Foods for Fertility and Lactation: Common pregnancy challenges and custom smoothie, juice, and tea blend recipes for them.
It is spring, the time of renewal and coming out of hibernation, and for me, that means the launch of my program, Blossom, is right around the corner. It is a three-month program geared toward supporting women in building fertility and conception through pregnancy, birth, and beyond, and foods for fertility is just one tiny piece of the program!
In light of that, I have compiled my favorite foods for fertility and lactation with tea, juice, and smoothie recipes that address common pregnancy challenges to help you overcome them. Whether you need something to help with lactation, increased milk supply, building fertility, or a post-birth tonic, I have thought of you. Bonus: your young kids will love these juice and smoothie recipes, too!
For teas, I recommend buying in bulk at your local health food store, apothecary, or my Amazon store and combining yourself at home. Look for organic varieties. This would require a tea press, but over a year, you will save yourself quite a bit of money by doing this!
Muneeza’s Fertility Tea
Vitex (aka chaste tree berry or chaste berry) is must on any foods for fertility list. Vitex is an herb that is highly beneficial for women’s fertility, hormone regulation, and overall reproductive health. It works by nourishing and supporting the endocrine system. Vitex is known to help balance menstrual cycles, decrease the occurrence of hot flashes, and reduce symptoms of PMS, including headaches, bloating, irritability, breast sensitivity, fatigue & depression. Vitex can help improve fertility and the chances of conceiving a child and substantially increase milk flow and release in nursing mothers.
Vitex can be taken in a capsule or tincture (liquid) form or steeped in water as a delicious herbal tea.
“Oat straw is known to be particularly beneficial for the endocrine system and supporting and balancing the adrenal glands. This is why this ingredient is so supportive of fertility. Because it balances the adrenal glands.” -Anthony William, Medical Medium (read more about oat straw here)
Ingredients
¼ cup dried Vitex Berry Fruit
½ cup dried Nettle Leaf
½ cup Oat Straw
½ cup dried Red Raspberry Leaf
⅓ cup Lady’s Mantle Leaf
½ cup Lemon Balm
⅓ cup Licorice Root
Shop my teas and bulk herbs here
Method
Blend together your herbs. Use a tablespoon at a time.
Muneeza’s Fertility Juice
When consumed in the afternoon, sunflower sprouts support your energy levels for the rest of the day. This juice, via the sprouts, will help you rebalance your hormones, regenerate your adrenal glands, imbue phytoestrogenic properties, and help a woman balance her endocrine system after birth. Sprouts are so beneficial for women during all phases of pregnancy and building fertility, and should be at the top of your list of foods for fertility and lactation!
Cucumber and apple provide the perfect source of hydration and glucose. The glucose in this recipe will help you uptake the nutrients present.
Ingredients
1 cup Alfalfa sprouts
1 cup Sunflower sprouts
2 apples
1 cucumber
Method
Run your ingredients through a juicer. Enjoy while still fresh! Keeps for up to a day.
Muneeza’s Lactation tea
Did you know that the adrenal glands produce as much estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in women as their reproductive system? Nettle leaf is the perfect herb to support this function as it will balance an overactive or underactive adrenal gland function. Often time, people are diagnosed with reproductive hormone imbalances at the doctor’s office, but unless the adrenal glands are balanced, the reading will come back inaccurately. So often, women are diagnosed with perimenopause, for example, when the real issue is adrenal fatigue.
Several herbs are major foods for fertility. Nettle leaf helps cleanse toxic hormones from the body (think plastics and agricultural chemicals) and supports the creation of new ones.
Raspberry leaf pairs very well with nettle leaf as a star in its own right to replenish the endocrine system, and produce healthy levels of hormones. Postpartum it will help you manage exhaustion, depression, and milk supply.
Ingredients
½ cup Fenugreek seeds
¼ cup dried Alfalfa Leaf
½ cup Fennel seeds
½ cup dried Nettle Leaf
½ cup dried Red Raspberry Leaf
¼ cup Anise Seed
1 cup Rose petals
Method
Blend together your herbs. Use a tablespoon at a time in a cup of tea. Click the links or shop my Amazon collection of teas and bulk herbs.
Muneeza’s Lactation Juice
Sweet potatoes are an excellent food for breastfeeding mothers due to the nourishing glucose they impart and their estrogen-dispelling properties. Here is an excerpt from the book Life-Changing Foods about sweet potatoes:
“Sweet potatoes are phytoestrogenic and perform the vital function of ridding the body of unusable, destructive, cancer-causing estrogen that interferes with the body’s hormone function. These estrogens come from plastics, pharmaceuticals, food, and environmental toxins, as well as from the body producing an overabundance of the hormone (due to a diet high in estrogen-producing foods). Because it’s more than the body can use, this estrogen becomes inactive and builds up in the organs, negatively affecting the endocrine system. By purging this excess estrogen, sweet potatoes make room for healthier estrogens to take their place.” –Life-Changing Foods, Anthony William
Ingredients
½ cup raw sweet potato, chopped
2 cups pineapple, chopped
Method
Run ingredients through a juicer and consume immediately.
Tangy watermelon juice
This juice is loaded with mineral salts, glucose, and hydration- a triple whammy for lactating mothers. For anyone else, it’s a super hydrating and delicious juice.
Babies and toddlers love this juice, too.
Ingredients
6 cups chopped watermelon
½ lime, juiced or
2 tbsp passion fruit, fresh or frozen
Method
Juice the watermelon and finish with a splash of lime or passionfruit.
Postpartum Support Juice: Fresh Orange Juice with Aloe
Sometimes mamas who have a C-section can be constipated after birth, so this juice helps keep everything moving and mamas hydrated, supporting breastmilk production. It is packed with glucose and vitamin C, which supports Mama’s adrenal glands post-birth, as well as her and her baby’s immune system.
Babies and toddlers also love a sweet tasting orange juice.
Ingredients
16 oz fresh orange juice
½ cup fresh or frozen aloe
Method
Blend fresh orange juice with fresh or frozen aloe vera.
Muneeza’s Lactation Smoothie
This is a powerful smoothie for breastfeeding mothers—mango, coconut water, bananas, and orange juice come together as superfoods to hydrate and nourish you. The barley grass juice powder provides critical mineral salts that feed your nervous system, while the fennel tea will help stimulate your milk supply and regulate your hormones.
Ingredients
1 cup mango
1 cup coconut water
2 Bananas
1 cup orange juice
1 tsp Barley Grass Juice Powder
1 cup fennel tea
Method
Combine all of your ingredients in a blender. If you would like a chilled drink, add ice or frozen fruit over fresh.
I hope that these recipes have inspired you and hope to overcome common challenges you may face on your pregnancy journey. To learn more about the ingredients in these recipes, reference Life-Changing Foods by Anthony William, the Medical Medium.
Join me this April 6th at 3 pm EST for my LIVE webinar – SIGN UP HERE! – where I will answer questions about building fertility, pregnancy, postpartum, and beyond.
Would you like to learn more about Blossom? This program is launching again soon, and I couldn’t be more excited! To get on the waitlist, click here. I have supported thousands of women through the passage of pregnancy and beyond. I created this program to support you in having a positive, empowering, and healthy conception and birth.
To your health, happiness, and wellness,
Muneeza
