Postpartum University® Podcast

Ditching Quick Fixes & Embracing Natural Postpartum Healing | Kate Tietje EP 190

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist

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"We live in a culture that pressures us to ‘bounce back,’ but if there’s ever a time to slow down and take care of yourself, it’s now.”  Kate Tietje

If you’ve felt the pressure to “bounce back” postpartum, this episode with Kate Tietje, founder of Earthley, is your wake-up call. We dive into how natural remedies, mindful lifestyle shifts, and intentional healing set the foundation for true postpartum wellness—not quick fixes. 

Kate shares her journey into holistic health, fueled by her experience as a mother, and how Earthley’s plant-based, body-nourishing products support deep, meaningful postpartum recovery. This is about supporting your body’s natural rhythms, reclaiming postpartum wellness, and saying goodbye to burnout.

If you’re a postpartum provider, this conversation is essential to understand the powerful role of herbal care, liver support, and sustainable lifestyle changes that encourage long-term recovery. Prepare to learn how to guide mothers through transformative, whole-body postpartum health with practical, nourishing care.

Check out the episode on the blog:
https://postpartumu.com/ditching-quick-fixes-embracing-natural-postpartum-healing-kate-tietje-ep-190


Connect with Kate:
Kate Tietje is the founder and CEO of Earthley, a natural wellness company committed to providing affordable, clean, and effective products for families. A passionate advocate for holistic health and medical freedom, Kate specializes in formulating herbal remedies and educating others on the power of natural solutions. Her mission is to empower people to take control of their health by offering transparent, plant-based alternatives to mainstream products. Through Earthley, Kate combines her deep knowledge of natural living with a desire to make wellness accessible to everyone.

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KEY TIME STAMPS

  • 0:02: The role of holistic care in postpartum health
  • 0:55: Introducing Kate Tietje & Earthley’s mission for natural wellness
  • 3:05: How natural remedies support whole-body postpartum healing
  • 6:25: The creation and evolution of Earthley’s herbal solutions
  • 8:05: Key herbs for postpartum support and hormone balancing
  • 10:57: Lifestyle changes that support natural postpartum recovery
  • 14:23: The need for a balanced approach to postpartum rest
  • 20:27: Top Earthley products for long-term postpartum nourish

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Speaker 1:

Depression, anxiety and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it's supposed to be. There is a much better way and I'm here to show you how to do just that. Hey, my friend, I'm Miranda Bauer, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care. Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body and soul in the years after birth. Hello everyone, welcome to the Postpartum University Podcast. I cannot tell you how excited I am. I have Kate TG here. She is the founder and CEO of Earthly. You guys Earthly If you don't know Earthly, you're probably not on this planet.

Speaker 1:

If you're following me, you know Earthly. It's a natural wellness company committed to providing this affordable, clean and effective products for families. I use them. I'm very passionate. She's very passionate about this holistic health and medical freedom for people, and she specializes in formulating herbal remedies and educating others on the power of natural solutions. So I think her mission to empower people to take control of their health, really by offering transparent, plant-based alternative to you know that's different than these mainstream products is basically why she's here, because of the work that she's doing in this world, her incredible knowledge of natural living and this desire to make wellness really accessible to everyone. And, kate, just from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for having me here.

Speaker 1:

I wanna start off by saying like, as you know, I usually focus on addressing root cause care in postpartum challenges nutrition, rest, deep, intentional healing and we live in this world where we have products and solutions that are usually geared toward fix.

Speaker 1:

You know quick fixes and let's just, you know, cover this up real quick and so we can move on with our crazy busy life. That's making us crash and fall in the first place, and what excites me about your work in particular is that it doesn't fall into that trap. Your approach to natural wellness really aligns with what we talk about here on the podcast, which is like this real thoughtful, holistic care, and you do a lot of educating too. So I really want to open this up and start by asking, like, when we think about holistic postpartum care, there's a lot of emphasis in your work on this deep internal healing, which you know I again I know is a big part of your work. How does natural remedies and solutions compliment this approach without becoming like this, you know next quick fix that people lean on instead of looking deeper?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, so with natural remedies for postpartum. I mean, we look at what is your body actually going through when you're postpartum. So you know your hormones are naturally very, very high right before you give birth and then they come crashing down very quickly and that creates a lot of the symptoms that women experience in those first few days postpartum, and so you know it's normal. But your body still needs support to be able to get through that, and some women need more support than others, just depending on you know a wide variety of factors. So you know we use herbs that will support your liver, for example, so that your liver can process through all those hormones that your body no longer needs in a healthy way, so that you're going to experience less, you know, night sweats and feeling strange and off and all that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2:

That kind of happens in those first couple of days postpartum and then after that, like you know, you just built a whole person. I mean your body needs to be nourished, especially if you're breastfeeding, like you're still giving a lot to this person who's growing bigger every single day. And it's just this part of your lifestyle more than like, oh, I'm going to, I'm going to heal and I'm going to bounce back Like you don't bounce back per se, like you just kind of nourish your body and you go along until you sort of reach equilibrium again, which might be, you know, in six months or a year, it might be a year after you finished breastfeeding, like just depending on the woman I have to ask I'm so curious, like how did you get into this work and create the company you have?

Speaker 2:

So the story that I always tell is when my first was a baby, she had all of these health issues and I didn't even kind of realize initially because everybody said it was normal, you know, oh, she has eczema, oh she's, you know, has diaper rash all the time, whatever, let's just babies do that. And I eventually was like I don't, I don't agree, like I don't think this is supposed to be like this. What am I going to do about it? And so you know, the doctor one time prescribed me this cream for her diaper rash. Like she looked at it for like three seconds and she's like oh, it's bacterial, here's an antibiotic cream. I tried it once. It didn't touch the rash, it flared her eczema terribly and I said I'm never using that again. There has to be something else out there.

Speaker 2:

So I started kind of researching herbs because I'd always been sort of interested in herbs but I didn't know a lot about them and I made up this cream for her. It was just a salt basically, and I'm like this feels really weird. I'm used to like these thick white barrier creams and I made it in my kitchen Like I don't know what I'm doing, but like it's worth a shot, like it can't be worse than that antibiotic cream that I use. And so I put it on her and when I changed her diaper again, in a couple of hours, the rash was almost gone and I said, okay, all right, there's something to this. Like I have a lot more research to do here, but I really want to go down this path. Like I think this is what's going to help us.

Speaker 2:

And I started to learn more and more. And then I wanted to tell everybody about what I was learning, because I was so blown away by what was out there in this evidence, and so I started blogging and eventually, like years down the road, I'd had multiple more babies, I'd had home births, I'd like learned a lot just through living it out. And I was getting a lot of people who are saying, hey, I love this idea, I want to do more of this, but I'm a busy mom and I'm not a DIY person. I'm never going to make these things. Can I buy them from you? And so I really wanted the answer to be yes, and my husband. I made a plan for him to quit his job and we decided to go for it. And so we started Earthly with our very first products in the fall of 2016.

Speaker 1:

It's incredible and I've watched, like, several iterations of your entire business, which has been such a beautiful, like birth and rebirth, like I've seen it go through so many, but your products have always remained like this, constant, like health, deeply connected, like I mean it's in the name earthly, right, like just like very earthy, very just, holistic and something that I have always loved and appreciate. And I'm the same person Like I make all of my own salves I've make all you know. I was just in the kitchen this weekend I was making a chest rub for colds and things like that. But there are things that I'm not going to ever make, like tinctures, right, and so you have like a woman's tincture. That's one of my absolute favorites.

Speaker 1:

I'm just not, I'm not going to make that, at least not at this point, in this stage in my life, with four kids and a business and all of the things right, just I'm I'm not in that stage. Same with soaps I'm not going to make my soaps I was telling my husband that's not going to happen and toothpaste like I'll make everything else, but like these are some of the things that I don't and that's where I love to go to people like you who get it, who feel the same way, who are like I know that there's something better out there than what we currently have you know in there, than what we currently have you know in the supermarket. And then we go there and then we have postpartum recovery, right, and I feel like this is such a complex process the physical, emotional, mental, spiritual and your experience. How can this natural? Well, so wellness solutions like herbal remedies or plant-based products, how can that support this whole body healing or plant-based products? How can that support this whole body healing?

Speaker 2:

So I mean, in those first weeks postpartum, you know there's so much to rebuild and you know I use things like we have East the Egg, so that's like raspberry leaf and nata leaf and cramp bark and smotherwort, you know, because that's going to help you kind of calm down and work through some of the feelings that you're having but also help with the after pains and just like the physical sensations that you're dealing with in those first few days. And then there's herbs like peppermint and stand-alone root that are going to help with that liver support so that your body can process through all those hormones. And then there's just like nutritional herbs like the nettle and the raspberry are both definitely nutritional herbs. And then there's alfalfa and there's oat straw that you know, the Nora tea that everybody talks about like it's still beneficial even after pregnancy is over, because your body does use a ton of vitamins and minerals to build this entire new person. And even if you aren't feeling it with your first baby, or maybe even your second baby if you have more children, you're eventually going to feel it If you don't take care of your health and you're going to end up with lack of energy, struggling to sleep.

Speaker 2:

You know you might. Some women are diagnosed with like autoimmune disorders and stuff, or thyroid issues, because they did not take care of themselves and nourish themselves the way that they needed to be nourished. And if you don't always have time to eat like a perfect diet which I mean you're busy with the newborn, like that's common you know, if you can make yourself an herbal infusion it takes five minutes throw a bunch of herbs in the jar, pour boiling water over it, let it sit overnight and then in the morning, strain out and then, instead of just your water, drink some of that in the morning. And if you can do that literally five minutes once a day, or if you have a supportive husband, you're going to be okay later. Like you're, you're rebuilding what you've lost through this pregnancy.

Speaker 1:

I absolutely love that. Like it's been a huge part of the things that I speak on. Like you're literally saying the exact same things that I've been preaching on this podcast for years, so thank you for that, which is why you're here. Right Like we, we know that. Okay, so there's also this other component. Like there's key lifestyle changes that we need to make, and I feel like just reading a lot of you sent out like you just had like this big postpartum sale right, like you were sending out newsletters and I feel like they're very informative and educational. Like, hey, guess what your liver does need support. You know, there there are these things that are happening, which is not something that women get often. Right, like, how many times have we've gone to our doctor, our midwife, our provider, and they said, hey, guess what Postpartum you're going to have to work on that liver? Right, like that's just not, that's just not a thing, right? So how can we, how can we give get some of these lifestyle shifts? Like, what are you recommend alongside these natural remedies that you're providing?

Speaker 2:

I mean the first thing, honestly, is just a mindset shift. Like our culture is so, like, how fast can you bounce back? How fast can you be in those pre-pregnancy clothes? How fast can you be back at all the activities like you used to do before? And that's just totally unnecessary, like you need to slow down. If you in your life, if you ever need time for yourself to just relax and rest, it's now. And if you don't, you will pay for it.

Speaker 2:

And I'm speaking from experience, like I try to push myself, especially with my last baby, when Earthly was just getting off the ground to get back to the office two weeks after he was born, I just wore him in my little wrap and I'm like, oh no, it's fine, like I'm back at it.

Speaker 2:

And like I ended up with mastitis when he was four months old and I struggled for, quite honestly, years after he was born and I realized after the fact like what I really did to myself there and it's like it was not a prize to be won that I was working two weeks after he was born, that I wasn't in bed holding my baby. So you're not lazy, there's nothing wrong with you. You are not less than if you need time and you know some women it might be six weeks and maybe they are ready to start to get back to things. Other women it might take three months or six months if they had a rough pregnancy or if they had a rough delivery. And it's not selfish to take that time. You need to. You need to just be willing to take a nap if you're tired, or take time to eat or work fewer hours if and when you go back, but just give yourself that space so that you can actually rest and recover. There will be time for work later, but lifestyle first.

Speaker 1:

Hey, I'm going to be 100% straight with you. The postpartum world is changing right now and I know you feel it. It's in the politics, our community spaces. There is an urgent need to implement a different approach to postpartum health. If you're an alternative provider or postpartum advocate, you need to be with us in the Postpartum University. Pro Membership Get the method, the tools, the handouts, the advanced trainings and so much more to not only help your clients and your business grow, but to help you grow too. Marketwatch says that the afterbirth services and nutrition and support is set for extraordinary growth by 2030. Don't miss your opportunity to help women and families who desperately need your holistic support. Go to wwwpostpartumucom. Slash membership. We're accepting registrations right now and we can't wait to see you there.

Speaker 1:

I appreciate this so much because I I'm a go-gooder too right. I run my own company. This was a huge part of my experience and I just want to like almost like pause for a second and be like okay, let's really focus in on this for a moment, because so many people who are listening in are in the exact same predicament. They're practitioners, they're professionals in the field, they're doing this work, they're constantly going, going, going. They believe in this holistic, different way of of working. And then oftentimes we're the ones we're having babies we're and then we're like but we gotta work, but we gotta do this thing right. And if I just strap them on and take them with, then this is gonna be so beneficial for me.

Speaker 1:

And I just want to reiterate everything that you just said a thousand percent. Like this is a thing that we all go through. I've been through it myself. Like it's hard to take a moment just to be with your baby and just like be in that space and in that moment. And I feel like our society has trained us to be different. Like I don't know about you, but for me it was like so hard to switch off my brain. Right, like I knew it was so important to rest and chill and do nothing. Right, like I knew it was so important to rest and chill and do nothing, but doing nothing felt impossible. Right, like I just needed to be human again and just needed to go. And I think, when we shift our lifestyle to not need that anymore, like I have and I share this with my clients so often like you have to literally change the way you do life in order to accommodate this time of healing. Otherwise it just won't occur because you're not in the mindset to make it happen, which is what you had mentioned earlier.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean, this season doesn't last forever. My youngest is almost seven years old, so I'm not worried about postpartum at this time and I can push myself to work a little bit more if I need to and I can leave my kids with my husband and I'm like there's no babies to take with me, like it's fine. But you know that wasn't true.

Speaker 2:

Six and a half years ago, when he was a newborn and I should have taken more time when he was, because I did struggle for a long time afterwards and now, like, looking back, it's gone really fast. I mean, my baby being almost seven is crazy to me and my oldest is almost 17. So it feels like forever. It feels like you need to like, take this moment, because every moment is an opportunity and I mean, yes, but these moments are an opportunity for rest and recuperation. There will be opportunities for other things later.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's so true. It's so true. I think my youngest is five. My oldest is gonna be 15 here soon, which is crazy. I bet you feel the same way. Like, oh my gosh, that's insane.

Speaker 1:

But I feel like this last birth and postpartum experience has really shifted my life to the point where I'm like, no, I'm not gonna work extra, like I don't even care to do that anymore because I know that work is always gonna remain. But my sanity and my health and my wellness, that's a ebb and flow kind of thing. And like I'm not even in the season of like I haven't even found that season again of where like, oh, I want to, I want to put my nose to the grindstone, which is what I had done in the past. Right, like, oh, I've got this new launch coming up, or I've got this really big thing, or I'm feeling super motivated or passionate about this and I just want to write the book and I want to do the thing. Right, like that's.

Speaker 1:

I'm a type like everybody knows that here on this podcast. But at the same time I find like that lifestyle shift for me. Like it was so powerful in my postpartum when I made the connection between the rest and the ebb and the flow and the chill and like really honoring myself and my body, that it literally shifted my entire life to where I'm like. I don't, I'm not even going to burn myself out just because I can, because my kids are old enough and they're sleeping through the night, or you know, I'm like after the kids go to bed I'm not working. Absolutely not going to happen, like that's a boundary that I placed on myself and postpartum that has stuck with me because it feels so dang good.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I mean I agree that you know balance is incredibly important and you know you can set aside time in the afternoon. But you're like, all right, from one to three I'm focusing and that's what I'm doing. I'm going to get stuff done. I have my goals and you know where you're going and what you want to get done. And then you're like, okay, at three o'clock though, I'm done, I'm going to go and I'm going to lay in my sauna blanket or I'm going to go for a walk or whatever it is you're going to do, like there's time for all. Of you know, once you're past that postpartum, you don't have to never get back to it, especially if you love what you do. But there can be some balance in what you're doing there.

Speaker 1:

You said sauna blanket. What is a sauna blanket?

Speaker 2:

So a real sauna is like obviously like a big, expensive thing and I can't afford that.

Speaker 2:

But these sauna blankets are way cheaper and it's like infrared heat that can help to like kind of gently detox your body and it can be folded up and like stuck in the corner too when you're not using it. So I got one a couple of months ago and it's been really interesting, especially like I like to like lay it on the bed and then I turn like you know, spa music on my TV and I've got my little diffuser. So it's like my little mini spa, but, you know, affordable and at home, and it's just like I'm not going to do anything. I'm not going to play on my phone, I'm not even going to read a book, I'm just going to be, I'm just going to lay here, I'm just going to breathe and I'm just going to rest for a little while. And where? Sign me up? Sign me up.

Speaker 1:

That's amazing. I love this. You earlier you had mentioned, like, several key products and things that you use and herbs and I hope everybody's going to either pause this or go back to it later. Grab a pen and paper, write down. But maybe you can share with us, like your top three specific products for the first couple of years postpartum that's so beneficial, that will help us make those lifestyle changes, because I've been in the boots of postpartum depression. Sometimes you need those quick fixes and those quick wins to make it to the next level, so that you can shift your life, so that you don't need those quick wins and those quick fixes. Or maybe you just need some additional support and additional help as you go along your journey of like really, you know, finding. You know there's no such thing as perfect balance, like that doesn't exist, but finding balance in your life. What are your top?

Speaker 2:

products for that. So I would start with ease the ache, because that's like that thing you would use in those first few days when you're experiencing those after pains and bleeding and things like that. And it's also beneficial when you do get your cycle back. You know, six, 12 months down the road whenever that is Cause. I don't know about every other woman, but when I got mine back and I was really kind of pushing myself a little bit too hard with some of my older babies, it was irregular and sometimes it was heavy and it was off and I think that is a fairly common experience and EZ-8 can kind of help ease that in so that you have less pain.

Speaker 2:

Bleeding is a little more balanced, just promoting that hormone balance.

Speaker 2:

So it's good in the very beginning and then, like later on, postpartum balance is a great option, uh, to start just a couple of days postpartum and we recommend to take it at least for like six weeks as your liver it's like it's a lot of it's liver support, so like helping you process through those hormones and kind of get back to like a normal production again postpartum.

Speaker 2:

Uh, some women will take it for six months or a year because they feel so good while they're taking it. So it just is very individual, just depending on the person, and then Nurse Her Naturally, which I think you mentioned was one of your favorites. It's just a really good general support, like it's rich in B vitamins and it's gonna replenish, like if you're worried about, like that hair loss postpartum, that's because you're depleted in some things, and it's really not about vanity, it's about what that says about your underlying health, that your hair is falling out. And nourish her naturally is rich in some of those B vitamins and it can kind of replenish some of those nutrients and it might help slow or stop that process. But again, it's about what that says about underlying like why is that happening? So those would probably be the top three that I would recommend, starting with.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, again, that is definitely one of my top favorite products.

Speaker 1:

I have it, I actually have it in my bathroom, so I take it every morning and every night before I go to bed and it just I feel so much better, and I know that my body has always struggled with B vitamins, so many of us do, right, it's one of those things that I know that I'm just gonna need on top of my healthy whole foods and all of that, and my body's going through big changes.

Speaker 1:

I'm 39 this year, right, and so I'm entering in this next phase of womanhood and that needs more additional support, and I and I love that your products kind of support all of those together, like it's just, and they do that because they are so naturally ingrained in their nature, right, like I have all of these words naturally ingrained nature, like all of these are it's it's so herbal based and there's so many key benefits to herbs that go well beyond what we're even talking about in this podcast, right, so I think that's amazing. Is there anything else that you can share with us or anything that I've missed that you wish I would have asked anything that I've missed that you wish I would have asked.

Speaker 2:

Let's see, I touched on my postpartum with my youngest. I thought that was a really important thing, because even those of us who, like, know all the things, can fall into some of those traps. And so you know, pay attention closely to how you feel. Give yourself the space, don't let, um, don't talk yourself out of what you know, what you've learned when you're in the moments, because you don't have to be everything for everybody. They, they don't want you to, they don't need you to. There are other people who will pick it up when you need a break, like, really, there, other people are not laying those expectations on you. Plenty of women told me well, please go back to bed Like, and I should have listened to them. So like, really not like they're. They, they get it, they really do Like and I should have listened to them.

Speaker 1:

So like really, not like they're they, they get it, they really do. Yeah, absolutely, it's so true. It's so true. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being here on the show. I am so grateful for you and your time and all of the work that you are doing.

Speaker 1:

I know that you were talking recently about creating a food line as well, because we're watching. You know all of these companies that are not producing very safe and effective foods or helpful foods for our bodies and then they're selling out when they are great products. And you own your company outright and I'm just like I'm super excited to see how you transition into that. So, if you y'all go follow Earthly If you're not familiar with Earthly, please get familiar with Earthly, follow her. She's doing some amazing things in this world and we all need to be looking toward her for support and you know, if we're going to buy the things, let it be here. So thank you, thanks for having me be here. So thank you, thanks for having me.

Speaker 1:

I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We've hoped you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review and, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you've learned here, applied it to your own life and consider joining us in the Postpartum University membership. It's a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years postpartum. You can learn more at wwwpostpartumucom. We'll see you next week.

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