It’s been a while…too long. For anyone who’s ever started a creative project based on a labor of love—you’ll know that it’s easy to lose your way. A couple of things got me off the plant path this last year. But after a few days at 9,000 feet in the San Isabel National Forests of Colorado, I’m back.
For those who have been waiting, or those who paid for a subscription only to have me disappear, I want to make it up to you. Email me with subject line: “Claim my free year” and I will be sure you get full access (without paying a cent) for the next year. I’m still figuring out my rhythym on here, and balancing this endeavor with others, but I want to do right by all of you.
These past week at the Good Medicine Confluence was one for the books. I sat in on 10+ sessions from herbalists and educators teaching on topics that ranged from the spiritual and esoteric to clinical practices like herbal fertility management.
Trigger Warning: If you don’t want to read about this topic, this is a good place to stop. I’m not here to ruffle feathers, but to unapologetically share knowledge on all aspects of plant-based wellness, which includes womb health.
We’re living in strange times, and I’ve been deep-diving these past few months into all things women’s health, and our long history of oppression. A lot of people don’t like that word, and don’t want to feel as though they belong (or contribute to) a pattern of one group being held down in anyway. I too, bristle at the word when someone says it.
But when it comes to the autonomy women have over our bodies, it’s hard to come up with a different word.
Historically (minus the last few hundred years), women have always had the right to control their own fertility—without government interference. They’ve known the plants to take for implantation inhibition (ie. preventing an egg from implanting in the uterine lining), the herbs to take for late periods, and even the ones to help with debilitating menstrual symptoms. Nowadays some of the herbs that fall into these categories are called abortifacients or emmenagogues, but in the days of our ancestors—they were simply called women’s herbs.
Often these herbs have the word “mother” in their name, like Motherwort. Sometimes they had names that held warnings, like Bishop’s Nest (more commonly known as Queen Anne’s Lace). The original name, came from a gruel made from the seeds of this plant that a bishop gave his young (often poor) female conquests so they wouldn’t bear children.1 Sometimes, although they didn’t call it that, the Doctrine of Signatures was employed. The “drop of blood” in the middle of Bishop’s Nest is a helpful way to identify this plant, as well as to remember one of its uses.
But women’s herbs weren’t just for unwanted pregnancies. They were also for helping mothers through pregnancies and to improve their overall health after giving birth. There have always been many reasons for women not to want children, one of which being that they already have several.
In our current climate, 59% of women seeking abortions are mothers. It has always and continues to make sense that women know how to manage their own fertility—regardless of the end goal.
And I believe this a basic human right that’s being taken from us.
As for the contraception Uncle Sam does allow? It’s not that great.
The pill, locks women into one phase of their monthly cycle—never allowing them to fully ride the waves of having a body that’s in tune with nature, or learn how to manage their own fertility. I’m sure you’ve heard (as I have) the countless stories of the health problems women develop after going on the pill. I suffered debilitating menstrual migraines for nearly a decade while taking it.
The “morning after” pill, which pumps your body full of progesterone with the hope of delaying ovulation—only works if you time it right. And I don’t mean ‘time it right’ after having sex, I mean timing it within your cycle2—something that’s awfully hard to do if you’ve never been taught fertility management in the first place.
There are many reasons it’s more convenient for everyone if women never learn how to manage their own fertility. For one thing: Economics. We live in a world that requires labor and bodies to do it.
The good news in all of this, is that there are a lot of folks working to change the face of healthcare. You may not hear about them very often. As you can imagine, there isn’t a lot of funding being poured into natural medicines that can’t be monetized by Big Pharma, or a lot of advertising power for practitioners deviating from the main stream. Likewise, many of the educators teaching alternative medicine and self care are often silenced.
Which is why I’m assembling a list here.
To learn more about womb health and fertility management, I HIGHLY encourage you to visit the website of Samantha Zipporah. She has a variety of offerings from e-courses, to online community membership and even books you can buy that will answer all of your questions about anatomy, abortion, miscarriage, and all things fertility.
To read about the historical oppression of women I suggest the following titles:
To read more about herbs and their historical uses, check out these titles:
Native American Ethnobotany *
I haven’t read this one yet, but would be surprised not to find some women's herbs in its 900-odd pages.
For anyone who’s curious to learn more about abortion and what the current climate of care looks like, there I recommend this book:
New here? Follow along on Instagram (@rootedintribe).
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Abrah Arneson tells this story much better than I can in her newest book: The Vessel: Women, Plants, and Contraception.
Progesterone is naturally found within the body and during pregnancy works to thicken the uterine lining. So a Plan B pill taken after ovulation may just do the opposite of what you intend it to.