Teas for Pregnancy

Baby daddy would love to open a shop where one of the features were healing teas to improve the quality of people's lives.  I didn't realize until I got pregnant just how healing herbal teas can be.  I'm now beginning to understand that like massage, tea is not a luxury, but a requirement to live our healthiest lives.  Just look at the benefits of a few cups of tea per day for you and baby, and then tell me if you could go through pregnancy without drinking them regularly.  And then, imagine what other herbal teas could do for your life.  Wow!

Red Raspberry leaves contains many vitamins and minerals beneficial for pregnancy, including vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, vitamin B, calcium, iron, phosphorus, and potassium.  In Wise Women's Herbal for the Childbearing Years (pages 18-19), Susun Weed talks about raspberry leaves extensively, and that made as a tea or infusion, it is said to have the following attributes:

• Increased fertility in men and women
• Gives tone to uterine muscles
• Prevents miscarriage and hemorrhage
• Reduces pain during labor and after birth
• Facilitates delivery of the placenta
• Assists in breast milk production
• Contains calcium in it's most absorbable form, especially in conjunction with other vitamins and minerals
• Relieves morning sickness
• Calms emotions
• Can aid in preventing hypertension
• According to What to Expect When You're Expecting, it may encourage labor to begin.
  
  

According to Wise Women's Herbal for the Childbearing Years, nettle leaves include "nearly every vitamin and mineral known to be necessary for human health and growth," which includes "vitamins A, C, D, and K, calcium, potassium, phosphorus, iron, and sulphur" (pages 20-21).  Made as a tea or infusion, the attributes of nettle leaves include:

• Increases fertility in men and women
• Aids the kidneys, even when they are in disrepair or have stones
• And help protects against bladder infections
• Nourishes mother and baby
• Eases leg cramps and spasms
• Lessens pain after birth
• Prevents postpartum hemorrhage
• Reduces hemorrhoids, 
• Improves breast milk quality
• Helps alleviate varicose veins
• Guards against hypertension

Wise Woman's Herbal recommends drinking 2 to 4 cups of these teas per day..  The book mentions that you could drink raspberry tea one week and nettle tea the next week. Or, it suggests to stick with raspberry leaves until the end and then switch to nettle to prepare for labor.  I've found a few different "pregnancy teas" that combine raspberry leaf, nettle leaf, and a few other herbs.  I like these blends for just mixing up my options.  Traditional Medicinals makes a version that's I've been drinking.  My birth center sells an organic brew that is made for them.  And, I just bought a red raspberry brew that is mixed with nettles, peppermint, and alfalfa from the Bulk Herb Store, which is family-run.  I also just purchased red raspberry leaves and nettle leaves from the Bulk Herb Store.

Peppermint tea and ginger tea have booth been recommended to sooth morning sickness.