Nine Radiant Months :: Holistic Healing

Nine Radiant Months
by author Sherina Jamal

Whether it’s your first child or your tenth, the worries of pregnancy can definitely affect your stress level. To assure your baby’s well-being–and your own–it’s important to take care of yourself to reduce stress.

Stress affects the body negatively by building up toxins, lowering energy levels, and weakening the immune system. This is the last thing you want during pregnancy. So incorporate the following relaxation techniques to promote mind and body wellness for you and your baby.

Aromatherapy Relaxer

Essential oils can be enjoyed in a warm bath, by application to the skin, and through inhalation using an aromatherapy diffuser. However, not all essential oils are safe to use during pregnancy. After the fifth month, though, a few select oils can be used when diluted with a neutral carrier oil such as grapeseed oil. Lavender and chamomile essential oils are gentle to use and can help to soothe back pain, muscle tension, headaches, and promote relaxation.

You Deserve a Massage

A professional massage can help relieve stress and tension during pregnancy. It can also help improve circulation, thus reducing the formation of cellulite and excess fluid. Many spas now offer massages specifically for pregnant women, but if you can’t afford a spa visit, encourage your partner to massage your back, legs, and feet regularly. In exchange, give your partner a back rub, too.

Deep Breathing

Learn breathing techniques that you can incorporate daily for a few minutes in the morning and at night, or any time you are feeling stressed. Breathe in through the nose until your belly fills with air, hold, and exhale. When done correctly, a few moments of relaxation breathing can help calm and centre the mind.

Use these relaxation techniques regularly through your pregnancy to promote mind and body wellness for these nine precious months and beyond.

Aromatherapy and Pregnancy

Valerie Ann Worwood, well-known aromatherapist and author of The Complete Book of Essential Oils and Aromatherapy (New World Library, 1991), recommends these essential oils for bath, shower, massage, or inhalation. These oils can be used by expectant mothers after their fifth month. Others can be used in earlier stages of pregnancy. Ask your naturopathic doctor or physician for more information.

tangerine
mandarin
grapefruit
geranium
camomile roman
rose bulgar
rose maroc
jasmine
ylang ylang
lavendar

Sherina Jamal is a contributing writer for several health magazines and the founder of Ancient Secrets, a company that produces natural skin and body care products. ancientsecrets.ca.

Source: alive #267, January 2005

Home Spas Beat February Blahs
February is the perfect spa month. It's the time of the year when you need a pick-me-up-right in the middle of winter with barely a spring bulb in sight. Mark Spa Night on your calendar and circle the special date in red. First choose the location-a bathroom with a lock on the door is best.

Post-Delivery Pick-Me-Ups
When you give birth, you'll probably find that along with joy, your little bundle brings a few months worth of fatigue with him or her! Remember to keep taking the same high potency multivitamin and minerals that you were taking during pregnancy--with breastfeeding, you need them more than ever.

Healthy Pregnancies Naturally
It's the last month of waiting for our mums-to-be! As the anticipation builds, our mums are feeling tired--but ready. Here's our bi-monthly check-i.

Victory Over the Baby Blues
Victory Over the Baby Blues Despite the joy felt by the birth of a precious little one, many women experience a period of despondency within days of this wondrous event.

Making Better Babies
Once couples learn the good news--they're pregnant-they usually scramble to make sure their lifestyle is as healthy it can be for the baby.

Homeopathy When You're Pregnant
Pregnancy, is a time of transformation. It is reassuring to know that, because the goal of homeopathy is to bring about balance and equilibrium, homeopathic remedies can be used safely throughout pregnancy.

Starting Life With A Midwife
I am a registered midwife and just a few hours ago I returned from a beautiful homebirth in a semi-rural home amidst the mountain landscape of the Fraser Valley, 20 minutes from a level two obstetrical unit.

Aromatherapy For Children
Childhood is a time of bumps, bruises, scraped knees and other afflictions. Applied externally, aromatherapy can help minimize many of these common ailments.

Magnificent Myrrh
Myrrh (Commiphora myrrha) essential oil, steam-distilled from the crude resin of myrrh, is a dark reddish-brown with a dry, acrid scent reminiscent of its desert origins. Due to its ability to stimulate menstruation, myrrh should be avoided during pregnancy. Myrrh oil finds one of its largest uses in skin care..

Lovely Lemon Verbena
Lemon verbena (aloysia triphylla) is a positive, uplifting oil--a splash of sunshine for the rainy skies of November. It has a light, lemony-fresh scent with herbaceous undertone.

Soothing Christmas Scents
Do you remember when Christmas holidays were actually holy days and a time for relaxing and visiting with friends and family? Probably not. For most of us, Christmas means balancing work and family schedules while trying to do extra baking, gift shopping, house decorating and entertaining.

Cleaning Your Mind, Body and Soul
The way to health is to have an aromatic bath and scented massage every da.

Safe Homeopathic Solutions for Pregnancy's Problems
High quality prenatal care is the foundation for the good health of both mother and baby. This is achieved by combining the best of both orthodox and complementary therapie.

Essential Oils
An Aromatic Perspective We have just completed a century marked by specializations in almost every field and profession.

My Water Baby
I was squatting for four hours in what I consider "hard labour." Suddenly something gave way. A curly little head burst into the water and I looked down to gently stroke the tiny tranquil face. With a sigh of relief, I gave one last push and my son's body gracefully emerged into the full tub of warm water.

Aromatherapy An Essential Experience
What finer treasure is there than one that provides soothing comfort during this hectic holiday season? Aromatherapy offers some ideal solutions.

Spice Up Winter Festivities
Winter holidays can be fun and relaxing-getting together with friends and family to eat, drink, and make merry. Aromatic botanicals are traditionally a significant part of winter celebrations, from aromatic mulled wine to spicy gingerbread cookies.

Optimal Nutritional Supplementation for Pregnancy
Pregnancy obviously results in an increased need for vitamins and minerals. Deficiency or excess of any of a number of nutrients can lead to birth defects and/or complications during pregnancy.

Midwifery
More and more women are having their babies by cesarean section. Is something wrong, and can midwives fix it? In Canada, overall cesarean section rates are close to 20 percent. In the United States, they are over 25 per cent.

Essential Supplements During Pregnancy
The preventive value of supplementation begins before a woman becomes pregnant. Deficiency in specific nutrients is known to put a baby at risk for birth defects. The best example of this is the B vitamin folic acid.

Natural Fragrances
Imagine anointing yourself every day with a fragrance you created, one without chemicals, one designed not only to perfume your body, but also to stimulate creativity, ease your headaches, or help you through grief.

In Pursuit of True Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy is a potent and effective branch of natural medicine that is barely recognized in North America. In Europe, medical doctors prescribe pure oils for a wide variety of medical conditions.

Aromatic Aphrodisiacs
Spice up your love life this Valentine's Day by evoking the spirit of Aphrodite, the Goddess of Lov.

Aromatherapy Detox With Essential Oils
Detoxification is a natural and constant bodily process. We are continually eliminating excess toxins through our digestive, urinary, integumentary (skin), circulatory, respiratory, and lymphatic systems.

A Father-To-Be's Guide to Pregnancy

Smell Comfort
Undergoing treatment for cancer can be extremely stressful, as well as taxing on the immune syste.

Pure Aroma
Essential oils aren't always essentially what is on the label. Essential oils can be tampered with anywhere along the distribution chain, from the farmer's field to the company selling the oils.

Scented Serenity
Childbirth is an exciting time in a woman's life and one of her most natural and primal experiences. It can also be stressful and exhaustin.

Aromatherapy Apothecary
Therapeutic essential oils have a well-deserved place in your first aid kit or home apothecary. They are powerful botanical medicines that can fight fungi, bacteria, viruses, and inflammation. They can also help to manage stress and promote relaxation..

Essential Oils
Since ancient times, people have used the quintessence of plants to optimize their health, and they have done so with the help of essential oils, which are concentrated aromatic liquids extracted from various species of plants, flowers, leaves, grasses, fruits, roots, and trees.

Eucalyptus From Head to Toe
Green eucalyptus leaves are sweet, with a fresh, woody aroma. The genus name "eucalyptus" is derived from "eu," meaning well and "kalyptos," meaning cover. Aromatherapists and herbalists may interpret the name to mean "that which covers well a variety of common conditions."

Ease the Discomforts of Pregnancy

Treating SAD
Seasonal affective disorder (SAD) seriously affects thousands of Canadians during our long, dark, cold winters. The lack of sunlight can cause symptoms like fatigue, oversleeping, sadness, depression, irritation, decreased sex drive, and loss of pleasure and interest in life.

The Joy of Home Births
I can't lie-my family was nervous. When my sister announced her plans to have a home birth, we all had our own feelings about the situation. Will her baby be safe? What if an emergency situation occurs? What if the baby is too big?

Essential Oils for Travel
I can't go anywhere without essential oils! Even driving to work, 40 km down the South Klondike and Alaska Highway to Whitehorse, I have essential oils going in my handy plug-in car diffuser.

A Naturopathic Foundation for Your Unborn Baby
It's exciting news: your progeny is percolating. Most women, upon learning of their pending motherhood, naturally become protective and pay more attention to providing their unborn child with a safe and healthy beginning.

Soaking Up the Relaxation
Long-term emotional or environmental stresses can be hard on the body, mind, and emotions. Quality essential oils have powerful yet subtle effects on emotions and can help relieve stress and anxiety when used in baths, massages, or in an aromatherapy diffuser.

Essential Oils
Essential oils are very concentrated and powerful plant extracts that are 40- to 100-percent stronger than herbs. For example, 10,000 pounds of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) yields one pound of pure essential oil.

The Copper Connection
Copper is at the core of normal body function. Without copper, we cannot form superoxide dismutase, the superpower of all antioxidants. Copper also helps our bodies create collagen, the protein that forms healthy joints and supple, young skin. And it has a role in helping our bodies store iron, a critical component of the formation of hemoglobin in red blood cells.

Essential Oils for Children
With the lazy days of summer coming to an end, children are returning to their busy routines of school, friends, and extra curricular activities. Back at school, children are confined to classrooms full of other kids, which can lead to stress and susceptibility to colds and flu.

Eating Well-For Two
The earliest weeks of pregnancy are a critical time for fetal development. In fact, you'll need to start taking care of yourself before you even conceive in order to have the healthiest pregnancy possible. Nutrition will be key to helping you keep your growing baby healthy and safe while inside the womb.

Moving on Up!
Just about everyone goes through an occasional bout of feeling down. Along with a better diet and daily exercise, adding a few tried and true mood boosters to your nutritional and herbal supplement program often makes a noticeable difference in a short period of time.

Essential Oils
There are few better agents to reduce the spread of viral and bacterial illness during the cold and flu season than essential oils. A cabinet of wisely chosen, high quality essential oils can provide an effective natural pharmacy.

Scent-Sational Christmas Gifts
Giving aromatically can be as close as your local natural health store. Many of the ingredients to make your own all-natural gifts can be found in the bulk herb, spice, and cosmetic aisles. Look for any or all of these essential oils, from the tangy scent of orange to the fresh scent of pine.

Stimulate Better Health
Peppermint oil is a mental stimulant. Rosemary oil increases energy. Citrus oils work on improving mood and uplifting your spirits, while floral oils such as geranium, orange blossom, lemon balm and camomile all help alleviate stress and minor depression. If you're feeling angry, use rose oil to help your disposition..

Fish oil for eye health

Risk in pregnancy after dieting

Talking turkey safety

Sunshine: an immune booster

Massage miracles

Far-Infrared therapies resonate within you

Enjoy the Ride
Pregnancy is a physical and emotional rollercoaster. In addition to weight gain, pregnant women commonly experience nausea, hemorrhoids, and heartburn. Natural treatment options can help ameliorate or even prevent these unpleasant symptoms.

Hale and Hearty
A beautiful bouncing baby is every mother's dream. With a healthy diet and plenty of exercise, you're on your way to fulfilling that dream.

Scent-Sational
Want to stand out from the crowd? Want to be good to yourself and the planet? Why not create your own personal aromatherapy perfume using pure essential oils?

Time Travel
Remember the smell of summer? The scent of wildflowers on the breeze, the dew lifting off the forest floor, and the smell of rain. If you long for the easy warmth of summer instead of the cold of a Canadian winter, then invite uplifting essential oils into your life.

Hanging Down Diabeties
This month's Research Watch examines the growing body of research linking a mother's weight before, during, and after pregnancy to the rising rates of type 2 diabetes.

Fertility
You've been trying and trying, but your dream of having a child just hasn't come true. Along with the longing to hold your own little one in your arms come some nagging questions.

Warm and Invigorating Cloves
Underutilized in the West, cloves have been used in Southeast Asia for thousands of years, and their powerful antiviral and antiseptic qualities are still regarded as a panacea for countless ills, including malaria, cholera, tuberculosis, and parasites such as scabies.

Supplemental Iron
Adequate iron is needed for optimum fertility, proper placental development, efficient oxygen delivery to the baby, brain development in the baby, and formation of iron stores for the baby’s first six months of life.