DIY Breastmilk Tea

Sometimes our breastmilk needs a helping hand. if you were what TCM refers to as blood deficient or yin deficient, this can be especially true. Other times, stress and the fight of flight response can hinder our milk supply. I find that if a woman has had a particularly traumatic first time birth, there is a tongue tie that makes it difficult for the baby to get a good latch or if nutrition has not been a priority milk production can be low right out of the gates leading to more frustration for mama and baby. Another time when the milk supply can take a dent is when mom returns to work or experiences a particularly stressful event (breastfeeding in and of itself can be this event for some). Today I’m going to share with you my tried and true breast milk tea recipe. It’s strong, but when done right it, you usually only have to make this batch once and drink it for 2 days to bolster the supply back, twice tops. You can purchase all fo these herbs at Star West Botanicals or Mountain Rose Herbs which are two of my favorite suppliers of organic and ethically sourced herbs. Or you can DM us to send you a batch or two to have on hand. 

Fennel- Foeniculum vulgare- 10 gm - a lactogogue and spasmolytic known to increase milk supply 

Alfalfa- Medicago Sativa- 15gm A nutritive herb indicated for Iron deficiency that moistens dryness in the lady parts

Milky Oats- Avena Sativa- 10 gm-A nerving shown to help with nervous exhaustion and to increase milk supply

Blessed Thistle- Cnicus Benedictus- 10 gm - Both an appetite stimulant and lactagogue known to increase breast milk

Red Raspberry Leaf- Rubus idaeus- 10gm- a nutritive and astringing herb that is a known uterine tonic

Lavender- lavendula officinalis- 5gm- a mild antidepressant with mild sedative properties to help you both stay calm and nurse on

Chamomile- Matricaria recutita- 5gm- an anti-inflammatory, nerving and spasmolytic used to decrease pelvic pain, decrease insomnia and soothe the nerves. 

Please use a pot that does NOT have a non stick coating if possible. Add above herbs with 2 liters of clean filtered water. Bring to a boil, place lid on pot and reduce to a simmer for 20 min. Strain tea and compost or toss the herbs. Save tea in glass jars if possible (mason jars work great). Consume the tea over the next 48 hours either hot or cold. Refrigerate after cooking. Keeps 4 days in fridge max. Again, 1-2 batches 

As always with any “natural” solutions, this is not a substitute for medical care. I encourage you to run it by your medical practitioner, especially if you have a complicated medical history including estrogenic fed cancers. If you were lucky enough to have had a midwife or doula they may have already suggested something similar. And if nursing is not all that you had hoped for, please contact a postpartum doula or lactation consultant to come to your home and help. You can find one at DONA.org or if you are in the tampa bay area reach out to @buddhabellybirth for some stellar postpartum care. You and baby deserve the best during this time and sometimes we all need a little help. 

What Does Meditation Have to Do With Trying to Conceive?

Why should you meditate when trying to conceive? Here is the simple easy to digest answer. When you are stressed, even in low grade fight or flight, our sex hormones drop. Our brain tells our body that our surroundings are not safe enough to create and sustain life so it short circuits our hormones before we can even try. When you meditate 15-30 minutes a day, you actually move your nervous system from fight or flight into a state known as rest and digest or breed and feed sending the message to your body that all is well and normal programming can begin again. Your body wants to create life, just not in the face of stress. The problem is, the reptilian part of our brain that sounds the stress alarm bells and ceases hormonal production hasn’t caught up with modern day society. It thinks your email dinger or that doctors appointment you have scheduled is the equivalent to a saber tooth tiger waiting to make you lunch. After 8 weeks of meditation your brain actually starts to reshape itself, specifically in the hippocampus and the amygdala, the areas that help with our resolve to keep trying and proper emotional responses.

Nod with me if you could stand to be a little less emotionally reactive and strengthen your resolve to keep trying to having a healthy happy baby.

Thirty minutes of meditation has even been shown to be more powerful than REM sleep. How can this be? Well, after the sun has risen and we are still trying to sleep, our pineal gland stops making melatonin and serotonin (feel good calming hormones). Our skin actually relays the message to our pineal gland via mitochondria that the sun is up and it’s time to stop making those hormones.

When we meditate during the day, it by passes this message affecting the pineal gland directly turning on our ability to continue to make these super calming hormones enabling us to sleep better and fight the, “Where’s my baby blues?” 

I often describe fertility struggles as a path of spiritual endurance, because no matter whether you practice religion or not, your resolve and faith is tested over and over. Meditation can help you dig deep and find your resolve and confidence. 

This is exactly why I created 30 fertility meditations

This is something that has been on my mind and in my heart for years now and it’s really cool seeing it all finally piece together in this work of art really. It’s been huge for me to be able to creative express myself and teach a population that deserves as much help as they can get. And it’s allowing me to affect the lives of as many people as possible. If I can teach people how to know themselves better faults and all, how to love a little deeper, how to stay cool and calm under stress, and how communicate in a more conscious manner BEFORE they become parents, I actually get to help shape the trajectory of lives before they are created and to me that’s just so cool. Men and Women spend so much money on anything that will help them try to conceive, and I wanted to create a free place of sanctuary for them. 

These practices will help you to ease suffering, break through limiting beliefs, regain touch with yourself and your partner, and increase your resolve to keep trying and your enhance your faith in your body.

My beloved teacher, davidji pioneered this path by creating the first ever meditation challenge when he was Deepak Chopra's right hand man for a decade. All of those Deepak & Oprah challenges are a result of his day dream and I now I have followed his path crafting a challenge that is truly unique to the needs of a couple trying to conceive. 

Because Meditation has its roots in other cultures I thought I would go over a couple basic terms so you feel confident along the way. You'll also get a feel for the types of meditations you will be doing during the challenge.  

You’ll hear me say Mantra a lot. The word mantra means Mind Vehicle or Mind Tool. It is the tool we will use as a point of light focus. Learning to direct your attention where you want it rather than being reactively tossed around like a ping pong ball certainly has its benefits when you think about doctors appointments, procedures, giving blood, awaiting test results or even the two week wait. You’ll learn how to redirect yourself from that recording in your mind to a happier calmer place. I don’t know about you, but the recording that replays in my mind can say some pretty harsh stuff when it gets going. The mantra meditation will help you to understand that you have thoughts, but you aren’t your thoughts and that you have the ability to place your awareness anywhere you want, even when that recording is really really loud. 

The other term you will hear a ton is chakra. Chakra means wheel. I like to think of it as an energetic gear with a certain job. Sometimes that gear is well oiled and moving nicely, other times it gets clogged and rusty. Being that all 7 gears or chakras interlock with one another like the insides of a watch, if one is stuck it can throw the entire system off. Chakras are energetic centers that have the ability to house our emotions and beliefs. And because energy precedes matter, energetic accumulations or depletion in these areas starts to affect our physiology over time. We are going to spend a lot of time in this challenge, cleaning them out, oiling them up and examining and tossing any belief that don’t serve you and your ability to become a parent. 

Here's an example of what you'll experience each day.

There are colors associated with each chakra. Some people see or sense them immediately, others do not and it takes some time. Just like some people are a visual learner over auditory or kinetic which is learning by feeling and doing, your strengths in meditation will take on one of those characteristics. I was one of those people that couldn't see the colors at first, though I was acutely aware of the feeling of the chakra in my body when I placed my attention on it. So don’t worry if you don’t see the colors, or if you can’t seem to hold onto a mantra, or you don’t feel what I’m describing. This is the very reason I am presenting you with three different ways of meditating so you can find your strengths and or develop your weaknesses. 

And finally, why acupressure points? I wanted to help bring your meditations into the body so I choose to add them in. The meridians or what are known as the extraordinary vessels in traditional chinese medicine that I have chosen for this challenge, are the ones I use in my practice when treating fertility and gynecological issues with great success. I wanted to give everyone the experience of being able to tap into these areas, regardless of where you live or whether or not you can afford acupuncture. Don’t worry about getting the point perfectly right. There will be pictures and you’ll hear me describe where to go during the meditation. It’s more about the intention and using your mind to connect with areas of your body than it is about getting it exactly right so don’t get hung up on perfection. 

There will be a place at the end of each meditation where you can comment about what you liked or didn’t like and if you feel open to sharing any questions or experiences you had, great! 

You can instantly reclaim your fertility sanity from the comfort of your own home. When you purchase you’ll have immediate access to all 30 meditations, downloadable to your computer or smartphone.

If you know anyone that could benefit, reach out to them and lift them up by inviting them in! 

Want a test run first? Grab a pair of headphones and let’s find some calm together. I’ll see you on the inside.