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A Toning Postnatal Herbal Infusion

26/2/2016

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Plants. They are wonderful allies, packed full of minerals and vitamins. They hang out in the world, growing and doing their thing, regardless of our awareness of them. They're willing to work with our bodies, they're user-friendly and are completely worth our time, attention and appreciation.

Although a cup of herbal tea can be comforting and delicious in its own right, or can act as a new routine for where caffeine once ruled, it doesn't extract the same degree of nutrients that an infusion does. This is not my grandmother's cup of tea either. She barely wanted the leaves to graze the water before pulling them out, and even then, it would be too strong. Infusions are dark, earthy and medicinal. Infusions are simple to make, however they require more time.
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Nettles: Urtica dioica

The method:

The general infusion guidelines for brewing plant parts are as follows:​
  • Add 1 oz of dried leaves per 1 quart/4 cup mason jar. If you do not have a scale on hand, 1 oz is roughly 3/4 cup of finer dried plant material, or 1 cup of bulky dried material. Fresh plant material may also be used, however if weighing your ingredients, you'll need to add more in. (Why use a mason jar? Mason jars are affordable, accessible, portable, made of glass, they retain heat for quite some time and come with a sealable lid! You may use any type of large vessel however, such as a teapot.)
  • Pour freshly boiled (purified) water over the plant material and fill until your jar is full. Cover with a lid to prevent any volatile elements from escaping with the steam. (Please note, although mason jars are heat-safe, they do break on occasion. To avoid a messy cleanup and burn potential, I recommend placing your jar in the kitchen sink prior to filling with boiled water.)
  • Infuse flowers up to 2 hours, leaves for 4 hours, and roots/inner bark for 8 hours, all at room temperature. You may use separate jars for each plant, or simply infuse all leaves in one jar, all roots in another and all flowers in a third. This method will promote a thorough extraction of nutrients from each plant part. For simplicity's sake however, you may wish to start by only infusing one type of plant material. The most important factor is that you get the minerals and vitamins into your body! If this means you're not infusing for the entire recommended time, you'll still receive many benefits.
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Raspberry Leaf: Rubus idaeus

The Ingredients:

You may endeavour to infuse all ingredients listed, or choose to focus on a few, or add something in of your own, or simply brew one at a time. Start with what you already have kicking around your garden or kitchen, then add in other dried plants as you see fit. In order for a support to work, it must be utilized, so do not forego brewing if you're missing a specific ingredient. As always, please follow your own unique needs and trust your intuition.
This list will provide a small glimpse into what each plant has to offer:
  • Nettle leaf (Urtica dioica): an anti-inflammatory, high in chlorophyll, great for treating low iron and anemia, osteoporosis and varicosities. Minerals: boron, calcium, chromium, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and silica. Vitamins: A, B complex, C, D, and K. Electrolytes: potassium.
  • Red Raspberry leaf (Rubus idaeus): a well known uterine toner, has been shown to shorten labour and regulate blood flow. Minerals: calcium, copper (required in red blood cell production), iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc. Vitamins: A, B complex, C, E and K.
  • Oat Straw (Avena sativa): treats nervous exhaustion, excessive nervous energy and anxiety, osteoporosis. Minerals: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, high in manganese, phosphorus, silica, and zinc. Vitamins: A, B complex, C, E, K. Electrolytes: potassium.
  • Alfalfa leaf (Medicago sativa): an anti-inflammatory, used to treat vaginal atrophy, osteoporosis, iron deficiency anemia. Minerals: calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. Vitamins: A, B complex, C, E, and high in K. Electrolytes: potassium.
  • Lemon Balm leaf (Melissa Officinalis): is an antiviral (used to treat mono, herpes, cold sores, genital worts, shingles), it calms the nervous system, treats postpartum depression, and insomnia.
  • Rosehips (Rosa canina): an anti-inflammatory and blood purifier that aids in excessive menstruation, cramps, also a diuretic that helps with fluid retention, urinary tract infections. Minerals: calcium, iron, phosphorus. Vitamin: A, high in C, E, K and P (flavonoids).
  • Ginger root (Zingiber officinale): an anti-inflammatory, used to treat nausea, vomiting, headaches, antispasmodic used to treat fibroids, pelvic pain. Minerals: calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, and zinc. Vitamins: B complex, and C. Electrolytes: potassium.
  • Peppermint leaf (Mentha piperita): used to treat headaches and migraines, and is a known digestive aid, treating nausea, and flatulence. Minerals: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc. Vitamins: A, B complex, and C. Electrolytes: potassium and sodium.
  • Rooibos leaf (Aspalathus linearis): an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, used in treating high blood pressure, helps balance blood sugar, improves circulation and aids in digestion. Minerals: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, zinc. Vitamins: P (flavonoids). Electrolytes: potassium, sodium.
  • Catnip leaf (Nepeta cataria): crazy-making for cats, yet gently sedating for humans. Antispasmodic, good for digestion, colic, and insomnia.
  • Lavender flowers (Lavandula angustifolia/officinalis): another nervine, used to treat headaches, cramps, depression, and insomnia.
  • Chamomile flowers (Matricaria chamomilla/Anthemis nobilis): used to treat digestion, inflammation, stress, anxiety, tension, colic, great for teething, and insomnia. Due to its high volatility, it need only infuse 15-30 minutes.
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Rosehips: Rosa canina

Where to meet these gems...

Sometimes meeting a plant requires determination, curiosity, facilitation by another, a plant identification book, and the willingness to explore. Other times you meet a plant organically, or realize what you've needed has been poking through the crack in your sidewalk all summer long. Nothing beats watching a plant grow throughout the seasons, sitting with it, getting to know its characteristics, and its spirit.

Wildcrafting is a sure way to know the health of the plant you are consuming, the conditions of the soil in which it grew, whether it has been collected from the earth during the peak of ripeness, the timeframe from harvest-to-drying-to-consumption, or whether the plant gave permission to be plucked from its source. The plants that spring forth in your community cohabitate among the same environmental toxins and pollutions, as you do. This factor may play an added role in aiding your body to further adapt when consuming them by boosting your immunity, similarly to how local honey can assist with seasonal allergies.
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Lemon Balm: Melissa officinalis
There are times though, when your garden is laying dormant under feet of snow, or perhaps the plant doesn't grow in your zone. You may have run out of an ingredient, or this realm could be entirely new to you, and hey, you need to start somewhere before your green thumb blossoms!

If you're in Alberta, I recommend visiting Kolya Naturals Apothecary located within Optimum Health Vitamins. The Earth's General Store may stock some of the ingredients, however they also carry food dehydrators, composting worms and an assortment of DIY books, depending on how in-depth you'd like to venture along this path. Edmonton's Seedy Sunday is also fast approaching March 20th, and is a great location to gather most the seeds you'll need to start your own apothecary, or pick a seasoned gardener's brain on the "how to's".
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Oatstraw: Avena sativa
If you're in BC, I suggest contacting Harmonic Arts Botanical Dispensary for raw ingredients. If you'd like to develop a deeper understanding and relationship with plants, please contact The Living Medicine Project.

Lastly if you're in the USA, Mountain Rose Herbs carries a large variety of bulk organic herbs, and Banyan Botanicals is an Ayurvedic apothecary, for even more angles of exploration.

Happy infusing!

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​Angela Esplin is a labour and postpartum doula, as well as placenta encapsulator with Full Circle Birth Collective. She has been serving families since 2000, and has recently transitioned back home to Mission, BC.

Click here to read more about Angela.
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Thriving in the First Year: Expectations vs. Reality

16/2/2016

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When my daughter was born almost two years ago, I was completely blindsided. With how fiercely I loved her from the moment she was earthside. With how her cries touched something so deep in my soul that they physically hurt me. With how much my heart would swell with pride and joy to see my husband become a father. But along with all the wonderful, happy moments, there were some really, really difficult things that I was in no way prepared for. I now think there are many aspects of motherhood that you can’t prepare for, no matter how many books you read, online mom’s groups you’re part of, or classes you take. I also think I did myself a bit of a disservice by holding some, what I now know, were unrealistic expectations for myself and my baby. Expectations can be useful; indeed, they are a normal part of the human experience. But when we hold high expectations, whether from some internal vision or external, societal or family pressure, and those expectations are not met, we can feel like we’ve let ourselves or others down. I don’t think that’s a great way to feel any time, but especially in the postpartum period! Here are a few of the expectations I had for my baby and myself, and what ended up being our reality.

The Birth Plan
Expectation: I had a midwife and a doula, I took all the classes, listened to my Hypnobirthing tracks every evening, practiced my affirmations every morning, I bought my homebirth supplies months ahead of time; I thought I was READY for this whole birth thing. I was going to be one of those “loosey goosey” women we saw in the videos, calmly breathing through contractions. Maybe I would even sleep through them! I would breathe baby out and we would go on our merry way!

Reality: Birth is INTENSE. Birth is life-altering. Birth is hard work. The hardest work I’ve ever done in my life. Nothing could have prepared me for what it felt like, or how transformative the whole experience would be. That first contraction took my breath away, and I felt like I didn’t get it back until 18 hours later after I pushed...really, really, hard...(not breathed…) my daughter out. The good news is, all the preparation work I did helped give me a strong framework of support to reach my goal of a natural birth. When I wanted to give up, my doula was there to remind me of my birth plan. When I felt like the pain was becoming too much, I was able to lean back on my Hypnobirthing preparation and my husband to calm me.

Breastfeeding
Expectation: My perfect baby would do the perfect “breast crawl” immediately after birth, just like we saw in all those videos! All the books say that baby will eat 10-12 times a day, so that means she’ll nurse for 15 or so minutes at 8am, 10am, noon, and so on. Right? And I hadn't really thought about it in depth, but I had a vague notion that all this feeding would take place during the daytime hours only.

Reality: Nothing about babies is predictable, and nothing could have prepared me for often and for how long my baby would nurse, how beyond exhausting it would be, and how many unexpected issues we would have. Along with a lip and tongue tie and latching difficulties, we dealt with mastitis, thrush, clogged ducts, and a nipple shield. And that doesn’t even include the typical aspects of nursing based on baby’s cues. Cluster feeding for hours at a time, baby wanting to nurse 10 minutes after she’d just finished a marathon nursing session, growth spurts where I was convinced I did not have enough for her, and not being able to leave for longer than an hour at a time because she wouldn’t take a bottle were all things I experienced in the first few weeks and months. I now know those are all very normal breastfed baby behaviors, but not having many close examples of this, I was convinced something was wrong. Luckily, I again had access to great support and was able to make it through all of those challenges and continue to nurse my daughter today. I think if I had had more realistic expectations, or had known what a typical breastfeeding relationship looked like, I would have been much more accepting early on and would have relaxed into the whole process more.

Sleep:
Expectation: Babies fall asleep when they’re tired. Babies take a few regular, predictable, long naps every day because babies *like* to sleep, and I’ll be able to get so much done when the baby is asleep. Babies sleep at night. I will nurse her to sleep, lay her down, and again, go on my merry way!

Reality: Parents, go ahead and laugh. And if you have a baby who likes sleep then I am mildly (read: very) jealous. Next to breastfeeding, sleep was our biggest challenge. I had a baby who seemed to survive on a fraction of the amount of sleep the books said she needed, who did not fall for any of the “tricks” like babywearing, the stroller, or the car seat, who did not have any sort of regularity or pattern to her sleep, who woke at the smallest noise, and who, still to this day, has never fallen asleep on her own. We did eventually figure out a rhythm that worked for us, and that meant she spent most of her first year napping on me. At almost 2-years-old, she still does for part of her daily nap. While sometimes I wish I would have more time to get things done during the day, I’m grateful for the chance to slow down and snuggle my sweet babe. This time has gone so fast already, and I will never regret the time I spent getting in all the cuddles I could!


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The early days. Pride, elation, exhaustion, with a side of "what am I doing?"

My Body:
Expectation: I was fairly healthy before I got pregnant. I was at a healthy goal weight, eating a whole foods diet that made me feel really good, exercising, and had a lot of energy. Sure, I slipped a little (or a lot) when I was pregnant. But I was eating for two, right? Baby NEEDED McDonald’s french fries every other day. Or pizza every week. But I was sure that after she was born I’d get right back on track. I was going to give myself a little time to recover, and then when she was a month old I was going to start back with my healthy diet, and when I got the all-clear from my midwife at my 6-week postpartum checkup I was going to start exercising again.

Reality: Nope and nope. I did not realize how *starving* I would be while exclusively breastfeeding a baby, and that I would eat at least two times more than an Olympic weightlifter at every meal. Needless to say, this was not conducive to rapid postpartum weight loss! As for exercise, I would have loved to get moving more, but when was I going to have time between all the nursing and not sleeping? I have lost my pregnancy weight, but it has been a much slower, more gradual process than I imagined. Luckily chasing a busy toddler has provided me with some daily cardio, and once she started eating more solids, weight loss became much easier.


As you can see, my first year of motherhood didn’t go quite as planned! I had some pretty unrealistic expectations of my baby and myself, but I have learned so, so much in these few short years, and know I have so much to continue to learn. Part of my growth has come from realizing that it’s okay to scale down my expectations of myself, and to be gentler with myself as I navigate the ever-changing stages of parenthood. Once I started doing that, I really began to enjoy the whole process a lot more. The second year has been much more manageable, and while I know we will have many challenges to come, I’m prepared to face them with grace and some more realistic expectations.
~Kelsey

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Kelsey Voelker is a labor doula and lactation educator with Full Circle Birth Collective. Learn more about Kelsey here.



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Our diaper odyssey

9/2/2016

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My first poop & pee excreting wiggly worm was born in 2012. I knew about cloth diapers but it seemed overwhelming and too much work to figure out what to buy especially while averaging 2 consecutive hours of sleep a night. I wasn’t interested in diapers before baby was born since there were other expensive must haves to shop for- like car seats (another one of the many overwhelming adventures).There were so many types, sizes, brands, costs, etc. that I didn’t want to cheap out and buy ones that I would end up hating. So, we used disposable nappies. I felt silly throwing away multiple nappy nuggets everyday so after a few months I decided to check out some cloth diapers online when little Miss was 4 months old.

I spent under $100 and bought some “Prefold” inserts, a fastener, and two waterproof covers. I loved being able to cloth diaper! I’m pretty sure my brother thought I turned hippy, my husband wouldn’t use them, and my mom thought they smelled funny. So I had no immediate support for my cloth diapering adventure. I didn’t care. I kept using them. Afterall, I am “resourceful”…. or Swiss, as some put it. I sewed my own wet bag, reusable laundry bag, fleece inserts and cloth wipes.

​I didn’t mind doing the laundry myself despite the stink. It was a bit of extra work but when you’re on maternity leave for a year and have only one child, there’s plenty of time in a week to do a few extra loads of laundry, right? Well, I ended up deciding my kid peed too much (or maybe she just liked drinking from the mammary’s ALL OF THE TIME) and the cloth diapers constantly leaked. So not only was I doing nappy nugget laundry, I was also washing more clothes than you can imagine.

I had a friend who became a nappy entrepreneur. She bought a whole set of the “fancy” cloth diapers before baby was even born! I admired her diving into diapers like this. Partly because of her, I decided to spend the money and upgrade to the “fancy” ones. I searched high and low for the best deal and finally bought a set of All-In-One diapers when little Miss was a year old!  Why did it take me this long!? I was so excited about my purchase! I felt like a little girl enthralled with her new toy ponies- but instead it was diapers. But they were so much more than just diapers! They were cool coloured diapers- like jelly bean colours and ones that even had monsters on them and “ooglie booglie” written all over the bum. I would for sure have the best diapered baby on the block!

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Over the next while, I got the rest of the family on the cloth diapering wagon. My husband began to use them (let me clarify- not for himself, but for the baby), my brother probably still thinks I’m hippy but secretly wishes he didn’t have to throw out nappy nuggets from his kids everyday (Because after all he’s Swiss too!), and my mom helped me figure out how to get the “stink” out!  I also learned a few tricks- like sun bleaching. It actually works and I was totally blown away when the stains on the white bamboo tri-folds magically faded on a hot sunny day.

So now my little Miss has graduated from her nappies and even her potty. The youngest little Miss has obliterated her nappies many times over and we are now onto the next adventure for her in the next few weeks. So, stay tuned for the next chapter: all about “pee pee on the potty” and “poo poo on the potty” dances!

Cloth diapering has been great for us. I do recommend it but understand that it is not for everyone! ​

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​Nicole Sailes is our lovely Hypnobabies Instructor and Hypno-doula with Full Circle Birth Collective.

​To learn more about Nicole click here
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Postpartum Sitz Bath

2/2/2016

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​As women, we cannot underestimate the importance of Yoni care.      Yoni is the Sanskrit word for the vagina that is loosely translated as "sacred space" or "Sacred Temple."
In Tantra, the Yoni is seen from a perspective of love and respect. This is the centre of our femininity and wisdom.  She gives us pleasure, holds space for the creation of life, guides us, loves us and when it is time, she completely surrenders, opens fully and allows your baby to gently ease their way into this world.  What a miraculous organ. 

After birth, our Yoni's are swollen, tender and sore. Spend time each day sending your sacred space thoughts of love and gratitude. Consume foods aimed at healing and strengthening such as sweet potatoes, cranberries, dark leafy greens, avocados, flaxseed and Soy. I know soy gets a bad name, but it’s actually full of phytoestrogens (a synthetic form of estrogens) that keep our vaginas well-lubricated. And we all like our vaginas well-lubricated. Aim for organic, unprocessed soy, like edamame.  

  Yoni massages are great for promoting healing and will help to release any energy blocks that may have occurred during labor and birth. I recommend using coconut oil. Coconut oil has many healing properties and makes an excellent personal lubricant.  Generously apply the oil to the outside of your yoni and gently massage.
New mom's please remember not to insert anything into your yoni until you have been cleared to do so by your caregiver.  Herbs, tinctures, salves and sitz baths are great for easing discomfort and assisting in the healing process. 

​Here is a recipe for an amazing sitz bath. I discovered this after I gave birth to my second baby. 

* 1/2 cup Epsom salt
* 2 tablespoons baking soda
* 2 tablespoons witch hazel
* 1 tablespoon olive oil
* 8 drops lavender essential oil
* 8 drops chamomile essential oil
* Place all ingredients into a cotton muslin bag. 

A sitz bath is a small tub that fits over your toilet and allows you to sit in warm water up to your hips. You can buy a sitz bath at your local medical supply store or online. Fill the sitz bath three-fourths of the way with warm water. Add the ingredients listed below and soak for 20 minutes. If you choose to use your bathtub instead of a sitz bath, you can double or triple the recipe. Herbal baths can help you relax, speed up healing, help repair damaged tissue. All of the ingredients can be found at your local grocery and health food store. 


Epsom Salt
This natural detoxifier will provided the needed minerals to help the body heal quickly. It can also 

Lavender
This relaxing floral scent and was an important ingredient in ancient Roman Baths. It is not only promotes restfulness, but is antibacterial, anti-fungal, and an antioxidant. 

Witch Hazel
An ancient herb used for hemorrhoid relief and treatment is known for its anti-inflmmatory and astringent properties.

Chamomile
This herb has an relaxing scent an is helpful to soothe anxiety, and inflammation. It is also a natural antibiotic, anti-bacterial, and anti-fungal. 



    Have you used a sitz bath in the postpartum?

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Image below courtesy of Mommypotamus
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Chelsea Mansoff is a Doula with Full Circle, Sacred Pregnancy Instructor and leads our weekly meditation class. 

Click here to read more about Chelsea. 
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