I often am asked what I carry in my birth bag. If I'm being honest, not much. I carry bathtub handles for the birth tub so we can do Gilligan's Guide, some amino acids for myself, my camera if you have commissioned me to photograph your birth, your visual birth plan, some N95 masks, a traditional rebozo, and a few essential oils. Everything that you or I, as your doula, needs is available at the hospital or birth center and certainly at a home birth. Now, listen, I need to be honest with you. We will get a diffuser out for essential oils if that is important to you, but the oils I bring we also use on the body to release tight muscles and fascia and help you get into your birth space. I am not going to sell you on joining an MLM, that's not my jam, but I will share the oils that I use in the birth space and some helpful ones to have on hand at home and ones that will also work on the kiddos.

The two brands that I love are Plant Therapy and Young Living. Let's talk about the ones that I love for the kiddos.

Neck Massage before bed! Great Calming Oil.

I’m going, to be honest, when I met my doula bestie, she smelled amazing! Honestly, I asked her name, and then immediately asked what scent she was wearing. It was a Young Living oil. As we got to be better friends, I began to learn a lot more about oils and ditched all the products that I had been using due to the number of toxins that were in most of the products that I had been using. I ordered from her often, until I finally signed up for Young Living as I wanted to be eligible to earn free products and get a discount. In full transparency, I have no desire to have a team, sign people up, or run an essential oil business. Period. I do however feel like I should share some of my coveted products, because they smell amazing, and are good for the body! Here’s the other thing, even my husband kinda rolled his eyes when my first order came, until his neck was killing him, and I pulled out the Deep Relief. Now, it is a full-on panic if there isn’t any in the house.

The One That Every House Should Have!

Helps with anything from sore muscles, nausea, and headache.

Lime, Cedarwood, and Lavender.

I can never shut my mind off at bedtime, and this helps me a ton!

I’m not going to try to convince you that you have to have these, but they were game changers for some of my clients, and for myself. I NEVER go to birth without them! EVER! I have a lot of oils from both companies and I have never been disappointed. I have replaced all the fragrances in our home with essential oils, and have never looked back. When I started to pay attention to how toxic beauty and body products are, I had to make a change. Here is what you need to know. The associative nature of the emotions that are attached by people to scent means that those smells that we tend to link to stressful/unpleasant healthcare situations, such as the eugenol (i.e., clove) smell of a visit to the dentist’s surgery, can all too easily end-up making us stressed (Robin et al., 1998, 1999). Over the years, researchers have also investigated the use of fragrance to help reduce stress during other anxiety-inducing medical procedures (e.g., Graham et al., 2003; Braden et al., 2009; Redd et al., 2009; Kritsidima et al., 2010; Ghiasi et al., 2019). There is also a growing body of research to suggest that ‘sweet-smelling’ ambient scents can help people deal a little better with pain (e.g., Prescott and Wilkie, 2007; though see also Marchand and Arsenault, 2002; Martin, 2006).

Based on the research above, we know that scent matters. That being said, the above brands and products have made a huge difference in this house, and I have also seen how scent can impact the birth space. Do yourself a favor, and treat yourself to some of these products. You’ll be happy you did!

If you would like to order from Young Living, here is my link.

Spence C. Using Ambient Scent to Enhance Well-Being in the Multisensory Built Environment. Front Psychol. 2020 Nov 19;11:598859. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.598859. PMID: 33329267; PMCID: PMC7710513.

XOXO-Holly