Nourishing and Healing with Whole Foods through the Childbearing Years!
foods family
whole
Pregnancy
Self-Care
in Pregnancy!
Take time to be alone
Take naps or rest when you feel the need to
Prepare and eat luscious nourishing foods and beverages
Prepare and drink nourishing herbal teas
Take candlelit baths
Journal about your feelings, about what you are learning from your challenges and experiences
Follow the circadian rhythms, go to bed early and rise early, spend time in the moonlight and sunlight
Stretch and move your body (yoga, walking, dancing)
Meditate, set aside times for absolute silence, colour mandalas etc.
Receive or give yourself weekly manicures and monthly pedicures (without polish, unless you can find non-toxic ones!)
Take time to be creative (writing, painting, drawing, knitting, sewing etc.)
Go on regular “dates” with your self and/or with your partner/with your kids
Explore your sexuality
Visualise and set intentions
Purchase or borrow relaxation CD’s that walk you through deep relaxation techniques
Communicate with your unborn child through guided meditations or journaling exercises
Do some pregnancy honouring activities such as belly mehndi, belly casting, bellydancing classes, prenatal yoga classes, birthing classes, mother blessings, etc.
Hire a Doula that offers nourishing practices as part of her service
Seek out the services of natural therapists to promote well being such as holistic nutrition consulting, chiropractic care, Reiki, reflexology, massage therapy etc.
Self massage, dry brushing etc.
Spend time in nature
Create a private sacred space in your home consecrated to honour your pregnancy
Take care of your living environment, keep it clean and tidy to prevent overwhelm
Purify and cleanse the energy in your home with beeswax candles, plants and aromatherapy
Red Raspberry CHAI
walnut size piece of fresh ginger or more to taste
2 cinnamon sticks
2 cups of water
pinch of black pepper
½ tsp. cardamom
¼ tsp. cloves
1 or 2 Tbsp. loose red raspberry leaf
2 cups soy/milk
sweeten to taste
Finely grate ginger & crush cinnamon sticks, add to water & bring to a boil, then simmer for 5 min.
Add pepper, cardamom, & cloves and bring back to a boil, then turn off heat, add tea, stir & brew for 3 min.
Pour in almond milk /organic whole milk & heat.
Sweeten to taste.
(adapted from Salt Spring Island Cooking p.271)
Easy Nourishing Tea- Whapio Diane Bartlett
1/3 alfalfa leaf, 1/3 red raspberry, 1/3 nettle
Combine all herbs. Steep a handful per quart of boiling water. Let stand for 4 hours. Strain and mix half-and-half w/apple juice.
Symbiotic Benefits of Nutrition for Mom and Baby
Fresh Living Food
(your main source of the water soluble B-Vitamins and Vit.C)
-7 ½ cup servings of raw or lightly steamed fruits and vegetables daily (do not cook for long, B-vitamins are destroyed during cooking).
Benefits to Mom:
Providing B-vitamins, B6 for preventing morning sickness, folic acid for preventing birth defects and all B-vitamins helping to cope with stress and work synergistically; Vit. C prevents bleeding gums, hemorrhoids and varicose veins; whole food fiber for prevention and relief of constipation
Benefits to Baby:
Provides complex carbs, vitamins and minerals, amino acids and EFA’s all of which provide a foundation for a strong healthy constitution on which to establish baby’s optimal health
Water
- Be conscious of your thirst signals and slowly increase your water consumption to the highest amount that feels comfortable.
-Eat more raw fruit
-In order to increase the bioavailability of the water(meaning that it is more usable for the body, meaning you will pee less of it out!), one can add the juice of half a lemon, an 1/8th of a cup of liquid probiotic or ½ cup whey to each glass).
Benefits to Mom: - To facilitate expanding blood volume
- To meet the extra demands on internal regulatory mechanisms
-Plays a preventative role in pregnancy induced hypertension (pre-eclampsia)
-Optimizes energy (think of how a plant perks up when finally watered after neglect!)
-Prevents vaginal itch and dryness.
-Prevents preterm labour, dry skin, miscarriage, constipation, hemorrhage and electrolyte imbalances.
Benefits to Baby:
Did you know that your body replenishes approximately 1 cup of amniotic fluid every hour?
-Give your baby clean fresh amniotic fluids to bathe in!
Probiotics
-1tbsp of sauerkraut with each meal (will also provide more enzymes to improve digestion) or 1 tsp of apple cider vinegar in water with each meal (both options unpasteurized of course!)
-traditionally fermented pickles and other fermented foods
- certified organic living whole food probiotic green drink or probiotic liquid
-yogurt and kefir
*homemade because the most beneficial micro flora are at their highest count 3 days after culturing.
Benefits to Mom:
-Essential to keeping the elimination system (digestive tract) and bloodstream clean
-Balancing intestinal flora, and thereby preventing thrush/yeast overgrowth and GBS (common vaginal “bad” bacteria) which is often treated in labour with antibiotics (that further imbalance intestinal flora and can initiate more health problems.
-Required to optimize nutrient bioavailability, ie: fats into fatty acids
-To produce certain B vitamins and Vit. K which are essential for blood clotting
Benefits to Baby:
-Optimizes baby’s intestinal flora balance for good health
-Frontline of the immune system
-Creates a solid foundation for good digestion, assimilation and elimination
-Prevents colic, thrush, allergies and food sensitivities
-Balanced intestinal flora essential for good health
-Frontline of immune system
-Essential for optimal digestion, assimilation and elimination
-Mother “cultures baby” (passes on flora to baby) through the vaginal canal @ birth.
-Baby’s immune system is being fortified through the quality of mother’s breast milk (nutrition, lactoferrin, immunoglobulin etc.) as well as the breast milk’s microbial content.
-Infant colic has been shown to be relieved by L.reuteri (commercially available by Nature’s Way), otherwise only give baby probiotics specifically formulated for baby’s including b.infantis
EFA’s (essential fatty acids)
-1 Tbsp flax oil or 3 Tbsp ground flax per day on salad or on steamed veggies& in porridge (cooled down to avoid destroying fragile EFA’s)
-fresh cold water fish 2-3 times per week (herring, mackerel, salmon, fresh tuna).
-switch from margarine (of any kind) to butter or organic unrefined cold pressed organic olive and coconut oil. Avoid all refined oils.
Benefits to Mom:
- Lubricates the colon & helping in certain types of constipation.
-Prevents “pregnancy brain” (phospholipids are major constituent of the myelin sheath promoting a “smooth run” for signals in the brain; commonly they are referred to as the “memory molecules”, however, they also play a role in mood & mental performance)
- eliminates morning sickness due to blood sugar imbalance
Benefits to Baby:
-They are essential for brain and eye formation.
-Prevent learning disorders and ADD/ADHD.
-Promote integrity of all cell membranes and myelin sheaths
-Fatty acids optimize immune system functioning (for mom too!):
1) stabilize of cell membranes
2) assist in antibody production
3) anti-inflammatory
Cooked leafy green vegetables, seaweeds and ground seeds (bioavailable minerals and protein!)
*Nourishing a baby while in the womb (and during nursing), takes the biggest toll on our mineral and fatty acid reserves. With each subsequent pregnancy, the mother may find herself more and more depleted. It is no wonder that we have mothers with hormonal and nervous system disorders along with a general feeling of depletion, reduced immunity and dryness (which can take many forms). This is unnecessary and can be prevented through optimal nutrition. Building and maintaining excellent nutrition status is prenatal care that you can give to yourself!
Benefits to Mom:
-Magnesium helps bring water into the colon which prevents constipation and water retention.
- Tooth and bone building
-Tones the nervous system
Benefits to Baby:
-Mineral rich amniotic fluid in which to bathe during fetal life.
- A strong healthy constitution on which to establish baby’s optimal health foundation.
-A mom who feels good and has the energy to enjoy life!
Nourishing Through Herbal Infusions!
Enjoy this video by Susun Weed, the mother of nourishing herbal infusions! According to Weed, 1 cup of Nettle Tea has 5mg of calcium for example, whereas an infusion (soaking in hot water over night) has 250mg of calcium per cup! Wow and Yummy! Infusions taste great in smoothies, with lemon for Iced tea or just wonderfully refreshing on their own!
Printable Document for Encouraging Mama's Milk to Flow! Feel free to print up for reference or if you are a Midwife, Doula or Childbirth Educator print up as a hand-out for your clients! Enjoy!
Online Childbirth Classes - e-course in Natural Birthing!
earth mother birth - Resource for Pregnancy and Birth!
natural pregnancy-Blog for Moms embracing the path of natural pregnancy!
