Ep 175. Using Herbs in Pregnancy

Join us as we explore how to safely use herbs during pregnancy! In this episode you'll find  discussions on why herbs can be so controversial, the best ways to begin learning about and implementing herbal remedies into your every day life, 12 of our favorite safe herbs for pregnancy, and we'll reveal our very favorite blend we think all pregnant women can benefit from.

00:00 Introduction to Kelly and Tiffany's Podcast
01:44 Herbs in Pregnancy: An Overview
03:24 Routines + Products We've Ditched
15:10 Understanding the Use of Herbs in Pregnancy
19:48 Intuition vs. Research in Parenting Choices
20:16 The Importance of Quality Research
20:39 Herbs and Pregnancy: Safety and Benefits
21:45 Understanding Herb Safety Categories
24:00 Empowering Women with Herbal Knowledge
24:57 Getting Started with Herbs
27:40 Therapeutic Dosing and Herbal Infusions
29:12 12 Safe Herbs for Pregnancy
33:14 NORA Tea: A Pregnancy Tonic
39:39 Resources and Community Support
40:56 Conclusion and Ways to Support the Show


Links We Chat About

Kelly's Favorite Holy Grail of (Truly Clean) Dry Shampoo That Actually Works

Our Weekly Newsletter

Our Childbirth Education Course, use code RADIANT10 for 10% off

Our Monthly Membership

Herbal Remedies in Pregnancy, Birth and Postpartum Free Download

Safe Herbs in Pregnancy Blog

NORA Tea Blend

Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to catch every episode. Follow us on Instagram for extra education and antics between episodes at: @beautifulonemidwifery

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to at Home with Kelly and Tiffany, where we share powerful tools, exciting education, and relatable views about holistic health, physiological birth, and thriving in the female body. We are home birth midwives in sunny San Diego. Passionate about the alternatives that give women control and confidence in health, in birth and in life. We've poured a lot of love into creating very in depth and high value offerings. A monthly membership, a physiological birth course, and holistic guides for the women who really want to dive all the way in. But this podcast. We want to bring zero cost information about health and natural birth and make these important topics accessible always. Your support of the show is also zero cost and means everything to us. When you leave a review, share an episode and join our newsletter. It really helps us keep this space open, ad free and full of honest, valuable conversations. Now let's dive into today's show.

Tiffany: 1:09

Welcome back to the podcast at home with and Tiffany. This is Tiffany.

Kelly: 1:16

I am Kelly maybe I should get back into consistently introducing the podcast to ease that transition. But our, our listeners are not slow, so I think they'll, they're, they're quick to the uptake. They get it.

Tiffany: 1:31

They understand why your name came first.

Kelly: 1:33

The importance level, they understand completely. Yes. Yes.

Tiffany: 1:37

Okay? We'll argue about this more. I'll plan another episode. I'll plan a future episode for us to hash this out completely. Today, we get to talk about using herbs in pregnancy. It is something that we have always championed, always tried to demystify, always been a part of providing more education and information, but especially since we brought back nor Tea into our online shop, there's been tons of questions, information, lots of discussion happening in all the spaces. So we might as well bring part of that discussion here. So that we can refer people to this episode when they're like, Hey, is this safe? Is that safe? Why not? Why does the internet say this? It's a wor, it's a worthy thing to unpack today.

Kelly: 2:24

Yeah. Why does the internet say this is a good question and I think that's why we want to continue to like touch on this topic in all the different spaces that we show up in. Because when women Google stuff, anybody can say anything obviously, and some people have really strong opinions about, well, if the FDA didn't say something, well, if this particular research didn't show something then I refuse to use it or I refuse to recommend it. And while I understand that line of thinking. We also can recognize the, you know, hundreds of years of anecdotal stories. We also can recognize who is funding certain research or not funding, or what will really get researched in general what will make people money and what won't. And I will guarantee herbs will not make, you know companies big money. And so that is one of the reasons I think that it gets really confusing out there because the kind of messaging behind it can get really skewed. Because of that issue in particular.

Tiffany: 3:24

Okay. Before we jump in here, Kelly, what is a routine a product that you have ditched and will not be going back to? It used to be something that you were totally into. It was a part of your everyday life maybe, and recently you've, it's out. You're not doing it anymore and you probably will not do it ever again.

Kelly: 3:44

Okay, I'm gonna do one, one product and one routine. Yeah. I'm gonna do one and one because I have, I have something to share on both and I won't get, I'm interested to hear if you have something to share, but a product I used to be, I, I used to be certain that there was no clean alternative to like the spray$5. Dry shampoo that I used. I was like, I've tried every, I've spent a lot of money trying things. I've tried the natural things. I'm like getting cocoa powder all over my clothes, like all kinds of things, and then I will link it in the show notes. I found my little holy grail of what works for my hair in particular.'cause you and I have talked about this before, what works for you doesn't work for me and that's acceptable. But I found the one. Who my heart loves and it has worked phenomenally. If you're watching this on YouTube today, which BT dubs, we've been putting these on YouTube, you'll see that I didn't put any this morning'cause I was rushed, but I love it. I finally feel like, ooh, I've like figured out that thing that I was like, well, I'm decreasing my toxic burden in all these other places. I'm just going to keep this particular super toxic thing in my life. And I was willing to do that for a while until I found this product. So I'm excited to, I'll link it. So now that I'm saying this out loud, I completely forget'cause I tried two separate ones that were EWG verified. One of them was not that great. One of them was really wonderful and I'm for, I don't wanna say the wrong one out loud right now, so I'm gonna link it in the show notes for you. But I've been putting it on with like a little, I'd like dip a little brush in and whatever, put it on. And it's been wonderful. I've been using it at night sometimes too.'Cause I. I chose the dark one and the light one and the dark one for whatever reason, just does not work for me. So anyway, I'm very excited to finally feel like I have something to actually like. Hold onto on that realm because I need it. I know that, that we could go down a long rabbit hole of washing your hair and you know, oil and how often to wash it and all of that. My hair is very oily and I know that people will say then don't wash it as much and teach it and whatever. I just need some dry shampoo in my life. That's just me.

Tiffany: 6:01

I, I was just recently thinking, Hey, because did you try the spray one that I shared with you a few months ago?

Kelly: 6:07

Yes,

Tiffany: 6:08

Okay. And

Kelly: 6:08

and I did not like it.

Tiffany: 6:10

Yeah, I

Kelly: 6:11

I swear I've spent so much money on this.

Tiffany: 6:14

same. It's been the saga of a lifetime. I've even given you some as gifts where I'm like, this one's gonna be it. Well, because your hair is dark, it's different. I think it's a lot

Kelly: 6:23

Yeah.

Tiffany: 6:24

shampoo all the ingredients that are in cleaner, dry shampoos are light and they try to do

Kelly: 6:29

Mm-hmm.

Tiffany: 6:30

to do the the dark hair versions of it. And maybe that works for some people. But honestly, I was just thinking the other day. You know what? I'm just gonna wash my hair every freaking day. Who, what am, i'm holding up this, I'm holding up this particular value of getting my hair used to being oily for the past 10 years. It's not working. I just, I'm just gonna see what happens if I wash my hair every time it looks dirty, and I'm just, I'm just gonna move on from there. And if I'm wrong and it completely dries out and damages my hair, and I'm in a worse position than having oily hair for two days before I feel like I can wash it again, I then, we'll, maybe we'll readjust.

Kelly: 7:11

Yeah, we'll meet, we'll meet that when we get to it. I'm glad I'm not alone. I am certain that women listening are like, oh, thank goodness. So absolutely. Go check that out. It's not on Amazon, so it's not as like, quick to order or whatever, but it is worth it and actually really well priced too for, for what it is. But I do wanna mention also before, or do you have, do you have a product that you wanted to share or like a, a thing,

Tiffany: 7:33

I have a routine and I will share it. But

Kelly: 7:36

Yes.

Tiffany: 7:36

too. Okay. What's your

Kelly: 7:38

Yeah, I was, I was just gonna say for a while, not like every single day, but my husband, when he would come home from work and like we were making dinner together or something, we'd always have a drink together. Like I don't drink wine anymore, which is funny given where we've come from as a podcast. But, I don't like, you know, just like a hard kombucha or something that we'd be like, oh, let's just like enjoy this together while we're making dinner and like catching up on our day. And I don't, it just was what we did and I. Once I was like, Hey, maybe we don't need the, maybe we just don't need that. And it was like, I don't, I don't know why it felt like such a routine or such like a thing that we were like, this is just what we do. But after I was like, I'm not, I recognize how it impacts me. Alcohol, even like a hard kombucha or something that's like not crazy. My sleep is messed up and I have to work harder on my blood sugar regulation, all kinds of stuff. And I'm like, well, let's talk about things that are not worth it. It's that. So that is my routine that we have ditched. I don't know, this was kind of a while ago, but just sharing because it really was part of like a, oh, this is just kind of what we do sort of thing. And now we don't.

Tiffany: 8:47

I know routines are such a thing, right? Like we're just in'em to, oh, especially my personality, someone who's a little more type A. We are just in the routine for the sake of. Following along the program, right. Makes me feel comfortable

Kelly: 9:01

Yeah,

Tiffany: 9:02

So do you, what do you do?

Kelly: 9:03

for sure.

Tiffany: 9:04

do instead? You replace it with some other kind of drink, like, because that time of connecting and sharing is important. Are you still able to do

Kelly: 9:12

Yes.

Tiffany: 9:13

Okay. And so

Kelly: 9:14

Yeah.

Tiffany: 9:15

a beverage involved.

Kelly: 9:16

Yeah, and I mean really we were just like doing di like usually depending on the timing, whatever, we've had like a new rhythm with my husband's. He has a different work schedule now, this last like, I don't know, eight months or something. But I. Usually it was just like, oh, we're making dinner together, or we're doing something in the kitchen together as our time of reconnecting after like the day of him being gone. And so, no, we just don't have anything else.'cause our hands are already doing something else, right? Like we're cleaning up or we're doing the dishes, or we're making dinner or cutting things up or whatever. And so. Yeah, our hands are already doing something. Usually that's my problem. Like if I'm at a party and I'm like, I'm not gonna have anything to drink tonight. I'm like, I need something in my hand. I need my hand to be doing something while I'm talking to people for whatever reason. And so I was like, well, our hands are already doing something, so it doesn't, doesn't actually matter as much

Tiffany: 10:07

Yeah. Good job, Kelly. Real okay. Mine is, this is recent, so I believe I will not be going back to this, believe, but it's so recent. I can't say for sure. So you are welcome to follow up with me sometime. but I used to always workout fasted in the morning. I'd get up, I'd have a cup of coffee, I would jump into my workout almost first thing in the day just to have it over with, and I always thought. I know not everyone can work out fast. It doesn't feel good for them, but for me, I was like, this is, this is totally working and it was worth it. To push that so that I could make sure I was consistent with workouts and my schedule. And then recently I've shifted a lot of things around with diet and exercise, and I ended up researching more about the specific goals I have for building muscle mass and just being more metabolically stable and healthy and working towards that and the research. course, I believe that fasting can have its place for women, especially in really unique situations. However, the research about fasted workouts, which I wasn't necessarily doing in order to, I wasn't trying to get any fat loss, by working out fasted. It really just was the convenience factor for my schedule. But the research that supports fasted workouts is all done on men and wi and so some men do really well fasted workouts. Al almost across the board, all women will not long-term do well with fasted workouts, especially in the morning because of our cortisol levels interplay with everything but. Also with how, how nutrients are shuttled to our muscles, specifically during workout and recovery. I just did, I, I just learned enough about muscle mass that and, and coming into a workout with nutrition on board that I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm gonna have to change everything about my routine in order to implement this. And so I have over the past. Month and it has been a big shift and I'm a little bit irritated with having to get used to a new routine and time out eating and working out and all of that. But my workouts are better and I don't think I would have really noticed that before. It makes sense if you have ener, if you have nutrients to make energy, you're gonna have a better workout, but. I don't think I really noticed the difference because I had nothing to compare it to before. I just

Kelly: 12:45

Mm-hmm.

Tiffany: 12:45

was, that was my normal, that was working out fine for me. So that is something that is like, I have the information and I acted on it and I pro I probably will not be going back to fasted workouts. I probably will always opt for eating and timing, nutrition with my workout moving forward.

Kelly: 13:06

I love that. Yeah, I, we had a conversation like a couple years ago even about this just personally about, you know, fasted workouts and whatever, and I was like. Like at the time my, my cardio was specifically on my Peloton bike, where you get really clear feedback on like your output, how hard you're working. Like you kind of get these, you get these numbers and these analytics of how your body is doing every single time. And again, it was convenience that I did it fasted because my kids were still asleep or, you know, whatever, where I was just like, I just gotta get this in. I could never, no matter. If I had had rest days, no matter how well I fueled myself the day before, whatever, I could never get my output as high as I did when I worked out later in the day or after some kind of, you know fuel right of some kind. And I always like remembered that of just like,'cause normally I don't always fully see that, right? Like when you're lifting weights, you're like, yeah, this is hard. Or, oh, I can do a little bit more, you know, whatever. But the, that, that output was so helpful for me to see like, this is tangible information for me and my body that like, I can't give as much during this without fueling my body before. I always thought that was interesting.

Tiffany: 14:14

Yeah, same. Same. And I, well, I mean, I don't, I'm not sure if I really know. I never, I never came out of a workout going like, gosh, that was exceptionally hard, because I think I. I didn't have fuel for it. I, I, it just would, some, sometimes workouts would be harder than usual, depending on my cycle. I didn't, I wasn't really making the connection. So I hope that encourages someone out there is working on similar goals to just tr and it doesn't have to be a lot, it can just be only just 30 minutes before your workout, throwing protein and some kind of carb in your coffee. Like some kind of sweetener, some kind of, you know, milk, beverage, and just doctoring up your coffee 30 minutes before your workout is enough to get. To get your, get nutrition in your body and use for a workout. And then eating right away after eating and refueling for recovery. I could, I, I've been down such a rabbit hole on this one. I could go, we could, we could go on and on, but women are actually listening to this episode right now because they wanna learn how to use herbs in pregnancy.

Kelly: 15:20

Understandable.

Tiffany: 15:22

Let's talk about why herbs freak people out. Why do, why herbs in general, I think freak people out? But then especially in pregnancy, I think, I think society absolutely loses its mind on using herbs in pregnancy.

Kelly: 15:38

Yeah, and I, I mentioned earlier like the Googling aspect is really hard because you get all this kind of different information. You hear like, oh, this might have the potential to X, Y, Z. Oh, some. Women use it and say it was fine. Some women use it and say like, this ruined, you know, whatever. The, the thing becomes, you hear something right and you say, Ooh, that sounds like an interesting thing. I want like, say dandelion, right? You're like, oh, I'm interested in that. I wanna support my liver and pregnancy. I'm really trying to like, you know, focus on that. Let me talk to my provider, or let me Google this right now. Right? You go into your provider and. Depending on who your provider is, they may just simply say, no, that's not safe. Because they don't know. And a lot of providers don't know. And I don't know about U Tiff'cause we went to different midwifery schools. I didn't have like I mean I had a how to use and prepare herbs and like some. Major, like top things in terms of clinical use, particularly at births for my herbal kind of education. But to really dig into it, I had to search elsewhere. Like kind of reminded me of thyroid stuff where I was like, there's more to this and I need to actively go out and seek it. Most providers, maybe not midwives, some Sure. But. Most obs probably are not spending their extra time learning and digging into different you know, educational tools about herbs in pregnancy in particular.

Tiffany: 17:07

Oh my gosh. They don't even have to take a nutrition course. They don't even have to

Kelly: 17:11

Right?

Tiffany: 17:12

on nutrition. So I'm really

Kelly: 17:14

Yeah.

Tiffany: 17:14

that they don't have natural remedies as a part of their repertoire unless they've

Kelly: 17:19

Yep.

Tiffany: 17:19

the work to, to get some extra information. And I was sharing something on Instagram recently and this woman. out and said, Hey, where did you get this information? Because I have a home birth midwife and she does not have this knowledge. And I said, oh yeah, we took one class in school. That was like a brief introduction, potentially gave us a little bit of like curiosity and like you said, some really practical, like, let's use this for this, let's use this for this, let's use this for this. Maybe we have like. I don't know, a dozen herbs that we learned in midwifery school about how to use them. But I told her no. I had to enroll in a completely separate course. I. That an herbalist teaches online. Aviva Rahm, she has a really comprehensive herbal course for practitioners and providers. And then I had to keep studying and learning. And then I also had the benefit of part of my preceptorship as a student was with a traditional Chinese medicine provider. And so I got to learn and expose myself to a lot of information, but tons of it has just been self steady Getting comfortable with the idea that it's not a really well researched topic, and so if, if we're just only going to use, what the modern world. Thinks is a, is good scientific research on something in order to make decisions, and we're taking this evidence-based approach the way that we do with other medical aspects of pregnancy and, you know clinical care, we're not gonna be satisfied with the information that's out there. So let's talk about that a little bit, Kelly. Like why, why? Why is there not better information out there about using herbs in general, but especially in pregnancy?

Kelly: 19:11

Yeah, I mean the it go, it always goes back to the research, right? Like, how are they going to realistically research that? How are they going to create research, like projects that across the base would provide good answers? Who would. Be the one funding that, who would make money off of that. Right. Like, we kind of just keep coming back to that idea of it, it's a, it's a hard area to really kind of nail down. And I think kind of going back to what you were just saying. You know, we encourage women, like sometimes you might read something and think like, oh, the evidence says this on the vitamin K shot. Right? But I am not going to take, I'm not going to choose that for my child, right? Because intuitively, that's my decision. I. Right. Oh, but I see this research that says this, but I'm choosing something different, right? And so we don't always have to be choosing something that's based on this like hard firm research. It is okay to choose something different based on your preferences, your intuition, your desires for how you want to raise your family or treat yourself or whatever else. And so again, I think it comes back to that idea of. Of really quality research. We want that. I don't think this is an area that we will ever actually get that, and I think that is why it makes. Like, I'm, I'm fine with that, right? I can understand why it makes people uncomfortable and are like, well, I'm just gonna step back and not even like, engage in that whatsoever. But I also that, I also think that just leaves women at a deficit because these are easy to use and like the minerals and the effects and support and all of that that come along with them. Can be incredibly helpful. I mean, we're talking specifically for pregnancy, for pregnancy in general, and you know, preparing for labor and birth and postpartum, all of it. And so yeah, it's just, it's unfortunate because I think that scary factor I. Leads a lot of women to kind of just step back and, and not be willing to engage in it as much. It's been fun on Instagram and in our membership and things that people are like, Ooh, like the, I, I never even looked into this before because it overwhelmed me, because it kind of scared me. But now that I'm trying and I'm learning more, like the confidence that they have to support their bodies with herbs or support a particular issue that they're having with herbs. Is so cool. So cool to see.

Tiffany: 21:36

Yeah. And so we can provide a couple of resources in the show notes for women who are really interested in doing a deeper dive. Because what happens with herbs, especially in pregnancy, is there's a really broad category. So it's not safe. Not safe. It is actually, the, like, the ca, like the categories will go from, we have lots of research on this herb. It is, and we have no adverse outcomes. We give it like it, they're, they're, they're rated on like a number system, but from one end of the spectrum, we have a lot of research. We have no reason to believe it's unsafe. We have no reports of it being unsafe. Use as often as you want to. Then the next step down is we. Have a lot of research on this herb. There's a couple of times that there have been adverse effects. We're not sure if it's exactly because of this herb or because of something else going on in the pregnancy, but we're gonna just give it like a yellow light, right? Then there's a step down of we don't have a lot of research on this one. We assume that it's safe, but we don't have anything to prove that it's unsafe, and so therefore proceed with caution. Then, then there, there's the next step, like, right, so there's such a huge. huge spectrum of how to determine if an herb is safe in pregnancy or in lactation also. And so, so as a provider, I look at those categories and then I give my, I give my client the information, Hey, we believe that this is a really safe herb. There's some evidence that. If you take it in the first trimester and you have a history of miscarriage, there's a really small chance that that, that, that might not be the case for you. However, anecdotally, there's cultures in the world who take this specific herb to prevent miscarriage, so there you go. You're stuck in between the place where someone just wants to know, is it safe or not safe, and. When we, when we like, think about how this translates into other categories of things, right? When we just want this black and white explanation for everything in life and we want someone else to tell us what's okay, what's not okay, it it, it disempowers us as women. And not everybody wants to be empowered with using herbs in pregnancy. I understand that. But if you do and you want the information and you wanna learn, which is gonna be most of the women listening to this right now. have to, you have to figure out where to find that information and have a, have a conversation with somebody who understands how to interpret some of it, right? Have a midwife on board, have an herbalist on board. Have a wise woman in your life who has been using herbs in her life for a really long time and knows how to interpret some of that information and help you out so that you can learn, so that you can build up your little toolbox with that, and you can say. Nothing in life is guaranteed. Nothing in life is a hundred percent safe. I'm gonna take this information and make the decision that's best for me. That's what I hope women kind of like get out of thinking about why herbs have, why herbs are safe or not safe.

Kelly: 24:53

Yeah,. And I think you, you touched on something really helpful, I think for, for women. If you can, even if you're like, I'm slightly interested in this, you can choose a couple herbs that you're like, wow, the safety on this, like overwhelmingly looks like it's going to, like, I'm gonna be fine. Right? And just get really good at using those particular herbs. Learn about those, understand how you wanna use them, making infusions. Tinctures, things like that and figure out like, how is this impacting me? How can I use this more so in my everyday life once you start? Because for me, per like using them personally, it felt a little intimidating to be like, okay, there's so many herbs out there, there's so many ways to use them. How am I gonna go about making something consistent in my life or using something like this if I'm seeing an issue pop up, or I'm trying to prevent something and being able to say, okay, I'm just gonna take a couple. And then figure out like, what are all these best benefits? What are the best ways to use this? How are the best ways to prepare this? How am I actually going to prepare it and make that consistent? And then all of a sudden I'm like, Ooh, I understand herbs more. Right? And then that gave me confidence to start, like looking into other options that I can bring into my home for my kids or my husband or myself, or have on hand for certain situations. And so some of that really is just like slow. Baby step confidence building. But most of the time when you start doing that, then all of a sudden you're like, I I was about to sing, start singing the Ariel song that I, I like, I want more, right? Like, I, I am, I'm interested in this. Now I'm kind of like, I. This is sort of my thing. It starts to get, it's not addictive, but just like it starts to get empowering in a way where you're like, I actually have confidence in this now. And you can start to bring in a few at a time. And that's kind of the, the, that's the best way that I recommend getting into this is picking a couple, or even just one that you were like. Wow. You know what sounds really nice is chamomile tea at the end of the day or whatever. But you can learn about all the million different ways that you can also use chamomile in other different places, right? And then you have this incredibly helpful herb on hand that you feel really good about using and really confident in. And all of a sudden then you're like, okay, yeah. But I also wanna bring in. Some dandelion for my liver support. Right? Okay. And now I understand how to prepare the herbs. So it makes it everything, like every step, just that much easier and again, just builds so much more confidence for women who are wanting to kind of weave this style of support into their homes consistently.

Tiffany: 27:26

Yes. And I would say getting comfortable with it and getting familiar is the priority. And then the second piece from that, where I think women have a little bit of a stumbling block is, oh, I've tried that before and it didn't work for that thing. It's probably because you did not have therapeutic dosing for it. Even the dosing that is on the bottles. Of things that you buy at the store is going to be really conservative and probably not therapeutic dosing, and so. I think that's what kind of freaks women out a little bit too, is most of our protocols are telling women for most, most herbal remedies to take two or three times what the, the standard dosing is that you would find online. Because we're looking at, I. We're not looking, we're, we're just, we're looking at the information from people who have been studying the use of herbs for women for hundreds of years. And that's, that's, that's where we're getting our information and that's what works well in our practice. So we usually tell people as the entry point, teas are really easy and we specifically recommend like a loose leaf. Herbal infusion. So that's pouring hot water over the herbs. Usually like in a glass jar, a glass container or a pitcher or something like that. Leaving it to sit overnight, letting all of those really good properties come out of the herbal teas and then enjoying that. That's a really fast, easy, simple way to start enjoying herbs. And then we also recommend tinctures because. They're very effective. They're cheap, they're easy to use. It's easy to count out droppers and dropper fools, and kind of gives you the most bang for your buck. You're getting the, you're getting the, the strongest, most effective form of the herb. And it's, it's relatively easy to use. But let's talk about, there's 12, there's 12 herbs in particular that we can say with confidence women can use safely in pregnancy. And those of you who are listening, who are like trying to take notes, we have a resource that that lays out every single recommendation that we're gonna share here today. There's a guide that's called Herbal Remedies for Pregnancy, birth and Postpartum. And you can download it for free in our show notes and it will give you all of these recommendations and lots of. Recipes and applications exactly what to use it for, what combination you should do it, how, what, when, all of that. So but Kelly, go ahead and share just for people that have like a frame of reference, what are these 12 herbs? You mentioned a couple of them already, but what, what do we say? Like, just across the board, women can generally enjoy in pregnancy.

Kelly: 30:06

Yes. So if you are taking notes or just kind of mentally processing the 12 that we have listed that you can be like, Hey, if I grab some of that, like, I trust that this will be safe, easy to use, all of that. First one would be chamomile, alfalfa, dandelion. Ginger, lemon balm, lavender, nettle, oat straw, echinacea, peppermint, red, raspberry, and rose. So those are the 12 that we would say, yes, these are safe. Potentially a couple of them have some offshoots like, Hey, use it this way, or, Hey, be aware of this kind of thing. But for the most part, it's really helpful just to have an idea that like, Hey, there are a handful of those. And every single one of those can be used for a million different things too. Right? And so understanding like, hey, I can, I can kind of even just randomly snag one of those, understand what it can be used for, understand the nutritional properties of it, the minerals, the vitamins and things that it provides, and figure out how to start weaving that into my life. You mentioned also. You know, the dosage is incredibly important. And so a lot of women will be like, well, I tried ginger tea, but it didn't really help me. But they were using like, you know, a little tea bag from the store and seeping it for a few minutes and trying to sip it and it wasn't very helpful. But then women will drink like, oh man, a whole ginger infusion thing that really changed my whole life. So you can start to kind of mess around with. How you're using them, the dosage you're using them, the the way that you are doing it. But I agree completely. Herbal infusions are probably the easiest way to get into this and actually get some really good benefit too, so that you feel like, oh, not only am I learning something, but I'm actually getting, I'm getting something in return too. I'm actually feeling something or feeling relief from something or experiencing something.

Tiffany: 31:57

And I wish we could get into all of those little pieces.'cause I know that's what people actually want to know. All of the little like, okay, take this for this for this amount of time. Don't do this in your first trimester, but double up in your third, all of that and like that. I know that's the fun part. So that's why we put it in the guide so that it can be referenceable so women can look at it. And of course you need to be able to. Be an adult and for what you're taking. And if you have a feeling like that doesn't agree with my body, or I don't feel, I don't feel good about that choice, run it past your own care provider. Do some more research on it. We are not saying these are all gonna be right for every single woman of course. So we get messages all the time of like. You recommend peppermint tea? I heard if you drink 47 quarts of that in your last week of pregnancy, it will tank your milk supply. Oh yeah. Right. Um-huh. So don't do that. Maybe, or you know, someone's like, well that gave me a lot of digestive upset. I don't know why you recommend it. Yeah, well, you're an individual person. Something hurts your stomach when you take it. That's not the one for you. I would really like all the listeners to just be a part of that open-minded responsibility taking please. Okay. So there's one particular I mean, we mentioned our Nora Tea. That we wanna share with you guys today. We brought it back into the store front. We said we were never gonna do another shippable product because it's. So much work for busy moms and midwives to manage that. But we were getting so many for it and every time we shared on what a wonderful pregnancy tonic it was, women were like, where do we get that? And we're like, well, there's something like kind of similar on Etsy here and like. Amazon kind of has like this blend here. You could make it yourself at home, and women are like, that's so cool. I don't wanna make it myself at home. So we had a lot of motivation to bring it back to the masses for women to enjoy. But let's, let's unpack that recipe a little bit because you guys absolutely can make this on your own. Those DIY ladies out there. This is the easiest, cheapest, and most beneficial thing to pop into your pregnancy routines. But if you don't, of course we have it available in our shop too. So you have lots of options, lots of links in the show notes for getting more information. But let's, let's unpack the nor tea a little bit so that women can understand the, the most accessible way to kind of like cover your bases. I say like it's a cover your bases type of tea in pregnancy.

Kelly: 34:34

Yeah, it almost, it almost feels like a, like a, you know, a prenatal or something where you're like, okay, at least I know I'm getting this, like, you know, well-balanced piece. But now I need to figure out like, what else do I really need? What food am I eating? All of that. Nora Tea is an incredible supportive tea that you can drink throughout your pregnancy. Nettle. Okay, so Nora stands for nettle, oat straw, red raspberry, and alfalfa. So, nettle, we recommend nettle in a million different ways. If there was one herb that you're like. I wanna get really good at understanding what it can be used for. Nettle is a great place to start, and that is why it's sort of the basis of this entire tea. The vitamin profile and the mineral profile in it is incredible. And so it acts in and of itself, kind of like a multivitamin. Not saying that you don't need. Anything else but saying it is really robust in the amount of minerals and vitamins that it, it has property wise. It's really helpful for fluid balance in your body in terms of like swelling and things like that. Really supportive for anemia as well. That blood building support that it can provide. And it's really helpful for detox as well. So it's, it's a wonderful herb to really get comfortable with. And again, why it's sort of this foundational piece of this tea, because it's sort of the blanket that covers a lot of pregnancy issues. And can not only help decrease those but also prevent them from happening in the first place. And that is what we love as midwives to figure out things that, hey, what can we like intertwine here that also will be something that will prevent things that are uncomfortable or potentially even complications from happening in the future. That's like one of the things that we love to do. So again, net's a great one specifically for that.

Tiffany: 36:24

Yep. And then next up is oat straw. So like this is an acronym if a, no, if you guys aren't catching on. The reason we call it Nora is'cause it stands for the. Beginning of all of these herbs. But oat straw is great for blood sugar balance. It has an excellent B vitamin profile. It helps calm the nervous system and just support nervous system activation in general and is really great for sleep. So that's why we include that in this blend. And then Red Raspberry is something that is one of those, like one of those recommendations that can. be controversial. So there we have lots of information about, let's not use that until further along in pregnancy, especially for women who. Are prone to miscarriage. So we have this blanket statement of like, well, let's not enjoy this blend because of the Red Raspberry until 16 weeks. It's still plenty of time to nourish your pregnancy and enjoy all the benefits of this, but you also can just omit it. You can just do the other three herbs and not have the red raspberry be a part of it. But we love the Red Raspberry application for, toning the uterus, providing iron, providing calcium, providing vitamins, a, vitamin E, vitamin C, it's a winner. It's just a great one to have in the profile women during their pregnancy.

Kelly: 37:48

Yeah, the last one. On there that A and Nora is alfalfa. And so this is a really helpful one. For blood building, in particular, blood clot clotting, vitamin K. So that is the one that we bring on because your blood volume expands so much throughout pregnancy and there's so much having to do with what your blood is doing and how that impacts the health of your entire pregnancy, your birth options, even your postpartum experience. And so that is a really heavy hitter to add in there as well. So you can see. That there's so many things that each of these herbs individually can do, so that when we put them together again, it creates this really awesome tonic for women to consistently drink throughout their pregnancies to help feel better and to help nourish their bodies in a way that oftentimes, unfortunately we can't, we don't always get from food and. Our soil depletion and all of that. And so that can be a really helpful thing to have on hand if you're interested in what, so in that whatsoever I highly recommend just dipping your toes into it, making it yourself, even just trying out our blend before you commit to buying the things yourself. But what's great is that buying them yourself, if you were interested in. Any of those, any of those Nora additions or any of that list or anything from our free guide that's in the show notes? We mention where you can buy those kind of individually. You're looking for organic herbs, you're looking for somewhere that sustainably sources their orbs. We really love Mountain rose herbs. The Frontier Co-op is another really great place to get them. And again, like we mentioned, the Nora Tea blend that we have is like, kind of meets those standards as well and is already done for you. If you are like, I just need, I just need to press a button. I don't need to be like getting my hands all dirty with all these herbs. So there's something for everybody in how you wanna kind of start dipping your toes into this.

Tiffany: 39:39

Yeah, and so continue to join this conversation with us on Instagram too because we end up answering so many people's questions and dms and sharing those in stories, and we've got resources. In our reels, we've really incorporated a lot of that herbal education and knowledge into that space too. So join us over there, take a look at all of the, I, I know the show notes are gonna be packed full of resources and links, and then share this episode with somebody who needs to. to be equipped and encouraged in this particular area. Somebody who wants to have more natural resources and building up that natural medicine cabinet and is not afraid to do that in pregnancy too, ladies. So I hope that, that information, bless you, and, and leads to you feeling more encouraged and more equipped. We will continue to share on this herbal information and other episodes too. I have a lot of fun ones planned. Even just while we're recording this, I'm like, ooh. Taking notes, taking notes on future episodes, including the the debate about your name versus my name, going first in the podcast title. I did

Kelly: 40:48

Finally putting that to bed.

Tiffany: 40:50

Finally. Finally, yeah, we'll just, we'll have it sorted out. All right, ladies, we will catch you next week

40:58

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