My Hot Take on Trimester Zero (You Asked) 💭

If you're new here, welcome to Girlhood — the group chat we should have had all along, where we talk openly about our bodies and the messy, funny, complicated parts of being a woman. This week: the social life you keep almost having, the fertility prep rabbit hole, a pharmacy trip that did not go as planned, and one thing that didn't make my baby registry but probably should have. Let's get into it.

Hi friend,

I saw a video recently that said something like: if you want a social life, you have to actually say yes when people invite you places.

Which sounds obvious. And yet.

As a mom of three, the default answer to almost any plan that requires leaving my house after 7 p.m. could easily be no. Not a mean no, not an unwilling no, just a tired one. The couch is right there, the kids still need to be bathed, and there's a show I've been meaning to watch for six months. The reasons stack up fast, and they're all perfectly reasonable. They're just not the whole story.

I say yes anyway. And that small decision has made more of a difference than I expected.

My esthetician — who is Irish and therefore says things with a matter-of-factness I find deeply refreshing — told me recently, "If it wasn't for our girlfriends, we'd all lose our marbs."

She's not wrong.

There's something that happens when you're around other women that doesn't quite happen anywhere else: the kind of conversation that goes from genuinely funny to unexpectedly honest in about four minutes. The feeling of being known, not as someone's mom or someone's employee or someone's whatever, but just as yourself, with a drink in your hand and nowhere else you need to be.

It doesn't have to be elaborate — drinks, a walk, someone's kitchen table. It just has to happen.

So if you've been feeling a little untethered lately (a little like you're losing your marbs), before you Google your symptoms or adjust your supplements, just ask yourself: when was the last time you said yes to plans?

🔍 Ask Clara: Is laughter really the best medicine?

🤯 Trimester Zero: Knowledge Is Power, Until It Isn't

Someone asked me recently what I thought about the "trimester zero" trend: the growing movement of women spending months, sometimes years, optimizing their bodies before they even try to conceive. Swapping out nonstick pans, replacing workout clothes, unplugging the Wi-Fi at night, taking beef organ capsules. All of it in pursuit of the perfect fertility foundation.

They asked: what's your hot take?

I said: do you want my answer as a founder, or as a person?

As a founder in the women's health space, I wholeheartedly believe knowledge is power — Rescripted is quite literally built on that premise, the idea that women deserve access to real, evidence-based information about their bodies, and that being informed leads to better outcomes. I stand by that completely.

But as a type-B human with ADHD who has lived through infertility, two high-risk pregnancies, and a miscarriage, I also know that more information is not always more peace. And peace, it turns out, matters more than most wellness influencers will ever admit. 

The thing that worries me about trimester zero isn't the prenatal vitamins or the earlier bedtimes. It's the subtext. The quiet implication that if you just prepare enough, optimize enough, eliminate enough toxins, you'll be rewarded with an easy road to pregnancy. And when it doesn't work out that way, as it doesn't for one in six people globally, the information that was supposed to empower you can start to feel like a (very long) checklist of things you did wrong.

Fertility issues are not your fault, regardless of what you did or didn't do to prepare, and no amount of optimization changes that. My "hot take"? Know what helps you, ignore what doesn't, and whatever helps you sleep at night — that's the right answer.

🔍 Ask Clara: What are some simple ways to prepare your body for pregnancy?

📋 I Scheduled All My Appointments (and Then Cancelled All My Appointments)

This week I did something I'd been meaning to do for months: I sat down, opened my calendar, and scheduled everything — the annual GYN visit, thyroid bloodwork, the follow-up I'd been quietly avoiding. It felt genuinely good, like the responsible adult version of a gold star.

And then my kid got the stomach bug.

Which triggered the kind of scheduling jenga that only working moms truly understand: the one where pulling out a single block brings the whole week down with it. The GYN had to go because someone had to stay home with a sick seven-year-old, and that someone was me. The bloodwork required fasting, which required planning, which required a version of my week that simply did not exist. And somewhere in the chaos, my pharmacy filled a prescription I actually needed with the wrong dosage, which — truly, a nice touch.

This is the administrative tax nobody mentions when they say "prioritize your health," as if the hardest part is deciding to do it. A 2024 Deloitte survey found that half of women skip or delay medical care in a given year, and are 35% more likely to do so than men... which tracks. We're not skipping it because we don't care; we're skipping it because we're the ones holding the bowl.

I did make it to therapy, though, and given the week I just described, that felt like exactly the right appointment to keep. 

🔍 Ask Clara: Why is the healthcare system so hard to navigate?

🧬 The Thing That Wasn't on My Registry (But Maybe Should Have Been)

When I was pregnant with my twins, I was not what you'd call a planner. I had the basics covered and a general sense of optimism, which — if you've ever carried two babies at once — you know is both completely understandable and slightly delusional. Cord blood banking wasn’t even on my radar, and honestly, I wish someone had brought it up.

You've got enough to think about when prepping for baby: diapers, wipes, a bassinet that fits in your room. Cord blood banking didn't make my list the first time around, and I get why it doesn't make most people's. But the stem cells in your baby's cord blood are packed with powerful cells that could treat over 70 conditions, including leukemia and immune disorders. They're a perfect match for your baby and possibly siblings, too. The collection itself is quick, safe, and painless: it happens right after birth, so it's not adding anything to your plate in the moment. And ongoing medical research could unlock even more uses in the future.

The honest caveat: private banking isn't cheap. But some parents are now adding it to their baby registry... because it's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to bank something priceless. And unlike the fourth muslin blanket on your list, this one actually has a shot at mattering in ways you can't fully anticipate yet.

Use promo code SCRP at cordblood.com for 50% off CBR's annual bundle, including processing, shipping, and the first year of storage. And if you want to find out more about cord blood banking, we've got you.

The registry list is long. This one's worth adding.

xo,
Kristyn

🔍 Ask Clara: What are the pros and cons of cord blood banking?