Conceiving Healthy Babies: An Herbal Guide to Support Preconception, Pregnancy and Lactation

by Dawn Combs

Find balance and enhance fertility with whole food and whole plants Healthy babies don't just happen. The lifestyle of the prospective parents is a crucial factor in promoting fertility and ensuring a successful pregnancy. But the average North American diet is saturated with processed foods and environmental toxins are rampant―we must take responsibility for what we put into and onto our bodies to create optimum conditions for the childbearing year. Drawing on the author's own personal triumph over infertility, Conceiving Healthy Babies is a unique herbal guide geared to helping couples achieve balance in preconception, pregnancy, lactation, and beyond. Its individualized approach to fertility explains the importance Packed with detailed information on hundreds of different herbs with a focus on their roles in building healthy babies, this comprehensive manual is a roadmap to wellbeing. The reference guide is rounded out by complete information on herbal use before, during, and post-pregnancy, and special attention is paid to supporting nursing and lactation. Whether you are have experienced challenges in conceiving or just want to ensure that your pregnancy is as natural and uncomplicated as possible, Conceiving Healthy Babies is an indispensable guide. Dawn Combs is an ethnobotanist and herbalist who apprenticed with Rosemary Gladstar. After resolving her own infertility diagnosis through whole foods and natural herbal remedies, she chose to specialize in helping women rebalance their bodies for fertility.

Genres: Health, Nonfiction, Parenting

400 pages, Paperback

First published August 18, 2014

About the author

Dawn Combs, M.A., Certified Herbalist, is an Ethnobotanist and functional foods expert. She is the best-selling author of the books Sweet Remedies, Heal Local and Conceiving Healthy Babies. Dawn's favorite media appearances include MarthaStewart.com, MindBodyGreen, NPR, and The New York Times

A professional speaker, educator, wellness coach and frequent contributor for several magazines, she is best known for her expertise in using honey and plant-based sugars as a medium for medicine-making and for empowering people in their innate wisdom to be well using local food medicine. The Combs family were named "Homesteaders of the Year" by Mother Earth News magazine for their life on the internationally renowned Soda Farm, a United Plant Savers (UpS) botanical sanctuary, and teaching facility. Dawn and her family model how to grow personal health with a strong community focus, practical solutions, and Creator, rather than man-made, foods and remedies through her “Proactive Health Club” online membership forum and her unique line of healthy supplements at SodaFarm.com

Reviews

[Kaetlyn Anne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an EXCELLENT herbal and nutrition resource. Google will tell you (very fearfully!) that all herbs are off limits during the childbearing years but that is simply not the case. As with any herbal resource, there was some new age rhetoric (listening to the plants, energy work and homeopathy recommendations) but was able to be overlooked. As a Christian I obviously cannot agree with the sentiment of purposely preventing pregnancy unless you have pristine health. Of course preconception health of mom and dad matters greatly, but we can still let God be Lord over our wombs even if we don’t have a perfectly detoxed liver or can’t afford grass fed meat in the budget.

I’ll definitely be keeping this one on my shelf!

[Adrienna · Rating 2 out of 5]

There are some women who are having issue conceiving, and will try to keep this private, since maybe they feel less than whole. Therefore, I wanted to read this book to see a healthier way to conceive and have a child. We usually turn to drugs, chemicals, or fertility shots and whatever the doctor (OBGYN) recommends. We forget that things such as fibroids, endometriosis, and ovarian cysts for example can stop women from conceiving. I am learning that changing our diet is one remedy, but also working on it not just physically but spiritually and drinking herbs (teas like raspberry leaf). We have lost sight of the herbs that can heal and be the supplements we need, not these chemically-ingested pills.

Dawn Combs not only gives her examples of how she conceived her babies, but simple methods that anyone could follow.

The body has to be completely BALANCED, DETOXED, and NOURISHED. I am working on the balance since there are other health issues of concern, and read another book Anti-Estrogen Diet (to detox the liver, most important organ), and to be nourished (looking at being purely vegetarian/vegan).

Moreover, we have to eat foods that are FREE of these:
*Chemicals
*Heavy Metals
*Pesticides
*Antibiotics

I am also looking at changing deodorants the past 1-2 years (aluminum free), lotions (parabens free for example), makeup (natural, not mineral foundation prefer liquids), tissue (made transition and bring to work; bleach free, chlorine and pads too; had no idea) to name a few I am making the change.

Detoxify your body, will balance and tone the digestive system but be prepared for headaches, rashes, breakouts, and emotional upheaval; she encourages one not to let this stop the healthy lifestyle. This can make one think I am doing something healthy and then this! Your body is getting out the body, toxins...chemicals, etc.

Later in the book, the author focuses on herbs and foods recommended. This can be helpful. I enjoyed the afterword. The other twenty percent is resources.

[Jasmine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much appreciate the information in this book. I read it from my library, as to purchase it is over $50! Wish I could have this on my shelf to reference as needed.
This book is great for women at all stages of life, I think.
Great resource.

[Mandi W · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfully written from the author’s personal journey and research. Definitely a must have for those seeking to have deeper understanding of their cycles no matter if you are wanting to conceive or not. Her tea recipes are so beneficial and worth the $ alone for this book.

[Michelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

THE BEST herbal guide and resource for any woman in her childbearing years.