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…

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I was lucky enough to attend a La Leche League breastfeeding class before my first baby was born. I am not entirely sure what the class did for me, but it was extremely informative and I believe it gave me the confidence to get going. But some people find breastfeeding a really painful and frustrating experience and it seems there are various pitfalls that might not always be under your control such as a colicky baby, or a problematic delivery that has left you exhausted and teary. Enter…

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I found this interesting outline in Elizabeth Davis’ book, Energetic Pregnancy, which I have just reviewed in the book section. It is adapted from an old nursing text — the author is unknown.

Phase One - Taking In (Day 1 - Day 3)

The new mother:

- Is passive-dependent overall; she is a receiver

- Wants plenty of rest and sleep

- Is very hungry, if in the hospital will find meals to be inadequate (friends/family should bring extra)

- Needs to review details of the birth with attendants in order to…

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I haven’t got much time to write but I just wanted to share with you a friend’s tough time at the moment. Everything started off relatively smoothly with a C-Section delivery and a nice 5 day rest in a posh hospital. But at some point after nights of really bad sleep (believe it or not, as tiring as all these middle of the night wake-ups are, a baby that is not in pain will just drift off to sleep pretty quickly) she realized things were not all right. Then started…

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Oh that first smile. I have been waiting a couple of weeks for it. Just some sign from my dear daughter that we are doing OK. I have tried to record it on my camera but it may take a couple more days before we are able to synchronize. The last five and a half weeks have been very intense, night after night of breastfeeding sessions, diaper changes and silent somewhat revengeful promises to myself that I can’t do this again. Yet really, Leia is a breeze. For the past…

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Baby Leia Oriel Yarkoni arrived on Monday night, January 29th at 10.30pm. After reading her horoscope chart (rising Libra, sun Aquarius, moon in Cancer) I can say with all certainty she is the most delicious and calm baby. A real joy. Ok, enough of the gushing love chat, I am just checking in to let you kinow what it was like to give birth vaginally for the second time in a hospital without an epidural (no ladies I don’t think I am a martyr).

I started to get…

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I have just bought myself a sitz bath… not a terribly attractive piece of equipment but something tells me it is going to bring untold pleasure after giving birth. There are various types of sitz baths, I bought mine at a local pharmacy which fits on a toilet seat and is filled with water. Anyway, the interesting thing here is not the sitz bath but the herbs and spices you can stick in the water which can have all sorts of remedial effects on your recovering vagina post delivery. One…

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This came as a bit of a shock ladies…. I really don’t think I had truly considered what the after-effects might be of pushing a baby out of my vagina followed by 5 "small" stitches to get things back in shape. The stitches actually and amazingly were almost an afterthought after giving birth but then came my first visit to the bathroom which stung like hell.

Why had no one told me there were things like Sitz baths and little squirty bottles available at the hospital to help with this…

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This is such an important subject that I have decided to try and break it up into the areas of Physical and Emotional/Psychological Wellbeing.

Most women don’t really plan for the six to eight weeks following birth. We are generally consumed with our newly born child (our bodies our wired to act this way) but this time is when most women go through enormous physical, emotional and psychological changes that are not really respected by Western culture.

As soon as the placenta is expelled a woman in medical terms has technically started…

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