Using Herbs Postpartum

Around my house, we use a healing herbal salve that I make. We use it for speeding the healing of bruises, minor cuts and scrapes, sprains, and other minor injuries. With large household, we go through a lot of it, and we also give it as gifts. 

Today I mixed up a double batch of the herbs. I'm saving half to use the next time we start running out of the ointment. 

The other half is what I'm focused on today, since I'm in a hurry to finish preparing for this little baby to join our family. I'm putting the second half of the herbs in a tea bag, to steep and then use as a compress for myself after the baby comes. The tea bag could also be used in the bath after a birth, sort of like bathing in a tea, to help speed healing. But since I prefer showers during that healing time, I'll be putting my "tea" into a small bottle, which I can use to apply it to my postpartum pads. (I'll just spritz some onto the fresh pads.)

I'll be using that with the witch hazel pads I get at the hospital. I might just make my own, reusable pads, and add some witch hazel to the mix. I'll have to see. If I do that, I'll just make small, single layer flannel washcloths that can be moistened with the tea and witch hazel, then set those on my pads when I change them. I have a large shipment of flannel arriving this weekend, and might dedicate some for this.

For now, my tea bag of herbs is steeping in a half gallon mason jar on the stove, over an ultra low heat double boiler situation.

The tea bag is simply a muslin drawstring bag, which prevents the need to strain out the herbs later on. After steeping this batch, I'll freeze the tea bags to use again later. The next time I use them, the tea will be weaker, but that's okay.

This is my first time using herbs in this particular way, but I'm hopeful that it will help to speed up my generally long healing process after the birth of this baby. Since there are still some weeks before baby comes, I'll probably freeze the finished tea in small containers until I'm ready to use it. And then any leftovers can be used for compresses, in partnership with salve.

I'll share the recipe and process for making the salve in my next post. Just know that the same mixture of herbs can be used in a variety of ways. You don't have to just mix them with oils or waxes.