If you are looking for natural pain medication following a c-section and are concerned about the effects of the medication on your baby while you breastfeed, it might be worth trying out a few herbal analgesics that are effective substitutes for painkillers.  (The image is of Jamaican dogwood).

Aviva Romm recommends in her fantastic book, Natural Health After Birth, California poppy and Jamaican dogwood to be taken either alone or together in small quantities with other herbs. She claims they are non-addictive and not contraindicated for use while breast-feeding…

Filed under: First Six Weeks | 2 Comments »

I haven’t used this bra yet since I am still breastfeeding but a lot of women find the transition phase quite painful. LaMa Bra was designed with removable chilled form fitting gel paks that give relief to your aching breasts . You just pop the paks in the fridge and then slip them in your bra…. It is ideal for women working through engorgement to breastfeed longer, those not breastfeeding at all, others ready to start weaning or for mothers who have returned to work and can’t breastfeed during the…

Filed under: Breastfeeding | 2 Comments »

I have to thank Dr. Dean Raffelock for turning me onto Vitex… a friend of mine has to rather abruptly stop breastfeeding and she is naturally concerned about a hormonal crash. Enter Vitex….

To summarize, Vitex agnus-castus, or chaste-tree is the small pepper-like fruits of a mediterranean shrub, and can be used as a powder, powdered extract, tea, or especially as a tincture, for many ailments resulting from hormonal imbalances. The two most important areas of application may be as a galactagogue, to stimulate mother’s milk, and as…

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It doesn’t seem to be very easy to find cute maternity sports clothes…. you know, your sweatpants are too tight around the waist and you may not want to do yoga. Enter Fit Maternity….  which based on my search has some of the most versatile and comfortable high performance pregnancy exercise clothing and nursing products available. Don’t be turned off by their rather low-tech, low glam website. Their staff and testers have worked hard to create a large selection of good quality maternity tights, maternity shirts, prenatal yoga wear,…

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Picture this scenario. You’re a first time mom, you’ve been working up to the last minute, you’ve just bought a new house and plan to move in two months, you think you’ve bought everything you need for your new life with baby and then he arrives two weeks early. After a gruelling 20 hour labor with an epidural and multiple tears, you come home and find it extremely painful to breastfeed and your baby doesn’t stop crying half the night and you can’t figure out why? Then…

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