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This is not a tea to drink, but it is soothing, smells nice, and is very useful in recovering from birth. I recently discovered first hand that herbs are a wonderful addition to post-pregnancy care. This is the first time I’d tried herbal remedies after a birth, and my nurses and I were very impressed at how quickly I healed.
I made this Postpartum Herbal Bath recipe to use in frozen compresses right after my son’s birth, and also to use in sitz baths, and in the peri bottle during my recovery.
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Herbal recipes are very forgiving, and can be modified to use the herbs you have on hand. The key player here are Comfrey, Shepherd’s Purse, Salt, and Uva Ursi. The other ingredients are synergistic, but not critical to have in your mix. I think it’s a really lovely blend, and it even smells very soothing with the lavender flowers.
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- 1 oz. comfrey leaf
1/2 oz. each of - rosemary
- shepherds purse
- sea salt
- uva-ursi
1/4 oz. each of - chickweed
- marshmallow root
- plantain
- lavender flowers
- sage
- yarrow
- calendula
- Blend herbs together and store in an airtight container in a cool, dry place.
- Yields about 2½ cups of Postpartum Tea.
- As with most herbal blends, you don’t need to have *every* ingredient on hand…even simple blends of two to three herbs can be very soothing and healing.
Cotton muslin bags would make excellent and simple tea bags that would be strong enough to use for a warm compress after brewing.
To make a tea for a sitz bath or peri bottle, pour 8 cups boiling water over 1 cup of tea : steep for at least 20 minutes or overnight for the strongest infusion. Strain out herbs and discard. Use within 2 days or freeze.
To use in a regular bath, steep 1 cup of herbs in 2 cups boiling water for at least 20 minutes or overnight. Add to your bath water, and enjoy a relaxing soak.
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You may use the peri bottle and sitz baths as many times a day as you’d like for comfort, but if you have stitches, limit your use of an herbal sitz bath to only once per day.
My favorite use for this tea was for in the frozen postpartum compresses I brewed a batch of tea, and poured it over disposable feminine pads until they were saturated, and froze them. We took them to the hospital in a little cooler, and my midwife let me use one of the frozen pads immediately after the birth of my son, and the following 24 hours. (Please use disposable pads.) I believe they made the biggest difference in my healing time, and my nurses (though curious) were very impressed at how quickly I was healing. I highly recommend this therapy!