Tea? « Back to Group Discussions

[cocobean]

What recipe do you use?  How often do you drink it?  Any good links on the benefits of drinking tea in pregnancy?  I was drinking a great tea mix my first trimester but then it got really hot here, and I hate cold herbal tea, and got out of the habit.  Just wondering what everyone else is doing!

[tropicana74]

I have been daily drinking a blend that I bought from birthjunkie.com. It has Red Raspberry Leaf, Spearmint, Nettle, Alfalfa, Oatstraw, Rosehips, Fennel and Lemongrass. Then I have been adding extra RR leaf to the pot. It was a large bag so I still have at least a month until I need more.

I don't want to bash birthjunkie because I know they run a home base business for lots of pregnancy supplies and she has like 10 kids and has all sorts of cool birth stories of her own but....things did not go well with my order. I never heard from them for weeks and when I finally contacted them they said it was back ordered and they were sending it that day....still took a couple weeks after that, then they never billed my credit card HOWEVER right after that I started getting all sorts of charges for electronics in the UK on my card. Not sure why they never charged me or when/how someone else got my number from my order but it ended up being a mess and I can't in good conscience recommend them to someone else. 

So, I will be finding a different source for my next order.

Here are some links that I had bookmarked about teas:

http://www.susunweed.com/Article_Pregnancy_Problems.htm

http://andeverything-in-between.blogspot.com/2009/10/red-raspberry-leaf-and-nettle-leaf-tea.html

http://frommeandmyhouse.com/et-pgt.htm

[darkblue0729]

I drink one that mix up myself that is pretty similar to tropicana's. It has red raspberry leaf, oats, rosehips, alfalfa, hawthorn, nettles, peppermint, chamomille, meadowsweet, strawberry leaf, and ginger. I grow a lot of my herbs but that ones I don't grow I get locally from an organic store...

Tropicana- so sorry you had such a lousy experience!

[purposefuldoula]

I've been just drinking a nettles/rrl blend for the last week. I'm so not a huge fan of the taste of nettles- but my iron dropped a ton over the last few months so I'm drinking a cup of infusion strength once a day until it gets back up. I love rrl. I'm also a huge fan of good earth tea, though that's not really a pregnancy tea :)  I've been off of coffee this week for better sleep and have been upping my tea. I need that cup of hot something in the morning. (<---typed that, and that sounds so goofy- but I'll leave it :) 

Kelly- that mix you sent me was soooo good! 

[darkblue0729]

Originally Posted by purposefuldoula 

I've been just drinking a nettles/rrl blend for the last week. I'm so not a huge fan of the taste of nettles- but my iron dropped a ton over the last few months so I'm drinking a cup of infusion strength once a day until it gets back up. I love rrl. I'm also a huge fan of good earth tea, though that's not really a pregnancy tea :)  I've been off of coffee this week for better sleep and have been upping my tea. I need that cup of hot something in the morning. (<---typed that, and that sounds so goofy- but I'll leave it :) 

Kelly- that mix you sent me was soooo good! 

Natalie- I am sooo glad! I will definitely send more your way!!!

[cieloazul]

This is the one I've been making, from one of Aviva Jill Romm's books I think:

Alfalfa leaf (2 parts)

Nettle leaf (4 part)

Oatstraw (4 parts)

Red clover blossoms (2 parts)

Red raspberry leaf (4 parts)

Rosehips (1 part)

Spearmint leaf (1 part)

I steep a handful of that blend (so about 1/2 an ounce) in a quart of water. It needs at least an hour to infuse but I leave the plant material in there for however long until I've drank it all, overnight even. I drink 1-4 cups a day. It's pretty easy to make it up in the AM and leave it on the counter so I remember to drink it thorughout the day. It's good at any temp IMO.

As far as benefits, for one I think there's always a benefit to sitting down and pausing with a cup of tea. Aside from offering hydration, water is linked with emotions and there's a lot of emotion to sit with in pregnancy, lol. Beyond that, the benefits are specific to the herbs you use. This blend above is considered a tonic, meaning it's something to take frequently over a period of time in order to build the body up. It's loaded with vitamins and minerals we need during and after pregnancy.

This website has a lot of info on specific plants - http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/comindxr.html

[tropicana74]

Originally Posted by cieloazul 

This website has a lot of info on specific plants - http://botanical.com/botanical/mgmh/comindxr.html

I completely enjoyed clicking around on there! Makes me want to go back to school and learn everything I can about herbs. I could read that stuff all day. 

Does anyone know if any of these teas cause contractions? I have been getting a LOT of BH contractions. They are common for me in pregnancy I just don't remember having so many of them so soon and so strong. When I get enough of them in a 20-30 minute time period I have been making myself sit with a glass of water until they pass (I just can't do anything when they come back to back like that...my stomach is so hard that bending over is near impossible). I am not worried about them I am just surprised that they are so different this time and wondering if the RR leaf has something to do with it?

[Marilyn82]

I've been drinking RRL for the last couple weeks, I just get the traditional medicinals herbal tea. Mainly because I'm lazy and also they are easy to take to work. I always say I'm going to make my own blend but then I never do lol...plus I don't know any places to buy the herbs in bulk in my area. Anyway, I just ordered some of the Earth Mama Angel Baby third trimester tea off of Amazon so I will start drinking that along with the plain ole RRL (I just loove the taste of it). It has RRL, along with chamomile, nettle, rosehips, and oatstraw. I also ordered the gentle birth tincture from mountain meadow herbs...interested to see what that does for me :) 

[jakesmama]

I've been off and on drinking the TM pregnancy tea with the TM rrl tea. I do an overnight infusion in a quart jar with 4 bags of each. I sweeten with cranberry juice and try to drink the whole quart in 1 or 2 days. Love it, but it gets expensive!

[Marilyn82]

Originally Posted by jakesmama 

I've been off and on drinking the TM pregnancy tea with the TM rrl tea. I do an overnight infusion in a quart jar with 4 bags of each. I sweeten with cranberry juice and try to drink the whole quart in 1 or 2 days. Love it, but it gets expensive!

Yeah...it sure does! 

[stegenrae]

If you have a Frontier co-op going in your area (or I guess if you order a ton of stuff for the free shipping yourself...) they have their own 1-lb bag of loose, sifted RRL tea for $6.50 for conventional, $10.50 for organic. I use mine in a muslin tea bag and brew one or two cups a day. I should be having more, but I'm not a tea drinker. I mix it with a good green tea (Costco's ItoEn brand), pour it over a big cup of ice, and splash some lime juice in there. If I happen to have pomegranate juice, that goes in instead, and is sooo much yummier (but sooo much more expensive!)

[tropicana74]

Originally Posted by tropicana74 

Does anyone know if any of these teas cause contractions? I have been getting a LOT of BH contractions. They are common for me in pregnancy I just don't remember having so many of them so soon and so strong. When I get enough of them in a 20-30 minute time period I have been making myself sit with a glass of water until they pass (I just can't do anything when they come back to back like that...my stomach is so hard that bending over is near impossible). I am not worried about them I am just surprised that they are so different this time and wondering if the RR leaf has something to do with it?

Well, I just answered my question! I just googled it and apparently it is not uncommon for RRL to cause strong BH! Not sure that I can do 14 more weeks of BH that are this strong. I guess this is it doing part of it's job of strengthening the uterus!?

I wonder if I just cut back on the quantity? I was planning to up the amount I was drinking for 3rd trimester but maybe not such a good idea in my case. 

Now I am feeling a little torn...I love that it has helped keep my digestion, err...moving along shall we say?  And since I am planning a UC I was really hoping to continue to use the RRL as one of my defenses against any heavy pp bleeding.

If I stand up from sitting I get a contraction, if I bend over I get a contraction, vacuum, have sex (or even think about sex), walk for any distance....all lead to strong BH. Ugh. I walked up a small incline to a friends house yesterday and had 3 contractions before I made it there....seems a bit ridiculous.  I can only think it's the RRL.