Joanna is an herbalist and postpartum doula. Through her company, Mammal, she offers herbal education, herbal products, and doula services centered around holistic healing and the first forty days. Her mission is to help people reconnect to the rich lineage of plant medicine and to make herbalism approachable to those with little to no experience working with herbs.
What's your favorite herbal ally for postpartum mood support?
Such a challenge for an herbalist to pick just one herb, but I’d have to pick chamomile. Though this is an herb that many of us know and love, this familiarity is exactly why I believe it to be so powerful. It is accessible, comforting, and a gentle yet profound healer with a diversity of uses that many are not aware of or utilizing.
Chamomile is considered a mild nervine sedative and will gently relax the nervous system without inducing sleep. It soothes the digestive tract as an anti-inflammatory and carminative (an area that needs extra love and support during the postpartum period), and it relaxes the muscles as an antispasmodic. It’s safe for daytime use where it will calm anxiety and nervous tension, and is also useful during the evening for insomnia and a racing mind. Furthermore, it can be used as a topical ally for inflammation, topical infections, and other skin irritations. Babies benefit from chamomile’s gentle abilities to soothe colic and general fussiness.
Brew an infusion of chamomile and drink it as a tea, use it in as a calming footbath, or douse a rag and apply it topically to the skin. Once you start integrating chamomile and its diversity into your life, it will forever hold a place on your shelf.
What responsibilities are inherent in being included in a mothers' village in pp?
What an honor it is to be invited into a mothers’ postpartum cocoon, this sacred portal. Those included in the postpartum circle should hold this honor with deep reverence and care. Find ways to alleviate the new mother’s burdens without her asking, tune into intuition about what meal preparation or chores around the home might make her feel more relaxed, think about how you can provide warmth, comfort, and a listening ear.
In whatever you plan to do, provide, or prepare for this mother, ask yourself “will this _____ provide warmth, nourishment, and peace”? That simple reframe has a way of making us think, especially before we invite ourselves over to be hosted and take photos of the baby. Sometimes, providing space will provide the most comfort. Other times, comfort will come in the form of stew.
If you have the chance, ask the mother prior to her birth how she would feel most supported in the weeks after the baby arrives. This answer may change as the journey unfolds, but it will help shape your understanding and intention in the beginning for how to best serve.
What is a morning ritual bringing you peace currently?
About 7 weeks ago, I joined an accountability group for the Artist Way book and exercises. There is a reason this book has been popular as long as it has. The task is to write three pages each morning, your “Morning Pages”, that are filled with stream of consciousness thoughts… writing that is not planned out, edited, or even read again. It’s about emptying your brain of its immediate contents when you rise so that you have a clear vessel with space to receive inspiration and creativity throughout the day.
Because writing morning pages has become a pillar in my morning, my routine right now typically looks like rising early, making a matcha with a homemade nut or seed milk, and sitting down to write first thing. Something about not being able to put it off helps me to overcome blocks and talking myself out of it :)
We are a little over halfway through our Artist Way journey together as a group, and the subtle shifts and ripples it has created in my internal and external worlds are profound already. I find myself daring to take greater risks throughout my day, caring less about what people might think when I start something new, and receiving more creative downloads than ever before. I write more poetry, I dream up more short stories and essays. It has also made clear what areas of my life and subconscious need gentle attention and nourishment. I have found that writing as ritual, without attachment to outcome or premeditated prose, fosters utter freedom and creativity.
How does herbalism support the female form?
For me, plants symbolize the ability to regenerate. They represent the innate programming, the deep rooted craving, that all life forms desire to heal… to live in synchronicity with the seasons, the angle of the sun in the sky, the local ecosystem. This is a message of hope, a reminder of our birthright… that we too, hold this same resilient vitality that will carry us across many chapters, peaks and valleys. That is, so long as we remember to slow down, listen, and live with reverence for what the body has to tell us. It is in this listening, that we finally begin to remember, and through remembrance, that we begin to heal.
In these ways, herbalism is a profound tool for women. A tool to nourish the female form with nutritive herbs that provide the precious vitamins and trace minerals now missing from our soils that the body needs to function optimally. A tool to ground the nervous system with nervine herbs that bring us back to the here and now, promote deep rest, and real, physical nervous system recovery from the overwhelming sensory overload of the world around us. A tool to support optimal liver health so that we are processing the heightened stress hormones that come with modern living.
There are multiple other tools gifted from herbs that I could mention, but in summary, herbalism is a tool for women to return back home to themselves, to be empowered in the body and connected to nature’s medicine, and to trust the innate, healing life force that each and every one of us holds inside. .
What's something bringing you more pleasure in life lately?
I’ve been meditating on the juicy, child-like spirit of summer lately and the many pleasures that this season holds. How all of the flavors, experiences, smells, and swims remind me of being a little one and the things I enjoyed growing up in Texas in the summertime. In line with this, I’ve been challenging myself to embrace a child-like summer and to be barefoot often, make herbal popsicles, swim in the early mornings and late evenings, visit the library, pick flowers, have picnics… to return to those feelings of having an expansive, never-ending day before you, filled with endless possibility.
What is your vision for postpartum mothers in the collective?
Recognition, reverence, and resources. Unfortunately, we have abandoned the cultural norms of communities coming together to tend to the new parents, to promote rest and to take turns cooking nutrient dense meals and holding the baby. We now live in a time where we are expected to figure out postpartum on our own, accept take-out as nourishment, and return to work promptly at the end of our often too-short parental leave. At a minimum, my vision for postpartum mothers would be significantly longer parental leave, corresponding guaranteed job security, and the provision of financial and mental health resources to make this possible. These first moments, months, and years are not only sacred, they are critical development years for baby and the parental-baby bond.
My mission with Mammal is also to make herbal education more accessible and commonplace so that mothers are empowered with natural remedies and holistic tools to support the postpartum period and the physical, mental, and emotional bodies. Postpartum doula care is not accessible to every mother, so this empowerment is very important to me..
How can we all begin to work with plants to deepen our relationship to self, other, and earth?
Start with one plant at a time. Some of our most familiar allies have the most to teach us. If accessible, source a high-quality supply of dried chamomile, nettle, rose, lemon balm, from a local purveyor. Better yet, grow one of these herbs in a pot. Watch the seeds germinate, reach toward the sun, grow tall, expand, flower, yield many gifts beyond measure. Start to make tea with patience and intention, giving the water time to extract all of the potent medicinal qualities of the plant. Use a lid to capture precious volatile oils. Notice the many flavors of the herbal infusion on your tongue, how you feel in your body, in your mind. Experiment with using these infusions topically for everyday ailments instead of reaching for your usual cream or ointment. Luxuriate in an herbal bath by pouring them into your tub.
Slow, intentional, and one by one. As they say, it is better to go an inch wide and a mile deep, than the opposite. Start with one herbal ally and build a relationship with deep curiosity and utter awe.
Soothing Chamomile Drops by Joanna Steblay
**Recipe yields about 64 jellies if using 1 inch molds
Take chamomile jellies as needed to soothe anxiety, support digestion, and to calm a racing mind. Feel free to swap tart cherry juice for apple juice, or to add powdered warming spices such as cinnamon and ginger.
Ingredients:
0.6 oz organic dried chamomile flowers
Pint jar with lid
1 Tbsp organic pasture-raised gelatin
1 Tbsp raw honey
4 oz organic apple juice (divided into 2 oz and 2 oz)
Silicone mold of your choice
Infusion Instructions:
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Prepare the Chamomile Infusion: Start by making a potent chamomile tea. Weigh out 0.6 oz of dried chamomile flowers (a bit more than 1/2 cup if using a measuring cup). Add the chamomile to a pint-sized mason jar and fill the jar with boiling water. Stir gently, then secure the lid tightly. Allow the chamomile to infuse until the jar is completely cool, approximately 1.5 to 2 hours. Once cooled, strain out the infusion, pressing the herbs with the back of a spoon to extract any remaining liquid. Measure out 4 oz of this infusion and set aside.
Gelatin Instructions:
- Bloom the Gelatin: In a small measuring cup or pitcher, combine 1 tbsp of gelatin with 2 oz of apple juice. Stir and let the mixture sit for 5 minutes to allow the gelatin to "bloom."
- Prepare the Gelatin Mixture: In a small pot, combine the reserved 4 oz of chamomile infusion, 1 tbsp of raw honey, and the remaining 2 oz of apple juice. Warm gently over low heat until fully combined. Pour this warm mixture into the bloomed gelatin and stir thoroughly until all the gelatin is dissolved.
- Mold and Set: Carefully pour the gelatin mixture into your silicone molds while still warm. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours until the gelatin is fully set.
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