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Lemonade Leaders
Real stories of turning life’s toughest lemons into something good. Each week, host Riannon Palmer chats with founders and changemakers about resilience, purpose, and building impact from adversity.
Lemonade Leaders
From Breastfeeding Struggles to a Brand Empowering Women
In this episode of Lemonade Leaders, I sit down with Kheyla Buchanan, founder and CEO of Mother Nature’s Recipes. Kheyla shares how her own breastfeeding struggles inspired her to become an NHS peer supporter and create a brand that offers herbal teas, resources, and community support for women at every stage of life.
We explore the taboos around motherhood, from the unspoken realities of birth and breastfeeding to the pressure of societal expectations, and how honest conversations can create lasting change. Kheyla also opens up about her choice to have a home birth, the importance of informed decision-making, and the cultural traditions that once prioritised caring for new mothers.
If you’re curious about holistic health, breaking taboos, or building a purpose-led business rooted in lived experience, you’ll take a lot from this inspiring conversation.
https://mothernaturesrecipes.co.uk/
https://www.instagram.com/mothernaturesrecipes
Welcome to Lemonade Leaders, the podcast about conversations that do good and feel good. I'm your host, Rhiannon Palmer, founder of Lem-uhn, a feel-good PR agency for brands that care. Each episode I'll be chatting to brilliant people who've turned life's lemons into something meaningful. Today I'm joined by Kheyla Buchanan, founder and CEO of Mother Nature's Recipes, a brand dedicated to providing honest, holistic support for every stage of womanhood. Through her herbal tea and resources, Kheyla creates space for women to listen to their bodies and take self-care seriously. Her journey started with her own breastfeeding challenges, which led her to become an NHS peer supporter and to support women internationally through their own feeding journeys. She's committed to co-producing and collaborating only with aligned partners, and is on a mission to make small, yet powerful changes that create lasting impact for women's wellbeing. Hi, Kheyla. So lovely to speak with you today. Hey, so nice to be here. Thank you for having me. I have a bit of a background knowledge about your journey and all the amazing things you're doing with Mother Nature's Recipe, but it would be great if you could take us back to the inspiration for it.
Kheyla:Sure. So I started this journey back in 2015. I gave birth to my first child, my baby boy in September of 2014, and I was incredibly excited and kind of just had all of these preconceptions about how motherhood and the labor process and how it was all going to be. And it wasn't incredibly wonderful experience. But following, giving birth, I had a really difficult experience with breastfeeding and I just felt isolated within this space. 'cause it wasn't something that I ever heard anybody talk about. Everybody spoke about how special the experience of motherhood was, but nobody ever spoke about the things that you may possibly need support with or things that might not go as successfully. As you thought or, and how to help yourself in those moments. So I was incredibly lucky 'cause I had a good support network and I eventually found out that my son, after giving birth, his jaw had become a little bit tightened, and so he wasn't able to latch on to get an appropriate amount of breast milk. And this little piece of information just completely blew my mind because I just thought. How are these things not being spoken about? Like the fact that I now understood what was happening, I could then go on to help myself. I could research, I was able to express until he was older and then able to latch on. And we experienced a wonderful breastfeeding journey until he was two years old. But I just felt so sad. For all of the other mothers that might be going through similar experiences on whatever journey they are in of the perinatal experience and just not having access to a certain bit of information that can completely transition their experience, but also the relationships they have with their babies and so forth. So I started to think about how, how can I make access to support? Accessible. Like how can I connect with moms? How can I support them on their journey? And so Mother Nature's recipe was born because I later found that. I could have gone to a chiropractor because there were chiropractors that specialize in babies and mothers, and my son could have had his jaw realigned to widen it so that he was able to latch on. And I just thought, imagine if I'd known that from the beginning, you know? Yeah. You
Riannon Palmer:just wouldn't, you wouldn't think it when you, obviously those videos that you see of chiropractors cracking people's backs, you think that's not something they can help a New York newborn with?
Kheyla:Yeah. Exactly. But I just thought visibility of these holistic practices is just so key and it could completely alter the experience that our mother is having So then I was on the princess trust scheme actually, which was wonderful at the time, because as a new mom and not having much time and so forth, it was nice to have the structure to help me on the entrepreneurial journey. I wanted to find like a multidimensional way to support mom. So I started with services, started offering home spa treatments and providing pregnancy yoga from a lovely home studio that was owned by doula, and so hiring therapists and teachers to carry out those classes. And I did that for a little while, but I felt as though I wanted to widen my reach a little bit and find a way to with the home spa treatments and the yoga. It was about putting that focus back onto you and nourishing your own body and making that room for self care, and I just wanted to find a way to make that more accessible in terms of cost, in terms of just you can be anywhere and still have access to that support, so it's not so much location. So I started transitioning the business to herbal teas. So I developed an offside, a medical herbalist. I developed a range of herbal teas to support moms from pregnancy through to postpartum. So that's what I've been doing ever since 2020.
Riannon Palmer:It's crazy how many, especially women that I speak to, and they start businesses because they've had a personal experience and they see the need for something. It's always so inspiring because. Generally if someone has seen a need for it themselves, then there's probably a whole nother audience as well that needs that support and that help.
Kheyla:Exactly. I think lived experience is the key thing, especially in the mother and baby sector that spurs on a lot of these businesses because like you said, it just comes from such an organic and passionate place and you just genuinely want to help others and they have more of a streamlined experience themselves.
Riannon Palmer:And why do you think that isn't more being done to support new moms? And I think it was really interesting when you were talking as well. I think there's so much pressure putting on new moms by themselves as well, but also by society. And we're all thinking that we should be this perfect example of this new mom that comes out of hospital. Like you see the royals always with the blow dry and the beautiful dress and everything. And I think for some people still they have this expectation. 'cause we always see the. The glossy side of just giving birth. Actually, the reality of it is, is
Kheyla:not as glamorous. That's exactly what it's, it's just the kind of ideals that are being projected. and I think a lot of the time they kind of spill over from womanhood into motherhood. Women are seen as, um. Multitaskers that we can take things on and that we're incredibly strong and so forth. And I think that just filters through to motherhood, that it's an experience that issues and complications aren't necessarily attributed to. And even when they are, it's not highlighted. So it's, you are right. It's that societal pressure to just be able to take things on and to manage. And because it's a very natural experience, isn't it? Giving birth and having a baby. So the struggles and challenges aren't necessarily just incorporated into day-to-day life and the reality that we all see. And it's something that I'm very passionate about changing that's part of the whole ethos behind Mother Nature's recipes to create. And honest representations of this very varied and individual journey that we are all embarking upon and letting people know that there's room for it all. Because I feel like there's, there's so much shame within motherhood and womanhood, and if, if you are not experiencing what we perceive as the norm, then that's not something that you should be speaking about. So it's almost like. Are experiencing so many challenges in silos and why. When we have the information, we have the resources, and we just need to build the communities to support one another.
Riannon Palmer:Yeah. I don't have children myself. I have, lots of friends and family, so I've heard lots of stories, but if you haven't had potentially people that have done it before you, then you might not have heard those stories and those experiences. But if we all just get talking, then there's gonna be a lot more communication. I think there's still those subjects that are kept, like seen as taboo, like periods, menopause. Childbirth in practice, all the like glossy parts of childbirth is nice, but when you get to the gritty details, people still don't like to talk about it. But this is stuff that affects 50% of the population and it's always the female topics that are seen as the taboo topics. Whereas there obviously still needs to be more discussion about male health issues, but it seems like it's less of a taboo subject.
Kheyla:I completely agree.
Riannon Palmer:And how was your, um, experience in hospital? It seems like that you didn't maybe get as much advice as you could have hoped for with that breastfeeding journey. Would you hope that in future, for someone who's in your situation, that they'd have been able to get a bit more support and advice in those early days? Definitely. I mean,
Kheyla:it's hard to say because I feel like. You can only get so much out of the hospital experience. And I feel like anything that comes after that for me, it's just, it's just a case of visibility. So if you knew how to support yourself, I'm just trying to think back, 'cause it was so long ago about the, the support that I did receive. So the midwives who've come around and do their rounds and. I don't actually remember 'cause the second time for my second birth, I gave birth at home to my daughter and I had the midwives at home. And now that I think about it, actually, I didn't actually receive any information on how to breastfeed and what the expectation should be and so forth. So yeah, definitely it's something, but That's where the strength of volunteers can come in as well, because, as you know, I also work as a peer supporter. When I go in and I'm speaking to these moms and I'm going around the wards, the staff are so tightly stretched in the hospital that I volunteer in. So it's easy for me to just go into these environments and have a conversation, and sometimes it's just a chat, just to allow these women to open up because I'm a complete stranger. And then we get onto the breastfeeding side and providing them with information. Some of these women may be on their third, fourth pregnancy, but it's still just having that little bit of reassurance. And then I can go back and speak to the midwives if they need further support, so I feel as though the capacity isn't always there for them to give the level of support that is needed. But yeah, definitely. There needs to be more done within that remit. 100%.
Riannon Palmer:Yeah. It's definitely underfunded like with everything. If we could have more money for these services, yeah. It would relieve pressure and also in the long run I'm sure it would actually be more beneficial to the country. Yeah. And relieve stress. Um, it was interesting you said that you had a home birth. I was actually born at home and everyone is always so surprised when I say that my dad actually delivered me 'cause the midwife didn't arrive in time as well. It's incredible story. Yeah. Yeah. I'm still good. But my, um, my older sister, she was born in hospital and the doctors did some stuff wrong, which led to some complications. So then my mom had me and my sister at home. But was there a reason like that, that you decided to have a home birth or Yeah. What was your reason? Because it still a little bit unusual these days.
Kheyla:Yeah, it's a little bit taboo. I mean, even when I mentioned to my family that I was having a home birth, they were very concerned. And, again, it's something else that should really be normalized. It was after my first experience basically, and I experienced a little bit of trauma within my first birth in the hospital setting. My gut instincts when I was laboring at the time where I needed to push and so forth were correct. I was listening to my body, I was working through it, and I was told to go against those instincts and experience a lot of pain and also in the after giving birth as well, with tearing and so forth, and had a quite traumatic experience with that. There's about three and a half years between my son and my daughter. And so in that time, like I started the business and I just started to do my own research, and I just decided for my daughter's birth that I just wanted to be in a space where I felt safe, where I felt secure, where I knew that after I gave birth, I could literally just go in the shower and go to bed, and it was just all of those comforts. And knowing that I wasn't far from help should anything happen, but it was just such a beautiful experience in that it was just me, my son, my husband, and I just felt so much more in control and so much more supported and it had. Such a tremendous effect and it was so different from my first labor to my second. So yeah, that was what inspired me to birth at home. I just wanted that freedom of choice and just to feel secure. I think that's what it was mostly.
Riannon Palmer:I think it's really tricky when you're a first time mom and you're in hospital and you're getting told by all these medical experts, what's the right thing to do? But you trust them. We're told to trust these medical experts. Yeah. Yes. But when you have had a child and you know a little bit more, you do feel a lot more in controlled and like you said, being able to make your own decisions and choices. So it's a really tricky environment. Obviously the majority of doctors and midwives are doing a fantastic job and are doing the good advice, but there are lots of those situations where I've heard similar to my mom's situation. Where there's been some wrong advice that has led to complications and issues. So yeah, it is a really, really scary environment. I think hopefully in the world we're in now with social media, I know social media can be really negative, but it also has opened up lots of conversations. So if you haven't got people in your family that have had kids or a community around you, hopefully you'll have more knowledge than maybe people did 25, 30.
Kheyla:Yeah. No, I 100% agree. And like you said, whilst it can be a scary place and there can be a lot of inaccurate information, there are people out there that are doing really amazing things within this space and are just opening up those tipping conversations and helping to normalize them and helping women to feel empowered to make those choices around their birthing choices and how they want to neighbor and providing them with accurate information. I mean, there's amazing organizations such as Birthrights and Aims and so forth. Where you can talk to people, you can understand what your rights are within those really vulnerable places. Just understand what your choices are. I think that's so key to have informed choice around these things because it's not a time that you will get back again, and the impact of it is lifelong, and there's certain things around my first birth that I wish I could change. Because I was able to go away and do that research, I made those changes. when I had my daughter, I made sure the same thing didn't happen again. And I feel like it had such a positive effect on the start of my relationship with my daughter, with my postpartum journey in terms of my mental health and my physical health, because I knew how to take care of myself. So it's so incredibly important. We are in a much better place, but we still have so much more to do.
Riannon Palmer:Yeah. And resources like love Nature's recipe. 'cause I know as well as having your, your teas, you also have lots of resources and guides and information for people that they can go to and use. So things like that are really valuable to people that maybe wouldn't have had that knowledge otherwise.
Kheyla:Yeah, I mean, we do the holistic health series, which is where I do Instagram lives with holistic practitioners within the motherhood space because I'm just trying to provide visibility to services that moms may not necessarily know about that can help them throughout key stages of the perinatal experiences, such as chiropractors, doulas, brands, and businesses that are doing great things within the space to support moms as well. I'm really proud of that because we get such good feedback about those that are interacting with the sessions throughout it and afterwards, 'cause it's on our YouTube channel as well. Just having the same experience that I had in the beginning, just saying I never knew this existed and I never knew that I could have helped myself by maybe indulging in this, Again, just giving them that access and giving them that control has such incredible emotional benefits as well as physical benefits too. So, yeah, and I'm in the middle of putting the directory back on the website because we went through a rebrand last year, so a directory of practitioners and the whole thing with Mother Nature's recipes, it's, it's very much. I'm never trying to operate from a sense of hierarchy. Like I'm up here and I have all of this incredible knowledge, and I'm telling you, I'm on the ground with you. I'm learning with you. And this is a community, right? So we are just sharing information and sharing resources and helping one another to get through it and learning along the way. Community is everything. That's where the power lies because we are stronger together. Like when you look culturally, when you look throughout our ancestry, within the motherhood experience, women were always supported after giving birth. And that once again ties into the whole ethos of Mother Nature's recipes that we put in that focus back to moms. Like that self-care is intrinsic and it's something that needs to be embedded. It's not something to consider. It's something that should be. Part of your lifestyle. And I know that's a lot easier said than done, but it's finding small ways to incorporate that. And history has shown us that this is part of what makes us so great because. Back when we used to give birth across varying cultures mother-in-laws would move in with the family to help look after the baby whilst mom was poured back into, whether that's through making hot meals, whether that's through the village coming to visit you and take care of you, whether that's through massages. There's so many different ways to do it and how we have always done it, but there was a fundamental understanding that we need to uplift mom. First to be able to give her the best chance to look after baby and look after that family unit. And I feel like we're so far removed from that now, and it's something that I'm really passionate about trying to help us get back to.
Riannon Palmer:Yeah. Very important. I think. I guess everyone is rushing about these days that they're not taking a moment to think what is gonna be best in the long run for looking after mom, baby. Mm-hmm. And everyone who is around in the family situation.
Kheyla:Yeah.
Riannon Palmer:And is there a topic that you have run potentially one of your Instagram lives or anything that you've had the most interesting questions and it's been something that people have been really surprised about?
Kheyla:Um, I'm not sure if there's been one particular, I think the last session I did on the Holistic Health Series. With Simone of the Most Sacred Journey was a really interesting one. She does, the birth worker, but she does sexological birth work as well. So looking into trauma and again, helping moms through the perinatal experience and laboring. She does both prenatal and postnatal doula services, but I think that whole aspect of healing and trauma. Was a really key conversation that I had with her because there's so much shame around the subject of healing and of trauma and it's such a vulnerable topic, isn't it? So a lot of the time we're so removed from these types of conversations because of what it brings up and because it might be triggering and so forth. But once again, we need to know. What is out there to help us through these situations and to help us reconnect with our own bodies and be able to listen to what's going on inside and to mend the things that may be broken and need to be realigned. That was a really interesting conversation we had because she was talking about doing the work with you and listening to what's going on inside and understanding that the healing starts from within. And it is an ongoing journey because I feel like a lot of time when we talk about healing and trauma, it's described as a beginning and an end and that can be very detrimental to the overall process in itself. The work continues to be done throughout your life. And what is the future looking like for Mother Nature's
Riannon Palmer:recipes?
Kheyla:Yeah, so. We have three pillars within the business. So it's womanhood, self care, and community. So for me, it's working much more on that community pillar and working with organizations that are doing great things within the motherhood space, doing a lot more collaborations. 2026 is a year of building resources and doing more workshops and events that provide women with. The information that they need to empower their own wellbeing. So whether that's herbalism workshop of creating a basic tincture or a cough syrup or something like that, that can help them within their day-to-day lives. But just bringing those natural holistic remedies in-house and making it feel as though it is something we can do. I mean, we're all time is. Again, just embedding it within day-to-day life and helping women to make it more of a lifestyle rather than something to consider now and again.
Riannon Palmer:And if you were gonna jump back and imagine that version of yourself that was a new mom trying to breastfeed, struggling, what advice would you give to that version of yourself or to someone else who's in that situation?
Kheyla:would say reach out to your village. Reach out to other moms who you love and respect within your inner circle. Have these conversations ask what their experiences were. Do your own research around breastfeeding and what it requires, because I feel like a lot of the time when it comes to breastfeeding, a lot of mothers go into it not realizing what it takes physiologically, like how much extra calories you have to consume, the type of calories you have to consume, let alone that, that the mental effects it will have on you because it's exhausting. It's a wonderful bonding process, but it's incredibly tiring. So I think my key thing would be. Talk to the women in your family. Talk to the mothers and share those experiences and do your own research. Always do your own research.
Riannon Palmer:Yeah, definitely. You can't just trust what you hear. It's always important to make sure that you are looking and finding your own knowledge as well. And where can people find you if they wanna find out more about what you do or more about modern nature's recipes.
Kheyla:So you can find us on the website, which is Mother Natures Recipes co uk. Our products are also on Amazon too, or you can find me on Instagram. You can always drop me a DM if you have any questions. I'm always accessible on there as well.
Riannon Palmer:Amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time today, Kheyla, and for sharing your story. I'm sure for lots of people who have been in a similar situation where they've just had a baby and maybe things didn't go to plan or aren't gonna plan, it'll be really inspiring to hear your story and really encouraging to think how you can self-power yourself and find your community to support you.
Kheyla:Thank you for having me. It's been an absolute pleasure.
Riannon Palmer:If you enjoyed today's episode of Lemonade Leaders, hit Follow and like for weekly episodes. Until next time, keep making your own lemonade.