The calming ocean sounds and gentle breeze that blew sporadically through the window settled her and her new baby. She had ironically been recommended a holiday by the sea, and already living on the coast she decided to hop across to one of the islands for her break. She had moved from her Baltic Sea apartment (Ostsee Ferienwohnung) to the little island of Rugen, and even though the flight had upset the newborn, he had quietened quickly in the short tax ride to the hotel. Now, with the windows open and the wind clearing her head, she hummed to her baby as he slept. She found herself staring at the baby, marvelling at how perfect his features were and how two people as opposite as her and her husband could have created something so beautiful.

Smoking was not allowed in the hotel, but she had special dispensation to burn a candle for her aromatherapy. She presently had lavender in the oil burner, a small tea light under it, heating the oil and dispersing the scent throughout her room. As per instructions, an oversized fire extinguisher sat nearby, looking slightly ridiculous next to the small flame almost hidden in the burner. But she didn’t care, the lavender doing its work and calming her child as it mixed with the tangy salt air.

Gently she placed the sleeping baby in the travel cot, and took out the box of potions she kept close to her at all times. She needed mixtures for stress, anxiety and depression. The first few weeks of motherhood had taken its toll, and with her husband increasingly distant, the postnatal depression that threatened to take hold almost swamped her. The break by the ocean was what she needed, and it gave her an opportunity to bond with the baby, treat the stress she suffered, and miss her husband – and hopefully, for him to miss her.

Selecting several bottles of essential oils, she picked up some empty bottles to put the mixtures in. Equal amounts of grapefruit and palma rosa for the blues on a handkerchief inside her bra, and equal amounts of sandalwood and ylang ylang on a tissue under the cot’s mattress to help her baby sleep, was a good start. She immediately began to feel better. The labelled the two mixtures.

She added some drops of marjoram to the lavender already burning, to help ease her tension. The profusion of scents now wafting through the hotel’s room wasn’t overpowering but combined perfectly to lift her mood. She got to work mixing more concoctions and storing them in the empty bottles – nutmeg, rosemary and thyme for energy, patchouli and vetiver for stress and anxiety, and bergamot and grapefruit for depression. These bottles she labelled meticulously as she went, in her perfect handwriting, and placed back in the old wooden box.

Almost on cue, the baby stirred and she checked her watch. It was feed time, and as the baby called for her, her breasts swelled. Scooping him from the cot, they lay together on the huge bed and he fed while she napped, the aromas in the Rügen hotel room caressing them.