Why I Created Akna Wellness

I have spent years sitting across from postpartum moms — exhausted, depleted, and quietly wondering if they were doing something wrong. They weren't. The products they'd been handed were.

I want to tell you something I tell every client who asks me about Akna Wellness: I built this because I was frustrated. Not in a dramatic way — in the slow, accumulating way that happens when you watch the same problem play out, over and over, and nothing in the market is actually solving it.

This is the story of why I made these products, what is in them, and — because I know some of you are asking — exactly what third-party testing means and why it matters. Not as a marketing line. As someone who cares, professionally and personally, about what goes into your body when you are also feeding another person.

The Problem I Kept Seeing

As a Board-Certified Lactation Consultant and Functional Nutritionist, I have worked with hundreds of postpartum moms. I have held their babies, read their labs, and listened to them describe the fog — the bone-deep fatigue, the difficulty concentrating, the feeling that their body just wasn't bouncing back the way they'd expected.

A significant part of what I kept seeing was nutritional depletion. Pregnancy draws heavily on a woman's nutrient stores. Birth depletes them further. And then breastfeeding continues to draw on those same stores — sometimes for months or years.

The cruel irony is that the postpartum period is the one time when most women stop being careful about supplementation. Pregnancy vitamins get set aside. What replaces them — if anything — is often a generic lactation supplement with herbs at doses too low to do anything meaningful, and nutrients in synthetic forms the body struggles to convert.

I kept recommending things I wasn't fully satisfied with. That bothered me.

Then I Moved to Mexico — and Something Clicked

I was already working as a postpartum professional when I spent years living in Mexico. What I witnessed there changed how I understood postpartum care entirely.

The concept of la cuarentena — the forty days — is not folklore. It is a system. A new mom is fed warm broths and nourishing soups. She is kept from cold. Her family manages the visitors, the cooking, the household. Her only job for forty days is to heal, bond, and feed her baby.

The herbs were part of that ritual too. Ixbut brewed into tea. Chaya stirred into meals. Anise steeped with other plants to ease digestion and support milk flow. These were not random choices. They were the accumulated wisdom of generations of women who watched, recorded, and passed down what worked.

My co-founder grew up in that culture. He watched his sisters and friends struggle through postpartum in the U.S., without the community infrastructure, the food, or the herbs that his own family had always relied on. He saw the gap firsthand. We both did, from different vantage points — and we decided to do something about it.

"The tradition was right. The science just finally caught up — and gave me the language to explain why."

What Is Actually in These Formulas — and Why

Let me walk you through the thinking behind each product, because I want you to understand that nothing in these formulas is there by accident.

Matilde Milk Flow™ — One Herb, Done Right

Matilde is our single-ingredient product. The entire formula is Ixbut Leaf Extract (Euphorbia lancifolia) at 1500 mg per serving. That's it.

Ixbut is a shrub native to Guatemala and Central America. It has been used as a galactagogue — a substance that supports breast milk production — for centuries in communities where it grows. We source it directly from Guatemala, at a dose that actually means something, in a vegetable capsule with zero fillers.

I designed Matilde for the mom who wants to start simply, or who is already taking a postpartum vitamin and just wants targeted lactation support on top. Clean. One purpose.

Leche Viva Plus™ — The Full-Spectrum Formula

This is the formula I spent the most time on, because it tries to address the full picture of what I see postpartum bodies actually need. Here is the honest reasoning behind every ingredient.

Why bioavailable forms matter

Choosing methylfolate over folic acid, or magnesium glycinate over magnesium oxide, isn't a marketing upgrade — it's the difference between a nutrient your body can actually use and one it has to work to convert, or can't convert at all. I chose the harder-to-source, more expensive forms because I was building something I wanted to actually work.

On Third-Party Testing — Let Me Be Direct

I know the supplement industry has a trust problem. I live in it. I have seen the inside of it as a practitioner. So I want to be as specific as possible here, because "third-party tested" on a label can mean almost nothing — or it can mean everything, depending on what was actually done.

Here is what third-party testing means for Akna Wellness products:

What Was TestedWhy It Matters

✓ Heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium, mercury)Heavy metal contamination is one of the most common quality failures in botanical supplements, particularly those sourced from outside the U.S. We test for it because you are breastfeeding — this is non-negotiable.

✓ Purity — no undisclosed ingredientsThe product contains exactly what the label says, and nothing else.

✓ Potency — ingredient doses confirmedThe amounts on the label reflect what is actually in the capsule.

✓ Microbial safetyProducts are tested for microbial contamination before they reach you.

These tests are conducted by an independent laboratory — not by us. That is what "third-party" means: someone with no financial interest in the outcome reviewed the product and confirmed it meets safety standards.

I want to be clear about something else: I am a lactation consultant first. My professional reputation, my license, and my relationship with the clients who trust me are on the line every time I put my name on a product. That is not a small thing. I would not have launched Akna Wellness if I was not completely confident in the safety and quality of these formulas.

A note on FDA regulation

Dietary supplements in the U.S. are regulated differently from drugs — the FDA does not approve them before sale. This is why third-party testing matters so much: it is how responsible supplement companies provide the verification that the regulatory framework does not require. It is a choice to do it. We made that choice because we think it's the only ethical way to operate — especially for a product designed for nursing parents.

Why I Named It Akna

Akna is the Mayan goddess of birth and motherhood — the ancient protector of women in labor and in the tender weeks that follow. We chose her name because we believe new moms deserve to feel that kind of protection: intentional, reverent, and rooted in something real.

We are based in Miami. Our products are made in Guatemala — the native home of Ixbut. We sourced from origin intentionally, because we believe in honoring the communities that have always held this knowledge, not extracting from them.

Who These Products Are For

I want to be honest about what Akna Wellness products are — and what they are not.

They are herbal dietary supplements. They are not drugs. They are not a replacement for good postpartum care, adequate sleep (I know), a supportive community, or working with a qualified healthcare provider. The FDA has not evaluated them for the treatment or prevention of any disease.

What I believe, based on the clinical literature and years of practice, is that the ingredients in these formulas support postpartum recovery and lactation in ways that are meaningful and safe for most nursing parents. Results vary by individual. I recommend discussing any new supplement with your healthcare provider, particularly if you have medical conditions or take medications.

What I can say with full confidence is this: I made these for the moms I work with every day. I made them because I was tired of recommending things that weren't good enough. And I made them in a way I am genuinely proud of.

"I would not have put my name on this if I wasn't certain — as a clinician, as a practitioner, and as someone who has looked at a lot of postpartum supplement labels and found most of them wanting."

If you have questions about whether Akna Wellness is right for you, I am always reachable through Mother Poppins and through aknawellness.com. These are not chatbot answers. I read every message.

Nourish your journey. You deserve nothing less.