Christina Anstead Reveals How 'Cord Cutting' Helped Her Conceive

There's a lot more to having a child than people might think — just ask Flip or Flop star, Christina Anstead. Anstead, who shares two children with ex Tarek El Moussa and one with husband Ant Anstead, recently opened up to her 1.2 million Instagram followers recently about just how different each of her pregnancies was from one another (via Pop Culture Parents). 

The HGTV star talked about her experiences in her caption, and cited "cord cutting" as one of the reasons why she was able to conceive her newest son, Hudson. Initially, she didn't talk about what the mysterious cord cutting was, saying that she's not sure her fans were ready to hear about that. However, after her followers requested more information about the practice, Anstead tagged her cord-cutting expert, Doctor of Acupuncture and Chinese Medicine Sheila Campbell. After seeing what she said, we have to admit: cord cutting is not what we expected.

If you thought that cord cutting has something to do with the cutting of the umbilical cord that happens once a baby is delivered, then you're in the same boat as us. However, the actual practice, according to Campbell, "has to do with the rituals we utilize to disconnect from others," she wrote in the comments of Anstead's Instagram photo. "We can disconnect through energy practices such as: visualization, yoga, breath work, acupuncture, focused intention, and prayer."

Campbell went on to say that, essentially, cord cutting in Chinese medicine and Daoism focuses on disconnecting from other people's energy and learning how to harness your energy in your own body. She notes that being able to disconnect from others and keeping your energy to yourself is "essential" to well-being and mental health. And with the amount of emotional and physical toll pregnancy can take on your body, it makes sense why you would need to be able to harness as much energy as you can.

As fans of the reality star know, Anstead was diagnosed with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) in 2009. PCOS is a condition where a woman's body is producing higher-than-normal amounts of male hormones, which causes skipped menstrual periods and makes it harder for women to get pregnant (via Healthline). Even though Anstead's doctors told her she would need to take hormone therapy if she wanted to conceive, she had daughter Taylor in 2010 and welcomed son Brayden in 2015 after two failed in vitro fertilization attempts (via Pop Culture Reality TV). 

She pointed to her acupuncture treatment as the potential reason why she was able to conceive Hudson. "I explained to the woman that I had polycystic ovaries," she told People. "She told me, 'Oh, I used to have that too. I think I can help.' She did some needlework, and six days later we conceived." Anstead did mention that while she doesn't know if it was directly related, she found it fascinating nonetheless.