Postpartum Care: Healing Your Vagina After Childbirth with Natural Remedies
Childbirth is one of the most immaculate and truly incredible athletic events a woman's body will ever experience. Beknownst to this fact, whether you're a woman that had a quick and easy vaginal birth or pushed for hours, your vagina will take a hit.
During childbirth our body expands, stretches and even tears to help deliver our baby. And if you gave birth vaginally, your vagina, perineum and rectum are going to need some kind of TLC (tender loving care) during your postpartum recovery.
Following vaginal birth, pain, swelling, bleeding, and overall discomfort is a part of the course. There's just no way around this. And this is why all women should know how to naturally soothe and heal their vagina after giving birth.
Keep reading to learn of some natural ways to heal and soothe your sore vaginal tissues, and yes they all include herbs to encourage healing!
1. Take a postpartum sitz bath with herbs in your bath tub!
An herbal postpartum sitz bath is a special bath used in the early postpartum period to help ease the pain, promote healing, reduce the risk of infection and give good hygiene to the perineal area. This is particularly helpful after an episiotomy or tearing during birth. A postpartum sitz bath can also help reduce swelling in the perineum or a swollen labia when there is no cut or tearing.
Talk about warm, healing and soothing.
To start a herbal postpartum sitz bath, run the bath water with only hot water and pour 1/4 cup of herbs along with a cup of Epsom salt into the bath water. Once your bathwater has reached a comfortable temperature you can get into the bathtub.
You only need enough water for your genital area, so if you're not up for a full bath just run a small amount of water in the bathtub...enough to submerge your hips and bottom.
Herbs you can use for your sitz baths:
- Calendula flower: antimicrobial, soothing, anti-inflammatory
- Rosemary leaves: antimicrobial
- Comfrey leaves: promotes tissue healing
- Lavender flowers: antimicrobial, relaxing
- Thyme leaves: antimicrobial
You can find these herbs in my womb steam blend in the apothecary, which by the way is formulated to support postpartum vaginal healing as well.
2. Sit over a healing womb steam!
Steaming is extremely nourishing after childbirth because it helps to heal your perineal tears and relax your body and pelvic floor muscles. Vaginal womb steaming is actually very similar to a sitz bath, in that you're using heat and herbs to soothe and heal your vaginal tissues.
To steam at home boil 2 to 3 cups of water into a pot. Add a 1/4 to1/2 cup of herbs and allow them to steep for 10 minutes. You'll need to remove your clothes from the waist down and sit over the bowl. You can use your clean toilet to place your bowl in to sit over, or use a portable sitz bath bowl.
Wrap yourself with a sheet, blanket or long fabric from the waist down. This allows the steam to stay in one place and to keep it's warm temperature. Steam for 15-30 minutes.
You can purchase your womb steams herbs from the apothecary.
3. Make a topical cooling tea to run over your vagina!
Just as heat can be healing for women after chilbirth, so can cooling. Running a cold herbal liquid or placing a cold compress over your vaginal tissues promotes healing as well.
With your same womb steam herbs make a topical tea bring one quart of water to a boil, add a 1/2 cup of herbs and remove from the heat. Cover and allow the water and herbs to sit for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes strain and allow to cool. Use your topical herbal tea as a rinse anytime you feel.
Note: This herbal tea mixture will keep at room temperature for 6-8 hours, and in the fridge for about 3-4 days.
4. Use a herbal peri bottle rinse and/or cold compress!
Place your cooled topical tea in a peri bottle. To use, apply a stream of fluid from the peri bottle to the vaginal tissue during urination and following using the restroom.
For an herbal cold compress, you can apply your topical tea to organic pads or a resusable organic cloth and place in the freezer. Apply your cold pads or clothes to your vaginal tissue. You can either allow them to warm or remove them after 10-15 minutes, it's up to you momma! Use these as often as you find necessary for the first three to seven days after childbirth.
Remember that you can purchase your herbs here.
Take care,
- Shavonne