By Nechama Dina Smith
BS"D
At one of my births, Nourishment Tea was the star of the show. It was the only drink I wanted to sip. Fortunately, I'd made plenty so that all involved--midwife and doula and me--had enough to get refreshed from. It served as my hydration after the birth, too, and made all of us feel healthy and balanced. I’d like to say it helped me have an easy birth, but honestly that is purely up to Hashem. But still, we are bidden to do our part!
Throughout my last several pregnancies, I am grateful for having learned about this blend from midwife and herbalist Aviva Jill Romm. I tweaked the recipe to fit my taste, and so that is what I would drink instead of water. Prenatal vitamins are probably important, especially if the mom’s diet isn’t covering all her needs, but personally, they always made me nauseous. This tea provides loads of vitamins and minerals and actually helps relieve some pregnancy nausea. The nutritional content is not as quantifiable as man-made pills, but its nutrition is far more absorbable, is used by the body more efficiently, and is pleasantly hydrating. So, in those ways, it is superior.
Here are the ingredients:
Nettle: contains abundant amounts of minerals including calcium, manganese, iron, vitamin C and folic acid. Aids the vascular system, thus preventing varicose veins, and good for the kidneys, thus relieving fluid retention. Also excellent for breastfeeding.
Red Raspberry: used to tone the uterus, prepare the body for birth, and help with easier contractions and births. Also relieves nausea.
Oatstraw: contains both calcium and magnesium, improving circulation, relaxing muscle cramps and restless legs, and promoting restful sleep. These important minerals feed the baby as well.
Rosehips: adds a delightful lemony flavor and lots of vitamin C, which also helps the iron from the other herbs to be absorbed.
Red Clover Blossoms: a small amount of this highly vitamin-rich herb is included. It prevents and eases constipation, promotes good sleep, reduces anxiety and improves appetite. Replenishes the body with many minerals that get used up in pregnancy and lactation.
Peppermint: good for upset stomach and nausea, and great for adding delicious flavor to the tea.
Lemon Balm: included for taste as well as to improve mood, avoid insomnia and stress, and relax. It is also a gentle anti-viral herb.
Alfalfa: nourishes with trace minerals, chlorophyll and vitamin K and can help prevent hemorrhage. Also increases milk production.
Nourishment Tea can be drunk sweetened or plain. I prefer mine plain and chilled. It quenches my thirst, which for me is great because I do not enjoy plain water (My apologies, water!), and I do enjoy this tea!
Here’s how it’s made: Take a quart mason jar, a strainer and a pitcher. Put 1/4 cup of the herbal blend in the jar, pour in boiling water up to the top, cover the jar tightly and let it sit for two hours on the counter (It’s fine to sit up to 4 hours). Then strain the tea into a pitcher and keep it in the fridge. Try to finish it within a couple of days. The best is to make a fresh brew daily.
As it can get expensive, especially if this is your only drink, I’d like to offer a discount for a two-month supply of five packages of tea. Each package yields about 36 cups of refreshing tea, so this supply will give you over 60 days of 3 cups a day. You can safely drink 4 cups a day, and maybe even a little more. (If you are like me and that’s all you drink, you can dilute each cup with half water, and it will still be delicious, so you get 6 diluted cups a day that way. )
So the price will be instead of $70 for 5 packages, $60. This deal will be available iy”H till the end of Chanuka, December 17. You can stretch it to last three months if you only want two cups a day, which is still very beneficial! If there is left over, the tea is wonderful postpartum as well.
I’d like to bless everyone to have easy births, healthy children, and, as my first birth-instructor taught our class, shockingly, that childbirth was the easiest part of child-rearing thing, I wish you, most importantly, success in raising wholesome and righteous generations of kind and caring, shomrei Torah U’Mitzvos.
All the best,
Nechama Dina Smith
P.S. If you have a friend who is expecting, please forward her this article.
P.P.S. I have an urge to tie this post into the parsha, which, since you know I’m always behind, I’m still in Parshas Noach. Noach had children because Hashem wanted him to, even though he was worried because he knew the world would be destroyed. With his righteousness and his children’s young age (in those days under 100 was young), they survived and from them came the population of the entire world after that. So even though the times now are uncertain, and lots of worrying things are going on… Hashem wants us to have children. They are our future, and by having children we show we have faith in our Creator that the future can be better and will be better. We start off by looking after their health, even before they are born, by drinking Nourishment Tea so that with Hashem’s help we not only give birth easily but get great nutrition into their little bodies. And then we raise them the very best we can, trusting in Hashem that He will give them a wonderful, hopeful future.
Comments