Keep your growing baby happy and healthy by keeping yourself morning-sickness free. Shoshanna Easling, an advocate for natural pregnancy remedies, provides recipes and tips in her book Making Babies (Bulk Herb Store Publishing, 2011), a great resource for alleviating various pregnancy complaints. In the following excerpt, learn how ginger, peppermint, fiber and hibiscus can help ease morning sickness.
Buy this book in the Mother Earth Living store: Making Babies.
Morning Sickness Tips
• Exercise: Exercise is very important. It helps to balance all those crazy hormones that are making you sick. I like to swim. It helped me so much when I was pregnant with my first child. Swimming was something I could do every day while living in the city. Not crazy over-arm swimming, but stay-moving exercise swimming. Walking, dancing, prego exercises are also good. Even if you do not feel like it, get up and go exercise. It will make you feel better!
• Eat right: You will feel so much better eating good foods in small portions often. Your baby needs most of your body’s resources to build. Eating processed food and too much food is too hard for your body to deal with. Eat what your body needs, even if it is not always what you want. Think about how each food does something good or bad to you and your baby. Eating right will make you feel better.
• B6 vitamin: Studies show that vitamin B6 (also known as pyridoxine) helps relieve queasiness. To ease nausea and vomiting, I like to take 10 to 25 mg, three times a day. To reach this amount, I take B6 supplements.
• Ginger and peppermint: Ginger and peppermint help with digestion and nausea. Whether fresh or in a tea or tincture, there are many ways you can use them. My favorite ways to use them are: in a ginger tincture, in peppermint tea and as peppermint essential oil, breathing it in and rubbing it on my temples.
• Sleep: Sleep is so important. Your body is on overtime and needs a lot of rest to recharge. It is constantly working hard to make your little baby’s body stronger. You can let it, by sleeping. If you do not get enough sleep, you can get very morning sick, and it is not good for you and baby. Go take a nap!
• Water: Stay hydrated. Your body needs water to flush your filters out that are working so hard. If you get dehydrated, it can cause some very bad nausea. Dehydration can be very serious for you and your baby. Drink to health.
• Regular: Don’t get constipated. Constipation can really get you sick fast. Take fiber, such as nutritional fiber if you need it, but keep yourself regular.
More Tips for Morning Sickness
1. Eat something high in protein before going to bed.
2. Eat two saltine crackers before your head leaves the pillow.
3. Have sips of ice water when your stomach gets the urge to purge.
4. Stay hydrated.
5. Ginger in teas, tinctures, cookies, even just the spice can be helpful in preventing nausea. Don’t exceed 1,000 mg of ginger a day.
6. Acupressure bands can be worn like bracelets and can curb nausea.
7. Smaller, frequent meals definitely help.
8. Drinking or just inhaling peppermint tea helps.
9. Try almond butter, a handful of almonds, or another protein snack before rising from your bed.
10. A teaspoon of apple cider vinegar in a cup of warm water has been said to be effective.
11. Eat small amounts throughout the day to avoid becoming too full, or alternately, too hungry.
12. Only take iron-free prenatal vitamins. Get your iron from plant sources.
13. Red raspberry leaf tea has been used by many pregnant women to ease morning sickness. Speak to your doctor or midwife before taking.
14. Vitamin B6 also provides women pregnancy nausea relief; don’t take more than 25mg a day.
15. Foods you might be able to hold down if you are morning sick: raw vegetables, salad with fresh lemon, not dressing, bland soup or broth, plain fruits and vegetables, ginger, peppermint tea, plain popcorn, saltine crackers, graham crackers, dry toast, oatmeal, quinoa, celery sticks, carrot sticks, apples, raisins, prunes, tart or sour pickles, brown rice, unseasoned mashed potatoes with butter or milk only, plain baked potatoes, water, fruit juices, frozen fruit juice bars, seltzer water, regular (non-diet) ginger ale, herbal teas (spearmint, peppermint, chamomile, raspberry), ginger root tea.
Nourishing and Relaxing Tea Recipe
Tea during pregnancy is very helpful, and this tea helps relax those tight, cramping muscles and nourishes your sore body. It has a sweet, flowery taste and a warm color. It is simply wonderful!
• 1/2 cup rose hips
• 2 cups hibiscus petals
• 2 cups rose petals
• 1/2 cup lavender flowers, whole
• 3 cups lemon balm, leaf
• 3 cups chamomile flowers, whole
• 1 cup passion flower, herb
Prep: 5 minutes; Yield: 12 cups tea mixture
1. Mix all ingredients together. Store in an airtight glass jar or zip-top bag in a cabinet.
2. To make a cup of hot tea, add 1 or 2 teaspoons of the premixed herbs to 1 cup of boiling water. Let it steep for 5 to 10 minutes, strain, and add honey (raw is best) to taste.
Morning Sickness Remedy Recipe
• 1 cup chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 2 saltine crackers
• 1/4 teaspoons parsley, chopped,
• 10 to 20 mg vitamin B6, 3 times a day
1. Heat broth over low heat for 3 minutes or until hot.
2. Pour into a bowl; garnish with parsley. Eat the broth and crackers.
3. Take a dose of B6 with water or the broth.
4. Take a shower. Do not use anything with a scent. Just water is fine. Walk, swim, dance—do some exercise that you love for 30 minutes. Eat a few bites every few hours. Do not eat big meals. Eat more small ones.
Ginger Tincture Recipe
Prep: 5 minutes; Brew: 2 to 6 weeks; Yield: 2 1/2 cups
1. Place ginger in a pint canning jar. Fill jar up to one inch from the top with vodka. Store in cabinet for 2to 6 weeks. Strain ginger off with an old T-shirt or cheesecloth. Pour liquid into a tincture bottle. Seal and label. I like to take this tincture for nausea, morning sickness and indigestion as I need it. This made a big difference for me.
Nutritional Fiber Mixture Recipe
Fiber Mixture:
• 1/2 cup flax seeds
• 1/2 cup apple pectin
• 1/2 cup chia seeds
• 1 cup psyllium seed powder
Drink:
• 2 tablespoons fiber mixture
• 2 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
• 2 cups water
Prep: 4 minutes; Yield: 2 1/2 cups mixture, 1 drink
1. Thoroughly mix together dry ingredients.
2. In a large cup, mix together 2 tablespoons of fiber mixture, blackstrap molasses and water.
3. Stir quickly. I drink it immediately.
This excerpt has been reprinted with permission from Making Babies by Shoshanna Easling and published by Bulk Herb Store Publishing, 2011. Buy this book from our store:Making Babies.
