Category: Blogs

It’s really common to have a baby shower for new parents. And while baby shower gifts and a new baby are always exciting, let’s not forget about the mom to be either! A postpartum gift basket is a great way to show a new mama (or seasoned mama) some love.

If you don’t have the time/money to do a large new mom gift basket, even just an item or two can show you care. Postpartum recovery can be tough, both physically and emotionally. And if the new mama is breastfeeding or had a C-section, those come with their own challenges. A postpartum care package is a great way for moms to get a little self-care and pampering.

Gifts like a journal to process postpartum emotions, a comfy robe, or nursing-friendly pajamas are all great ideas. Throw a water bottle or even a gift card in there too! I have lots of ideas in this postpartum essentials post.

DIY Postpartum Gift Basket Ideas

Some of the most affordable and thoughtful gifts are homemade ones. And if you’ve been a reader for very long, you know I love a good natural DIY recipe! The following DIY postpartum gift basket ideas are simple to make and make a great gift for any new mom and her little one.

Some of the recipes serve double duty and are great for other family members, not just moms.

Note: Be sure to double check before adding essential oils to any of the recipes, like lotion. For example, oils like peppermint can decrease breastmilk supply. Here’s a thorough list of which essential oils breastfeeding moms should avoid.

Soothing Postpartum Home Remedies

Pregnancy is an impressive accomplishment, but it can come with stretch marks, C-section scars, and other struggles. Here are some DIY postpartum gift ideas to help mom heal faster and soothe the aches that come with postpartum life.

• Soothing Postpartum Spray – Helps calm inflammation, relieve pain, and restore damaged tissue in the peri area.
• After Birth Sitz Bath – This soothing mix of herbs helps to make mama’s sore bottom less sore. The dry mix can be brewed as a tea and added to a sitz bath or a peri bottle.
• After Birth Bath Fizzies – These bath bombs feature nourishing herbs instead of essential oils for soothing relief.
• After Birth Tincture – As any seasoned mom knows, after birth contractions can be as painful (or more) than labor itself. Soothe the after birth pains with this homemade tincture.
• Rice Heat Packs – These reusable heating pads are a lifesaver when it comes to postpartum discomfort. Customize them with your favorite fabric and add lavender for added relaxation.
• Padsicles – These are a great way to relieve pain and inflammation in the peri area. It’s basically herbal tea frozen onto a pad.

Nourishing Foods

Building a baby takes a lot out of a mom, so it’s important to focus on good nutrition. And if they’re breastfeeding, they’re burning an extra 500-700 calories a day! Traditional cultures made sure new moms were getting plenty of nutrient dense, warming, and animal-based foods.

• Pregnancy Tea – I drank herbal tea when I was expecting, but many of the same nourishing herbs are also great for postpartum. They increase the nutritional value of breastmilk and help restore mom’s nutrient stores.
• Soups and Stews – Slip a jar of some homemade soup into their gift basket (for the freezer) or drop it off on their doorstep after baby arrives. Soups and stews can be a nourishing way to replenish vitamins and minerals.
• Sauerkraut – Keep things moving in the bathroom with some homemade sauerkraut! Great for the gut microbiome and offers a big probiotic boost.
• Bone Broth – Nourishing bone broth is a staple in our home and also great for postpartum moms.

DIY Bodycare

Making homemade skincare products is a great way to opt for clean, non-toxic ingredients. Plus, they’re fun to make! Many of these recipes use essential oils, so be sure to opt for breastfeeding safe ones or omit them.

• Homemade lotion – Soothing shea butter and coconut oil combine to make this luxurious lotion. Infuse the oils with herbs like calendula and chamomile for a gentle version.
• Whipped Body Butter – Similar to a lotion but even more moisturizing. This whipped body butter features cocoa butter, shea butter, and coconut oil.
• Lotion Bars – Another one for team lotion. These portable lotion bars have all of the benefits of homemade lotion with less mess.
• Rosehip Facial Moisturizer – Pregnancy can cause skin changes, including melasma (dark patches) on the face. A face moisturizer can be a great way to help their skin bounce back better.
• Hair Growth Oil – Postpartum hair loss can be intense. Help moms take care of their locks and support stronger hair and hair growth with this DIY hair growth oil.
• Tallow Lip Balm – Tallow closely mimics our skin’s natural oils, making it a great option for moisturizing. And this tallow lip balm is simple with only 4 ingredients!
• Homemade Lip Balm – Want a more traditional Chapstick recipe? This hydrating lip balm is a great option for parched lips.

Nursing Moms Postpartum Gift Basket Ideas

If the new mom is breastfeeding, here are a few recipes to help her out. These are great whether she’s a first-time mom or a seasoned pro.

• Nursing Balm Nipple Cream – No one prepared me for how much breastfeeding could actually hurt at first! This nipple cream is safe for baby and helps soothe sore or damaged nipples.
• Nursing Mom Tea – This blend of herbs helps provide much needed nutrition and boost breastmilk supply. Plus it tastes pretty good too! Give her a jar full of dried tea mix along with a new thermos to keep it warm!
• Lactation Cookies – While nursing tea is certainly nice, who doesn’t like cookies? These lactation cookies are delicious and are a great way to naturally increase breastmilk.

Sweet, Sweet Sleep

Any mom with a newborn knows that sleep can be elusive (and sometimes non-existent). Helping baby stay healthy and supporting their nervous system (like through pediatric chiropractic care) can go a long way towards helping baby sleep at night. While a full night’s sleep isn’t always guaranteed, the following can help mom have a little more rest and relaxation.

• Relaxing Pillow Spray – This pillow spray uses calming and stress relieving essential oils like lavender and bergamot. While all of the essential oils used here are considered safe to diffuse around babies, use caution if using directly near co-sleeping babies sleep space.
• Sleep Lotion – Help relax and calm with soothing lavender and cedarwood lotion.
• Magnesium Body Butter – Most of us are magnesium deficient, and magnesium lotion can be a great way to relax and soothe tired muscles. I like applying this on the legs and bottoms of my feet before bed.
• Buckwheat Eye Mask – Make a DIY buckwheat pillow eye mask with added herbs.

What are some of your favorite items to have on hand postpartum? Leave a comment and let us know!

This baked salmon recipe is one I make for dinner every single week. Learning to make great baked salmon is a lot like baked chicken or learning how to cook a steak. It’s a staple in my book. There are SO many different ways to slightly alter this basic recipe so the meal never feels boring. Plus, baked salmon is healthy and delicious!

I like to make baked salmon with some kind of Asian fusion type glaze, served over rice often with cucumber salad. It’s basically a salmon rice bowl type situation. Another option is to use Italian flavors or simply lemon and serve with pasta. Or Tex Mex flavors and serve with tortillas for a tacos. Or Greek flavors and serve over a salad with olives and pita. And the list goes on! Baked salmon is super versatile.

Related: Next up learn how to make Air Fryer Salmon.

Ingredients

• Salmon – often called a ‘salmon portion’ at the meat counter (4-6 oz.)
• Oil
• Miso
• Soy sauce

This is all the basic ingredients I used for the salmon pictured. As you’ll see in the notes below there are many more options!

How to Bake Salmon

If you are using frozen salmon thaw it first. I usually buy fresh (unfrozen) salmon portions but frozen works well too!

Add aluminum foil to the baking sheet. Optional, but this make clean up easier. Lightly oil the foil before placing the salmon. Top with whatever spices, seasonings, or sauces you like.

Bake at 400°F for 10 minutes. Then turn the oven to broil and place the baking sheet on the top rack. Broil for 1-2 minutes.

Serve over rice, pasta, risotto, tortillas, pita, salad or whatever else you want to make this baked salmon a meal.

Tips & Notes

• Thaw frozen salmon by leaving it in the refrigerator the night before you plan to use it.
• I love to mix soy sauce with: miso, gochujang paste or black bean paste most often for my sauce. Sometimes I will mix BBQ sauce and soy sauce for a simple Korean BBQ type sauce.
• I also sometimes brush the salmon with a hot sauce before baking like: Frank’s, Sriracha or Cholula.
• Another option is to go heavy with a dry seasoning mix or rub like: Za’atar, taco seasoning, chili seasoning, or Italian seasoning. I especially like this option if I am planning to add the baked salmon to a salad.
• I also think keeping it super simple and topping the salmon with a little melted butter, lemon juice and salt and pepper is great too!

Salads & Sides to serve with Salmon

Derived from iron-rich rocks, red ochre is humanity’s oldest known pigment, with a discovery in a cave in Zambia believed to date back between 350,000 and 400,000 years. For archaeologists, it serves as a (sometimes literal) handprint of prehistoric Homo sapiens, with its presence used to trace our spread across the globe. Ochre Sunrise explores both the prehistoric and recent history of the oldest known mine in the Americas, which was long ago used to produce red ochre. Located near the now-abandoned iron-mining town of Sunrise, Wyoming, millennia-old artefacts had been known to exist at the site for decades, but it wasn’t preserved for archaeological research until the mid-1980s.

In his documentary, Keenan DesPlanques, a US-born filmmaker based in Vancouver, Canada, takes viewers to Sunrise, where, since 2017, the mine has been under excavation by a team of archaeologists. The operation has unearthed some 3,000 artefacts and revealed a rich history that dates back around 16,000 years, offering profound new insights into humans’ early presence on the continent, including glimpses of cultural practices. In documenting these efforts, the film makes for a riveting exploration of both the site itself and the hard work of archaeology, powered by patience, grit and the thrill of discovery.

Alongside new work by Jesse Glazzard and Pank Sethi, Studio Voltaire’s latest show surveys three decades of grassroots LGBTQ+ sexual health posters and photography

June 16, 2025

Technique: Water as Emotional Release

When you get into a bath or submerge yourself in the sea, focus on letting go and releasing that which no longer serves you. The Ocean Goddess can help us release unwanted emotions, pent-up rage, melancholia, and disappointment. Visualize these emotions (usually felt around your chest, neck, and hip areas) moving out through your limbs and flowing into the water to be cleansed and purified, or even letting your tears, like tiny particles of experience, hit the surface to be carried away.

Technique: Water as Physical Release

Sometimes we store our emotions in our bodies, which are approximately 60% water. In yoga, hip openers like happy baby pose, pigeon pose, and lizard pose help release physical tension, and you may also find yourself releasing intense emotion at the same time, especially unprocessed grief and sadness. You may be surprised to find yourself in tears after doing these poses for several minutes for this reason.

Technique: Pray Near a Natural Body of Water

As I write in my book, “A spell is a prayer, a prayer is a spell. A prayer is a petition to the universe. To pray is to seek the wisdom of the Creator and the Great Goddess, to start a conversation with the Divine. A prayer can also be a conversation with your higher self or a petition to the spirit world for assistance. Through prayer, we open up a channel, a direct current, to the higher energies around us.” And if you listen for a response, the answers will always come. Sometimes it’ll seem like they’re coming from deep inside you, from your higher self, or from the spirit world (your ancestors, deities, guides). But trust that they’ll always come.  

Technique: Practice Earth Stewardship

Don’t bring plastics or non-biodegradable products to sacred sites—everywhere on Earth is sacred—and leave them around as trash. It’s a sure way to anger the spirits, plus it’s outright bad kinship. We can and should all try to do better, in the little and big ways we can. As with any spiritual practice (and any other attempt at being a good citizen), if you bring objects to water sites, especially if they didn’t come from that specific place, take them back with you. While everyone’s spiritual practices are different, use your best judgment, trust your instinct and gut, and pay attention to the signs. You’ll know what’s right at the moment. Do what thou wilt, but harm none.