Anisah's Natural Living

09/27/2024

08/03/2024

It’s ! 🤱🏽

August 9th would have made 9 years that I have been breastfeeding. I weaned my youngest last month when I went to Guyana 🇬🇾. It only took two weeks of her constantly asking once I returned 😅

The ambivalence I feel regarding my almost decade journey is wild 🤯:

9️⃣years. 9 years I shared my body. 9 years of being exhausted, constantly hungry and thirsty. 9 years of being touched out.

But.

9️⃣years my body provided nourishment and comfort for my four children. 9 years my body provided antibodies to keep my children healthy. 9 years my body created the perfect blend of vitamins, minerals, fats, sugars, carbohydrates, proteins, and antioxidants. For 9 years, my body provided my children with leukocytes, which are living cells that can only be found in breastmilk, to help fight against infections.

Alhamdulillah, all thanks is to God for enabling me to provide for my children in best of ways that He commanded 🤲🏽🙏🏾

Breastfeeding is the most natural aspects of motherhood that does NOT come naturally to most. The majority of us lack the proper resources, support, and guidance to make our journeys successful.

Our providers fail us in so many ways. We have family members who are completely ignorant of breastfeeding, but want to give us advice about what we’re doing wrong. We have communities that shame us and demand that we stay hidden while feeding our children. We have a society that demands we return to work before our supply is even established and make pumping difficult, if not impossible. We are set up to fail.

None of that changes the *fact* that . Fed is the bare minimum.

Set yourself up for success with proper education. Get a doula and research your birthing options because your birth can play a major role in your breastfeeding journey. Seek out an IBCLC for education and support. DO NOT LISTEN TO ANYONE (and that includes your pediatrician) who does not provide you with support and encouragement. Find yourself a pediatrician who is supportive (not tolerant) of breastfeeding.

I have breastfed four babies. Each child came with their own set of challenges. All of my children had tongue and lip ties (my third also had cheek ties-ouch!). I went back to work six weeks after having my third and three months after having my fourth. Knowledge about paced bottle feeding is *essential* to your breastfeeding journey for a baby receiving a bottle.

Trust in your body. Believe in your abilities. And never, never, ever quit on your hardest day ❤️

09/22/2023

It’s that time of year!

is on deck. The jars will remain in a cool and dark spot in the cabinet for about six weeks while everything ferments. I’ll then strain it, add in some local raw honey, and pour into individual jars.

They’ll be ready in time for cold and flu “season”.

07/19/2023

Most twins do not need to be born via cesarean section. Period. You have choices and deserve explanations when those choices are resisted.
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We need to normalize photos like this and take fear out of twin birth!
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Link in bio for one of my blogs about a birth center twin birth.
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07/10/2023

Do you recognize this common “weed”?

I guarantee that most of you have this growing somewhere in your yard (unless you’re aggressively dedicated to “maintaining” your lawn).

This is (no, not the one we like to fry 😝). Every year, my boys go out to harvest the leaves, which I dry and keep for making tea mixtures. It’s also a star ingredient in my .

This plant has incredible astringent properties which make it very valuable.

I was gardening barefoot this morning and managed to get a bee stinger stuck in my foot. It hurt SO badly. I immediately screamed for my husband (😅) who came and removed the stinger. Omg the pain 😭I asked him to go grab me a leaf from the “bush by the steps”. My loving husband uprooted the entire plant 🤣 and brought it over. I chewed up a leaf and slapped it onto my foot and within 30 seconds the stabbing pain subsided. 2 minutes later, it was uncomfortable, but no longer painful. I chewed up another leaf and put it on and it felt good as new.

Our backyards are full of medicinal plants. It’s time to our mindsets and with it, our yards.

Learn to use the plants God has blessed us with, plant native wildflowers to help the pollinators, improve our environment and your health!

03/30/2023

COLOSTRUM *IS* MILK
COLOSTRUM *IS* MILK
COLOSTRUM *IS* MILK

Please stop the narrative of having to wait for your milk to “come in”. It is harmful and can be detrimental to the breastfeeding journey.

The fact that there are birth workers ignorant of this is unacceptable. How do you not know the basics of lactation to be able to support your clients?

01/05/2023

Being told your baby is “too small” is the new “too big”. Just another attempt to force interventions.

11/08/2022

11/05/2022

Someone started solids today! 🎉

Baby girl is finally meeting *all* signs of readiness indicating that her gut is ready to handle something other than 🤱🏾.

We usually start our kids off with 🍠 and 🥑, but we were making pancakes from fermented veggies this morning and decided that was as good a choice as any to give her.

Her first solids! Pancakes were made from chia seeds, amaranth flour, h**p flour, cauliflower, parsnip, and turnips.

As is the custom in our family, we do and eat together as a family. Ruby didn’t need to watch her brothers to know what to do, though! My husband didn’t even get to put her pancake down before she snatched it out his hand 🤣

Remember, breastmilk will still be her main source of nutrition until age one. Solids should not take the place of her milk intake.

08/02/2022

Thinking of doing a stir fry. What would you do with these veggies?

08/01/2022

Butterfly pea flower, lavender lemonade 🍋

Delicious 😋

07/25/2022

Besides panicking over the epidural shortage, how are you preparing for your possible change in birth plans?