Nurturing Life Giveaway – After Birth

Nurturing Life

These two words define and drive everything that Motherlove does, from their organic farm in Colorado, to their herbal care products, the educational classes taught by founder Kathryn Higgins, to the Nurturing Life Foundation, Motherlove’s non-profit which supports mothers and children all over the country.  So it’s no surprise that Motherlove has had such a beautiful, long-standing relationship with The Leaky Boob, extending their support of mothers and children to our Leakies and their breastfeeding journey with their babies.  The Motherlove website sums it up well:

Screen Shot 2014-07-22 at 11.06.13 AMWhat is Nurturing Life?
It is fostering an environment where development, growth, and health are encouraged, and doing so in each facet of our life, including each stage.  True beauty can emerge in your life and others’ as you nurture life in yourself, your friendships, romantic relationship, through pregnancy, birth, in your relationship with your children, and more, and yes, even your garden.

“At Motherlove, we use Nurturing Life as our mission statement because nurturing moms and babies together is essential for both to thrive.  During pregnancy, moms are reminded minute-by-minute of this relationship and we typically focus on our health and wellbeing because it’s tied to our child’s life.” (Nurturing Life – Self Care for Mothersby Motherlove Herbal Company)

Last week we focused on the stage of life that creates new mothers: pregnancy.  Ushering new life into the world is such a beautiful thing, but is often accompanied by challenges and changes.  With the many changes and new sensations that new mothers experience, it can be such a natural time for her to focus on her health and well-being.  But what happens once the baby is born?

It is so easy to think that, other than adjusting to caring for a new person in the family, everything else immediately returns to normal.  But that is often not the reality of new mothers.  The parts of their body involved in growing a baby do shift back toward the way they were, but some of them will remain forever altered.  Others require a little patience and eventually some hard work, such as toning ab muscles to tighten the postpartum abdominal gap.  But a new mother’s body isn’t done changing either: now that one set of hormones is subsiding, another floods her body as she produces milk to feed her new baby.  We often treat birth as the end of the journey, where changes end and all is back to normal.  But this far from the experience of most women.

Moreover, beyond stretch marks, curvier hips, extra baby weight, and lactating, there are other completely natural and normal challenges that new moms face.  But very few like to talk about them, and so many moms don’t have the support that they need to welcome and experience the postpartum changes as they come.  Instead, they are rushed back to work and/or housework, and they feel the unrealistic expectation that they just be “ok” because their beautiful new baby is there.

Postpartum depression doesn’t just go away because there is a new baby.  Traumatic birth experiences aren’t healed by adorable baby sounds.  Hemorrhoids don’t just disappear because a bundle of cuteness has been born.  These and many more issues are considered too embarrassing or shameful to discuss, and many new mothers feel that they don’t have permission to take the time to find help.  They must bounce back immediately, and so they hide their real struggles and end up struggling with self-loathing and depression much longer than necessary, if they ever recover at all.  Silence is no healer.  Stuffing feelings down and clamping a lid on them only serves to incubate them and grow them into much more serious issues.

Let’s talk about the empty womb, the sense of emptiness inside, the fears we have, the struggle to fall in love with our babies, the dislike of our bodies, the anger, the horrors of the birth experience, the dark thoughts, the painful hemorrhoids, along with the rest.  These are the realities of postpartum, just as much as baby cuteness, breastfeeding, dirty diapers, and sleepless nights.  You are not alone in dealing with these things.  Look for understanding and information from those around you, from trusted online resources, and if you just can’t find the support and information you need in those places, get in touch with a professional who can.

And partners, friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers who think new mothers should just get over whatever is bothering them, they are the ones who need to get over themselves and provide helpful support for the new mother.  Nurture her so that she can feel free to nurture herself.  Self-care is deeply impacted by those around us, either for better, or for worse.  As a new mother adjusts to caring for another little person and her body heals from giving birth and keeps changing in the postpartum, how can we show her the kind of support that allows her to nurture life within herself so she can share that nurturing life with her baby and beyond from a place of health and well-being?

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Motherlove is giving away a Sitz Bath and Rhoids Balm to 3 lucky Leakies.


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Good luck to everyone!  Please use the widget below to be entered.  The giveaway is open from August 1, 2014 through August 8, 2014.  A big thanks to Motherlove for their ongoing support of TLB and all breastfeeding women; please be sure to visit their Facebook page or follow them on twitter and thank them for their support of TLB and this giveaway opportunity.

This giveaway is restricted to U.S. residents only.

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Motherlove Giveaway- Nurturing Life

Some companies go above and beyond giving to their customers and supporting families.  Motherlove Herbal Company was started by herbalist Kathryn Higgins out of a desire to help moms and families.  Her vision has expanded to include a non-profit private foundation The Nurturing Life Foundation.  Read this interview with the Motherlove founder to learn more about how she is nurturing life, families, and the earth through her company.  Continuing the trend of giving nurturing support, Motherlove Herbal Company is also giving away a Nurturing Life Gift Box to 3 winners.  I’m so grateful for the support of Motherlove for TLB and the friendship and encouragement of Kathryn.    

TLB: How did the Nurturing Life Foundation come about?

Kathryn: The Nurturing Life Foundation is a non-profit, private foundation funded by Motherlove Herbal Company. When I founded Motherlove over 20 years ago, I knew that I wanted the company to give back. As part of our 15-year anniversary celebration, we were able to found the Nurturing Life Foundation as a way to do that.

TLB: I’m a huge fan of the Nurturing Life Foundation, can you give me a brief overview?

Kathryn: The name of the Nurturing Life Foundation comes from Motherlove’s tagline, Nurturing Life. That sums up what Motherlove is all about. We believe in the healing strength of Mother Earth and the wisdom of our bodies, as well as our responsibility to nurture Mother Earth. Our products are based on herbs and formulated for the pregnancy, childbirth and breastfeeding period in a woman’s life – precisely when she is nurturing life. Breastfeeding is truly the nurturing of life.

It’s the nurturing of the mother, her nurturing of the baby and our need to nurture Mother Earth that guide Motherlove in our day-to-day operations.

TLB: What does the Nurturing Life Foundation do?

Kathryn: The mission of The Nurturing Life Foundation is to promote breastfeeding and support mothers in need, as well as to create opportunities for children. We do that by donating 10% of every Motherlove product purchase to the Nurturing Life Foundation, who then uses that money to support organizations that work with breastfeeding moms and/or children in need.

One organization doing amazing work is BELLAS, which stands for Breastfeeding, Encouragement, Learning, Liaison, and Support. This program is a resource for low income, minority and teen moms who often lack the resources to obtain lactation assistance.

We also work with the Breastfeeding Resource Center, a community resource center that provides moms with expert clinical and educational breastfeeding resources. They work with local hospitals, educate moms at local events about the importance of breastfeeding and help moms with every stage of breastfeeding with free support classes and IBCLC support where payment is income-based.

Other organizations we are privileged to work with include Realities for Children and Mountain Park Environmental Center, both of which work with local kids.

TLB: What is one of your favorite stories connected to the Nurturing Life Foundation?

Kathryn: There are so many. Close to my heart are the stories about children who are overcoming life circumstances that should never happen to any child. Learning about these kids and being able to help is a remarkable experience.

Through our work with Realities for Children and their Triumph Awards, The Nurturing Life Foundation has been able to award full college scholarships to youth who would otherwise receive no support to get an education. These are young people who have overcome childhood abuse, but also triumphed over their situation academically, socially and personally.

A sister program to the Triumph Awards, the Keeping Dreams Alive program works with local agencies to identify children between the ages of 6-15 who are living in situations that might kill their dreams for a different future for themselves. The Nurturing Life Foundation participates in giving these children something tangible for their dream today.

One of the programs we support that is especially important to me is the Birds and Bees, Flowers and Trees, a camping experience for girls ages 12-15, created by the Mountain Park Environmental Center. Using a blend of sex education and nature education, this program empowers girls to be comfortable and knowledgeable about their bodies and the world around them in order to make healthy choices, care for the environment, and have thoughtful relationships.

TLB: How can others support the Nurturing Life Foundation?

Kathryn: Every time someone buys a Motherlove product, they are supporting the Nurturing Life Foundation. And by reading the descriptions of the non-profits that we support on the Nurturing Life Foundation’s website and the links to the profiles and letters we receive, you might very well be inspired to support these organizations with your own donations.

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Motherlove is giving away a Nurturing Life Giftbox, celebrating new motherhood, to 3 lucky winners:

Each Nurturing Life Giftbox is has a Retail value $59.95 and includes:

pregnant belly salve

nipple cream

birth & baby oil

sitz bath spray

diaper rash & thrush

– environmentally responsible Motherlove tote bag

Currently Leakies can find these and other great pregnancy and nursing products on the Motherlove website and in some local retail stores and boutiques.

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Good luck to everyone!  Please use the widget below to be entered, and check out motherlove.com for more products related to fertility, pregnancy, and nursing .  The giveaway is open from September 25, 2012 through October 1, 2012.  A big thanks to Kathryn and Motherlove for their ongoing support of TLB and all breastfeeding women, please be sure to visit their Facebook page  or follow them on twitter (@motherloveherb on Twitter) and thank them for their support of TLB and this giveaway opportunity.

This giveaway is open to US entries only.

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