderfully done at home. You know, weight checks, blood draw, blood pressure checks for mom, wound tracks. Those things all can be really accomplished in the home. I am so fortunate. Again, my health care system has really prioritized home health nursing. So many of my patients get home health nurses who come to them and do those things.

 

00:42:38:21 – 00:42:52:02

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

And like, how wonderful is that, that you can keep them that diet at home rather than getting in a car, driving to the doctor’s office and driving to the other doctor’s office like, I wish there was much more, support of that nationwide.

 

00:42:52:02 – 00:43:06:25

Dr. Mona

And then I would add, I mean, we already said this, but the pelvic floor therapy for everybody, lactation therapy for anyone who wants it, or lactation consultant. I say for anyone who wants to because it’s if you want to choose to breastfeed. But yeah, I agree. I think those are those are key. And I think about that too a lot as a pediatrician.

 

00:43:06:25 – 00:43:33:06

Dr. Mona

And I do like the direct primary care model of pediatrics of like going back to those home visits, which is what it used to be back in the day. You know, many of our generation doesn’t, doesn’t know that because we have an experience that but like the time that you get the care that you get the, you know, the comfortability of just being in your own home and your own clothes, like not having to worry about transport yourself whether you’re healing from a C-section or vaginal complications or, you know, the baby.

 

00:43:33:06 – 00:43:35:04

Dr. Mona

I agree it’s better for everybody.

 

00:43:35:06 – 00:43:50:20

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, even like I was very fortunate my oldest daughter had to be on Billy Lites for like days, like, I don’t know, three through five of her life or whatever, but we got to do it at home. Like we had a blanket at home and we got to stay in our own home. And now I’ve learned since and that that is not the standard.

 

00:43:50:20 – 00:43:56:18

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Even in my hospital system. It’s not the standard. They have to be admitted back to the hospital. And I’m like, how do we get Billy blankets to everyone? Because, oh.

 

00:43:56:18 – 00:43:56:28

Dr. Mona

I love.

 

00:43:56:28 – 00:44:08:04

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

It. Oh, lovely to just be at home. Of course. Annoying, but much better than being in the hospital. So I think in postpartum and in early life, there’s many things that could be done at home that I think would be so lovely.

 

00:44:08:12 – 00:44:23:27

Dr. Mona

Oh yeah. I’ve worked at three offices in my life so far residency practice, one job before, the job I was at and then now, I guess for now, four practices. But two of them had Billy Blanket and it was a game changer. I still remember when I started working and I was like, oh my God, like, this is amazing.

 

00:44:23:27 – 00:44:39:22

Dr. Mona

Like we have saved. So like we have prevented so many hospitalizations because we could just handle the, you know, the light therapy at home. That’s a topic for another conversation, I guess, about Billy Lights and all my my Billy Love because I love talking about jaundice. But thank you so much for joining me today. This was so awesome.

 

00:44:39:22 – 00:44:50:25

Dr. Mona

I know we can talk forever and we will because now we’re like besties in real life too. Okay, but what is something that’s making you really happy right now in your life? And what’s something that’s giving you a lot of hope?

 

00:44:50:28 – 00:45:05:23

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah, something I think me really happy is the current ages of my children are I love it. I, my children are two, four and six and I just this stage has been so fun. The communicating my youngest is like saying like these sentences now that are just so funny and you’re like, how does one come up with it?

 

00:45:05:23 – 00:45:28:16

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

So, this stage of parenting, I thought I would be in like little toddlerhood for the rest of my life and kind of like stepping a little outside of it is just so, so lovely. And something I’m really excited about is my own podcast that I am starting, in this early part of this year and just getting to talk to other medical content creators and really continuing to further that education online.

 

00:45:28:18 – 00:45:49:18

Dr. Mona

Well, I’m going to have to come on the show. You and I will be coming on. We’ll have to do an exchange here. And I love it. What you said about your two, four and six year old. My two year, my well, zero is three by the time this is airing. But when she was about two and a half, my favorite thing that made me smile was when she was like putting, you know, getting ready to leave the house and she forgot to put on her socks.

 

00:45:49:23 – 00:46:08:17

Dr. Mona

And she’s like, actually, mama, I have to wear my socks. And I’m like, actually watch you. And like, it’s so funny because obviously we say these words when you hear a little two and a half year old put a finger up to their mouth and be like, actually, mama, I forgot my socks and then she like, runs runs with her little tushy to go get her socks.

 

00:46:08:17 – 00:46:21:28

Dr. Mona

Gosh. God bless like it is. It is an awesome thing. Hard but amazing work that we’re doing. Thank you for for sharing. Where can people go to stay connected with what you’re doing, all the work. And also we’ll be linking the podcast, adding it to our show notes, all of that stuff.

 

00:46:21:28 – 00:46:31:06

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Yeah. So on most social media, you can find me at Paging Doctor Fran, on Facebook, like we talked about Instagram, TikTok, and then my podcast is I did my own research and you can.

 

00:46:31:06 – 00:46:31:19

Dr. Mona

Find Love.

 

00:46:31:19 – 00:46:32:21

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

It podcasts are.

 

00:46:32:21 – 00:46:51:20

Dr. Mona

Absolutely support her. Learn from her. She’s a great creator, a great hype woman for fellow creators. If you are just like in this as a creator, follow other creators that you can learn from and she’s one of those people. Thank you so much for joining me, and I cannot wait for you to come on again, because I know we’re going to have some amazing other conversations about other topics.

 

00:46:51:25 – 00:46:57:20

Dr. Franziska Haydenek

Thank you so much for having me. I’m so excited for our future conversations.

 

00:46:57:22 – 00:47:24:21

Dr. Mona

Listen, the great thing about therapy, especially my eMDR therapy. And by the way, I do have a podcast episode about that is that I can talk about what happened to me with Ryan, with VRE, IVF, all of that, and not feel the sort of flashbacks that I used to have. I still will get emotional because it feels part of me forever, and it took a huge part of my life and emotional and mental health, but it still gets me right in the chest.

 

00:47:24:21 – 00:47:46:00

Dr. Mona

And my biggest takeaway from this conversation is something Doctor Friend said that I have not stopped thinking about. There will always be some amount of medical trauma when something goes wrong in your body. And that’s what happened to me. I was not upset at the fact that my doctor, to do what she had to do to get Ryan out of me, in my situation, in my story for our birth trauma.

 

00:47:46:02 – 00:48:10:01

Dr. Mona

But what did upset me was the dismissal, the lack of listening. That is the difference. When a clinician dismisses you. On top of all of that, it multiplies the pain by a thousand. The flip side is just as true when a doctor says, I believe you, and I’m not leaving until we figure this out, or we are going to figure this out and tries to figure out what can be going on.

 

00:48:10:04 – 00:48:31:09

Dr. Mona

That alone can be the difference between feeling alone in this scary moment and feeling like you have someone fighting with you. Here’s my hope for you. After listening the next time something in your body feels off, you do not need to have the medical vocabulary to explain it. You are allowed to simply say, I am concerned something does not feel right.

 

00:48:31:12 – 00:48:50:19

Dr. Mona

What can we do? What are the next steps? What are the labs we can do or the imaging? That should be enough. You are allowed to be pushy about your own health. I mean, I’m debuting this around the time that I’ve been dealing with severe iron deficiency, and I had to advocate for myself again as a medical professional in the system.

 

00:48:50:21 – 00:49:14:10

Dr. Mona

So know that you are not alone and the medical system is not perfect. And unfortunately, patients are the ones having to advocate for themselves. And my life’s mission is to continue to teach you all how to advocate so that you and your child can get the best health manageable. If you know someone who’s pregnant, postpartum, or has ever felt brushed off by their doctor, send them this episode.

 

00:49:14:12 – 00:49:34:04

Dr. Mona

This one is for them. And don’t forget to tag PedsDocTalk, the PedsDocTalk podcast, and paging Doctor Fran when you share this conversation on social media. Until next time, please take care of yourself the way you take care of everyone else. I’ll chat with you all soon, and thank you for helping this community continue to grow.