Pregnancy care highlights

Some tips from today's show.

Nausea
Keep well hydrated, try sipping on some instant miso soup (check that it has no MSG, which is sometimes translated from Japanese as “amino acid”).

Try to eat every 3 hours as sometimes the nausea is caused by hypoglycaemia (low blood sugar) – try sucking on a teaspoon of nut paste (eg almond spread) or the instant miso.

Sip some peppermint or chamomile tea*, add a little honey if required.

Try some ginger, as a tea or as tablets/capsules of pure ginger powder (often sold as a natural travel sickness remedy).

If nausea returns after the first trimester this is often a sign that you are tired – take some time out to rest immediately.

Reflux
Avoid fats – of all kind, but especially the combination of fat and flour eg: pastry, pizza, cakes etc.

Sit up, don’t couch potato.

Try meadowsweet tea, with a little peppermint if you like.

Slippery elm powder mixed with water or mashed with banana also calms reflux, (but the texture might be off putting if you are concurrently suffering from nausea).

A celloid or tissue salt of potassium chloride and iron phosphate (which is a cross between a homoeopathic and a mineral) works well for reflux.

Eat small meals and avoiding eating after 7 pm.

Fluid retention
Cut out the salt and reduce meat.

Eat lots of leafy green vegetables and brown rice.

Try organic dandelion leaf and nettle tea – 3 cups per day.

Birth preparation
Enrol in a prenatal yoga class

Talk through your fears.
Consider working with a private midwife or doula (see resources below).

See a herbalist to prescribe a “partus prep”.

Think positively and use creative visualisation.



Resources
Rhea Dempsey Childbirth educator and doula.

The maternity coalition

Annie Sprague Melbourne midwife in private practice and good resources on site.

Pick of the books:
Kaz Cooke “Up The Duff” - though not a naturopathic book per se, Kaz had a great naturopath as part of her pregnancy team and the information given is sound. For most people, I’d suggest this is the only pregnancy book you need.

Francesca Naish & Janette Roberts “The Natural Way to Better Babies”. And “Natural Way to a Better Pregnancy” (and other books in their series).