The Truth About Prenatal Care, Supplements For Women, Hormone Health, & Postpartum Ft. Victoria Thain Gioia Of Perelel

Victoria Thane Joya is on the show. She is the co-founder and CEO of Parallel.

The first OBGYN found a vitamin company, offering Dr. formulated research-backed supplements.

I liked this episode as a mother because Victoria is a mother of four, and she understands the whole landscape when it comes to running a business, caring about health, and also managing her children.

“So this conversation was very much relatable to me, and I think it'll be relatable to you, especially”

if you're someone who wants to be pregnant, is thinking about getting pregnant or maybe you are pregnant. Some topics here are the MTHFR gene mutation. We discussed the truth about prenatal vitamins, creatine for women, hormone health, postpartum mental wellness, and balancing it all as a mother and a business woman.

Victoria, welcome to The Show. Why are we seeing MTHFR everywhere? It's everywhere. I mean, in general, I think it's a little overwhelmed, but because I don't know what you do with that information, except for, say, okay, then I should take a more bio-vailable

format because my body can't process folic acid in the same way, but why doesn't everyone just take a more bio-available format of folic acid, which is methylated folate? And so folic acid is the synthetic format, and it requires everyone out of everyone that your body methyates it to convert it into folate. But folic acid has to be methylated into folate, and then your body can absorb it.

Or you could just start with folate. I don't think a lot of people know that, and even when you were talking about this, but we're clear now, and we've covered this on this show, if you have the MTHFR gene mutation,

“got it one time, then you cannot convert folic acid in your body, right?”

You can't do it as effectively. You can't do it as effectively. Yes. So people know, okay, I'm going to take a methylated vitamin to do that. Yes.

But I don't think a lot of people realize you could just take, even if you don't have the gene mutation, you could take the methylated, I didn't know that. Yeah, because it's also just reducing the body burden. You know, we're taking a lot of supplements today, like, let's reduce all of the processes our body has to make, and so across all different formats of ingredients, like, take

the most bio-available format that has the fewest steps for your body to absorb them. So it's almost like, why is the stuff that's not, and I'm going to flood this. Why is it not, why is the stuff with folic, is it folic acid? Well, like, I don't even understand why the other stuff's not on the market. So there's, so folic acid, it's like a history piece.

So tell us the history. I'm not going to get it all right. That's okay. You know, Dr. Bayotti, who's our medical co-founder, and there's a reason why she is. folic acid was identified in, like, the 80s, with its connection to birth defects, neural

tube defects, most primarily, but other birth defects as well, like class. And that's before sort of methylated folate was a new, which is a newer ingredient, and more advances had been made in the supplement category. And then the second part of it is that folic acid is heat stable. And so when these studies came out connecting folic folate to these birth defects and folate

“deficiencies to birth defects, the best way to solve it in mass, especially before, like”

the supplement industry was as wide spread in the 80s, was to fortify our food system. And so with that, you need something that was heat stable that could go into breads and pastas and cereals. And so that's why folic acid is the most talked about, and that's why, and studies were done on folic acid.

We're not going to redo those studies. That would be unethical. We're not going to have a control group of women that don't get folate or folic acid.

So they're never going to be re-done with methylated folate, but there are studies that

have shown that methylated folate is as affected if not better than folic acid. So but the wide studies that like really showed nothing versus folic acid aren't going to be re-done again. And how did you become interested in this in the first place? This is neat.

Yeah. Yes. So definitely niche. My daughter, our second child, Imogen, was born with a class seven years ago. She was a beautiful, happy, healthy seven year old today.

And she's had four surgeries and that's not ever pain that you want your child to go through.

But it would never change a second of her.

She had a class and there were two different ways that class can form.

There's the sort of blueprint class, which are genetic, which we tested for and it was not a genetic class.

And then there's the second part, which is sort of the construction type, which is the

formation class, which can be related to sort of external factors, one of which is nutrition and nutrition related. And so, as a type A, millennial mom, when we were getting this diagnosis, meaning with the care team and planning surgery, after my 20 weeks scan, I started digging deeper and wanted to figure out the why and I didn't really have some of the other kind of external

factors. So, it seemed likely that it was a nutrition related birth defect. And I then tested and I found out that I had the MTHFR variant, and so all of this kind of got me into this rabbit hole learning about folic acid and methylated folate, but more than that, like the prenatal vitamin category as a hole.

And what was in the market, what was serving women, and that's kind of the whole journey.

“And so that was a piece of it, but I think it was more so what was missing in the category”

in general. Just so I'm so clear on this, if you have MTHFR, and you take a prenatal without the active

form of folic acid, does that equal something happening to the baby or not always?

No, no, no. And I really don't want to see that at all, and like there are so many factors that can contribute to these types of birth defects, and I'm just asking from an ignorant, I don't know. Yes.

I don't do feel like that is something I really want to clarify because there's so many things, like you have multiple kids too, like so many things have to go right, to have a healthy child, which I didn't even realize until you start on this fertility journey, and you start learning all about this, and the ups and downs, and so there's so many things that have to go right.

So, no, it does not mean that at all.

It just means that your body isn't properly processing it.

I had other things going on, I had two kids back to back, I was taking a gummy prenatal lineman, that was number one in the market, that was missing all sorts of other things too. She actually had some calcium deficiencies, she has a couple of fake teeth, so there I was clearly nutritionally depleted, going into this pregnancy, and that probably contributed to some of these things, but it's not pinpointed on this methylated folate discrepancy, but

this was something that I realized in the category, and then kept digging, and there's more and more in the prenatal vitamin category that I was. We just had the glucose goddess on the show, and she was recently pregnant and had a child, and she was talking about just like the nutrition, and the nutrition deficits, when you're building a child in your body, right, and she was just saying like if you do these things,

you're going to have this, and if you do these things, it's going to be hard, and so it's just saying how hard it is, but like, their people are starting to talk about nutrition

“and supplementation more and more now, and I think for the longest time there was a little”

bit of like, oh, it kind of doesn't matter what you eat, and I'm going to be careful here as the man on the show, but I think people are now starting to say like, well, it does matter, and you will have potentially different outcomes with different nutritional diets. Yeah, completely.

And like going into a pregnancy, like being nutritionally sufficient, going into a pregnancy, how you prepare your body for the conception phase two, like there's so much more that you can be doing. But like, we don't just need to be surviving a pregnancy, and like, there can be optimal outcomes.

Like a woman can be thriving. She can have energy, she can feel good, and supplementation is a key part of that. Do you feel so empowered by taking what has happened with your daughter and having such a big cause? It's almost like your daughter pointed you towards this.

She's our muse, and she knows that, and so she like feels this special connection to parallel. She actually told me earlier this week, they're doing like a Shiro project for their school, for women's history months, and she told me that I was a Shiro, and I like to truly cry. Yeah.

She's our muse. And like I don't think of it as a, she would be any different, but you know, she started us down this road, and we built something to support women. That is so much bigger than this situation, and yeah, it's really cool. And I feel like recently we had one of her last in this sort of time period of appointments

at the Children's Hospital, and then like I went and saw, we have 35 people on the team, and we've like really built this business to support a lot of women, and it's a, I'm really proud of what we've been able to do out of this and for her. Is there anything that you've done during this process with your daughter over the last

“seven years that you feel like it's really helped you as a mom?”

Yes.

I have four kids run the business, like you're just go, go, go, go. How old are you, what's the youngest or tallest, or I know oldest to youngest? Yeah. Oldest, it's eight, seven, five, and our youngest will be to this month. It's okay.

Eight, seven, five, and two. Yeah. Very busy. Yeah. So what do you do for yourself?

I really believe in like exercise, that's always been my de-stressor.

I have high levels anxiety, so carving out that time, and like it is your phone free time. You can't be on your computer. You can't check your email.

“It's like you have to kind of put it down, so that's big for me.”

That's like my not negotiable, and it's always been since I was a kid. I used to be a big runner, so I feel like making sure I continue to carve that space. I've been my personal me time, and then just kind of like the general care. It's okay if you just say you're just hanging on, because I have these young, these guys that are my friends that are like, but they don't know kids, and we're just living their

life. And they talked to me about their extensive morning routines, and their wind on routines, and these son-a-cold-plunge sessions, and these dates they go on. And I got interviewed, was it yesterday by business insider or something like that? And they were like, "Well, what is your routine?"

I'm like, "Listen, I'm hanging on by a thread in the morning, and at night, I'm barely getting in what I need to get in." And I think for parents out there with young children, Scott Galloway was on the show and he said, "Oh, you guys are in Vietnam." And you don't really realize it when you're in it, and again, people, we're not the

first people to be parents, and many people do it under much harder circumstances.

But I think when they're in this pocket of this age where they literally can't put their pants on, by themselves or feed themselves, they're just hanging on, doing your best. Yeah.

“I think we're a little bit in this phase of just trying to survive.”

We're not thriving. It's also the funnest age, and you know it's going to get better, and maybe it's just because I have an eight-year-old where he's so fun to be with. I mean, they're all so fun to be with, but he's actually self-sufficient, and I know it'll get easier in some ways, and then bigger kids, bigger problems.

But right now, I'm just trying to survive. But then I do. I think that's real though. I mean, we're just hanging on it. I'm not sitting over your lying, I'm surviving.

I sprinkle myself, Karen, and strategic ways, but I-- Oh, but when we had no kids, we had these beautiful, long morning routines with walks, and teas, and all-- and journal, and all sorts of stuff. I'm like, I don't have that anymore. I'm just like crashing out of the house.

I find hacks, but like where I can, a definitely a fine hacks, little holes. But it's definitely a lot at this age. We have five, six, three, and-- I don't even know. Yeah, exactly.

“No, we're hanging on by-- that's-- I think that's-- that's-- but what adds the other layer is,”

you obviously are also in a relationship, trying to take care of yourself. You're running a company, the company's doing very well. You have other people looking to you to solve and make sure that they're, like, in safe hands. It's a lot. It's stressful.

Yeah, there are days. And we've been doing the business for almost six years now, and the beginning problems, it's like, all chaos, and your all hands on deck, and you're doing all the work. And, you know, six years later, like, running the business, you're also running the team, like we have a lot of people, and it's different problems, and it's different challenges.

And sometimes it's a little bit more overwhelming, and so it's like I have, like, four mouths to feed at home, and then I've got, like, 35 mouths to feed at work, and, like, maintain their happiness and health, and sort of what they're doing, and it's definitely been a shift over the last six months of, like, what I spend most of my time doing, but trying to balance it all.

What do you think about creatine while pregnant? I did it every single day. I'm curious to know your thoughts as someone who sort of deals with it every single day. I mean, I think it's beneficial during pregnancy.

I think you need a lot of these kinds of things, more during pregnancy, like, protein,

and creatine because you, you're basically running a marathon, and you're protein needs

increased, and sort of maintaining your muscle health, and your cognitive health, which is huge on the creatine side, is all really important. So I think that's really important. It's just, I think there's some, like, studies out there that make it feel scary, but it's all about the dosage, and I think that's a lot of in the supplement category of, like,

more is not more, and so you just need to make sure you're taking, like, the safe and effective dose during pregnancy, and just talking to your doctor, but you can go talk to your doctor. I did five grams. What do you guys like?

We dose at three grams. We have creatine in our protein product, so it's a triple support protein, which is protein plus fiber plus creatine, kind of, all the things that women need in this kind of category,

For women, it is three to five grams.

We, because we're banding by an OBGYN, she is very much on the, like, do no harm, and what is the, like, baseline you need, and then if someone needs more, they can kind of layer that in for their diet, but, like, again, going back to just keeping it as safe and effective as possible. Other things that you guys have identified as primarily female company that maybe men have

been on to or doing for a while, that women have no, so for example, like, I've been taking creatine since I was 12 years old, right? A lot of guys probably said that.

“Have you really been taking it since you were 12, like, like, you were 12 in the kitchen?”

Yeah, I was, I was slamming, and I was, I got feels like a tall tail. I was slamming muscle. Hold on, you're there. I was babe. I was, I don't know.

I had protein shells. I was slamming. I think you might have been 14, not 12. I was taking a meal. No, not 12.

I was literally 12. I was slamming these things. I was wearing a muscle shirt and walking around like this in the house. But what I guess my point is is what I realized with Lauren, she started weight training with me the years ago now and started taking supplements that I, and what I, it was like

a light bulb moment as a man, I was like, why did I not talk to her about some of these supplements

“or some of these workouts or some of these proteins that I was taking?”

Thank you for telling me what you were doing since you were 12. No, no. I think a lot of men out there are just like, oh, that's a, like, men take that. And now they're, the more women in our lives are saying, okay, I'm, I'm taking creatine or I'm supplementing with protein or I'm taking these, other things that you've discovered

that may be men have been getting more of that women should look too more. Yeah, and I, I think creatine and protein are perfect examples of that. But I think there's, like, you can go back further of all of the research studies were done on men. So then it's kind of leaning towards men and while women are not actually small men.

So great to have some studies done with women and really seeing what the benefits are for women. So I think that's like, if you really went back, what drives some of that, but then also I feel like there's definitely been a transition for women in the last five years, maybe a little longer, but I think really in the last five years about muscle health for women

and muscle mass and like how important that actually is, like women have lived in diet culture and kind of salads and less is less and really realizing that women actually start to lose muscle mass at age 30, much faster than men, and it's exasperated by hormonal fluctuations, such as parry menopause, like women have hormonal fluctuations, much more so than men, like us, but like we need to actually think about that, and so I think the

more that research has come out and more of that conversation, it's realizing that women need these things, even maybe more so than men, and there's so many studies behind them. There's so many studies, clinical studies behind creatine, and it has been this like Jim bro and gradient, and then there's actually recent studies on creatine around cognitive health.

Yep, I slept that last night I woke up and slammed five grams of creatine just because I slept bad. Yeah, and then he has to do a performance, he's like, this is how I take creatine and it's like an inch of water in the cup, and he's like, chugging it, like it's a shot of tequila, you're so proud of yourself.

No, but, but to your point, there's things that I think the quote unquote Jim bro's have known about where it's like, I know if I have a terrible night of sleep.

One of the first things I'm going to do is have maybe a double dose of creatine, not right

at once, but five in the morning, maybe five after the workout, and it does have neurological protections and cognitive benefits for doing that, especially if you have a bad night

“at a rust, yeah, no, I think it's huge and I think it's important that it's just”

becoming part of the conversation for women and women's health and like actually how important muscle health is for women in terms of longevity and bone loss and bone density, like all of our grandmothers had osteoporosis or similar issues, like we can start preventing that, but we need to start preventing that now and sort of building up our muscle health and our bone density.

One thing that I've noticed from creatine, this is so weird, is I noticed that my skin is tighter to the muscle. So a lot of people are like, oh, it makes you bloated, I've found that creatine, like, gives you that very useful tightness of the skin around the muscle. And I don't even know how to describe what I'm trying to say.

Someone's listening DMV, what I'm trying to say, but it's like, it's almost like the muscles more toned in the skin connects to the muscle more. Like firmness in the skin. I don't, it's like, it's a lot, like, you know how can Kelly looks, it's like Kim Kelly. A lot of women, and again, I don't want to paint every woman, but the women in my life would

say, I don't want to take creatine and protein and weight lift because I'm going to get

too buff and jacked and I always laugh at these women because I'm like, do you know how

hard we're trying as man to just get a little bit of, it's like, this idea that you're

But what happens when you do take some of these supplements is, yeah, you'll be able to

“get more hydration to the muscle, you'll be able to build it in a more effective way.”

You'll be able to retain it longer and so you're going to have that look.

When you work directly with your incredible OBGYN, what have you learned from her when it

comes to supplements? Everything. I mean, she has such an amazing approach and she is a medical doctor, she's an OBGYN, she's delivered many of my children, but she has such a holistic lean to her practice, but she really focuses on efficacy, safety, research and like what she sees with her patients.

So there's been ingredients that are really popular out there and she is like an absolute no. She's like, we cannot include that in our product. What are those ingredients? You know, we're going to ask.

Certain things, it's certain things just can have like liver toxicity. So there's some around like some pms ingredients, even some like menopause ingredients. So she's like, those are no, we're not including those in our products. She's really cautious about the dosage, like she, we're creating products that women can take every day and so what is safe and effective and like, there's a lot of clinical studies

at certain dosages. So we can use that to know that it will still be effective, but it's safe for women to take every day. And then I think the other part that I've really learned from her and her philosophy is just that supplements are just that, there are supplements to a healthy diet.

And so we need to think of them that way, but it needs to be part of your daily routine. Like, how does it fit in? And I think that's also been like the biggest learning as we've made products and formulated. She's all about like tolerability. How does it fit in the use case?

Like, think that went into our formulation with our protein, we were talking about protein, we were talking about fiber, we were talking about creatine and she's like, this woman needs all of those. Like, let's make this easy for her. How do we make this something she can take every day?

How does this fit in her routine?

“And because she's like, that's the only way this woman's going to take it every day.”

And she's seen patients for 25 years and she's like, the biggest issue is like, making sure someone sticks to this routine and whether it's like a new diet or a supplement and all of those things, like, how does it fit into their routine? So that's been like, I think a big insight where it's like, as a woman or you'll just be like, oh, they'll just change the routine and they'll add that to this and then they'll make

a smoothie every day and she's like, well, that doesn't always work.

How does this fit into their routine? And she's really pushed us on that side, which has been really helpful. Knowing everything that you know now, because obviously you've been around the right people and on your research, if you got pregnant today, what would you do? Yeah, I would be really focused on my nutrition ahead of pregnancy and I think that's

the biggest difference that I didn't realize with my first and going into a pregnancy how important it actually was to be on the right prenatals, taking the right supplements, you know, thinking about egg health, like, all of that and it's not immediate. It's not, like, especially for egg health, it's like three months in advance at the very, very least, if not, like, six months to a year.

So that is something that I've learned through this journey of, like, really preparing your body for a pregnancy and then, like, we've done a clinical study on our conception support pack and shown that taking that for at least three months, like increases key

nutrients that are critical for a healthy pregnancy.

And so preparing an advance, I think, is the biggest piece that I would have would focus on. And what about when you actually are pregnant? So I think a prenatal is sort of non-negotiable on taking those ingredients. I would take parallel and have sort of the focus on because your needs change between different

trimesters.

“And so that's why I think how we built out our system of you get something that's specific”

to first trimester, second trimester, third, and so forth. That's fascinating. I think that's so smart. Yeah, I mean, look, you could take everything all at once and take 10 pills a day, but that would be really hard to tolerate.

So, like, let's actually be really specific of what exactly you need when and what you don't need at different stages. So I would take that. But I think more so I would also be really focused on my nutrition. Actually, think that protein, I probably wasn't very good about that when I was pregnant,

at least with my first two, the second two were during parallel. So they're the strongest, most well adjusted of the bunch. They're going to hear that in the future, and be like, you hear that? We're the stronger ones. They are.

They're well adjusted. Feel like you're less nervous with the last kids and they're like, "Oh, my God. It's bigger than that." I said Mom and Dad were the youngest and healthiest, and then so they had me. And then, as you guys came along, their bodies were deteriorating.

And so, you got the weakest one. I was so nervous. Yeah.

But I actually think prenatal nutrition and your protein needs are so much more important when you're pregnant, and women don't realize that at all. And you can't tolerate food, and you have a version, I hated chicken, and so I feel like I ate no protein, and that actually probably would have, like, yes, probably benefited the baby, but more benefited how I felt, and how I recovered, and how I felt postpartum,

the whole process, I feel like, could have been just felt easier. I'd have more energy, and like, balance my blood sugar better.

That's, like, the first one I feel like, too, I just, you don't know what you don't

know. And it's the postpartum hits you so bad.

“Have you heard people talk about a lack of full weight as it relates to postpartum?”

I haven't heard that as much as in the postpartum period. I feel like you think more of, like, ironed apletion and energy and, like, all of what you go through, and then you're just kind of, like, on the other side of it, and everyone cares about the baby. So I think it's more, like, general depression than full weight.

Everyone is throwing around this word clean. What does that actually mean in the supplement and protein world? Well, it means nothing. It's not a regular word, so I think everyone actually is, like, sort of the same in beauty.

Like, it actually means nothing. So we have to double-click of, like, what does it mean to be clean? And it's something that really needs to be looked at in the supplement industry, because it's not regulated in that way. So supplements are not regulated for, sort of, efficacy and safety.

And so it's on, the onus is on brands, or the products to actually test and kind of measure what's in their products in terms of heavy metals, contaminants, solvents, any of those things that you don't want in your products. So there's different layers of this that's gone on since we've been in the industry over the last seven years, and most of it's been good, because it's kind of pushing consumers

have become more aware of this, so they're pushing brands to do the right thing.

So one of the things that we did from day one was what's called third-party testing.

And that means that every finished lot, well, actually doesn't mean that every finished lot, but for us, it means that every finished lot, so every time we make the product, even if you make it four times in the year, every time that comes, that is done, we send it to an external lab who third-party test it to make sure that it has one, like what we say isn't it, isn't it?

So they test for like the dosages and sort of the potency of the product, and then they test for contaminants, and that's microbials and solvents and heavy metals. And the heavy metal thing is also this interesting conversation in this category. Something that comes from the ground has trace levels of heavy metals, it's unavoidable. So if a supplement says they're free from heavy metals, it may be true, but it probably

means that they don't have critical ingredients, especially in a prenatal, like they probably

“don't have magnesium or zinc or iron, those are important ingredients.”

They are going to have trace levels of heavy metals, but it's what is that level. So you third-party tests to make sure that those are below USP standards, or in our case, we make sure they're below prop 65 standards, it's a California regulation, and it has really strict standards for what can actually be sold in a product. But you can actually go above that, you'll see like a prop 65 warning on the box.

And then the next step of this to actually verify clean is third-party certifications. So that's things like the Clean Label Project, which tests all different products independently for the same sort of things of contaminants, well first they test for potency to make sure that what's on the label is in the product, and then they test for contaminants, solvents, pesticides, and heavy metals, and then you can be clean label certified, and you can receive

a purity award, which means you have the lowest of a lot of those levels, and there's another certification, which is NSF certification, which is sort of the same thing, and does the same thing, and has their own set of standards. So we've done both of those to really kind of show to the consumer our commitment to, quote unquote, clean, but there are certifications that can set that standard, but in general, anyone

couldn't say clean, because it's not actually regulated.

“So the third-party testing is important when you're getting a supplement, it sounds like.”

Yes, very. You want to make sure any product you buy, they are third-party testing, every single lot, not just staying, they do it once a year, every time they make the product, they should be third-party testing, and verifying what's in it, and any contaminants. With all you guys research, what have you found when it comes to post-partum anxiety

Are there different things about it? Is it all the same? Is it under one category?

We haven't done a ton of independent research on that. We are working on things that are multi-packed and sort of doing some clinical research of how it affects that, and what are sort of the precursors to post-partum depression and anxiety, like sleep deprivation and energy, and how can we sort of minimize the precursors to that? But we haven't done a ton of research on that. I can only say from my own personal experience, I had really

severe post-partum anxiety, and I feel like those are very different, but they're grouped sort of the same right now. I mean, I just think there's so much more to that conversation

“that can be pulled forward and people talking about that, because I think so many women”

suffer from both post-partum depression and anxiety, but they're all kind of grouped as the same and not really talked about separately. It totally should be different buckets, because I remember feeling depressed, but then at the same time I had it such bad intrusive thoughts. Thoughts were coming into my mind that I'm like, where did this come from? Like, it's not like I watched a movie about

it. Like, it's not like I was like, you're like, all the knives are going to fall out onto the baby and stop the baby. And you're like, what? Where did this come from? It's like very, very weird when you're doing stuff with the baby, you think is the baby going to slip out of my hands and like, crack has had open. I think everyone has these thoughts when you're walking in and it's like, oh, I could like knock that over or I could like,

you know, hurt myself, but you like obviously catch yourself real quick and don't do but then it's with when we should do me want to man tries to relate to post-partum, just wondering what's going on here. Yeah, I don't think you can really understand. But is it just like that? Like, but if you'd like to explain Calbirth, yeah, let me tell you let me, yeah, Calbirth is like, well, what they do is they put you on these really

uncomfortable couches and I'm like, oh my God, and then I've heard about this so many times. And then the the woman yells at you for being uncomfortable in the couch, it's really inconsolent. If I do their baby, I might just have to do a home birth and make you take a trip. And then you try to get postmates to find the rumor and it's a really tough thing that man after go. And you had to carry my placenta down. There's God forbid that thing is

eight pounds. Yeah. Well, you know, my back was thrown out and the

“Lauren was just really not being considered about it. Honestly, each time it's you've got”

less consider it towards me. The difference the differences are different feelings. The depression is you feel this for me. You feel almost a little hopeless maybe. You feel like there's for me. I felt like there was like a like if I had a windshield, the windshield needed to be wiped. Like it felt like I couldn't see and I was dissociated and I was anything was overwhelming. And then the anxiety feels for me like intrusive thoughts.

And it's funny. I've had intrusive thoughts with all three babies, but it's gotten less each time

like by a huge amount. But I mean, I have never spoken to a mom that didn't have a couple of

intrusive thoughts after. And I could be wrong. But it's almost like up by the third I was like, okay, Lauren, like you're just this is what's going to happen and be prepared. Yeah, you kind of just like go for it. And jokes aside and with the first child and we've talked about it on the show, she had postpartum anxiety and depression. And I had no clue what to do. I didn't know I had it though either. You don't know. No, you don't know you have it. You're just, yeah, I didn't know.

Yeah, and I think a lot of partners in the really like I remember for me and not it wasn't about me, but I had just had no idea what was going on. I had no idea how to support it. I didn't even know it was a thing. I think a lot of guys aren't aware about the thing. And all of a sudden one day you're with your significant other and then there's like, they're different, they change. And now I know, so I had the things that I could do to potentially help work through that situation, but back then,

I was like, snap out of it. I've gotten beat up for it. I had plenty of time since then, but I didn't I figured it as what's wrong with you. Well, I didn't know I was fucking wrong with you. So for the guys listening with your girls, if they're pregnant or if they're like, just know that this don't, don't say what's wrong with you. Don't speak. Don't, don't ask what's wrong with them. Just sit there

“and be quiet. If you would breathe and I would be like, do you have to breathe like that?”

Yeah, I had all of these same conversations. Actually, with our fourth, I had really bad anxiety

in our first trimester because I'd had quite a few pregnancy losses between babies. And so for this

last one, I was also doing like shots of blood thinners and it was just complicated and I feel like it felt so much pressure. And I started having like panic attacks, which like during the first trimester was so like I didn't know what was wrong with me. And I went down like such a deep spiral before realizing that I was having like a severe like postpartum anxiety spiral while pregnant. And that's also a thing. And then like found out that that's really common that people don't talk about either.

and she's like a month in. And I said sometimes when you get pregnant, you almost feel you're so

happy that you're pregnant, like of course, like you're out of your mind. But there's also a little bit of for me, of depression that I felt a little bit in the beginning. And I don't know if it's that it's that it's because you know that it takes a lot of work and commitment to carry a child. And there's so many abs and flows that you're kind of like, oh my gosh, this is going to be a lot. But sometimes you're hot and I don't know if it's your hormones, but you do sometimes feel a little

up and down. Yeah, what your hormones are going crazy. Yeah. And so like we don't really talk about that like that actually affects your mood and what's wrong with you. Like your hormones are on a roller coaster. I think I've been beaten up for this for years. I'm just going to get it again. You can you can simultaneously feel really grateful and excited, but also like a little blue. Blue is the word I would use depressed is not it. It's not like I felt fully depressed. You just feel

blue or like overwhelmed. Yeah, a little bit. And I think that that I mean sometimes it happens during

“your period, too. Yeah, women are you know, we have been we flow and you have to give a space to do”

that because we're not a straight arrow that's boring. Like you guys. Yeah. I'm just kidding. As a joke. It's a joke. We're hormonal. We're hormonal. Like that's all parts of it. Sorry. We're fun.

No, it's I mean, listen, it's it's you're building a human, right? You're taking basically

it almost a year to do it. Yeah. It's it's pretty intense if you think about it. Now that I've experienced it a few times with her, I'm like, well, like it's pretty wild. And then after that, there's just there and you're just expected to like get on it, right? Yeah. It's like just bounce back. Yeah, and here and now it needs to eat and it needs to wake up and yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot. It does help that my husband's a good partner, right? Oh my god. You got that in the one time in the

episode, really good part. He really helps a lot. And I know that that's not the fun of the episode. You do help a lot. He helps. I wouldn't have it any other way. I got to be honest. If you didn't help, I'd be like, what? What are you doing? Call the sperm bank because if you're not going to help, I don't know I'm out. No, I try to try to be helpful. He is helpful. Okay. So if someone is listening and they have MTF, M-T-H-E-R-F-R. What are the things that they need to do? Is it as simple as

really just changing their vitamin? Yeah, just take a methylated. Well, I mean, everyone should just take methylated vitamin. It's not just fully like take all the methylated formats, take the keylated formats, like take the things that are most viable to you. I feel like just in general. But that's it. There's nothing else that you've seen that makes a difference with it. I mean, transparently, I probably haven't done a, I kind of went down this rabbit hole and then

spiral and decided to start parallel and spend more of my time on that. But I think we just focus on what is the most viable format of ingredients and go from there. You do probably not want to take too much folic acid because your body's not really going to process it properly and then sort of remove it as properly. But I just think in general, take the most viable format of everyone agree. Yeah, the way Gary Brecket explained is that if you're pulling raw oil out of the

“ground, you can't just put it in your car. You need to put it, you need to refine it and then turn it”

to gasoline and put it in your car so it works. Well, that's over my head. So what we're doing, if you have that MTHFR gene mutation is you're taking the raw materials that your body can't turn into gasoline and you're just, and you're putting it into your body and it just literally doesn't work. So if you can just take the form like you're saying right off the bat, you're giving your body what it needs right away. Without having to put it, turn it into refinery. You guys also sent me this

cellular hydration thing that I loved and I took it on like a bunch of my vacations. What is that? It's our electrolyte. So this is everything that we do at Parallel as we don't do sort of single ingredient products. We really think about what does this woman need out of this. So we were asked a ton of like, what electrolyte should I take, especially during pregnancy and we brought it to Dr. Rayoddy and she was like, well, like, I'm not just going to suggest electrolyte's one,

it is great electrolytes and it's great for hydration. It doesn't have crazy amounts of sodium. So it's safe to take every day, especially during pregnancy. You don't want to overdose yourself

on sodium. It tastes so good too, but it tastes amazing. And then it has collagen in it as well.

So it's added cellular hydration boost. So it's sort of that beauty from the inside out and hyalonic acid. And so that was the thing I like. Some really good skin boosts. And so we love that flavor and then we're going to kind of explore how else we can make that fun the summer. If our audience could start with one product from you guys, I know they listened to the episode with Alex,

“your co-founder, but what would you recommend they start with? What's your favorite product?”

So I live by the mom multi-pack. I guess maybe I should have answered that of what's my only thing of self-care is I take my vitamins every single night because I think that they help me from

post-partum season of their lives, not that I'm actually in that is protein. I think that we forget how important protein is as women and we typically under eat protein. You need a gram protein for every pound of body fat and that's really hard to get out of a diet. And I feel

like we created a protein that has your protein and your fiber where fiber is also critical to your

health. And I feel like no one talks about that either because it involves poop and digestion. But like you're going to talk about it more now it's becoming more popular. Yeah, thankfully. And there's like the gut brain at like fibers so important. So it's giving you all of that and it gives you your creatine and it's all in one scoop. So it's like so easy to add that to your daily routine and

“you kind of check the box on all three. Before you go you have to tell us you guys are backed by”

unilever ventures. How was and also a couple different growth partners? What is that like from a business perspective total off tangent question? Yeah, it's great. We have really great

partners. So and I don't think that's always true. We have an all female board and mostly all

moms. So they really understand what we're doing and I feel like that's made all the difference in having them as partners and it's actually been great. I would say the fundraising path to getting there was not so great but we're really, really fortunate to have some great partners now. The fundraising part is a bitch. That was on the post pre part. We did it also in like April of 2020 when we just had this idea and there was no fundraising, it was COVID. The market has been

was like basically bad for like a five year stretch. Yeah, well while we launched this. So we probably made you a better business people though and we didn't know what it did and every dollar had to count and we raised like not even a quarter of what we planned to to get this off the ground but we weren't willing to cut any of the products because it was like conception each trimester and postpartum and we're like well we can't that's the whole thing. You can't cut any

“of that. That's what this woman goes through. So we had to get like really creative and everything”

that we did and I do think it made us better on the other side even though it didn't yield that way in the moment. Well I just think a lot of people that were in the more flush times it was like here's a shitload of money and then just grove to grove. Don't worry about being efficient and when the market got tough it's like hey we can't back this anymore and left a lot of people

high and dry. Yeah, which would be really think about it. It's like it never made sense it just

build a super unprofitable highly scaled business. You couldn't like sustain without just injecting more and more and more cash into it. It didn't make any sense like we're not software businesses we're selling products. So you have to make sure you have like a sustainable business model. Do you want to be here for the long term? If you're going to get people hooked on products

“you need to continue to be able to sell them. Yeah and then I just think like you know not enough”

founders talk about and it sounds like you have great partners but you've got to be careful with some of these people on the financing side because they get your hooks in a way where like there's so many horror stories of founders taking terrible terms, raising too much money, like selling their company and ending up with nothing. It's it's it's it's the best. Why is it just slow and steady wins the race? Yes. I have a finance background and that's how I

started my career. So I was very fortunate to know what not to take in terms of those terms and even though some things I feel like we got a little desperate and had to take some things but I don't know founders that don't have that background. It's really tricky. Hard. Where can everyone shop parallel go you guys go try that hyaluronic acid collagen concoction you will love it and where can everyone pick up the all the goods at parallelhealth.com it's P-E-R-E-L-E-L health.com and

check us out. You guys can use code skini at parallelhealth.com/skini you get 20% off your order. Thank you so much for coming on that was amazing and tell Alex that we say hi of course the - Thank you. - Thank you.