A flowering peyote cactus...Sacred Indigenous Medicines for Postpartum Depression and Overwhelm
Sacred indigenous medicines like magic mushrooms, peyote, and kambo (among many others) are known to have miraculous effects in the treatment of mental health disorders of all kinds. While medicines like Ayahuasca, Sapito, and Iboga can also produce amazing results, I’ve chosen to focus specifically on the psilocybin mushrooms, peyote, and kambo here since all three of these are compatible with breastfeeding. Magic mushrooms are particularly well-suited to breastfeeding in the earlier stages since the “trip” using this entheogenic medicine is somewhat shorter than that of peyote and the half-life of psilocybin is short enough that most women can resume breast-feeding within just 4 hours of taking a full dose of psilocybin mushrooms.Women in the postpartum period are severely neglected in terms of treatment options. Often, women who have just given birth have been through some fairly major traumas including birth trauma and possibly relationship traumas (which are more common than most women wish to admit). Babies are often born with issues that make it hard for women who have just given birth to pay proper attention to themselves in order to move past the emotional weight of what they've been through. I know all about this first-hand because my own husband had a psychotic break just 3 months before the birth of my first child. He left me to return to his family of origin in Myanmar during a military coup. When he left there was literally a huge leak above my bed and I was very ill with a kidney infection. I was in a lot of pain, I couldn't eat, and I still had to find a midwife in a foreign country (Mexico) where I was living. I had interviewed three midwives already with poor results. I didn't want to give birth in the hospital here. My husband and I had been (prior to his psychotic break) committed to a home birth. After the baby was born (I did 30 hours of labor at home and ended up in the hospital with an excellent team of people who made it possible for me to still have a vaginal birth), I was like a zombie. I had been so traumatized, I felt like I'd lost myself to some black void. For me, psilocybin mushrooms were what saved me.
As I write this article, it has been less than 6 months since my husband left. Though my life is not perfect, I'm not crippled by my postpartum depression or the trauma that led up to it. For this reason, I felt like it was important that I share the information that Jennifer and I researched and then worked with over the past few months to come up with a protocol for women with postpartum depression. Please note that Jennifer (my mother) and I offer a variety of natural cures for postpartum depression using sacred medicines at our facility in Mexico. This facility is located about 1 hour northwest of Mexico City in a small community in the mountains. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.
UPDATE 2024: Just a few months after this article posted, Lydian's husband came back home and began working intensively with psilocybin mushrooms and the other sacred medicines to overcome his own trauma. They are doing very well now. Their experiences working with psilocybin mushrooms are testament to how we are connected to each other as humans and how one person working to heal themselves that create a cascade of healing.
Click here to buy psilocybin online.
Psilocybin: Magic Mushrooms for Postpartum Depression and Anxiety
While regarded by some to be a recreational psychedelic drug, magic mushrooms are actually a sacred plant medicine with profound benefits for mental and emotional health. Psilocybin is the main psychoactive compound found in Psilocybe mushrooms, along with psilocin; Psilocybe mushrooms can be found on every continent (except, of course, Antarctica). Magic mushrooms have been used successfully in therapeutic settings to treat a long list of mental and/or emotional issues, as well as some physical problems, including (but by no means limited to):- Postpartum depression (which is often, technically, a depression that results from trauma)
- Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD)
- Substance abuse / Addiction
- Treatment-resistant depression
- Cluster headaches and cluster migraines
- Cancer-related depression and anxiety
- Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- Major depressive disorder (MDD)
- Depression / Anxiety
In regard to the treatment of postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, some studies have noted that psilocybin may help facilitate mother-baby bonding/”reconnection”. This sense of reconnection and bonding is thought to subsequently improve the mother’s mood and her sensitivity toward her baby (something that a lot of mothers with PPD/PPA struggle with). Mothers who take full doses of magic mushrooms or who microdose report having a dramatic lift in their PPD/PPA symptoms, and an increased sense of attachment to themselves, their baby, and their surroundings, in addition to an added sense of clarity and alertness. Magic mushrooms have also been able to help women with postpartum depression to have more insight into their emotions and thoughts, and have encouraged the return of a sense of humor and the ability to be patient with themselves, their children, and their partners.
My own experience with magic mushrooms for postpartum depression was that the “shrooms” helped me understand the trauma I’d been through from a much bigger perspective. They helped me hear the negative, toxic thoughts I was having and they taught me how to think BIGGER thoughts which got me out of that black void of depression. Often, after a full trip, it would take 3 to 7 days for me to fully process the message I’d received on the trip. One of my biggest breakthroughs, for example, had to do with the fact that I could allow myself to “think” about what had happened to me. I didn’t have to run from my thoughts, I didn’t have to hide from my memories or from what had happened to me. Suddenly, I could THINK.
Mothers who are breastfeeding absolutely can take magic mushrooms, but it’s important that they plan ahead carefully to take care of themselves and their baby’s needs. Psilocybin has been shown to be safer than aspirin and morphine, and is in fact considered to be one of the safest hallucinogenic substances currently in use. Most psychedelic users wait 5 half-lives before breastfeeding; in the case of magic mushrooms, this would equate to approximately 5 hours after administration, since the half life of psilocybin is around 1 hour. The half-life of the other active compound in ‘shrooms, psilocin, is only 37 minutes.
The amount of psilocybin that could potentially be left in breastmilk four hours after taking a dose of psilocybin mushrooms is minute. I started taking psilocybin when my daughter was about 3 months old. At this time, it was hard for me to wait for 5 full hours to breastfeed because she refused the bottle. She had been through a lot of trauma during her birth too because her hand had gotten caught up near my cervix for about 10 hours preventing her from being born. My feeling was that a tiny amount of psilocybin might benefit her too–we’re talking tiny, but still enough to help her brain create new connections that could provide ways for her to adapt better to her new life on earth.
Psilocybin is famous for creating new synaptic connections that help our minds process trauma. If our normal state of thinking were viewed like highways or roadways, where having a thought involves a particular direction through multiple intersections, trauma creates a situation in the mind that’s a lot like a dead-end or a cul de sac. Trauma, according to this definition, is any situation in which you feel like your life or the life of a loved-one is threatened. Your life may not in reality be in peril, but if your mind feels as though you or someone you love might die, your body will process this experience as though it were “trauma”. Trauma creates thought-stoppage. Trauma creates these scary dead-ends in our thinking that are hard for us to back out of and turn around. When we have trauma, we avoid certain thoughts in an effort to not get stuck at a dead-end in some dark place that leads nowhere. Psilocybin opens up these dead-ends so that we can think beyond these traumatic moments. It works to remove the trauma from the autonomic nervous system (to bring back our “felt sense” that we lose when we’re traumatized to use Dr. Peter Levine’s phrase) and reset this part of our body that allows us to feel and intuit things like, what the baby needs when it cries in a particular way. Psilocybin creates new roadways to connect dead-end thoughts to hopeful avenues ahead. This was my experience with psilocybin mushrooms as a cure for postpartum depression.
My daughter suffered no ill effects from the tiny microdose of psilocbyin that she received through my breastmilk. In fact, I do feel like it helped her calm down more easily. After she was born, someone had to be holding her constantly because she would choke on her spit sometimes. Her cough reflex was poor and didn’t develop until she was about 4 months old. I scheduled craniosacral therapy for her every month to help her with this problem and then she had tiny microdoses of psilocybin in breastmilk regularly once she was 3 months old. All of the medical practitioners who have worked her up to this point have noted how alert she is and how her development is ahead of schedule. I credit the psilocbyin (albeit in tiny doses), the craniosacral therapy, and the fact that her mom (me) did not confine myself to zombie-hood as a way of life.
After taking a 1000 mg dose of magic mushrooms, breastfeeding mothers should wait at least 4 to 5 hours before breastfeeding, and the mother should plan to do at least 1 “pump-and-dump” session before breastfeeding again. After 5 hours, the mother may still be “tripping”, at least somewhat, and though she can breastfeed her baby if she feels ready to do so, she should have someone stay with her and the baby until the trip is completely finished (usually the trip is over around 6 hours after the full dose is administered). The mother will need to have space to take the magic mushrooms. Ideally, she should be able to go into a natural setting and sit alone. Make sure that the baby has enough milk to last at least 4 hours, if not up to 6 hours, to allow the mom plenty of time to go on her journey. My daughter, of course, refused to eat a full meal from a bottle, but grandma and grandpa were still able to feed her snacks while I was tripping and this was enough to get me through these essential psilocybin treatments.
After taking a 1000 mg dose of magic mushrooms, breastfeeding mothers should wait at least 5 hours before breastfeeding, and the mother should plan to do at least 1 “pump-and-dump” session before breastfeeding again. After 5 hours, the mother may still be “tripping”, at least somewhat, and though she can breastfeed her baby if she feels ready to do so, she should have someone stay with her and the baby until the trip is completely finished. The mother will need to have space to take the magic mushrooms. Ideally, she should be able to go into a natural setting alone. Make sure that the baby has enough milk to last at least 4 hours, if not up to 6 hours, to allow the mom plenty of time to go on her journey.
Alternatively, a mom may choose to microdose psilocybin. This might be preferable for mothers who are just beginning their breastfeeding journey and aren’t able to just take a break from breastfeeding easily yet, even for a few hours. It may also be preferable for single women or women who lack enough support to have someone watch their baby (and other children, if she has them) for 4-6 hours during a full ‘shroom “trip”. For women who opt to do microdosing, take 100 mg of ‘shrooms 1-2 times per day while continuing to breastfeed.
Although studies are limited in terms of the effects of magic mushrooms on infant health while breastfeeding, it’s worth noting that many indigenous cultures have used ‘shrooms for a long time in various contexts. In fact, even pregnant women and young children sometimes receive these medicines, albeit in smaller doses. Breastfeeding women are also allowed to partake. Mothers with postpartum psychosis should not take psilocybin without careful monitoring from a healthcare professional. Women with postpartum depression or anxiety, however, unless they have a history of psychosis or schizophrenia in themselves, may choose to take the mushrooms either on their own or in a therapeutic setting.
In regard to postpartum psychosis and schizophrenia though, I do need to say that psychosis itself is often the result of trauma. To explain how this works, recently, I read about a woman who had undergone surgery to have her fallopian tubes cauterized. This woman’s situation is an excellent example of how trauma can cause psychosis. The anesthesia during this woman’s surgery did not work properly. Though she couldn’t move, she could feel everything during the procedure. She could hear the doctors and nurses talking and she felt her body being burned on the inside. When she came back from surgery, she didn’t have conscious memories of what had happened…yet. Rather, this trauma was right at the surface of her consciousness. She became like a paranoid schizophrenic. She believed that her husband was conspiring to harm her in some way. She had panic attacks. Eventually, she worked with a trauma therapist who administered Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and she started to become conscious of what had happened to her in surgery. Once the memories became fully conscious, she stopped feeling paranoid. Her unconscious mind had confused the doctor’s voice with her husband’s voice. The panic attacks were triggered by medical settings. It all started to make sense and her body eventually released the trauma.
Click here to do a free trial of EMDR online.
EMDR, by the way, is something that women can do at home using a simple program. Craniosacral therapy works with the same cranial nerves that are re-adjusted using EMDR. During many of my mushroom trips, my eyes would be drawn strongly to the right or to the left for certain “lessons”. EMDR can be very helpful as a cure for postpartum depression, but some women still need to work with something a bit stronger like psilocybin mushrooms. A combination of psilocybin and EMDR is a powerful natural treatment for postpartum depression.
Click here to buy psilocybin online.
Nonetheless, it’s important for people to know that trauma can cause people to experience hallucinations and delusions (psychosis). If a woman who was mentally healthy before pregnancy suddenly develops postpartum psychosis, she probably needs treatment for trauma. After all, pregnancy and childbirth bring women as close to death as most of them have ever been. They fear for their own lives and the lives of their children. They experience pain and there’s no escape from it. Most birthing experiences are traumatic for both mother and child. As such, depression and psychosis can occur and should be treated using therapies that address trauma.
Click here to read more about how to use psilocybin for postpartum depression.
In the United States, magic mushrooms are commonly found growing naturally in the wild, but it is illegal to possess in most states. In 2023, Oregon became the first state to allow the legal use of ‘shrooms in a therapeutic context. As I mentioned above, however, if you’re interested in a more therapeutic setting, please don’t hesitate to contact us as AlivenHealthy to set up a time to visit us here in Mexico to work with psilocybin mushrooms or other sacred medicines. Contact us at [email protected] to discuss your situation with us or visit our sacred medicines web site here.
WARNING: Women who are taking anti-depressant medications will need to stop taking those medications prior to working with psilocybin mushrooms.
Peyote: Lactation-Friendly Treatment for PPD and PPA
Peyote (Lophophora williamsii) is another remarkably safe entheogenic medicine that’s also considered to be safer than aspirin and morphine. The main hallucinogenic compound in peyote, mescaline, is also found in certain other cacti, such as San Pedro, and can be consumed in larger quantities to produce a full “trip”, or microdosed, according to the mom’s needs. In the indigenous communities of Mexico, peyote is regularly consumed by women at all stages of life, including during pregnancy and breastfeeding; young children are also allowed to participate in peyote ceremonies, albeit while of course taking smaller, more appropriate doses of the plant medicine.Peyote has been used therapeutically to treat the following mental, emotional, and physical health problems:
- Diabetes
- Chronic pain
- Skin problems
- Toothache
- Childbirth pains / Labor pains
- Anxiety / Depression
Certain alkaloids in peyote are thought to promote the release of progesterone in female bodies, which then can (and often does) provoke menstruation in non-pregnant women. However, in pregnant women, this release of progesterone is favorable and prevents miscarriage from occurring. Indeed, in the Huichol communities in Mexico, women who take sufficient amounts of peyote during pregnancy report very few cases of miscarriage and have healthy children. Some sources say that peyote consumption during pregnancy can even help with establishing the placenta and can encourage healthy fetal development.
While peyote can encourage a healthy pregnancy, it can also be extremely valuable during labor and also in the postpartum period as women establish breastfeeding. Mescaline is known to interact with certain serotonergic receptors in the body (specifically the 5HT2A receptors), which can promote vasoconstriction in the uterus and can induce uterine contractions when a woman’s pregnancy is at term. After birth, mescaline also has been known to increase prolactin levels, thereby supporting an abundant milk supply in the new mother.
Traditionally, when a person wants to experience a full peyote “trip”, they are to go off into the desert in search of little peyote “buttons”. They do not receive the medicine from someone else; rather, the peyote that’s right for each person “finds them”. Some groups in Mexico still offer this experience, but in the United States, peyote is legally accessible only through the Native American Church or when used in religious contexts. Otherwise, it is considered to be a Schedule I substance by the DEA. In Canada, possession and usage is entirely legal (although mescaline is still listed as a Schedule III controlled substance).
Click here to learn more about the DreamLight.app, a guided meditation and brain-entrainment tool for trauma treatment at home.
Women suffering from postpartum depression or anxiety can take a higher dose of peyote to experience a full “trip”, or they can take peyote microdosing over time, depending on the resources they have access to and their own personal requirements. Keep in mind that a full peyote “trip” can last anywhere between 8-12 hours, and while it is possible to breastfeed while taking peyote (and milk that is pumped during this time can be stored for later or given to an infant), many women may not feel particularly able to do so while journeying (at least not at first). Thus, a full peyote trip may require more planning than taking a full ‘shrooms trip.Women taking MAOIs should avoid taking peyote unless they’re able to completely stop taking their MAOI medications for at least 2 weeks before taking this plant medicine.
We are sometimes able to obtain peyote from a local curandera here in Mexico. If you wish to work with peyote as an herbal remedy for postpartum depression, contact us at [email protected]. Please let us know which prescription medications you are currently taking along with supplements and non-prescription medications that you take on a regular basis.
Kambo: Jungle Treatment for PTSD and Postpartum Mental Health Problems
Unlike magic mushrooms and peyote, kambo isn’t (usually) a hallucinogenic substance, yet it works to help women release mental health blocks through different mechanisms of action. Kambo is a venom from the Phyllomedusa bicolor, a frog found primarily in the Amazon rainforest, where local tribes use the venom as a preventative medicine as well as a treatment for a range of health problems, including:- Postpartum Depression
- Depression / Anxiety
- Addiction / Substance abuse
- Anxiety disorders
- Insomnia
- Incontinence
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Pain
- Skin conditions (including psoriasis, eczema, acne, etc.)
- Toxic buildup
- Pathogenic infection
- Fatigue
- Stress
- Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)
- And more…
Kambo is regularly administered to men, women, and children for the health problems listed above. It is given in age-appropriate doses when administered to children.
Kambo can be used to treat not only postpartum depression and postpartum anxiety, but it can also be used to relieve PTSD symptoms that some women may have following childbirth, while also repairing the physical body by treating problems like incontinence and infection. In the treatment of PTSD, stress, and anxiety disorders in particular, Kambo releases endorphins that can help relieve pain while also activating the central nervous system and rebalancing the autonomic nervous system into a state of rest-and-digest.
Kambo is administered to a patient’s skin in the form of “dots”. First, a small area of skin (no larger than a pencil eraser) must be burned to remove just the thin top layer of skin. The patient may receive only one dot, or they may receive a few dots, depending on what they and the Kambo practitioner decide is best based on the patient’s individual situation. Then, the venom is administered to these dots of burned skin, where it can then enter the bloodstream directly. Most people feel the effects of Kambo within only a few minutes after receiving the medicine. These effects can actually resemble anaphylactic shock in some ways, with swelling of the face and of the throat being common (breathing is still possible, however). Redness of the face and upper body in particular is normal also, as is the sensation of increased blood pressure and heart rate. Nausea and vomiting are also extremely common and indicative of a kind of “cleanse” happening in the digestive system. While these effects of Kambo can be quite uncomfortable, the vast majority of people who receive Kambo report feeling much better after taking the medicine (though sometimes it takes a day or two to really notice the positive effects!).
I have worked with Kambo for many years. Jennifer and I both were trained in how to administer Kambo by a curandera here in Mexico. She administered Kambo to doctors and nurses during the COVID pandemic before a vaccine became available. Kambo was one of the first sacred medicines that I worked with to treat birth trauma and postpartum depression. Though its effects were not as powerful as psilocybin mushrooms for trauma, Kambo made me feel less angry and irritable for about 24 hours after each dose. I definitely felt stronger physically after taking the Kambo. It gave me courage (which is the commonly reported Kambo medicinal effects) and it cleansed my liver. I administered 9 dots over the course of 2 weeks when my daughter was about 2 months old.
Kambo is known as an “ordeal medicine” because it often involves some kind of purge, whether it be through vomiting or even through diarrhea (sometimes both). In some systems of medicine, such as Traditional Chinese Medicine, organs are thought to hold our emotions, and when a particularly serious event occurs in our lives, sometimes, our emotions can get “stuck” in different organs and can cause stagnation. Note how this concept of emotional energy being “stuck” is very similar to the latest psychology research into trauma and how trauma gets “stuck” in the autonomic nervous system. This is a fascinating topic, of course, and essentially, trauma psychology has finally caught up to Traditional Chinese Medicine in regard to how emotions impact our physical bodies. Kambo helps get rid of these emotions that are “stuck” in the body, thus making it possible for the body to restore its own equilibrium and to heal itself naturally. Indeed, some Kambo practitioners administer Kambo on the acupuncture points for more targeted results.
For women experiencing postpartum depression or anxiety, or who have PTSD (PTSD is a common underlying cause of PPD and PPA), stagnant emotions and “stuck” trauma can pose a major problem in terms of recovery. In addition, some pathogens such as Candida albicans are known to cause unusual mood shifts that can be remarkably confusing and uncomfortable. Kambo is also able to help get rid of these kinds of infections, and therefore can also restore health to the body in this way. FINAL NOTE: Jennifer and I studied under a curandera in Mexico and we have worked intensively with a number of sacred indigenous medicines. We offer sacred indigenous medicines as well as private ceremonies to treat postpartum depression in Mexico. Contact us at [email protected] for more information.
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Resources:
• Jacobs, Andrew (2023). Legal Use of Hallucinogenic Mushrooms Begins in Oregon. Retrieved November 20, 2023 from: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/03/health/psychedelic-drugs-mushrooms-oregon.html
• MacCallum, Caroline A., et. al. (2022). Therapeutic use of psilocybin: Practical considerations for dosing and administration. Retrieved November 20, 2023 from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9751063/
• Jairaj, Chaitra, et. al. (2022). Postpartum depression: A role for psychedelics? Retrieved November 20, 2023 from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9354062/
• Wilde, Anna (2023). Psychedelic Therapy for Pregnant and Breastfeeding Mothers. Retrieved November 20, 2023 from: https://www.psychedelicpassage.com/psychedelic-therapy-for-mothers-navigating-pregnancy-breastfeeding/
• Ielyseieva, Tanya (2021). Microdosing Moms: Psilocybin and Postpartum Depression Relief. Retrieved November 20, 2023 from: https://truffle.report/microdosing-moms-psilocybin-postpartum-depression-relief/
• N.A. (2023). Psilocybin for breastfeeding mothers: all you need to know. Retrieved November 20, 2023 from: https://go-microdose.com/psilocybin-for-breastfeeding-mothers-all-you-need-to-know/
• Schaefer, Stacy (2019). Beautiful Flowers: Women and Peyote in Indigenous Traditions. Retrieved November 21, 2023 from: https://maps.org/news/bulletin/beautiful-flowers-women-and-peyote-in-indigenous-traditions-spring-2019/
• Wikipedia (2023). Peyote. Retrieved November 21, 2023 from: https://maps.org/news/bulletin/beautiful-flowers-women-and-peyote-in-indigenous-traditions-spring-2019/
• Johnson, Jon (2020). What to know about peyote. Retrieved November 21, 2023 from: https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/peyote
• Choice House (n.d). The Immediate Impact: Short-Term Effects of Peyote. Retrieved November 21, 2023 from: https://www.choicehousecolorado.com/short-term-effects-of-peyote/
• N.A. (n.d). Kambo Therapy: Meaning, Uses, and Benefits. Retrieved November 21, 2023 from: https://mantracare.org/therapy/what-is/kambo-therapy/
