Our women’s wellbeing for pregnancy and beyond

Interview with Leah Salmon founder of Naturally You Coach

Leah Salmon is a home educating mother, wife, author, speaker, nutritionist, life coach & live blood analyst.  Working in the community for many years Leah has helped empower black women to improve their wellbeing.

As part of your consultancy you do Live Blood Analysis.  What does that entail?

To do this I take blood from the finger, place it on a slide and put under the microscope and project it onto the screen.  I show you round what I can see in your blood which is magnified 1000 times.  So I am able to see the white blood cells, red blood cells, plasma and the platelets.  From the shape, size and positioning of the cells we can see indications of different things to do with your health.

It’s like a reflection of your health.

The process is not meant to treat, cure or diagnose anything, and the Advertising Standards Agency makes sure we don’t ever make that claim.  But it does give us a very clear indication of what is going on in the person’s body so that does help in giving dietary recommendations as well.  It’s very interesting.

You have worked to help women improve their health for many years.  How and why did you start this journey?

When I was 11years old I decided I wanted to be a vegetarian.  My mum obliged as long as I was getting enough protein.  So in everybody’s estimation if you are a young growing girl you need to get a source of protein, and the only way was through soya.  So I was led down the path of eating soya at least 3 times a day.  I had soya milk, soya cheese, soya burgers, even soya bacon.  Literally, soya everything.  In the midst of eating insane amounts of soya I also very rarely ate fresh fruits and vegetables.  I rarely made meals from scratch.  Like me making a meal  would be like boiling pasta and putting cheese on top and a soya sausage.  That was the extent of my culinary skills, so I was what I called a junk food vegetarian.  So as long as there wasn’t any meat, poultry or fish in it then I ate it.  I wasn’t vegan.

So I had pizza and spicy bean burgers from the take away.  By the time I was 17 I developed a menstrual condition called Metrorrhagia where I would bleed between my periods.  So I would have my regular period and 2 weeks later I had another period.  And this lasted for about 2 years and came with all the other symptoms of PMS.  I had the extreme pain, heaviness, clots, the skin eruptions, food cravings and the emotional instabilities.  But when I was 17years old this Metrorrhagia developed as well and this lasted until I was about 19years old.  And I kept it that long because I did not want to tell anyone about it.  I found it very embarrassing to have those problems.  I thought I was being punished and I did not link it to the food I was eating as I was under the presumption (and a lot of the clients I work with are under the same impression) that to be vegan/vegetarian then I am healthy and there is no way my food can impact my health. Read More

The Yoni Steam

Interview with Emma Etaka Ako founder of Mama Luna

What is the origin of vaginal steaming and cleansing and where is it popular today?
Womb steaming takes place all over the world but has origins in South Africa.  It is most popular in rural areas in Africa in rural areas in Nigeria, Bakino Faso and Ghana.

In northern Africa it is also practised in places namely Morocco. As well as Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan.

Yoni steaming is practiced in rural areas for post pregnancy wellbeing.  Usually there is a 40day ritual to help get the body back to full health and yoni steaming is used for this.

Outside of the continent yoni steaming is popular in Korea and in Thailand where it’s called Chai-yok

In India steaming is practised in the Ganges region and it is here the practice is called Yoni steaming. Yoni means temple or sacred gateway.  And in Europe the practice of yoni steaming in most popular in Poland.

Womb steaming is most commonly used from puberty in Central South America in countries such as Peru where it is called Bajos.  But the western society is still just coming on board with steaming.

What made you start learning about yoni steaming?
Well, I have always been into natural health.

In my early to mid-twenties I explored in my curiosity towards natural health and I was really interested in women’s empowerment.

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The V Spot

Interview with Dr Rhoda Molife

Do you find that black women are comfortable speaking about their vaginas?

Generally, we’re not. You know in our culture anything to do with our sexuality is generally not for discussion. But here’s the good news – it is probably more to do with the generation we’re from – so our mothers and grandmothers didn’t talk to us about our vaginas, though I bet amongst themselves they probably did. And I think our generation and those younger  – in their 20s and 30s –  are more comfortable having these conversations and are more open about anything to do with our sexuality, especially when we’re together. What we may not talk so much about is vaginal health. I don’t think this is limited to black women…women period don’t talk so much about vaginal health.

What are the common issues you find are prevalent to black women when it comes to vaginal health?

You know I think the main issue is still about vaginal cleanliness. Should we use soap or douches to wash our vaginas? By now, we should know that we shouldn’t but there are still pockets of us that think that we need to scrub with all sorts to ‘keep clean’, not realising what a wonderful and smart mechanism the vagina has to keep itself clean and healthy and that all we need is water and a mild soap for the vulval (outer) area.

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