Homemade Postpartum Herb Bath
Pregnancy and childbirth are difficult. During pregnancy all sorts of crazy things happen to your body. Your ribs spread to make room for baby, your stomach swells, all of your organs get smashed and pushed around, and even your hips spread, all to make room for your coming baby.
In the meantime, your blood volume doubles and your body starts producing a great deal more liquid. You start growing hair in all of the worst places like your face and your belly, your feet grow and swell and you’re nauseated for some or all of your pregnancy. And this is just the tip of the iceberg.
Then comes childbirth. Here you’ve been waiting for 10 long months to meet the precious little one that has become a constant companion inside your body. The last month was super uncomfortable with feet in your ribs, hiccupping and turning all night in your belly, and just a soreness all over.
It’s finally time. Everyone experiences childbirth differently. Some women have fast births and some have slow. Some moms have a lot of pain and some don’t. Even the location and position you give birth will be different than others. Either way, labor is seriously hard work.
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But then, just as you feel like you’re going to get a break, you realize that your postpartum period is going to be just as difficult. Don’t get me wrong, pregnancy and childbirth are beautiful times in your life, and there’s no experience on Earth like being a parent and holding a brand-new baby in your arms.
However, we also can’t discount what you are going through. Medical professionals say that the first six weeks after the birth of your child, regardless of what kind of labor you went through, is a critical time for mom to recover.

The Postpartum Period
The first thing you’ll likely notice is that you still look like you’re 6 months pregnant. It takes time to lose the baby weight. You also feel like you were hit by a train the next day. Your body stretched and expanded, skeleton included, to squeeze a human being out. There’s a reason labor is so hard. This last month or so, you’ve likely had a hard time sleeping, so you’re exhausted, and if you’ve been nauseous, you weren’t eating much and are likely starving now.
However, now you have a new baby to also care for that will need you 24/7. If you’re breastfeeding, you may be trying to figure things out together and have super sore breasts and nipples. Just when you think you might get some well-deserved sleep, you have a baby that needs you all hours of the night.
You might be co-sleeping and be able to attend to your baby without having to get up, you may have a partner willing to help, and you might be the lucky mom who has a baby that is struggling to sleep at any time of the day or night. Regardless, you’ll be up changing diapers and feeding your new little one every two hours or so.
Related Articles:
What Every Pregnant Woman Needs to Know About Prodromal Labor
Postpartum Symptoms and How to Handle Them
Normalizing Breastfeeding
For at least a few days to a week, you’ll have major cramping and soreness in your belly as your uterus contracts back into place and your internal organs return back to normal. Then, after 3-5 days or so, you’re milk is going to come in. You’ll want a good support system in place and tons of handy tips and tricks for relieving the pain of engorgement for about a week or so. And you’ll be constipated and/or dealing with some serious hemorrhoids. You’ll even continue to bleed, like a period for the next 2-4 weeks.
As your hips, you ribs, and your pelvis return to normal, your whole body will likely hurt, but hopefully not for long. And honestly, you are going to hurt between your legs for a while, and rightly so after the work out you just gave it, which is why they tell you to postpone sex for the first six weeks.
On top of everything else, you are overrun by hormones gone wild and engulfed in a multitude of feelings, like anxiety, guilt, sadness, joy, pride and rage, sometimes swapping one for another within seconds. How exactly were you supposed to keep another fragile human being alive in the middle of all of this? The term is “100 days of darkness” with a new baby. The first 100 days with a new baby is tough. You are healing and you also have someone to care for completely.

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Help for Those Tough First Six Weeks
I know I’ve painted a wonderful picture of this whole creating a child thing. It’s hard, but beautiful. And I’ve got some tips for helping you get through this tough first six weeks that you’ll want to prepare for before the big day comes for you to meet your baby. The first most important is the herb bath. I want to show you how to create a relaxing concoction that can make this transition a lot easier. It’s good for your mind and your whole body.
Homemade Postpartum Herb Bath
There are so many different recipes to choose from and none of them are right or wrong, just contain different herbs. I’ll try to make this as easy, but as flexible as possible. Note that these herbs are not likely going to be found at Wal-Mart. If you have a local place where you can get them, then great, otherwise, check out Amazon or a website called Mountain Rose Herbs, where they specialize in organic herbs for just this purpose.
Ingredients:
- 5-8 cups of herbs, 1 cup each of your favorites (see below)
- 1 cup Epsom salt
Instructions:
- Mix in a large bowl and then store in an airtight container until ready.
- You could separate out into 1/2 cup or 1 cup increments into small mesh bag for steeping.
- When ready to use, you’ll want to soak, or “steep,” your chosen portion of mixed herbs in boiling water for about 20 minutes, and then add the tea to your bath water, with the herbs strained out.
- I like to add the herbs in as well, but they will need to either be contained in a mesh bag or wrapped tightly in a washcloth so they don’t spread throughout your water.
Mountain Rose Herbs has cotton muslin bags for this purpose if desired or Amazon has lightweight mesh bags as well if you are going through them for your herbs.

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Calendula flowers – reduces pain and swelling and treats inflammation and even hemorrhoids
Yarrow flowers – stops bleeding and helps cramps and bloating
Lavender flowers – aids in circulation and also for aromatherapy to improve mental well-being and promote relaxation
Chamomile flower – helps with inflammation and reducing skin irritants
Witch hazel blossoms – tightens the skin and blood vessels, which reduces bleeding and helps with inflammation, pain and irritation
Comfrey leaf – moisturizes skin, removes unwanted blemishes and dark spots, and cures damaged skin
Red Raspberry leaf – purifies of skin and blood and used for skin rashes
Plantain leaf – decreases pain and swelling
Uva Ursi leaf – treats urinary tract infections and constipation
Sage leaf – improves blood circulation, stimulates cell renewal, and treats depression
Shepherd’s purse – can stop heavy bleeding and hemorrhaging, reduces inflammation and promotes healing from wounds
Epsom salt – speeds up wound healing, treats skin infections, reduces inflammation, helps muscle and nerve function, flushes toxins and relieves pain and muscle cramps

Peri Bottle
Otherwise known as a perineal bottle, for cleaning that area that was stretched and possibly even cut during labor after you’ve given birth. It is recommended that whenever you use the bathroom postpartum, for about 4-6 weeks or so, that you use the peri bottle to clean yourself rather than toilet paper or wet wipes. You are super sensitive down there right after giving birth, I’m sure you can imagine, and wiping or even touching that particular spot is not something you want to do for a while, especially if you also have hemorrhoids.
And here is the purpose of the peri bottle. You can fill it with cold water, warm water, or even the herb solution (sans the herbs) that we created above, to spray on yourself after every bathroom trip rather than wiping. This bottle will be your best friend if you’ve never used one before. Use the link above if you’d like to invest in one before you’ll need it.
Homemade Heating Pad
I seriously recommend investing in or creating a rice bag to use for heating or cooling when you need it the most, wherever that may be on your body. It’s a great heating pad for postpartum stomach cramps while your uterus is contracting, a cold pack for your neck when you have a headache from baby cries or not sleeping, and even makes a great pack for both cold and hot if you have breast pain from nursing or especially mastitis.
It is recommended that you heat your breast 15 minutes before feeding and cool them 15 minutes after to help with mastitis, massaging through the feeding. This is the same routine for engorgement and will also be another best friend during that difficult time. Maybe you need to create or invest in two or four of these handy pads.

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You will need so much more to get you through those difficult first six weeks, but I can help you in more detail in topic specific articles, rather than trying to cram them all into this one article. Make the postpartum bath. This will help with healing, cramps, engorgement, mastitis, a crying baby, a headache, sore breasts, sore woman parts, swelling, pain, and stress. It’s a great all around healer. Too bad it won’t also cook and clean. I’ll work on finding some herbs that will do that for you as well.
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Growing and carrying a baby for almost a year, and then giving birth and having to care for a helpless baby, all while recovering yourself are all very difficult; totally worth it but difficult nonetheless. Give yourself a break. Spend that first six weeks, if at all possible, just focusing on healing and bonding with your new baby. Find someone else to make your meals, do your laundry, clean your house, and help with other children. You deserve it, and will desperately need it.
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