Birthing Instincts · Dr. Stuart Fischbein + Midwife Blyss Young

#438: Wellness Is Free! A Conversation On Trimester Zero With WeNatal Founders Vida & Ronit

November 5, 2025·1 hr 17 min·5 clips

Ronit Menashe discovered that 50% of miscarriages are linked to sperm quality — a fact nobody had mentioned through two losses — and built a nutrition stack for both partners that produced two healthy babies.

1. Birthing Instincts episode 438 covers pre-conception health, fertility optimization, and the founding of prenatal supplement company WeNatal with co-founders Vida Delrahim and Ronit Menashe. 2. Dr. Stuart Fishbein hosts with co-host Bliss Young; guests Vida Delrahim and Ronit Menashe are best friends who met at Nike, co-founded WeNatal, and are a paid sponsor of the podcast. 3. The episode's central argument is that conventional medicine fails couples planning pregnancy by treating fertility as a female problem, ignoring sperm quality, and defaulting to IVF without addressing underlying health. 4. Before the interview, Dr. Stu responds to a listener letter about a hospital poster recommending low-dose aspirin for all pregnant women, calling this 'mission creep' and noting there is no data to support universal aspirin supplementation in pregnancy. 5. He also discusses twins gestational deadlines, arguing that uncomplicated di-di twins without hypertension, diabetes, or growth restriction do not necessarily need delivery by 38 weeks. 6. Vida describes walking into a routine 14-week checkup while managing global product launches at Nike, hearing 'I'm so sorry, there's no heartbeat,' and being handed a pamphlet before being sent back to a waiting room full of pregnant women. 7. Her OB told her miscarriage was common and to try again when ready; Ronit, working alongside Dr. Mark Hyman in functional medicine, pushed her to look beyond her 'normal labs' and test for Hashimoto's, which was found and treated. 8. After six months of targeted nutrition and lifestyle changes, Vida delivered her daughter Dahlia; in spring 2020, a second loss was followed a week later by Ronit's own loss at 11 weeks, despite what Ronit calls 'the perfect prenatal routine.' 9. Ronit's doctor told her 'there's nothing you can do, it happens after 40,' but Ronit refused to accept this and reached out to her functional medicine network, where she learned that 50% of miscarriages are linked to sperm quality. 10. The founders built evidence-based nutrient stacks for both partners — high-dose antioxidants, improved sleep, movement, toxin elimination, and acupuncture three times per week — and committed to three months of 'trimester zero.' 11. Both couples succeeded: Ronit delivered Emma at 42, four days after her birthday; Vida delivered Davina three months later; they called it an 'experiment of two couples told nothing would work.' 12. They opened a shared Google Doc named 'Bestie Co' with the first line reading 'prenatal care for her and him,' which became WeNatal's founding thesis. 13. Dr. Stu admits that traditional infertility workups he was trained in consisted of a basic semen analysis — if sperm count was above a threshold, the man was ruled out; no examination of sperm quality, lifestyle, or toxic exposures was standard. 14. He cites a prominent Los Angeles OBGYN who told a patient asking about sperm quality and toxic behaviors: 'you only need one sperm, the best one will get there.' 15. The founders describe a customer named Cassie who had three failed IUIs, three failed IVF rounds, an ectopic pregnancy, and two IVF miscarriages before eventually delivering one daughter via IVF — and then later conceived her son naturally after stopping IVF entirely and focusing on health. 16. Dr. Stu notes ACOG is actively lobbying to discourage federal funding for restorative reproductive medicine, which he contrasts with ACOG pushing IVF. 17. Bliss Young raises the equity question: organic food, clean personal care products, and functional medicine consultations are not financially accessible to most people, and microplastics now appear in 100% of placentas regardless of lifestyle choices. 18. Ronit responds by arguing that wellness is fundamentally free — gratitude, sleep, and walking are the core fertility pillars — and that the stress of pursuing perfection is likely worse than minor toxin exposure. 19. Vida adds the 80-20 rule: making incremental swaps in food, self-care products, and kitchen storage containers adds up without requiring financial perfection or anxiety. 20. Best for people planning pregnancy, especially those who have experienced unexplained loss or been told IVF is their only option; less suited to listeners seeking acute clinical content.

As heard by us

A direct case for starting fertility care with the basics before jumping to procedures.

Birthing Instincts treats fertility as a whole-body question, not a narrow medical one. It keeps circling back to stress, environment, nutrition, and the basic idea that care should start with the cause before moving straight to intervention.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a back-to-basics fertility reset before the IVF talk takes over.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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