Hi all....I am perhaps quite lame, or compuer addicted, I posted before I went to bed and checked first thing when I woke up.....
But dang, alot happened on this list in between!
On the vaginal varicosities and swelling- it happens because you have more blood flow to the pelvis and stuff just get engorged. With more blood flow going on during sex, it usually makes it much worse. Good news is I have seen some horriblly engorged mamas give birth, and they are always a bit frightened, but they report no extra pain and are just relieved becaus eit goes away shortly after birth. Also, the new midwfe who is filling in for me turned me onto the bioflavinoid Rutin for varicosities. Most internal vein formulas aren't ok in pregnancy because they vasoconstrict, which you wouldn't want to do in pregnancy with the whole placenta thing going on. But Rutin is fine and we've found the side effect is it reduces appearence of stretch marks really well! Take 500-1000mg a day in pill form, it strengthens veins and skin...ALos, do you know blueberries, blackberries, and purple grapes are good for veins. There is an old herbalist thing calle dthe doctrine of signatures that says a plant will "tell you" in it's appearence what it's use is. I think it's cool that blue encapsulated things are good for veins, aferall the blueberry skin loooks veiny in a way. I think rutin is derived from the white stuff that keep sections of oranges seperate- again, it is a tough skin, gives you tough skin and veins. Nature is so clever...I always also thought it was funny that red raspberry leaf was specific for toning the uterus, as the red raspberry, red and hollow, kinda looks like a uterus. Just musings on the old herbalist lore....
If you want a source for prepared herbs, which are good for herbalist starters, go to
www.birthwithlove.com. You can get get tinctures for birth from Wishgarden like wombstringe for hemmorhage, and they make a great prepared sitz bath, too. Get at least two bags of sitz bath herbs if you are serious about using them....and just use them in your tub after wards, you don't need a fancy "sitz bath" contraption. To use you boil the herbs in a big pot, making 1/3 to half the "butt tea" at once. Put it in a piture, and label it so noone drinks it....You can soak your peripads in these and freeze them to make "twatsicles" as Lisa Goldstein calls them, ha, ha. Anyway, take some of the concentrated tea and add to a bath. First just fill tub to your hips and soak a bit to enjoy the benefits of the herbs. Then fill all the way and luxuriate inthe tub, and bring baby in if you want. I have many people do this and it doesn't present a problem with the cord, despite all the hullabaloo that says don't get the baby wet till the cord falls off. It is so sweet to have a babe in the bath- just hold their head, ears under face olny poking up, and let their body float in warm water, they will unfold and start moving in the familiar environment of warm water....Its a nice postpartum ritual for the first week, and warm water will often calm a fussy baby if you do this with confidence...
The birthwithlove web site is kind of poorly organized and hard to get around in someplaces, but also has single tinctures, dry herbs I think, and essential oils. I have a friend that has a small essential oil company here that makes blends for birth, she was a commune midwfe for about 100 births in the 60's and is such a great earth mama. You could get stuff from her 941-929-0999 if you wanted to wait to get stuff shipped from Florida. If you look at local natural healer magazines you could also come up with someone locally who could do this for you I am sure. If you want a good starter book on using herbs with babies and kids two favorite refernces are "Smart Medicine for a Healthier Child" and "Natural Healing for Babies and Children" The first is by a long list of folks, an encycolpedia of comlaints and then what your ped could do, nutritional approaches, massage, accupressure, homeopathy, herbs, and when it's serious and you really need a doc. Great reference. The other is like having an herbalist midwife at your finger tips for all new baby and nursing complaints- it's by Aviva Jill Romm. Ilove all her books.
I buy all my bulk herbs from mountain rose herbal on the web. They have cocoa/shea butter in bul, and a nice belly oil called rose moon I like. They have a few room sprays, I forget which I like best, and all the single oils/herbs you could need if yuo want to make your own stuff. They also have diffusers and supplies like that. Simple oils for labor are lavender, jasmine, clary sage, and lemon or orange. Lavender with one other thing- clary sage or orange/lemon are nice and simple. Citrus if you want to stimulate, clary sage for labor. And though very expensive, pure rose oil is THE BEST for birth.
Anyone ordering natural healing supplies- get homeopathic arnica montana 30c for after birth. You take little pellets every 15 minutes after birth for an hour, or whenever you remeber for the first few hours, and then everytime you think "ow my bottom's sore" for the first few days. Reduces swelling and bruising, make a big differecne for your bottom. That is the one must have after birth in my opinion. Get instructions on how to use homeos if you never have, they have rules- don't store (or ship) with stron smelling products, don't touch pellets always tap into cap then mouth, don't eat or drink right before using....
Oh, and I have been expanding my lending library to include books I wanted, and in Elizabeth Pantley's "The no-cry sleep solution" she talks about how a nursing mom never gets into the deepest level REM sleep. I have been noticing I sleep a few hours here and there, rarely a whole night at a time. (Sometimes a whole morning at a time!) Maybe this does start late pregnancy.
Congats on the 37 week mark Kathy. I get there later in the week, Friday. My mom went over two weeks with all her babies, so I may not have this baby till mid february---I'll hav eto switch boards when you are all basking in your nursing glory and I am just getting sciatica or soemthing. So if you go over, I think you'll be in my company at least. But of course since I am prepared to go late, nature will throw me a curve ball and make me go early- cause I haven't got my stuff together and that would really throw me off....
I am also up for including anyone, the self identified "newbie", P&A, whoever in the bead thing, I expect to be pregnant a long while and have time for this stuff..
Glad to hear you are ripening up Karen...I am waiting a few weeks to do a belly cast and belly photos....I want to fill out more first.
And glad to here that the labs were good for whoever had the preeclampsia work up. Hang in there, glad to hear it's going normally!
Take it easy all....Heidi
, so please PM me your address and I will add you!
: It keeps getting bigger & bigger......
The thing that really makes me sad are all the elective c-sections and the women who hate their doctors but won't dream of switching.
" for teaching yourself to knit. It's aimed at kids, but the instructions are awesome and the projects are actually really nice!
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I just called the dentist and he's got 2 big emergency patients today and can't see me til tomorrow...... maybe it'll go away by then and I can just deal with this after the baby comes. I looked at the offending tooth and it's one that's full of mercury- not what I want to have work on while pregnant (or bf for that matter). 
