I love the earth mama bottom balm and spray. The balm is fabulous for hemorrhoids, and the spray was so wonderful for healing and comfort around the stitches. I also used the postpartum bath herbs. I never could tolerate sitz baths because I found them very uncomfortable to sit on, being so swollen and all. Instead, my midwives recommended tub baths in a clean bathtub, and I added the the bath herb tea to my tub bath. I bought all of those products again for this time, and then found out that there were more bath herbs in my homebirth kit.
I'm also a big believer in mama cloth for postpartum use. I'm normally a tampon girl, so I chose normal disposable stuff for my first birth. With my second, I went with hemp and wool, and it was SO much more comfy and cooler than disposables. I felt so much better so much faster. It was really surprising. I was also surprised at how much more quickly my stitches dissolved.
If you want to try it without a huge investment and committment, then one option is to buy diaper doublers. Last time, I bought leaf doublers from
www.betterforbabies.com for the immediate postpartum period, and switched over to folded over hemp washcloths for later when things were lighter. I had a WAHM make me some simple wool liners, but I see that
www.loveybums.com has wool doublers that would probably also serve the purpose perfectly, and they are also very inexpensive. The nice thing was that after I was done with it, I was able to use all my supplies for diapering DD. This time, I've made everything (from yummy organic cotton fleece and velour and wool), and that is another very economic option.
