On Utilizing Vanilla to Help Support Postpartum Healing —>

Vanilla flavor and scent is so common it is often taken for granted and overlooked — but the truth is, Vanilla comes from a magical, BEAUTIFUL orchid vine & has so much to offer postpartum healing as a medicinal herbal ally.

Vanilla is the closest flavor & fragrance to Mother’s Milk.

In Ayurveda, it’s a known calming agent & stress reliever.

It’s considered warming, sweet, soothing, strengthening to the digestion, and Vata reducing — all things we want to offer a mother who is in her fragile window of post-birth recovery.

Numerous studies have shown Vanilla to — reduce anxiety, deepen breathing in infants, reduce sleep apnea in infants, reduce depression without side effects, promote hair growth and scalp health, encourage deep sleep, be rebuilding to the body, alkaline, and antioxidant.

Again, all things we’d love to be able to offer a new mother to support her post-birth healing journey — and we can achieve this via the aroma of Vanilla extract or Vanilla essential oil and via using Vanilla extract in food & in body care practices like vanilla baths or drinking vanilla water. —>

Vanilla comes from a beautiful orchid vine that can live in either air or soil & requires 20-30 feet of growth before it will bloom! The vines can grow to 300 feet long.

When the vanilla orchid flowers bloom, they bloom in succession and will close again the same day, sometimes even within a few hours of opening.

Commercial vanilla growers therefore have to pollinate each flower by hand to ensure a vanilla bean will form—where the vanilla flavor and fragrance come from.

The Totonacs of Mexico are the first known to cultivate the Vanilla bean.

Totonac mythology tells the story of a princess whose father forbid her to marry the mortal she was in love with. She fled to the forest with her beloved, but they were caught and beheaded. Where their blood fell, Vanilla orchids grew. —>

I have a couple super simple recipes for Vanilla water & a Vanilla bath — to use for your own self-care or for a friend, loved one, or client you are supporting.

Vanilla Bean Recipes


VANILLA EXTRACT

  • 7 vanilla beans slit down the side

  • 8 oz of vodka

  • A sterilized glass jar

Put vanilla beans + vodka in a sterilized jar so that the vanilla is completely submerged in the vodka. You can slice the vanilla bean pod into smaller pieces if necessary to get it all to be underneath the vodka. Cap the jar and allow it to sit in a dark cabinet for 8 weeks. Strain off the liquid.

VANILLA WATER

  • 1 vanilla bean slit down the side + 2 quarts of water

  • Put in a sterilized jar, cap, and steep in the sun for an afternoon, then strain off the liquid

  • Optionally add fresh honeysuckle flowers or slices of pear

OR

Simply put 3 drops of vanilla extract in a glass of water

VANILLA BATHS AND BATH SALTS

  • 1/2 cup epsom salt

  • 1/2 cup fine sea salt

  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

  • 1 cup powdered milk or 3 cups milk of your choice

  • Add the above ingredients directly to the bath water.

OR

  • 1 cup Epsom salt

  • 1 tablespoon baking soda

  • 5 drops vanilla oil

  • Combine in a bowl & mix together. Add half or all of the mixture to 1 bath.