Growing Women’s Health at Living Waters
Living Waters Midwifery is growing!
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Living Waters is growing, and one of the areas I am especially excited to continue building is women’s health.
I have provided gynecologic care since 2019, caring for women through different stages of life and for concerns ranging from menstrual and hormonal changes to fertility, contraception, breast health, perimenopause, menopause, and everything in between. Over the years, I have found myself becoming more and more interested in the bigger picture behind the symptoms women bring into an appointment.
Sometimes someone comes in with one very specific concern. Other times, she knows something feels off, but the symptoms do not fit neatly into one box. Maybe her periods have changed. Maybe she is exhausted, struggling with sleep, noticing weight changes, dealing with worsening PMS, hair loss, brain fog, mood changes, fertility concerns, changes in libido, or several of these things at the same time. Sometimes the answer is straightforward. Sometimes it takes a little more digging.
That deeper look at the whole person is a direction I have been moving toward for quite a while. I already hold a certification in integrative gynecology, and I have now officially started my journey toward certification in functional medicine as well. I am incredibly excited to continue building on the care I already provide and bring even more of that approach into Living Waters.
Functional and integrative women’s health gives us the opportunity to look beyond one isolated symptom and ask how different pieces of health may be interacting with one another. Hormones, menstrual cycles, nutrition, metabolic health, stress, sleep, inflammation, digestion, medications, supplements, environmental exposures, movement, mental health, reproductive history, and genetics can all play a role in how someone feels. Sometimes the clues are obvious. Sometimes the pattern only becomes clearer when we slow down and look at the whole story together.
Labs can also be an important part of that picture. Rather than looking only at whether a result falls inside or outside of a reference range, I am interested in how those results fit with a woman’s symptoms, history, cycle, health goals, and the rest of her laboratory findings. One number rarely tells the whole story. Trends, patterns, timing, and context matter.
That does not mean every person needs extensive testing or that every symptom has one simple explanation. It means asking thoughtful questions, using testing when it can help us understand what is happening, and developing a plan that is specific to the individual in front of me.
For some women, that plan may include nutrition changes, targeted supplementation, improving sleep, managing stress, exercise or movement, cycle tracking, medication, additional testing, or referral to another provider when something falls outside of what I can appropriately manage. Most often, health is not influenced by just one thing, and care should not assume that every woman with the same symptom needs the exact same solution.
This approach fits naturally with the way I have always wanted to practice. I want appointments to leave enough room to ask why something may be happening, not simply identify the symptom and move on. I want women to understand what we are looking at, what their options are, and why I am recommending a particular next step.
And there is so much room for this kind of care throughout a woman’s life.
It may be someone preparing for pregnancy who wants to optimize her health before conception. It may be someone struggling with irregular cycles, fertility concerns, heavy periods, PMS or PMDD. It may be a woman noticing metabolic or hormonal changes that she cannot quite explain. It may be someone entering perimenopause and wondering why her body suddenly seems to be playing by an entirely different set of rules. Or it may simply be someone who has not felt like herself for a while and wants the time and space to figure out why.
As my home birth schedule has grown, I have become even more intentional about expanding this side of Living Waters. Birth will always be an important part of this practice, but women need care during the many years that happen before, between, and after pregnancies too.
Women’s health, preconception, fertility, and integrative visits with Living Waters are available as home visits as well, allowing us to have these conversations and work through your health concerns in a more comfortable, personal setting.
I am excited to continue learning, continue growing, and continue bringing more functional and integrative women’s health into the care I provide. My goal is not to fit every woman into the same protocol. It is to listen to the whole story, look for patterns, investigate when it is appropriate, and work together to create a plan that actually makes sense for the person sitting in front of me.
Living Waters began with a love for pregnancy, birth, and families. That has not changed. But this practice is continuing to grow into something broader, and I am really excited about where this next part of Living Waters is headed.
If you would like to schedule a women’s health visit, preconception or fertility counseling, or simply talk through what kind of visit may be right for you, you can call or text me at 727-222-3120 or email me at stephanie.tracey@livingwatersmidwiferyfl.com. Home visits are available, and I would be happy to talk with you about your concerns, goals, and what the next step might look like.
