You never know when or what you may need it for.
CBD, or cannabidiol, is a compound found in the hemp plant—but it doesn’t make you high. Instead, it provides a number of surprising health benefits that can keep busy moms like you on top of your game.
Being a mom is the toughest job on Earth. It’s also the best job on Earth, but some of the realities like lack of sleep, stress, back pain and more are sometimes unavoidable.
Although prescription meds can help with these issues, they often have side-effects that can render them useless to a mom who has to maintain her mental prowess, not just at the office, but also when she’s spending time with her kids at home.
That’s why millions of working (and stay-at-home) moms have turned to non-psychoactive CBD oil to help them stay at their very best, with no serious side effects.
Here are five reasons why you should keep a bottle of CBD oil in your medicine cabinet, and another in your purse, too!
CBD Oil for Stress
Stress and anxiety are two things every mom is used to. Often times, anxiety is a byproduct of the stress you feel because of all the stuff on your motherly plate. Stress is a healthy reaction when there’s much to be accomplished, whether it’s work-related or kid-related. But the combination of ensuring your kids are well-fed, well-dressed, well-educated, well-everything, on top of managing a career and paying the bills, can turn even the most motherly of mothers into a flat-out momzilla.
Luckily, there’s a natural stress relief remedy that won’t cost you a fortune or leave you feeling groggy at work: CBD. CBD oil actually promotes alertness and mental clarity so brain fog doesn’t stand a chance.
CBD Oil for Sleep
Stress is hard enough to manage, but a common issue that stems from high stress levels is sleeplessness, or insomnia. Even if you’ve never really been the type to stress out over things, having trouble falling asleep is something every parent has dealt with at one point or another.
Lack of sleep is an especially notorious facet of new-parenthood: waking every 15 minutes throughout the night to change a diaper, wipe some tears away, or argue that it’s dad’s turn to address the screams and wails coming from down the hall. And then there’s sharing your bed with a 30-pound person who somehow takes up more room than two full-grown adults.
Sleep is a precious commodity if you’re doing your parenting the right way. That’s why so many moms trust hemp-derived CBD products to get the restful sleep they need to take on the rigors of motherhood with grace.
Sleep is a vital piece of our health, and the hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy and motherhood can seriously alter the natural processes that typically govern our sleep-wake cycle. The endocannabinoid system is intricately involved in the homeostasis of sleep and energy expenditure. When being a mom throws it out of whack, CBD is there as a buffer to restore balance to the endocannabinoid system, which naturally helps you to get the sleep you need, without dulling your motherly instincts or making you feel dazed in the morning.
CBD Oil and Pregnancy
The title of this section may have taken you by surprise, and of course the obvious question that pops into your head is “Can CBD be used during pregnancy?”
Well, the jury is still out on this one, but let's use this as an example to learn more about the endocannabinoid system. The endowhatnow? The Endocannabinoid System! It’s the system that is present throughout the human body, and it regulates the activity levels of many different cell types, including brain cells, immune cells, cells in our digestive tract, and, you guessed it, the cells that comprise the uterus, placenta, and umbilical cord.
A healthy endocannabinoid system is required for conception to occur. It’s also necessary for implantation of the fertilized egg in the uterine lining, and for the healthy development of the embryo into a recognizable fetus by week 12. Even breast milk contains unusually high quantities of the endocannabinoid anandamide, which is thought to help strengthen and develop the infant’s own endocannabinoid system.
CBD supports the endocannabinoid system’s natural healthy function, which in turn supports a healthy mother and infant. But CBD also helps with many of the ancillary hardships that go along with pregnancy, from mood swings to back pain to abnormal cravings and everything in between, now back to our list!
CBD Oil and Weight Loss
Evolutionarily, the mother’s role is to feed and protect her young until they are independent enough to feed and protect themselves. For that reason, it’s natural to gain about 15-20 percent of your body weight during pregnancy. This is both to satisfy the physical demands of growing a baby, as well as to build sufficient fat stores to nurse your baby once he/she is born.
While weight gain during pregnancy can’t—and shouldn’t—be avoided, maintaining a healthy weight after you give birth is more important than at any other time in your life. It’s also much more difficult than it was pre-baby bump. That’s why many mothers turn to CBD oil to help curb their between-meal appetite and maintain a healthy metabolism through the chaos of raising kids and supporting a household.
The endocannabinoid system is intricately involved in the homeostasis of energy consumption and expenditure. Appetite is how we know when we need to consume more energy. Our body’s own endocannabinoids serve the same function, making us feel hungry when our blood sugar drops below a certain point.
However, sometimes the endocannabinoid system can faultily produce feelings of hunger even when your body isn’t necessarily in need of more energy or nutrients. In these cases, overeating is a common result, and it’s an issue that CBD has shown promise in alleviating.
Because it acts as a buffer for the endocannabinoid system—raising levels when they’re too low and reducing levels when they become excessive—CBD Oil is able to balance the feeling of hunger with the feeling of satiety, or fullness. This has helped many moms to keep their figure in check, while they’re busy keeping their kids and their finances in check.
CBD Oil for Back Pain
Back pain during pregnancy is one of the most common symptoms that women experience while carrying a human inside their abdomen for nine months. It only makes sense, right? Not only does the weight of the baby cause increased spinal pressure, but the volume of the baby compresses organs and nerves and vertebrae that were very comfortable right where they were for the last decade or two, before a baby decided to invade their personal space.
In addition, hormones cause women’s sensory perception to become overly sensitized, thanks again to our old friend evolution. Just as the old saying warns, “don’t upset mama bear,” mamas of all species have heightened senses for up to years after pregnancy, sometimes for the rest of their lives. While this serves a very worthy purpose, it also carries with it some annoying consequences, namely, increased pain sensitivity.
Coupled with all that pressure from a human being pressing on your spine, it’s no surprise that back pain is a common complaint of expecting and new mothers, as well as mothers of all ages. Again, thanks to its modulation and rejuvenation of the endocannabinoid system, CBD oil has shown promise in relieving pain of all sorts, especially back pain. Not only does it reduce the strength of pain signals en route to the brain via the spinal cord, but it also reduces the sensitivity of the pain receptors on our nerve cells, which reduces the original strength of the pain signal.
The reason why women around the world are turning towards CBD products for aid is because CBD offers users a safe, effective alternative to prescription painkillers, other toxic prescription drugs and over-the-counter drugs that contain harsh chemical compounds alien to nature’s perfect remedies.
Written by Green Roads for Working Mother and legally licensed through the Matcha publisher network. Please direct all licensing questions to legal@getmatcha.com.