High Risk Pregnancies, Premature Babies, and Infant Loss with Parijat Deshpande

The Juna Women Podcast is a weekly discussion where Juna Founder, Sarah Kuhn, talks to Moms about their health, work, parenting, and all the different ways they’re keeping it together.

This is Episode 023, High Risk Pregnancies, Premature Babies, and Infant Loss with Parijat Deshpande.

bloom life infant loss awareness

In this episode Sarah talks with Parijat Deshpande, an expert in counseling women through high risk pregnancies and helping them overcome trauma associated with infant loss, premature delivery, and other pregnancy related complications.

They talk about high risk pregnancies, the connection between neurological function and pregnancy, her own infant loss and premature delivery, and how the mind body work during her stint in the hospital enabled her to keep her son in her body for an extra 15 days – which for him meant life or death.

Parijat was inspired to make this work her calling so she could empower other women working through similar problems and arm them with tools to manage their unique situation.

This is an incredibly fascinating and illuminating conversation. Hope you enjoy.

high risk pregnancies and premature babies, and infant loss podcast

Listen To This Episode

Show Notes:

02:30 – Parijat shares her birth stories which involves IVF, a high risk pregnancy, lots of complications, a loss, a premature birth, and the birth of her daughter as a full-term baby.

10:32 – Parijat shares the emotional story of her son almost being born premature at 22 weeks and her incredible control and will to push the delivery 15 extra days, which resulted in the difference between life and death for her son.

16:35 – Parijat works with women who have high risk pregnancies and women who are trying to conceive and have experienced a high risk pregnancy — counseling them and helping them overcome the fear associated with pregnancy, labor, and delivery.

20:30 – How stress can affect the Trying To Conceive journey. If it was as simple as “just relax” then we could all get pregnant all the time. That’s not the case. But there is a correlation and there is work we can do.

22:41 – The neurological connection between stress, balance, and reproduction.

26:15 – How diaphragmatic breathing can help.

28:16 – Does 1 high risk pregnancy equal a higher chance of a subsequent high risk pregnancy?

30:02 – Parijat is looking closely at the connection between neurological function and high risk pregnancy.

31: 28 – Stress on pregnancy outcomes, stress on gestational length, and stress and pregnancy complications.

40:20 – Teaching women how to advocate for themselves during high risk pregnancies or complications. You have the power to push back and ask questions. The sooner we can get into the advocacy role, the better.

46:30 – How to find support during a high risk pregnancy or traumatic pregnancy related event.

49:13 – Parlijat is reading Oprah’s “What I know For Sure”.

49:54 – The most challenging part of Motherhood has been realizing how much our children reflect back in us the work we have to do on ourselves.

50:35 – Parlijat shares what her Mom community looks like.

Parijat Deshpande is a high risk pregnancy expert, mind-body health specialist, and advocate for Moms with high risk pregnancies and pre-term birth.

After personally going through a very high-risk pregnancy, with 8 complications during one pregnancy, 16 weeks of bed rest at home and 2 weeks of strict bed rest in the hospital, Parijat learned first hand how lonely and confusing this experience is.

With the constant cyclone of “what ifs” in your brain, an obsessive pull to search all corners of the internet for some clue about what will happen to your baby, and the desperate urge you feel to do something, anything, to make sure your baby will come home to you, a high-risk pregnancy is an experience very few people truly understand.