Postpartum University® Podcast

EP 163 9 Natural Remedies for Postpartum Depression and Anxiety

• Maranda Bower, Postpartum Nutrition Specialist

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In this episode, I'm discussing holistic and natural remedies for postpartum depression and anxiety. 
It's time to dispel the notion that our health and well-being lie solely in the hands of medical professionals. Women need to be empowered to take control of their postpartum experiences and it starts with education and preparation. 

In this episode, I'm talking about: 

  1. Distinguishing Healing from Coping
  2. Natural Remedies for Coping
  3. Importance of Body Connection
  4. Long-Term Healing Strategies
  5. Building a Support System

I really value your feedback and experiences, so don't hesitate to share them with me on Instagram.

Remember, you're not alone in your journey, and there are holistic approaches to support your well-being beyond traditional medical interventions.

Take care and empower yourself on your path to healing.

Other episodes mentioned:
Postpartum Herbs Training for Beginners

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Maranda Bower:

Depression, anxiety and autoimmune symptoms after birth is not how it's supposed to be. There is a much better way, and I'm here to show you how to do just that. Hey, my friend, I'm Miranda Bauer, a mother to four kids and a biology student turned scientist obsessed with changing the world through postpartum care. Join us as we talk to mothers and the providers who serve them and getting evidence-based information that actually supports the mind, body and soul in the years after birth. Hey, welcome. Oh, my goodness, I have such a hot episode today and this is one of the questions that I get asked so much, and I thought you know what. We just need to have a full on show where we are absolutely talking about all of the more holistic and natural remedies for postpartum depression and anxiety, and so I have got some really hot topics that I want to dive into. And first off, if you're listening in and you are experiencing postpartum depression or anxiety or other mental health issues and frustrations, know that you are absolutely not alone, and if you are a provider, you are on the right track. Let's start giving some women some holistic ways in which they can help themselves and empower themselves to take care of their bodies in a way that feels really good to them and I am such a component and proponent for these conversations and giving the power back to the moms, giving the power back to the people who want to take better care of themselves but maybe don't know. And we've really developed this entire system around putting our health and wellbeing in the hands of somebody else, ie a doctor or a provider or an institution and saying what can you do for me? And that's not always the case. We are our best advocates, we know our body the best and unfortunately, the system has not been very supportive of our individual needs, especially as women, especially as moms. There's no science, there's no data. What works for men is very, very different from what works for women, and I'm getting on a tangent here. But I will tell you, they are starting to realize that when they approve medications oftentimes even SSRIs and things like that, a lot of those studies are done on men rather than women. And they're done on men because there's so much quote unquote easier, because they don't have all of these hormones quote unquote and it's just, it's easier to track results. And so oftentimes what happens is we women are are left on the sidelines and we don't know how certain medications or drugs or therapies will work for us, to our benefit as women, and oftentimes let's just be real they never get to the root of the issue.

Maranda Bower:

Anyway, it's a bandaid fix and I want to put an end to that. I want to give you the power, I want to give you control back into your hands and give you some real, honest, absolute ways that you can support your body and helping you heal. Now, I am not suggesting that you should do this work alone. Actually, one of my most favorite ways to support a mom is by having counseling or coaching or therapy. You absolutely need that kind of support, but there's also some other things.

Maranda Bower:

So first I want to talk a little bit about the difference between healing and coping, and so often when I'm like scrolling Pinterest or I'm talking to moms or even providers, a lot of the strategies that they have or may recommend or have heard about through a friend are really great strategies, but not for healing, and I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with coping in any way. We all need some tools to support us and kind of taking the edge off of things. If you're experiencing depression and anxiety or you know other other health related issues. There is nothing more powerful than something that can take the edge off in the moment, that can help us feel good in our bodies, or even not even necessarily good, but just like, scratch the surface, make it a little bit easier, make it gentler, maybe take away a bit of the pain so it's not so, not so hurtful or stabbing, or take away the pressure that we may feel inside or the inability to breathe If you could just breathe for a moment. Right, I'm sharing some of my things that I felt when I was experiencing depression, anxiety and ulcerative colitis, which was what I was diagnosed with and my second postpartum experience. So these are, again, really necessary. We want to be able to cope really well, but we also want to be able to heal, and so I'm going to give you a couple of tools that are really great for taking the edge off and coping, and then I'm going to give you some tools that are a little bit more long-term to support you in actually healing. Okay, so you can use any of these with medication. You can use any of these along with therapy. These are absolutely tried and true things that you can do to support your body.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, so, some of my favorite natural ways to take the edge off of postpartum depression and anxiety is herbal tea. Now I'm telling you there is so much to learn about herbal tea and the practices of using this. We know very little, honestly, about herbal teas. It's not something that's very much studied. Herbal teas it's not something that's very much studied, but we do have a lot of evidence around lavender and chamomile having been a very calming thing for our nervous system and we can say, we can say without absolute certainty, that chamomile and lavender are very, very healing for the body.

Maranda Bower:

Now I'm going to take this a step further St John's Wort. If you don't know this herb, you are missing out. This is a really common herb that is used to treat symptoms of depression. This is a really common herb that is used to treat symptoms of depression and there are handfuls of research that have been done on this particular herb to show that it is as effective and sometimes even more effective and supportive than prescription antidepressants. I want you to really take that in and soak that in.

Maranda Bower:

I remember hearing a story not too long ago. It was a story of St John's wort being studied alongside Prozac within the same study, and so they took these two things the herb and the drug, and they wanted to test the effects of this, and the scientist behind it was adamant about the actual Prozac being 10 times better than St John's wort. He did not believe that some measly herb could have any such effect, and it turns out that it had a significant effect on a really wide range of individuals significant effect on a really wide range of individuals. So if you are struggling with postpartum depression and anxiety, that should be one of your number one go-tos and helping, support you and getting back into a balance and feeling good within your body. And there's a couple of reasons for that. We've got the herb itself and the, where it supports the nervous system and the brain function, but also, let's be honest, it's filled with really solid nourishment, and that's a huge component to a lot of herbs. A lot of herbs are here because they are full of nutrients, and nutrients are a massive factor in healing postpartum. Over 80% of women enter into the postpartum phase completely depleted of so many key nutrients, and so herbs support that. But they also go much, much deeper and much deeper, and I've got other episodes I don't wanna take away from this episode. I teach you why those herbs actually work and we'll link that in the show notes here. Okay, so St John's wort it can take the edge off and really honestly, it can just take it away completely, depending on where you are in your postpartum journey and the depth of what you're experiencing and the root causes of what you're experiencing too. But it's absolutely amazing, highly recommend.

Maranda Bower:

Here's something else, and this is super controversial y'all I am gonna get a lot of flack for this, but it's worth mentioning CBD with a tiny bit of THC. I'm not talking about the tiny bit that is required or necessary in order to make you feel a high. You can have a slight level of THC in your CBD that will not make you feel high or not give you any sort of feelings of a high. There's many studies that are coming out that show CBD is great, but when it is together with THC, there is a different effect it has on the body, completely different. So this cannabinoid compound, which is a compound that's used to treat the body's body it's used to, is very much affecting our anxiety and depression rates and really reducing those, and we see that over and over and over again in studies. This is why oftentimes it's really highly recommended. Now this may not be for you, and that's totally fine, and I'm gonna bring up something else that's even more controversial than THC and CBD, and that is shrooms.

Maranda Bower:

We did a whole episode on this podcast on psychedelics and mushrooms and micro dosing. If you're not familiar with this, I highly recommend going to take a look at this. This is a growing science and a growing field, and where we're studying micro dosing with mushrooms to support those who've experienced post-traumatic stress disorder, ptsd, as well as anxiety and depression, and the results are staggering. It's staggering. Now, when you're taking a micro dose level again, you are not putting yourself in a position to hallucinate or get high or anything like that. These are ways in which you can function at a normal level. You can do the normal things you do in your life. You can run a business, you can take care of your kids, you can drive to soccer practice without experiencing negative symptoms. That's massive. That's really, really huge.

Maranda Bower:

So I highly recommend learning more about it, maybe even talking to your provider, doing tons of research just to see if this is something that might be of interest for you, and then making sure that you're getting from really high quality people. This is not something that you have to go on the streets and do in the black market. There's actually medical providers who are now supplying these kinds of things because they know the benefit of this. So I highly recommend doing lots and lots of research and looking into this, and if it sounds like something you love, maybe try just a bit and see where it takes you. And if it sounds like something you love, maybe try just a bit and see where it takes you and it really can't hurt you. Despite what I I've often heard, that's usually not the case.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, here's another thing that's going to take the edge off. We have, obviously, herbal tea and St John's wort, we have CBD, and maybe even micro dosing, and then we have exercise and body movement. I want to be really, really frank with this one, though, because so many times I feel like we really beat ourselves up for not moving more, or maybe we're feeling a little weak in our bodies, and it brings us down, and movement does some important things to the brain that help us in dealing with depression and anxiety, and no way is it a tool that's going to make it automatically go away. It will help take the edge off, especially if you're experiencing some pretty dark depression or anxiety symptoms. Now, if it's slight or you're noticing, ah, I'm just not feeling well in my body and you want to get out and move, that's an amazing thing.

Maranda Bower:

Do that, but also recognize that many times moms are exercising really hard. Already. This is something that you already do on the daily. You're rocking your baby, you have a car seat and a big baby to tout around and diaper bags. You're walking around tons. Maybe you got toddlers at home that you're chasing around constantly. It's exhausting. Your body is in constant motion. You are carrying lots of pounds and you're bending over all the time, and that in itself is a lot of movement. We oftentimes are doing lots of movement.

Maranda Bower:

The difference that I feel so many moms feel like they're missing out on is that connection with the body when you are exercising and moving your body. Maybe you joined a boxing class or maybe you're doing yoga. One, it's that time for yourself where you're not entertaining somebody else or taking care of somebody else's needs. But two, you're really focusing in on your body. It's a time where you get to connect in with yourself and that's not a time that we normally give to ourselves when we're chasing our toddler around or, you know, changing a baby's diaper, lifting them out of their car seat or lugging a bag into the store. But if we start bringing awareness to our bodies during those times, they can effectively support us and making some changes within our brain and our body and our hormones that feel really good.

Maranda Bower:

So if you're somebody who is listening into this and you are in a constant state of movement, know that that doesn't necessarily mean that you have to go out and join an exercise program. It just means that maybe you want to connect in with yourself while you're doing a lot of those movements and even practicing some more stillness. So if you're listening, taking a deep breath, put down the dishes for a second, stop stirring the pot you know, vacuuming, whatever it is that you're doing and just take a moment to breathe in your body. Just seriously take a moment to stop and breathe and just check in. What do I need right now? Do I need a glass of water? Did I actually go pee when I knew I needed to an hour ago, or am I still holding onto that? We oftentimes just don't connect in with ourselves and so I often hear like let's get this body movement and this exercise. But I strongly believe. It's not about exercise and body movement, it's about body connection. So connecting in is the big ticket here. Hey, I'm going to be a hundred percent straight with you.

Maranda Bower:

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Maranda Bower:

Here's another one getting out in nature. Oh my, my goodness. There's so many studies on the benefits of nature therapy. They actually call it a therapy now, y'all, and once in a while, or once, once upon a time, it was an actual thing where we just get out and be a part of nature, and we are so far removed from that that we recognize. Oh wait, it was really important and it had some important health implications for our bodies that we now call it a therapy.

Maranda Bower:

All you have to do is get outside, go sit under a tree, go take a walk, whatever it is that you need to do to connect in with nature. Put your feet, your bare feet, in the grass, just feel it for a little bit of time. Sunshine, right. Just the idea of that and maybe it's because I'm Alaskan and like that's hard to come by sometimes feels so good and divine and connected in and just really supportive of our bodies. And we know it changes our heart rate. We know it changes our heart health. We know it lowers our stress levels and anxiety levels. It has a significant benefit to our bodies, including for depression and anxiety. So get outside 20 minutes a day, as you can, rain or shine, and just be out connected. Go listen to the birds and their beautiful music, right. Just go to a park, go take a walk, connect in with that tree, hug it, whatever it is that makes you feel good. That is gonna be so helpful in helping you cope. Obviously, it's not going to be something that takes away depression and anxiety, but it is a really awesome coping mechanism.

Maranda Bower:

Here's another one that is a really great coping mechanism it's getting some good, solid sleep. This is a hard one, though, because oftentimes, if we're so sleep deprived and then we have an opportunity to take a 45 minute nap or even a two hour nap, sometimes we end up more exhausted than when we've initially went to bed and took a nap. And if that's you, I totally understand. I totally get it. What it means is that you are severely lacking sleep, and if that's you, then you're going to take this and you're going to put it into the long-term healing component of your plan for natural remedies and healing postpartum depression and anxiety. But if you're that person who can get away with taking a nap or just resting for a little bit and feeling good, then you wanna use this on the daily to support you and helping you cope. Okay, this is a wonderful coping tool, but it's one of the ones that also is a part of long-term healing. It is a huge long-term healing support tool.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, get the sleep you need. I don't need to tell you how much sleep is important to our bodies. You probably already feel it. We know it as, as moms. Lack of sleep is a torture device, y'all, and so if we are not getting what we need, everything feels out of whack. So make sure that you're getting enough sleep, and this may be something that you have to hire support for. Or you have to have a day where you're like, hey, family, I need you to watch my babe while I sleep and I just play catch up. Like I need that so much, like you have to make a plan in order to make that happen. But you deserve that and you need it in order to live.

Maranda Bower:

So don't say, well, my partner needs to work and he's got a function and so-and-so's, got other things to take care of and I just don't have the ability to have that. No, don't do that to yourself. You have to have this in order to live. Sleep is a necessity. So sit down with your partner, sit down with your friend I don't care, your mom, your sister, everyone. Have a freaking meeting and make a plan. Be like I don't know what to do.

Maranda Bower:

But something has to change, because this is deeply affecting me in a really negative way and I don't know how to cope and I need some strategies, I need some ideas. I need sleep. How are we gonna make this happen? You'll be surprised at what transpires from that Okay. So I'm gonna move into some long-term healing support tools and these are things that we're gonna implement into our life, along with those coping strategies, so that we don't have to feel depression and anxiety in the long-term.

Maranda Bower:

It's not something that we just have to deal with or live with, and that's the motherhood conundrum and the motherhood paradigm. I'm hearing it so often that this is just a part of the motherhood experience. We're all gonna feel awful and bad and eventually it'll go away when our kids are all in school and we have a moment to ourselves. No, it does not have to be that way. I promise you you do not have to live with this. This is not a normal Okay, and honestly, you deserve so much better. We all do. This is not okay, all right. So I already talked about one long-term healing strategy, and that is making sure that you're getting sleep, and that you're getting consistent sleep. It's not something that just happens once in a while. You need to make a plan for it, like this is a lifeline for you.

Maranda Bower:

The other one that is obviously really important to me is nutrition, and I mentioned it a little bit when I was talking about herbal teas and the power of herbs. One of the reasons why they're so amazing is because you're so nutrient dense and when we're eating well, then our body can start functioning again. And I will tell you if you're lacking key nutrients, which most women are in the postpartum period, then it's a recipe for postpartum depression and anxiety. Actually, many of the symptoms that women experience with depletion mimic symptoms of depression and anxiety. It's amazing to me that we don't get our nutrient levels tested correctly. And I say correctly because so many times you can go in and your doctor might tell you oh, these are in the normal level, and they're not. Because those normal levels were determined by a bunch of studies done on men that are not reflective of the female needs. So make sure that you are getting nutrient dense wonderful meals, bone broth, soups, stews, like the liquid. The more liquid it is, the better and easier it is to digest all of those things. And if you are not familiar with why I don't recommend things like salads and smoothies, I highly recommend you take a listen to this other episode. I'm going to link it here in the show notes for you, because this is a really important hot topic.

Maranda Bower:

Your gut health is your second brain, right, and so what happens in your gut plays a huge role in the way you experience your mental and emotional health. I don't know if you know this or if I've said this before, but serotonin that feel-good hormone, is produced in the gut. 80% of your immune system is produced in the gut, and so if you have some sort of imbalance there, or if you have inflammation in your gut, it is automatically brought to your brain in the form of depression and anxiety. I'm serious, y'all. It is a whole science. There's so much connecting those two pieces. I mean we have the gut-brain axis, the gut-brain connection. There's so many more things that we can go in and dive into, but no, that is a huge factor and it takes time.

Maranda Bower:

Right, it takes a solid couple of months to really recover from the act of childbirth and the act of growing a human being in your body. That's pretty significant, and if you're two, three, four, five years postpartum, then you have layers of that that you're going through. If you have multiple kids, you have additional layers of that. So taking time to nourish your body is a really conscious effort. It takes not only time, but it takes attention and oftentimes we need a little support, and that's why I've created the postpartum nutrition plan. It gives you all of the details. You don't even have to think about them Snacks, all the recipes, every single meal for you during the day and a way in which you can plan that out. So take advantage of things like that. Go on Pinterest if you want and look at all of the meals that are really amazing for digestion, because it's not about just absorption and all the nutrients that are available you got to also be able to absorb those, and that changes dramatically in postpartum, okay so. And all the nutrients that are available you gotta also be able to absorb those, and that changes dramatically in postpartum, okay so I can go on and on about that.

Maranda Bower:

Here's the other one detoxing. There is some serious detoxification pathways that are changing in pregnancy and postpartum and we need to make sure those are supported, because we know that when we have an overwhelming amount of toxins within our bodies heavy metals, microplastics, just tons of awful things that are in our environments that we put on our skin it's on our lotions, our perfumes, our cleaning products. Just going to the gas station, walking down the aisles at the grocery store. Oh, my word, the things that we are exposed to in the air, the things that we are exposed to in our foods. There's significant amounts and we need to take time in order to detox Again. I got a whole episode on you on that for you. There's a huge, huge component to feeling better in your body and we know from a scientific standpoint, if we are full of toxins like aluminum and heavy metals and microplastics, that plays a dramatic role in how we feel, in our brain and our emotions. We know the two are very much interconnected.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, here's the other thing that I highly recommend. It's therapy, counseling, coaching, whatever it is. You want it, you need it. Let's be real Like we need somebody to connect in with. We need somebody to help us navigate all of these challenges, because oftentimes we're doing it alone, and we're often doing it not necessarily just alone, but oftentimes in a space where nobody really understands right and it feels really isolating and it feels really frustrating, and we need to be able to talk to somebody who's not going to judge us. We need to be able to talk to somebody who is going to be able to give us those nervous system tools that we were never raised with. We need that support. So find somebody who can offer that to you in a way that feels good.

Maranda Bower:

It's something that you want to be able to look forward to. If you're not looking forward to therapy or counseling or your coaching sessions, that's not the right person for you. This is something that you're like oh, I wonder what this person would say about X, y, z or you know. I can't wait for my next session so that I can work it out. That doesn't mean that things might not be hard and that you might be uncovering some really challenging things, but you look forward to like I'm going to break this next cycle. I'm going to have tools that I can enter into this week with that are going to really help me and start establishing those amazing nervous system tools and those techniques. Not only that okay, not only that but also there are some really great therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy or CBT, and interpersonal therapy, where they really walk us through the process of showing us our negative thought patterns by showing us, you know how we're thinking and how it's not serving and how we can replace that thought.

Maranda Bower:

It's legit rewiring the brain, that thought. It's legit rewiring the brain, and there is no better time to rewire the brain when you're already in a postpartum phase, when you're when your brain is already rewiring because it's postpartum, because you are now a mother, or adding more children, uh, to to your repertoire right Like that is, that is already happening, whether you want it to or not. We call it mom brain. Oftentimes we feel it, we know it's happening and might as well make the best of it by supporting it and giving it all the tools so that when you walk away from this postpartum and your kid is seven, eight, nine, you've got some really amazing strategies that are already rewired and built into your brain and you don't have to work hard to rewire it again.

Maranda Bower:

I also recommend that you find a support system locally mom's group, a friend that you can lean on. I always say warm hugs, like be like Olaf, like go seek out some warm hugs. Sometimes we just need a really good friend and a warm hug. We need that in our life and there are so many other moms who are wanting that, who are needing that, who are begging for that and don't know where to find it. So if you don't have access to a local mom's group on Facebook that you can go meet in person or a little mom's hiking group or exercise group or a mops, for example. There's so many things that you could do. Put out a little call for friends on social media and say, hey, I want to meet up at this coffee shop or whatever, or this playground, and let's bring our kids and let's just have a chat, let's say hello, let's meet, let's you know, share our frustrations and share our wins and and get advice from other moms who are in it as we are.

Maranda Bower:

Okay, so we have tons here. Okay, so we have tons here. We have herbal teas, st John's wort, specifically CBD, and maybe even micro dosing. We have body connection. We have nature, sleep, nutrition, detox, therapy, counseling, warm hugs, support systems. Okay, those are all a huge part of healing and coping. So I hope that has been super helpful for you.

Maranda Bower:

Thank you so much for joining us in this episode. I hope you found some valuable insights and inspiration. I'd love to hear your stories. Go share are on instagram. Let me know, dm me and tell me hey, I have this experience with saint jordan's, where I want you to know about. Or, hey, try this thing, and here's what happened to me. I want to know about all your experiences and your feedback is so, so important and gives me ideas for next episodes too. So thank you so much and take care. I am so grateful you turned into the Postpartum University podcast. We've hoped you enjoyed this episode enough to leave us a quick review and, more importantly, I hope more than ever that you take what you've learned here, applied it to your own life and consider joining us in the postpartum university membership. It's a private space where mothers and providers learn the real truth and the real tools needed to heal in the years postpartum. You can learn more at wwwpostpartumucom. We'll see you next week.

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