I had the worst congestion during my first pregnancy. I had a hard time breathing, was so congested some days that I could barely taste my food (although that didn’t stop my serious carb loading and sweets binging), and got my first sinus infection. As most of you probably know, you basically can’t take any meds when you are pregnant so I just suffered and figured if this was my worst symptom, I can deal. I looked up natural remedies that were safe for pregnant women and found something on diffusing Eucalyptus oil. I bought a diffuser off Amazon and some random brand of oil and started diffusing at night. I think I thought it helped a little, probably placebo effect, but I still had horrible congestion during the day. Fast forward 9 months, I had the baby, the congestion was gone, and I continued on with my life.
Then, my sister-in-law introduced me to real essential oils and started talking all about the benefits that came with them. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical, as I think most are when they first hear about them. Some people are open to the idea because hey, they can’t hurt and they smell good, and others think it’s a load of crap. I fell in the middle. Later, I was gifted a couple oil blends and another diffuser and I thought, these smell nice, I’ll put it in my office and turn this thing on whenever I remember.
It wasn’t until I got pregnant with my second son and the congestion came back, that I started ramping up on my research of essential oils because again, you can’t take any meds when you’re pregnant. FYI, congestion is super common when you’re pregnant because your nasal passages can swell due to hormonal changes. It even has a name, pregnancy rhinitis, who knew?! Anyway, I asked my sister-in-law to order me the Breathe blend by Doterra (disclaimer: I only use Doterra oils so those are the only ones I can speak to) which included Eucalyptus and other respiratory support oils and started diffusing that at night in my room and during the day by my desk. It legitimately worked. The congestion was gone and I could breathe!! Thus, I diffused this blend pretty much every day and every night throughout my pregnancy. I still diffuse it nightly with other oils because it helps me breathe better at night (I also have asthma). This sold me. I started reading up on oils and pregnancy, oils and kids, and oil benefits in general. And to be clear, by reading up, I mean spending way too many hours reading articles, reading books I bought, following essential oil gurus on Instagram, etc. After that, I slowly started growing my collection of essential oils and now my whole family uses them topically (ie. on your skin), aromatically (ie. diffusing), and internally (ie. ingesting) on a daily basis.
So that’s my story of how I got into using essential oils. I will continue to share what oils we use, what we use certain oils for, and what oils I used during pregnancy, labor/delivery, and now postpartum with you all.
Note:
You must use legit essential oils. You cannot buy random ones off Amazon or even get them at your local store if you want true, pure oils. Most oils on the market have synthetic fillers because they are not FDA regulated. If you see anything on the label that says they are flammable, not to be used on skin, or unable to be ingested (for ones that you know you can ingest – which are most oils if they are 100% pure plant extracts) that means they are not high quality. Those oils might smell good, but they will not help you, so be careful! Hence, why my first round of using Eucalyptus off Amazon during my first pregnancy did not work and quite frankly it was probably not good for me to be breathing that in on a regular basis since I didn’t know what was in it. Just pick a reputable brand and buy them from authorized sellers (do not buy Doterra products off Amazon – there are no authorized sellers on there so they could be fake or tampered with), that’s all. Ok, my rant is done.
Xo,
Hillary
No Comments