Vitex or Chaste Berry for hormonal imbalances in women

vitex_agnus-castus.jpgI 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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Recovery after giving birth

h1336mother-holding-baby-1986-posters.jpgPicture 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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E is for energy and Eleuthero

eleuthero.jpgI know we talk about the recovery period as the first six weeks postpartum but in my opinion, as long as you are breastfeeding, changing diapers and getting up in the middle of the night, you are still in postpartum mode. Sometimes it feels relentless. Night after night of bad sleep followed by 6AM wake-up calls. If you are feeling exhausted, then you might want to check out Eleuthero,  previously marketed in the United States as Siberian Ginseng, as it has similar herbal properties.

Eleuthero is an…


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Taking antidepressants during pregnancy

antidepressants.jpgI found this recent article in the NY Times about antidepressants during pregnancy. It seems the New England Journal of Medicine supports “doctors’ assurances that antidepressants are not a major cause of serious physical problems in newborns.” While this is obviously good news for people who are on antidepressants the article then goes on to talk about possible rare side-effects from taking medication such as the “use of Paxil which was associated with an increased risk of a rare heart defect.” This is clearly a difficult subject to…


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Pre-term labor - signs and symbols

pregnancy.jpgI have a friend who is dealing with a pregnancy scare. For the last week she was dealing with the possibilities of pre-term or premature labor including extreme fatigue and pain in her pelvic area. They are also saying she may have a bladder infection and that she should go on antibiotics. Technically speaking, preterm labor, or premature labor, is when the uterus contracts and the cervix opens earlier than normal. It usually happens between the 20th and 37th week of pregnancy. Zita West writes, “Preterm labor is found in between…


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Early symptoms of ovarian cancer

lotus.jpgMy mother keeps telling me to go for an ultrasound and get myself checked for ovarian cancer. She says we have a history of it in our family. I am not trying to scare anyone…. a recent article in The NY Times says, “The symptoms to watch out for are bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain, difficulty eating or feeling full quickly and feeling a frequent or urgent need to urinate. A woman who has any of those problems nearly every day for more than two or three…


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Drinking alcohol during and after pregnancy

wine.jpgSo how much alcohol have you been drinking? With my first pregnancy I think I had a much harder time saying “no,” and very often would help myself to a glass of wine. I wouldn’t ever drink more than a glass and never drank any hard spirits but most of my friends totally abstained from alcohol so of course then I felt really guilty or would start to wonder whether I had done some serious damage to my unborn child which thankfully I didn’t.

For the second pregnancy…


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Embarassing upside-down yoga experiences

yoga.jpgI am rather shy to talk about this but I am realizing it is stopping my zeal for yoga which is not a good thing. The last time after I gave birth, I rushed off to yoga at around 8-9 weeks postpartum and found every upside down inverted position became rather stressful as I came down and felt an incredible amount of air rush out of my vagina. It sounded like a fart and I really didn’t know where to put myself.

Here I am again, gearing myself…


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More on hemorroids post pregnancy

I always thought old people suffered from hemorroids but pregnancy brings out the best in us ladies… I’ve already covered this illuminating subject but just found a new recipe in Dean Raffelock’s book, “Natural Guide to Pregnancy and Postpartum Health” and just think it might be worth repeating a few suggestions in this sensitive area.

Before you run off to buy psyllium or fiber (add 1-3 tablespoons in a glass of water or juice and drink immediately) the first and best things to do are:
- Drink prune juice
- Eat steamed…


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Bloated belly after C-Section

180px-mint_leaves.jpgA friend of mine is at a fancy hospital in London where she is recovering from a C-Section following a breech birth. She said it was particularly strange and uncomfortable watching them fish around her belly to pully out the baby that was sitting bottom down in her birth canal. Apart from a fair bit of numb pain around the incision area, she is also suffering from constipation and a bloated belly. (The image is of fresh mint).

According to the Baby Center, gas tends to build up…


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