Preparing For Baby With Herbs

I also prepared some herbal tinctures.  The black cohosh is an excellent help for late pregnancy in stimulating contractions, and the crampbark will be useful after the birth is over to help relieve any uterine cramping and pains.   Two different herbs with two very different and helpful uses.  (Note:  I am not licensed to give medical advice and you should never use anything your practitioner would not recommend).

I like to make and use an herbal bath tea after the baby is born and I am able to get into the tub.  Basically I make a very strong tea with this and then strain it all into the tub; it is NOT for drinking.  My mix includes:  comfrey, uva ursi, shepherd’s purse, myrrh, and arnica.  Ruby was so hard to nurse that she left me incredibly sore after breastfeeding; I used this tea just to dip my chest into on hands and knees for relief.

For the bath, I add to this tea mix two cups of bath salts with three to four drops each lavender and cypress.  It is wonderful.

I have specific essential oils ready for birth also.  I’m now a member of Young Living Oils because I am so impressed with their “seed to seal” process AND how incredibly potent their oils are.  It’s like the difference between store bought garlic powder (from who knows where) and making your own from your own garden.  Oils I keep on hand specifically for childbirth are lavender (relaxing), cypress (healing), cistus (internal healing, especially for hemorrhage) and clary sage (to strengthen and regulate contractions).  You remember reading I’m not a *doctor*, right?  These are my own helps.

I also have on hand plenty of homeopathic remedies for whatever shows up.  That’s our medicine cabinet in a nutshell:  herbs, oils, and remedies.  We stay healthy.

I spent the day getting ready for baby, too.  I used the casserole basket I made  to store the cloth diapers and wraps, and folded up the swaddling linens.  Baby’s gowns and onesies are in a drawer.  There is a jar of homemade baby powder I made with arrowroot powder and herbs (powdered calendula, lavender, chamomile).  Once baby starts moving around more, he or she will be changed on a bigger bed and ultimately the floor.  I’m not about to buy a “changing table” now, at baby number seven!  Can you tell we’re in my closet?

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and I told my family all I wanted was some flowers.  Aren’t these orchids beautiful?  They’ll be lovely to look at if I spend any time laboring in the tub.

I got the bedding ready also.  What you see here is a bentwood cradle that once had my husband in it; isn’t it gorgeous?  I love it!  On the floor is where baby will sleep though, in the little Moses basket I’ve put all of my babies into with a sweet cotton blanket my sister in law gave me for baby number one.  The basket has a lovely cotton and wool filled mattress a dear woman made for me, no plastics whatsoever.  The pumpkin colored knitted wool blanket I finished awaits in it, too.

That’s it, I think.  Now we just need the baby to arrive!  I think I am mentally ready for the hard road of labor ahead, but of course it is never a “fun trip”.  I am praying for a boring, uncomplicated labor and birth with a beautiful baby.  If the Lord brings it to your heart, might you join me in that prayer?

Blessings,