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Oils for Pregnancy and Post-Partum Care

7/21/2020

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 I can't express enough just how THANKFUL I am to have oils and natural wellness as an integral part of this pregnancy and birth.

With Greyson, I had JUST begun my natural journey and didn't use oils until he was an infant. While they were a Godsend then, I wish I would've been able to use them through pregnancy, labor and birth. Maybe I would have an easier natural birth experience if I had them in my arsenal. Only God knows for sure, but I'm bringing out all the oily big guns this time around for baby girl.

Below I've composed a list of the oils that I am using in my pregnancy, as well as the oils that will be used alongside my doula's support at home and while in the hospital and the oils I will use for mine and the babies post-partum care. 

I will also be putting together a babies and kids best oils post soon as well. 

To read about my first natural birth story with Grey, click here. 
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Oils for Pregnancy

  • Alkalime
    I used this for heartburn and morning sickness. Amazing!
  • R.C. and Eucalyptus Radiata
    With baby girl I developed stuffiness all through my first trimester. Diffusing R.C. or Eucalyptus and using it in the shower helped a ton!
  • Panaway
    For muscle aches, sciatica, hip aches. All the things. 
  • Deep Relief Cream
    Same as above. I prefer cream to oil when putting it on large areas. 
  • Ningxia Red
    Drinking this everyday, 2-3 oz., is SO beneficial in so many ways. From placenta health, to energy from pregnancy fatigue to stabilizing blood sugar levels, Ningxia Red in my fridge is a must have everyday. 
  • Circulation Blend
    I use a circulation blend of tangerine, cypress and helichrysum in the evenings before bed to help with circulation while I sleep. I mix a few drops of each oil with 2 TBSP. of avocado oil and rub from my ankles to my knees in upward strokes. Ningxia Red also helps with this.
  • ​Edema Blend
    During the third trimester, I, as well as so many mamas, get swelling either in the lower extremities or all throughout the body. In addition to staying off your feet as much as possible, you can use this Edema Blend on your feet, ankles and legs by mixing cypress, tangerine and geranium with a carrier oil of your choice. 
  • Group B Strep Prevention Blend
    I did this while I was pregnant with Grey to prevent GBS prior to my appointment to be tested. In addition to taking multiple Apple Cider Vinegar Sitz baths the week leading up to my appointment, I also used three drops of Thieves on my feet every night, five drops Valor along my spine morning and night, took the Life 5 Probiotic every day and drank lemon and thieves in my tea. 
  • ​Rose Ointment
    Amazing for tears, sore nipples and healing hemorrhoids. 
  • Peace and Calming
    For all things anxiety leading up to birth and to diffuse each night to help with pregnancy insomnia and restless sleep. 

See my expanded post on perineum care below. What to do at one month out from birth, three weeks out from birth, one week out from birth and day of labor onset to help with labor so there is less risk of tearing. 
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Oils for Labor

  • Clary Sage
    One drop massaged on ankles every 15 minutes can help with dilation. 
  • Present Time
    Diffuse to stay present in the moment. Newborn life can feel VERY overwhelming. 
  • Surrender
    Release negative emotions by applying 1-2 drops or diffuse.
  • Release
    Release negative emotions by applying 1-2 drops or diffuse.
  • ​Peace and Calming
    For rest, relaxation and a clear mind through the sleepless newborn fog. This oil helps immensely with my anxiety. 
  • Labor Blend
  • Frankincense
  • En-R-Gee
    Smell directly from bottle for energy, or apply to back of neck, behind ears or on feet for a natural boost. 
  • Diffuser Blend
    Whether a hospital room, your bedroom or birth center, have this blend going continually through labor. Have your partner or doula refill if needed. 4 Drops Lavender, 4 Drops Frankincense, 2 Drops Ylang Ylang, 2 Drops Roman Chamomile. 
  • After-Birth Blend
    You can use this oil blend with a carrier oil of your choice over your abdomen right after birth to help expel the placenta and tone the uterus. Have this premade in a bottle for your doctor, husband, midwife or doula to apply. 5-10 drops geranium, 5-10 drops of lavender and 7-15 drops of jasmine. 
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Oils for Post-Partum Care

  • Frankincense
    Applied to both my head as well as the head of the baby right after birth as an anointing oil. Highly healing. 
  • Trauma Life
    For the crown of my head and my feet for immediately after birth. Great to inhale as well. 
  • Lavender
    On feet for relaxation and post-birth sleep. 
  • Gentle Baby
    Over me to bond with baby. And for my abdominal area after birth. 
  • Claraderm Spray
    I use this post-birth on the vaginal area for a natural alternative to store brand sprays that can be filled with chemicals. 
  • ​Peppermint
    If you're having a hard time urinating after birth, put a few drops of this in your toilet bowl. You could alternatively use eucalyptus over the bladder area. 
  • ​En-R-Gee
  • Hemorrhoid Relief Blend
    Combine the following oils with 4 drops of carrier oil and apply topically to the area. One drop peppermint, two drops helichrysum, 2 drops geranium and 2 drops cypress. Repeat as needed for comfort and healing. 
  • Rose
    Rose is HIGHLY healing. Inhale daily or wear as perfume to combat PPD or PPA. Frankincense also works. 
  • Joy
    Inhale daily or wear as perfume to combat PPD or PPA. I will be doing a blend of Joy and Rose in diffusers and as my perfume as I struggled with Grey for the first few months. 
  • Thyromin
    To regulate thyroid and post-partum moods. 
  • Present Time
    To stay present in each moment. 
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PERINEUM CARE (Episiotomy Prevention)
(Apply Blends to Perineum)


One Month Before Delivery:
5 Drops Clary Sage, 2 Drops Rose. Mix with 1 oz. carrier oil and apply. 
ClaraDerm Spray - spray 1-3 times a day 

Three Weeks Before Delivery:
8 Drops Geranium, 5 Drops Lavender. Mix with 1 oz. carrier oil and apply three times a day. 
ClaraDerm Spray - spray 1-3 times a day 

One Week Before Delivery:
8 Drops Geranium, 5 Drops Lavender, 5 Drops Fennel. Mix with 1 oz. carrier oil and apply. 
ClaraDerm Spray - spray 1-3 times a day 

Once Labor Is Established:
Massage perineum with a 1:10 dilution of carrier oil and Myrrh oil. 

If There Is Trauma or a Tear Post-Labor: 

Claraderm Spray - can apply hourly if needed. 
Melrose - dilute 1:10 and apply to area.
Create a sitz bath with bath water, 1/2 tsp. salt and 2 drops cypress, 3 drops lavender for healing. 





Bookmark this post to help you prep your prenatal, labor and postnatal care oil bag. 

I will be doing Instagram stories along my way as well so you can see how I'm using them, how I'm preparing them for the hospital and how I'm setting them up with my at-home care station for when baby girl is here. You can follow along at http://www.instagram.com/noshandnurture.  ​
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Grey's Birth Story - {Part Three}

10/19/2016

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So if you've read Part One and Part Two of Grey's birth story you would have read that I was in labor for 26 hours and pushed for 4 hours. We had a completely medication, intervention free natural labor and birth that was not without it's complications. 

Within moments of Grey being born I started losing a lot of blood. My uterus had worked so hard, too hard, and I had to be administered many medications to get my bleeding under control. I was also in a great deal of pain, having also torn in multiple places, and skin to skin wasn't what I had always imagined it to be. I had to ask Mr. Charming to take him from my chest. 26 hours of natural labor to feel connected, euphoric, and that endorphin rush was elusive. 

I felt robbed of that moment, and it took me a long time to accept what had happened. What had gone wrong. I wanted to feel empowered, strong, and I know now that I am. But it messed with my mind a lot, that had I done that, birthed him naturally in the exact way that I did, anywhere but in a hospital, I probably would have died.

​And that shook me to my core. 
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In the days following his birth I had to have a double blood transfusion because of the blood loss and I will be honest and say fear totally stepped in at that point. But with MUCH prayer, an AMAZING nursing staff, a competent doctor and my beautiful husband and baby to distract me, I got through it. Praise Jesus yet again. And again and again. And in everything, always. 

Following the traumatic experience I endured, our little one became severely jaundiced and had to be put under lights for 18 hours. They brought him to me to nurse every three hours though, so I got my cuddles in and Mr. Charming walked to check on him often. While he was in the nursery the hospital treated the hubs and I to a filet mignon dinner with sparkling cider to celebrate and we stayed up well into the night talking and having our last date night before we'd go home as a family of three! 
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We stayed in the hospital an extra day to watch both mine and Grey's recovery and then we got to pack up to take our babes home!

He is a dream. Our son, our moon and our stars and we now see why God's timing is perfect. If it wasn't at this time, it wouldn't be Grey, and we can't picture our little one being anyone but him. Our mini Mr. Charming. Our little love. Our rainbow. 
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For information on our doula and her company, visit: ​http://lovebugdoula.com/
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Why I'm Just Fine Being My Newborn's Human Pacifier

9/9/2016

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I usually don't quote other people's work often in this space, however, as a new mom I've been hearing so much advice from friends, family, doctors and Google on how to take care of this new little nugget of mine.

And while most of the advice is solicited (seriously, I'm calling everyone about everything and settling in with my new mom tribe to know I am not alone in this journey of new motherhood) some of it is not. And while I know it's coming from the very best place, it makes it hard to know what's right, what's wrong and what is just one persons experience or opinion. 

Then I came across this entry below from a book published in 2002 and it spoke to me. Like "I could have written this myself!" kind of speaking to me. It was as if I wrote it based on how I feel about being a "pacifier" to my newborn son and I couldn't have written it better, so I decided to include it below. This is a topic that most women, both mothers and non-mothers have given their opinions on.

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The Human Pacifier
Credit: ​Lu Hanessian
From NEW BEGINNINGS, Vol. 19 No. 1, January-February 2002, p. 14
I'm sitting in the rocker with my son in the blue light of dawn. We've been at this a few weeks now, getting to know each other after nine months of anticipation. I am searching for feedback; a sign that I'm doing right by him, getting closer to figuring out what ails him when he seems so inconsolable.

I hear voices. Well-meaning voices telling me, advising me, warning me to not let this tiny boy grab the reins and yank me down the race track. I look at the child in my arms, his eyes slightly crossed as he tries to steady his gaze, and I feel somehow, in spite of the fact that I've only been his mother for forty-two days, that he gets it. I mean, he knows what he needs more than I do. He is my sherpa guide, my compass.

He is barely out of my womb when I am asked how long I plan to nurse. I look at Nicholas suckling at my breast, and I ask him about his long-range plans. He burps.

He cries and I nurse him. They warn me not to do this too much, or I'll become a "human pacifier." They are friends, strangers, sometimes relatives. One neighbor is concerned that my baby will learn to depend on me for comfort.

My baby never took to a pacifier, or his thumb, or knuckle, or any plastic teething ring no matter how fascinating the texture or color. He wants to nurse. He likes to stretch his free arm upward and hook his fingers onto my tank top or bra, like he's riding the train and that's his strap.

In his laid-back mood, he nurses with both hands on his head, kind of massaging what little hair he has, like he's giving himself a shampoo. Sometimes, he thumps his chest then mine, like he Tarzan and me Jane. And sometimes, he's got too much on his mind and he just lays his palm flat on his forehead. My heart melts and breaks when, with his eyes closed, he reaches up to my lips with his outstretched hand so I can kiss his fingertips while we nurse in the shadows.
As the months pass, I learn to let go of my ego, to get out of the way, and, not surprisingly, we find our rhythm. Some days, we are tuning the instrument. Some days, we make music. Some days, I feel out of tune with both of us. But there is one constant amid the rapid changes of new motherhood, one thing I can offer my child regardless of time, place, and circumstance: comfort.

He is lying in the crook of my arm, nursing, after a long morning of cramps and gas. I feel so relieved for both of us. He couldn't be more comfortable if he were lying naked in a cloud. After my cyclone of emotions, from empathy to confusion, anxiety, exasperation, and guilt, I finally feel calm. He is at peace at last. For the moment, anyway. Sitting here nursing my baby, he is pacified, yes, but so am I. Being a human pacifier works both ways.

Nursing for comfort, his, mine, and ours, is so much more than soothing him when he cries. When we sit here after a difficult morning, after I've questioned my competence as a new mother, wrestled down my nostalgia for a past where everything seemed easier, struggled with tolerance and compassion and reminded myself (sometimes out loud) that all will pass and he will be happy and well-adjusted and remember none of his intestinal fury and my quiet panic, the shallow-breathing, and lilting lullabies sung tentatively over the shrill tones of his cry, I feel that nursing him in this slow and fluid silence is all about emotional replenishment. He and I re-group after the contradictions and ambivalence of that particular hour or day or week. It feels to me, in these moments, like I am refueling myself, bringing myself back to center, to the symbiosis that will dissipate in tiny, imperceptible ways as he grows. And it feels like he is, in these moments, reorienting himself, getting comfortable in his skin, clearer about me and my intentions.
​
Letting my baby pacify himself at my breast feels right to me because it feels so right to him. He has made it abundantly clear that this is his chosen method of self-soothing. He wants a pacifier that's human.

I would love to hear your feedback. New mamas - when our babes feel safest with us, there is nothing wrong in giving them security, love and the closeness that can only be achieved by allowing them to soothe themselves on us. 

I am completely devoted to being that person for my precious son, especially during this "fourth trimester". My son who arrived into a big, scary world that he has yet to know how to navigate. I am all he knows, I am home to him. And I pray that through his life, I will always be home to him. That in my presence he would feel safe, secure and oh so very loved. 
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Nosh & Nurture was born of this journey I am on to better the health of myself, my family and those around me.  What started as a simple compilation of recipes has grown to a all-around lifestyle journal with ways to incorporate organic products into your home, pantry and beauty cabinet.  I also include stories on pregnancy, new motherhood, travel, Proverbs 31 marriage, and spiritual health, as I am a Christian who couldn't do any of this without my Lord & Savior Jesus Christ. For more of my story you can click here. 

All recipes are gluten-free and dairy-free with a lot of soy-free, grain-free, sugar-free options. 

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